Tuesday 9 May 2017

The joys of preparation

Putting 17 cocktails on the menu when you normally have none… well, that’s a challenge.
But nothing that can’t be tackled with some serious preparation. But serious doesn’t have to be tedious: yesterday evening the bar staff of Thornbridge and I had a blast trying out all the drinks that will be served on May 13th, World Cocktail Day.

So I ended up tasting 18 cocktails. We took two shots at the Hole in One to fine-tune the Scotch we’ll be using and we decided to also mix up a Perfect Manhattan (not to be confused with a perfect Manhattan, but we’ll certainly do our best next Saturday).
The count would have been 19, but Siem was hugging his White Russian (but that was well deserved, you can see him taking notes in the picture).
Although Daan will be enjoying his birthday and will not be behind the bar, I’ll let him mix my Sazerac anytime. And the Vesper of Guus was enough to land him a role in the next Casino Royale remake (if we could ever get him into a suit and out of his cap).


We’ll be ready on the 13th of May. You’re very welcome to join us on this singular event.
No Bunny Hugs, though.

Friday 28 April 2017

World Cocktail Day

Of course, we do not actually need an excuse to drink a cocktail. Let alone one special day in the year. It’s a bit like the discussion that keeps coming back on October 4 (World Animal Day): shouldn’t every day be animal day?
Although most people will associate cocktails with festive events and nights out on the town, cocktails can be enjoyed every day, really. There’s such a wide variety of cocktails there’s bound to be a cocktail that will fit your mood or needs in the evening (or earlier, if circumstances permit).

So why is World Cocktail Day on the 13th of May?
It’s because on that date, in the year 1803, the first definition of a cocktail appeared in print. According to The Balance and Columbian Repository, a New York newspaper, a cocktail was “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.”
It’s not the first time that a cocktail was mentioned in print, but it does exactly define what a cocktail used to be in the old days. Today we use the word cocktail for almost every mixed drink. But in the early days it was a family of mixed drinks that had the same structure. In this case, the structure of a bittered sling (it’s not hard to puzzle out what a sling used to be, given the definition of a cocktail).

So somebody decided that this was reason enough turn May 13 in World Cocktail Day. And this year, it’s on a Saturday. How very convenient… So let’s really let it rip.

Thornbridge, the local pub which I haunt, is going to serve 17 cocktails on May 13. Normally they don’t do cocktails (not counting the Irish Car Bombs on St. Patrick’s), but on this special day (which also happens to be the birthday of one of the bartenders) this English pub will be turned into a cocktail bar.
I’ve helped them to assemble a cocktail menu which is very different from the cocktails its public is acquainted with.


 So who knows, maybe I’ll see you on the 13th of May in Thornbridge. But in any case: make sure to take at least one glass in celebration of the mixed drink.

Salud!


Monday 28 July 2014

Bar on hold: B.V.D. and the K.O.

New base, new possibilities. Our current bar has plenty ingredients to offer, so here’s some cocktails that are possible right away.
Since it’s hard for me to let go of the gin, we’ll kick off with some cocktails which use both gin and rum.
And vermouth.

Okay, so they both use gin, rum and dry vermouth and nothing else. So it’s actually the same drink, right?
Well… no.


B.V.D.


An abbreviation that stands for Bacardi, Vermouth and Dry gin. Using Bacardi rum is an option, but there are plenty of other rums out there of course.
Some sources note that the original B.V.D. was actually made with Brandy, Vermouth and Dubonnet. That might be, but both The Savoy Cocktail Book and the Café Royal Cocktail Book already have this supposedly ‘modern’ version. So this new-fangled version is classic enough for me.


1 part light rum
1 part gin
1 part dry vermouth

glass:  cocktail

Stir with ice and strain into the glass.




A martini with a rum touch.
This recipe just begs for some experimentation with bitters, although colour is an aspect to consider here. Tainting this extremely clear cocktail would be a waste, but subtle bitters such as orange bitters would work fine.

In this case I put these two bottles to good use that were both a gift: Dutch gin (Dutch Courage) and Dutch rum (Flying Dutchman), both of the Zuidam distillery. A very fine combination.




K.O.


Same basic idea, but by using Jamaican rum this cocktails gets some extra punch. Invented by Heini Schmidt and found in the Café Royal Cocktail Book.


2 parts gin
1 part dark Jamaican rum
1 part dry vermouth

glass:  cocktail

Stir with ice and strain into the glass.




Yes, this is certainly different. Switching gins is a subtle business, but switching rums can be enormously effective in changing the character.

To really hit home, I used Myers’s rum here. According to Ted Haigh it’s the strongest-flavoured Jamaican rum on the market.



Saturday 31 May 2014

Periodic bar check

So we got to second base, finally.

The bar now holds:

Bases

Aperitif Wines
General Ingredients

Glasses

Barware
bar spoon
cocktail shaker
juicer
bar knife
channel knife
syphon bottle

Rum (XYZ)

The days are getting longer and the summer season is beckoning. With a bit of foresight this is an excellent time to deploy the most natural summer base spirit: rum.
Rum is a sugarcane distillate, which sets it apart from gin, vodka and whisky. These three must (or can) be made from a grain distillate. Since sugarcane needs a warm climate to grow well, rum stuck to the Caribbean region after being imported from South Asia. A tropical drink indeed.
As with gin, I’m not going to bother with all the technicalities of rum production: there are internet articles aplenty which do the job nicely. I’m not a rum connoisseur either, although I know a liquor store owner who has a personal preference for rum. Talking to him, I realized there’s a rich world of rum out there, for some as fascinating as wine or whisky. Climate, ingredients and methodical differences give each region a typical character.

Although the making of rum goes back a long time, it’s still part of the ‘young bunch’ of the base spirits. Vodka and whisky are by far the oldest, cognac is the youngest. Rum has been made since the beginning of the 17th century, just like gin.

Rum evokes images of island nations, pirates and navy rations. It’s definitely a seaman’s liquor.
The British Navy started issuing daily rations of rum in 1655. Until that time, the daily drink ration was a gallon of beer. I’ve read all kinds of reasons why they switched to rum: beer went bad in warmer climates, rum didn’t take up as much space, there was a successful lobby of West Indian planters… However the case, it all added up to the introduction of the daily tot, which was half a pint (284 ml) of neat rum as a daily ration. This was before Admiral Edward Vernon thought it better for crew performance to dilute the rum with water in a 1 to 4 ratio, inventing grog.

When rum was still distributed neat, some sailors would test the alcohol level by mixing gunpowder with the rum and trying to light the mixture. If it ignited, that meant there was proof that the rum hadn’t been diluted too much: it can only catch fire at 57% ABV (alcohol by volume). That’s where the term alcohol proof comes from.
In the Imperial system, 100° proof spirit is 4/7 ABV (57%). That system is true to its origin. In the US system this connection has been lost: alcohol proof is simply double the ABV percentage. So 100 proof spirit is 50% ABV. Mind the difference: one uses degrees, the other doesn’t.
When a cocktail recipe calls for overproof rum, it has to well above 100° proof (114 proof in the US). Since US regulations usually prevent rums over 155 proof form entering the country, most overproof rums fall into the zone between 150 and 155 proof.

There are several ways to categorize rums: by country, by style and by colour.
Style is effectively defined by the language of the region, which gives us English, French and Spanish style rums. Cachaça could be considered as a Brazilian rum, adding a fourth language (Portuguese).
·        English rums are dark and full. Regions that produce them are Jamaica, the Demerara region of Guyana, Trinidad & Tobego, Bermuda and Barbados, to name a few.
·        French rhum is spelled differently. Most interesting are the agricultural rums (rhum agricole) that are produced in Haiti, Guadeloupe and Martinique.
·        Spanish rums tend to be smooth. There’s the añejo rums (aged rums) that have aged some years in casks, but also the light rums that combine gently in mixed drinks.  A lot of countries use this style: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands, amongst others.

If you arrange by colour, you get this grouping:
·        Light rum – also white rum or silver rum (aged in stainless steel tanks and possibly filtered)
·        Gold rum – also amber rum (colour is from aging on wooden barrels, but might be enhanced by adding caramel)
·        Dark rum – also black rum
·        Spiced rum – not really a colour, but a special category
Which one is appropriate for your cocktail recipe might be specified. Sometimes a cocktail recipe even prescribes a certain brand. But in some cases you’ll have to use your own judgment.




Things aren’t as clear-cut as they are with gin. Often it will mean you will need to compare what you happen to have in stock with what you think is the right kind of rum for a particular cocktail.
Rum tends to combine well with fruit juices, especially lime.

Although pirates and grog don’t sound very sophisticated, rum can be stylish as well. There are sipping rums that can easily compete with good cognacs and whiskies.
And when Prohibition had the US in its grip, well-to-do Americans were glad to visit Cuba and other Caribbean countries to enjoy alcohol at leisure. This led to an excellent cocktail tradition in Cuba, well versed in mixing rum.

The angels also seem to be fond of rum. Since temperature is high where rum is produced, maturation in a barrel goes a lot faster than with whisky and cognac. The angel’s share, the portion that evaporates each year, is normally about 2 percent per year. But with rum, this might be as high as 10 percent.
Apparently there are a lot of angels in the Caribbean… or Caribbean angels really like to booze up.


XYZ


So what if we take a White Lady and substitute rum for gin? Well, than you get the XYZ.
Gary Regan must have missed this cocktail when he came with the Missing Link in 2002, stating he had not found a simple New Orleans Sour with a rum base until then. But the XYZ was already in The Savoy Cocktail Book, so no missing link in my opinion.

So where does the name come from? In the game Bar Oasis, it is explained that it’s the last cocktail you drink before the party ends. Like XYZ ends the alphabet. I’m not really sure that’s the origin, but I like the story just the same.
In the game, where you play a struggling bartender, it is even used to usher annoying customers out of the bar. Placing an XYZ in front of a guest who knows a bit about cocktails will result in that person recognizing your subtle message: last round, time to close up.


2 parts gold rum
1 part Cointreau
1 part lemon juice

glass:  cocktail

Shake with ice and strain into the glass.




There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the type of rum to use. Above recipe works fine for gold rum, but light rum can be trickier.
To give a white XYZ a more stable base, it’s possible to turn to dry vermouth. I got this idea when trying out a variation of the Culross. The Culross uses apricot brandy instead of Cointreau, but still has rum and lemon. To that is also added an aperitif wine: Lillet or dry vermouth. Since the XYZ is just an ingredient swap away, I tried the same pattern. And I liked the effect.


2 parts light rum
1 part dry vermouth
1 part Cointreau
1 part lemon juice

glass:  cocktail

Shake with ice and strain into the glass.




I haven’t tried a Lillet version yet, although that also sounds promising. That’s an ingredient that we’ll get to in time.

Wednesday 28 May 2014

Wrapping it up: Cherry brandy and gin

I love gin. And the name of this blog legitimates a lot of gin coverage. But of course there other nice base spirits out there.
After almost a year of focusing on gin-based cocktails, it’s time for a little variation. So without further ado, this post wraps up the gin streak with some cherry brandy combinations.


Cologne Maiden


Basically a red lady: a White Lady with cherry brandy instead of Cointreau.
It can be found in the Café Royal Cocktail Book and is an invention of Charles J. Jaeger. Other cocktails he created are the Jaeger (yes, really…) and the Mady (incidentally this last cocktail is another twist on the gin/liqueur/lemon theme: this time with crème de cacao).


1 part gin
1 part cherry brandy
1 part lemon juice

glass:  cocktail

Shake with ice and strain into the glass.
Garnish with a cherry (if available).




A cherry garnish isn’t even very standard in the cherry brandy recipes I’ve flipped through. But this one does indeed specify a cherry.


Some cherry brandy cocktails contain lemon. Some cherry brandy cocktails contain vermouth. But the next two cocktails go for both. Remarkably similar… the devil is in the details.


Gilroy


Doesn’t have a very exciting name, but does have a solid concept. It can be found in The Savoy Cocktail Book.
Has exactly the same ingredients as the Elephants Sometimes Forget. But the differing ratios give each a specific character.


2 parts gin
2 parts cherry brandy
1 part lemon juice
1 part dry vermouth
1 dash orange bitters

glass:  cocktail

Shake with ice and strain into the glass.




Dry and sweet win in this cocktail. The lemon takes a back seat.


Elephants Sometimes Forget


There will probably be some people who disagree, but I think this cocktail has a brilliant name. Although the elephant will probably also have forgotten how this cocktail ever got this remarkable title.


4 parts gin
3 parts cherry brandy
3 parts lemon juice
1 part dry vermouth
1 dash orange bitters

glass:  cocktail

Shake with ice and strain into the glass.




Less dry, more like a cherry sour. Try it side by side with the Gilroy and see which you prefer.


Kiss in the Dark


An evocative name for a simple cocktail. Somehow this little known cocktail found its way into the game Bar Oasis, which is all about bartending and cocktails.


4 parts gin
3 parts dry vermouth
3 parts cherry brandy

glass:  cocktail

Stir with ice and strain into the glass.




You might want to adjust the ratios to the sweetness of your cherry liqueur. For example, if you’re using a rich variation like Cherry Heering, the version above will do fine. If you’re cherry brandy is not all that forward, try 4:3:2 to keep the vermouth from overpowering the drink.

When shooting this cocktail I happened to capture a hidden ‘kiss in the dark’ by accident.




The joy of stirring a cocktail: discovering which wonders the reflection holds.

Wednesday 30 April 2014

Periodic bar check

A busy month with four new items on the list.
At the end of next month we'll finally get to a new base for our cocktails, just in time for summer.

The bar now holds:

Bases

Aperitif Wines
General Ingredients

Glasses

Barware
bar spoon
cocktail shaker
juicer
bar knife
channel knife
syphon bottle