Chemistry of the Cocktail

Brandy for the Polynesian Queen

2012-01-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

This is a nice little brandy based tiki drink that was modeled on the Sunakora from Beachbum Berry's Sippin' Safari. The Sunakora was named after Don the Beachcomber's ex-wife, Sunny Sund, who was nicknamed "Sunakora, Queen of the Beachcombers". So in a twist, I named this drink after a woman who bucked her Puritan tutors to become one of the most powerful and long-ruling queens of Tahiti in the 19th century.

Pomare Vahine

1.25 oz VS cognac
0.5 oz Laird's BIB Applejack
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
1 tsp falernum
1 dash Angostura bitters

The falernum is the first thing you taste in this drink, followed swiftly by the oak-tempered flavors of applejack and cognac and the panoply of fruits. The Angostura bitters play their part throughout, reinforcing the falernum and spirits and keeping the honey in check, leading to a finish strikingly reminiscent of Coca Cola. If you like your drinks a bit more sour, you can back off on the honey syrup a bit without radically disturbing the balance of the drink.

Drinking Whisky in Seattle

2012-01-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays I returned home to Seattle to visit my parents. During those weekends I've found myself with some time in the evenings and decided to find a good place to get some scotch. As luck would have it, St. Andrews Bar and Grill is within walking distance of home and has one of the widest selections of scotch whisky I've ever seen.

To top off how great this place is for trying scotch, the pours are astoundingly healthy, probably as much as 2.5 oz, and priced the same as you would pay to get a standard 1.5 oz pour anywhere else. So you'll get more than enough to savor and discover the flavors and smells within each dram without it costing an arm and a leg. The staff were knowledgable and gave me good recommendations for what to try within a given style.

The ambiance is that of a fairly standard sports bar or local pub. There are numerous TV screens showing a variety of different games at any given time, but thankfully the volume wasn't too loud so it's reasonably easy to tune them out. Even on a Friday or Saturday evening, it wasn't too crowded and I never had trouble getting service. They have a decent selection of good beer, though their cocktails looked to be pretty standard fare (I don't trust anything with neon sour mix).

Overall, I'd say that it's a great resource for anyone interested in scotch. The selection is vast, the pours are generous and the prices are quite reasonable.

Rhum Agricole Reviews: Rhum J.M. VSOP

2012-01-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

This is a continuation in my series reviewing the Rhum J.M. line of rhum agricole. The VSOP expression has been aged for a minimum of four years in American oak and French Limuosin oak casks. This makes is several times older than the élevé sous bois expression and about half as old as the 1997 Vintage above it.

Nose: grassy, mild brown sugar, yeast, light alcohol, a touch of vanilla, gingerbread cookies, which becomes a bit more rum-like with water, gaining toffee and more sweet vanilla

Taste: lightly sweet up front, switching to grass, herbs (anise and fennel), brandy and toffee, which becomes creamier and reveals nutmeg after adding a bit of water

Finish: vegetal brandy, fairly short

This rhum is definitely a step up from the élevé sous bois bottling in terms of refinement and the nuance of the flavors. Age has made it a bit drier and more of the spice characteristics have emerged. Nutmeg seems to be a particularly strong element in the aged J.M. rhums, along with the usual grassy brandy flavors. It's also set up well for sipping neat, both because of the extra time in the barrel and because its at a slightly more gentle 90-proof. I got incredibly lucky and was able to find this rhum for ~$35. It usually goes for $55-60, so that was quite a deal. Obviously I stocked up and hopefully I should have enough to last years if not decades. At the regular price it's a little bit hard to justify over either Rhum J.M. Gold, which has a much smaller unit price, or Clément VSOP, which is at least as good and a bit cheaper. And while Rhum J.M. VSOP is an incredibly good sipper, it also makes some rather solid cocktails. Much like the Clément VSOP, it's a shoe-in for a Donga Punch. The balance with Rhum J.M. VSOP is absolutely fantastic, with the rhum, grapefruit, lime and cinnamon syrup in perfect tension, making it hard not to drink it all down in one go. As a side note, white grapefruit, which also gets sold as 'Cocktail Citrus', is in stores right now and makes much better drinks than its pink cousin. There's something almost spicy about white grapefruit juice and it adds quite a bit of vibrancy to tiki drinks.

Macouba Punch
1.5 oz rhum agricole
0.5 oz dark Jamaican rum
1 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz passionfruit syrup
0.25 oz blackberry brandy
1 dash Angostura bitters
6 drops Herbsaint

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and pour unstrained into a chilled rocks glass.

This is a slight tweak on the Don's Beach Planter from Jeff Berry's Sippin' Safari, by replacing the pineapple juice with grapefruit and bumping up the r(h)ums by 50% to keep them from disappearing among the strong fruit flavors. The balance ends up being pretty good. The grapefruit and passionfruit synergize nicely, actually producing a flavor not too far off from pineapple, which confused me a bit when I took the first sip. The r(h)ums are right behind, with the funky notes hooking up with the Angostura bitters and Herbsaint. Overall this is another potent tiki drink that sneaks up on you, but provides a very satisfying experience.

Whisky Review: Cask Strength Shootout

2012-01-15T16:57:00.000-08:00

Over the course of the last couple of evenings, I've tried three different sherried cask strength single malts from Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Macallan. There were a fair number of similarities between each scotch, especially in terms of the method of aging, their lack of age statements, their bottling proofs, and the fact that each is a big step up from their 12-Year old, lower-proof siblings. At the same time, the fairly wide range of prices means that some seem more worthwhile than others. These reviews are slightly provisional as I tried all three at a bar and thus haven't taken my normal route of tasting a spirit several times on different days. However, they were all fairly healthy pours, so I did get to spend a fair bit of time nosing and tasting each whisky.

Aberlour A'Bunadh

Nose: maple syrup, rubber, tropical fruits, malt, oatmeal, a bit of raisins underneath, which becomes slightly less intense and gains hints of sherry and chocolate sauce after dilution

Taste: lightly sweet up front, followed closely by sherried sweetness that carries through the palette, developing malty chocolate near the end, which gains some oatmeal and maple syrup with dilution

Finish: long, chocolate malt and oatmeal

This is a non-chill filtered, cask strength Speyside single malt from Aberlour. Bottled right around 120 proof (there are small variations from batch to batch), it comes with no age statement, but is likely a blend of malts aged from 10-15 years exclusively in ex-Oloroso sherry barrels (I've also had the 12 year and don't detect significantly more barrel influence in the A'Bunadh). My succinct description of this whisky is that it's breakfast in a glass. The intense maple syrup and oatmeal flavors, especially on the nose, make that an inescapable association. Though it commands a fairly significant premium over the aforementioned 12 Year expression, it's also a huge step up in terms of the intensity and variety of flavors.

Glenfarclas 105 Cask Strength

Nose: slightly sour wine, malt, vanilla, sweeter sherry underneath and raisins, which shifts more towards PX-style sherry over time, with malt becoming more dominant alongside subdued raisins and sherry underneath with hints of chocolate, brown sugar and porridge after dilution

Taste: honey malt sweetness up front, big burst of pepper mid-palette, which transforms into a hit of bittersweet chocolate throughout the whole palette, while retaining the honey malt sweetness and pepper, as well as gaining a bit of tropical fruits after adding water

Finish: long, malt, pepper and bittersweet chocolate

It's a little bit difficult to find info on the exact details of how this whisky is produced. Glenfarclas is also located in Speyside and this whisky is clearly aged in ex-sherry barrels, but I haven't been able to figure out what type of sherry used to reside in the barrels. It is bottled at 105 British proof, which is the same as 120-proof or 60% ABV in the usual sense. As with all of these whiskies, there is no age statement, but what I've read suggests that all of the barrels that are blended to make the final spirit are at least 10 years old and I would say that it seems to be as mature as the A'Bunadh. The hefty dose of bittersweet chocolate found throughout the experience of consuming this whisky ticks it a few marks above the others, but it's hampered by costing at least $20 more than the next most expensive. As with the Aberlour, also I find this to be a significant step up from the lower-proof 12 Year bottling from Glenfarclas, both in terms of the range of flavors and their depth. Whether it's worth the extra coin is up to you.

Macallan Cask Strength

Nose: PX sherry, sweet raisins and malty vanilla, which gains some mocha and maple oatmeal after dilution

Taste: brief citrus sourness at the very begin, slipping into sherried sweetness, then black pepper and drier sherry finally leading into chocolate near the end, which becomes honey malt up front, with more subdued sherry, a malty middle, and chocolate and pepper near the end after dilution

Finish: glowing tropical punch, which becomes long with peppery coffee after adding water

In a slight divergence from the other two cask strength whiskies I tried, Macallan is part of the broader Highlands region rather than the Speyside sub-region. However, they claim that Speyside is their 'spiritual home' and its style is very similar to other Speysiders. Macallan has a tradition of aging all of their whiskies in ex-sherry casks. The Cask Strength expression is part of their Sherry oak line, which are all matured in casks made from Spanish oak. There is no age statement on this scotch (though it is now giving way to a 10-Year Cask Strength expression), but it seems as mature as the 12-Year, so my guess is that the average age of the whiskies blended to make this spirit is right around there. This was the simplest cask strength scotch I tried, being a fairly clear evolution from the basic Mac 12-Year, with the PX sherry-heavy nose. However, the smells and flavors are much richer and there is a certain appeal to the heavy dose of pepper that emerges mid-palette, helping to keep it from becoming insipidly sweet and unidimensional. Additionally, it can occasionally be found for as little as $55, which makes it no more expensive than the Mac 12 and an obvious choice over that expression. Up at $65+, I would say that the Aberlour edges it out, though the A'Bunadh is a little bit sweeter.

To line these three whiskies up, I liked the Glenfarclas a bit more than the Aberlour, which was an improvement over the Macallan. Additionally, the Aberlour is probably the best value out of the three, unless you can find the 'Farclas or Macallan on sale. However, if you're looking for a sherry bomb, it's hard to go too far wrong with any one of the three. You'll just have to try them and see which tickles your fancy.

Rhum Agricole Reviews: Rhum J.M. Élevé Sous Bois

2012-01-08T20:10:00.000-08:00

Last week I reviewed the youngest member of the Rhum J.M. line. Next up is their Gold or Élevé Sous Bois (rough trans. "raised under wood") expression. This is a lightly aged rhum agricole that spent 12 months in small, new oak barrels before being bottled. That added a golden hue to the rhum and also quite a bit of complexity.

Nose: crême brulée, peanut butter cookies, grass, lemon and lime peel, a tiny wiff of vanilla and mild alcohol, which transforms into brown sugar, molasses, oak and butter after adding a bit of water

Taste: sweet and sour up front, nutmeg, grassy vegetal funk, and brandy further back, followed by a burst of pepper, which becomes a bit creamier after adding water

Finish: grassy brandy with a hint of blackberries and raspberries, which gains a bit of cookie flavor after dilution

For having spent only a year in the barrel, this spirit has gained a lot of flavors that aren't found its younger sibling. While primarily designed for use in cocktails, I'm actually quite happy sipping this rhum, especially after bringing down the strength just a bit. I find it quite interesting how water brings out more traditional molasses-based rum flavors in the nose, while retaining rhum agricole flavors on the palette.

While this rhum can be a little bit on the pricy side, the fact that it usually comes in 1 L rather than 750 mL bottles here in the states helps to keep the unit cost a little bit more manageable level. However you happen to enjoy it, this is an excellent spirit to add to your stash. Especially if you want a single rhum agricole to do double duty as both a sipper and for cocktails, this would be high on my list of recommendations.

Lune de Miel sur Martinique
1.5 oz rhum agricole élevé sous bois

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz orange liqueur

0.25 oz Bénédictine

0.125 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

This drink is based on the Honeymoon Cocktail, which is itself a subtle tweak of the standard Sidecar. On the nose, the drink presents you with subdued herbal grassiness from the rhum and Bénédictine, with a nice dose of orange thrown in from the liqueur. The orange liqueur as leads the charge on the sip, which transitions into somewhat sharper and slightly bitter flavors from the Bénédictine and rhum, while the lime juice can be detected throughout, giving it a bit of snap. Put another way, it begins with a more tropical feel and then switches to something more like a classic cocktail. The high proof of the rhum agricole helps to keep up the backbone of the drink without becoming dominant. Overall I really like this cocktail because of the range of flavors that emerge as the drink crosses your palette and the drier finish that makes it decidedly more-ish.

Whiskey Reviews: Single Barrel Bourbons, Part I

2012-01-05T22:48:00.000-08:00

Single barrel bourbons form another element of the bourbon spectrum, along with small batch and regular large batch bourbons. The idea is that consumers can experience the barrel to barrel variation that gets washed out in large batch and small batch bourbons. This makes a virtue out of what would otherwise be a flaw to consumers who expect to get exactly the same product every time they pick up a bottle of spirits. That consistent flavor profiles can be maintained despite the vagaries of fermentation, distillation and aging speaks volumes about the skill possessed by master blenders.

But to get back to the single barrel bourbons, there is a lot to be said for these whiskies, both in terms of the variety of experiences that can be had from them and the excellent values they can sometimes represent.

Ezra B. Single Barrel Bourbon
(Barrel #395)

Nose: Corn, caramel, subdued rye, oak, nuttiness, savory herbs which becomes a bit sweeter, with an undertone of brown sugar-sweeten porridge and chocolate caramels after adding water

Taste: brief, somewhat intense sweetness up front, which quickly transitions to savory rye, dry rather than sweet, dark fruits near the back of the tongue, which also becomes sweeter with water, though there is still a switch to drier flavors near the end

Finish: gentle corn and rye with lingering cacao and spices

This is, in my opinion, one of the best values in bourbons out there. Less sweet than much of its competition, the focus is on the flavors provided by the rye and oak. Ezra B is produced by the Heaven Hill distillery for Luxco with the standard HH mash bill of 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley. This bourbon has spent a very solid 12 years in the barrel and my particular bottle was bottled in October 2010 at an extremely respectable 99 proof. I really like how this whiskey shows to very distinct faces depending on whether or not you add any water to it. At full strength, it's very dry and herbal. With a little water, a more classic bourbon character emerges. Additionally, I get out something different almost every time I sit down to drink it, which provides a nicely varied experience. The dry herbal and chocolate flavors are probably my favorite that I've found in this bourbon. Best of all, Ezra B SB usually retails in the mid-20s, which is only a few bucks more than a lot of standard bourbons. Highly recommended.

Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon
(Barrel #525)

Nose: rich toffee, brown sugar and molasses (almost rum-like), a bit of corn, rye, oak and fruit behind, which switches to emphasize the corn, while retaining light brown sugar and grain and gaining a bit of vanilla after adding a couple of drops of water

Taste: lightly sweet and citrusy up front, mild rye spice near the middle, toffee and chocolate leading into the finish

Finish: the toffee and chocolate continue, mild rye, with a bit of oak to dry things out

Given that Evan Williams is also produced by Heaven Hill and has the same mash bill as the Ezra B, the two are a very interesting contrast. The Evan Williams SB is aged for 11 years. My bottle was barreled on 9/13/01 and bottled on 4/20/11, at a fairly gentle 86.6 proof. In my opinion that last bit of data is the only major flaw in this otherwise pretty tasty bourbon. The entire point of single barrel bourbons is the unique experience one will get from them and it seems best to provide that experience at relatively full blast. While it's a very nice, albeit very sweet, whiskey, bottling at somewhere in the 95-105 proof range would probably kick it up several notches. With that said, if you want something that's going to be good straight out of the bottle and not be too hard on the pocketbook, you can't go far wrong with the Evan Williams SB. I'd pick the Ezra B first since they're both right around the same price, but your preferences may vary.

Skye Somnus

2012-01-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

This scotch drink was inspired by the Polynesian Paralysis. I recently purchased a bottle of Isle of Skye 8 Year blended scotch, which is largely made from a mix of smokey Talisker single malt, sweeter Speyside single malts and lengthened with grain whisky.

Quiraing, Isle of Skye

Skye Somnus
2 oz blended scotch
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz orgeat
0.25 oz simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
6 drops Herbsaint

Combine all ingredients, add a handful of cracked ice, blend for five seconds, then pour unstrained into a chilled rocks glass full of ice.

The taste begins off with the malt whisky base and Angostura bitters, followed by the almond and cherry flavors of the orgeat combined with the fruit flavors. The smokey barbecue notes from the scotch and the sharp anise of the Herbsaint show up in the finish, making it just a little bit dry and clearing the palette for another sip.

Rhum Agricole Review: Rhum J.M. Blanc

2012-01-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

This is the first in a series of reviews about the Rhum J.M. line of rhum agricole.

The Rhum J.M. distillery is located, as with all A.O.C. marque rhum agricoles, on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. It dates back to 1845, when Jean-Marie Martin, whose initials are still affixed to the distillery, bought the Fonds Préville sugar plantation. The distillery passed through a number of hands over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, finally being bought by Gustave Crassous de Médeuil in 1914. Since then it has stayed in the hands of his descendants and relatives.

The distillery is situated on the northern end of the island in the shadow of Mt. Pelée. This is an active volcano, most notably wiping out the city of St. Pierre in 1902. While its position is risky, this location provides excellent volcanic soils for growing sugar cane as well as bananas and pineapples. All of the steps of rhum agricole production are carried out on the estate. Beginning with growing and harvesting the sugar cane, which is pressed within one hour after it is harvested to produce cane juice, which is then fermented, distilled and aged.

Rhum J.M. Blanc is the youngest rhum agricole in their line. It is rested in stainless steel tanks for four months before being cut down to 100-proof and bottled. This makes for a very fresh rhum that is clearly an agricultural product. While some of its flavors can be a little off-putting for someone who is more used to smooth, mellow, vanilla-tinged white rums, rhum agricole blanc has its own charms. In some respects it is analogous to blanco tequila, which also tends to be be aggressively agricultural with a few rough edges that have not been smoothed by the brief rest before bottling.

Nose: funky apples and pears, alcohol, a wisp of vanilla, citrus, which becomes slightly less intense with water

Taste: light sugar cane sweetness up front, apples and raspberries mid-palette, shifting to citrus and the funky apples and pears near the back, which also becomes a bit softer with water and gains a bit of hogo near the back of the throat

Finish: a replay of the nose in flavors, which lingers with a bit of burn from the alcohol

While this rhum is an interesting experience neat, its real purpose is in cocktails. The classic choice would be the Ti' Punch and, as I mentioned above, it subs in to recipes calling for blanco tequila, like a Margarita, quite nicely. It also makes for an interesting twist on cocktails that call for white rum.

Hemingway Daiquiri
1.5 oz rhum agricole blanc
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.35 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass that has been rinsed with Maraschino liqueur.

This is hands down one of my favorite summertime drinks. The crispness of the rhum meshes with the bitter/spicy sweetness of the Maraschino perfectly while the sour lime and bitter grapefruit give it plenty of snap. For an extra-chilly drink, make it frappé style by blending the ingredients with a handful of crushed ice and pouring the liquid over a chilled glass full of crushed ice. It's like a Slurpy, but infinitely better.

While the recipe originally called for white rum and I like it a lot with Flor de Caña Extra Dry, the rhum agricole blanc adds another dimension to the drink. The funkiness of the rhum syncs with the bitter cherry notes of the Maraschino and just rides over the fruit juices. Surprisingly, the Rhum J.M. doesn't overwhelm the drink even though it's 100-proof. Lastly, it's best to go a little easy on the sugar as the Maraschino rinse will add a bit of sweetness and the drink it meant to be snappy.

Overall, I think Rhum J.M. Blanc is a great choice if you're looking for a blanc rhum agricole. The only downside is that it tends to be on the pricey side. Some of this is simply the fact that agricoles go for more than their molasses-based brethren, but J.M. Blanc is roughly the same price as Neisson and a bit more than La Favorite, the other two standard rhum agricole brands. However, if you happen to live in Washington, J.M. Blanc is currently discounted by ~$10 compared to the more standard price found down here in Oregon. I'd say that it's a good deal in the mid-30s, but a harder sell above $40/L. At that point there will probably only be a few dollars between the blanc and the slightly aged and significantly more complex J.M. Elévé Sous Bois, which will be reviewed in the next post of this series.

Whiskey Review: Jim Beam Small Batch Bourbon Collection

2011-12-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit late getting this review out, but if you look around you still might be able to find this set of minis from the Jim Beam Small Batch Bourbon Collection. I presume that this is a holiday offering as it does make a rather nice present to someone who might like to sample the upper reaches of Jim Beam's bourbon offerings. I picked the set up while I was in Washington over Thanksgiving weekend and found it for ~$20, which is quite respectable given that it's about half of what you'd pay to sample these whiskies at a bar.

Knob Creek Small Batch (Reprint)

Nose: strong vanilla, brown sugar, fresh bread dough, corn and a hint of rye spices, pastries and raisins, which becomes redolent of warm cinnamon rolls with icing, brown sugar vanilla and yeast with a bit of water

Taste: sweet brown sugar and vanilla up front, transitioning to strong rye spiciness, pepper and oak, which becomes a little more subdued honey and corn up front followed by less spicy but more expansive rye and a bit of fruit with water

Finish: primarily rye and cinnamon, fairly long

As I mentioned before, this seems to be Jim Beam's starter for the small batch collection. It clocks in at least a few dollars less than the others. As it gets more volume, it also tends to be on sale more often and can be found for as little as $23 if you look in the right place. It uses the Beam standard 15% rye recipe and shows a good balance between corn, rye and barrel influences. On sale, it's a solid bourbon that can compete well with a lot of other mid-range bourbons. Closer to $40 it's a harder sale, but definitely worth a try.

Basil Hayden

Nose: orange candies, a bit of alcohol, corn sweetness, rye, berries and caramel, which becomes grainier with more vanilla and sweetness, but also somewhat flat and flabby, after the addition of water

Taste: lightly sweet up front, citrus, vanilla throughout, rye spices become apparent from mid-palette to the back of the throat, becomes a bit creamier after water, but also loses what zip it had

Finish: long and lingering rye with a bit of burn and subtle berries and vanilla

Basil Hayden is the same juice as Old Grand Dad, but aged roughly twice as long (8 years vs. 4-or-so years) and significantly diluted down to 80-proof. Ultimately, I feel like it's just not worth it. Basil Hayden will run you at least twice what a bottle of OGD 114 goes for and doesn't pack anywhere near the same punch without bringing anything new to the table. From the copy on the back of the very gussied-up bottle, it sounds like they're trying to make this the more approachable member of the small batch collection by diluting it, but this makes no sense whatsoever to me as you can always bring down the proof in the glass by adding water yourself. I would be very interested to try this bourbon at 90- or 100-proof to see if the extra years in the barrel have contributed much, but as it stands there's just too much water for anything to stand out. Quite a disappointment, so I'm glad that I didn't buy more than the mini.

Baker's

Nose: hot porridge, sweet rye light vanilla, berries, oak, warm caramel and brown sugar, with the grains moving forward and the oak slightly retreating after a few drops of water

Taste: briefly honey sweet up front, quick transition to moderately intense oaky rye spiciness in the middle and mocha near the back, which becomes a bit sweeter with mellower rye and more corn after dilution

Finish: long and lingering rye with a bit of burn, subtle berries, sweet oak and vanilla

This was actually my favorite of the bunch. This bourbon uses the standard Jim Beam mash bill to good effect. The age seems just about right, enough to give some complexity, but not so much that it becomes over-oaked. The 107-proof gives it a solid punch, but not so much that you feel like your mouth is being burned. All of the flavor elements are well balanced, with rye spiciness, sweet vanilla, and oak all in tension, but no one flavor dominating. The mocha flavors are also quite pleasant. With all of that glowing praise though, I'm not sure all of this justifies the usual $50 price tag. There are plenty of bourbons out there that are 80-90% of the experience at 50% the cost.

Booker's

Nose: intense caramel and vanilla, corn and rye grain, with a bit of milk chocolate, which gains brown sugar, wheat and graham crackers as well as and more oak and corn sweetness after the addition of water

Taste: toffee sweet up front, long rye, vanilla and caramel mid-palette, all very robust, which becomes less sweet up front, moving to rye, sweetness and vanilla mid-palette, with chocolate syrup beginning just before the finish and maybe just a hint of pineapple

Finish: a healthy burn with rye, vanilla, and subtle berries

While I don't find it quite as transcendent as others have, this is a very excellent bourbon. At barrel proof, which is usually in the high 120s, this is a beefy bourbon in just about every respect. While it's worth it to take a few sips undiluted, the chemical burn of so much alcohol grows unpleasant fairly quickly and begs for the addition of water to bring it down to a more reasonable point. The strong chocolate flavors are my favorite part of the experience. However, as with the Baker's, I'm not sure that it justifies the $50-60 price tag. Maybe if I had a whole bottle I could make some more precise dilutions and find interesting things around 90- or 100-proof, but there are a lot of other things asking for my money that put Booker's fairly far back in the line.

As I said up at the top, this is best viewed as an experience. It's pretty likely that you'll find different things in these bourbons than I did and given the low cost of admission, I'd say it's worth giving them a go. As a value proposition, the Knob Creek is still my favorite, but others in the collection might just tickle your fancy.

Whisky Review: Arran 10 Year

2011-12-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

The Arran Distillery has the distinction of being the newest scotch whisky distillery, having opened only in 1995. Located on the Isle of Arran off of the west coast of Scotland, this was also the first legal distillery built on the island in 150 years. This doesn't mean that there wasn't any whisky being produced on the island during that century and a half, it's just that it was all illegal. The distillery was established at its current site due to a convergence of favorable conditions including excellent water and a climate warmed by the Gulf Stream, which makes islands on the west coast of Scotland dramatically warmer than those on the east coast.

But what really matters is how the whisky tastes.

Arran 10 Year

Nose: briny sea water, light sherry, a hint of tropical fruits and vegetal peat, sweet vanilla, milk chocolate, raisins, apples and a bit of umami, which gains a bit more green fruit, brown sugar and orange peel with a few drops of water

Taste: intense honey up front, a spicy mid-palette followed by a touch of sherry, citrus and peat, with mint throughout, which becomes somewhat more robust and gains a creamier mouthfeel after the addition of water

Finish: short, with malt and sherry, transforming into nutmeg and peaty chocolate after adding water

One of the great things about Arran is that all of their whiskies are bottled at at least 46% and are un-chill filtered. The slightly higher than normal proof gives them plenty of room for adding water. Being un-chill filtered leaves a lot of the tasty oils that also contribute to the wonderful mouthfeel of this whisky.

What I find most interesting about the Arran 10 Year is the obvious peat notes, which are odd given that the malt is unpeated. However, as the peat seems to be more vegetal rather than being smoky, my guess is that this is due to the water, which the distillery claims is naturally filtered through peat, rather than the malt. The brininess is another interesting feature, which isn't something I've experienced before in whisky, though it does get talked about frequently with reference to Islay single malts. Maybe I'll actually have to try one of those, though hopefully I can find one that isn't a complete smoke bomb.

Overall I'd say that this single malt shares a fair number of flavor characteristics with another one of my favorites, Highland Park 12 Year. However the Arran is a little bit less aggressive and adds some other flavors to the mix. As the gift pack is currently running right around $40 here in Oregon, it's even a pretty good buy. As the Arran 14 Year has been discounted down to a measly $50, I also picked up the older bottling and should be reviewing it soon.

Whiskey Tasting: What Rye Does for Bourbon

2011-12-18T22:48:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a post over a Chuck Chowdery's blog, I roped a few friends into a whiskey tasting this afternoon.

As per Mr. Chowdery's post, the plan was to taste through a selection of whiskies that would let people get a sense of how rye content affects the finished flavors. In picking the whiskies, I tried to keep the age and proofs roughly comparable, though it was somewhat limited by the fact that I wanted to select whiskies already on my shelf. Lastly, I wanted to go with bourbons that I felt like were good values, in case people wanted to buy a bottle of their own.

To open, I talked a little bit about bourbon, explaining its definition as containing at least 51% corn in the mash bill. The first bourbon on the list was a wheated bourbon, to see what a bourbon without any rye tastes like. The most famous wheated bourbon is the ubiquitous Maker's Mark. For this tasting I picked Weller Antique 107, a rather nice example of the genre. It has a fairly standard bourbon nose, with an extra touch of cinnamon sugar. The taste also follows a fairly standard bourbon mold, with the addition of a bit of wheat and a fairly healthy dose of black pepper. This is interesting as I tend to associate peppery flavors with rye, but they clearly must be coming from another part of the production. This whiskey was fairly well received, though a number of people mentioned that they found the proof a little overwhelming. Thankfully it handles water fairly well and can be brought down to a more manageable point.

The next bourbon up was Buffalo Trace. As I mentioned in my last bourbon review, this whiskey has about 15% rye in its mash bill and is thus somewhere in the middle as far as bourbon rye content goes. The BT has a slightly lower proof and was somewhat gentler on that front. I pointed out the chili pepper notes that are associated with rye, though it was a bit tricky to explain the difference between pepper flavors and the chemical burn from the alcohol.

Third came Old Grand Dad 114. This was also previously reviewed in the same post as the BT, if you want more complete tasting notes. Here I wanted to emphasize the rather full-throated blast of chili pepper spice from the rye that is sustained even after watering the bourbon down to a more manageable proof. Additionally, I mentioned how the sweet vanilla tended to come out more strongly as the proof was reduced.

The last whiskey was a rye, Sazerac 6 Year. I explained how rye whiskey is defined as having at least 51% rye in its mash bill. This is just over the line as a rye whiskey and thus contains a lot of bourbon character while still emphasizing the rye flavors. Though palettes may have been a bit worn by this point in the tasting, the Sazerac got the best reception of any of the whiskies. The fact that it manages a good balance between corn sweetness and rye spiciness makes it a great sipper, as well as having a slightly more friendly proof.

All said and done, this tasting went pretty well. I learned a few things about how to lead people through whiskey flavors and also how much more I have to learn about doing so smoothly and in an engaging fashion. Everyone enjoyed themselves and there was a lot of good conversation about the history of whiskey, especially about the effects of Prohibition. I'm really looking forward to getting people together again for another tasting, both because I enjoy sharing what I know and for the good company.

Tiki Classics: Montego Bay

2011-12-15T21:47:00.000-08:00

The unique features of regional rums are one of the keys to tiki drinks. And one of the most important varieties is Jamaican rum, with its hefty dose of funk from the addition of dunder to the fermenting molasses mash. Dunder is the leftovers from previous distillations, which is often allowed to sit outside in open pits, where wild yeasts continue to colonize the goo, adding all sorts of unique esters and other volatile compounds that are the key to true Jamaican rum.

One of the best ways to showcase this feature of Jamaican rum is the Montego Bay cocktail:

Montego Bay (modified from Remixed)
1.5 oz Jamaican rum
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz lime juice
0.75 oz honey syrup
0.25 oz allspice dram
1 dash Herbsaint
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, add a small handful of cracked ice, blend for five seconds and pour unstrained into a chilled glass with more cracked ice.

As I noted, this is really a showcase for the rum. As per Oh Gosh!, I've got to agree that this is basically made for Smith & Cross. It is basically Jamaican rum in its purest and most intense form (though you might be able to say the same for J. Wray). However, until you've acclimated yourself to its particular brand of goodness, you might not want to go for a full measure of S&C in this drink (especially if you want to remain standing). I find that cutting it a bit with Appleton V/X can be a good way to dial back the flavors and proof just a bit, without losing that essential Jamaican character. To account for the more robust character of the Smith & Cross, the recipe above bumps up the amount of honey syrup, allspice dram, pastis and bitters to keep them from being lost amid the funk. So it's all a bit of a punch in the face of flavor, but more than worth it.

For a relatively short list of ingredients (for a tiki drink), this one is delightfully complex. The rum forms the core of the drink, especially if you're using Smith & Cross. Around that core is wrapped the fruit flavors of the lime and grapefruit, which bring sourness and bitterness that is counterbalanced by the smooth honey sweetness. Finally, the dunder funk of the rum is backed up by the spicy notes from the allspice dram and the Don the Beachcomber one-two punch of Angostura bitters and Pernod.

Whiskey Review: Bargin Bourbons

2011-12-11T22:42:00.000-08:00

While some of the small batch bourbons and scotch whiskies I've been posting about lately have been great, sometimes you want a whiskey that's both tasty and easier on the pocketbook. Thankfully, bourbon remains one of the great values in spirits, so there are some really great choices out there on the lower shelves.

Old Grand Dad 114

Nose: delicious multi-grain porridge with brown sugar and cream, a hint of vanilla and a surprisingly small amount of alcohol, which becomes a bit sweeter with water

Taste: sugary sweet up front, with an intense burst of rye chili spiciness mid-palette all the way to the back of the throat, which becomes hot cinnamon candy, mellowing slightly to reveal more sweet vanilla with water

Finish: long, with gobs of rye spice and a healthy burn

This bourbon is truly magnificent. It was named by Raymond Hayden in the late 19th century after his grandfather Basil Hayden. Basil was a Catholic Maryland colonist who moved to Kentucky where be began distilling. Basil is purported to have used more rye in his bourbon mash than many other distillers of the time. The Hayden distillery passed through a number of hands over the course of the 20th century before becoming part of Jim Beam. The same 30% rye, 60% corn, 10% malted barley mash bill used to make OGD is also used in the swankier but lower proof Basil Hayden's bourbon, which is older but costs at least twice as much as the Old Grand Dad. This is the stiffest of the Old Grand Dad line, which includes 86- and 100-proof expressions. The lower proof versions look like they belong on the bottom shelf, but the bottle and packaging of the 114-proof version is much snazzier, even though it commands a fairly small premium over its brethren. None of the bourbons in the OGD line have age statements, but it's likely that they're aged somewhere between 4 and 6 years. This whiskey is highly recommended, especially if you're a bourbon drinker interested in moving towards the rye side.

Hayden's Hymn

1.5 oz Old Grand Dad 114

0.25 oz orange liqueur

0.25 oz allspice dram

1 dash Regan's Orange Bitters

1 dash Fee Brother's Orange Bitters

1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice for ~15 seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze a strip of lemon zest over the drink or add a few drops of lemon tincture.

This is a pretty tasty drink. I was inspired by the Liberal cocktail, which I didn't have the right ingredients to make. The OGD provides a nice bourbon backbone for the drink, with the graininess being most apparent in the smell. The lemon oils integrate well with the orange liqueur and bitters, with the allspice dram and Angostura bitters similarly linking together. Somehow all of these elements combine to come up with a bit of chocolate emerging from the mix. I think this would be slightly better if it was just a bit drier, but that would require using unsweetened orange liqueur liquor in place of the normal sweetened variety. A heavier hand with the bitters would also help the balance, but that would also change the flavor balance more drastically. But even as is, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Buffalo Trace

Nose: Caramel, grain, sweet vanilla, orange and a tiny bit of alcohol, which becomes sweet vanilla icing with brown sugar, a little oatmeal and dark berries with water

Taste: mildly sweet up front, with corn and rye mid-palette becoming strongly spicy with chili heat from the rye, which shifts to brown sugar at the beginning and creamy rye with subdued spiciness after the addition of water

Finish: short to mid-length, with rye grains and dry chocolate-covered orange peel

The Buffalo Trace Distillery is owned by the Sazerac Company and produces such greats as the eponymous ryes, Eagle Rare, George T. Stagg and William LaRue Weller bourbons. However, they haven't skipped on quality when it comes to their basic bourbon. The name refers to the tracks from buffalo herds that would remain visible for some time after they had passed. This whiskey is one of my favorites and easily competes with bourbons that cost an extra $10 or more. Clocking in at a solid 90-proof, it also has no age statement, but shows the effects of plenty of time in the barrel. This is definitely one to keep around the house as it's good both as a sipper and as a base for excellent bourbon cocktails.

Western Sour

2 oz bourbon

1 oz grapefruit juice

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz falernum

0.25 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and pour unstrained into a chilled glass.

Along with the Bourbon Special, this is one of my favorite bourbon-based tiki drinks. It could easily be built as a rum drink and provides a nice bridge into this more obscure corner of the tiki world. Buffalo Trace works more as a supporting character in this drink, giving it a solid bourbon-y background while letting the other ingredients shine. It shows up again in the finish to remind you that it's still a necessary element of the drink. The grapefruit gives the drink a bit of bitter snap, while the lime and sweeteners balance each other out. The falernum dances around everything else with its spicy notes. A very pleasant sipper.

Tiki Classics: the Jet Pilot

2011-12-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

The Jet Pilot is, without a doubt, one of the best tiki drinks out there. And I have evidence to back that statement up. Or at least testimonials.

Jet Pilot
1 oz Jamaican rum
0.75 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
0.75 oz Lemon Hart 151
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz cinnamon syrup
0.5 oz falernum
Dash Angostura bitters
6 drops Pernod

Combine all ingredients, add a handful of crushed ice, blend for five seconds and pour into a chilled old-fashioned glass filled with more crushed ice.

The sip begins with the pungent taste of Lemon Hart 151. This is one of those drinks that simply can't be made right without this quintessential tiki ingredient. Backing it up is the dunder funk of the Jamaican rum and the smoothness of the Puerto Rican rum. Following close behind are the sour and bitter fruit flavors of the lime and grapefruit, intertwining with the spices from the cinnamon syrup, falernum, Angostura bitters and Herbsaint. While the drink begins with a veritable punch in the face of flavor, it mellows over time as the crushed ice melts and becomes downright pleasant. This is one of my favorite tiki drinks as it has just about everything that's good about the '34 Zombie while having slightly less fiddly measurements and a slightly smaller amount of alcohol.

A small word on ingredients. Obviously, LH151 is a necessity. After a question on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog, I tried making a Jet Pilot with Cruzan 151 as the Puerto Rican rum and Lemon Hart 80 as the Demerara. It was... O.K... but really not up to snuff. Acceptable in emergencies, but not really worth it now that the LH151 flows freely again. With the Jamaican, this is not the place to use your smooth, well-aged sipper. As with the Zombie, Appleton V/X is probably your best bet here, though if you want to punch it up a bit, subbing in 1/4 oz of Smith & Cross might not be amiss. Likewise with the Puerto Rican, something decent but not decadent like Flor de Caña 7 Year, Bacardi 8 Años or Ron Abuelo 7 Años should fit right in. I really prefer falernum with a bit of punch and the erstwhile Mr. Reynold's Dark Falernum really fits the bill. Lastly, the recipe calls for Pernod, but any absinthe substitute or heck, actual absinthe, will do just fine. You really don't need a lot, so an eye dropper is not out of place here.

And just for fun, I also translated the Jet Pilot into a bourbon drink.

Brush Pilot
1 oz Weller Antique 107 bourbon

1 oz Bulleit bourbon

1 oz Elijah Craig 12-Year bourbon

0.5 oz grapefruit juice

0.5 oz lemon juice

0.5 oz cinnamon syrup

0.25 oz orgeat

0.5 oz dark falernum

1 dash Angostura bitters

6 drops Herbsaint

This was a tricky one to make. The most obvious difficulty is finding something to stand in for LH151, both in terms of flavor and plan alcoholic strength. Sure, there's HazMat-level George T. Stagg 144-proof bourbon, but that's both expensive and nearly impossible to get your hands on. Booker's bourbon is up at a slightly less stratospheric 126-proof, but is also a bit on the pricey side for dumping into a rather complex cocktail. So Weller 107 will have to do, but proportions had to be slightly altered to compensate. The other tweaks were swapping in lemon juice for the lime, as I find that lemon juice fits with bourbon a bit better, and adding a bit of orgeat to smooth out the drink. Overall I was pretty happy with the results. It doesn't have quite the same punch as the Jet Pilot, but the bourbon manages to hold its own and integrates quite nicely with the other flavors.

Happy Repeal Day!

2011-12-05T21:20:00.000-08:00

Once again it's time to celebrate Repeal Day, as December 5th marks the end of Prohibition and the return of sweet, sweet liquor to America.

Prohibition represented a dark day in American history, when we collectively decided that people shouldn't be able to make their own decisions about what to consume and went so far as to put it into the Constitution. Now admittedly, as I've mentioned before, America was an awfully hard-drinking nation back in the 19th century. The attendant problems of alcohol consumption drove many Progressives to advocate for temperance as there was a wide-spread belief that alcohol was at the root of many societal ills and that sobriety would lead to a veritable utopia. Some worked through social pressure, others by force of law.

Obviously we all know how well that worked out. There's strong evidence that alcohol consumption increased during Prohibition compared to before enactment of the law. Crime increased as the mob gained power, money and influence. Respect for the law decreased, both because of the manifest absurdity of Prohibition and the woeful ineffectiveness of local, state and federal enforcement.

It took the Depression and the desire for new tax revenues to finally turn the tide and Prohibition was officially repealed on December 5th, 1933 when Utah (who'd a thunk it?) ratified the 21st Amendment, crossing the three quarters threshold needed to enact the statute.

So raise a glass to celebrate a small return to sanity and personal responsibility. I'm currently enjoying a glass of rum distilled here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

Many thanks to Jeffery Morganthaler, who created the Repeal Day holiday. If you like, you can personally thank him by dropping by Clyde Common where he currently manages the bar.

Whiskey Review: Small Batch Bourbons

2011-11-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

Small batch bourbons occupy a slightly peculiar place in the whiskey world. They don't have the same uniqueness and variation as single barrel expressions. At the same time, they are generally presented as superior to the more pedestrian bourbons that are produced from blending a large number of barrels together to generate extremely consistent products. Small batch falls somewhere in between, where a small number of superior barrels (one to two dozen barrels seems to be a fairly standard range) are blended together to produce a higher quality yet reasonably consistent product. Here are three of the more reasonably priced small batch bourbons, in order of age.

Knob Creek Small Batch

Nose: strong vanilla, brown sugar, fresh bread dough, corn and a hint of rye spices, pastries and raisins, which becomes redolent of warm cinnamon rolls with icing, brown sugar vanilla and yeast with a bit of water

Taste: sweet brown sugar and vanilla up front, transitioning to strong rye spiciness, pepper and oak, which becomes a little more subdued honey and corn up front followed by less spicy but more expansive rye and a bit of fruit with water

Finish: primarily rye and cinnamon, fairly long

This is Jim Beam's starter small batch bourbon (reviews of the other three coming in the future). Clocking in at a solid 50% alcohol, this can be just a little overpowering at first, but becomes extremely approachable with only a little water. It took me a little while to warm up to this bourbon because the first few times I tasted it were with a less-than-clear palette, at which point it tasted primarily like corn, without much complexity or depth. It's surprisingly spicy for only being 15% rye, but they put their basic mash bill (it's the same as the basic white and black label Jim Beam bourbons) to good use. Admittedly, the 9 years that the juice spent in barrels before being bottled accounts for much of the difference, as well as the higher proof. Right now Knob Creek is only $34 in Oregon, which is a price I would consider to be quite reasonable. Normally it's close to or above $40, at which point it becomes a slightly harder sell. So if you can find this bourbon closer to $30 than $40, I'd say go for it. If not, just wait because it seems to go on sale with some regularity, especially around this time of year when a bottle makes a good Christmas present.

Russell's Reserve 10-Year Small Batch Bourbon

Nose: Yeasty, with subtle grains and berries, rising bread dough and an undercurrent of corn sweetness, vanilla icing and brown sugar if you dig for it. With water, I get a very nice note of chocolate-covered caramels.

Taste: brief creamed honey sweetness up front, quick transition to rye spice, and a touch of mint at the back of the throat

Finish: relatively short rye grain, slightly peppery with dark berries

Produced by Wild Turkey, Russell's Reserve bourbon is meant to be a step up from their basic bourbon, much like their Russell's Reserve rye is meant to be a step up from their basic rye. As I mentioned a few months back, I wasn't terribly impressed by the RR rye. Thankfully the bourbon is significantly better. A minimum of 10 years in oak versus the rye's 6 years makes a big difference, adding layers of complexity to produce a quite enjoyable sipper. Much like the Knob Creek, this is not a particularly high rye bourbon, with only 13% rye in the mash bill, but manages to bring forward many of the enjoyable characteristics of rye whiskey while supplementing them with a solid base of sweet bourbon flavor. While it might be a little off-putting to some people, I also really enjoy the fresh, yeasty flavors of this bourbon. It seems like this bourbon can be found for $30 or less, which is a quite reasonable price point considering the quality you're getting here. A solid recommendation from me on this one.

Elijah Craig 12-Year Bourbon

Nose: corn sweetness, vanilla, fairly strong oak influence, subtle fruit and bread dough, which becomes smoother with brown sugar after the addition of water

Taste: tangy citrus and sweet honeyed corn up front, quickly transitioning to grain, rye, oak and mild pepper on the mid-palette, which becomes creamier with more obvious vanilla after adding water

Finish: rye and grain, slightly sweet with oak, decidedly spicy

A small batch bourbon produced by Heaven Hill distillery, this is one of the first bourbons I ever bought. It's significantly older than the either of the other bourbons I've reviewed today and it shows in the more prominent oak flavors throughout the whiskey. Interestingly, despite the losses associated with the angel's share during aging, this is also the cheapest bourbon in the group, regularly on shelves for less than $25. That alone provides a fairly strong incentive to give it a try. Additionally, I find that it's a good choice in whiskey cocktails as its burlier barrel flavors can punch through the other components of a drink. It was the main component of my Highland Breezes tiki drink and also works well in a Bourbon Special. So while I'd pick the Russell's Reserve and Knob Creek over the EC12 as sippers, there's definitely a place for this bourbon on your shelf.

Whisky Review: Highland Park 12-Year

2011-11-27T15:45:00.000-08:00

The Highland Park distillery is currently the most northernly scotch whisky distillery, located on the Island of Orkney. Despite the name, this distillery is technically not part of the Highland scotch whisky region, instead being included in the loosely defined 'Islands' region off the Highland coast. The distillery also has the distinction of being one of the few distilleries to malt and dry its own barley, with an extra twist coming from the addition of heather to the locally cut peat that is used to fire the drying kilns. Last, but not least, their whisky is aged exclusively in used sherry barrels, which are either American or European oak and either first-fill or refill casks. This fact is highly touted in their product information, going so far as to claim that sherry casks are inherently superior to ex-bourbon casks. While I can agree that there are virtues to using ex-sherry barrels for aging, there are plenty of excellent whiskies out there that have never touched anything but used bourbon barrels. The Glenmorangie Original expression is an excellent example of what bourbon barrel aging can do for single malts. But really, that's my only complaint about Highland Park and could be easily remedied by reigning in the marketing department a bit. One last interesting note is that the American bottlings of Highland Park's 12- and 15-Year expressions are at 43% alcohol whereas the European bottlings are at only 40%, which probably helps to dial up the flavors of the American versions just a hair.

Highland Park 12-Year

Nose: Sweet sherry, smoky peat, a touch of vanilla, cacao and nuts. With a bit of water the sherry moves forward and transforms into more of a dry Oloroso style while the peat becomes more vegetal.

Taste: Big honey and juicy raisins up front, shifting through creamy pepper and chili mid-palette. With water, the upfront sweetness is slightly toned down, followed with orgeat, spice and some dry bourbon notes.

Finish: Drying, with dueling sherry and barbecued peat initially, with a touch of seawater at the very end. This is transformed into creamy unsweetened chocolate, coffee and gentle peat after the addition of a bit of water.

This is in my opinion a 'must-have' single malt. It's regularly in the low-$40 range and is only $36 in Oregon until the end of January. For being on the younger side, this whisky brings an incredible range of flavors that shift dramatically from the nose to the palette through the finish. The stark contrast between the explosive honey sweetness at the beginning of the sip and the intensely drying finish is delightfully shocking. Before drinking this scotch, I was generally under the impression that I didn't like peated whisky. This is one of the more lightly peated single malts out there and is thus a great way to ease into that aspect of scotch whisky. The smoke compliments the other flavors extremely well and doesn't dominate any part of the experience, especially after adding a few drops of water. Highland Park has been described as bringing in a little bit of flavor from each of the other scotch whisky regions and I would say that's a fair encapsulation. It's a multipurpose dram, being enjoyable whether you just want something to sip with company or if you want to sit and spend time thinking about all of the different flavors drifting across your palette.

I'm really looking forward to trying the older Highland Park expressions as their youngest offering speaks extremely well of their skill in all aspects of whisky production.

Thanksgiving Drinks

2011-11-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

I trekked up to Seattle to visit my parents for Thanksgiving this year. Instead of having the feast at home, we were all invited over to eat with friends of the family. As part of that, I was asked to make drinks for everyone.

Obviously something harvest-themed seemed appropriate and apples are a major Northwest crop. So an easy pick was Clear Creek Distillery's first-rate apple brandy. It's absolutely bursting with apple flavor and provides and excellent base for a cocktail. While I wanted to go with something akin to a Sidecar, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram from Haus Alpenz seemed like a slightly better accompaniment since it has so much spice flavor that is associated with pumpkin pie and the like. To cut down on prep time, I made it punch style, adding water up front to give the proper dilution and then chilling in the fridge beforehand.

Harvest Punch

(makes ~8 servings)

12 oz apple brandy

4 oz lemon juice

2 oz simple syrup

2 oz allspice dram

5 oz water

Combine all ingredients and chill for at least an hour before serving.

I was pretty pleased with how this one turned out. The apple flavors are primarily a base for the other elements. The lemon juice and allspice dram are more assertive and the balance is towards tartness rather than sweetness. Overall, quite delightful.

Here's hoping that everyone had a good day, both those of you in the U.S. celebrating the holiday and any readers from further abroad.

Mixology Monday LXIII: Redemption of the Long Island Iced Tea

2011-11-21T22:06:00.000-08:00

It's been far too long since I got in on a Mixology Monday event. This week's theme, hosted by Jacob Grier at the Liquidity Preference, is Retro Redemption. Roughly from the 60s through the 90s were a dark time for cocktails. The pre-Prohibition Golden Age was long gone and the tiki era had faded. Preferences were shifting towards wine and beer, with vodka being the one spirit that retained much sway. The cocktails that did emerge during the late 20th century tended to be dilute and fruity, hiding rather than showcasing their alcohol. As we emerge back into the light of fine drinks, many want to shun that era and consign all of its creations to the dustbin of history.

But this week we are attempting to resurrect these Frankenstein creations, either showing that they have value in their natural state of tweaking them into more pleasant concoctions. Having been born only near the end of that time period and only begun my journey down the path of true mixology after the turn of the millennium, I can't lay claim to having experienced any of these creations in their natural state. Sure, I've had a Lemon Drop or two before, but these days I mostly drink at places where I can expect a well made cocktail or at least a healthy pour of whisk(e)y.

So stepping off into the unknown, I paged through my copy of the Joy of Mixology, looking to see what might have managed to slip into its hallowed pages. As it is primarily aimed at current or perspective bartenders, there are some slightly dubious creations that might be called for by less discriminating customers. Such as the Long Island Iced Tea.

Rightly infamous, the original recipe calls for a brain-busting 4 ounces of hard spirits as well as another ounce of liqueur. But this potent punch is well hidden among the strong flavors of lemon juice, simple syrup and cola. While not known for being the most refined drink, it is certainly a more pleasant way to get smashed than, say, drinking straight grain alcohol. But I wondered if this excuse to turn bottom-shelf liquor into money and dubious decisions could be reworked into something a bit more mixologically sound.

Long Island Iced Tea (Gary Regan)
1 oz vodka
1 oz light rum
1 oz blanco tequila
1 oz gin
1 oz orange liqueur
1 oz lemon juice
0.75 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice strain into a glass filled with ice and top with cola.

From this starting point, I wanted to make a drink that would put the spirits a little more front and center while retaining a similar flavor profile and hue. And, you know, not quite so large. Some days it's nice to not knock yourself over.

The Isle of Seven Cities

0.5 oz vodka

0.5 oz aged light rum

0.5 oz reposado tequila

0.5 oz gin

0.5 oz orange liqueur

0.5 oz lemon juice

0.25 oz simple syrup

1 barspoon orgeat syrup

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 oz soda water

Build over ice in a chilled glass and briefly stir to combine all ingredients.

For some reason, this made me think of Antillia, the Island of Seven Cities that explores combed the Atlantic ocean for during the Age of Discovery. Some of it is the diverse ingredients, coming from just about every continent on earth. I had to make due with what was already in my liquor cabinet, which is, admittedly, a fair bit. I drew some inspiration for this variation from a couple of tiki drinks, namely the Fog Cutter and the Scorpion. Both of these drinks incorporate rum and gin, which are not an obvious combination. However, when made well they are both absolutely brilliant.

For the vodka, I only had one choice: Medoyeff. While it's admittedly playing a supporting role in this case, I will say good things about it. My bottle comes from when it was still made by House Spirits, but the label has since migrated with the eponymous Lee Medoff to the Bull Run Distillery. While it's made to be drunk straight in the Eastern European fashion, it was on hand and fulfilled its duty to buck up the alcoholic content of this drink without crowding out the other flavors. The aged light rum was Banks 5 Island (part of the spark for the name of this drink), a particularly robust and flavorful light rum. I decided to go with reposado instead of blanco tequila to mellow that aspect of the drink just a bit and keep it from overwhelming the other flavors. I'm quite partial to Corralejo reposado and it is very close to a blanco in appearance, having only a very light straw color. The gin was Hendrick's, which is a very gentle gin that plays well with others and provides a number of very nice floral notes to the drink. The orgeat was also inspired by the Fog Cutter and Scorpion, where it helps to tame the strong flavors of those drinks.

The sip leads you through the various layers of flavor rather than dissolving into an ill-defined gimmish. The gin and rum lead the charge, the juniper snap of the gin and the hogo of the rum joining forces. This is followed by the agave notes of the tequila that segue back into the more floral notes of the gin. The spices from the Angostura bitters fill the role that the cola would otherwise play and the fruitiness of the orange-kumquat liqueur and the subtle nuttiness of the orgeat round out the experience. Behind all of this, the lemon juice helps to give the drink some backbone and the soda water leavens the experience. While probably diverging from the drink's roots, you could still squint in its general direction and imagine that there's some tea in there, so I feel like I haven't strayed too far. This is a drink that I would happily sip year-round.

Whiskey Review: Jefferson's 10-Year Straight Rye

2011-11-10T21:17:00.000-08:00

After nearly disappearing from the market, rye whiskey has been clawing its way back into respectability (and occasionally great acclaim) over the last decade. While most of this whiskey is made in the United States, rye is also made in Canada. However, this whiskey is rarely bottled as straight rye, instead being blended into Canadian whisky to add flavor. As an additional quirk, this flavoring whisky is 100% rye, without any corn or barley.

A few companies have approached the distillers of this whisky and purchased barrels to bottle as straight rye whiskey. Whistle Pig took this approach and has garnered all sorts of accolades in the process. However, it also costs a pretty penny. Now McLain & Kyne, previously known for "very small batch" bottlings of Kentucky bourbon, have tossed their hats into the ring and have also bottled some 10-year old 100% rye whiskey. Even better, it retails for about half the price of Whistle Pig.

Tasting Notes

Nose: light grain with an undercurrent of brown sugar or caramel, a hint of rye grain, very slight alcohol underneath and cool mint, becoming herbal with a twinge of chocolate and berries after a drop or two of water

Taste: honey sweetness up front, rye spiciness, creamy with a transition to intense mint, rhum agricole. The flavors seem to be dependent on how the whiskey is drunk, with most of the rye spiciness developing in the middle and the mint coming at the back of the mouth

Finish: very long, minty and herbal with a bit of pepper

This is a great whiskey. M&K have selected a really solid rye and put it out at an incredibly affordable price point. In Oregon right now it's only $34, which is a very small bump up from the baby Sazerac, Russell's Reserve, and Bulleit 95 for a significant increase in age and quality. There's a little more competition once it gets up around $40, but I'd still call it a good buy then. There's enough going on that you can spend a decent amount of time dissecting the various flavors, but it's also pleasant enough to be a relaxing drink at the end of the day. My only complaint, which syncs up with other opinions, is that it could use a slight boost in proof. Somewhere between 100-110 would hopefully ratchet up all the flavors without cutting into profit margins too much. So all said and done, if you like rye, or even whiskey in general, you owe it to yourself to give this one a try.

Heading to Jerez: Lustau East India Solera Sherry

2011-11-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

While I've mentioned Lustau sherry once before, I didn't get to talk much about this particular class of fortified wines.

Much maligned due to a lack of understanding of how best to store, serve and drink it, sherry is slowly regaining the profile that it deserves. The English word sherry is a corruption of the Spanish region of Jerez, where all sherry is produced. It shares similarities with port, in that both are fortified with neutral grape spirits during the aging process. There are a number of different styles of sherry that vary both in terms sweetness, ranging from bone dry to sticky sweet, and oxidation, from fresher finos to old olorosos. While sherries are naturally dry due to complete consumption of the natural sugars, some will be mixed with sweeter wine varieties such as Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel to produce sweet sherries. All sherries are aged in barrels under a natural layer of yeast that prevents oxygen from contacting the aging sherry. For the flor to survive, the sherry must be between 14.5% and 16% alcohol. Below that percentage, the flor will not properly form. Above, the yeast die and the sherry will start to oxidize. Some sherries, such as finos and manzanillas, are aged entirely under the flor. Others such as amontillados and olorosos will be fortified above 16% alcohol to kill the flor and allow oxidation. Sherry it traditionally aged in the solera system. A set of barrels is established and transitions occur at regular intervals. Finished product is withdrawn from the oldest barrels and refills from the next oldest. This proceeds up to the newest barrels, which are filled with new product. This means that there is always some of the old sherry left in the barrel, which continues to be aged and mixed.

Lustau East India Solera sherry is designed to replicate an accidental product. Sherries were shipped around Africa to India where the barrels experienced a wide range of temperatures in a humid environment. It was found that this developed an extraordinary smoothness and complexity. Lustau replicates these conditions by aging the sherry in warehouses which are kept very humid and where the temperatures are allowed to vary widely. This sherry is a blend of oloroso (85%) and PX (15%) wines aged betwen 15 and 50 years.

On the nose, this sherry is full of raisins tinged with walnuts and almonds. The taste, while distinctly sweet, is not cloying and finishes with more raisins, nuts and a touch of chocolate. This is a fantastic dessert wine that would work well in a lot of the same places as a tawny port. Additionally, as it has already been aged for decades and has a relatively high (20%) alcohol and sugar content for a sherry, it should last a while in the fridge.

While perfectly good by itself, I wanted to play around a bit and see what I could do with it in a cocktail.

East Indiaman
1.25 oz 100+ proof rye whiskey or bourbon
0.5 oz East India Solera Sherry
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.25 cinnamon syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze a twist of lemon of the top and drop into the drink.

While basically a twist on a whiskey sour, I was pretty pleased with how this drink turned out. While the sherry plays a supporting rather than leading role in this drink, it is an essential component. As I noted above, this sherry has Pedro Ximénez grapes in its mix, which give it quite a bit of sweetness. The nose is full of lemon oil, grain from the whiskey, spices from the syrup and bitters, with just a hit of raisin from the sherry. The taste is wonderfully layered, with the whiskey and sherry dancing around each other, bolstered by the sourness of the lemon juice and snappiness of the bitters. The bitters also help to bring out a bit of the nuttiness in the whiskey and sherry. You're going to want a rather stiff whiskey here. I've tried a few different types including Russell's Reserve Rye and Old Grand-Dad 114. I like it a bit better with rye whiskey as the bold, spicy flavors of rye stand out more than bourbon does. Rittenhouse Rye would be an obvious choice, but something like the 110-proof Willett 4-Year Rye would probably be absolutely perfect.

Rum Reviews, Part II: Guyana

2011-11-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

Much like Barbados rums, Guyanese rums are another one of the quintessential varieties of rum. Also known as Demerara rum after one of the country's main rivers, all of this delightful nectar is produced by one company, Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL). Though there were previously hundreds of different distillers connected with the various sugar plantations, they have consolidated over the years. Guyanese rum gained early fame as it was one of the primary varieties that were sourced to make the British Navy's rum blend.

One of the features that makes Demerara rums unique is the variety of stills that are used in their production. Each still has its own code, which is usually the name of the sugar estate that the still originally came from. The wooden stills are the most famous as they are the last of their kind on earth. The two links above can give more detail than I could ever hope to get out here and are an absolute treasure trove for anyone who wants to know more about the fascinating capabilities available to DDL.

Demerara rums are known for having particularly heavy, molasses-driven flavors. Two prime examples of this are the flagship offerings from DDL, the El Dorado 12-Year and 15-Year rum.

El Dorado 12-Year

Working off of Sascha's eminently helpful diagram, ED12 is made up primarily of rum from Diamond (SVW), one of the two-column metal Coffey stills as well as the Enmore (EHP) wooden Coffey still. As with all of El Dorado's offerings, the 12-Year indicates the age of the youngest rum in the blend.

Nose - fairly soft, a little oak, plenty of molasses, chocolate and hints of ripe fruit

Taste - molasses, chocolate, cinnamon and nutmeg

Finish - chocolate, only a very slight burn

This rum is one of the best values out there. Incredibly rich for its age, this rum can be found for as little as $25 (take that, single malt scotch!). There's probably a lot more to find in this rum, but as the weather changes as my nose gets a bit stuffy, the main notes are most of what I can find right now. But even if that's all you get out of it, this is still a fantastic, delicious dram.

ED12 also works really well in a cocktail. However, it has to be used careful because its flavors can easily dominate the drink. Balance is important, especially in tiki drinks with over half a dozen different ingredients.

Rum Julep
1.5 oz Demerara rum
0.5 oz aged Jamaican rum
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
0.25 tsp allspice dram
0.25 tsp falernum
0.25 tsp grenadine

Combine all ingredients, add a small handful of cracked ice and blend for five second. Pour into a chilled glass with more cracked ice.

This is a very rum-centric drink. The syrups add complexity and flavor, but mostly peek around the edges rather than being front and center. I like to make this one with a 2:1 split of ED12 to ED5, just to lighten the drink a bit. For the aged Jamaican, the Bum recommends Appleton 12 year and I heartily concur. It adds just the right amount of funk to the drink. The ED12 forms the backbone of the drink and all of the other flavors orbit around it. The fruitiness adds a good amount of zip to the drink and the lime's sourness is perfectly balanced by the honey's sweetness. A cursory web search suggests that this isn't one of the more popular drinks from Sippin' Safari, but I feel like it deserves a bit more recognition. This is an eminently sippable drink, but it does require top-notch ingredients.

El Dorado 15-Year

Again going back to Sascha's work, this rum is composed of spirits from the Port Mourant (PM) wooden double pot still and SVW as well as EHP and Versailles (VSG), the single wooden pot still. These rums are then aged for at least 15 years and blended together.

Nose - oak is front and center with molasses just underneath and hints of cayenne and chipotle pepper peeking around

Taste - oak and molasses still dominate, while dry cacao and mocha flavors can also be found

Finish - lingering oak and cacao

Personally, I have to agree with Capn Jimbo that this rum is just about overdone. For me it has spent just a little bit too much time in the barrels. The oak flavor is a little too assertive for my taste and I think this would be a better rum if that influence waned. If you happen to like oak, you'll probably enjoy this rum a bit more than the 12 Year, but for me it's hard to justify the extra $10 on the price tag. It's an interesting experience, but at the end of the day I'd rather be drinking the 12-Year.

Spirits Tasting at OMSI After Dark

2011-10-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Oregon Museum of Science & Industry here in Portland hosts regular events where adults can come to the museum after hours and enjoy drinks while getting to act like kids. There is usually some kind of theme to the evening and this month they dovetailed with Portland Cocktail Week and the Great American Distillers Festival to provide another opportunity to taste spirits from local distillers. As there were both a number of spirits that I didn't get to try at the GADF represented at this event as well as others that weren't present on Sunday, I decided to go, this time with more food in my belly. Once again, here are some small impressions from what I tried. However it was still hard to get much depth given that I was drinking out of a shot glass most of the time.

•Blair Reynolds, the former Trader Tiki, is a fine gentleman. His white dog hot toddy was a little peculiar, but an interesting drink. I also really liked the hazelnut orgeat and will probably pick up a bottle to give my mai tais a twist.

•I finally got to try Clear Creek's 8-Year Old Apple Brandy. It's an interesting contrast to the 2-Year Old version. Whereas the younger brandy is bursting with apple flavor, its older sibling has been significantly tamed by the extra time in the barrel. It's a little less identifiable as an apple brandy, edging towards a nice cognac with a more diffuse fruitiness. While it's a little thin at first, a drop of water opens it up nicely. The taste is berries with a hints of vanilla and wine, balanced by mild oakiness. I'm definitely going to spring for a small bottle of this brandy so I can do a more in-depth review.

•Big Bottom Port Cask Finish Whiskey is excellent stuff. Much like the Angel's Envy whiskey I tried on Sunday, the bourbon for this whiskey is sourced from another distiller and then finished in used port casks. I chatted for a bit with Ted Pappas, the founder of Big Bottom, and he mentioned that this whiskey is sourced from Indiana. While Ted would "neither confirm nor deny" his source, the mash bill matches perfectly with the high rye juice from the notoriously guarded Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI). While this is a younger 3-year old whiskey compared to AE's five and six-year old base, it tasted mature beyond its years. The choice of tawny rather than ruby port seems more well suited to bourbon and the two meshed quite well. There was a solid bourbon base of corn, grain, vanilla and a healthy dose of rye spiciness up front. This was followed by the rich flavors of tawny port nearer the finish. The residue of this whiskey was very more-ish and I'm definitely going to buy a bottle.

•The Meadow is a store in Portland that sells speciality ingredients like salt, chocolate and bitters. They had quite a spread at this event. Not only were there several dozen commercial bitters, but they also put out nearly as many tinctures that people could use to create their own bitters. I took a whiff of a number of different bitters. The Bitterman's Xocolatl Mole bitters and Elemakule Tiki bitters were probably my favorites, but Elmegirab Aphrodite bitters were also quite intriguing. I need to start playing around with bitters again because they're a relatively cheap way to add more variety to drinks.

•I made the mistake of giving Oregon Spirits another chance. They're releasing a genever-style gin and that was abundantly clear from the first sip. It's full of the peculiar roasted pineapple flavor that I've noticed in other genevers. Unfortunately there really wasn't much else going on and I couldn't even find any juniper among the malt flavors. I'm going to give them a miss for a while until they have some more experience under their belts.

•Thankfully the Rogue Pink Spruce Gin was much better. I'd tried it before, but wasn't much for straight spirits at that point. This time I really liked the gin. There was a solid base of juniper and spruce pine flavor. This was complimented by a very whiskey-ish layer of sweet vanilla, candied fruit and cinnamon spice. This would make a great Old Tom substitution or is perfectly pleasant for sipping neat. Another one that's getting added to my 'to buy' list.

Overall it was a really nice event. I was glad that I showed up not too long after opening because it got much more crowded as the evening went on. However, I got to try everything I wanted to sample and usually didn't have to wait too long. The complimentary shot glasses and hot water to wash them out was a nice touch and probably cut down a lot on the waste the event produced. Finding a few new products that I liked enough to buy was icing on the cake.

The Great American Distillers Festival; or Why It's Tough Being New

2011-10-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

While I wasn't able to attend any of the other events during Portland Cocktail week, I did make it to the second day of the Great American Distillers Festival on Sunday. Held in a small-ish event hall, there was still quite a lot of booze spread before me when I entered.

A slice of the available booths

Unfortunately my stomach was a little too empty to make it to every booth, but I did get to try a number of interesting products. My thoughts were a little sparse and became more so as I was plied with whisk(e)y, but here's what struck me at the time.

•12 Bridges Gin keeps getting better. Their latest release has dialed back the cucumber notes that used to dominate the gin and become very pleasantly floral. It was also good to hear that their distribution issues are local, rather than being a supply issue.

•Cyrus Noble whiskey is totally decent. This private label bottling of Kentucky bourbon has some corn sweetness and vanilla without any noticeable harshness. Probably worth another try when I can have more than a fraction of an ounce, but it's pretty obvious that this bourbon doesn't have more than five years under its belt. Value will be highly dependent on the price-point.

•Dry Fly Washington Wheat Whiskey is also totally decent. I found it to be quite gentle for only two years in the barrel. The flavor was grainy, without bourbon's corn sweetness or vanilla due to the pure wheat mash bill. The fact that it's an agricultural product was still clear given that the barrel hasn't had time to dominate. Again, probably worth another try, but it didn't jump out at me with complexity. However, I also felt the same way about Berheim's wheated whiskey, so it may just be that the category isn't for me.

•Chatoe Rogue is a new-ish single malt whiskey from Oregon. If I understood correctly, it's aged briefly for 3 months in used chardonnay barrels. This whiskey tastes very fresh, which is unsurprising given how close it is to being a white dog. While there isn't a whole lot of complexity yet, it's still pretty decent for its age and might work well in a New Orleans sour with some orange liqueur and lime juice to round out the flavors. But at the price point, it's kind of a tough sell.

•I tried a number of Golden Distillery's products. Their single malt whiskey had a surprising dose of vanilla in it, which comes from being aged in white oak 10 gallon, rather than standard 53 gallon, barrels. It was another good, relatively fresh product that should improve nicely with more age. I also tried their Reserve whiskey, which is also aged in red oak barrels. It was hard for me to suss out any extra flavors, but my palette was getting a bit burned out at that point. Their apple brandy unfortunately seemed kind of thin and fient-y without the kind of rich apple flavor that I expect. On that front, I think I'll stick with Clear Creek.

•Just to prove that it wasn't just the little guys, I also tried the 12- and 18-year old bottlings from Jameson. In all honesty, they really did nothing for me. Again, my taste buds may have just been too abused to catch the subtleties, but I didn't even finish the sample of the 18-year that I was offered. C'est la vie, I guess.

•Oregon Spirits' wheated whiskey was also a bit simple for my taste, but it might get more interesting with age.

•Angel's Envy whiskey was another private bottling, rather than a local product like so much of what was at the Festival. This is a five to six year old bourbon that is then additionally aged for 3 to six months in port casks. This was the last whiskey I tried while I was there, so it was nearly impossible for me to pick up on much. While I'd need to try it again to be sure, I felt like this was another case where I felt like it needed a lot more age. With some 10+ year old stocks and another 6-12 months in the port casks, this could be really good. But it's hard to justify shelling out $50 for something so young that isn't even coming from a craft distillery, even if it has been reviewed very, very favorably.

•Some of the big boys were there to play as well. Four Roses put out quite a nice spread of spirits. While I had previously tried their Small Batch bottling and found it less than appealing, their Single Barrel (Warehouse 5, Barrel 3-6U) was quite a bit better. It had a fairly light nose with hints of brown sugar, vanilla, yeast and caramel. The taste recapitulated the smells and had only a slight burn. I also got to try some of one of their Limited Edition bottlings (sorry, I forgot to write down the details of what all went into it), which was at least as good if not better than the Single Barrel. They're both on my 'to try again' list and it sounds like the price of the Small Batch and Single Barrel should both be coming down in the near future.

So overall, the unfortunate impression that I came away with is that most craft whiskies are just too young right now. I'm not the first to come to that conclusion. Right now they're in a really tough place. I think a lot of people have gotten into distilling because they want to make whiskey, but unfortunately that's as much or more dependent on time in the barrel than it is on what comes off the still. And that's expensive. Aging ties up both space and capital, neither of which are likely to be plentiful for a company that's just starting out and wants to become profitable sooner rather than later. This can lead to a number of different traps, all of which are tricky to get out of.

To begin with, just about every distillery out there makes vodka and gin. This isn't surprising, because they're comparatively easy to make and require no aging. This can start a decent revenue stream. But if the dream is ultimately to make aged products, it's hard to build enough capacity to both keep up with the demand for your unaged products and to distill the stuff that you want to put down for a while. Sure, you can always buy another still, but that costs money, which usually isn't exactly plentiful for new distilleries.

Another route that many distilleries are taking is to bottle whiskey bought from one of the big distilleries. It's not uncommon that they have barrels sitting around that don't quite fit into their established products but are on their own still worth drinking. This is a totally reasonable idea, but has its own complications. It's early days, so we'll see how and whether people are able to transition over to their own aged whiskies, but it's going to be a tough switch.

Lastly, and most popularly, distilleries release whiskies that haven't had a lot of time in barrels. As I mentioned above, some people try to speed this along by using smaller barrels, but it's debatable how much that helps. Some of the reactions that produce the flavorful compounds in whiskey take time to develop and there's no way to speed up the process. Especially with single malt whiskies, time in the barrel seems to be particularly important as they're starting with a single grain rather than the mixtures used for bourbon. I think there's a good reason why scotch usually starts to get really good around 10-12 years. Again, as I mentioned above, there are a lot of whiskies coming to the market with a few months to a few years under their belts. Sometimes that works. I've tried a few 4-5 year old whiskies from microdistilleries that were quite tasty. Even less can still sometimes produce a great product. But you have to accept them for what they are, rather than expecting the rich, vanilla and sweetness-laden whiskey that most bourbon drinkers know and love. And when you consider the price differential between most craft-distilled whiskies and those made by bigger producers, it can get tough to justify shelling out that much cash. I feel like in a lot of cases people (myself included) are willing to pay a premium for what they see as potential, rather than because what's being current put out is the best thing ever. Craft distilleries have to work with what they have, whereas big distilleries have decades of stock to blend into consistent products. So there are hits and misses. Unfortunately it's going to be tough to bring in a wider audience that is accustomed to consistency.

While I feel like I've been a bit doom and gloom, I don't think that all is lost. It's early days and craft distilleries that have been around for a while are putting out really excellent products. However, there does seem to be no small amount of hype and I'd hate for some good projects to be nipped in the bud because they can't deliver right now. In another 5-10 years, I expect to be drinking a lot more really excellent craft whiskey. But right now I'm hoping that there's a lot of what I drank this last weekend sitting in barrels, waiting to see the light of day some time in the slightly distant future.

Whisky Reviews: Glenmorangie Vertical Tasting

2011-10-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I was lucky enough to stumble upon a Glenmorangie gift pack containing a full bottle of the Original expression and minis of the three current wine barrel extra-aged bottlings, all for the same price as the Original by itself. This lets me do a tasting where I can directly compare how each type of barrel affects the flavor of the underlying whisky.

Glenmorangie has been distilling since 1843 in Tain, Ross-shire, Scotland. While the distillery was family owned for most of its history, it has since been sold to the French conglomerate LVMH. The new owners have brought new design ideas to the company. I've got to say that their presentation is top-notch and the corporate website does an excellent job of conveying their story and providing some rather nice videos for tasting their original and extra-aged expression. The distillery's claim to fame comes from having the tallest stills in Scotland, which produce lighter bodied whiskies that are the most popular in Scotland. Staffed by the so-called "Sixteen Men of Tain", the distillery seems to manage a good balance between tradition and experimentation. Almost all of their whiskies are first aged in used bourbon barrels and their extra-aged expressions are then transferred to used wine casks to add another layer of flavor.

Now that's what I call a good spread

Glenmorangie Original 10 Year - 43%

Color: pale honey

Nose: malty, citrus - lemon and orange, vanilla, a hint of wine

Taste: creamy vanilla, malt, chocolate oranges, honey

Finish: medium, pleasant but trending towards bitterness

Overall this is a seriously solid dram. It's extremely well priced for a single malt, going for as little as $30. There's absolutely nothing bad that I can say about it, other than wishing that the flavors were just a bit more bold. Especially when my palette isn't quite as clear, the flavors tend to seem less robust and the cacao notes are replaced by green apples. I'd stick to drinking this before rather than after a meal.

Glenmorangie Lasanta - 46%

Color: amber

Nose: sherried wood, vanilla, nougat, almond, slight wood char or burnt sugar smell evolving with time and water

Taste: sherry, creamy sweetness

Finish: short with just a bit of burn

This whisky makes me think of 3 Musketeers bars. I've tried a few other sherried whiskies that really didn't do much for me. This was a much more enjoyable expression. There is clear sherry flavors in both the nose and taste, but it doesn't dominate the underlying characteristics of the whisky. This is a very delicious and more-ish dram.

Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban - 46%

Color: rose gold

Nose: toasted almonds, nougat, brown sugar, falernum(?), chocolate, hints of wine and peaches, developing blackberries and raisins with a bit of water

Taste: port wine, chocolate

Finish: lingering port wine and vanilla

There are a lot of similarities between the Quinta Ruban and Lasanta expressions, though I felt like the port wine influence was just a tad less strong than the sherry. While the nose of the Lasanta is a bit more robust, the finish on the Quinta Ruban helps its overall experience. Ultimately I'd have a very hard time deciding between these two.

Glenmorangie Nectar d'Or - 46%

Color: honey

Nose: burnt sugar, wood, wine-y sweetness, hints of citrus, fruit preserves that shifts towards wood char and nougat with water

Taste: light, chocolate, honey, orange

Finish: slightly bitter, cacao?

I felt like the wine influence was less directly apparent with this expression, instead beefing up the intrinsic qualities of the Original and layering on more barrel flavor. I didn't find this to be as explosively sweet as other reviewers have, but it is smoother than the Original which might let that aspect shine a little bit more clearly.

Overall, I don't think you can go wrong with any one of these whiskies. As I noted above, the Original is an incredible value and a great whisky for the scotch novice or those who prefer lighter Speyside malts. The Lasanta and Quinta Ruban expressions are usually less than $10 over the basic 10-Year, so it's easy to upgrade. At least for me, the Nectar d'Or is a little harder to justify as it's usually up in the $60-70 range. I'll probably add it to my collection one of these days when I have some extra cash, but the port and sherry cask expressions are in the must-buy category.

Tiki Classics: The Mai-Tai as Foundation

2011-10-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

It seems to be a requirement of cocktail blogging that at some point, you will write a post about the mai tai. Perhaps several. I've even mentioned it once before. But really, there's a good reason that it comes up so often.

From a fairly simple set of ingredients, the mai tai is much greater than the sum of its parts. A combination of rum, lime, orange liqueur and orgeat comes together with almost unmatched depth and complexity. And that's without too many of the usual tiki drink tricks, like multiple juices and highly spiced syrups and liqueurs.

All of that can be attributed to the genius of Victor 'Trader Vic' Bergeron who invented the mai tai (yes, I come down on that side of the great Mai Tai Debate).

Proto-Mai Tai
1 oz Spirit #1
1 oz Spirit #2
0.75 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange liqueur
0.5 oz orgeat
0.25 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, either up or over crushed ice. Garnishing with a mint sprig is traditional and does add a little something to the drink.

Rum

The basis of this drink is obviously rum. Originally developed with Wray & Nephew 17 Year Dagger rum, a bottle of that will set you back as much as a new luxury car, so adaptations have to be made. The general consensus seems to be that a combination of an aged Jamaican rum and an aged Martinique rhum agricole best approximate the original flavor. However, there are quite a number of other variations that will work as well.

If you're aiming for something along the classic lines, your options are a significantly more limited on the Jamaican rum side. My go-to rums in this category are Appleton V/X and Estate Extra plus Smith & Cross. The Appleton 12 Year is best on its own, but I usually go for some split between Appleton V/X and S&C as they both bring some nice funk to the table. Both because of proof and the fact that it's made from pure pot still rums, the S&C will make itself strongly present, even at 0.25 oz, so go easy with the pour. There's also Coruba, but its strong burnt sugar flavor will also tend to dominate the drink, so it's not something I tend to reach for when I'm making mai tais. And while there is still a Wray & Nephew rum on the market, it's an unaged firebreather that really isn't what you're looking for in a mai tai rum.

On the sugar cane rum side of the equation, there's quite a bit more to choose from. First up, the official Martinique rhum agricoles. While I and others have sung its praises before, Clément VSOP isn't my favorite here. For whatever reason, it seems to be hiding its light under a bushel in this drink, so I don't want to waste its deliciousness. Rhum J.M. and Neisson Elévé Sous Bois are both solid and won't set your wallet back too far, but they are also pretty stiff and may be a bit much depending on your opinion of rhum agricole. Next on the list are non-AOC sugar cane rhums from other islands. Barbancourt is an obvious choice, especially as its price point is far below that of the Martinique rhums. Another good choice is Westerhall Plantation rum, which is made with both cane juice and molasses rums. It's fairly light, but will provide a nice backup to whatever Jamaican-style rum you want to use. Lastly, Mt. Gay Sugar Cane Rum, which is oddly nothing of the sort. As I mentioned before, this is a molasses-based rum that magically manages to express many of the characteristics of a sugar cane juice rhum. Sadly it's not being made any more, but if you can find a bottle it does work wonders in a mai tai.

If you want something a bit lighter, I also like a variation with Banks 5 Island (has some Jaimaican rum in the blend and the Batavia Arrack brings some really nice funk to the table) and Clément Première Canne (a nice but fairly mellow rhum agricole blanc). Makes for a good summer mai tai.

Whiskey

What's amazing about the mai tai is how adaptable it is to other spirits. However, one does have to keep in mind that the drink was built with rum in mind, so some subtle tweaks may be necessary. The whiskey version of the mai tai was known as the Honi Honi in Trader Vic's restaurants, though this was a simple substitution with 2 oz of one kind of bourbon. While this drink works quite well, even with something as simple as Jim Beam white label (I had an excellent one the last time the Teardrop Lounge hosted a tiki night), it feels like there's room to play with this formula. The first thought in my mind was, "what whiskies will approximate the flavors of Jamaican and agricole rums?". This is kind of a tricky thing. There aren't too many whiskies that have the same kind of pot still funk that are the hallmark of Jamaican rums. By the same token, martinique rhums have a rather unique flavor that is often (in my mind) reminiscent of brandy. So there are two different routes available: pick what seem like their analogs within the whiskey world (funky and fresh) or most faithfully recapitulate the those flavors. For the first, I would suggest the most robust whiskey you can get your hands on and a rye whiskey. If you can get funky, at least get bold. Bulleit, Elijah Craig 12 Year or Ezra B Single Barrel would all be good choices for the first that won't break the bank or make you cringe to mix them. As a Martinique replacement, I lean towards rye whiskey because it seems to possess both the semi-obscure peculiarity of Martinique rum and flavors that remind you that it's an agricultural product. For the second route I would stick with a bold bourbon, but add a sherry-cask aged Scotch whisky (I've tried this with Aberlour 12 Year to reasonably good effect), which will have the wine-like flavors that one can find in rhum agricoles. Both are good, but which you like better will depend on your personal tastes.

Tequila

This is another mai tai variation that has an established history as the Pinky Gonzoles. But again, this is a fairly simple sub of 2 oz of a single kind of tequila. While all well and good, I prefer to use 1 oz of an añejo tequila like Sauza Hornitos and a reasonably funky reposado like Cazadores. That way you get both the aged barrel flavors of caramel and vanilla of the añejo and the funky agricultural flavors from the younger tequila.

Gin

Here's where we diverge from the beaten path. Gin is somewhat more divorced from its agricultural roots, with the exception of maltier gins like Dutch genevere. But you can still make an excellent gin-based mai-tai. For depth, you're probably going to want some kind of a barrel-aged gin. I went with Ransom Old Tom, though it at least the bottle I have needs to be used sparingly (~3/8 oz) as its somewhat overwhelming cardamom flavor can swamp a drink. For the balance of the spirit, I went with Aviation and Hendrick's, both solid, not too juniper-y gins that will still give the drink a nice snap.

So there you have it. The mai tai is a true classic, both in its original form and in the derivatives that were spawned from it. While falling on hard times for much of the late 20th century, many are new recognizing how good this drink can be when hewing to Trader Vic's formulation. A few simple ingredients turn into something downright magical.

Lemon Hart 151 Rum Returns

2011-10-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Old bottle on the left, new bottle on the right.

While Lemon Hart 151 is a somewhat obscure spirit outside of tiki circles, within it is one of the best loved ingredients out there. A potent rum distilled by Demerara Distillers Ltd. in Guyana and bottled by the Lemon Hart Company, this rum has a surprisingly long history. The eponymous Mr. Lemon Hart began supplying the British Navy with rum at the beginning of the 19th century. While the Lemon Hart brand remained quite popular for nearly two centuries, it slipped into relative obscurity outside of Canada after the first wave of tiki wound down in the late 70s and early 80s. The resurgence of tiki drinks and culture began to bring it back into the light, though the brand retained a very simple and unassuming packaging that belied the prominent "premium" statement on the label. To make matters worse, a change in ownership last year meant that it looked like the brand would disappear completely as the new owners had not made arrangements with DDL to continuing using the trademarked "Demerara rum" name. There was great wailing and gnashing of teeth among the tiki community. Thankfully everything was eventually settled, but there was a 6-12 month period when LH151 was nearly impossible to find for love or money. Now it has returned to shelves with much more upmarket packaging. It's clear that the new owners are trying to reposition this rum, both in terms of the presentations and a slight (~$5) increase in the price.

Brought down to a more tractable 100 proof, this rum is still has quite potent flavors. On the nose, there's quite a bit of caramelized, almost burnt sugar, molasses, tropical fruits, butter, toasted oak and a fair bit of alcohol. A couple more drops of water bring out savory notes that remind me of an Indian restaurant. The taste is primarily the caramelized to burnt sugar and smoky toasted oak, which becomes more subdued and sweeter if you add a bit more water. I'll have more to say on the subject when I review some of the other rums distilled by DDL, but Guyanese rums seem to bear some relation to Islay Scotch whisky.

Where LH151 really shines is in tiki drinks. It's an integral and irreplaceable ingredient in a number of cocktails such as the Zombie, Jet Pilot, Aku Aku Lapu, and of course, the 151 Swizzle:

151 Swizzle
1.5 oz Lemon Hart 151
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
6 drops Herbsaint

Combine all ingredients and blend with a handful of crushed ice for 5 seconds. Pour into a chilled glass over more crushed ice and dust with freshly ground nutmeg.

This is a dangerous drink. If you use a little bit too much crushed ice, the LH151 will get too dilute and you can all too easily forget just how much alcohol is in this cocktail. However, if you get it just right, the ice lengthens the drink as time goes on and lets the experience mellow over time.

Compared to a lot of tiki drinks, this is almost blissfully easy to put together as it is little more than an extremely potent daiquiri. There's only one kind of fresh juice needed and apart from the rum, all of the ingredients are pretty easy to find.

The rum is obviously prominent as it forms the bulk of the drink. The lime juice adds its usual snap and is balanced by the simple syrup. The extra touches are what make it really special. The standard Don the Beachcomber one-two punch of Angostura bitters and Herbsaint do their dance around the main flavors and are accented by the nutmeg. The rich, bold, smokey flavor of the LH151 is wonderfully complimented by these additions and everything comes together as a simple but very tasty drink.

Bénédictine: Subtle Magic

2011-09-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

I fortuitously decided to take a trip across the state border to take a look at a couple of the liquor shops in Vancouver, WA over the Labor Day weekend. While the rather high liquor taxes did dissuade me from a number of purchases that I had considered, I did see some bottles of Bénédictine herbal liqueur on sale.

While not high on my list of things to buy, it is an ingredient in a number of rather intriguing recipes. A search through the Cocktail Database returns quite a long list of results.

Originally developed by Alexandre Le Grand and purportedly based off of a recipe made by a local order of monks, many have tried to imitate this liqueur but none have succeeded. As with many other herbal liqueurs, the ingredients that go into it are a closely held secret.

It's clear that this is a very complex mixture of ingredients. Neat, the nose I get includes grass, lavender, mint, violets, almond, lemongrass and a whole host of other smells that I can't quite put my finger on. The flavor is obviously sweet, leaning towards simple sugar. There is a burst of herbal, somewhat mentholic flavor and little to no finish.

High on the list of recipes I've been meaning to try is the Singapore Sling. There's quite a bit of debate over the "real" recipe, but Beachbum Berry has published what seems like the tastiest one.

Singapore Sling
2 oz gin
0.5 oz brandy
1 oz Cherry Heering
0.5 oz Bénédictine
1 oz lime juice
1.5 oz soda water

Combine all ingredients except for soda water and shake with ice. Strain into a chilled chimney glass filled with ice and top with soda water.

So far I've tried this one with either Hendricks alone, Aviation alone or a 3:1 Hendricks/Plymouth split. I like the Hendrick's by itself best, but any gin that's not too juniper heavy will likely do well in this drink. Crisp and plays well with fruit is the key here.

Additionally, you can play around with the fruit liqueur a bit. A full ounce of Cherry Heering can overwhelm the drink, at least initially. I've also tried it with a 0.5 oz each of homemade raspberry and orange liqueurs, which let the gin shine a bit more while keep the fruity roundness of the drink.

Ultimately this drink is clearly made for long tropical days. While there's a lot of fruity sweetness going on here, it's balanced out by the crispness of the gin and soda water along with the sour snap of the lime juice. A quintessential long drink, it mellows nicely over time with the gin holding up even as the drink is diluted. The Bénédictine gets along well with the gin and adds a little somethin' somethin' to the drink. Do watch out though. While it doesn't hit you in the face, there's quite a lot of alcohol in the glass.

Montils Tiki

2011-09-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

It's been warming up a bit here in Portland, even if I have to be thankful that most of the summer has been blessedly cool. So once again I turn towards tiki. Just to mix things up a bit, I also decided to play with one of the lesser-used spirits on my shelf, cognac.

Colombard Cooler
1 oz Hardy VS cognac
0.5 oz Batavia Arrack
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.25 oz cinnamon syrup
0.25 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

A fairly simple drink, but the flavors all play well together. The brandy base provides wine and oak flavors that the funk of the arrack and the cinnamon spice dance around. The lemon and grapefruit juices give the drink a bit of snap so everything balances out nicely. A fine drink for a summer evening.

Rumsky: Experiments in Blending Spirits

2011-08-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

While I kind of trashed Russell's Reserve Rye not too long ago, it did make me think about how the whiskey could be salvaged. Especially in cocktails, it just felt too thin. I mentioned at the time that bitters could help, but they didn't provide compete satisfaction. So what could beef it up?

The solution is rum.

A good aged rum should have depth in spades. The rich molasses and chocolate flavors of Demerara rums are especially good in that respect. So what happens when we put the two together...

Russell's Reserve Rye X El Dorado 12 Year Rum

Now this is what I was looking for. With a 3:1 ratio of rye to rum, everything I like about rye is still present, but instead of being unidimensional, the rum buttresses those flavors with caramel, molasses and chocolate. Dark fruit flavors creep out of the glass and the swallow delivers on the promises of the nose. It's fairly safe to say that this is more than the sum of its parts.

Weller Antique 107 Bourbon X Smith & Cross Rum

In this case I decided to take the opposite tack. A rum with almost insufferably potent flavors mixed with an extremely smooth wheated bourbon. With that said, they both pack a punch in their own rights as the Weller is 107 proof and the Smith & Cross is navy proof at 114. Using the same 3:1 ratio of whiskey to bourbon, it was initially still too much. Between the high proof and intense esters of the rum, there was a solid burn going down. However, after a few drops of water and a couple more minutes in the glass, the blend settled down into something much more enjoyable. While still dominated by the rum, sweet brown sugar began to emerge and a hint of grain from the whiskey. The high ester rum still hits you full in the face with funk, but it's a much more pleasant experience. This is something I will definitely be drinking again.

Ezra B. Single Barrel X La Favorite Rhum Vieux X Rhum J.M. Élevé Suis Bois

This blend centered around tempering and enhancing the characteristics of the La Favorite Rhum. While retaining some of the characteristics of rhum agricole, it smells and tastes like it was dosed with charred barrel extract. A little goes a long way. The Rhum J.M. has spent much less time in the barrel and retains more of the almost brandy-like agricole flavors that have been obliterated in the La Favorite offering. The Ezra B has a savory spiciness that compliments the two agricoles. In a 1:1:1 ratio, this blend turns out to be fairly pleasant. There are a lot of strong flavors here, but they manage to mesh reasonably well. The burnt wood, brandy and grain all dance around each other, no one ever quite dominating. It gets sweeter and almost creamy with a bit of water. Unsurprisingly, there's a bit of heat as two of the three spirits are right around 100 proof. All in all, I'm not sure that this was the best blend, but it was an interesting and worthwhile experience.

In some respects I feel like this is an extension of the tiki drink methodology. You take flavors from one spirit that aren't found in another and put them together to make flavors that can't be found in a single spirit. There's a lot more experimentation to do and I look forward to trying this again.

Rye on the Brain: Kicking it up a notch with the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection

2011-08-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. Rye. Seems to be most of what I've been drinking lately, in no small part because it's a lot easier to pour a dram at the end of the day than to put a proper cocktail together.

As I've been promised a bottle of something that I wouldn't normally try myself, I decided to try the best ryes that I could find. And as far as I can tell, it's pretty hard to beat what the Buffalo Trace Distillery puts out as part of their annual Antique Collection. A new set of bottlings is put out each year in the fall and includes three bourbons and two ryes. They all cost a pretty penny, but represent some of the oldest and best liquor to come out of the distillery.

Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye Whiskey - 2009

This is a very hefty barrel-proof bottling at roughly 129-proof that was aged for about six years. These are fairly distinct features from most of the other collection, which tend to be much older and lower proof (the George T. Stagg being an exception). With that said, this is a magnificent whiskey.

Neat, the nose has a fairly standard set of rye grain, vanilla and spice flavors. The spice is somewhat augmented by the strength of this whiskey, as they both run fairly hot. The taste delivers on the promise of the smell with an almost brutally long finish that lasts even after a sip of water to cool down. I won't say my mouth was actually getting burned, but it wasn't too far off. But all in a rather enjoyable fashion.

After a few drops of water, the whiskey opened up a bit to reveal some chocolate. The grain flavors receded slightly, more of a reminder of where the whiskey came from rather than being up in your face like more pedestrian bottlings. Time and a little more water brought our molasses and greater sweetness.

After I was done, the glass retained an amazingly amount of odor, which was redolent of grain, milk chocolate and fruit.

I really would have liked to be able to measure this properly to bring it down to a more recognizable 100- or 90-proof, but my wallet only allow for a small-ish pour and I didn't want to drown it. I'm pretty tempted to buy a bottle, so I may be able to report back with more info at a later date.

Sazerac 18-Year Rye Whiskey - 2010

This whiskey has won any number of accolades, twice winning "World Whiskey of the Year" from Jim Murry's Whiskey Bible. Though some other reviews had made me a little bit wary that it would live up to the hype, it more than delivered in my opinion.

Neat, the nose was explosive with honeyed sweetness, mint, orange and a hint of spice underneath. To give you a sense of just how rich this smell was, after lifting my notebook off of the top of the glass, I could instantly smell it without even leaning forward. The taste mostly recapitulated the smell, with surprisingly little bite or heat for a rye whiskey. The finish was rather short, but very smooth.

Adding a bit of water transformed the nose into berry jam with rye grain underneath. The taste contained very subdued grains behind huge honey sweetness. The taste did seem just a bit thinner and the peppery spice actually kicked up a notch. The finish was ultimately still fairly short.

The residual whiskey left in the glass after I was done still contained smells of orange, grain, chocolate and fruit that lingered for more than an hour. This was still such a potent smell that the uncovered glass sitting on the table could be detected from several feet away.

In summary, if you get a chance to drink either of these whiskies, go for it. They're not cheap pours, but the the experience is more than worth the price of entry. After finishing the Sazerac, I posted "This is going to ruin me for all other whiskey for all time". While a bit of hyperbole, it really was that good. I'm currently trying to hunt down a bottle of the Sazerac 18-Year and considering a bottle of the Thomas Handy, which is a little bit easier to find. Either way, you can bet that I'm going to be nearly the first in line when this year's bottlings come out.

Whiskey Reviews: Moderately Priced Ryes

2011-07-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

While I've already waxed lyrically about one of my favorite rye whiskies, Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond, there are a growing number of ryes coming out at a similar price point. So while I should probably be drinking gin & tonics on this warmer-than-average (for this summer at least) day in Portland, I'm going to delve back into the world of rye. In another departure, I'll be talking about these purely as sipping whiskies, as I'm finally gaining an appreciation for that aspect of spirits. With that said, I'm still new to the game, so there are probably aspects that I'm missing.

These two ryes are ripe for comparison as they share a number of qualities in common: they are both aged for 6 years and bottled at 90 proof, as well as being sold at almost the same price.

Russell's Reserve Rye Whiskey

This whiskey is produced by Wild Turkey and is meant to be a step up from their standard and 101-proof ryes. The mash bill is a split of 65% rye, 23% corn and 12% malted barley, which puts it well above the minimum 51% rye required by law. As noted above, the whiskey is made of up spirits that were aged for at least 6 years and comes to us at a very reasonable 90-proof.

Neat, this whiskey has a bit of alcohol on the nose, as well as a slight tinge of vanilla and a very robust amount of raw or toasted grains. The smell tickles the nose, promising that rye spiciness that is a hallmark of the spirit. The taste is made up primarily of the aforementioned grains, with a burst of chile pepper on the swallow. The spicy burn tends to linger, though in a not entirely unpleasant fashion.

A couple of drops of water subdue the smell and flavor to a degree, bringing it a little bit closer to bourbon territory without giving up its distinctiveness. The back of the mouth spiciness is, however, completely undiminished.

With all that said, I feel like this is a fairly simple rye. 90% of what's going on is either hot spiciness or rounded, somewhat mellow graininess. With time in the glass, the balance shifts a bit towards the grains and it calms down a smidgen to reveal some of the corn in the mash bill, but you're still left with pretty much the same drink.

In cocktails, I feel like Russell's Reserve Rye is a bit disappointing. It lacks the robustness of Rittenhouse and doesn't stand up for itself nearly as well in a basic whiskey sour. A small dash of bitters can mostly rescue the drink, but given that this is also more expensive that the Rittenhouse, I feel like it's hard to make a really compelling case for Russell's other than in terms of availability. However, if you give this one a try and like it, I'd also suggest trying the Russell's Reserve 10 Year Bourbon. There's a clear family link between the two and it still has a fair bit of rye character while being balanced by a higher proportion of corn.

Sazerac 6 Year Old Rye Whiskey

Produced by the Sazerac Company of Sazerac cocktail fame. While only administration of the company is still carried out in New Orleans, the association with the birthplace of the company is still strong. Distilling of the company's spirits is done by Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky. Known primarily for their bourbons, there are a number of different ryes that are now being put out as well.

Sazerac rye has a slightly different mash bill than the Russell's above, being composed of 51% rye, 12% malted barley and 37% corn. The difference is readily apparent as this rye is much less aggressive. The nose is mellower, while retaining a slight prickle from the rye spiciness and whiff of alcohol. A bit more vanilla and a touch of fruit are added to the mix. The higher proportion of corn is also evident in the taste, which has more corn sweetness with a less explosive spiciness and less of the straight grain flavor of the Russell's. A couple of drops of water turn down the dial just a bit without washing out any of the flavors.

I feel like this is a really good rye for bourbon drinkers. While all of the requisite rye characteristics are present, there is enough bourbon character underneath to provide something familiar as well.

Right now, I'd still have to recommend Rittenhouse over either of these ryes. It's cheaper and has a depth than neither of them can match. However, it's also kind of tough to find, so in a pinch I'd go for the Sazerac. It's much more balanced and has a bit more depth. The Russell's could actually be a pretty good rye if it just mellowed a bit and got some more complexity. If we're lucky, Wild Turkey will decide to put out an older version in the future. I have a feeling that with some more maturity it would end up being a pretty good whiskey.

Mixology Monday LVIII: Niche Spirits

2011-06-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's time for Mixology Monday again and this time the goal is to highlight a drink made with uncommon spirits. So for once I have to stray from the path of rum, whiskey and gin. While pondering what I should make, I remembered a drink that I had a few weeks ago at The Victory Bar. The Happy Jack was pretty good as they made it, but I immediately thought of ways that I could tweak the original recipe. The drink contains applejack, lemon juice, grenadine and allspice dram. Already a solid base, but a couple of tweaks on the base spirit could make things more interesting. A little while ago I mentioned how interesting Batavia Arrack is and how it has a fairly strong affinity for fruit. Splitting the base spirit between Laird's Applejack, Clear Creek apple brandy and Batavia Arrack made for a complex, layered cocktail that really hits the spot.

Happy 'Rack
1 oz Clear Creek Apple Brandy
0.5 oz Laird's Bonded Applejack
0.5 oz Batavia Arrack
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.25 oz grenadine
0.25 oz Allspice Dram
0.25 oz simple syrup (optional)

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. For an optional garnish, grate a little nutmeg onto the top of the drink.

There is a lot going on in this drink. Arrack dominates the nose, while balancing itself with the whiskey-ish flavor of Laird's on the initial sip. The apple brandy provides a solid, fruity base along with the grenadine while the lemon juice gives the drink a bit of zip and the St. Liz spices everything up. A fine drink to sit and sip on a warm but overcast day like today.

The Island of Misfit Rums

2011-05-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

While rums are traditionally thought of in terms of their country of origin, there are some that defy simple classification.

Banks Five Island Rum

If one was going to be a little more precise, this would actually be "Banks Four Islands and Part of a Continental Landmass Rum", but that doesn't have the same ring to it. Instead of sourcing their rum from one particular part of the Caribbean, the blenders behind this rum decided to put together rums from Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados and Guyana. Included in the blend is their "special ingredient", Batavia arrack from the island of Java. The five spirits are all aged from three to twelve years, blended together and then charcoal filtered to strip color from the spirit and produce a crystal clear white rum. Whether it's a matter of the rums they selected to go into the blend or a feature of the filtration method, this is a very crisp, dry spirit, without a lot of the caramel sweetness one usually finds in aged rums. What is there is lots of wonderful hogo, likely coming from the Jamaican rum and Batavaia arrack. What sweetness there is seems to be more of a morass of tropical fruits.

While Banks makes for a delightfully complex daiquiri, it can also be used to give more complex potions a bit of zip and funk.

South Caribbean Sunrise
0.75 oz Banks Five Island Rum
0.75 oz light Demerara rum (El Dorado 3-year)
0.5 oz light Puerto Rican rum (Flor de Caña Extra Dry)
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
0.25 oz falernum

Combine all ingredients and blend for five seconds with a small handful of ice. Pour into a glass with more crushed ice.

This is a relatively light drink, with two out of the three rums providing a supporting role while the Banks provides a stiffer backbone. Mild fruitiness from the lime and orange juice is backed up by the smooth sweetness of honey and a touch of spice from the falernum. Overall a rather pleasant drink with ingredients that won't break the bank.

Batavia Arrack van Oosten

While there are those who argue that arrack isn't properly rum, if it's not it's at least the crazy cousin who you're not sure you want to hang around at first, but who turns out to be utterly fascinating in the right situations.

Batavia Arrack has a long history, proceeding the Dutch colony that gave the city of Jakarta its former name. Sugar cane from South Asia and distillation techniques from China met on the island of Java and were combined to produce the original spirit. In addition to a local variety of yeast that is used in the fermentation, a small amount of red rice is added, which contributes to the spirit's unique palette of flavors and smells.

While arrack has a fairly long history in punches and cocktails, it fell out of favor and was neigh impossible to find outside of northern Europe, where it remained in limited use in chocolates and Swedish Punch. We can thank the estimable Eric Seed of Haus Alpenz for returning this unique spirit to American shores.

This is a rather potent spirit at 100-proof, which combined with its face-punch of flavor means that it's not really designed for straight sipping. Some of this is due to the fact that the spirit is essentially un-aged, with only a brief period spent resting in large teak vats before bottling. While some of the usual rum characteristics can be found within, the primary flavor is pure hogo. Dancing around that core are hints of brandy or wine that I suspect come from the red rice.

While arrack can be a difficult spirit to work with, it shines as an accent to other spirits and in punches. One of my favorites comes from David Wondrich's book on punches, the Ruby Punch. While originally made for a large-ish party, I've scaled it down to a single serving and tweaked one of the ingredients.

Tawny Punch
3 oz black tea (1 tsp steeped for ~3 min)
1 oz demerara syrup
1 bar spoon lemon tincture
1.5 oz lemon juice
1 oz Batavia Arrack
1 oz tawny port

Combine all ingredients, stir briefly and chill in the refrigerator or freezer until cool.

There are a lot of complex flavors playing around in this drink, but magically they all manage to balance each other perfectly. The port has a fruity sweetness that provides a base for the more complex flavors of the arrack and tea, with the lemon juice providing snap and the demerara syrup rounding out the entire drink. The ABV works out to somewhere around the mid-teens which makes this a wonderful cool drink to sip outside on a summer evening without blowing yourself away. The recipe can obviously be multiplied by the number of people you'd like to serve if you want to scale up to a full-blown punch.

If you'd like more recipes using Batavia Arrack, Haus Alpenz has a nice list.

A Year of Booze-Blogging

2011-05-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Following the traditions of some of my betters, I wanted to look back at what I've learned in the year since I started this blog.

• It's really fun to write about something I enjoy so much and share it with the rest of the world
• I am constantly amazed by the awesomeness of other cocktail, liquor and booze bloggers. Seriously, if you enjoy this stuff at all, go read through the links on the left hand column. Just about everything I know comes from reading their delightful prose.
• While I started this journey with a strong appreciation for gin and tequila and a nascent interest in rum, tiki drinks have slowly encouraged me to build a love for brandy and whisk(e)y. Plus, you know, more rum. Everything has its place, even if you have to play around a bit to find it.
• Making good drinks for other people is incredibly satisfying.
• While I have yet to join the garnish crowd, some of them are really, really pretty.
• I really enjoy making my own ingredients. Some of my own devising, others from reputable sources.
• While I tend to make my own drinks at home rather than going out, there are some really excellent places in Portland for a good tipple.
•Getting readers requires putting yourself out there, both through commenting on other blogs and any other available channels (thanks, Horde!).
•There is politics, even in the world of cocktails.
•The Northwest is full of excellent distilleries, both old and new.

Overall I just wanted to thank everyone who has read this blog over the last year. Here's to many more tasty drinks and useful posts.

Silver or Gold: A Comparison of El Espólon Tequilas

2011-05-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

El Espólon tequila has made a fairly recent reentry to the American market, this time with some rather attractive bottle designs. I first stumbled upon the brand while looking for a reasonably priced reposado tequila to supplement the tasty but somewhat pricey Corralejo on my shelf. Tastings.com reviewed it quite favorably and a local store had recently started stocking it. With a quite reasonable price point of $27 for both the blanco and reposado bottlings, I was pretty much sold.

El Espólon Blanco

The younger of the two bottlings, this tequila is crystal clear. On its own or in a more delicate drink like a margarita, there is an undeniable harshness to this spirit that I find somewhat off-putting. Either because of the roasting process or the hearts cut being started a wee bit too soon, this just isn't quite as smooth as I would hope for from a spirit that markets itself in the 'premium' category, no matter how debased that adjective may be these days. Underneath that less pleasant layer, there are significant amounts of agave flavor coupled with somewhat indistinct fruit flavors. Thus, while it makes a reasonable base in drinks with other strong flavor components, I don't think that it's sufficiently refined to be the anchor in simpler drinks. Here's one example where I think it works fairly well, a margarita variation with cinnamon syrup and falernum providing a one-two punch of flavor to balance the blanco tequila's assertive nature.

Canela Sunset

1.5 oz blanco tequila
0.5 oz lime juice
0.25 oz orange-kumquat tincture
0.25 oz cinnamon syrup
0.25 oz falernum

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This is unfortunately going to be a little tricky to make. Unwilling to pony up for Gran Marnier or Cointreau, I turned to the Homebrew Underground's Orange Kumquat liqueur recipe. After making my last batch, which would have produced more than a liter of finished liqueur, I decided to not add any sugar syrup and essentially make liqueur by adding the proper amount of simple syrup each time to make it in situ for each drink. What this also allows for is substituting in different syrups instead of regular ol' simple. So in essence I'm adding 0.5 oz of orange-kumquat-cinnamon liqueur to the drink. 0.5 oz of orange liqueur and 1 tsp each of falernum and cinnamon syrup is a decent substitution, though you'll want to add a bit more lime juice as well to balance the sweetness and overall the drink won't be quite as spicy.

El Espólon Reposado

This tequila is aged for six months, which has the effect of adding a very pale golden color to the spirit and rounding off many of the shaper edges found in its blanco cousin. There is still quite a bit of agave flavor, but it's less aggressive and helped by a small dose of vanilla and spices, unsurprising results of barrel aging. I'd like to say that there are overtones of pineapple, but I'm not sure I can quite put my finger on the fruity notes in this tequila. While it works beautifully in a margarita, especially with the cinnamon and clove-tinged orange-kumquat liqueur mentioned above, it also slots well into one of the more bizarre drinks to come out of Beachbum Berry's books:

Jim's Special

2 oz dark Jamaican rum

2.5 oz reposado tequila

1 oz lime juice

1 oz passion fruit syrup (Trader Tiki)

0.5 oz orange liqueur

0.25 oz simple syrup

0.25 orgeat syrup

Combine all ingredients with a small handful of crushed ice, blend for five seconds and pour into a double old fashioned glass or similarly sized glass filled with more crushed ice.

Yes, rum and tequila can play well together. There are a lot of strong flavors playing around including dark Jamaican rum (I used Coruba), which tends to have an almost burnt sugar flavor, to the tequila, which brings its distinctive vegetal agave, and the passionfruit syrup, which is an explosion of fruitiness with a sour edge. Balancing those elements are the orange liqueur (the cinnamon and clove of the orange-kumquat liqueur also slot in fantastically here) and orgeat, which somehow manage to do the job. Each part is in tension with the other, but they come together in a delectable whole. Don't believe me? You can also scale this drink down to half size, which is much more manageable and less likely to leave you sitting on the floor.

To summarize, I can heartily recommend the reposado bottling. It's an excellent deal that compares favorably with the other two reposados on my shelf, which cost $5-10 more. However, I'd skip the blanco. It isn't particularly distinctive, offering nothingthat the reposado doesn't but brashness. Even more damning is the fact that unlike most other tequilas, there is little to no price premium for the reposado over the blanco. Hopefully the distillers will be able to refine the blanco and differentiate the two in future, but right now the choice is clear.

Homemade Gin

2011-05-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I was kvetching about the lack of high-proof gins available in the US. While that still bugs me, I decided to take a page out of Jeffery Morganthaler's book and make my own.

My recipe diverged a bit from his, mostly because I was trying to make something akin to Plymouth Navy-Strength gin. There are seven listed botanicals in Plymouth and I was able to get all of them from without much trouble. For anyone in the Portland area, Limbo, off SE 39th & Holgate, is an absolutely fantastic place for getting herbs and spices.

Experimental Gin #1

Almost finished

400 mL 100-proof alcohol
1 cardamom pod
1/4 tsp coriander pods
1/4 tsp angelica root
3/4 tsp juniper berries
1/4 tsp powdered orris root
1 Tbsp orange tincture
3 Tbsp lemon tincture

Lightly crush all solid ingredients and add to liquid. Seal and store overnight, shaking occasionally. Filter through coffee filters until sufficiently clear.

For something where I was fudging a lot of the measurements, this turned out rather well. I probably could have filtered it a time or two more, largely because of the powdered orris root (I need to find it in unground form at some point), but it's no big deal. The orange and lemon tinctures were also shortcuts because I happened to have them on hand, but a couple of strips of orange and lemon peel (without any white pith) would work just about as well. This recipe used a mixture of Everclear (95% EtOH) and water, but 100-proof vodka will work too if you can't get your hands on the former. Ultimately I'd like to try making batches at different proofs to see how the flavor profile changes depending on the extraction efficiency of various flavor compounds.

Much like Morganthaler's recipe, this is entirely provisional. I was aiming for a particular set of flavors, but you should feel to adjust it to your own tastes. A lot of his suggestions for additional spices to try are good and I would add cucumber to that list if you happen to like gins such as Hendricks or 12 Bridges. Also, this wasn't a particularly juniper-forward gin, so if you want more of that evergreen snap, you should add some more.

In no small measure, my ultimate reason for wanting to make high-proof gins came from an article on Oh Gosh! about a gin-based tiki cocktail, the Winchester. Since it's a) hard to find and b) a bit spendy, I've yet to plonk down the cash for a bottle of Martin Miller's Westbourne Strength gin. While my own version doesn't have the visual clarity, it is certainly up to proof and then some. In trying to make my own Winchester, I had to make a few substitutions due to other missing ingredients, but the final product was pretty good.

Pseudo-Winchester
0.75 oz Ransom Old Tom Gin
1 oz Experimental Gin #1
1 oz Hendrick's gin
0.75 oz lime juice
0.75 oz grapefruit juice
0.75 oz Yellow Chartreuse
0.5 oz grenadine
0.25 oz ginger syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with lots of cracked ice and pour unstrained into a chilled single rocks glass or tiki mug.

If you haven't glanced at the original Winchester recipe yet, I'll fess up and point out that I had to sub just about every ingredient on the list, except for the juices and syrups. I also eased up on the Old Tom, both because of the higher proof of my experimental gin compared to the MMWS and because the Ransom Old Tom has an awful lot of cardamom, which can easily overpower a drink. I also don't have any St. Germain (yes, I am a terrible cocktail blogger). The Yellow Chartreuse was the most floral liqueur I had on hand, so in it went (probably bumping up the alcohol content of the drink a bit as well). Combined with the Hendricks, which is a rather floral gin, the overall flavor profile is hopefully reminiscent of, if not exactly the same as, the Oh Gosh! recipe.

This is quite a powerful drink, both in terms of alcoholic strength and flavor. There was still a lot of cardamom (I might bring down the Ransom a bit more and sub in some Plymouth if I was making this again), but the ginger bite, floral and herbal flavors from the gins and liqueur still made themselves known. I actually forgot to add the Angostura bitter straight off and had to add them later, but the drink has a fairly similar flavor profile even without them. The bitter simply accent what is already present and give the drink a bit more snap. The other elements tend to play supporting, but still important roles, with the grenadine and lime balancing each other and providing a nice fruity roundness and the grapefruit adding it's own bitter character to that of the gin.

It's been fun to explore the realm of non-rum-based tiki drinks and I'm hoping to get to more of it in the future. While rum will always be my main love, there's plenty of tasty drinks to be made with other base spirits.

Whiskey Tropicals

2011-03-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

My recent review of bourbon and rye whiskies got me thinking about new ways to incorporate whiskey into tropical drinks. While whiskey may not have quite the same range as rum, there still quite a bit of variety that can be mixed to provide new flavor combinations that are unlikely to be found in a single product.

An Is Fearr
1.25 oz Bushmill's Black Bush Irish Whiskey
1 oz Rittenhouse Bonded Rye Whiskey
0.5 oz orange liqueur
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz orgeat
0.25 oz simple syrup (or to taste)

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled old fashioned glass.

Apologies if I got the Gaelic wrong. The internet can only help so much.

The Bushmill's Irish whiskey is something of an odd beast as it's aged in used oloroso sherry barrels for some of its life, which adds a distinctive fruity raisin flavor to the usual single malt character. There's also just a hint of wine, which makes me think of the brandy notes in rhum agricole. Rittenhouse has tons of spicy character, somewhat analogous to a full-bodied Jamaican rum. So it made a certain amount of sense in my mind to put the two together into a sort of whiskey Mai-tai.

Ultimately, this is following the basic path of tiki drinks: start from a simple sour and elaborate by using multiple liquors, fruit juices and sweeteners to make a complex yet unified drink. Here we've started off with a simple whiskey sour, and elaborated on the ingredients to make something distinctive. By combining a floral, fruity whiskey with a funky, somewhat raw whiskey the drink has a number of different layers of whiskey flavor. The lemon juice gives it a bit of zip, while the orange liqueur gives it some sweetness and rounded fruity flavor. The orgeat has a distinct nuttiness that syncs up well with the whiskies.

While I'm not the first person to think of making a whiskey-based mai-tai, I'd like to think that this is a decent elaboration and in keeping with the spirit of tiki drinks.

Highland Breezes
1.25 oz Elijah Craig 12-year bourbon
0.25 oz McCarthy's Single Malt Whiskey
0.5 oz Rittenhouse Bonded Rye
0.25 oz Trader Tiki's Passionfruit Syrup
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.25 oz cinnamon syrup
0.25 oz Don's Spices #2 (50/50 mix of vanilla syrup and allspice dram)

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

While a bit of a departure from the original, the inspiration for this drink came from the Waitiki corner of the Cocktail Journal. I wanted to find a way to integrate the smoky flavor of scotch, a notoriously difficult liquor to mix with, into a tiki drink. Again, I'm far from the only person to head in this direction, but I think the results speak for themselves.

Unsurprisingly, the scotch tends to dominate the nose. There's a heavy dose of peaty-smoke, though a healthy whiff of cinnamon isn't too far behind. The smoke is much more subdued on the tongue. There is a distinct grainy flavor from the whiskies, with a rounded fruitiness from the citrus and passionfruit and various spicy notes from the syrups. Altogether a quite pleasant drink to sip. Especially if you're like me and have an organic chemistry problem set to wrap up.

While I should be returning to the world of rum in the near future, it's been fun to see how far I could push distinctly American, Irish and Scottish spirits into the faux-tropical world of tiki.

Quick and Dirty (But Tasty!) Ginger Syrup

2011-03-25T10:21:00.000-07:00

After trying a few different types of commercial ginger beer (I'm especially looking at you, Reed's Extra Ginger Brew), none of them really seemed to have the kick that I was looking for. I tried Jeffery Morgenthaler's method, which was good, but always seemed to have a yeasty taste to it. The standard method for making ginger syrup, simmering chunks of ginger in simple syrup and filtering the resulting mess, worked alright but seemed to lose its kick fairly quickly. I finally despaired and gave up hope for a while.

Then, as luck would have it, I stumbled upon Summit Sips. While browsing the archives, I came upon a new recipe for ginger syrup. This, folks, is the way to go. All the convenience of ginger syrup, which lets you make as little or as much ginger beer as you want, with the snappy tasty of Mr. Morgenthaler's recipe. Truly a gift from the gods, especially if one happens to have a bit of a sore throat or a stuffed up nose.

Finally, it'd be a shame to leave without a recipe using ginger syrup. While I quite enjoy it in a Bourbon Special, it plays a little more prominent role in another tiki drink:

Queen's Road Cocktail (from Beachbum Berry's "Sippin' Safari")

0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
1.5 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
0.5 tsp ginger syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Without the ginger syrup, this would be a passable but unremarkable cocktail. Some decent fruit flavor, the smooth sweetness of honey and gold Puerto Rican rum, which is usually good, but doesn't particularly stand out in comparison to Jamaican or Guyanese rums. The ginger syrup adds another new dimension to the drink, giving it snap and spice.

For those who like that ginger bite a bit more, you could easily bump the ginger syrup up to 1 tsp without disturbing the balance of the drink, though you might want to use a hair less honey syrup so that it doesn't get too sweet. Overall, it's a fairly simple but definitely tasty cocktail.

Orgeat Syrup Recipe

2011-03-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

While I am far from the first person to venture into this realm, I wanted to add my fairly simple but tasty recipe to the crowd.

•2:1 ratio of blanched almonds to water, by volume
•1/4 tsp almond extract

Toast the almonds until fragrant, but not burnt. Blast the almonds into little pieces with a food processor. Simmer the almonds and water together at very low heat for an hour or two. By that point there should be an obvious layer of extracted oils from the almonds floating on top of the mixture. Strain the mixture through a tight mesh sieve or cheese cloth to remove the solids.

At that point, you should check to see how much volume you have. It'll probably be about half the volume of water you put in. Mix the almond milk you've just made 1:1 with simple syrup. Toss in a bit of vodka or grain alcohol if you like so that it will keep longer.

This syrup has a really great toasted almond flavor. Additionally, I find that it works well to smooth out rougher flavors and also gives just a bit of frothy head to shaken drinks. One drink in that vein is on Death & Co's menu. I had to guess at the proportions, but it turned out to be quite tasty.

Fix Me Up

1-1.25 oz Rittenhouse rye whiskey

0.5 oz Lustau Oloroso sherry

0.5 oz lemon juice

0.5 oz orange juice

0.25 oz simple syrup

0.5 oz orgeat syrup

1 dash Fee’s Old Fashioned Bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This is a great cocktail to sit and sip. Even with a fairly healthy dose of simple and orgeat syrups, it manages to be balanced, even edging towards being dry. The nutty flavor of the Oloroso sherry and the orgeat fit rather well with the spicy flavors of the rye whiskey. The herbal notes of the bitters also fit well with the rye grain flavors, while the juices give the drink a bit of snap. While I have no clue how this compares to the drink made at D&C, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out.

Tiki Classics: the Navy Grog

2011-03-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Just in case it wasn't already abundantly clear, I rather like tiki drinks. And as many are now showing they weren't always the syrupy sweet neon disasters that they became after the first golden age of tiki. Instead, the originals, many pioneered by Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic were exquisitely balanced potions with significant amounts of thought behind their construction.

To me, one of the emblematic tiki drinks is the Navy Grog. Many tiki drinks began their lives as elaborations of a few basic recipes such as the daiquiri or the Planter's Punch. Starting with the simple combination of rum, citrus and sugar, there are a host of ingredients that can be slotted into each category to build an endless array of drinks. Another key feature of tiki drinks is the use of multiple rums to produce flavors that no single rum could contain on its own. The Navy Grog fits those features to a T, with multiple rums backed up by lime and grapefruit juices with honey syrup to sweeten the pot. All easily fit within the basic mold, but combine to produce a drink with a very different character from the daiquiri of yore.

Navy Grog

1 oz honey syrup
0.75 oz lime juice
0.75 oz grapefruit juice
0.75 oz soda water
1 oz Puerto Rican rum
1 oz Demerara rum
1 oz dark Jamaican rum

Combine all ingredients except for soda water, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass. Top with soda water and add ice cone. (Recipe from Beachbum Berry Remixed)

I will admit that I usually stray from the recipe just a bit. Since I usually like my drinks a bit sweeter, the honey syrup (2:1) gets bumped up by a quarter of an ounce. From what I understand, there may have been a few issues translating the older Grog Log and Intoxica recipes, which used straight honey, to the Remixed recipes that call for 1:1 honey syrup, so it's probably keeping in line with how the drink is meant to taste. Additionally, while the original recipe calls for light Puerto Rican rum I tend to use gold rums, such as Ron Abuelo 7 Años or Bacardi 8 Años to give the drink a bit more depth. However, if you'd like to have a bit more snap, Flor de Caña Extra Dry might not be amiss.

Where you really get to play with the nature of the drink comes from the Demerara and Jamaican rums. These days we are blessed with quite a number of rums from each country, all with their own distinctive flavors. This allows you to construct very different drinks depending on what rums you pick. Want something more assertive that'll give you a kick in the pants? Use some Smith & Cross or Coruba for the Jamaican or Lemon Hart 80 for the Demerara. Want a drink that's smooth as the honey going into it? Shoot for Appleton 12 Year for the Jamaican or El Dorado 5 or 12-Year for the Demerara. Shooting for a balance between the two extremes? Pick Appleton V/X for the Jamaican and El Dorado 5-Year for the Demerara. I'm sure there are plenty of other options (Plantation Jamaican and Guyana rums are on my list to buy), but even just picking from my personal collection there's an enormous amount of flexibility.

To wrap this all up, the Navy Grog is a very tiki tiki drink that is well worth your while to mix up. Even with a fairly short list of ingredients (for a tiki drink), there's a lot of room to play around with flavors and make something new and exciting each time.

Amber Waves of Grain

2011-03-15T22:10:00.000-07:00

While it's arguable that rum was America's first national spirit, these days whiskey is likely to be the first drink that they associate with the country. It didn't take long after settlers began moving west, especially once they had crossed the Appalachian Mountains, for them to realize that it was much more efficient and profitable for them to turn their grain into whiskey and sell that than it was to sell the grain itself. It didn't take long before America was a nation of whiskey drinkers and boy did they know how to put it away. By the early 1800s there were about 14,000 distilleries in the country producing millions of gallons of whiskey [1]. The average American drank roughly five gallons of absolute alcohol in a year, translating roughly into a normal bottle of 80-proof booze a week. Given that it was also a time of religious revival and a not insignificant portion of the population were tee-totalers, that average hides a rather bimodal distribution with a relatively small number of people consuming most of the alcohol.

American whiskies have generally fallen into two categories: bourbon and rye. In each case, this is primarily determined by the mash bill, with bourbon containing more than 51% corn and rye containing more than 51% rye. In both cases they are usually a mixture of corn, rye, barley and sometimes wheat, though there are a few 100% ryes on the market right now. Also, both types of whiskey must be aged in new, charred oak barrels (this creates a ready supply of used bourbon barrels that are often used to age rum). While the flavor is largely influenced by the mash bill, the barrel aging also rounds off some of the sharper edges of the spirit and adds vanilla, caramel and wood flavors to the mix.

Bulleit Bourbon

On a whim I decided that I should finally get around to trying some whiskey, as it was one of the spirits that I hadn't tried. After poking around some of my favorite booze blogs for recommendations, there seemed to be a consensus that Bulleit was a really great value. I'll have to admit that my initial impressions were not overwhelmingly positive. Despite being a reasonably stiff spirit at 90 proof, it just wasn't punching through drinks in the way I expected it to. Compared to my usual base liquor of choice, rum, bourbon doesn't have quite the same heft. But after a little playing around, I finally figured out how to make it work well.

Bulleit Bourbon has a higher proportion of rye in the mash bill than a lot of other bourbons, which gives it a somewhat spicy and snappier character to counterbalance the smooth caramel sweetness that one normally finds in bourbon. All in all, this is a great spirit and a fine bridge between traditional bourbons and rye whiskies. And it makes a mean tiki drink.

Bourbon Special (adapted from Beachbum Berry Remixed)

1.75 oz Bulleit Bourbon
0.5 oz lime juice
0.25 oz simple syrup
0.25 oz dark falernum
0.25 oz ginger syrup
one dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled rocks glass.

The original recipe called for ginger beer, but I prefer a bit more snap from ginger syrup made with fresh ginger juice. All of the spicy ingredients play nicely with the bourbon without completely obliterating it. The extra oomph that Bulleit brings to the table helps to give the drink some backbone. All in all, a great drink.

Rittenhouse Bottled-in-Bond Rye Whiskey

Normally, I have a hard time trusting liquor that comes with a plastic screw top. Even the metal ones are a bit better, but corks can't cost that much more and just look classier. But Rittenhouse Bonded is gold in disguise.

As noted above, rye whiskey takes the normal bourbon mash bill and more or less inverts it. So there's a whole new layer of flavors riding on top of the sweet-ish corn and caramel flavor of bourbon. There's a lot of spice, primarily cinnamon, grainy rye, a bit of wood and a touch of pepper. Together, the result is fairly dry but quite balanced. Surprisingly for being 100-proof, there's almost no alcohol flavor and very little burn. The best thing I can say about this whiskey is that it has depth. Which is probably why it's currently a darling of mixologists. Some liquors won't assert themselves very well when you want to pair them with other strongly flavored ingredients. Rittenhouse will easily hold its own without completely dominating a drink. And for something so distinctly American, it also works rather well in tiki drinks.

Monongahela Punch

1.5 oz Rittenhouse Bonded Rye

1 oz grapefruit juice

0.75 oz lime juice

0.5 oz cinnamon syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This is a simple substitution into the Donga Punch, but it works just as well as the original. I suspect that this is partially because many varieties of rhum agricole clock in at 100 proof as well, so the recipe is made to balance with a strong base liquor. Subbing in cognac works well too, which is part of why I still wish that I could get some Force 53. Rittenhouse works perfectly here, both because of its strength and because the spicy flavor of the whiskey synchronizes perfectly with the cinnamon syrup, while both are balanced by the acidic and bitter citrus flavors. If you enjoy whiskey at all, you owe it to yourself to go pick up a bottle of Rittenhouse (if you can find it). At roughtly $20, it's pretty hard to beat in terms of value.

[1] Watman, Max. Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in Moonshine. 2010.

Hot Chocolate Spiced Rum

2011-02-28T20:57:00.000-08:00

Much like Doug, I'm not usually a big fan of hot alcoholic drinks. They're pretty much always either cold and alcoholic or hot and non-alcoholic. Neither the 'twain shall meet. Or something like that. But this for this week's Mixology Monday prompt, those two things are the only requirement. So I decided to try something that seemed like a logical pairing, but hadn't been put together before. That is, hot chocolate and the chocolate spiced rum I have sitting on my shelf. Pretty simple, but it was pretty tasty.

Hot Chocolate Spiced Rum
1 oz dark chocolate (TJ's Pound Plus Dark works well)
6 oz whole milk
1 oz chocolate spiced rum

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, add the milk and whisk the two together until reasonably warm and homogenous. Add spiced rum, give a quick stir and enjoy. A cinnamon stick might make a good garnish, but it's not strictly necessary.

Thanks to Nancy over at The Backyard Bartender for hosting this one.

Help From the Hive Mind

2011-01-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

While I've enjoyed immersing myself in the world of cocktails over the past year, there are times when my searches for particular bits of information come up flat. so I turn to you, mighty denizens of the Internet and Cocktail Blogosphere to see if you can provide some insight.

High Proof Booze

While searching for a good mixing cognac, I stumbled upon a discussion on the ever-useful eGullet forums. One of the commenters mentioned Louis Royer Force 53 Cognac as one of the more spectacular options currently available as it clocks in at a burley 106 proof (hence the Force 53 moniker). Spurred by a glowing review by Paul Clarke at the Cocktail Chronicles, I poked around for a way to get my hands on a bottle. While I came up with a few hits, with the already steep price point combined with shipping liquor from the East Coast, what I could find was far beyond my limit for untried booze. Since Paul was able to get his hands on it out in Seattle, I presume there must be some decent source for it. Anyone have a hook-up that they can clue me into? Alternatively, does anyone have suggestions for other high-proof brandies that would work well in 19th-century cocktails?

Another high-proof item I've been looking for is a stronger gin. I'd love to get my hands on some 114-proof Plymouth Navy Strength Gin, but as far as I know it's not sold in the States. On the other hand, the people at the Clover Club can apparently get their hands on enough to serve it to customers, so maybe there is a way. Another possibility is the slightly less potent 102-proof Seagram's Distiller's Reserve, though the reviews have been slightly mixed. Martin Miller's Westbourne Strength is also frequently noted in discussions about higher proof gins, but that one doesn't even crack the 50% mark. However I'm also less of a fan of London dry style gins, so neither of those options is super appealing. Anyone know how to get the Plymouth NSG or have other suggestions?

Forgotten Spirits

I finally put my hands on a copy of David Wondrich's Imbibe! and have been poking at it whenever I have a spare moment. One of the ingredients that he bemoans the loss of is aged peach brandy. After some poking around the internet, it's clear that some craft distillers are starting to put out new products in that vein, but they're also not cheap, especially once shipping is factored in. There's an unaged peach brandy from Koenig Distillery in Idaho listed in the Oregon directory that I might be able to "age" with oak chips. However, the problem is twofold. One is that I can't even find any reviews online, so I have no idea if it's any good to begin with. Secondly and more importantly, it's not listed as being stocked anywhere right now, so unless I'm lucky enough to stumble upon a store that miraculously has some, that's not a viable option. So once again, if any of you have better ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Local Flavor, Pt. III: Sound Spirits

2010-12-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

As per usual, I took a few days off to go visit my family in Seattle over Christmas. On Boxing Day we all decided to try the city's first distillery, Sound Spirits. Noticeable only because of the tentacles painted on the wall, the distillery is tucked in between two other businesses and is somewhat easy to miss while driving down W 15th Ave.

Started by Steve Stone about three years ago due in part to the fact that Steve met Christian Krogstad of House Spirits. After putting together a business plan, acquiring space and the necessary permits, the distillery is now up and running. So far he has put out a barley-based Ebb + Flow vodka and is also doing an Ebb + Flow gin, which was completely spoken for by the time we got there. The gin was, incredibly good and smoother than any other I've tried. While I like drinks a lot, straight liquor usually makes me sputter a bit, but that gin had barely any burn at all. The particular batch we had (the first production run) clearly still had some rough edges to work off as it was a bit cloudy, probably from the citrus oils coming out of solution when the gin was brought down to proof. But I'm not one to care so much about appearance, especially when the flavor is good. The E+F gin is definitely in the New West mold, with subdued juniper and a fairly citrus-heavy flavor profile. While none of the other botanicals jumped out at me, it seemed to be a nice and balanced mix. This is something that I could easily imagine drinking with a couple dashes of bitters and nothing else. While I'm normally loath to make the "this is too good for cocktails" claim, any drink you put it into would be better off highlighting the gin rather than swamping it.

We also got to try an experimental herbal liqueur that Steve described as harkening back to spirits like Chartreuse or Benedictine, so it's distinctly sweet, floral and herbaceous. While I didn't hear anything about a release date, I'm really looking forward to trying that liqueur again. Bonus points if the price point is a tick bit lower than either of those established products, which hopefully won't be too hard to do.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the products that Sounds Spirits is putting out. While it's clearly early days, there's a lot of potential and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the future. Here's to the expansion of distilling in the Northwest!

Book Review: The Joy of Mixology

2010-12-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

As I've noted before, Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology is one of the books that helped to send me down the path of cocktail nerdery. Though nominally aimed at aspiring bartenders, this is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand the theory behind cocktail recipes.

The book opens with a condensed history of cocktails, going all the way back to the 18th century when cocktails emerged as a drink form in Colonial America. As Gary points out, the cocktail is one of the few culinary inventions that is entirely unique to America rather than being derived from imported ideas.

In my opinion, the most useful aspect of this book is the way that drinks are broken into families and presented in spreadsheet form to show how changing the base spirit or an ingredient can produce an entirely new drink. For instance, the Margarita and Daiquiri are all in the sours mold of spirit, sour and sweet, with different spirits (tequila vs. rum) and sweeteners (orange liqueur vs. simple syrup). Understanding those foundations allows one to easily swap one ingredient for another to create new drinks. This has led Regan to create new cocktails to fill "holes" in the cocktail canon where there is an obvious and easy swap that for whatever reason had previously not been made.

The Joy of Mixology would be the first book I would tell someone who wants to learn more about cocktails to buy. It contains all the basic recipes you'll need to keep yourself and others happy. There's plenty of technique and recommendations for equipment you'll need. And it will give you a huge leg up on how to making your own cocktail recipes. If it's not on your shelf yet, go out and buy it right now.

Chocolate Spiced Rum

2010-12-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

One of my first experiments in making my own ingredients was an attempt to make chocolate bitters. I was fairly excited to read about Fee's Aztec Chocolate Bitters and Bitterman's Mole Bitters. Unsweetened chocolate seemed like a perfect compliment for a lot of drinks, especially those containing rum or tequila. However, the reviews of the Fee Brothers product were less than stellar and the Bitterman's product runs $18/bottle, which seems pretty steep to me. Since my local store for spices, Limbo, carries cacao nibs, I decided to try making them myself. While I was less than impressed with the results, it came to me that the same flavors would also work really well as a spiced rum. So I tossed in some Appleton and let the mixture soak for a week. The results were fabulous. Deep chocolate flavors surrounded by a spicy kick. After that batch was finished, I made another batch with fresh ingredients. That worked out fairly well, though the chocolate was somewhat subdued and the chili flavors were more predominant. My guess is that because the spices extract at different rates, there was more chocolate than spice flavor left over in the once-used spices in the first batch. Either way, it's really tasty and featured prominently in the drink I made for the last Mixology Monday.

Chocolate Spiced Rum
12 oz Appleton V/X rum
5 oz cacao nibs
0.5 tsp chipotle pepper
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cloves
0.5 tsp black pepper

Combine all spices and grind lightly with a mortar and pestle. Infuse the rum for ~1 week or to taste. The spices can be reused at least once more after filtering.

Last, but not least, another recipe to highlight the wonderful uses for this spiced rum:

Spiced Shrubb
0.5 oz Jamaican rum (Appleton V/X)
0.5 oz chocolate spiced rum
0.5 oz Creole Shrubb
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.3 oz simple syrup (or less to taste)

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This is a really tasty drink and a great one for the holidays. Imagine a chocolate-dipped spiced orange that's full of alcohol. The Jamaican rum adds some funk, the citrus juices keep it tart and the spiced rum brings a whole host of flavors. For a liqueur, the Shrubb is very fruity, but drier than one would expect. Depending on how sweet you like your drinks, the extra simple syrup may or may not be necessary. While other orange liqueurs won't work in quite the same way, something like Cointreau might be a decent substitute. No matter what, this is another example of how tiki-style drinks can take a fairly wide array of flavors and meld them into a coherent whole rather than a muddy soup.

Rum Reviews, Pt. I: Barbados

2010-11-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

Barbados is, by most accounts, the birthplace of rum as we know it. According to the excellent ...and a Bottle of Rum by Wayne Curtis, rum was likely first distilled on the island around the mid-17th century. While this probably began as an effort to use up the all of the molasses generated from sugar production, it soon became a booming export industry.

All of that is to say, Bajan rums have a long history. And the most famous rums from the island come from the Mount Gay distillery, the oldest continually operating rum distillery on earth. A deed for the estate from 1703 marks the oldest piece of evidence for the distillery's history, which likely goes back even further.

I've raved before about how good Mt. Gay Extra Old (XO) is and I stand by that first impression. It really is one of the quintessential rums on the market today. A lush, rich rum, so smooth that the alcohol is barely detectible. The nose has a fair amount of oak, a bit of brown sugar and a hint of citrus. Straight, it glides across the tongue with just the right amount of buttery body and a taste entirely consistent with its smell. There's almost no burn, only a light peppery finish and residual taste of oak. While that's all well and good, I'm more concerned with how it works in a cocktail. And there's no better way to judge a rum, in my opinion, than a Daiquiri:

1.5 oz rum
0.5 oz lime juice
0.4 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Compared to crisper, white rums, making the ingredients of a daiquiri balance can be a bit trickier with an aged rum. Mt. Gay XO has a healthy dose of oak, which provides body for the drink, but can seem harsh if the proportions of lime and sugar aren't right. When they all come together, this is an incredible drink to sip outside on a summer day, the flavors coming together in perfect harmony.

A now defunct part of the Mt. Gay portfolio, their Sugar Cane Rum (or Brandy, outside of the states) is a rather peculiar product. Though produced from molasses, it has a lot of the characteristics of a fresh cane juice rum. This rather peculiar nature and the fact that it was released a bit too early to ride the burgeoning wave of rum means that it was dropped sometime within the last couple of years. Like I mentioned, in some respects it resembles a rhum agricole, with a light but distinct scent of cane in the nose. However, the smell and flavor are much lighter than a true agricole, producing a much smoother and less aggressive taste. Beyond that more unique flavor, it's a fairly standard Bajan rum, smooth, with a pleasant amount of molasses and spice. However, it does shine in one place, the Mai-Tai:

1 oz Mt. Gay Sugar Cane Rum
1 oz Smith & Cross Rum
075 oz lime juice
0.5 oz Clément Creole Shrubb (or other orange liqueur)
0.25 oz simple syrup
0.5 oz orgeat

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass, either up or with crushed ice.

While the Mai-Tai was originally made with one rum, J. Wray & Nephew 17-year, we now have to make due with substitutions. One of the best is a combination of a robust, funky Jamaican rum combined with a Martinique rhum agricole. I find that the Sugar Cane Rum provides just enough grassiness and smoothes out the rather assertive nature of the S&C to make a really excellent mai-tai. For those making it at home, be sure to use homemade orgeat. It's vastly superior to commercial products and relatively easy to make.

Book Review: Beachbum Berry Remixed

2010-10-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

Jeff "Beachbum" Berry is, without a question, one of the most important figures in the current tiki revival. I am far from the first to sing his praises. While a self-professed bum, he has spent countless hours scouring old cocktail books and interviewing the remaining tiki bartenders to pry the secrets of lost tiki drinks from them. Given the secrecy surrounding a lot of tiki drinks, that was no easy task. The founders of tiki, namely Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic, used all sorts of tricks to prevent their bartenders walking off with the most important drink recipes when they were hired away by rivals. Some of the trickiest ingredients, like "Don's Spices" and "Don's Mix" were such closely held secrets that it took decades of investigative work and no small amount of luck to figure out what they were.

Beachbum Berry Remixed contains most of the recipes from two of his earlier works, Grog Log and Intoxica!, which have been updated and reworked as necessary. In addition, there are a number of new recipes, both from Berry himself and from the growing legion of tiki-phile bartenders across the globe. All said and done, there are several hundred recipes, most tested and honed over the last decade. To make things even more interesting, the recipes are interspersed with bits of tiki history, from the long running debate over the creation of the Mai-Tai to the complex trail of leads that the 'Bum followed to determine the true recipe for the Zombie.

This is definitely the best book to get if you want an introduction to tiki. You'll get some good background and enough recipes that it's pretty much guaranteed there'll be something in there for everyone. To reduce the confusion of all the obscure ingredients, there's a list in the back that explains what everything is.

Even for the more established cocktailian, this is a must-have book. Think tiki drinks are all sugar and no balance? Peek through the Bum's work and be amazed. People like Donn Beach and Trader Vic were absolute geniuses behind the bar, carefully utilizing obscure components to create nuanced and balanced drinks. Not a huge fan of rum? There are drinks in here with just about every base spirit imaginable.

My one quibble with this book is that it should have been shipped spiral bound, especially considering that several of his earlier books came that way. Trying to make a drink and keep the book open at the same time is a bit of a pain. Thankfully you can just drop by your local FedEx/Kinko's and get it rebound, but that does cost a few extra dollars.

So, go forth and get Beachbum Berry Remixed! If you can't find it locally, check out Trader Tiki, where it's $5 off with free shipping.

HR 5034: Because It's Not Hard Enough to Find Good Booze

2010-10-25T18:45:00.000-07:00

Word of a proposed bill in the House of Representatives, HR 5034, has been bouncing around the cocktail blogosphere for a while now. The gist of the bill is that states should be allow to restrict the private shipment of beer, wine and spirits from outside their borders. In an effort to cloak this concept in an air of respectability, the bill has been named the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010. It is absolutely nothing of the sort.

A simple browsing of the funding sources behind the bill reveals that it is all about protecting the power and money of wholesalers, who are worried about the growth in internet sales of alcohol over the last decade. They claim that the law should be changed for a variety of silly reasons, ranging from reinforcing the regulatory powers of states to inconsistent oversight by federal courts (the law would prevent challenges to restrictions by the states) to preventing minors from buying alcohol.

Those notions are a transparent farce. As well all know too well, states already exert an enormous amount of control over alcohol, often going so far as to retain state monopolies on alcohol sales. States are already allowed to prevent the shipment of wine, beer or liquor to private individuals within their state, as long as the same is true for in-state producers. Scare-mongering about minors buying alcohol over the internet is entirely overblown as the law already requires that the shipper check ID before handing over the package.

The bill is entirely about protecting the middleman position of wholesalers at the expense of individual consumers, restricting the availability of products that otherwise can't be obtained within the state. Passage of the law would allow states to act in a protectionist manner, privileging in-state producers at the expense of everyone else. For all their talk of free market principles, the politicians supporting this bill are blatantly selling out. No party comes out looking good from this as the sponsors are pretty evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. Please look at the post on Doug's Pegu Club blog and see if any of your state representatives are currently listed as sponsors of the bill. I'm glad to say that no Oregon or Washington Reps. have signed on, but there are plenty of states where almost every Rep. is a sponsor. If one of your Reps. is listed as a sponsor, please contact them to protest a bill that does nothing for consumers and seeks only to protect vested interests.

Rhum Agricole Reviews, Pt. I

2010-10-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned not too long ago, a love of rhum agricole has been kindled in me fairly recently. While it was a shunned category for some time, I'm now diving in head first. While the flavors that tend to be found in rhums aren't quite what most people expect from rum, they can be quite incredible in their own right. For those who are new to rhum, I'll lay out a quick primer. The main feature of agricole rhums that makes them distinct from other rums is that they're made from fresh cane juice.

While there are other rhums made from fresh sugar cane juice, notably Haiti's Rhum Barbancourt and a handful of others, rhums made on the island of Martinique lay claim to the name "rhum agricole", as any rhum claiming that name theoretically has to follow the rules laid down by the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC). With that said, rhum agricole can also be used to describe cane juice rums in general, so that really only matters when it comes to packaging. In addition to being made from fresh cane juice, AOC rhum agricole also has to be distilled to ~70% alcohol, which is then cut down to 40-50% alcohol after aging. Being made from fresh cane, agricole rhums tend to have very strong vegetal flavors, often described as grassy, which can be disconcerting to drinkers who don't expect them. However, in certain circumstances, they can also be very tasty.

Clément V.S.O.P.

Produced by Rhum Clément, the VSOP borrows a term from the cognac industry, Very Special Old Pale. After fermentation and distillation, this rhum is aged in French oak for a year and then transferred to re-charred ex-bourbon barrels for another three years. Even though it's a relatively young rum, VSOP has a lot going on and is much smoother than its age would indicate. Amber honey-colored, the smells are primarily cane, a touch of brown sugar and some alcohol. The taste carries through with the same flavors as the nose, adding a bit of brandy and a bit of pepper followed by a very mild alcohol burn. While those qualities are all well and good, I'm ultimately more concerned with how it works in a cocktail. And there is no finer cocktail to showcase rhum agricole than the Donga Punch:

1.5 oz aged rhum agricole
1 oz grapefruit juice
0.75 oz lime juice
0.5 oz cinnamon syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This is, in my opinion, one of the truly perfect drinks. One of Don the Beachcomber's early creations, though less well-known than others like the Zombie, it does exactly what Donn was so good at: blending ingredients around rums to highlight those rums' best qualities. The lime juice provides a pleasant amount of tartness, while the grapefruit juice slightly smoothes that out. The cinnamon syrup syncs up perfectly with the Clément, providing a coherent, delicious whole. While incredibly simple to make, it's an unmatched experience that I doubt I will ever tire of.

Barbancourt Five Star

As I noted at the beginning of this post, there's a certain amount of debate over whether or not cane juice rhums made outside of Martinique can be properly called rhum agricole, but given that the AOC designation only started in 1996 and doesn't even cover the other French islands, that seems more than a little bit silly. Made almost entirely by hand on the estate of La Société du Rhum Barbancourt, their Five Star rhum is produced from fresh squeezed cane juice which is then fermented for 72 hours, distilled to ~90% alcohol, aged at ~50% in oak for eight years and finally diluted to 43% for bottling. Somewhat surprising for its age, this is a fairly light colored rhum, somewhere between straw and pale gold. Oak in the smell and taste are more apparent, without completely dominating the spirit. The alcohol is apparent, but not overwhelming. The taste is very clean and somewhat light, likely due to being column distilled to a higher proof than AOC rhums, which removes more of the congeners. The spirit smells of cane, fruit, a touch of brown sugar or molasses and oak. The taste recapitulates the smells, but they seem fairly high and without a lot of depth. That's not exactly a knock against Barbancourt, as it's an excellent product and an incredible value (it costs about half what a lot of other rhum agricole does), but I do wonder what it would be like if they distilled to a lower proof. They've been doing this for hundreds of years and know a lot more than I do, but I'd be interested to try the result if they did it. Everything is there, but without some of the roundness and depth that I tend to enjoy. However, I do have to say that Barbancourt Five Star works excellently in a Three Dots and a Dash:

0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
1.5 oz rhum agricole (Barbancourt Five Star)
0.5 oz Demerara rum (El Dorado 5 Year)
0.25 oz falernum
0.25 oz allspice dram
Dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This is a really great drink. There's a lot going on, as there are multiple layers of spice and several kinds of citrus, but they all come together really well. The Barbancourt rides along the top, providing some great smells and a clean base for the other ingredients. The ED5 plays really well with the fruit and spices. Definitely one of the classics.

One of the best things about rum is the breadth of products made from very simple ingredients. These are two of the best examples of what fresh cane juice rhum can be without breaking the bank. The Clément is an incredibly good choice, but it's also definitely a bit spendier than the Barbancourt. Either way, you really can't go wrong with either introduction to rhum agricole. It's a category that can take some getting used to, but can also be very rewarding.

Drinking in PDX

2010-10-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up to my piece about good places to drink in NYC, I thought I'd bring things a bit closer to home.

Portland, while far from the biggest city on earth, has a lot going for it in terms of being able to get a good drink. The OLCC may be a pain in the rear, but we more than make up for it with lot of local producers of beer, wine and spirits, coupled with a burgeoning mixological movement. Since they're usually the drinks I'm willing to go out of my way to get, this is however going to be a bit tiki-heavy.

Thatch Tiki Bar

Thatch is a fairly recent addition to the Portland bar scene and provides some competition for Portland's other tiki bar, The Alibi. Thatch does have a fair amount of history to it, as much of its decor was rescued from Jasmine Tree, a former Portland tiki staple, which had obtained its decor from the former Kon-Tiki of Portland. Tiki never dies, it just gets passed down the generations. So the atmosphere of the bar is absolutely perfect, from the little bridge over a water feature that you cross when entering the bar to the pufferfish lanterns to the (in)famous Marquesan Baby Eaters. However, what really matters are the drinks. I first went to Thatch for my birthday earlier this year and make the mistake/entirely correct choice to get a 1934 Zombie. It's not a drink for the faint-hearted, as the total alcohol content is equivalent to about 6 oz of 80-proof spirit or roughly four regular drinks. They're usually listed as a "limit two per customer" drink and one was more than enough for me. Both my roommate and I ended up sitting around the bar for another couple of hours just downing water in an effort to sober up so we could get ourselves home. During our next visit, we were able to get there for happy hour, so the $5 mai-tais were more or less mandatory. Mine was totally decent, though I'm a bit happier with some of the ones I've made at home. The Nui-nui I had was also totally decent, though it was a little weak in the rum department, mostly tasting like orange juice and cinnamon. Tasty enough, but since I tend to like rum-forward drinks, this one felt lacking. With that said, my own attempts at the Nui-nui have left something to be desired, so I can't really fault them. I seems like a tricky drink to get right, even though all of the ingredients seem dead on. Some day...

But to wrap things up, Thatch is definitely a place to visit, even if you've never had a tiki drink or have been unfortunate enough to only be exposed to low quality versions so far. They have an excellent selection of rum and other spirits and seem to take a lot of pride in making solid drinks.

Teardrop Lounge

While the Teardrop has a reputation for making solid cocktails all the time, it was the siren song of tiki drinks that drew me in. Due to a relationship with Trader Tiki, the Teardrop has tiki nights from time to time.

My first drink, as pictured to the right, was the Lift-Off! In case it wasn't clear, about thirty seconds before I took that picture the spent lime shell was full of flaming 151-proof rum, which made for a pretty excellent show. The drink itself was a little bit less exciting, with the rum fading into the background more than I would have liked. Still tasty, but it didn't knock my socks off. Thankfully the night was more than saved when I took a bit of a risk and ordered a Donga Punch. I say that it was a risk, not because I didn't trust the bartender, but because I'd had less than wonderful experiences with rhum agricole before. I had previously bought a bottle of St. James Royale Ambre for making mai-tais. However, it proved to be a less than stellar choice as it has an incredibly strong, incredibly funky and generally off-putting flavor. Further experimentation showed that it could be useful, but only in small doses and balanced by other rums. However, the Donga Punch is a one-rum drink, so I wasn't sure exactly what I was in for. But as I've already noted, it turned out beautifully. The sourness of the lime and grapefruit was perfectly balanced with subtle funkiness from the rhum and the spice of the cinnamon syrup. I was absolutely entranced and took a quick peek behind the bar before I left to find out what kind of rhum had gone into making the Punch. While it took a bit of tracking down, the ever-useful Pearl Speciality Spirits came to my rescue so I could pick up a bottle of Rhum J.M. Gold. Ever since I've been happy whipping up Donga Punches, which are now hands down my favorite drink.

While there are many other Portland drinking institutions that I need to sample and write about, these two are a solid start for anyone looking for a tasty libation in town.

Local Flavor, Pt. II: House Spirits

2010-10-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Up next in the series, I'd like to return to the topic that featured prominently in my very first post, House Spirits.

From House Spirits

My introduction to their products goes even further back. Back around 2005 I discovered that gin was in fact rather tasty. While poking around the local liquor store, intent on getting a bottle of Bombay Sapphire, I noticed another bottle of gin on the shelf that said it was made in Portland. Since I tend to like buying local products and it didn't cost a whole lot more, I took a risk and got a bottle. That turned out to be a very good choice as Aviation suited my tastes even better than the Sapphire. To explain some of the differences, I'll have to go a bit into the history of gin. These days, people tend to associate gin almost exclusively with the London Dry style (Tanqueray, Beefeater, etc.), but that's only a fraction of what was and lately has lately become available.

From Haus Alpenz

The diagram above shows the relationships between different styles of gin and their general characteristics. Bombay is firmly in the London Dry style, which means that it has a very sharp and juniper-heavy flavor profile, due to the fact that the botanicals are extracted by placing them in baskets within the still so that the hot alcohol vapor passes through them and carries some of the flavor along. In contrast, a gin like Aviation, which is modeled after Dutch genever, is produced by soaking the botanicals in neutral grain spirits and then distilling the resulting 'tea'. This results in a much rounder flavor profile. Aviation is also less dominated by juniper and has a lot of citrus flavor. Overall it still has some of that distinct gin bite, but it's less astringent than a juniper-forward gin. Which is all to say that it's rather tasty to me.

Bring us back to the topic at hand, while my tastes have shifted away from gin since then, I've still been watching House Spirits closely as their product line has grown a lot since I first discovered them. Though they started off doing exclusively unaged, white spirits (vodka, gin and aquavit), they are now producing a much wider variety of spirts, ranging from whiskey (both aged and unaged) to shochu (distilled sake) to rum (unfortunately not very tasty, from my perspective) and more. In addition, their on site store has expanded dramatically in the last few months to include all sorts of cocktail equipment, ingredients and books. House Spirits is a wonderful local icon and I look forward to seeing and sampling the new spirits that they're going to be putting out over the coming years.

MxMo: Lime

2010-09-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Though I've noticed posts on the subject on some of my favorite cocktail blogs from time to time, when I noticed that the most recent Mixology Monday theme was limes, as picked by Doug over at the Pegu Blog, I knew it was time to toss my metaphorical hat into the ring. Lime has always been my favorite complimentary flavor for drinks. It's an obvious companion for everything from rum to tequila to gin. It's safe to say that ~75% of the drinks I make have lime in them either directly, in the form of lime juice, or indirectly, in the form of falernum or some other infusion. With that said, this also makes picking a particular drink that much harder. However, there's one drink that I've been meaning to share that fits the bill rather well:

Caroní Rum Sling
1.25 oz Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva (or other dark rum)
0.25 oz chocolate spiced rum
0.25 oz Cherry Heering
0.75 oz lime juice
0.25 - 0.5 oz simple syrup (to taste)

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

If I remember correctly this was one inspired by Eleven Park Madison, though their cocktail menu has changed since I lasted looked at it, so I can't be more precise than that. Further back, it's also an elaboration on the Olympia. Either way, it's a delightfully rich and spicy drink. The base rum needs a lot of depth to balance out the fairly strong flavors of the spiced rum and the Heering, which is why something like the Diplomatico works so well. And last but not least, the lime juice provides a delightful tartness and keeps the drink from becoming cloyingly sweet.

Local Flavor, Pt. I: Clear Creek Distillery

2010-09-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, Portland has been at the forefront of the craft distilling movement. They tend to take cues from the craft brewing movement of the last few decades, emphasizing quality and sourcing local ingredients.

One of the oldest craft distilleries in Oregon, perhaps in the country, is Clear Creek Distillery. A few years back I was fortunate enough to take a tour of their facilities in NW Portland. Back in their cavernous warehouse space are a row of gleaming copper stills, surrounded by their fermenting tanks, bottling lines and other sundry items. Further back is a room devoted to their aging spirits, which literally has a heady atmosphere from the "angel's share" of evaporating alcohol.

I recently purchased a bottle of Clear Creek's 2 year-old apple brandy. The work and dedication to quality that Clear Creek is known for are abundantly clear. The brandy smells exactly like where is came from, dry hard apple cider made from high-quality local ingredients. The alcohol smell is surprisingly subdued for something that was only aged two years, but it's young age also means that the apple flavor hasn't been lost amid oak.

The obvious choice for a cocktail was the Sidecar:

1.5 oz apple brandy
0.25 oz orange-tangerine-kumquat liqueur
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.4 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

The apple brandy played exceptionally well with the sweetness of the liqueur and was nicely balanced by the tartness of the lemon juice. The liqueur also has just enough spice flavor to fit with the impending change in season. This is definitely a drink I'd like to have again when the weather cools down.

This should be the first in a series of posts I'm planning to write about local distilleries in Portland and the greater NW. It's a growing industry around here and a great time to be interested in spirits.

Drinking in NYC

2010-08-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a visit to NYC where I visited my brother and attended a friend's wedding in the Boston area. Good times were had, especially on the drinking front.

The first night I was in New York, I went out with my brother, his girlfriend and one of her friends. It was happy hour at the Boxcar Lounge, which means two-for-one drinks. I noticed a bottle of Hendrick's gin on the shelf. As it's something I had wanted to try for a while, I ordered a G&T. Turned out to be incredibly tasty. The drink was almost perfectly balanced, with the cucumber notes pleasantly highlighting the other elements. I got another one for my second drink and ended up spending $15 including tips. The space is fairly narrow, though there is also a small patio behind the main part of the bar. While it was a nice place to sit and chat, I can imagine that it would get crowded fairly quickly on a busier night. If you're in the East Village during happy hour, I highly recommend this bar.

Another fine establishment that I visited, this time a little closer to my temporary home base in Greenpoint, was The Richardson. This bar is set up Prohibition-style, going so far as to have all the bartenders properly attired. Thankfully secret passwords aren't needed to get in. They made me some rather solid daiquiris, which let me try a couple of new rums. The Mt. Gay XO in particular was good enough that I bought a bottle the day after getting back to Portland. The service was excellent and the prices were perfectly reasonable, by NYC standards. Another place that I would highly recommend if you happen to be in the Williamsburg area and fancy a drink.

Having heard of the place some time ago, I was really looking forward to drinking at Painkiller. The place has a really solid reputation, despite the fact that it's a pretty new bar. And hey, tiki drinks! I ended up going by myself, but it was still a nice place to sit and read while I filled up on rum. I took a chance and ordered the swizzle flight. Only one of the three really tickled my fancy, but some of that may have been due to the swizzling, which can dilute the drinks a bit more than necessary. Following that, I settled in to a very tasty Jet Pilot. To make it work even better, this one was served with an ice cone rather than being blended, so it stayed very cold without much dilution. At that point I'd had rather a healthy amount of rum, so it was a good thing that I was getting home by subway. With all that said, I did have a few quibbles with the place. The biggest is that the prices for drinks aren't terribly obvious. There's a little chalkboard sign by the bar, but it's pretty easy to overlook. Secondly, the menu doesn't really list the drinks. The bartender and waitress are more than happy to explain things, but it doesn't seem like an efficient system. I was pretty O.K., but only because I could look at the more comprehensive list of drink recipes on their website. Still, it's a place that I'd probably go back to. Though I'd probably call it good after one drink. Instead of four.

The last place I drank at in NYC was the Roneria Caracas. This is a rum bar that's part of an arepa place. The focus is definitely on the rum and there's an extensive list of rums to sample. The decor was interesting, evoking a place that had been hastily thrown together from found materials, but everything was comfortable and well put-together. The daiquiri I had with El Dorado's 5 year-old rum was interesting (enough that I'm looking to get a bottle for myself), though it was a bit tricky to tell exactly which flavors were due to the rum and which were due to the sugar cane syrup that the bar used in place of simple syrup. Either way, it was tasty and not overly hard on the pocketbook. I didn't sample any of the other drinks, but the menu looked interesting and tasty. Additionally, the arepa I had was also tasty, so this is a good spot, whether you're hungry or looking for a drink.

All said and done, I had a pretty good time drinking in NYC. The prices were a little rich for my blood, but that seems to just be a matter of the different cost of living in the city. But I was on vacation, so whatever. If any of you are ever in the city, give any or all of these spots a try. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Heading South

2010-06-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

As the weather has warmed up, it seems like a good time to return to my old friend tequila. While I began, as so many do, with the lackluster José Cuervo, I saw the light last year and picked up a rather tasty bottle of Corralejo Reposado that's seen some good use since then. It has a fairly strong flavor that needs to be balanced by the other ingredients in a cocktail, but used properly it'll make for some really tasty drinks.

In an effort to get some new inspiration for drinks, I've been poking around the menus of various bars to see what's been made these days. The Eclipse from Eleven Madison Park struck me as a rather good looking combination of flavors, so I decided to tweak it a bit using the ingredients I have on hand.

Equinox Eclipse
1.5 oz reposado tequila
0.25 oz Cherry Heering
0.25 oz Punt et Mes
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

I'm really pleased with how this drink turned out. The somewhat acerbic nature of the tequila played off of the sweetness of the the Heering, the bitterness of the vermouth and the acid of the lemon juice. The wine from the Punt et Mes intruded a bit more than I would have liked it too, but I'm not sure it was totally out of place with the cherry flavor. It also had a really nice orange and magenta color that reminded me of a sunset. Or maybe the corona of an eclipse (surprise, surprise). Overall a nicely balanced cocktail that I'd make again and be happy to serve to others.

Recipe Roundup

2010-06-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since I last posted, so I thought I'd just throw up a list of the drinks I've made over the last couple of weeks. The instructions for each recipe should be the same: combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Guyanese Squirrel
1.5 oz ED15 Demerara rum
0.75 oz amaretto
0.5 oz Meyer lemon juice
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.3 oz demerara syrup

After futzing around with the Scottish Squirrel, I thought the smoky flavor of Demerara rum might also work with this formula. Thankfully, it did!

Queequeg's Harpoon (Hip-Hop remix) - modified from Dr. Bamboo's recipe
1 oz ED15 Demerara rum
1 oz ED3 Demerara rum
1 oz homemade chocolate spiced rum #1
0.75 oz lime juice
0.75 oz Queequeg's Blood
0.5 oz simple syrup

Recipes have be modified from their creator's originals pretty frequently. Though I have a pretty decent rum collection at this point, I'm a long way away from people like RumDood, so substitutions have to be made.

Caribbean Clouds
1 oz Jamaican rum
0.5 oz ED15 Demerara rum
0.25 oz Allspice Dram
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz Demerara syrup
0.25 oz orgeat

This was an off the cuff drink, but it turns out to be a hop, skip and a jump away from Beachbum Berry's Ancient Mariner. The drink can also work out well by swapping out the lime juice for 0.75 oz of lemon juice, the Demerara syrup for simple syrup and eliminating the orgeat.

Tidal Wave (a modification of the Golden Wave from Beachbum Berry Remixed)
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
0.3 oz orange-tangerine-kumquat liqueur
0.25 oz falernum
0.5 oz ED3 Demerara rum
0.5 oz Appleton V/X

This one was an experiment to see if I could sub in grapefruit juice for pineapple juice in tiki drinks. Between the drop in juice content (0.5 oz grapefruit vs. 1 oz pineapple) and the higher proofs of the orange liqueur and falernum I have, this ended up being a punchier drink than the original, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, so the experiments will definitely continue.

The Caldera
0.5 oz Appleton V/X
0.5 oz homemade chocolate spiced rum #2
0.5 oz Clement Creole Shrubb
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz simple syrup

I just filtered a new batch of spiced rum and it turned out to be a lot spicier than the first batch. Not a bad thing at all, but it made for a cocktail with a distinctly lingering taste. Imagine this being made with New Deal's Hot Monkey and Mud Puddle vodkas with a rum base and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep a more regular update schedule in the near future, but for now it's time to buckle down and get ready for finals.

The Joy of Cocktail Chemistry

2010-05-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

As someone who loves chemistry and cooking, making my own ingredients was a natural step once I became more interested in cocktails. Basic elements like simple and ginger syrups were early first steps. Then came lemon, cranberry and grapefruit tinctures, followed quickly by orange-kumquat liqueur. Some of the recipes ended up being tweaked, such as using cachaça due to a lack of brandy and subbing some tangerine peel for orange peel in the orange-kumquat liqueur, Waiting while these various concoctions steeped on my hallway shelf was almost excruciating:

While I haven't always been thrilled by the results (limoncello was a bit less exciting than I hoped it would be), I've so far continued to make or start a new item every couple of weeks or so. The list so far includes:

•Chocolate bitters
•Falernum
•Cold process grenadine
•Hot process hibiscus grenadine
•Orgeat (almond milk)
•Spiced rum
•Home-aged rum

I'll probably do posts on these various ingredients some time in the future, as they each deserve their own story.

Saturday Night Cocktail Challenge

2010-05-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I hosted a "Bring Your Own Ingredient" cocktail party. The idea was that everyone would bring something unique that I would then try to integrate into a cocktail without drowning it out. A lot of what got lobbed at me had a pretty strong flavor, ranging from the peaty smokiness of single malt whiskey to peppermint schnapps. With one exception, I managed to roll with the punches. When asked to make a savory cocktail, I stumbled. Savory tequila, aquavit, rye vodka, olive brine and old-fashioned bitters somehow canceled each other out, resulting in a mostly-tasteless but generally off-putting drink. But it was a learning experience. Here are the ingredients I had more luck with and the resulting cocktails:

Scottish Squirrel (from Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology)
1.5 oz McCarthy's Single Malt Whiskey
0.75 oz amaretto
0.75 oz lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

While this drink had potential, the smokey flavors were still too dominant and the drink was rather dry. Adding honey syrup helped a bit, so I think the drink could be turned into something rather tasty with a bit more work.

Rhub Rum
1.5 oz El Dorado 3 year rum
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.3 oz simple syrup
0.25 oz rhubarb liqueur

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

I was much more pleased with this one. The ED3 has something of a savory character, which played well with the rhubarb liqueur. The grapefruit juice also kept the sourness of the lime from dominating. Another one that I can see making again.

Nth Degree
1.25 oz Aviation gin
0.25 oz Krogstad aquavit
0.3 oz honey syrup
barspoon lemon tincture
barspoon cranberry tincture

Stir with ice for 30 seconds then strain into a chilled glass.

Due this drink being almost pure alcohol (the tinctures are ~190 proof), I chose to stir this one a bit longer than normal. The results were fairly good and it had a wonderful opalescent pink hue. Not exactly my cup of tea, but others enjoyed it and the aquavit managed to play a role without taking over the drink. The tinctures also added both color and smell without being too assertive.

Christmas in St. Croix
1 oz Cruzan ESB
0.5 oz amaretto
0.25 oz peppermint schnapps
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.25 oz lime juice
0.5 oz honey syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This one is in a similar mold to the first cocktail, though I was aiming for a way to utilize the spiciness of the Cruzan and schnapps with the nutty flavor of the amaretto rather than savory bitterness. Almost everyone agreed that it reminded them of Christmas. Perhaps a good one for celebrating the holidays in warmer climes.

I also whipped up a margarita and a Fernandito Cocktail with mango puree that ended going down well. For some reason the mango seemed to be introducing grassy notes to those drinks, but that fit well with both.

Last but not least, I finally got to try out my mai-tai variation:

Spai-Tai
1 oz Jamaican rum
1 oz chocolate spiced rum
0.5 oz amaretto
1 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orgeat
0.5 oz honey syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

This worked out just as well as I hoped it would. The chocolate and spice flavors from the rum work perfectly with the nut flavor of the amaretto while the honey syrup and orgeat smooth everything out. Another drink that I'll be making again.

Overall, it was a good night for me. I was a bit exhausted by the end, but it felt really good to be able to come up with new drinks on the fly. There's always more to learn, but it means that I have a decent grasp on how different flavors will work with each other and can combine them in a pleasing fashion. Just to really cap everything off, I had incredibly gracious guests who left me with a lot of the new liquor I had been using over the course of the night. I'm now ahead a bottle Single Malt Whiskey, a bottle of Krogstad aquavit, a bit of rhubarb liqueur, some Don Eduardo tequila and some homemade tonic syrup. I'm looking forward to making new drinks with all of these ingredients and hopefully sharing some of them with friends as well.

Especially with summer coming, I foresee many more cocktail parties in my future.

Running on Rum

2010-05-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

Time to turn to the spirit that currently occupies much of my attention: rum

I will admit to having a bit of an ulterior motive here. Over at one of my favorite drinks blogs, RumDood is having a contest to write about our favorite rum experiences. And I can't do better than to describe my entry into the world of rum.

I arrived here by something of a circuitous route. For many years I avoided rum after a less than thrilling experience at a rum tasting class held at my alma mater. While I don't remember exactly what was served, I'm pretty sure they were decent aged rums. But straight spirits have almost never done much for me and the unfamiliar flavors left me swearing off rum entirely.

However, after discovering a love for cachaça, I found myself willing to give rum another chance. While there are distinct differences between cachaça and rum, they both come from sugarcane bases. To help the process along, I serendipitously read about a new-ish rum on the market, Oronoco, which is produced primarily from fresh sugarcane, much like cachaça. To put a twist on that basic formula, it is also blended with a touch of aged Venezuelan rum. This sounded like an excellent compromise. After picking up a bottle, I found that it has hints of the vegetal notes usually found in cachaça, but they are subdued by the aged rum. There are also very strong vanilla presence and a fair bit of molasses sweetness as well. While vanilla is a fairly common flavor element in rums, I find that Oronoco reminds me strongly of baked goods. This is in contrast to other rums such as El Dorado's 3-year aged white rum, which has a much more savory vanilla character. So while Oronoco can make for a mean daiquiri, these days I find that I prefer to place it in a supporting rather than a leading role as the vanilla can become a bit overwhelming.

Now that I had come around to the idea of rum a bit, I plunged all the way in and went for an aged rum. Again, primarily on the basis of good reviews, I decided to buy a bottle of Cruzan Estate Single Barrel rum. This really is a different beast. The ESB is a blend of rums aged from 4 to 12 years (the single barrel nomenclature refers to a large mixing vat in which the blend is married for another year or so) and has fairly strong oak notes. So much that when I got my roommate to try some her first response was that it smelled like whiskey. While my first impression was of an overwhelming woody smell, revisiting the ESB has revealed that the oak comes along with a gob of spices and a hint of alcohol and vanilla. The taste is much spicier, overwhelming some of the more delicate flavors in the nose. The more aggressive wood and spice flavors took some work to properly enjoy, but under the right circumstances it can really hit the spot.

Well used and well loved.

Both of these rums were great introductions to the rum world. The Oronoco is excellent for anyone scared by funkier rums and the ESB should hit the spot for whiskey drinkers. In honor of the first three varieties of rum that I genuinely enjoyed, here is a drink that joins them together into a glorious whole:

RUMGBIV
0.5 oz Cruzan ESB
0.5 oz Oronoco
0.5 oz Boca Loca cachaça
1/3 lemon, cut into wedges
1/3 lime, cut into wedges
0.5 oz simple syrup
Several slices of ginger
2-3 dashes grapefruit bitters

Muddle ginger, lemon and lime pieces with simple syrup. Add rums and bitters, shake with ice and double strain into a chilled glass.

The sourness of the lemon and lime, the bite of the ginger and the flavors of the various rums all play well with each other. The ESB works with the Oronoco, reinforcing the aged rum element. The Oronoco and cachaça bring out each others grassier notes, with all three bringing sugarcane and molasses along. Quite an enjoyable little drink.

Next time, the adventures of making my own cocktail ingredients.

Friday Night Frights

2010-05-21T23:25:00.000-07:00

It's a cold, rainy Friday night, which means that it's an excellent time to stay home and try new cocktails. First up, a small tweak on the Bacardi Cocktail:

J. Wray Cocktail
0.6 oz Appleton V/X
0.5 oz J. Wray & Nephew Overproof
0.75 oz lime juice
0.5 oz hibiscus grenadine

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Since the first time I cracked the bottle, I've been a little bit terrified of the J. Wray. While I've read paeans to it's incredible versatility, even once diluted into a cocktail, there's something about it that smells off to me. The taste is just fine, even kind of interesting, but there's something tickling my nose unpleasantly that I can't quite put a name to. Some days I think it's a bit like off dairy products (how's that for an appealing description), but other times I think it might just be the liquorice and grass notes that other people have found. Either way, I'm now determined to forge ahead and find ways to integrate this unique rum into cocktails. I will not be deterred!

On a more pleasant note, I was flipping through Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology looking for rum drinks when I stumbled upon the Fernandito Cocktail. It calls for a healthy slug of spiced rum and seeing as I filtered a batch of homemade chocolate spiced rum earlier this week (I'll post a recipe for this spiced rum soon), it seemed like a good one to try. While I didn't want to use the full 2 oz. the recipe calls for, a little bit of substitution and a drop in the amount of liqueur resulted in a rather pleasing drink.

Fernandito Cocktail (Modified)
1 oz. Appleton V/X
0.5 oz El Dorado 3 year
0.5 oz chocolate spiced rum
0.25 oz blackberry liqueur
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

While I think I shook this cocktail a bit too long, resulting in a too-dilute drink, the overall flavor was still pretty good. The chocolate and spices from the spiced rum played well with the vanilla of the ED3 and berry sweetness of the liqueur with the V/X providing a nice base for it all. Once I've made more spiced rum, I might try this with a 1:1 ratio between the V/X and spiced rums, but this less potent mixture was still a pleasure. Definitely a drink that I will be making again.

Cachaça Time

2010-05-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

One of my first real adventures in spirits last year involved the discovery of cachaça. For those of you who haven't heard of cachaça before, it's a sugarcane-based liquor made in Brazil. In contrast to rum (with the exception of rhum agricole, but that's another matter), which is made from molasses, cachaça is made from fresh sugarcane juice that is then fermented and distilled. There are also Brazilian laws regulating factors such as the ABV that cachaça is distilled at and bottled. These factors all contribute to the unique flavor profile of cachaça.

I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon the first article I read about cachaça, but for some reason I was instantly intrigued. After a bit of searching, I ended up a Cachaçagora, a blog dedicated to all things cachaça. My interest stoked, I end up getting a bottle of Boca Loca cachaça for a little over $20. Not half bad for what amounted to an impulse purchase.

The place to start with cachaça is the caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil*. While it took a few false starts to perfect the technique (the trick is to cut off the ends of the lime and the central pith), my first proper caipirinha was nothing short of an epiphany. My first thought was "I want to sit on the beach and drink these forever". The sugarcane and vegetal notes of the cachaça are balanced by the sour flavor of the lime and smoothed by the sugar. Sadly I had to get up early the next morning, so moderation was exercised, but they are one of the truly perfect drinks that I've ever enjoyed.

More importantly, cachaça eventually became my entrance to the world of rum...

In the meantime, here's a caipirinha variation I made last night. It needs a little tweaking, but I was rather pleased with the results given that I had semi-randomly thrown things together.

Sagatiba Sunset

2 oz. Sagatiba Velha cachaça

1/2 lime, cut into wedges

~6 cranberries

5 mL Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters

0.5 oz simple syrup

Muddle lime wedges and cranberries with simple syrup. Add cachaça and bitters, shake with ice and double strain into a chilled glass.

*The Brazilian government has gone so far as to codify the recipe for the caipirinha into law.

Welcome!

2010-05-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

My interest in cocktails has been growing over the last year or so and it seemed like a good time to start sharing some of what I've been learning.

While I've enjoyed a good cocktail for some years, it's only been in the last year or so that I've delved very deeply into the bourgeoning cocktail culture. I should first thank the wonderful people at House Spirits for this renewed interest. My local alumni association was kind enough to schedule a tour of local distilleries last September and our first stop was at House Distilleries. After the usual tour of their facilities and the tasting room, we sat down to try cocktails made with their main spirits. Christian Krogstad, one of the founders, was mixing the drinks and did a fantastic job of explaining how each of the spirits worked with the other (often fresh) ingredients. It was a revelation, as I'd previously only thrown together rather hack-job cocktails before. I left with my mind buzzing (in more ways than one) and was almost instantly hooked.

As I have long held a strong affection for House Spirit's Aviation Gin, that quickly became the focus of my cocktail experimentation. Many of the experiments had their basis in the Bee's Knees and the Bridgeport Bramble from Jeffery Morganthaler's blog, another source of inspiration. Many of the variations included homemade ginger syrup, which can often add a delightful kick to these cocktails.

Soon my interests turned to other spirits, but that's a story for another time.