Heading South

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

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.