Mixology Monday, March 2015: Call Me Old Fashioned!

Welcome back to another round of the greatest cocktail party on the planet, Mixology Monday!!! *KtF Flail-Yaaaayyyyy* Life never ceases in its frustrations, but that's ok - nights like this are made for getting one's drink-fu on.

The no-nonsense and très skillful Laura of Sass & Gin (the more sass the better, is my feeling) hits us with as true a cocktail theme as they come: Call Me Old Fashioned!

The Old Fashioned is the original "cock tail," dating to the early 1800's. In this humble bartender's opinion, it is the pater familias of all other drinks, and it has taken its place as such in the recent cocktail revival. We have seen many variations of the Old Fashioned (i.e. Mayahuel's Oaxaca Old Fashioned, PDT's Benton's Old Fashioned) and the resurgence of similar cocktails (i.e. the Sazerac). The bitter's market has exploded over the last decade, with more flavor profiles than ever before, and with a more health-conscious public, your local grocery store is likely to carry a selection of sugars to play with (agave, coconut sugar, turbinado, etc).

So, here's the challenge: We will be sticking to the traditional ratios of spirit, bitters and sugar, but I'm challenging you to step outside the box with your selections. In addition, how will it be chilled or garnished? Do you want to add a secondary spirit or rinse? Go to town!

When active, click this link to see a bunch of old folks nursing rocks glasses out on the porch. (myself included)


This month's theme shocked me in a way: apparently I haven't done an official Old Fashioned recipe in ages (though I've done sub-impromptu OFs with whatever is on hand from time to time). I learned towards them in some of my earliest recipes, then had a quick spate of them about this time of year, 2013 -- all of which hold up during an otherwise mostly-miss period. Then nothing. Time to rectify that.

I had a fancy to maybe riff on Brian Miller's (of Death & Co.) 4-spirited The Conference, perhaps with white spirits, but I think that needs more time for refinement. There's also the spark of a Cinnamon Toast Old Fashioned with some tasty butter-washing - but that also takes time.

Nope. There's something about the Old Fashioned that is deeply hospitable while being distinctly à la minute: grab a spirit or two, pick one of the umpteen mini-bottles of syrup in the fridge and then a bitters or two from ye olde shoeboxe. Stir stir stir stir. Sploosh goes a hunk o' ice and garnish. So apt for interpreting the mood of a micro-moment.

And, what's capturing my attention tonight is the imminent failure of my laptop's hard drive - yes, I'm typing on said computer, at least until forced to switch to my phone (thank goodness for blog software that continuously saves). But, I started Feu de Vie on Iris and have spent countless hours into the wee morning blogging and reading away, so it only seems fair to end her with an appropriate blog post and toast, on St. Paddy's Day no less.

Iris, named after the Flash's Iris West and for her iridescent white Vaio casing. Sparkling and classy successor to the 6-month-mourned Compaq laptop Pookie. (What? You don't name your computers? Next thing you'll be telling me you don't name your knives, or bookcases..) Here's to you, milady, a parting glass. Thanks for the seven years of writerly freedom and daring, and for the grace to let me capture all my data in the end.


Iris' Requiem
1 oz Irish whiskey (Writer's Tears if you have if, otherwise good ol' Paddy)
1 oz gin (St. George Botanivore)
1/2 tsp sugar
2 dashes Bittercube cherry bark vanilla bitters
rinse Bénédictine
dried sakura blossoms for garnish

Rinse your glass with B.
Set in the freezer to chill.
Sugar. Bitters. Stir.

Spirits join the base mix.
One last coming together.
Ice to chill and weak.

Rock rest in the glass.
Strain over, see clarity.
Sakura perfumes.


Sweet ease from whiskey and sugar, delighting in rich blossoms and vanilla, undertoned in faint earthy herbal spice.

Looking for sakura blossoms? Check your favorite tea shop or dry goods store. Mine are from a sakura black tea blend.

Thanks to Laura for hosting a fine theme -- there's something quite fitting about such a seminal drink theme at the start of spring. Thanks also to Fred for keeping us all going month after month, with some knockout one-two punch themes lately! I can't wait to see what's next!

My Favorite Things: Silver White Winters...that Melt into Spring

Besides, how many of you were still getting snow last week?

So....March's entry in the My Favorite Things project is one day late - and this is no April's Fool. I think it was worth it, though, to get the specs right. Again this month, I'm playing with technique, plus rarely-used tea ingredients and one of my favorite ingredients from my cabinet: rhubarb bitters!

Naturally there's one fitting lyric from My Favorite Things which best fits the month of March: Silver White Winters that Melt into Spring.




The name pretty much says it all: you start with Winter, and involve a component that melts, bringing with it notes of Springtime. Fancy ice is something I've been playing with for about half a year now, and this recipe pulls together elements already developed on various drinks: an ice sphere, filled with alcoholic ingredients, and alcoholic ingredients cut with water-based ingredients and then frozen. One realization that I've come to and implemented well with SWWTMIS is the secret to using flavored ice may be to find flavor combinations and ratios which will work at the outset and then at the tail end, that way the ice melt is one long fade between two controlled points.

But now then, let's dive into the recipe!


Silver White Winters that Melt into Spring, what you'll need
water
dried flower teas (lavender, linden blossom, elder flowers, etc..)
Hendrick's gin
plain vodka
white crème de menthe (for glass rinsing)
rhubarb bitters
edible flower or wild strawberry

Quick note on the spirits: I think Hendrick's especially suits the theme of the recipe, with its downplayed juniper plus rose and mellow cucumber notes. I recommend an eastern European vodka like my personal "house vodka", White Diamond, which is from Latvia. Eastern European vodkas tend to be known for their mineral notes, so it's nice to have something in stock which can bring that element.

Difference between ice shell and frozen filler.

Brew floral tea

Make a pale but fragrant tea from dried flowers. Mix and match varieties, but try to include lavender as an ingredient because it pairs so well with the Hendrick's. I used 1/2 tsp each lavender, linden blossoms*, and elderflower blossoms to 8 oz boiling water. Let steep (preferably in a tea ball or tea strainer) until cool.

*aka lime blossoms, aka tilia flowers.

Mix the filler

For each ice ball, mix 1 1/2 oz Hendrick's gin, 1 1/2 oz cooled floral tea, and 1 dash rhubarb bitters. Store in the refrigerator until ready to fill the ice ball.

Ice ball

In a large ice ball mold, freeze plain water for about two hours or until a quarter to a third inch of ice is formed on the surface. Poke a small hole in the ball to drain the unfrozen water, but leave perhaps a quarter inch of water at the bottom for reinforcement. Place the shell back in the freezer for the reinforcement to freeze up, also adding the container of filler to the freezer -- the colder the filler is, to the point of ice crystals beginning to form, the less likely it will wear away at the ice shell as it's being added.

Why I advocate small fill-holes. Large holes
like this are more difficult to cover over again.

Once the shell is completely frozen and the filler is suitably chilly, it will be safe to fill. Start to fill the sphere by adding the garnish: either an edible and foodsafe spring flower or other small garnish reminiscent of spring (a wild strawberry maybe?). Depending on the garnish you may need to carefully widen/melt-out the hole, but try to avoid making it bigger than necessary: the hole is something you'll need to freeze regular water on top of, lest the flavors of the filler leak out too quickly (and they likely will, because the gin makes it more eager to melt than the plain water shell).

Once the garnish is in, go ahead and add the filler - a small/thin funnel may be useful here. Be mindful of what you touch -- the heat from your skin will enhance melting, and, vice versa, it's easy to get fingersicles fast!

The full 3 oz of the filler should be able to fit inside the sphere. You might want to practice the timing with plain water as a filler until you find the timing for an appropriate ice thickness that works for your freezer -- it'll be worth it for the flavor ratios to work, as well as the cocktail's overall alcohol level. If you've found your sphere has a little extra room after filling (without the filler being spilled on top - a problem for the drink's flavor), just add a little water to top it off.

Once the filler is in, return the ice ball to the freezer in its mold and let it freeze solid, about 4-6 hours (ok, maybe not that long, depending on your appliance, but be generous with the time you allot anyway, since the center has to develop ice crystals in the midst of alcohol).

Once the ice ball appears thoroughly frozen, drip a few drops of water on top of the fill-hole -- as you'll see in the bottom-most image, the ice ball will melt from the fill-hole outwards if not covered. Keep layering drops of water then freezing until the fill-hole is covered over. At this point the sphere is ready to use.

You really don't need me to give you a guide on how to add vodka to the drink, I was just especially pic-happy with this recipe.
Also, pretty.

To serve:

Rinse a chilled double old-fashioned glass with white crème de menthe (discard the remainder). Add your frozen ice ball. Pour one ounce vodka over the ice ball, swirl to start the melting, and sip to savor the emerging flavors.





At first you'll have the minerality of the vodka on your tongue, along with a sparkle of sweet mint. Then, perhaps imperceptibly, you'll find a hint of juniper, and a few moments later, something vaguely floral. The floral taste expands upon itself, sweetening (thanks to the tilia in the mix) with the lavender coming through better, and the wetness of the drink starts to stand out like chilly spring rains. You can tell the center of the ice ball really starts to take over when you taste the rhubarb bitters: spring has sprung! (even if there's still some late snow showers/vodka minerality)

It's not that far off from a Martini (but with more Old Fashioned ratios): you get added herbal and bitter components thanks to the floral tea and bitters, but less sour with slight sweet notes.