MxMo CXVI: Irish Wake

Life's been what it is, old paths dwindling, new paths glimmering before. One's personal approach to the spirits has undergone some re-evaluation and is beginning to peek through on the other side. But the old camaraderie burns strong and bright yet, and for that you take the time - because being able to slip back into the old groove like no time had passed and the great shake-up that was 2016 never happened is not something that should have been taken for granted.

Today is the last Mixology Monday. Our ringmaster and professional cat-herder Frederic makes the final call, with the theme Irish Wake.

So it is time for the final theme, the Irish wake. The Irish wake is a funeral tradition that is a send-off that begins at the time of death until the body is handed over to the church. It is viewed as a crucial part of the grieving process. My first Irish wake was a little over a year ago when Boston barman Ryan McGrale met his untimely demise. While the wake part with the family was sober, the mourning process with the Boston bartenders and the New York City ones who traveled up was most certainly not. Irish whiskey flowed. I remember getting home and wondering why my key would not work and I considered sleeping in the garage. Turns out, it was the wrong key on my key ring and it took awhile to figure that out. So what better way to celebrate the life and times of Mixology Monday and its 11 year run as the premiere "monthly online cocktail party" than with Irish whiskey.

For this theme, the approach is two fold. You can go traditional and generate or uncover a cocktail recipe calling for Irish whiskey. Alternatively, you can talk about a personal moment either where  Irish whiskey played a role in life or where drinks in general helped the grieving process. Such stories were actually rather cool for MxMo 41 "Vodka is Your Friend," so there is precedent for that, but it's not like we can break Mixology Monday for future events by straying from the rules.

Follow the link here to see the round-up for how everyone else took the time to salute.


It's been my experience that one happens upon certain communities during the course of one's wanderings in life, where your own interests intersect others' in such a way that the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. Usually it's a confluence of an objective topic like a fandom or other source of geekery burning so bright that all the best naturally gravitate like moths to that siren fire call: X-Files on wbs.net back in the day, the Whedonverse or comics on AICN during the 'naughts, cocktails on Twitter during the Great Cocktail Renaissance for the past decade or more.

Feu-de-Vie didn't start up in time to participate during Paul Clarke's tenure, but by the time Fred Yarm took up the reins I was very well clued-in that this was the thing to do. And my was it ever. September 2012 revealed an intense count of young gun cocktail blogs with more yet to rise, and the feel of the cocktail blogosphere in general throve on rapid output from all quarters. The number of vibrant postings in a week would make your head spin. Skip participating in MxMo for the blog hit boosts - the sheer number and quality of outputs, and the sense that you were part of a community keen to the idea that "what before had been unthinkable was now both do-able and transcendable (and delicious!)" - there's no greater oxygen for a creative spirit. Put that between your cheek and gum, dadgummit.

What's more, beyond the privilege of getting to host two monthly events (Fire and Ice, natch) and generally always having my best brought out by the events, I've had the great muse-ly pleasure of inspiring others. Pineapple-squash ferris wheels aside, I'm just glad the combination of Irish whiskey and Tiki proved so appealing to encourage folks to come back to MxMo one last time. Mind, an Irish whiskey Tiki Mardi Gras/NOLA cocktail would be the ne plus ultra for this month, naturellement.

And yet, as the old maxim goes, "those who burn brightest also burn shortest." So many of those young guns faded before too long. Cocktail blogging is a difficult enough endeavor, even if one has a plan to balance recipe development and output with moderation and self-care. And, alas, we (and our livers) all do get older and life does have a way of getting in the way. Take it from someone who's struggling with senses of imminent turning points of late and whose other Piscean pursuits also include astrology - there's literally something in the stars happening right now; we're in a year characterized by Uranus, planet of radical unexpected change. The Cocktail Renaissance moment has passed; it's mellowed and in the process of maturation. There's still plenty of room for new recipes and ideas, but, man, would I love to see everyone's recipes get some re-love and appreciation rather than be lost to the ether. For all the joy and fire shared during the best of times, as MxMo rests I do hope our fellowship continues.

So, a toast is in order for all the Mixology Mondays of the past, and those One True dreams of a distant future when the cocktail renaissance may yet be needed and come again.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for some comfort food.

Cinnamon Toast Old Fashioned

2 1/4 oz butter-washed Irish whiskey (Writer's Tears)

3/4 oz cinnamon syrup

3 dashes bitters (Fee Bros Whiskey-Barrel-Aged OF bitters)

cinnamon stick & cinnamon-sugar toastette for garnish

Stir with light ice and strain over a big rock. Garnish.

The cinnamon syrup is 1:1 syrup following JFL's method.

The infusion uses Don Lee's method for the Cinema Highball (also in the PDT recipe book) - make sure you're using clarified *unsalted* butter (no need for popcorn).


Pretty much exactly in-line flavor-wise. You could probably split hairs with the ratio to suit your taste, but 3 spirit : 1 sweet : 1 dash bitters produces a rich, sweet full mouthfeel that is immistakeable for real cinnamon toast. You might be able to dial down the sweet by subbing some cinnamon tincture or adding a neutral bitters like Abbott's or Boker's, but you also have to keep a tastebud open to what whiskey you're infusing. High-quality Writer's Tears, apart from being a classy way to send off our beloved (please do NOT scold on infusing such a dram - I KNOW I know..), has a distinct full body to it, which only enhances the overall cocktail.

Yes, Writer's Tears is a rich dram. Yes, we're loading it with butter also. Such occasions call for decadence like this.


Much love to all participants and hosts past and present, and especial gratitude to Paul Clarke and Fred Yarm for keeping the torch burning as long as it has. I'm grateful for the luck of sharing such a bright moment with you all, pushing boundaries and sharing in mutual bedazzlement. May your paths run true, and may ours cross yet again in the future, for a drink or two!


And, for the future, keep an eye out. We might just get back into the swing of things enough to get some settled recipes published. [Boomer: Stay tuned...]

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!

Aquamarine

Aquamarine

1 1/2 oz Irish whiskey

3/4 oz bianco vermouth

1/2 oz rhum agricole blanc

1/2 oz green chartreuse

1/4 oz tequila blanco

1 bsp pear eau-de-vie

1 bsp blue curacao

2 dashes rhubarb bitters

2 dashes Bittercube Jamaican #2 bitters

Stir. Strain. No garnish.

For all the March birthdays out there, especially the Pisces. Still, I'm sorry: somehow, it tastes like a more-richly-vegetal-but-clear Shamrock Shake. Yes, I'm telling you you'll taste mint and cream, despite (because of?) the ingredients. And it's both delicious and complex!

For a long while I'd had a draft post with only the title, Aquamarine. Similarly, I've wanted to devise an Irish whiskey/cachaça recipe because the high school percussionist in me adores how Brazilian rosewood marimbas often accent Irish folk music - though that's a recipe better realized at another time. Given how I generally prefer a good rhum agricole blanc to something like Leblon, I figured I give that combo a whirl while pulling in some of my favorite early spring cocktail ingredients (fast become a trend for me): bianco vermouth, pear eau-de-vie and rhubarb bitters (in addition to Irish whiskey and rhum agricole being stars of some Ti(n)sanity posts from this time last year). Plus, some elements simply demanded inclusion, if only because of the name and that St. Paddy's Day draws nigh.

Now, I'm sure you're looking at all the ingredients above and shaking your head, because it is an obnoxious list (which would probably run you close to $200 plus a week's time for potential mail-order if you wanted to collect-bottles-from-scratch). But, I have tasted the recipe if you broke it down to base parts of whiskey, vermouth, rhum, chartreuse and rhubarb bitters - and it's only 66% there. The other small ingredients truly give a proper rounding and depth - the tequila, eau-de-vie and curacao (yes, the curacao has a flavor, it ain't vodka) add extra vegetal and fruity notes with their sweetness taming the heat from both the chartreuse and rhum, while the bitters balance out the added sweetness. And...well, there's more, but it's better developed at the next Ombudsman session.

Suffice it to say, to hell with current attitudes: elegance rocks and generally produces greatness (and the Manhattan is a supreme muse-rich cocktail, despite it being untrendy in some quarters), but a muse has gotta do what a muse has gotta do, whether it's neophyte (or even cognoscenti)-friendly or not.

For those brazen hearts who wish to take up the challenge of this drink, some notes on ingredients:

• Tullamore Dew 12 years - a dry Irish whiskey like this sets the cocktail up for success.
• Martini & Rossi - aggressive vegetality is a plus.
• Neisson - the rough, funky 100pf doesn't get lost.
• Azul - a blanco with vegetal notes is again what's best.
• Schladerer - it's an eau-de-vie we're after, not a brandy or a liqueur. Dry, but so flavor-intense it becomes sweet. Anyone else using an eau-de-vie like this for a rounding accent? I'd be happy to give a shout-out.
• Eyeball the curacao - you know what an aquamarine gem look like, so use that as your final color target.

Sláinte!

Mixology Monday, July 2013: Flip Flop!

Ok, I have no excuse. I've been on vacation to La La Land for awhile now. But there's nothing like the siren song of MxMo to get one's head back in the game.

Our own Fearless Leader, Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut, grabs the reins for this month's edition -- Mixology Monday 75, natch! -- calling us all back from our private Tiki huts on beaches far and wide and presents us with a deceptive little challenge that doesn't take us too far from the beach or boardwalk: Flip Flop!

I thought of the theme for this month's Mixology Monday shortly after making the Black Rene, an obscure drink from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933. The combination of brandy, amber rum, lemon, and Maraschino was tasty, but I felt that the recipe could be improved if I swapped in different ingredients. Taking a page from Max Toste of Deep Ellum who converted the Black Devil into the White Devil, I flipped around the ingredients to be pisco, white rum, lime, and Maraschino instead. With this combination that I called the White Rene, the drink really sang but it was still recognizable as being an alteration of the original recipe. Others have done similar swaps with grand effect including the Bluegrass Mai Tai that that changes the two rums to two whiskeys and swaps lime for lemon from the classic while holding everything else the same.

Find a recipe, either new or old, and switch around at least two of the ingredients to sister or cousin ingredients but holding the proportions and some of the ingredients the same. The new recipe should be recognizable as a morph of the old one when viewed side by side. Want to make an amaro version of a Vieux Carré or a new twist on a Negroni? Go for it!

When active, this link will send you to the summary post of this month's festivities.

This month's theme was deceptive...ly difficult. In a world full of Manhattan, Sidecar and Corpse Reviver riffs -- heck, look at CVS for all that and more -- how do you pick something that hasn't already used those formulas with the ingredients you'd want to use? It took until late tonight to get the recipe down at that, and it was a matter of taking a step back, looking at my own style and going "heeeeey, I did that ketchup Blood and Sand: the more Out-There, the better! (and the less-likely it'll already have been done)". So, dear reader, you're getting a double dose of Strega tonight!

The Accoutrement, by Chris Hannah of Arnaud's French 75 in NOLA was one of the first (*scratches head* maybe only?) recipes I found that put a good use to my bottle of Strega, an Italian herbal liqueur that goes all over the map with juniper, saffron, mint, and anise among other flavors. As you might sense, it's a touch particular in its pairings, but Mr. Hannah seems to have made it his pet project to showcase this unique liqueur.

For MxMo, I tag along, using the same ratios and some of the ingredients of the Accoutrement, but switch the calvados to Irish whiskey and the orange liqueur to citrus-undertoned Crème Yvette.

Accoutrement and Penannular Brooch

Penannular Brooch

2 oz Irish whiskey (Tullamore Dew 12 Year)

3/4 oz lemon juice

3/4 oz Strega

1/2 oz Crème Yvette

2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

lemon twist for garnish

Shake all on ice and double-strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Garnish with a lemon loopy-loop.

The Accoutrement makes an excellent display of the Strega while not hitting you over the head with its aromatics: it's a golden trumpet of saffron first, square upon a mid-level flavor foundation of apple-citrus. The brandied cherries, especially if spiced, help those notes in the Strega emerge all the more. The recipe sings class.

Meanwhile, the Penannular Brooch is reedy with wood-cereal-green apple and the brightness of berry and moody violet: there's a touch of saffron at the center of its taste, but the spices (cinnamon) and green herbs (mint, fennel/anise) come through more, especially on the nose as the cocktail lingers. Dare I say it, but there's a touch more flavor depth to this one tasted side-by-side.

I highly recommend the Tullamore Dew 12 Year for this recipe, as one of its most prominent notes is big green apple - a not-too-distant cousin of calvados. I originally thought gin would work well and would help enunciate all Strega had to offer, but it ended up too muddled and wasn't as strong a base as the original calvados (alas! I was all set to make a Strega - Blue Moon cocktail connection called the Cimaruta, but perhaps someone else can grab that and run with it).


Big thanks to Fred for both hosting and cat herding this month! This was a real doozy of a theme.

I can only imagine what's next on the horizon.. *ducks*

Ti(n)sanity!: Eire Light

Welcome back to Ti(n)sanity's week of March Madness! And what a week it has been. Using our common denominator/Maguffin tisane, Celestial Seasonings' Tension Tamer, we've seen the last of the straight-water tisane infusions, the cooled brew an ingredient in a rhum agricole punch. Beyond that, we've grown the types of applications into a syrup, a straight spirit infusion, and then finally today, a combination syrup/spirit-infusion for when you want a sweet element to pair with the intensity of flavor that alcohol draws out. You might know this combination as simply a liqueur. Said liqueur is a little something special for St. Patrick's Day, the idea in development for nearly a year but made a finished reality just last night.

Imagine, if you will, a dark forest with black-boled trees. And then a small glade lit from above by straw-golden light, growing to engulf the lawn in pale spring green and extending out to the forest floor in sprightly, misty mint blue. You walk through this glade and the trees begin to thin into a grassy dale: the wind sings through the light-air, carrying motes of citrus orange and yellow bouncing like beachballs. Ireland may be an earthy country, verdant amid its browns and grey skies, but the idea of Eire always takes me to this sort of mystic imagery.

This final liqueur recipe came about with a lot more failed testing than you might imagine. Budding cocktailian that I was last year, when it came to St. Patrick's Day drink recipes I had a vision of an Irish flavor variation on a Sazerac, with Irish whiskey, lighter-than-Peychaud's bitters and an appropriate herbal liqueur as a rinse. Naturally, one does some research on this last point.

Irish Mist, Celtic Crossing, Celtic Honey, Drambuie: these are all classic British Isle herbal and honey liqueurs. A sticking point for me, however, is that they're all whisk(e)y-based. That's like making a cognac Sazerac with a Grand Marnier rinse: maybe just a little too close to the base spirit, which diminishes the herbal contrast. Something more strictly herbal would make more sense here. Based on that, many herbal liqueurs that one finds tend to be monastic in origin, and as luck would have it, Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick in the southwest of Ireland makes a lemon verbena liqueur (any imagery being prompted in your mind?). Alas, it's limited to usage in chocolates and local venues (perhaps not a bad thing, given the humble philosophy behind it). But, it's enough of an idea to get started.

Back in November I set myself up with a variety of dried and fresh herbs, including dried lemon verbena, and got to work infusing. Neither of my tester mixes turned out near to what I was looking for, though: dried herbs generally have a darker flavor to them at odds with the concept of a light sprightly green liqueur glowing with mystic dawn. Lemon verbena, at that, apparently loses most of its lemony perfume once dried.

So, the idea was backburnered, until Ti(n)sanity that is. It made a lot of sense to build on that old concept with an agreeable and appropriate herbal blend, plus some fresh ingredients to round out the flavor just-right (those with long memories might note the details I pulled from La Primavera nella Campagna). Given fresh lemon verbena can be difficult to find unless you grow your own, the below liqueur includes a variety of citrus zests to make up for that flavor; I imagine adding some fresh verbena leaves would only enhance the liqueur that much more, though.


Note: as with all infusions, they should be kept in a cool dark area as sunlight and heat will impact the final quality.

Sunlit only for the pics.

Eire Light Liqueur
Part 1:
1/2 cup pear eau-de-vie
strips of zest from lemon, lime, Meyer lemon and/or sweet lime*
1 inch fresh lemongrass, chopped
1 sprig tarragon leaves, and stem (use 17 leaves for St. Paddy's Day)
1/2 sprig fresh spearmint, stem but not leaves crushed

*1/2 inch wide, taken lengthwise from the fruit. Mix 'n match fruits based on availability and preference. Roughly 1-2 strips from each kind of fruit.

Add all to a glass mason jar and infuse for 3 hours. Remove tarragon and mint, then continue infusing to complete a full 24 hours, shaking occaisionally.

Part 2:
1/2 cup 100pf vodka
1 Tension Tamer teabag

Infuse in a separate mason jar for 45 minutes, shaking occasionally. Remove and wring out teabag. Let rest until Part 1 is complete.

Part 3:
Combine parts 1 and 2 once part 1 has infused for 24 hours. Keep the zests and lemongrass in the mix for another 6 hours to help combine flavors, then fine strain off the solid bits before giving the liquid a good coffee filter straining. Once that's done, add 1/4 cup mild honey and shake to dissolve. Skim off the foam once it's settled a few minutes. Let rest at least a few hours before using, and don't feel you have to use it up all at once. If you can, let it rest a good month or three before using (again): the maturation and bottle-aging will improve the flavor all that much more.


[Update, 03-14-2013, 11:00pm: It's come to my attention this evening that the liqueur has turned a bit cloudy with some sediment. If you encounter this, my recommendation is to let the liqueur rest as-is a few more days at room temperature. If there will be sediment, the worst of it should happen early: it may be wax from the honey or simply an infusion by-product, which is natural. Either way, it's best to let it clump, all the better for decanting and/or straining off through coffee filters (a time- and filter-consuming process, yes, but an effective clarifier). Normally with infusions I would recommend a good chill-in-the-fridge before straining, but with a honey sweetener this is liable to cause crystallization which could affect the quality.]

I highly recommend using linden flower (aka lime blossom, aka tilia flower, aka basswood) honey. Not only is it delicate with a flower scent somewhere between green honeysuckle and gardenia, but it matches with the tilia flowers in the Tension Tamer tea. Linden also has a pure, sacred quality in Germanic folklore as a tree of lovers and jurisprudence -- not far off at all from the original mental imagery. Given linden honey might be difficult to find, a minimally-pungent ambrosia or clover flower honey would do well in a pinch.

Designing this liqueur for this particular Sazerac take, knowing that it would substitute for a potent and higher-proof absinthe or pastis, I found it worth it to use straight honey instead of a honey syrup with added water. Lack of water means an increased viscosity and less dilution of flavor, perfect for rinsing a glass. With precisely 1/4 cup of honey moreover, there remains a bit of pungency and astringency from the herbal ingredients. Aging will mellow these aspects while retaining the intricacy of the flavor, whereas extra honey will only mask it, regardless of time.


But now to make that Irish Sazerac...

Eire Light

2 1/2 oz Irish whiskey

1 cube or 1 tsp white sugar

3 dashes Branca Menta (or impromptu Branca Menta)

rinse of Eire Light Liqueur

lime zest

Muddle the sugar and bitters until the sugar is dissolved, then add ice and your Irish whiskey of choice. Stir to dilute and chill. Strain over one large ice cube in a chilled rocks glass rinsed with Eire Light liqueur. Twist a piece of lime zest over the drink then drop into the glass.

Impromptu Branca Menta: 1 tsp Fernet Branca to 1/2 tsp crème de menthe to 1 dash Fee Bros Mint Bitters. (going roughly by Dr. Henderson's suggestion here, but with a touch more bitterness)


The cocktail does just what I was hoping it would. You're greeted on the nose by something soft, ineffably-herbed, honeyed, intermingled with rolling verdant lime hills and valleys. On the sip: earth and grain. But then you're transported beyond such rigid sensory categories: there's light-filled minty mist, juicy green pastures, and a sense of home ideal and elevated.


At some point I'd like to try the Branca Menta version, having used the substitute because Branca Menta's a bit difficult to obtain in PA. I wanted something a bit earthy, mintiness being a bonus. Fernet Branca on its own up against Irish whiskey seemed an unfair fight, but tempered with a bit of mint became more palatable in the context of the cocktail, if maybe a little too scotch-peaty. From the specs, Bittermens' Boston Bittahs could also be interesting here, though it seems like it wouldn't quite have the earthiness or command you would expect for a Sazerac variation.



Thank you for reading this week and have a happy (and alcoholically-responsible) St. Paddy's Day! Just a reminder: Ti(n)sanity slows down from here on out for at least four further, more complex applications. I'm planning on doing one a month from here through July, so please check back in from time to time if it interests you. Sláinte!



Previous Ti(n)sanity recipes:

Hit the Road to Dreamland (rum)
Lullaby Sangaree (madeira) and Insufferable Creole Minx (bourbon, gin, madeira)
T. T. Punch (rhum agricole)
Me-tea-orite (single malt scotch)
Introduction and eThéreal Toddy (grappa)

Disclaimer: this is a non-sponsored post. Also, I'm not looking to do sponsored posts. I just really like this tea, is all, and have a policy of happily and independently buying all my ingredients.

Mixology Monday, January 2013: Fortified Wines

Happy Mixology Monday, everyone!

The mighty Jordan Devereaux of Chemistry of the Cocktail hosts this month's MxMo event - giving us the ever-enlightening theme of Fortified Wines:

Fortified wines began, in large part, as a way to deal with the difficulties of shipping wine long distances in the holds of sailing ships. Without the rigorous sterilization that is possible today, wines would often spoil en route. However, increasing the alcohol concentration to around 20% ABV was enough to keep them from going off… These wines held an important place in.. punch and have continued on in cocktails proper.  [These wines include] sherry, port, and, to a lesser extent, madeira and marsala, all find their way into various mixed drinks… They can play many different roles – from taking the place of vermouths in classic drinks, to providing richness and sweetness in winter tipples, to serving as a base for lighter aperitifs. Whether forgotten classics or new creations, let’s see what you can put together.

When active, this link will send you to the summary post of this month's festivities.


Goodnesses, this was an educational MxMo. Before this month I'd only had/worked with sherry once, out of the many fortified wines listed in the prompt. I honestly found the palo cortado so-so: the quality was evident, but there's only so much nuttiness I can stand - maybe there was some slight salinity in it enhancing those notes too. That and the way sherry has been especially popular in the last few years made me curious about lesser-used Madeira. So, I figured this would be a grand opportunity to start in on my education on that particular spirit.

Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, and Malvasia (Malmsey). And Rainwater, a style offshoot of Verdelho. Those are the primary varietal names you'll see with Madeira, listed from driest to sweetest, respectively. There are blends as well, and vintages too. But in the circumscribed confines of MxMo, I chose to focus on the drier styles and challenge my sweet-leaning palate with Sercial and then Rainwater -- and managed to come up with some rather enjoyable cocktails with both.

With Sercial, I started out playing around by adding brown spirits (bourbon, rum, armagnac) and either PAMA pomegranate liqueur or a homemade blood orange cordial plus Angostura bitters and possibly dashes of amaretto. (Blandy's 5 year Sercial LOVES Angostura). The drinks turned out decently, but it was hard to highlight the Sercial - and differently from the many already-established madeira cocktails (particularly of the "Creole" persuasion). But when pressed at the last minute, I happened upon a golden combination:


The Light Will Guide Me
1 1/2 oz Irish whiskey (Clontarf Black Label)
1 1/2 oz Sercial Madeira (Blandy's 5 year)
1/4 oz Benedictine
5 drops Urban Moonshine citrus bitters
1 dash Dr. Adam's Aphrodite bitters
lemon zest

Stir all on ice to chill and dilute. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a swatch of lemon zest.


The lone true-hearted sailor drops anchor on a distant verdant and lush island: one with a fortifying spirit. Now he sits in his cabin watching the late afternoon sun stream gold through his chalice on the fine wooden furnishings. He knows his course is true, blessed even. Lemon, vanilla, grain, and the faintest hint of sub-tropical mystique: he feels the hands of his angel on his shoulders, and she presses towards the Isle of Light.


Many of the madeira recipes described over at Cocktail Virgin Slut (and many thanks to MxMo coordinator and CVS blogger Fred Yarm for keeping things up and running, at that) are interesting for the equal ratio given between the madeira and base spirit. All the better to taste both, surely, so, I started with that. My instinct was to try to think of the fortified wine as one would a vermouth, but given the lack of herbal thrust tried to make that up via the Benedictine and bitters. Sercial is especially difficult to mix with (note the lack of recipes using that particular varietal, and, I was constantly thinking to myself "why mix with it when it's so perfectly balanced [between nutty sweetness and dry acidity]?!"): it either dominates or gets lost in the mix. Here, the acidity is naturally ever-present, and here and there the nuttiness pops through in a sip and is a delightful surprise.

Curious enough, instead of using the bitters to bind, I wanted that bitterness to crash through and break things up: give some flavor variation on which the other spirits could better make themselves known. The Urban Moonshine citrus urged a general trend towards citrus (Clontarf has some interesting tropical notes like passionfruit and pineapple to boot), but with a spare astringency that would work against the madeira's body which dampens individual flavor notes. A more complex bitters like Aphrodite further helps break things up while pulling forth the madeira with coffee and chocolate notes.


Furthermore, in the last week or so I was noodling around on another side project trying to come up with some drink names for ingredient combinations that were skewing very soft, feminine and youthful (but with off-the-top-of-the-head names like "Baby Blocks", perhaps a little too youthful). Well, I stumbled onto a naming convention that allowed not just 3 recipes but nearly a dozen more, and with that idea giddiness came this writes-itself recipe, perfectly timed for MxMo:

Raindrops on Roses

2 oz Lillet Rose

1 1/2 oz Rainwater Madeira

1 oz grappa

2 dashes Dr. Adam's Teapot bitters

grapefruit zest garnish

(like the pic shows, I used Miles Medium-Dry Rainwater Madeira & Alexander Grappa di Cabernet)

Stir all on ice to chill and dilute.

Strain into a champagne flute or sherry glass.

Garnish with a thin grapefruit spiral, or if you really want to get fancy, a rose made of grapefruit zest.



Notes:

• This one comes together especially well, with some fascinating rose-like qualities emerging from the various ingredients. And, I'm happy to have it inaugurate the My Favorite Things project this year (if you think about that for 5 seconds, you know exactly what the other 12 cocktail names will be, though I'm still coming up with worthy ingredient combinations: and yes, somehow there will be a Schnitzel with Noodles). 
• I tried an earlier version with pisco instead of grappa and there's a world of difference: the pisco merely added weight in a grape-spirit-minded way, but the grappa lets you know it's in charge here (probably a good thing because the pisco version was a tad too easy to drink). The thing that strikes me about using grappa is how its weight and general flavor tone remind me so much of the characteristics of a large weighty tea rose, further enhanced by the other ingredients.
• Rainwater Madeira truly does match your mental image of the spirit: it has a soft dewy body, which dampens the acidity a shade, though it's still noticeable -- enhanced by the Lillet and zest, no doubt.
• Lillet Rose serves as the flavor that colors everything else going on. The Teapot Bitters add their special whimsy on the nose, and their vanilla, hazelnut and rose notes punch up to the fore those elements in other ingredients.
• Be mindful of the zest: too much for too long infusing into the drink can overwhelm with bitter acidity, though just enough brings out some interesting watermelon notes from its good friend Lillet.