Mixology Monday LXXVI Announcement: FIRE!

Huh. So 76 editions of MxMo, and a full 12 months under the new leadership of CVS's Fred Yarm as of the start of this month's challenge. You could ask where the time went, but this past year seems quite rich for all the wild, inventive and delicious cocktail recipes on offer month after month. We have an old guard participating and anchoring us to that sense of continuity, while every month a handful of new faces rise up to answer the challenge -- many of whom are becoming old hands themselves already.

So as these Mixology Mondays and their themes accrue, it does get a little daunting choosing a fresh theme: something to invigorate the mind and tastebuds, and inspire a sense of adventure. I feel, perhaps it's only a matter of looking within, seeing if there's something you love or tickles your mind. Or there's an aspect of your blog which could offer up a new spin.

With that in mind, this here Muse of Doom is pleased to proffer the new periodic particular of peril: FIRE!

Tiki-philes have their flaming spent lime shells and scorpion bowls. Classic cocktailers have the magic of a flamed orange zest. Molecular mixologists have their Smoking Guns. (and yes, frat boys have their flaming shots.) Even brunchtime drinkers have spicy Bloody Marys.

You don't have to go full Blue Blazer, not nearly -- heck, you could go full Fireball Whiskey! (or Fire Rock Pale Ale, etc..) You could riff on the Old Flame or come up with an inventive name of your own. You could even use a good firewater or burned wine. (and if you're grilling fruit, save some for me, will ya?)

In essence, bring the heat! Bring the Fire! Bring your inspiration!

On a serious note: remember that lass in Britain who lost her stomach because the mixologists weren't in control of the dangerous elements they were using in a cocktail? Let's have none of that here, huh? There's a lot more to Fire than just the electrochemical reactions happening on the end of a lit match. Stay safe and trust your gut about what you're comfortable doing. We're all here to have fun.

Here's are the specs:

• Find and/or develop a recipe that incorporates Fire, then post the recipe, including a photo and your remarks, on your blog or on eGullet's Spirits and Cocktails forum.
• Include the MxMo logo in your post, plus links back to the Mixology Monday site, Feu de Vie, and the round-up post when that goes up.
• Post a link to your submission in the comment section of this post, tweet me @MuseOfDoom, or send an email to muse at museofdoom dot com with "MxMo" in the subject.
• Entries should be submitted by the end of Monday, August 19th*. Some late stragglers may also be accepted but no promises.

*I'm inclined to use the turn of Tuesday at the International Date Line for a final cut-off (7am EDT, to spare you a search engine hunt)

Many thanks again to Fred at Cocktail Virgin Slut for keeping MxMo alive, and to founder Paul Clarke!

Flame ON!

Aunt Jean

This little ditty goes out to a special lady, my great-aunt Jean - who recently turned 89.

From my early memories of visiting her urbane and well-appointed condo with family at times, Aunt Jean knew how to live. She introduced me to exotic things like Orangina, and exuded culture, whether it was crossword puzzles, taking my cousin and me to see a local production of The Nutcracker or a Christmas present of Note-Ability, that board game which had a miniature electronic grand piano and you had to pick out the melody for others to guess.

I come from a substantial family heritage of cooks, be it Mom or my grandmas who worked in church kitchens; Aunt Jean rose even higher, working in test kitchens in the Big City for products like Hellman's mayonnaise and Karo syrup (an assistant director of the department at that, at minimum, for as much as I know). Her chocolate-peppermint patty cookie sandwiches remain the best Christmas cookie EVER. Full stop.

She's since retired to beautiful Florida, ever enjoying the sights, food and entertainment.

Now, as Aunt Jean would tell you, she was a teetotaler. But that doesn't at all preclude combining the flavors of her life into a satisfying libation. So in that light, I'm happy to bring you FdV's first mocktail!

Aunt Jean

3 oz Orangina

2 oz Earl Grey tea

1 T cream of coconut (Coco Lopez preferred)

nutmeg for garnish

Brew a cup of Earl Grey tea until lukewarm; this will make the tea rather potent and astringent, but that's all to the good as it will help the flavor hold up and add a touch of bitterness to balance the sweetness.

In your serving glass (a highball or rocks glass) dissolve the cream of coconut in 2 oz of the tea. Add ice to mostly fill the glass. Top with the Orangina and gently stir. Add a dash or two of nutmeg for garnish.


With love,
k

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*

Smoky Mountain Salamander

So once again, after the Smokemont and the So We're Havin' a BBQ, huh? I find myself returning to my Great Smoky Mountains muse, perhaps even to the initial cocktail idea that got me started on this theme to begin with. I'm not entirely sure what got me going -- it was probably the Courting Rachel recipe mentioned in that NYT article on smoke in cocktails two autumns ago.

Wandering in that misty mental space, it was a hop and a skip. There needed to be a smoke element and a native spirit...and perhaps a native fruit? I started reading up and looking for interesting angles...like, say, how the Smokies are the Salamander Capital of the World. And, huh, one of the native trees featured were these pin cherries circling the balds, the trees some of the quickest to rise up in the wake of forest fires...earning them the nickname fire cherries.

Hmmmmmmm....

I'd call it the Hellbender, but someone decided to go and make a Scotch tiki drink with that name for a book launch.

Smoky Mountain Salamander

2 oz Salamander Moonshine

shot glass full of sour/pie cherries (8-9)

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

1/4 oz allspice dram

3 dashes Swedish bitters

cherry wood smoke

cherry + cherry pepper garnish

Smoke a chilled cocktail glass with cherry wood and set aside. In a shaker, muddle the sour cherries. Add ice, Salamander Moonshine, vermouth, allspice dram and bitters. Shake to mix and chill. Double-strain into serving glass. Garnish with a moonshine or sour cherry on a pick, encircled by a cherry pepper twist.

This is a difficult cocktail to write about: it's on the borderline between passable and don't post, but at the same time I experienced some magic moments with it too. It all boils down to how much you like the flavor of peppers in your drink. But for however much pepper flesh is the dominant flavor, everything else rallies to round it into something savory, bright and scintillating. The odd herbals offered by the Swedish bitters might even get you to wondering if there was a secret ingredient to the Salamander Moonshine, or at least a bit of brimstone.

You may want to serve this on the rocks with the muddled cherries because their flavor better emerges over time and helps the balance. Whatever you do, don't skimp on the Swedish bitters: their aloe note makes the pepper flavor quite palatable. Though for all that's said about bitters being a crucial binding element in cocktails, it's the vermouth which knots the bow here, reaching out to bright cherry on one side while snaring the more savory elements with its herbs and aromatics on the other. The cherry wood smoke, beyond being a nice little touch, situates the cocktail in a barbecue context such that the heat make more sense on the palate. And the allspice dram? A nice brooding bit of dark-flavored sweet spice. Pimento spice matched with pimento/cherry pepper heat matched with cherry smoke matched with cherry sour.


Salamander Moonshine
4-5 (hot) cherry or red fresno peppers - stemmed, seeded, quartered
1 tsp allspice berries, crushed
1/2 tsp roasted chicory root
3"x1/2" orange zest
1 cup moonshine

Add all to a mason jar. Store in a cool dark location for two weeks (or less if your desired heat level is reached), shaking daily. Strain off the large particles with a sieve and use a coffee filter to get the minute bits remaining. Store in a bottle/jar and let rest in a cool cabinet a week before using to let the flavors mellow and meld.

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini Punch

So who's in the mood for a beach party?

Seeing as yesterday was National Bikini Day, the timing is just about perfect for Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini Punch! (Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot One-Piece Punch, if you're doing a virgin punch)

This has been one of those on-my-radar recipes, but it never took shape beyond a yellow punch base with melon ball garnishes until recently when I seized an opportunity to have a happy hour cohort of willing victims tasters at the office. Because buying melons for punch-for-one doesn't quite work. From all accounts it turned out nicely.

The song never did say what color the polka dots were, right?

Single serving
1/4 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz lemon-lime oleo saccharum syrup
1/4 oz passionfruit syrup
1/2 oz pineapple juice
1/2 oz (homemade) apricot brandy or plain brandy
1 oz dry rum (white or gold)
2 1/2 oz carbonated tropical green tea
3 drops orange bitters (Bittercube)
2 dashes orange blossom water
bite-size frozen melon balls as garnish

Shake all liquids (except tea) on ice, then strain into your serving cup. Top with carbonated tea and frozen melon balls as garnish.


Full-size punch version (serves 24)
6 oz lemon juice
6 oz lime juice
3 oz lemon-lime oleo saccharum syrup (2:1)
5 oz passionfruit syrup
12 oz pineapple juice
12 oz apricot brandy or brandy
24 oz dry rum
8 cups carbonated tropical green tea
2 dropperfuls orange bitters
1 1/4 oz orange blossom water
frozen melon balls from roughly 2 melon halves (watermelon, honeydew, canteloupe, etc..)


Combine all but the carbonated tropical green tea and ice in your punch bowl, giving it a good stir, then add the tea, then the ice.

In addition to single frozen melon balls as chilling agents, try making an ice block or ice ring filled with melon balls.


Notes:

• There are a few workable varieties of tropical green tea out there that I know of (Revolution, Republic of Tea, Mighty Leaf). Look for green tea with pineapple flavor plus ginger and/or other tropical fruit flavors. Brew 1 bag per 2 cups near-boiling water until water is cool, then carbonate per your device's instructions (I tend to under-carbonate with my SodaStream, if only because tea tends to foam up quickly).
• Lemon-lime oleo saccharum syrup: in a bowl or ziploc bag, to 3/4 cup sugar (demerara or turbinado if you have it) add the pithless zests (in strips) of 2 lemons and 1 lime. Muddle gently, then seal, letting rest at room temperature overnight. Agitate your container as you like to help the sugar dissolve. When ready to use, add 3 to 6 oz of water depending on desired sweetness, then add to the punch sans zests.
• Rum's simply the natural choice for a punch like this, but play around with the spirits as you like! Brandy's always wonderful for depth, and a nice dry gin plays up all the flavors. I know for a fact that 1792 bourbon is a great match, as is port wine (though then it wouldn't be a yellow polka dot bikini). If using rum, find one with great big vanilla notes, as I think that'll play up the spirit of the cocktail best. I used Mount Gay Eclipse (gold) when serving.
• Though intending to have the melon balls solely function as a garnish, the melon flavors ended up infusing pleasingly into the punch, adding a welcome dimension aside from the citrus flavors. They also played well with the orange blossom water; it'd be worth experimenting more with this flavor pair.
• The orange blossom water itself was a last minute add, but ended up being the right finesse to elevate the punch beyond mundane.
• If going beyond the in-office audience and limited budget for the punch, I'd probably up the alcohol grade slightly (the amount is just right because it still packs a wallop), and get fresh non-gold pineapple to juice. The pineapple in this case was canned Dole's juice. Something more mellow, that would function as a more subtle extender, would take this recipe through the stratosphere.

Disco Buffalo

If ever a cocktail needed a pimp hat garnish, it would be this one.

This ain't no disco...wait a sec, yes it is!


In homage to the late lamented Disco Duck, Feu de Vie is pleased to bring you this little number. Get on down to the dance floor, stomp your hooves and raise your glass (and watch out for sharpshooters!). You'll be feeling fine and more than a bit worldly.

Disco Buffalo

2 oz blueberry-infused Buffalo Trace

1 oz Martini & Rossi bianco

1/4 oz Ramazzotti

2 dashes Fee Bros orange bitters

1 dash Stirrings blood orange bitters

lemon twist

Stir the first five ingredients on ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Luscious. The blueberry comes through especially well here, with the bianco supporting that rather than being overkill. All the bitters and garnish glam things up nicely.

Click for larger

More on the blueberry-infused Buffalo Trace to come! Go make your own in the meanwhile: the above-linked is the best technique I've seen online*. And check out the rest of the snazzy and classy Post Prohibition while you're at it.

* if you don't mind giving the berries a quick double-boil to get them dark and glossy (without breaking them). Like Josh mentions, it brings their sugar to the fore. Berries seem to need some application of heat to bring out their best flavors.

Mixology Monday, June 2013: Cherry, part 2

And here's a second recipe for this month's Mixology Monday with the theme of Cherry (details for this month in the first post).

It's kind of convoluted how I got to this recipe. The ingredients on their faces are natural fits and there are already similar recipes out there. But since last year my summer cocktail muse, the smoky backwoods with elements of barbecue and southern Appalachia (see here for earlier muse-madness), has been compelling me to make a cocktail called the Smoky Mountain Salamander. God knows if this moonshine-hot cherry pepper infusion will work out -- maybe I'll just do a post about it pointing out what not to do, depending.

But one of the compulsions about this potential cocktail was the use of sour cherries -- pin (or "fire" or "bird") cherries to be precise, given how they thrive in the Smoky Mountains. Perfect for this month's theme, ne? For the past couple of weeks I've been keeping an eye and ear out for news that any kind of sour cherry might be in season -- they go so fast too -- but we're not quite there yet. Having my doubts about the SMS in the meanwhile should it not turn out, for lack of quality or fresh sour cherries, I was also brainstorming on the side for a variation. I think this recipe, with numerous elements from my original SMS idea, just hit me out of the blue and made me go 1) I wanna drink this (note to self: focus on this more when creating cocktails) and 2) why shouldn't this replace the original plans for the SMS?

The purist/optimist part of me is having none of #2, so, this recipe will just have to stand on its own, thematically:

Thin cinnamon sticks also make good cherry-picks here.

So We're Havin' a BBQ, huh?

2 oz Jack Daniels

1/2 oz ROOT

1/4 oz Schwartzhog liqueur

shot glass full of (pitted) sour cherries

1 big dash (8-9 drops) Bitter End Memphis BBQ bitters

rinse Islay whisky

sour cherries for garnish

Rinse a chilled rocks glass with the whisky (discard the excess), add a large ice cube and set aside.
In a shaker muddle cherries and bitters, then add the JD, ROOT, and Schwartzhog.
Shake all on ice then double-strain into your prepared glass.
Garnish with more sour cherries on a pick or a nice juicy 1" cube of grilled steak.


Notes:

• ROOT can be pretty dominant in any cocktail, but here it plays well with everything else, the cherry notes especially helping to moderate it. You can get a small taste of everything around the edges, but largely the cocktail melds into something cherry-herbal, comfy and easy-drinking, with bits of smoke and spice (them bitters is spicy!) to create atmosphere. Though I haven't tried it with the steak garnish, I think it would be immensely satisfying.
• I chose Schwartzhog because, while somewhat slight, it would provide some bitter herbal notes for depth, with its cherry cola note matching well with the other ingredients. If lacking Schwartzhog, Ramazzotti or Cynar would do in a pinch.
• Fresh sour cherries like Montmorency or Morello would be ideal (or pin cherries if you happen to have some forageable trees nearby). Being it's still a little early in the season for sour cherries, I made do with some jarred Amish brandied tart cherries I've had in my fridge since Frau Totenkinder (still quite good, if lacking the rich mouth-punch you would get from fresh). Wos-Wit's a bit more of a regional brand, but they're very comparable to these water-packed pie cherries (syrup-packed will be too sweet), which you should be able to find at your local supermarket. [last year was heavy on the cherry explorations, clearly]

Thanks to Andrea for hosting and Fred for coordinating another great round of Mixology Monday! Here are the round-up posts of all the great cherry recipes!

[Update (06-29-2013): Ohh yes yes yes yes yes. Sour cherry season has hit and there is no better fruit for this cocktail. Fresh sour cherries, while sharing a note with the brandied tart cherries, just make this drink come ALIVE. And while not as intensely sour as I had been led to believe, they make the cocktail quite refreshing and less sweet than the brandied cherry version -- a great aperitif! Try using a not-quite-full shot glass, so they don't dominate all the other wonderful flavors going on.]

Mixology Monday, June 2013: Cherry, part 1

Rise and shine, early birds! It's Mixology Monday!

Andrea of Gin Hound is our host for the month, with the theme Cherry.

Singapore Gin Sling, Blood and Sand and the Aviation wouldn't be the same without them. They are brilliant in pies, go great with pork dishes and may even be a super food able to combat insomnia.

But cherries in cocktails are also horribly abused, few things taste worse than artificial cherry aroma and the description of how most maraschino cherries are made can make you sick to your stomach.

So it's my pleasure as the host of Mixology Monday number 74 to challenge you to honor the humble cherry.

However you choose to do that, is entirely up to you. You could use Maraschino Liqueur, Cherry Heering, Kirchwasser, Belgian Kriek Beer, cherry wine or any spectacular infusions invented by you in a cocktail. Or make your own maraschino cherries for a spectacular garnish.

When active, these 2 links will send you to the summary posts of this month's festivities.


I'm going to divide this post in twain, if only because I'm only allowed 200 characters of labels per post.

My first offering came about after noting the interesting flavor combination of Solerno and marzipan (or orgeat, as one would have to translate to cocktails). Some noodling and taste-association led to a classic-styled wine-based cocktail featuring kirschwasser, the cherry-and-pomace eau-de-vie. I think the name sums it up quite nice:

Sweetness and Light

1 1/2 oz Lillet Blanc

3/4 oz kirschwasser

1 bsp* Solerno blood orange liqueur

1 bsp orgeat

3 dashes Bokers bitters

lemon twist

*I use 3/4 tsp as my barspoon measurement, precision being important here for how easily this could be oversweet vs. the bitters taking over.

Shake and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.


Notes:

For as intriguing a combo as Solerno and orgeat are, they're also highly sweet cocktail elements, limiting their usage in a balanced drink: proper spirit bases would be needed. Kirschwasser seemed a natural start, particularly with orgeat's almond. But given how intense kirsch could be, only so much could be used of it too. And I didn't want to make this too heavy a drink, so, eschewing a natural fit like gin, a wine base seemed a good final component. Dry vermouth's herbals were ok but didn't mesh the best, so I opened my first bottle of Lillet Blanc and hit paydirt. With each of the elements being sweet in body or sweet in taste, and the combined drink reading like something out of a classic cocktail book (kinda similar to this one, in fact), a few dashes of Bokers and a lemon twist turned in elegant finishing stylings.

The kirsch dominates on the nose and palate. Lemon joins on the nose in a lemonade-like way, while Solerno and orgeat pull the kirsch in two different directions. Solerno volcanically undergirds the cherry in the kirsch, while orgeat grabs hold of the pomace and seduces it away in waves of satin. Undersung base Lillet serves as a canvas, with gentian notes pairing with Bokers to keep everything in line.

And please look to the following post for an additional MxMo recipe, this time with Jack Daniels.

Bucentaure

Odd things happen as you pursue the cocktail behind a given name. For instance, the recipe you were so certain would be the best representation of the concept, ends up needing to be flipped on its head only after it's finalized.

Case in point: the idea of Taurus. The Bull is arguably the most sensual of the Zodiac, gathering to itself an assortment of all that is richest and most pleasing. Unlike Aries, which has sunshine but is still bound by cold wild winds as spring begins to break, surging rainshowers imbuing the world with life anew, Taurus is the promise of Aries realized: May flowers, spring greens deepened to lush jungle, azaleas and rhododendrons bursting as bold color is no longer limited to solitary tulip cups but whole landscapes decked out for weeks in the kirtle of the Spring Queen. Even the sunlight becomes a richer gold as the chill fades in late April. Whereas Aries held the first signs, the individual spurts of new life here and there, in Taurus the entire Earth rises up in its full potency, stamps its hooves, snorts a humid and fecund breath and lets you know just how little you are.

[*feels a tap on her shoulder* Yes, I know it's Gemini. You don't wake up from a coma without first asking what day it is, just in case. *the giant alligator-man shrugs and walks away*]

The trouble with naming this cocktail "Taurus" is that it doesn't fully encapsulate all the Bull's various aspects, namely, the symbolism and then the rich deep spring weather. I think this cocktail well-encapsulates the earthy "bull" half, but it's too heavy for the "white bull"/spring cocktail half: just on the specs, it drinks like something for the winter months. Using the word "bull" is also tricky, because most such existing cocktails involve tequila, so the assumed lineage would mislead. But there's a downright earthy quality to the drink, with the idea of time and slowness deriving from its aged spirits, that makes me not want to stray far from the concept.

So what to do? Due diligence.

When hitting upon a flavor combination that really works, you need to be humble and think "Golly, surely someone's come up with something along these lines already." [yes, use the word Golly, go on, use it! I'll wait.]-- particularly if they're spirits or wines in existence prior to the 20th century, or you're effectively making minor tweaks to a classic cocktail like the Vieux Carré. And then there's the googling. Rum and brandy, rum and port...to my surprise, I've only found a couple of rum-armagnac-port combinations, both on the same page. If I'm following in the footsteps of David Wondrich, I must be doing something right.

Trafalgar Punch as a name itself is pretty brilliant, what with the convergence of British, French and Spanish influences. The Battle of Trafalgar, itself, seems plenty ripe for concepts and names too. And "Lo!" thanks be to Wikipedia: Bucentaure. A French flagship in the battle, from the Greek bou-centaur: roughly ox-man as centaur is a horse-man; that is, a mythical being with the body of an ox and the torso-on-up of a man. The flagship even had such a creature as a figurehead.

I'm happy with that. And it even retains the taur of Taurus to boot.

So, while you're lounging around in the bowers of emergent spring and summer, have something to go with. Imagine you're an ox luxuriating in a meadow: your hooves have stirred up the earth and you breathe deep of intoxicating violet patches tended by dancing bees.

Bucentaure

1 tsp Crème Yvette

4 1-oz Fernet Branca ice cubes

1 dash Bittermens Xocolatl Mole bitters

3 drops Fee Bros. plum bitters

1 oz tawny port

1 oz armagnac

1 oz Smith & Cross naval rum (or other powerful/dark/aged Jamaican rum)

1 lime twist

Start by making your Fernet Branca ice cubes: the earth and loam vibrant with minty life.

Rinse a chilled rocks glass with the Crème Yvette, but don't discard: the smell of flowers heavy in the humid air.

Add the Fernet Branca ice cubes and build the remaining ingredients: spicy heat of the earth, dancing flowers, fruit of the vine, the vine kissed by the burning sun, and the lush island forests where the bull roams.

Stir for 10-15 seconds at the end and garnish with a lime twist, loosely knotted to make a Taurus sigil (♉).

Fernet Branca ice cubes



Depending on your tolerance for bitterness/sweetness, use 1/2 tsp-3/4 tsp Fernet Branca per 1 oz water/cube.

I like the Tovolo 1" cube molds because they hold just over 1 oz water and you get some nice showy rocks as a result.


These ice cubes work brilliantly, particularly in a rich cocktail such as this: as the ice melts the bitterness and other notes develop within the drink, preventing a diluted flavor and permitting one's digestion to keep up with the cocktail.




Afterthoughts:

It took me awhile to work this one out, over a year in fact. I had started with bourbon and Dubonnet Rouge instead of the rum and port (I had little fortified wine knowledge a year ago), but the drink blurred together. The Dubonnet overlapped with the Yvette and no matter the burly proof, the bourbon liked to hide. But soon enough I discovered what a good hogo would bring to the concept, and then the raisin notes of tawny port. The armagnac I had from the start: the wilder cousin of cognac seemed just the thing. But really, I started with a taste-image combo of Fernet Branca and violet liqueur to match the season, though I had tried neither, and it all grew from there. Sometimes taste descriptions on the internet really do paint the perfect picture on the tongue.


The White Bull arrives next year.

Mixology Monday, May 2013: Witches' Garden

*opens one eye from her coma* It's MxMo-time, again?!

Gee, I'd better do something about that..


The theme for the 73rd edition of the Greatest Cocktail Jamboree on the Planet, comes via our host Mark Holmes of Cardiff Cocktails -- home of delectable tipples, always-intriguing ingredient combinations and sepia-ambianced photography that aches comfort: Witches' Garden.

As far back as we can look, the use of fresh herbs have been prevalent in the world of mixed drinks. From the early days of the julep, through Williams Terrington’s 19th century Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks, to Don the Beachcomber’s ahead of their time Tiki drinks, fresh herbs have always been at the forefront of mixology. So lets take influence from the bartenders that once ruled the world of mixology, raid your herb garden that too often gets neglected, and start mixing. I don’t want to put too many limits on this theme so get as creative as you please, want to use roots, spices or beans as well? Sure thing. Want to make your own herbal infusions or tinctures? Sounds wonderful.

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

Let's get straight to the recipe:


Acrasia's Bower
2 oz grappa
1-2 strawberries
2-3 sprigs of mint
1/2 oz Tuaca
1 dash Boker's bitters
3 oz carbonated chai green tea
sprigs of mint for garnish

In a highball glass, muddle the strawberry with the Tuaca and bitters (more than a dash, depending on your palate).

Spank the mint and add, gently pressing in/stirring with the muddler.

Add the grappa and stir.

Add ice to fill the glass and top with carbonated chai green tea, giving all a stir.

Garnish with fresh mint sprigs.




Carbonated Chai Green Tea
Steep 1 tea bag of chai green tea in 2 cups near-boiling water until cool. Carbonate per your device's instructions, perhaps under-do it slightly as the tea particles encourage foaming. Stash is my tea brand of choice, spicy and invigorating, and delicious even without the regular milk-and-sugar chai fixings.


Mint isn't the most original ingredient for a challenge such as this, but I was at the farmer's market a couple weekends ago and the chives just weren't sparking a desire to create as much as a lush bundle of mint was. I was still in the North African flavor state of mind from last MxMo, so when approaching the mint I automatically thought "Moroccan mint tea."

After a meh attempt at something more Penicillin-like with weak-flavored carbonated green tea [forgive me: I just got a SodaStream machine and am now going through a "let's carbonate EVERYTHING!" phase], I had an "I wonder.." moment with a more flavorful chai green tea on hand. Carbonating this tea was much more interesting (with a great backbone), but it needed a different pairing than scotch. More through a process of intuition and "what would I like to drink, right this moment?" than anything else, I happened on my bottle of grappa di cabernet, and then soft vanilla/chocolate-y Tuaca, and then, needing some kind of warmth or red-ness to balance, strawberries. Cardamom-rich Boker's served as a final add-on to match the chai spice and help some of the other flavors come through.

This is probably a little more understated a recipe than my usual M.O., but the finished sip came across especially refined, something which doesn't happen with every drink I do. Plus, I like how the strawberry's tartness and the astringency of the carbonated tea also help balance the sweetness, without resorting to citrus and making this a full-on Smash.

I also tried this with Strega (the witch liqueur, more successfully used in Putney Farm's Strawberry Witch this MxMo), but that ended up far too sweet here: Tuaca has a great advantage with slighter (and less sour/dry) ingredients like green tea and unaged grappa, being less syrupy-sweet than most liqueurs and therefore dampening flavors less.

The strawberry in Acrasia's Bower comes through luscious and fresh-tart, with an indefinable exotically-spiced sweetness. The grappa is a lurking, rolling fist encased in satin, but you don't pay attention to that so much as the soft green edge of the mint, both delicate accent and a visual jungle. The imagery reminded me of the descriptions of the Bower of Bliss in Spenser's Faerie Queen (as I read of it in Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae -- F.Q.'s still in my book basket waiting to be read). And me, grasping for a name this morning, did some googling for some kind of reference: the name "Acrasia" itself just seems to fit the cocktail's image above (in F.Q.'s book on Temperance, no less!). Only after I decided on the name [mind you, I'm still quasi-comatose] did I realize, hey, Acrasia's an enchantress. This drink really is a Witch's Garden!


Many thanks and props to Mr. Holmes for hosting and Mr. Yarm for wrangling. Cheers!

And stay tuned shortly for a non-MxMo post, a little something for the month of Taurus, now that we're in Gemini!