The Anodyne Cocktail—for whatever ails you. The name means something that alleviates or eliminates pain, so I guess it could apply to any drink, but in this case it was chosen for a medicinal combination of ingredients first tried by Wesley Moore in 2009 when it appeared on Chuck Taggart’s Looka! Gumbo Pages weblog. According to Chuck, the cocktail was inspired by the Perfect Martini which is a Martini made using equal portions of both sweet and dry vermouth.
The first thing you might notice is that this drink doesn’t use a typical sweet vermouth, nor a typical dry one. It wouldn’t be very innovative if it did. Instead, the substitutions are far more interesting and the proportions are such that they setup a wonderful balance between them. As simple as it sounds, it’s much more than a basic substitution riff. What we have with the Anodyne is another example of how a gin cocktail doesn’t have to really taste like gin at all. The transformation that occurs can surprise and amaze you without using any fruit juice, herbs or soda. This is a true cocktail that hits all the marks and does so gracefully. It’s a great Drink of the Week to end the year, so take a look at the recipe and we can get into the details.
Anodyne by Wes Moore
2 oz Beefeater gin
1 oz Lillet Blanc
.5 oz Punt e Mes
3 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6
Combine in a mixing glass with ice. Stir 30 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed orange peel.
First and foremost, this is a gin cocktail. But as I said, you might not know it. It’s also an all-spirits drink like its Martini predecessor. But it is that combination of modifiers that really sets it apart. Let’s start with the Lillet. This has appeared in other recipes such as the Corpse Reviver No. 2, and the Vesper. If you recall, Lillet Blanc is a fortified white wine aperitif which resembles a dry or French vermouth. However, Lillet is actually somewhat sweet and carries an orangey character. This makes it a popular substitute for dry vermouth and a great way to put a flavorful twist on an old classic. That’s what is happening here to create something with a bit more interest.
What would have been Italian sweet vermouth in a Perfect Martini is actually Punt e Mes in this drink. I really enjoy Punt e Mes because it provides the bold complexity I demand from a good sweet vermouth, but it does so with a bitterness that has an almost chocolatey appeal. At risk of taking over the drink, the portion is reduced to just a half ounce allowing the lighter Lillet to poke through while still providing that earthy backbone. Up to this point, we almost have the makings of the Edgewood cocktail, but we will stop short of adding grapefruit juice, opting for a few dashes of orange bitters to bring everything together.
By now, you should recognize the alchemy at play with this one. The deep and fantastic bitter flavors of the Punt e Mes are enhancing the Lillet’s lighter, sweeter character, and together they transform the botanicals of the gin for a very tasty result. Now, to top it off you’ll want to garnish with a flamed orange peel. Slice off a small disk from the peel of a fresh orange, hold it close to a lit match and snap it sharply between your fingers letting the orange oil from the zest spray through the flame and over the surface of the drink. Check out the Blood and Sand cocktail for more details. If you do it right and your orange is fresh, the oils will ignite before landing on the drink. It’s more than just a flashy display. The fragrant oils plays an important role. Wipe the orange peel around the rim of the glass and drop it in.
Chuck Taggart suggests leaving the ingredients as-is. In other words, use Beefeater if at all possible. Other gins may not stand up as well. Also, Lillet and Punt e Mes are both unique but pretty easy to find. You could certainly change things up with substitutions, but given the unique combination that happens with these ingredients, you would be creating something different. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just not the same thing. So, how does it taste? I have to say that I was expecting it to be bold and strong but I was surprised at its subtlety. Each element mingles perfectly without one component outshining another. There is a slight bitterness but it’s balanced by the other flavors. It has all of the complexity of a Negroni without Campari’s strong bitterness. By that description, if you like a Negroni, you will like this. If you don’t like a Negroni, you will like this.
I have to start with a word of caution. If you decide to make this Drink of the Week including it’s fiery presentation, proceed carefully. I have always been an advocate of responsible drinking and although that applies here too, there’s no reason to come this far only to let your hair catch on fire! That being said, there are alternatives if you don’t have the proper bowl or if you want to avoid the flames altogether. We’ll get to that, but first, let’s talk Tiki.
Over the years there have been several “bowl” style drink recipes that, for me, epitomize the laid-back attitude of tropical consumption. While I enjoy an outlandish ceramic Tiki mug filled with exotic juice and rum as much as the next beach bum, I also appreciate the idea that sometimes a drink is just so big (or so strong) that it needs to be shared with friends. During the holidays especially, why not make a cocktail that emphasizes this social experience and helps bring people together? With community bowl drinks, it’s as if someone took the idea of the punchbowl and simply added straws! Now, that’s a party!
For the Volcano, the extra-long straws serve the dual purpose of allowing folks to reach the drink from across the table while also preventing them from leaning over the it and setting themselves on fire. That’s right, as the name implies, the Volcano is supposed to be a flaming cocktail. Exciting as it sounds, the effect usually depends on a special ceramic vessel designed specifically to hold the flame (although we will explore some alternative methods).
Vintage volcano bowls like mine come from a restaurant called Orchids of Hawaii. There are others, but these turn up occasionally on eBay. The bowl itself is designed to hold this massive drink with ice. It features a center lava cone (the volcano) to hold a small amount of 151-proof spirit that you light on fire.
Volcano Bowl
6 oz grapefruit juice
2 oz lime juice
.75 oz grade A maple syrup
.5 oz simple syrup
3 oz Demerara rum
2 oz Jamaican rum
1 oz gold rum
Shake with lots of crushed ice and pour unstrained into your bowl filled with ice cubes. Add straws, and if appropriate, setup your volcano with 151-proof rum or other high-proof spirit and set it on fire. Dim the lights and carefully avoid the flames as you sip. Hula dancing is optional.
If you’ve never had a flaming cocktail before, it can be pretty entertaining, especially among friends or family. However, this is real fire mixed with real drinking, and it’s a lot of booze—not something you want to do if you have already had a few. But what if you are willing to shoulder the responsibility yet you don’t have the proper bowl? There’s a great DIY method you can use to pull this off. It takes a little preparation but using any average bowl that is big enough, you can transform it into a Volcano with some crushed ice and an empty lime shell.
Take a plastic cup and place a half lime shell into the bottom, cut-face down. Then, pack it with finely crushed ice. You might even be able to get away with packing ice into a wax paper cone or a pint glass. Put this into the freezer and allow it to set up before making the drink. In a relatively short time you can take the refrozen cone out of the mold and invert it into your bowl with the lime shell on top which will hold your flaming 151-proof spirit. The frozen cinder cone should be big enough not to float as you pour in the drink, but not so tall so that it poses a risk if it falls over as it melts. You can simply set a lime shell atop a big ice cube too, but unless there’s a small depression, it could slide off. An alternative is to just freeze some empty lime shells in tiny bowls of water. These can behave in the bowl like a floating candle with the lime shell again holding the flame. It’s not as impressive as a crushed ice cinder cone, but it’s a good backup plan.
What if you want to avoid flames altogether? It’s certainly a safer option, but you can still add drama to your presentation using dry ice! Check the yellow pages for ice suppliers in your area and ask them if they have food-grade dry ice. This stuff is basically frozen carbon dioxide. It is extremely cold, so use your ice tongs. Add a big enough chunk to your bowl to keep it out of the straws, but a little will go a long way. It will sink to the bottom and start to transform directly from solid to gas. As this happens, it creates a smoke effect which can be just as fun as the flame in this drink. In this case, think of your entire bowl is the volcano crater! It’s just carbon dioxide, but it’s in your drink which is why you should only use food grade dry ice.
Don The Beachcomber's, St. Paul, MN
Fire or smoke effects aside, this is a tasty and traditional Tiki cocktail recipe. You can find other variations that include everything from brandy to pineapple juice, but according to Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, this is a 1970 recipe from Don The Beachcomber’s location right here in St. Paul, Minnesota. The restaurant opened in 1966 in what was then the St. Paul Hilton on Kellogg Avenue. Don The Beachcomber’s is gone and the hotel is now the Crowne Plaza.
This drink of the week is pretty easy to pull off. It’s a Caiprissima, which is like a Caipirinha only it uses rum instead of cachaça, and of course, this one also has cherries in it. According to my notes, I saw this somewhere back in June so it’s probably a summer drink. It’s been raining in December around here, so a summer drink sounds like a good drink in my book. This Caiprissima variation was created by Meaghan Dorman of Raines Law Room, Manhattan. If you are familiar with the Caipirinha, you know the drill—just use rum and throw in some cherries!
The process goes something like this: Take some pitted cherries and drop them into a shaker. Add your simple syrup (or just a couple spoons of sugar if you prefer) and muddle them into oblivion. Drop in half of a lime cut into four chunks and muddle these too. I suppose you could just muddle all of this at once if you think you can get all of the juices out of everything. Add your rum, ice, then shake it until cold and pour the whole works into a rocks glass.
Cherry Caiprissima by Meaghan Dorman
2 oz white rum
.75 oz simple syrup
3 cherries, pitted and halved
Half a lime, cut into quarters
In a cocktail shaker add simple syrup, cherries and lime quarters. Muddle to extract all of the juice. Add the rum and 6 ice cubes. Shake hard and pour everything into a rocks glass.
I used 6 cherries because mine were small Balaton sour cherries that my wife and I hand picked in Wisconsin this summer. In addition to using them to make a fantastic cherry liqueur (more on that later), we saved a bunch for jam and froze the rest. So, I pulled these out of the freezer. I don’t think there is anything wrong with using frozen cherries in this as long as you let them thaw so you can muddle them. Come to think of it, this would probably also work fine using cherry preserves if you adjust the amount of simple syrup.
The lime dominates the flavor of this drink as it probably should given the style. But the cherries do add something extra that is worth the tiny additional effort. It has a rustic look in the glass with all of the pulp and peel, but the color combo is beautiful. Give this a try, and while your at it, why not make a few variations. By changing the fruit, this cocktail could go in lots of different directions. Let me know what you try in the comments below.
It’s that time of the year again when my wife and I choose a bottle to add to our collection of Scotch whisky. Over the years we have pulled together a small selection of single malts—a process that continues to work well for us. We don’t drink a lot of Scotch throughout the year so bottles tend to last a long time. Rather than stocking a cabinet all at once, this technique allows us to be more selective as we slowly build an inventory without feeling the expense all at once.
In past years we have often tried to add bottles from distilleries familar to us by choosing a special bottling or a distiller’s reserve, but this time our apporoach was influenced by a series of events that we first read about in the New York Times. An article published back in July chronicled the story about how three cases of Chas. Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt were discovered hidden in a century-old hut at the bottom of the world.
You may have heard the story too, and I won’t go into too much detail (you can read the Times article, or watch the video below). The short version is this: Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton and his team launched an expedition to reach the south pole in 1907. Among his supplies were 25 cases of whisky. Having erected a small hut upon reaching the southern continent (a structure that still stands today) the explorers headed for the pole. Shackleton’s journey fell short of the goal and they were forced to return, sick and malnourished.
For a hundred years, the structure has stood as a monument to the failed expedition. Then, In 2007, three cases of whisky were discovered hidden underneath the hut by workers trying to restore the landmark. Frozen and preserved in the permafrost, these bottles represent a very rare find. By 2010 they were finally on their way to a lab in New Zealand for analysis, and eventually, a few bottles were returned to Whyte & Mackay, the current owners of the Mackinlay label.
With so little to go around and so much interest, careful analysis and expert blending has led to a limited production replica whisky, researched and constructed to be the perfect copy of the flavors enjoyed by Shackleton and his men over a century ago. They have also taken this novelty a step further by packaging it in identical fashion right down to the wooden crate, hand-lettered labels, seedy bottle and straw packing. You even get an authentic cork stopper in a burlap bag. The whole package is unique. How could we pass this up for our holiday Scotch selection?
The original Shackleton bottles are apparently 5-year single malt, but to re-create it took a blend of single malts ranging from 8 to 30 years. But how does it taste? It’s light and elegant with a crisp floral aroma and fruit flavors like apples and peaches. It is usually described as also having elements of sherry wood, cinnamon, toffee, and only light peat. That apparently surprised many of the experts who expected to find robust smoky peat in a Scotch so old, but here that flavor is mild. Actually, this is about as much peat as I like in a Scotch, although I do keep an ounce of Laphroaig next to my bitters to rinse glasses for special cocktails. Although Kimberly and I both tend toward bottles that avoid the peat, I do understand its complex appeal for some people and I don’t mind it here. This is one we will drink over the long haul, pulling it out for guests and special occasions.
This Drink of the Week week is actually three drinks in one. The Eastern Sour is the first of a small family of sour cocktails invented by none other than Trader Vic, one of the founding fathers of the mid-century Tiki movement. Although it isn’t as complex or as difficult as many Tiki drinks, for some people that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The more ingredients—or often, the more obscure the ingredients—the less likely most folks will be able to execute the recipe. At least that was my theory as I looked for a tropical style drink to post this week. I thought we needed a change from all of the Manhattan variations I have been posting.
My source of reference is a groovy little iPhone/iPad app called Beachbum Berry’s Tiki+. This app was developed with the full endorsement of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry and it’s filled with recipes that appear in several of his great books. Berry is widely respected as the most significant Tiki cocktail historian alive today. I am not usually one to rave about technology on Summit Sips, but if you are ever looking for a decent app that focuses on honest, tried and true Tiki recipes, look no further. Having it in your pocket makes for a handy reference, but you can also find everything your Polynesian heart desires in Beach Bum Berry Remixed.
Now, I suppose I could have picked anything from this treasure trove—there certainly is a wide variety from which to choose. Some are tropical favorites while others showcase exotic juices and syrups. But as I read through the recipes I realized that not everyone will be able to make many of these without tracking down one or more special ingredients. So, I started looking for drinks with more typical components, and that’s when I noticed some repetition among a few of the recipes credited to Trader Vic. Victor Bergeron, as you may recall, invented the Mai Tai (or at least he invented one of the more famous recipes). His Eastern Sour seemed to appear under three different names—each with it’s own base spirit.
Eastern Sour
2 oz bourbon or rye whiskey (or. . .)
2.5 oz orange juice
.75 oz lemon juice
.25 oz orgeat syrup
.25 oz simple syrup
Add ingredients to a shaker. Add 1 cup of crushed ice, shake to chill, and pour the entire contents (unstrained) into a double old fashioned glass. Garnish with the empty shell peel from a lemon and orange.
It’s not a rum cocktail, although many Tiki recipes are. It doesn’t use unusual fruit juices—just lemon and orange. About the only challenge you might face is the orgeat syrup, but these days, even that isn’t very hard to locate. In fact, it may be high time for you to make your own. The simple syrup is just 1:1, so this is about as straightforward as it gets. You’ll need to crush six or seven ice cubes, but it’s worth it. And remember, we actually have three drinks in one. By swapping out the whiskey for another spirit, the drink transforms slightly. Try it with Scotch and the name becomes the London Sour. Swap it with brandy/cognac and you just made a Munich Sour. All three recipes call for the same presentation: sink the half-shells of the citrus into a double old fashioned glass. I opted for a lemon wheel and served them in these lovely goblets.
I’ll admit, this isn’t the most complex set of flavors, especially when it comes to Tiki drinks, but it is authentic. The Eastern Sour appeared sometime in the 1950s with the London and the Munich variations coming in consecutive decades that followed. If you enjoy a refreshing sour this one certainly satisfies. It’s an easy drinker, no question about it, but which one should you make? After trying all three, my wife and I agreed that the Munich was our favorite, but I should mention that I cheated a little and used tangerine juice. Still, even with that adjustment, the only difference between my Eastern, London and Munich Sours was the base spirit. While she sipped the Munich, I opted for the London. It’s hard to pass up a cocktail that contains Scotch because there are so few. After sipping the London, I switched to the Eastern and wondered if I had made the wrong choice. Aw heck, they are all good!
One of the best gifts you can give someone interested in cocktails is booze. You don’t even have to break the bank (although you might reconsider picking from the bottom shelf) because it doesn’t have to be the rarest or the most expensive item in the shop. Pick a decent base spirit and you really can’t go wrong. For example, there’s no such thing as having too much gin for classic cocktails, and who would turn away a nice bottle of whiskey or rum? Certainly not me, so if you want a no-brainer gift idea that will be used and appreciated, look no further. The problem with this approach is that a bottle of alcohol may not be the most personal or creative gift idea. It will work as a last resort, but you can do better!
If a bottle of booze is the baseline, or the least creative idea available, it stands to reason that one notch up from there would be a specific bottle of booze. Maybe it’s something you heard your recipient mention once or twice. Perhaps you know exactly what’s in their cabinet, or more specifically, what’s missing. Maybe it’s a unique bottle of bitters. Taking this a step a bit further, you could focus on a specific cocktail. For example, you could give them an Aviation by assembling the gin, Luxardo maraschino liqueur and lemons (creme de violette optional). That’s quite a few items, but a little research through the Drinks of The Week, or even the Cocktails page should help you zero in on some ingredients. If you know your mixologist already has the base spirits, assembling some modifiers (liqueurs etc.) may be enough. Top off this idea with a handwritten recipe card or even something you type up and print on card stock to complete the concept.
Giving a cocktail recipe with bottled ingredients is one thing, but cocktails look fantastic in special glassware. I am a big fan of mixing and matching vintage cocktail coupes. These work great for “up” drinks like the Manhattan, Martini or any recipe that specifies the use of a cocktail glass without ice. Long drinks that call for Collins glasses or highballs can also work in fizz goblets. Look no further than the Summit Sips Antiqe/Vintage store. There are pairs of glasses or entire sets of them to choose from. These make wonderful gifts by themselves that will get used again and again. Think about what your recipient likes to drink and pick a style that fits their favorite cocktails!
Now that we are off to a good start, let’s really get creative. I mean, let’s talk about what you can actually create yourself. You don’t have to be a gourmet chef or even an experienced drinker to create fantastic cocktail ingredients. Most items can be made in one session plus a bit of waiting time. For example, one year I gave family and friends bottles of homemade Limoncello. My recipe is easy and can be made in three days from start to finish. Another idea is to to make a vodka or gin infusion. Mandarin vodka for example is really easy and only takes a few days to develop. You can also try serrano or jalapeño peppers if your cocktail lover likes a spicy Bloody Mary. Options are only limited by your imagination, but you can click here for suggestions and step-by-step details.
In addition to spirit-based ingredients, there are plenty of non-alcoholic homemade options that are easy to make and turn out better than anything you can buy in a store. I am referring to some amazing recipes such as real pomegranate grenadine and ginger syrup. Coupled with club soda and lime juice, ginger syrup can be used to make ginger beer on the spot or it can be used in some of my favorite cocktails. With pomegranates still available in supermarkets right now, you can make the best grenadine money can’t buy. Then there’s cinnamon syrup, quinine tonic, mint, lavender, or just about anything you can dream up with fresh herbs. If you decide to make something and bottle your gift, using the original bottle works fine for infusions, but for syrups I like to use smaller 375ml bottles from my local homebrew shop where you can also get reusable stoppers and heat-shrink PVC wraps for a very professional look. Don’t forget about the labels!
It’s not hard to be creative when it comes to gift-giving, but it’s not a requirement. You can always take a more traditional approach. Past suggestions still apply. What ever you decide to give the cocktail lover in your life, don’t hesitate to ask questions or seek suggestions in the comments below. Happy Holidays!
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was asking me why she couldn’t find the recipe for Hot Buttered Rum on the site. I realized it’s because I had never posted it. It’s time to fix that!
There are a couple schools of thought when it comes to Hot Buttered Rum. One is that the best recipe is actually not for the cocktail at all but rather a batter that you use as the basis for the drink. It’s hard to deny that a good batter recipe probably makes a fantastic cocktail, but there is another approach that I find appealing for a different reason. It follows the idea that if a recipe is too hard or just too time consuming, you probably aren’t going to make it. I am not one to back away from a challenge, but I also recognize that not everyone wants to commit to a full-blown batter recipe when they only want to mix one or two drinks. Batters are usually made in bulk resulting in a quantity suitable for a houseful of guests. You can often freeze it if you don’t use it all at once, but it just seems like a lot of extra work when all you want is a single cocktail to chase away the chill in the air. That’s why I have always enjoyed the recipe Robert Hess featured on one of his videos. It’s simple, does not take much time, and you can get away with making just a single glassful.
Instead of using a batter, this shortcut version brings all of the basic flavors together without making a mess. The only prep work you have to do is to put a kettle on the stove and start heating up some water while you gather the other ingredients. You’ll need a pat of butter, some brown sugar, the hot water and some rum. You should also pick an appropriate glass for your drink. A ceramic coffee cup works, but I chose a vintage Belgian glass mug which was perfectly sized for the job. Whatever you use, make sure it can withstand the shock of boiling water without breaking.
Hot Buttered Rum
1 teaspoon butter
2 teaspoon brown sugar
5 oz boiling water
2 oz rum
Preheat your mug with hot water and discard. Add the butter and brown sugar to the empty hot glass. Pour over 5 ounces of hot water and stir to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar. Add the rum and stir to incorporate. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
The key to this recipe is temperature. Normally, we put a lot of emphasis on ice in cocktails. Chilling the glass, using enough ice when shaking, paying attention to ingredients to help decide if you should be stirring, considering the size of the cubes for how they affect dilution—these are all important factors for a cold drink. So, it stands to reason that you should also be mindful of how you construct a cocktail designed to be served hot. That means you should be pre-heating the glass. But before you do, it can be helpful to know how much hot water you plan to add during construction. If you know you are adding five ounces, make a note of how high that is in your glass so you aren’t wasting heat and burning your fingers later while you measure boiling water!
Once you know how much water you will need to add, go ahead and fill your glass completely with boiling water. Give the glass a few moments to heat up before you empty it and start assembling the drink. For this recipe, I just added two spoonfuls of brown sugar. Were they exact teaspoons? Probably not. Did I even measure the butter? Nope. This is a fast and easy recipe, and it will taste good anyway. Added to a hot glass, the butter should already start to melt. Pour in the water and try to come close to hitting the mark you noted earlier. The preheated glass should be helping to maintain a very hot mixture while you stir to dissolve everything. Finally, add your rum and give it a final stir before garnishing with nutmeg.
I find this recipe lends itself to rich flavorful rums. I used Lemon Hart 80-proof which is a Demerara rum from Guyana, but you can probably get away with just about anything. Darker may be better, but I can’t imagine you could make a bad version of this if your rum selection is limited. To top it off, make the effort to use freshly grated nutmeg. If you are not using fresh nutmeg whenever called for you are really missing the flavor. The little nutmegs last a very long time and when you draw one across a grater the whole room fills with its aroma. There’s so little to this recipe that everything you add counts. Don’t pass on the garnish because it adds so much.
As the Summit Sips vintage glassware inventory continues to grow, we are adding new finds almost every other week to be enjoyed by our readers. This mug as well as many other cocktail glasses are available. Individual inventory levels vary because most items are unique. Once they are gone, they may never return.
As most of us settle into a weekend of turkey dinner leftovers in all of their various forms, it made sense to feature another riff on a popular classic—not that this is actually a leftover—the Greenpoint is a nice cocktail in it’s own right. However, since most drinks evolve from some earlier recipe, I guess this is as much a variation of a Manhattan as a turkey sandwich as a variation of roast turkey. It’s important to mention that in addition to evolving from the Manhattan, the Greenpoint is actually one of the Brooklyn neighborhood variants spawned by the Red Hook. It won’t be the last that I feature, but it might be the best.
Since the basis for the Greenpoint is the Red Hook, and by extension, the Manhattan, it should come as no surprise that that this is going to be a rye whiskey cocktail with vermouth. Following the Brooklyn formula, you may recall that our base spirit is combined with sweet vermouth (or a variant) and some liqueur. While the Red Hook takes advantage of the bitter complexity of Branca’s Punt e Mes, here I’m sticking with Carpano Antica Formula, an old recipe Italian vermouth also from Branca which adds a sweeter depth with a strong boost of vanilla. Then, instead of maraschino we will opt for Yellow Chartreuse.
Greenpoint
2 oz rye whiskey
.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
.5 oz sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Stir with ice and strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon zest twist.
Chartreuse comes in two basic forms. Green Chartreuse is fairly common but you may have to look around a bit for the yellow. The bottles are practically identical so when you find it you may need good lighting to tell what color you have. The flavors are similar, but the higher-proof green variety is bold and strong with the yellow being somewhat less intense and sweeter. Any serious mixologist or bar owner should have both, but it is something that could be acquired over time. Over the past year or so, replenished inventories have reflected increased prices on Chartreuse, and although you should use the yellow to make this drink, subbing green at a lower proportion can still yield a decent drink.
The bitters help to pull everything together, but the proportions overall are flexible. Most recipes specify the ingredients as noted, but Jim Meehan’s recent PDT Cocktail Book calls for Punt e Mes at a full ounce and only bar spoon of Yellow Chartreuse, dropping the orange bitters altogether for what is probably a boozier if not slightly bitter overall flavor profile. The point is that you should feel free to experiment, and while you’re at it, start lining up the liqueurs to see what you can come up with on your own. Someone may have already named your experiment after another Brooklyn neighborhood, but when a formula works and you like the result, it doesn’t really matter what you call it!
Well, we had our first real snowfall here in the Twin Cities today, so I figured what better time to say a few things about ice. I have written before about the importance of using proper ice in cocktails. Whether you are making a recipe that calls for crushed ice or one that requires solid cubes for shaking, using the right ice for the job is more important than most people realize. You can read all about that here, so let’s move on and explore the idea of the ice shard.
In addition to just serving drinks on the rocks, sometimes a recipe works nicely with a huge chunk that almost fills the glass. Ice spheres are great for this. Their large mass keeps everything cold, and the low surface area keeps the ice from melting. But what about tall and skinny Collins style drinks? You can’t exactly fit a sphere into a narrow glass, so the typical solution is to stack four or five cubes. That works fine, but eventually, they start to melt, and as they do, they shed water into the drink.
In days gone by, ice came in huge slabs and everything was hand chipped. Back then, you would score a narrow chunk and crack it off the slab so it fits nicely in your taller glassware. Better bars still do it the same way, but recently, I read about a simple technique you can use to make the shards as easily as any other ice cubes.
Modified Tovolo Tray
It’s no secret that the mixology community loves Tovolo ice cube trays. The silicone molds make perfectly-sized cubes for shaking and rocks drinks, and until now, they were the same cubes I used in tall glasses. The trick to getting perfect shards is to modify one of your Tovolo trays.
The proper length for my Collins glasses is about 4 cubes. Take a sharp razor blade or X-acto knife and carefully cut the silicone dividing walls of your tray to join four cube compartments into a single rectangle. This can be tricky, so take your time. The corners are the hard part, but you can bend the rest of the tray around so you can get in there nicely and trim the walls down flat. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Using a four-cube layout, you can get three shards out of one tray. I chose to keep opposing single cubes intact in a staggered pattern for stability. Once you have your tray ready, you can make ice, but the first couple of shards that you make will probably have tiny bits of silicone in them from your cutting. Just discard these shards and try again.
I like to store my shards in plastic wrap until needed to keep them from taking on any smells in the freezer. When you use them, slip them into your glass carefully (they are big) and watch your guests gasp in amazement at your mastery of frozen water!
The name may not inspire you, but this drink actually surprised me. If you dig around in old cocktail books for this recipe you find that they are all different. Flipping through the pages of the Savoy, for example, you find a recipe that lacks the Applejack and has no citrus. It doesn’t sound like something I want to try. You can find versions that add brandy to the mix and even some with cream. One might specify lemon while another will call for lime. It seems that darn near anything that had a light pink hue was once called a Pink Lady—a name you could just pass by thinking it’s a girlie drink before you started comparing vintage recipes. Even Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh goes to great lengths in his Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails to avoid revealing the name of this drink until you turn the page. But looking at Haigh’s ingredients I figured I’d give his version a go.
It was probably the Applejack which sometimes brings an unexpected level of complexity to drinks that piqued my curiosity. Dr. Cocktail hasn’t let me down before, but then I noticed his recipe calls for the juice of half of a lemon. That’s not exactly a precise amount. It can be frustrating to run across an ingredient specified this way instead of a straight measurement, but instead of getting bent out of shape about it, I decided to embrace “random flexibility” which can sometimes translate into serendipity. I used half of a smallish lemon and measured the juice! It came to just over one half ounce which is what I listed below. You get the best of both worlds.
Pink Lady
1.5 oz gin
.5 oz Applejack
.5 oz lemon juice
1 egg white
2 dashes grenadine
Add ingredients to a shaker and seal. Shake without ice for 15 seconds, open, add ice and shake again to chill. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.
The first thing I noticed was that this isn’t a sweet drink. And yet, it’s not really all that sour either. With only a couple dashes of homemade grenadine, I suppose I was expecting more of the acid to dominate, but then I remembered the Applejack. I couldn’t really find a distinct apple flavor, but there was something in the background that was keeping the lemon from getting out of control.
Then I was hit with floral aromas and singing botanical notes from the gin. I used Beefeater and each sip provided a platform to showcase the base spirit. This was a reward I hadn’t expected. It wasn’t piney juniper I was sensing. It was more floral. Even my two dashes of grenadine with its kiss of orange flower water was playing a role. I wouldn’t have minded just a little more of that, but I would want to test this theory to ensure any added sweetness wouldn’t undermine the flavor of the gin. The egg white worked perfectly to uplift the aromas. I didn’t sense any eggy smells and the texture was silky smooth. In the end, this drink was an unexpected success. I’d be curious how others feel about this version of the Pink Lady. Is it a lady’s drink? I think you could serve this to anyone and make them very happy!
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The Anodyne Cocktail—for whatever ails you. The name means something that alleviates or eliminates pain, so I guess it could apply to any drink, but in this case it was chosen for a medicinal combination of ingredients first tried by Wesley Moore in 2009 when it appeared on Chuck Taggart’s Looka! Gumbo Pages weblog. According to Chuck, the cocktail was inspired by the Perfect Martini which is a Martini made using equal portions of both sweet and dry vermouth.Anodyne by Wes Moore
I have to start with a word of caution. If you decide to make this Drink of the Week including it’s fiery presentation, proceed carefully. I have always been an advocate of responsible drinking and although that applies here too, there’s no reason to come this far only to let your hair catch on fire! That being said, there are alternatives if you don’t have the proper bowl or if you want to avoid the flames altogether. We’ll get to that, but first, let’s talk Tiki.
Take a plastic cup and place a half lime shell into the bottom, cut-face down. Then, pack it with finely crushed ice. You might even be able to get away with packing ice into a wax paper cone or a pint glass. Put this into the freezer and allow it to set up before making the drink. In a relatively short time you can take the refrozen cone out of the mold and invert it into your bowl with the lime shell on top which will hold your flaming 151-proof spirit. The frozen cinder cone should be big enough not to float as you pour in the drink, but not so tall so that it poses a risk if it falls over as it melts. You can simply set a lime shell atop a big ice cube too, but unless there’s a small depression, it could slide off. An alternative is to just freeze some empty lime shells in tiny bowls of water. These can behave in the bowl like a floating candle with the lime shell again holding the flame. It’s not as impressive as a crushed ice cinder cone, but it’s a good backup plan.
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This 
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