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Sometimes we have to make tough decisions. For example, Derby Day or Cinco de Mayo? As a friend of ours recently said, you don't really have to make that choice—you can have a Mint Julep in the morning and Margaritas all day long! It's good advice, but instead of focusing on Kentucky or Mexico, we decided to break from tradition and feature a cocktail invented in Portland, Oregon with influences all the way from Argentina.
La Yapa is a wonderful whiskey cocktail based on a sour formula with a complex flavor profile. It was created by Jamal Hassan during his tenure at Whey Bar, boozy companion to Portland's Ox restaurant. Ox cuisine is Argentinian inspired, so it stands to reason that the cocktail program would have similar influences. More than one cocktail on the menu
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If you ever wanted a drink recipe to show to your friends—one that you reserve for that special person you want to dazzle with something creative—this is it. If you know someone who claims that they don't like gin, but it's clear they have never experienced the wonderful alchemy of a gin-based cocktail, now's your chance to change their mind. For anyone interested in layering basic elements and techniques to create something remarkable in the glass, this cocktail will certainly entertain. The Juliet & Romeo has a fancy presentation yet it's easy to make and is perhaps the most interesting, most refreshing and delicious cocktail we've ever had the pleasure of sharing.
It comes by way of Toby Maloney of The Violet Hour in Chicago, but it has also appeared on the menu at his other bars such as the Bradstreet Crafthouse in Minneapolis. We've been
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To change it up a bit this week, let's try an "inverted" post for our Drink of the Week. We'll give you the recipe and a photo. Then, it's your turn. You make the cocktail and tell us what you think in the comments! How about it?
We will say just a few things to get the conversation started. First, the Monte Carlo is a classic cocktail in the truest sense: spirits, sugar, water and bitters. In this case, a little license is given in that water/sugar takes the form of DOM Benedictine which will definitely add some interest to the whiskey. Think of a Manhattan, only instead of sweet vermouth, you have Benedictine. Now, go forth and try one, then let us know what you think in the comments below:
Monte Carlo 2 oz rye whiskey .5 oz Benedictine 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Stir with ice. Strain into a
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It's Cocktail Week in Portland, Oregon which means the whole city is buzzing with events. Some require registration while others are open to the public. There is everything from classes about topics like drink photography and how to get a book published to seminars about spirits and technique. Most are sponsored by one brand or another often with samples or cocktails provided. We attended one such event on Monday called On The Town with Dale DeGroff: A Tribute to Bars, Speaks, and Legendary Saloons!
We have to admit, it's a privilege just to share a room with Dale DeGroff (aka King Cocktail). He's one of the most respected living bartenders and an international personality whose career is intimately connected with our current cocktail renaissance. Although he's quick to give credit to the visionary restauranteurs that first hired him to run their bars, most people agree that Mr. DeGroff
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After we got our hands on Jim Meehan’s PDT Cocktail Book a while back, we did a little digging around the interwebs to find out what folks were trying. The Bubbaloo cocktail created by Euclides López in 2009 was mentioned, so we flipped the pages and found the recipe. Not a lot has been written about this drink, and since we had all of the ingredients we thought we might give it a try.
Bubbaloo by Euclides López 2.25 oz pisco .5 oz sweet vermouth .5 oz apricot brandy (liqueur) 3 dashes Amargo Peruvian Bitters
Stir with plenty of ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
The only challenge with the recipe is the Amargo bitters. We picked up a bottle a couple years ago to make an authentic Pisco Sour. There's probably a good argument against using Angostura in its place, but we
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There's still a bit of chill in the air even though we have probably seen the last of winter. Even with warmer days, it can cool down overnight, so this cocktail seems appropriate. We could have put more focus on eggs or family gatherings this week, but we like the rich and complex herbal flavors in this drink so much we decided not to wait any longer to post it, especially as we begin our journey into the warmer months.
So, while it's still a bit cool outside, here's a wonderful spirit-driven recipe that pulls together a couple of our favorite components and uses a base spirit we don't see very often. Calvados is French apple brandy. In most respects it's similar to Applejack, but it has a softer, more refined flavor. That's probably a good thing in this drink because there is already plenty going on with the other
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Here is an excellent tipple to add to your weekend repertoire. You might have seen this one appear on the menus at some of your favorite craft cocktail bars recently even though it's more than 80 years old. It dates at least as far back as Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book. This is one of those rediscovered recipes that seems to have legs—bars that were once excited about the Aviation and later, the Last Word are putting this drink into rotation. And they should, because this is a wonderful cocktail.
Of course, the Champs Élysées name is a reference to the fashionable tree-lined avenue in Paris, possibly because of the French ingredients. Certainly, a good French Cognac is going to help the flavor of this drink to a point, but spending too much on the base
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The Toronto combines two things we love: rye whiskey and Fernet-Branca. Some accounts suggest that this drink was originally made with Canadian whisky which makes sense, especially considering that it’s called the Toronto cocktail. But there’s more to love when you make it with rye. We haven’t written too much about Canadian whisky. It’s a popular spirit, to be sure, represented by a multitude of brands in most liquor shops. We have nothing against the smooth flavor of Canadian whisky, but there’s a reason it doesn’t appear very often in recipes.
Canadian whisky (spelled without the “e”) is a blended product. Blended in this context refers to a spirit made by combining a pure distillate with neutral alcohol. For example, Laird’s Applejack comes in two varieties, a pure, bonded apple brandy and a blended version. The bonded Applejack is made entirely from distilled cider wine, whereas the blended version contains
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Scan the liquor cabinet for base spirits and you might find a sad bottle of pisco that always seems to squeeze itself into the darkest corner. That's a shame because there's nothing actually wrong with pisco—it's just that there are only a handful of cocktails you can find that use it. Of course there is the Pisco Sour plus old references to Pisco Punch, but aside from a few recipes that pair this clear brandy with Galliano, you just don't see folks using it much. Just because recipes don't exist in abundance doesn't mean it's not popular. The Pisco Sour is a fantastic drink and depending on what part of the world you are in, it can even be the most important cocktail on the menu. Having already covered it some time ago, we decided there's no reason it can't be used as
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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
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