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In our opinion—no, scratch that—this is just an indisputable fact: There's no better compendium of Tiki cocktails than Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's Remixed. So, when we feel like exploring drinks that remind us of the tropics, we look no further. Facing so many choices and a variety of unusual ingredients, we decided to search for a recipe that was fast and easy and didn't require us to buy something new. We settled on the Oahu Gin Sling for it's simplicity.
Historically, a sling predates the classic cocktail and stems from a period before drinks contained bitters. At that time, they also would not have had citrus, except as a garnish, amounting to little more than sweetened spirits. While modern versions with their added fruit juices and seltzer may not adhere to historic definitions, the fact remains that naming conventions are far less important than the flavors in the glass,
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Dry vermouth—it's hard to find another ingredient that is so important and yet so unloved by the masses. Vermouth is aromatized wine, and as any wine appreciator can tell you, once opened, it won't last forever. Oxidation begins immediately upon opening a bottle. For the first few hours oxygen might help elevate the flavors in a good wine, but what might have tasted great during the party is probably going down the drain the next morning—unless it was vacuum-pumped and sealed. Although vermouth is fortified with spirits, it still needs to be treated with respect. We doubt many readers treat theirs with the same care as a delicate wine. A warm cabinet and an opened bottle will quickly lead to horrible flavor. It's no wonder most people cringe at the mere mention of vermouth in their Martinis! If your vermouth has been collecting dust, unrefrigerated, it belongs in the trash,
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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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There aren't a lot of cocktails that feature Scotch as the base spirit, and because of that, you don't find very many here at Summit Sips. Over time, we'll slowly add to the list, but it's not the easiest spirit to pair with other ingredients. Besides, most folks that have Scotch like it the way they like it—on the rocks, neat, with water, etc.—and may not be interested in messing with their own personal traditions. Of course, that never stopped us. Let's see, we have the recent Saw Tooth, which is a wonderful way to use watermelon (who would have thought!), the Blood and Sand, an excellent classic, and there's the London Sour for a little Tiki action. But the most common cocktail is probably the Rob Roy, something we have never featured. That's
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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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We like vodka at Summit Sips. We really do. But over the years it hasn't shared as much of the lime light on these pages as other spirits. There are a few good reasons for that. One is that vodka was virtually non-exisitent in the US before the 1940s. As such, it's nearly impossible to find classic cocktails that use it because it doesn't appear in any of the old books. Of course, one can't ignore the the Moscow Mule, the Cosmopolitan, or even James Bond's Vodka Martini, but these are all relatively new ideas. Everything pre-prohibition would have contained gin, whiskey, brandy or rum; it may be hard to imagine, but vodka was unknown at that time.
Another reason vodka doesn't appear quite as often
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The Vieux Carré was first created in 1938 by Walter Bergeron, head bartender at the Hotel Monteleone which, in addition to housing the unusual rotating Carousel Bar, is considered the gateway to the French Quarter for which the drink is named. The Vieux Carré (French for "old square") is as much a fixture of the New Orleans cocktail scene as the Sazerac, and it's another reminder of the golden age of mixology.
If you are a fan of spirit-forward drinks, this is another one for your house menu. Upon making it, you might recognize that this is just a Saratoga sweetened with Benedictine. Ok, there's Peychaud's bitters too, and by this logic, any cocktail is just another version of something else. You could say it's like a Monte Carlo, or a variation of the La Louisianne, but these are all just riffs on the Manhattan. If
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Supposedly, July 27th was National Scotch Day. I know it's not the most popular holiday, but the timing was pretty good (it was a coincidence, really) for describing the Scotch tasting event last week and for featuring the Blood and Sand cocktail the week before. I thought about selecting another Scotch drink this week but I decided it was time to move on. That's when a friend of mine finally tracked down some Cherry Heering and made the Blood and Sand. I wondered if perhaps there were other readers looking for additional ways to use cherry brandy, so I thought I would feature the Singapore Sling.
It can be a delicious cocktail, depending on the recipe you use. That said, it's just as easy to make one taste awful. Part of the problem is that like a lot of cocktails, the original recipe was lost and this has caused
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Randy explains how best to open a pomegranate and release the precious seeds within as well has how to use the juice from these seeds to make grenadine. Once you've made your own grenadine, there are several delicious recipes to try, including the Singapore Sling, Monkey Gland, and the Commodore Cocktail.
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