More Fun with Falernum

As promised earlier, here are a few other drinks I've tried out in the past few weeks as I keep playing with falernum. Two are classic Tiki recipes, but the final recipe is my own invention.

Captain's Blood Cocktail - there are more recipes for Captain's Blood on the interwebs than I care to count. All agree that the cocktail should feature rum, preferably dark rum. They all also contain lime juice and (often) bitters. Beyond that, there is little agreement. One bartender added a honey syrup. Others add maraschino, which would add nice aromatics, but was too bitter for my taste. Often falernum is featured, as it is in the recipe I offer below:

In a cocktail shaker, combine the following ingredients:
1.5 oz dark rum
0.5 oz lime juice
0.33 oz falernum (good double jiggers will have 1/2, 1 and 1 1/2 oz pours on one side, and 1/3, 2/3 and 1 oz pours on the other side)
0.33 oz simple syrup (demerara syrup would be preferable)*

Shake over ice and strain into a coupe glass. Top with 2 dashes angostura bitters. Garnish with a lime wedge.

*demerara syrup is made the same as regular (1:1) simple syrup, but uses demerara/turbinado sugar (usually sold as Sugar in the Raw in your grocery store). The molasses flavor pairs better with the dark rum.

The Zombie - the original cocktail of Don the Beachcomber, one of the fathers of the Tiki drink movement, the Zombie is a blended drink with an impressive ingredient list - a list which included three types of rum (and falernum of course)! This takes a few seconds to build, but I think it is worth the time! Chow has the original recipe here. I've made a few modifications, because even I couldn't justify buying Pernod for this drink.

In a blender, combine the following ingredients:
1.5 oz dark rum
1.5 oz golden rum
1 oz overproof demerara rum, such as Lemon Hart 151
0.75 oz lime juice (fresh squeezed of course - tiki should always be made with fresh ingredients!)
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz falernum
0.5 oz maraschino liqueur (this helps replace the pernod)
0.25 oz grenadine
2 dashes angostura bitters

Blend on low for 5 seconds. Add crushed ice and blend until frothy. Pour into a collins glass and serve.

The Oakland Bay Bridge - this is my riff on the Golden Gate Cocktail, which (like the Captain's Blood) has many versions floating around on the internet. Some of them are quite interesting (including a take on the classic French '75), while others are quite boring (like the recipe on Absolut's website). I decided to take that last recipe and slum it up a little, hence the name of the drink. It still retains the coloration you should expect in a Golden Gate, but it is less pretentious. The Oakland Bay Bridge was the best analog I could think of for this drink.

In a cocktail shaker, combine:
2 oz light rum*
1.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz falernum
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake over ice, strain and serve over ice in a collins glass.

*The first time I made this drink, I used Mailbu Orange Cream rum. Not bad, even if it was a bit over-sweet! The orange bitters are a better choice, however.

December Drink of the Month - The Ninth Ward Cocktail

The past two winters I've taken to making Tiki and tropical cocktails in order to fight off the chill of the Polar Vortex. When shopping at my local booze emporium this week (yay for City-Wide Liquors) I stumbled across a bottle of Falernum, one of the oft-forgotten Tiki ingredients. Falernum is liqueur with quite a low ABV - as low as 11%, though it usually hovers somewhere around 18%. It is made from a rum base, but also includes lime juice, sugar syrup, clove, ginger, and almond. There was an old rhyme that was used to help remember how to prepare Falernum: "One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak." Were you to try to make this syrup at home, you've now got a pretty easy recipe: combine one part lime juice, two parts sugar syrup, three parts white rum, and four parts water. You would certainly still need to know the correct blend of clove, ginger, and bitter almond, but you're well on your way (Want to make your own? Here is a great recipe to try)!

How does one use Falernum? Turns out that Falernum is a great substitute for orgeat syrup in almost almost sip and enjoy (though Ann liked the drink much better when I accidentally doubled the Falernum the first time I tried the recipe - gah, was that sweet!). The elderflower liqueur lends sweetness and compliments the spice flavors in the Falernum, while the bourbon base adds warmth and a hint of spice as well. Try one this winter - not only will it warm up your insides, but its also delicious!
any case. I made a fantastic Mai Tai last week using Falernum and Cachaça. I will post that recipe and a few other Falernum recipes next week, but you can also let your imagination run wild! There are also quite a few classic cocktails that feature Falernum, including the Zombie and Captain's Blood. For this month's cocktail, however, I chose something that features a great blend of Tiki and belly warmth. For my money, you can't do a better "liquid jacket" than whiskey. Rum never warmed my insides the same way that a stiff shot of bourbon. With that in mind, I turned to this recipe from roving bartender Brother Cleve: the Ninth Ward Cocktail. This is a drink that even whiskey haters can

The Ninth Ward Cocktail
In a cocktail shaker, combine the following ingredients:

1.5 oz bourbon
0.5 oz elderflower liqueur (St. Germain or otherwise - St. Elder is a great substitute)
0.75 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
0.75 oz falernum
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Shake over ice, strain into a coupe glass and garnish with an orange rind zest (Coupe glasses are the best! Want to buy me a wedding present - coupe glasses would be great!).

Enjoy your Ninth Ward Cocktail!

November Drink of the Month - Dark and Stormy (and Homemade Ginger Beer)

The first drink I ever made for Ann Mason was a Dark and Stormy. It was our fourth date, and we had just come into my house after being nearly swept away in a mid-summer South Bend monsoon. Their was a hockey play-off game on TV and my crazy roommates were still out on the porch, air-drying after frolicking around in the rain like pagans. Good times. I'd love to say that I chose to make the Dark and Stormy the drink of the month in honor of just passing the one year mark until our wedding, but that would be untrue (although it does make way better copy than what is to follow). Instead, Zack and I had both come across recipes for Ginger Beer - and what better way to taste test homemade Ginger Beer than in a Dark and Stormy? Below are the two recipes we tried out and then the recipe for the Dark and Stormy. The process is simple and only takes a day or two to ferment, so I hope you make your own Ginger Beer!

The first recipe we tried came from Imbibe magazine. They've been on a bit of a ginger kick lately. Two of their last four DIY recipes have been ginger themed (this month they have a recipe for homemade Ginger Liqueur, which I will clearly try out soon), so it was only a matter of time before I tried the recipe. Here is their step-by-step process:

1) Peel and coarsely chop 4 ounces of fresh ginger.
2) Place ginger in blender with 4 cups of filtered water and pulse until roughly puréed.
3) Pour mixture into a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 cup turbinado/demerara sugar and 1 tbsp molasses. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Then remove from heat and allow to cool to just above room temperature.
4) Pour mixture into a 2-liter bottle, straining out and particulates through a double layer of cheesecloth. Make sure to squeeze the cheesecloth to extract as much liquid as possible.
5) Add 3/4 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice (fine strained to remove any particulates) and top off the 2-liter bottle with up to 4 more cups of filtered water until liquid is about 3 inches from top of the bottle.
6) Add 1/4 teaspoon of champagne yeast to the top of the mixture. Squeeze the bottle until the liquid comes up the neck (so that there is room for the bottle to expand as the mixture ferments). Screw the cap on tightly and let the bottle sit at room temperature for 12 hours, or until it is firm.
7) Move the bottle to the refrigerator, keep for up to one week.

This recipe produces a very dark ginger beer and the molasses flavor stands out nicely. The drink looks like root beer and has a nice spice aftertaste. It fermented very quickly - make sure to use care when opening the bottle for the first time so you don't get covered in carbonated fizz! This recipe was my favorite of the two we made. We also added a little clove to the mixture in the sauce pot, but the flavor was not terribly noticeable.


The other recipe we tried came from the Bar Book (which I mentioned in September). We adjusted their recipe in order to take advantage of the same empty 2-liter bottle method employed in the Imbibe recipe. The Bar Book recipe makes a gallon and then batches it out into 16 oz bottles. We modified it to make a single 2-liter bottle's worth. Below is the step-by-step process: 

1) Make 5 ounces of ginger juice by pulsing 3/4 cup of peeled, coarsely chopped ginger in a blender with enough water to create a thick liquid. The consistency should be much closer to smoothie than stew, but be careful not to add too much water. Strain the mixture through a double layer of cheesecloth, making sure to squeeze the cheesecloth to extract as much liquid as possible.
2) In a large container, combine the 5 ounces of ginger juice with 4 1/2 cups of warm, filtered water, 8 ounces of freshly squeezed, finely strained lemon juice, and 14 ounces of 1:1 simple syrup. Stir the mixture for 2-3 minutes to ensure that all the ingredients are well mixed.
3) Pour mixture into an empty 2-liter bottle (up to 3 inches from top of the neck) and then add 1/4 teaspoon of champagne yeast. Squeeze the bottle until the liquid comes up to the neck, then close the cap tightly.
4) Shake the mixture well and then store in a warm dry place for up to 48 hours, until the bottle has expanded.
5) Move the bottle to the refrigerator, keep for up to one week.

This recipe was slightly more involved - it required pre-making simple syrup and the ginger juice making process was a bit messier than the ginger-water process for the Imbibe recipe. However, Zack liked this recipe better. The result looks very different - this ginger beer looks like cloudy lemonade and has a much sweeter taste (but still has the nice, spicy ginger finish).

One quick note: where do I find ginger? Might I suggest your local Hispanic grocery store? We found fresh ginger for less than $1.50 a pound, whereas it retailed for over $4.50 a pound at our usual supermarket. Champagne yeast can be found at any local home brew store - we used Montrachet yeast at the suggestion of our local guys.

You can use either of these ginger beers to make a Dark and Stormy. Technically a Dark and Stormy should be made with Gosling Ginger Beer and Gosling's Black Rum (they own the trademark for the name), but any dark rum works. However, do not use dark spiced rum, such as Kraken, as the combination of spiced ginger beer and spiced rum can be off-putting. The (extremely simple) recipe is below:

1) Fill a Collins glass with ice.
2) Add 2 ounces dark rum (I use Myers Dark) and 4 ounces ginger beer.
3) Squeeze in the juice of 1/4 lime and drop in as garnish.
4) Serve with a straw for stirring the drink.

 Enjoy your Dark and Stormy!

October Drink of the Month - The BB Gun (and Fun with Shrubs!)

The most recent issue of Imbibe magazine decided to run a feature this month on shrubs. Sometimes called "drinking vinegar," a shrub is a combination of fruit (and sometimes herbs), sugar and vinegar. Shrubs first popped up in North America in colonial times and gained popularity during the temperance movement as a alternative to spirits. Recently, shrubs have gained popularity as a replacement for bitters, especially in rum and brandy cocktails. They have a really unique sweet and sour flavor and are pretty easy to make at home.

There are multiple ways to make shrubs, but one of the easiest is the cold-process, a means of preparation that takes a little time, but yields a beautiful product. Using a process called maceration (letting the fruit soften in juices in order to extract the flavor) we slowly release the flavor of the fruit and combine it with the acidic vinegar to produce our shrub. For today, we'll detail the process of making a blackberry shrub, and then offer two preparations - as a soda or as a the BB Gun Cocktail (from Jessica Braasch via Imbibe).

To make the blackberry shrub, wash and place two cups of blackberries in a mason jar. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar over the blackberries (I used turbinado sugar since we will be pairing this shrub with aged rum in the cocktail). Allow the berries and sugar to sit for 12-24 hours. Similar to the preparation for strawberry shortcake, the sugar will slowly draw out the juice from the berries, resulting in a sweet, dark syrup. Gently shake the jar and/or crush the berries from time to time to make sure as much berry surface area comes into contact with the sugar as possible. After the allotted time, add 1 cup of apple cider vinegar to the jar. Stir occasionally to make sure all the sugar is dissolved. Allow the mixture to sit, covered, for another 24 hours. Finally, strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer into a clean jar. Press on the berries in the strainer with a wooden spoon to extract all of the good juice out of the berries before discarding. You should be left with a beautiful, clear dark purple liquid (that will stain your counter top like the dickens, so be aware).

The shrub can be used on its own to make a soda by combining it with seltzer water. Simply add the desired amount of shrub to a glass and top with soda water. I used 2 oz of shrub and 8 oz of soda for a refreshing, sweet and sour concoction. If your tastes run sweeter, you can also add a splash of simple syrup to the mix.

However, our reason for making the shrub was to try out a new drink featuring aged rum. Below is the recipe for the "BB Gun" recipe from Kask in Portland:

In a cocktail shaker, combine the following ingredients:

1.5 oz aged rum (I used Bacardi 8 Anos - this is the most readily available)

1 oz blackberry shrub

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

1/4 oz 1:1 simple syrup (I ended up using closer to 1/2 oz, but I'm an unrepentant "sweet" drink guy)

Shake over ice and strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with soda. The recipe calls for a garnish of mint leaves and a lime wheel.

The drink has an incredibly different taste from most cocktails. The lime helps bring out the tartness of the vinegar even more than when the shrub is alone with soda water. The blackberry adds nice sweetness and the rum is a great base for the drink, adding just a hint of smokiness. This would make a great porch sipper for the end of summer or perhaps for when you are cooped up in your kitchen on a cold October day, trying to remember that summer will one day return.

Enjoy your BB Gun! 

September Drink of the Month - the Caipirinha

Happy September friends! I'm so sorry I was unable to post a drink of the month for August, but it's been a busy month for me. I started the month moving across campus from Zahm House to Duncan Hall, where I will be an Assistant Rector (hall director) for the 2014-2015 school year. As soon as I moved my last box, Ann and I departed South Bend for a week of vacation with my family in Virginia. We got back just in time to attend a wedding and then I began a week of training for my new job. During that time period, I also interviewed for and was offered a job for next year as the Director of Religious Education at parish here in South Bend (which I accepted - I'll be beginning part time in January and then I'll start full time in July). Life goes on, as the next week we had a retreat for our MDiv program and the first week of classes. Finally, I closed out the month by proposing to my (then) girlfriend Ann Mason (because now she's my fiancee!) - and she said yes! So you'll forgive me my (three) loyal readers if I'm a bit behind - over the course of August I moved, went on vacation, started a new job and interviewed and was hired for another one, started my last year of grad school and got engaged. What an exciting month!

In honor of Miss Ann Mason, who won me over with the promise of a friendly bartender serving "bigger than normal" rum and cokes when we first met, this month's drink features Cachaça, the Brazilian evil twin to Caribbean rum (Ann, we'll do something Christmas-y next month, I promise). Like rum, Cachaça is made from sugarcane. However, unlike rum, which is usually made from molasses (processed sugarcane), Cachaça is made from fresh sugarcane juice which is then fermented and distilled. The liquor has many colorful nicknames in Brazil, including "heart-opener" and "tiger breath" (as well as "eye wash," which is less flattering).

The Caipirinha is the most ubiquitous Cachaça beverage. Its name roughly translates as "little hillbilly," but the term is somewhat archaic - the term is much more commonly associated with the drink than any social classes. It is an extremely simple drink to make, featuring only four ingredients - ice, lime, sugar and Cachaça. The artistry in this drink comes in finding the correct proportions and in the technique used to prepare and muddle the lime, and finding the correct (fresh) ingredients. The classic IBA recipe calls for brown sugar , but most bartenders use white superfine sugar.

Here is the recipe for the Caipirinha:

Begin with 1/2 of a lime cut into four quarters (lengthwise) in an Old Fashioned glass. Top with 2 heaping
teaspoons of superfine sugar (or try out brown sugar if you wish). Muddle the lime and sugar together.* Top with 2 ounces of Cachaça, and then add crushed ice to fill the glass. No garnish is needed.

*I'm currently reading through bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler's "The Bar Book" which places a premium on technique, so I will follow his admonition about muddling:

Cut your [limes] into quarters... put the citrus in your glass, preferably peel side up, and then add the sugar. Work the cirtus by pressing and twisting it with the muddler, grinding the sugar into the peel. The sugar acts as an abrasive and helps liberate the citrus oils and juice. As the juice is released, it will form a syrup with the sugar. Press and twist until you see a nice syrup forming and you smell the fragrance of citrus zest. A good bartender uses every sense, and your sense of smell is one of the most critical tools (p. 235).

Morgenthaler's book is really great. He claims this is one of the first books that focuses not on recipes or ingredients, but on bar technique, and he goes into extreme detail - his whole first chapter is on how to select and prepare citrus (for instance, limes should always be cut across the "equator" - in between the stem and the nubbin. He also tells us that there is absolutely no difference in juice production between room temperature and refrigerated limes. Who knew?). I highly recommend the book, and I hope to have another post up this month after digging deeper into his work - he is also featured in my July issue of Imbibe magazine, so I'm excited to keep reading!


I hope you enjoy your Caipirinha (with your properly muddled limes of course)!

July Drink of the Month - Dragonberry Lemonade

As much as I wanted to make a red, white, and blue shooter for the Fourth of July, most of these drinks are gross. If you want to poison your insides with blue curacao, peach schnapps and grenadine (top to bottom order), then please be my guest. But as much as I love sugary drinks, that above combination is a little bit too much for me. Even I have my limits when it comes to sugar.


Instead, I've decided that - in honor of America - we're going to make a twist on a classic American drink: lemonade. The drink of the month, Dragonberry Lemonade, was something I tried last week at Wally's in Sagatuck, MI. While the bartender was not on hand to give me his recipe, I came home and I believe I've been able to recreate the drink fairly faithfully. The drink is named for the main ingredient, Bacardi Dragonberry flavored rum, which is rum infused with strawberry and dragon fruit. It also features one of my favorite ingredients, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, as well as ginger beer for a little extra spice and muddled fruit for texture and little bursts of sweetness in the midst of the tart lemon flavor. I hope you enjoy the heck out of it!

Dragonberry Lemonade

In a cocktail shaker, combine the following ingredients:
2 oz Bacardi Dragonberry rum
1 oz St Germain
1 oz simple syrup (1:1 water/sugar)
1 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake over ice, strain and pour into a highball glass. Muddle in 4-6 strawberries or raspberries. Add ice and top with ginger beer (approximately 4 ounces). Stir and serve!

Enjoy your Dragonberry Lemonade!

June Drink of the Month - The Slivopolitan

Last month, I bought a bottle of Eastern European plum brandy (called Slivovitz here in the US). It belongs to a family of fruit brandies that my Hungarian relatives would call Palinka, but its also called Rakia in the Czech Republic and elsewhere. My mom did some digging into our family tree, and she is pretty convinced that some of her relatives bootlegged this stuff during Prohibition. I can confirm that it is still a staple of the Hungarian Cultural Club in Cleveland, OH - my mom went up for a dinner a few months ago, and they had an ice sculpture that dispensed frosty Palinka for their guests.

I was first introduced to Slivovitz by my great uncle Jim, who always had a bottle or two in his freezer, as any good Hungarian should. After buying my very own bottle, I sent my mom a picture, thinking she would appreciate my attempts to appropriate my ethnic heritage. Below is the transcript of our conversation:

Me: [Picture of bottle of Slivovitz] Uncle Jim would be proud!
Mom: Where is this and are they passing it through an ice sculpture to chill?
Me: In my fridge, getting icy.
Mom: So you willingly bought that paint thinner to consume on purpose?
Me: Its your fault that I'm half Hungarian. I blame genetics.
Mom: In the morning, you'll be blaming that rot-gut.

As you may be able to decipher from the conversation above, the problem with Palinka is that it is just  *tad* bit on the harsh side. It has a strong bite that is evident when you first taste the clear liquor and gets stronger as it works its way down your throat. I'm doing a great job selling this so far, right? But here's the thing - if you can get past the sharpness (or if you're numb to it after years of liver abuse, as must be true of all Eastern Europeans), it has a really unique, nice taste! I really don't mind Slivovitz by itself, but apparently its not for everyone (Ann gave me a really dirty look after I made her try it - did I mention Palinka has a strong bite?).

My mission this month was to find a way to make Slivovitz palatable for friends and family, and so I scoured the internets hoping to find someone brighter than me who had discovered a way to prepare a drinkable Slivovitz cocktail. The fine folks at Liquor.com came through in spades with their suggestion of making a modified Cosmopolitan (named after the magazine by bartender/creator Cheryl Cook) with plum puree in place of cranberry juice and Slivovitz in place of vodka. Below you will find the recipe with a few slight modifications and suggestions. Try it without fear! The drink it produces is sweet and fruity with some nice complex notes underneath the sweetness to keep it interesting. You can taste the brandy, but without the bite, and the fruit puree adds a nice color and texture to the drink! You can also make this as a frozen drink, which I actually prefer. You'll find that modified recipe below as well. And I'm happy to report that Ann even likes this one - she even asked me to make it for her a second time. Success!

The Slivopolitan

In a cocktail shaker, combine the following:

1.5 oz Slivovitz plum brandy
1 oz Cointreau
0.75 oz plum puree*
0.5 oz lime juice

Shake over ice for ten seconds and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a slice of plum.

*To make the plum puree, wash and PEEL four small plums. While the plum peel add nice flecks of color to the drink initially, the peels tend to congregate on the bottom of the glass and make the lat few sips much less appetizing. Peel your plums! Dice the peeled plums and place them in a blender. Add 3-4 drops of vanilla extract and add 1-1 simple syrup as needed to allow the mixture to blend well (maybe a little less than 1/4 cup). Blend until smooth and store in a airtight container. The mixture will initially be pure white, but will turn orange-purplish after a day or two. Don't worry, the puree is still good even after the color change!

To make the frozen Slivopolitan, follow the modified recipe below (makes 4)

In a blender, combine the following:
1 1/2 cups Slivovitz plum brandy
1 cup Triple Sec (no sense wasting the good stuff on a blended drink!)
3/4 cup plum puree
1/2 cup lime juice

Fill blender with ice and blend until well crushed. Serve in a lowball glass without garnish.

Enjoy your Slivopolitans!

Cocktail Night Menu - Bar Kiley 4/26/14

Occasionally, over the course of the year, Bar Kiley goes on the road and I bartend cocktail nights for my friends. Usually these evenings feature a limited menu - this keeps my costs down and helps keep people who are used to beer/wine from getting overwhelmed by too many options. My classmates asked me to post my limited menus, and so below I offer you the cocktail night menu I constructed for my little sister's college graduation party this weekend.

Katie asked that I feature rum and gin in her menu, as these are her favorite. In addition to these two ingredients, I would also always recommend including a sparking beverage of some sort - this is a must for non-cocktail drinkers, and these beverages have a much lower alcohol content, so those with lower tolerances can still enjoy a drink during the party. I decided to feature dark rum and heavy fruit content for Katie's rum drinks and offer lighter beverages featuring gin. Originally, I was going to offer an Aviation as one of our gin drinks, but Katie nixed this - she was not a big Maraschino fan. With those quick notes in play, here is the cocktail menu from Bar Kiley on Saturday, April 26th:

RUM 

Planter’s Punch * Meyers Dark Rum * Pineapple Juice * Orange Juice * Lime Juice * Grenadine * Angostura Bitters * Splash of Club Soda * served on the rocks 

New Orleans Style Hurricane * Meyers Dark Rum * Bacardi Silver Rum * Passion Fruit Juice * Orange Juice * Lime Juice * Simple Syrup * Grenadine * served on the rocks 

GIN 

Bog Punch * New Amsterdam Gin * Cranberry Juice * Ginger Ale * served on the rocks 

Aruba * New Amsterdam Gin * Curacao * Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice * Orgeat Syrup * Egg White * served shaken and chilled 

SPARKLING 

Saint Germain Cocktail * Saint Germain Elderflower Liqueur * Club Soda * Champagne * served chilled

Recipes for the Aruba and the Hurricane are available on the blog. Below are the recipes for the other three beverages:

Planter's Punch: In a cocktail shaker, combine 2 oz dark rum, 1 oz orange juice, 1 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz pineapple juice, 1/2 oz grenadine, 2 dashes bitters. Shake over ice, strain into a highball glass with ice, top with 1-2 oz club soda. Garnish with a pineapple wedge.

Bog Punch: Build the following ingredients in a highball glass over ice and stir before serving: 2 oz gin, 3 oz cranberry juice, 3 oz ginger ale. Garnish with a skewered cranberry.

Saint Germain Cocktail: This drink is best made by the pitcher, but for a single drink, combine 1.5 oz Saint Germain, 2 oz champagne, and 2 oz club soda (in that order). Serve in a highball glass over ice.

I'll try to post other menus as I bartend, but I hope you enjoy these drinks!

May Drink of the Month - Sir Robert the Savage

South Bend has a new whiskey bar, and I couldn't be more excited. The Exchange opened up in the Citizens Bank and Trust building in the heart of downtown a few months ago, and their selection and staff is excellent. Their specialty is whiskey, served neat or on the rocks (and never with cola, as the menu explicitly points out), but they also have a great short list of mixed drinks that feature a few of their whiskeys. One of the ones I enjoyed trying last week was "Sir Robert the Savage." As far as I can tell, this cocktail is unique to The Exchange - I couldn't find it or anything similar online (which is awesome).

Eventually, I will need to visit The Exchange again and get their recipe for this drink. The menu gives us the four main ingredients (Bushmills Irish whiskey, Creme de Cassis, Orgeat syrup, and lemon juice), but it is up to us to discover the exact proportion of each ingredient. We've encountered most of these ingredients before (need an Orgeat primer? Click here), but Creme de Cassis is a new one for us. Originating in France, Creme de Cassis is made from crushed blackcurrant berries soaked in ethanol. It is a dark red (almost purple) digestif that is the favorite drink of Agatha Christie's famous French detective Hercule Poirot. It is most commonly used with white wine to make the cocktail Kir, but also has many other uses.

I spent a few hours on Saturday experimenting with different ingredient combinations, trying to recreate the purple cocktail I tried at The Exchange last Wednesday night. Below, you will  find a recipe that features my best guess for the cocktail. If the folks at The Exchange are nice enough to give me the recipe for their drink, I will update the blog later with their recipe as well. But whatever the result, an afternoon spent experimenting with cocktail construction is never an afternoon wasted (even if some of the combinations I tried were quite undrinkable - 2 oz of Dewar's scotch combined with a 1/2 oz of lemon juice, 1/2 oz of creme de cassis, and 1/4 oz of orgeat syrup is a recipe I will never plague the world with again).

Sir Robert the Savage - My Best Guess
In a cocktail shaker, combine:
2 oz Bushmills Irish Whiskey
3/4 oz Orgeat Syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Creme de Cassis

Shake over ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.

I hope you enjoy this combination! Its a little on the sweet side - if that bothers you, you can reduce the amount of orgeat syrup, but don't go below 1/2 oz. If you do decrease your orgeat content, you may consider adding more Creme de Casis.

Enjoy your Sir Robert the Savage!


*Edit* I finally got back to The Exchange last night and my server was kind enough to share the recipe with me. I was pretty stinking close! Here are their mix proportions: 2 oz Bushmills, 3/4 oz Orgeat, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz Creme de Cassis.

April Drink of the Month - Sparkling Wine Cocktails

One of the hardest ingredients for me to stock in my home bar is sparkling wine. Most drink recipes that call for bubbly only use 2-3 ounces, and I rarely make enough drinks to justify popping a cork on a whole bottle in one evening. Champagne stoppers are helpful tools, as they can keep sparkling wine fresh for up to one week – but even with this lengthier shelf-life, I often have a hard time getting through a whole bottle. However, few things scream celebration quite as much as champagne, and after a long winter, the impending arrival of spring deserves to be celebrated [editors note: I wrote this post on Monday, when sunlight and 40 degree temperatures got me excited for the promise of flowers and seasonal allergies. We have since had snow here in South Bend for the past two days. What the heck Spring?] With that in mind, this month Bar Kiley will be featuring a selection of sparkling wine cocktails. Perhaps you might be able to find an occasion to celebrate with one of these?

Need to learn more about types of sparkling wine? Check out the excellent tutorial from Serious Eats here.

Lemoncello Sparkler

This is a cocktail I first made to celebrate New Years Eve last year. This drink combines the tart and sweet lemoncello with orange-forward Cointreau and tops this all with 4-5 ounces of champagne. This can be served as a punch or by the glass. If served as a punch, garnish with large lemon wheels to add brightness. But if you are serving by the glass, try adding 2-3 frozen strawberries – the strawberry blends well with the other flavors, helps keep the drink cool, and provides a nice finish to the drink.

 

In a cocktail shaker, combine:

1 oz lemoncello

½ oz Cointreau

Add 2 frozen strawberries to a champagne flute. Shake lemoncello and Cointreau over ice for 10 seconds, strain over top of strawberries. Top with 4 oz of champagne and serve. Want to make your own lemoncello? The recipe is here.

Original Champagne Cocktail

The original champagne cocktail (the name really does say it all) combines two of the very best exports France has given us: champagne and cognac. This is a very sweet drink, and it is a drink that is extremely visually pleasing to construct. Make sure you build this drink in front of people!

Drop a sugar cube into a champagne flute. Douse the sugar with 2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters. Add ½ ounce of cognac on top of the sugar/bitters mixture and then top with 3 ounces of chilled champagne. Finish the drink with a maraschino cherry and a lemon zest.

Pear Bellini

While the Mimosa is the quintessential brunch beverage, my favorite socially acceptable way to drink in the morning is the Bellini. Peach is the most common Bellini variant, but I really enjoy this recipe which combines pear, lemon juice, simple syrup and Prosecco.

Peel and core 4-6  pears (either Bartlett or Anjou varieties). Place the peeled pears in a blender with ¾ cup of simple syrup and ¼ cup of lemon juice. Blend until you have a pulpy mixture that pours smoothly. You may need more or less syrup/lemon juice mixture depending on the amount of fruit you have.

Pour 1 to 2 ounces of pureed pear mixture into a champagne flute. Top with 3-4 oz of chilled Prosecco (not champagne – this is important!) and serve.

You might also want to try out the Veronica Rose again as well - find the recipe here.

Enjoy your champagne cocktails!

March Drink of the Month - The Singapore Sling

The Singapore Sling was one of the first "complicated" drinks that I ever learned to make. At the time, I had never heard of Cherry Heering or Benedictine, and so I spent way too much time online looking for acceptable substitutes that I may have had in my (then) tiny bar. I ended up making a cocktail that was little more than pineapple juice watered down with a little bit of gin, grenadine, and cheap cherry brandy (and as far as drinks go, it was stunningly mediocre). However, my interest was piqued and soon I decided that creating an acceptable Singapore Sling would be one of my first true bartending challenges.

The Singapore Sling comes to us from the Raffles Hotel in (you guessed it) Singapore, and it was first mixed in the mid-1910s. The term "sling" refers to any drink combining alcohol, fruit flavors, sugar, and water. Originally, bitters were required for a drink to be considered a cocktail, so other terms such as "sling," "fizz," and "flip" were used to denote the specific ingredients of the beverage.

The Singapore Sling is a "long" drink - which means that it contains significantly more liquid volume than a "short" drink. Note, however, that this does not necessarily mean that long drinks contain more alcohol - long drinks usually have similar alcohol content to short drinks, but the greater overall volume means that the drink is more diluted. The obvious exception to the rule here would be something like a Long Island Iced Tea. While you may serve a short drink in a rocks glass or a lowball glass, long drinks are almost exclusively served in highball (Collins) or hurricane glasses.


The key ingredients of the Singapore Sling are gin, citrus juice, and cherry flavoring, but many different recipes exist. While the IBA has a preferred recipe for the cocktail, almost every bar makes this drink their own way. The first bartending book I ever used suggested 5 oz of pineapple juice, which is way too much. I've also seen modern recipes that include zero pineapple juice. To each their own, I suppose. Below, I've included two possibilities for creating the Singapore Sling. Why not try them both out and let me know which you like?

Singapore Sling - Pineapple Heavy Recipe
In a blender, combine:
1 oz dry gin
1 oz Benedictine*
3/4 oz cherry brandy (Cherry Heering is preferable)
1/2 oz grenadine (use homemade if possible!)
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 oz fresh lime juice
4 oz fresh pineapple juice

Blend until pineapple juice creates "frothy" top. Pour into hurricane glass with ice cubes. Top with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters or float 1/2 oz of sloe gin on top using a bar spoon.

Singapore Sling - Light on the Pineapple
In a cocktail shaker, combine:
1 oz dry gin
1 oz Benedictine*
1 oz cherry brandy (Cherry Heering is preferable)
3/4 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fresh pineapple juice

Shake over ice and strain into a highball (Collins) glass filled with ice cubes. Top with 2 oz of soda water and 2 dashes of orange bitters.

*Benedictine (despite the name) is not made by monks (bummer, right?). It is, however, a fantastic French herbal liqueur. It is often sold pre-mixed with brandy as "B&B." It is well worth investing in a bottle of Benedictine - it is an amazing after-dinner sipper, combining sweetness with herbal complexity. However, if you need to cut corners, use brandy here in a pinch, or yellow Chartreuse if you have that lying around for some reason (but at $60 a bottle, I'd just go buy the Benedictine instead of wasting the Chartreuse).

Enjoy your Singapore Sling!

Valentine's Day Special - Fun with Aperol

Since today is Valentine's Day, there is a felt need for creating and giving that special someone a pink drink. While I support this trend, please resist the temptation to buy UV Pink or some other noxious, flavored vodka in order to make your significant other rose-colored cocktails. There are so many better options, including our topic for discussion today: Aperol. Aperol is a orange/red Italian liqueur, very similar to Campari, with a flavor profile that includes bitter orange and rhubarb. While Campari can be quite bitter, which is a turn off for some people, Aperol has a much sweeter profile and mixes well with other spirits, particularly gin, rye, and bourbon, as well as sparkling wine. Here are a couple of easy Aperol drinks that you might consider trying tonight:

The Veronica Rose

To do this drink properly, the fine folks at Imbibe Magazine recommend making your own rose-infused simple syrup. That is a process that takes a little bit of time, however, so here at Bar Kiley, we've come up with a palatable work-around. Here's the recipe for this bubbly, sweet sipper:

In a mixing glass, combine:

1/2 oz Aperol

1/2 oz simple syrup

2 dashes rose water

2 dashes orange bitters

Stir with ice to combine, strain into a champagne flute. Add 3-4 oz champagne to top off the glass and serve.

Buongiorno

This drink comes from friends of ours in Chicago, and it is quite excellent. Made properly this drink calls for St. George Terroir Gin and Bergamot simple syrup. Here at Bar Kiley, those ingredients fall a little outside our price range (what with the reality of being a graduate student and all). However, this adjusted recipe still tastes great and brings out the Aperol flavor very nicely, even if you lose out a little bit on the full flavor profile:

In a mixing glass, combine:

1 oz dry gin*

1 oz Aperol

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz simple syrup

1 egg white

Dry shake for 7-10 seconds to allow the egg to emulsify, then add ice and shake for 10-15 seconds. Strain and serve in a coupe glass. Add 2-3 dashes of bitters (orange bitters work well with the flavor profile, but you can never go wromg with classic Angostura) on top of the egg white foam - if you have a dropper, you can even make cool shapes!

*If you have some spare time on your hands, you may wish to try this recipe with a Bar Kiley tweak. Instead of gin, we used Blood Orange infused vodka and really enjoyed the result. To make the specialty vodka, steep the peels of 4-6 blood oranges (with all the pith removed) in 750 ml of vodka for a week, along with the juice of two of the oranges. Double strain the liquid through cheese cloth, and then it is ready to serve. The resulting liquor is a little bitter, but with a fantastic blood orange flavor profile.

Enjoy and Happy Valentines Day!

February Drink of the Month - Pisco Sour

For my birthday this year, I decided to find a new bartending book for myself. Amazon was helpful in suggesting the "PDT Cocktail Book," and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. There are hundreds of unique recipes as well as plenty of classic cocktails. While some of the recipes call for liquors our of my price range (I am a humble graduate student, after all), I can make most of them with a little liberal substitution.

I love new books because they challenge me to try new techniques or new ingredients. Ever since adding the Aruba to my repertoire last month, I've been on an egg white kick. I love the froth and texture that it adds to drinks, and making drinks with raw eggs never fails to impress folks. This month's drink, the Pisco Sour, continues my egg white trend using a new ingredient - Chilean (or Peruvian) brandy called Pisco.

All brandy is made from distilled grapes. Just as in wine, different grapes lend themselves to slightly different flavored brandies, leading to flavor differences between the classic French Cognacs or Armagnacs. There are a few other significant steps in the distillation process that lend unique flavors - for instance, Armagnac is traditionally made using a column still while Cognac is made using a copper pot still (similar to Irish whiskey). The final step in producing fine brandy is to allow it to age in oak casks for a period of time. The oak gives the otherwise clear spirit its distinctive golden color and imparts much of the caramel flavor to brandies.

Pisco is different in that it is never aged. It is distilled from a blend of either Chilean or Peruvian grapes in a copper pot still, but it is then placed in either glass or stainless steel containers to rest for a period of time. The result is a clear liquor that still retains a strong "fruit-forward" flavor that stands out all the more because of the lack of oak-infused flavor. Right now, Brandy is my favorite cocktail base - Pisco is fun to mix with because its strong floral notes make it just different enough that it totally changes the flavor profile of almost any brandy drink.

Here is the recipe for the Pisco Sour, courtesy of the PDT Cocktail book:

In a cocktail shaker, combine:
2 oz Pisco*
3/4 oz lime juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
1 egg white

Dry shake these ingredients for 5-10 seconds to allow the egg white to emulsify. Add ice and shake for 10 seconds until frothy. Strain and serve in a coupe glass - you should have a nice 1/2 to 1 inch or so of foam on top of your drink. Add 3-4 drops of Angostura bitters on top and serve.

*A quick note on Pisco brands: Pisco comes in several varieties - Chilean, Peruvian, and now several American distillers also make Pisco. There is debate which country - Peru or Chile - gave rise to Pisco. It appears that Peru has a better claim, but I use Chilean "Capel" Pisco, as it is the most affordable. You can find decent Capel Pisco for under $15 a bottle. Peruvian Machu Pisco is a much nicer spirit, but will cost closer to $30-35.

Enjoy your Pisco Sour! 

January Drink of the Month - Tropical Trio

Happy New Year to you all from Bar Kiley! I spent my New Years in Minneapolis, MN this year, where the high temperature on January 1st was a balmy -6°. Things didn't get much better upon returning to South Bend, where it has been snowing for the last two days. I've made it my personal mission to fight off the winter doldrums - we're fighting back against Old Man Winter here at Bar Kiley this month by featuring a trio of tropical drinks to help put you in a warm place, even if the warmth only goes to your stomach...

Drink #1: Mai Tai

Maita'i is the Tahitian word for "good" and this drink certainly lives up to its billing. Most people credit the Mai Tai to Trader Vic's restaurant in California in the mid 1940s, but it may have originated as early as 1933. There are two very different ways to build a Mai Tai - one results in an understated drink heavy on rum flavor with a bit of citrus and almond and the other gives you an incredibly sweet, fruity drink. I greatly prefer the classic Mai Tai, but both will do wonders to keep you feeling tropical!

Classic Mai Tai:
In a cocktail shaker, combine:
2 oz white rum
3/4 oz orange curacao (triple sec will do here in a pinch)
3/4 oz orgeat syrup*
1/2 oz lime juice

Use the back of the bar spoon to float your dark rum. You
can also pour down the spoon if you have a spiral-cut
bar spoon, which is a great tool to own!

Shake over ice and strain. Then, using the back of a bar spoon, float 1 oz dark rum on the top of the drink.
The dark rum is lighter than the drink you've made and will float on top of the rum mixture as long as you pour it slowly and distribute it over a larger surface area (hence the use of the spoon). Garnish with a pineapple section and serve.

* Orgeat syrup is so named because it was originally made with barley (Orgeat is a version of the Latin word hordeata - "made with barley). It is an almond flavored syrup made from almonds, sugar, and rose or orange flower water. It is a milky color and gives the Mai Tai its distinctive flavor. You could make your own Orgeat syrup at home, but there are also pre-made syrups available at most liquor stores.

My stop light Mai Tai

Fruity Mai Tai:
In a cocktail shaker, combine:
1 oz light rum
1 oz apricot brandy
3 oz orange juice
3 oz pineapple juice

Shake over ice and strain. Then slowly sink 1 oz grenadine to the bottom of the glass. The grenadine syrup is quite heavy and should settle to the bottom forming a nice red layer. Then, repeating the step from the Classic Mai Tai, float 1 oz dark rum on top of the drink using a bar spoon. Serve with a straw or cocktail stirrer. The drink will have a pretty three-layer look, but you will want to stir it up before imbibing.

Drink #2: Aruba

The Aruba cocktail also features Orgeat syrup, but uses gin as its base liquor. It features hints of orange, lemon and almond to compliment the gin and uses egg white to create a pleasant frothy layer on top. (Scared of using egg whites? Ty it, the gin and lemon will kill all the bugs, so never fear! Still squeamish? Read this article from the Washington Post, and then give it a try anyway!)

In a cocktail shaker, combine:
2 oz gin
1/2 oz white curacao (again, triple sec works in a pinch)
1/2 of an egg white
1 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz orgeat syrup

Shake over ice, strain and serve in a highball glass with a lemon ring garnish. The egg white should produce a nice foam that will sit on top of the drink. Seriously, make sure you use the egg white - its worth it! If you read the Post article, the Clover Club is another excellent drink - try it some time (maybe we'll feature it in a future post...)

Drink #3: The Blue Hawaiian

Finally, you can't have a feature on tropical drinks without adding the Blue Hawaiian, which is the only reason most bartenders own Blue Curacao (although you may remember the Blue Orchid from August which also uses Blue Curacao). This drink combines rum with pineapple and coconut cream and is often topped with extravagant tropical garnishes. Plus, it's blue - guests tend to notice that fact when its served....

In a cocktail shaker, combine:
1 oz blue curacao
1 oz coconut cream (Coco Real is the brand I most often find in the store, often in the mixers section next to the grenadine and lime juice)
2 oz light rum
2 oz pineapple juice

Shake over ice, strain and serve. Impress your friends with your blue drink making expertise and your over-the-top garnishes. If you start with a pineapple wedge, you can use a toothpick to add all sorts of flair - orange wheels, cherries, limes and even prickly pear!

Before we go,one quick note concerning rum: Just in case anyone needed this cleared up, there are three basic types of rum: white rum, light/golden rum, and dark rum. All three of these varieties are sold as-is, but you can also find spiced versions of all three types. Bacardi is the most common white & light rum, and Meyers is the most commonly used dark rum. Captain Morgans is an example of light spiced rum, while Kraken is an example of dark spiced rum. You can substitute spiced rum in any of these recipes, but note that the flavor profile will change a bit as a result. When making a Mai Tai or a Blue Hawaiian, make sure you use the right type of rum - don't try to float Bacardi Gold in your Mai Tai, you'll be disappointed with the results!

Enjoy your Tropical Trios!