September Drink of the Month - Seymour Glass

Last month, Ann and I had the opportunity to travel out of the country, visiting Split, Croatia to celebrate the wedding of my good friend Dolu. The wedding was a blast, and it even made the local paper (and the Google Translate version of this story is hilarious, so give it a read if you're bored). Split itself was a fun, coastal town. It was a nice mix of Italy and Eastern Europe, with a healthy dose of sea salt and olive groves mixed in for good measure. There was pizza and pasta everywhere, but also hearty goulashes with hints of warming spices (Maybe nutmeg? Whatever we had, it was tasty!).

As is my custom when we travel, I went out in search of local spirits. The most common local liquor is palinka, a fruit brandy that is also found with my mother's people in Hungary. We've made a few drinks before with palinka/rakia (specifically, we used slivovitz, which is plum brandy - making a Slivopolitan), but I tend not to serve palinka often. My mother referred to palinka as "rotgut," so it is a hard sell with my family! I did discover one other local liqueur, however. Maraska Orahovac is a form of the northern Italian nocino. It is made from unripe green walnuts, and then sweetened with simple syrup to produce a bitter/sweet liqueur. I wish I'd know about this growing up - our neighbors had a huge green walnut tree that was always dropping huge nuts. If only I'd know, I could have a little cottage industry!

While in Croatia, I didn't have a lot available to mix with. We ended up mixing our Orahovac with Coke (which was surprisingly pleasant!). The locals usually serve it as a digestif, so they laughed at my Orahovac and Coke order at first. But it was at all the bars at the wedding, and once the bartenders ran out of rum and whiskey (it was that kind of wedding, but that is a story for another day), they started pushing my O&C on the drinking crowd. While I would happily drink O&C again, the drink for this month is a little more refined application of Orahovac. It combines the Croatian nocino with applejack and lime. The walnut flavors marry exceptionally well with the applejack (think walnut-crusted apple pie, and realize the genius of this drink), and the lime gives just enough sour to counteract the bitter in the Orahovac. I adapted this recipe from the Seymour Glass, which was featured in a 2010 article in the WaPo.

This one is a double pour

The recipe for the adapted Seymour Glass (named after a "nutty" character from the J.D. Salinger canon) can be found here:

In a Boston shaker, combine the following
1.5 oz Applejack
0.75 oz Maraska Orahovac*
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 oz simple syrup

Shake over ice for 10 seconds, and then strain. Garnish with an apple wedge.

*Any nocino will do if you have not recently traveled to Croatia and come back with a suitcase full of booze. The WaPo article suggests subbing Frangelico in a pinch. Don't do that. It is way too sweet.

I hope you enjoy your Seymour Glass!

August Drink of the Month - Pimm's Cup

Way back in February, Ann and I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans. A noted cocktail destination, New Orleans is the home to many classics, such as the Sazerac and the Ramos Gin Fizz. One cocktail I did not realize was a New Orleans "signature" drink, however, was the Pimm's Cup. While Pimm's started in England as a peculiar concoction intended to draw traveler's into Pimm's Oyster House, once the gin-based spirit was bottled and sold widely, it made its way across the pond to the Napoleon House, where it gained immediate traction. Most Pimm's Cups are made with Sprite or Ginger Ale (or sparkling lemonade in the UK), and that was how I made my cups for a long while. But bartender Chris McMillian made me his version of the cup while we sat and chatted at the Revel Bar, and I will never go back to using commercial soda ever again!

Spread for Cup preparation

McMillian's cup has a few distinctive notes that I'd like to highlight:

1) He builds his cup in a wine goblet, and throws the drink between two goblets to mix. Few cocktails are "thrown" anymore (outside of the Blue Blazer, which is a really cool way to set your bar on fire if you are not practiced), but it works for the Pimm's Cup to gently bruise the fruit and release some juice without the pulp and violence of muddling.

2) He includes a wide array of fresh fruit in the drink, but also includes a fresh mint sprig for garnish. Placing freshly smacked mint in the center of the wine goblet gives the imbiber a wonderful nose-full that compliments the cucumber and berries.

3) I'm used to seeing cucumber wheels in a Pimm's Cup, but McMillian uses a Y-peeler to slice long vertical strips of cucumber. This gives more surface area for the cucumber juices to meld with the drink, and its also really visually appealing!

I've loved this drink, and it is a wonderful summer sipper. While we're almost ready for fall, you can still find many of the seasonal berries listed below, so take advantage of a few weeks left of nice weather while you can, and sip one of these on your back porch as the sun sets!

Here is the recipe for Chris's Pimm's Cup, as found on NOLA.com with my notes added:

Zack mans the bar at cocktail club #1

1) Prepare your produce - Chris uses blueberries, strawberries, oranges, apples, lemon, lime, and cucumber. Blueberries need no preparation. Core and half the strawberries. Slice the orange and apples into thin wedges and remove any pith/seeds from the inside of the fruit. Do the same for the lemon and lime, taking particular care to remove the pith from the center. Finally, use a Y-peeler to slice long, vertical strips of cucumber. I like to use one strip with peel and one without.

2) Place all of your produce into a large wine goblet: 3-5 blueberries, 1-2 thin wedges of orange, apple, lemon, and lime, and 2 long strips of cucumber. Add the following liquid ingredients:

4 oz Pimm's No. 1
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz 1:1 simple syrup
0.5 oz soda water

3) Top with a small scoop of ice (5-6 cubes) and toss between two wine goblets. Garnish with a sprig of freshly smacked mint, placed in the center of the goblet, and serve.

I hope you enjoy your Pimm's Cup! I made them at my inaugural "cocktail club" last month, and they were a hit!