Seelbach

Made Seelbachs for my guests.  Great pairing of bourbon and bubbly.

Sweeet and Dry Vermouth

Kosher vermouth bring as difficult as it is to obtain, I was instantly taken in by DIY recipes for sweet (Serious Eats) and dry vermouth (Jan/Fen 2012 Imbibe).  They ended up tasting remarkably similar.  The sweet was not sweet enough with strong wormwood flavors coming through.  The dry was too dark, with plenty of bitterness from wormwood, cinchona, and gentian.  Both are certainly usable, though.  The sweet made a perfectly serviceable, if dry, Manhattan.  The dry is cooling in my fridge on its way to a Martini tomorrow night.  Recipes for my next attempt are below.

Dry Vermouth
Simmer, for 15 minutes, 1 cup dry white whine wine with:
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp chamomile flowers
1/2 tsp angelica
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp wormwood
1/8 tsp cinchona
3 black peppercorns
2 cloves
3/4 tsp granulated orange peel
1/4 vanilla bean

Allow to steep one hour.  Strain and mix with remaining wine from 1 bottle, add 3 oz water, 2 oz brandy, and simple syrup to taste.  Should be just sweet enough to balance the bitterness from the herbs and acidity in the wine.

Sweet Vermouth
Simmer, for 15 minutes, 1 cup dry white whine wine with:
zest of 1/2 orange
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon dried chamomile
8 cardamom pods
1 star anise
1 teaspoon dried lavender
1/4 teaspoon wormwood leaf

Strain and add:
remaining wine from bottle
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup sweet wine

Set aside.  Meanwhile, caramelize 1/2 cup sugar until deep golden brown.  When sugar has cooled slightly, at 1/4 cup boiling water and stir to dissolve caramel.  Combine caramel with wine mixture.  Chill.

Two Classic Drinks with Homemade Grenadine

Having read in a number of places that you really can't make a Jack Rose with fake grenadine (basically red syrup), I bought a bottle of pomegranate juice to make my own.

Grenadine (from Imbibe):
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 cup superfine sugar (which you can make in a food processor or blender)
2 tablespoons pomegranate
2 tablespoons vodka
1 tablespoon orange blossom water (I would dial this back next time)

Stir all ingredients until dissolved.  Refrigerate.

Oddly enough, the orange blossom flavor is very pronounced when the syrup is cold (and consumed alone), but much more muted when the syrup warms up.  It fades into the background when mixed, of course.

While I bought the juice for Jack Roses, I realized I had not applejack and settled on two other classic cocktails from Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, the Monkey Gland and the Scofflaw.

The Monkey Gland
1.5 oz. Bluecoat Gin (buy American!)
1.5 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice
1 tsp. Sambuca
1 tsp. grenadine.

Shake over ice and strain into a glass.  Add a few drops of orange bitters.  Nice and herbal and just sweet enough.


The Scofflaw
1.5 oz. rye (I used Redemption)
1 oz. dry vermouth (I used Martini and Rossi Bianco, which is on the sweeter side)
3/4 oz. fresh squeezed lemon juice
3/4 oz. grenadine

Shake over ice and strain into a glass.  This one really lets the pomegranate shine through, but came out a bit sweet.  Would definitely make again, but recommend using the driest vermouth you can find.

More with my new bitters

We went to Acqua al 2 Monday night and had a great dinner and some tasty cocktails, including their take on a spicy lemon drop.  I didn't have any chili cordial to add heat, but the Rhubarb bitters certainly add depth.

Shake over ice and strain:

2 oz Plymouth gin

1 oz Cointreau

3/4 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz home made lime cordial

10 dashes rhubarb bitters

Add a few drops of meyer lemon tincture at the end.

Peach Pit

Went to the liquor store Sunday to pick up a bottle of Italian white to go with dinner.  Came home sans wine, but with a bottle each of peach and rhubarb bitters.

The bitters brought to mind receipe I saw last year for making amaretto by roasting peach pits and soaking them in cognac.

The Peach Pit
Stir well with ice:
1.5 oz cognac
1.5 oz amaretto
10 dashes peach bitters

When you don't have cloves...

I had some leftover pineapple juice Friday night that I wanted to use up.  I found a recipe for pineapple drink that calls for muddling cloves.  Well, I couldn't find whole cloves, but I did find a bottle of Fee's whiskey barrel bitters, which worked very well with the pineapple.

Shake over ice and strain:
2 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. lemon juice
2 oz. rum (I used Barbancourt 4-star)
1 oz. St-germain
10 dashes whiskey barrel bitters.

Garnish with sage leaf.

Nutty Dove

New goal for February: drink half a bottle of amaretto.  I bought a bottle of it for a party years ago and it needs to get off my bar.  Though its pretty tasty, its sweetness and marzipan-like flavor makes it less than versatile.  Probably great paired with Middle-Eastern pastries, but otherwise I'm not won over.

The other ingredient I have on hand is a pile of grapefuits and grapefruits are the backbone of two of my favorite drinks.  The first is a paloma, a tequila highball made with grapefruit soda (though its much better with fresh grapefruit juice, syrup and club soda).  You can get a solid one at Bar Pilar, where I think they use Jones, or great one at Cafe Atlantico, where they use house-made soda, dress it up with cinnamon and call it a spicy dove.  The second is a bourbon punch which Gina makes.  Of course, neither of these include amaretto.

So, getting to my point...riffing on a paloma has two major upsides: grapefruit juice pairs will with bourbon, providing the brown liquor bridge to amaretto, and amaretto is super sweet so it can be subbed in for syrup, bringing us to the...

Nutty Dove
Shake and strain into a collins glass filled 3/4 with large ice cubes:
3 oz. bourbon (I used Rebel Yell, because it's $10 in MoCo)
1.5 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
1 oz. amaretto
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Top with club soda.