MxMo CVIII – The Swizzle

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

Le Bois Lele

Le Bois Lele

It’s Mixology Monday!  This Month, our host Frederic of the CocktailVirgin blog, has revived the Swizzle.  Yes, the Swizzle is a drink, not just a stick!  When ice found its way to the Caribbean in the 19th Century, it quickly found a home in cocktails.  No longer did one have to endure the hot weather with warm punch.  For the Swizzle, the ice was shaved or finely crushed into the drink and the whole thing stirred with a Le Bois Lele – the original swizzle stick.  The Le Bois Lele is from a bush that has stems with 4 or 5 branches that come off at a 90º angle.  By rubbing the Le Bois Lele between the palms like a Boy Scout starting a fire, the drink is stirred and frothed into a frosty libation.  There are various types of Swizzles, but basically it’s the technique more than the ingredients.  The base spirits used in the 19th Century depended on the location, but were generally rum or gin.  The drinks themselves are usually sours.

For this Month’s Mixology Monday, we are offering 2 Swizzles: The Southtown Swizzle and the Tepache Swizzle.  I’ll start with the Southtown Swizzle.

Southtown SwizzleSouthtown Swizzle

This cocktail is named after San Antonio’s Southtown, which is an area just south of Downtown, the River Walk and the Alamo.  It is home to historic neighborhoods, an up and coming arts district and a busy culinary scene.  Located in Southtown is the Dorcol Distillery.  There they produce an amazing rakia and, more recently, beer.  They also have a bar from which they serve very innovative and delicious cocktails.

The Southtown Swizzle is all about Dorcol’s bone dry apricot Kinsman Rakia.  The citrus, in this case orange and lime, brightens the party while the Chartreuse adds a touch of herbs.  The Angostura finishes with a little complexity.

  • 2 oz. Kinsman Rakia
  • 1 oz. Orange juice
  • 1 oz. Lime juice
  • 1 oz. Simple Syrup
  • 1/4 oz. Chartreuse
  • Angostura Bitters
  1. Combine everything but the bitters in a Collins glass and add enough crushed or shaved ice to fill the glass 2/3’s
  2. Swizzle with a swizzle stick or spoon until the glass is frosted
  3. Add more ice to fill and continue swizzling until the drink is frothy and the glass is frosted or you get tired
  4. Garnish with several dashes of Angostura on top

Tepache SwizzleTepache Swizzle

I really like Tepache!  That funky pineapple cider – esc concoction.  We prefer this recipe from Victor Tango’s.  It fits perfectly with the concept of the Swizzle.  For this cocktail I used Genevere, lime and Allspice Dram.  The flavors combine to whisk you to the Islands with the first sip.

  • 2 oz. Genevere – I used Bols
  • 1 oz. Tepache
  • 1 oz. Lime juice
  • 1 oz. Simple Syrup
  • 1/4 oz. Allspice Dram
  • Angostura Bitters
  1. Combine everything but the bitters in a Collins glass and add enough crushed or shaved ice to fill the glass 2/3’s
  2. Swizzle with a swizzle stick or spoon until the glass is frosted
  3. Add more ice to fill and continue swizzling until the drink is frothy and the glass is frosted or you get tired
  4. Garnish with several dashes of Angostura on top.

Cheers!


 




MxMo CVII – Burden of Proof

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

It’s Mixology Monday for March and this month’s theme is ‘Burden of Proof.’  Brought to us by this month’s host Dagreb of the Nihil Utopia blog, we are challenged to use spirits with no less than 101 proof.  I have found a number of uses for 151 proof spirits, other than putting them in a Misto mister and spraying them across a flame, which is great fun.  My favorite is 151 proof rum.  In fact, this Month’s theme brings back some memories since one of the first cocktail recipes I ever created was an “Elephant’s Memory.”  It is my version of a cocktail of the same name from the Andrew’s Bar and Grill.  Andrew’s, which is long gone, had a decent Cajun menu and a few good cocktails.  It was generally filled with Yuppies and Dinks, (Double Income No Kids).  I played around with the listed ingredients and came up with my version.

I originally used Bacardi 151, but I have found that Lemon Hart 151 works as well or better.  The burnt caramel flavors of the Lemon Hart go really well with the Benedictine.  Now, never to leave well enough alone, I decided to try substituting Dorçol’s Kinsman Rakia Apricot Brandy.  Thus was born the “Elephant’s Thoughts”  Here are the recipes.

Elephant’s MemoryElephant's Memory

  • 1 oz. B&B
  • 1/2 oz. 151 Proof Rum
  • 1/4 oz. Tia Maria
  1. Combine all ingredients in a brandy snifter and serve

 

Elephant’s Thoughts

Elephant's Thoughts

I had never noticed before, but the primary flavor in B&B is the Benedictine.  I first tried this with equal parts Rakia and Benedictine along with the rest of rum and Tia Maria.  The result was good, but was not much different from the original Elephant’s Memory.  So, I increased the Rakia and substituted Grand Marnier for the Tia Maria.

 

 

  • 1 oz. Dorçol’s Kinsman Rakia Apricot Brandy
  • 1/2 oz. Benedictine
  • 1/2 oz. Bacardi 151 Proof Rum
  • 1/4 oz. Grand Marnier
  1. Add all ingredients to a brandy snifter and serve.

Honey Badger 2In parting I have one additional offering: “The Honey Badger”  It’s not my original, and I don’t recall where it came from, but it is a Tiki drink.  The base spirit is 151 proof Rum so it will definitely smack you up side the head!  I named it the “The Honey Badger” because “One of these and you won’t care. Two and you won’t give a #?*!”!  The recipe is here

Cheers!


 




Sun and Snow – a Coconut Coffee Cocktail

Sun and Snow - a Coconut Coffee Cocktail

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

Well, it’s Mixology Monday and this Month’s theme is “Spring Break.”  Brought to us by the Southern Gentleman himself, Joel DiPippa of the Southern Ash blog, we are challenged to imagine winter is over and turn our thoughts to Spring Break.  I know that Spring Break generally evokes thoughts of sandy beaches, warm water and something with rum that you can hide in a Solo cup.  But for me, we always took the kids Spring Skiing.  Now I really love to ski.  But snow skiing in my mind requires snow.  So, for me, Spring Break meant sliding down the ice in the early morning followed by a couple of hours of really great snow.  Then, after lunch, that great snow turns to slush and I’m done!  Thus, I would find a deck on the mountain and sit in the sun wearing a short sleeve shirt.  There I would enjoy the site of the sun on the snow and the magnificent blue sky, listening to the melting snow form little streams, all while sipping an appropriate libation.  I also gained great vicarious pleasure watching people try to ski in the slush which was more like swimming with sticks on their feet!  With that in mind, I wanted to create a cocktail to complement that location and season.  A cold coffee drink sounds perfect.

Sun and Snow BottlesI prefer to make cold coffee cocktails with cold brewed coffee.  This cocktail will work with whatever coffee syrup you like to use for cold coffee.  I used a DIY syrup using Starbucks Sumatra.  With the Sun and Snow, you have the flavors of coffee, coconut and vanilla with a hint of cinnamon and a touch of smokey spice from the chipotle.  Take it easy with the agave, unless you like it sweet.  Here then is the recipe:

Sun and Snow

  • 2 oz. Cold brewed coffee syrup – undiluted
  • 2 oz. Water
  • 1 oz. Kalani Coconut Liqueur
  • 1 oz. Licor 43
  • 3/4 oz. Cream
  • 1 dash Agave syrup
  • 1 pinch Cinnamon
  • 1 pinch Chipotle powder
  1. Chill a cocktail glass with ice and water
  2. Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake to chill and froth the cream – about 20-30 seconds
  3. Double strain in to the chilled cocktail glass
  4. Try not to get sunburned

Cold Brewed Coffee Syrup

  • 3 1/2 cups coarsely ground coffee
  • 5 cups water
  1. Combine coffee and water in a container stir well and let sit for 12 hours at room temperature.
  2. Strain, first through a fine mesh filter, then through a paper filter
  3. Keeps refrigerated for 1-2 weeks

PS: It’s 80º today in San Antonio, so I’m headed out to sit in the sun!

Cheers!


 




Mixology Monday CV Roundup

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

The theme for January’s Mixology Monday CV was Brace Yourself: to create a cocktail that will fortify the will against that moment just before you step out into the cold.  Yes, I live in San Antonio where people bundle up because it’s 54 degrees.  However, I grew up in the frozen North, so I know cold.  Besides, we have winter in San Antonio.  It lasts for a week or two, but not all at once.  Usually a half day at a time!

Ok. Enough of that.  The thing I love about Mixology Monday is the creativity.  Keeping up with this crowd is a challenge unto itself!  Every month I am pushed to make a cocktail that not only fits the theme, but is a great drink on it’s own.  This month is no different.  The contributions are, once again awesome!  There are cold and hot drinks, smokey scotch, spice, herbs, tea, coffee and stout.  So here are 14 cocktails sure to warm your cockles, (whatever those are).

Blood and Smoke 1First up, Katie at garnishblog brings us the Blood and Smoke.  Since she is from Boston, where we know it’s not 75 degrees today, we can be pretty sure that Katie knows cold!  She “combined the bright taste of blood orange with the spicy and smoky flavors of rye whiskey and Scotch.”  Rye whiskey, blood orange juice, Angostura and a Scotch rinse: I think I might blow off the cold and sit down to have another!


Clementina CalienteSecond in, Andrea who blogs from Denmark at ginhound, gives us a rif on the Last Word with the Clementina Caliente.  She shakes up Ilegal Joven mezcal with yellow Chartreuse, Ancho Reyes chile liqueur and fresh squeezed clementine juice.  This should help prior to scraping your windshield at -15C!


carpathianhoneyNext, our German Mixologist, Pete Barmeister of Meticulousmixing brings us a recipe for homemade Rosemary Bärenfang, a honey liqueur.  He then combines the clove, vanilla, cinnamon and rosemary flavors of the Bärenfang with hot water and Tatratea, a tea liqueur, to create the Carpathian Honey.   Pete further encourages us to combine the Bärenfang with a German-style Pilsner for a “Lazy Man’s Braggot.”  The Bärenfang I need to try, but I’m not sure it will be enough to make me want to hunt bears in winter!


Coffee Milk PunchStacy Markow, our Dallas sommelier, brings us Coffee Milk Punch.  She combines a cold brew coffee simple syrup with Rye whiskey, whole milk and pecan bitters.  This should make Dallas’ next ice storm a little more tolerable!


Winter CapNext, Craig joins in with the Winter Cap.*  For this cocktail, Craig warms up Bonal with 151 proof rum then rounds it out with Calvados and the herbal Becherovka.  I’m always fond of amari and quin quina drinks, and this one sounds fascinating with the addition of the apple flavors of cider and Calvados.

*Depending on your browser, you may need to scroll up or down to find the post.  Just look for the Mixology Monday logo!


hottigermilk1440Frederic Yarm of Cocktail Virgin Slut,  Mixology Monday’s fearless leader and world famous cat herder, weighs in with Hot Tiger’s Milk.  Since he too hails from Boston, a certain level of experience with the bitter cold can be assumed!  His approach is to distract yourself and bring Don the Beachcomber to the rescue.  This 1937 hot Tiki drink combines the flavors of rum, coconut, cloves and butter.  As Frederic says, “The Hot Tiger’s Milk greeted the nose with a butter and honey-floral aroma. The rum’s caramel danced with the honey on the sip, and the swallow roared with rum, orange, and clove notes. The flavors, especially the orange and clove, built over time as they steeped into the Toddy.”  Just might cause one to forget where they are and try stepping out in surf shorts and sandals!


Hoar Frost's FallJoel DiPippa,of Southernnash, Mixology Monday’s resident Arkansas gentleman and scholar, brings us an Irish Coffee run a muck with his Hoar Frost’s Fall.  The fact that Joel can pull 100 proof bourbon, allspice dram and Becherovka out of his cabinet in the middle of a snow storm speaks to his mixologist bonafides.  Then, in true scholarly fashion, he creates the recipe while pondering shoveling the snow!  This hot coffee cocktail will definitely make snow shoveling a little less painful.


restaurateur-no-2-1-of-22The Le Restaurateur No. 2, brought to us by Ian of Tempered Spirits, is another cocktail with 151 proof demerara rum and Calvados, but this time with yellow Chartreuse and the spices of Angostura and 18-21 Black Currant-Cocoa Bitters.  This cocktail has the flavors of baked apple pie with a little funky rum notes thrown in.  I agree with Ian that the 18-21 Black Currant-Cocoa Bitters can be hard to find, but they are worth the search!


CorbieBoozenerds, Seattleites Shaun and Christa, bring us the Corbie.  This is an oatmeal stout based cocktail with the spice of rye whiskey, the complexity of amaro and the sweetness of maple syrup.  I’m not sure if the name “Corbie” is supposed to evoke thoughts of Northern France or of ravens but the cocktail sounds delicious and is now on my things to make list!


Sazarac Hot ChocolateI have always enjoyed Sazaracs, but a Sazerac Hot Chocolate?  Brilliant!  Dagreb at Nil Utopia creates an amazing cocktail by substituting a Sazarac for the milk in a hot chocolate and makes an absinthe whipped cream for the top!  Gunner, our Chesapeake Bay Retriever, will appreciate me having one of these, since I’ll probably decide to stay inside and have another thus enabling him to lie by my chair in front of the fire.  Which is where he’d rather be!


QuentãoThiago Ceccotti, our Brazilian mixologist who writes at Bartending Notes,  gives us a recipe for Quentão.  “Quentão (literally means:Very Hot) is a cachaça based Hot Toddy-style beverage which also resembles a cachaça based Mulled Wine.”  Made with ginger tea, cachaça, vermouth, vanilla liquor, lime juice and Angostura, it sounds like there is a good reason it is popular in Brazil!


32 DegreesAdam, aka Mr Muddle, joins Mixology Monday for the first time with his 32 Degrees.  Another Bostonian, he seems to be well schooled. not only on cold weather, but in cocktails, (check out his blog).  As Adam points out, this drink is a Scaffa, which is not technically a cocktail, but a mixture of alcoholic components, mixed in a glass and served unchilled, without ice.  The 32 Degrees, made with Dark Rum, Amaro Montenegro, Aquavit and an Absinthe rinse will decidedly “steel the will!”


sjorok-3Next in was Robin of the Kitchen Shamanism Blog.  Don’t believe Robin when he says he mixes cocktails with “low knowledge!”  He presents us this month with another interesting drink, the Sjörök.  Smokey Islay Scotch, sweet Cherry Heering, dark muscovado sugar syrup, Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters and hot Lapsang Souchong tea.  I may not be able to pronounce “Sjörök,” but this smokey cocktail looks like it will keep you warm and smiling!


Brace Yourself MxMo CVWell, there are 13 cocktails that should help get you through the winter.  Lastly, our contribution this month is two shots: Into the Wind and Frost Buster.  Both are made with barrel aged Fireball Whiskey!  Why, you might ask, would we do that to a barrel?  Well, click here to read and find out!

 


Mulled WinePS:  Marius Iordache who blogs at Arcane Potions and attends the Citadel, comes in with a late contribution: a delicious looking Mulled Wine.  That should keep you warm on a 0600 march, but then again, I’m pretty certain that drinking is worth at least 150 demerits!


We really have enjoyed hosting this month’s Mixology Monday.  Thanks, as always, to Frederik for keeping this most excellent online cocktail party on track and for allowing us to host.

So, until next month,

Cheers!


 




Brace Yourself MxMo CV

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

 

It’s Mixology Monday CV and we’re excited about hosting!  The theme, “Brace Yourself,” is a challenge to concoct a cocktail that will fortify the will to venture forth into Winter.  With the fun and games everyone is having this weekend on the East Coast, it’s a fitting theme.

This month we offer two drinks, (actually 2 shots), to provide the liquid courage required for our outdoor adventures.  Both use a spirit that is rarely even mentioned in cocktail circles.   Since I am likely the only contributor to Mixology Monday that has a bottle of this stuff, a back story is required.  We were at Parliament in Dallas a while back and started chatting about their barrel aging program.  They gave us a shot of an aged drink to see what we thought.  It was definitely whiskey, but was mellowed with a hint of spice, vanilla and cloves.  We weren’t able to guess, so we asked what it was:  Fireball Whiskey!

We use our barrels to age successive cocktails/spirits/fortified wines.  The fun is in the adventure of how each cocktail affects the next inhabitant of the barrel.  Being a little uncertain about what I’d put in a barrel after Fireball, I went with the barrel stave in the bottle.  It took a little longer than I expected, but after 4 weeks the Fireball was approaching the flavors we’d experienced at Parliament.  Now for the shots:

Into the Wind

Into the Wind

I thought of this immediately after our trip to Parliament. Porter’s Fire, which is a Canadian Whiskey with “cinnamon and hints of vanilla,” posted a drink combining it with amaretto.  So, substituting the new and improved barrel aged Fireball for the Porter’s Fire, you get the sweetness of the amaretto cut by the spice of the aged and mellowed Fireball.  Toss in Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters for a little added complexity.  If it’s still too sweet for you, reduce the amount of amaretto.

  • 3/4 oz. Barrel Aged Fireball Whiskey
  • 3/4 oz. Amaretto
  • 2 Dashes Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Bitters
  1. Combine ingredients in a shot glass
  2. Serve

Frost BusterFrost Buster

Amaretto is good so why not Jägermeister?  The clove and vanilla with the remaining spice of the cinnamon in the aged Fireball, blends with the herbs in the Jägermeister.

  • 3/4 oz. Barrel Aged Fireball Whiskey
  • 3/4 oz. Jägermeister
  1. Combine ingredients in a shot glass
  2. Serve

 

 

I served both of these shots this past weekend and got thumbs up all around.  So sip’m or slug’m, they’ll keep you warm for at least a minute or two!

Cheers!


 




Mixology Monday CV Announcement Post: Brace Yourself

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday

We are very pleased to be hosting this Month’s Mixology Monday, the world’s most excellent online cocktail party, (the Roundup is here).  Now that the holidays are behind us, we get to deal with the rest of winter… that magnificent season of grey skies, blustery winds, freezing sleet and blowing snow.  January is Mixology Monday CV and we’re definitely talking cocktails.

Winter usually evokes scenes of roaring fires with glasses or mugs filled with warming liquid fortifying us against the cold and damp. Winter provides the shared universal experience that spans language, geography and the centuries – that moment just before you step out into the cold; to walk to the bus stop, hit the ski slope, shovel the snow or feed the livestock. So what adult beverages can best prepare the body and steel the will for that moment when we  go forth into Winter?

Thus, the theme for Mixology Monday CV is “Brace Yourself.”  The challenge is to create a cocktail that will buttress oneself for Winter’s outdoor adventures.

Here’s how to play:

  • Find or create a cocktail that gives you the resolve to head out into the cold.
  • Make the drink and then post the recipe, a photo, and your thoughts about the drink on your blog, tumblr, or website or on the eGullet  Spirits and Cocktails forum.
  • Be sure to include the Mixology Monday logo in your post, and links back to Mixology Monday and Doc Elliott’s Mixology.  Once the round-up is posted, a link to that summary post would be appreciated.
  • Submissions are due by Monday, January 25th. Notify me of your submission by commenting with a link below, or send me a link on Twitter @docscocktails with the hashtag  #MxMo.

So this leaves us 2 weeks to concoct some awesome examples of liquid courage!  Once again, the submissions are due midnight of January 25th.  Midnight can be whatever time zone you’re in and I will accept late entries.

Thanks again to Frederic Yarm of the CocktailVirgin blog for allowing us to host this month and for keeping Mixology Mondays entertaining and inspiring, (and for coming up with the cool meme).




MxMo C

mxmo_c_logoI’m a relative new comer to Mixology Monday, having contributed for only about a year.  So my twelve entries are a modest offering when one considers that this monthly online cocktail party is now 100 months old!  This month’s theme comes from MxMo’s dedicated leader Frederic Yarm at the cocktail virgin slut.  It is “Cocktail Chronicles” and is a tribute to Mixology Monday’s founder Paul Clarke.  Paul has written at the Cocktail Chronicles blog since 2005, and has now authored a book The Cocktail Chronicles: Navigating the Cocktail Renaissance with Jigger, Shaker & GlassThe book is an insider’s look at the cocktail “revolution” of the past decade.  While it is not really a history, it does give insight into where we were and where we are today.  He also highlights the classic yet simple cocktails that form the backbone of what we call “mixology.”

Cocktail ChroniclesThe theme, “Cocktail Chronicles” for this month’s Mixology Monday is, as described in the  announcement post, “what is timeless (or potentially timeless) and elegant in its simplicity.”  Wonderful yet uncomplicated.  I have interpreted this to mean, “highlight a cocktail that is an essential part of the current cocktail renaissance.”

In selecting our contribution for this month, I have focused on “timeless,” “simple” and “malleability,”  (a cocktail that can easily be made into something else).  In our focus on home entertainment, these three criteria: elegant, simple and easily modified are huge.  Cocktails that have these qualities enable the host to entertain with ease.

I think that a cocktail that has been around for 200 years meets the “timeless” threshold, and if it has three ingredients, it qualifies as “simple.”  Now if that cocktail can be, and has been,  easily turned into a myriad of famous drinks, it’s a winner.  So I have selected the Sour: spirit, juice and sweetener.  The Sour has been around since at least the early 1800’s, (check the sidebar for a brief history of the Sour), and it is the forbear of numerous cocktails.  From the humble Whiskey Sour has come Daiquiris, Margaritas, the Sidecar, The Aviation, the Pisco Sour, Ward Eight, the Cosmopolitan and many more.

One of my favorite Whiskey Sours is our Belle Meade Sour.  It does not follow the usual Sour Ratio of 2:1:1, (Spirit:Sour:Sweet), but I like my whiskey sours 1:1 bourbon and lemon sour.  For the lemon sour, I prefer 2:1 lemon to simple syrup.  This makes the ratio more like 2:1:2/3 or so.  I also like the mouth feel of egg white.  So here is our recipe:Belle Meade Sour

  • 1 1/2 oz. Belle Meade Bourbon
  • 1 oz. Fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. Simple syrup
  • 1 large egg white (can use 3 Tbl. pasteurized egg whites but it will not be the same)
  1. Add all ingredients, in order to a shaker and shake for 30 sec without ice to emulsify the egg white.
  2. Add 3 regular sized ice cubes plus one large cube (1 1/2 – 2 inches)* to the shaker and shake to chill 10 – 15 sec.
  3. Double strain into a chilled coup and serve

* using a large ice cube creates a silky finish that complements the egg white.  The effect lasts for only a minute or two, so serve it quickly.  You can omit this and use regular ice but you should get a large ice cube tray!

Cheers!

 

 




Mixology Monday XCII – Apples Roundup

mxmo_apple2Well, the last Mixology Monday for 2014 is history!  Need some Holiday cocktail inspiration?  Head over and check out the apple themed cocktails at Cocktail Virgin Slut.  As they say, “an apple a day…”

Thanks again to Frederic at Cocktail Virgin Slut for hosting this month’s MxMo.

Cheers!!