A zero proof substitute for falernum.

Makes 1 Cup

Time: 15 minutes

• 1 Cup Fresh lime juice
• 1 Cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger or 4 oz crushed ginger
• 2 Whole cloves
• 2 Allspice berries
• 1/4 tsp. Ground nutmeg
• 1 Cup Sugar

1. Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. When the sugar dissolves, reduce the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Allow to cool slightly
4. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids
5. Store syrup in refrigerator.  Will keep about a week.

Cheers!

Kids love special drinks as much as adults.  Especially if it’s made just for them.  The carbonated coconut water is a bit over the top, but once again, with a little effort the kids feel really special.  I used an an iSi Whipper and a CO2 charge since my siphon is full of water.  You can also put still coconut water in the shaker with the rest of the ingredients and then top the glass with a dash of plain carbonated water.

If you use falernum, it has an ABV of 10% so your finished drink will have an ABV of ½%.  If that’s too high, substitute the easy ginger lime syrup below.

 Easy Ginger Lime Syrup

Makes 1 Cup

Time: 15 minutes

• 1 Cup Fresh lime juice
• 1 Cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger or 4 oz crushed ginger
• 2 Whole cloves
• 2 Allspice berries
• 1/4 tsp. Ground nutmeg
• 1 Cup Sugar

1. Add all ingredients to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. When the sugar dissolves, reduce the heat, cover the pot and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Allow to cool slightly
4. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard solids
5. Store syrup in refrigerator.  Will keep about a week.

Cheers!

Well, we have chocolate covered peanuts and chocolate covered espresso beans and chocolate covered everything else so why not chocolate covered rum? I made a chocolate simple syrup with coconut nectar and drinking chocolate.  It is really deeply chocolate and very thick.  This cocktail has the flavor of rum and coconut but the dark chocolate predominates.  The spice of the chipotle and bitters keeps the sweetness at bay.

• 1 1/2 oz. Rum
• 1/2 oz Coconut Liqueur
• 1/4 oz. Chocolate Simple Syrup – Recipe here
• 2 pinches chipotle powder
• 1 dash Fees Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters

1. Chill a cocktail glass with ice and water
2. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and stir with a spoon to dissolve the chocolate syrup
3. Add Ice to the shaker and shake to chill
4. Double strain into chilled glass and serve

Cheers!

This is like eating a 97% cacao chocolate bar.  Only a touch sweet.  You can use this as a substitute for Simple Syrup in any cocktail that has chocolate.  For some examples of chocolate cocktails using this syrup go here.  If it’s too thick, add some hot water.

• 1 oz. Water
• 1 oz. Coconut nectar or sub honey
• 4 tbls. Dagoba Drinking Chocolate mix.  You can substitute another brand but I used 130% of the amount to make 1 cup of drinking chocolate.
• 1 tbls. Sugar or to taste.

1. Heat all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat until dissolved
2. Cool slightly before use.
3. If it’s too thick, add some hot water.

I prefer to make cold coffee cocktails with cold brewed coffee.  Our coffee cocktails will work with whatever coffee syrup you like to use for cold coffee.  I usually make this syrup using Starbucks Sumatra dark roast.

• 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

To make cold coffee combine 1:3 or 1:4 coffee syrup to cold water.

Cheers!

This drink is based on Kathy Casey’s Luxury Gin & Tonic Cocktail with Cucumber Lime Foam.  (Follow her on Kathy Casey’s Liquid Kitchen).  I did not have all of the ingredients she called for and, besides, I generally like to mess with recipes!  This cocktail demonstrates a number of things:

• How you can substitute ingredients
• How to make your own ingredients when necessary
• Making a flavored simple syrup with fresh ingredients
• Making a rapid infusion to create a syrup
• Making a rapid infusion to create all new bitters flavors
• How you really need an iSi Whipper if you’re serious about craft cocktails at home.

Total active prep time for this cocktail was about 20 minutes.  Inactive prep time was 4 hours.  Without an iSi Whipper, there would be no foam and the infusions would have required 12-24 hours.  Bottom line, get yourself 2 or 3 iSi Whippers.

You can purchase Dry Blood Orange Soda (Dry is the brand name), and Monin Cucumber Syrup.  I used fresh blood oranges to make blood orange syrup and used that to make a blood orange soda.  I also added cardamon to the foam, cucumber to the simple syrup and substituted Luxardo for the Monin Bitters.  This cocktail doesn’t work without the foam.  With it, the drink comes alive with herbal notes from the gin and bitters, the citrus of the orange and lime and of course, the cucumber and cardamon.

Gin & Blood Orange Tonic with Cucumber Cardamon Foam

• 1 1/2 oz. Hendricks Gin
• 3 oz. Blood Orange Soda – see below
• 1/2 oz. Fresh lime juice
• 3 dashes Tonic Bitters – see below
• Cucumber Cardamon Foam – see below

1. Chill a cocktail glass with ice and water
2. Combine everything except the foam in a mixing glass with ice – stir to chill
3. Strain into chilled glass and top with the foam.
4. Serve immediately

Blood Orange Soda

•  Zest and juice from 5 blood oranges
• 1/4 tsp Citric acid
• 1/2 – 1 Tbl. Agave to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in an iSi Whipper and swirl to combine (do not shake or particles can plug the Whipper)
2. Charge with 1 N2O cartridge and swirl for 30 seconds
3. Let sit for 30 – 60 minutes
4. Holding the Whipper upright, discharge rapidly.  Hold your hand about 10 inches over the top to prevent spraying your ceiling.
5. Let sit for a few minutes then strain through a fine mesh strainer.
6. Keeps refrigerated a few days.

To make Blood Orange Soda, combine 1 part of the Blood Orange Syrup with 3 -4 parts carbonated water.

Cucumber Simple Syrup

• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1 Cup Water
• 1 – 2 1/2 inch piece of English Cucumber

1. In a small sauce pan, bring the water and sugar to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Puree the cucumber in a food processor or with a stick blender.
4. When the syrup has simmered for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and add the pureed cucumber.
5. Set aside for 30 minutes.
6. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
7. Will keep refrigerated about 2 weeks.

Cucumber Cardamon Syrup

• 4 oz. Over proof vodka
• 3/4 Tbl. Cardamon pods – crushed
• 1 – 2 1/2 inch piece of English Cucumber – pureed

1. Combine all ingredients in an iSi Whipper and swirl to combine (do not shake or particles can plug the Whipper)
2. Charge with 1 N2O cartridge and swirl for 30 seconds
3. Let sit for 5 – 10 minutes
4. Holding the Whipper upright, discharge rapidly.  Hold your hand about 10 inches over the top to prevent spraying your ceiling.
5. Let sit for a few minutes then strain through a fine mesh strainer.
6. Keeps refrigerated a few weeks.

Cucumber Cardamon Foam

• 2 Sheets Gold gelatin
• 4 oz. Cucumber Cardamon Syrup
• 2 oz. Water
• 3 oz. Cucumber Simple Syrup
• 2 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
• 4 oz. Pasteurized egg whites

1. In a small sauce pot, warm the water and syrups over medium heat.
2. In a separate dish, “bloom” the gelatin sheets in room temperature water.  They will feel soft and gummy.
3. Remove the gelatin sheets from the water and squeeze out most of the water.  Add to the sauce pot with the warm syrups.  Stir until the gelatin is dissolved.
4. Remove the sauce pot from the heat and allow to cool 10-15 minutes.
5. Add the lime juice.
6. Lightly beat the egg whites and pour through a fine mesh strainer into the the iSi Whipper.
7. Pour the cooled syrup, gelatin and lime mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the the iSi Whipper.
8. Close the whipper and shake vigorously.  Double charge the Whipper shaking between each charge.
9. Refrigerate for 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
10. Will keep refrigerated for 10 -14 days

Tonic Bitters

• 8 oz. Luxardo Bitters Liqueur
• 1 Tbl. Ground Cinchona (Peruvian) Bark

1. Combine all ingredients in an iSi Whipper and swirl to combine (do not shake or particles can plug the Whipper)
2. Charge with 1 N2O cartridge and swirl for 30 seconds
3. Let sit for 10 – 15 minutes
4. Holding the Whipper upright, discharge rapidly.  Hold your hand about 10 inches over the top to prevent spraying your ceiling.
5. Let sit for a few minutes then strain through a fine mesh metal coffee filter (“gold” filter) and then through a paper coffer filter.
6. Pour into a bitters bottle.
7. Keeps on the shelf indefinitely – but the flavor will become more bitter over time.

Cheers!

Making tonic water at home and in bars became a widespread fashion in the early 2000’s. An internet search for ‘DIY tonic water’ will result in a number of recipes. Jeffrey Morgenthaler posted a recipe in 2008, (found here), which became one of the most popular. Since then, he has published a newer version in his book, The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique. I like his new version, which can be found on line here, because he separates the aromatics from the quinine. This lends itself to easy modification. My recipe for tonic syrup for use with gin differs only slightly from his.

What has become apparent over the last decade is that

Making tonic water at home is dangerous!

Tonic water is primarily carbonated water and quinine. Quinine is most famous for treating the symptoms of malaria. Mixing gin and quinine dates to the British in various malaria prone climes where soldiers used gin to make the bitter quinine more palatable. In those days, quinine was extracted from cinchona bark in a process not unlike making tea. Since World War II, quinine has been manufactured as a white powder formed into pills. You can purchase quinine pills over the internet and dissolve them to use in tonic water. This is a bad idea. It would be very easy to poison yourself and guests with too much quinine. The recipes noted above and the ones you will find on the internet will use cinchona bark as the British did.  The problem is that you can’t know how much quinine is extracted from the cinchona bark.  Many people have developed cinchonism, the symptoms of quinine poisoning, from drinking DIY tonic water.  These symptoms include flushed and sweaty skin, ringing in the ears, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, rash, high pitched hearing loss and dizziness.  Larger doses can result in deafness, blindness, somnolence, shock, cardiac arrhythmias and death.  All of these symptoms will go away when the quinine is metabolized.  Well, except the death part.

These DIY tonic waters can be delicious. The problem is the quinine.  So why not leave out the cinchona bark and, thus, the quinine.  Make the syrup but, instead of adding carbonated water, add commercial tonic water!

I had an opportunity to discuss Gin and Tonics with Jason Kosmas, Co-founder of The 86 Company, (Ford’s Gin among others), Co-founder of Employees Only and Co-author of Speak Easy. His take on tonic syrups is to include citrus, coriander and herbs – even herbal tea. Keep in mind that the base spirit you choose will lend itself to various flavors. As Jason pointed out – read the back label for flavor ideas. For syrup used in Rum and Tonics, he would add lime, pineapple, cinnamon and vanilla. (The rest of the interview centered on Gin Tonics and will be included in a future post)

These days, you are not limited to buying tonic water in 1 liter bottles. There are a number of premium tonic waters available such as Fever Tree and Q Tonic. The primary idea of making your own tonic syrup is to customize it for various drinks. These recipes will take about 15 minutes of active and 45 minutes of inactive time.

The only equipment you will need that is slightly out of the ordinary is a digital food or postage scale. Only the precise weight of ingredients ensures that your syrup will be consistent from one batch to the next.

For the Quinine Tincture:

We substitute Luxardo Bianco Bitters

For the aromatic syrup for gin or vodka and tonics:

• 20 gr. citric acid
• 10 gr. whole gentian root
• 1 gr. coriander
• 1 gr. Ceylon soft-stick cinnamon, broken into small pieces
• 30 gr. lemon peel
• 30 gr. grapefruit peel
• 400 gr. sugar
• 500 ml. water
• 2 – 3 to 4 inch sprigs of fresh lavender (optional)
• 1 1/2 oz Luxardo Bianco Bitters

1. Combine all of the ingredients, except the lavender and bitters, in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes
3. Remove from the heat, add the fresh lavender and allow to cool.
4. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
5. Add the Luxardo Bianco Bitters and store, refrigerated, in a seal-able bottle or jar. It will keep 3-4 weeks before it turns cloudy.

For the aromatic syrup for rum and tonics:

• 20 gr. citric acid
• 10 gr. whole gentian root
• 1 gr. Star Anise
• 2 gr. Ceylon soft-stick cinnamon, broken into small pieces
• 3 Kaffir Lime leaves (Optional – available at Asian Markets)
• 10 gr. lemon peel
• 50 gr. Lime peel
• 400 gr. Turbinado sugar
• 500 ml. water
• 1 1/2 oz Luxardo Bianco Bitters

1. Combine all of the ingredients, except the bitters, in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Strain through a fine mesh strainer.
5. Add the Luxardo Bianco Bitters and store, refrigerated, in a seal-able bottle or jar. It will keep 3-4 weeks before it turns cloudy.

Gin, Rum or Vodka Tonics

• 2 oz Spirit – either Gin, Rum or Vodka
• 2 oz. Tonic Syrup
• 6 oz. Tonic Water
• Optional dash of simple syrup for gin or vodka/demerara simple syrup for rum
• Garnish – see below

Rum & Tonic

Method #1

1. Add large ice cubes to a large, stemmed wine glass
2. Add garnishes except for any citrus peels for expressing
3. Add your Spirit of choice
4. Slowly add the Tonic Syrup followed by the tonic water.
5. Express any citrus peels and serve

Method #2

1. Fill your large wine glass with large ice and garnish
2. Add the remaining ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir
3. Strain into your prepared glass
4. Express any citrus peels and serve

Suggested Garnishes:

You should let your imagination run with the garnishes.

G-n-Tini

Here is a cocktail that uses Tonic Syrup directly in the drink.

• 1 1/2 oz. Fords Gin
• 1/2 oz. Dolin Sweet Vermouth
• 1/2 oz. Tonic Syrup for Gin
• Grapefruit peel for garnish

1. Stir the first three ingredients in a mixing glass with ice to chill
2. Strain into a chilled coup
3. Express the grapefruit peel over the drink and float the peel

Cheers!

This is from Chris Tunstall at abarabove.  I am re-posting it here because making a syrup from jellied cranberry sauce is a great idea, (for other awesome ideas, you should check out their site).  We used the cranberry syrup in their Bellini and I also used it to make a version of Patriot Punch.

The syrup is extremely easy.  You will need:

• 1 – 14 oz can jellied cranberry sauce
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup water

1. In a quart sized microwavable container, melt the cranberry sauce on high in 30 second intervals, stirring in between.
2. Meanwhile, using a small sauce pan on the stove, dissolve the sugar in the water.
3. When the the sugar is dissolved, add the melted cranberry sauce and stir to combine.
4. Allow to cool.  This will keep refrigerated in a sealed glass bottle for at least a week.

Chris Tunstall’s Cranberry Bellini

Chris uses sparking water.  We opted for champagne or sparking apple cider.

• 1 oz. Cranberry Syrup
• Champagne or sparkling cider

1. Add the cranberry syrup to a chilled flute or coup
2. Top with the champagne or sparkling cider
3. Toast Chris

Patriot Punch

There are a number of versions of this punch.  They usually call for cranberry juice and apricot brandy.  I saw a use for the cranberry syrup and besides, I can’t leave anything alone!

• 1 oz. Irish Whiskey
• 1/2 oz. Apricot Liqueur
• 1/2 oz. Cranberry Syrup
• 1 oz. Champagne
• Lemon twist and brandied cherry

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled
2. Strain into a chilled coup.  Express the lemon peel and float it on top.  Drop in the brandied cherry.

Cheers!