Tequila Lavanda cocktail – a new twist on Tequila and Lavender

A Tequila recipe caught my eye recently. It was for a Tequila cocktail called a Tamarindo Borracho. The recipe was pretty simple, having just three ingredients: Añejo Tequila, lime, and syrup, and the photo made it look really appetizing. In this case the syrup was a Tamarind-Chile syrup that is (sadly) missing from my bar, but it got me thinking about the bottle of lavender syrup that was on the top shelf of the fridge. My Tequila Mojito recipe had taught me that tequila goes well with mint (a relative of lavender) and I once mixed one using lavender syrup (instead of ordinary simple syrup) that had turned out quite well, so it looked like a syrup substitution was in order. Lavender syrup is obviously not hot and spicy like Tamarind-Chile syrup, so the two cocktails are not remotely similar in taste, but the result was surprisingly good and reminded me that it’s usually wise to experiment, especially where cocktails are concerned.

In the spirit of experiment, and if you think you would enjoy it, you should give the Tequila Lavanda a try. It might work with a nice Plata, too. If do try it, post a response and let all of us know how it comes out. If you don’t have any lavender syrup around your bar, there are lavender syrup recipes on the web that can be made using either fresh or dried lavender. My preferred garnish is a wedge of lime because you can squeeze a bit into your cocktail if you decide it’s a little too sweet for your taste.

Tequila Lavanda

2 oz Añejo Tequila (or try some Plata)

juice of ½ Lime, freshly squeezed (½ oz )

½ oz Lavender syrup

Put the ingredients into an empty shaker and stir well to mix the syrup. Add ice and shake until your hand gets cold. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or serve on the rocks in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with a wedge of lime. As always, vary the syrup to suit your taste.

Get stirring with the Corpse Reviver Cocktail

The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) continues to be a treasure trove of interesting cocktails. Thumbing through it on a day off resulted in the discovery of an amusing sketch of “the beautiful Lady Cynthia, after imbibing a Corpse Reviver Cocktail.” The sketch of red-faced Lady Cynthia piqued my interest. For some unknown reason, the recipe for the Corpse Reviver turned out to be thirty pages away, and it came with the advice that a Corpse Reviver could be “taken before 11 a.m., or whenever steam and energy are needed.” A quick glance at the clock told me that a little fast action would get me in just under the wire, and all the ingredients were available. Hopefully, you invested in some apple jack when you tried out the Jack Rose, and you should have some Italian Vermouth around the house.

There are a variety of Corpse Reviver cocktail recipes to be found on the web (there are two in the Savoy book alone), and they are sometimes classified under the “hair of the dog” type of hangover cure. You can be the judge of that. The blend of flavors in this cocktail is enjoyable, so give it a try. With Halloween just around the corner, this is one cocktail recipe we will have to revisit. The following recipe is faithful in proportion to the Savoy, but you should, as usual, play around with proportions to get the right taste for you.

Corpse Reviver (No. 1)

1 ½ oz Cognac or Brandy

¾ oz Calvados or Apple jack

¾ oz Italian Vermouth

Combine ingredients with cracked ice in a mixing glass. Stir briskly until it’s far colder than a (shudder) corpse. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon. Prepare yourself for a high energy day!

Pink Gin: a cocktail the Pilgrim Fathers would have enjoyed

Discovered the other day while trying to get caught up on my cocktail blog reading was Erik Ellestad’s recent post on the Pink Gin, a simple cocktail recipe with only two ingredients that delivers a surprising treat. The striking photos on Erik’s site told me that this was one cocktail I had to try. The recipe is one that Ellestad was mixing for his project to recreate every cocktail recipe in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), and he faithfully recreated that recipe (well, except for serving it on crushed ice). He also mentioned that the recipe was explored in Dr. Cocktail’s (Ted Haigh’s) book “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails”, a copy of which sits near my easy chair. Ted has experimented with the recipe enough that he recommends a couple of specific gins and has upped the bitters from a single dash to a grand total of six! That’s two “goodly dashes” of bitters per ounce of gin.

Just these two sources gave me plenty of variations to play with to develop a recipe that I could write home (or, at least, you) about. First step was a little less gin. Harry Craddock calls for a glass, and Haigh wants three ounces. That’s a little much for most people, especially if you like to have more than one cocktail. The amount of bitters, however, was intriguing. Erik went for the Savoy’s single dash (although there’s no way there was only one dash in his photos), while Dr. Cocktail went for six. Could the gin hold up to that bitter assault? The bottle of Plymouth gin that I had in my bar definitely did. The drink was surprisingly good in spite of its simplicity, and sipping the gin that was probably the last gin the Pilgrim Fathers threw back before departing England is a patriotic bonus. This cocktail is great on the rocks or straight up; I prefer rocks because the cold offsets the bitters, but you should experiment both ways to determine your preference.

Pink Gin

2 oz Plymouth Gin

4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Pour the gin into a mixing glass 2/3 full of ice. (If serving up, add the bitters now.) Stir briskly until it looks cold enough. Strain into a chilled white wine glass 2/3 full of ice and dash the bitters on top. (If serving up, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.) Garnish with good will and enjoy!

Upside-down Martini: recipe for Julia Child’s favorite cocktail

The opening of Nora Ephron’s latest film, Julie and Julia, has revived interest in one of America’s national treasures: Julia Child. My wife and I saw the film the week-end it opened, and couldn’t help but notice that cocktails were present in many scenes for both Julie and Julia. There was no great surprise, then, in discovering that America’s most famous chef had invented her own apéritif: the Upside-down (or Reverse) Martini. Julia’s recipe calls for a 5:1 ratio of Noilly Prat Vermouth to Gin, stirred with ice and then strained into a cocktail glass. Noilly Prat is one of (if not the) great French Vermouth; I have used it to rinse many Vodka Martini glasses, and even imbibed higher concentrations in the Paris Cocktail, but 5:1 with gin? I think not.

A little web-based research uncovered the usual number of recipe variations, including some served on the rocks… that seemed to be the ticket even though the chances of Julia obtaining much ice in late 1940’s France seemed low. Taking a white wine glass and filling it three-quarters full of ice, I discovered it would only hold an ounce and a half of Noilly Prat if there was to be room for much gin. Sometimes sacrifices must be made. Next a half ounce of Tanqueray® Gin was poured over the ice and given half a stir with an espresso (i.e. small) spoon. Twisting a bit of lemon peel over the glass and rubbing it around the rim was all it took to finish this delicious apéritif cocktail. As Judith Jones said in the movie, “yumm.”

Upside-down Martini

1 ½ oz (or more) Noilly Prat® Vermouth

½ oz Tanqueray® Gin

Fill a white wine glass three-quarters full with cracked or crushed ice. Add the Noilly Prat® Vermouth, leaving room for the gin (you might be able to add a little extra vermouth based on the size of the glass and the quantity of ice. Add the Tanqueray® Gin and give the glass a half stir (not too much!) with a small espresso spoon. Twist a strip of lemon peel over the glass, rub it around the rim, and drop it on top. Bon Appétit!

Six Classic Cocktail Recipes from the 1950’s

Viewing newscaster Rachel Maddow’s amusing video about six classic Cocktails of the Fifties on YouTube made me realize that while many of the cocktails mentioned in that old article in Esquire magazine were old even in the Fifties, they had never gone out of style. Two reasons for that are 1) they’re delicious, and 2) they are fairly easy to make. Rachel gives her recipes in the video (sorry, no demos), and you can find links to my recipes in the World Cocktail Brain or in this article. It’s fun to compare recipes and use them as starting points for developing your personal twist on a classic cocktail. Just go with the flow and do what comes naturally.

The traditional Champagne Cocktail is so simple that I have never even blogged a recipe for it. Just drop a sugar cube into a champagne flute, add 2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters, and fill the flute with champagne. If you’re looking for some tasty champagne cocktails that are a little more work, click on the above link to see recipes for the French 75 and the Cranberry Champagne Cocktail.

The Daiquiri is another classic. Beloved of Ernest Hemingway (and countless others), this blend of Rum and freshly squeezed lime juice (plus a little sweetener) is hard to beat. It may also be served frozen, but I prefer mine shaken and poured into a cocktail glass taken straight from the freezer.

If you haven’t sampled a Manhattan, what are you waiting for? This American original may be mixed with either Bourbon or Rye. Be careful though, these are so delicious they may be addicting. I like mine with a Luxardo Marasche® Marasca Cherry. Mmmm.

The Martini is sure to please all lovers of Gin. Since this cocktail approaches 100% in content (when well made), you will want to use quality Gin. Don’t forget: Martinis are better stirred than shaken. I’ll let you try Rachel’s recipe for a “real” Martini, and give you my recipe for a Vodka Martini instead.

Rachel’s recipe is for the traditional Old Fashioned made with Bourbon, but an Old Fashioned can also be mixed with Canadian Club, Brandy, Gin, Rye, or Rum. You can make an Old Fashioned with almost whatever liquor happens to be your favorite, just vary the bitters to compliment the liquor.

The final classic is the acclaimed Stinger, a simple mix of Cognac and Crème de Menthe that is sure to please lovers of brandy and mint. Vary the ratio of Cognac to Crème de Menthe to get just the taste you like. Besides, experimentation can be fun.

Here’s a link to a slideshow on my Examiner.com blog.

Stinger – This classic cocktail recipe is a blast from the past

Newscaster Rachel Maddow is also a great lover of classic cocktails. Discovering her amusing video on six classic Cocktails of the Fifties on YouTube reminded me that I hadn’t had a Stinger in ages. This classic cocktail recipe is easy to prepare and is great as an after dinner drink or to sip anytime you want (or need) a cocktail. This cocktail’s name, and its potential for double meaning, have resulted in mentions in many movies. I always get a laugh from the scene in The Bishop’s Wife where the angel Dudley (Cary Grant) suggests that the catty group of gossips order Stingers with their luncheon.

The Stinger is easy to make; it’s what’s known as a Duo, a cocktail with only two ingredients: a liquor and a liqueur. A Stinger is made with Cognac (or Brandy) and white Crème de Menthe. Some Stinger recipes go as high as a 1:1 ratio of ingredients; they must either love Crème de Menthe or be using bad Brandy! I like mint, but not that much. The recipe below is 2:1 Cognac to Crème de Menthe, but you can go as high as 3:1 and still enjoy the Stinger experience. Experiment until you get just the taste you like. By the way, if you don’t have white Crème de Menthe you can use green. The taste will be the same, but you will actually be drinking a Green Hornet.

Stinger

2 oz Cognac (or Brandy)

1 oz Crème de Menthe (white)

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with cracked ice. Stir briskly until it’s ice cold while imagining your parents at a swank cocktail party in the fifties (this may be quite a stretch). Strain into a chilled cocktail glass enjoy!