Campden Cocktail – a Gin and Lillet classic

Salt Lake City cocktailians who like to experiment with classic cocktails will recall the recent post on the Calvados cocktail from the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), one of the classic cocktail books written at the height of Prohibition by the great Harry Craddock, barman at The American Bar in the Savoy Hotel, London.  The Calvados is, of course, based on the well-known French Apple Brandy, but the other evening in the hope of finding an interesting Gin-based cocktail, the Utah Mixologist picked up the Savoy book, opened it to his marker, and spotted a likely candidate on the page facing the Calvados.

Little is known about the origins of the not very well known Campden cocktail.  Even the meaning of the name is lost; while there is a Campden Hill neighborhood in London, there is no reason to believe that the cocktail is named after it.  Furthermore, if the recipe in the Savoy is followed, the cocktail is a little too sweet for modern tastes, so it has not been popular during the intervening years.  That failing, however, is easily fixed.

The recipe just calls for “Dry Gin”.  When Dale DeGroff made me a Martini at Portland Cocktail Week, he used Plymouth® Gin.  Plymouth is a brand name for a distinct type of Gin that legend says was used in the first Martini cocktail.  It’s made at the Blackfriars Distillery in Plymouth (it used to be a monastery).  There were bottles of Bombay Sapphire® and Hendrick’s® Gin in the bar, and it was a tough decision, but the Plymouth won out.  Feel free, however, to use your Gin of choice. 

The original Savoy recipe includes Kina Lillet, which had quinine in it, but is no longer made.  The closest approximation available today is Cocchi Apertivo Americano®, which sadly is not available in Utah.  (You can get around this problem by using Lillet® Blanc with a dash of Angostura® Bitters as in the recipe below, but substitute the Cocchi if you can get it.)   The sweetness issue was addressed by going after the source and cutting the amount of Cointreau® in half (if you don’t have Cointreau, substitute Grand Marnier® or your favorite orange liqueur).  This cocktail remains slightly sweet, but you should enjoy the complex taste as the herbs and botanicals from the Gin and Lillet come through the orange flavor of the Cointreau.

Campden Cocktail

• 1 ½ oz Plymouth Gin
• 3/4 oz Lillet (see text)
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters
• 3/8 oz Cointreau

Add ingredients to a mixing glass 2/3 full of ice.  Stir briskly for 20-30 seconds until well chilled.  Strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a long, languorous twist of orange peel.  Enjoy!

Cocktail ingredients Utah update – February 2012

When Utahans walk into the Utah DABC State Liquor Stores this month they will be able to say “well, at least it’s better than last month...” as the number of marked down items has increased into the low end of “average”.  Special Price Adjustments (SPAs) originate with the distributors of the products, not the UDABC (only Clearance item price reduction come from the UDABC).  This month the number of items on SPA rose from barely over 200 to around 250, barely half of the over 500 items marked down in December.  Cocktailians looking to stock their bars cab see that this is not the time, but there are still a few quality cocktail ingredients available.

If you’re into Bourbons, Jim Beam Black Label® (CS# 019026) is available for $20 ($2 off) and makes a great Orange Robert, which is a fun drink.  There are a total of two single barrel or small batch Bourbons marked down less than 10%: a Basil Hayden® and an Evan Williams®.  There are only two Scotch Whiskies marked down this month: Johnnie Walker® Red 1750ml is marked down $3 to $47, so if you’re looking for something to put into a Rob Roy give it a try, and there’s a MacAllan® Ten Year Old marked down a generous 5%.  As usual, the number of Rye Whiskies on SPA this month is low: zero.  If you need some liqueurs, Di Saronno® and Di Amore® Amarettos have both been marked down a little over 10% this month, while some Baileys® Cream liqueurs have been marked down a little under 10%.

The number of Tequilas on SPA this month has been generously increased from three to five!  Discerning Tequila lovers may want to eschew  the Tortilla Gold Blend® at $6, but the Herradura® Añejo (CS# ) marked down $5 to $47 might be worth the investment.  Regular readers will know that a good Silver (or Plata or Blanco) is an essential ingredient in the ever popular Margarita, and the offering in that category this month is Cuero Especial®.  For those who love Cosmopolitans or Vodka Martinis, there are nine Vodkas on SPA in a large range of prices, with Belvedere Intense® (5% to $38) leading the pack.  Monopolowa Potato®, down 7.4%, may interest some of you.

There’s almost no excitement in the Rum shelves this month.  Bottles of Bacardi 8® are marked down around 16% to $16, and that’s it!  Let’s hope for better pricing next month.  As to any other sale or clearance items, if you see anything at your local state store that other cocktailians might enjoy, post a response to this article.  See the following list “Suggested by the author” for information on how to use the Utah DABC website.  You can check out what else is on sale (e.g. the wines etc.) by clicking through to the “SPA Product List” to open a price book in PDF format that shows all of the markdowns for the current month.

Super Bowl party? Why not make it a cocktail party?

It’s almost Super Bowl Sunday, and while most football Salt Lake City fans may not be personally invested in either team, it’s still a great excuse for a party.  While “beer” may pop into your mind as you plan your Super Bowl party (and you will certainly see enough beer commercials during the game), Utah cocktailians know that less filling cocktails are a better choice.  The secret of success is to offer tall (and therefore more dilute) drinks.  For Super Bowl cocktails, your best bet is to have ingredients for a variety of easy-to-mix, long drinks available to please all of your guests.  Select some cocktail recipes based on three or four liquors (e.g. Rum, Gin, and Tequila) so you have something to please everyone, invest in some citrus and mixers, grab some glasses and straws, and you’re ready for the kick-off. 

If that sounds too complicated, you could try a punch.  Punches are easy to make and require little attention once the party gets going.  One that the Utah Mixologists likes is President’s Punch, a delicious Rum punch for which you may already have most of the ingredients.  If you don’t feel like a Rum punch, that article contains some links to other punch recipes and related materials.  If you decide on punch, you might want to check your supplies just in case you need a quick run to the liquor store.  Remember: punch may be stronger than it tastes, so remind your guests to be careful.

Cocktails, punch, or beer, you should keep in mind that four or five hours of drinking is too much. Pace yourself, have lots of soft-drinks and water available, encourage your guests (and yourself) to take it easy and alternate hard and soft drinks, and, of course, know when to stop.  Always drink responsibly…

Here are links to some simple, classic long drink recipes, check out the ingredients and find some that sound good, then stock up and enjoy your cocktail fueled Super Bowl party!

El Diablo

Dark and Stormy

Tom Collins

Rum and Coke

Gin and Tonic

Margarita Cooler

Mojito

Calvados Cocktail will jack you up

Salt Lake City cocktailians who read these posts should be familiar with the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), one of the classic cocktail books written at the height of Prohibition by the great Harry Craddock, barman at The American Bar in the Savoy Hotel.  Regular readers will recall the recent post on the Golden Dawn cocktail, where Laird’s® Apple Jack (CS# 053536) was substituted for Calvados French apple Brandy.  While the Utah DABC stores’ product list contains many different authentic Calvados, most retail for around $50 a bottle.  While these are great for sipping, the Laird’s makes a good substitute in most cocktails.  Thumbing through the Savoy book in the hope of finding another Calvados-based cocktail led to the discovery of a cocktail named after the Calvados itself.

The original Savoy recipe serves six, so unless you are hosting a party you will want to scale the recipe down a bit.  Fortunately, the proportions given are easily amenable to reduction, so a recipe for a single serving follows.  Readers will be surprised by the amount of Bitters that the recipe calls for.  While some of my recipes in these pages call for more Bitters than you are probably used to (the Rapture comes to mind), nowhere do they approach ¾ ounce in a single serving! If you’re worried about the Bitters, I recommend mixing the drink with about half the amount in the recipe, sampling it, and then adding more Bitters if you think it works.  The mixture of apples and oranges in this cocktail is quite good, and the Bitters offset the sweetness to give the cocktail more depth.  Finding good Bitters is always a problem in Utah, I used Regan’s® Orange Bitters #6 that I purchased over the internet, but if you have a local source, please post a response and let us all know.

Calvados Cocktail

• 1 ½ oz Calvados or Apple Jack
• 1 ½ oz Orange Juice (fresh squeezed if possible)
• ¾ oz Cointreau®
• ¾ oz Orange Bitters

Add the ingredients to a shaker 2/3 full of ice.  Shake vigorously until well chilled.  Strain into a pre-chilled cocktail class.  Garnish with a twist of Orange, or use a wedge or a slice.

Savoy’s Depth Charge – a cocktail recipe to quiet those rumblings below

Thumbing through the Savoy Cocktail Book is always a treat.  You find recipes for classic cocktails and ones you’ve never heard of; some sound fascinating, and others you probably wouldn’t want to try.  The Depth Charge definitely had an interesting sounding name, and the recipe was fairly simple for the amateur mixologist to stir up for an evening’s enjoyment.  The Savoy can be rather vague on quantities.  In the case of the Depth Charge it calls for “½ glass” each of Dry Gin and Kina Lillet, which could be anything up to 3 ounces.  That seemed a little much, so quantities have been rounded down to a healthy 1 ½ ounces each. 

The original Savoy recipe includes Kina Lillet, which had quinine in it, but is no longer made.  You can, however, simulate Kina Lillet by adding a dash of Angostura Bitters to the mix as specified in the recipe below.  There was a bottle of Hendrick’s Gin in the bar, and the idea of combining that with the Lillet was intriguing, to say the least.  The product was a bone dry cocktail, but the bouquet of the Hendrick’s combined with the orange peel garnish was delicious, and still tasted great as the cocktail warmed a little toward the bottom of the glass.  Be sure to inhale deeply through your nose as you sip this pale yellow beauty to savor the complete package.

Depth Charge

• 2 dashes Absinthe
• 1 ½ oz Hendrick’s Gin
• 1 ½ oz Lillet
• 1 dash Angostura Bitters

Add ingredients to a mixing glass 2/3 full of ice.  Stir briskly for 20-30 seconds.  Strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a long languorous twist of orange peel.  Enjoy!

Three Scotch Whisky cocktails for Bobby Burns Day

Saint Andrew’s Societies across the USA celebrate the Scottish holidays like Saint Andrew’s Day (November 30) and the bard’s birthday on Bobby Burns Day (or Robert Burns Day or Burns Nicht on January 25) with a Burns Dinner.  Salt Lake City Scots should be no different, and if they follow the traditions of these holidays they might be found partaking of some Scotch Whisky to assist their celebration, be it neat, on the rocks, or in a well-mixed cocktail.  Celebrating Burns Nicht is an excellent excuse for toasting Scotland with a some good Scotch Whisky.  The Utah Mixologist usually uses a blended Scotch in cocktails.  If you have a favorite blended Scotch, stick with it, but if you don’t have one yet, you might want to give Dewar’s™ White Label (CS# 004866, $25) a try.  Once you have a bottle of blended Scotch in hand, you are ready to select a cocktail.  Here are three classics that you should enjoy that all have three things in common.

In honor of the day, let’s start with the Bobby Burns cocktail.  This delicious offering has been around for a while; there is a recipe for the Bobby Burns in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930).  This delicious cocktail contains Scotch and Vermouth and has a little Benedictine thrown into the mix to reflect Bobby Burns poetic nature.  You should enjoy the interesting blend of herbals in the Vermouth and Benedictine combined with the peaty taste of the Scotch. 

Our second cocktail can also be found in the Savoy, although the proportions of Scotch to Italian Vermouth (1:1) are not the ones in general use today (2:1).  The venerable Rob Roy is over 100 years old.  This is perhaps the classic Scotch Whisky cocktail.  If you enjoy making Manhattans, you already know the recipe: just substitute Scotch Whisky for the Bourbon or Rye.  If you’ve never had one, you’re in for a treat. 

My final cocktail suggestion is the Blood and Sand.  Don’t let the color put you off, the flavor will surprise you.  The Blood and Sand is the youngest of the trio and is more of a concoction: it contains Scotch, Vermouth, Cherry Heering Liqueur®, and Orange Juice.  You have probably noticed by now that all three of these cocktails have Scotch and Vermouth in common, and yes, the Blood and Sand may also be found in the Savoy.