tea berry-blue

So, most of you know that I’m sort of a giant nerd for cocktail things…ESPECIALLY cocktail things that are hard to find/acquire/track down, etc.

This is my holy grail of things I haven’t been able to get which only makes me want them more:

That little bottle is full of a potion called Elixir Vegetal de la Grande Chartreuse. It’s made by the Chartreuse Monks, the same people responsible for the Chartreuse Liqueurs we all know and love.

The thing is, it’s barely ever available in the US because of this little issue wherein the Chartreuse Monks won’t give the FDA the list of ingredients.

A while back, one of my favorite bitters-selling websites, Cocktail Kingdom had it, and I was super stoked and going to buy a bottle. But something weird happened with my order and it didn’t go through, and when I tried again, they no longer had it in stock. TRAGEDY.

So, this morning, I was just browsing for something on the internet, as I am often wont to do, with no particular purpose in mind, and suddenly, up on my screen popped the Elixir Vegetal product page on Cocktail Kingdom.

I was a little disoriented in a “hey, why is this showing up on my screen?” for a minute, and I was about to close out, when, on a whim, I clicked the “add to cart” button.

AND IT WORKED.

Cocktail Kingdom has Elixir Vegetal back in stock, if you are looking for it in the US!! Go, purchase!

Mine is coming to me shortly!

Mirrored from Nommable!.

This weekend, we harvested the hops in our garden.

Hops are a beautiful thing. Just the scent that ripples off them while I was picking them was so elegant, floral and bitter at the same time.

The thing about hops, though, is that they are miserably underused. They’re basically only used in beers and some bitters, and once in a while in something like a brine or an infusion of some kind. (I brine my turkey for Thanksgiving in heavily-hopped beer). But hops in other things? Not much. They’re woefully underappreciated for something with such a unique and sophisticated flavor.

Fresh hops only happen once a year, in September or sometimes early October, and they’re so delicious. So this weekend, I made a cocktail with them:

notes:
Comb 9 is a gin distilled with honey. If you can’t get it, I recommend a lighter and more floral gin, like Damrak, Greylock, or Death’s Door.
Ethereal has a fairly unique smoky flavor profile. The only other gin that comes close to it is Catoctin Creek. If you can’t get either of those, I would recommend a 1/4 oz more of the base gin with a 1/4 oz of mezcal.
Bo Nardini Bassano Rue Flavored Grappa is exactly what it says it is. If you can’t get it, any plain or herbal grappa with do (stay away from fruity ones)
Adam Elmegirab’s Dandelion & Burdock Bitters can be bought at Cocktail Kingdom. If you can’t get them, Angostura or another herby bitters (not a fruit-flavored one) is fine.
I am not sure where you can find hops! I grow them myself!

Mirrored from Nommable!.

 

Yesterday, I decided that I would make a drink tonight using Hurricane Rum, which comes from Triple 8 Distillers in MA. It seemed appropriate. I used some herbs we picked in preparation for the garden possibly getting destroyed, and some other things…and it was delicious! It was one of those times where, well, I have a sense of what I’m building before and during the production of a drink, but even so, I’m often pleasantly surprised by the outcome. This one was really good.

Notes:
Hurricane Rum is a whiskey-barrel-aged rum from Massachusetts. If you can’t get it, use a darker, barrel-aged rum.
Vietnamese Coriander is not like regular coriander/cilantro. It has broad, flat leaves and a smoky flavor. I’d recommend leaving this out if you can’t get it.
Lemongrass is lemongrass and is pretty widely available.
Dolin’s is a French white vermouth. Any dry vermouth will do if you can’t get this.
Cardamaro is an amaro made with carduni. If you can’t get it, try a different amaro. It won’t be exactly the same but close. I’m thinking Averna or Ramazzotti would be fine, something sweeter and less herby.
I don’t think you’re going to be able to replicate Snap with anything else. You can buy it online here.
Cocktail Kingdom Wormwood Bitters can be purchased on the Cocktail Kingdom Website. If not, use whatever bitters you have available, although I would not recommend a fruit flavor.

Mirrored from Nommable!.

Notes:
–Catoctin Creek is a small batch gin and not available everywhere. If you can’t get it, I’d recommend using Berkshire Mountain Distillers’ Ethereal Gin, which is also not the easiest to get. After that, maybe look for Martin Miller’s, Death’s Door, Comb 9, or New Amsterdam, or ask at your liquor store for something a littler sweeter and more floral than a typical London Dry.
–Averell Damson Gin Liqueur is a gin liqueur made with damson plums. If you can’t find this, substitute a sloe gin. I like The Bitter Truth’s sloe gin, or Plymouth.
–Thatcher’s Elderflower liqueur is just that. If you can’t find it, try St. Germain, but use half the St. Germain.
–Honey comes from bees. You should be able to find that.
–Tenneyson is a lovely white absinthe that is now as anise-y as some absinthes. It has some nice juniper and pepper to it. I would recommend finding another white absinthe (not green absinthe!) or leaving this out.
–Umeboshi are dried pickled ume fruits, which are like a cross between an apricot and a plum. You can get these at an East Asian food market. If you can’t find these, use a pickled or brandied cherry, as our dried apricots are nothing like this.
–Fee Bros’ Plum Bitters is not too difficult to find, but may be a challenge. I recommend using another fruit bitters in its place– Fee Bros’ Rhubarb tends to be more ubiquitous than the plum.

I have another cocktail recipe, the rose-flavored Montague up on Nommable as well.

Mirrored from Nommable!.

I don’t often mix aperitif cocktails, but I thought it would be nice to do something that would go well with a pecan or pumpkin pie. This is a very simple drink, sweet, and spicy, meant to be sipped at room temperature.

Ingredients for six drinks
4 1/2 oz Sortilege Maple Whiskey
4 1/2 oz Averna Amaro
4 dashes per drink Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Instructions
1) Mix the Sortilege and the Averna in a small pitcher with a wooden spoon
2) Pour into small aperitif glasses
3) Add bitters to each drink

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

I have been totally fail at posting new cocktails, and I have a bunch, only now I have so many that I don’t even remember what-all I put in some of them. Two of them were good, too. One had gin, muddled stevia and pluots, but I don’t remember what else.

But here are drinks from this weekend.

On Friday, I did something I almost never do, and mixed a drink from a magazine. It was a drink from this month’s Food & Wine, made with Hendricks, arugula, lime, and agave. I mixed it for two reasons: one, because it had arugula in it; and two, because it accompanied an article that reflected a lot of my own thoughts about bartending (and particularly my thoughts on the pretentiousness of the term “mixologist” and the unsettling trend of people putting things in drinks purely as a type of liquid oneupmanship as opposed to making something that tastes good. I wasn’t fond of the agave, and think it’s just not really the right sweetener for gin, but the arugula was really nice.

On Saturday, I made this:

Basil Negroni

This isn’t quite a negroni with basil in it; it’s a little bit off a traditional negroni recipe and has a sort of duskier flavor.

Ingredients for two drinks
6 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz port wine
1/2 oz Grapefruit bitters
About 20 leaves basil, plus two pretty sprigs with blossoms

Instructions
Put everything in a shaker with ice, except basil flowers
Muddle until basil is bruised
Shake
Strain into two chilled cocktail glasses, add flowers for garnish

On Sunday, I started out my day by infusing a bottle of gin I wasn’t too thrilled with with lavender. We’ll see how it comes along next week.

Then I made this:

Elderfields Road

Elderfields Road is the name of the street my father grew up on. This drink is a variation on a Manhattan, and since he grew up right outside the city, I thought that was appropriate, considering the major ingredient here.

Ingredients for 2 cocktails
6 oz bourbon
Juice of 1 lime
2 oz elderberry syrup (homemade)
1 oz red vermouth
2 splashes blood orange bitters

Instructions:
Mix everything but the bitters together in a shaker with ice and shake
Pour into two chilled cocktail glasses, add bitters

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

This week, I experimented with two flavors of bitters from Bittermens and The Bitter Truth, which my mother bought me as a Valentine’s gift! Here are the results:

1) Rabbitini

Rabbitini

Ingredients:
3 oz Hendrick’s Gin (this recipe is intended for Hendrick’s and not another brand of gin)
1 Kirby (small) cucumber, or 1/2 large cucumber
2 tsps white sugar
1 pinch celery seed
1 oz Dolin’s Vermouth
4 dashes The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters
Ice

Chill 2 martini glasses
Slice 2 slices cucumber and reserve
Chop remaining cucumber, muddle in shaker with sugar and celery seed
Add gin, vermouth and bitters, shake
Remove ice from glasses and pour
Garnish with cucumber, serve

This drink is crisp and refreshing, with a nice celery-cucumber taste. It’s great with seafood and salads– we had it with a scallop and green apple salad.

2) Red Chocolate

Red Chocolate

Ingredients:
1 blood orange
3 oz bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)
4 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Chill 2 martini glasses
Slice two half moons of blood orange, reserve.
Squeeze juice from remaining blood orange into shaker
Add a few slices of blood orange peel from squeezed orange to shaker
Add bourbon and bitters
Mix sugar and cocoa together on a plate
Moisten edge of glasses with water or tiny bit of bourbon
Remove ice from glasses, rim glasses with cocoa-sugar mixture
Add a small bit of water (about 1/4 tsp) to remaining cocoa-sugar mixture and stir with fork until dissolved
Pour cocoa-sugar mixture into shaker
Shake and pour
Add lood orange wedge for garnish

This drink has a wonderfully complex flavor that starts out very bitter for the first few minutes after pouring but then opens up and becomes smoky and rich. It would go well with beef or pork– we drank it with flank steak.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.