Blackberry Shrubbery

So I decided to try my hand at some shrub for a chance. I made a simple blackberry simple syrup from fresh fruit and simple syrup. I then added nearly equal parts vinegar(2/3 aged white wine vinegar 1/2 distilled white). For the first try I started with 2/3 oz. shrub as I wasn't to keen on the vinegar. I added a little ginger syrup and cut the base half rum and half gin, and then topped it with ginger ale. The flavor was very muted and strong on the ginger. So after about a week I altered the recipe to something a little more gin and shrubbish.
     The new mix was very tasty with a slight aged flavor from the vinegar oddly enough. It turned out very light and refreshing with the right amount of richness and botanicals.




Blackberry Shrubbery
2 oz. New Amsterdam Gin
1 oz. blackberry shrubb
1 dash Angostura bitters
fill with Ginger ale

Rhum & Cocchi-Kola

     Remembering a vacation from October to Kansas City I decided to try my hand at a Manifesto original dubbed the Rhum & Cocchi-Kola. As I find I do fancy a nice rum and cola as my go to drink I knew this cocktail wouldn't let me down. Gathering the ingredients once the Kola Tonic arrived in the mail I whipped up what I thought the proportions should be; as I sipped I found the cocktail to be to boozy and lacking in flavor. A dash of Aztec Chocolate bitters and a glug of Pepsi really opened up the drink and made it more palatable and tasty. I think my rhum and kola tonic selection is what's throwing me off but I find that real cola brings out the flavor in almost anything. 

Rhum & Cocchi-Kola

1 7/8 oz. Barbancourt 8 year Rhum

1/2 oz. Cocchi Americano

1 oz. Clayton's Kola Tonic

2 dashes grapefruit bitters

6 drops aztec chocolate bitters

stir and strain; top with real cola

Fagasa Afono Cocktail

     Wanting to try a Pago Pago Cocktail for quite some time I decided to make one. I followed the recipe from Cocktail Chronicles nearly to the T. But in my dismay I noticed I forgot the bitters. The drink prior to the bitters was very much to my liking. The rum, slight creme de cacao flavor, the Chartreuse, and muddled pineapple just blended so well. It was much like a Windjammer(brandy, creme de cacao/ or Kahlua, pineapple juice, and cream) with an herbal tone and minus the cream of course. 

     Messing around with Chartreuse as we usually do, we decided to try a spin-off of the Pago Pago Cocktail with some Dumante pistachio liqueur added.

Fagasa Afono Cocktail
1 oz. Pyrat Reserve Gold
1 oz. Rhum Barbancourt 8 year rum
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. Green Chartreuse
3/8 oz. Dumante Pistachio liqueur
3-4 pineapple chunks
muddle, shake and strain
top 1-2 dashes Angostura or Aztec Chocolate bitters (optional)

Nocino Espresso

     Time for an after dinner coffee drink. Recently at a local favorite of mine Dante's Pizzeria I happened upon a bottle of Nocino, an Italian green walnut liqueur. Craving a little espresso I figured why not mix the two. The liqueur came out hot and a slightly hellish burn but it tamed as my palate became use to it. I threw a pistachio toffee swizzle (not shown) in the mix and found the drink to be rather pleasant. I think I found a new coffee drink.

Nocino Espresso
1.5 oz. Nocino liqueur
2-3 oz. espresso
sugar of your choice to taste ( I like a pistachio toffee swizzle)

Kicking and Biting

     Rum and ginger with a hint of orange? Already having a bottle of Marie Brizzard Orange Curacao on hand and an orange forward rum like Pyrat Reserve, it just seemed right.

     The ginger beer I chose was very strong and had a hard crisp bite. Very enjoyable. But this drink reminded of one a created nearly a year ago on the Ministry of Rum forums. I dubbed it the Kicking and Biting. Although the name seems dumb in hindsight the drink was very rich and spicy due to the falernum and intense ginger beer. I do find that if I crave a gingery drink both cocktails work superbly.

 

Kicking and Biting

2 oz. Oronoco Rum

0.75 oz. Velvet Falernum 

the juice of 1 lime 

fill with Maine Root Ginger Brew

used lime half garnish

Guatemalan Poker Hand

     Belgian beer, the pinnacle of beer drinking. How can you argue with a drink that dates back to the Crusades. Whether it be dubbel, triple, or quad; or even a nice light cider or lambic they all were refined here. For those new to the Belgian beer scene or ready to dig deep to find the best, you need not look further. Although I do have a prejudice for the darker and richer beers I can suggest a good starting point. 

     Let's begin with a nice and light lambic, as they were created for children; so that they would be able to drink with the family. I must suggest Lindemans Framboise or a much stronger Kasteel Rouge. At 8% Kasteel Rouge is more for adults but retains the flavor of the more infant Lindemans. I myself suggest Three Philosophers Quad. It's a traditional quad mixed with 3% Kriek beer (cherry beer) and at 9.8% it won't disappoint.

     Dubbel, Triple, Quad? It's as easy as 2,3,4. Double fermented, triple or four times distilled. The more fermentations the stronger the beer, and as so many people agree, the more the flavor. 

    For a dubbel I recommend the beginner of it all: Westmalle Dubbel, also try St. Bernardus Abt.12.

For a tripel, and I only drink dark, I suggest one of the best beers in the world if not THE best... Gulden Draak.

     Somewhere between dubbel and tripel sits Belgian Strong Dark Ale. One of my favorites and a great starter for those leary to try a traditional belgian dubbel or quad. For this category as I began with Chimay Blue Label, I must suggest the same. Also try Brother Thelonius, Delirium Nocturnum, McChouffe or the very flavorful La Terrible. 

     Quad, four times fermented has the most flavor and the highest ABV. Rochefort 10 and Straffe Hendrick are two of the best. Also throw in Ommegang Three Philosophers as an honorable mention as the kriek mix really adds to the flavor of a great quad.
     Now for a cocktail. Playing around with all of this I thought of the Blackjack Cocktail. A mix of coffee concentrate and kirschwasser(a cherry brandy) with cognac and demerara sugar syrup. My idea came out like this...

Guatemalan Poker Hand
in a chilled beer goblet
1.5 oz. Red Stag Cherry Bourbon
2 dashes Aztec Chocolate bitters
1 oz. Huehuetanango coffee syrup
 stir and strain
top with Three Philosophers or Kriek Beer
 ;    Gin Hound

Hillsborough Point

     Let's mix around a few similar cocktails and see what we come up with. With the Dirt 'n Diesel still fresh in my mind and discovering the Fratelli Cocktail as well as the Greenpoint Cocktail just searching the net. I think I'll try my hand at a cocktail containing rum, green Chartreuse and Fernet Branca. Those are my only controls.

    Starting with just the base liquors I find the drink slightly overpowering as you can imagine. Following the Fratelli Cocktail proportions set by Jamie Boudreau. A very bitter and herbal drink but knowing that I do like Last Words I added 1/2 oz. lime juice and the drink becomes more mild and palatable. In hindsight I think this drink works either way. A stronger more herbal drink following the line of the Manahattan or a semi-tart herbal play on the Fratelli. 

Hillsborough Point

1.5 oz. English Harbour 5 year

0.5 oz. Pyrat XO Reserve

0.5 oz. Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth

0.5 oz. Green Chartreuse 

0.25 Fernet Branca

0.25-0.5 oz. lime juice (if needed)

*stir and strain 

Bacon Bourbon Old Fashioned

   Let's start with a week long venture, to recreate a drink only described in detail. A flavorful mix of infused bourbon, house-made syrup, and muddled herb that will hopefully taste as amazing as it sounds. At a local music and craft bar venue (The House of Loom) my girlfriend had this cocktail and described its deliciousness to me. To recreate this drink in my own setting I set ahead to infuse the whiskey for the five days it requires.

     Upon reaching the deadline of infusion I bought the necessary ingredients to make this flavorful old fashioned. I created a rather easily made fig-simple syrup, strained the bacon fat out of the bourbon and grabbed an old fashioned glass. Mixing it to my liking proved difficult as the bacon bourbon was so overpowering. I could barely taste the fig-syrup or the muddled sage. But without haste Lisa proclaimed it better than her first experience. And so we have the....

Bacon Bourbon Old Fashioned

2.5 oz. bacon-infused bourbon ( I used Bulleit)

1.5 oz. house-made fig syrup

1 dash bitters (I tried both Angostura and Aztec Chocolate)

                    - The Chocolate bitters gave a better flavor

2 sage leaves (muddled in the bitters)

*stir and strain

skewered fig and sage leaf garnish