Southside

Seems there's always something that gets in the way of a return to blogging.  This time it was the fact that the electoral college is about to put an authoritarian Cheeto with the expressive capacity of a 9 year-old, tiny hands, and a bad comb-over in the White House.  After waking up on November 9th to find we'd slipped into an alternate quantum reality, I simply didn't feel like doing frivolous things, like blogging about booze.  Drinking to escape seemed about all I could muster.  But a month on in this new bizzaro world and we're starting to find respite in the quotidian...for as long as that lasts.

So, on to it....

As the second snowfall of the season came down last night, I booted up Netflix on the ol' 60-inch to settle in and watch a movie.  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed The Husband rummaging through the growing pile of UPS boxes collecting around the front door.  Next thing, he's standing in front of me holding one out.

"What's this?"

"Merry Christmas, a little early.  I figured you should open this now so you can enjoy it."

I've been saying how much I love coups -- which are all the rage lately on the trendy bar scene.  So I was totally stoked when I opened up the box to find a black Waterford box inside.  And inside that were two huge lead crystal coups.  Strong, deep cuts form a ring of diamonds and rays around the bottom of a massive bowl so big you could serve soup in them.  With a smooth base and stem this vessel sits nice and heavy in the hand.  All very masculine for cut crystal.

I passed them off to The Husband to rinse out while I sprinted to the bar to leaf through PDT.  The only requirement on this bev were the words "serve in a chilled coup glass".  The first one I landed on was Southside.

I didn't expect to like this at all.  I am not a gin fan and there were not enough other ingredients to mask it.  And we all know how The Husband feels about too much citrus in his tipple.  But hey, it was all about the coup, so we were prepared to suffer through it.  Yet on the first sip we both looked at each other, eyes wide and said in unison, "Wow!  This is good!!"

A perfect, smooth, balance of all the ingredients.  Truly, liquid satin in a glass.

Then the three ultimate raves from The Husband:  "Oh, you're definitely doing this one again.  I could drink these all night!  Put it on the blog!"

Et voilà!  Un autre retour....

Southside
2 oz. gin
.75 oz. lemon juice
.75 oz. simple syrup
4 mint leaves

Muddle the syrup with the mint.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and shake.  Serve with no garnish in chilled coup glass!  (PDT suggests double straining, but I like the flecks of mint confetti in the finished product!)

Gin Ricky

Scott’s eyes opened with the sunrise.  They usually did.  Each morning his first thought was to roll over and wrap around Katie as she slept.  It was always a calculation though. He longed for the response of every other girlfriend he ever had.  How they yielded to the warmth of his body.  He loved, too, when they wrapped around him in the middle of the night.  His consciousness surfaced just long enough to sense that entwining and then submerge again, feeling strong and protective as well as safe and protected.  

But Kate was not like that.  He suspected that she came to completely as his body molded to hers.  A threat response.  Her neurons firing Warning! Danger!  Rather than melting into him, she solidified.  No observer would ever see it – the imperceptible stiffening that happened on a cellular level.  But he felt it.  It humiliated him.  He felt spurned.  Undesirable.  Ego-crushed.  But then there were the occasions when she pulled his arms around her, backed up and pressed into his pelvis.  On those mornings he soared.  He felt whole.  His senses buzzed, yet he was completely relaxed.  The world was a perfect place.  In these moments Scott believed Katie did want to be with him.  Did, in fact, love him.  Desire him. 

But with so much risk, it could never be spontaneous.  Each morning it was a decision.  An unsafe moment in what ought to be a safe place.  Should he take the chance?  What is the cost-benefit ratio for his ego today?  This morning he felt strong enough to absorb likely rejection.

“Uuunnh,” she groaned, and rolled out from under his arm and as close to the edge of the bed as she could get.  She grimaced.  “Don’t….”

He laid there, looking at her back.  “What time did you get in last night?”

“I have no idea.  I think we hit every bar in the Viagra Triangle.”  

“Wow.  Cheryl and her daddy issues.”

“Tell me about it.”   Katie groaned again as she flopped her legs to the floor and hauled herself up to sit on the side of the bed.  She stood slowly and, holding her head, lurched towards bathroom.  She looked a wreck.  “We wound up at The Lodge where some fifty year old with a bad toup kept buying us gin rickies.  Round after round after round.”

“Well, I suppose you could’ve just said, ‘no’,” he called towards the john.

“If I wanted a father, I’d bar hop with Cheryl more,” she half yelled back.  “Besides, they went down way too easy.”

Scott got out of bed, pulled on his pajama bottoms, and followed her.  “I thought you don’t like gin,” he said, leaning against the doorframe.

“I don’t.  But this didn’t taste like gin, exactly.”

“Rickies are good.  Very bright and citrusy.  We should make it this year’s summer cocktail.”

“Do you mind terribly if we don’t talk about booze right now?”  Katie pleaded, head hanging, elbows on either side of the sink.  Her hair fell every which way to completely hide her face.  She grabbed her temples.  “I just need to get through this day so I can come home and collapse after work.”

“Ok,” Scott lilted as he turned around and headed off towards the kitchen.  “But remember,” he called back, “you have that intervention tonight with your mom & Aunt Gina.”

He couldn’t contain the smirk as he heard the words oh god slide into the sounds of a night’s overindulgence coming to its rightful conclusion in the sink.

Schadenfreude.


Gin Ricky
2 oz. gin
1oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
club soda

Short shake all ingredients except the soda with a few ice cubes -- just enough to put a chill to the ingredients.  Pour into ice-filled highball glass.  Top with soda and garnish with a lime wedge.

Sloe Gin Fizz or The Cure for US Health Care

Hello, Dilettante Friends! Long time no see.  Happy Fourth to you!  Life’s been busy the last four months, but not without it’s cocktails, despite what the dearth of entries might suggest!

So right to it, shall we?  

After years of wondering exactly what it was, I purchased a bottle of sloe gin about 3 months ago which promptly got shoved to the back of the bar, forgotten and unopened.  It got pulled out at last weekend’s Pride celebration and once again became a priority.  Wow.  Sounds just like the on-again, off-again health care deform reform in this country.  But I’m getting ahead of myself...

First, though, check out that awesome single block of ice in The Partner’s Manhattan. (Prepared with orange bitters this time around.  He seems to prefer that these days.  I know, right?  As you regulars will know, this is unexpected considering his constant whinging about classic cocktails being too citrusy and acidic.  **sigh**  Though I will admit, they do brighten the bev up a bit.)  For my birthday, The Partner’s parents contributed to the bar with a set of ice cube forms that yield these fantastic blocks of ice.  Coincidentally, they didn’t even know how much we covet the look, sound, cooling power, and overall effect of these when we go to trendy, hipster, shee-shee-la-la bars.

For mini-Date Nite, on a damp, foggy, July 3rd, we closed up shop a little early.  Never having had sloe gin before, I tried a sip of it straight.  The Partner winced.  Apparently, sloe gin figured into his days as a frat boy.  Wishing me well he took his Manhattan and several steps back, waiting for me to finish making my fizz.  The brand I have is Plymouth.  Click the link above and read the description of the taste.  Mmm-hmm.  Right.  Let’s just say it’s more akin to watered down cherry cough syrup from when we were kids and call it a day.

That said, I was a bit apprehensive on the first sip of fizz.  But to tell the truth, it was quite delightful and refreshing.  The lemon, gin and seltzer cut the medicinal sweetness of the sloe gin to nice effect. Had the weather been a bit less October in London and a bit more July in Chicago, I could have had multiple rounds of these.  The Partner even ventured a cautious sip...which turned into four:  “...[sip]...Hunh...[sip]...Oh wow...[sip]...This is a lot different than what we drank in college...[sip]...Sure beats drinking it straight outta a bota bag!”  

Good lord.

So I’ve read in my hometown rag that the administration might be postponing parts of the health care “reform” bill.  Possibly, in part, in order to get Dems through the mid-terms before elements of the bill go into effect.  Naturally, Republicans are making hay out of this, even though they’ve been fighting the bill tooth and nail for the past 5 years.  I say, hey, what’s the rush?  Politicians have enjoyed very comfortable health care benefits for decades.  So they’re good.  And We The People’ve gone 237 years without a comparable safety net.  What’s another two?  We’re hardier stuff anyway.  In the meantime, if we get sick and we’re under-age, unemployed, not employed, self-employed or our employer hovers around the cusp of 50+ employees and is tarrying about providing insurance, we always have sloe gin.  Straight.  For that cherry-flavored cough syrup experience of our childhood.  Or Jäger.  Or Pernod.  Or slivovitz.  Or...

Sloe Gin Fizz

1 oz. sloe gin

1 oz. gin

1/4 oz. lemon juice

1/4 oz. simple syrup

Shake ingredients with ice.  Decant into a fizz glass with ice and top with club soda.  No garnish.

NRA Shooter

As if it were possible to have anyone crazier than Moses as the face of the NRA, meet Wayne LaPierre.  In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, he's gone unabashedly nuts.  From "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." to the call for putting an armed cop in every school, the man and the lobby have no sense of propriety or respect for what we all lost that day.  His lap dog, Asa Hutchinson is hardly better, pushing the school program in Congress at a price tag of $2 billion.  (Can you imagine what that would do going to the schools for programs and teacher training?)

So today's original bev is the NRA Shooter.  This was a challenge to craft since as a shot it needs to be sweet enough to go down easy.  But we don't like cloying shots (sorry Intoxicator!).  So I wanted it to have some kind of sour or bitter effect too.  Just like the NRA!  The Partner describes it: "It starts off without much effect, then goes to sour, then finishes like a mouthful of Smarties."

Without putting too fine a point on it, no matter what, it was going to be a red shot.  Get it? 

NRA Shooter

2 oz. gin

1 oz. strawberry cachaca

1/2 oz. grenadine

3 deep-cut strips of lemon zest

grapefruit bitters

Muddle the lemon zest in a bar glass with the bitters and a dash of gin.  When the zest is fragrant, add the  rest of the ingredients and shake over ice.  Pour into shot glasses. 

Makes 4 shots. 

Corpse Reviver #3, or the Marco Rubio

I’ve been getting bored lately with posting mere reviews of new beverages and quips from The Partner (hysterical as they are).  But recently, I had a brainflash. Let’s give it some time and see how it works. Here's the story of my brainflash. 

There is so much in the media that makes me sad or angry lately that this NPRoholic can't even listen to super-high quality news shows like Morning Edition or All Things Considered anymore.  And don't get me started on The Partner's fave: Today.  At least in the former it's the news that disturbs.  In the latter it's the cast that makes me apoplectic.  (Yes, cast.  I will not besmirch the Fourth Estate by suggesting that biased Matt; bland, insipid Female Sidekick; bland, insipid Female News Reader, or clownish Al are even remotely related to professional journalists. But I digress...somewhat.)  Then there's "reality" TV.  Talk about man's inanity to man.  If we take these shows as a reflection of society, then as a nation we must be a bunch of developmentally stunted adolescents who can't get enough of the trumped up drah-mah more characteristic of middle school classrooms and high school drama clubs.  I'm digressing again. But bear with me. It's all about to come together here.

So The Partner and I were catching up on our TiVo queue and I felt like getting mixologically experimental.  I looked at the bar and saw two lone Florida oranges about to skip past their expiration dates.  I also had a sudden jones for something akin to a lemonade.  Then it occurred to me.  I'll riff on the Corpse Reviver! I whipped one up with fresh OJ and found it worth repeating.  (Look here to learn more about the Corpse Reviver and here for the Corpse Reviver #2.)

As we sipped, a news tease featuring Marco Rubio and his filibustering ass zipped by as we fast forwarded through a commercial block.  If you’ve paid any attention to the news over the past couple weeks, the message (for now) is clear:  Marco Rubio is the savior of the Republican party!  In fact, just try Googling “Marco Rubio savior”.  In a mere .27 seconds you’ll get about 58,000 results.  Scoffing at the TV, I took a sip and it hit me.  The media, and probably even Marco himself, see him as the reviver of the Republican party corpse.  And thus the latest incarnation of Dilettante is conceived.  Cocktailing as social commentary!

So here’s the first such entry:  The Corpse Reviver #3, or the Marco Rubio.  During the late 19^th early 20^th Centuries, revivers were hair of the dog bevs after excesses of the night before.  After the excesses of the party of frightened, angry, old, straight, white men-in-denial, the media and the party are hanging all their hopes on Rubio.  He’s young, Hispanic, telegenic, from Florida.  What do you know?  Everything Tea Partiers and the rest of the party have been saying is true.  The Republican party really is a big tent!  I love it when they point to one or two people going against type and call it proof of their rhetoric. 

But more importantly, as I sipped I was thankful, thankful that God sent us Marco.  See, recently I haven’t been sleeping very much out of fear that a drone might come crashing through the window of our Chicago condo and take us out.  But now I can sleep at night, feeling safe that my president and his justice department have promised not to dispatch us from a distance in the middle of the night.  Phew!  Marco, despite your tweeted protestations:  

There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 7, 2013

...you are my savior! 



Corpse Reviver #3 or the Marco Rubio
equal parts:
gin
Cointreau
Lillet Blanc
orange juice

Shake over ice and pour into (an Absinthe-rinsed, if you must) coupe.  No garnish.

White Lady

Happy New Year!

Has there really been no post since November??  Well, we've gotten through Thanksgiving, all the holiday parties, Chicago Christmas, New Jersey Christmas, both of us down with a winter cold, and a first week back re-entry.  And while last night wasn't exactly a Date Nite, we did eek out a cocktail from PDT that we sipped while we got ready to meet friends for dinner.

Say hello to the White Lady.  A staple offering from the 1920's at the infamous Harry's New York in Paris, this looks and tastes like the old classic it is.  I thought it would be a good one for The Partner given that the ginny, juniper, citrusy qualities would be mediated by the silky sweetness of the egg white & simple syrup....  Not so much.  A little too classic for his tastes.  While I wouldn't make this a regular for us, it is an easy classic sipper when you have a few friends over and want to impress with a single round that's classy looking, classic flavors, and introduces some  variety beyond the usual bowl of vodka.  A good aperitif to wake up palates before dinner...(and subsequent rounds!).  

**A note to C:  To start 2013 off on the right foot, The Dilettante took your advice.  To keep everyone happy while The Dilettante did the mix-n-shoot, The Partner got a short Tito's & soda sipper.  You were right!  No complaints, not whining, no rushing while the drinks were mixed, staged & photographed.  You're a genius! 

White Lady
2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. Cointreau
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. simple syrup
1 egg white

Dry shake, then shake with ice.  Serve in chilled egg coupes with no garnish.

Martinez

I find I'm not terribly inspired to write about the Martinez.  It wasn't all that pleasant, though I tried to rationalize it as an aperitif.  But neither The Partner nor I felt like finishing it.  It tasted very familiar and was not unlike the Leap Year or the Sensation.  

Below is the recipe.  But don't dwell here.  Instead, click to read a Cocktail Chat entry on bitters.  I needed to do a little research into Boker's bitters to see if I had what I needed to make substitutions.  As it turns out, reading about Boker's was much more interesting!

Martinez
1.5 oz. gin
1.5 oz. sweet vermouth
1/4 oz. Maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Boker's bitters*

Sir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.  Garnish with an orange twist.

*: Read the Cocktail Chat entry linked above.  I approximated the Boker's with a dash each of orange bitters and Jamaican #1 (allspice, ginger, & black pepper).

Leapfrog

Friday night's brief happy hour started (and ended) with the Leapfrog before heading out to our fave neighborhood Mexican joint for dinner.  What made this drink so interesting, given its ingredients, is how much it tasted like grapefruit juice-- with the slightest finish of mint.  

It's quite possible there could have been a second round of these.  The Partner did have something witty to say and commented how he looked forward to seeing his humor immortalized on the blog.  However, it was the evening before the week's grocery shopping and I used the last fresh lemon we had in the house to make the one round.  And then there were the gigundo margaritas at dinner.  So I don't remember what he said that so hilariously summarized the bev and whether or not other rounds were even desired had the necessary ingredients been on the bar .  Gotta love Date Nite :-P


Leapfrog
2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. apricot liqueur
1/4 oz. simple syrup
2 dashes orange bitters
6 mint leaves

Muddle the mint with the syrup.  Add the rest of the ingredients and shake with ice.  Strain* into a chilled coup.  No garnish.

*:  You may want to use a fine strainer.  Small bits of mint, as you can see in the pic, will get through the standard bar strainer.  But since this has no garnish, I thought the few vivid green flecks bobbing around gave it some visual interest.

Favorite Liquors & Labels

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.  

So says Sir Francis Bacon.  

As many a faithful reader, friend or family member will know, Sir Francis's sentiment has been the motivation of this blog and cocktail project.  After years of being locked in our choice troika of beer, wine, or vodka, The Dilettante and The Partner have busted our parochial palates.  For the past 18 months now we've been exploring the mixological arts via our guides, Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century and The PDT Cocktail Book.  

This summer has been a dry spell for the blog, but not for our liquid explorations.  In fact, this season has seen the realization of our mission in the most diverse terms thus far.  Looking back over the summer and examining our recreational sipping habits, we have clearly built up a repertoire of cocktails that we now confidently order or mix beyond the big three above.

Here are some of our favorite "new" liquors and the labels we've enjoyed thus far.  Bookmark this page for updates as time goes on.  You'll also be able to find links back here from the entry, "Puttin' the 'D' in 'Dilettante'".  Those links will bring you to the top of this page.  Scroll down to see the updates.

Here's to building palates as well as bar shelves!

---

Willett Pot Still Reserve Bourbon

What a great bottle.

There's no better place to start than at the top of the list.  Willett has become our absolute favorite bourbon.  The Partner would have it in any bourbon bev.  I, however, reserve it for either sipping straight or cocktails with few ingredients so it can be appreciated for the jewel it is.

To date we have not found a smoother, more balanced bourbon.  Vanilla and caramel play of nice wood notes that are almost piney.  Wonderful and warm.

Willett has also become a great gift for the two main bourbon connoisseurs in my life -- my sister and my father.  Knowing our love of it, it's also been gifted to us by our friends, M. & B.  Recently, we've turned our friends S. & D. onto it -- self-avowed non-bourbon drinkers. 

If you're intrigued, purchase this genie bottle when you see it.  It's seasonal and batch-distilled.  When it's gone for the season, it's gone and not easy to find.  You'll know a quality bar when they have this on the top shelf.

Woodford Reserve Distillers Select
If Willett is our measuring stick, then Woodford Reserve is about half a shelf down from Willett.  We liked it better than the Rare Eagle, which honestly, I thought was clearly not Willett, but still good.  That is until we had the Woodford which has much more body and character.  Another limited-batch spirit, it's a bourbon I feel good using to create a high end cocktail without using an over-qualified spirit like Willett.  That said, it's nearly as expensive as Willett.  But still, somehow you don't feel as bad combining it with other mixers and accents.  Woodford elevates them rather than the other ingredients bringing the bourbon down.

Woodford is characterized by a nice tanginess.  It is strong.  Imagine a peppered toffee.  Smokey.  Spicy.  It makes a nice Manhattan and holds up very well to the citrus in a Bourbon Squash.


Eagle Rare Bourbon
One Saturday afternoon, while on a Binny's run, I decided to grab a couple other liquors that I'd either heard of or were on the Binny's recommended list.  ERB was the latter.  Initially, I found it to be a suitable mixing bourbon when I didn't want to use Willett.  It had a complexity and warmth I found lacking in more commercial bourbons.  But right off the bat, The Partner detected the difference:  "Is this Willett?"  You can practically see the pinched face and scrunched nose as if a baby in a bad diaper just walked by.  And I have to admit, that in a side-by-side comparison, it does not hold up even to the Woodford Reserve, never mind Willett.  In that company the Eagle Rare is thin and watery, relatively flavorless.  When I have a choice, I'll be going with the Woodford.  But in a pinch, the Eagle Rare will do.

St. George Botanivore Gin

The name alone is enough to get this English teacher to purchase it.  What a great word, botanivore!  "Botanical eater"! The marketing person who came up with that one sure earned their keep on that day!  Going beyond just marketing, it's an apt name for this gin.  As many a reader will recall, the Dilettante doesn't enjoy naked gin.  However, this is one was purchased due to its prevalent use in the PDT bible.  Even from this anti-ginite, SGBG is to be appreciated.  Cocktails that allow gin to shine will benefit greatly from this spirit.  It is herby, green, floral, with whispers of juniper, citrus, maybe even some coriander.  From here on it will be the gin of choice on the Dilettante's bar.  Nineteen different botanicals means it will play nicely with all kinds of mixers and accents.