Pearl Button

PDT Interview
Personal preferences: dark liquor, warming, "brown"
Drink style: rocks
Spirit of choice: scotch, bourbon, Irish whisky
Last cocktail: Bijou

Awesome Xmas gifts. Glasses: Mother-in-law, Sculpture: Sis

January 13th.  Friday. Chicago finally gets its first winter storm of the season.  PDT interview notes above reflect my mood.  Bar’s practically empty of stock liquors.  F***.  Heading to Binny’s tomorrow for sure (with that 15% off coupon from my inbox)!  I need something to lift my mood on this typical Chicago winter day. 

Leafing deeper into Meehan.  Looking for something I have ingredients for.  Anything.  Stumble across a section entitled "Seasonal Mixology".  Perfect.  His description of winter captures my mood and bev desires perfectly, noting that when the sun goes down in early afternoon and the temp drops, people start ordering “spiritous aperitifs such as Manhattans, Martinis, Negronis.”  Exactly.  Outta vermouth.  Can’t do a one of them.  Meehan continues: “When the weather gets bleak, I always put a tiki drink on the menu for comic relief on a chilly winter night.”  Permission to go tropical to lift my (excuse the pun) spirits.  And I did just change all my desktop wallpapers to tropical scenes – vacation is tantalizingly close.

Pearl Button.  First sip was a bit of a shock.  After that, both The Partner and I agreed, this will be a feature on the roof this summer.  First word to describe: Dry.  Then light.  Crisp.  Floral.  Citrus. Not at all acidic.  Effervescent.  Not a “ya know, these classic cocktails…” in sight.  I must admit to a bit of anticipatory skepticism when I read the recipe.  Cachaca & Lillet?  But it works.  Even got to trot out the new Collins glasses.  A Christmas gift along with the PDT from my mother-in-law.  Thank you, P-!

Happy Friday 13th!!

Pearl Button
2 oz. Cachaça
3/4 oz. Lillet blanc
1/2 oz. lime juice
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled Collins glass filled with ice.  Top with 1.5 oz. of San Pellegrino Limonata*.  Garnish with half a grapefruit wheel*.

*:  Damn.  Ran out of San Pellegrino Limonata just this afternoon.  Ditto on the grapefruit.  So a slight squeeze from the heel of a lemon over the ice before topping with seltzer and half a lemon wheel for garnish sufficed nicely.  Give an easy stir with a bar spoon to get all the ingredients lovin' each other.

Bijou

The Bijou, first cocktail of the new year from the new book.

PDT Interview
Personal Preferences: dark liquor, slow sipping
Style of Drink: classic, rocks
Spirit of Choice: scotch, bourbon
Last Drink: Manhattan

Over the Christmas break, the beverages for the fam vacillated between Manhattans and Tequila Sunrises.  It was a cooler evening on Friday, so for the first beverage in the new year from the new book, I was thinking an amber beverage was more appropriate to the mood and weather than a tequila cocktail.  I was also willing to push the envelope a bit with an accent liquor.   Interestingly enough, the Bijou, first mixed in 1895, fit the bill when considering my PDT Interview criteria.  French for jewel, what a jewel the Bijou is.  Look at that picture!  Rich ambers, the flash of red & yellow from the garnishes.  Meehan notes in the text that the liquors are supposed to represent the jewels of their color:  Gin=diamond, vermouth=ruby, Chartreuse=emerald.   And how about my new Waterford rocks glasses?  One of my Christmas gifts from The Partner!  Not a coupe, but I wanted to start with new glassware.

We were very pleased with the choice.  It was indeed a slow sipper, allowing us to pass the time and share our day while waiting for our late dinner reservation.  I was taking a risk here since Chartreuse is one of those very herbal liquors with occasional licorice notes – a flavor The Partner just can’t stomach.  ("Hmm...what all's in this?  Wait, don't tell me until we've finished it.  I wanna keep liking it.")  The flavors are complex and shift as one sips.  We added an ice cube to both keep it cool and dilute a bit as we sipped.  Impossible to drink quickly, it was a one-rounder.  It is just that rich.  It is so complex we both felt our next beverages – Martinis at dinner – seemed downright weak & one-dimensional by comparison.  A marvelous, grown-up cocktail to linger over while having good conversation with a spouse or friend.

Bijou
1 oz. Gin
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 oz. green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.  Garnish with cherry & lemon twist.

Transition 2012

Happy 2012!  Our first entries for the new year, with a new book, new drinkware, and new inspiration for Dilettante Cocktailer.

I sat down with my new copy of The PDT Cocktail Book, penned by mixologist & GM, Jim Meehan and Chris Gall and started reading.  This might hold some promise.  A compilation of recipes from the famed New York speakeasy, Please Don’t Tell, it’s an assortment of recipes from PDT as well as classics updated for modern tastes.  To be honest, I think mixing from this might prove a bit more challenging than from the bible.  It’s rather fussy in a trendy East Village kinda way.  Right off the bat Meehan talks about ingredients “that aren’t currently available in the United States” with but are included here to “encourage producers and importers to ship them to our shores.”  Great.  So in the meantime, what are we dilettantes supposed to do?  In “The PDT Experience”, Meehan & Gall devote a page and a half to describing what it’s like for an imbiber once he passes through the “secret” phone booth entrance.  It’s all a bit pretentious.  Especially as they describe how once a guest finishes examining the menu, either an order is placed or the bartender “conducts an interview to help them choose the ideal cocktail.”  Ugh.  Really?  That's a bit much.  However, I kept reading and I think I’ve stumbled on a method of organization for choosing future tipples and blog entries.  (Without the “x down & x to go” MO of blogging about the bible, I was trying to figure out how to keep things organized.  Organization is an important consideration.  You can take the English teacher out of the classroom, but… I digress….)

On to the first selection from PDT.

Cocktail Chat | NYE 2011

It’s the day to reflect on what’s gone on over the previous 364 days. 

I can honestly say, until now I’ve never been as conscientious about maintaining a journal or log.  I suppose we can blame the liquor! 

I start every morning starts with a meditation from a fantastic little book, 365 Tao.  The meditation for today, the last day of the year and the last one in the book is entitled, oddly enough, “Continuation”.  Master Deng suggests that life is a series of cycles.  Endings are merely the lead-in to new beginnings.  Interestingly enough, Deng also suggests that the stage for any particular ending is usually set mid-cycle, long before the actual ending occurs.  Hmmm….  Things that make you go “Hmmm…”.

I’m definitely feeling this in regard to the current state of this blog.  It’s been a lot of fun and certainly a dilettante experience –  inconsistent, learning many little things about a subject but not being a master of any of it.  I’ve played with my interest in photography in a different way and (trying) to let go of the need to take every shot with my SLR and occasionally using my phone, point & click, or iPad.   And I’ve absolutely held to what I stated at the outset, that this little adventure absolutely would not be my Julie & Julia moment.  And I do feel pretty good about writing 58 entries over 8 months.  I’ve never been this consistent with a journal.  Ever. 

Diletantte Cocktailer has also brought some cool new opportunities.  First & foremost, we’ve expanded our palates beyond Ketel One martinis.  I mean it now when I say I like gin & bourbon!  We’ve added classic ingredient items to our bar that have given our offerings breadth, depth, and conversation opportunities, such as St. Germaine, Lillet, Pernod, & Chartreuse.  The cook in me sees that a cocktail recipe is no different than an entrée recipe, blending disparate ingredients to make a new, complex whole.  We learned that 2011 wasn’t the year of the pomegranate only in the grocery store as we now have two bottles of pomegranate liqueur, gifted to us from friends.  Our friends, A & R, have introduced us to The Drawing Room, an amazing restaurant cum speakeasy here in Chi.  We watched PBS’s Prohibition the old fashioned way – watching it “live” as broadcast – no TiVo  – and understood our Chicago roots in history and “The Great Experiment”.  And we learned how those bizarre and contradictory 13 years are still influencing contemporary American society.  The Partner has given me some wonderful new glassware as has his parents. And just last week for Christmas, The Partner’s mom  gave us an exciting new addition to our bar library with The PDT Cocktail Book from the St. Mark’s speakeasy.

Forty-eight down.  Two hundred twenty seven to go, huh?  That’s only 17% of H & M’s tome sampled.   Master Deng says the ending is set mid-cycle.  I feel it in this case.  For the past couple months I’ve been feeling that the blog was getting a bit stale.  I’ve been itching to use the new gifts and resources and add them to the blog.  Thus, I’m wondering, do we really need to sample every one of the 275?  Hasn’t the bible served its purpose in expanding our palates?  Is it time to move on?  

When this project first started, all we had was a dusty recipe book pulled from the back of a cabinet and boredom with our current tastes.  Now, eight months later, our cocktailing horizons have expanded.  So, I’m feeling the need to evolve Dilettante Cocktailer.  I’m not sure how that will happen or in what form it will take, but this project has led me to a number of different experiences and new resources that I’d like to explore & share.  Plus, an added benefit might just be to get The Partner to find some other way of responding besides the now classic refrain about “these classic cocktails…”.

So here’s to ending and continuation.  Starting a new cycle, the seeds of which were planted in an earlier moment. 

Here’s to 2012.

Tequila Sunrise | 48 down 227 to go

Mom & dad's pitcher, which mom said hadn't been used in decades. Glad we could dust it off for such a festive cocktail!

The eyes of several family members were peering over my shoulder on Christmas morning as I scanned the  bible snaps I brought on my iPad for Holiday festivity.  I had assumed the bar setup duties* for the day and decided that a couple cocktail pitchers would be in order.  Since this is our family, Manhattans would be one of them - served from the same pitcher my grandparents used at their parties so long ago.  The task at hand: Determine what the second pitcher would be.

My sister and I have a Christmas tradition (besides placing the Baby Jesus in the manger and wishing him a happy birthday).  We meet in the kitchen, usually after the bulk of dinner is over and toast the day & each other with a shot of tequila.  Therefore, the entire page of tequila recipes had to come with on the iPad.  The peering eyes included my sister and my Latin America-trotting aunt.  When I swiped to the tequila page and paused, a common cry came up:  “Ooo, Tequila Sunrise!  I haven’t had one of those since …”

“…college,” said sister.

“…the Sandinista revolution,” said aunt.

So Tequila Sunrise it was: a solid cocktail that holds its own either as a parallel breakfast bev to mimosas and screwdrivers or as a mid-afternoon happy hour when something warm and sunny is desired.  It certainly intrigued the rest of the family and triggered conversation of past brushes with the tipple even if they didn’t partake this time around.  And this was probably a good thing.  For unlike the Do Be Careful, do be careful here.  This is a classic proportion, remember, and on an empty stomach while putting the finishing touches on the mashed potatoes, one will absolutely rise into the warm tequila sun! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tequila Sunrise
1 1/2 oz. tequila
2 oz. orange juice
1/4 oz. lime juice
dash genedine
Shake with cracked ice; strain into chilled Collins glass filled with ice.  Garnish with lime wheel.

* Props to The Partner who did most of the bar tending for the day.  He did an awesome job!

Leap Year | 47 down 228

Merry Christmas! 

Leap Year even looks like lemon cough syrup!

The Partner & I are celebrating with my parents, sister, bro-in-law & nieces.  Not wanting to miss more blog time, I brought along some simple recipes from the bible that might make Christmas merry & bright.  Perhaps more appropriate for New Year’s than Christmas Eve, we kicked off the holiday with the Leap Year. 

A rather medicinal mix, highly reminiscent of a lemony cough syrup, we understand the name.  We recommend serving once every four years -- only if you must.  Here’s to something more festive and satisfying tomorrow and as the week goes on.

Leap Year
2 oz. gin
½ oz. Grand Marnier
½ oz. sweet vermouth
¼ oz. lemon juice
Shake over cracked ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with lemon twist or orange twist.

Wild-Eyed Rose | 46 down 229 to go

‘Tis the season to be hectic…

Wow, one wouldn’t think that during the Holidays it’d be difficult to find time to throw one back.  But things have been so crazy with both mine and The Partner’s work schedules.  Plus, has anyone else noticed that there don’t seem to be as many holiday parties this year?  Guess that’s a minus, actually.  Thus, entries have been sporadic.  My instinct is to apologize to those who have asked, “Hey, are you still doing the blog?”  But I’ll fight the urge and get over the guilt I feel for not writing more consistently.  I mean, "dilettante" is right in the title, for Pete’s sake!

On to why we’re here.  Wild-Eyed Rose.  I’ve discovered there’s an unexpected quality just the right amount of grenadine imparts to a tipple.  I’d characterize it at “creaminess”, believe it or not.  Odd, I know.  But in the proper proportion, it brings a velvety smoothness with almost hints of vanilla.

“Hmmm…fruit punch!” was The Partner’s remark upon seeing this glass of red.  He sipped, seemingly approvingly, before the qualifying drone about “these classic cocktails” began.  Then he qualified it with, “…although I did just brush my teeth.”

 
At this I finally put my foot down.  As he is a bit of an oenophile, I came back, “Y’know, you would never open a bottle of nice wine, pour it into Riedel stemware, let it breathe, take your first sips and cast judgment on its ultimate quality all after you just brushed your teeth.  I think you need to start respecting the venerable cocktail in the same way.  From now on, I will refuse to serve you if you’ve just brushed your teeth!”  Oy.  Partners.

But the smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth, the glint in his eye, and the lack of protest all indicated the rightness of my reprimand.  As we neared the bottom of the glass, the lips started smacking and the glass started dancing back and forth – both signals that another round is desired.  As time was ticking on our Date Nite dinner reservation, I had him try his hand at mixing while I hopped in the shower and got ready for the night out.  Remember… the benefit of grenadine comes from just the right amount … in the proper proportion.  Still, the lovely red hue did make it a Wild-Eyedly appropriate cocktail for this festive season :-)

Wild-Eyed Rose
2 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. lime juice
½ oz grenadine

Shake with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime squeeze and a maraschino (and do squeeze that lime for the proper balance!).

Do Be Careful | 45 down 230 to go

The name here sure makes it sound dangerous, doesn’t it?  Do Be Careful is fun to say, tasty, but ultimately, not in need of a special license to enjoy or chaperone to guard against one’s foolishness showing up naked on FaceBook.  A bright, citrusy bev that’s mediated by the dash – and I do mean dash – of grenadine, the DBC is innocuous and goes down nicely for a couple rounds.  We’ll make them again.  Moving on….
 

So, the real story this week is the cocktail vessels themselves.  Check those out!  Recently, I’ve been thinking to myself that the photos were getting a little stale.  We only have so many styles of glassware and seeing the same ones repeat over and over on the blog was getting monotonous.  Wow…is this the Dilettante or the Debutante who can’t be seen in the same outfit one cotillion to the next?  But what’s a home mixologist to do?  Do you know what quality drinkware costs???  Anyway, The Partner was apparently reading my mind.  (Honestly, I never expressed my thoughts out loud or even hinted!)  As I was about to decant the DBC’s into a set of our martini glasses, he stopped me and pushed a box across the bar.  “This is really for Christmas, but I think you might want to open it now.” 
 

Awesome.  Constantly chilled bevs that are never watered down.  Some cocktailing designer was really thinking on this one!
 

Do Be Careful
1 ½ oz. gin
¾ oz. Cointreau
¾ oz. lemon juice
1 dash grenadine

Shake with fine ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a maraschino.

Bourbon Squash | 44 down 231 to go

When you’re getting ready to go out for the evening – you know, showering, primping, preening, running an iron (or a few squirts of wrinkle releaser) over your clothes, getting dressed – it always helps to have a cocktail in hand as you do it.  And while it was not my intention to make these the “hull entries” of the blog, only a page away from the Appetizer was the Bourbon Squash.  Deliciousness in a pint glass.

To be sure, one of the qualities that makes this such an all-around experience is the fact that it engages all the senses, but especially that of hearing in an unusual way.  Like some of its cousins, such as the Mint Julep, Mojito, Old Fashioned, the Squash is made directly in the glass.  The familiar, wet shlaaka- shlaaka- shlaaka of the shaker maraca is replaced by the sound of the ice shaver.  But even better, after packing the ice in the glass over the juice, syrup and hulls, you pour the bourbon over the ice.  As the liquor seeps through, the ice melts and settles making a sound that might best be described as the cocktail version of Snap, Crackle & Pop.  Yet it’s a wholly different sound.  Between the scent of the wafting citrus oils, the vibrant visuals of a divided glass with orange & yellow hulls in the lower half and the icy gravel in the upper half, then this subtle and unexpected music, this cocktail is a synesthesiac sensation.

As much as I disdain straws, definitely use one here, at least to start.  The layering makes for two distinct taste sensations with the sweet acids below and the smoky smoothness above.   The straw lets you mix the bourbon slushy into the liquid below.  As the ice melts and the flavors blend, this is one of those cocktails that’s different with every sip. If only we had discovered this one in the summer.  To June 2012!

Bourbon Squash
2 ½ oz. bourbon
1 oz. orange juice
½ oz. lemon juice
1 t. simple syrup
Squeeze the juices into a pint glass, dropping the hulls in too.  Pack glass with shaved ice.  Pour bourbon over the ice and stir.  Serve with cocktail straw.

UPDATE: Hands down, this was the favorite sipper of the summer.  We've turned many a friend on to this simple-yet-dramatic cocktail.  If you have not tried it yet, hurry, hurry, hurry.  Looking at the ingredients it seems rather wintery with the citrus & bourbon.  But it is summer through and through -- light on the palate, different with every sip, and served in a pint glass.  If you make this for friends, make it a surprise.  Don't tell them what you're making them and ask them to trust you.  The Wow! factor when served intrigues even the non-bourbon drinker.  Several friends have said to me, "I don't like bourbon, but I really like this!"  Such was the case this Labor Day weekend when we spent all Monday in S. & D.'s pool tossing back these bad boys.  D. is now a bourbon drinker...at least in it's Squash form!  

Appetizer | 43 down 232 to go

This week has been a lesson in delayed gratification.  I’ve been craving a good Old Fashioned for about a week now and was looking forward to one or two kicking off the weekend.   But last night I was forced to drive back from Springfield when my train was delayed 2 ½ hours.  I couldn’t take it, so rented a car and made it back to Chi well before the Lincoln 304 out of St. Louis.  Another job well-done, Amtrak!  But by the time I got home, having missed our late dinner reservations at Vincent, all I could handle was a hot shower, a bottle of wine, and some pizza – all of which The Partner had waiting for me.

I still want that Old Fashioned.  But since I missed posting last night, I needed to get this in before the OF.  I have to admit to being intrigued by the Appetizer.  Between the name and the ingredients, I was thinking of this cocktail like a pint of Guinness – a meal all on its own.
 
Never underestimate the power of citrus hulls to fruitify one’s cocktail without the acidic sting.   The Appetizer is a surprisingly smooth cocktail with a bright, round, fresh sweetness.  I was nervous with the Peychaud's bitters, ready for The Partner to curl his nose and wince with an “Eeew, licorice!”  But instead, I was rewarded with an “Oh, that’s nice, dear….  That’s nice!”

On to the Old Fashioned...finally!

Appetizer

2 oz. rye

3 dashes Cointreau

2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

1 lemon hull

1 orange hull

Shake with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with lemon twist.

Vesper | 42 down 233 to go

Little did I realize when I purchased my first bottle of Lillet that this tipple would bring me back to a boyhood and indulgent adult pleasure:  James Bond.  As H & M lay out in their history, Ian Flemming describes the recipe for the Vesper in Casino Royale.  It is named for the character, Vesper Lynd, the double agent who also steals Bond’s heart.  It’s the Vesper that started the whole “shaken, not stirred” thing and was initially known as the Vesper martini.

The key to this is the Lillet, a delightful wine based aperitif with citrus & herbal fortifications that bring out a crisp, enjoyable orange flavor.  On a separate note, I’m looking forward to using this to in my own experimenting, particularly come the summer time. 

The proportions here, I will say, are not the best.  It starts very ginny and finishes like a mouthful of Bactine.  But with a few more drops of the lovely Lillet (and perhaps an ice cube for chill and light dilution), this is a wonderful cocktail.  And yes, even The Partner went back for seconds.

Vesper
2 oz. gin
1 oz. vodka
½ oz. Lillet blonde

Stir ingredients with cracked ice and serve in chilled cocktail glass; garnish with orange wheel.

Bianco | 41 down 234 to go

It was official this week.  We're done with warm in the Windy City.  We needed the heat on two days this week.  No matter what I did today, I was just cold.  So when it came time to start thinking about happy hour, something brown just seemed warm and comforting.  Honestly, a noggy Milk Punch was really calling my name.  But we need to push forward rather than run repeats, so the Bianco it was.

We'll file this one under Manhattan lite.  It hit the basic flavor notes, but the first few sips had that same kind of light, hollow quality you get when drinking an artificially sweetened diet beverage.  It's not a terribly rich cocktail and lacks the full mouthfeel of its more citified cousin.  I suppose this could be something one could offer a sipping partner who is dieting or generally concerned about caloric intake and spin it as a "low-cal" option.  Ha!  Which of course, it's not.  But it sure feels and tastes like one.  Gotta love that dry vermouth!

Bianco

2 oz. bourbon

1 oz dry vermouth

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake with cracked ice and decant into a chilled cocktail glass, garnishing with a lemon twist.

Sensation | 40 down 235 to go

We had a number of lemons on the verge and the last of the mint in our garden beckoning before the first frost.  Hence the Sensation.  This turned out to be a decent bev to use them in.  What has become the usual reaction was the same here.  Our contemporary palettes found even this limited citrus in combination with the gin a bit too acidic in the first round.  Not as bad as some, but still a bit much for what we're used to.  However, The Partner agreed to a second and I poured slightly less lemon juice in the round.  The cherry heering – sweeter than maraschino liquer -- was brightened by the gin making it a palatable sweetness.  The mint lent an aromatic quality without being toothpaste-fresh. 

Happy Birthday, Kissy!

Sensation
1 ½ oz. gin
¼ oz. maraschino liqueur
½ oz lemon juice
3 mint sprigs

Shake with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glasses and garnish with mint.

Adelle Special & Blarney | 39 down 236

Going a little crazy this week.  Doing two at once…oooooo!  I got one, The Partner the other.  Then we swapped.

Not too sure the Adelle Special was our favorite.  Peat dominated the flavor here.   Not really a surprise given the ounce-and-a-half of scotch.  For the avid scotch drinker who’s looking for something a bit different, this could be the thing with the nearly equal part or curacao.

Given the name and ingredients, I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to call the Blarney the Irish cousin to the Manhattan.  Sweet and on the thin side, this is a nice tipple when you want something with the flavor notes of a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned but not quite as heavy.  Between the two, it was the Blarney we had seconds of.  Good stuff before heading out for dinner and clubbing.

Adelle Special
1 ½ oz. scotch
1 oz. orange curacao

Stir with cracked ice; strain into chilled tumber filled with ice.  Garnish with a lemon or an orange twist.

Blarney
2 oz. Irish whiskey
1 oz. sweet vermouth

Stir with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Cocktail Chat | Prohibition

Enjoying a glass of Jester shiraz while watching Ken Burns's Prohibition on PBS, underwritten (in Chicago) by Binny's .

Delicious in so many ways!

Green-Eyed Monster | 37 down 238 to go

“I'm the Green Fairy... The hills are alive, with The Sound Of Music!”

The Partner is working late again tonight.  So given his notorious dislike of all things licorice, it was an opportunity to sample a Pernod bev.  I know I’m one of only a handful of peeps who actually like – no, love – the movie, Moulin Rouge.  IMHO an entire course could and should be taught on the literary and sociological aspects of the film.  It is a film of a particular moment that was soon obliterated by 9/11.  For myself, its appeal rests in the fact that it drew together so many of my interests – framed storytelling, literary conventions galore, popular music, Broadway music, it is a musical, iconic actors who actually sang themselves -- ahem --  sans Auto-Tune -- whatever you want to say about their quality, the amazing Christine Anu as Arabia, and (...wait for it...) one of my oh-so guilty pleasures – Ms. Kylie Minogue – was the embodiment of Absinthe herself as the Green Fairy!  Could Homo ask for more?

Huh?  Oh, yes, the drink!  The Green-Eyed Monster is a mouthful o’ licorice.  The fact that it only takes a quarter ounce of Pernod makes no difference.  All the other liquid in the tipple serves only to dilute the syrupy aromaticity of the Absinthe.   If you like this kind of thing, go for it.  But this is such a strong flavor, it’s very much a one note wonder – unlike Nicole, Ewan, John, Jim, Richard, Christine, aaaand … **sigh** …  Kylie.



Green-Eyed Monster
2 oz. Irish whiskey
½ oz.sweet vermouth
¼ oz. Pernod
1 dash Angosturas

Shake with cracked ice and serve in a chilled cocktail glass with a lemon twist.

Cassis | 36 down 239 to go

Meh.  That’s the most there really is to say about the Cassis.  It just seemed a generic whiskey drink….  Even after you get the proportions right.  The first round my mixing was slightly off and the ratios were out of balance.  I didn’t even finish the first round, preferring to dump it and start fresh.  Breaking out the ol’ shot glass, I measured this time around (I’ve put pourers on our liquor bottles and have taking to counting to measure.  Tom Cruise ain’t got nothin’ on me!). 
   
The second time around the effect was much lighter and brighter.  But all-in-all, it came off as a poor riff on a Manhattan, which, now that I think about it, might be why The Partner finished his first and had a second.  Though he did move on to an actual Manhattan afterwards. 
When it’s all said and done, the best thing that I can recommend for the cassis is that it gives you a reason to use your cassis.  Though I’d just assume have the champagne cocktail by the same name.

Cassis
2 oz. bourbon
½ oz. dry vermouth
¼ oz. cassis

Shake over cracked ice and serve in chilled cocktail glass garnished with a lemon twist.

Derby Fizz | 35 down 240 to go

Finally, an opportunity to draw in some of the interesting facts with which H & M pack the front of the bible.  In order to broaden the reading (and drinking!) experience, they included recipes for other drink families beyond the holy cocktail.  These include tall drinks, punches, grogs and toddies, pousse-cafés, and pick-me-ups.  H & M group fizzes and Collinses together in the tall drinks family, with the distinctions between them centering on 2 factors:  ice and, once upon a time, glassware.  Collinses have ice, fizzes do not.  If you have the bar bounty that is a diversity of glassware, Collinses should be served in a 10-14 ounce glass.  Fizzes go in something smaller than 9 ounces.

To the bev!  In appearance, a Derby Fizz has a distinctly Weiss-like appearance.  It also reminds of an old-fashioned egg cream…but with waaaay more kick!  I have to admit, the DF was a little challenging in that the egg whites and simple syrup give it a distinctly creamy, mellow aroma more akin to a milkshake or egg cream.  But the flavor has all the strength of an alcoholic beverage.  That being said, it’s not harsh or sharp but light, bright, with hints of vanilla and citrus.  Don’t think milk punch or eggnog though.   This is something very distinct.

H & M, in describing the sours category of the tall drink family, say they are closely related to the fizz.  Compare the DF recipe with a sour base: distilled spirit, sugar, lemon juice (sometimes a dash of OJ), shaken with cracked ice.  So a fizz could be a “sodaed” sour ?  Seems like.
 
With the dissonance between the nose and the flavor this fizz is an acquired taste.  But it will grow on you if you let it.   Be warned:  As with so many of the Alchemist’s cocktails, one gets your toes atinglin'.  Two and it's time for dinner!

Derby Fizz
2 oz. bourbon
½ oz. lemon juice
2 t. egg white
¼ oz curaçao
Seltzer

Shake all the ingredients, save the seltzer.  Pour into a chilled wine glass.  Top with seltzer and garnish with lemon twist.

Buster Brown | 34 down 241 to go

Anyone out there remember Buster Brown shoes?  Yes, I’m dating myself.   But my point is this.  Find yourself an old pair of Buster Browns from when you were, like, four.  Drop them in some grain alcohol with a lemon and a little sugar.  Let them hang out overnight.  For happy hour the following day, strain the mixture into a chilled cocktail glass and you’ll have all the pertinent flavor notes of the Buster Brown.

If ever there was a cocktail so clearly concocted for desperate Prohibitionees to get drunk off some bad, backyard hooch, this is it.  Now granted, I didn’t use Willet’s.  But frankly, I don’t know that it would have mattered and it would have been a waste of some very nice bourbon.  So luck was with us there.

The concoction was thin, sweet, and smokey with all the negative connotations of the latter.  The citrus and sugar combined to bring out more burnt char than smoke.  Not a pleasant combination.  I only made one round of this, to be fair.  Perhaps a second would have helped, as it often does.  But I was flying solo tonight and just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

As usual, the recipe follows.  Perhaps you’ll have better luck than I did and find something redeeming in this bev.   If you do, please drop a comment below.

Buster Brown
2 oz. bourbon
¾ oz. lemon juice
½ t. sugar
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake with cracked ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  A maraschino in the garnish.

Bee’s Knees | 33 down 242 to go

Labor Day came to Chicago and the Universe threw a switch.  Ever since, it’s been nothing but fall weather.  When I did the food shopping Thursday, the display that greeted me upon entering the grocery store was a huge display of nothing but apple cider.  In a pique of sadness, this child of summer even posted a rather mercurial haiku-cum-status update on Skype:  “Mercury struggles. Days are shorter, sun lower --  Summer's death throes come.”

So it’s in this spirit, on a rainy Friday afternoon as the photo shows, that I felt compelled to try the Bee’s Knees -- an attempt to cling to the last echoes of the halcyon days....  A simple cocktail with the flavors and spirit of summer.  And if you need any further encouragement to try it, The Partner reports that after the Abbey, the Bee’s Knees so far is his favorite of the more traditional cocktails from the bible.  Salut!

Bee’s Knees
2 oz. gin
½ oz. lime juice
1 bar spoon of honey

Shake with cracked ice; strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with a lime wheel.