Cocktail Hacker

This week we’re going to be highlighting a cocktail that nearly everyone has heard of if not sampled.  However, my guess is you’ve never had it made the right way.  Sours are a traditional family of cocktails that date back to the time of Jerry Thomas’ How to Mix Drinks.  Their composition is generally very simple.  Composed of a base spirit, a sour ingredient, and a sweetener.  In our Whiskey Sour we’ll be using whiskey (Bourbon per the recipe), lemon juice, and simple syrup.  The recipe we are starting with adds a bit of a wrinkle by adding some bitters and an egg white.

Whiskey Sour #2 (Difford's Guide #7)

[Ingredients]

2 oz Bourbon Whiskey
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Rich Syrup
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1/2 Fresh Egg White

[Directions]

1) Shake ingredients with ice
2) Strain into a glass with ice

[Notes]

• Add the egg white last or it will start to clot

• Shake the drink a little longer than usual to make the egg white frothy

I had every intention of making this week’s cocktail some how related to our immense Vegas winnings, but in my searching I only found the Millionaire cocktail.  Sadly though, when trying it I was under impressed.  So maybe some other time.

We had a great time in Vegas and enjoyed some seriously tasty cocktails while there.  Our cocktail related travels began in one of the lounges at the MGM Grand.  Aaron and Lindsey were enjoying Mojitos when Colton and I arrived.  I, in an attempt to catch up, quickly chose to go with a Manhattan.  The Manhattan was quite tasty although nothing that will stand out as one of my great cocktail experiences.  This has solidified my belief that a Manhattan is a cocktail you can order with relative ease when the bar is questionable.  Normally I would say that a Gin and Tonic, another of my perennial favorites, is another good choice in this category.  However, Aaron decided to test this at the Mermaids Casino on Fremont Street.  The cocktail served was horrifying.  Aaron summed it up nicely as “tonic with a splash of brut cologne”.

The ingredients of a Manhattan most any bar will have on hand.  Even if the base ingredients used are of poor quality the resulting cocktail usually ends up tasting all right.  I followed my Manhattan experiment with a Sidecar, which Aaron had previously called his “Vegas standby drink”.  What I got was some Brandy with sour mix.  Although not the true recipe, the cocktail was still palatable.  Later that evening we visited a great bar, Red Square, in Mandalay Bay.  A Russian themed bar most of the cocktails were vodka based, but to their credit they clearly had some good thought behind them.  I especially liked the freezer room that you could enjoy your drinks in if you took advantage of their bottle service.  This privilege came complete with fur coats to keep you warm as you drank and dined.  We didn’t opt for this choice, but perhaps next time.

Sunday night we continued our Tiki celebration by having some delicious cocktails at Trader Vic’s in the Planet Hollywood hotel and casino.  I entered with some trepidation expecting a commercialized Tiki experience serving quickly built, poor tasting cocktails.  I got nothing that I expected.  The restaurant and bar is very upscale and the food and drinks were fantastic.

Colton even enjoyed his Mai Tai!  Aaron and I started with Trader Vic’s Grog, which were fantastic, but unfortunately evaporated due to the low elevation.  You can see this by Aaron’s confused look in the picture above.  It was such a strange scientific phenomenon.  We chose to have another round to see if the problem persisted.  Next I had a Navy Grog.  This was a nice chance to compare their recipe to the one I used during Tiki Week.  The main flavor, and still my favorite, was the Allspice syrup.  Although, in the Trader Vic’s version the sweetness was downplayed, which was actually quite nice.  When mixing this cocktail in the future I think I’ll decrease the syrup to lessen the sweetness.  Aaron had the Honi Honi which was an interesting Bourbon twist on a Tiki cocktail.  Despite the obvious strangeness, the drink was very good.

What else did we do in Vegas?  Well, some of it obviously has to stay in Vegas but I can sum it up with some bullet points:

• Carrot Top is Beyond Scary, Seriously
• Blue Man Group is Fantastic
• Ditto on Cirque Du Soleil ‘O’
• Vegas Free Drinks Span Horrible to Tasty
• Non-Free Drinks in Vegas are Rarely Cheap
• Nine Fine Irishmen in NY, NY has good Food, Music and Drinks
• Pai Gow is Way Better than Roulette
• Umbrella Drinks at the Pool Kick Ass (and your Wallet)

And I’m sad to report that Aaron died in a horrible fall from the top of the Stratosphere tower.  That said, he died with honor, like any true cocktail hacker, with his beer in hand.  He will be missed.

Ok, so he didn’t actually die, but the picture was too good not to be shared.

This post isn’t cocktail related but it does relate to one of my other favorite pastimes, eating.  This is a list of 100 foods from Very Good Tastes, that the author feels every omnivore should consume in their lifetime.  He’s asked that you take the list and bold items you’ve eaten and strike through items you wouldn’t eat.  Then repost and spread the meme.

Here are my answers.  I’m a reasonably good omnivore, but I’d like to have this list over 75% done by the time I turn 35.  I need to get cracking.

I’ll be posting a story about our Vegas trip later tonight so check back in.

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1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

It is with a heavy heart that I pen these words for this post signifies the end of our first Tiki Week.  Naturally there will be more, but we now must move on to more unexplored cocktail territory.  We’ve really only scratched the surface of what libations Tiki culture has to offer.  The exotic ingredients, the fruity yet powerful flavors, the colorful hues.  They all seem to transport you to another time and place.  Somewhere where life moves at a slower pace.  So, we hope we’ve made Tiki drinks accessible enough that you too can be transported to this happy place and enjoy some of the exotic flavors.  Aloha my friends, uncharted cocktail territory calls.

This week the cocktail hacker editorial staff has temporarily relocated to Las Vegas for some much needed vacation.  We’ll be doing a couple write ups on Vegas drinks, but there isn’t really a true theme for the week.  I think we’re going to have some interesting tid bits to offer though, so stay tuned.

So, I’m a relatively simple guy with relatively simple tastes, and it should be known that if a cocktail’s name includes the word Grog you can count me in.  Gets me back to my pirate roots, you know.  So, when I ran across a reference to Navy Grog while researching Tiki cocktails I knew I had to make one.  One of the ingredients also piqued my interest, Allspice Syrup.

Allspice syrup is nothing more than simple syrup that has been infused with Allspice.  There was a simple recipe given on the Tiki Central Forums.  I used this as my base and went from there.  I used an entire container of allspice that I got from the local Safeway, on sale no less.  Rather than grinding the allspice in a spice grinder I chose to crack them in a mortar and pestle.  My thinking being that this would make it much easier to filter out the solids after infusing.  I combined one cup of white sugar with one cup of water and the cracked allspice berries.  Simmered the lot, stirring occasionally for 2 minutes to dissolve the sugar.  Then turned off the heat, covered the pot and let it sit for two hours.  By now the wonderful smell of allspice had filled my apartment and I was loving it.

Now came the part I had been slightly dreading, filtering.  In the past I haven’t had much luck with the coffee filter method as it takes way too long to filter.  A strainer is much faster but tends to leave some of the smallers bits in the solution, not a great option.  In one of my lesser use cupboards I found a French press coffee pot, which turned out to be a perfect answer.  I poured the syrup and spice bits into the pot and slowly depressed the plunger.  Since my grind wasn’t terribly fine the filter was able to remove all the solids leaving a nice brown flavored syrup.  I added my usual one ounce of everclear to increase the syrup’s longevity and I was ready for cocktail making.

The recipe I used was also from the Tiki Central discussion referenced above and is credited to Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s Grog Blog.

Navy Grog

[Ingredients]

3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice
3/4 oz Allspice Syrup
1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum
1 oz Gold Jamaican Rum
1 oz Demerara Rum

[Directions]

1) Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker
2) Shake well with ice to combine and chill
3) Strain in to a Double Old Fashioned glass

* [Note] I went with an addition of 1 oz of rum to bring the total to
three ounces.  This was the poster's recommendation.

This cocktail has a great flavor.  The allspice comes through but not overly strongly, which I think is key.  Allspice could easily overload the other flavors in this cocktail.  It also presents a nice fruity flavor and the rum flavors shine through.  I tried two  different mixes of rum.  One pretty standard with Bacardi Light Rum, 10 Cane, and Gosling’s Gold Seal.  The other a more top shelf blend with Rhum Barbancourt White Rum, Rhum Barbancourt 7 year, and Flor De Cana 7 year.  Both were very good and truthfully I don’t think you gain much by using the top shelf rums in this drink.  The other flavors are strong, so they overwhelm the subtleties of the more expensive products.  One thing I do really like about the Barbancourt Rhums is they add a nice grassy note to the cocktail.

This was a great cocktail and made me feel like a true pirate.  Although, next time I think I need a more Tiki inclined drinking vessel.  Looks like it’s time for some eBay searching.  Enjoy your Grog matey!

So, we live in Colorado which is, without question, a semi-arid region of the US.  So when it rains for two days straight, as it did on Friday and Saturday, it’s not a typical occurrence.  Therefore, it seems exceedingly fitting that I should celebrate this rain by making a Hurricane cocktail.

Hurricane Emily 2005 - Thanks NASA

The Hurricane cocktail arose from a glut of rum at Pat O’Brien’s in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The story goes that during World War II whiskey was in extremely short supply.  As such to get any one had to purchase a huge amount of rum (as much as 50 cases) for each case of whiskey that could be bought.  So, when faced with such an incredible surplus the bartenders at Pat O’Briens created the Hurricane.  Named after the glass in which it was served, which mimics a glass hurricane lamp.

This cocktail is, in my opinion, very definitely a Tiki drink, although this may be questioned by some.  The primary flavoring for the drink, beyond the rum, is Passion Fruit Syrup.  Up until late last year there was a syrup marketed by Trader Vic’s that is said to be very good.  It has since been discontinued though.  So, I had to go it alone.  Beachbum Berry gave the following suggestions on the Cocktail Spirit comments:

Looks like Robert was using the good stuff that Trader Vic bottled until late last year, which had 11% passion fruit in it.  Now they sell an entirely artificial syrup that is no longer usable.  Funkin and Perfect Puree both sell excellent passion fruit purees that, when mixed with simple syrup to taste, will give you a VG passion fruit syrup.  Less expensive is to buy Goya frozen passion fruit pulp (sold at Latino markets), and mix the defrosted pulp 1:1 with simple syrup.  Other good brands of ready made passion syrup:  Tessiere, Finest Call, our Auntie Lilikoi (sold online from Hawaii).
Okole maluna!
By beachbum berry on 2008 02 05

So, my first goal was to get a hold of the Goya pulp that Jeff suggests which was also the suggestion of my Aunt Ronnie.  Unfortunately, it seems that it’s not readily available in my area.  The closest I was able to find at ny of the places I checked was Passion Fruit, Carrot, Apple juice.  Since the passion fruit was the third ingredient on the list I didn’t think I’d be getting the right flavor from this product, so I again went searching.  This time I headed to Denver to the Pacific Mercantile.  The Mercantile is known for having a lot of Hawaiian food and I knew they’d have Hawaiian Sun canned juice.  And, indeed they did.  I picked up two cans of Lilikoi Passion juice and used that as the base for my syrup.

To make the syrup I poured the two cans (24 oz) of juice into a sauce pan and reduced by 2/3 to about 8 oz.  I then added one cup of sugar and stirred to dissolve.  The resulting syrup is pleasantly golden and very tasty.  Granted I don’t think it matches the flavor that would come from passion fruit pulp, but hey, there’s always next Tiki week right?

The resulting drink, based on the recipe that Robert Hess gave in his video, is deceptively simple to make and nicely complex to drink.  The Passion Fruit syrup adds a very exotic and unique flavor to the cocktail.  I can see why these are still extremely popular at Pat O’Brien’s today.  This is one that you should very definitely try if you can track down the ingredients.

The Hurricane

[Ingredients]

2 oz Dark Rum
1 oz Passion Fruit Syrup
1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

[Directions]

1) Combine ingredients in a shaker
2) Shake with ice to combine and chill
3) Serve in a Hurricane or pint glass (Collins glass in my case)

The Zombie was created by Donn Beach in the late 1930s. Legend has it that Donn concocted the Zombie for a friend, a friend on his way to San Francisco. After consuming three of the delicious drinks, the man left for his trip. Upon his return, he reported that the cocktail had turned him into a zombie for the trip’s entirety.

Due to the great deal of secrecy surrounding many Donn the Beachcomber recipes, many variations of the Zombie exist, and many of the variations are surprisingly terrible. After a great deal of research, however, Donn the Beachcomber’s original recipes were rediscovered and published by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry in his book “Sippin’ Safari”.

Though truly a tiki drink, in the sense that a lot of alcohol is hidden by a sweet fruity flavor, the Zombie, owing mostly to the inclusion of Maraschino liquor, Pernod, and Angostura Bitters, has a very complex and surprising flavor.

I would provide you with more of a background, but as I write this, I am working on my second cocktail, having royally FUBARed the first, and have achieved third stage zombification:

I’m drinking Donn the Beachcomber’s 1956 recipe as published by Beachbum Berry and described by Robert Hess here. I highly recommend that you do the same. I’ve tried many Zombie variations, and this is by far the best.

Where once there was one week of Tiki drinks, there are now two!  I like to think of it as some kind of wonderful magic trick, but instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat I’m pouring delicious cocktails out of the shaker.  We’ve had a good time with Tiki drinks this week and have barely scratched the surface.  So in that light we’re carrying on for another week.  To celebrate this wonderful occasion we’ve adorned the site, albeit lightly, with a Tiki essential, bamboo.

Well, fellow cocktail hackers, I must take my leave of you for now.  I go in search of passion fruit syrup, puree, or juice so I can try my hand at making a Hurricane.

No, not the stingy ones, the tasty ones. The Scorpion is truly an exemplar of the Tiki cocktail. This drink has an almost excessive amount of alcohol, fruit juice, and the aforementioned Orgeat. The combination of which results is a truly delightful cocktail that you would never guess has as much punch as it does.

I followed the recipe that Gary Regan lays out in the Joy of Mixology. Although, as you can see from the picture my float of 151 Rum didn’t float as nicely as I would have liked. In the future I’ll be sure to pour it over the back of a spoon to prevent mixing. The result of this float is a great Rum kick as you’re getting to the end of the drink. Please be warned that this cocktail can have side effects in some imbibers. Side effects can include a loss of balance, blurred vision and slurred speech. If you experience any of these effects please slow your rate of consumption. The Tiki gods will approve of this plan, I assure you.

The Scorpion

[Ingredients]

2 oz Light Rum (10 Cane)
1/2 oz Brandy (Germain-Robin)
2 oz Fresh Orange Juice
3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Orgeat Syrup
1/2 oz 151-Proof Rum (Gosling's Black Seal)

[Directions]

1) Combine all ingredients, save the 151-Proof Rum, with ice
2) Shake well to combine
3) Strain into a highball glass
4) Float the 151-Proof Rum on top

As you read the recipe for the Mai Tai you may have been tripped up by one of the ingredients, Orgeat. Orgeat is a sweet syrup made from almonds and much like Grenadine is really easy to make at home. You’ll find as you explore the Tiki arts that lots of recipes will use Orgeat as a flavoring and sweetener. There are some Orgeats available commercially and although I have not tried any (making your own is really that simple) I’ve heard that the Fee Brother’s version is quite good.

We used a recipe from The Art of Drink, that slkinsey on the eGullet forums was kind enough to reduce down to a managable quantity.  As a side note there is a lot of good info about Orgeat at the link above.

Orgeat

[Ingredients]

150 grams blanched almonds [or other nut]
1 blanched apricot kernel (optional)
250 ml water
200 grams table sugar
30 ml brandy
1-5 drops of orange or rose flower water to taste (optional)

[Directions]

1) Soak solids in ample water for 30 minutes
2) Discard water and grind nuts in food processor to
a medium-fine paste. Add water to processor towards the end
3) Let mixture steep 1-2 hours
4) Place a thin tea towel or several layers of cheese into
a strainer and pour mixture through cloth, reserving liquid.
Twist and squeeze solids in cloth to extract maximum liquid.
5) (Optional) Return solids to liquids for an additional
hour and repeat straining and squeezing.
6) (Optional) Repeat one additional time.
7) Add strained nut milk to saucepan with sugar and heat,
stirring constantly, until sugar is disolved. Optionally,
dissolve sugar in some percentage of the strained nut milk
and then combine after the heated mixture has cooled sufficiently.
8) Once sweetened nut milk has cooled sufficiently, add optional
orange flower water, rose flower water or other flavoring;
add brandy for stabilization and bottle.
9) Keep under refrigeration

As we made the recipe we ran in to a couple of things that might help you in your Tiki journey.  First I had a hard time finding whole blanched almonds.  What I ended up using is whole sliced almonds (not slivered).  As a rule the larger the almond pieces you find the less almond flavor will be lost on the store shelves.  We didn’t use the apricot kernel as I didn’t have any apricots handy.  The flavor they will add is a touch of bitterness, but I should also make you aware that they contain very small amounts of cyanide.  Although, in the quantity called for here is very small and shouldn’t be a problem.

We chose not to do the multiple soaking method.  I think the gains from this would be minimal.  If you give the initial soak some extra time, perhaps the full 2 hours, I think you’ll get all the almonds have to offer.  As for straining we used a bandana that I had (clean of course) which proved to be the perfect porosity to get out all the large almond bits.  A dish cloth should work well too, but make sure its one that’s been washed a few times to minimize the lint.  Finally we went with three drops of Orange Flower Water and two drops of Rose Water.  These are very powerful mojo so add slowly and taste in between to find what you like.  We used the Monteux brand of both and I was able to get them at Whole Foods in the spice aisle.

So now that you’ve got a wonderful batch of Orgeat whipped up, what exactly do you do with it?  Make Tiki drinks of course!  In our case we went with some Mai Tais, which I must say were fantastic.  The Orgeat made the drink very smooth and added an almost creamy mouth feel, not to mention the great almond flavor.

In the spirit of full disclosure I must say I’m not 100% sure how one pronounces Orgeat.  I’ve heard it as Or-shay and Wikipedia claims its pronounced Or-zhat.  So I leave that one up to you.