Cocktail Hacker

I’ve been making a lot of cocktails out of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails of late, but my library runs much deeper. So, in an effort to break out of my routine a bit I perused Anvil’s drink list this morning for inspiration and made a quick list of a few I haven’t tried. If you haven’t taken a careful read of Anvil’s drink list you definitely should. It’s a who’s who (pardon the bad euphemism) of classic cocktails. In fact, most of the drinks I’ve featured here are on that list. So, it’s a good bet that if a drink is on the list, it’s good. Now for less rambling and more drinking.

From the short list of cocktails I picked the Champs Elysées to mix up. Interestingly the recipes I found for this drink are all over the board in terms of ratios. Should be very interesting sampling them all. To get us rolling I’m going to start with Robert Hess’ recipe from The Essential Bartender’s Guide.

Champs Elysées (Essential Bartender's Guide)

1 oz Brandy

1/4 oz Green Chartreuse

1 oz Lemon Juice

1 Dash Angostura Bitters

1) Combine in a shaker with ice

2) Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass

After the last cocktail I need something that I know sounds delicious. That in mind, I leafed through my Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails looking at the cocktails I’d marked to mix at some point. There on page 196 is a picture of a ruby red cocktail that I knew was going to fit the bill. A bit reminiscent of a Negroni, the Lucien Gaudin Cocktail also uses my favorite bitter liqueur, Campari. This has got to be good! The drink is named after the famed fencer Lucien Gaudin who won medals in the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympics. I’m ready to start mixing!

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail (VS&FC)

1 oz Gin

1/2 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz Campari

1/2 oz Dry Vermouth

1) Stir in a mixing glass with ice

2) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

3) Garnish with an orange twist

It should come as no surprise to long time readers of this blog that I love Manhattans. They’re one of my go to cocktails when I’m looking for something straight forward but delicious. They’re one of the classics that I’ll actually order at a restaurant (and I’m usually not disappointed). And, finally, they’re just damn tasty! In addition, I love me some Scotch. I may not be Ron Burgundy, but I definitely enjoy a good dram. So, it’s really amazing to me that I haven’t mixed up the Rob Roy yet. Shall we correct this error?

Rob Roy (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Scotch

1 oz Sweet Vermouth

Dash of Peychaud's Bitters

Maraschino Cherry

1) Combine ingredients over ice

2) Stir to combine and chill thoroughly

3) Strain in to a chilled cocktail glass

4) Garnish with a maraschino cherry

Knowing I was going to be mixing up a bunch of hot chocolate for this group of drinks I wanted to try my hand at making my own powdered hot chocolate mix. I had seen a recipe on Good Eats a while back that sounded really tasty, included only ingredients I could actually pronounce and seemed super simple. So a shopping I went.

Problem was, when I got to the store there were only giant boxes of powdered milk on the shelves. I’m not sure about you, but my consumption of powdered milk is probably less than 1 tablespoon per year on average. The giant box was going to last me the rest of my life. Back on the hunt, I hit another grocery store and totally lucked out. This store had powdered milk that came pre-measured pouches that will make one quart, which equated to 1 1/3 cups, slightly over half the amount required for Alton’s recipe. In the words of Gru from Despicable Me, “Light bulb“. I grabbed the pouches, cut the recipe in half and was on my way.

Here’s the halved recipe for posterity.

Hot Chocolate Mix (Good Eats)

1 cup Powdered Sugar

1/2 cup Cocoa (Dutch-process Preferred)

1 1/4 cups powdered milk (1 quart pouch)

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cornstarch

1 Pinch Cayenne Pepper (or More to Taste)

1) Combine the dry ingredients in a jar

2) Shake to combine

3) Use 1/2 cup of mix to a mug of hot water or milk

For this go-round I dropped the cayenne; I didn’t want its flavor getting in the way of anything else I’d be adding. Also, the cornstarch is nice because when you use really hot water (e.g. just off the boil) the mixture thickens a bit giving it a really nice mouth feel. In fact, I’d be tempted to add a bit more to get a really nice thick hot chocolate. Hmmmm….might have to experiment with that one.

The biggest thing for me is the fact that this recipe gives me endless tweaking options. Like any recipe you can add or subtract anything you like to make it truly yours. Plus, you know where everything is coming from. Always a plus. Back to the mixing!

While the middle of winter isn’t generally the time you crave a nice, cold sour, I found this one to have truly been aptly named. The delicious sour is nicely balanced, big, cold and frothy. First on your palate you get fruity hints of the apple and peach. Following that, I noted that it wasn’t nearly as sweet as I expected it to be, rather it was nicely balanced. Finally, the egg white gives this drink a tremendous mouth feel in the same way that it does with other drinks. There are a couple interesting points to be made, though.

First, let’s talk peach brandy. If you walk into your local liquor store and go to the brandy aisle you’re going to get the same response that I did. Namely, peach brandy is kept over with the liqueurs and really isn’t a brandy at all. Peach brandy, as most know it, is a brandy based, peach flavored liqueur. At this point I’m certain some of you are saying something to the effect of “But, what about eau de vie?” and you’re absolutely correct. Peach eau de vie is technically peach brandy proper. However, after mixing this drink I’m certain that’s not what the author (“The Only William” Schmidt) intended. Without the sweetness of the peach brandy the drink would need additional sweetening to balance things out.

Second, let’s talk lime juice. The original recipe in Schmidt’s Flowing Bowl and my source, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, calls for the juice of one lime. Being a details type of guy this wasn’t an exact enough measure for me so I did some experimentation. After that foot work (or should it be arm work) I can say that you have two options. If you prefer a drier cocktail go with 1 1/2 oz of lime juice and omit the sugar entirely (my personal preference). The resulting drink still has a mellow sweetness from the peach brandy and isn’t overly tart. If you prefer a bit more sweetness bump the lime juice up to 2 oz (which I did, in fact, get from one giant lime) and keep the tsp of sugar. The added lime juice balances the extra sugar.

Lastly, I felt this drink needed some additional complexity. I found that complexity in 3 dashes of bitters. I used my homemade version of Robert Hess’ House Bitters, but you could use any aromatic bitter that you like. The spices play extremely well with all the fruitiness in this drink and really give the drink much more depth.

The Delicious Sour (Cocktail Hacker)

2 oz Applejack

2 oz Peach-Flavored Brandy

1 1/2 oz Lime Juice

1 Egg White

3 Dashes of Aromatic Bitters

Soda Water



1) Shake all but the soda in an iced cocktail shaker

2) Strain into a goblet

3) Top with a splash of soda water