Cocktail Hacker

Whiskey! Whiskey! Whiskey!

Guess what I’m craving? It starts with whis and ends with key. Okay, so my riddle skills need work but I really have been craving a new whiskey cocktail to try. And as happenstance should have it, in leafing through Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails I found a tasty sounding recipe I had marked a while back. It’s a concotion of Scotch, lime juice and ginger beer. Seems like a rather fitting transition cocktail as we pass through fall. Some citrus flavors to remind us of summer and some whiskey to warm us up as winter comes. Shall we get things started?

Mamie Taylor (Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails)

2 oz Scotch

3/4 oz Lime Juice

Spicy Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer

1) Combine the Scotch and lime juice over ice

2) Fill with ginger ale

3) Garnish with a lime wedge

I’ve been drinking a lot of Milk Punch these last couple weeks, as has nearly anyone that came over. Fall is in the air here and the flavors in this drink fit very nicely into my current state of mind. There is the warmth and sweetness from the rum and brandy. There is the warm spice note from the nutmeg. Then there is the warm and subtle, yet complex flavors from the vanilla. You seeing the same pattern here that I did? It’s all so warming on a chilled fall day. Perfect.

As I promised in my intro post I went in search of older recipes and found a few in the books on my shelves. However, I didn’t bother to mix any of them up. The reason being, they’re really not that much different. As Dr. Cocktail points out in his recipe, the only real difference is the addition of the vanilla extract. And, while I wouldn’t say the vanilla is essential it really adds a layer of complexity that I think you would wish were there were it omitted.

My other suggestions and tweaks are really very simple but key. First, I bumped up the simple syrup a bit because I like this drink a touch sweeter; more on the level of eggnog. However, as with any cocktail that’s something you should experiment with to find your happy balance. Second, use fresh grated nutmeg. I really can’t emphasize this one enough. The nuts keep for about a thousand years in their whole form and the flavor of fresh grated simply can’t be matched by something pre-grated. Heck, if you really don’t want to go buy some of your own, come over here, I’ll give you a couple. I have tons. It’s really that important. Third, use brandy and that you would be willing to drink on their own. I think this should go without saying, but I wanted to include it here to drive home a point. I feel cocktail making is like cooking with wine. In cooking you never use a wine you wouldn’t drink on it’s own. Same goes for cocktail making. That’s certainly not to say that you should use the best stuff you have on the shelf, but please don’t use crap ingredients. It really shows in the final product. Ok, enough ranting. You’ve got the idea.

Lastly, a tip. If you’re wondering how exactly one measures two dashes of vanilla extract or any other ingredient that doesn’t have a dasher here’s what I do. I use a cocktail straw. Dip it into the liquid, get as much as you want, cap the end with you finger, drop it into your shaker. For this drink I used two straw loads approximately 1/3 full each time. That gave me the vanilla level I like.

Milk Punch (Cocktail Hacker)

1 oz Brandy

1/2 oz Dark Rum

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

2 dashes Vanilla Extract

4 oz Whole Milk

1) Combine in a shaker with ice

2) Shake and strain into a shaved ice filled glass

3) Top with nutmeg

So, here’s what I suggest. If you’re in the northern hemisphere* and fall is closing it’s chilly hands around you, whip up a milk punch some evening. It’s warming and I bet you won’t have just one.

*Supposing you’re not in the northern hemisphere, or you’re reading about this recipe when it’s hot out, consider this idea. Brunch. Enough said.

It’s raining outside. It’s been cold all day. There is a dusting of snow of the mountains. Fall has officially arrived in Colorado and I’m loving it. For me, with fall comes a desire for things dense, comforting and likely unhealthy. So, naturally I chose a punch for this week’s cocktail. It’s not a punch like you’d think, though. There’s no fruit, no bubbles, and milk. Yes, milk. Looking at the recipe it should really be thought of as more similar to eggnog than the punches we’re most used to.

With that, a recipe.

Milk Punch (Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails)

1 oz Brandy

1/2 oz Dark Rum

2 tsp Simple Syrup

2 dashes Vanilla Extract

4 oz Whole Milk

1) Combine in a shaker with ice

2) Shake and strain into a shaved ice filled glass

3) Top with nutmeg

Interesting thing about this recipe is that, despite it being from a book called “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails”, it’s not really forgotten or vintage. This recipe is more akin to what’s currently served in New Orleans as a brunch pick me up. Dr. Cocktail mentions that the original recipe included dark rum but no vanilla extract. The rum giving the drink a touch of vanilla flavor. So, one thing I plan to do is to track down a truly classic recipe and give that a try as well.

To the shakers!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon driving in the mountains with my girlfriend taking in the beautiful sites and enjoying all the fall colors. For dinner we decided to stop at a friend’s restaurant in Estes Park (The Sundeck). Vic has a great menu of classic cocktails and I decided to have one I had heard of before, but never tried, the Tequila Sunrise. It was well made and quite excellent. While I was sipping I was also thinking that I hadn’t featured a lot of tequila drinks on Cocktail Hacker and figured the Tequila Sunrise was a great place to start to remedy that. So, for the next couple weeks I’ll be mixing up some sunshine for us, as we get more and more near the winter months. Well, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere. This one also goes out to my buddy William who is currently in Antarctica where they recently experienced their first sunrise of the summer season.

Tequila Sunrise (Joy of Mixology)

2 1/2 oz Tequila

3 oz Orange Juice

Splash of Grenadine

1) Build the tequila and orange juice in a collins glass with ice

2) Drop the grenadine into the center of the drink

More good news about this drink is I have reason to make up another batch of my super tasty Hibiscus Grenadine.

Well, friends, this post marks the end of my first weeks back and they’ve been fantastic. Mixing up drinks, participating in MxMo, reviewing spirits, ah, it’s good to be back. So, what of the Bebbo? Allow me to say first that it was a fantastic drink to come back with. The mix of gin, citrus and honey is truly divine. Not overly sweet, a nice burst of sour from the lemon juice and a smooth sweetness from the honey.

Seems a good segue to the first experiment I wanted to conduct with this drink. Specifically, does the variety of honey play a role in the final flavor? As you may or may not be aware, the flavor of honey changes based on what the bees fed on primarily. So, for example, around here we have clover honey and wild flower honey primarily. In other locales you’ll find varieties such as sage, orange blossom, tupelo, buckwheat, heather, etc. While my selection of honey certainly wasn’t vast I found that the variety of honey used in this drink didn’t have much affect on the end flavor. This is due to the honey only comprising a small percentage of the final cocktail and the gin being floral by itself. A couple tips regarding the honey. One, make sure to heat it up a bit in the microwave. I found about 20-30 seconds to be perfect. That way the honey flows better and doesn’t get all stuck in your jigger. Two, make sure you give the drink a good solid 30 seconds of shaking. That will make sure the honey is completely dissolved.

Which brings us along to the gin. As with many gin cocktails the question I first asked was what gin should I use for this drink? Should I go juniper forward, maybe citrus forward, something bold, something light? Given the bold flavor of the citrus and honey I knew a light gin like Sapphire would get mostly lost, so I turned to something bolder and juniper forward, my old pal Tanqueray. This gin is definitely my preference for this cocktail. That said, you can certainly use anything you like or have on hand. The citrus really dominates the flavor profile anyway.

Finally, I mentioned in my intro for this drink that I wanted to experiment with vodka instead of gin to see what the real difference was. I’ll make the summary quick, the difference was huge. The vodka Bebbo was still very good. In fact, I’d happily drink one were it served to me. However, it lacked the subtle complexity that gin brings to the party. Without this complexity the drink was a bit one noted. My recommendation is this. If you’ve sworn over and over you don’t like gin, try a light gin to start. Sapphire and Plymouth are both great options. Once you’ve built a taste for gin (hopefully) you can move on to bolder options.

So, there you have it. While summer is still in the air and you can still enjoy a meal outside I’d say mix up a light, fruity drink like the Bebbo and soak in the out of doors. Enjoy!