Cocktail Hacker

This week’s cocktail isn’t a classic, yet. I’m taking another stab at one of Gary Regan’s squirrel sours. His definition is short and sweet “Squirrel Sours call for a base spirit, lemon or lime juice, and creme de noyau or another nut-flavored liqueur.” So, now you see why I say this is my second stab at the category. The first of course being the Amaretto Sour. The difference here being that the Amaretto Sour called for amaretto as its sweetener where the French Squirrel uses creme de noyau.

The creme de noyau is what drew me to this drink. I’ve never seen it or tasted it. A quick Wikipedia search gave me a little background. Creme de noyau(x) is “an almond-flavored pink crème liqueur made from apricot kernels.” Sounds intriguing. Let’s get started.

French Squirrel (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Cognac

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Creme de Noyau

Lemon Twist for Garnish

1) Combine ingredients over ice

2) Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

If every prayer resulted in a delicious cocktail I can tell you I’d be praying lot more. The Maiden’s Prayer, delightfully, is that perfect cocktail bearing prayer. The drink is nicely fruity and with the right choice of gin equally complex. On that note let’s start by talking about gin. This cocktail has a lot of bold flavors going on with the orange and lemon juice. You need to pick a gin that can stand up to those flavors. I picked Tanqueray to mix with this week and found that it’s juniper forward flavor worked very well in this drink. I don’t think that’s the only gin that would work well though. Basically you want to choose a gin with a medium to strong flavor (leave the Sapphire on the shelf for this one) and I’d suggest something with more of a juniper forward profile to act as a foil for the citrus juices.

Now, what about that citrus? The recipe Gary Regan puts forward calls for equal parts gin and triple sec (1 oz) and equal parts lemon and orange juice (1/2 oz). The drink this combination creates is very good, but it was a little too sweet for my taste. Instead for my rendition I drop the triple sec to 1/2 oz and up the gin to 1 1/2 oz. This dials down the sweetness while keeping the character of the drink the same.

Finally, Gary suggests the use of Angostura bitters in this drink, but says they’re optional. I disagree. I think the bitters are a must, but go very lightly, only use one single dash. The bitters add a very light spice layer and increase the complexity of the cocktail greatly. However, if you use more than a single dash you’ll notice that they start to overwhelm the other more delicate flavors.

Okay, turns out that was really the penultimate tip on this cocktail. The true final tip is that this drink works really well with an ounce or two of champagne to top things off. In fact, the picture you see above is just such a variation. I find that champagne works really well with the citrus flavors. Were I you though, I’d give the original a try first. You’ll likely find that you enjoy it enough all by itself and won’t find a need to spruce it up with some champagne.

Maiden's Prayer (Cocktail Hacker)

1 1/2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Triple Sec

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Orange Juice

1 Dash Angostura Bitters

1) Combine ingredients over ice

2) Shake and strain in to a chilled cocktail glass

I’m back from Iowa and ready to start drinking some cocktails again. This week I’m going to tackle the Maiden’s Prayer cocktail which sounds wonderfully fruity and delicious. Not surprisingly I’ll start with the Joy of Mixology recipe.

Maiden's Prayer (Joy of Mixology)

1 oz Gin

1 oz Triple Sec

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Orange Juice

Angostura Bitters to Taste (Optional)

1) Combine ingredients over ice

2) Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass

I’m back with another pink cocktail this week. Despite my previous concerns they’ve always worked out well for me in the past. So, here we go. This week I’m mixing up the Pink Lady or as Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh calls it, the Secret Cocktail. You know, so the guys don’t feel embarrassed ordering one (thanks go out to Robert Hess for the quote :). This drink is very similar to the Clover Club that I covered a few weeks ago. The key difference here is the addition of applejack. Sounds like a plan to me!

Gary Regan doesn’t cover this cocktail in The Joy of Mixology so I’m going to use another great book as my starting point this time, The Essential Bartender’s Guide by Robert Hess.

Pink Lady (Essential Bartender's Guide)

1 1/2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Applejack

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 oz Grenadine

1 Egg White

1) Shake with ice

2) Strain into a wine glass

I don’t have a ton of experience consuming glands or their products. I’ve eaten sweetbreads and I pretty much continuously consume the product of my salivary glands. However, despite this limited experience, I think I can solidly say this drink tastes like no gland or gland product you’ll ever encounter. Woohoo! I liked this drink, both variations. I started with the Benedictine variation.

It’s quite tasty. Not overly sweet which is a good thing but be careful with the grenadine. A heavy pour can easily make the drink too sweet. I can’t say that the Benedictine adds a huge amount to the drink, but like any good supporting actor the drink would be incomplete without it. It adds a subtle earthiness and herbal quality that really works very well. Here’s the recipe I liked.

Monkey Gland (w/ Benedictine)

2 1/2 oz Gin

1 oz Orange Juice

1/4 oz Grenadine

1/4 oz Benedictine

I naturally progressed to the absinthe variant next. Absinthe here, like in other cocktails we’ve covered, can quickly overcome the subtle flavors of the rest of the drink. Go lightly and you won’t have a problem. Again, be careful with your pour on the grenadine so it doesn’t get overly sweet. I like this version as well. I’m not sure that I can really say which is better. The Benedictine and absinthe add completely different flavors to the drink.

Monkey Gland (w/ Absinthe)

2 1/2 oz Gin

1 oz Orange Juice

1/4 oz Grenadine

1/8 oz Absinthe (at most)

Overall this isn’t my favorite cocktail of all time, but it’s pretty good. I’d certainly drink one in the future. I went with Odwalla orange juice and my only change would be to seek out a slightly more sour juice for my next go. For your choice of gins I think pretty much anything would work in this drink. The orange juice has enough flavor of it’s own that it can stand up to some pretty boldly flavored gin. I went with Plymouth and it worked very well.