Cocktail Hacker

My bottle of Creme de Violette finally arrived from Sam’s Wine last Tuesday. I eagerly opened the box and pulled out a bottle of lovely violet colored spirit. The beautiful color is the first and most striking thing you’ll notice about a bottle of Creme de Violette. I admired for only a short time though before I had to break the seal and sample. The smell, and not surprisingly the flavor, are distinctly floral. This is a medium sweet liqueur, a little less sweet than Cointreau for comparison sake. Ok, so enough about the Creme de Violette, you’re here to find out what impact it has on the Aviation. Quite a lot I must say.

I started off with Erik Ellestad’s approximation of the original recipe. The resulting Aviation is much less sweet than some of the other recipes that I’ve tried, but at the same time not overly sour which is interesting. In other recipes as the sweetness decreased the drink became quite a lot more sour. I think this flavor profile is a direct result of the addition of a small bit of simple syrup. My big gripe about this recipe was that the flavor of the Maraschino and Creme de Violette were not as present as I would like.

Aviation (Erik Ellestad)

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin

2 Dashes Maraschino (~1/2 tsp)

1/2 tsp Creme de Violette

1/2 tsp Rich Simple Syrup

So, on the tasting continued with a modification of my prefered non-Violette recipe. I found that the Violette added an entirely new level of complexity in the flavor profile of this drink. The result was nicely floral and exceedingly pleasing. In addition the color of this recipe was absolutely gorgeous. As you can see from the picture above the color is a light violet color that you rarely see in cocktails. Still wasn’t exactly what I was looking for though.

Aviation (Mod of Dan's Recipe)

2 oz Gin

1 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 oz Maraschino

1/4 oz Creme de Violette

Touch of Simple Syrup

I next turned to the second recipe list in Diffords Guide #7. This recipe upped the Violette to 1/2 oz which sounded appealing but lowered the lemon juice to only 1/2 oz as well. As with the others the color is very striking, really in love with the look of this cocktail. The aroma of the Violette comes through very nicely. Although the Violette is the primary background flavor the Maraschino is still there as well. This recipe has the perfect level of sweetness in my mind but due to the cut in the lemon juice the sourness isn’t where I’d like.

Aviation (Diffords #2 - Classic Recipe)

2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Creme de Violette

1/4 oz Maraschino

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

So where do all of these experiments lead us? Well, I enjoyed the Violette level of the Diffords recipe, but the sourness was too low. The sourness and sweetness of the modified recipe are right where I wanted them, but the Violette was a touch low. A simple combination of the recipes leads to the Cocktail Hacker Aviation. This recipe produces a cocktail that has a nice level of both sweet and sour. The Maraschino is present but the Violette becomes the background star.

Aviation (Cocktail Hacker Recipe)

2 oz Gin (Junipero)

1/2 oz Creme de Violette

1/4 oz Maraschino (Luxardo)

1 oz Lemon Juice

The Aviation is an amazing cocktail with or without the Creme de Violette. However, if you can find a bottle of Violette it will bring this cocktail to a new level of flavor complexity. The added floral aroma and flavor are amazing, not to mention the color the Violette brings. If you can’t find Violette at your local liquor stores turn to the internet, there are a few suppliers that can get you a bottle, for a price of course.

I entered this week with a bit of trepidation. You see about a year and a half ago Aaron and I were both just getting in to mixing cocktails. We decided that with the 4th of July fast approaching we should throw a party and feature gin drinks. Being new to the game we both looked around on the net and found some drinks that sounded good. The Aviation was one of the ones we chose and we stocked up on Maraschino and lemons, being gin lovers we had plenty of that on hand. We used Regan’s recipe from the Joy of Mixology and whipped up our first batch. The results were, well, unexpected. Since neither of us had ever had Maraschino before we had no preconceived notion of what this drink might taste like. Those of you familiar with the flavor of Maraschino likely know where I’m going with this. This liqueur has a certain funk to it. The taste is most certainly an aquired one and not what you’re expecting when you hear the words cherry liqueur.

So, to wrap up that little tale I haven’t mixed one since. But I knew, deep down, that there must be some merit to this cocktail for it to have survived as long as it has. So on the tasting schedule it went. The first recipe I tried was Regan’s, again. This time I think my pallate has matured because I quite enjoyed the flavor of the Marachino. That said I don’t feel that this recipe is particularly balanced. The Luxardo (my Maraschino of choice) completely eclipses the flavor of the lemon juice and the gin (Plymouth) barely shines through as well. A good start, but I think we can do better.

Next I sampled the recipe from David Wondrich’s Killer Cocktails.

Aviation (Killer Cocktails)

2 oz Gin

2 tsp Maraschino

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

This recipe makes a drink that is much more sour and the gin really shines through in this one. However, still not the balance that I’m looking for. I felt the drink could use a touch more sweetness (provided by the increased Maraschino in Regan’s recipe) so I mixed up another, this time adding 1 tsp of simple syrup. This additional sweetness however, masked the lemon’s sourness almost completely. D’Oh! Still not what I’m looking for. As a side note, the recipe from Killer Cocktails is nearly identical to the one in Vintage Cocktails and Spirits, so I chose not to make both.

Next I decided to try a recipe posted by Dan in the comments on my initial Aviation post.

Aviation (a la Dan)

2 oz Gin

1 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Maraschino

Tiny Dash of Simple Syrup (~1/2 tsp)

This, my friends, is the Aviation I’d been looking for. The drink is much more balanced with enough sweetness coming from the Maraschino and tiny dash of simple syrup. The sourness is present and bold, but not over powering and you still get enough of the pleasing Maraschino funkiness. My only remaining problem was that the Plymouth was masked for the most part. Thankfully I have lots of other gins to choose from and quickly remedied the situation with some Juniper Green. This recipe is the one that will go down in the Cocktail Hacker tome of knowledge as my preferred recipe. Thanks for the excellent tip Dan.

But wait! You must be wondering what happened with the search for Creme de Violette. In short, I struck out. I checked the four largest liquor stores in the Boulder area and none had it in stock. Even DaveCo, the largest liquor store in the world which claims to have everything, had none. In fact, they hadn’t ever heard of it. Liquor Mart offered to special order a bottle but said it would take a least a week to arrive. I’m not that patient folks. So, I turned to the interwebs and found that Sam’s Wine had it in stock. However, due to a typing error on my part the bottle didn’t ship until Thursday. So…I’ll be putting up another post next week discussing the recipes that lean more toward the classic.

This week’s cocktail was an interesting departure from the norm here at Cocktail Hacker. The Pimm’s Cup is very low in alcohol and really quite refreshing. I can certainly see why this is a summer favorite in the UK. As I mentioned in my intro post I started the week with the recipe from The Joy of Mixology and I didn’t stray far from that base. There was one key aspect though that seemed quite tweakable, the mixer.

The mixer listed in the recipe is fairly vague. Once you’ve added your 2 oz of Pimm’s No. 1 it indicates that you should add 5-7 oz of lemon/lime soda, ginger ale or club soda. Other recipes I found on the web said that lemonade should be used. Seemed like a perfectly hackable recipe, so I picked up Sprite, lemonade, San Pelegrino Limonata, and Reed’s Premium Ginger Brew. With these and my homemade fizz water I was ready to rock. The reviews listed below are in my order of preference (most to least preferred).

Ginger Ale: The ginger ale seemed to be the only one of the mixers that actually allowed the aroma of the Pimm’s to remain. The earthy flavor of the ginger ale combined very well with the similar flavor of the Pimm’s. My only complaint about the ginger ale was the lack of a sour component. Adding about 1/4 oz of lemon juice corrected that problem perfectly.

Limonata: The limonata is a sparkling lemonade with a nice level of sour. I found that it worked very well with the flavor of the Pimm’s. The only reason this isn’t my favorite is the sourness was a little too much in this one.

Sprite: I wouldn’t suggest going with Sprite, or 7-up for that matter, in this cocktail. Both of them simply don’t have enough flavor going for them to make a good pair with the Pimm’s. If you’re going to go the lemon/lime soda route I’d look for something with a stronger flavor.

Lemonade: The lemonade I used was very good, but its flavor was so strong that it covered the Pimm’s almost completely. Also, I really missed the carbonation. If you’re wanting to go with a lemonade I’d suggest looking for the limonata, or perhaps cutting lemonade with soda water.

Soda Water: I really didn’t like combo at all. The resulting cocktail was only exceedinly mildly sweet and the sharpness of the straight soda water (which I normally enjoy on its own) masked the flavor of the Pimm’s almost entirely. I wouldn’t recommend this option at all.

The end result of this tasting? Go with ginger ale, add a squeeze of lemon for some sourness and you’ll be a happy camper. I now present to you the Cocktail Hacker preferred recipe for the Pimm’s Cup.

Pimm's Cup (Cocktail Hacker Recipe)

[Ingredients]

2 oz Pimm's No. 1 Cup

6 oz Ginger Ale

1/4 - 1/2 Lemon Juice

Lemon, Orange, Cucumber for Garnish

[Directions]

1) Add ice to a pint glass with the garnishes.

2) Add the Pimm's and lemon juice.

3) Top with ginger ale.

I took some other cool pictures of the Pimm’s Cup, you can check them out in the Cocktail Hacker group on Flickr.

As I sit here sipping what will likely be my last Corpse Reviver #2 for the week I’m still in shock about how great this cocktail truly is. I had heard a great deal of praise while researching on the web, but didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I have. I didn’t even stray from the recipe I listed at the beginning of the week much. It really wasn’t necessary this time. The results of these two weeks of cocktail enjoyment are nearly a full page of notes and I write damn tiny, so let me distill them down for you.

To start let’s talk absinthe or a substitute if need be. Gary’s recipe says to go easy and although I agree I think you can be pretty liberal in your application of a dash in this case. I tried everything from a very small dash (6 drops or so) all the way up to a full 1/4 oz. Although I did find the absinthe started to overpower the other flavors when you got up to 1/4 oz I still didn’t find it unpleasant. Now in the spirit of full disclosure I will say that I am a black licorice fanatic and as such don’t find the anise flavor at all off putting. After the numerous experiments I’ve landed on an amount that I prefer, 1 tsp. This gives the drink a nice absinthe note without making it the star of the show. If you’re not a huge fan of the anise flavor try dropping the dose down to 1/2 tsp, but certainly don’t get rid of it all together.

I found this drink, at least using Gary’s recipe, to be nicely balanced and really quite incredible. In fact, my first tasting note when drinking the first CR #2 of the week was “Very fantastic cocktail!” The fruitiness of the Lillet (primarily citrus) plays exceedingly well with the Cointreau and lemon juice. I can certainly see this cocktail being a good morning bolster or hair of the dog, but I’ll keep it in the evenings. I think my employer will prefer that as well.

There is, however, still the slight issue of bitterness that I touched on earlier this week. I solved this problem with orange bitters. I tried Regan’s to start and found they worked well, adding a bitter note and some depth of flavor. However, the real winner in the bitters category for this cocktail are Angostura Orange Bitters which are absolutely fantastic in the CR #2. These added the amount of bitterness I was looking for and the orange flavor blends with the other ingredients really well. If you’re interested in stocking up on orange bitters Kegworks.com offers a three pack that includes Angostura Orange, Regan’s Orange and Fee Brothers’ Orange bitters in one pack. I’ve found that all three are quite good but different enough that they have specific applications.

Last, but certainly not least, at least not in my house, is the choice of gin. As with most gin cocktails I spent most of my time mixing with Plymouth. This is certainly not a bad choice, never is in my opinion, but I think you can do better. The other flavors in this cocktail are strong and as such need a strong gin to compliment them. I’d go for something with a strong juniper character such as Juniper Green or even Gordon’s. My favorite was a locally produced micro distilled gin that just recently came on the market, Roundhouse. This gin, which I’ll be reviewing soon, is really strongly herbal in a fantastically good way. It has enough flavor of its own that it doesn’t get lost in the CR #2 and adds a huge depth of flavor that I found really pleasing. If you can find a bottle, which is not likely outside of Boulder/Longmont right now, definitely give it a go.

My recipe for the CR #2 is almost identical to the one listed in The Joy of Mixology with the one twist that I call for the addition of bitters. There are however a ton of other recipes out there. Rick over at Kaiser Penguin mixed up some of the others and has his comments here.

Corpse Reviver #2 (CH Recipe)

[Ingredients]

3/4 oz Gin

3/4 oz Cointreau

3/4 oz Lillet Blanc

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 tsp Absinthe

3 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters

[Directions]

1) Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice.

2) Shake until thoroughly chilled.

3) Strain into a cocktail glass.

I’ll leave you with the words of Harry Cradock himself, “Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again”. Well said Harry, well said.

This week I’ve been focusing most of my efforts on the Corpse Reviver #2. In the intro post I mentioned that there was also a Corpse Reviver #1 in the Savoy Cocktail Book. Feeling a need to do my due diligence I mixed up the CR #1 to get an idea what it was like. The first thing I have down in my notes is that it’s a “Big glass o’ brown spirits” and that it truly is.

This cocktail makes the applejack the true star of the show. It is only very lightly adulterated by the addition of sweet vermouth and brandy. I found this drink to be very dry and overall only okay. It wasn’t particularly balanced and tasted like a less well thought out Manhattan. I noted that the addition of bitters might help to add some additional dimension to the flavor profile. But, if you’re going to start adding ingredients like bitters and changing the ratios then I think you’d be better off just making a Manhattan with applejack. We already know that mixture is a winner. I’ll leave you with a comment from Diffords Guide #7. This drink is “Dry and potent.” Well said indeed.