Two At The Most » Rum

Caipirinha, caipirissima, caipiroska

Stevi — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 01:51:32 +0000

I’ve written about the caipirinha before, but I’m happy to write about it again, because it’s a great drink.

Caipirinha

Caipirinha

2 ounces cachaça
1 1/2 barspoon sugar or 3/4 ounce simple syrup
1/2 lime, quartered

Build in glass: add lime and sugar to an old fashioned glass. Muddle well. Fill glass with ice. Top with cachaça. Give quick stir to incorporate.

Using a shaker: in shaker, muddle lime and sugar. Fill old fashioned glass with ice, add ice to shaker. Add cachaça, shake well, pour back into old fashioned glass.

If you substitute rum, you have a caipirissima. If you substitute vodka, you have a caipiroska. If I have other fruit on hand, I will usually muddle that in as well, to add even more layers of flavor.

Do take it easy on the sugar. You can always add a little more in, especially if you’re using simple syrup. Be sure to let the wonderful grassy flavor of the cachaça shine through.

Personally, I prefer to build it in the glass. I don’t really see how building in the shaker is any faster, but I hear it referred to as the “bartender way.”

No matter what way you make it, you must always muddle to get the flavor of the lime zest in your drink. If you use straight lime juice, you’re making a daiquiri. And you must always take it easy, because this is a casual fun drink.

In the BarSmarts video, David Wondrich shows a new-to-me method for preparing the lime. I’ve usually just cut in in half through the equator, and cut each hemisphere into quarters.

Instead, he recommends cutting it half through the poles after removing the tops, then removing the central pith, then cutting the lime into six parts. While this method takes a little longer, I think it gives more pleasing results, both in the glass and in the mouth.

What’s your favorite way to prepare a caipirinha?

Death in the South Pacific

Stevi — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:25:38 +0000

The theme for this year’s official cocktail contest for Tales of the Cocktail was “Punch It Up.” Entrants were invited to submit a cocktail based on the Planter’s Punch recipe. Today the winner was announced, and I was excited to learn it was Evan Martin’s Death in the South Pacific.

Death in the South Pacific

Death in the South Pacific

0.75 oz. Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old rum
0.75 oz. Rhum Clement VSOP rum
0.5 oz. Grand Marnier
0.33 oz. Trader Tiki’s Orgeat Syrup
0.33 oz. Fee Brothers Falernum
3 dashes Absinthe
0.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
0.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
0.5 oz. Fee Brothers Grenadine
0.5 oz. Cruzan Blackstrap rum

Add all ingredients except for the grenadine and Cruzan Blackstrap to a Zombie shell glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle the drink well to mix and frost the glass and then pour in grenadine. Overfill the glass with crushed ice and then pour in Cruzan Blackstrap.

Garnish:
Take a bamboo skewer and put a brandied cherry through at the very top followed by 1 pineapple leaf (insert through the middle) and then cut off skin from 1 large orange slice and then cut the strips in half. Insert the ends through the skewer having them hang on opposite sides of each other. Then insert the straw through the loop in the bamboo skewer. It should look like a guy hanging off of the drink (cherry=head, pineapple leaf= arms, citrus peel dangling away from each other are the legs)

Evan is a great bartender, and I consider myself lucky that he’s at Naga Cocktail Lounge at Chantanee Thai in Bellevue. Even better, it’s a fantastic drink. He made it for me right after the finalists were announced, and I have to say, I’m not surprised it won. Evan did a great job of creating an accessible, easy-to-drink cocktail that is still complex and rich. He combined a Zombie and Death in the Afternoon to come up with a great tiki cocktail.

As you can see from the photo, I didn’t get the full dead guy garnish. But I did get a very delicious drink, and I’m sure I’ll have a few more over at Naga between now and Tales.

If you’re in the Seattle area, be sure to drop in to Naga to congratulate Evan Martin, and then put him to work making you one to try!

Pacific Distillery Dinner at Prohibition Grille

MxMo XLVI: Absinthe — The Atlantic

Stevi — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:05:51 +0000

This month’s Mixology Monday is hosted by Sonja Kassebaum over at Thinking of Drinking. In addition to running a fine boutique distillery, North Shore, with her husband, Sonja is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

This month she’s chosen the topic that’s near and dear to my heart:

The topic for February is Absinthe. That much maligned, misunderstood, mistreated spirit, suddenly plentiful again in the US and other parts of the world. Absinthe played a role, whether large or small, in a variety of great cocktails from the 1800’s and early 1900’s – the Sazerac, Absinthe Suissesse, Corpse Reviver No. 2… I’m getting thirsty. So let’s celebrate absinthe’s history, and its future, with all manner of cocktails using absinthe.

Atlantic Cocktail

I seriously thought about just writing up the absinthe drip for this month, as that’s my favorite way to enjoy the liquor. I decided instead to hunt for a new cocktail that shows off how little absinthe it takes to transform a dull collection of ingredients into a fantastic drink.

I stumbled upon the Atlantic on the CocktailDB, which gives credit for its creation to “H. Losappio.” I searched through all my cocktail books, and have not yet found another reference for it.

Atlantic Cocktail

1 ounce gin (Voyager)
1 ounce white rum (Ron Matusalem Platino)
0.75 ounce Cointreau
2 dashes absinthe (Pacifique)

Stir over ice until cold as the North Atlantic and strain into cocktail glass.

If you shake it, it becomes a White Lily, which I find listed in several other online cocktail databases, but also find no hint of in any of my cocktail books. This is an all clear spirits drink, so naturally, I opted to stir. The high amounts of liqueur gives it a mysterious lightly cloudy look that goes well with the name.

The original recipe calls for equal parts gin, rum, and Cointreau, and only one dash of absinthe. I found that a tad too sweet. Dialing back the Cointreau makes for a much drier drink I’m tempted to call the North Atlantic.

When making this, I mixed everything but the absinthe and stirred until properly chilled and took a taste. It was an ok, if uninteresting cocktail.

Adding one dash of absinthe really brought the gin and rum flavors out. Adding one more dash let the absinthe play in the background with hints of anise. I chose to use Pacific Distillery’s Voyager gin and Pacifique absinthe, which naturally pair well together, as the gin uses many of the same botanicals as the absinthe.

The Atlantic is a great example of how it takes just a little absinthe to bring a cocktail to life.

Thanks, Sonja, for a great topic. Be sure to drop by Thinking of Drinking to see the complete MxMo round-up!

MxMo XLIII: Vermouth — The Visconti

Stevi — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:12:28 +0000

Fall is closing in fast, but October refuses to leave until we honor it with a Mixology Monday. Over at Cocktailians, Vidiot is hosting a most excellent theme, Vermouth. He bids us:

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for that matter any fortified, aromatized wine such as Lillet (red or white), or Dubonnet (ditto.)

Vermouth is a true workhorse of the classic cocktail world. Without it, a martini is just be cold gin. Fortified wines are among my favorite mixers, and my refrigerator is bulging with various bottles of Lillet, Punt e Mes, sweet, blanc, and dry vermouth.¹

Visconti

One of my favorite ways to change up a drink is simply to switch the vermouth used. Like a martini with dry vermouth? I bet it willl be great with Lillet blanc! Can’t decide between a martini and a martinez? Make a perfect martini with equal parts of each!

Another favorite drink of mine is the Negroni, with equal parts London dry gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. This is a great base to experiment with, as I have show several times here at Two at the Most. One of my most successful substitutions so far was the Rumgroni, simply using rum instead of gin.

Last time I was in the mood for a Rumgroni, my eye was caught by my bottle of Amaro Ramazzotti. I’ve covered Ramazzotti several times, because it’s a fantastic amaro. I decided to give it a whirl in place of the Campari. While the initial taste was great, to my surprise going full equal parts on the Ramazzotti seemed to make it too dominant — surprising to me since I think of it as much more mild than Campari.

Visconti

1 ounce Jamaican run (Appleton V/X)
0.75 ounces Amaro Ramazzotti
1 ounce sweet vermouth

Stir over ice until well chilled and strain into rocks glass with one piece of ice. Garnish with flamed orange peel.

Dialing the Ramazzotti back to 3/4 ounce and adding a flamed orange twist garnish made for a great balance. This is another drink that will go into rotation in my home bar. Full and rich, yet easy to sip, and made all the better because of the sweet vermouth. I decided to call it the Visconti after the House of Visconti, long time rulers of the Duchy of Milan. Since it’s a take on the Negroni, named after another duke, it seemed apt.

Thanks, Vidiot, for a great topic. Be sure to check out Cocktailians for the wrap-up!

[1] Please tell me you already know to keep your open vermouth in the fridge to make it last longer!

MxMo XLII: Dizzy Dairy — Kávé

Stevi — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:57:22 +0000

It may barely still be September, but it is definitely Monday, so it must be time for Mixology Monday! This month, we are hosted by the kind folk over at eGullet. Chris Amirault has chosen the topic of “Dizzy Dairy,” declaring:

Any drink using a dairy product is fair game: milk, cream, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, curds, you name it. Given the importance of dairy products in drinks dating back centuries, there are lots of opportunities for digging through vintage receipts for a taste of the past, and as always innovation is highly encouraged.

It’s been a while since I’ve featured an original drink at Two at the Most, so this seemed like an excellent time to try something new.

Kávé

Aside from the occasional Ramos Gin Fizz, I rarely use milk products in cocktails, although I frequently use egg whites! I do have a favorite nightcap, which is an ever-changing combination of rum, milk, and creme de cacao.

For MxMo, I wanted to experiment with that idea, but create something a little more complex. I have been enjoying the bottle of Kahlúa Cream I received as a sample, and have enjoyed it with rum as well, so I used that as a base.

I haven’t worked too much with the bottle of Zwack I also received to sample, although I greatly enjoyed the lunch the brand sponsored for Drink.Write 2009. When I added it to my rum and Kahlúa Cream, I was surprised at how well it worked. I added my current favorite bitters, Bittermens Xocalatl, to add an additional layer of flavor, and was really pleased with the result.

Kávé

0.75 ounces dark Jamaican rum (Appleton V/X)
0.75 ounces Zwack
0.75 ounces Kahlúa Cream
2 dashes Bittermens Xocalatl mole bitters

Shake over ice until well chilled, then strain into ice-filled old fashioned glass.

The bitter herbal Zwack keeps the sweetness of the Kahlúa Cream in check, and the rich dark rums rounds out and ties the flavors together. I can also imagine trying these flavors together with warm milk for a nice winter drink.

What is your favorite way to use cream liqueurs?

Thanks to eGullet for this fun theme. Be sure to check the forum to see everybody who has participated!

MacArthur Cocktail

Stevi — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:00:55 +0000

I found this lovely little cocktail when revisting the cocktails listed in the back of Wayne Curtis’ And a Bottle of Rum.

MacArthur Cocktail

MacArthur Cocktail

1.5 ounces light rum
1 barspoon dark rum
0.75 ounces triple sec
dash of egg white (Cointreau)

I made this with Appleton white rum and Zacapa Centenario. The result was very light and refreshing, and surprisingly not as sweet as I expected with such a relatively high dose of liqueur to liquor.

I presume the drink was named in honor of General MacArthur, but the only information I can find on it is in the Stork Club Bar Book, Lucius Beebe put it on par with the daiquiri and the Cuba Libre in terms of great rum drinks.

I just may add this to the daiquiri as a goto recipe for testing out rums.

Be sure to use a flavorful dark rum to bring some depth to the final drink.

MxMo XL: Ginger — Gingered Rum Old Fashioned

Stevi — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:14:42 +0000

This Mixology Monday was one I couldn’t miss — after all, RumDood included a link to one of my posts in his announcement! This month it’s ginger, and as I have noted before, I LOVE ginger. Our challenge, from dear Matthew is:

Find or concoct a cocktail recipe that uses ginger in one of its many forms as an ingredient. This can be muddled ginger, sliced ginger, ginger syrup, ginger beer (commercial or homemade), ginger liqueur, ginger candy, or pieces of a shredded photo of Ginger from Gilligan’s Island.

Gingered Rum Old Fashioned

To me, ginger is one of the most magical of flavors. It is one of the first things I turn to when feeling bad. Ginger in all its forms can make me feel better. But unlike most medicines, ginger actually tastes great.

Still, I find that many recipes rely on ginger as a panacea. I like to joke that Thursday Drink Night needs to have a “ginger beer free” night. A dose of ginger beer always tastes great – and hides many sins in your drink invention skills.

While I do like drinks with ginger beer, I find it takes more skill to mix a drink that uses the flavor as a highlight and not a major element.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. While this has been a darling of the cocktailian world for a while, I’ve only recently acquired a bottle of my own. In that sense, it is still new to me. I appreciate how it manages to capture the heat of raw ginger.

I’ve found it particularly useful as a replacement for rich simple syrup. In honor of this month’s host, I thought I’d use it in a rum Old Fashioned. And since RumDood would be willing to use Zaya on his pancakes, I thought I’d go high end with this one.

Gingered Rum Old Fashioned

2 oz Zaya Gran Reserva
0.25 oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 dash Angostura orange bitters

Mix ingredients in old fasioned glass, add ice, and sip with greatest enjoyment.

I find the ginger compliments the spicy richness of Zaya, and really enjoy sipping this drink. I hope you will to!

Thanks, Matt, for a great topic. Be sure to check out Rumdood.com for the roundup post!

Boca Loca Cachaça

Stevi — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:02:45 +0000

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we seem to have transitioned from winter directly to summer. For me that means it’s time to rediscover cachaça, especially as International Cachaça Day approaches us on June 12. Tonight I’m enjoying a bottle of Boca Loca that was sent to me for review.

Pearl Button with Boca Loca Cachaça

Boca Loca (“Crazy Lips” in Portuguese) comes to us from the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. On the nose, the scent of sugar cane is dominant. On the tongue, it’s quite sweet, with some melon flavors and maybe even some peach, with some additional vegetal flavors that I find I like in a quality cachaça.

Boca Loca makes a fantastic caipirinha, but we’ve already covered that drink at Two at the Most, so I wanted to discover something a little different. Most cachaça recipes stick to a fairly tried and true, narrow range of pairing the spirit with fruit and lime juice.

That’s why the recipe for the Pearl Button caught my eye. The inclusion of Lillet, one of my favorite fortified wines, made me interested to try this highball recipe created by Naren Young for Bobo Restaurant.

Pearl Button

2 oz cachaça (Boca Loca)
0.75 oz Lillet
0.5 oz lime juice
4 ounces San Pellegrino limonata (sub sparkling lemonade)

Shake cachaça, Lillet, and lime juice and strain into ice filled highball glass. Top with lemonade, and garnish with grapefruit wheel.

I rarely find grapefruit I like here, so I substituted a lime wheel and a dash of grapefruit bitters.

I found the result to be pleasantly dry. It allows the flavor of the Boca Loca to come through in a very pleasant way. This will definitely enter the rotation of cachaça drinks in my home bar.

Boca Loca is a quality affordable cachaça, retailing for around $20 a bottle. Pick up some of your own to celebrate International Cachaça Day. What’s your favorite cachaça drink?

MxMo XXXVIII: Superior Twists — The Rumgroni

Stevi — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:29:45 +0000

This month’s Mixology Monday is being hosted by Tristan at The Wild Drink Blog. He’s put forth the following challenge:

This month’s Mixology Monday is all about twists on classic cocktails, that for one reason or another do an even better job than the drinks upon which they are based.

This could be as simple as a classic Margarita with a dash with a special touch that completes it, or maybe as complicated as a deconstructed Hemingway Daiquiri with a homemade rum foam/caviar/jus/trifle. It might be taking a classic like a Manhattan and using Tequila instead of Bourbon?

This was a difficult theme for me. Not because it is hard, but because in some ways it is too easy. Creating a new drink by subbing one ingredient for another is how I, like countless others, began my journey into inventing my own drinks.

Rumgroni

Usually I found that my greated substitutions had been discovered long before I tried them. I’ve even reversed engineered a classic or two by starting with the twist, not knowing it was a twist, and figuring out what the drink started as.

I was tempted to write up the Black River Sidecar, a drink of mine that won an early TDN. I had linked to Rick’s great writeup of the drink when he posted it (my prize for winning), but had never posted the recipe here. But I realized I’d never be able to match his funky garnish, and decided I wanted to try something new.

A drink I’m finding remarkably versatile is the Negroni. Initially it seemed to me that this combination of Campari, sweet vermouth, and gin would be hard to tinker with, working largely on its marriage of specific flavors.

Many experiments with it involve subbing another amaro, such as Aperol, for the Campari, or a different aromatized wine, such as Punt e Mes, for the sweet vermouth.

Then I discovered the Agavoni, which trades the gin for tequila, and creates an equally delicious, if very different drink.

Since I was able to participate in TDN Mount Gay XO at Vessel, I still have a fair amount of my bottle left. I realized that it, too, might have the strength to stand up to Campari and sweet vermouth. And so it did. And so I give you the Rumgroni.

Rumgroni

1 oz dark rum (Mount Gay Extra Old)
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Build over ice.

The molasses and oak from the MGXO are surprisingly dominant on the nose. This is a much drier drink than either the Negroni or the Agavoni. I might be tempted to add a little honey mix next time.

What’s your favorite variation on a cocktail classic? Check out the roundup of the opinions of this months Mixology Monday partipants over at The Wild Drink Blog!

Mount Gay Extra Old Rum

Stevi — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:32:28 +0000

This Thursday, April 9, Thursday Drink Night will be sponsored by Mount Gay Extra Old Rum, and I received a sample bottle to prepare for the event.

Milanese Sailor

Mount Gay Distilleries holds the distinction of being the oldest rum in the world, with documentation of rum production at the Mount Gay estate dating to February 20, 1703.

The Extra Old is perhaps the most distinguished product of Mount Gay Rums. The rum is blended from the distillery’s aged spirits reserve, and has a maturity of 12-17 years. The rums have been aged in 200 liter charred oak barrels. By using smaller barrels, there is more surface area relative to the rum, and there is a marked oak flavor in the finished product.

On the nose, Extra Old is redolent and rich of oak and molasses, with a hint of cocoa. Straight, it is far more dry than I expected given the nose. The oakiness is there, and the chocolate, as well as some coffee notes. This rum is 86 proof (43% ABV), but the extra alcohol doesn’t provide any extra sting.

I had read that a lot of people enjoy this as a sipping rum, so I was expecting a bit more body to this. For me, while a fine, flavorful rum, this won’t edge out Ron Zacapa Centenario or Ron Zaya in my heart when it comes to sipping.

But while I am loathe to mix with either of those Guatemalan beauties, to me the Mount Gay Extra Old begs to be mixed with.

I’m certain I could happily stick with mai tais and daiquiris and never regret a single drop, but I need to get into the mood for TDN.

What first came to mind was bringing out that chocolate flavor by adding some crème de cacao. But I didn’t want to create a heavy, sweet dessert drink.

On a hunch, I picked up the Amaro Ramazzotti. Ramazzotti is one of my favorite amari. I think it blends well with the MGXO.

Given that Ramazzotti is from Milan, and Mount Gay has a long association with sailing, I dubbed the drink the Milanese Sailor.

Milanese Sailor

1.5 oz Mount Gay Extra Old
0.75 oz Amaro Ramazzotti
0.25 oz crème de cacao

Stir over ice and strain into rocks filled ice glass. Would also be great as a swizzle.

Think you can do better? Be sure to join us for TDN this week and submit your new cocktail featuring Mount Gay Extra Old.