Two At The Most

As a home mixologist, sometimes I am faced with a request for a drink for which I don’t have all the ingredients on hand. The question then is whether to improvise or just make something else altogether.

Air Florida

This was the case the other night, when my co-taster asked for an Aviation. I had to tell him that I was out of both lemon juice and lime juice…. Continue Reading

Friends on the other side of the International Date Line have already celebrated the arrival of 2009. I will be meeting up with friends later tonight to ring in the new year with laughter and great drinks.1

In looking for some ideas, I came across one of the drinks I invented for Thursday Drink Night, Gin Edition.

Étourneau Cocktail

Étourneau

1.5 oz London dry gin (No. … Continue Reading

My initial association with the word Tuaca is a horse. Why someone named a Quarter Horse after an Italian liqueur, I’ll never know. I’ll admit I was surprised to discover the current owner of Tuaca the horse had never heard of Tuaca the liqueur. Then again, even though I had heard of it, I don’t think I’d ever tasted it until receiving a sample recently.

Tuaca claims to be the resurrection of a recipe initially created for Lorenzo de’Medici (1449 - 1492). Often called “the Magnificent,” he was the de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and remembered as a patron … Continue Reading

It’s Mixology Monday again. This month, Doug Winship at the Pegu Blog has declared the theme to be “Made from Scratch.” We are to make at least one of our own ingredients and decide if it’s worth the effort.

I have written about Swedish Punsch before. This mix of Batavia arrack, neutral spirits, sugar, water, and various flavorings is common … Continue Reading

Bitter Apricot Cocktail

Every Thursday night, starting around 7 pm EST (00:00 GMT), we meet in the Mixolseum chat room and make up drinks. Usually we have a theme centered around an ingredient that we try to experiment with.

The theme for November 6 was gin. Participants were asked to find a gin they haven’t previously purchased.

This was a big challenge for me. I’ve made an effort to try as … Continue Reading

Believe it or not, I still have a little bit of my bottle of Swedish Punsch left. Tonight I decided to find a recipe to appreciate it. I hit a real prize with the Pooh Bah cocktail.

Pooh Bah Cocktail

3/4 oz gin (Bombay)
3/4 oz light rum (Flor de Caña 4 year Extra Dry
3/4 oz Swedish punsch (Carlshamns Flaggpunsch)
1/4 oz apricot brandy (Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot)

stir over ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, sip with a smile.

This is really a delightful cocktail. Yes, it’s a sweet cocktail, but not overpoweringly so. In this case the … Continue Reading

When I got my bottle of Genevieve, a genever-style gin made by Anchor Distilling, I immediately tried the plain, fancy, and improved Holland gin cocktails.

Barleyflower cocktail

Then I started searching for other cocktails that took advantage of genever’s malty, strong flavor. I enjoyed the Amsterdam cocktail, which bring orange juice to the fore.

Even more, I enjoyed the Rembrandt cocktail, which uses Drambuie to blend with the big … Continue Reading

Having already tried the Basic, Fancy, and Improved Gin Cocktails with Genevieve Genever Gin, I wanted to find some additional drinks to use this great new ingredient.

The first that caught my eye was the Amsterdam Cocktail, which I found in the CocktailDB.

Amsterdam Cocktail

1 1/2 oz genever (Genevieve)
3/4 oz orange juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 dash orange bitters (Regan’s)

shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass

It’s definitely a fun time to be a gin lover in the US. Several distillers across the country are producing new, exciting gins. I’ve tried most of the West Coast contenders, but my latest acquisition comes to us from Philadelphia: Bluecoat American Dry Gin.

Corpse Reviver No. 2a

The distiller tells us they use a handmade copper pot still, using a slow heating process in their five batch distillations to maximize separation to reduce … Continue Reading

Another month, another Mixology Monday! This month, the theme, courtesy of Bibulo.us, is 19th Century Cocktails. I’ve been joking with the crowd over at the Mixoloseum that we all need to claim our page in Imbibe! and go from there. I decided to be greedy and take several.

As a long time gin fancier, I’ve been frustrated by my inability to get a taste of genever. For those who don’t … Continue Reading