Category: updated classic

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Classic Recipe with a Twist: Sunset Gin and Tonic

So much has happened since my last post on the blog! When we last left our hard-hitting cocktail coverage at the end of 2018, my world – our world – was a different place. Since that time, I had a big day at the day job, the aftermath of which has contributed to my extended absence from posting. (I’ve done a little better on Instagram, but only a little.)

And of course, since earlier this year, we’ve all been struggling to adjust to life during a pandemic. For some of us this has meant virtual quarantine. Some luminaries of the cocktail universe have sought to help us through it all. One offered to give us recipes we can use based on ingredients we have in our house (Derek Brown is just an amazing human being). Many others have minted new “quarantini” cocktails for us to sample. (I don’t have any of those for you, but I do have a classic martini, a hot and dirty martini, and even a totally dry (i.e., alcohol-free) martini for you if you’re interested.)

Pandemic/quarantine has knocked me off my cocktail blogging game a bit. I (like many of you I imagine) now work from home day after day and for some reason that new pattern has further disrupted my already disrupted flow for creating cocktails and then posting here about them. I’ve said “yes” to collaborations on Instagram, thinking they would motivate me to get back to it, but then failed to follow through. I guess there is a momentum to this kind of thing. It’s (at least by comparison) easy to keep blogging going when you’re consistent about it; but impossible when you get out of rhythm.

So I know better than to promise you that “I’m back,” but I am at least popping up to say hello and offer you something to drink as you wait patiently for the world to return to normal. This one is inspired by the last superfun thing I did before quarantine: visit South Africa.

South Africa is a wonderland. I can’t show you everything I loved about it – there isn’t enough space here (and at some point we need to get to the recipe). But let’s consider at least a few items: penguins, mountains, zebras and sunsets.

Penguins near the Cape of Good Hope
Penguins near Cape of Good Hope

The penguins flock in large groups and just kind of party, looking as awesome as you would imagine. There’s no ice or cold weather here – it was in the 70s or 80s (Fahrenheit) in this shot. But they look unperturbed as they mingle on the shore between occasional trips to the water to cool off and look for food.

Mountains along the Garden Route
Mountains along the Garden Route
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Classic Recipe with a Twist: Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight (a take on the Scofflaw)

You could do a lot worse than spend a week or two or your summer in Maine.  I’ve spent some time with my family up on Mount Desert Island the last few summers, near Acadia National Park.  One favorite activity there is hiking on one of the many trails on the oceanside mountains; another is making cocktails at happy hour with made-in-Maine ingredients.  This year is no exception, and after one of these hikes I wanted to make a cocktail that captured the beautiful Maine woods on a foggy, misty day – a drink I called Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight, which is a slight variation of the classic Scofflaw:

Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight

I always feature the drink first in these posts so you can see what you’re getting into.  But that makes this post sort of backwards because you’re seeing the ultimate creation before its inspiration.  So without further ado, let me share a bit of what I saw earlier in the day.  The first part of the hike featured a long stretch of woods immersed in fog – with living trees standing comfortably next to the dead.  The forest floor was covered with almost glow-green moss that added to the eerie effect.  It was a beautiful, almost haunted scene:

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Classic Recipe with a Twist: Cherry Blossom Negroni

Cherry-blossom season is basically over in the District.  But cherry-blossom drinking need not be.  So far I’ve offered you two cherry-blossom cocktails.  The Sakura Sparkler is a refreshing non-alcoholic cocktail made with Seedlip.  In that recipe, I also showed you how to make your own cherry-blossom ice cubes.  Bookmark that, because we’ll use it again here.  I also brought you another original recipe – the Cherry Blossom Cocktail – which was made with Cerasum cherry-blossom liqueur by D.C.’s own Don Ciccio & Figli.  Now I bring you one last recipe for this cherry-blossom season:  the Cherry Blossom Negroni.

Cherry Blossom Negroni

The Negroni needs no introduction.  It is made with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.  One of the classic cocktails, the Negroni has one of those colorful and contested histories.  The leading versions agree that the drink is named after a Count Negroni of Italy.  But they disagree as to when the drink was invented, and by which Count.  And other historical research casts doubt on whether the inventor was really a Count at all.

What is certain is that the drink is a legacy of which any family should be proud.  The same is true of Don Ciccio & Figli, that District-based distiller that traces its roots to a family liqueur-making business back (also to Italy) in 1883, somewhere in between the competing dates (1857 or 1919) on which the competing Counts Negroni might have first invented their eponymous drink.  In one of its latest offerings, Don Ciccio has brought forth Cerasum, a cherry-blossom-based liqueur that stands in very nicely for the Campari that usually serves as the Negroni’s signature ingredient.

The Cherry Blossom Negroni is a worthy cousin of the original.  The classic bitter taste of the Negroni is still there, but softened slightly, with subtle floral and cherry flavors that give the drink a smoother, almost velvety finish.  Here’s the recipe:

Cherry Blossom Negroni recipe
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Cherry Blossom Negroni

Try this twist on the classic Negroni recipe, substituting Cerasum, a cherry-blossom liqueur by D.C.'s own Don Ciccio and Figli, for the traditional Campari.  It's a velvety-smooth cocktail perfect for enjoying cherry-blossom season!
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Spirit-Forward
Keyword: cherry blossom Negroni
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 190kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

Cocktail

  • 1 oz. gin I used Botanist
  • 1 oz. vermouth I used Cocchi di Torino
  • 1 oz. Cerasum

Ice cubes

  • cherry blossoms

Instructions

Ice cubes

  • In advance of making the drink, fill large ice cube tray with water. Add 1 to 3 cherry blossoms per cube. If working with dried cherry blossoms, be sure to rinse the salt off the flowers before adding. Try to orient the flowers in the cube so they will appear near the surface when the ice freezes. Leave in the freezer until completely frozen.

Cocktail

  • Combine the gin, vermouth, and Cerasum in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
  • Strain into a rocks glass.
  • Add cherry-blossom ice cube.

Enjoy!

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Classic Recipe with a Twist: The Hot and Dirty Martini

Back in my review of the martini service at Requin, I promised you a “few posts” of martini recipes.  First I offered my take on the classic martini.  Then I interrupted our martini study to check out the Brothers and Sisters bar at the Line Hotel.  Now I’m back to deliver on the promise of multiple martini recipes.  As I’ve noted, the martini is an old drink that has enjoyed many iterations over the years.  In that spirit, I now offer you a twist of my own on the classic, the Hot and Dirty Martini:

Hot and Dirty Martini

The recipe begins with the classic gin and vermouth ingredients.  But as its name suggests, there are two modifications here:  heat and additional brine.  The heat is supplied by the spicy Ancho Reyes Verde, a green ancho chile liqueur.  It has a savory flavor, which is fitting for a martini.

The chile liqueur also pairs well with additional brine, which “dirties” up the drink.  The brine in this case comes from Gordy’s (of D.C.), which makes a Fine Brine intended for cocktails specifically.

There are several things I like about this combination of ingredients.  The first is that (as noted above) it adds an earthy, savory flavor to the drink.  Don’t get me wrong – I love the classic martini.  In my classic recipe, the prevailing flavor is the herbal profile of the gin, the main ingredient.  But if you’re someone who likes a good Bloody Mary or a martini with a lot of extra olive juice, I think you’ll like what Gordy’s adds to the drink.  And to me, the chile liqueuer was a natural addition.  The chile flavor is compatible with the vegetable-leaning profile of the drink, and I like adding spice to just about everything.  (If you are sensitive to spice don’t worry, it’s not overwhelming.)

The other advantage to this approach is that it’s a lighter drink than a traditional martini, meaning you can have more of them.  Gin comprises only half the recipe here, and the other ingredients are lower proof or nonalcoholic.

And finally, I think it’s good to have a few variations of the martini in your rotation.  You might want to host a martini night, for example, and new options help keep things fresh for martini diehards and might cast the drink in a new, better light for those who have not been won over by the martini in the past.

Here is the recipe:

Hot and Dirty Martini recipe
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Hot and Dirty Martini

Spice up the classic martini with this recipe, which starts with gin and vermouth but adds a chile liqueur and brine to bring you a Hot and Dirty Martini.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Spirit-Forward
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 147kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 oz. gin I used Botanist
  • 1/2 oz. Ancho Reyes Verde
  • 1/2 oz. dry vermouth I used Dolin
  • 1/2 oz. Gordy's Fine Brine

Instructions

  • Place two olives in a martini glass.
  • Combine the gin, Ancho Reyes Verde, vermouth, and brine in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
  • Strain into the martini glass.

Enjoy!

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Recipe: The Thanksgiving Boulevardier

Searching for an aperitif to round out that fantastic Thanksgiving dinner you have been planning?  Try this twist on the Boulevardier, a classic cocktail based on the Negroni, but with whiskey instead of gin as the base spirit.

The traditional Boulevardier recipe calls for 1 1/2 ounces of bourbon and an ounce each of Campari and sweet vermouth.  But Thanksgiving can involve more drinks than the average meal so I dialed back the bourbon just a touch to 1 ounce.  I also replaced the sweet vermouth with Kina l’Aero d’Or (more on this fantastic aperitif wine here).  And I added 1/4 ounce of lemon juice to balance out the sweetness just a touch.  Stir these ingredients together, strain into a rocks glass, express a lemon peel and add the peel as garnish, and you get something like this:

The cocktail works nicely as a Thanksgiving aperitif because the tangy flavors of Campari and lemon combine in a way that pleasantly previews the cranberry sauce to come.  And as noted above, the drink isn’t so strong that you could not have a couple of them if the dinner takes a little bit longer to get to the table than anticipated, as is often the case at Thanksgiving.

Here is the recipe:

Thanksgiving Boulevardier recipe
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Thanksgiving Boulevardier

Looking for the perfect Thanksgiving aperitif?  Try this twist on the classic Boulevardier cocktail to round out that fantastic dinner you have planned.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Spirit-Forward
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 245kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

  • 1 oz. bourbon I used E.H. Taylor
  • 1 oz. Campari
  • 1 oz. Kina l'Aero d'Or quinquina
  • 1/4 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • lemon peel

Instructions

  • Combine the bourbon, Campari, quinquina and lemon juice with ice in a mixing glass and stir.
  • Strain into a rocks glass.
  • Add a large ice cube.
  • Express lemon peel over the glass and add the peel as garnish.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Classic Recipe with a Twist: The Old Fashioned

It’s old fashioned week, where we celebrate a cocktail that (per the preceding source) has roots as far back as 1802.  The classic cocktail uses classic ingredients:  whiskey, sugar and bitters, along with some muddled fruit or at least a cherry, depending on what you have handy.

But after 215 years of the same old recipe, @theoldrefashioned thought it was time for an update.  This Instagram feed invites followers to submit their variations on the classic, and I couldn’t resist joining in the fun.  Expanding on the use of fruit and sugar in the original, and with the fall season on my mind, I started by smoking a rocks glass with orange peel and cinnamon, which I torched over a maple wood plank (I found an assorted set of planks here):

For the recipe, I kept the traditional sugar, bitters, whiskey and fruit ingredients, but I added a bit of amaro and Maraschino liqueur.  I muddled and mixed and added a big cube of ice, and it came out looking like this:

(Ignore the gridlines. Oops.)

I really liked the way this tasted.  The smokiness was subtle but definitely there – there was a hint of cinnamon on the nose the whole way through.  And the amaro and Maraschino combination combined with the fruit in a very pleasant way to make this an exceptionally smooth old fashioned.

Here’s the recipe:

Geoff's Old Re-Fashioned recipe
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Geoff's Old Re-Fashioned

A new twist on the classic Old Fashioned recipe in celebration of the "Old Re-Fashioned" thread honoring Old Fashioned Week.
Prep Time7 minutes
Total Time7 minutes
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Ancestral
Servings: 1 cocktail
Calories: 200kcal
Author: Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

  • 2 oz. bourbon I used E.H. Taylor
  • 1/2 oz. amaro I used Averna
  • 1/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
  • 3 dashes old-fashioned bitters I used Fee Brothers
  • cinnamon stick
  • orange slice
  • lemon peel
  • cherry
  • sugar cube

Instructions

  • Smoke a rocks glass by holding it upside down over an orange peel and cinnamon stick while torching the ingredients over a maple wood board.  Let the orange and cinnamon catch fire before removing the flame and place the rocks glass over them while they continue to smolder.
  • Turn the rocks glass right-side up.  Add sugar cube, three dashes old-fashioned bitters, the orange slice, and a bit of lemon peel.  Muddle the ingredients.
  • Add the bourbon, amaro, and Maraschino, and mix the ingredients.
  • Add the cherry.
  • Add a large ice cube.
  • Optionally, garnish with the burnt orange peel or cinnamon stick.

Try it out and let me know what you think – and please share your own takes on the old fashioned!