original Archives » Capital Cocktails

Cocktails for The Game: The Gin Harbaugh and the Bourbon Meyer

Geoffrey Wyatt — Sat, 24 Nov 2018 15:03:11 +0000

Today the Michigan Wolverines face off for the 115th time against the Ohio State Buckeyes in The Game. This is always a high stakes event, even when it isn’t from the perspective of the rest of the college football world, but this year a lot is on the line as both teams are 10-1 and the winner goes on to play for the Big Ten championship. I’m a lifelong Michigan fan, and this year I decided to apply my passion for cocktails to this annual event and am pleased to bring you cocktails for The Game, named in honor of the teams’ head coaches: The Gin Harbaugh and the Bourbon Meyer.

Since I live in D.C., which is now Big Ten country thanks to Jim Delaney, the league Commissioner and the mastermind of Big Ten expansion to College Park, I wanted to add a little D.C. flavor to these drinks and began with the idea of using gin and citrus in one drink and bourbon and citrus in the other, inspired by the rickey.

I like the tangy flavor that lemon juice brings to a drink, but for the Gin Harbaugh I also wanted a drink that packs more punch in its flavor so it leaves a bit of a mark on you after each sip. Enter Ancho Reyes Verde, the somewhat spicy poblano liqueur, which adds some depth of flavor and provides a spicy aftertaste. I balanced it out with a little simple syrup and topped off the drink with soda water. Add a lemon peel garnish shaped like the Michigan helmet and you’re good to go:

For the Bourbon Meyer I also began with lemon juice. I wanted to make sure this drink had an unmistakable Ohio State red color, so Campari was next. With equal measures of bourbon and Campari, the drink has the stems of a Boulevardier, but the lemon juice takes it in a slightly different direction. To round it out, I finished it off with some Cherry Heering. Then I found the loudest rocks glass I have in an homage to the UNIFORMZ that Ohio State tends to wear for The Game. Last, I garnished with a star anise, which assaults the nose a bit (but in a good way) with each sip and vaguely evokes some kind of hybrid of the buckeye nut and leaf:

Put a few of these together and you’ll be ready for whatever happens in this year’s iteration of The Game. (But Go Blue!) Here are the recipes:

Gin Harbaugh

Celebrate the 115th meeting of the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes with cocktails for The Game. For Michigan fans, try the Gin Harbaugh, made with gin, Ancho Reyes Verde, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and simple syrup.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Keyword Cocktails for The Game

Prep Time 10

Total Time 10

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 176kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 oz. gin I used Botanist
3/4 oz. Ancho Reyes Verde
3/4 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
soda water
1 lemon peel

Instructions

Combine the gin, Ancho Reyes Verde, lemon juice and simple syrup in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
Strain into a highball glass with ice and top off with soda water.
Garnish with a lemon peel carved to look like the Michigan winged helmet.

Bourbon Meyer

Celebrate the 115th meeting of the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes with cocktails for The Game. For Ohio State fans, try the Bourbon Meyer, made with bourbon, Campari, Cherry Heering and freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Spirit-Forward

Keyword Cocktails for The Game

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 184kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Campari
1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 star anise

Instructions

Combine the bourbon, Campari, Cherry Heering and lemon juice in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
Strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube.
Garnish by placing one star anise on top of the ice cube.

The post Cocktails for The Game: The Gin Harbaugh and the Bourbon Meyer appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Halloween Cocktail Recipe: Into The Dark

Geoffrey Wyatt — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 21:14:39 +0000

Think you’re ready to host that Halloween party? Sure, you’ve got the perfect costume, killer decorations, and a carefully curated Halloween playlist. But do you have a Halloween cocktail picked out? If not, have no fear. I’ve got a cocktail that has it all – fall flavors, Halloween black color, and smoky special effects. Follow me . . . Into The Dark:

For my Halloween cocktail, I wanted to bring together some great fall flavors, but also to give the drink a costume of its own to foster the Halloween spirit. Let me start with the latter first because you might need some lead time on a couple of the ingredients.

The first is activated charcoal, which gives the drink its Halloween-appropriate black color. There are plenty of options online; I used Viva Doria Virgin Coconut Shell Activated Charcoal Powder, which I found on Amazon. You will also need dry ice pellets; I found mine at Talbert’s Ice in Bethesda (two pounds cost me about $5). (Note that Talbert’s is especially safety conscious and will not sell you dry ice for use in drinks unless you have a dry ice cage; I found one of these online but did not order one, so I can’t speak to how well they work in a cocktail.) Finally, if you want some skull-themed cocktail picks, try the Fred & Friends Bar Bones cocktail picks, like the one I used in the picture above.

On to the drink itself. I wanted to combine flavors of apple, smoke, and spice. So naturally I grabbed some apple brandy (Blanche de Normandie by Chrisitian Drouin), mezcal (Mezcal Vago Espadín), and Ancho Reyes Verde. I suspected these flavors would need a little sweetness to balance out the drink, so I also added some Luxardo Maraschino liqueur.

After a couple of attempts, I found a flavor balance that I thought was really good. The smoke and spice come through clearly, and the Maraschino gives the drink a soft edge. The apple is not prominent but hints of it come through. Once I had settled on the recipe, I put the drink’s costume on, adding 1/4 teaspoon of activated charcoal powder and mixing the ingredients with ice and straining the drink into a silver martini glass with a dry ice pellet, which gives it a fantastic bubbling effect:

Note that this is a strong drink. Even though the dry ice makes it extra cold, this is a drink that will warm you on a cold Halloween evening. (And if you’re looking for a few other fall cocktails to round out your menu, try the Soyeux and the Autumn Breeze.)

One final note: please take care working with dry ice. You shouldn’t handle it with bare skin, and if you have children, you should take care to keep dry ice out of their reach. You also don’t want to accidentally swallow a dry ice pellet. Dry ice sinks to the bottom of the drink, making such accidents unlikely. But to make sure, you might wish to wait for the drink to stop bubbling.

Here is the recipe:

Into The Dark

Get into the Halloween spirit with my Into The Dark cocktail, made with mezcal, apple brandy, Maraschino liqueur, Ancho Reyes Verde, activated charcoal and dry ice.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Spirit-Forward

Keyword Halloween Cocktails

Prep Time 10

Total Time 10

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 225kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 oz. mezcal I used Mezcal Vago Espadín
3/4 oz. apple brandy I used Blanche de Normandie by Calvados Christian Drouin
3/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino
1/2 oz. Ancho Reyes Verde
1/4 tsp. activated charcoal powder I used Viva Doria Virgin Coconut Shell Activated Charcoal Powder
1 pellet dry ice

Instructions

Combine the mezcal, apple brandy, Maraschino, Ancho Reyes Verde and charcoal powder in a mixing glass with ice and stir.
Strain into a martini glass or coupe; be careful not to fill the glass to the top.
Add dry ice pellet (do not handle with bare skin).

Happy Halloween!

The post Halloween Cocktail Recipe: Into The Dark appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Soyeux

Geoffrey Wyatt — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 01:43:44 +0000

Summer is my favorite season, mainly because I do not like being cold. But the other seasons have their own redeeming values. One of the things I like most about fall is building a fire on evenings when the mercury starts to drop – not far enough to make you really cold (see above), but far enough that no one gives you weird looks when you start piling logs on your andirons. And for me, fire implies whiskey (but not fire whiskey, importantly). So when the weather turned colder for the first time this fall season in the District, I started a fire and turned to the task of putting together a new whiskey-based cocktail. The result was the Soyeux:

I wanted a strong whiskey base, so I began with two ounces of E.H. Taylor, Jr., Small Batch Bourbon, one of my favorite bourbons at the moment. Then I added half an ounce of Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, which is my go-to vermouth for Manhattans (although I also add a bit of Dolin blanc vermouth to those as well; more details in an upcoming post). Speaking of Manhattans, this drink was moving decidedly in that direction, but I wanted to try something new. So I added half an ounce of yellow Chartreuse – an herbal and slightly sweet liqueur that I thought would lighten the taste slightly. To round it off, I added a dash of Fee Brothers Aztec chocolate bitters. I stirred the ingredients with ice and then strained into a rocks glass, adding a large ice cube and an orange peel as garnish.

The result was a cocktail that tastes a lot like a Manhattan but has a velvety smooth edge, owing to the addition of the herbal sweetness of the yellow Chartreuse. The orange peel adds a nice citrusy scent that cushions the strong scent that pure whiskey on ice can deliver from a rocks glass. It is a good fireside drink that goes down quickly. (Just remember that, while smooth, it is also strong.)

Here is the recipe:

Soyeux

For a fall sipping drink that is like a Manhattan with a velvety smoothness, try the Soyeux cocktail, which mixes bourbon, yellow Chartreuse, vermouth, and chocolate bitters.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Spirit-Forward

Keyword Manhattan with Chartreuse

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 210kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

2 oz. bourbon I used E.H. Taylor
1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse
1/2 oz. Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
1 dash Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters
orange peel

Instructions

Combine the bourbon, Chartreuse, vermouth, and bitters in a mixing glass with ice and stir until cold.
Strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube.
Express orange peel over drink and add as garnish.

Enjoy!

The post Original Recipe: Soyeux appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Ted’s Tequila Cocktail

Geoffrey Wyatt — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 14:11:36 +0000

My friend Ted hit a birthday milestone earlier this year. I was invited to contribute to the celebration by designing a signature cocktail that the fantastic bar team at Del Mar would serve the guests at his party. The only guideline I was given was to use tequila. This turned out to be harder than I thought. I haven’t worked a lot with tequila outside of making margaritas (though my Desert Orange and Smoked Pearl recipes use mezcal). And I wanted to live up to the circumstances – an important occasion attended by a lot of people. The recipe had to be good and have wide appeal. Needless to say, there was a lot of trial and error before settling on a final recipe. But I think I succeeded, and now I’m sharing it with you – Ted’s Tequila Cocktail:

The concept I had in mind was to make a drink that marked a transition from spring to summer, which seemed both literally and metaphorically apt. For spring I chose the floral and herbal flavors of St.-Germain and yellow Chartreuse; for summer, pineapple and jalapeño. I also added a little lemon juice to amp up the tanginess a little and balance against the sweetness of the spring flavors.

It worked! In fact, this is one of my favorite concoctions to date. It’s a perfect balance of sweet, tangy and spicy, and very easy to drink. It went over very well at the birthday party, and it has been a crowd-pleaser in subsequent events, too. Be prepared to serve multiple rounds if you’re making this one for guests!

A word on spice. You can modulate how spicy the drink is by being mindful of the number of seeds in the jalapeño pepper. As I detail in the recipe, this drink should be shaken with one slice of jalapeño pepper and garnished with another slice. More seeds (in either place, but especially in the shaker) means more spice. You can minimize the spice by using slices of pepper that contain no seeds.

Here is the recipe:

Ted's Tequila Cocktail

This cocktail celebrates spring with some herbal and floral flavors provided by yellow Chartreuse and St.-Germain, warms you up with a bit of jalapeño, and previews summer with pineapple juice and citrus.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Keyword Pineapple tequila recipe

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 182kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 oz. tequila I used Espolòn
1/2 oz. yellow Chartreuse
1/2 oz. St.-Germain
1/2 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 pineapple chunk
1 jalapeño

Instructions

Combine the tequila, Chartreuse, St.-Germain, juices and a slice of jalapeño pepper in a shaking tin with ice. Note that more seeds in the jalapeño pepper means more spice. Shake vigorously.
Strain into a rocks glass over ice.
Garnish with a chunk of pineapple and a slice of jalapeño pepper.

Enjoy!

The post Original Recipe: Ted’s Tequila Cocktail appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Cherry Blossom Cocktail

Geoffrey Wyatt — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 16:00:29 +0000

As you have probably been able to gather from my posts of cocktail events in March and April and of my non-alcoholic Sakura Sparkler recipe, I’ve got a thing for cherry blossoms. As I’ve noted, cherry blossoms are not only beautiful but also edible, meaning you can use them in your cocktails. In this post I have another such recipe for you. And this one uses cherry blossoms in three different ways. For lack of a more imaginative description, I’m calling it the Cherry Blossom Cocktail:

There are other ingredients, but let’s start with our three cherry-blossom constituents. The first is the cherry-blossom garnish, visible in the picture and plucked from a local tree (if you don’t have your own tree, ask a neighbor – most won’t deny you a lone blossom). The second is Sakura Cherry Blossom Honey Syrup, which I used in my Sakura Sparkler recipe and is available on Amazon. And the third is Cerasum, a new aperitivo from D.C.’s own Don Ciccio & Figli. Don Ciccio explains that Cerasum is made from three different kinds of cherries, sakura blossoms, and “10 selected roots and herbs,” pursuant to a recipe dating back to 1906. What it is is delicious – not sweet like many cherry-flavored liqueurs but tart, adding a distinctive flavor to the drink.

These cherry-blossom influences are accompanied by gin and freshly squeezed lemon juice. They combine to produce a bright and tangy cocktail with cherry, citrus and light floral and herbal flavors. It’s just the cocktail for enjoying the cherry blossoms on a nice spring day.

Here is the recipe:

Cherry Blossom Cocktail

Celebrate cherry-blossom season with this cocktail, which mixes gin with flavors of cherries and cherry blossoms.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Keyword cherry blossom cocktail

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 226kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 oz. gin I used Botanist
1/2 oz. Cerasum
1 oz. Sakura Cherry Blossom Honey Syrup
1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cherry
1 cherry blossom

Instructions

Combine the gin, Cerasum, cherry blossom honey syrup and lemon juice with ice in a shaking tin.
Shake vigorously and strain into a coupe.
Garnish with a cherry and a cherry blossom.

Enjoy!

The post Original Recipe: Cherry Blossom Cocktail appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Blood Orange Daiquiri

Geoffrey Wyatt — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 19:27:38 +0000

In the last few posts, I’ve focused on blood orange. First I offered the Desert Orange, a “margarita for winter” of sorts. Next I featured the Blood Moon Cocktail, a light and somewhat spicy drink for enjoying astronomical events or really any occasion. And in my post previewing March cocktail events in the District, I promised a recipe featuring an edible hibiscus garnish. This is that post. To help put you in the mood for spring I offer you a blood orange daiquiri:

The daiquiri has a special significance for me. It was nearly a decade ago at the Columbia Room – when it was still just a backroom in the old Passenger – that Derek Brown first taught me (and a roomful of other guests) how to make one according to the traditional recipe: 2 ounces of aged rum, and 3/4 ounces each of simple syrup and lime juice.

It was life-altering. I had taken a bartending class in college, where we learned that daquiris were frozen drinks made with rail rum and sour syrup. The traditional recipe was so much better, and it re-awakened my interest in mixing drinks.

So I thought it fitting to celebrate the arrival of spring with a fresh take on the classic that marked a spring of sorts in my drink-crafting hobby. I started with aged rum (Appleton 12-year) and used freshly squeezed blood orange juice in place of the usual lime. Blood orange juice is sweeter than lime juice of course, so I dialed back the sugar. (In this case, the syrup was hibiscus flower syrup, about which more in a minute.) I also added Campari and Calvit’s Tomatillo-Tamarind-Hibiscus shrub.

The garnish has two parts. The base is a blood orange wheel, placed horizontally on top of the crushed ice that fills the glass. On top, I placed an edible hibiscus flower from Wild Hibiscus Flower Co., which offers the flowers in syrup (which, as I noted above, I used as a substitute for simple syrup). Although it isn’t depicted above, I also added a paper straw. (The garnish looks great but isn’t easy to sip around.)

I had a lot of fun with this drink. As daiquiris tend to do for me, this one went down fast. Let me know what you think!

Here’s the recipe:

Blood Orange Daiquiri

Urge spring forward with this blood orange daiquiri, featuring rum, Campari, blood orange and hibiscus, and garnished with a hibiscus flower that anticipates the coming season.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Prep Time 6

Total Time 6

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 225kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz. aged rum
1/2 oz. Campari
1 oz. freshly squeezed blood orange juice
1/4 oz. Calvit's Tomatillo-Tamarind-Hibiscus Drinking Shrub
1/4 oz. Wild Hibiscus Flower Co. syrup
1 dash Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters
1 dash Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Cocktail Shrub
blood orange wheel
Wild Hibiscus Flower Co. edible hibiscus flower

Instructions

Combine the rum, Campari, juice, shrubs, syrup and bitters in a shaking tin and set aside.
Fill a rocks glass with crushed ice.
Add ice to the shaking tin, shake contents vigorously and strain into the rocks glass.
Garnish by laying a blood orange wheel horizontally atop the drink and placing an edible hibiscus flower on top of the wheel.
Add a paper straw, trimmed as necessary.

The post Original Recipe: Blood Orange Daiquiri appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Blood Moon Cocktail

Geoffrey Wyatt — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 18:04:21 +0000

The end of January brought us an unusual astronomical event: a super blue blood moon. It was a combination of three phenomena: a super moon, where the moon is closer to Earth and therefore brighter; a blue moon, meaning the second full moon in a month; and a blood moon, which denotes the reddish hue caused by a lunar eclipse. But Washington, D.C. was not optimally situated to view the “blood” portion of the event. To make up for that fact and to celebrate the occasion, I prepared a Blood Moon cocktail:

Like my last recipe for the Desert Orange, this recipe features blood orange, which is in peak season from January to March. But here it functions only as a garnish – a red citrus wheel that serves as my “blood moon” proxy. The drink itself relies on a sibling citrus – grapefruit juice. The spirits are Campari, which complements the citrus nicely, and Ancho Reyes Verde, which adds a little kick.

The result is a light and refreshing drink that would do well on any night, super blue blood moon or not. And by “light” I don’t mean just easy to drink. Although the Campari and Ancho Reyes Verde flavors are definitely detectable here, they together comprise only 1 1/2 ounces of the recipe. Grapefruit juice is the primary ingredient, and there is no high-proof spirit. That means the drink is lower proof and lower-calorie than your typical cocktail – call it about half strength on both scores. So make yourself a couple rounds!

Here is the recipe:

Blood Moon

Try my Blood Moon cocktail, a light and refreshing drink made in anticipation of the super blue blood moon, but fit for sipping on any occasion.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 124kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 oz. Campari
1/2 oz. Ancho Reyes Verde
2 oz. freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
blood orange wheel

Instructions

Combine Campari, Ancho Reyes Verde, and juice in a shaking tin with ice and shake vigorously.
Strain into a rocks glass. Add a large ice cube.
Garnish with blood orange wheel.

Enjoy!

Missing some ingredients? You might be able to have them delivered. Check out our comparative review of liquor delivery services.

The post Original Recipe: Blood Moon Cocktail appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Desert Orange

Geoffrey Wyatt — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 17:54:19 +0000

I’ve been inspired by the cocktail recipes I’ve been seeing this season making use of blood orange, which is in peak form from January through March. (One example: the brûléed blood orange spiced winter gin and tonic at Craft & Cocktails.) So in addition to experimenting with “dressed can” cocktails this month, I’ve put together a couple of recipes of my own that feature blood orange. I now present the first of these, the Desert Orange:

This cocktail combines flavors of smoke, spice, and citrus. It begins with mezcal as the base spirit, which provides the smoky flavor. Spice and savory flavors are provided by Ancho Reyes Verde liqueur and a tomatillo, tamarind and hibiscus shrub by Calvit’s. And the citrus of course comes from freshly squeezed blood orange juice. To round off the drink, I added a bit of burnt sugar syrup from Tippleman’s and Aztec Chocolate Bitters by Fee Brothers. I also salted the rim of the glass with pink Himalayan salt.

This is a great cocktail for February. The smoke and spice keep you warm, while the citrus foreshadows sunny summer days ahead – a margarita for winter, if you will. Here is the recipe:

Desert Orange

Enjoy the Desert Orange cocktail, which combines smoke, spice and citrus that takes advantage of blood orange season.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Prep Time 6

Total Time 6

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 240kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

2 oz. mezcal I used Mezcal Vago Espadín
1/2 oz. Ancho Reyes Verde
1/2 oz. Calvit's Tomatillo-Tamarind-Hibiscus Drinking Shrub
1/2 oz. freshly squeezed blood orange juice
1/4 oz. burnt sugar syrup I used Tippleman's
1 dash Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters
blood orange wheel
pink Himalayan salt

Instructions

Salt the rim of a rocks glass with the salt. Add a large ice cube.
Combine the mezcal, Ancho Reyes Verde, shrub, juice, syrup and bitters in a shaking tin with ice and shake vigorously.
Strain into the glass and add an orange wheel as garnish.

Enjoy!

Ingredients that are available on Amazon are linked in the post (the blog may earn a commission if a purchase is made). Missing any other ingredients? You might be able to have them delivered. Check out our comparative review of liquor delivery services.

The post Original Recipe: Desert Orange appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

“Dressed Can” Cocktails for the Super Bowl

Gose Girls — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 20:32:15 +0000

Ed.: Remember when I said in the February cocktail events round-up that no one in D.C. was hosting a cocktail-themed event? Well now you can do it yourself, thanks to this idea for “dressed can” cocktails from Julia (who previously posted about how to make your own Slivovitz).

When you’re hosting guests for a game day, cocktails made in a can are a great way to upgrade the drinks offerings without a lot of legwork (or clean up). These “dressed cans” don’t have to be a can of beer either – soda, juice, or canned wine can all form the base of a delicious drink.

Whether you’re tuning in for the Puppy Bowl or the Super Bowl, game day drinking is also a marathon. I started off easy with a Stiegl Radler, a 2% ABV grapefruit shandy (game day drinking is a marathon after all).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by mandy n joolya (@yougosegirl)

Inspired by a Greyhound cocktail, I doctored the Stiegl up with 1.5oz Tanqueray, ‘Rizzo’ rosemary and grapefruit bitters from Crude Small Batch Bitters, lemon juice (Stiegl is on the sweeter side), and some fresh grapefruit. If you’re a Salty Dog lover, you could rim the can in grapefruit juice and salt, or swap out the gin for tequila to make a Paloma. Bon Appetit published a great list of beer cocktails – next time there’s a Budweiser in the cooler, I might just sneak in a shot of Amaro.

Enjoy, and have a great game day!

The post “Dressed Can” Cocktails for the Super Bowl appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

Original Recipe: Raspberry, Rhubarb & Rye

Geoffrey Wyatt — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 15:03:35 +0000

As past posts reveal, I’m a fan of shrubs. I’ve used them in cocktails like the Autumn Breeze. And because they are nonalcoholic they also work in mocktails like the Mexican Candy Soda. In part because of their versatility, I’ve also recommended shrubs as great cocktail-themed gifts. In that vein, I was recently given a gift of a rhubarb shrub from Tulip Tree Hill. I immediately set out to find a good use for it in a cocktail. And lo, the Raspberry, Rhubarb & Rye was born:

The inspiration for this drink was the strawberry-rhubarb preserves my grandmother always had on hand when I was a kid. I figured raspberries would do just as well as strawberries and are a bit easier to use in cocktails.

That proved true, but these ingredients needed a little support to stand up against the base spirit – rye, in this case. I thought it would help to add some sugar and citrus. For these I used burnt sugar syrup from Tippleman’s and lemon juice. I also added a dash of walnut bitters.

These additions rounded out the drink nicely, giving it a smooth, tangy and slightly sweet taste. Although I put this together in January, the spring-summery flavors of rhubarb and raspberry hinted at the warmer days ahead. This would be a perfect pre-dinner cocktail on a night of an outdoor meal. Here’s the recipe:

Raspberry, Rhubarb & Rye

This Raspberry, Rhubarb & Rye cocktail combines raspberry and rhubarb flavors to provide a smooth, tangy and slightly slightly sweet cocktail that is perfect for your next happy hour.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Prep Time 5

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 195kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz. rye I used Whistle Pig
3/4 oz. Tulip Tree Hill rhubarb shrub
3/4 oz. burnt sugar syrup I used Tippleman's
1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 dash walnut bitters I used Fee Brothers
5 raspberries

Instructions

Combine the rye, shrub, syrup, lemon juice, bitters, and three of the raspberries with ice in a shaking tin and shake vigorously.
Strain into a rocks glass.
Add a large ice cube.
Garnish with two fresh raspberries.

Enjoy!

The post Original Recipe: Raspberry, Rhubarb & Rye appeared first on Capital Cocktails.