Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Cocktail Recipes for You to Ponder (and Make) This Thanksgiving

The Biscotti Manhattan offers a hint of the famous Italian cookie, with notes of cocoa and cherries. Perfect with Bacon-wrapped Apricots.

We are the proud yet ashamed owners of cocktail recipes scribbled across stacks of mismatched scratch papers, napkins, business cards, index cards, menus, and the ubiquitous Post-Its. We call them strays. As Thanksgiving approaches, we decided to shed ourselves of things that do not or no longer give us joy. Scraps of paper are those things. So before tossing them into the wastebasket of thwarted dreams, we decided to publish a few recipes that actually sounded good. Invite one of these strays over for Thanksgiving. Feel free to substitute whatever you see fit, or better fits with what you have on your shelf. Don’t have Dubonnet rouge, then substitute a sweet vermouth or another quinquina. Try them all up or on the rocks with a splash of soda. We hope you enjoy experimenting behind the bar (and in the kitchen) as much as we do. Here’s to you and all the fun you bring to flavor.

Fall Pear Manhattan
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 ounce bourbon
1/2 ounce pear liqueur
1/2 ounce Dubonnet rouge
dash whiskey bitters
1/4 teaspoon Velvet Falernum
pear slice, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Add garnish.

Biscotti Manhattan
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce Faretti Biscotti Famosi liqueur
1 dash mole bitters
maraschino or brandied cherry, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Add garnish.

The Biscotti Manhattan pairs perfectly with Bacon-wrapped apricots with fresh sage. So easy to make, yet the rewards are infinite.

Bacon-wrapped Apricots with Sage
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
package quality bacon
package unsulfured dried apricots
bunch fresh sage

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking tray completely with parchment paper, so that it hangs a little over the sides. If apricots do not seem bite-size, cut in half. Cut bacon slices into thirds. Wrap bacon slice around apricot piece and place on parchment, seam-side down. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bacon has reached desired doneness.

Pair them with any of the cocktails on this page, or with a William Tell All cocktail or a ’69 cocktail for a “Perfect Pairing.”

Maple–Rye Highball
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/4 ounces rye
1/2 ounce Sortilège maple liqueur
2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6
maple water, carbonated

Method
Shake for 15 seconds in ice. Strain into chilled glasses and top with maple water.

Dutch Negroni
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 ounce genever gin (we used Bols)
1 ounce Aperol
1 ounce sweet vermouth (we used Martini & Rossi)
dash camomile tincture
orange peel, expressed and rubbed around rim

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Add garnish.

Gin and Aperol
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces G’Vine Floraison gin
1 ounce Aperol
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/4 ounce Galliano l’Autentico
1 dash Boker’s bitters

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Add garnish.


Golden Bees
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 ounce bourbon
1/ ounce Berentzen Bushel & Barrel
1/2 ounce goldwasser
dash Boker’s bitters

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. Add garnish.

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Even if you never make any of these tantalizing concoctions or nibbles, we hope they inspired some of your own ideas. Share them with us.

photos © Cocktail Buzz

Monday, September 22, 2014

What’s More Apt Than Bourbon and Branch to Celebrate National Bourbon Heritage Month?

Welcome the new season with simplicity itself: Bourbon and Branch.

Autumn in New York. A time for reflecting summer’s end as the days darken more quickly, and for completing old projects and starting new chapters. It’s also the time of year when our tastes turn to earthier, deeper-seasoned flavors. So we reach for bourbon when we want to satisfy our fall-lust for darker spirits. Serendipitous, since we celebrate America’s “native spirit” in a thirty-day celebration known as National Bourbon Heritage Month.

One of our new favorite bourbons, Four Roses Small Batch, blends “four original & proprietary Bourbons . . . to reward you with a mellow symphony of sweet, fruity aromas and rich, spicy flavors.” They’re not kidding. Deep, sweet-oak wood char, and rich caramel swirl around your nostrils upon first whiff. It’s seductive. Pour yourself a little and add a few drops of water to open up the spirit; let its esters do their magic when they hit your nose and tongue. Now add a splash of water and an ice cube. Give it a little swirl. You’re on your way to making one of the simplest drinks out there. Bourbon and Branch.

The “Bourbon” part of the name is obvious, but what, you ask, is “branch”? Branch is actually plain, still water added to a mixed drink. In the South, some folks call a stream or creek a branch, hence the simple leap for branch to mean plain water.

Bourbon and Branch

Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon (try Four Roses Small Batch, perfect at 90 proof)
3 ounces still water (filtered would be best)

Method
Add to an ice-filled highball or double-rocks glass. Stir. Note: Sometimes we prefer our Bourbon and Branch with just one ice cube or no ice at all if were looking to warm ourselves up from a crisp night on the town.

❤ ❤ ❤

A note about water: How important is water to cocktails? Without it, you would have a warm glass of whatever it was you were mixing. Dilution is the essential step. It comes from shaking or stirring ice that’s commingling with the other ingredients. Close your eyes and think of a bartender. What is she doing? Most likely, shaking the drink she’s making for you. Naturally, you think of ice when you think about making drinks. You hear that unmistakable sound of clinks and clanks; involuntarily, you start to shake your torso to the rhythm of the bartender’s forceful yet graceful movements. All performed to make your drink explode with flavors and aromas that lay dormant until H2O introduced itself to the game. Water, therefore, is the paramount ingredient in your drink.

According to the Ultimate Dallas Web site, “JR’s favourite tipple was bourbon and branch. It was his drink of choice after a long day at the office to help him unwind.”

J.R.’s Bourbon and Branch

Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon whiskey*
4 ounces mineral water

Method
Pour the bourbon and water into a highball glass almost filled with ice cubes.

For a neat twist on Bourbon and Branch, we decided to use BetterSweet maple water for the “Branch” portion of the drink. If you’re not familiar with maple water, it’s all the rage, and for good reason. Its texture caresses your palate like velvet and tastes like red velvet cake (but just a hint). BetterSweet is only one ingredient: 100% organic maple sap, “sweetened by nature.”

Maple Bourbon and Branch

Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon (try Four Roses Small Batch, perfect at 90 proof)
3 ounces maple water (try BetterSweet)

Method
Add to an ice-filled highball or double-rocks glass. Stir. Note: Sometimes we prefer our Maple Bourbon and Branch with just one ice cube.

❤ ❤ ❤

There will be times when you’ll want something fizzy added to your bourbon. So we experimented with the BetterSweet maple water and turned it into maple soda to make a Maple Bourbon Highball. Make sure you use a self-contained soda syphon that requires a disposable single-use charger. Soda Syphons, once a staple of the American household, can handle liquids that contain sugar. Soda chargers that require you to screw a canister to the device will result in disaster because sugar plus CO2 produces a megaton amount of carbonation. But if a SodaStream is the only device you have to carbonate water, and you are hellbent on making soda water with maple water, make sure you only charge it a bit. Once you see water squirting out the top, it’s time to let go of the plunger.

Maple Bourbon Highball
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon
3 ounces carbonated maple water (read about it, above)
ice

Method
Add bourbon to an ice-filled highball or double-rocks glass. Top with carbonated maple water. Stir.

photo © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Fruity Libations for a Long Labor Day Weekend

How about a red grape, strawberry, tarragon syrup in your highball this Labor Day weekend?

Ah Labor Day, the harbinger of summer’s end. Shindigs galore from sea to shining sea.

According to Wikipedia,
Labor Day in the United States is a holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It is a celebration of the American labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country.
It’s also better known as a guaranteed day off for those who work zombie-inducing 9-to-5 jobs, most likely in a beige environment.

Although beige has its moments, that moment is not now.

We imagine that cocktails will be a part of your Labor Day Weekend festivities at some point, so we have an idea whereby colorful and fruit-flavored syrups shine as the key ingredient in a tasty and tantalizing highball. It’s easy to make and, when added to your favorite booze and topped with soda or seltzer, easier to imbibe. You like the color red? May we recommend a raspberry syrup. Magenta get you excited? Then look no further than blueberries. Purple best defines you? Well, concord grapes should be on your grocery list today. And because of the extra day off you definitely have the time.

Demand color in your Labor Day Weekend cocktails or you might end up feeling a little beige.

Over the years, we have made some delectable syrups that have become the bases for cocktail experiments, both wild and tame. Here a few uncommon suggestions:
  • red or black currant
  • gooseberry (okay, we admit this can be a pale, almost beige, syrup if using green ones, but the flavor is one-of-a-kind)
  • red grapes, strawberries, tarragon (use twice as many red grapes to strawberries, and a handful of tarragon)
Fruit Syrup
(adapted from the NY Times recipe for Raspberry Syrup)

This is a classic fruit syrup recipe that can be halved.

Ingredients
2 cups colorful fruit, in any combination (berries and stone fruits work well)
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (optional)
herbs and spices (use your judgment here; strong herbs such as thyme may be overwhelming in large quantities whereas lighter herbs such as tarragon may be used in wild abandon)

Method
Combine berries, 2 tablespoons sugar, and a cup of water in a heavy-bottomed medium-sized saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, stirring so that the fruit begins to break down and get mushy. (If you’re using a fruit with skins that resist easy breakup, such as grapes, you should mash them a little.) Now, to stop the cooking process, add a cup and a half of cold water to the fruit mixture. If you are using herbs and spices and lemon juice, now is the time to add them as well (for the lemon juice, you can just squeeze some from a half lemon into the fruit mixture). Bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. If a lot of foam collects at the top, you can try to skim it off. Now is the time to separate the fruit mixture. You’ll best be served by a cheesecloth-lined strainer here, as a strainer alone may allow little bits of skin and seeds into your syrup. Trust us, you don’t want that. Pour the mixture carefully through the lined strainer into a bowl. You’ll want to get as much syrup out of the mixture as possible, so use a masher, muddler, or any implement you can find and press on the fruit until you’ve extracted every last sweet drop of fruit syrup. Return the liquid to the saucepan (make sure you’ve rinsed the saucepan throughly) and add 1 to 1/2 cups of sugar (depending on your sweet tooth). Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat until the liquid comes to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes. (If you want a thicker syrup, cook for about 6 minutes.) Remove from heat. Let cool. Add vodka and stir to incorporate (vodka will make the syrup last longer). Refrigerate in a clean container with a good seal or screw cap. This should last for two weeks, and with vodka up to a month.

Makes between 2 to 2 1/2 cups.

Fruit Syrup Highball

Ingredients
1 to 2 ounces fruit syrup (less if you like a drier drink)
1 1/2 ounces your favorite spirit (brown spirits will make your drink darker)
3 to 4 ounces soda or seltzer
slice of citrus, brandied cherry, or the fruit you used in the syrup, as garnish (optional)

Method
Shake syrup and spirit for ten seconds in an ice-filled shaker. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Top with soda. Add garnish. Sip. Do not even think about that beige office.

Fruit Syrup Soda

Ingredients
1 to 2 ounces fruit syrup (less if you like a drier drink)
3 to 4 ounces soda or seltzer
slice of citrus, brandied cherry, or the fruit you used in the syrup, as garnish (optional)

Method
Add syrup to an ice-filled rocks glass. Top with soda. Stir. Add garnish.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Casa Noble Tequila Delivers The Organic Goods in All of Its Expressions

Choose your favorite Casa Noble tequila expression: Crystal, Reposado, Añejo, Single Barrel Reposado, or Single Barrel Añejo.

July 24 marked National Tequila Day. No stranger to a celebration, Laura Baddish of the Baddish Group invited a selection of online media guests to sample the mighty fine Casa Noble Tequila in four of its expressions at the aptly named Agave in Greenwich Village. The staff delighted us with countless small bites — succulent albóndigas (meatballs); cheesy, savory quesadillas; piquant and rich guacamole. Honestly, there was too much good food being passed around the intimate back-room dining table, but who are we to turn down a fiesta, especially when accompanied by some of the smoothest and mixable tequilas on the market? Jay Silverman, Agave’s beverage director, after a few introductory words about the production of Casa Noble tequila, offered us a classic margarita made with the youngest expression, Casa Noble Crystal. The agave plants, from which tequila is distilled, are not harvested until they are at least twelve years old, so the plants have had more time to to grow and develop fuller flavors. Jay asked us to sip the Crystal by itself, so when we did, we discovered full-roasted agave flavor. It went down easy and was utterly delightful. The margarita allowed this agave flavor to shine through, and it paired perfectly with the guacamole and chips, only whetting our appetites for more cocktails. But until then, we sipped the other two standard expressions: reposado and añejo. We were shocked — in a good way — by the reposado’s natural candylike sweetness. This expression will be finding its way on our shelves so we can craft some original cocktails with it during the rest of the summer. What surprised us even more, though, were the sweet and smooth sips from the añejo tequila. This aged beauty makes for a wonderful after-dinner digestivo, and was a favorite among the reporters and writers present.

Casa Noble Organic Margarita
For those of you unfamiliar with Casa Noble, Jose “Pepe” Hermosillo Brooks, a co-owner and master distiller, had a mission. He wanted his tequila to, in Laura Baddish’s words, “speak of luxury, of refined pottery and architecture.” Many of us came to tequila downing shot glass after shot glass of the not-so-pure stuff. Casa Noble aims much higher. It is relatable to those in search of refinement, and flavor that’s not compromised by unthoughtful distillation and aging. The bottles, in their array of noble colors such as silver, purple, deep blue, black, and sky blue, glow with the promise of something very special. One limited-edition expression, an aged single-barrel extra añejo mind-blower, is sponsored by the one and only Carlos Santana, a board member who approached Casa Noble with the idea of selling this special tequila with profits going to Milagro, his charitable children’s foundation. Five hundred bottles were sold at $500 each. That’s a lot of dinero. Very special indeed.

By the way, our second cocktail proved to be a winner. Made with joven tequila (aged for six weeks in French white oak barrels), this collins-sized drink buzzed our taste buds with tangerine juice, chipotle, lime, and sage. We all wished we could have another, but by the end of the tasting, we could barely text and tweet.

Casa Noble Organic Margarita
(courtesy of Casa Noble)

Ingredients
2 ounces Casa Noble Crystal Tequila
1 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce La Sierra Agave Nectar
lime wheel, as garnish
salt rim (optional)

Method
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice, shake, strain and serve up or on the rocks, Garnish with a lime wheel. To salt rim, moisten rim of glass with lime, gently roll in a plate of kosher salt.


Casa Noble joven tequila, with tangerine,
lime, chipotle, and sage


Casa Noble Paloma
(courtesy of Casa Noble)

Ingredients
2 ounces Casa Noble Reposado Tequila
fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
splash of fizz (soda, seltzer)

Method
Pour the the Casa Noble Reposado Tequila into a glass and squeeze in the fresh lime juice. Add ice and fill with the fresh grapefruit juice and fizz. Stir and enjoy.


Casa Noble Añejo Casa Royal
(courtesy of Casa Noble)

Ingredients
2 ounces Casa Noble Añejo Tequila
1/2 ounce triple sec
2 ounces fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce champagne or prosecco

Method
Shake first three ingredients in ice and strain into a margarita or rocks glass filled with ice with an optional salt rim. Float champagne on top.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Meet Troy & Sons, Three New Expressions of Moonshine and Aged American Whiskey

We welcome you to the bar.

Recently, we attended the New York launch of Troy & Sons small batch moonshine at the neo-speakeasy Flatiron Room. Laura Baddish, PR spirits queen, hosted the event in the dining aerie that overlooks the main room and bar, where patrons flock to get their boozes on amid the din of other postwork-I-need-to-de-stress martini swillers. After some yummy small bites of mini pizza and meatballs, with middle eastern flavors, and sips of Manhattans, Laura presented Troy to us. Now, that image that pops into your head when you think of “Troy” the moonshiner — just throw it out the window. This Troy was blonde, beautiful, and much much younger than that grizzled man that just disappeared from your mind.

A former Texan, Troy Ball moved with her family to Asheville, North Carolina, to distill moonshine, namely the smooth stuff that the old-timer mountain men dub the “sweet spot,” the best-tasting, smoothest part from the distillation process. She distills three expressions at her Asheville Distilling Co., and all offer unique aromas, undertones, and mixing possibilities.

Blonde, Oak Reserve, and Platinum, three expressions of American whiskey.

You can smell the hushed sweet scent of heirloom white corn in the Platinum Whiskey. This smooth white ’shine, distilled from corn rescued from the brink of extinction, makes a mean Margarita-style cocktail [see Sons-Shine Margarita recipe below]. You can also make one with Troy & Sons’ Oak Reserve Whiskey. Deep whiffs of this expression will remind you of toffee and a small taste will bring you deep into the aging barrel with flavors of oak and caramel. Her Blonde Whiskey, although slightly darker than the Oak Reserve, reveals the meaning behind its name in its gentle caramel taste and velvety mouthfeel. This blonde is a softer “kinder spirit,” made from heirloom turkey red wheat and white corn. Even its aroma demurs, whispering to your palate that any drink made with The Blonde will guarantee a smooth ride.

Troy dubs herself the "First woman to found a distillery in modern times.” The spirits’ name comes from the closeness she shares with her three sons. [Check out her story.] As they got older, Troy felt the time was right to start a new venture. Enter “keeper moonshine,” the sweet-spot distillate that the moonshiners all kept for themselves. Now, Troy knew what her calling was: sharing this ’shine with the rest of the world.

We’re excited to visit her at her distillery some day. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to taste some batches of her 4-year and 8-year reserve whiskey. Normally, it’s aged for two years in Woodford Reserve bourbon barrels, but you never know what time will bring. If the taste of all three of Troy & Sons expressions is any indication, we’re predicting winners.

Sons-Shine Margarita
(courtesy of Troy Ball and Asheville Distilling Co.)

Ingredients
2 ounces Troy & Sons Platinum Whiskey
1 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh orange juice
6 drops agave nectar or 1 ounce simple syrup
1 orange slice



photos © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup Is Your Best Friend This Summer

Homemade ginger syrup is easy to make and will brighten up your cocktail hour. Try this Ginger Pear Highball, made with Berentzen’s light and fresh-tasting pear liqueur.

Crisp ginger ale and its spicier cousin ginger beer are tried and true mixers at your home bar, and for good reason. They combine so well with so much. We love ginger beer in our Zul Mule or in a simple fizzy Presbyterian. These are the perfect drinks for sunny, breezy days. But if we’ve run out of ginger beer, or have some fresh ginger lying around, we love to make ginger syrup to mix with soda. Our homemade spicy ginger syrup is versatile for both cocktails and nonalcoholic “mocktails.” The best part is it’s simple to make.




Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup

Ingredients
6 ounces fresh, unpeeled ginger, washed and diced (or sliced with a mandoline or pulsed in a food processor)
3 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of sugar
pinch of salt

Method
Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool completely. Strain mixture into a jar and store in refrigerator for about a week.


❤ ❤ ❤

Now you can start mixing. Combine the syrup with soda water, to taste, for your own homemade version of ginger beer. It’s really good with some fresh lime juice as well. Or add a little grenadine and the kids have a zestier version of a Shirley Temple we call the Shirley Temple Black.

Ginger Soda

Ingredients
1/2–1 ounce Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup (depending on how sweet you like your drink)
soda, chilled

Method
Fill rocks glass or highball glass with ice. Add ginger syrup, then soda. Stir. You can always add a lemon twist, or perhaps a spring of mint, if it pleases.

Shirley Temple Black
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1/4–1/2 ounce Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup (depending on how sweet you like your soda)
1/4–1/2 ounce grenadine
club soda, chilled

Method
Fill rocks glass or highball glass with ice. Add ginger syrup, grenadine, then soda. Stir. You can always add a lemon twist, if it pleases.

❤ ❤ ❤

Now it’s time to make a cocktail. How about a Dark and Stormy: dark rum mixed with ginger beer and perhaps a little fresh lime juice in a tall glass of ice.

Cocktail Buzz Dark and Stormy

Ingredients
2 ounces dark rum (traditionalists use Gosling’s Black Seal)
1 ounce Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup (recipe above)
1/2 ounce lime juice (optional)
4 ounces soda water (to taste)

Method
Shake first three ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Top with club soda. Stir.

❤ ❤ ❤

If you desire something less alcoholic, use you’re favorite liqueur, like the light apple or pear versions that Berentzen sent us recently. Their flavors are crisp, not at all cloying. Add a little of our ginger syrup and soda water and you’re ready for some backyard barbecue festivities. Their low alcohol content makes them the perfect choice for when you want more than one cocktail; we’ll be reaching for these liqueurs again and again this summer.

Apple or Pear Ginger Highball

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Berentzen Pear or Apple Liqueur
1 ounce Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup (recipe above)
4 ounces soda
ice

Method
Stir first two ingredients in ice for 15 seconds ice and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Top with soda water.




❤ ❤ ❤

We’ve also been adding ginger syrup, in lieu of plain simple syrup, to a lot of classic cocktails. One of our favorite iterations is the Ginger Whiskey Sour. Just add a warm summer night. We think it’s a winner.

Cocktail Buzz Ginger Whiskey Sour

Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon or rye
3/4 ounces Cocktail Buzz Spicy Ginger Syrup (recipe above)
3/4 ounces lemon juice

Method
Shake with ice for 15 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

❤ ❤ ❤

Pairing Suggestions
Halloumi with Fig Jam
Braunschweiger Spread
Smoked Eel
Sweet Potato Crisps
The Chick’s Peas
Smoked cheeses, such as gouda

photos © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Friday, June 6, 2014

Negroni Week Beckons You Until June 8

Enter Bar Now (or make one of these at home)

 This Whitish Negroni — on the rocks — sparkles with white vermouth and, of course, Campari and gin.

The following Negroni variations originated from other fellow travelers’ books and bars. Each is distinct but embraces the arresting flavors of the original and is perfect for these final days of Negroni Week, the seven-day celebration of the famous cocktail and all its variations. Remember, participating bars across America and other parts of the globe promise to raise money for their favorite charities for every Negroni-style cocktail ordered. If you cannot make it to a bar by Sunday, then by all means have a Negroni-style cocktail at home.

White Negroni
(from Dutch Kills, Queens, NY)

Suze, pronounced like siz, but with a French rounded vowel sound (think Inspector Clouseau), is an aperitif flavored with the bitter roots of the gentian plant. If you try it on its own, it is sweet, as well. It is not for everyone, but is definitely worth a try if you see some behind the bar. Ask your bartender to pour you a sip. In the White Negroni, white vermouth, red vermouth’s milder cousin, rounds out the flavors of gin mixed with Suze in this boozy concoction. Its layered flavors end with a nice bitter finish.

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin (we used Beefeater)
3/4 ounce Suze (a bittersweet gentian aperitif)
3/4 ounce Dolin white vermouth (aka bianco, blanc, blanco)
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir to chill. Strain into a chilled glass and garnish.

Recipe reprinted from Imbibe Magazine.

Whitish Negroni
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Since we’re big fans of Campari, we decided to do a riff on the White Negroni. But there’s nothing white about this cocktail. It’s actually a gorgeous pink–orange. Its smooth, slightly sweet, and layered flavors (think Aperol) pair perfectly with bacon-wrapped unsulfured dried apricots and a little sage leaf.

Ingredients
1 ounce Beefeater gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Dolin white vermouth (aka bianco, blanc, blanco)
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or coupe. Add garnish.

❤ ❤ ❤

These next two cocktails are from two books from which we have made drinks over the years and are perfect for the warming months ahead:

Mistaken Negroni
(from The New Old Bar by Steve McDonough and Dan Smith)

Ingredients
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce orange juice
sparkling wine or Prosecco
orange peel, as garnish

Method
Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Strain into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Serve garnished with a flamed orange peel. [Express orange peel through a match flame by holding the match over the drink and, with your other hand, in one quick, sharp squeeze, pinch the peel (outside of peel facing the match) so the oils spurt through the flame, causing a gentle flare-up.]

Grapefruit Negroni
(from Sips & Apps by Kathy Casey)

Ingredients
1/4 large red grapefruit
1 1/2 ounces gin (we used Death’s Door)
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce Campari
small grapefruit wedge, as garnish
ice, if on the rocks

Method
Squeeze the grapefruit into a cocktail shaker and discard the squeezed fruit. Fill the shaker with ice. Measure in the gin, vermouth, and Campari. Cap and shake vigorously. Strain into a martini glass or an old-fashioned glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with small grapefruit wedge.

❤ ❤ ❤

So, when all is said and done, you don’t like gin. This is okay. One person’s taste buds differ from the next. here’s something that may stir your whiskey-loving loins:

Red Hook
(created by Enzo Errico, Milk & Honey, New York City)

Ingredients
2 ounces rye whiskey
1/2 ounce Punt e Mes vermouth
1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur

Method
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir well for 20 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Recipe reprinted from Imbibe Magazine.

To find out how to make a Punt e Mes Negroni, click here.

photos © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Celebrate Negroni Week, June 2–8, at Your Favorite Bar, or with One of These Glowing Variations

The Dimmi Negroni — made with Campari, gin, and the light and floral
Dimmi Liquore di Milano — glows in late-afternoon light. 

Created by Imbibe Magazine and Campari, Negroni Week, a seven-day celebration of the famous cocktail and all its variations, promises to raise money for every Negroni-style cocktail ordered in participating bars across America and other parts of the globe. This money will, in turn, go to the bars’ charity of choice. Drink for a cause and patronize your favorite drinking establishments this week that are participating in Negroni Week. Relish in the bracing, bittersweet botanicals in Campari and your favorite gin. You can choose your vermouth as well, from Carpano Antica Formula to Punt e Mes, and to other herbal aperitifs such as Cynar and Suze.

Seven nights out in a row might be too many for you, so perhaps you’d rather stay home one night and share a cocktail in front of the big screen. Here is where we offer you some charity. Recipes, culled from favorites over the years, and some we’ve come up with ourselves. A Negroni is meant to be shared among charming and attractive adults, like you. Its redolence, a heady bouquet, fills the room and makes you a little bold, yet playful. Get carried away. You’re owning it. Start a new flirtation, or rekindle a fizzling one. Or just embrace friendship. Your week begins on Monday, June 2. Start planning your visits to your favorite liquor stores now, you sexy thing, or have it delivered! It’s time to discover how you like your perfect Negroni. Then take that knowledge and taste memories with you, go to one of the participating bars, and let them blow your mind with variations that are sure to please you and the gods of insobriety.

If you’re looking for something to nibble alongside a Negroni, just remember that, in general, Negroni-style cocktails pair wonderfully with blue cheese, dates, and seasoned sweet potato crisps. Other suggestions follow.

Punt e Mes Negroni
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

We love the bold flavors and Italian ingenuity for creating the most exquisite bitter amari, Campari. Who hasn’t beheld that red carmine glow and been bewitched by its bitter orange yet sweetly balanced flavors. You feel as though you must immediately fly to Rome for dinner. It’s perfect with gin — very continental and traditional at the same time. And these opposites attract with the help from one of our favorite vermouths, the bittersweet orange zestiness of Punt e Mes, a truly lovely and bracing fortified wine. Wonderful and exhilarating.

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin (we like Dorothy Parker from New York Distilling)
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Punt e Mes
orange peel (use a peeler to get one about 1–2 inches long; try not getting too much white pith)

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass or coupe. Express orange peel over drink by giving it a quick pinch with the rind facing out. Wipe the rim of the glass with the rind and drop it into the glass.

Broker’s Negroni
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Brokers gin, the one with the black bowler hat, is an affordable and tasty London dry gin that mixes well with lots of other spirits. It’s quadruply distilled and boasts that it “does not follow the modern trend of using weird and wonderful spirits and botanicals” but focuses on perfecting the usual herbs and roots (such as juniper berries, cinnamon, and angelica root) used to flavor a perfect London dry gin. It’s quite lovely. In this Negroni, we use the traditional Campari, but specify Carpano Antico Formula, the smoothest sweet vermouth we’ve ever come across, along with the Broker’s. It’s delightful up or on the rocks, with or without a twist of lemon or orange, and pairs surprisingly well with guacamole.

Ingredients
1 ounce Broker’s gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass or coupe, or into an ice-filled rocks glass. Add garnish, if using.

Dimmi Negroni
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Sometimes you crave a Negroni but have sadly run out of vermouth. Necessity is the art of invention, so grab a bottle of something that looks promising and start mixing. One such alternative to vermouth is the spirited liquor from Milan called Dimmi. (It used to be called Veloce, but had to change its name for legal reasons. We like Dimmi, which translates to a friendly “Tell me.”) It’s made from organic winter wheat and grappa di Nebbiolo, then infused with a pleasing array of herbs and fruits, followed by a second infusion of peach and apricot blossoms, which adds a sweet flowery aroma. We like mixing Dimmi with bold gins, like Bombay Sapphire—their botanicals mingle well—and, of course, the traditional Campari. So perfect on the rocks for warmer evenings.

Ingredients
1 ounce Dimmi Liquore di Milano
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Bombay Sapphire Gin
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Add garnish.

Negroni Primavera
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

We dubbed this Negroni Primavera because of the spring ingredients: artichoke in Cynar, plums in the Greenhook Ginsmith Beach Plum liqueur, flowers from three different grapes in the June liqueur. As the ice melts, the drinks changes from a bittersweet, bracing, lightly bubbly aperitif, to a southern sweet tea, mellower and rounder. Sweet potato crisps might be a great pairing with these.

Ingredients
1 ounce Plymouth gin
2/3 to 3/4 ounce Greenhook Ginsmith Beach Plum Liqueur
1/4 to 1/3 ounce L’esprit de June liqueur
1 ounce Cynar
2–3 ounces soda
lemon twist

Method
Stir the first four ingredients in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled double rocks or highball glass. Add soda, then the lemon twist.

Follow us next week as we present more Negroni variations for your delectation.

photo © Paul Zablocki, Cocktail Buzz

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Crème de Violette Cocktails for Your Springtime Party

The Blue Moon Cocktail will brighten up your cocktail party with its sweet and sour combination of lemon and violets. 

Finally, spring is here. Warm caresses from the sun. The dewy luminescence from springtime light. Rainbow beauty from early-riser flowers such as crocuses, hyacinths, and daffodils. Just walking to the subway brings exquisite joy. This is the time of year when our taste buds turn to floral favors. One such flavor we revere comes from violets in the form of a deep, almost impenetrable purple liqueur called crème de violette. The term crème refers to sugar, and there is plenty of that in pretty much the only crème de violette you can get stateside, Rothman & Winter, which is also made with Alpine violets and Weinbrand (German or Austrian brandy). It became available to us here soon after we started Cocktail Buzz, back in 2007, and we have been smitten with it ever since. Initially, we bought some to fulfill the old recipe for an Aviation cocktail. It’s hard to fathom how this cocktail got its name without the addition of a little crème de violette, which adds a subtle but magical pale purple–blue tint to the drink. It’s a stunner—sourness from the lemon juice, bitterness from the maraschino liqueur, and sweetness from the crème de violette. We created a variation of the Aviation we call the Kitty Hawk, named after the Wright Brothers’ site of their famous flight. The addition of a little Catdaddy moonshine adds a southern sweet-tea charm to the cocktail. On its own, one sip of crème de violette will remind you instantly of violet candies you can find at any candy counter in New York City.

A Violet Sparkler, simple and beautiful
For all of you who like to get the party started with a little bubbly, you’ll be happy to know that crème de violette mixes exceedingly well with champagne or any sparkling wine. Just a little splash (1/2 to 1 1/2 teaspoon per 3 ounces of champagne) in a flute or coupe is all you need to experience the floral aromas and tastes of a Violet Sparkler. Top with some reposado tequila and you’ve just made yourself La Violeta. Something elegant for a Cinco de Mayo cocktail party.

Cousin Barbara turned us on to the Blue Moon, a gin and lemon juice Jazz Era cocktail laced with a healthy dose of the violet liqueur. The Blue Moon glows anywhere between heliotrope and lavender depending on the gin you use (try several to see which one you like best), and is perfect for any time of year, but spring seems just about right. Perfect if you want to serve something a little boozier to your guests. Just provide a few nibbles to keep the partiers satisfied and sober.

Blue Moon
(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce crème de violette
1/2 ounce lemon juice
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Shake in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass or coupe. Add garnish.

Another cocktail resplendent with a smoky gray hue was created a few years back, when Phil Ward was behind the stick at Death & Co. Paul and his friend Shelley were lucky enough to have Phil make one up on the spot while we were talking about a cocktail Paul had made for his mom that featured scotch and crème de violette. Phil grabbed a bottle of this Compass Box blended whisky called Asyla, gave it a deep sniff, then immediately grabbed a bottle of crème de violette, gave that a quick sniff, then put both bottles near his nose and gave both a deep inhale. The first thing he grabbed was Lillet blanc. The clincher was absinthe, but just a little. The verdict, well, neither Shelley or Paul can recall the exact details, but rest assured, they liked the results. Each ingredient working to enhance the others. Try it up, as Phil intended, but feel free to have it on the rocks, or with a splash of soda.


Smoke and Violets
(created by Phil Ward)

Ingredients
2 ounces Asyla Compass Box scotch whisky
1 ounce Lillet blanc
1/2 ounce crème de violette
2–3 dashes absinthe
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass or coupe. Add garnish.

For after dinner, you may want a Marianne at Midnight, the drink referred to above that Paul created for his mother. We’ve altered our recipe a little, adding a half ounce less crème de violette, to this scotch and Tuaca sipper.

If you’d like to harvest the essence of crème de violette and create a bitters, all you need to do is find some gentian (a bitter root), cinnamon bark, and grapefruit peel. Letting these age a few days in an ounce and a half ounces crème de violette is all you need to do. Then get creative and come up with your very own cocktail.

Violet Bitters
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces crème de violette
1/4 teaspoon gentian
piece of cinnamon bark
piece of grapefruit peel

Method
Mix together ingredients and let sit for a few days. Strain into a small bottle or dropper.

We don’t know which is prettier: the heliotrope glow of a Blue Moon (left) or the bubbly lavender of a Violet Sparkler? We think you should make both and decide for yourself.

Well, there you have it all. A crème de violette cocktail for any time of the day or evening. Start with a Violet Sparkler and end with one of the many drinks we love and have shared with you. Or create your own using your new homemade violet bitters. Happy spring. Embrace renewal.

photo © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Monday, March 31, 2014

Halloumi, Meet Your Best Friend, Commandaria

Our Cookbook Challenge Continues with a Provocative Pairing . . .

by Paul Zablocki

Halloumi, a semihard Cypriot cheese, with dollops of white truffle honey and fig jam, pairs so well with a St. John Sour.

We can’t believe almost an entire year has gone by since we started our Cookbook Challenge, for which we take a collection of cookbooks and use one or more recipes for inspiration to develop our own dishes or small bites. For our last challenge, we were to use two Nigella Lawson cookbooks, Feast and Nigella Bites, as our sources. Perusing her easy, homespun recipes, we noticed that Ms. Lawson seems to love the semihard, brined cheese from Cyprus called halloumi: Grilled Halloumi with Oozing Egg and Mint (what a title!); Halloumi with Chilli (the picture is enough to send you to the store searching for this Mediterranean hard cheese). A decision was made; Steve and I decided halloumi would be the focus, but we agreed to go one step further: come up with a cocktail–party food pairing and make sure the cocktail is low in alcohol. (Who doesn’t want to have a second drink at a cocktail party without getting loopy?)

But first, some words on Mediterranean cuisine.

If asked to name their favorite Mediterranean cuisine, most Americans would answer Italian. With good reason, too. How many of us have begun our evenings with some antipasti, paired with an Americano or a less bitter Aperol and soda? Italian restaurants—or Italian-American, rather—inhabit every city in this nation. You’d be hard-pressed to find one that doesn’t. Even Makawao on the island of Maui boasts a bistro that serves cioppino made with fresh local fish.

But putting Italian aside, let us look into less-explored Mediterranean cuisine, that of Cyprus in particular, and its treasured cheese, halloumi.

But first some words about Cyprus.

I was fascinated by Cyprus as a child. To me, this island nation looked like a fish, with a stingray-like tail. If you gaze at a map, you’ll notice that this “fish” has just broken free from the maw of Turkey’s Gulf of İskenderun and is now swimming freely in the clear blue waters of the eastern Mediterranean. While the average Cypriot eats about forty-eight pounds of fish annually, this staple does not make an appearance in this post’s appetizer. It’s mostly just halloumi. But what we do to it . . . .

For our purpose, we will talk about halloumi that is available prepackaged from the grocery store. Briny and sometimes flavored with a hint of mint, halloumi originated on the island of Cyprus, probably over a 1,000 to 1,500 years ago. It’s rubbery and behaves like cheese curds, so that when you bite into a slice, you can hear a little squeak emanating from your maw. Because it doesn’t melt when broiled, fried, or grilled, this block of semihard succulence delivers supreme satisfaction on both taste and texture counts. How? The Maillard reaction, the one created when heat hits proteins and their ilk, and whammo, countless new flavors are born, making your mouth and brain very happy.

If you slice the halloumi into 1/4-inch-thin rectangles (on the short side of the block), you can fry them over medium-high heat in a nonstick pan, à la Nigella, about 2–3 minutes per side. They should ooze their liquid and then brown a little. Check that they don’t get too brown and flip, browning the other side as well. Remove from heat and spread with a mixture of fig name and white-truffle honey. This pairs beautifully with the St. John Sour. If you don’t have white-truffle butter (and we don’t blame you if you don’t), you can use the fig jam alone, but it would benefit the pairing if you sprinkled on some chopped chives or a few thin slices of scallion greens. You can also make your own white truffle honey by mixing some white truffle oil into some thick honey, preferably natural, and combine thoroughly.

Halloumi with Fig Jam and White Truffle Honey
(adapted from recipes culled from Nigella Bites and Feast)

Ingredients
1 8-ounce package halloumi
2 tablespoons fig jam
1 tablespoon white truffle honey

Method
In a small bowl, mix the fig jam and white truffle honey thoroughly and set aside.

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Remove halloumi from package and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rectangular slices (your rectangles should be about 1 x 2 inches, so make sure you slice along the shorter end). Add slices to frying pan, making sure not to crowd them (you may have to work in two or three batches depending on the size of your frying pan). Check your slices after 2–3 minutes. When they are golden brown in patches, flip and cook for another 2–3 minutes. remove from heat and arrange on a platter. With a spoon, add dollops of the jam mixture to the halloumi, or arrange the bowl next to the halloumi platter and allow your guests to take as much as they want. Serve with a St. John Sour or a St. John Paddy Sour, two cocktails we created using a very special Cypriot wine, commandaria.

❤ ❤ ❤

Commandaria is a nutty port-like dessert wine that originated on the island of Cyprus and is the oldest-named wine still in production. It’s made from two types of grapes, Mavro and Xynestri, which are picked when they have overripened on the vines so that the sugar levels are high. After fermentation and the addition of neutral spirits, commandaria’s alcohol content lies somewhere between 15–20%. That’s especially good for when you want a second drink. And it mixes beautifully with citrus and other bold flavors like ginger. The commandaria shines in these two drinks.


St. John Sour
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces St. John Commandaria (Cypriot wine)
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce ginger syrup*
soda

Method
Shake first three ingredients in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Top with soda. Stir. Add a lemon twist, if you’d like.

*Ginger Syrup
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 piece of fresh ginger, about 8 inches
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of water

Method
Wash then mandolin or thinly slice the ginger (no need to peel). In a medium saucepan combine sugar, water, and ginger. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Be careful not to bring to a roiling boil at this point as this will cause the syrup to harden. Allow to cool with ginger in syrup. Strain into jar. Press down on ginger to get all the syrup out. This keeps for about 1–2 weeks, and longer if you add a tablespoon of vodka or other spirit.

❤ ❤ ❤

You might not think that Irish whiskey and Cypriot wine would go hand in hand, but when mixed with some lemon juice, this drink makes for a smooth ride.

St. John Paddy Sour
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces St. John Commandaria
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce Irish whiskey (Jameson)
soda

Method
Shake first three ingredients in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Top with soda. Stir. Add a lemon twist, if you’d like.

❤ ❤ ❤

For our next cookbook challenge, we will explore Ina Garten’s The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (we love this one) and Robert Carrier’s Entertaining, from 1978 (this one should be fun).

photos ©Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

10 Microdistillers We Love, and So Should You

Three of these craft spirits made it to Thrillist’s top ten.

Recently Thrillist asked Cocktail Buzz to participate in a panel of booze-biz writers to name our favorite microdistillers. So we gave Thrillist staff writer Dan Gentile a ranked list of ten distillers with a short blurb about why each one is special.
  1. New York Distilling. The Dorothy Parker American Gin is a favorite. Its botanical mix, which includes cinnamon and hibiscus, makes mixing easy. You can get a little more creative at the bar depending on what flavors you want to highlight in the gin. Or in a simple gin and tonic, in which you can detect the cinnamon. Fabulous in a Gibson or a Negroni with Punt e Mes vermouth.
  2. Clear Creek Distillery. What’s not to love about Clear Creek? Clear Creek’s Pear Brandy has beguiled many of our guests, especially during the holidays. We adore it in The Wink, a drink mixed with Moscato d’Asti and a little celery bitters. And if you want something that’ll blow your mind, look no further than its Douglas Fir eau de vie. It tastes exactly as you think it might.
  3. Piedmont Distillers. We love the all-natural Catdaddy Spiced Moonshine for its flavor combo of nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla. Perfect in a Kitty Carlisle. The Midnight Moon moonshine is smooth and is perfect for those who want to play with infusions—that is if you don’t already sip on one of their all-natural fruit and spice–infused moonshines.
  4. Philadelphia Distilling. Bluecoat is an exceptional London dry gin. Our first whiff and sip beguiled us in a mere second. Organic juniper and organic citrus peels create an aroma and flavor that are one-of-a-kind and very complex. You may even want to sip this one on its own. Or try it in a Vesper.
  5. Ransom Spirits. If you’ve never tasted Old Tom Gin, you’re in for a treat. Its subtle malty sweetness shines through any drink you mix it with, and it makes a righteous French 75. We love the old-timey label.
  6. Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery. This distillery’s eau de vie is delightful, but its American Fruit Bartlett Pear Liqueur and Sour Cherry cordials have kept us even more delighted when we need to add some fruit flavor to a cocktail we’re mixing up, such as in an Oh Pear and Singapore Sling, respectively.
  7. House Spirits Distillery. Those who have heard of aquavit, but haven’t taken the plunge yet, should start here if caraway is not their favorite flavor. Their Krogstad Aquavit has plenty of star anise to balance the bright bitterness of the caraway. Try it in a Fjord Cocktail, perfect for a winter night by the fire.
  8. Greenhook Ginsmiths. Besides its lovely American Dry Gin, Greenhook makes a Beach Plum Gin liqueur sure to rival any sloe gin, pacharan, or mirto. Over ice, with a splash of soda, and a lemon twist is all you need, plus a porch and some summertime weather.
  9. North Shore Distillery. We love the idea of processing unique gins every year depending on what the spirits-geek couple who produce these gins decides goes into the mix. The aquavit is exceptional too, with cumin in the fore.
  10. Haleakala Distillers. Aloha and a bottle of rum. Located on the slopes of Haleakala on one of the most beautiful places on Earth, this Maui distillery produces some amazing rums, ideal for sipping on the lanai near the beach, in a tiki drink, or just plain sipping with a splash of water if you live Upcountry.
And the winners are . . .
Here are Dan and Thrillist’s results for The Best Craft Distillers in America. Note that we did not include some of the distilleries that showed up in the final results because we did not perceive them as distillers, micro or otherwise. If we did, we definitely would have had a few of them on our list, most notably High West, Laird’s, Templeton, Death’s Door, and Whistle Pig.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Growing Up in the Presence of Spirits


When should children learn about alcohol?

by Paul Zablocki

Having been on a month-long cleanse, I am ready to start drinking again. Not that I need a drink, but I do miss two aspects of the bibulous life. The first is the way alcohol makes me feel: more social, a little braver, a little sexier; the second involves the ritual of creating a cocktail and celebrating Happy Hour with my mate, sharing tales from the livelong day, while munching on small bites of umami goodness. This usually involves watching videos on one of our countless streaming devices. Although we may not be going out to a bar every night to get our buzz on, we are experiencing a sort of community, albeit a virtual one, by viewing the lives of those whose stories are digitized on the small screen. In that respect, alcohol brings us closer to the world and its inhabitants.

Say what you will, if it wasn’t for the communal and narcotic effects of hooch, we would have destroyed one another a long, long time ago, we being people in general. But that’s not to say that all aspects of drinking are healthy. On a societal level, yes; on a personal level, not so for everyone. My friend’s father, a man loved by all, basically drank himself to death: He suffered a stroke after the unfortunate demise of his first-born child, but it took years for the effects of alcohol abuse and the stroke to send him off to an eternal slumber. My friend can attest to the horrors of a life cut short by alcohol abuse filled with interminable bouts of depression.

I am lucky. I do not possess any genes that make drinkers belligerent, or those that won’t allow the imbiber to stop until they think they’re the life of the party, a party that is unfortunately fun to no one else but the imbiber.

I got drunk twice as a pre-college teen. Very drunk. Both times I was in my parents’ house. The first time, they were away, and my brother, a senior in high school, and a star quarterback of the football team, decided we (read he) should throw a party. All I remember from that night is his loving placement of a bucket near my bed and, at one point, my stumbling to the bathroom and catching a glimpse of him making out on the living room couch with my best friend Donna. Whether they went all the way would remain a mystery to me until the next morning, but as you can imagine, I couldn’t care less. My head was pounding and my soul had been crushed by the spirit world, though I couldn’t tell you what spirits I even imbibed.

Of course as luck would have it, the neighbors spilled the beans. My parents must have been possessed by the soul of a new-age Catholic priest: mercifully, they proclaimed in hushed tones that I had learned my lesson. A hangover was punishment enough.

The second time, it was my parents who decided to throw a party — a New Year’s Eve soiree — and Donna and her family were invited. Bottles of gorgeously gleaming alcohol festooned the kitchen counter, and when no one was looking, Donna and I indiscriminately poured ourselves about a half dozen stiff ones throughout the night. We mixed juniper-scented gin, peaty scotch, woodsy Tennessee whiskey, and whatever else we could lay our naive little paws on. If only my parents, or my brother, had warned me about the effects of mixing sprits. I suppose I had to learn at some point; why not in front of my parents and their bemused guests. Indeed, education does begin at home.

When college rolled around, I embraced my freedom with the fervency usually displayed by religious zealots at a revival. The first thing I thought as my parents pulled away from campus in their deep red Honda Accord was, “I can do whatever I want.” So, at every kegger I attended, I let the flagon flow judiciously into my big red cup. My goal, however, was not to get blotto; I just wanted to make some new friends. So I sipped, rather than guzzled, and never drank enough to get completely blitzed. After all, my memories of my drunken nights with Donna were not so distant. The one time I do remember stumbling like a Skid Row sot occurred at the professional theatre across the street from my dorm room. Harry Hamlin, who I secretly held a torch for after seeing him prance around practically naked in Clash of the Titans, was starring in an adaptation of Doctor Faustus. I was able to snag two tickets, so I brought a female friend with me, my freshman-year beard, if you will, and this gal from Texas, before we headed arm in arm to the show, presented me a fifth of Jim Beam and said, “Time to show me what a man you are.” I figured that being so brassy, and from Texas, she would be able to handle her liquor better than I, but as time would tell, she did not. Three shots and a First Act later, she fell face first into the aisle in front of the usher. Intermission would be more challenging than the Elizabethan dialogue. (Harry, by the way, did not disappoint.)

As my time as an undergrad came to an end, and I entered the 9-to-5 “workforce” (a most soul-sucking force if ever there was one), I refined my taste for Tennessee whiskey and bourbon, then discovered rye while doing a grad-school stint in Pittsburgh. Cocktails, like Manhattans and Old-Fashioneds, gleefully washed over my taste buds and sparked a life-long devotion. Aged charred-oak flavor could have become my downfall, but I learned how to pace myself, like a runner in a long-distance race. Water rehydrates, and as I sipped my drink, I always had a glass of iced tap at the ready to prevent a nasty hangover. My goal as a drinker was to relax and be merry, not get wasted, and I would sometimes pity my friends who did not understand, or could not because of a genetic disposition, that drinking should not be a contest, but an ultimately peace-producing pursuit.

So now I ask the question, “How young is too young for kids to learn about alcohol?” One thing is for certain: Kids need first to understand the deleterious effects of drinking or else they will be doomed. And clearly no one wants a doomed child.

Both my parents were in their early twenties when I was born. As you can imagine, they were still in “party” mode, probably because there seemed to be multitudes of other young couples on the block who also shared a penchant for punch- and cocktail-filled nights, and silly parlor games that relied on the effects of inebriation. Thus, looking back, alcohol was always present in the house. When we were younger than high-school age, my brother and I just knew not to drink it,or we’d give ourselves away by becoming silly and smelling boozy. Although I have to admit, I loved the smell of alcohol, particularly cocktails. Some of my first olfactory memories are of whiskey sours being made in the rec room, as my parents mixed these delightfully citrus-redolent concoctions atop the hi-lo shag-carpeted bar they had fashioned. Overstock pantry items were stored behind the bar, and I always volunteered retrieving one of them for my mother, for behind the shaggy bar lived an array of little nips, these one-and-a-half-ounce colorful, sometimes oddly shaped bottles of spirits and liqueurs. I would stare at them and admire the way the light shone through them, particularly the brightly hued ones. My favorite was Galliano. It tapered to an almost point, like a tower, and glowed neon yellow, like one of my fluorescent crayons. These bottles became soldiers, waging wars on a battlefield of vinyl countertop, bordered by thick tan naugahyde edging. If the troops needed refreshments, a two-foot-tall pump bottle of Smirnoff that stood regally next to the fridge provided that extra jolt of bravado my little soldiers needed to blaze on. I wouldn’t fully depress the pump for fear my parents would discover some missing hooch, but I do remember at one point placing my little hand gently on the pump, pressing ever so slightly, with my other hand ready to collect any liquid that might dribble out. When a few drops landed on my palm, I sniffed it and immediately thought it was rubbing alcohol. Unconvinced that it was, I tasted it. The burn was so intense I vowed I would never press that pump again.

I never had to demystify the adult world of alcohol, and I think this has a lot to do with my respect for it. Although they were strict, and I was taught not to hang with the “bad” crowd, my parents never shielded me from it. I was even allowed to take a sip of beer every now and then (not to mention my grandmother feeding me a mixture of Southern Comfort, honey, and hot water when I was sick and left in her charge—I loathed the burn but loved the flavor). As I transitioned from tweenhood to adolescence, they always said, “If you are going to drink, we would rather have you drink at home.” I always felt that behind the invitation was a veiled threat. What I understood them to really be saying was “We don’t want you to drink.” And besides, who really wants to have a drink with one’s parents? Nevertheless, when I did take them up on their request that fateful New Year’s Eve, and tested the boundaries by drinking at home, they did not judge me, and for this I was grateful.

The French have been known to serve their children a little wine with dinner, usually starting at age twelve. Some people say that introducing children to alcohol before they are emotionally and physically mature enough to handle it might be good. But recent studies in France have shown that there is a rise in teen alcohol dependency. I suppose that when something is so engrained in one’s culture, most parents just pour wine for the kids without discussing the ramifications of tippling. (Or if they do, it may be the grandparents who undermine the parents’ warnings and are much more lax in their approach.) Remember, education begins at home, so I would proffer that when parents school their kids in the art of the tipple, they need to do much, much more than just decant and serve. Some tough love seems completely appropriate. Kids soak up all they see and hear like thirsty sponges. We must keep the dialogue open, but be strict and enforce boundaries.

When we throw a party and friends bring their kids along, we make sure we have mocktails waiting for them. After all, they are our guests. Just because they cannot yet imbibe alcohol, why shouldn’t they have a special drink, made exclusively for them. Also, we don’t want them to get too curious about what Mommy and Daddy are drinking. So, some ginger ale and mango juice, with a maraschino cherry and an orange slice, on the rocks, usually does the trick. To make it even more special, we add a fun swizzle stick. (We keep a double shot glass filled with them just for this occasion.) Telling them it’s special has the magical properties of making it special. Figurative becomes literal in the minds of children.

Our friends Monica and Matt are the parents of two bright and creative children, Frances and Cole. When they visit, or thank us for a little gift, they draw lovely pictures of whatever’s on their minds. Frances has cottoned to the fact that Steve, my partner, and and I are in the cocktail biz. Over the years she has drawn us some hilarious pictures of cartoon characters extolling the virtues of cocktails, including Santa Claus and a buzzing bee (which is our logo/avatar). They are very telling and show a preternatural understanding of the drinking life. See for yourself and let me know what you think.

“This Is My BFF!” by Frances

“Yumm!” by Frances