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

A Tale of Four Manhattans: A Manhattan Cocktail Taste Test

with Templeton Rye and Four Roses Single Barrel bourbon as the

main spirits

and Carpano Antica Formula and Punt e Mes as the

sweet vermouths

The Manhattan Cocktail in all its glory. To achieve perfection, read on.

The lovely Laura Baddish, from the Baddish Group PR firm, sent us a most tantalizing package of spirits that contained the makings of four different Manhattans. Among the tightly rumpled packing paper and swaddling bubble wrap lay two American whiskeys: Templeton Rye, Four Roses Single Batch Bourbon; and 2 sweet vermouths, Carpano Antica Formula and Punt e Mes. We have always been a fan of all four of these beguiling bottles of booze, but actually taking the time to make four different Manhattans with them and compare notes is something you have to set out to do before the first sips cloud your mental faculties.

We are happy to report that all four versions of the Manhattans we made left us breathless with delight. The luscious bittersweetness of the Carpano Antica Formula made for some damn smooth cocktails, while the zestier Punt e Mes brought out the oaky–spiciness of each of the whiskeys. Adjusting the ratio of whiskey to vermouth was the only detail we had to consider before we started to stir. The Templeton is 80 proof while the Four Roses Single Barrel is a whopping 100 proof. Just remember this: The higher the whiskey’s proof, the more vermouth and stirring you’ll want to apply to your cocktail crafting, in order to tame the bite. For us, we use a 2:1 ratio of whiskey to vermouth, with a dash of Angostura bitters; for the lower-proof whiskeys, such as Templeton rye, we will mix only 3/4 ounce of the vermouth to 2 ounces of whiskey (you dont want to overwhelm the whiskey with the sweetness of the vermouth, unless of course you desire a Sweet Manhattan. Then by all means add more vermouth. 

All in all, depending on your mood and what flavors you want to draw out from the apps you pair with them, you’re going to end up with one swell drink. Try each with your favorite brand of spicy potato chips, or some similar snack, and you’ll taste the difference. For example, you will taste more of the spice from Utz Maui Chips if using Punt e Mes, and more of the sweetness if using Carpano Antica Formula vermouth. They’re both worth it. Try one tonight, and another tomorrow night.

Well, we’ve already made our Manhattans. So, we raise a toast to you for your discernment, and of course to Ms. Baddish, for the hooch, and the idea for this Manhattan Project.

Bottoms up!

This Single Barrel bourbon is simply aces. That first whiff when you open the bottle beckons you like a siren. Do you resist the call, or take the plunge? We thought so. Here’s the recipe.

Whether you choose Templeton rye or Four Roses Single Barrel is up to how inebriated you want to get. Choose wisely, and you will be rewarded richly.

Four Roses Single Barrel Manhattan
(suggested by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces Four Roses Single Barrel bourbon
1 ounce Carpano Antica (smooth) or Punt e Mes (spicy) vermouth
1–2 dashes Angostura bitters
brandied or maraschino cherry, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Do not rush this process. You want a decent amount of dilution. Strain into chilled cocktail glass, or coupe. Add cherry.

❤ ❤ ❤

We’ve sung Templeton Rye’s praises before, and we continue to do so today. Smooth, yet utterly distinct, it is in a class by itself. A must.

Templeton Rye Manhattan
(suggested by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces Templeton rye
3/4 ounce Carpano Antica (smooth) or Punt e Mes (spicy) vermouth
1–2 dashes Angostura bitters
brandied or maraschino cherry, as garnish

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

photos © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Piny Cocktails for the Holidays

Bold and original, the Scots Pine will keep you festive this holiday season.

Both of us grew up celebrating Christmas. We still do. One year we visit one family in Connecticut, with hopes of freshly fallen snow blanketing the New England landscape; the next year, we escape the cold Brooklyn for the dry, saguaro-spiked desert called Arizona. Truth be told, we’ve never spent Yuletide in NYC, but we vow to spend Christmas in New York in the near future. That would make our job of making creative Holiday-themed cocktails a little easier, since we have over 150 bottles of booze on the shelves, and in the fridges (one regular-sized and two mini), with spillover in the sideboard.

With all those bottles, experimenting becomes a chore insofar as we have to decide among six ryes, eight gins, seven bourbons, four orange liqueurs—you get the idea. It’s a chore of which we never grow weary. What we imagine being a full-time taster for Häagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s might be like.

But being part-time cocktail tasters is just as fun. Indulgence has its limits (same as with ice cream), so you kind of have to know ahead of time what you want your cocktails to taste like; thus, what spirits, juices, and other ingredients you’re going to be working with. So, when your booze arsenal is vast and varied, you tend to use items you normally would keep hidden at the back of the shelf. It’s good to bring these spirits to the fore to challenge your creativity.

Over the years, we’ve been playing with the flavor of pine. Yes, pine, as in fir tree. The conifer you bring indoors and decorate year after year, just so you can get high on the piny smell of Christmastime. So we offer you two drinks that find their roots in pine and we bestow them names that befit their essence, O Tannenbaum and Scots Pine.

Paul came up with the Scots Pine a few years back, unbeknownst to Steve, who was away visiting family. Scotch whisky was primed to the be the main ingredient since Steve isn’t the biggest fan of the spirit. And Paul was itching to mix with a recently acquired bottle of Zirbenz stone pine liqueur. This liqueur smells like someone baking blondies in the middle of a coniferous forest. The taste is mildly sweet and resinous. It is definitely one of those things that make you go hmm, then mmm. Paul felt he was onto something when he mixed it with a blended scotch, but when he added some sweet vermouth (particularly Carpano Antica), he knew he was onto something. Here was a scotch cocktail that got some zing from the Zirbenz, but then a little taming and smoothing over the rough edges from the vermouth. Alas, a scotch cocktail that Steve would like. An orange peel expressed over and dropped into the glass was the one last touch needed to elevate this lovely drink to even lovelier.

The Scots Pine is the perfect cocktail to share with friends over an intimate Holiday gathering. A few sips will open the palate and pair nicely with an array of cheeses and little nibbles, like spiced nuts, preparing the way for dinner.

Scots Pine
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces blended scotch
1/2 ounce Zirbenz stone pine liqueur
1/2 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
orange peel, as garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass or coupe. With a vegetable peeler, peel a 3/4 × 2-inch swatch of orange, but careful not to get any pith. Express peel over drink and toss in.

❤ ❤ ❤

After dinner, you might want to gather round the dessert buffet with a simple drink we call O Tannenbaum. We came up with it one night when trying to come up with a cocktail for a NYC theatre company’s holiday party. It’s an odd bird really, using an old timey liqueur called crème de noyaux (pronounced nwah-YO), a primary ingredient in a pink squirrel (a great name that makes sense since crème de noyaux is almond-flavored and, in most instances, bright red). Mixing almond flavors with the juniper flavors in a London dry gin creates a piny explosion. The half and half unites these flavors with its mellowing caress of dairy, giving the drink a bright deep pink hue. Perfect for nibbling cookies by the fire while lovingly gazing at the tree.

O Tannenbaum
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

2 ounces London dry gin
1 ounce half and half
3/4 ounce crème de noyaux
nutmeg, as garnish (optional)

Shake in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into chilled punch or small cocktail glasses. Garnish with nutmeg, if so desired, for an extra spicy kick.

Serves 2 (or 1, if you’re terribly thirsty).

Further Explorations in Pine
If you love the taste of pine, you must try Clear Creek Distillery’s Douglas Fir eau de vie. The aroma is slightly redolent of pears, with a hint of pine, but when drunk with a little water to soften its alcohol content (47.73%), the roles reverse. You taste the resinous pine, mellowed by a hint of pear. Exquisite.

cocktail photos © Steve Schul and Paul Zablocki, Cocktail Buzz
Zirbenz photo courtesy Haus Alpenz

Two New Cocktails for a Headmaster and His Pupil

aka the Marriage of Bulleit Rye with Fernet-Branca

A few months backs when we visited Providence, Rhode Island, we were chatting with artists Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida over some strong Bulleit rye cocktails. When they asked us to come up with a signature cocktail for their art and literary magazine Headmaster, we jumped at the opportunity. We love creating new drinks for events, but this one was special. Matthew declared his love for Bulleit rye, which we also adore, so we started to experiment with drinks we thought would unite the spiciness of Bulleit rye—with hints of ginger, cinnamon, and tobacco—with the themes of avuncular strength that a Headmaster evokes.

Since the New York launch would be held at Tender Trap in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (how perfect is that!), we decided to check out their stash and see what we could come up with on the fly. We espied a bottle of the bitterest of bitter liqueurs Fernet-Branca on Tender Trap’s wee shelf, and decided to start with a Manhattan variation, substituting the traditional Angostura bitters with the Fernet-Branca. What sealed the deal occurred when the lovely bartender Rebecca pulled out a bottle of Carpano Antica sweet vermouth from the fridge. If you know us, you know how much we love love love this exceptional vermouth. Serendipitously, it’s made by the same geniuses who put out the Fernet-Branca. The Fernet-Branca brings out the subtle smokiness of the Bulleit rye extremely well. The Carpano smooths and sweetens the ride, but not too smooth or sweet. This is the Headmaster after all, and the drink should be strong like a Headmaster.

But we couldn’t just create one cocktail for the Headmaster 4 party; a companion was needed, something a little lighter, for those imbibers who like some fizz and ice in their drink. That’s where The Pupil comes into play. It is definitely lighter than the Headmaster 4, but has the same Bulleit Rye/Fernet-Branca taste combo. The ginger ale, which adds the fizz, smooths it out in the way the Carpano Antica does in the Headmaster 4. Both will make you feel that little click we all seek when we bring a cocktail to our lips, ironing out any bumpy ride the day may bring. 

Headmaster 4
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces Bulleit rye
1 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
1 dash/drizzle Fernet-Branca

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

The Pupil
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Bulleit rye
1 dash/drizzle Fernet-Branca
3 ounces ginger ale
ice

Method
Add ingredients one at a time in double-rocks or highball glass the order above. Stir until chilled.

❤ ❤ ❤

Special Thanks
The cocktails would not be possible without the generosity of Bulleit rye’s World Ambassador Hollis Bulleit. She hooked us up with Jim Ruane at Diageo so the partygoer’s could delight in the Headmaster 4 and Pupil.

The Headmaster 4 launch party is 10 p.m. tonight, Sept. 27, 2012, at Tender Trap, 245 S. 1st Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. The Providence, R.I. launch party is Oct. 7, 2012, at Dark Lady, 17 Snow Street. 

Get Your Freak On with Cheddar Blue Fricos

Behold the Cheddar Blue Frico, a crisp wafer of cheesy bliss. It’s difficult to eat just one. Try them with a Manhattan Cocktail, an ideal partner.

The other day we attended a potluck at the offices of Gojee, a Web site devoted to amassing its editors’ favorite recipes from their favorite food and cocktail Web sites. Thrilled to have several of our cocktail recipes selected for their site, we decided to shake things up a bit and bring one of our party-food favorites to add to the array of offerings at the potluck: Cheddar Blue Fricos. For those unfamiliar with the term frico, it is an Italian parmesan crisp, made by baking or frying the cheese, mixed with a little flour, so that it forms into a lacy wafer as it melts and hardens. We came up with a Cheddar and Blue Cheese frico a few years back that pairs magically with whiskey cocktails, and decided to share these with the other bloggers and the Gojee team. Veronica Chan, one of the masterminds behind this uniquely curated site, informed us that there would be a bottle of bourbon awaiting us if we decided to come up with a cocktail to pair with the Cheddar blue fricos. Of course we had to come up with something. Why not our favorite cocktail, the Manhattan.

So we came prepared, armed with fricos on one hand, and a bottle of Cinzano sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters in the other. Paul mixed up a few cocktails for those whose curiosities were piqued while Steve offered up some fricos. Everyone asked, “What are these?” So we explained the origin of this species of Italian snack and how we altered it to suit our love of pairing whiskey cocktails with cheesy hors d’oeuvres.

If you are a true gourmand, you are not finished with your French onion soup until the last bits of hardened Swiss are peeled off the rim of the crock and popped in your mouth. Or the glob of Cheddar that has dripped from your pub burger, lying congealed on the cardboard container, is scooped up for the last moments of savory bliss. Eating a Cheddar blue frico is like having lots of these last bits all amassed and all to yourself. We think that’s why they bring so much pleasure.

After a few bites, and a lot of mms and rounds of “I love this,” we felt good. Maybe it was the Manhattans, or perhaps the good cheer and camaraderie everyone oozed. Regardless of the source, we all shared the in knowledge that good food and good drinks, all prepared with love and the intent to please, are what makes us human and happy.

Side Bar:
The night before the Gojee potluck, Steve whipped himself up a Manhattan, made with some Canadian Club whisky and Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, that tasted silky smooth after taking a bite of one of the fricos. Making a Manhattan with Canadian whiskey may seem like anathema to the most die-hard cocktail aficionados, but fuck it. If it tastes like the heavens opening up with cherubim singing the most dulcet tunes, then all sanctimonious rules of shaking and stirring be damned.

You should know that Cheddar Blue Fricos are super easy to make if you own a Silpat or another nonstick mat, and they pair exquisitely with a variety of whiskey cocktails, such as the Oh Pear, The Fascist, and Paddy. Choose your poison and start preheating your oven. You’re going to bring love and happiness to your party guests tonight.


Cheddar Blue Fricos
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
4 cups grated sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated blue cheese
spiced flour (see recipe below)

Method
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine cheeses in bowl and mix with a fork. Add spiced flour and continue mixing until incorporated. Scoop tablespoons of the mixture and place on nonstick liner on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake about 10 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and place entire cookie sheet on a wire rack to cool for several minutes. After cooling, use a metal spatula and carefully remove the fricos, placing them on the wire rack to cool completely. Once they have cooled completely, place them on a paper towel to absorb some of the grease.

May be made up to 3 days in advance. Keep in an airtight container with layers separated by wax paper.

Spiced Flour:
2 tbsp flour (1 tbsp for chewier fricos)
1/4 teaspoon mace
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/8 teaspoon hot pimentón
1/2 teaspoon dried chervil or parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram

Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a fork.

Canadian Manhattan
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces Canadian Club whisky
1 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters
maraschino, brandied, or marascha cherry, for garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 15–30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Add cherry.


The Manhattan Cocktail. So Perfect with Cheddar Blue Fricos.

Manhattan
(Cocktail Buzz’s preferred ratio)

Ingredients
2 ounces rye whiskey (or bourbon)
1 ounce sweet vermouth (we like Carpano Antica)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
maraschino, brandied, or marascha cherry, for garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 15-30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Add cherry.

Extras:
To watch our video pairing the Oh Pear cocktail with Cheddar-Blue Fricos, click here.

Starting on Thursday, January 26, check out other potluck dishes fellow gojee contributors shared. Go to gojee.com and enter “gojeepotluck” into I Crave. You can also follow #gojeepotluck on Twitter.

photo © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Love the Manhattan { a riff on our most cherished cocktail }

Manhattans = Love. Enjoy a Black Manhattan to celebrate the month of l’amour.

Deep in the heart of winter, February rolls around with a promise of love to warm you up. Another perfect way to warm up is with the cocktail we truly love, the Manhattan. It’s the ideal antidote to a bitter-cold winter evening. It evokes age-old cocktail glamour and satisfies like nothing else. We love a two-to-one ratio of whiskey to sweet vermouth, with a dash or two of bitters. Beyond that, there is room to play. You can substitute Averna, a bittersweet Sicilian amaro, for the vermouth for a deep, rich Black Manhattan; or Mirto, a Sardinian sloe berry liqueur that adds almost a hint of menthol. And if you don’t want to stray too far from our favored recipe, you can enjoy an Orange Bitters Manhattan. Just make sure you have some orange bitters on hand and a more bitter vermouth, such as Punt e Mes. For brownie points, try mixing in a new whiskey variety for your own take on this enduring classic, or another fortified wine, such as Dubonnet rouge, in lieu of the vermouth. The possibilities are endless.



Manhattan
(Cocktail Buzz’s preferred ratio)

Ingredients
2 ounces rye whiskey (or bourbon)
1 ounce sweet vermouth (we like Carpano Antica)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
maraschino, brandied, or marascha cherry, for garnish.

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Add cherry.

Black Manhattan
(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces rye whiskey (or bourbon)
1 ounce Averna
2 dashes Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel-Aged bitters
maraschino, brandied, or marascha cherry, for garnish.

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Add cherry.

Myrtle Manhattan
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
3/4 ounces rye (we like Sazerac)
3/4 ounces bourbon (we like Eagle Rare Single Barrel)
3/4 ounces mirto (Sardinian or Corsican myrtle liqueur)
dash orange bitters
dash Peychaud’s bitters
maraschino, brandied, or marascha cherry, for garnish.

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Add cherry.

Orange Bitters Manhattan
(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon or rye (try a wheated bourbon, such as Old Fitzgerald’s 1849 or Maker’s Mark)
1 ounces Punt e Mes sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura orange bitters
maraschino, brandied, or marascha cherry, for garnish.

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Add cherry.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates are a perfect pairing for any of these Manhattans, with the bonus of being incredibly easy to throw together.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Ingredients
2 dozen dates
12 slices bacon (we like regular or low-sodium)
almonds (optional)

Method
You can either preheat oven to 350°F or use an outdoor grill, with hot coals. Cut the bacon in half and wrap a strip around each date. You can insert an almond into the dates through its natural hole if you desire, for added flavor. Place the bacon-wrapped dates (with the seam side down) onto a lined baking sheet, or a grill pan if using an outdoor grill. Bake for 15 minutes, until the bacon looks crispy. If using an outdoor grill, flip the dates, cooking about 5 minutes on each side, or until the bacon looks crispy. Remove from heat and add toothpicks if you desire.

Serves 6.

A version of the article first appeared on BarNoneDrinks.com.

Cocktail Buzz Holiday Cocktail 2010: Big Apple

Manhattan, meet sparkling cider.

We don’t always come up with a new cocktail in our test kitchen. Sometimes, we’re at a friend’s or relative’s place, and the itch to create a new drink needs to be scratched. Take for instance our recent visit to our friend Matt and Daniel’s swanky Midtown pad for some holiday cheer. Lots of new faces, lots of “What do you do?”s, then Bang! Someone asked if we could come up with something new to go with the sparkling apple cider he brought to the bash.

Luckily we brought with us the makings for some fine Manhattans, so we were eager to see if the sparkling cider and the island’s eponymous cocktail would become friends. Indeed they did, and on the rocks, this baby is smooth and is blessed with a creamy mouthfeel. The nose is slightly caramel, and the first sip proves what your nose already knows. You can control the sweetness by how much sparkling cider you top it with.

So, for those of you searching for a holiday cocktail this season, you need look no further. The Big Apple pairs well with loads of winter Holiday fare unlike its mother, the Manhattan. (Boozy cocktails like Manhattans are notoriously difficult to pair with bread- and vegetable-heavy apps because they leave a burning alcohol sensation on the tongue, and no one wants that.)

Big Apple
(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 oz. rye or bourbon
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
dash aromatic or orange bitters (such as Bitter Truth or Angostura)
generous splash or two sparkling apple cider (such as Martinelli’s)
maraschino, brandied, or marasche cherry, as garnish
ice

Method
Stir first three ingredients in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Top with Sparkling cider. Garnish with cherry.

Templeton Rye Makes Its Way Back to NYC, at a Brooklyn Bar

We love our rye, we love our Manhattans, and we certainly love an invitation to a 4pm Sunday Brunch. How civilized. We were promised Manhattans made with a special rye, one resurrected from the dust heap of obscurity. A rye so smooth it could make the hardest S.O.B. take pause and reflect upon the experience of sipping it neat.

We’re talking about Templeton Rye, and we had the opportunity, thanks to Laura Baddish of the Baddish Group, Gustavo Valverde of Infinium Spirits, and the kind men and women at The Richardson, to meet the makers, or should we say revivifiers, of this very special old-school Prohibition-Era family-run rye, now freed from mere footnotes of early twentieth-century history to rightfully claim its place on the top shelf at your liquor-store.

Well, that is if you currently live in Iowa, where it’s produced, or Illinois. But don’t despair yet. Both coasts will be making room for Templeton rye as early as December in New York City, and soon thereafter in San Francisco.

Why are we so excited about Templeton rye? At 80 proof, it’s incredibly smooth neat. One sip is all you need to convince yourself that the two of you will have a strong and lasting relationship. We met Brand Manager Michael Killmer, who loves sipping Templeton this way. The initial aromas of dried orange and holiday spice, which play into the palate, “open up your mouth and make you want to drink more.” True. After a few sips, we started tasting the rye’s richness: bolder maple-syrup aromas penetrated our nostrils as our lips kissed the glass, desperate for one more sip. And, according to the charming and passionate owner Scott Bush, whose forebears distilled the spirit on their farm, Templeton is made from a mash consisting of over 90% rye. “This is the Good Stuff.” Good Stuff indeed. We talked with Scott a little about the popularity of rye distilling in pre-Revolutionary War United States, and then the conversation turned to Iowa, where the business continues to be fully run. But first, some nosh.

As we partook in this “brunch” (we put brunch in quotation marks because by that point it was already 5pm) of bacon-wrapped nibblies, and lox, and what we think was Manchego cheese that paired gorgeously with the Templeton Rye Old-Fashioned Laura offered us, Keith Kerkoff, son of the man who had the secret recipe for Templeton Rye, ushered us all into the back room for a little chat. He toasted us with tales of the early days of distilling the rye, when his grandfather Alphonse’s worries consisted of “hoping the hogs don’t get into the mash.” But during Prohibition, when it was made for a select group of people (lucky lawbreaking lushes!), he had more to worry about with the Feds busting him a few times. And we all know what happened to Al Capone, who ran the Good Stuff into Chicago. All good things seem to come to an unfortunate end. Over the years, production waned as tastes changed after Prohibition’s repeal. But thanks to Scott’s determination to resurrect his grandfather’s recipe, we now are blessed by the bounty that is a bottle of small-batch, hand-labeled, luscious Templeton Rye.

Let the love flow! Have a Templeton Rye Manhattan, if you can.

Templeton Rye Manhattan

(recipe from the men of Templeton Rye)

Ingredients
2 ounces Templeton Rye
3/4 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura aromatic bitters

Method
 Serve stirred, never shaken. Kiss with cherry.

(You can decide for yourself whether you want it up, or on the rocks. Bottoms up.)

Finding Just the Right Mate for the Negroni

The deep red glow of a Negroni will entice you with its bittersweetness.

We received an urgent e-mail from a reader named Karina.

I was checking out your blog for a food pairing. I’m looking for types of food that would go well with a Negroni. Do you have any suggestions? We pick out a new cocktail each summer for our week at the Jersey Shore and Negroni is the winner this year (leaving in 1 week—yay).

A Negroni is an acquired taste. You either love the bittersweet bliss of Campari or despise it if the number of taste buds on your tongue are off the charts. Regardless of where you lie in the spectrum of love/hate, the Negroni has withstood the test of time and has reemerged as one of the must-have before-dinner cocktails in this new millennium (can we still say “new millennium”?). Historically ascribed to Count Camillo Negroni, who in 1919 Florence asked a bartender to exchange the club soda in his Americano for gin, the Negroni, when it comes to pairing with party food, can be a difficult child. After all, Campari always asserts itself in sometimes the smallest amounts. Here is our advice, dear Karina.

We always make our Negronis 1:1:1, sometimes on the rocks, sometimes up, sometimes with soda, sometimes with an orange twist as garnish. The one thing that holds true for all versions is that the flavor is unmistakable. You know when you’re sipping a Negroni. Because the flavor is so pronounced, you need food that will stand up to the strength of its flavors. Anything salty is a good place to start. Salumi, such as prosciutto or salami, or bacon hors d'oeuvres such as bacon-wrapped dates, would work nicely. If not, we recommend blue cheese on the thinnest wafer-like cracker. A Piedmont blue cheese, with hints of nutty sweetness to counteract its sharp, salty blueness, works ideally.

We also like making french fries, but french fries only work with a Negroni if you dip them in something salty. We make a mayonnaise with salt and dried tiny fish that we find in the local Asian market. This is a bit esoteric, but can steer you in another direction if you like salty fish such as sardines and anchovies, especially used as flavor enhancers. You can mix mayo with some anchovy paste to get the same effect. Tomato and pepper products such as ketchup and sriracha don’t enhance the Negroni that much unless you add, say, capers to the mix.

We hope this helps. We’re always experimenting with the Negroni, but really love the blue cheese with it. You can try other salty cheeses such as hunks of Romano or Parmesan, or make a cheese plate. It sounds traditional, but sometimes the less outré works best.

Up or on the rocks, the Negroni works both ways depending on your mood.

Negroni

(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 ounce gin (we like the light, citrusy notes in New Amsterdam for pairing)
1 ounce sweet vermouth (try Carpano Antica)
1 ounce Campari
orange twist, garnish

Method
Stir in ice for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled glass (or a rocks-filled glass, if you prefer). Add garnish.

UPDATE:
We just received this e-mail from Karina and her husband Norman:

Here’s a picture of our Negroni paired with delicious salty blue cheese, on an Adirondack chair at the beach! Thanks for the helpful advice.

(P.S. We used a bit less Campari than 1:1:1 because the flavor was a bit too strong, plus a little extra orange.)

Karina & Norman

What could be better than sitting on beach, watching the sun set, a Negroni in one hand, some blue cheese in the other, and the evening ahead of you.

First two photos © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz
Thanks to Laura Bruskin at DeVries Public Relations for turning us on to New Amsterdam.

Fresh Summer Produce Makes a Cocktail Swing: Part IV: Blueberries and The Blue Moon on Monday Cocktail

A seasonal miniseries showing you how to use farm-fresh ingredients in your cocktails.

The Blue Moon on Monday, bursting with the fresh flavors of summer blueberries and rosemary, is a perfect drink to pair with food at your summer cocktail party.

Blueberries, those North American natives that inspire summertime pies, muffins, and, for the culinarily adventurous, homemade ice cream, inspired us to make a cocktail. The Blue Moon on Monday. It abounds with fresh summertime flavors, and isn’t loaded with alcohol, so you can sip several over the course of an evening as it pairs well with many different kinds of food. Rosemary is the secret ingredient. Just get some fresh from the farmers market, or clip some from your garden, and you’re ready to start muddling it with some fresh blueberries in a little crème de cassis. Add some moonshine, Carpano Antica vermouth, and round that out with the fresh orange taste of Combier, and a dash of Regan’s orange bitters, and you’re ready to start shaking.

Blue Moon on Monday

(created by Cocktail Buzz for Piedmont Distillers)

Ingredients
 2 ounces Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon Carolina Moonshine*
1/2 ounce Carpano Antica vermouth (an Italian sweet vermouth)
1/2 ounce Combier orange liqueur (a clean, orange liqueur)
1 teaspoon crème de cassis (black currant liqueur)
2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6
sprig of rosemary
12–16 blueberries**
3 plump blueberries and a sprig of rosemary, as garnish

Method
 In a shaker, muddle a sprig of rosemary in crème de cassis, then add the 12–16 blueberries, and gently muddle. Add Midnight Moon, Carpano Antica, Combier, and bitters; fill three-quarters with ice; and shake. Double-strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with 3 blueberries speared with a rosemary sprig (or you can drop the 3 blueberries and the sprig into the drink).

* You can substitute another clear moonshine, or vodka, if this is not available in your area.
** If you’re using Maine blueberries, which are smaller and sweeter, you may want to adjust the level of crème de cassis, or eliminate it altogether.

Another cocktail we love to have with brunch or dessert is the Farrah Fawcett. With its homey tropical flavors, the Farrah Fawcett is reminiscent of coconut–banana cream pie. You can even serve some up at your summer tiki luau with spare ribs dripping with your favorite tangy sauce.

Although the Farrah Fawcett only uses blueberries as a garnish, they are an important element to the overall beauty of the cocktail.

And don’t forget about peaches, especially white peaches and nectarines. They’re enjoying a banner summer. Already we’ve been assaulted by the intoxicating aroma of fully ripe specimens every time we walk by them in the kitchen. If you’re looking for some recipes that’ll showcase what makes peaches so special, you can try either the Smash Daddy, a sweet peachy lowball, or a Tokyo Momo that introduces dark cherry flavors into the mix.

And if none of these ideas float your boat, or you don’t have certain ingredients on hand and need to make something intoxicating with your blueberries and peaches tonight, then by all means experiment. You are the bar chef. Muddle your fruit, add a base liquor and perhaps a liqueur or two, and give it a little taste. Make adjustments to suit your taste buds. Enjoy.

The Manhattan Cocktail Classic Is Here! (Please Imbibe Responsibly?)

Love Potion #44 will bewitch you with the herbal liqueur Strega.

Tomorrow evening marks the start of The Manhattan Cocktail Classic, billed as “New York City’s first ever multi-day event celebrating the history, contemporary culture, and artful craft of the cocktail.” If the fall preview was any indication of what’s to come, be prepared for five days of big fun. You may even learn a thing or two.

According to the Web site, The Manhattan Cocktail Classic is

[p]art festival, part fête, part conference, part cocktail party, [and] brings together the unparalleled talents and opportunities of the bars, bartenders, and restaurants of our great city for five days of activities, both educational and celebratory in nature, championing the common ideals of authenticity, equality, sustainability, service, and pleasure. (There will be some drinking involved, too.)

The event kicks off with the sold-out gala at the New York Public Library. We were privileged to attend this event last fall and were completely wowed by the sheer amount of cocktails being shaken and stirred by the city’s most skilled and creative bar chefs, and lavish arrays of food festooning the hallways of one of the city’s most resplendent examples of Beaux-Arts Design. Gary Regan, famed cocktail guru and author of some of the best books written on imbibing, will be on hand later to congratulate the winners of his gaz regan’s Big Cocktail Competition. Paul found out he was a Runner Up with his cocktail Love Potion #44, a strong brew of Rittenhouse rye, Carpano Antica vermouth, and Strega (Italian for witch), that chartreuse-colored Italian liqueur that can light up any drink with its potent blend of herbs and spices. The drinks gets its moniker from his parents’ anniversary a few years ago, both of them being fans of the classic Manhattan Cocktail.

Love Potion #44
(created by Paul Zablocki, Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients

2 ounces Rittenhouse rye
1 ounce Carpano Antica vermouth
1/2 ounce Strega
orange twist or peel, for garnish

Method

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

What follows is a host of seminars at The Astor Center and bars around the city. Tickets generally run at $50, but you can be sure that there will be plenty to drink and try some new spirits at these events. One of the events, “Chasing the White Dog in Manhattan: The History of Moonshine with the Legendary Junior Johnson and the Craft Distilling of Today” will feature our Kitty Carlisle Cocktail, a sweet and sour mix of equal parts Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine, bourbon, lemon juice, and creme de cacao.

Kitty Carlisle

(created by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients

3/4 ounce Catdaddy Spiced Moonshine
3/4 ounce bourbon
3/4 ounce white crème de cacao
3/4 ounce lemon juice

Method

Shake in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.

We hope to see you at one of these events. Please stop us to say hello. Bottoms up, Manhattan!

To read coverage of the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, click here.

Two Irish Whiskey Cocktail Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day

Neither of us grew up in families that celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, with the exception of the occasional bowl of dyed green mashed potatoes at Steve’s house. And no one drank Irish whiskey. We both had to come to it later in life. It was about five years ago that Paul brought home a bottle of Jameson. It sat on the shelf for a spell before he decided to mix a cocktail with it using pears as the theme. Thinking about pears mixed with whiskey made him reach for that bottle from which poured a slightly earthy but clean taste somewhat reminiscent of a smooth blended scotch, but without all the peatiness. Jameson makes for a good mixer. It really enhances the flavors of the other ingredients in a cocktail. So Paul thought about how much he liked the sweet, peaty Drambuie–Scotch blend that makes a Rusty Nail. Why not apply the same principal to a cocktail using Irish whiskey in lieu of the Scotch, and embellish the Drambuie with 2 blasts of pear: from a liqueur, and from freshly pureed Red Bartletts. What then became the “Oh Pear” would further become the third-place winner in the USA Pears/Imbibe Magazine Pear Cocktail Contest.


Oh Pear
(created by Paul Zablocki)

Ingredients

2 ounces Irish whiskey
1 ounce pear puree (try Red Bartlett)
1/2 ounce pear liqueur (try Belle de Brillet or American Fruits)
1/2 ounce Drambuie

Method

Shake in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with pear slice, if desired.

We’re not going to lie; the Oh Pear is a strong drink, but the alcoholic strength is tempered by the sweetness of fresh pears and the incredible Bartlett richness of a good pear liqueur, such as Belle de Brillet, American Fruits, or Clear Creek. If you cannot make pear puree at home from ripe pears such as Bartlett, Comice, or Anjou, then find a pear puree that doesn’t contain added sugars and other juices, if possible. Even though we consider it a fall cocktail, there’s still enough of a chill in the air to warrant a round of Oh Pears with your friends. And if possible, you can make Cheddar Blue Fricos to pair with them. Fricos are wafer-thin lacy fried-cheese crisps you may have had using the traditional Parmesan. But we’ve embellished a bit, to go with the Oh Pear, and have blended some sharp Cheddar with a hint of blue cheese, and some herbs and spices.

So you don’t want to whip out the juicer to make an Oh Pear? Okay. Here’s an easy twist on a classic Manhattan that brings a big Erin-Go-Bragh grin to our faces. Irish eyes are smiling this month with a forgotten classic, the Paddy Cocktail. What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than a cocktail named after an Irishman. When you first bring a Paddy Cocktail to your lips, you’ll smell the caramel, with hints of vanilla and cherry. The first taste will prove that you weren’t imagining the aroma, and it will bring you back to the holidays . . . as if you were drinking a whiskey-soaked cake. It’s perfect before or after your meal, or both if you’re St. Patrick’s Day revels are happening at home or close to a cab (it’s a strong drink, after all). The Paddy Cocktail is now one of our favorites, and it’s a great addition to your Irish whiskey cocktail repertoire.


Paddy Cocktail
(adapted from Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide)

Ingredients

1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey (try Jameson)
1 1/2 ounces Carpano Antica (a sweet vermouth from Italy)
1 dash Angostura bitters

Method

Stir in ice for 30 seconds and strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass. (If you cannot find Carpano Antica, just use your favorite sweet vermouth.) Bottoms up!

photos © Cocktail Buzz

Char No. 4 in Brooklyn Is an American Whiskey Lover’s Paradise

Last night for our eighth anniversary we decided to give Char No. 4 a try. Several of our friends have praised its seasonal cuisine, as well as the modest yet modern interior, all autumnal browns and bieges lit by mid-century-ish sconces and pendant lights. But what impressed us the most was the whiskey list. Broken down into fourteen categories such as wheated bourbon and single malt scotch, and featuring a wide variety of American whiskey such as bourbon and rye, this carte can be overwhelming for the uninitiated. But don’t despair; just ask your the friendly wait and bar staff for some help, and they will steer you in the right direction.

To start our evening, we sipped on some Rittenhouse 23-year rye. Expensive, yes (it’s $15 per ounce), but it was worth every sip. We always say that the details matter, and when the drinks were served in large, stemless glasses with a side of crystal-clear ice cubes, we smiled because we knew we’d be able to try the rye three ways: neat, with a drop of water to open it up, and one single small cube swirled around, to round out the edges. All three ways proved intoxicatingly delightful, and if it weren’t for the price tag, we’d have a bottle on our home shelves all the time. Just the nose, with traces of rich caramel and dark brown sugar, were enough to send us into paroxysms of blissful sighs.

Now it was time to counteract the effects of the rye with some grub, and the menu at Char No. 4 seemed to have plenty to tempt our taste buds. What to start with, and what cocktail to accompany our meal? Too much appealed—we had to narrow our focus. We knew we wanted to try the house-cured lamb pastrami (the thinnest, most tender slices) with coriander aioli and rye-caraway toast, and also the crispy cheddar curds with spicy pimento sauce (what meal is complete without cheese!), so we opted for an old favorite, the Sazerac.

Sazerac

(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces rye
1/4 to 1/2 ounce simple syrup, depending on how sweet you like it)
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
splash of Herbsaint, to rinse the glass
lemon twist, or peel

Method
Pour Herbsaint into a glass, swish it around, then empty the glass. In a shaker filled with ice, add the rye, simple syrup, and bitters. Shake for 15 seconds and strain into the Herbsaint-rinsed glass. Squeeze the lemon twist over the drink and add to the glass. Add ice, if desired.

Ah, the Sazerac, the official cocktail of New Orleans. For the uninitiated, a contemporary Sazerac is made by swishing some Herbsaint (absinthe’s less potent cousin) in a glass, then dumping it out before adding chilled rye laced with a few dashes of Peychaud’s red and spiky bitters, a bit of simple syrup, and a lemon twist. During the early years of our togetherness, this was the first cocktail that we searched high and low for the ingredients. Our zeal could not be contained. Like Indiana Jones’s search for the Holy Grail, we were on a quest to make this age-old quaff, so, when it came time to choose the rye, we opted for, what else, Sazerac rye. Slightly grassy in aroma and taste, Sazerac is dry more than sweet and is a pleasant foil to the sweetness of the simple syrup.

But, alas, Char No. 4 was out of Sazerac rye. Oh well, Rittenhouse 100 proof would have to do. When the waiter returned with our drinks, we both took a sip and smiled. The bartender managed to create a dryish cocktail that had a nice lemony tang and very little sugar (perhaps a little lemon juice was added, no worries). But what made us smile even more was the way the cocktail worked with the cheese curds and the lamb. Perfection. So, after baaing contentedly for a few mouthfuls, we decided to keep the food coming.

Should we go healthy and eschew the red meat–heavy dishes, or jump right in and get all buttery and fatty. Well, compromise is the key to any meal (and relationship, for that matter), so we ordered baby green salad with pecan and marjoram dressing (very healthy), some beet and blue cheese salad (healthy), and shrimp & grits (umm, well, this is where compromise comes into play). Let us proclaim that these grits were the best we ever had the pleasure of devouring (or second-best, if you count the cheese grits we had this summer at Madewood Plantation in Napoleonville, Louisiana). Thank God we had a few sips of the Sazerac left because it made all the healthy food taste even better, and the shrimp & grits sublimier.

Normally we don’t have dessert, but what the hell, it was our eighth anniversary. Traditionally, one gives one’s partner a gift of bronze for the eighth anniversary. The homemade butter pecan ice cream (chunks of sweet and salty praline) with bourbon sauce was bronze-colored, so close enough. Let’s just say that the the dessert lasted about as long as the Harrison presidency. Scoop, slurp, aaaah.

Will we return to Char No. 4? You bet. With over a hundred brown spirits on the menu, we have no choice but to become whiskey ethnographers, charting our bibulous journey through the rural reaches of Appalachia, all the way around the globe through the far-off mysteries of the Orient (there are eleven Japanese whiskeys for sampling), and back again.

P.S. We celebrate our anniversary on both September 8 and 9. But we were too pooped to celebrate on the 8th, so we opted to stay in and make an anniversary cocktail. Since our favorite go-to cocktail is the Manhattan, and much Maker’s Mark bourbon was drunk when we first met, we decided to make a Manhattan using Makers’s, Carpano Antica (our new favorite vermouth), and some Angostura bitters. The Manhattan never fails to bring a rush of color to our faces. Have one tonight with the one you love.

Anniversary Manhattan

(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 ounces Maker’s Mark bourbon
1 ounce Carpano Antica vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Method
Stir in a mixing glass for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry.

Mixology Monday XXXIX: Bitter Is Better with Amaro

Our taste buds love to be licked by a little bitter now and again, and cocktails are the perfect gateway to explore how bitterness intermingles with sweet and sour flavors. Amari, or bitter liqueurs used historically for digestive and other medicinal purposes, now find themselves the stars in many a bar chefs creations.

Count Niccolò Branca visited New York City recently, and we attended a luncheon wherein he told us a little bit about the history of Fernet Branca. Not only is this extremely bitter fernet popular in Italy, as one would assume, it is huge in Argentina, where folks like to take it with Coca-Cola. (Perhaps you can come up with a new highball using these two ingredients.) Steve was inspired by the Count, and the drink that was served, so he decided to come up with his own cocktail. We liked it so much we decided it would be a great contender for the Monteleone Cocktail contest sponsored by the Monteleone Hotel. (Today is the deadline, so read here for where to send your entry if you happen to be staying at the Hotel Monteleone during tales of the cocktail this July.)

Monteleone Cocktail

(created by Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces cognac
1 ounce Carpano Antica vermouth
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/8 teaspoon Fernet Branca
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Shake in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass. Add twist.

❤ ❤ ❤

One of our favorite amari is Nonino. Why? Well, according to our taste buds, we find that its perfectly balanced blend of sweet–sour–bitter, and gentle orange notes, needs no mixing (even though we like to mix it now and again in a Brooklyn Nonino). As the old ad rationalizes, “It costs a little more, but it’s worth it.”

Another favorite digestif of Paul’s is Unicum. Not so much for mixing, but with soda. A few splashes, on the rocks, with a lot of soda (lemon twist, if you prefer), and you’ve got a refreshing tummy-soother. Unicum is very similar to Fernet Branca, but not as dry. If anyone has a cocktail that uses Unicum, please share it.

Why do some people like bitter more than others? Just ask Darcy O’Neill, from Art of Drink. Last year at Tales of the Cocktail, he explained to us in the session titled “Sensory Perception in Mixology/What your taste buds are telling you,” that most of us are Tasters. That is, we have a a certain number of receptors on our tongue (papillae) that tell us if the food we are eating is bitter (our ancestors equated bitter food with poison). There are also nontasters who have fewer taste buds, so they don’t have as strong an aversion to bitter foods. Those dubbed supertasters have the greatest number of bitter taste-bud receptors, and usually hate bitter foods and drinks. These peeps are labeled “picky” or “fussy.” Though, there is hope for the supertaster: If you can’t find balance, try training your taste buds to accept bitterness one drop at a time. Start with some Nonino, then work yourself up to, say, Campari, and then, for the ultimate challenge, a few drops of Fernet Branca or Unicum. If you can handle the fernets, then we think you’ve trained yourself pretty well. Congratulations.

Monteleone Cocktail photo © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz

Monteleone Cocktail

Steve’s entry for the Monteleone Cocktail contest.

New-cocktail contests usually have stipulations: use this spirit, use that liqueur, make it in this style. But the famed Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans, which is sponsoring such a contest, confounds the rules; there are none. You have 2 days left to enter, so please read about it here.

Here is Steve’s entry:

Monteleone Cocktail

(created by Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces cognac
1 ounce Carpano Antica vermouth
1/2 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/8 teaspoon Fernet Branca
lemon twist, as garnish

Method
Shake in ice for 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled glass. Add twist.

There are so many things we love about this recipe, most important, tasting how incredibly smooth and balanced it is as the sweet, sour, and bitter notes dance around your mouth. If you want more than a twist, try a thinly sliced lemon wheel. Its shape will mimic the Carousel Bar where it will be served. Cheers and Bottoms Up!

Lovin’ the New Spirits That Haunt Our Home

We’ve been loving the new sweet vermouth we picked up recently. It’s called Carpano Antica by mixologists and bartenders alike, and changes the flavor profiles of the cocktails that call for this slightly sweet, red/amber–hued fortified wine.

Last night we made ourselves one of our favorite cocktails, The Oriental (click to see our video on Cocktail Buzz in which we pair it with sweet potato crisps). We used one of our favorite ryes, Rittenhouse, and a 60-proof triple sec. The lime was oh so fresh (don’t ever use limes that have started to turn golden near the middle and edges when you cut one open—it won’t have the powder-fresh sweet lime aroma and taste). Man, what a difference. Although we love the Orientals that use your average sweet vermouth, the Carpano Antica brings out the inherent rye flavor and smell characteristics to the fore. It’s the Montgomery Clift of vermouths (Clift, a supremely gifted and generous actor always made his other actors shine). So check out our Oriental page for the recipe and make one tonight. If you want to get a bottle of the Carpano Antica, Sherry-Lehmann Wine and Spirits in Manhattan on 505 Park Avenue at 60th Street. { UPDATE: Carpano Antica is now available at many spirits shops, including Astor Wine & Spirits. Ask your local shopkeeper to stock it if he or she currently does not. }

The other spirit that has been haunting us is Rubi Rey White Rum (spanish for “king of gems,” an apt moniker). The lovely Jenna at Truth Be Told PR sent us a bottle, so when it arrived on our doorstep like an orphaned child, we immediately took it into our loving arms and made a few cocktails (after sipping it of course, with just a skosh of water to open up its rich profile). Rubi Rey is smooth and has a beguiling finish. Compare it with a cheaper common, rum and you’ll experience the difference. (You might have an epiphany and never use the cheap stuff again.)

So what did we make with the Rubi Rey? Well, Paul was craving the taste of absinthe the other night, so Steve found a recipe for a Third Rail (probably named so because it packs a high-voltage charge):

Third Rail

(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

1 ounce Rubi Rey White Rum (or another quality light rum)
1 ounce calvados (French apple brandy)
1 ounce brandy (or cognac)
dash of absinthe

Stir for 30 seconds in mixing glass half-filled with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Kapow!

❤ ❤ ❤

Steve was so inspired by this that he created a mule-type highball (recipe to be divulged once we perfect the ratio and come up with a great name, so stay tuned). { UPDATE: The drink is called Lancaster's Mule. Click here and scroll for the recipe. }

photo © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz