OK…  That’s a tasty cocktail.

Tasty enough in fact that I’ve invested in a enoughvolume to throw a batch in my super cute 2 liter charred barrel for a month and a half.  I’ll report back on that later.

2 oz.          Rittenhouse Bonded Rye
1 oz           Carpano Antica
.75 oz      Maraschino Liqueur
.25 oz      Fernet Branca
.25 oz      Green Chartreuse

1 dash Boker’s Bitters

Garnish with a large orange zest

1oz Rittenhouse Bonded Rye

1oz Laphroig

.75oz Maraschino

.25oz Fernet Branca

1 dash Angostura

1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters

1 dash Bitter Truth Xocolotl Mole Bitters

Will update (or delete) later

Dana really likes this but I made it for myself based on a desire for a bright and light cocktail.  It’s quite good but similar in palate to a couple of other cocktails I’ve had.  I guess that’s OK.

Here it is, the “You’ve Probably Had Something Like This Before” cocktail:

2oz        Bombay Saphire Gin
1oz.       Cocchi Americano
.75oz.    Saint Germain Liqueur

10 drops Bitterman’s Grapefruit Bitters

Stir, up with a lemon twist.

Yummy.

The Gateway Cocktail from Sylvia Kantor on Vimeo.

A stop motion video created by my friend Sylvia Kantor for a video class.

We made the “Shades of Things to Come” – which Sylvia calls the “Gateway (to whiskey) Cocktail”.  Unfortunately, that’s not particularly obvious.  Maybe we could do it again but this time, maybe we’ll storyboard it a bit?

Yeah, it’s an unfortunate name but I assure you; it doesn’t affect the flavor…

Opens with lemon zest and milt sweetness then widens on the palate – finishes with a mild ginger hit.  Better as it warms.

Mosquito Repellent:

2oz.        Beef Eater Gin (I first made it with Hayman’s Old Tom Gin which was good but maybe a little too sweet)
1oz.        Cocchi Americano (Lillet Blanc works in a pinch but the quinine bitter of the Cocchi really adds here)
.75oz    Domain de Canton (Stirrings Ginger Liqueur’s gingerier ginger flavor works very nice too – albeit a little sweeter)

Stir, up with a lemon twist (See note!)

Note!  Use a good, fresh, thick-skinned lemon.  Hold the lemon and channel knife directly over the glass so that the oil that sprays off the peel heads straight for the surface of the drink.  Forgive my pendantism.  I know you already know that but it’s really important for this drink.

A quite successful bittered cocktail that starts with chocolate/orange and finishes with a lingering mild astringent bitter.

The Turin Test:

2oz.     Cognac
1oz.      Ramazzotti
.25oz.   Gran Classico Bitter

8 drops Bitter Cube Blackstrap bitters

Stir, up with an orange twist.

A while ago I was looking online for cocktail recipes that include Ramazzotti.  I found a nice cocktail called the Central Park.  The Cocktailia blog says it comes from Portobello in PDX which is on my list of places to visit (I live in Seattle after all and while Portland may have a Seattle complex, secretly, Seattle has a Portland complex).

Anyway, I, like the folks at Cocktailia didn’t have any boysenberry liqueur (I guess I’ll have to get in the kitchen next summer and make some; or at least a shrub).  I didn’t care for the Cocktailia version; at least not with the blackberry liqueur I had on hand so I considered other substitutes.  Turns out that Chambord made for a tasty cocktail but not very complex. So, having recently been exposed to the idea of using Laphroig like one would use bitters, I added 3 drops and had a winner.

Being the clever guy that I am, I didn’t want to call this a modified Central Park and so, did a little googling to find out if there was a similarly magnificent park on the island of Islay.  Indeed; Islay House Park is quite grand but a little wordy so I’ve abbreviated it to Islay Park.  And here it is:

Islay Park

1.5 oz   Bourbon (go ahead, try it with scotch if you want the total experience)
1 oz       Ramazzotti
.5oz      Chambord (a shy half ounce at that).
3+ drops of Laphroig 10year old Scotch.

Build it in a rocks glass with a big cube and a lemon twist.

Another very nice variation:

1oz Rye (Bullet)
1oz Bourbon (EC)
1oz Ramazzotti
.5oz Pear Liqueur

Orange peel

A couple of months ago, I bought a bottle of Liquore Strega (cuz it had a cool label).  Bonus!  It’s very tasty.

• The CocktailDB.com description claims:
  Proprietary Italian mild colorless herbal liqueur. Very delicate.

Hmmm.  The bottle I have is bright yellow and has a strong herbal palette with notes of wintergreen and or sassafrass.  I would not call it delicate.  Does anyone know when or if the formula changed?

Anyway, I was hunting through cocktaildb.com for some suggestions for the Liquore Strega and came across the Rendevous Cocktail.  While it was good, I found it to be way too sweet and the Strega overpowering.  After massaging the proportions (over a few evenings experiments) I felt like I found the sweet spot;  so to speak.

Dana really liked this cocktail but wanted to tweak it further and suggested Clear Creek Pear Liqueur instead of the Cherry Heering.  Bang!  One of Dana’s favorite cocktails is born.

Dana’s Rendevous:

2oz. Cognac
.75oz. Clear Creek Pear Liqueur
.5oz. Liquore Strega

Stir and serve up in a coupe with a lemon twist.

Just a quick post of a fairly successful cocktail experiment I’m calling Lemon and Honey.  It needs a little refining but I bet it’s going to be my goto cocktail next cold season!

Lemon and Honey:

• 2oz.   Hayman’s Old Tom Gin
• 1oz.   Lemon Juice
• 1oz    Barenjager Honey Liqueur
• .5oz.  Cointreau
• 10 drops Bob’s Liquorice Bitters

Shake and double strain.  No garnish needed.

One of my favorite sources of information to get me poking around the liquor store and then in the kitchen is Jamie Boudreau’s blog.

Recently, I came across an old post about a “Make Your Own” recipe for Amer Picon.

Now, I don’t know anything about Amer Picon but I’m decidedly curious about stuff I know nothing about so I read on.  I soon realized I knew a little more than I thought I did.  His recipe calls for Ramazzotti as a base ingredient plus a bunch of orange tincture and some Stirrings Blood Orange Bitters.  I love Ramazzotti so I got right to it.

I’m still waiting on the orange tincture (due end of Feb) so I can’t report on the Amer Picon yet (Update… click here for the Amer post).  Still, towards the end of Jamie’s post, he offered a cocktail recipe of his own concocting called the “Nirvana Cocktail”.  It sounded right up my alley so I got to thinking about how I might substitute my way to a something vaguely related.  I’ve called my version “Shades of Things to Come” and man is it tasty.  I can only hope the version with the Amer will be as good.

Here you go:

Shades of Things to Come:

• 2oz.   Rittenhouse Bonded Rye
• 1oz.    Ramazzotti
• .25oz. Maraschino Liqueur
• .25oz. B&B Liqueur
• 4 or 5 heavy dashes of Regan’s Orange Bitters

Stir and serve up in a coupe.  Add an amarino cherry if you wish.