Tends to Be

Most native Pittsburghers still have trouble with the idea of people moving to Pittsburgh intentionally. Fredrick Arnold is a perfect example of why Pittsburgh is becoming a cocktail destination though. After working in New York City Fredrick moved with his girlfriend to Kansas City where he managed the R Bar, one of Esquire's top bars in America. Deciding that neither New York nor Kansas City was right for them the pair decided to pick a new place to live. They Flew to New York and drove back to Kansas City stopping along the way and scoping out cities along the way. After just 6 hours they knew Pittsburgh was the place. Through a bit of serendipity on Craigslist, Fredrick found Tender just as they were hiring and developing their drinks menu. With that, another 'tender was found for Tender.

In Defense of Vodka

In general vodka is ignored or ridiculed by craft cocktail lovers. With brands bragging about how many times it's been distilled, creating flavors like cake, Swedish Fish, and Froot Loops, and purposefully having no taste it's easy to see why. However, it can be used in craft cocktails to good effect. Such cocktail authorities as Beachbum Berry and Ted Haigh have published recipes with no spirit other than vodka in them.

The important thing to remember with alcohol is that it is a solvent and thus causes some flavors to be heightened and better expressed. The obvious and most common use is in infusions, where any and every thing can be soaked in vodka to infuse that vodka with unusual flavors. But, you can do that same thing within the drink itself. Say you have yourself some locally made, cane sugar sweetened, spicy ginger beer  now you could make yourself a Dark n' Stormy but as we all know that's illegal if you happen to be out of Gosling's. But if the liquor fairy dropped off a nice, crisp vodka, (Platinum 7x in this case,) well then you have the makings of a Moscow Mule. The effect of drinking the ginger beer with vodka highlights some of the flavors from the ginger beer that are either not noticed if drinking it straight or lost if drinking with rum. Likewise if you have a nice vermouth some of the subtler flavors could be lost with a strong gin in a Martini. Perhaps the most important time for vodka in a drink is brunch. There are flavonoids in tomatoes that are only soluble in alcohol (which is why my spaghetti sauce recipe finishes with a shot of vodka,) so the vodka plus tomato juice mix for a Bloody Mary releases flavors that aren't there otherwise. This is why I will always have some vodka in my bar.

MxMo Invert

It's MxMo time again. And this week the theme is Inverted Drinks. While the prospect of renting out the Vomit Comet to take pictures of upside down drinks did have some appeal, it turns out that the idea is turn the recipes upside down somehow. In the announcement post over at Putney Farm Stewart threw out the challenge of making a clear Manhattan adding "good luck with that." Well that was enough of a challenge for me. And with that I immediately sprang into action, first mixing a clear Manhattan, (left,) and then a clear Sazerac (right) just for the added degree of difficulty. My secret weapon, Wigle Whiskey's white rye, the 95% rye in this case. Now on to the recipes:

Clear Manhattan
2 oz Wigle White Rye
1 oz Dry Vermouth
2 dashes Barrel Aged Bitters
Stir over ice, strain into a chilled glass.

A few notes on this one: first my somewhat unconventional recipe comes straight off the glass that I mix it in. I was given a "vintage" portable bar set for Christmas a couple years back and the glass has drink recipes on it.  The Manhattan Recipe calls for that 2:1 whiskey to vermouth ratio, and that's what I've always used. Also key in maintaining it as a clear drink is to make it a Dry Manhattan, rather than a more traditional sweet version. To further invert this drink one can use aged bitters with an unaged whiskey.

Clear Sazearc
1.5 oz Wigle White Rye
.5 oz simple syrup
Herbsaint
3d Bittermen's Burlesque bitters

Rinse a chilled old fashioned glass with a small amount of Herbsaint, (Pernod, or Absinthe,) in another glass stir the rye, simple and bitters. Discard the excess Herbsaint, (I usually read this as drink it straight,) and pour in the chilled whiskey/simple/bitters into the glass. While the traditional recipe calls for Peychaud's bitters, I really love the Bittermen's bitters in this drink.

(Bonus points to anyone who clicked on the photo for a bigger view and noticed that the globe has North at the bottom.)

It's Traditional

The first thing that Wes Shonk did when he learned he was going to be behind the stick at 1947 Tavern was start learning. He hadn't been anything more than a bar back prior to then, so he threw himself into learning the classics, both how to make them and why they are the way they are. He also devoted himself to learning all that he could about bourbon, the tavern's signature spirit. This devotion to the classics and bourbon led him to Camp Runamok where he learned even more.

MxMo: Fortified Wines

It's Mixology Monday time again, unfortunately I've had to skip the last couple of them but we are back with 

a new drink. This month's theme is fortified wines.  My entry this month is the Puerto Anticado.  Lately I've been playing around with mixing up variations on the old fashioned. I've been using my Christmas presents to play with different bitters, different spirits and different sweeteners.This has been everything from using rum, rye, or even some aged Wigle Whiskey.  I've really enjoyed that so long as you stick to a pretty straight forward recipe and use quality ingredients you are reasonably assured of coming up with a satisfying after dinner drink. I was trying out using some resposado tequila, Maestro Dobel Diamond to be precise, with some of the jalapeno syrup from the B'ak'tun, and Bittermen's Xocolatl Mole bitters. Just as I was finishing up, my ship's decanter full of tawny port caught my eye. On a whim I decided to add some of that to the drink. It turned out a lovely color and the flavors melded well with some very nice depth to it. For once my luck worked out in such a way that it was the next day that the MxMo theme for the month was announced and my drink fit nicely. 

Puerto Anticado

1.5 oz Resposado Tequila (Maestro Dobel Diamond)

1 oz tawny port

.5 oz jalapeno syrup 

4d mole bitters (Bittermen's)

stir with ice strain into a rocks glass with service ice. 

Lovecraft Cocktails

As you can see above I was part of the Horror in Clay Kickstarter campaign to get a Cthulhu Tiki Mug. (You can get yours here.) In the photo above we have my Santa Cthulhu off of my Christmas Tree in my Cthulhu tiki mug, he's so cute and yet so evil. This kickstarter/mug was right in my wheelhouse H. P. Lovecraft has been one of my favorite authors for quite some time now, and my love of tiki drinks is well documented. Inspired by the Lovecraft/tiki crossover I set out to develop a series of Lovecraft themed drinks for my forthcoming mug. The first was the Cocktail of Cthulhu, (already posted here.) The others are Pickman's Punch and Haunter of the Dark and Stormy.

Pickman's Punch

2 oz Pineapple Juice

1 oz Orange Juice

1 oz Grenadine

1 oz Silver Rum

1 oz Gold Rum

.5 oz Lemon Hart 151

.75 oz Orgeat 

.75 Passion Fruit Syrup

blend with 6 oz ice

Haunter of the Dark and Stormy

2 oz Dark Jamaican Rum

1 oz orange juice

.5 oz key lime juice

1 teaspoon grenadine

roll with ice

top with ~6 oz ginger beer.

These are hardly the only Lovecraft inspired cocktails out there. For instance Kaiser Penguin has the Cthulhu Punch recipe.  If you have some other cocktails recipes from the eldritch blackness or cyclopean halls please feel free to share in the comments.

Mayan Mixology Meltdown 5: B'ak'tun

The end of the world is nigh, so we're going to take a make up a few Mexican/Mayan inspired drinks to help make the coming apocalypse easier to deal with.

This is it my friends, assuming that we haven't already been wiped out in a cataclysm, it's only a matter of time now before the end of the world. I hope that it's been a good one for you. In the event that we are still here to read this, let's work on easing that transition with a nice drink to celebrate what it is that is coming to an end today. December 21, 2012 marks the end of the 13th B'ak'tun, or the long count in the Mesoamerican calendar. A b'ak'tun is comprised of 144,000 days, or about 394 years. On the winter solstice of the year 2012 (CE) the current b'ak'tun will be completed. Obviously this means the end of the world, just as the completion of the millennium signals the end in the western calendar.

To honor the end of it all by what I can only assume will be a meteor strike or some other sort of astral destruction we have the final drink the B'ak'tun (or Long Count). We feature a flaming lime shell for the fiery daeth coming from the sky, soda water for the boiling oceans, and some jalapeno syrup for the burning sensation sure to accompany our destruction.

B'ak'tun, (long count)

1.5 oz resposado Tequila

1 oz blanco tequila

1 oz pineapple juice

.75 oz jalapeno syrup*

.5 oz Orange Juice

.5 oz Lime Juice

.5oz 151 rum

2 oz seltzer

Shake everything save the rum and seltzer with crushed ice. Top glass with seltzer water, fill the spent lime shell with rum and light. 

*To make the jalapeno syrup make a 2:1 simple syrup and add 2 sliced jalapeno chiles per cup of sugar. You can control the heat of the jalapeno with the seeds and inner membranes. If you like thing spicy throw in the whole lot, if you want just a little heat and more fruit flavor, remove the seeds and the white inner membrane. As soon as the sugar is dissolved into the water add the jalapenos and let steep for 20 minutes. Strain and allow to cool.