MxMo CII Spooky Sips

This Month's Mixology Monday is being hosted by friend and fellow tiki-phile JFL over at Rated R Cocktails. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I couldn't in good conscience pass it up. Even though participating did mean having to take a break from carving pumpkins and making tombstones for the yard. Almost instantly I had a name for a drink pop into my head, the Karloff Colada. In case your knowledge of horror movies stretches only as far back as Paranormal Activity 4, Boris Karloff was one of the classic horror great actors. He played the Monster in Frankenstein, the Mummy in the Mummy, and numerous other horror roles, (also he voiced the Grinch in how the Grinch stole Christmas).

For the drink itself I decided to riff on the Pina Colada, and specifically riffing off another riff the Angostura Colada.
2 oz Pineapple juice
1.5 oz Coco Lopez
1 oz lime juice
1 oz Amber Martinique rhum (Neisson Eleve Sous Bois)
.5 oz Navy Style Rum (Lost Spirits Navy Style)
.25 oz Pernod
 6 oz crushed ice
blend the above ingredients and float .25 oz black rum on top, (I used Goslings, but dark Jamaican would work as well)
top with grated nutmeg
There are a few things that change this up from a regular Pina Colada or Painkiller. The lime juice helps to make the drink more tart and less sweet. The anise flavor of the pernod sits there at the finish to again offset the sweetness of the Coco Lopez. What I feel like you end up with is a very well balanced drink that still has the Pina Colada characteristics.

Be sure to check out the other drinks for this months MxMo

MxMo 82: Sours

This MxMo Ginhound invited us to examine sours. Sours are one of the most easily adaptable classes of drinks, to go from a daiquiri to a margarita to a whiskey sour to any number of other drinks requires only a little bit of tinkering. And this month, it seems like everyone is examining their fresh copies of Potions of the Caribbean as I've seen no less than 4 people talking about the Queens Park Super Cocktail. With that in mind I decided that I didn't want to just talk about existing cocktails, though I did want to work through the La Florida daiquiris. Instead I decided that I needed to create something new.

With that in mind I set out to finish reading my own copy of Potions, while setting the depths of my little brain to work on putting together something. Simultaneously, I also have way too much grenadine in the house and need to use (more on that later). So I started thinking about how to use the grenadine in a sour. I decided that I would follow the lead of such luminaries as Trader Vic, and start with an established cocktail. What I ended up with is the Eden Sour.

Eden Sour
1 oz Dark Jamaican rum
1 oz amber Martinique
3/4 oz grenadine
1/2 oz lime
1/2 oz demerara syrup
1/4 oz orgeat

Does the recipe look like a Mai Tai to you? That's the basis for this drink, I toned down the lime and orgeat and added grenadine. The grenadine adds a certain tartness to the drink that is different than the lime juice. It's not too sour, and the grenadine also adds a floral note. While this isn't a Trader Vic original it does appear, to me at least, like something he would have tried at some point.

Christmas Drinking

The Holidays have rolled around again, and whether that holiday is Christmas, Festivus, Saturnalia, or all of the above that means getting together with family. And for pretty much everyone (at least that reads this) that necessitates drinking. As to whether you drink with your family or drink because of your family that's up to you, we don't judge here. Of course the classics for holiday drinking will pretty much always work, and if you turn down eggnog, wassail, mulled wine, or possibly just shots I will judge you in a lesser light.
That doesn't mean that there isn't room for new drinks, and with that in mind I set out to create a cocktail for a gathering of local food and booze impresarios. I wanted to make a drink that just screamed Christmas, obviously pimento dram had to be included, gin for the piney influence and finally cranberry juice for the flavor and the color.

Saturnalia Sling

1.5 oz Gin

1.5 oz Cranberry Juice

.5 oz Pimento Dram

Once again I must be off... On Tender, On Acacia, On Harvard and Highland, Butcher and Rye!

Pittsburgh Cocktail Week

This September 16-22 marked the first annual Pittsburgh Cocktail Week. The week's events were geared towards the industry professionals during the day and to the general drinking public at night. As one of the co-founders of the week I somehow managed to make it to almost every event. I'll give you a brief visual rundown of the week. As always, click the pics to see them larger.

Jeff Catalina provided a seminar on Agave spirits, providing a rundown of the spirits beyond tequila and mezcal. 

Later, Verde bartenders taught customers how to make their own margarita. They provided the ingredients and instruction on how to mix the perfect margarita. 

Tuesday, Giuseppe from Bar Marco showed us all how to cut ice, and in a remarkably brave turn of events he passed off the chainsaw to let participants try it. 

Wednesday was Wigle Wednesday, and Eric taught a class on the aging process. Which included a chance to taste each of the aged whiskeys Wigle has produced to date. 

Thursday we took a group out to Glenshaw to tour local Vodka producer Boyd and Blair. 

We invited Johnny Foster from Smooth Ambler Whiskey up to talk about the difference between a craft distiller and a craft blender. 

The Butterjoint and Will Groves hosted a sold out class on shrubs and preserving for cocktails. Each participant came home with the makings of a pineapple-ground cherry shrub. 

On Sunday night during our wrap party we announced the winner of the week long cocktail contest. Erika Jiggerfingers Joyner won the event for Salt of the Earth. She was presented with a certificate and a prize pack by Andrea from Steelite and Chip from Rhomania.

There are many more photos from Cocktail week over at my 500px site.

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.

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. 

Mayan Mixology Meltdown 3: Human Sacrifice

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.

As we discussed with the cenote, on occasion the Mayans sacrificed young men to the gods. That it was generally young men sacrificed, suggests that the sacrifices were meant to represent strength and power, as opposed to representing fertility by sacrificing young women. Another key component of the Mayan mythology was the odd ballgame played in Mesoamerica. This game is believed to be part of worship to the gods, a way of demonstrating the fitness of the participants, with the losers often sacrificed to the gods. 

Given this history of human sacrifice, clearly, we will need our own Human Sacrifice before the end. 

Human Sacrifice

1.5 oz blanco tequila

2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz passion fruit

.5 oz triple sec

.25 oz Herbsaint (or absinthe)

.25oz grenadine

Shake everything but grenadine with crushed ice. Float grenadine on top, garnish with cilantro.

Once again hit up Rated R Cocktails tomorrow for JFL's continuation of the mayhem.

Mayan Mixology Meltdown 1: Cenote

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.

 First up we're going to explore a key part of the Mayan religion, the cenote.  Cenotes are deep sinkholes or pits full of fresh water in the Yucatan Peninsula  Geologists think that they are tied to the Chicxulub crater, which is believed to be the impact of the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Mayans believed that these pits were entrances to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. The Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza has been found to contain numerous sacrifices to the gods, including human sacrifices. If we want to get into the mindset of the Mayans that foretold our doom, we need to explore the cenote. 

Cenote

2 oz coconut water

1.5 oz Blanco Tequila

1 oz lemon juice

.5 oz lime juice

.5 oz Blue Curacao

.5 oz simple syrup

Shake with ice and then strain into a chimney glass

Tomorrow JFL continues the Meltdown on Rated R Cocktails

Grog Talk

I'm off in Virginia for a photo assignment shooting OpSail for Spinsheet magazine. That means that I'm going to be on one of these bad boys.

Naturally this has me thinking about what is probably the mother of all Tiki drinks: Grog. I'm not thinking of the classic Tiki drink Navy Grog. I'm talking the real thing, daily rum ration, lime juice to prevent scurvy grog.

No one know the exact recipe for grog, likely I suspect it's because there wasn't one recipe for grog. I've seen and heard many different versions of "original" grog recipes. Everything from "1 of sweet, 2 of sour, 3 of strong, 4 of weak," (which is patently wrong as this is a punch recipe) to 1:1 of rum and water.

Now a little history:

Up until 1972 the British Navy regulations specified 1 pint of ale per day per sailor. This was fine while they were sailing the cold and gloomy North Atlantic close to home. As they began expanding their travels the ale soon became impractical. It would often go bad before the men could drink it. So the Admiralty responded in perhaps a strikingly practical way. They allowed the ale to be replaced with whatever the local drink that they could procure. In the Caribbean that meant rum. That's the first ingredient for grog.

The second important ingredient was citrus juice. Scurvy was a huge issue for sailors going back at least to the Romans, probably earlier. As early as 1497 citrus was known to have a curative effect on scurvy, though vitamin C wasn't isolated and identified until 1937.  Thanks to Admiral Edward Vernon of the British Navy, (known to his sailors as Old Grog for the grogram cloak that he wore) in 1740 citrus juice was added to the daily ration of rum. At this point we can say that we have grog consisting of water, rum, and citrus juice. Sailors likely would have added whatever they had handy to make this drink more palatable.

Me being me I decided that it would be interesting to play with a drink based on the idea of grog that would have been Piratically inspired. So I decided to create the drink below with the idea of an English Privateer using what they had available from successfully taking ships in their own version of a trading triangle.

Pirate Triangle
1 oz lime juice
1 oz white grapefruit juice
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz pimento dram
1 oz vanilla simple syrup
1 oz brandy
1 oz dark Jamaican rum
.5 oz Lemon Hart 151
Shake with  crushed ice.
Garnish with fresh grated nutmeg