Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Tuesday night cocktail hour(s) (cont.)

Matt and Michele came over, and she ordered the Sazerac d'orange as her single allowed drink (lest she start catfights with the other women there). I developed the Sazerac d'orange to make a respectable cocktail for my Sazerac-averse then-girlfriend, Julietta. It's just a Sazerac with the addition of Regan's orange bitters and an orange twist instead of lemon. Because I'm trying to utilize my Berber syrup, a simple syrup combined with a number of indiginous north-African spices, I made a

Berber Sazerac

1 oz Sazerac 6 year rye
1 oz Wild Turkey 101 rye
1/4 oz Berber syrup
1 dash Peychaud's bitters
1 dash Fee Bros. orange bitters

Combine, stir with ice, and set aside. Rinse/coat a chilled Old Fashioned glass with absinthe or absinthe substitute (Herbsaint or Pernod) and discard the excess. Strain the rye mixture into the coated OF glass. Add a twist of orange peel and mosten the glass's rim with the orange oil, too.

Berber simple syrup: Combine oh, I don't know, a tablespoon each of cracked black peppercorn, coriander seeds, and cardimom; maybe 3 inches-worth of cinnamon sticks; a teaspoon or two a paprika; a dozen whole cloves; a couple teaspoons of allspice; a teaspoon or so of cumin seeds; a couple cracked star-anise pods and roast in a sauce pan for a few minutes. Then add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and raise to a boil. Then remove from heat. Strain the solid components from the solution (think coffee filter) and refrigerate the syrup for up to a few weeks.

This cocktail was (predictably) spicier than it's Sazerac base, and that in a pleasant, interesting way. Was it better than a Sazerac? Of course not. But was it a fun supra-Saharan sidetour? Yes.

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