The Libation Bearers Drink Database

I've found that my brain is not well trained to be a bartender.  The problem is that I can't immediately call to mind a large number of drinks that fit a person's request.  Rather, I can think of one or two at a time.  And since people's requests are often redundant, I find myself making the same drinks over and over, even though I am actually familiar with a lot more than that.  I've wanted to have some sort of a database which I could search using keywords.  For instance, it would be nice to search for refreshing, gin-based drinks which use raspberry syrup and to have a list of drinks generated for me automatically.  That would take the heat off of my beleaguered brain.

I haven't solved the problem completely, but I've taken a few steps forward with the development of The Libation Bearers Drinks Database. It's a growing list of recipes with keywords attached to each drink.  I (or you) can search by drink name, ingredient, or descriptor.  I have no intention of even approaching comprehensiveness; rather, it's a list of drinks that I can make at my bar with the spirits et al. that I routinely stock.  Use it if you please.  The link has been permanently placed at the top of the right-hand column.

The Relativist

I was talking to an old friend today, and she requested that I make a drink named for her.  Because of this hubristic request, I shall not name her here, but her initials are CZ.

The Relativist

2 oz Bulleit bourbon
1/2 oz Swedish punsch*
1/2 oz Becherovka

Mix bourbon and punsch over ice, and stir in an Old Fashioned glass.  In a brandy snifter, ignite the Becherovka, and, while lit, swirl and pour into the prepared Old Fashioned glass.  Agitate to mix.

This really encompasses the woman.  She was born of a Swedish mother and a Czech father.  Newly American, she's a lover of bourbon.  She's fiery and damned agitating when you're trying to debate her.  And, more than anything, she's a Protagorean relativist.  God save us/God be praised!

*For house-made Swedish punsch (thanks to frederic at Cocktail Virgin and especially to Max Toste), combine

3 parts 1:1 simple syrup
2 parts Batavia Arrack
1 part lemon juice
nutmeg (1/4 tsp grated to 500mL)
cardamom (8 pods to 500mL) 

The Small Aromatic-Sour Cycle

All this talk of Final Wards and Manhattans has brought me to consider cycles: those beautiful natural entities which give and take from their components to construct strangely opposite creations, only to continue the process back home.  To take three, let's consider the Citric Acid cycle, the pitch interval cycle, and the now-dubbed Small Aromatic-Sour cycle.  OK, maybe I'll allow Wikipedia to guide those interested in the first two, and I'll just tackle the drinks. 

What defines any cycle, i.e., the number and particulars of its constituents, is somewhat arbitrary, especially in systems with many potential players (such as biological molecular systems or mixology).  Just as there are a huge number of molecules floating around in a cell, there are hundreds of cocktail ingredients and exponentially more combinations of them.  That's a long way of saying that you could start with any drink and get to any other drink if you allow a large number of ingredient changes.  There is nothing ground-breaking about that, just as it's not terribly impressive to get from Tom Hanks to Kevin Bacon by using 100 degrees of separation. 

However, a particular, relatively small cycle continues to occur to me, and so I present it to you.

This small Aromatic-Sour cycle is made up of seven of my favorite cocktails.  Every time I drink one, I recall at least one or two of its neighbors.  Moreover, these drinks are either old-time or modern classics and are here to stay.  With only a few ingredients (rye, gin, maraschino liqueur, Chartreuse, sweet vermouth, sugar, bitters, lemon juice, and lime juice) one can create this cycle, and he or she might never feel the need to leave it, given the incredible range of flavors that it encompasses.  Are there two drinks more elegant than an Old Fashioned and a Last Word?  Are there two drinks more different than an Old Fashioned and a Last Word or a Bijou and a Whiskey Sour?  Yet they grow from and into each other seamlessly; and the intervening steps, themselves, are beautifully complex but balanced drinks. 

As I've said, there is a near-infinite number of cycles of which one might conceive, but to me this is a seminal one.  If any other small cocktail cycles occur to you, say so in the comments section below!

More Old Fashioneds

To follow my Final Ward, I decided to make an old favorite, the Applejack Old Fashioned.  I learned this recipe at Cocktail Chronicles and immediately fell in love.  Virginia apple plus Vermont maple syrup plus cinnamon courtesy of the East India Company...it's a Colonial masterpiece:

2 oz Laird's applejack
1 tsp genuine maple syrup
2 dashes Fee Brothers' Old Fashion bitters

Stir; Old Fashioned glass; rocks; orange twist.


Perhaps my favorite Old Fashioned variation.  If you have access to Laird's bonded apple brandy and you want to soar, substitute that for the (blended) applejack.  The next time the Applejack Old Fashioned leads off my night, I'll do the same.

The Final Ward

I've fixed myself a drink I've been thinking of for some time and never got around to making--the Final Ward.

3/4 oz rye
3/4 oz Chartreuse
3/4 oz maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz lemon juice

Shake; up; cocktail glass.

Like the Last Word, this is a mix of aromatic and sour cocktail genres, and it works incredibly well.  It's freshingly light, sharp, sweet, and herbal, all at the same time--it's the very incarnation of a balanced mixed drink.  I found the lush in me wishing for more rye, so next time I'll experiment with a slightly rye-heavy variant, but it's likely that any deviation will upset the balance.  We shall see...

This cocktail is the invention of Phil Ward, and was brought to my attention by Jay over at Oh Gosh!, to whom I am greatly indebted.

Saturday noontime drinks

Well, I have returned from my safari with virtually no physical and only limited psychological damage, and my parents are in town this weekend to welcome me home and to return my cats.

At lunchtime today, I offered my mom a rum drink.  I've only recently figured out what my mother's mixed-drink tastes are, and so I endeavored to make her a cocktail that she wouldn't hate.  (A tall order, I've found.)  So I made up a cocktail which will henceforth be called:

Mid-day in Georgia

3/4 oz light rum (Bacardi)
3/4 oz amber rum (Flor de Caña 7 year)
1/2 oz Jamaica rum (Myers)
1/4 peach, sliced
1/4 oz demarara syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 dashes Fee Brothers' peach bitters
~1/8 oz homemade grenadine


Muddle peach slices with all ingredients except grenadine.  Shake with ice.  Double strain into a cocktail glass, and anoint the inside of the rim with a line of grenadine.  Garnish with a slice of peach.

Perfect for a warm summer afternoon.

And Mom loved it.  Whew.

Hasdrubal's Circuit

For me, mixing a new cocktail is not the hardest part of the creative problem.  Naming a cocktail appropriately is often a tougher task.  For that reason, I've decided to go at it in the opposite direction, i.e., come up with a good name and build a drink around it.  My first sojourn into cocktail creation via this method resulted in the
 

Rondo alla Turca 
 

8 parts Campari

5 parts Kirschwasser

1 part Raki

2 dashes Regans' orange bitters

1 pinch of salt.
 

Stir on ice. Strain. Cocktail glass. Orange twist.

OK, not everyone is going to like it.  But it's firmly built around its name.  Mozart's Rondo alla Turca or Turkish Rondo...now that's a good name for a drink.  Raki for Turkey; Kirschwasser for Austria/Germany; Campari for Italian influences in 18th c. music.

Next, I made the Sherman's March which will be here-documented shortly.

But what really started this off was the desire to create a drink named after my favorite battlefield tactical maneuver in Classical Antiquity, Hasdrubal's Circuit, which he executed at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC during the Second Punic War.  (For an explanation of the maneuver, go here and watch the 2:00:00 to 2:09:00 portion of my lecture.)  A cocktail of this name must have ingredients from western suprasaharan Africa (since Hasdrubal was Carthaginian), Spain (which was occupied by Carthage and was a staging ground for the transalpine invasion of Italy), and Italy (obviously for the Roman Republic).

Saturday 3pm drink

Jetlagged a few days after returning from Africa, 2:00 PM arrived, and I was exhausted but could not sleep.  Needing to be fresh for a 7:00 PM graduation event in which I almost certainly would need my wits about me, I resolved to try a comfort drink to slow my mind and help me take a mid-afternoon snooze.  My dad suggested milk; I was thinking booze.  Ergo:

Milk Punch

1 oz Cognac

1 oz amber rum

2 tsp simple syrup

Combine above ingredients with ice in an Old Fashioned glass and fill to the top with milk.  Shake.  Shave nutmeg on top.

I'll let you know if it worked.

Update: It didn't work.  Still couldn't sleep.

How to make clear ice in your freezer

Over several months, I experimented with methods of making completely transparent ice cubes at home. The problems with the process are that chemical impurities and/or dissolved gas (air) cause opaque ice and that ice freezes from outside in, so any dissolved gas is trapped.

I followed many recipes suggested on various websites, but none worked satisfactorily (often leaving a central area of opacity). Finally, after probably ten iterations of my own experiments, I arrived at an easy method of reproducibly making clear ice.

1. Acquire ice trays. I own four of these.
2. Buy distilled water (found at most grocery stores).
3. Acquire a food vacuum sealer that includes a marinating container like this one.
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4. Place ice tray in the bottom of the marinating container, but leave the lid of the container off.
5. Raise a sufficient volume of distilled water to a boil in a small saucepan. The scientific basis for doing this is the fact that dissolved air cannot exist in very hot water.  (That's why, as water on the stove heats up, little bubbles form on the inner surfaces of the pot even before the water boils.)
6. With a 60cc syringe (probably available at a decent pharmacy) or some other tool (turkey baster?), transfer boiling water into ice tray.
7. Seal the filled ice tray in the marinating container, and vacuum seal the container. (Note that the decreased air pressure makes the water resume boiling despite being off the heat.)
8. Immediately place the marinating container in the freezer.
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9. After 24 hours (or less), remove container from freezer and release the seal to reveal clear ice cubes.

These clear cubes are totally worth the effort and small expense.  Aesthetically, they truly add to the cocktail, making it a beautiful experience to the eyes as well as to the palate.  I constantly get unsolicited compliments (yes, sometimes I fish for compliments, but not in the majority of these cases!) when I serve drinks with these cubes.  I can't believe I lived without them for so long.  Now, I'm embarrassed to have opaque ice in my drinks.  Therefore, proceed at your own risk!

Tuesday night cocktail hour(s)

Last Tuesday night's cocktail hour(s) included some new guests, some regulars, some new drinks, and some old ones.  Here's what I served, some of which were served multiple times...


Mai Tai


1 oz amber rum (Flor de Caña 7 year)
1 oz Jamaica rum (Myers's)
3/4 oz lime juice
1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz orgeat syrup
1/4 oz simple syrup
Shake, rocks.


Apple/Orange Mai Tai (my modification)

1 oz applejack (Laird's)
1 oz Jamaica rum (Myers's)
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz orgeat syrup
1/4 oz simple syrup
2 dashes orange bitters (Regans')
Shake, rocks.


Tom Collins

2 oz London Dry gin
2 tsp lime juice
2 tsp simple syrup
Shake all but club soda.  Strain into a Collins glass with ice.  Add club soda to the top, and agitate to mix.


Sherman's March (my invention)

1 oz bourbon (Knob Creek)
1 oz Southern Comfort
1 tsp grain alcohol or overproof rum (Everclear)
2 dashes peach bitters (Fee Bros.)
1 dash Fee Bros. Old Fashion bitters
Stir all but overproof spirit on ice; strain into a cocktail/champagne coupe.  Float overproof spirit on the top, and ignite.  Spray oil from a lemon peel twist into the flames.  Quickly drink after the fire goes out.


Cocktail a la Louisiane

3/4 oz rye
3/4 oz Benedictine
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
3 dashes absinthe
3 dashes Peychaud's bitters
Stir, strain, homemade maraschino cherry. 

Kenyan cocktails

As most of you know (by most, I mean all, since only my mother and I read this blog--Hi Mom!), I've been in east Africa for the last couple of weeks.  That little corner of the world is not known for its cocktails, so I stuck mostly to beer for its guaranteed sterility.  (Allow me to recommend Tusker Malt for those who may stumble across it.) My first night in Masai Mara, at the Mara Sopa lodge, I broke down and had an Old Fashioned because I saw that the bar...

...had Four Roses bourbon (the first non-Tennessee, non-Scotch whisk[e]y I saw in Kenya).


The next night, I approached the good bartender and university-trained mixologist, Wachira, who suggested that I order a Kenyan cocktail; I obliged and asked him to make me his best.  He obliged with the Sopa Special.


2 oz light rum (Kenya Cane)
~ 2 oz fresh mango juice
~ 2 oz fresh passion fruit juice
1 dash of grenadine


Combine, and stir.  Garnish with a lime wedge; serve with a straw.

Well, you really can't go wrong with rum plus fruit juices, and the fresh mango and passion fruit juices really bring the East African theme to the forefront.  This was a delicious drink that I will remember fondly.  Thanks, Wachira!

My favorite cocktails, part 7: the Mint Julep

I know of no mixed drink that causes as many arguments as the mint julep.  That history of controversy goes back a long way.  One old recipe book states:

Well, down our way we've always had a theory that the Civil War was not brought on by Secession or Slavery or the State's Rights issue. These matters contributed to the quarrel, but there is a deeper reason. It was brought on by some Yankee coming down south and putting nutmeg in a julep. So our folks just up and left the Union flat.

As my dear old friend, Dr. Herlitz, frequently says, "There are things about which intelligent men may disagree."  In the case of mint juleps, intelligent men may disagree as to the base spirit used.  They may legitimately use brandy, rum, rye, bourbon, applejack, or even gin or genever.  They may combine these, if they please.  As it turns out, most people, myself included, think that Kentucky bourbon whiskey makes the best mint julep.

There are some things, though, about which intelligent men may not disagree: namely whether one may add citrus juice, sour mix, a carbonated beverage of any sort, fruit, or any other contaminant to the sweet simplicity of a julep.  They may not.

To make a mint julep, combine bourbon (or whatever spirit or combination thereof pleases you) with muddled mint, sugar/syrup, and ice.  This is how I make mine:

Place 11 freshly picked mint leaves and 1 tablespoon of simple syrup in the bottom of a silver julep cup, and gently muddle to extract the oil from the mint leaves, taking care not to macerate the leaves.  Pour a small amount of Knob Creek bourbon into the cup, and swirl to dissolve the syrup.  Next, crush a few cups of ice, and discard the very small and very large pieces, leaving pieces approximately 1-2 cm in diameter.  Fill the julep cup with this ice, and pour in Knob Creek to the top (3-4 oz).  Taking care not to touch the frosted sides of the cup, agitate with a spoon to bring some syrup and mint to the top and to chill the mixture.  Garnish with a sprig of freshly picked mint.

As you can tell, it's a sacred moment.  If you don't believe me, believe the late Lt. Gen. S.B. Buckner, Jr. who said:

A mint julep is not a product of a formula. It is a ceremony and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion.

Or, just let the master sing:

Sip it, and dream.

My favorite cocktails, part 6: the Manhattan

It's hard to beat a Manhattan for several reasons.  First, they taste great.  Second, the ingredients are cheap and easy to find.  Third, they are easy to make (i.e., it's hard for you, your significant other, or your random bartender to screw one up).  Fourth, the template opens the door to a number of exquisite variations.

This recipe works beautifully:

2 oz rye whiskey
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir on ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. If you can find a Luxardo maraschino cherry, garnish it with that.

Substitute Punt e Mes vermouth to make a Red Hook.
Make it with Carpano Antica Formula vermouth, Fee Brothers Old Fashion bitters, and add Marie Brizard Apry (apricot brandy) and you have a Davidson or a Goodbye Marie.
Consider sherry, another fortified wine, or (now we're stretching it) an Italian amaro instead of sweet vermouth.
Add a little Benedictine or Chartreuse.
Some people prefer or have better access to bourbon, so they make bourbon Manhattans.
You like blended scotch better than rye or bourbon? Make it a Rob Roy.
Rum blends very well with sweet vermouth, too!