Know Thyself

One of the reasons I haven't posted much on this blog in recent months is that I've not been inspired.  The more I drink, the more I realize that there are but a few truly exquisite drinks.  After that, there are thousands that are "really very good," but these never approach the others.  With a few exceptions, the best drinks are the simplest and the oldest.  So I've not been routinely inspired because it's a rare event that one encounters a brilliant new drink. 

However, I was inspired by Jamie Boudreau, who posted on his Old Fashioned, cubed and syruped last October, to fashion a complex drink on a classic framework.  The first iteration was amazing.  I then made the mistake of upgrading the liquors to premium grade (Rittenhouse and Martel VSOP); this mistake drowned out the subtlety of the original, so I dialed it back again...


skinny (slightly less than) 3/4 oz Sazerac 6 year rye
skinny 3/4 oz Cruzan Single Barrel rum
skinny 3/4 oz Paul Masson brandy
1 tsp 2:1 demarara syrup
16 drops Smith-house Berber bitters

Combine and quickly stir with ice, making sure not to dilute the mixture too much. 

This cocktail is worthy of consideration with some of the greats, and could fill in for a Sazerac, Old Fashioned, or Manhattan as your daily tipple (that is, if you make some of my Berber bitters for yourself). 

Hot Toddy

Well, folks, chilly weather has set in (at least for the time being) in New Orleans, and, on cue, I caught a cold.  It's really just that I have a sore throat, a stuffy nose, and a headache; otherwise, I feel perfectly healthy.  So I have taken this opportunity to treat myself to a classic old remedy, a Hot Toddy. 


2 oz single malt Scotch
3.5 oz boiling water
1 cube (tsp) demarara sugar
lemon peel


Muddle the sugar and lemon peel in the bottom of an earthenware mug.  Add boiling water and stir to dissolve sugar.  Add Scotch and stir.

I know, this is technically a Scotch Skin since I added the lemon peel.  This is an old favorite of my grandmother (whose recipe used blended Scotch, hot tea, and honey) and my mother (who uses rum, hot tea, and honey).  What a soothing, warming drink!  The doctor in me knows that scotch, lemon, sugar, and water is no antiviral chemotherapy, but dangit, I swear I feel better.  I believe I'll have another, maybe with Jamaican rum!

Art of Choke

I have had a few great drinking experiences.  One came at the Violet Hour, where I met Kyle Davidson and Stephen Cole, two of the best mixologists and most gracious hosts I've had the pleasure of meeting.  One of Kyle's signature drinks (along with the Goodbye Marie [a.k.a The Davidson]) is the Art of Choke.  This is one of those inspired creations that rises above (way above) all those newfangled drinks to the level of modern classic.  This is easily on my list of 20 best drinks, and it may break the top ten overall.  If you're in the mood for it, it's a top 5 drink, in my opinion.  

In rogue cocktails, published my Maksym Pazuniak of The Counting Room and Kirk Estopinal of Cure, we can read this description of the Art of Choke: 

Picture yourself in the limestone-walled courtyard of an Italian villa off the coast of the Riviera. You are surrounded by fragrant herbs and flowers, and the sea air is blowing gently. The sun is bright, but it's not hot, and you have nothing to do all day but relax and savor the sensations all around you. Drinking this cocktail is kind of like that if somebody suddenly punched you in the stomach just as you were beginning to doze off in the sun. In a good way.

So how do you make it?

Amber Sunset

A friend asked me for a Mojito tonight, but I told her I thought that was boring, especially since I made her a Mojito the last time she was at my house.  The carbonated water in the Mojito reminded me of the Eastside, which Rhiannon introduced me to the other day.  It's essentially a Southside with cucumber and club soda on ice in a tall glass.  But I was out of cucumber.  So my tangential thought then led me to an as-far-as-I-can-tell unnamed drink that Kirk made me a few weeks ago.  He made me a dark rum sour with a rinse of creme de violette.  Since I have way too much creme de violette and way too few uses for it, I thought I'd pull it out.  I substituted raspberry syrup for simple syrup, and the result was the Amber Sunset (which hopefully hasn't been named something else previously)...

2 oz amber rum (Appleton V/X)

1/2 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz raspberry syrup

1 tsp creme de violette

Shake all but creme de violette with ice, and set aside.  Rinse a chilled cocktail glass or coupe with creme de violette, and discard the excess.  Strain the rum mixture into the coated glass. Spray a mist of creme de violette over the full glass, and serve with a smile.

Yet another simple variation of a classic formula, the raspberry syrup at once cuts the acidity of the citrus and adds raspberry-fruitiness.  The rum, of course, adds a beautiful buttery roundness to the mouthfeel, and is at the forefront on the sip.  The rinse of creme de violette is absent except for the gentlest floral accent both on the nose and the swallow.

Mississippi Punch

Flipping through Jerry Thomas's 1862 bartender's guide, one earns a new respect for punches.  They were the workhorse concoction for entertaining groups greater than just a few people, and the variety of recipes in use in the mid 19th century was enormous.  The vast majority, surely, never saw print and were the inventions of unnamed thousands of party hosts throughout this land and the British empire.

Since I'm I, I'll give you a bit of etymology.  Besides our English numbers and their closely-related Germanic counterparts, we're familiar with Grecoitalic numbers (wait for the figure...).  East of the Centum-Satem isogloss, numbers are different:

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.

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.

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!

My favorite cocktails, part 1: the Old Fashioned

Many people ask me what my favorite cocktail is, so I thought that I would write a bit about that.  As it turns out, my favorite cocktails are everyone's favorite cocktails because, well, they are the best.  So I'll cover some drinks that are, to the cocktail cognoscenti, boring.  To them, I apologize for covering material that is covered ad nauseum elsewhere.

For the rest of you, over a few posts, I'll present several sublime mixed drinks in no particular order.  Most of them are "old."  Why is my list of favorites disproportionally populated by old drinks?  The good stuff sticks around by virtue of it's superiority and stands the test of time.  Just like the music of Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven has been renowned for its brilliance for centuries, the best cocktails have, as well.  In 300 years, they'll still be the best cocktails, and maybe a few newcomers will join them.  For now, just a few are and will remain my favorites.

We'll start with the Old Fashioned because it allows me to do some explaining. 

Tuesday night cocktail hour(s)

After a slow start, I hosted another successful Tuesday Cocktail Hour(s).


Amanda showed up first and, newly armed with the recipe for the Trouble & Desire (thanks to Mike Yusko), I made her a T&D. Of course, I don't have all of the specialty ingredients (especially the Carpano Antica Formula vermouth), so I substituted for a less-sublime cocktail as below:

2 oz Flor de Cana 7 year rum
3/4 oz Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
1/2 oz Licor 43
1/2 oz Myers's Jamaican rum
Stir; rocks; orange twist.

The Flor de Cana is a bit less smooth than the originally intended El Dorado 5 year demarara rum, and the Martini & Rossi has a different flavor profile than the Carpano, so on the sip there was a little less character than the original, but still excellent and smooth. This was my first use of Licor 43, the flavor of which I lost in this rendition. In the end, my cheap T&D is a very good cocktail, but not nearly as excellent as Mike's version. Without the intended ingredients, I'd probably just as soon drink a Cruzan Single Barrel Old Fashioned/treacle, but try it for yourself and see what you think.