The Noble Experiment

Tag: Classics

June 4, 2010

Summer Cocktails!

Once the nice weather hits, everyone is looking for something they can enjoy while sitting on their deck/patio/stoop.  Something that helps you beat the heat, that’s light and refreshing, and in my case, something that has a reasonable amount of alcohol so you can sip all day.

This is why drinks like the Pimms Cup (a simple combination of Pimms No. 1, lemonade, and 7up) and the mojito (via http://intoxicologist.wordpress.com who, by the way, makes spectacular cocktails and has a great site) have become summer staples.  They fit all of the above criteria.  Following the lead of these summertime cocktails, when the warm weather arrives I leave the bourbon on the shelf and reach for the white rums, vodkas, and blanco tequilas.  That’s just how I roll.

So, you ask, what should I drink? Good question.  Let’s dig right in.  Summer cocktail iterations are endless, so I’ll just get you started with two cocktail recipes that you’re certain to enjoy.

Painkiller – A classic summertime/island time cocktail, this drink just screams summer.

2 oz white rum (try Dogfish Head or Rogue rums for a nice alternative to the big guys)
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz cream of coconut
0.75 oz orange juice (fresh squeezed, please)
I like to shake this drink and then serve it over ice.  Getting the coconut cream to co-mingle with the other ingredients is important.

French 75 (ish) – A spin on the classic French 75, a brilliant summertime sparkling cocktail

1 oz gin
0.5 oz St. Germain
0.25 oz lemon juice
0.25 oz simple syrup
3 oz sparkling wine
Shake the gin, St. Germain, lemon and simple syrup in a shaker. Strain into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine.  Garnish with a nice, long lemon twist.  In case you haven’t tried St. Germain, it’s a vibrant brandy based elderflower liqueur from France.

Here is another great reference on summer cocktails from liquor.com, a ridiculously wonderful site chock full of everything cocktail related you could ever need.

2 comments
May 17, 2010

A Couple of Classics

My earlier post on grenadine has been getting some attention lately, so I thought I’d go ahead and post a few recipes for classic cocktails that use grenadine.  That way you’ll have something to do with all of that grenadine you’ve been making!

Here are a few of my favorites when I have a batch of grenadine on hand.  Most of these drinks use ingredients you probably already have in your liquor cabinet as well, which is certainly a bonus.

A Jack Rose (minus the garnish, which was promptly eaten).

So without further ado…

Clover Club

1.5 oz Gin
0.50 oz Grenadine
0.75 oz Lemon Juice
2 tsp Simple Syrup
1/2 Small Egg White

Put all of your ingredients in a shaker and shake the crap out of it.  You need to emulsify the egg white, so you’re probably going to need to shake this thing for about 45 seconds.  I know it’s cold, but you’re an adult and you can handle it.  Strain this drink into a martini glass and you’ll have a nice cocktail with a creamy foam layer on the top.

Ward Eight

2 oz. Rye Whiskey
1 oz Simple Syrup
0.75 oz Lemon Juice
0.25 oz Grenadine

This is basically a whiskey sour with a splash of grenadine, but it’s pretty delicious.  Toss these ingredients in your shaker and shake it up.  Strain into a rocks glass with ice and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Jack Rose

1.5 oz Applejack
0.75 oz Lemon Juice
0.75 oz Grenadine

Put your ingredients in a shaker and mix them up well.  Strain into a martini glass and garnish with an apple slice (and if you’re in the mood, a maraschino cherry as well).  A lot of recipes call for simple syrup here, but I choose to increase the amount of grenadine and omit the simple syrup.  If you prefer, you can always add simple syrup and decrease the grenadine.

2 comments
May 11, 2010

Aviation Cocktail

The Aviation cocktail is a classic.  This pre-prohibition favorite fell out of style for many years but has recently made a resurgence as a result of the speakeasy/classics movement. This drink first appeared in a 1916 cocktail book, although it was allegedly created at a bar in New York City even earlier, dating back to early in the first decade of the 20th century.

The original version of the Aviation cocktail included gin, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, and creme de violette.  However, in the famous Savoy cocktail book of the 1930′s, the Creme de Violette, which was (and still is) difficult to find, was omitted.  That left us with the trustworthy combination of maraschino, gin, and lemon.

Although you can still find a number of variations on this drink, the proportions that I think work best are 2/1/1. Early recipes called for only a dash of Maraschino liqueur, but I like the balance of the peppery sweet from the maraschino against the tartness of the lemon.  It really is a lovely concoction.

So, without further ado, here is a recipe for you to enjoy.

Aviation Cocktail:

2 oz Dry Gin, Plymouth is my gin of choice for this cocktail

1 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

1 oz Lemon Juice

2 comments
January 15, 2010

Recipes: The Bronx Cocktail

The classic cocktails are called classics for a reason.  It’s not because they’re old or that they came from some prohibition era book that someone found in their attic.  They’re classic cocktails because they are pairings that work. The martini is a classic because of it’s appealing nature.  The dryness of the vermouth and the herbaceuos-ness (sp?!) of the gin fit together like peas in a pod. 

So to keep the classic cocktail tradition alive, I’ve decided to share some of my favorites in this category.  I won’t bore you (yet) with martinis and manhattans.  As much as I love those drinks, you can all probably make some form of a martini that suits you.  So let’s focus on some classics that you may not have tried.  First on the list is the Bronx Cocktail.

The Bronx cocktail is interesting for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, it will change your perception about orange juice in a drink.  Before I discovered this drink, orange juice, to me, was meant for drinks like screwdrives and mimosas.  Not that exciting.  The Bronx cocktail uses orange juice but does so in small increments, giving you that subtle sweetness and orange flavor, without the overwhelming body of a typical orange juice cocktail.  And the end product is a nice, dry cocktail. Without further ado, here’s a recipe to get you started.

Bronx Cocktail

1 1/2 Ounces Gin

1/2 Ounce Dry Vermouth

1/2 Ounce Sweet Vermouth

1 Ounce Orange Juice (fresh squeezed, please)

1 Dash Angostura Bitters*

Combine all these ingredients in a shaker and mix for longer than you really care to.  When it gets too cold to hold, mix it up a bit more just to be sure. Cocktails are meant to be served cold (for the most part). Garnish with a twist of orange peel and enjoy.

*Keep in mind that a “dash” in my book is not a single drop.  I’d call that a single drop.  I typically use 5-6 drops of bitters when a dash is called for.  That translates to about an 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon of bitters.

If your drink looks like this, toss it and start over.

1 comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 499 other followers