The Cardinal's Cocktail

Well, I did some drinking over the holidays, but I did not write anything. Suffice to say that my husband and I finally discovered what a difference homemade makes when it comes to eggnog. Husband made two batches of a somewhat famous recipe from an old Four Roses ad, and we were invited to share some of a friend's batch that had been aged for one year (Really! Alton Brown's recipe). The two eggnogs were different, but both were delicious and in no way like the stuff you buy at the grocery store.

Speaking of homemade being well worth the effort, a friend of ours gave us a bottle of homemade falernum and a bottle of homemade orgeat yesterday. I will write more about the falernum soon, but for tonight I tried the orgeat. Orgeat is a syrup made of almonds and a few other ingredients. Its most well-known use is in the Mai-Tai, but I wanted to try to find something different, so I consulted the CocktailDB and found this one that I had never heard of, called Cardinal's Cocktail. I have had no luck finding out any history of this one because most drinks I have seen called Cardinal involve red wine or Campari, for the bright red color. I'm not sure why this version is not better known, because it's really delicious. The only problem I could find with it was that it was all gone way too quickly.

Cardinal's Cocktail
1 1/2 oz white rum
3/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz triple sec (Cointreau)
1/4 oz grenadine
1/4 oz orgeat

I have tried store-bought orgeat that was a "gourmet" brand and I didn't think it had much almond flavor at all, but this homemade stuff is terrific. It's thick with a pinky-beigey color, and you have to shake it really well but the flavor is sweet almond, like marzipan.

This recipe as written had 1 oz of lime juice, but it made more sense to me to cut it to 3/4 oz, to make it equal parts lime juice and sweetening ingredients. The balance came out just right, I thought. It definitely didn't need more lime.

If you don't know CocktailDB.com, definitely check it out. It's run by Martin Douderoff and Ted Haigh, aka Dr. Cocktail, the author of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Not only is it a great resource about recipes and ingredients, but also it features really fun photos of bottles from Haigh's personal collection.

The Seelbach

I'm from Kentucky, and around here, everyone starts talking mint juleps in May, at Derby time. I have never liked mint juleps, and frankly, I don't know many people who do like them, but we all drink them on Derby Day. A couple of times, I got by with putting bourbon and ginger ale in my julep cup, but then I discovered the Seelbach cocktail. This cocktail is named for the Seelbach Hotel, where it was introduced in 1917 at its famous bar.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was once kicked out of the Seelbach for having a bit too much bourbon, and Al Capone was a regular there, as well. Movie stars and presidents have stayed there, and it's on the National Register of Historic Places. I decided that the Seelbach cocktail is an even better tribute to the beautiful city of Louisville, where the Derby takes place, and considerably more delicious than a mint julep, so now that's what I drink on the first Saturday in May.

1.5 oz bourbon
1/2 oz Cointreau
7 dashes Angostura bitters
7 dashes Peychauds bitters

Stir with ice in a mixing glass, strain into a cocktail glass or a flute glass, and top with champagne. Garnish with an orange peel.

Yes, that's 14 dashes of bitters.

The Seelbach is probably my favorite bourbon cocktail, and one of my favorite of all cocktails.

The Corpse Reviver #2

In honor of the spookiest of nights, tonight our cocktail is the Corpse Reviver #2. I'm pulling this recipe from the book I used for the Boulevardier, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. The Corpse Reviver is more of a class of drinks than just one drink--as the name implies, these are drinks intended to cure hangovers. After drinking one of these, I'm not sure how much curing it does, other than the fact that it extends how long you are drunk (thus, no hangover, at least for the time-being). The famous (infamous?) cocktail book, The Savoy Cocktail Book, originally published in 1930 by Harry Craddock, warned of this drink, "Four taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again." Yeah. I'm pretty sure he was right about that.

The ingredients:

• 1 oz gin (I used Plymouth)
• 1 oz Cointreau (we are out of Cointreau so I used Grand Marnier)
• 1 oz Lillet Blanc
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 to 3 drops of absinthe or pastis (I used Absente)
• Garnish with one unstemmed cherry dropped in the bottom of the glass

Combine all ingredients (except the cherry) in an ice-filled shaker, shake until chilled, and serve. I actually used a shaker for this one, so go me. I've found that the absinthe can sometimes be really overpowering, but the lemon knocks the oomph out of it in this drink. It's quite tart and that masks the flavor of the booze, which can be dangerous (hence, the four in a row unreviving the dead). This is a tasty cocktail, and I'll be adding it into my normal rotation more often.