Aged Negronis

One cocktail trend I've noticed is the act of aging cocktails in some sort of barrel. I first saw barrel-aged negronis on a menu when I was in Portland last fall. I was pretty intrigued by this--what gets aged in the barrel? Is the cocktail mixed and the whole thing aged or was just one ingredient aged (and if so, which one)? What sort of barrel was it aged in? Once I got home, I did some research and found a good entry on the barrel-aged cocktail trend on Jeffrey Morgenthaler's blog. I like the idea of pre-mixing drinks; it certainly makes dishing up drinks at cocktail parties much faster. I love a drink experiment, so I thought about what I wanted to make and how I was going to age it.

I thought about what would benefit from being soaked in a bourbon barrel (or equivalent) for a few weeks, and I pretty much immediately wrote off bourbon-based cocktails. The bourbon's already been aged for years in bourbon barrels, what's the point of aging it a few more weeks? I can see aging a specific ingredient like Campari or sweet vermouth and then mixing it with bourbon, but that's a test for another day. Because my two main spirit bases are bourbon and gin, I decided to focus on a gin drink. Since Morgenthaler did negronis, I figured I start with that, too. Essentially, you can age anything that's all booze, but I wanted to start simple and focus on a drink that I'm already very familiar with.

Now, I had to decide what I was going to age it in. There are multiple places online to get mini barrels, but that seemed like a lot of booze when I had no idea if this was going to be drinkable or not. One of the places that sells mini barrels, Tuthilltown Spirits, also sells kits that have a 375ml glass bottle along with a wood stick from a barrel. These sticks use something Tuthilltown calls "honey comb" cutouts; the sticks have many little holes drilled at all angles to provide for more surface area. The price on one of these kits is low ($12.50) and it requires a lot less booze, so I went with this.

At some point in my research I came across this blog entry from ManMade. This guy was doing exactly what I wanted to, so I used this as a model. I ordered a bag of Jack Daniel's Wood Smoking Chips from Amazon as an alternative to the barrel staves from Tuthilltown (I used 12 grams of chips so it would be nearly the same weight as the stave) and went to work mixing my batches of negronis.

The recipe I used was a basic negroni mix, but because I was making two batches that were 375ml, I upped the size of my batch. Each bottle had:

• 1/2 cup Plymouth gin
• 1/2 cup Campari
• 1/2 cup Carpano Antica sweet vermouth

The picture on the left is the barrel stave kit from Tuthilltown; the right is a mason jar with Jack Daniel's wood chips.

Pre-aging

I put these both in the root cellar (a dark, cool place) for two weeks. I shook them up every three or four days. After two weeks, I opened them up, strained each into its own pitcher, and invited folks over for taste tests. I also made a pitcher of "fresh" negronis as a base line. Right away I could see that the aged batches were much darker in color than the fresh. I thought that might tip everyone off to which was the fresh, but it didn't. I labeled each pitcher A, B, or C so it was a blind taste test. To really nerd out, I made up a questionnaire to capture what people thought as they tasted each sample. If I was going to do this again, I'd probably give everyone all three samples at once so they compare each against each other.

Some photos:

 

 Pouring Sample A

Filling out the questionnaire for Sample A

Pouring Sample B

The samples have been consumed...now to score these!

Sample A was the wood chip version, B was the fresh, and C was the barrel stave version. I added an small orange peel garnish to each. Most people thought the wood chip version was the most bitter and they generally liked the barrel stave version the most. Personally, I thought A was pretty smooth, not overly smoky, and quite sweet. No one else really agreed with this opinion, but maybe I was biased because I was hoping the best would be the one with the cheapest barrel ingredient. Anyway, the two smoked versions were really very different from the fresh and from each other. I would definitely make either version again as they were both quite tasty.

I plan on aging other cocktails in the future--so far I've thought about the Bijou (gin, sweet vermouth, green Chartreuse, and orange bitters), the Martinez (Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino, and bitters), and the Dubonnet Cocktail (gin and Dubonnet). Dear readers, have any of you jumped on this trend? Post in the comments what you've aged and how you've aged it.

Negroni and Americano

Lots of people go for years seeing the bottle of bright red Campari on a shelf behind the bar, or at the liquor store, and wonder what in the world you do with it. Some of those people discover Campari by way of one of the most classic of cocktails, the Negroni. It's a 1:1:1 cocktail, like the Sidecar, but its flavor profile is completely in the opposite direction of that other classic.

1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Stir in a mixing glass and strain into a short glass with fresh ice. Garnish with a wide swath of orange peel, which you should squeeze over the glass before dropping it in.

You may notice that the drink in my photo --it's the one on the left -- is missing the orange peel. Sometimes you realize you really want a Negroni, even if you don't have any oranges in the house. Brad Thomas Parsons, in his excellent book Bitters suggests a few dashes of orange bitters to bring out the flavor, so I thought that might be good, in the absence of the peel. The peel is fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it's a shame to forgo a Negroni for want of orange peel.

I used Aviation gin, because it's an American-style gin, which means it's slightly less juniper-heavy, so I thought it would play nice with the bitters. I also used Punt e Mes, which is probably one of my favorite things in the whole Booziverse. "Punt e Mes" means "point and a half", which refers to the fact that Italians traditionally like to put bitters in their vermouth, and Punt e Mes is Italian (sweet) vermouth with bitters already added. It's delightful with soda and a slice of lemon. You may certainly use whatever sweet vermouth you like. Punt e Mes with Campari might be just too much bitters for some, but we love bitters in this house.

On the right side of the photo above, you'll see the Negroni's cousin, the Americano.

1.25 oz Campari
1.25 oz sweet vermouth
soda water
twist of lemon peel

It's like a Negroni with soda and no gin. You might wonder in what circumstance you would want "no gin", but sometimes that's what hits the spot.

A note about the soda water: I have seen the Americano made as a highball, with more soda. I read in How to Drink by Victoria Moore that less soda is better with bitters than more soda. She claims that you might think you can soften the bitter taste of Campari by diluting it with more soda, but what actually happens is you dilute the sweetness, which only sharpens the bitterness and throws off the balance. I have tested this myself, and it's true. So when I make an Americano, I stick with the short glass, and add just a bit of soda.

The Boulevardier

Tonight's cocktail is the Boulevardier, close cousin to the Negroni. This is a classic recipe, but the particulars of this one come to you from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh, AKA Dr. Cocktail (this book is AWESOME, by the way and I highly recommend it). According to the good doctor's research, the Boulevardier first appeared in print 1927, in Harry McElhone's (ex-barman at the Plaza Hotel and owner of Harry's New York Bar) Barflies and Cocktails.

For this one, you'll need:

• 1 1/2 oz bourbon (I've used Evan Williams, which is probably one of my favorite mixing and plain old drinking bourbons, but you could use anything)
• 1 oz Campari
• 1 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth (again, the Carpano is suggested, but any sweet vermouth will do in a pinch)
• Garnish: Cherry (we have some really fancy Luxardo cherries that I like to use), lemon peel, or orange slice
• Ice

Throw the bourbon, Campari, and vermouth in an ice-filled shaker. Shake until chilled and strain into a cocktail glass. Put the garnish in and enjoy.

This is basically a Negroni with bourbon instead of gin, and honestly I prefer this to the Negroni. I feel like the bourbon sweetens up the Campari, whereas the gin keeps it fairly bitter. I like both drinks though, so make sure you try 'em both and see which you prefer.

I feel like I have to come clean about the shaker business here--I rarely (and I mean rarely) use a shaker. I really only ever use one if someone is having a Martini (which I never do, but occasionally my sweetheart likes a Gibson) or if we have company and I want to be classy. I usually just put everything in an old-fashioned glass, fill it with ice, and stir until it is chilled. I will admit there is something nice about using a shaker, mainly that your drink gets COLD fast, but I tend to struggle with not making a mess. So, if you don't use a shaker, don't feel bad, because I'm right there with you.