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.

A few words from The Savoy Cocktail Book

A Few Hints for the Young Mixer (from The Savoy Cocktail Book)

1. Ice is nearly always an absolute essential for any Cocktail.
2. Never use the same ice twice.
3. Remember that the ingredients mix better in a shaker rather larger than is necessary to contain them.
4. Shake the shaker as hard as you can: don't just rock it: you are trying to wake it up, not send it to sleep!
5. If possible, ice your glasses before using them.
6. Drink your Cocktail as soon as possible. Harry Craddock was once asked what was the best way to drink a Cocktail: "Quickly," replied that great man, "while it's laughing at you!"

A few additional words from me:

Many people seem to underestimate the importance of ice. As quoted above, ice is clearly one of the most important features of a cocktail. A lack of ice is a real detriment to a party; make sure you stock up! Get a bunch of ice, a couple of ice buckets, some booze, and you're good to go. Even straight alcohol benefits from some ice, so use it liberally.

Rhubarb Blush

Tonight's cocktail is the Rhubarb Blush, yet another drink that Peyton brought home from his adventures in Portland. Like the Tamarind Whiskey Sour, the Rhubarb Blush is a Pok Pok invention. Aperol is sort of like the sweeter and less sassy little sister of Campari. Not only does it have a lower alcohol content (only 11%), it's also substantially less bitter than Campari. This is not to say that I don't love Campari's bitterness, it's just that in some drinks I can see the advantage of having a Campari-like component that is a little less aggressive. 

But, enough about that and on to the Rhubarb Blush. This is a really delightful little cocktail--I think it might make a great aperitif in that it's rather low in alcohol and fairly modest in size. The flavor is slightly floral and citrus-y. Although there is a fair amount of lime juice in the drink, it is not overwhelmingly tart. The best part of the drink, however, is the rhubarb bitters. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little obsessed with them. For weeks now, I've been drinking Fees Rhubarb Bitters with soda water. I love both the flavor and the scent of the bitters--they perfectly compliment the Aperol and the gin in their floral and citrus profiles as well. 

Ingredients:
1 ounce London dry gin
1 ounce fresh lime juice from about 2 limes
1 ounce Aperol
1 dash Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
Garnish: orange twist

In a cocktail shaker, combine gin, lime juice, Aperol and bitters. Fill shaker with ice and shake until fully chilled, about 15 seconds. Pour drink, ice included, into glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

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French Gin Rickey

I know it's November and we're supposed to put away our gin and ice cubes, but I had a stressful day today and it was dark and gray outside, and what I really wanted was something sweet and fizzy. This drink doesn't have a clever name, and it's just about as basic as it gets. Traditionally, a Gin Rickey is just gin, lime juice, and club soda, like a gin & tonic with no tonic. But if you went into an old-timey soda fountain, if you were lucky enough to be able to go into an old-timey soda fountain, and you ordered a Lime Rickey, you'd get something with lime juice, syrup, and seltzer, and no gin. So, I think for that reason, a lot of people make a Gin Rickey with sugar in it, even if it's not the original formula. I myself find the gin & soda version a little flat, and the times I've had it, I felt like I wished the soda was tonic.

You could probably make this with any number of things for the syrup, like simple syrup, Cointreau, grenadine, or any other kind of flavored syrup or sweet liqueur. Elderflower always tastes cheerful to me, and as I said, I was looking for a mood-lifter.

2 oz gin (a London dry style stands up well to the syrup)
1 oz lime juice
1 oz elderflower syrup or St Germain liqueur

Shake well with ice and strain into a highball glass with fresh ice. Top with club soda and throw a hunk of squeezed lime shell in the glass.

Note: I like St Germain. But it's expensive, and I'm cheap. I like to buy the elderflower syrup from IKEA to use in cocktails that call for St Germain. It's cheap and it tastes great.

The Tamarind Whiskey Sour

Another drink I discovered in Portland was the Tamarind Whiskey Sour. I had one of these fabulous creatures at Pok Pok, a pretty spectacular Thai joint. Pok Pok (and their sister bar, Whiskey Soda Lounge) specialize in drinking vinegars. Honestly, I don't even really understand what these drinking vinegars are, but they are tasty. Pok Pok has multiple varieties, from apple to honey to tamarind and a bunch in between, and they use these in cocktails. You can buy a bottle of the concentrate and make your own at home. I wasn't able to find a recipe for the Tamarind Whiskey Sour anywhere, so I took a stab at recreating it myself. From the menu, I knew the ingredients were tamarind drinking vinegar, bourbon, palm sugar, and lime. Based on what I have at the house, this is what I came up with:

• 2 oz bourbon (I used Evan Williams)
• 1/2 oz tamarind drinking vinegar concentrate
• 1 1/2 oz soda water
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup (1:1 syrup)

Mix all ingredients in a old-fashioned glass, fill with ice, and serve. I garnished with a slide of lime. Honestly, I can't remember what the real thing tasted like, but this was a pretty tasty facsimile. The lime makes the whole thing refreshing, and while the tamarind isn't overpowering, you can definitely tell it's there. Buy your own drinking vinegars here and try this one yourself. Anyone who knows the real recipe, please let me know! I'd like to know how close I got to the real recipe, considering I did this 2 weeks after my trip. I also have a bottle of Jarritos Tamarind soda that I've been hanging onto to make into a cocktail, and this has given me a little encouragement to take the plunge and try something out.

Scofflaw

Ever since I started making cocktails, I have had a running list of drinks I wanted to try but had to hold off on because I didn't have any grenadine. Now, grenadine is a common ingredient, and you're probably thinking that you've seen grenadine in every liquor store, so what's the problem? Well, the bottles you see most often, usually Rose's, are really just corn syrup with red dye. Grenadine should be made out of pomegranates -- the name is actually derived from the French word for pomegranate. I have seen recipes for making my own grenadine from pomegranate juice, but not only have I not gotten around to doing that, I'm slightly reluctant, because homemade syrup has a limited shelf life, even in the refrigerator. I'll make homemade simple syrup, because if I have to throw some out, it's no big deal, but I have been more hesitant about anything that involves more pricey ingredients, and a bottle of pomegranate juice is going to make a batch of grenadine so large I would never finish it.

I have searched around and read reviews online, to see if there are any commercially-available grenadines that are made from pomegranate and have an authentic and, more importantly, tasty flavor. I read good things about Sonoma syrups, and the last time I'd been at our local liquor store (the big one) they'd started carrying some of the flavors, but no grenadine. Today, we went to the store for some gin, and I checked to see if they'd gotten the grenadine -- and they had. I felt like I finally had the key to that great big room full of cocktails that I'd put off until I acquired some grenadine!

One that I'd marked in my copy of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails is the Scofflaw. I wanted to start here, because this cocktail has a pretty hefty dose of grenadine, and not just a dash or two. The recipe in the book calls for rye, and I do like rye -- but I don't have any at the moment, and since I was so excited to finally be holding a bottle of grenadine, I decided I didn't want to wait until someday when I get around to getting another bottle of rye. I figured it was okay to substitute bourbon, as we usually do when we're making Manhattans and we're out of rye. It was delicious!

1.5 oz rye (or bourbon)
1 oz dry vermouth
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz real pomegranate grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass (I double-strained through a fine mesh tea strainer, to catch any solids from the lemon juice, but it's not mandatory). Garnish with a lemon twist.

A note about dry vermouth: I was never a fan of dry vermouth until I tried Dolin. It has a lot more complex flavor than the usual dry vermouths. It will change the way you think about martinis! But that's another post...

The Communist

Today, we made our bimonthly (as in every two months, not twice in a month) trip to Andy's Liquor in Rochester, MN, to find some new kinds of booze and to stock up on favorites. Our shopping list included Cherry Heering, Carpano Antica, Vya sweet vermouth, Plymouth gin, and a case (!) of Darci's favorite wine, Predator. I had seen a good number of recipes for Cherry Heering in some of my cocktail books, so I was excited to find a bottle at Andy's. I really cannot rave enough about Andy's...they have amazing customer service (they carry the booze to your car!), the selection is pretty unbeatable, and they are just generally nice folks. Also, they have a good number of sample bottles of the stuff they carry, so if you are unsure about something, they'll often give you a taste.

Cherry Heering sort of smelled like cherry cough syrup, but it didn't taste anything like that. According to Imbibe, you can use Cherry Heering where you would use cherry brandy, but it really is not the same thing as a brandy. Anyway, the drink I decided to make is the Communist. This is a drink I saw in Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. This is originally from a 1933 pamphlet called "Cocktail Parade." I tried to find more information about the pamphlet online, but no luck. The ingredients:

• 1 oz gin (I used Tanqueray)
• 1 oz orange juice (I used fresh squeezed, but I would use bottled in a pinch)
• 1/2 oz Cherry Heering
• 3/4 oz lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled shaker, shake, and strain into a cocktail glass. This is quite sticky so watch out. We garnished with an orange peel. It's tart and tangy, and slightly sweet, although it might be sweeter if we used bottled orange juice instead of fresh-squeezed. I don't know that I could pick out any of the ingredients except the gin, so they worked well together. Tanqueray seems a bit floral/herbal to me, so I think next time I will use something that's a little more neutral. Overall, I enjoyed this drink and can't wait to try more Cherry Heering drinks.