A Champagne Toast

It’s New Years Eve again. And what better way to celebrate than with a traditional glass of bubbly. But perhaps you are tired of the mundane, and looking to spice up your drink a bit. Well here a couple of drinks sure to make your New Years just that much better!

The Champagne Cocktail
1 Sugar Cube
Angostura Bitters
Champagne

Simple and effective, the addition of a bitters soaked sugar cube livens up the champagne, and the extra bubbles rising up your flute add that dramatic flourish.

The Kir Royale and other Twists
3/4 oz Creme de Cassis
Champagne

Simple adding a liqueur such as Cassis, St. Germain, Chartreuse, Aperol, or anything similar gives a nice flavor addition while still retaining that classic champagne cocktail feel.

The French 75
2 oz Gin
1 oz Lemon juice
1 tsp Simple Syrup
Champagne

Occasionally made with Cognac vs Gin, this champagne cocktail is strong and tasty. For those who aren’t big champagne fans, you can also substitute the bubbly with either a Belgian beer to keep the sweetness, or a nice IPA for a little more bitterness.

Soyer Au Champagne
2 dashes Maraschino
2 dashes Brandy
2 dashes Grand Marnier
2 dashes Pineapple Juice
1 scoop Vanilla Ice Cream
Champagne

This one is more of a dessert drink and it fits the bill perfectly. Sweet and creamy, this drink is masterfully blended to create a complex, flavorful cocktail that really hits the spot.

The Seelbach Cocktail
1 oz Bourbon
1/2 oz Cointreau
7 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
7 dashes Angostura Bitters
Champagne

This one is for the whiskey lovers out there. Paired with a very generous amount of bitters, this one is for those who would otherwise be drinking Old Fashioneds and Sazeracs.

So there you have it, several variations that are sure to please everyone’s palate. So go out, celebrate and enjoy responsibly. Cheers!

Vintage Cocktails #74: The Vowel Cocktail

It’s been a while since I have mixed up a cocktail from Vintage Spirits, partly due to the fact that there are only a few left and partly because I am missing some ingredients. Luckily for me, one of my favorite bartenders in town happened to pick up some Kümmel on his last liquor excursion.

Called for in just a few drinks, this caraway flavored liqueur works well in this cocktail, blending in with the Scotch and Vermouth. It doesn’t stand out, but instead provides a subtle addition to the drink. Be sure to use a less peaty/smoky scotch in this one. Cheers!

The Vowel Cocktail
1oz Scotch Whisky
1oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2oz Orange Juice
1/2oz Kümmel
Dash Angostura Bitters

Anvil Bar and Refuge

This last week, while on vacation in Houston, I had the opportunity to finally check out Anvil Bar and Refuge. Anvil is the creation of Bobby Heugel, one of Forbes’ 30 under 30: Food and Wine, and is one of, if not the best bar in town for cocktail nerds like myself. Anvil focuses exclusively in prohibition-era cocktails made from scratch with homemade infusions, fresh juices, fresh garnishes, and a great selection of spirits and liqueurs. In addition, Anvil also offers a fantastic selection of micro/craft beers on tap, usually including a cask conditioned beer.

The Space
The space now occupied by Anvil was previously a tire shop. The walls have been stripped down to bare brick, and the whole space has a sort of vintage, weathered look. It reminds me of an old blacksmith or butchers shop. On one side of the room is the bar. It is very long and wraps around the far corner of the room, and has room for about 25-30 seats. On the opposing side are booths and small tables, with a decently sized open area between them. Total capacity for the bar is around 60 seats.

The bar top is weathered steel with nice rolled edges, so it feels very comfortable. The foot rail is an old train track from 1952, and the back bar shelving is vintage pallet racking, that has been cut off to an appropriate shelf depth. When a trip to the restroom is in order, you walk through an old, heavy, wooden cooler door that was previously in a butcher shop. Above the door, in an alcove, are hundreds of old wine bottles, sitting in a rack and gathering dust. The whole place has an air of both the past and the present. It is a very cool space.

The Drinks
Anvil prides itself on a pre-prohibition era style of bartending. Their menu is relatively small compared to many other classic cocktail bars that I have been to, yet it contains a variety of drinks to suit most anyones taste. It also changes on a seasonal rotation, so there is usually something new to be found.

As soon as we seated ourselves at the bar, we were greeted and given large glasses of ice water, excellent service which more bars should attempt to emulate. For our first round, both Kate and I ordered from the menu. I had the Tin Pan Alley, a blend of hazelnut infused bourbon, lime and orgeat, served over crushed ice and garnished with a trio of roasted hazelnuts. Kate had the Waltzing Matilda: gin, sauvingnon blanc, lemon, passionfruit and house ginger beer, served in a tall glass and garnished with a wedge of lemon and a sprig of mint. Both drinks were delicious.

For our second round, we deviated from the menu and ordered a Sazerac and a Rye Manhattan, of which we were informed that rye was always how they served their Manhattans. These drinks, while good, fell a little bit short of the previous two. My Sazerac came to me garnished with a beautiful strip of fragrant lemon, but the anise flavors from the absinthe rinse were almost non-existant. It was still very delicious, but missing some of those aromas that I really enjoy. Kate’s Manhattan was served in a nice coupe glass and garnished with what I presumed to be a house brandied cherry. The Manhattan is the drink that really fell short for us. It was just a little bit thin in flavor. I’m not really sure why, but it just wasn’t up to the standard that I would expect of Anvil. Worst of all, the Manhattan was several dollars more than our other drinks. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

I didn’t get a chance to try any of the beers, but most are priced between 6 and 8 dollars a pint, which seems a little high to me. All in all, I was still very impressed with Anvil and everything that they have going on. If you are in Houston, or even just visiting, it is worth checking out. Cheers!

MxMo LXIII: Retro Redemption

Well, it’s time for Mixology Monday once again. This month is being hosted by the esteemed Jacob Greer who pens the Liquidity Preference blog. His challenge this month is to take a drink from those years that yielded few respectable cocktails, but many that were bright, sweet, cloying, or just downright horrid, and to rework it into a drink that should see a revival.

In a way, I was spared by most of these drinks, as my journey into cocktails started around the time of the current cocktail revival. In fact, my first cocktails were probably made around the same time as the inaugural MxMo event. However, one of the first cocktails that I ever made was the White Russian, and so it seemed fitting to focus on that particular cocktail.

Created in 1949, probably by Gustave Tops, the Belgian barman responsible for the Black Russian, and later launched to an almost iconic status by “The Dude”, this is a cocktail that really isn’t all that bad. I for one am not opposed to a cocktail that takes the place of my dessert as long as it still remains balanced, and this seems a perfect candidate for the task. And as luck would have it, a viable rendition is currently being served at one of my favorite bars in town, the Bayou Oyster Bar.

As many people know, I am not a huge vodka fan, and since part of my goal was to cut the sweetness of the drink and maybe add a little flavor to it, I chose to go with a coffee infused bourbon as my base spirit instead of the vodka present in the Oyster Bar’s version (Sorry Jim). So here you have my twist on the Black Drop, an updated White Russian for the 21st century.

The Bourbon Black Drop
1 1/2 oz coffee infused bourbon (I used Knob Creek Single Barrel)
1/2 oz Coffee liqueur (I used Starbucks coffee liqueur because I had some)
1/2 oz Creme de Cacao
Heavy Cream

MxMo LXII: Morning Drinks

It’s time for Mixology Monday once again, and this months topic, as chosen by Kevin at Cocktail Enthusiast, is Breakfast Drinks. His challenge is simple: create a cocktail for morning consumption, utilizing common breakfast ingredients, or being more creative and using infusions, bitters, etc. An interesting challenge considering that although the cocktail once dominated the early morning hours, it has definitely shifted to an evening beverage.

Now when I think of breakfast cocktails, my mind immediately jumps to the more obvious (The Bloody Mary or Mimosa), or the slightly less obvious (Ramos Gin Fizz or Corpse Reviver #2). However, there really isn’t the level of variety in morning drinks as there is for the traditional night cap.

So for this month, I have created my own twist on Salvatore Calabrese’s Breakfast Martini. I chose to utilize Bols Genever as my base spirit as I have been on a genever kick lately, and it is just a step outside the box from the more traditional gin or vodka morning drink. I infused the genever with Earl Grey tea, and combined it with Valencia orange juice, lemon juice, orange marmalade, egg white for texture, and orange bitters to balance it all out. Cheers!

The Morning Dutchman
2 oz Earl Grey infused Genever
1/2 oz Orange Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Marmalade
1 Egg White
2 Dashes Orange Bitters

Vintage Cocktails #73: Park Avenue Cocktail

Despite the name, this cocktail has more in common with a cool Florida night than it does with the streets of Manhattan. Ted Haigh expresses confused about the name of the drink as well.

Note, if you will, the tropical character, invoking Carmen Miranda strutting down a Palm Beach boulevard. As I say, the names of this and the Palm Beach Special preceding it, were obviously switched at birth.

This cocktail is light, fruity and complex, with pineapple being the dominant note in the aroma of the cocktail. On the taste, the gin and vermouth are at the forefront, with the pineapple and curacao rounding out the balance. I’m not sure what it was, but this cocktail did not suit my fancy in the least. I’m sure that some might think that it is fantastic, but I found the combination of ingredients absolutely horrific. I’ll have to give it at least one more chance, but maybe this one stayed forgotten for a reason.

Park Avenue Cocktail
2 oz Gin
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Orange Curacao

Vintage Cocktails #72: The Flying Dutchman

Unlike the flavored vodkas of our day, companies used to produce flavored gins of high quality. Still distinctly a gin, yet with a predominant flavor that paired well with a gins traditional botanicals. Sadly, this is a category that is for the most part obsolete, although there are a few holdouts. This next drink utilizes one of those flavored gins, and while it can be made with a plain Jane variety, it lacks that extra spark that the flavored gin brings to it. Bright and cheery, this drink originates from the Dutch bar book Internationale Cocktailgids (1950), penned by famed dutchman W. Slagter. Cheers!

The Flying Dutchman
2 oz Orange Gin
Juice of 1/4 Orange
Juice of 1/4 Lemon
3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Vintage Cocktails #71: Barnum Was Right

Back in the days of Harry Craddock and Jerry Thomas, a simple ingredient swap, or even a garnish change, often dictated a completely different name for a cocktail. In this case we have a base of gin, paired with lemon/lime juice and Angostura bitters. Add some maraschino and you have the Aviation; add some Cointreau and you have the Pegu Club; or in this instance, add some apricot brandy and you have the Barnum Was Right Cocktail.

This cocktail is fairly well balanced, although mostly unremarkable; the apricot flavors pairing decently with the gin, and the bitters keeping the whole drink from becoming overly cloying. Maybe Barnum, or more accurately George Hull, was right. There is a sucker born every minute.

Barnum Was Right
2 oz Gin
1 oz Apricot Brandy
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

MxMo LXI: Local Color

This month’s round of Mixology Monday is hosted by Lindsay at Alcohol Alchemy; for this month’s theme, Lindsay has picked Local Color, a chance for us all to showcase our favorite local craft distilled spirits. — Here’s how she puts it:

“Pull out your favorite “local” craft spirit (for those of you not in the US, what hidden gem from your neck of the woods do you want to give some cocktail press?), tell us a little bit about it and why you love it, and let it shine in whichever way (or ways!) you see fit!”

Since the liquor market is a worldwide industry, I really consider anything produced in Washington State to be local, and Washington seems to have exploded into the craft distilling market in the last two years, thanks largely in part to a craft distilling bill introduced through the efforts of Don and Kent at Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane. In fact, there are probably a dozen or more distilleries within a 2 hour drive from my house.

For this MxMo, I have chosen to use spirits from two northwest Washington distilleries; Ebb & Flow Gin from Sound Spirits in Seattle, and Pacifique Absinthe from Pacific Distillery in Woodinville. Both products are exceptional hand crafted spirits that really showcase the distillers love for their respective products.

For my cocktail, I have chosen to go with the White Lady, as it gives me a chance to use both of these spirits, while sipping something different than the corpse reviver that I would normally pair those two spirits with. Created by either Harry Craddock or Harry MacElhone (both lay claim to the creation of the cocktail) the White Lady is a simple twist on the Sidecar. Light and frothy with just the right amount of sourness, this is a cocktail that really showcases the spirits. Don’t forget to head over to Lindsay’s site in a couple of days to check out the round up of local spirits. Cheers!

White Lady
1 1/2 oz Gin
1 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Cointreau
2 dashes Absinthe