Timeless elegance

Timeless elegance is the theme of this month’s Mixology Monday Challenge and Special 100th Edition. With the resurgence of cocktail culture in the last 15 years, it’s interesting to note that we seem to have gone though a cycle. The old classics were rediscovered, elevated, tweaked, riffed on. Eventually we got a bit side-tracked with exotic ingredients, molecular mixology, or 20-component cocktails. Now the trend seems to be for simple yet memorable cocktails.

One person though always stayed the course, and his vision of perfectly crafted cocktails inspired countless bartenders all over the world. That person, of course, is Sasha Petraske, who passed away a few days ago. It’s quite incredible how much of a deep impact he had on the cocktail world as a whole. So many bartenders I admire have worked in his bars, or have been trained by people who worked in his bars. Many of them have opened or managed successful and influential bars.

Level-headed

Dinah Sanders who authored the Art of the Shim, a nice little book about low-alcohol cocktails, is hosting Mixology Monday this month and has chosen shims as her theme. She defines them as drinks that contain less than half an ounce of strong spirits.

One of my favorite discoveries in the book is the Rhum Dandy Shim by Craig Lane of Bar Agricole in San Francisco. It’s red vermouth-based and cleverly uses rhum agricole and absinthe as modifiers. It manages to create a huge amount of flavor with only half an ounce of hard liquor. A very inspiring drink that shows that you don’t have to compromise on taste with these low-octane libations.

Winter Tiki

It’s winter, but that’s not a reason to not enjoy tiki cocktails. When the weather is colder, spice-forward cocktails are especially appropriate.

Here are a couple of tiki drinks that I have enjoyed recently. The first one is the Winter Diamonback that was created at the El Dorado lounge in San Diego. It is based on the template of Harry Craddock’s Rattlesnake, one of my favorite cocktails that combines rye with lemon, simple syrup, egg white, and a rinse of absinthe. Changing the sweetener from simple syrup to a combination of cinnamon syrup and orgeat is the basis for the Winter Diamondback. With its cinnamon and absinthe flavor, it is unmistakably a tiki drink in the vein of Don the Beachcomber’s best creations, even though it’s rye-based. The blanket of egg white softens the flavors and helps blend everything harmoniously.

Ward Eight & Ninth Ward

The Ward Eight is a famous cocktail created in Boston that is considered a classic. But despite its reputation, it never completely convinced me. I see two problems with the Ward Eight. First orange juice is a difficult ingredient in cocktails. Orange does not have the acidity of lemon or lime, and often fails to balance the sweetness of the other ingredients. Then the drink also includes grenadine which is another problematic ingredient. I am not even talking about fake commercial grenadine which does not contain an ounce of pomegranate juice. Even good quality grenadine can easily take over a drink if you are not careful. And when combined with orange juice… Well let’s just say that even though the Ward Eight is a decent cocktail, I feel sad to use a good bottle of rye in this drink because most of its qualities are shadowed by the other ingredients.

I tried a few versions of the Ward Eight including this one from PDT that uses pomegranate molasses for the grenadine and was left feeling underwhelmed.

Smoke: Playing with Laphroaig

After Fire! in August which gave me an excuse to make a classic tiki Volcano Bowl, this month’s Mixology Monday challenge was Smoke!, the theme picked by Elana of the Stir and Strain blog.

When considering smoke, two ingredients came to my mind immediately: mezcal and Laphroaig. I decided to focus on Laphroaig as I don’t use it very often. I bought a bottle after falling in love with Sam Ross’s Penicillin, a new classic that pairs blended scotch with ginger, lemon, and a touch of smoke from the Laphroaig. Sam seems to play with Laphroaig quite a bit; his Fitzroy is a great Rob Roy variation where Laphroaig makes a great impact.

Kaieteur Swizzle

After attending Martin Cate’s fascinating seminar at Tiki Oasis about tiki restaurateur extraordinaire Stephen Crane (Intrigue! Adventure! Hollywood! Tiki!), it is not difficult finding inspiration for new tiki drinks. The other night I made Don the Beachcomber’s Volcano Bowl, a flaming tiki drink which has the particularity of using maple syrup as a sweetening agent. I was looking for drinks from Stephen Crane’s restaurants, the Luau and the Kon Tiki, but ended up finding a swizzle recipe by Martin Cate that looked interesting and also used maple syrup. He named it the Kaieteur Swizzle, after the waterfalls in Guyana.

What is great about swizzles is that they are built directly in the glass. You just add all of your ingredients, then the crushed ice, you swizzle preferably with a swizzle stick made of bois-lélé or a bar spoon, top with crushed ice, add your garnish and a straw, and you are done. Easy and very refreshing in the summer.

Fire!

This weekend was Tiki Oasis in San Diego, the 13th edition of an annual gathering that brings together tiki fans from all over the world. Four days of tiki music, creative tiki outfits, a super relaxed atmosphere, and of course fabulous tiki drinks. These included a couple of cocktails at the Bali Hai opening night party with a classic Navy Grog and their take on the Zombie. We had a few drinks at the vendors’ booths: an excellent ti punch riff at the rhum Clement booth, as well as a refreshing punch at the Denizen booth with grapefruit and Aperol. We also sampled three delicious drinks featuring Boy Drinks World cocktail bitters at a preview of the BDW room party (disclaimer – he is a friend). Lastly, we had a chance to attend a seminar by Martin Cate during which he served several cocktails by Stephen Crane, who was not only one of Lana Turner’s many husbands (he actually married her not once but twice!), but also the owner of Polynesian-theme restaurant the Luau in Beverly Hills, and the Kon Tiki chain of restaurants.

After attending Martin Cate’s lively seminar about this unsung hero of tikiness, I could not wait to dust off my Kon Tiki bowl and prepare something for this month’s MxMo theme, Fire. Sometimes a solid classic is best, and I selected Don the Beachcomber’s Volcano Bowl. Four different rums, with a refreshing mix of grapefruit juice and lime juice, and maple syrup as the sweetener. For my rum mix I went with El Dorado 5 for the Demerara rum, Appleton 12 for the gold Jamaican rum, and Plantation 5 Barbados as a substitute for the gold Puerto Rican rum. I also used a touch of Lemon Hart 151 for my fire element, which I extinguished after the photo to enjoy the rum with the rest of the drink. A wonderful way to conclude a fun weekend.

Southern Exposure

When I received a bunch of really fresh celery in my farmers’ market bag yesterday, I immediately knew what I wanted to make. I am not usually a fan of celery – tough, bitter and stringy are the first words that come to mind. But fresh celery is a different matter; it has a fresh green fennel taste and I could see the potential for a nice cocktail. Dave Stolte at Home Bar Basics had published the recipe for the Southern Exposure, a creation by Daniel Hyatt at San Francisco’s Alembic, and I was eager to try it. It is a riff on the Southside that uses celery juice.

Oh Gosh

Continuing with my exploration of Tony Conigliaro’s Cocktail Lab, last night I tried the Oh Gosh, a daiquiri variation with triple sec. The recipe calls for a 3-year old rum which I thought was strangely specific and understood as code for Havana Club Añejo white. I wonder if the brand is specified in the British edition? I used Cointreau for the triple sec.

Punch drunk love

Ti’ Punch is more than just a drink in the French Antilles, it’s a ritual. First there is the rum or rather, the rhum. Rhum agricole has the particularity of being made from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses as most rums (the so-called “industrial” or traditional rums). Rhum agricole can be likened to an eau-de-vie obtained by fermenting and distilling sugarcane juice. In Martinique, rhum agricole is protected with an AOC (controlled designation of origin) which regulates the provenance and cultivation of the cane and the production process. These characteristics confer a distinctive flavor profile to the rum. Rhums agricoles are typically grassy, vegetal, funky, and powerful.  Whereas most other rums are immediately approachable, rhum agricole can take some getting used to. But once you get hooked to the fresh cane aroma, you never look at rum the same way.