Frankly My Dear

Day 321, Cocktails 326 & 327

Last Saturday, after the couple of tiki cocktails that I had whipped up, the girls were ready for something different.  There’s been a bit of a buzz over the last year for cocktails that are mixed with tea (and for liquor bottled with tea) that I’ve largely ignored.  However, with a couple of adult beverages already in me, my inhibitions were lowered and I decided to give tea based cocktails a try.

For this effort I pulled out my bottle of Evan Williams bourbon and my Stirrings Peach liqueur.  These are two flavors that go well together and also seemed a natural to go with a Southern inspired tea based cocktail – particularly since I’d be using Gwen’s sweet tea.  After fooling around with the bourbon, peach liqueur, tea and maple syrup (yes, that’s right, maple syrup – it adds depth to the flavor profile)  I settled on two versions of the same cocktail.  One is sweeter and one is more boozy, thus fitting Gwen’s and my tastes.

  Sweet Peach Tea

• 1-1/2 oz Evan Williams bourbon
• 1/8 oz Stirrings Peach Liqueur
• 1/4 oz maple syrup
• 4 oz sweet tea

Combine the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously to chill and combine.  Pour into a collins glass, adding ice if needed.  Garnish with a peach slice.

This drink has a nice, sweetly mellow flavor.  I really had to cut down on the peach liqueur, having started with 1/2 oz.  Even that small amount overwhelmed the drink.  However, for my taste, this was a bit too sweet, so I adjusted it for my taste.

  Peach Tea

• 2 oz Evan Williams bourbon
• 1/8 oz Stirrings Peach Liqueur
• 1/4 oz maple syrup
• 4 oz sweet tea

Combine the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously to chill and combine.  Pour into a collins glass, adding ice if needed.  Garnish with a peach slice.

This version gets closer to the boozy cocktails that I prefer while still maintaining all its southern charm.  With more bourbon and less tea there is a deeper, smokier quality and the maple notes come through stronger as well, which make a nice compliment to the bourbon and peach.

By the time we got through these cocktails it was definitely time to call it a night…which, of course, we didn’t do.  The cocktail experimenting was definitely over though!

Cheers!

Bermuda Shorts

Day 310, Cocktail 312

Ok boys and girls, let this be a lesson to you…do not let middle aged men drink and have access to bermuda shorts. 

With that said, Tuesday night I was again somewhat aimlessly wandering through the Ultimate Bar Book, looking for a cocktail for the evening.  A few pages after the not so special Barton’s Special I found Tuesday’s drink.  Thinking of Bermuda got me thinking of warm weather, summer and fun.  Yes, the pool is still buried under several feet of snow and ice, but it is March.  Spring training is under way and it won’t be long before the warm breezes reach us, the tiki torches are lit and we are on our way to summer fun.

In the meantime, the Bermuda Highball (and those guys in the funny shorts) will have to sustain me.

  Bermuda Highball

• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz brandy
• 1 oz dry vermouth
• ginger ale

Combine the gin, brandy and vermouth in a mixing glass with a few ice cubes and stir to mix.  Pour, ice and all, into a collins glass, fill with ice and top with the ginger ale.  Give a quick stir to mix.

A pretty tasty cocktail that is well balanced.  I used St. Remy brandy and Beefeater gin in this one and they both blended well with the vermouth.  There were hints of the vermouth that came through the ginger ale, with the gin and brandy playing nice supporting roles.

So breakout the shorts and get ready for summer!

Cheers!

Hulla Balloo

Day 308, Cocktail 310

Well, with that big shindig in LA last night (and for the record, I didn’t watch a minute of it, and, actually, still don’t know who won what…seriously.  I have better things to do, like drink all these cocktails and tell you about them!) what would be a better cocktail for Sunday (at least by name) than the Hulla Balloo.  Like several of my recent efforts, this comes from Dr. Tiki at the TikiBar TV podcast.  And like all of my posts to date, it has nothing to do with the Oscars…hehe.  So, without further adieu (drum roll and dramatic announcer voiceover), I bring you the Hulla Balloo!

  Hulla Balloo

• 2 oz brandy
• 2 oz scotch
• 5 oz lemonade

Combine the brandy, scotch and lemonade in a mixing glass and stir.  Pour into a tall tiki or collins glass filled with cracked ice.  Add your favorite umbrella or plastic monkey and serve.

Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by this drink.  I really thought that this particular combination of ingredients wouldn’t be quite so tasty, but it was.  You get a nice depth from the brandy (I had used St. Remy) and a pleasant, smokey taste from the Johnny Walker Red scotch that I used.  With the sweetness of the lemonade, this turns out to be just right.  Even Gwen liked it, and that really came as a surpise given the brandy and scotch in it.

So the next time your event hits Hulla Balloo territory, break one of these out for your guests!

Cheers!

Trap Door

Day 302, Cocktail 303

Yesterday’s cocktail was also courtesy of what appears to be the now defunct Tiki Bar TV (moment of respectful silence).  During it’s 5 year run it was at times funny, at times tawdry but always true to its tiki roots.  The last episode came out in December, 2009 and despite rumours during 2010 that there would be more, alas, there hasn’t been.  Dr. Tiki, Johnny Johnny and Lala you are missed!  And now, for the cocktail.  This little gem is from the second episode when Dr. Tiki writes this prescription for a guy trying to get out of a bad relationship. 

  Trap Door

• 1 oz gin
• 1 oz spiced rum
• 2 oz orange juice
• 3/4 oz lime juice
• seltzer water

Combine the gin, rum, orange and lime juice in a shaker with ice.  Shake to combine and chill.  Strain into a tiki glass filled with cracked ice.  Top with seltzer water.

I usually don’t used spiced rums in cocktails (I used Sailor Jerry, which is what I stock in the Twilight Lounge) but I have to admit that it worked out well in this cocktail.  The spice from the Sailor Jerry mellowed out over time, giving the drink a smooth, silky feel that wasn’t too sweet.  The gin (I used Beefeater for this one) is a base, but with its botanicals, is present to the taste buds.  The lime and orange balance each other out well.  All in all, a nice, tropical, tiki style cocktail.  In fact, it was so good I had two!

Cheers!

300

Day 300, Cocktails 298, 299 & 300

Saturday night marked day 300 – I’m in the final stretch now!  Since we stayed home Saturday night it was easy to knock back three new cocktails while we enjoyed watching Dr. No (a James Bond classic with Sean Connery) and then Frost Nixon.  Both movies were evocative of classic style cocktails, so that’s what I stuck with for the night.

The first cocktail was from the old Tiki Bar TV podcast.  Unfortunately, Tiki Bar TV seems to have met its demise, but the catalog of 40 some odd episodes is still available on ITunes.  Check it out – it’s the most!

  Suffering Bastard

• 1-1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz bourbon
• 3/4 oz lime
• ginger ale

In a mixing glass combine the gin, bourbon and lime juice and stir.  Strain into a tiki glass with cracked ice.  Top with ginger ale and garnish with a mint sprig.

This is really a variant on the classic mules, although the use of the bourbon and gin makes it quite different from the versions using tequila and vodka.  It was quite tasty, and with the mint garnish, really has a tiki feel to it.

After the Suffering Bastard, I switched us to a gin based martini style drink.  We were watching Frost Nixon by then, and a martini just seemed like the drink to have.  I picked out something called the Sweet Martini from The Martini Book by Sally Ann Berk.

  Sweet Martini

• 3 oz gin
• 1 oz sweet vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters

Combine the ingredients in mixing glass with ice and stir to mix and chill.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.

The sweet version of my classic martini, this was good.  The use of orange bitters instead of the standard Agnostura was nice, offsetting the sweetness of the vermouth. 

After the orange bitters flavor of the Sweet Martini, I had a hankering for something with rye and orange – I know, a big surprise!  Here’s what I put together.

  Frost Nixon

• 2-1/2 oz Old Overholt rye
• 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 1 dash orange bitters
• orange slice

Place an orange slice in a shaker with ice cubes and add the rest of the ingredients.  Shake, shake, shake to chill and mix.  Strain into a chilled coupe.

A combination of a Manhattan and my favorite rye and orange combination.  Very tasty with hints of fresh orange juice and the orange bitters providing depth to the rye and vermouth.

As I finished up this cocktail the movie also finished up and it was time to call it a night.  And some night it was!

Cheers!

Almond Lychee and the Goblet of Fire

Day 264, Cocktails 263 & 264

Friday night was a stay in family night for us.  The kiddos picked out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the DVD player and Gwen and the daughters put together a mini Tapas of appetizers for us.  My job was to whip up cocktails for us, non-alchoholic for the daughters, of course.

I had a can of Lychee fruit juice, which has become a favorite at the Twilight Lounge, especially for daughter number 2.  I started by mixing up her non-alcholic cocktail.  I began with a pint glass filled with ice.  Next I added about 3 oz of the lychee juice, 1 oz of orgeat, juice from 1/2 a lime (about 3/4 oz) and then topped it with tonic water.  Sometimes I’ll also drizzle in a bit of grenadine on the top for color, although I did not do that this time.  You can also top this with seltzer water or lemon lime soda – my daughter happens to like the tonic water.  It was soooo good that she had another!

You’ve seen orgeat in some of my cocktails, mostly tiki type fare.  It is an almond flavored syrup and is usually available in larger liquor stores with the other flavorings such as grenadine or bloody mary mix.  It is thick and sweet, so it doesn’t take too much to flavor a cocktail.  It is just one of those ingredients I always have on hand.

Now, what to make for the adults?

  Almond Lychee

• 1-1/2 oz Appleton Estate VX amber rum
• 1 oz lychee juice
• 1/4 oz orgeat syrup
• 1/2 oz lime juice

Combine the ingredients in a shaker and shake, shake, shake to mix and chill.  You really need to work this one over to make sure the orgeat gets thoroughly incorporated.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lychee fruit.

I know, my picture doesn’t have a garnish – I didn’t have any lychee fruit in the house, but next time I will!  This is a nice, tiki style cocktail with a twist from the lychee juice.  The closest I can come to describing how it tastes is pear – but a little lighter.  There’s a bit of the molasses flavor from the rum and the lime helps provide a bit of tart, cutting the sweetness of the orgeat. 

The Almond Lychee was so good that we had two while watching good ‘ol Harry once again beat off the advances of what’s his name that shall remain unnamed.

Later last night I went down to the Twilight Lounge to write yesterday’s post.  As usual, I poured myself a whiskey on the rocks to sip on while I wrote.  Normally I would have had a scotch (Cutty Sark is my house blended) but instead decided to use Russell’s 6 Reserve Rye last night.  After a couple of sips, which I did enjoy, I decided to tinker.  After fooling around and adusting a bit here’s what I came up with.

  Blog Sipper

• 2oz Russell’s Reserve Rye
• 3 dashes Angosturo orange bitters
• 1/4 oz lemon juice

In a mixing glass, combine the ingredients (bitters first) with ice cubes.  Stir for 30-45 seconds to combine and chill.  Strain into a rocks glass with large ice cubes or an ice ball.

Mmmm, that lovely combination of orange flavors and rye with just a touch of lemon is delicious.  The perfect cocktail to sip on while I muse over the cocktail world!

Cheers!

Out on the Town

Day 216, Cocktails 213 & 214

Saturday night was a night out on the town for Paula, Cookie, Gwen and me.  We started by stopping by Bryant’s for a cocktail before dinner.  Proprietor John Dye was manning the bar when we arrived and I asked John for something with rye and ginger beer.  He came up with an original cocktail on the spot that has no name.  It consisted of Old Overholt rye, Gosling ginger beer, Branca Menta, Peychaud’s bitters and lime juice.  It was very tasty and had just an overtone of mint, which I originally guessed as creme de menthe, incorrectly so as it turned out.  The mint flavor came from the Branca Menta, which is a mint version of Fernet Branca.  Very herbal, almost bitter tasting, it helped round out the cocktail John made in a way that creme de menthe would never be able to do.

After our drink at Bryant’s we headed to Casablanca for dinner.  The food was excellent and the atmosphere was interesting.  We’ll definately return soon!

After dinner we headed to another favorite, the Foundation Tiki bar in Riverwest.  There I enjoyed a Blue Moana.  This tasty treat consists of vodka, blue curacao, lime juice with hints of orange and almond.  I’m sure the almond comes from orgeat syrup but I couldn’t quite figure if the orange was coming from orange juice, triple sec or Cointreau.  I also did not have a chance to quiz the bartender as shortly after we arrived a busload of pub crawlers arrived and the bar was hopping for the next hour!

All in all a great evening as we got to take my mom and Cookie to two of my favorite bars in Milwaukee.  We’re already looking forward to their next visit!

Cheers!

International Dining

Day 162, Cocktails 157 & 158

The local Newcomer’s International Dining group has been offering me new cocktail opportunities for several years now.  Usually we have enough couples participating each month to do it at one of the member’s home with everyone bringing a dish.  This month, though, the attendance was light so the group decided to dine out.  Bingo, a cocktail adventure in the making!

We had dinner at a south side Mexican restaurant.  The food was very good, but unfortunately the cocktails did not match the quality of the dinner.  I had what was listed on the menu as a Polamos cocktail.  I asked our waitress what was in it and she told that it was tequila (Don Julio to be exact) with sour and lime juice.  It sounded like the tequila version of a whiskey sour, so I gave it a whirl.  It was served on the rocks with a salted rim and tasted like, well a mediocre restaurant margarita.  A lackluster start to the evening as far as cocktails are concerned.

My fortunes were soon to improve.  After dinner Gwen convinced our group to head over to the Foundation Bar for more fun and cocktails.   You regular readers already know that this is one of my favorite bars in Milwaukee and always provides a new cocktail experience.  Tonight was no exception.  After perusing the speciality cocktail menu I settled on the Pirate’s Grog.  Served in a you get to keep it ceramic pirate head glass it features Coruba dark rum along with Bacardi 151 and a light rum.  There is also apricot brandy and a couple of fruit juices (pineapple and orange, I believe) and a couple of secret spices.  This is a delicious drink with the flavor of the Coruba rum really coming through.  It’s bold and slightly spicy and I really enjoyed it.

After finishing off the Pirate’s Grog I had another classic, the Singapore Sling.  Since I’ve previously posted the Singapore Sling here I won’t go into all the details.  Suffice it to say that the Foundation Bar uses the original 1910 recipe from the Raffles Bar in Singapore.  This is a classic and is a quite a treat.

Cheers!

Skinny Dipping

Day 152, Cocktail 152

There were so many ways to go with this tonight…

I really missed a prime opportunity yesterday, the 151st day of my liver’s long day’s journey into night.  C’mon, you know what it was I missed out on — a chance to have a cocktail that features Bacardi 151, of course.  So that’s what I’m doing today, a day late perhaps, but really, can you ever be late when it comes to cocktails?  Certainly not at the Twilight Lounge where there is no such thing as bar time.

So what to make?  I started with my Beachbum Berry’s Intoxica! recipe book, but just didn’t see anything that caught my eye that I had all the ingredients for (passion fruit nectar was my downfall in most cases).  So next I moved to the Ultimate Bar Book and began flipping through the rum section.  Mittie Hellmich, the author, doesn’t take too kindly to overproof rums like Bacardi 151, so he didn’t have a lot using the stuff.  To be honest, I agree with his sentiments that they are mostly for show or lighting on fire and don’t really add depth or character to a cocktail.  But I was determined to forge ahead anyway.

I cued up some tiki music and became inspired when Don Tiki’s “The Other Side of the Moon” came on.  Actually, it wasn’t as much the song as the album artwork that goes with it.  This is from his “Skinny Dipping with Don Tiki” disc and the nude woman on the cover dipping her toe in the water 

just did it for me.  At the same time I found a cocktail in Hellmich’s book called the Florida Special that provided the inspiration for tonight’s cocktail.

  Skinny Dipping

• 1 oz Bacardi 151 rum
• 1/4 oz triple sec
• 1/4 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
• 1/4 oz bar syrup
• 1 oz orange juice

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with 4-5 ice cubes.  Shake, shake, shake to combine and chill.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Although it is only 1 oz of rum, it’s like a double.  Add in the triple sec and Luxardo and you have a cocktail that has a kick.  The neat thing is that between the orange juice and Luxardo you only get a nice, tropical flavor – a nice blend of orange and cherry with a hint of rum in the background.  You’d never know this was 151 proof rum floating around in the glass if I hadn’t told you.  Of course, after two or three of these, you and your friends will be skinny dipping!  It’s just too bad that the Patio Lounge and Swim Club is closed for the year!

Cheers!

If You Have an Itch, then Scratch It!

Day 82, Cocktail 86

Ok, first, before you start to flame me, I know that today is actually the 84th day of my journey.  But, this post is about Friday’s cocktail – I’m a day behind on my reporting…so, it is the 86th cocktail on the 82nd day.

Friday night was another stay at home evening for us.  Not that we’re boring old coots or anything, but we did go out on Thursday and had plans for Saturday night as well.  So, it was homemade pizza (Hawaiian, of course – it is Tiki Week after all) and Goldfinger on the DVR.  This is one of my favorite Bond movies of all time.  I mean, really, from my perspective what’s not to like when the Bond girl is named Pussy Galore?

Since we were staying in I thought it was a good time to try out a heavy duty tiki drink.  This recipe comes from Beachbum Jerry’s Intoxica! recipe book.  However, the credit for this recipe goes to Harry Yee.  This is a recipe that Yee developed at the Hawaiian Village Hotel bar on Waikiki Beach.  I don’t know if Yee had a limit on how many of these he would serve a customer, but I know that after two I was seeing double!

  Tropical Itch

• 1-1/2 oz Bacardi 151 rum
• 1 oz dark Jamaican rum
• 1 oz bourbon
• 1/2 oz orange curacao
• 8 oz passion fruit juice
• 2 dashes Agnosturo bitters

In a large mixing glass add all the ingredients and stir well.  Fill a large hurricane glass (or double collins glass, a large tiki glass or even a pint glass) with crushed ice.  Pour the mixed cocktail in over the ice.  Garnish with a pineapple chunk and a sprig of mint leaves.

What can I say – this was outstanding!  First, the passion fruit gives this drink a fruity dimension without being overly syrupy like pineapple juice can get.    The 151 is potent (duh!) and I used Appleton Reserve for the dark rum and Maker’s Mark for the bourbon – both high quality spirits that worked well.  Like I said above, after two of these each we were ready for a nap!

Cheers!