Two At The Most

TDN Crystal Head Vodka – Live from Chantanee

Stevi — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:58:12 +0000

This week’s Thursday Drink Night promises to be a lot fun.

It’s sponsored by Crystal Head Vodka. Vodka may get a lot of derision from cocktail geeks, but it can present a true challenge when trying to create a well balanced cocktail. And, just in time for Halloween, it comes in a gorgeous bottle in the shape of a crystal skull!

Here in Seattle, we’ll be participating live from the Naga bar at Chantanee Thai Restaurant in Bellevue, where we’ll be mixing up and tasting all the drinks invented for the night and generally having a great time.

We’ll be starting at 4 pm PDT / 7 pm EDT. Log in to the Mixoloseum chat room and share with us your ideas for drinks that feature Crystal Head vodka. The best drinks will be put up for a vote; the winner will receive a Baron strainer courtesy of Cocktail Kingdom. A

And be sure to check the Mixoloseum blog for the live video feed from Chantanee where I know bar manager Andrew Bohrer has some fun ideas in store for us!

MxMo XLIII: Vermouth — The Visconti

Stevi — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:12:28 +0000

Fall is closing in fast, but October refuses to leave until we honor it with a Mixology Monday. Over at Cocktailians, Vidiot is hosting a most excellent theme, Vermouth. He bids us:

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for that matter any fortified, aromatized wine such as Lillet (red or white), or Dubonnet (ditto.)

Vermouth is a true workhorse of the classic cocktail world. Without it, a martini is just be cold gin. Fortified wines are among my favorite mixers, and my refrigerator is bulging with various bottles of Lillet, Punt e Mes, sweet, blanc, and dry vermouth.¹

Visconti

One of my favorite ways to change up a drink is simply to switch the vermouth used. Like a martini with dry vermouth? I bet it willl be great with Lillet blanc! Can’t decide between a martini and a martinez? Make a perfect martini with equal parts of each!

Another favorite drink of mine is the Negroni, with equal parts London dry gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. This is a great base to experiment with, as I have show several times here at Two at the Most. One of my most successful substitutions so far was the Rumgroni, simply using rum instead of gin.

Last time I was in the mood for a Rumgroni, my eye was caught by my bottle of Amaro Ramazzotti. I’ve covered Ramazzotti several times, because it’s a fantastic amaro. I decided to give it a whirl in place of the Campari. While the initial taste was great, to my surprise going full equal parts on the Ramazzotti seemed to make it too dominant — surprising to me since I think of it as much more mild than Campari.

Visconti

1 ounce Jamaican run (Appleton V/X)
0.75 ounces Amaro Ramazzotti
1 ounce sweet vermouth

Stir over ice until well chilled and strain into rocks glass with one piece of ice. Garnish with flamed orange peel.

Dialing the Ramazzotti back to 3/4 ounce and adding a flamed orange twist garnish made for a great balance. This is another drink that will go into rotation in my home bar. Full and rich, yet easy to sip, and made all the better because of the sweet vermouth. I decided to call it the Visconti after the House of Visconti, long time rulers of the Duchy of Milan. Since it’s a take on the Negroni, named after another duke, it seemed apt.

Thanks, Vidiot, for a great topic. Be sure to check out Cocktailians for the wrap-up!

[1] Please tell me you already know to keep your open vermouth in the fridge to make it last longer!

Don’t Be Bitter

Stevi — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:48:02 +0000

I love Beefeater 24 Gin, and I love Bitter Truth bitters, so I was a bit bitter that I didn’t seem to have much of a chance to get my hands on my very own bottle of the Bitter Truth’s Beefeater 24 bitters.

Bitter Truth Beefeater 24 Bitters

That was until Michael Dietsch announced his “Don’t Be Bitter” contest over at A Dash of Bitters. All I have to do is give some link love to a fellow blogger and talk about a time I was bitter about their good fortune.

At the top of my list is Tiare over at A Mountain of Crushed Ice. Not only does she take great photos and invent wonderful tiki drinks, but she’s always getting rums I can never dream of getting my hands on. It’s not just that she torments us U.S. bloggers by prominently featuring Havana Club rums in her sidebar¹. She is continually reviewing delicious sounding Demerara rums that apparently only she can get. Her month of mai tais sounds positively sinful, and would set me back a fortune to try to replicate. I’m sure it wasn’t too cheap for her, having to import rums all the way to Sweden, but somehow she does it, and she does it oh so very well!

It would soothe my envy to receive a bottle of Beefeater 24 bitters, but even if I don’t win, I’ll keep reading Tiare’s wonderful blog, and think you should to!

[1] Oh, the forbidden fruit!

Bellringer Gin and the Bitter Apricot Cocktail

MxMo XLII: Dizzy Dairy — Kávé

Stevi — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:57:22 +0000

It may barely still be September, but it is definitely Monday, so it must be time for Mixology Monday! This month, we are hosted by the kind folk over at eGullet. Chris Amirault has chosen the topic of “Dizzy Dairy,” declaring:

Any drink using a dairy product is fair game: milk, cream, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, curds, you name it. Given the importance of dairy products in drinks dating back centuries, there are lots of opportunities for digging through vintage receipts for a taste of the past, and as always innovation is highly encouraged.

It’s been a while since I’ve featured an original drink at Two at the Most, so this seemed like an excellent time to try something new.

Kávé

Aside from the occasional Ramos Gin Fizz, I rarely use milk products in cocktails, although I frequently use egg whites! I do have a favorite nightcap, which is an ever-changing combination of rum, milk, and creme de cacao.

For MxMo, I wanted to experiment with that idea, but create something a little more complex. I have been enjoying the bottle of Kahlúa Cream I received as a sample, and have enjoyed it with rum as well, so I used that as a base.

I haven’t worked too much with the bottle of Zwack I also received to sample, although I greatly enjoyed the lunch the brand sponsored for Drink.Write 2009. When I added it to my rum and Kahlúa Cream, I was surprised at how well it worked. I added my current favorite bitters, Bittermens Xocalatl, to add an additional layer of flavor, and was really pleased with the result.

Kávé

0.75 ounces dark Jamaican rum (Appleton V/X)
0.75 ounces Zwack
0.75 ounces Kahlúa Cream
2 dashes Bittermens Xocalatl mole bitters

Shake over ice until well chilled, then strain into ice-filled old fashioned glass.

The bitter herbal Zwack keeps the sweetness of the Kahlúa Cream in check, and the rich dark rums rounds out and ties the flavors together. I can also imagine trying these flavors together with warm milk for a nice winter drink.

What is your favorite way to use cream liqueurs?

Thanks to eGullet for this fun theme. Be sure to check the forum to see everybody who has participated!

May Blossom Fizz

Stevi — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:28:41 +0000

The days are already noticeably shorter. It’s getting to the point where it is dark when I’m getting up. I wanted a nice summer drink to hang on to the seasonal feeling.

May Blossom Fizz

Barflies and Cocktails is still my go to recipe book. There I found the May Blossom Fizz. The recipe is written in the book as “1 teaspoonful of Grenadine, juice of half a Lemon, 1 glass of Cederland’s Swedish Punch.”

May Blossom Fizz

2 ounces Swedish punsch
0.5 ounce lemon juice
1 teaspoon grenadine

Shake ingredients, strain into rocks glass, and top with soda water.

The result is very light and refreshing. It would also work well over ice, but was quite tasty up.

Depending on my mood, I could definitely see increasing the lemon juice in this one.

I especially like how the Swedish punsch works with soda water in this drink. I had never thought to try it in a fizz. Now I know it’s delicious!

100 Cocktails You Should Try

Stevi — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:00:07 +0000

The following list comes to us from Bobby Heugel of Anvil Bar and Refuge in Houston. The List is one hundred “libations we feel you should try at least once in your life … for better or worse.”

By my count, I’ve already tried 83 of these, and will use this as a reference to try the other 17. It’s a very fine list. How many have you tried?

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Welcome Stranger Cocktail

Stevi — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:00:54 +0000

Here’s another drink I stumbled upon in Barflies and Cocktails.

Welcome Stranger

Welcome Stranger Cocktail

0.5 ounce gin
0.5 ounce brandy
0.5 ounce Swedish punsch
0.5 ounce lemon juice
0.5 ounce orange juice
0.5 ounce grenadine

Shake until good and cold, double strain into cocktail glass.

This was one of those recipes I couldn’t quite guess how it would taste, much less if I would like it. But it was invented by Harry McElhone himself, and the man who gave us the Monkey Gland must know a little something about mixing with orange juice.

I do like it, although it is a little sweet. Grenadine and Swedish punsch seem to work well together. This is one of those multi-ingredient drinks where all the flavors blend well, nothing dominating.

That said, next time I might try upping the gin and brandy to dry it out a bit. Glad I gave it a try.

TDN Tiki — Our First Anniversary

Stevi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:00:33 +0000

It’s hard to believe, but Thursday Drink Night (TDN) has been around for a whole year.

An entire year of cocktail enthusiasts getting together once a week to invent new drinks on the fly. Dozens of themes have been tested. Hundreds of recipes have been tried¹. Thousands of Your Mom jokes have been told.

To celebrate, this week the Mixoloseum Bar is having a special Tiki TDN, with Special Guest Beachbum Berry! Jeff Berry has joined us before and is both a delightful person and font of vast tiki knowledge. Come armed with questions about kitsch culture and mixing up rums, because Jeff is the man to ask.

And there’s more. Because it’s our anniversary, there will Fabulous Prizes. Now, we have had some pretty fantastic prizes over the past year, but this TDN will have some serious loot: a gold Japanese bar spoon, all six of the newest classic cocktail book reprints from Mud Puddle Books, a signed bottle each of Obsello Absinthe and Port of Barcelona gin, and a bottle of Old New Orleans Cajun spice rum.

I need to learn how to invent a tiki drink and FAST.

This promises to be a fantastic TDN. The fun starts this Thursday Night (September 3) at 7 pm EDT (4 pm on the Best Coast). Be sure to join us at the Mixoloseum bar for all the fun!

[1] Some have actually been keepers!

Gloom Raiser

Stevi — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:00:29 +0000

I was paging through the delightful Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone, one of the wonderful reprints by Mud Puddle Books. Amongst all the wonderful illustrations by Wynn Holcomb, I found a variation on the martini that was new to me.

Gloom Raiser

Gloom Raiser

1.5 ounces London dry gin
0.75 ounces dry vermouth
2 dashes absinthe (I prefer a white over verte here)
2 dashes grenadine

stir and strain into cocktail glass, garnish with lemon twist.

This is a great variation to my tastes. It takes the venerable dry martini and adds just enough absinthe for that wonderful anise scent and a hint of taste, and just enough grenadine for just a little sweetness.

I tried this with both a blanche (Kubler) and verte (Pacifique) absinthe, and found the blanche worked a bit better. The Kubler brought a great balance while the Pacifique, even at just 2 dashes, wanted to assert itself too strongly in this mix.

In the spirit of Harry’s New York bar, still located at 5 Rue Daonou in Paris, I used Citadelle, a French-made gin.

This cocktail is another great example of how just a little bit of a strong ingredient can change a cocktail for the better.

BarSmarts Wired

Stevi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:00:25 +0000

I just registered for BarSmarts Wired.

I’ve always heard great things about Pernod Ricard’s BarSmarts Advanced Program, but have never had a chance to participate.

Now they have created an online version, and are running it through September for the very low price of $45.

The BarSmarts Wired program consists of 16 hours of online reading and videos to prepare you for four 25 question tests and finally a virtual cocktail building test where you must prepare five of seven classic cocktails correctly, from ingredients through glassware. Upon successful completion, you receive a certificate and can use the certification on your resume.

You also receive a rea set of BarSmarts logo bartools, including a muddler, bar spoon, and Boston shaker. Those who have already received their kits say they’re worth the $45 on their own.

As Andrew Bohrer recently noted in a footnote to his comparison of Cocktail the movie to Kitchen Confidential the book, there are few opportunities to learn about preparing quality classic cocktails. The Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR) Program is working to bridge this gap. The BarSmarts Wired Program is a great way to extend their reach.

There’s still time for you to get involved. Registrations are being accepted through September 30. You will have four weeks from your registration to complete the program.

I’m excited to get started!

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