We continue the Dale/David Project with another classic, the Singapore Sling. I chose this tonight because it uses pineapple juice and I happen to have a fresh pineapple in the fridge.
The Singapore Sling according to Dale DeGroff
The Singapore Sling is one of those drinks that I think has been maligned by history because of its tropical nature and the fact that it has been tasted in bastardized form at so many low budget holiday destinations or, godforbid, Red Lobster. It is the goal of the Dale/David project to dig beneath the pop culture misunderstandings of such classics--wait til we do the top shelf Long Island Iced Tea!
According to Dale the Singapore Sling was invented in 1915 at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. His recipe calls for the following: Gin, Cointreau, Benedictine, Peter Heering Cherry Heering, Angostura bitters, lime juice, pineapple juice, grenadine and club soda (optional). We made two versions of this drink tonight. For the first we used pomegranate molasses instead of grenadine because I was trying to get at the original intent of grenadine, which was a pomegranate syrup. If you look at a bottle of Rose's Grenadine, which is what most people know as grenadine, it is all artificial flavor and high fructose corn syrup. The ingredients of Pomegranate molasses are simple: concentrated pomegranate juice.
The first drink tasted great but I was concerned by its slightly dirty brown appearance, and so I made a second drink, identical except for the substitution of Rose's grenadine for pomegranate molasses. The result was a slightly clearer drink that tasted much sweeter--still tasty, but less so by comparison. The first drink was more complex, whereas the second one was more cloying.
The drink on the left is less cloudy, and less flavorful. Thank you High Fructose Corn Syrup!
A 1968 recipe in Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook calls for Old Tom Gin (an old style of sweetened gin that is not commercially available today), Cherry Heering, Benedictine, Angostura bitters, lime juice, and ginger ale. I absolutely love that there was a time when a cookbook could put Cherry Heering in a drink recipe and expect people to know what it was! Vic's drink was served over cracked ice, as were the two that I prepared tonight.
There is something about the electric green shock of green Creme de Menthe that is horrifying and at the same time alluring. It offers the cocktail mixologist an opportunity to mix a drink with a definitive color, as opposed to the ambiguousness of many of our creations (and meanwhile it is less startling than Blue Curacao or Creme de Noyeaux). For all of its aesthetic appeal, the flavor of green Creme de Menthe doesn't deliver on the promise of the color, and makes me wonder if there is such a thing as a top shelf green Creme de Menthe that tastes less...medicinal.
Dale's version of this drink consists of Absinthe, anisette, green creme de menthe, egg white and orange flower water. The tasting panel liked this drink somewhat more than I did. I think I was expecting a slightly sweeter drink. The version from Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em (1937) has dry vermouth and a spoonful of sugar as well as charged water, but does not have orange flower water. As Stanley Clisby Arthur describes in his book, "Suissesse, a perfectly good French word meaning a Switzerland-born femail, lives up to the reputation earned by those hardy daughters dwelling among the rocks of their picturesque land."
During the recent Mixology Monday monthly online cocktail party, severalbloggers chose to make the Absinthe Suissesse as their featured New Orleans cocktail. There seems to be a small debate over the propriety of Creme de Menthe in this cocktail, with Chuck Taggart leading the charge against it. Here is his recipe:
Absinthe Suissesse
1-1/2 to 2 ounces absinthe (to taste)
1/2 ounce orgeat
1 egg white
1 dash orange flower water (optional)
2 ounces heavy cream
1/2 cup crushed or cubed ice
Serve either shaken or blended; old traditional method is to shake vigorously for 15 seconds with crushed ice, or blend with cubed ice. Serve in an Old Fashioned glass.
The Coffee Cocktail does not include coffee, so I'm not sure where it gets its name--possibly from a coffee-like flavor? Perhaps a cappuccino-like appearance? According to Dale the drink comes from Jerry Thomas's The Bartender's Guide or How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks (1887). It consists of Cognac, ruby port, a little sugar and a small egg, shaken and strained, garnished with grated nutmeg.
The first Coffee Cocktail that we made did not seem to have the right color, so we made another one with a different port...
This one also didn't match the color of the Coffee Cocktail in Dale's book. Could it be that I used port labeled "aged" and "vintage" and not "ruby." The extent of what I know about port is that the latter type does not have a stated vintage, but that is about it. Would this make the difference?
This cocktail reminds me of the Coffee Cocktail. It is made with Cognac and Ruby Port, but instead of the egg it gets its frothiness from heavy cream. The "chocolate" comes from creme de cacao. The Chocolate Punch dates from approximately the same vintage as the Coffee Cocktail; DeGroff found the recipe in William Schmidt's The Flowing Bowl (1891).
The Allegheny is an attractive drink that Dale found in The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide by Ron and Sharon Tyler Herbst. I looked through several of my own books old and new and did not find it so I am guessing that it is their own original creation, consisting of Bourbon, dry vermouth, blackberry brandy, and lemon juice.
The Allegheny is a mild-flavored drink that according to Dale can be enhanced by muddling in a piece of lemon
This drink was quite good and a hit with the tasting panel. Dry gin, dry vermouth, yellow Chartreuse, and orange bitters are stirred with ice and garnished with a flamed orange peel. Dale reports that this recipe is from Barkeeper's Golden Book (1935) by O. Bulnier. There is very little information online about this book or its author, but the cocktail is a tasty one!
While reading Doug Winship's Pegu Blog tonight I realized that I couldn't even remember the last time I had a Pegu, and couldn't remember ever trying one using Dale's recipe. The cocktail was the house specialty of the Pegu Club, a British officer's club in Burma during the time of British imperialism.
The Pegu Cocktail
Dale's recipe is different from others that I have in that DDG specifies that you begin by muddling lime wedges, orange curacao, and bitters in the bottom of the mixing glass. To that you add gin and ice and shake. Most of the recipes I have call for fresh squeezed lime juice instead of muddled lime pieces. The difference of course is that by muddling you get not just the expressed lime juice but also the essential oil from the zest, and some of the bitterness of the pith. The cocktail tasted fine, I am just curious about Dale's reasoning--is it just a matter of personal preference, or is he referencing a historically accurate technique in some way?
The first recipe in print that I have is from Barflies and Cocktails (1927--recently and deliciously reprinted by Mud Puddle Books) and it consists of gin, orange curacao, Rose's lime juice (at least they had the pre-high fructose corn syrup version), and a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters. The recipes for this cocktail are amazingly similar, in that recipes printed 80 years apart from each other don't differ all that much. Simon Difford prints a recipe with a small amount of sweetness to offset the "tartness of this gin based Margarita-like concoction." At the Pegu Blog, Doug posts a recipe for the One True Pegu, which I made tonight so that I would have something to drink as I finished this post.
Is this what the One True Pegu looks like at Pegu Manor? (Sorry, Doug, no Saphire--had to use Plymouth)
The One True Pegu
3 oz. Bombay Saphire Gin
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. Real Lime Juice
2-4 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 tsp. Fresh Egg White
Prepare as before, only shake the Hell out of it, then get serious and shake the Hell out of it some more! Strain and serve with aforementioned lime piece.
I am with Doug here, this is a tasty formula. But I have to ask, what is the precedent for the egg white?
I have not had the pleasure of tasting a Pegu at the New York's Pegu Club, but I am curious to know what their take on it is.
We begin today's installment of the Dale/David Project with a confession: this dessert drink, which is the approximate color of the filling on an Andes mint, and tastes about like said mint taken whole... I like it. If this drink was served up at some douche hole downtown, with a name like ChocoMinTini, I would give it the proper scorn it deserves. But instead I'm just going to confess to enjoying this frothy green delight.
The Grasshopper--green creme de menthe, white creme de cacao, heavy cream, and memories of childhood. Read on...
During the Molecular Mixology seminar at Tales of the Cocktail, Eben Freeman described 'sense memory' . He explained that people hold on to memories of different tastes and aromas in ways unique to them; this is particularly important as the world globalizes. (According to Freeman, the "Locavore" phenomenon is a reaction this, as people seek reminders of things that are personal, and find ways to express themselves in flavors.) He uses the example of a cedar plank. He had once made a cedar plank bourbon, and when he sampled it to people he found out that cedar brings up a range of associations, from grandma’s underwear drawer that you knew you weren't supposed to be looking in, to the shavings in the bottom of a hamster cage, to a sauna.
This weekend we found some serious Thrift Store Treasures:
A cute set of four penguin shot glasses from Libbey. The box announces that these glasses feature "safedge" technology.
A 1946 edition of the Old Mr. Boston's Deluxe Official Bartender's Guide. Original price $2.
This book is interesting because I generally don't love the OMB in its current versions. (Although, I believe that the very most recent version involved Robert Hess and other top shelf mixological researchers.) The reason is that somewhere along the line the OMB lost its classicist approach. Consider this:
The 1946 Old Mr. Boston has an exciting 12-page section in full color, featuring the twelve most popular cocktails of the day.
They are:
Manhattan
Old Fashioned
Tom Collins
Sloe Gin Fizz
Dry Martini
Cuba Libre
Whiskey Sour
Golden Martini
Mint Julep
Rum Collins
Daiquiri
Mint Collins
This is not necessarily an accurate list of the most popular cocktails of the day, since the book is designed to promote the products of Old Mr. Boston. The Mint Collins, for one, seems suspect because it features OMB Mint Gin--more on that in a minute. For the moment let's look at the Manhattan of 1946: Italian Vermouth, Rye or Bourbon, and a dash of bitters. Stirred and strained into a 3 ounce cocktail glass. (3 ounce glass!) Fast forward to 1994, the most recent OMB that I have. By 1994, we've lost the bitters, and the book specifies just "Blended Whiskey". The Manhattan has lost its luster. By my unscientific estimation, the OMB is the among the most-read cocktail books in the world, and as it lowers its standards, so the bartenders who follow it lower theirs.
The Old Mr. Boston guide used to promote the company's line of spirits. I can't help but think that Mint Gin was like the flavored vodka of its day.
I think the book on top should be required reading for all students entering college (or maybe high school). It begins with a quote from Churchill: "I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me."
I think this must be one of the great misunderstood classic cocktails. It was invented in 1944 by "Trader Vic" Bergeron. It is a relatively simple drink consisting of aged rum, orange curacao, lime juice and orgeat (pronounced or-ZHAT, it is an almond syrup that is commercially available from brands such as Torani or Monin, though you can also make it at home)
The Mai Tai is a delicious and simple drink that is often misinterpreted as a tropical travesty of grenadine, pineapple juice and orange juice.
According to the Trader Vic's Web site, Victor Bergeron "set the record straight" in his own words in 1970: In 1944, after success with several exotic rum drinks, I felt a new drink was needed. I thought about all the really successful drinks; martinis, manhattans, daiquiris .... All basically simple drinks.
I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year-old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica; surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends. The flavor of this great rum wasn't meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle almond flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color ... I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, "Mai Tai - Roa Ae". In Tahitian this means "Out of This World - The Best". Well, that was that. I named the drink "Mai Tai".
In fairness to myself and to a truly great drink, I hope you will agree when I say, "Let's get the record straight on the Mai Tai".
(Thanks to Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology for this lead)
A friend called while I was preparing the drink and said, "Ugh...that's such an 80's drink. I hate pineapple juice and grenadine." I explained that pineapple juice and grenadine didn't belong in the drink, that it was not too different from a rum margarita with a splash of orgeat. He was not moved.
Such misperceptions are common. This is from a cocktail menu at the Belmont in Austin: Mai Tai Tommy Bahama White Sands and Myer's Dark rums, mixed with a splash of amaretto, orange and pineapple juices. $9
That's nine dollars for a drink that they didn't even care enough about to look up the recipe before they put it on their menu. One can only guess how much care will go into the preparation...
Okay...it was really Bill Norris in the Chronicle, but he was gracious enough to direct people looking for his award-winning Bee Sting to our site. Thanks!
Shake it like you mean it, Bill! The professional at work while his glasses chilled (we're not sure, but we think he was the only contestant to chill glasses--a nice touch in the heat of July)
For those of you not familiar with this story, Bill is our local cocktail hero (and FINO bartender) who won the Cocktail World Cup regional finals last month in Austin, and who will be on the team that represents this region at the Cocktail World Cup in New Zealand.
The Bee Sting looks as good as it tastes...
The Bee Sting
2 oz 42 Below Honey Vodka
3/4 oz Meyer lemon juice
1/4 oz cracked peppercorn syrup Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass rinsed with 100% Blue Agave Blanco Tequila--preferable something peppery. Garnish with fresh ground pepper and a flamed lemon peel.
To make the syrup:
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cups whole black peppercorns, lightly crushed (you can put them in a ziplock bag and whack it a few times with your hand on the counter.)
In a sauce pan, bring sugar and water to boil, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Lower heat, add pepper and simmer, covered, for fifteen minutes. Remove from heat and allow to stand for another fifteen minutes. Strain out solids using a fine mesh strainer and allow to cool before using. For more pepper flavor let it stand a further ten minutes before straining.
If Meyer Lemons are unavailable, Combine the juice of one orange with the juice of ten lemons.
You can find more info about Bill, and a couple of his recipes, in this story by the Chronicle's Wes Marshall
The Clover Club is named after a turn-of-the-century social club that met at the Bellvue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.
The Clover Club has a nice fizzy texture with a subtle taste of raspberry
The Dale Degroff recipe consists of Gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup and egg white.
Some recipes (including that in the 1946 Old Mr. Boston) call for grenadine in place of raspberry syrup. According to Gary Regan in The Joy of Mixology, the early recipes specified raspberry syrup but over time grenadine became the norm; Regan says "use raspberry syrup if you have it at hand--without it this drink isn't much to talk about."
DDG offers another variation which involves shaking a sprig of mint with the other ingredients--we liked this version better.
Would anybody like to help count off all of the things that are wrong with this instructional video on margarita technique? (Although this is bad, it's not quite as far off as this video on the worst mint julep in history)
I think a good place to start is the muddled limes--muddled with ice, no less, for maximum pulpiness. Then you could continue with the Cuervo Gold, and the Sour mix...
This drink does not have pepper or salt (except on the rim) in it but is one of our early favorites from the Dale.
The Salt and Pepper Martini consists of grapefruit juice, gin, simple syrup and bitters. It is a bright, fresh, delicious and balanced drink. I haven't found any information yet on its origin, though it appears again in the Dale in the form of a long drink with the same ingredients but more grapefruit juice.
The earliest version of this cocktail that I have found is in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). The recipe in Dale's book seems faithful to this version: Gin, Dry Vermouth, with a couple dashes of Benedictine and Bitters, in a chilled glass rinsed with Absinthe.
The 1946 Old Mr. Boston has 3 cocktails bearing this name: one following the traditional recipe; the Merry Widow #2 which consists of equal parts Maraschino and Old Mr. Boston Wild Cherry Flavored Brandy; and the Merry Widow Fizz, which consists of orange and lemon juices shaken with egg white, powdered sugar, and sloe gin.
I have a curiosity about the use of "powdered sugar" in old cocktail recipes--are they referring to the same thing that we know today as powdered sugar, which I believe has corn starch in it, which seems like it would be gross? Or is it a reference to another fine granulated sugar like caster sugar?
There are still tons of melons and fresh peaches at the Farmer's Market. When we got home we began working on a drink to serve at a benefit dinner for the Green Corn Project, hosted by Dai Due Supper Club with drinks by Tipsy Texan. We decided on a Crushed Peach Tom Collins to take advantage of the last peaches of the summer and the first Meyer lemons of fall. The result was a hit, so much so that we ran out of the simple syrup we brought; but chef Jesse whipped up a batch of peach simple syrup in no time.
Crushed Peach Tom Collins
1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin
3/4 oz Fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 oz Canton ginger liqueur (optional)
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
2-3 slices fresh peach. Muddle peaches with simple syrup, add lemon juice, gin and ice. Shake vigorously and strain over ice, spritz with club soda. It seems the meyer lemon juice is sweeter than conventional lemons, so if meyers are unavailable you may have to adjust sweetness.
Tipsy also made a Cantaloupe Pisco Sour.
I haven't figured out what to mix with turban squash, but here is how to work out with it
Like Mr. DeGroff, I too cannot resist a cocktail named after a racetrack, though with my Kentucky roots I just might like the drink even more if it were named the Churchill Downs.
Since first encountering The Craft of the Cocktail I've had a fond memory in my head about this cocktail. It is balanced, depending upon the limes, and makes me want to answer yes when asked, "Would you care for another, sir?" and I find that to be one of the greatest complements one might give to a well crafted cocktail.
The Dale/David Project reaches an inspiring landmark tonight with drink number twenty five, which means that we are 1/20th of the way through the book. I hope that all mixologists around Austin and the world can take a look at this accomplishment and realize that they, too, can reach for the stars. Drink up, friends! The heavens await you!
The Jacana, a Dale DeGroff original that would fit in on any Texas bar's tequila drink menu.
When I first flipped by this entry in the Dale it caught my attention because it looked at a casual glance like one of those unfortunate Kitchen Sink Margaritas that you get at many bars in Austin that think they know more about cocktail mixology than they actually do. Last Friday night we met some of Tipsy's coworkers at 219 West, a bar known more for douchebaggery and never-ending happy hour than for cocktail quality. Usually at places like this I order a beer, but liquor lust and the generous happy hour pricing tempted me to order a margarita. The good news is that I now know that I don't ever have to try that again; the bad news is that the margarita tasted like Gatorade.
A little while later, seeking redemption, I walked across the street and described to the bartender the Margarita del Muerte that I'd just had at 219. He scrunched up his nose at all of the right times and judged the 219 rita with the proper "Ewwww!" that it deserved, and I asked him if he could make me a real one, with good tequila, fresh lime, and Paula's Texas Orange. He said of course, and set about building the drink. It looked good at first. Herradura silver went into the shaker, then the Paula's, then he squeezed some fresh limes. He had me and then he lost me. He didn't just lose me, he bitch slapped me and knocked me off of my stool!; by that I mean he went to the soda gun and put sour mix and soda gun oj in the tin, and topped it off with a dollop of olive juice from the garnish tray! Mmmmm... Nothing like high fructose corn syrup and finger juice of unwashed 4th St. bartender hand! I learned my lesson and stuck with beer the rest of the night.
Now for the Jacana, a DDG original that he reportedly created for Sharen Butrum on board the yacht Jacana, on the occasion of her birthday (the woman, not the yacht). This drink is margarita-like, involving Tequila, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, and fresh lime and grapefruit juices. Pretty good, pretty Texas-y.
Separated at Birth: French 75 & Vodka Red Bull! A Tipsy Texan Exxxclusive!
Tonight I uncovered a very important piece of cocktail history thanks to a search that led me to Bob Johnson's School of Bar Management. While I didn't find what I was looking for (some sort of official study connecting Vodka Red Bull consumption with sexual orientation, fraternity association, etc), I uncovered something much more important: the missing link between the French 75 and the Vodka Red Bull!
Everybody who is worth his or her salt in cocktail mixology knows the storied lineage connecting, say, the Brandy Crusta to the Sidecar and the Margarita, and ultimately to the Cosmopolitan. Anyone who has heard Robert Hess speak has likely heard him describe how the Manhattan got missionary with the Martinez and begat its illegitimate love child, the Martini.
But what of this shocking revelation!? The proverbial dust being knocked off the unwritten tomes of cocktail history! The venerable French 75, in bed with the venereal Vodka Red Bull!! Who knew? Bob knew, and here he tells all:
Today I noticed that a blogger at Serious Eatswrote about us in a brief post about the Dale/David Project. I would like to welcome all Serious Eaters to enjoy a refreshing beverage with us. Serious eaters, meet serious drinkers. Drinkers, meet eaters. L'Chaim, Mangia, Salud, etc.
If you are just joining us for the first time, the Dale/David Project is an academic exploration of Dale DeGroff's Craft of the Cocktail, one of the great volumes of cocktail writing, from a man who bears much of the responsibility for the cocktail "revolution" that is afoot.
We also periodically post recipes about our drinking in the fruits of the season vis a vis our local Farmer's Market. We are particularly excited about the upcoming Cocktailgate Party Season.
We do not generally write hateful things about all of the grossly negligent bartending that we encounter, but we are thinking of adding that feature.
Austinite Mindy Kucan might as well add "award-winning mixologist" as a prefix to her name. She took the top prize in a Bombay Sapphire drink contest held last Friday during a luncheon at Imperia. Her winning cocktail was called "Card and Lilly." The contest was judged by Bombay Brand Ambassador Milo Rodriguez, Brandon Jacobs of Barcardi USA, and Tanya of Cazadores Tequila.
Card and Lilly
1 1/2 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
1/2 oz Paula's Texas Lemon
Top with 2 oz Q Tonic
1/4 tsp ground cardamom Roll back and forth with ice between two shaker tins, strain over ice into an Old Fashioned glass.
Garnish with lemon wedge rolled in cardamom sugar.
(According to Milo, and unbeknownst to Mindy, oris root is one of the ingredients in Bombay Sapphire, and it is the root of the lilly. Cosmic...)
The awards were hosted by Six Lounge on Sunday night. Justin from Six Lounge took second place, while Kyle from Cedar Street tied with Ben Craven from Starlite for third place. For taking the top prize, Mindy will get to travel to Las Vegas and will appear in a cocktail feature in GQ magazine, and will have a chance to compete again in a national contest.
Mindy won the Hilton Hotel's Top Bar Chef competition in 2007.
Mindy has won a number of competitions and is founding the Austin chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild, which was approved last month by the national association. The first membership meeting will be held in September, with more information to come.
Today Addie Broyles of the Statesman posted a how-to video on her Relish Austin blog. The speaker is some know-it-all in a snap shirt who thinks he knows everything about the Margarita cocktail.
Of course the know-it-all is me, and since I posted this hateful margarita how-to video last week, I suppose I deserve all of the critiques and criticisms that anyone can throw at me.
Perhaps I should cast the first stones:
1) It's Pepe Zevada, not Pepe Zavala
2) It sounds like I'm pitching Paula's Texas Orange based on price only, but it is also of excellent quality
3) Platinum tequila? I got my precious metals confused, and meant silver. Maybe I had Treaty Oak Platinum Rum on my mind. Maybe I had that margarita on my mind and lost control of my vocal faculties...
4) "Fresh lime juice is not an option"--I think I meant fresh lime juice is not optional.
Here is the recipe I follow:
Classic Margarita
1 1/2 oz. 100% agave silver tequila
3/4 oz. Paula’s Texas Orange (or Cointreau)
3/4 oz. fresh-squeezed lime juice
(If a sweeter drink is desired, start with a scant 1/2 oz. simple syrup or agave nectar and adjust to taste. I prefer a more tart beverage)
I am of the opinion that the tequila:orange:lime ratio in a Margarita is something like the ratio of gin to vermouth in a Martini in that the drinker really has to experiment to find a suitable balance. Paula from Paula's Texas Orange calls for equal parts, not surprisingly, of tequila and orange liqueur; a lot of recipes call for 1 1/2 oz : 1 oz, respectively. Play around with ratios, just don't mess with the holy trinity of these two ingredients plus fresh lime juice.
The Big Apple Marrr...gotcha! The Big Apple Martini is dead. Don't you read? This is the Big Apple Margarita
The Dale/David Project will move forward with the theme of my previous post, the Margarita. I feel like I should get an automatic credit for this one since I made a whole video of it, just like how in High School we got P.E. credit for marching band. (Speaking of P.E. credits I am going to need some of those after this project...)
However, I didn't follow Dale's recipe exactly so I figured I better do it so as to maintain the integrity of the D/DP.
First, a question: Dale's recipe for the Margarita does not mention the salted rim as an optional feature. Nor do many other books and videos. Dale is from the northeast--does anybody know if the salted rim varies in frequency by region? Where I come from, only the stupidest server wouldn't ask whether or not you wanted salt (I don't, thank you). It's like a small town BBQ joint where they ask you if you want "Sweet or Un-sweet" Iced Tea--when there's a choice, it's rude to assume.
Moving along, I made the classic Margarita according to Dale DeGroff: 1 1/2 oz Tequila, 1 ounce Cointreau, 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice. He shakes it and strains it into a chilled cocktail glass (Seems like in Texas we serve it on the rocks...) rimmed, as I said, with salt. I don't do salty margaritas and so I didn't here.
Next up I decided to try the Big Apple Margarita. I was a bit scared of this because on quick glance it looked like a relative of the Big Apple Martini, known colloquially as the Appletini, which suffered an untimely and unfortunate death last month in New Orleans. Upon closer inspection I realized that this concoction involved neither of the two loathsome ingredients in the late Appletini: Vodka, Sour Apple Pucker. Instead it is a stout Margarita that substitutes Berentzen's Apple Liqueur for the Cointreau. And I like it. It tasted much drier than I thought it would, since the last "Big Apple" drink I tasted was, alas, the nefarious Appletini of the early 2000's.
I somehow missed this last week: an announcement by Forbes that Austin might be the hardest-drinking city in the country. According to Addie Broyles at Relish Austin, nine percent of Austin men reported having at least two drinks per day. Personally, that doesn't sound like a lot to me. I first read it as Ninety percent and thought, "Damn, with this many drinkers, how come it's so hard to get a good Martini in this town??" But then I realized that at 90% intoxication, Austin would have more of a pre-Industrial Revolution feel about it than it does.
The stats:
61.5% of residents have had a drink in the last 30 days (72% for UT students)
20% admit to having participated in "binge drinking", which is defined as having 5 or more drinks on one occasion (34% for UT students)
I wish the statisticians would focus on more compelling data, like why so many cocktails suck in Austin; amount of food dyes and high fructose corn syrup consumed by an average drinker in a night on Sixth St.; how many great civilizations collapse because of mixing cocktails with "juice" out of the soda gun.
So-- what is it about certain cocktail menus that pisses me off and makes me want to throw something?
I like to go off about the stupid cocktails around town, but maybe it would be a more productive enterprise to analyze an actual menu and discuss in detail why it sucks so much.
This is a menu from The Keg in Dallas. (Posted with love to Morgan, whose great passion in life is crappy cocktail blog photos--sorry dude, couldn't find the scanner cable)
I will start with a menu that I picked up last month at a bar in Dallas. It is not my goal to piss off a bunch of bartenders and bar owners in Austin; I just want to encounter better drinks when I go out. (Note: bartenders and owners who read blogs like this would probably never come under the scrutiny of someone like me, because if they are here then it is probably because they care about what they're doing)
Here are some general rules for lame cocktail menus:
1) Use of tired ingredients and recipes: pomegranate anything is tired, for example. In most circumstances, so are variations on the Cosmo, the Mojito, and anything ending with the suffix "tini."
2) Repetition of unique ingredients (ie, not basic cocktail ingredients like lime juice or triple sec). An example would be several drinks on a menu containing Blue Curacao or pomegranate. This shows a lack of creativity.
3) In general, use of mixes such as "Sweet & Sour"--I hate seeing that on a menu. The exception is mixes that are house-made
4) Naming a drink after a classic cocktail when it is far enough removed from the classic as to be unidentifiable. I would say that if it is more than one ingredient away from the classic, then it should bear its own name, and not the _______ + classic formula that is so common.
5) Airs of pretension, especially when the menu or establishment has nothing to be pretentious about.
As you will see, the above cocktail menu breaks all of the rules and therefore qualifies itself for the supremely lame designation.
Okay, cats, Tex has been the predominant voice on the Dale/David Project, and what an awesome voice it is. His passion is evident in every post and every returned comment. I can’t let the day job hold me back, so I’ll try to find a voice, as well. The tiny Aqueduct post was my first late-night attempt – sad – so I’m starting off again with the Presidente.
Created for this guy . . .,
Carmen Menocal, the president of Cuba, from 1913 to 1921. There is often reference to the Vista Alegre in Havana when speaking of the cocktail’s origin. I’d have thought this was a bar, but after a little research it appears to be an area of Havana.
Most books I referenced for recipe comparison seem to all match closely with The Craft of the Cocktail. Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book lists a President cocktail that is quite similar, however it leaves out dry vermouth altogether and subs orange juice for curacao – so not incredibly similar. The President lacks the mystery that the Presidente provides.
At any rate, this is a sexy cocktail and a nuanced one at that. It’s one that I would order again. Cheers – Enjoy.
Margarita Week of the Dale/David Project continues with the Cadillac Margarita and the Frozen Margarita.
This Cadillac might not be luxurious enough for some Texans
Dale's Cadillac Margarita consists of 100% Blue Agave Tequila, Grand Marnier, and Fresh Lime Juice, shaken and strained into a chilled cocktail glass that has been rimmed with salt. I went ahead and gave this one a half-rim job for the picture, though I usually don't take salt with my Margaritas.
I think this concept of the "Cadillac" margarita is an interesting one. I can't speak for any place else, but in Austin you will often see some variation of this "super-premium" margarita. Whereas Dale's just calls for "100% Blue Agave Tequila", that is considered the standard for a lot of higher-end places these days. Therefore the "Cadillac" would include some extra-añejo high dollar tequila, and maybe even one of the Centenaire products from Grand Marnier, in the case of a "Millionaire's Margarita". For the prices they get for some of these "Millionaire's" margaritas, I'd come to the millionaire's house and shake drinks all night.
The Frozen Margarita, in its ubiquitous blue glass. Bowling trophy optional.
The Frozen Margarita is something that would generally not cross my lips except for during an academic endeavor such as this one. I followed Dale's recipe, which calls for 2 ounces of Tequila to 1 ounce of triple sec, and 2 ounces of simple syrup to one ounce of lime. Notice that the ingredients are much longer than in the shaken margarita; this is to accommodate for the melting water of the blended ice. The ingredients are also skewed towards the sweeter--are we to assume that this is because the Frozen Margarita drinker favors a sweeter beverage? Perhaps.
The important thing to remember is that you cannot achieve the proper frozen-ness if you put ice from your freezer into the blender. The ice from the waffle-bottom tray will be too big to properly break down; the ice from your ice maker most likely will have absorbed a bunch of funky freezer flavors. It is recommended that you pick up a bag of ice at the grocery store, the cubes are smaller and it will likely be fresher-tasting. I opted to smack some homemade ice cubes wrapped up in a towel; this worked pretty well though I still had some larger ice pieces left after blending the drink.
I chose to present this drink in the traditional blue glass that every middle age white Texan I know seems to have. I bought a bunch of these for a Tex-Mex feast that Tipsy and I prepared for my mother's 60th birthday this year. I don't know what the reasoning behind these glasses is. They're very cumbersome and I would like to know who the hell came up with such a thing.
If you want to waste 2 oz. 100% Agave Tequila, forget to put the blades on the blender cup before pouring in ingredients
Today the Statesman's XLENT entertainment supplement features the You (heart) Austin list of everybody's favorite things about Austin. Has anybody else noticed the proliferation of "best of" polls? I can't even keep track of them anymore. There's so many that I barely have time to give my professional analysis of why my choices are better than everybody else's.
But I'm going to give it my best shot...
The good news is that Paula's Texas Orange was voted favorite Locally Produced beer, liquor, or wine. I think we can all agree on that.
I agree that best Breakfast Taco (TacoDeli), Wings (Pluckers), Seafood (Quality), and Annoying Pseudo-celeb (tied: Leslie and Mayor Wynn) have all been rightly annointed.
Leslie Cochran, a living, breathing Greetings From Austin billboard
Best Gay Bar went to Chain Drive. If you haven't been, the Chain Drive is one of those places where mustachioed men in leather and Levi's walk around with beer guts and chest hair--basically the opposite of any gay bar downtown where the plucked eyebrow is the norm)
But here is the troubling news about today's news:
Yesterday in honor of the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death we celebrated with the Elvis Presley Yahrzeit Memorial Coffee Bar at the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market.
Not everybody was as enthusiastic about the King's yahrzeit as we were. But there were still a handful of patrons who eagerly participated in Elvis Trivia, and shared their own stories about how Elvis touched their lives. One man from Memphis couldn't remember the answer to a trivia question about Elvis's parents' names, so he called a friend of his back home who used to fly Elvis's plane for him, and got not just first names but middle names and Gladys Presley's maiden name.
Another woman explained that the night that Elvis played the auditorium in her town, she was grounded and had to miss the show.
One of the highlights of the day was when when this customer stopped by: her name is Lisa Marie, and her birthday is the day that Elvis died.
To honor the King, we served the Burnin' Love Latte, which is based on the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich that was supposedly one of his favorite things to eat (although in a series about the last day of his life, one of his confidantes said that Elvis liked to eat a mixture of crisp bacon, sliced tomato, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I don't know how well that would translate to a coffee drink...)
Burnin' Love Latte
1/2 oz. Torani Creme de Banana syrup
1/4 oz. Torani Peanut Butter syrup
1/4 oz. Torani White Chocolate syrup
Top with equal parts cold-brewed coffee concentrate and whole milk (about 4 oz. each). Shake and serve over ice. A surprisingly delicious tribute!
Dale/David Project #31&32--Guest Mixologist Bill Norris
This was a busy weekend at Tipsy Manor. On Saturday we had the Elvis Presley Yahrzeit Memorial Coffee Stand in the morning in honor of the King's death; in the evening we were serving cocktails at the Dai Due Supper Club's fundraiser dinner for the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance. But in between that we hosted a Bitters Practicum with local mixologists Moxy Castro and Bill Norris demonstrating the production of homemade bitters. And since we had so many great mixological minds gathered together, we thought it would be a good idea to knock out some drinks for the Dale/David Project, and so Bill became our first Guest Mixologist.
Bill's first choice was the Whiskey Peach Smash, a DDG original drink that involves muddled peach, lemon, and mint, shaken with whiskey and served on the rocks. This was a good refreshing summer whiskey drink.
The Wild Turkey Rye was Bill's choice; the recipe calls for Canadian whiskey, which we don't stock
Bill's second choice was the Honeymoon Cocktail, which was a real crowd pleaser. Consisting of Applejack, Benedictine, orange curacao, and lemon juice, this reminded me of a Sidecar. The Difford's Guide recipe calls for half of an egg white. The 1946 Old Mr. Boston does not.
The Honeymoon Cocktail originates from the Brown Derby in 1930's Hollywood
While Moxy and Tipsy were peeling citrus for the bitters project, Bill and I were shaking drinks. I happened to buy a bottle of Old Potrero the day before and was excited to find that DDG created a cocktail specifically for use with this whiskey. Old Potrero is distilled at Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, and they produce a small handful of boutique whiskeys and gins that are hard to get in Texas. Their whiskeys are unique in that they are made in a style that attempts to replicate the earliest American whiskeys, and so are not aged as long and are bottled at a considerably higher proof than most modern whiskeys.
According to Dale, drinks like this served over shaved ice are called "Mists."
The Rye Club consists of Old Potrero shaken with orange curacao (I used Grandma) and a dash of orange bitters, served over shaved ice. I didn't have the necessary hardware to create shaved ice, so I put it in a cloth sack and beat it with a heavy muddler, to good effect
I am not sure whether this drink is meant to heal a suffering bastard, or put him in that state, but I could see both possibilities. A big rummy drink that Dale describes as "A Mai Tai with orange juice." None of the books I have give any information as to the origin of this cocktail though it does appear (without other attribution) in the 1968 Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook, without the orange juice specified in Dale's recipe. Anybody have an earlier citation for this cocktail?
Medium rum, Wray & Nephew overproof rum, orange curacao, orgeat, and fresh lime and orange juices.
Pousse Cafes are a category of drinks that consist of layering liqueurs of varying densities carefully on top of each other; the process is, in my opinion, tedious, though the results are visually appealing (if a bit odd flavorwise). The ABC consists of equal parts Amaretto, Bailey's Irish Cream, and Cointreau. These were relatively easy to layer--I guess this is a beginner's pousse cafe.
I attempted the much more complicated Pousse Cafe that Dale uses to introduce the category, and it has 7 layers. It started out as a beautiful drink but then one of the layers tricked another layer to switch places with it (the result, I guess, of the green Creme de Menthe I used being of a different density than the one Dale uses) Ultimately the drink began to look like a disaster and I scrapped the project for another day.
The ABC Pousse Cafe, with three layers, proved to be much easier than the7-layered Pousse Cafe that is found elsewhere in the book. If I had hit the top layer just right, it would be clear, but my hands proved not to be as steady as I thought they were!
Note: The reason why we decided to do Pousse Cafes last night is because we were out of ice. No ice = no cocktails, an important thing to remember if you plan on embarking on a journey such as this one.
Dale/David Project #36-39: An Evening At Tipsy Manor
Last night was a cram session at Tipsy Manor: cramming in a handful of drinks from the Dale so that we could stay on schedule for the Dale/David Project, and me cramming a bunch of buffalo wings into my mouth because I was so hungry that my stomach was digesting itself, since the meal took so long to prepare (next time--Pluckers).
Don't worry, there were more wings on the grill. I had to get the table set so that we could take a damn picture and start eating.
I decided for no apparent reason (no big game, no abundance of time) that I was going to cook Buffalo Wings from scratch--make the pepper sauce, then the Buffalo sauce; trim celery, make bleu cheese dressing; cut up chicken wings into drums, flappers, and freaky nub that nobody eats (I added these and some veggie scraps to make a quick stock), then smoke over charcoal and toss in wing sauce; cut and fry potatoes. And drink a bunch of cold Leinenkugel's, which Jenna and Tipsy thought tasted like "Grandpa beer."
While I grunted and bitched in the kitchen, Tipsy mixed cocktails with our esteemed guest Jenna Noel, associate publisher of Edible Austin magazine.
Jenna chose for her first drink the Mark Twain Cocktail. This cocktail follows a rather simple formula: Scotch + Lemon juice + sugar + bitters = yummy. It was supposedly described by Twain himself to his wife in a letter he wrote from London in 1874.
The Mark Twain was well balanced, simple, and delicious
Tipsy flipped through the Dale and found the Paris Cocktail. Consisting of gin, dry vermouth, and creme de cassis, shaken and strained, and garnished with a flamed lemon peel. It was reportedly created by Colin Field at the Hemingway Bar, Ritz Hotel, Paris.
Tipsy was getting artistic (and tipsy) with this photo. The Paris Cocktail is much sweeter than we expected.
For dessert we had a lemon cheesecake pie that a friend brought us from his aunty Marie (Calendar's). To wash it down I made two frothy creamy drinks. The first was the Parisian Blonde. According to Dale, "This is a vintage cocktail in the tradition of the classic Alexander... The name remains a mystery to me." She consists of rum, orange curacao, and heavy cream, with a few drops of vanilla as a garnish on top of the frothy head.
This cocktail was not super exciting.
Next up I made a Pink Squirrel. This is a drink that I have been meaning to make for a decade or more, ever since my first job in a restaurant/bar where they had the mysterious and aged bottle of Creme de Noyaux. If only the rest of the squirrels at Tipsy Manor were as well-meaning as this Pink one! I saw one of those bastards climbing up a tree with a couple feet of squash vine + blossoms hanging from his mouth; since all of the neighbors have dogs, the squirrels take refuge in our yard (and make refuse out of my Drinkable Estate).
The Greyhound is the fraternal twin of the Screwdriver, though it's the sibling you don't know exists until you meet him later in life and are dumbfounded at how the two of you had never met in the first place. Woah, I think that sentence needs a little more punctuation, but who give a &$#*&.
The Greyhound is a delicious tart alternative to the Screwdriver.
I was all excited by the Grapefruit Cocktail in The Savoy Cocktail Book which calls for lemon juice, grapefruit jelly and gin. An adaptation listed below the main recipe calls for gin, grapefruit juice, sugar and "plenty of ice." This appears to be a progenitor of the Greyhound, though I've only found this in one source. Cheers and let me know different.
The Japanese Cocktail is an obscure classic that appeared first in Jerry Thomas's How to Mix Drinks (1862). It does not appear to have anything to do with Japan, but it is tasty. The recipe in the Dale consists of Cognac, orgeat, lime juice, and Angostura bitters. The lime juice is a latter day addition. According to Dale's notes, the original drink involved a couple of pieces of lemon peel. Some of the versions I found still hew closely to this formula, such as the one in Simon Difford's Cocktails.
I thought it was a lovely cocktail; Tipsy thought it was too sweet. I told him to go suck a lime.
This is the highball version of the Salt and Pepper Martini I posted about below. If I had noticed this earlier I would have posted them together. Instead, I found it while scanning the book trying to figure out what to do with an "open" grapefruit.
According to Dale, he created this drink as a response to the Salty Dog, which he liked the idea of but the recipe for which he thought was boring. This is a wetter version of the S & P Martini, with 3 full ounces of grapefruit juice as opposed to 3/4 oz.
This is a sweet drink but a delicious starting off point for people who are getting into cocktails. I would recommend this to anyone drinking something salty dog-like as a "next step."
This Wednesday there is a cocktail contest where the "official drink of Austin" will be determined for the next year. The contest itself is not open to the public, but the after party is, where you can taste samples of the official tipple.
The Dale/David Project went on the road last week in an exciting trip to Houston, specifically to Beaver's and the current home bar of Bobby Heugel. (You can read about my previous Houston field trip here.) The original post was going to be Live Blogging at Beaver's! But then I had a few too many of Bobby's libations and now will be posting 4-5 days after the fact. So be it. If I had been live blogging people would have been too busy watching Olympians wrestle in skimpy singlets, which is what was on the TV at the Beave that night.
Beavers bar man Bobby Heugel honored us by mixing a few drinks from the Dale
First I want to share an image with you that I think is very intriguing. This photo was taken not at Beaver's but rather at a shitbox burger joint I can't remember the name of. The point is that there is something very appropriate about there being a Zima sign right above the urinal: Is it because it tastes like piss? Or because you might as well just pour it down the pisser?
Do they still make this stuff? It was all the rage during my high school years (before we graduated to the Mickey's hand grenades)
In addition to heading up the bar team at Beaver's, Bobby Heugel is the founder of the acclaimed DrinkDogma.com, a comprehensive online beverage resource. Whereas I just like to ramble on about drinking, post a bunch of shoddy photos, and talk the occasional smack, Bobby's site is focused on delivering usable information to readers--if I could just take a page out of his book. On this evening, Bobby very generously agreed to take a page out of Dale's book, so to speak, by participating in the Dale/David Project. But first, I tried a couple of Bobby Heugel originals.
The Lost in Madrid Cocktail
Lost in Madrid
2 oz. Plymouth Gin
1 oz. Vya Dry Vermouth
1/4 oz. Licor 43
2 Dashes Orange Bitters (Angostura)
Stir & strain, garnish with a lemon twist
The Brave is an intense experience
The Brave
2 oz. Averna Amaro
3/4 oz. Laphroaig 10 yr.
1/4 oz. Orange Curacao
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Flamed Orange Zest
Swirl to warm thoroughly
I handed Bobby the book and he selected two cocktails. The first is the Man O' War.
The Man O' War consists of Wild Turkey 101, orange curacao, sweet vermouth, and lemon juice, garnished with an orange slice and a cherry.
Dale/David Project #43--The Man O' War
Next up Bobby made a Silver Fizz. Actually, two Silver Fizzes. The first followed Dale's recipe, which oddly has as much simple syrup as it does gin. I have made this drink several times before but never really noticed how sweet it was until Bobby made the drink following his own formula.
Dale/David Project #44--Silver Fizz
Silver Fizz (Bobby Heugel version. Double simple syrup for DDG version)
1 1/2 oz Gin
3/4 oz Lemon juice
1/2 oz Simple syrup
1 Egg white
Shake vigorously with ice so as to emulsify the egg, then strain into a highball glass--Dale calls to top with soda. The drink is served without ice.
The Dale/David Project continues and what a joy this drink is. It brings back memories of sitting in a small restaurant in the late summer in southern Germany and experiencing the beauty of the radler, a mix of lager and lemon-lime soda (the European version). Like that drink, this one is incredibly refreshing. It's a delightful blend of ale, ginger beer, lemon juice and orange curracao.
Beer Night of the Dale/David Project continues with the Michelada. I have no idea where the Michelada comes from but it seems to be everywhere I look these days. (Including, quite tragically, in the beer case at your neighborhood grocery, in the form of Budweiser Chelada) Dale offers no historical background on the drink; there is no recipe or mention of it in the Joy of Mixology. Simon Difford refers to it simply as a "Mexican classic" in his book.
The Michelada starts in a beer glass with a squeeze of lime, a few dashes of Tabsco, soy sauce, and worcestershire sauce; with a twist of black pepper and an ounce of Maggi seasoning. Dale specifies that it is served over ice, though I see it often served without.
The Michelada is not one of my favorite beverages. But those bison sausage & potato enchiladas topped with bison chili and farmer's market cheese...
I will post more detailed notes and pictures later today. The winner of last night's Official Drink of Austin contest was the crew at Ranch 616, with their "Ring of Fire." In addition to putting on a helluva performance (including a woman dressed in a Jalapeño costume), and in spite of my distaste for shooters, the drink managed to overcome its potential kitsch overload (it is, after all, served in a carved out jalapeño and followed with a chilled Lone Star beer) and defeat the competition. The "Ring of Fire" is a kamikaze-like shooter, served in a jalapeño "shot" glass that has been rimmed with cayenne salt and branded with their logo, a presentation which required the craftsmen at the Ranch to devise a special galvanized bucket (for the beer) with a wire harness for the jalapeño.
The contestants were judged on Presentation, Creativity, Taste, and Viability. I have a feeling, though, that the presentations unduly influence the contest. By that I mean that presentation should be only a small part of the overall scoring, because while the presentation is viewed one time by one group of judges, the cocktail is enjoyed all year long. What is in the glass is much more important than how it is presented. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the performances, even down to the Flair-tender who dropped one of the shakers on the ground before picking it back up, juggling it a few more times, and inverting it into another shaker to use it as a strainer. I am not sure which judge got the "dirty" martini, but the panel was apparently not turned off enough to dock significant points (this team placed 2nd). More details to come...
Thanks to the magic of the interweb, we have gotten our hands on a bottle of Plymouth Sloe Gin, which is not yet available in Texas.
I have to interject something here about an interesting, if uncreative, fellow that I met at Savers house of thrift last week. I was purchasing this vintage cocktail shaker with classic drink recipes on it and he says, "They don't have Sloe Gin--that's my favorite drink!" I was excited to meet a sloe gin afficionado, and explained my adventure with the bottle of Plymouth. I asked him what he liked to do with it. "I like to drink it!" he said enthusiastically. I meant that I wondered what he liked to to mix with it. "I don't mix it with nothin'! I just drink it." At that I wondered why he needed a recipe on the side of a cocktail shaker...
Today I decided to make a Sloe Gin Fizz from the Dale: equal parts gin and sloe gin, with lemon juice and simple syrup.
