Well, it's finally here. Treaty Oak Platinum Rum has started popping up on liquor store shelves in Austin in the last week, after months of anticipation. We tasted it first at the beginning of the summer when we met Bruce Graham, one half of the Graham Barnes Distilling partnership, at a celebration hosted by Paula of Paula's Texas Orange fame. We were impressed at how supple and smooth the rum was, for being a non-aged product.
Then we waited.
Every once in a while we would hear a rumor that it was coming out, and we would rush to the liqour store, only to be disappointed that we had been misinformed. Then to cope with the ensuing depression we would make frivolous purchases.
Finally, I asked my friend Mitch Mooney of Twin Liqour to just call me and let me know when it was out; on Friday I got the call.

In honor of the arrival of Treaty Oak Rum, a nice bouquet of zinnias and some tired limes

We began mixing tonight with the Treaty Oak. The boys who created it suggested that it can be sipped straight or mixed, and at $30 for a 750 they are aiming high. Perhaps they will find that small portion of the drinking market who drink premium spirits neat or on the rocks. I for one don't spend much time sipping spirits unless it is a good whiskey or scotch, or aged tequila. With rum I like to mix, and so tonight we made a classic Papa Doble, the Hemingway Daiquiri supposedly made the way the man himself ordered it at his beloved Floridita Bar in Havana, except he liked it frozen and we made it shaken and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. The Papa Doble is like a traditional daiquiri with the addition of a bit of grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur.

This is not the usual color of a papa doble, not that you can tell the color in my crappy photo. It is yellowish because instead of simple syrup we usted Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup, which has a light molassesy color and flavor. We knew it would affect the flavor of the drink, and we thought it did so pleasantly. Actually I thought the drink tasted interestingly like apple cider.

The last six weeks has been the tipsiest period I can (almost) remember. The time since the last week of November seems like one continuous cocktail party. This is, I suppose, what you would call a "good problem."
First there was my birthday, number 30, which is as good a reason as any I can think of to start drinking. (Actually, a few days before my birthday was Thanksgiving; at about 11:00 on that day Joe's dad asked, while supervising the frying of the turkey, "Is it too early for a martini?", to which I responded with a hearty "No!", and headed for the wet bar. I suppose that was the first domino in the last month and a half of inebriation)
I historically have had low expectations when it comes to birthday presents, but Joe really knows how to shop for me. At Tales of the Cocktail last summer, we found out about a ton of cool new products, but the one that stood out the most was St-Germain, an elderflower liqueur made in France. Of course it is not available in Texas, and the little airplane minis that they handed out at the tasting seminar were only good for about one drink apiece. Even though I greedily pocketed as many as I could get my hands on, only a limited amount of satisfaction was possible from such a minimal quantity. Being a cheap bastard, I have not been able to bring myself to pony up the dough to have the stuff shipped. But on my birthday, my ship finally came in. Of the many wonderful presents that I received, this is one that stands out the most:

Joe got me not one but four bottles, wrapped up in a suitcase

In just a matter of seconds I went from having a memory of St-Germain to having a motherload. (Well, okay a case would have been the motherload, but four bottles was a surprise indeed). I have made a few drinks with it but the one I like the most so far is the St-Germain Cocktail, which was created I believe by Simon Difford:
St-Germain Cocktail
2 oz. Champagne or Dry White Wine
1 1/2 oz. St. Germain
2 oz. Club Soda
Stir ingredients in a tall Collins glass filled with big ice, mixing completely. Garnish with a lemon twist.

A week after my birthday, and a verrry long week before finals began, was graduation. If you graduate in the fall, the ceremony is before finals, which is a big tease, the last day of finals dangling in front of you like a martini on a stick as you cross the stage and collect your fake diploma. For all of the anxieties I had about graduating from college at the ripe age of 30, I realize that there are a handful of benefits, the most obvious of which being that at 30 most of us know how to party in a more sophisticated manner than we did at 22 (another being that at 30 we realize that life is too short for us to hang on to that tacky polyester cap and gown and that those must be discarded upon leaving the ceremony.) I was fortunate enough to have my party hosted by Paula Angerstein and her husband Paul, of Paula's Texas Spirits. If there is any place that would be ideal for throwing a party, a distiller's residence must be at the top of the list. Especially if the distiller has such fabulous taste as Paul and Paula. Perched on a hilltop overlooking the lake, their house is a beautiful place to celebrate, and they are incredibly gracious hosts. They made a great spread of snacketizers and mixed up several of their signature cocktails. Real Ale Brewing donated a keg of their Full Moon Pale Rye Ale, and I brought a bottle of St-Germain and a bottle of Lucid Absinthe to share with the guests.

We didn't have the equipment to properly "louche" the absinthe, but you can tell by the expression on my happy ass face that I didn't mind. It was fun partaking of the green fairy, and sharing the quality product with uninitiated friends and family who had either never had absinthe, or had only tasted the electric green mouthwash that they drank after dousing a flaming sugar cube in Prague, or what have you. I myself had never tasted the artisanal absinthe until I attended the lecture by Ted Breaux at Tales of the Cocktail last summer. Since then, I have been dying to get my hands on a bottle. Even though it has been legal for a while for exportation to the United States, there has been a shortage of supply of quality absinthe. Most of what is available is crap. In Texas, we just recently got Lucid, one of Mr. Breaux's formulations, a bottle of which I procured for this special occasion. Once I recovered from graduation weekend, I had just enough time to study for finals, after the last of which it was time to start getting tipsy all over again.

Tonight we decided to make a pot of chicken tortilla soup. This required a run to Central Market to pick up a chicken and a few other supplies. As is often the case, we got carried away in the beer department, and we left with about ten different bottles of specialty beers. Back at home we were reminded that our refrigeration capacity is not as grandiose as our beer-buying ambition. Something had to go from the fridge so we could make room for all this beer. Joe (Tipsy) grabbed the bottle of Stone's Original Green Ginger WIne, saying something to the effect of, "Let's get this out and try it, that way if it's nasty it won't be taking up valuable real estate."

We poured a glass first without reading the serving instructions. We were not in love with it served neat. Topped with a spritz of charged water, it was more drinkable.

The instructions in my home kitchen journal* said explicitly that after the chicken hits the pot, "Make a stout margarita. Or two." At that critical point in the recipe I was struck with an inspiration: I realized that the Stone's would fit in perfectly with this Texmexican feast. Tipsy set to work squeezing some tangerines that we got at the farmers market last weekend. I began gathering the liquid ingredients.

The Stone's Gingerita.
4 oz. Cuervo Tradicional or other 100% agave reposado tequila
2 oz. Paula's Texas Orange
2 oz. Stone's Ginger Wine
2 oz. fresh-squeezed tangerine juice
2 oz. fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 piece fresh ginger.
Measure ingredients into shaker. Using a ginger grater, grate fresh ginger into shaker, allowing the juicy pulp to get in, but keeping the stringy stuff behind. Shake vigorously. Strain over ice in 2-3 rocks glasses, or pour into a small carafe. Top cocktail with a floater of Stone's.

*We keep a detailed journal of what we cook or mix at the house. That way if something spectacular comes out of it, we will be able to recreate it. It is a tragedy when you spend all night tweaking a cocktail recipe, experience a victorious breakthrough in cocktail perfection, then forget it all given the intoxicating nature of your quest, and the drink is lost forever. On the other hand, it is important to keep track of things that really don't work. On Elvis's birthday I was determined to make a Pink Cadillac, and the notes next to my early drafts reflect my tasters' comments: "Kool Aid" "Cough Syrup" "Nope!"