December 20, 2013

Ava


Some of my favorites are coming together in this cocktail: Cats and absinthe.

I'm far from the only one who sees a strong connection between the two. The brilliant poster for the endlessly fascinating Absinth Depot Berlin hangs over my chair and reminds me daily.

When Nick of The Straight Up announced anise as the theme for this month's Mixology Monday - I knew that I wanted to mix with absinthe even if that falls squarely in the playing it safe bracket.

Then when a good friend of mine send me an adorable picture (your see it at the end of the post) of her new kitten sniffing her cocktail and I suggested mixing one for the little one, my faith was sealed. The kitten is named Avalon - Ava for short.

The Ava is basically an absinthe sour:
  • 3 cl absinthe (mine is at a staggering 74 percent alcohol, if yours has a lower proof use 4,5 cl)
  • Juice from one seville orange - if you can't get them, don't make the drink.
  • 1/2 seville orange seeds removed and cut into four chunks
  • 1 table spoon organic sugar
  • 1 cl cherry liqueur - I used Frederiksdal New Nordic but Cherry Heering would work too
  • Seltzers
Put the chunks of the seville orange in the bottom of a shaker, add the sugar and the juice and muddle. Add the absinthe and ice and shake.

Fill a nice wine - or absinthe - glass with crushed ice, strain the cocktail, top with the seltzers and try to float the liqueur, mine immediately seeped into the drink.






November 18, 2013

Amber

This months MxMo has been the most challenging thus far and I really like that.

Shaun and Christa - of Booze Nerds fame - are hosting and they have chosen Resin as a theme.

Fortunately they give us a lot of options in their announcement post and money could help me with the rest. But I'll let the nerds explain:

We thought hard about a theme that would work well for this time of year, and after contemplating the food, booze, and decor we like for the holidays, we settled on “Resin.” From savory rosemary in a stuffing, to a delicious juniper-y gin in a martini, to a fragrant fir ornament or garnish, our friends the evergreens have a lot to offer… The challenge: come up with an ingenious creation using the resin-y ingredient of your choice. Zirbenz, retsina, hoppy IPA, pine-nut puree, even? Sure! Spirit, garnish, aroma, all are fair game.  Whatever resin means to you, we want to hear it.

I had never heard of Zirbenz and had to look it up - it sound like something I would like, but not readily available in Denmark.

Next I considered making vermouth out of a bottle of Retsina and perhaps mix a martini-style cocktail but I could not lay my hands on a decent bottle of that infamous Greek wine, that everybody loves while holidaying on Crete but everybody hates a winters evening in northern Europe.

So I settled on something I have always considered overly gimmicky: A bottle of Aalborg Nordguld (means northern gold) - an aquavit made with distilled amber. It certainly has that amber hue, but I'm not completely convince actual amber is involved in the making.

However it's a nice mellow aquavit with just that hint of a bite distinguishing it from - say- vodka.

Next I jumped at the chance to utilize some of the rosemary still standing proud in my garden and settled on clementine as my base spirit.

All those ideas come together like this:
  • 6 cl Nordguld - aquavit with destilled amber
  • 6 cl freshly squeezed clementine juice
  • 1,5 cl rosemary syrup
  • 0,75 cl rosemary and black pepper infused Wray and Nephew overproof rum
  • 3 cl coconut water 
Shake the first four ingredients with ice. Strain into a highball glass over fresh ice and garnish with a slice of clementine.

For the Wray and Nephew infusion - I simply cracked some whole black pepper corns with a pestle and bruised a good sprig of rosemary and stuck that in a small jar with about 10 cl of the rum.

The rosemary syrup is simple syrup with a sprig of fresh rosemary added - allowed to steep until the syrup was completely cooled and then strained.

November 6, 2013

LMG - Light Machine Gun


Cocktail history is full of tall tales and outright lies. Perhaps that's why I like it so much? And I do enjoy being part of inventing a cocktail based on a true story!

Last summer I found myself in excellent company, where the drinks were flowing and the stories got better and better.

Then we came to the point in time, when an American president visiting Denmark was invited to stay at the lovely baroque palace Fredensborg Palace. The couple I visited lived in Fredensborg, and the visit brought lot's of chaos to their community and especially to their neighborhood.

For the sake of a good story, let us say: Where their garden ended the palace grounds began. And it turns out: Where an American president visits American rule prevails.

But the man of the house had a building project running in front of his house, and no visiting dignitary was about to interrupt that.

Unfortunately he accidentally cut the power supply to his house. Fortunately he is an electrician and could splice the cables him selves, but not without a bit of help from the power company.

An unscheduled van from the power company - not expected to visit any of the house - meant the van driver was treated like an intruder attempting to gain access to the bedroom of The White House.

Meanwhile the unlucky electrician was on his hands and knees in his own front yard working to reconnect the severed cables. That attracted the attention of a helicopter. A dark figure kneeling in the open door pointing a weapon on the unsuspecting guy. His wife heard the noise - and noticed the power cut - opened her front door. Saw her kneeling husband, saw the hovering helicopter, saw the pointed weapon - which was immediately pointed at her.

She then decided she could not deal with the scene. Quietly closed her own front door and retreated into her home - a maneuver Danes are famous for.

Later her husband informed her: It was a Light Machine Gun the guy pointed at us.

We were quiet around the table for a while after the story. Then I was send into the kitchen to come up with a drink:
  • 2 cl gin
  • 0,5 cl orange Curacao - could be Cointreau or Pierre Ferrand
  • 0,5 cl Fernet Branca - on the day I used Jägermeister, but I think the FB adds a little complexity
  • 3 cl fresh, unpasteurized apple juice - I used juice from Elstar apples today and Norwegian apple juice on the day
Shake everything with ice. Serve in a cocktail coup. Garnish with Maraschino cherries - a dried apple ring would be nice too.

And as you can see from the picture, I have new cocktail books to read. Hope they are full of medium tall tales.

October 25, 2013

Roffignac

I love when I casually cross path with a great cocktail. A couple of weeks ago I never knew there were such a creation as the Roffignac cocktail named after and in honor of the first mayor of New Orleans who gave that fine city it's first street lights.

Today I mixed it with a raspberry shrub made from the next to the last harvest of berries from my own garden and it was a revelation.

I haven't mixed much with cognac but I will in the future. I am amazed at how well it holds up against both the sweetness and the vinegar and how it brings out the glory of unprocessed raspberry juice. Not sure my beloved gin could accomplish that.

I made the shrub over three days - that's how long I let equal measures of fresh raspberries and organic sugar sit in a covered bowl on my cool kitchen counter.

After three days the berries had shrunk and looked borderline bad, but the bowl was filled with lovely smelling viscous mix of juice and sugar.

I strained the berries out and threw them away - they probably could have made a nice filling in muffins or a cake - and shook the juice-sugar mixture pretty hard to dissolve the crystals.

Next I gently added white vinegar in small increments until I found the balance between the sweet and the sour.  I didn't measure so I do not know how much I added - but if measurements are important to you this guy has a recipe.

After that mixing the highball was really easy:
  • 6 cl cognac
  • 4 cl raspberry shrub
  • Seltzers
Just pour the cognac and shrub over ice in a highball glass and add seltzers to taste and. Garnish with some Maraschino cherries.

And for me an extra bonus of this cocktail was both it's history part 1 and part 2 and the fact that Chris Hannah of Arnauld's French 75 was instrumental in it's rediscovery.

I count as one of the high points of my visit to New Orleans and TOTC this past summer my visit with a good friend and cocktail expert to that fine establishment - and realize I've never written that visit up.


October 20, 2013

Emperor Penguin Flip

I made two decisions the moment I saw the theme for this months MxMo: I was not going to shop and add booze from hitherto unexplored continents and I wanted to have a go at all the continents.

But let Stewart of Putney Farm - this month's gracious host - present the intercontinental theme himself:

Everywhere we travel these days we see cocktails on the menu. And not just here in the USA, but all around the world. And that’s not only the drinks, but the ingredients as well… So let’s celebrate the global reach of cocktails with an “Intercontinental” Mixology Monday challenge. Create a cocktail with “ingredients” from at least 3, but preferably 4,5 or 6 continents. And if you can include Antarctica, then you get a Gold Star. And remember, sometimes the tools used, glassware, names or back stories of cocktails are important “ingredients.” Creativity and a bit of narrative exploration are encouraged. So if you have been waiting on buying that bottle of Japanese Scotch, Bundaberg rum from Australia, Pisco or Cachaca from South America or Madagascar vanilla, now may be the time to try them out….except for the Bundy…trust us on that. Have fun.

Like most participants in this months MxMo I had the greatest trouble finding a way to incorporate the continent of Antarctica into a drink. 

As far as I know the only two life forms actually calling that barren, icy desert home are penguins and lichen. Neither of which are readily available for purchase.

However should you ever come across a fresh egg from an Emperor Penguin this is the drink to mix: Emperor Penguin Flip.

It even has a subtitle - the Cherry-Garrad Flip.

You see my most cherished book is not a bar book, it's not even a book about the Titanic. It's a book about three mens quest to secure enough emperor penguin eggs to test a theory that penguins were the missing link between reptiles and birds.

In 1911 they went on a 60 mile sled trek from the winter quarters at Cape Evans of Robert Falcon Scott's British Antarctic Expedition to Cape Crozier.

This was at the height of the Antarctic Winter, so they made the trip in total darkness and in temperatures as low a -60 C. They suffered greatly and nearly died during a blizzard that blew their tent away - but they found five eggs and brought them back to base camp.

This trip has been described in a book by the only survivor of the three Apsley Cherry-Garrad, his two companions Dr. Wilson and Birdie Bowers died with Scott on the return trek after they were beaten to the South Pole by Roald Amundsen.

Cherry-Gerrads book The Worst Journey in the World is my most cherished book. 

I do hope my drink is not the worst journey around the world but here are the ingredients and their continents:
  • 5 cl golden rum - I used Diplomatico from Venezuela and South America
  • 2 cl New Nordic Cherry Liqueur - Europe
  • 1 egg - Europe (or Antarctica if it's from an Emperor Penguin)
  • 1 cl coffee and wasabi syrup - bring equal amounts of Ethiopian Coffee, Sugar to a boil - as it cools of add a dab of wasabi for fire and balance - Africa and Asia
  • Grated macadamia nut - Australia
  • Cherry Bitters - North America
Place rum, cherry liqueur, egg and syrup in a shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously. Double strain into pretty stemware and garnish by drawing feather in foam with a couple of dashes of cherry bitters and grate macadamia nut on top.

And the eggs from the emperor penguins? Only three were intact at the end of the worst journey in the world. Cherry-Garrad brought them to the Museum of Natural History in London but had a bit of difficulty convincing anyone they were important. They weren't actually examined until 1934 and by then the theory of penguins being missing links were already disproven. Good things as the embryos did not look any different than other bird embryos.

And should you ever get a hold of a fresh emperor egg for this cocktail you need to multiply all other ingredients by 11 as an emperor penguin egg has a volume of about 500 ml as opposed to a medium chicken egg with a volume of about 43 ml. Also the taste and appearance of the egg might surprise you.

October 11, 2013

Looking at tractors in Berlin


Bottles of booze forcing their way into the light through peaty ground, rocking chairs on cool verandas and icy cold copper mugs.

Even when some of the worlds largest sellers of booze target their most knowledgeable costumers - cocktail bartenders - it involves quiet a bit of theater.

Marketing gurus will call it storytelling - but it's clichés and stagecraft.

Not that it is not enjoyable wandering around and ogling bottles of Campari frozen into a giant ice ball or mixing your own Lynchburg Lemonade in a mason jar with a handle.

But what really worked for me at the Bar Convent Berlin was meeting producers and tasting their products - evaluating a taste against what the producer wants to accomplish.

And perhaps strangely - or maybe not - at a European bar show American craft distillers did this best. I tasted Aviation Gin and gin from St. George Spirits and loved both of them.

And I got to taste both the creme de menthe and the creme de cacao from Tempus Fugit that I hadn't imagined would be there. The creme de menthe is amazing and now commences the quest to buy a bottle.

The big brands so often got lost in their own gimmicks and/or the use of starlets.

Imagine that: Even i 2013 women are hired solely for their looks. I mean how hard would it be to train them to be able to answer the simple question of: What am I tasting? Apparently their pretty little heads couldn't contain complex answers like: Russian Vodka.

So was it boring or a waste of time? Not at all - at each of the three seminars I attended I picked up interesting facts, but they were not of the same quality as the seminars at Tales of the Cocktail or at Copenhagen Spirits and Cocktails.

It seams that in New Orleans and Copenhagen you start with choosing interesting subjects and then find sponsors, where as it's done the other way around in Berlin.

Thats why the seminar on the perfect Martini - sponsored by a vodka company - was a sales presentation for that particular product and nothing more. And why the tasting tray did not contain even a badly mixed gin based Martini for comparison - which would seem essential to such a seminar.

Will I be back? Absolutely - if nothing else to check out the tableaus the big brands come up with for 2014.

October 6, 2013

Sour Cherry


Last weekend I went on a lovely autumn trip with good people to the winery that makes Frederiksdal Cherry Wine.

We visited after the harvest but there were still quite a few, lovely, almost black and very ripe cherries on the trees. And we had time to pick some before tasting the wines and picnicking on the grounds.

So last Sunday I made some Maraschino Cocktail Cherries adapting this recipe with a bit of bourbon.

Today the cherries we ready to meet a cocktail and I started setting up for a rye based sour with a cherry wine float that I envisioned would be great.

I got a glass of the cherries from the fridge and put it on my kitchen counter and next time I picked it up to twist of the cap the bottom fell out of the glass and the lovely boozy syrup poured down my cupboard.

I suppose I should be grateful it didn't happen in the fridge but it's annoying in a first world kind of way.

On the other hand now I get to eat the cherries as I don't have any syrup to cover them with, and they turned out great with a real deep and lovely taste.

And why not put three of these rare cherries on a single drink:

  • 6 cl rye - I used Old Overholt
  • 3 cl honey syrup
  • 3 cl fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cl cherry wine
 Shake the first three ingredients with plenty of ice, strain into a rocks glass over ice and float cherry wine on top - garnish with Maraschino cherries.

Here's hoping the rest of the glasses won't break too.


September 21, 2013

Gefion Sour - MxMo LXVII


The theme for this month's Mixology Monday is Smoke - which immediately started the cocktalian part of my mind running.

Our gracious host Elena from Stir and Strain explains the theme this way:

Smoke has been everywhere this past year, from liquors to lemonades, to the hills here in Southern California(!); smoke in its many forms has been front page news.

For me, smoke is also a transitional element: it symbolizes the last summer bonfires, sitting around the fire pit making s’mores, and the start of the fragrant crackles from the fireplace announcing that fall is coming.

For September’s theme, I’d like to see how you interpret smoke. With your liquor or ingredients? Your glassware? Will you whip out a chemistry set to transform your cocktail into ghostly vapors? Do you own a home smoker, still in the box, that’s never been used? Well then, you’re welcome. Unpack those ideas and let’s set off a couple smoke alarms this month for MxMo.
I really didn't set out to, but this month's submission brings together quite a lot of the last MxMo themes.

Also Elana challenged me further by announcing on Twitter, that her submission would incorporate locally distilled spirits.

So I thought long and hard and came up with the Gefion Sour - named in honor of a goddess who plowed the island I live on in Denmark out of the middle part of Sweden. The "lost land" is now a lake.

Most of the ingredients in the Gefion Sour are from Sjælland or Lolland an island just south of Sjælland. The lemon however is from far away.

The basis - and where the theme comes in - is a lovely dill aquavit from Shumachers, just a 15 minute drive to the northeast of where I live. The aquavit has a very clear and crisp dill taste - it's made by extracting the fresh herbs in clear spirits - and a tiny bite of white pepper. And it is also certified organic.

I lavender smoked a deciliter using the same technique I described here - that was a cocktail inspired by MxMo LXVI. The lavender was grown right in my own garden.

Next I used the rest of my horse radish sirup from Hot Rod and finally I did a float sink of a completely new product: New Nordic Cherry Liqueur a wonderful alternative to Cherry Heering - thus tying into the cherry theme of MxMo LXIV.
  • 6 cl lavender smoked dill aquavit
  • 3 cl lemon juice
  • 3 cl horse radish simple syrup
  • 1 cl cherry liqueur
Shake the first three ingredients with plenty of ice, strain into an ice filled rocks glass and then gently pour the cherry liqueur on top of the drink over the back of a spoon. In my case the liqueur sank like a rock but the drink still turned out pretty.

My cocktail is obviously a riff on New York Sour - where red wine is floated on the top. I may just not have the right touch - or the difference in the proof of wine and liqueur may be the explanation.

I'm really pleased with this cocktail - the lavender smoke blends so nicely with the dill, the lemon, the cherry and a whisper of horse radish. I'll definitely be making it again.

And since I knew this would be an early afternoon drink and I was baking bagels anyway I had fun baking some miniature bagels to turn into snack with a garlic cream cheese (the garlic grown locally), onion and SMOKED salmon.



September 15, 2013

My 5 best cocktail books


It is a testament to all things digital that I only have one third as many cocktail books as books about Titanic.

Back in the early 90's when I became a serious student of the doomed ocean liner, there were no online resources or e-books. I couldn't even rely on a Danish book store to order the books I wanted so 3-4 trips a year to London and visits to Foyle's and other amazing book temples were necessary.

Along the way I even had the good sense to visit The American Bar at The Savoy  - but not picking up vintage bar books in any of the many used book sellers in Charing Cross Road and the little side streets.

Now some of what I buy are e-books and some are even audio books, but here are the 5 books in my possession I enjoy the most - and unlike Buzzfeed I'm not going to let you suffer through a count down:

1. The Drunken Botanist 
This book has it all: Stories, facts, recipes and just a touch of irreverence. Amy Stewart's book can help you with everything from planning a vegetable garden for maximum cocktail enjoyment to enlighten you about the history of Angostura Bitters.
 
2. To Have and Have Another 
Right now I'm on my second read through and I still can't wait to turn the next - digital - page because of the flow of Philip Greene's pen and general greatness of his subject. Mr. Hemingway and his favorite drinks deserve a great book like this.

3. The PDT Cocktail Book 
Had this book not existed the Savoy Cocktail Book would occupy this place on my list. But Jim Meehan's book is just a more interesting mix of old favorites and new classics according to my taste buds. 

4. The Hour 
I have this as an audiobook - until I find and can afford a print edition with this piece of cover art. And I still I laughed out loud at Mr. Bernard DeVoto's more outragerous claims like: Remember always the three abominations are: (1) rum, (2) any other sweet drink, and (3) any mixed drink except one made of gin and dry vermouth in the ratio I have given.

5. Lommebogen 
This is treasure - a facsimile of a notebook kept by a Danish bartender in the 1930's - his own personal reference book when the proper proportions of the Sidecar or the Bijoux slipped his mind.

It also holds quite a few Danish cocktails - drinks he either made up himself or drinks that had a short lifespan. Some of the mnamed after Danish actors and popular culture icons. Many of them involving some pretty bad Danish liquors made from raw alcohol and essences.
 
What about books like The Savoy Bar Book and How to Mix Drinks you may ask. Well, they are great reference books as are my reprints of The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book and Bar La Forida Cocktails. But they do not inspire me quite so much to mix stuff on my own or delight me with facts and opinions as the top five do.

What are your favorite bar books?

September 10, 2013

Skinny Middle Manager

Yes, the name is a joke, and no it is not a diet cocktail.

I've been admiring Barbaras Aperol Tequila Swizzle all weekend. A very pretty and tasty sounding drink. My only problem is that I really don't like Aperol.

But the image stayed with me, as I was challenge by a middle manager at work to make him a cocktail with the name Skinny Middle Manager.

So here is how a figured a drink in honor of all those middle managers who put up with someone like me day in and day out should be mixed.

Coffee - can't have management without caffeine, but I couldn't imagine mixing Kaluha and Aperol, so I went with an espresso syrup made from 2 oz espresso cooked with 2 oz sugar.

Aperol - moderne, talked about, very bleeding edge and it tasts really bad too.

Next i wondered what kind of base spirit to use - something macho like bourbon, or something more androgynous. I went with white rum.

Next something healthy - middle managers have to take care of their bodies or they won't become senior managers - I decided on coconut water. And finally it seemed obvious to make the cocktail as a highball with seltzers - as highball is sort of cocktail code for long winded.
  • 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Star which may explain why I never get a pay raise
  • 3 cl Aperol
  • 3 cl coconut water
  • 2 cl coffee syrup
  • Seltzers
Shake the first four ingredients with ice and then strain the cocktail into a highball glass with plenty of ice - top it of with seltzers and add your most bling cocktail stirrer to impress the boss.

And strangely enough it does not tast half bad - pretty good actually. The coffee taste works wonders on the Aperol.

September 5, 2013

The Prince

I'm in love with my raspberry bush. It has grown and expanded all by itself to cover parts of my really boring fence. And best of all it produces so many wonderful, big berries with a deep and complex taste.

Today I effortlessly picked 500 grams of berries - and there is at least twice as many left for tomorrow and tomorrow and....

There are many uses for the berries - the one most obvious to Danes is this delicacy. But I've already baked those and made cordial so today I decided to make sorbet.

I blended the fresh berries with the juice of one lime and passed the mush through a sieve to get rid of the little seeds. Then I added a simple sirup made from 1 dl sugar and 1 dl water.

The liquid was poured into a square shallow baking tin and placed in the freezer. I scraped through it after 30 minutes and 1 hour to minimize crystals and got a very nice sorbet out of it.

I don't know if I was already subconsciously planning a cocktail but I certainly had a lot of ideas when the thought hit me. I settled on the tried and true mix of raspberry and gin -but since I knew that the sorbet was on the sweet side I added Campari to balance it out:
  • 3 cl Campari
  • 6 cl Gin - I used Old English Gin 
  • 1 dl of raspberry sorbet
Place everything in a shaker and shake until the shaker is well cold and the sorbet integrated into the gin and Campari.

Pour into glass over ice and garnish with raspberry and pretty flower.

September 3, 2013

A letter to the future


When your favorite bar closes....

Dear future cocktail historian,

You have been searching high and low for information about a particular bar that existed for four short years in Copenhagen back in the good old days - back in 2009-2013.

You have read loads of irrelevant dusty old web pages, that almost made your eyes bleed, looked through millions of meaningless so called tweets (what was that about? Why did people impose needless and arbitrary limitations on their communication back then? Wasn't it primitive enough just to use text? Well let some other historian unravel that strange business), you have tried to decipher endless amounts of strange, unfocused, badly colored photos (or Instagrams as they were called - almost as strange as the tweets - why did a whole generation loose the capability to take strong, clear photos with depth and accurate coloring? Again let another historian unravel this mystery).

And what did all your hard work get you, but these meager clues:




Consider this your lucky day - that one needle in the haystack actually connected to the thread that can unravel it.

I wrote both the so called Facebook update (Don't ask it's easier to print a full scale 3D copy of the Great Pyramid of Egypt from cupcake frosting than understanding early 21st century social media) and the tweet.

I did it because I wanted to let the world know, I was there. That I was an eye witness to cocktail history.

And I didn't only watch history - I tasted it (which may explain the not very accurate communication in the Facebook update (back then an unfortunate side effect of cocktails was getting intoxicated something that was eliminated in the 2030's and in my opinion took the fun right out of drinking, but I digress)).

The literal translation is: Last cocktail served from Molktes bar, damn it's bitter sweet Henrik Steen Petersen.

It literally was the last cocktail I ever had mixed by the talented staff from the brilliant Molktes Bar. A place that so dominated the cocktail scene in Copenhagen back then, that it never really felt the same way to me ever again.

You most understand that Moltkes was at the forefront of what was even back then described as the renaissance of the Copenhagen cocktail scene. It was not the first bar to try to reintroduce cocktails to the Danes who had for so many years been lost to first aquavit and mass produced beer and then cheap wine.

But it was the bar most dedicated to only serve the true classics, and the bar with the most precise grip on what hospitality means. A place that never became infected with the dreaded hipster-disease where wearing suspenders meant being too cool to talk to the bar guests or notice when their glasses was empty.

Perhaps you already knew some of this? Perhaps that's why you are trying to dig deeper into the history of this place.

Well, let me give you a lead - concentrate on the man who made this bar. Mr. Henrik Steen Petersen, who also gave Denmark the Copenhagen Spirits and Cocktails event, and who went on to further cocktailian greatness after the bar was closed.

As for the tweet? I'm sure you already know Jeff Bell as one of the worlds best bartenders at the time.

But did you also know, that he with just the help of a bar back single handedly ran Moltkes for more than three hours that night and delighted us with some of his own cocktails, several punches and some cocktails from the famous PDT?

Well, I can prove it. While the bottle of Old Pal, as far as I can remember barely made it through 2013, and I unfortunately had to sell the two signed menus - one by Jeff Bell and one by Henrik Steen Pedersen - a decade ago to finance my new, improved, artificial liver (I got the EO-model) there are images.

And fortunately for you I know exactly where they are on the remnants of what was back then called the internet (before the cloud after arpanet) and once I fired up my antique MacBook Air (very popular but already obsolete when I bought it so called PC) I could get them. You should see them float around this.

I'm sorry that text is the only way I know how to communicate and hope - if you do not know how to read - you have found someone who remembers how.

A very old Ginhound

August 26, 2013

Harvey Bonghead

This morning I took a catch up tour on Small Screen Networks many lovely presentations and I came across Jamie Boudreau's video How to Smoke a Cocktail that I have somehow missed previously. 

Also as I had found one of the most intriguing entries to the latest Mixology Monday was Feu de Vie's Wind Whisperer I figured the cocktails gods were trying to tell me something: Get smoking

I settled on building something from bourbon, rum, Galliano, lemon, rose tincture and burning Earl Gray tea.

As a gear junkie my first impulse was to buy a smoke gun, but I took a cue from Kate's solution and my bank manager thanks you for that.

So method was mostly inspired by Kate and drink mostly from Jamie Boudreau and the name is thanks to expert marketing of the Galliano company.

First set up your cocktail ready to shake:
  • 4 cl bourbon - I used Bulleit
  • 4 cl rum - not too sweet I used Barbancourt 3 star
  • 1,5 cl Galliano
  • 1,5 cl lemon juice
  • 5 drops rose tincture
Next find a way to burn some Early Gray tea leaves and collect the smoke. Not knowing what to expect smoking and smell wise I set it up on my little grill: A piece of aluminum foil shaped into a little tray, a broken wooden chopstick on two sides of a small pile of Earl Gray tea leaves, an upside down funnel to direct the smoke into an inverted glass bottle.

It worked well and once I had a bottle full of smoke, I corked it and brought it into my kitchen where I gave the cocktail a good shake with ice and strained it into the smoke bottle before pouring it into a coupe and garnishing with a pretty flower. I figured bongheads were into flowers back in the day, weren't they? I can't remember.
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August 23, 2013

In the Drink

Just to prove that I do have other interests besides all things booze, I want to post my first series of photos with tiny people.

I'm certainly no Boffoli, William Kass or Slinkachu and I just use my iPhone.

But it is quite fun to think these dioramas up and even setting them up.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: No gin, ice, Maraschino cherries, lime, mint, rum or sugar was hurt during the photo shoot. 
 


August 21, 2013

Fire Engine with Lights Flashing

I was a little pressed for time on Monday, as the deadline for this month's Mixology Monday approached, and I did not find time to mix my runner up cocktail.

Then today as I noticed my raspberry bush was almost bend to the ground with ripe berries I knew what a great start to my little midweek weekend would be: A Fire Engine.

In Denmark it's a quintessential 80's, dark age of mixology-type drink.

Danish kids have been served Red Soda or Hindbærbrus - a horrible artificial raspberry soda pop - since before I was born.

In the 80's someone figured the taste was strong enough to mask even the cheapest vodka and the Fire Engine was born.

At some point someone wanted to get drunk faster and added Jägermeister and came up with the name Fire Engine with Lights Flashing.

I figured this drink could be salvaged by decent ingredients, so I started by making fresh raspberry cordial.

I make the stuff as old school as possible: Equal amount of berries and water, and half the amount of sugar along with the juice of one lemon (about 1 dl) plonked into a small pot.

Then I cook this - a gently rolling boil - for 4-5 minutes and strain and press all the liquid out of the pulp.

Since I plan to drink this within the next 1-2 days I just bottle it and stick it in the fridge. A little vodka will probably add up to a week to it's life.
 
Next I set to mixing in a highball glass with plenty of ice.
  • 6 cl gin
  • 1 cl Fernet Branca
  • Raspberry soda*
Start by adding the gin and almost top with the soda - I just mixed equal amounts of cordial and seltzer but you have to find your own golden ration - gently stir until glass is chilled and then float a small amount of Fernet Branca on top and garnish with a slice of orange expending the oil on top of the drink.

Simply put - raspberry and gin is a match made in heaven, as the Clover Club Cocktail is testament to - and the liquorice notes of the Fernet works well with raspberry too.

If liquorice is not your thing - then either leave it out, in which case the drink is just a Fire Engine - or mix it with the gin to start with so it's incorporated into the finale taste profile.

Either way welcome to my youth.


August 19, 2013

Hot Rod - MxMo LXXVI


The name of my entry for MxMo LXXVI is only really fun if you understand Danish: Rod is Danish for root and this cocktail contains juice of not just one root but two - one of them hot enough to be called the chili of the North and supposedly burn the stomach lining of a cow or horse unfortunate enough to eat it.

This months theme for Mixology Monday is Fire. Kate of Muse of Doom - the gracious host - puts it like this in her announcement post:
Tiki-philes have their flaming spent lime shells and scorpion bowls. Classic cocktailers have the magic of a flamed orange zest. Molecular mixologists have their Smoking Guns. (and yes, frat boys have their flaming shots.) Even brunchtime drinkers have spicy Bloody Marys.

You don't have to go full Blue Blazer, not nearly -- heck, you could go full Fireball Whiskey! (or Fire Rock Pale Ale, etc..) You could riff on the Old Flame or come up with an inventive name of your own. You could even use a good firewater or burned wine. (and if you're grilling fruit, save some for me, will ya?)

In essence, bring the heat! Bring the Fire! Bring your inspiration!

On a serious note: remember that lass in Britain who lost her stomach because the mixologists weren't in control of the dangerous elements they were using in a cocktail? Let's have none of that here, huh? There's a lot more to Fire than just the electrochemical reactions happening on the end of a lit match. Stay safe and trust your gut about what you're comfortable doing. We're all here to have fun.
I immediately knew I wanted to work with Armoracia rusticana commonly known as horseradish. It's about the only edible plant grown in Denmark that has any kind of heat - other than stinging needles, but been there, done that.

The next obvious ingredient was aquavit - a name not often used in Denmark - most people call it snaps or brændevin. The latter literally means burned wine, because the first commercially produced spirit in Denmark was made by distilling wine. Pharmacists and munks had the market with this expensive medicin believed to cure anything from pox to the plague from the 1200s.  If it didn't at least you died happy - if you could afford it because obviously it was expensive.

Not until the 1600s when someone figured out snaps could be distilled from fermented wheat instead of expensive imported wine did aquavit gain popularity as a beverage and not as medicine.

Since I was already looking a local ingredients I decided to use carrot juice as a mixer hence the second root.

And when a friend gave me an amazing bottle of a tincture of Apothecary's Rose it all came together:

  • 6 cl aquavit - I used Brøndums Snaps which has a mild taste of caraway
  • 6 cl carrot juice
  • 3 cl lemon juice
  • 3 cl horseradish syrup*
  • 3 drops of rose tincture**
Shake with plenty of ice and double strain into cocktail coup. Garnish with tiny carrot.

It turned out really well - the horseradish does not overpower the other ingredients, but it adds a bit of bite along with the aquavit to balance out the sweetness form the carrot juice. The rose tincture brought it all together.

* Bring equal amounts of fresh grated horseradish, sugar and water to a boil. Let steep for 15-20 minutes and then strain.

** My friend Dana, who made the rose tincture, kindly supplies this recipe:
Stuff a small jam jar full of petals + stamens of rosa officinalis. It must be officinalis, because rugosa imparts the scent but not the flavour, whreas the other gallicas impart the flavour but not the scent ... get the picture? Officinalis.

Cover with vodka and let steep three days. Strain, wring all the moisture out of the petals - and repeat three times more. Four glassfuls of petals + stamens to the same jarful of vodka!

Strain, stopper airtight, and let sit for three months at least to mature before using.

This yields a very concentrated 'image of a rose'. We are talking drops, not dashes. May be diluted 3 - 4 times and will still give you an intense scent and flavour of midsummer roses.




August 9, 2013

Frambuesa Colada


I have mixed my share of earnest, grown up, serious cocktails. But once in awhile it is fun to be a little frivolous.

I'm not talking about cutting corners or being lazy, just about going for smooth and even sweet tasts when that would be good.

At TOTC I enjoyed Jeff Berry and David Wondrich's seminar about the Dark Ages of Mixology between 1967 and 1988. To prove their point they started by blending a hap hazardly thrown together Martini or whatever you would call a glass of gin, vermouth and slush ice.

They did it without paying any attention to the proces - and asked a couple of the guests to taste their work - to illustrate the greatest problem of the dark age: Bartenders complete lack of pride in their job.

So someone glancing at my concotion of raspberry, lemon, rum and coconut cream could probably confuse it with sloppy work - it isn't I promise!

I just needed something relaxing to end my week. A week which started with a gig on the morning show of Denmarks most popular radio broadcast on Monday  where I shared my experience at TOTC and found myself recommending the Sidecar - at 8.30 a.m. 

So as I was transitioning into weekend mode I noticed quite a few lovely ripe raspberries on my plants and remembered I had a can of Lopez cream of coconut and a more Nordic edition of a Pina Colada seemed the thing to mix.

I cooked the raspberries for 5 minutes with a sprig of rosmary, the juice of half a lemon and some sugar - I even tweaked it a tiny bit with a dash or two of a lovely violette sirup I have.

Then I strained the sirup, cooled it a bit and mixed my Colada:
  • 2 oz white rum - I used Havanna Club 3 Anejos
  • 1 oz raspberry syrup
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 3 oz Lopez cream of coconut
Shake with plenty of ice and strain into tall glass over fresh ice.

Garnish to your hearts content and most importantly: Enjoy.








July 29, 2013

El Ganso - MxMo LXXV

I admit it - I'm still processing the many impressions I got at Tales of the Cocktail, so thanks to Fred of Cocktail Virgin (and the keeper of the MxMo-flame) for planning this months MxMo so carefully around TOTC. Read the write-up here.

This month's theme is Flip-Flop - very appropriate for summer - or in other words - what happens to a cocktail if ingredients are flipped around or flopped to a sister-ingredient but measures are kept constant?

Well, actually Fred explains it better in his announcement post:

I thought of the theme for this month’s Mixology Monday shortly after making the Black Rene, an obscure drink from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933. The combination of brandy, amber rum, lemon, and Maraschino was tasty, but I felt that the recipe could be improved if I swapped in different ingredients. Taking a page from Max Toste of Deep Ellum who converted the Black Devil into the White Devil, I flipped around the ingredients to be pisco, white rum, lime, and Maraschino instead. With this combination that I called the White Rene, the drink really sang but it was still recognizable as being an alteration of the original recipe. Others have done similar swaps with grand effect including the Bluegrass Mai Tai that that changes the two rums to two whiskeys and swaps lime for lemon from the classic while holding everything else the same.

Since I seem to have accidentally brought a bit of the hot New Orleans weather back to Denmark with me, I quickly decided that I wanted to flip-flop a quenching highball.

I've chosen La Paloma - a Mexican stable of tequila, lime juice, salt and grapefruit juice.

And since the seminar on growing your own cocktail garden given by "the drunken botanist" Amy Stewart and designer Susan Morrison impressed me the most at TOTC I decided to flop towards something locally grown.

On top of that - one of the two books I brought is Katie M. Loeb's Shake, Stir,  Pour - Fresh Homegrown Cocktails.

However I have to admit, that the main homegrown element of my drink is not yet in my own garden but next year, next year I promise.

So let's get to flip-flopping a pigeon into a goose:
  • 6 cl Mezcal - I used Illegal Joven
  • 1,5 cl lime juice
  • pinch of salt
  • gooseberry soda *
In a tall glass stir salt into mezcal and lime juice to dissolve. Fill glass with ice and top it with the gooseberry soda. Garnish with an edible stirring rod like a twig of lavender if you go for the unstrained gooseberry soda.

 * This is how I made mine:
  • 3 dl gooseberries
  • 3 dl water
  • 1,5 dl sugar
  • juice of half a lemon
Boil everything until berries turn to mush - only takes about 5 minutes - then either strain (if you don't like the look and mouthfeel of the seeds from within the berries and the skins) or completely liquify syrups with immersion blender. Add seltzer to taste and for the fizz.

July 24, 2013

Maid in Cuba


During my visit to Tales of the Cocktail I wrote home to a friend, that I hadn't tasted a single cocktail that made me go wauw! And that is still true. However now that I'm home there was one, I couldn't quite forget.

It was served during a very interesting seminar about the relationship between forbidden absinthe and the Savoy hotel in London.

Absinthe connoisseur Alan Moss has counted 108 recipes with absinthe in the Savoy Cocktailbook and he and Eric Lorincz and Tom Walker had some interesting insights into how the green fairy made it's way to London in spite of the ban.

And to demonstrate that the American Bar at the Savoy has an enduring love affair with absinthe we got a taste of Tom Walkers creation Maid in Cuba.

A cocktail inspired by both the Mojito, the Daiquiri and one of my all time favorite new classics Audrey Saunders' Old Cuban.

Since the weather is almost tropical here in Denmark, I figured it would make an excellent sundowner, not that the sun sets this early in the far north but it does disappear from my patio around 6 pm.

  • 6 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 star
  • 3 cl lime juice
  • 1.5 cl simple syrup
  • Absinthe rinse
  • 3 slices cucumber - and 1 for garnish
  • leaves from a sprig of fresh mint
  • seltzers
In a shaker add cucumber, mint, rum, lime juice and simple syrup. Shake hard with ice but do not muddle cucumber and mint.

Give a chilled low ball glass an absinthe rinse and double strain cocktail into it. Top up with seltzers and garnish with the last cucumber slice.

This cocktail has a very endearing chlorophyll taste, very much a summer drink. However the next time I'll not add the water and I'll serve it up in a coupe.

First time at TOTC - first time in NOLA


New Orleans get under your skin, up you nose, into your ears and burns your eyeballs really fast.

I've never before been to a place that is felt in quite such a physical way.

Not all good, not all bad. And now that I have returned to the tranquility of my home, it has made me more aware of how this remote northeastern part of a tiny dot of an island in northern Europe tastes, smells, looks and is making itself heard.

My time was limited - only four nights connecting not quite five days. And the draw was TOTC and all the amazing events it dangled before me. But I did take time to do a few of the most touristy things in NOLA: Eating beignets at Cafe du Monde early one morning, riding the St. Charles Avenue streetcar, walking through both the French Quarter and the French Market.

And I stood and stared at the mighty Mississippi river whenever I got the chance, both on the actual bank in the blazing noonday sun like a mad dog or an Englishman and from the air-conditioned luxury of the Riverview Room at  the Hotel Monteleone - conference HQ and a truly amazing place.

Of course I drank but mostly I listened to the many wonderful tales told at the seminars I went to.

I heard about how ice changed the way we drink and without which civilization could not have moved forward with food safety and a steady supply of citrus to non-tropical areas of the world.

I saw a stunning breakdown of the cocktail bible and learned how The Savoy in London managed to serve absinthe cocktails even after the green fairy was banned.

I got an introduction to growing my own cocktail garden - vertically and indoors if that is what it takes. A very practical and informative seminar that impressed me greatly.

I heard three passionate gentlemen talk about the influence of terroir on spirits as diverse as cognac, tequila and rum. I had to nod in agreement, when Alexandre Gabriel of Pierre Ferrand Cognac coined the term terroir-ist about people, who get so hung up on one detail of something, that they diminish the whole to a fraction.

One of the best cocktail-tales is the one about the trademark wars surrounding Angostura Bitters - Amy Stewart served it perfectly and I walked away with a bottle of Abbott's Bitters.

Finally I learned that the Harvey Wallbanger is entirely made up. There is no wallbanging surfer-dude, just a clever marketing campaign that worked once, and may work again. I'll do my part wearing my HW cap and my HW sunglasses. Mr. Wondrich and Mr. Berry could have talked hours more about the dark ages of the cocktail in the 70's and 80's and the completely full Queen Anne Ballroom would gladly have stayed. But there were prizes to be given out and all good things most come to an end.

I did not go to the award show, I slowly walked back to my hotel and knew it was time to go home, when the sight of a youngish, apprehensive looking couple wearing matching, ill-fitting, fire-engine red Bourbon Street Trouble nr. 1 and Trouble nr. 2 t-shirts made me sad.
 
So here I sit savoring the clean salty taste and smell of fresh air blowing in from Kattegat. Enjoying the cool breeze on my skin and the occasional chirp from a bird.

Here I sit missing New Orleans and the superb event that is Tales of the Cocktail. I need a drink!

June 19, 2013

Mixology Monday LXXIV Cherries Round-up - part 2

Hopefully you have enjoyed reading about all the amazing contributions to Mixology Monday with a cherry theme in the first part of the round-up.

If not, hurry over, there are many pretty and tasty drinks to try and/or be inspired by.

Rowen of Fogged in Lounge leads off the second part of the round-up with a cocktail he calls Silver Spurs. It's the happy marriage of tequila, sherry and Maraschino liqueur.

In part one of the round-up we have already met Remember the Main, a Rye based classic cocktail that Nick mixed for us.

Jacob Grier from Liquidity Preference sends a variation of that cocktail. Anahuac has a tequila base and takes it's name from a Mexican navy ship. Unlike her American counter part, the Maine, Anahuac did not experience any catastrophic episodes at sea and was quietly scrapped in 1938.


Ceccotti from Bartending Notes takes us through three sours all mixed with Maraschino Liqueur. First one of my favorites, the Aviation and then the Prado and Prado Mineiro mixed on tequila and cachaca respectively and both made smooth with egg white. 


For the second time this MxMo black pepper pops up as a way to compliment the taste of cherry. Todd used pepper in his cocktail Backhand Compliment and Zach of The Venture Mixologist uses pepper in his cocktail.

When in France is a cognac based cocktail mixed with Leopold Bros Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur. Zach has infused the pepper in grain spirit for a pepper tincture, definitely something I will try.


Then let us head to the 70's cocktail culture. A time known as the dark age of cocktails. Mike from Disco Ginferno shows us otherwise with a cocktail from Playboy's Host and Bar Book from 1971.

The San Juan Sling is a rum based cocktail and looks amazing:


And then a warm welcome to a new participant in MxMo.  And what an impressive debut from Chris and A Bar Above. Not only his first MxMo post but with a video to boot.

The Lone Rainier is a wonderful sounding cocktail based on gin, with cherry, ginger and honey as tasters. And not just any cherries but the priced yellow and pink Rainier cherries developed in the state of Washington.


I don't know if it never happens, that two identical cocktails are submitted to MxMo. It didn't happen this time but we have two with almost identical names. Remember the corset fabric inspired cocktail Fred mixed? The Cherry Blossom Brocade.

Well, Scott of Sip, Strain & Sip has named one of his two entries Cherry Blossom. This gin based cocktail merges St. Germaine and a clear Cherry Liqueur for a real pretty result.


Scott gives us an excellent recipe for preserved cherries that he also uses as a garnish in his second cocktail Cherry Bomb. This is quite a tiki sounding cocktail mixed on rum with pineapple juice and clear cherry liqueur among other ingredients.





The good people of the eGullet Forums sends four lovely cherry cocktails to the party.

Chris Amirault mixed two cocktails with Cherry Heering. The first Tommy Appleseed is an exciting mix of Old Tom Gin, Apple Brandy and Ardbeg Scotch Whisky. His second offering is Sachaca Sling. No photos and I can't find a link deeper than this.

FrogPrincess calls her cocktail Cherry Pop but it's all booze - gin, Maraschino and muddled cherries. A deceptive looking drink definitely not for kids:


Fernet Branca and cherries in a cocktail? Haresfur thinks so and made a variation on the Fernet Cocktail from the Savoy Cocktail Book that also includes a home made Polish cherry liqueur and sounds wonderfully medicinal. This I have to try:


To round of MxMO LXXIV two cocktails that dares to use the word daiquiri in relation to cocktails not strictly rum, lime and sugar.

JFL of Rated R Cocktails mixes an Oregon Outcast - well blends actually - half a cup fresh cherries goes into this ice cold mix based on 12 year demerara rum



And I took my clue from a banana daiquiri with dried parsley and added a cherry liqueur drenched ice cone for the full disaster look in The Red Volcano.

UPDATE: I forgot Mark from Cardiff Cocktails in the round-up. Really bad manners especially as his contribution is an Aviation with extra cherry oomph. He calls it Carlig Cocktail and he adds both Cherry Heering and cherry bitters to a base of gin and Maraschino Liqueur and ends up with this pretty presentation:



So there you have it 33 34 amazing cherry cocktails to last you until the next MxMo. It I have forgotten anyone or misunderstood your creative ways let me know. Thanks for participating and thanks to Fred for keeping us all busy with MxMo.

Mixology Monday LXXIV Cherries Round-up - part 1

Like a typical neurotic hostess I was concerned that nobody would participate as I sent out the invitation for this months Mixology Monday.

After the broad themes of drink your vegetables and witches garden in April and May I feared my theme of cherries was way too narrow.

I needed not to have wringed a single hand - you contributed an amazing 33 34 drinks in total (I overlooked an entry) and my spread sheet for getting an overview runs a staggering 10 pages.

The 33 drinks utilizes cherries in many, many forms from fresh fruit to a homemade Polish cherry liqueur and everything in between.

So let's get started because: Dang, cherry cocktails are pretty!

Christa and Shaun of Booze Nerds sends two cocktails.

The Southern Virgin is a fizz mixed with muddled fresh cherries, bourbon and St. Germaine. If it tastes half as refreshing as it looks I'll have a couple:
The second cocktail - Peruvian Disco - is a clever use of syrup from brandied cherries either commercial ones like Luxardo Maraschino Cherries or homemade ones. The syrup is balanced out by Pisco and orange and lemon juice.

Stew from 901 Very Good Cocktails uses Kirchwasser and Cherry Bitters in his intriguing sounding The Cherry Heering No. 2 where the surprise to me is the pear liqueur.


Raff from The Shorter Straw really got into the cherry theme and mixed three cocktails while at the same time taking on Jeffrey Morgenthaler and his claim to make the worlds best Amaretto Sour.

But he started off with the pretty in pink, the Sour Cherry Ramos Gin Fizz. It gets the stunning color from the home made sour cherry soda Raff made for the occasion:
His next presentation is the Amaretto Sour with organic sour cherry jam as the magic ingredient. It certainly looks tasty:
After these two rather complicated cocktails his last offering is a cognac based swizzle. His Casta Swizzle involves muddled sour cherries after they have been flambéed by a burning Angostura Spray, rum, absinthe and several juices. Well done!

One of the ingredients I was hoping someone would mix with is Belgian cherry beer.

And that is exactly what Dustin from Dunder and Lees does. His Guatemalan Poker Hand utilizes both cherry beer and Red Stag Cherry Bourbon for a very hearty sounding cocktail. And he give a great introduction to Belgian beer a long the way.

And then we jump from beer - although as Dustin mentions some Belgian beers are brewed for childen - to cherry soda. I have to admit I didn't know the stuff existed, but it sure lookes tasty.

Ian from Tempered Spirits mixes two cocktail with Cheerwine soda which dates all the way back to 1918. Cheerwine cocktail No. 1 is mixed on gin, it's a variation of a gin rickey and looks like a thirst quencher.


Cheerwine Cocktail No. 2 is a cherry soda variation of an Americano and looks every bit as delicious as No. 1.


Fred from Cocktail Virgin Slut serves a liquid fabric pattern best known from corsets! Kirch meets Genever and Absinths in what sounds like a very happy tryst called Cherry Blossom Brocade.

Kirch is also one of the cherry ingredients in the cocktail from Putney Farm. Stewart turned to a 1951 cocktail book for inspiration and found The Baur Au Lac.

It takes it's name from a fancy hotel in Zürich. At Putney Farm the cocktail got a bit of a makeover with muddled cherries and it looks stunning:

Mike from DrinksBurgh takes us into Tiki territory with a drink called Gold Cup. Maraschino Liqueur is the key to that drink and it involves an ice shell for a dazzling presentation:


And now we are going to sea - actually the bottom of the sea. Nick from The Straight Up settled on Remember the Maine after careful consideration of some of the most classic cherry tasting cocktails. A deceptively simple mix of among other things Rye Whiskey and Cherry Heering.

Todd from Concoctails figured he would go all in with the cherry theme. Not only has he mixed two cocktails one of them is the equivalent of three cherries on the slot machine. The gin based The Payout features Cherry Heering, Kirchwasser and Cherry Bitters.

Todd's second cocktail brilliantly mixes pepper and cherry with bourbon in Backhanded Compliment.



Muse of Doom from Feu De Vie also mixed two cocktails. One of which does not look one bit cherry - so to speak. Sweetness and Light is a pretty mix of clear or almost clear ingredients and takes it's taste from both Kirch, orgeat and Solano on a base of Lillet Blanc.
The second cocktail from Feu de Vie had me googling like mad to see if I could find somewhere to purchase ROOT the alchoholic root beer cleverly included in the cocktail So We're Havin' a BBQ, huh? along with cherry liqueur and Jack Daniel's. I love the taste of root beer which is virtually unknown in Denmark. And this cocktail sounds - and looks - great:



And that concludes the first half of the round-up. So get reading, get mixing or just stare at the many lovely drinks while I get started on the second half. Cheers!