Cherry Tai - my way

Messing with the mighty Mai Tai is always fun - I know some people think it is sacrilege, but I think it is such an amazing recipe, that riffing on it is bound to deliver a great tasting drink. I still drink my previous rhubarb driven attempt - Tøppe - so I knew it could work.

While shopping for Libbey's latest tiki glasses at Barkonsult, I was gifted samples of Three Cents Soda.

I was particularly interested in the Cherry Soda and I spotted a recipe for a Cherry Tai on their website.

But I decided to make my own interpretation:

• 6 cl rum - I used Plantation Xaymaca
• 3 cl lime juice
• 1 cl orgeat- I used Giffard
• 1,5 cl curacao - I used Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao
• 1 cl cherry liqueur - I used Frederiksdal

Shake and pour into glass ice included. Add a bottle - or 2 dl - of cherry soda, garnish with maraschino cherries, a mint sprig and a pretty flower.

Trader Vic Grog - with a twist

Yesterday was Black Tot Day - they day in 1970 when the British Navy for the last time handed out rum rations to the sailors.

In honor of the day I decided to mix a Trader Vic Grog - Grog was the name sailors gave the mix of rum and water they were given from 1740 after Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon began diluting their rum rations to cut down on drunkenness. His nickname was Old Grogram because of an old overcoat made from grois-grain fabric he always wore.

Trader Vic Grog lends itself well to a slight twist:

• 3 cl lemon juice
• 3 cl pineapple juice
• 3 cl passion fruit syrup
• 6 cl Jamaican rum - I used Appleton Estate Blend
• 1,5 cl Green Chartreuse

Measure the first four ingredients into a shake, fill it with ice and shake. Strain over crushed ice and then add the Green Chartreuse ad a float/overlay. Garnish with a mint sprig, lightly awoken with a gentle slap.

If you want to try the original recipe - as written from Beachbum Berry first - don't use the green Chartreuse but add a dash of Angostura Bitters to the shaker before shaking.

The Pink Hare

For the third year running I was not in New Orleans at Tales of The Cocktail but that does not mean that I don't follow the event on SoMe.

I came across a picture of a delicious looking drink called The Pink Rabbit that Charlotte Voisey recommended. She is one of my cocktail heroes so I wanted to know more and try the cocktail.

Luckily Charlotte showcased the cocktail on her Proper Pour show on Small Screen Network back in 2016, so the recipe was easy to find.

Turns out it is developed by owner Craig Nelson from Proof in Charleston.

In my neck of the woods - remote part of Denmark - strawberry season is mostly over. I can get very expensive and not very tasty berries. I was contemplating that as I sat gazing on my very generous raspberries 20 feet away and decided to make a raspberry based cocktail. I have always liked raspberry and chili together.

Since the change of an ingredient calls for a new name, The Pink Hare seemed an obvious choice.

10 minutes later a homemade raspberry cordial was cooling in my fridge. Just the berries cooked with sugar - and since I had half a red grapefruit wasting away on my kitchen counter, I used a little juice but lemon juice or just water is fine. Sometimes I use a little star anise or indeed chili too, but this was without spice.

15 minutes before I was ready to shake my cocktail I mixed the milk and the cordial to let it infuse a bit. I just guessed at the amount of cordial needed.

• 3 cl gin - I used Botanisk Gin - a local gin with a hint of raspberry actually
• 3 cl Ancho Reyes chili liqueur
• 9 cl raspberry milk - I used organic whole milk
• 3 drops of mole bitters - I used Bitter end.

Shake everything with ice, strain into wine glass over fresh ice and garnish with a raspberry on a cocktail pick.

Buttermilk Collaboration

I was fortunate enough to get an invitation from Juuls Vinhandel to a tasting at the launch of a small batch collaboration between Teeling Whiskey and Plantation Rum.

Basically the two producers exchange casks and experiment with finishing rum with whiskey notes ande whiskey with rum influences.

Alex Chasko of Teeling and Alexander Gabriel of Plantation took us through the process from idea to finished products. And we got to taste them two - as well as other spirits from the two companies.

Afterwards a friend and I stopped by one of Copenhagens best bars Duck and Cover for a cocktail. As always one is not enough and at the end of the evening we were both treated to a mystery cocktail on the house. Both made with buttermilk whey.

Mine had a base of Germana Caetano's Cachaca and cherry wine and my friend got a aquavit, gooseberry and Jerusalem artichoke cocktail. They were pretty amazing and I wanted to know all about the buttermilk whey.

In both drinks the whey had the effect of reminding your taste buds of something without your brain being able to pick out precisely what it was. I like that.

And it was a great experience right after listening to Alexander Gabriel reminding us that our noses and palates are more precise than any instrument in any laboratory and can pick up more smells and tastes.

He also let us in on the secret that distillers work mostly with the 1-2 procent of a bottle that is not alcohol or water. Then for a cocktail bartender that work only multiply on an exponential scale with 7-8 ingredients added.

So for full disclosure - I didn't not pay for the tasting - I took away a lot of interesting information, 2 cl of the Teeling Whiskey having spend 12 month in Plantation casks and a cute key chain hip flask.

And from Duck and Cover I payed for every drink I ordered and got one free that set my brain wizzing with ideas for buttermilk whey drinks.

One of which is Buttermilk Collaboration:

• 2 cl Teeling Whiskey finished in Plantation casks
• 2,5 cl Plantation Stiggins fancy Pineapple Rum  
• 1 cl orgeat
• 3 cl pineapple juice
• 3 cl buttermilk whey (I brought 500 ml of organic buttermilk with a bit of lime zest, limejuice and pineapplejuice add up to about 50 C in a saucepan at which point it split and then strained it through a fine sieve through cheese cloth)
• 2 cl aquafaba - from chickpeas

I added everthing to a shaker and gave it a quick dry shake before adding ice cubes and shaking it fiercely. Strain into low glass and garnish with pineapple or a good cocktail cherry.

 
  

Banana Daiquiri

It is actually quite winterly here in Denmark these days - frost day and night which isn't all that common.

But just because snow and ice is part of the landscape at the moment that doesn't mean I can't dream of icy cold drinks under a tropical sun - I just have to drink them in front of my wood burner.

After a nightly online conversation with some colleagues about the drinking habits - and preferences - of Hemingway I've been wanting a Daiquiri badly

Particularly one I have tinkered with a few times from a bar in Texas - a golden, sweet Banana Daiquiri. Here is the recipe I have been tinkering with.

My version looks like this:

• 3 cl white rum - I used Plantation 3 Stars
• 1,5 cl over proof white rum - I used Clairin Casimir
• 2 cl fresh lime juice
• 0.75 cl simple syrup
• 1,5 cl banana liqueur - I used Tempus Fugit Creme de Banane
• 0,75 cl chili liqueur - I used Ancho Reyes

Blend everything with crushed ice

Garnish with a coin of banana - if you have a dehydrator springle with banana and chili dust on top. 

 

Marlin

Picasso had a blue period and apparently so do I. Finding a very low prices ice crusher has also awakened a desire for cocktails with crushed ice.

Looking at the suggested cocktails in the brilliant app Total Tiki containing blue curacao, I decided to try a Marlin. An original drink by Clancy Carroll, 2000 it all it says.

I will say, that should I ever make it again, and why not it is a perfectly fine blue cocktail, I will dial the Maraschino down a bit:

3 cl light rum - I used Plantation 3 Stars
3 cl amber rum - I used Plantation Stiggins' Fancy Spiced Rum
1,5 cl fresh lime juice
1,5 cl fresh lemon juice
1.5 cl Maraschino - I used Luxardo
1,5 cl orgeat - I used Giffard
1,5 cl blue curacao - I used homemade

I shook everything with ice and strained it into a glass of crushed ice. Garnished with a homemade cocktail cherry.

Swimming Pool

A few days ago I found myself in an indoor public swimming pool. I don't think I have visited one for close to 13 years. It was quite a good experience.

Very different from how it was in my childhood, where every winter the communal outdoor pool was covered with an inflated dome. It was bitterly cold inside and the stench of chlorine was over powering. 

Not so today and I was reminded how much I just to like swimming - I rediscovered the way my sense change tenor under water and how my body seems to embrace the very fist element it ever knew.

Once you have found your rhythm and just swim lane after lane the mind can wander freely - mine back to the days under the done, when - thankfully - the public school system in Denmark taught me to swim.

Yes it was a time of being almost blue with cold, of the chlorine stench and stinging eyes owing to the fact that swim google were unheard of for school children.  But it was also a time of being immensely proud when I earned a silver badge for being an excellent swimmer and going to swim meets - thankfully in real indoor swimming pools. Good times.

And what do you know? There is a cocktail encapsulating all of those feelings: The Swimming Pool.

It's blue, it's German and it contains vodka but it is so tasty:

• 2 cl rum - I used Appleton Reserve Blend
• 2 cl vodka - I used Ketel One
• 1 cl Blue Curacao - I used my own
• 6 cl fresh pineapple juice
• 2 cl coconut cream - I used Coco Lopez but will make my own next time
• 2 cl whipping cream

Add all ingredients to shaker (or keep the Blue Curacao back) shake hard and strain over crushed ice in a tall glass - could be a hurricane or a pineapple glass.

If you held the Blue Curacao back pour it over the back of a spoon. I personally think a Swimming Pool should be a solid blue but the floated variety looks cool too.

Painkiller

After a long hard week at work I needed something soothing and gentle in my glass. The Painkiller is all of that.

According to Beachbum Berry this cocktail was created in 1971 at the Soggy Dollar Bar on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. Clearly a riff on a Pina Colada.

The bar is still there - and reopened after hurricane devastation earlier in 2018.

It's not a cocktail that blows your mind but a nice soothing mix even thousand of miles from the Caribbean.

• 3.5 cl overproof dark rum - I used Plantation O.F.T.D
• 3.5 cl golden rum - I used Appleton Estate Signature Blend
• 3 cl fresh orange juice
• 3 cl Coco Lopez coconut cream
• 12 cl fresh pineapple juice

Measure everything into a shaker, fill the shaker with ice, shake well and pour unstrained into a large glass or a favorite tiki mug. Grate nutmeg over the top, garnish with orange slice, cinnamon stick and perhaps a homemade cocktail cherry.

Negroni Gummy Bears

Like all cocktail enthusiasts I often get asked: What is your favorite cocktail.

I used to answer along the lines of: I like many different styles of cocktails, and it depends on many things which I will prefer in a given situation.

And that was perfectly true, all though for a while - if pushed, I would answer: A Mai Tai.

Which is a little bit ironic, when you call yourself a Ginhound.

Fortunately my taste changes and evolves constantly - so at the moment, I have a more gin-correct answer: The Negroni.

A couple of years ago when I was in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail I met the Italian author and bartender Luca Picchi who gave me his book: Negroni cocktail - an Italian Legend. I have been fascinated with the cocktail - that I always liked - ever since.

Over the summer I have conducted experiments with different styles of vermouth - the single ingredient in the three equal part cocktail that makes the biggest difference in my opinion.

Especially as I have yet to find a real alternative to Campari - not that I have been searching hard - I love the carmoisine red stuff to bits.

Some of the more interesting vermouths are only sold in 1 liter bottles in Denmark - a bit of a challenge, that.

But there is great comfort in knowing 3 liters of ready mixed Negroni rests securely in bottles and a small glass barrel in my fridge, ready for consumption.

My latest mix i 1 l Tanqueray, 1 l Campari and 1 l Berto Vermouth.

A very fresh and singing Negroni - that slightly edges a mix with La Quintinye Vermouth Royal vermouth as a go to everyday summer edition of the Italian classic. Royal makes a dark, intens almost brody Negroni - sure to become a winter favorite.

My 3 liter Negroni stash may have made me reckless or I just love a good challenge: I, like everybody at the moment, wanted to make my ovn home made boozy gummy bears. I sent off for the molds and started planning.

Not enough it turned out - first two batches were slimy disasters - meaning 250 ml of perfectly good Negroni went down the drain.

I finally did some proper research and on the third attempt - they where good.

So here is what I did:

• 125 ml Negroni - mix equal parts of your favorite gin, vermouth and Campari.
• 2 teaspoons powdered gelatine*
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice 
• 4 dashes Orange Angostura Bitter

Bloom the gelatine in 2 tablespoons cold water while you add the rest to a bowl that will fit snugly over a pan of gently boiling water.

Then add the gelatine and stir only it is completely dissolved don't let your Negroni mix come to a boil keep it at a point where whiffs of steam comes of the surface but no more.

Add to gummy bear moulds - I bought these - put in the fridge for a couple of hours and then store in an airtight container until needed. Store them away from kids and do not let them have any - remember it's 125 ml of a really strong cocktail made up to look like candy - bad combination for kids.

* A word about gelatine - don't take my measurements as gospel - you have to read up on the specific product you are using. Powdered gelatine is a relativ new ingredient in Denmark - we used to only have clear sheets of gelatine available that needed to be soaked in cold water before use. The brand available to me specifies that one teaspoon equals two sheets of the old stuff - I was taught by my mother that for a stiff gel - I should use 8 sheets for 500 ml of liquid. I figured i wanted stiff bears and that the alcohol content - which is just below 30 procent in my Negroni-mix - would counteract some of the firming action. I was right (or lucky as I have only made them once.)

Bourbon Slush Punch

I have been a fan of Deb's food - and drinks - blog Smitten Kitchen since I read her first entry.

Her writing style is fun and clever - next to drink and food words are the big love of my life - and her recipes are always easy to follow with a brilliant end result.

Så when she re-posted her take on a Bourbon Slush Punch I knew I had to make it as soon as possible.

It takes a little bit of planning - the cooling of tea - but once the base is made time from bottle to glass is short: My kind of drink.

I am not going to write a recipe here - my tweeks are not substantial enough - but it's a recipe born to be played with.

And that is another thing about Deb's food and drink - she never forgets that eating and drinking can be fun - in my opinion should be fun.

So what did I do to make it mine? I substituted 2 oz of maple syrup for the 1/4 cup of granulated sugar Deb's recipe calls for.

Lemon juice loves maple syrup - Deb taught me that with her Vermontucky Lemonade recipe back in the early days of my cocktail mixing.

And since the tea I used was Early Gray with a strong taste of bergamot I added 2 oz of Italicus Rosolio de Bergamotto - a bergamot liqueur. It played well with both the lemon and the orange.