At the grocery store a couple weeks back, I happened across Crispin’s new still hard cider-in-a-box. My first thought upon tasting it was, “I want to fortify this!”… After scouring several online vermouth recipes, here’s what I came up with:

Aromatized Cider aka Apple “Vermouth” (Attempt #1)

• 19 oz. Still Hard Cider (Crispin Cidre Blanc)
• 6 oz. 100-Proof Apple Brandy (Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy)
• 2 tsp. Cinnamon Chips
• 1 tsp. Dried Bitter Orange Peel
• 1 tsp. Dried Sweet Orange Peel
• 1 tsp. Cloves
• 1 tsp. Allspice berries
• 1/2 tsp. Coriander Seeds
• 3-4 slices Ginger (about 1/4 in. thick)
• 1/2 tsp. Wild Cherry Bark
• 1 Whole Nutmeg (skin grated off)
• 1 Star Anise
• 2 Cardamom Pods (cracked)
• 1 oz. Demerara Syrup (1:1)

Very early in my cocktail journeys, I discovered I love Campari. So, naturally, I’ve been curious about its cousins, Aperol and Cynar. While I haven’t tried the latter yet, I had my first taste of the former several months ago at The Cedars Social in Dallas. It was mixed with rye (my favorite spirit), grapefruit juice and honey syrup. It was so tasty, I picked up a bottle of Aperol that week to try and replicate it at home. 

I had some great results, but I wondered what else I could use this stuff for (for those unfamiliar, by the way, Aperol is similar to Campari, only sweeter, less bitter, and lower in alcohol). After having little luck finding recipes online that used Aperol (it’s not even a listed ingredient at CocktailDB), I decided to try making up my own.

I decided to start by attempting a “girly” play on the Negroni. Like, maybe try crossing it with a Sour?… The result was… Wow… Seriously, since I first made this drink a month or so ago, I cannot get over how delicious it is. Great balance, and the flavors come in waves: fruity and sweet at first, then complex and slightly bitter, followed by the gin botanicals on the swallow, and a wonderful citrusy finish. Plus, you would never guess that 3/4 of the pre-shake ingredients are booze!

But what to name this fantastic pink potable?… Then I remembered my good friend Patrick. Imagine you’re a bartender and six and a half feet of lumbering German-American says to you in an impossibly low, booming voice:

Okay, I like girly drinks. Like, reeeally girly drinks… So, pretend you’re a frat guy.  And I’m a sorority girl.  And you want to get into my panties… Now make the drink that will facilitate that.

And thus was christened:

Patrick’s Panties

• 2 oz.  Gin (I used Broker’s)
• 1 oz.  Aperol
• 1/2 oz.  Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1/2 oz.  Orgeat Syrup (to taste)
• 2 dashes  Grapefruit Bitters (Bitter Truth/Bittermen’s)
• 1 dash Cherry Bitters (Fee Bros.)
• Lemon Twist

Shake liquid ingredients well with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist (squeeze, rim, & drop in).

My only real issue with this drink so far is consistency. While always delicious, the choice of gin and the type/ripeness of lemon seem to change the flavor quite  bit. If your lemons are on the extra-sour side, up the Orgeat to 3/4 oz. I’ve now made it with Broker’s, Citadelle, and Hendrick’s. And that’s the order I preferred them in. While I love all three gins, it seems the drier, “London-ier,” the better. The softness and subtlety of the last two didn’t hold up as well with the other ingredients.

Also, in the month I’ve been workshopping this recipe, I came across the Intro to Aperol cocktail by the Queen of Cocktails, Audrey Saunders. Apparently, it’s been on the interwebs for a few years, but I never saw it. Anyways, it’s strikingly similar to my recipe (flip the spirit proportions and trade out the syrups & bitters). So, yay! Great minds think alike, I guess!

After overwhelming success with homemade “Mulled Cranberry” bitters last month (I’ll eventually get around to writing up a post about them, recipe included), I’m getting ready to try out a couple more bitters recipe ideas, this time citrus-related. Since it’s “Citrus Fest” at the local Central Market, I went in to stock up on hard-to-find varieties for peel-drying purposes.

Shockingly, I found actual bergamot oranges! Admittedly, half the shock was the $5.99/lb. price, but still… I had to have some! My Lady Grey bitters will now (hopefully) be all the more delicious! Of course, at that price point, I couldn’t let the delicious fruit/juice go to waste. But not surprisingly, there’s a lack of cocktail recipes featuring fresh bergamot juice. Not wanting to waste this precious liquid commodity, I decided to try something fairly safe with a basic sour.

The Earl Grey Sour

• 2 oz. Earl Grey-Infused Gin (see below)
• 1 oz. freshly-squeezed bergamot juice
• 1-2 barspoons honey, to taste (or 2-3 barspoons honey syrup)
• Bergamot peel for garnish

Combine ingredients in a shaker. Stir until honey is dissolved (skip this step if using honey syrup). Add ice and shake. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze peel over drink, rim glass and drop in.

For the infusion, I steeped an Earl Grey teabag in the gin for 4 or 5 minutes, bobbing and dredging the bag every minute or so. Also, if you keep your gin cold, let it warm up to room temp first… I haven’t tried this yet, but in the absence of true bergamot, I imagine lemon juice and a few shakes of a good grapefruit or lemon bitters would be a serviceable substitute… Also, if you’re one of those weirdos who prefer sugar in their tea over honey, by all means substitute simple syrup. Weirdo.

This was a truly delicious drink. I used only one heaping spoon of honey, so it was a bit less sweet than many of the sours I’ve made. The cool thing was, the tannins in the tea helped tame the tartness of the bergamot enough that the extra sweetness I normally enjoy wasn’t really needed. Unfortunately, the honey flavor was a little lost too, so maybe next time I’ll add a bit more.

Okay, here we go… First blog, first post… I’ll try to write up an “About Me” post soon with a little more background on my motivations for this blog, but for now, here’s the short-ish version, along with a drink recipe I recently created…

Nearly a year ago, at the age of 37, I discovered I like well-crafted cocktails. Having been served plenty of crappy mixed drinks over the years, I’d pretty much been a beer & wine guy… Then a bartender friend of mine made me a proper Manhattan. Holy crap, I like whiskey?! Who knew?

I was hooked. And curious; if I like whiskey, what else might I like? And what else can I make with these bottles of bourbon, vermouth and bitters I was just compelled to purchase? What should I buy next?… My answer came from a fantastic source. At an antique store, I happened across a copy of the Esquire Drink Book from the 1950s. It very quickly became my copy of the Esquire Drink Book from the 1950s. Flipping through this magical tome’s recipes, I was immediately fascinated by the (alphabetically) first spirit I came across: Applejack… I like apples! And apparently, I like booze! I must try this stuff!… Suffice to say, it has become one of my favorites. But I also still dig the whiskey. My success with bourbon led to curiosity (and a subsequent love affair) with rye. 

Which brings me back to the point of this post. The Red Hook is a delicious variation on the Brooklyn (itself a variation on the Manhattan)… But the other day, I noticed how full my Laird’s bottle was compared to my nearly-empty Bulleit Rye bottle… I wonder…

The Constable Hook

• 2 oz.      Applejack (Laird’s Old Apple Brandy)
• 3/4 oz.  Punt E Mes
• 1/2 oz.  Maraschino Liqueur
• Garnish with a Lemon Twist

Stir well with ice in a mixing glass and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon peel over drink, rim glass with peel and drop in.

Applejack is a bit sweeter and less complex (even the aged stuff) than rye, so I upped the Punt E Mes a bit from the original Red Hook recipe to combat this. The name pays homage to applejack’s New Jersey roots. Basically, I looked up Brooklyn on Google Maps and scanned across the bay for a suitable neighborhood name. Lo and behold, almost directly west of Red Hook, in Bayonne, NJ, is the Constable Hook neighborhood. Ah, sweet serendipity!

EDIT/UPDATE: Much like my Aperol post, I’ve recently discovered a similar recipe by hot-shot New York bartenders. Thanks to Imbibe Magazine, here’s the Newark, by Jim Meehan & John Deragon of PDT. I’ll be trying it as soon as I pick up a bottle of Fernet Branca.