If you’ve been watching “Great Cocktails” on Fine Living, then you’ve clearly got nothing happening at 4am on Sundays. Which is cool, I mean, that’s cool… I’m not saying anything one way or another. Just saying… There is an episode which I Hulu’d that has Gary Reagan making a “Laphroaig Rob Roy”, which is so up my alley it’s almost a wonder I haven’t been drinking them my entire life.
Laphroaig Rob Roy
2 oz. Laphroaig
1.5 oz. Sweet Vermouth
Peychaud’s
Stir, serve down. Twist a lemon peel over top.
I altered this recipe a bit… Reagan’s is 1:1 with 4 dashes Peychaud’s. He was using Cinzano, which I couldn’t get down with. So I ran some CA, and was pretty happy about it. But, I did want to taste the Frog a bit more, so I upped the proportion. As for the Peychaud’s, I couldn’t really taste it, so I’ll let you make the call on that one. It’s just nice to know somebody cares.
I’ve been wanting to make this one for a while, but never really had an excuse. However, it’s keeping with my tequila without lime theme, so I thought I’d give it a run…
Rosita Cocktail
1.5 oz. Tequila Blanco
.5 oz. Campari
.5 oz. Sweet Vermouth
.5 oz. Dry Vermouth
Dash Ango
Dash Ango Orange
Stir, serve up or down, squeeze a grapefruit peel over top, then rub it on the rim of the glass.
I’ve come across a few variations of this drink on the interweb, and I’ve mixed up more than a few. The recipe I’ve posted is the one the one I find most balanced. Some call for quite a bit more Campari – and while I fucking love on some Campari – it totally overpowers and disguises the tequila. Which sorta misses the point. Same goes for the vermouth – if you’re using CA or Punt E Mes, don’t get too heavy handed with that shit, or it’s all you’ll taste. Some people say this should be served on the rocks, but I don’t think it’s got enough liquor to warrant that. I’ve also added some orange bitters to my version, which I generally like with my Campari. And that grapefruit thing at the end there? That’s just fucking classy. Deal with it.
Here’s the dangle… I ascertain a distinct lack of hard sugary candies in my life. Excluding these apple flavored jolly ranchers, there is almost no rock candy in my mouth right now. Not to mention rock candy that gets me drunk! So I decided to do something about it. Actually, that’s not true. The Deej told me about some Aperol rock candy he came across, so I was like, “I’ll play ball… I’ll play fucking ball, broheim.” And then I blew everybody’s mind with this slight variation on a recipe someone told me about.
My Dixie Wrecked.
Hearst Cocktail Variation
3 0z. London Dry Gin
1 oz. Sweet Vermouth
Ango Orange Bitts
Campari Rock Candy
I made the rock candy using about 4 parts sugar to 1 part corn syrup and 1 part Campari, however I’m not going to post the recipe here yet because it needs some tweaking. The first time I did it, it came out brown because the sugar had caramelized. The second time, it didn’t harden up because the Campari still had too much liquor. The third time it came out okay, but still didn’t taste Camparish. That’s a word. And then I ran out of Campari. So, hang in there, and I’ll give her another whack and see what crappens.
I came across the Palmetto Cocktail on Rum Dood’s kick ass blog. There’s a dry version and a sweet version (which leads me to think the original recipe was lost somewhere along the line), both of which are pretty nice, but I definitely prefer the sweet. It’s recipe, according to Matt, is as follows:
Palmetto Cocktail
1.5 oz. Aged Rum
1.5 oz. Sweet Vermouth
2 dash Orange Bitters
Stir over ice, serve up or down. Garnish with a lemon peel.
And that’s a kick ass cocktail. I’ve drank probably 187 over the last month or so. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But at least 180. Anyways, it’s a fantastic use of my Ango Orange bitters, apreviouslyheretoforementioned.
[digg=http://digg.com/food_drink/The_Palmetto_Cocktail_at_Captain_McBoozy_s]
I’ve been kicking around the idea of trying out a pousse-café style drink – basically a layered cocktail that consists of syrups, liqueurs and liquors, all floated on top of one another. The pousse-café went out of fashion after prohibition, and really never came back in it’s proper form. I suspect that’s because most of these drinks are created by the way they look, rather than how they taste, but that’s just drunken speculation at this point. Anyhangles, I haven’t figured out which one I want to try yet, but I did stumble across this little gem. It was originally a pousse-café: red cherry on the bottom, sweet vermouth poured over that, followed by gin, and finally green chartreuse. This is a cocktail version of that drink, and damnit, it feels right.
Bijou Cocktail
1.5 oz. Dry Gin
.75 oz. Sweet Vermouth
.75 oz. Green Chartreuse
Dash Orange Bitters
Stir over ice, serve up, garnish with a cherry.
If you like a nice martini, or a martinez, for that matter, and you can “get down” with some Chartreuse, give this little bastard a run. It’s easy, and yes, it likes to party.
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