• Erik Ellestad of the Savoy Stomp continues on with his tales of Italy with a photo safari focusing on drink menus and trends.
• Go comment on Matt Rowley’s post on the Whiskey Forge blog to get a chance to win a recipe card set from Tales of the Cocktail 2008! Matt also makes candied peels from the ever strange but aromatic Buddha’s Hand Citron.
• In With Bacchus’ Scott Spolverino quite enjoyed tasting Sweet Leaf Lemon Iced Tea although he’s not quite sure about the can’s artwork.
• Chuck Taggart of the Gumbo Pages shares his excitement about 11/11/11.
• Cocktail Virgin/Slut’s Frederic Yarm provides a summary of Harold McGee and Dave Arnold’s Science of Cocktails seminar at Harvard and a review of the Greater Boston Beverage Society’s Shakin’ It Up event which is a precursor to their Boston Cocktail Week in October 2012 (includes gossip about the new Fee’s bitters flavor for 2012). He also previews four Boston bars that will be opening soon including where Misty Kalkofen will be working, and he gives tasting notes of No. 3 Gin that he tried at a Boston release event at Eastern Standard.
• Darcy O’Neil of Art of Drink recreates the classic sodahouse Chocolate Phosphate drink with both acid phosphate and lactart.
• Alcademic’s Camper English relates stories, recipes, and photos from the Suntory cocktail competition in Japan — I am still blown away by one of the garnishes. Also part of his visit was a tour of Japanese whisky distilleries. Back at home in San Francisco, Camper reviews the new Azucar Lounge and previews Oakland’s Plum Bar. Finally, he makes some garnish-worthy pickled grapes from Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It And Other Kitchen Projects and writes about it on FineCooking.
• Tiare of A Mountain of Crushed Ice reviews a great rum she was introduced to at the UK Rumfest, namely St Nicholas Abbey 12 Year Rum from Barbados. With this “rich and fruity with a touch of spices, wood and caramel” rum, she mixes up one delicious Daiquiri.
• A Jigger of Blog’s Matt Hamlin tinkers around with the Bittermens Commonwealth Tonic Cordial. Instead of a soda or a sweet syrup, this alcohol-laden cordial provides a lot more options for cocktail making.
• Michael Dietsch of A Dash of Bitters passes on some helpful tips on how to host holiday parties in his Cocktails 101 series on Serious Eats. He also shares some cute photos of his home bar’s barback.

There is a syrup i like to make sometimes, its made with ancho chile. The ancho chile is a dried blackish/reddish brown chile. Flat and wrinkled, it looks almost like a big flat raisin in a way. Its actually a poblano that is dried, then its called ancho. It’s a not very hot to medium hot chili – the scoville units is 1000-1500.

This is the sweetest of the dried chiles originating from Mexico.The word ancho means “wide” in Spanish. Fresh poblanos are also sold under the name pasilla to confuse it a bit more. This chile is often mixed up with the darker and sweeter mulato chile – another variety of the dried poblano with hints of chocolate, cherry and tobacco in its flavour profile.

Ancho chile is great in soups and stews and in syrup.The ancho chile syrup has a sweet slightly hot, earthy and musky flavour and naturally pairs well with agave spirits. Its wonderful with mezcal for instance.

To such a chile i think a dark sugar is very fitting and last time i made this syrup i used raw light brown sugar 2:1 to water and a pinch of molasses.

ANCHO CHILI SYRUP

1 large dried ancho chili
1 cup light raw sugar
pinch of molasses
0.5 cup water

What you need to make one bottle of syrup is one large ancho chile to 0.5 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bing to boil and boil lightly for about 10 minutes to get the flavours out of the dried chili, taste it and adjust the cooking time. Strain out the seeds when you think its hot enough.

Then take off the heat and leave to cool. Strain and bottle.

Syrup cooling in the window.

First i want to say one thing – i`m not very fond of bananas in cocktails..and that`s the reason why i jumped on the task of writing this post, i simply see it as a challenge to try to create something interesting with bananas..

The first thing – it can`t be too sweet and second – it can´t be too bananaish.

Third – it can´t be too slushy and thick.

Fourth – find or invent a cocktail where the banana-whatever thing will fit in well and actually make the drink tasty.A commercial banana liqueur or spirit was out of the question – i wanted fresh stuff.

So what to do? well i rubbed my brain and then figured that if i make a banana peel syrup (and maybe just a little of the fruit) it may add just a hint of banana flavour without getting overly much banana-sweet. For the banana peel syrup i wanted greenish somewhat unripe bananas,they are less sweet and hopefully would lend a more interesting “green” flavour to the syrup.

Lesson number one (i noted to self) : get the right type of fruit. And when it comes to bananas – bananas are not just bananas.The varieties have very different sizes and textures. Now the next challenge was to hit the stores when they happened to have some green unripe bananas.There´s an Indian-african-caibbean store here which now and then carries apple bananas and they are often in the unripe state in that shop.

Apple bananas (musa manzano) are much tastier than the regular bananas,they have a sort of apple flavour with a hint of strawberry and at the same time they actually have a bit of tang as the fruits are sweet yet have a slight tartness.They are smaller, rounder,firmer and less sweet than other banans.These seemed to be exactly the type of banana i needed for this.

GREEN APPLE-BANANA DAIQUIRI

* 1 1/2 oz light rum
* 3/4 oz lime juice
* 1 barspoon apple banana peel syrup
* ¼ oz honey water – honey and water mixed 1:1
Pour the rum, lime juice, honeymix and syrup into a shaker with ice cubes and shake, strain in to a glass and add a large chunk of ice and garnish with the other lime half

APPLE BANANA PEEL SYRUP

2:1 Sugar and water. ¾ part light muscovado sugar and ¼ part molasses.Peel from 1 apple banana and a few slices of the fruit.

To this syrup i used light muscovado sugar and a pinch of molasses plus the peel of one apple banana plus a few slices of the fruit as its not so sweet. Then i boiled it for 2 mins and then simmered very lightly for another 20 mins before cooling, straining and bottling. I got a very subtle banana flavor and so i think i could have used more of both peel and fruit.But it was a nice syrup, very rich in flavor.

Now we´ve had a cocktail that uses banana quite subtly, so what about making something that really is straight forward BANANA? despite my doubts about too much banana i decided to give it a go..and so here is something that is both a cocktail and a dessert, for your sweet tooth:

THE ULTIMATE BANANA COCKTAIL

2 oz demerara rum
1 tsp molasses
¼ oz fresh lime juice + a little extra for the bananas
¼ fresh lemon juice
2 oz fresh orange juice
Dash orange bitters
1 tsp Dark chocolate,chopped
1 tsp pecan nuts, caramelized and chopped.
2 small bananas – sliced lengthwise, halved and cut in quarters

Muddle lime, lemon and molasses in shaker.Add rum,juices and bitters.Shake and strain into a glass.Place the banana sticks in the glass and drizzle fresh lime juice over the bananas.Top with grated dark chocolate and caramelized pecan nuts.And there you got it – the Ultimate Banana Cocktail.

CARAMELIZING THE PECAN NUTS

1 oz light sugar
A few drops lemon juice
A few pecan nuts
Melt the sugar very slowly in a mini pan with the lemon juice and when you have a brown caramel, and place the pan in a waterbath to cool. Add the pecan nuts, then take them out and leave to dry on a lightly buttered baking sheet.
Enjoy

IT GOT TO BE FRESH – WITH INTENSE RICH FLAVORS!

Fresh, organic and locally sourced..

I´m very fond of using fresh ingredients in cocktails and cannot enough praise their superiority. Not only do they impart natural intense rich flavors to the drinks which cannot be compared to commercial mixers, they also add all those little things we need to feel good and stay healthy. When i read around i see a global rising interest in organically grown produce – ingredients giving their best and freshest flavors. Using fresh seasonal ingredients that are just at their peak is both tasty and good for us.

The ingredients of today are so over-refined until the point of loosing almost all its flavours and nutritients and there´s a steady rising resistance to this as people gets more educated – a lot of it thanks to internet. Its no lie that better ingredients makes better cocktails not only when it comes to the spirits and liqueurs, the mixers are just as important. Each cocktail is unique and of course we want them to be fresh from the base spirits and mixers to the garnish that adorns them!

Fresh to me means as unprepared and poison-free as possible as well as seasonal and regional. Now i happen to like plenty of tropical fruits and so these can never really be that fresh here – nothing much to do about that, but seasonality is also key so i try to shop at the farmers market when possible which unfortunately isn´t that very often. It also is more expensive, but fortunately not all ingredients.

Lucky those who live in places where there`s the farmers markets every week, take your chance to get real fresh local produce brimming with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and trace elements.

Fruits are very common in cocktails but what about vegetables? there are are host of vegetables well suited for cocktails, some are very commonly used like cucumber, tomato, chilies and celery. We also have beets, carrots, radishes, sundried tomatoes, pumpkins..

When looking for fresh vegetables and fruits, look for those that are firm, colorful and fragrant and avoid the dried and sad ones. Unfortunatley those that are the most shiny and nice looking are often treated with various things to stay unchanged unaturally long. Natural veggies and fruits often do as you know have a bit irregular shapes and sometimes little blemishes but not in a bad way.

I also see a willingness to experiment and play with all the flavors from the subtle to the bold and that`s something i myself really enjoy, often to the point of making others sometimes quite tired of me (e.g tweeting some of my drinks at the TDN for example) but i cannot avoid doing it, its in my blood, sorry chaps! its a continual process of trials and errors in learning how to balance flavors in a glass..

MIXING WITH FRESH BEET JUICE

Fresh red beet juice is deliscious when mixed with ginger, fresh lime juice, lemongrass, carrot juice and mint etc. Beets contains a lot of natural sugars and when roasted those sugars gets concentrated creating a sweet juice. When cooking fresh beets you cook them in their skins to preserve as much color as possible.

But i prefer the real fresh juice straight from the beet and so i`m going to treat you with a cocktail made from fresh beet juice mixed in a blender with passionfruit juice, fresh mint and lime juice, ginger, 1/2 fig and lemongrass – all sweetened with agavesyrup.

That juice is then strained 3 times to get all solids out and then refridgerated for 15 -20 min (at the same time the cocktail glass is chilled if you want to skip the crushed ice) before being mixed with 1.5 oz Bourbon and 0.5 oz Drambuie. To that i took the oportunity to make some dried beet chips and used one for garnish together with fresh mint and a speared half fig. The beet chips can be used as nice snacks as well, then its tasty to spray them with some olive oil and rub in a little sea salt before roasting them in the oven. But for use as garnish in a drink i omitted the oil and salt.

Beets has edible roots and tops and have the highest sugar content than any vegetable and yet they are low in calories. Fresh beets have twice the folic acid and potatissum than that of canned beets (avoid please..) and the green tops contains beta-carothene, calcium and iron. There is also a golden variety which is sweeter than the red ones.

Beets are also very good for infusions, the most common is probably with vodka.

What to do:

PURPLE ERUPTION

You see that deep red color? that`s what i love about fresh beets apart from their fantastic earthy taste that so naturally pairs with citrus-like flavours.

I first made this with tequila thinking it a natural pairing with the earthy flavours of the beets and the citrusy aromas from the ginger, lemongrass and lime. It tasted good but something wasn`t quite there and then to my surprise it was with bourbon the beet juice really was shining. I want to try this sometimes with dark rum and cachaca just to find out how it tastes. I can also imagine Cherry Heering and Creme de Cassis doing well with this beet juice.

MIX:

1.5 oz Bourbon (Bulleit)
0.5 oz Drambuie
Top with red beet juice mix – about 3-4 oz.
Garnish fresh mint, speared fig and beet chips.

Shake bourbon, drambuie and beet juice and strain into a cocktail glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fresh mint, a speared half fig and a beet chips.

Red Beet Juice Mix: In blender – one sliced red beet, ½ fig, 3 small slices fresh lemongrass, 5-6 mint leaves, 2 slices fresh ginger, 0.5 oz agave syrup, 10 oz passionfruit juice (not a tart one) blend at high for 15 sek, strain 3 times, bottle and chill in fridge 20 min before use.

Beet chips: With a mandolin or cheesecutter slice a few chips from the beet before using it for the juice.Twist them a bit and spread on baking sheet in the oven on low heat, (100 C)  let dry for about 40 min or until dry but not burnt.Turn them around after half time. Check every 5-10 min or so. They will shrink considerably so try to make them as large as possible, and the thinner the better.

And voila! now you have a tasty and healthy cocktail! that also is very nice sans alcohol sometimes.The ingredients in this drink can be varied a bit i think, for instance maybe some fresh carrot juice would nice as well and a topping of root beer or ginger beer with dark rum.. hm…

BEET AND MEZCAL

I wasn`t able to let away the thought of trying the juice with mezcal, i thought i was done with this post but no, a mezcal drink was in order and had to be made and tested. As i suspected the mezcal paired well with the beet juice. So why didn´t the tequila i tried first do that? Well, not that it wasn´t good but there was a sort of bitter aftertaste that slightly disturbed me. Maybe i should just try another tequila, maybe a reposado rather than a silver?

But Mezcal proved to be a winner.

This is what i made with the mezcal, a very simple drink: 1 oz mezcal and top with beet juice, nothing else, well ice and then stirred. It was very tasty even though the smokiness of the mezcal dominated,  it paired very well with the earthy slightly sweet beet flavor, they go well together. I also added a small extra sprinkle of fresh lime after a while and that lifted the drink up to another level of added freshness.

SMOKY BEET

1 oz mezcal

Top with fresh beet juice mix

Stir in the glass with ice.

Add a sprinkle of lime.

Garnish with a few of the fresh young beet leaves, they are edible and tastes crisp and nice. It looks like a salad;-)

So if you haven`t had fresh beet juice in a cocktail yet, please take my advice and at least try it, the worst that can happen to you is that you zink your drink and the best that you may get converted into drinking beet juice for the rest of your life.

But..

Maybe everyone really doesn´t like beets…here is another suggestion for a drink using a sort of fruit-vegetable, a plantain Punch:

PLANTAIN PUNCH

Plantains are cousins to the bananas but they are more like a vegetable than a fruit and are also called cooking bananas as they must be cooked or fried before used. So when used in a drink uncooked its needed to use a ripe one. They are green first and very hard, almost impossible to peel, then they turn yellow before the skin finally starts to blacken.

At that state they are used in dessers rather than in cooking. Plantains are very nice when fried and they also makes nice chips in the same way as the beet chips but plantain chips are deep fried rather than dried in the oven.

2 oz white rum

1 oz fresh lime juice

honey syrup to taste

4-5 slices ripe plantain

3 oz passionfruit juice

Buy a yellow plantain, riper and sweeter than the green which cannot be used here and avoid the blackened ones, they are not bad but too sweet for this drink. The flavor should be that of a unsweet vegetably banana. Use a few slices and add to a blender and blend with 2 oz white rum, 1 oz fresh lime juice,  simple syrup to taste, crushed ice. Blend until smooth.

If too thick, top with some more passionfruit juice.This drink can taste different depending on how tart your passionfruit juice is, the one we get here is sweet. Garnish with a piece of plantain.

USING BELL PEPPER

This is one of my favorite vegetables, the other one is tomato.The bell pepper or paprika as its called here is really useful in cocktails giving a very nice flavor that i think pairs very well with tequila, bourbon and white rum. I used it in my first entry to the MxMo which was in may 2008 one month before i started blogging. Back then i roasted a bell pepper and made a syrup of it and used it in a Bell Pepper Punch.

Then i discovered that i had also used bell pepper in June`s MxMo as well, i got to have been onto a real paprika craze or someting.This now reminds me that its maybe time to make a paprika syrup again or use fresh paprikas and use it in tequila and mezcal drinks this time. Here is the recipe for that old MxMo drink:

SPICED PAPRIKA WHISKEY SOUR

2×2 cm red Paprika
2 oz Bourbon
0.5 oz Fresh Lemon juice
0.5 oz Raspberry pureé
1 oz Honey Spice Mix
Garnish: 3 red Paprika strips.

Muddle the paprika in a mixing glass and add the rest of ingredients and shake with ice, strain in ice filled rocks glass.

Honey Spice Mix (2 drinks) :

0.75 oz Honey, 0.75 oz Water
0.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2 cm piece crushed Cinnamon stick
8 crushed green Cardamom pods

Stir honey with water, lemon Juice, cinnamon and cardamom in a small pan. Bring to a slight boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Cool.

Raspberry Purée

2 dl Raspberries, 1 tsp fresh Lemon Juice, 1 tsp simple syrup, add a little water, puree. You want a quite thin pureé, so if to thick add some more water. Strain through cheesecloth to discard the seeds.

NOW ITS YOUR TURN

By showing a few of my recipes using fresh vegetables in cocktails i hope i can inspire some of you to try them out and to make your own concoctions that i hopefully will read about on your blogs sometimes! I don`t use vegetables in my drinks all the time of course but it happens now and then and when i do i really enjoy it. I`m definetily into drinking beet juice for the rest of my life along with JWray and Ting and i hope you will too.

Do you use vegetables in cocktails? and if you do, what do you use?

Cinnamon has a warm sweet woody aroma that is delicate yet intense with a warm fragrant taste with hints of clove.

At the left in the picture above are4 sticks of the mexican cinnamon called canela (which also comes from Sri Lanka but is from another species than the common ceylon cinnamon) and in the bundle at the right is the common cassia often sold in the shops as ceylon cinnamon.The leaves are from a large cinnamon tree and i use them in cooking as they impart a subtle flavor in curry dishes, something i learnt while watching a TV documentary about cooking in the Seychelles. These leaves also makes for a beautiful cocktail garnish.

Native to Sri Lanka the cinnamon tree is an evergreen small tree growing to 10–15 metres (32.8–49.2 feet) tall and which contains an essential oil which gives the aromatic flavor which is extracted from the bark. The botanical name for the spice — Cinnamomum zeylanicum—is derived from Sri Lanka’s former (colonial) name, Ceylon.

Cinnamon has a long history way back to antiquity, its also mentioned in the bible. It used to be such a precious spice that it was given to monarchs. The cinnamon tree is grown for 2 years before harvesting which is done by stripping the bark from the shoots emerging from the roots after a special treatment. The inner bark is then curled into rolls which are cut for sale.

There are several varietes of cinnamon and also several varietes of cultivars as well. The name cinnamon is correctly used to refer to Ceylon cinnamon, also known as “true cinnamon” (from the botanical name C. zeylanicum). However, the related species, Cassia are as i wrote sometimes sold as cinnamon. Its the presence of eugenol in the essential oil that distinguishes cinnamon from cassia, giving it the note of clove.

I have 2 varietes at home for the moment, cassia and then the interesting mexican variety called canela that was sent to me in a swap by Anita over at “Married With Dinner“. The cinnamon that is used in Mexican cooking is a softer loose bark variety -  also grown in Sri Lanka and when i compare the two they are quite different. The cassia is harder and has a somewhat deeper but less present fragrance while the canela variety is more fragrant up-front and has a much softer bark which is also lighter in color. I love to use the sticks for garnish in cocktails and i regularly make cinnamon syrup which i think is a nessecity for my cocktail mixing.

CINNAMON SYRUP

To make cinnamon syrup you simply make a simple syrup with either 2.1 or 1:1 water and sugar of choice. Then you add a few broken cinnamon sticks into the pan and let it boil for a while before cooling. The longer you let it sit to cool the more flavor you will get so taste your way.

CINNAMON IN COCKTAILS

Checking for the use of cinnamon in cocktails in one form or another, the use of cinnamon syrup is for instance common in the world of tiki cocktails. You will also find cinnamon being used in warm cocktails around christmas time as well as in other winter time cocktails. Cinnamon also goes well with apple cider and bourbon.

For cocktail mixing and infusions:

Cinnamon combines well with:

Almonds, blackberries, blood orange, cranberry, mandarin, feijoa, fig, cumquat, orange, apples, apricots, chocolate, coffee, pears, persimon, walnuts, carrots and bananas.

CINNAMON PLANTATION PUNCH

2  oz dark rum – Plantation Barbados
.5 oz  highproof demerara rum
¼ oz Cointreau
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz cinnamon syrup
2  oz fresh blood orange juice
Top with a splash of Cherry Heering.

Shake all ingredients except Cherry Heering and strain into a ice filled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

This is a strong rum drink with lots of rum flavor yet i find it balances well with the rest of the ingredients and i think the cinnamon syrup goes well with the blood orange juice. The Plantation Barbados is a nice dark rum and well suited for both mixing and sipping and the addition of a highproof demerara gives depth to the rum flavor as well as a good kick.

This is especially a drink for rum lovers.

As part of a series of Beefeater product features here at the Mixoloseum, last Thursday’s Drink Night (TDN) theme was Beefeater gin. As usual at the Mixoloseum Bar, many original drinks were created, submitted and enjoyed. The next online event will feature Beefeater 24, a new luxury gin and its introduction to the American market. This new product is differentiated from their original one by the additions of Japanese sencha and Chinese green teas, as well as grapefruit peels.

Dan Warner, brand ambassador for Beefeater gin, joined in the fun. He shared with us some fascinating facts about Beefeater, like the fact that there are only 6 employees at their sole plant in London producing 2.4 million cases a year. Beefeater is the only major distiller left producing London Dry gin in the city of London. He also dropped tidbits like the Negroni being a favorite of Desmond Payne, Beefeater’s celebrated Master Distiller. Dan even hinted that he might return on the TDN discussing Beefeater 24 on 4/30.

The Gin

I’ve always been pleased with Beefeater as a mixing gin, but in order to taste the individual components, I tasted it neat and then slightly diluted with water. The first smell on opening a bottle yielded the sharp aroma of juniper and citrus. Upon sipping the undiluted spirit, I tasted the rounded soft spiciness of the coriander. The mouth feel was rich and even a bit oily. The mid palate had a bit of a pleasant woody flavor, probably from the licorice and angelica root. The finish was bitter but not lingering. Overall the impression was very crisp and clean.

They don’t call this London Dry Gin for nothing. Beefeater is proud of their 24 hour maceration claiming that the “long steeping time gives a gentler extraction, but builds complexity, and fixes the aroma in the spirit more solidly.” The resulting bold and clean flavor makes it a great mixing gin. I love the sharp citrus tang of Beefeater relative to other gins. When you mix a drink with Beefeater, you know that you’ve put gin in there! Sometimes you want the gin to be the star, like in a gin and tonic, a Martinez, or a Clover Club. Orange drinks like a Bronx or Monkey Gland really benefit from a bold gin like this; otherwise the drink can get a little soft on you. But other times you want your gin to play more of a supportive role. For a drink like a Suffering Bastard, I recommend a mellower, more rounded gin.

Just recently at the market, I happened to come across fresh bergamot fruit, and having been waiting over a year and a half since reading about the following recipe at Married with Dinner, I snapped up the last one and made the following:

Friday After Five – Married with Dinner

• 1 ounce gin
• 1/2 ounce green Chartreuse
• 3/4 ounce bergamot juice
• 1 dash Herbsaint, absinthe or Pernod

Shake over ice, and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a bergamot twist.

I have to say that this was my first experience with a real bergamot and I was totally impressed. As soon as my peeler bit into the peel, the pleasantly sharp odor of fine Earl Grey tea sprang into the air and surrounded me. I peeled the whole thing and set the peels out to dry for later use. This bergamot was quite tart, so I ended up adding a dash more Chartreuse to sweeten it a bit. The Friday After Five was still pretty tart, but the aromas of the bergamot peel worked well with the aromatics of the gin and the herbal sweetness of the Chartreuse. I was reminded of Audrey Sander’s MarTEAni, made with Earl Grey tea infused gin. So much so that I was inspired to invent the:

Trans-Europa

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1/4 oz Earl Grey infused gin (Tanqueray – 4 tbsp loose tea to a bottle for 2 hours)
• 3/4 oz bitter Seville orange juice
• 1/4 oz green Chartreuse
• 1/4 simple syrup (or more as needed)

Shake, strain and serve up with a bitter orange twist.

I’m a big fan of Beefeater gin because of its bold, high quality taste coupled with its affordable price point. I have been stocking Beefeater as my house gin for some time now because sometimes you just need a gin with some oomph when mixing. Personally, I’m really excited about the American release of Beefeater 24. I hope you can come on down to the Beefeater 24 TDN we are having on 4/30.

So what is a highball? A highball is just a base spirit and mixer served over ice, ideally in a tall glass. Whiskey soda, rum’n'coke, gin’n'tonic, and 7′n’7 are easy to say and even easier to make. They are usually quite forgiving as to the amounts and qualities of various ingredients used. However, Dale DeGroff in The Essential Cocktail cautions that a highball shouldn’t be too strong – if you want a strong drink, have a Martini or a Manhattan. A good guideline for a highball is 1 1/2 ounces spirit, maximum, and 4-5 oz of mixers.

So let’s start with one of my favorites, the Presbyterian. It’s like an upgraded whiskey and soda, but drier than a whiskey and ginger.

Presbyterian (Degroff)

• 1 1/2 oz rye, bourbon or blended whiskey
• 2 oz ginger beer
• 2 oz soda

Build over ice in a tall glass and garnish with a lemon peel.

A proper ‘Press’ needs a strong ginger beer with some oomph to it. Sweet supermarket ginger ales won’t cut it. I really like Rittenhouse rye in this one, but an affordable aged bourbon like Elijah Craig 12 y/o is also quite tasty. In the past, an economical blended whiskey would have been used, as the sweetness and carbonation of the ginger and soda takes the harsh edges off of the whiskey.

The Fallback

A common topic of discussion when cocktail geeks get together is what to order in bars that you know couldn’t make a ‘proper’ cocktail if you explained it to them for an hour. Highballs are a great fallback because most bartenders know them and they are hard to screw up. Even in cocktailian bars where every drink is carefully measured, the highballs get free-poured. However, that doesn’t mean that a sophisticated drink is out of reach, although you might have to talk your next airport bartender through this next one.

Americano (DeGroff)

• 1 1/2 oz Campari
• 1 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (Carpano)
• 3-4 oz soda (or as little as a splash)

Build over ice in a tall glass. Garnish with an orange slice, if desired.

An Americano is a very satisfying refresher. I find that it makes a good introduction to Campari, as the bitterness is balanced a bit by the sweetness of the vermouth. Apparently the name comes from the American fashion of mixing different boozes together, which was somewhat novel in turn of the last century Italy. By the way, this drink is also the inspiration for the Negroni. The story goes that the Count wanted something stronger and had the soda replaced with gin.

Another fascinating topic is where the term ‘highball’ comes from, since it precedes the drink. The glass, presumably, was named after the drink. One early use of the word was in railroading – the Encyclopedia Britanica says “One early type of American signal consisted of a large ball that was hoisted to the top of a pole to inform the engineman that he might proceed (hence, the origin of the term highball).”

The Glass

A highball glass is a straight sided cylindrical glass from 8-12 ounces. I’ll go out on a limb and say that a highball glass should be 10 oz for use with the pre-ice recipes of about 6 ounces that we’ve been using. But just try to buy one or two glasses that small at a homewares store. The American home market seems to demand bigger and bigger glasses -to the point where the highball has become a 14 oz chimney glass appropriate for a Zombie and all its lovely ice. Commercial service still uses smaller glass, but unfortunately a case of 10 oz glasses at a restaurant supply place is 36 glasses, probably more than you’ll ever need.

Highballs do not have to be carbonated – they can be made with juice as well. As an example, here is one I recently whipped up for a guest.

Madras

• 1 1/2 oz vodka
• 3 oz cranberry juice cocktail
• 1 1/2 oz orange juice

Build over ice in a tall glass.

One last thing about highballs – they are, of course, excellent hot weather drinks. Thirst quenching and refreshing, a tall icy gin and tonic is practically emblematic of summer.

I`m a confessed syrup, bitters and infusions geek, especially syrups. I just can`t stop making them..If i see some interesting fruit or spice or even vegetable, i just have to make a syrup with it. My fridge is a catastrophy – the upper shelf that is, its the only space i have to store my syrups.

Now i make smaller amounts, at least, because they do change in flavor after a while even when stored in the fridge. One important thing when making syrups is that it should be properly boiled for 2 minutes. If boiled to long it will become caramel and if not sufficiently boiled it will after some time become apt to mold. Another important thing is to use a good quality sugar, the better sugar the better syrup.

PRICKLEY PEAR CACTUS AND HIBISCUS SYRUP

Clean fruits of glochids and remove seedy/pulpy center. Use a stiff vegetable cleaning brush to rub off the stickers and glochids. Put flesh into large pot, mash it, add 1:1 ratio sugar and water and a half handful of dried Hibiscus flowers and bring to a low boil. Boil lightly for 2 minutes and then take off the heat and leave to cool. Take out the Hibiscus flowers and then train the syrup through a cheesecloth. Bottle and refrigerate.

PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS MARGARITA

The key to this drink is really to use a prickly-pear infused Tequila, but i don`t have it now.

* 2 1/2 oz Tequila

* 1/2 oz Cointreau

* 2 oz sour mix (1 oz = 1 part lemon juice, 1 part lime juice, 1 oz simple syrup, but in this recipe prickly pear and hibiscus syrup)

* 1/2 oz orange juice

* salt or sugar for rimming

Pour the ingredients into a shaker with ice.

Strain into a chilled margarita glass with a sugar or salt rim. Garnish with a lime wheel or wedge.

Yech.
That has been my reaction to grapefruit for almost my entire life.
Yech.
And, like most things we reject early in life and never revisit, that’s a shame.
If you fancy yourself a modern drunk modern cocktailian, chances are your bar is stocked right now with juicing lemons and limes, or at least bottles of decent juice. (And shuddup, Mr. Curator!) But lots of mixers don’t have much in the way of grapefruit on hand. For myself, I had never had grapefruit in my bar, or in my thirteen-year-old house for that matter, until about a week or so before I undertook to write this little musing.
Grapefruit was always that giant, bitter, yellow-white thingy that my Dad would spoon out at breakfast back when I was about six. And he always put more sugar on it than I put on my Corn Flakes. As a kid, I always lumped grapefruit in with such vegetation as okra and brussels sprouts in the category of Unfathomably Nasty Things People Eat. Okra and Vegetus Infernus are still UNTPEs, and if you think you like them, I can only recommend immediate psychiatric care.
But what made me take grapefruit off the list? Well, I was dimly aware that there were cocktails that used the juice, such as the Salty Dog, and the Seabreeze. But they weren’t my kind of drink. In preparation for Tiki Month, over at my home base, The Pegu Blog, I was reading a lot of recipes I had never considered before. I kept seeing mentions of grapefruit juice, and after several winces and thoughts of, Ugh, why use such nastily bitter juice in a nice cocktail? it occurred to me that my tastes have changed a bit since I was six. I do have about twelve bottles that I sought out and bought on my bar shelf that are designed to increase the bitterness of a cocktail, after all. Heard of bitters?
A day later, I went with my wife to Martini Park, here in Columbus, and on a dare to myself, ordered what the chain calls a Grapefruit Caipirinha. Or at least I ordered one after I could wipe the smirk off my face when considering a drink being called a Caipirinha that not only doesn’t use cachaça, but instead employs vodka. That said, the resulting concoction was not half bad. Over the hump, I dropped by Whole Foods and bought up a number of grapefruit, as well as a small bottle of juice for comparison.
While at this point, I’ve only posted one recipe that uses grapefruit, the Jet Pilot, I’ve used it in a bunch. I think I’ve learned enough to lay out some knowledge for you as if I’m the very Sage of Grapefruit. (Ain’t the Internet grand?)
First off, let’s talk about getting your juice. I take some heat for being more open to bottled juice than some others round these parts. But whereas I actually prefer commercial OJ to fresh squeezed, in cocktails at least, grapefruit is the opposite end of the spectrum. If you are going to use it in drinks, that’s great, but squeeze it fresh if there is any possible way you can!
If you are used to picking out the best lemons and limes, the surface of a good grapefruit will be considerably softer to the touch than you are used to. Don’t worry, it is not rotten, as long as the skin is strong and elastic, and the fruit feels nice and heavy.
I worried about how I was going to juice these huge fruits, since a half sure isn’t going to fit in my handy OXO juice squeezer. I fiddled with my old reamer, and hand squeezing, and generally bitched up a storm about the whole thing, when I discovered an easy way to juice this freaking fruit. Simply quarter each half, and these pieces will fit nicely in the squeezer. Further, they will very easily and completely give up their juice.
Finally, if you only need to use an eighth or a quarter of a whole fruit, that is no problem with a grapefruit. Simply store the remainder in a zipper plastic bag in the fridge. Cut grapefruit will last an extraordinarily long time compared to lemons and limes.
Grapefruit comes in three basic colors: white, pink, and red. They generally range in bitterness from very to mild, respectively. But the ones I have tried so far have all been much milder and sweeter than the yalla balls of pucker I remember as a kid. If you are just starting your journey with grapefruit, I’d suggest starting with the pink. It’s the most popular these days, and while it is more bitter than sour, it is not so bitter as to run the weak-tongued off.
I’m also going to step out onto a limb here and suggest, on very limited experimental experience, that grapefruit juice mixes very well with lime juice, but not so much with lemon.
I still think that grapefruit is more of a special purpose ingredient than lemons or limes, but all my experiments have really opened my eyes. It keeps very well, better in fact, at least with fruit I can get in Ohio in February, than limes. It stands up to a variety of spirits quite well on its own. And it is a terrific ensemble player in more complex concoctions such as Tiki drinks.
I’ll leave you with a very simple grapefuit cocktail, named appropriately The Grapefruit Cocktail, which I gleaned from Erik Ellestad’s examination of the Savoy Cocktail Book.
THE GRAPEFRUIT COCKTAIL

• 1.5 oz. gin
• 1.5 oz. grapefruit juice (fresh squeezed please, fellow slackers!)
• 1 squirt simple sugar.

Shake with lots of ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

I like grenadine a lot, and with a handful of dried hibiscus flowers the already tasty grenadine turns to awesome. When you make homemade grenadine it usually gets paler in color than the commercial variants, but with the dried hibiscus flowers added this isn`t the case anymore, the hibiscus flowers inparts a blood red color. And on top of that they also add a very fresh crisp and floral tropical flavor.

It was my friend Chris from Rookie libations who first told me about adding dried hibiscus flowers to the grenadine, and i will be forever grateful.

Commercial grenadine cannot compare to homemade and its worth the little effort to make it yourself, it doesn`t take long time either. But you need to have fresh pomegranates and these are fairly expensive, but for home use 1 large pomegranate makes about 1L grenadine.

So here is how to make it:

Get 1-2 large pomegranates, check that they are of good quality. To easiest separate the seeds from the bitter membrane, just cut the pomegranate in quarters and brake loose the seeds under water in a bowl.

The seeds will sink and the membrane float.

In a pot make a simple syrup by adding 1:1 sugar and water, and add the pomegranate seeds and a good handful of dried hibiscus flowers. I find my hibiscus flowers in a health shop. Then lightly boil this for about 5 min, then simmer for another 10 min before taking off the heat and set aside to cool. Leave to cool and set for 1-2 hrs to really get the flavors out.

Then strain and bottle in a clean bottle and keep the grenadine in the fridge. I dont know how long it lasts before it go bad as I always use it up fairly quick, but I would guess 1-2 months. To get a really bright red color its best to use white or light colored sugar. As I`m very fond of raw sugars and not so much like the refined white sugar I use a raw cane sugar that is called oxfam and it has a very lightly tinted white/goldish color which doesnt darken the final grenadine color.

Here is one of my favorite drinks containing grenadine and which becomes even tastier with hibiscus grenadine.

PORT LIGHT By trader Vic – page 66 in Grog Log

1 oz fresh lemon juice
0.5 oz passion fruit syrup
3 tsp grenadine
1 oz Bourbon

Blend with 1 cup crushed ice for 5 sek and pour into collins glass or nautical tumbler.Add more crushed ice to fill.

Here is Trader Vic`s Port Light from Trader Vic’s Pacific Island Cookbook

In a blender with 1 scoop shave ice:
2 tsp honey
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Mynor’s Passion Fruit Nectar
1 egg white
2oz Bourbon
Blend and pour into Port Light glass, or a red tumbler with cracked ice. Decorate with fresh mint. The same drink using scotch instead of bourbon is called Starboard Light.

The Port Light and Starboard Light cocktails were originally served in special glass “Marine Tumblers” – the red glass for the Port and the green glass for the Starboard.

A VALENTINE COCKTAIL

For Valentine i have made a cocktail using the fruit of love, the pomegranate, both as juice and in the form of hibiscus grenadine. Its a fruity little drink containing tequila.

DEEP LOVE

* 2 oz tequila
* 2 oz pomegranate juice
* 0.5 oz lime juice
* 0.5 oz vanilla syrup
* ¼  oz Cherry Heering
*  Float with hibiscus grenadine
*  Float Creme de cassis

Pour the tequila, pomegranate juice, Cherry Heering, vanilla syrup and lime juice into a shaker and shake over ice. Strain into a tumbler filled with crushed ice. Float with hibiscus grenadine, then creme de cassis

Garnish with a speared brandied cherry and starfruit.