Cocktail Du Jour- The Radar O'Reilly Cocktail

At work today, I noticed that that I'd received some comments on my post last night. A mysterious poster, who goes by kevin (the all lowercase letters make me suspicious), asked when the Radar O'Reilly Cocktail would be appearing. Never one to disappoint a fan, I made the decision then and there to create a cocktail in honor of Radar when I got home today. For the record, this is the last cocktail that I will ever create that will be named after anyone real or fictional that hails from Iowa (Radar is from Otumwa, IA). I commented back to lowercase kevin that I thought Radar would probably not be a whiskey drinker like Fred Grandy, but would instead favor rum drinks, when a certain JT posted that Radar was a grape soda man. I decided then and there to create a cocktail using rum and grape soda (I always love a good challenge).

On my way home, I started trying to formulate a grape soda based cocktail in my head, but I wasn't getting very far. I knew that I ought to avoid the cloying, diabetic coma inducing, sugary goodness of Nehi Grape Soda, but not being a soda fanatic,and nor having consumed any type of grape soda since the onset of puberty, I was at a loss for what other options might be on the market. Luckily, I live close to a Whole Foods Market, so I thought I'd run in and see if, perhaps, Boylan's makes a grape soda (if they do, my WFM doesn't carry it). Instead, I found two grape soda products. R.W. Knudsen Grape Spritzer, has all the color of Nehi grape, that royal purple color that would be at home on a King's robe. Unfortunately, other than color, it doesn't offer much. Its flavor is reminiscent of stale dishwater, slightly effervescent and with a mild grape flavor, but not something that I would pay money to consume, even with alcohol in it. My other option was a pink/grey colored soda, Natural Brew Organic Grape. As ugly a soda as it is, this stuff makes me think about Grape Crush or Nehi Grape when I taste it. I bought both and came home.

I decided to follow Lance's 23rd Rule of Bartending when I got home, "Make most new drinks in a bucket". I poured 2 oz white rum, 2 oz meyer lemon juice, a couple of dashes of Fee's lemon bitter and then topped it off with a little of the Knudsen's. Godawful is a kind description, although disgusting would be about as apt. The drink had no balance and little flavor. The meyer lemon juice dominated, making this an unpleasant start to my mixing. Next, I decided a little of the other soda was in order to balance the flavors out. The Natural Brew has more of the traditional grape soda non-grapiness but i still added it to foster an attempt at success. Swing and a miss! Strike 2! I'd tried, but the inherent sweetness made it exceptionally difficult to balance this cocktail.

I'd just about given up on this cocktail, when my much better half came into the kitchen and tasted my work in progress. Her mouth puckered and she frowned. "Why don't you add chartreuse to it? You like chartreuse". I was desperate so I ran to the liquor cabinet, grabbed a bottle of green chartreuse and added a 1/2 oz, stirred it and tasted. Brilliant! What was a cloying and sugary sweet concoction, suddenly developed some balance and depth. While this isn't ever going to be a world class cocktail, the end result was a well balanced cocktail that incorporated both rum and grape soda in this drink.

The Radar O'Reilly Cocktail

2 oz white rum
1/2 oz green chartreuse
2 oz meyer lemon juice
equal parts RW Knudsen Grape Spritzer and Natural Brew Organic Concrod Grape, to fill
3 dashes Fee Bros Lemon bitters

Build over ice in an double rocks glass, stir to incorporate and enjoy. This really did make a nice cocktail once i added the chartreuse. And for the record, this is my last cocktail to be named after a former tv character. Garnish this drink garishly, I think Radar would appreciate it.

Wednesday Morning Update

A few things worth noting this morning-

Caramel doesn't like to be reheated after it cools in the pan. I almost started a kitchen fire as I had carmelized some sugar over the weekend to add to my almost finished cocounut rum (its needs a little caramel to take the harsh edge off), and then forgot about it and it hardened in the pan. Upon trying to reheat it last night, I got distracted and turned around to a pan billowing smoke through the kitchen. Thank god I was using a cheapie pan that I've had for years.

My Krambambuli got much better after sitting in the basement for 6 months. Instead of a green color, its almost an amber red color now. I strained it through a coffee filter and bottled it last night. Its still quite bitter, I'm sure because of all of the gentian in it, but I added a capful of it to my gin and tonic last night and created quite a savory little cocktail.

Don't ever cure prosciutto in your refrigerator if its the only refrigerator that you own. My entire fridge reeks of garlic, and its managed to adulterate the milk in the fridge. Mmmm, garlic milk! Thank goodness I've only got 2 weeks left before I can pull them out. Oh, and my new silicone ice cube trays? Yeah, they have a nice garlicky odor to them as well. Time to break out the bleach water. For the record, my wife is a saint for putting up with this little experiment. I have 2 huge hog legs taking up most of the space in the fridge, and she's been extremely patient with me. Especially since you can't walk near the fridge right now without smelling garlic. I used to like the smell of garlic, but now that its permeated my life, not so much. I need a basement fridge, thats all there is to it.

Lastly, Mixology Monday was a blast. I can't wait for the next one.

Coconut Rum, Half Forgotten Bitters, Navan and Ice Cubes

I started a new project this evening, a toasted coconut rum. I hate Malibu and its sickly sweetness, so today when I was at 23rd Ave Liquors, I spotted a bottle of Appleton White Rum that just seemed to call to me. I toasted 8oz of shredded coconut in the oven tonight until I got a nice light toast on the coconut, put it in a pyrex bowl and covered it with the rum. Its now wrapped up and in the basement to do its magic. I'm not the biggest fan of the flavor of coconut, but I really felt like a drier rum with a coconut flavor might be nice for doing some tiki-inspired drinks next month. Now, I'm wondering if I should start a batch of coconut bitters. They sound like a perfect complement to tiki drinks. Perhaps I'll start a batch after Xmas.

Next up, I actually carmelized some sugar (3 tblsp sugar, 1 tblsp water) and added it to the grapefruit/ tomato bitters. I'll stir it 2x a day for a week to let the flavors get to know each other a bit and it'll be time to bottle it up next week. I'm happy to have that project in its final stages. I think I'm going to call these bitters my Half Forgotten Bitters.

Also, I picked up a bottle of Navan. I'll have a full product review up tomorrow, but let me just share my initial impression. Its delicious stuff. My mind is racing thinking about the possibilities. Currently I'm drinking 2oz of Navan, 3 dashes of Peychauds bitters, and equal parts 1/2 and 1/2 and soda water on the rocks. Its nice, but I think this is a bit of a work in progress, I need to punch it up just a little more.

Lastly, I got some new ice cube trays from Amazon today. More on ice cubes to come soon, but Daniel Shoemaker from the TearDrop Lounge has made an ice cube believer out of me.