Leap Year Cocktail

A day late, my apologies but Blogger was experiencing technical issues last night. Anyway, the Leap Year cocktail seemed appropriate last night.

My version-

1 1/2 oz Aviation Gin
1/2 oz Carpano Antica
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
splash lemon juice

Chill, shake hard and serve up

I'm not sure I'd drink this regularly, but once every 4 years will work.

I finally got my prosciutto hung. It should be ready in 6 months. Note to self- no more curing hams at home, its a pain in the ass.

Today I received a care package from North Shore Distillery. I'm going to taste the Oregon Bartenders Guild on their #6 gin, and #11 gin. Unfortunately for me, their aquavit (which I really wanted to compare against House Spirits Krogstad Aquavit) didn't survive the shipping (damn you Fedex! Damn you!). I'm very excited about tasting both gins, I've heard nothing but great things about them both.

I'm making marmalade today. I have this idea rolling around in my head of a cocktail combining marmalade and Templeton rye. Once all is said and done I'll get it up here.

Oh, do you ever buy cookbooks that you adore but you never actually cook anything out of them? For me, that describes Fergus Henderson's two books. Great reads, incredibly inspiring (I was even ready to take on his half roasted pigs head for two until my wife put the kibosh on that), I've finally decided on making the mother for bread that they use at St. John's. I'm not much of a baker, but having a good mother in the fridge seems to make sense.

Raiders of the Lost Cocktail- The Apricot Cocktail

Already this month I participated in my first Mixology Monday, which quickly became one of my favorite experiences on this blog, and I've been looking for similar experiences. I came across Paul Clarke's blog, the Cocktail Chronicles. Paul is one of my favorite spirits writers, and I've been honored to share the pages of the Jan/Feb issue of Imbibe with him. Paul is the third host of "Raiders of the Lost Cocktail", an exercise in revisiting some of the more obscure ingredients and their role in classic cocktails. This month, the theme is Apricot Brandy.I was intrigued, and to be honest, I needed a break tonight so that I can finish off my eggnog. So I picked up my 1948 copy of Patrick Gavin Duffy's "The Standard Bartenders Guide". The obviously named Apricot Cocktail struck my fancy as its easy to reproduce and yet might be an interesting cocktail. I did however, lack any apricot brandy in the house, and with Oregon being a control state, I was rather worried that I wouldn't be able to get a quality product. My suspicions came true after a visit to one of our Soviet era liquor stores, where my choices were Mr. Boston or DeKuyper. While I hate DeKuyper (I think its Dutch for "crap"), personal pride wouldn't let me buy Mr. Boston, so $8.45 later, I was the proud owner of a fifth of DeKuyper's finest Apricot Brandy. Surprisingly, the DeKuyper worked well in the cocktail, so now I can't wait to get my hands on some decent apricot brandy. It made for a tasty cocktail and one I think that deserves some consideration for resurrection for the graveyard of forgotten cocktails. Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Apricot Cocktail
1/4 Lemon Juice
1/4 Orange Juice
1/2 Apricot Brandy
Dash dry gin (I used House Spirit's Aviation Gin and it worked very well)


Shake well and strain into a glass

Product Review Stirrings Tonic Water

I want to like the products that I have had from Stirrings, I really do. However, something about their smug proclamations about specially formulated cocktail sodas to offerings like a sugar plum martini mixer (do they even know that a sugar plum doesn't have plums in it?) makes me feel like I'm being cheated by someone who knows next to nothing about cocktails, but a lot about marketing. Stirrings Tonic Water is exactly one of these products that leaves me feeling so disappointed. I'm lucky enough to live in Portland Oregon, where local bartenders like Daniel Shoemaker and Kevin Ludwig compete to make the best tonic water possible. I don't expect a premium bottled brand to come close to what local mixologists are crafting, but it would be nice to have something better than the big chemical tasting (Schweppes, Canada Dry) tonics on the market. I have heard of some artisan tonics making it onto the market, but so far haven't come across any here in Oregon. Stirrings Tonic Water claims to be made from cane sugar, "champagne" carbonation (whatever the heck that is, I doubt that they would use champagne yeast to provide carbonation) and Cinchona Bark Extract. Perhaps its the use of an extract rather than real cinchona bark that provides the flabby mouthfeel, but this is the the worst commercial tonic that I've encountered in my life. Its overly sweet and one dimensional and lacks the structure and crispness that a good tonic water needs in order to be the perfect compliment to gin. When I mixed Stirrings Tonic Water with my favorite gin, House Spirits Aviation gin, instead of a well balanced gin and tonic, the sweetness in the tonic threw the entire cocktail out of balance, ruining, for perhaps the first time in my life a gin and tonic. Next time I lack an artisan product, given the choice between Stirrings and one of the commercial brands, I'll grab the Schweppes.

A couple of other strange things I've noticed about some of the products at Stirrings. Their "Blood Orange Bitters" is really just a syrup. It contains no bittering agent. And they advertise their "Club Soda" from their line of cocktail sodas as containing both Cinchona Bark extract (huh?) and Fleur De Sel (wtf?). I don't think I'll be buying any more Stirrings products in the future, and my quest for a good commercial tonic continues.