Product Review- Partida Anejo Tequila

What can I say about Partida tequila that hasn't already been said? Paul Pacult gave the line 5 stars across the board when Partida came out, the only tequila to ever achieve that feat. I've tasted the blanco, reposado and, now, the anejo, and I have to say that they are all some of the finest spirits that I have personally tasted. I have yet to sample the Partida Elegante , billed as "extra anejo" and at the $350 price point, its probably out of my league for now.

Back to the anejo though, because thats what I'm here to discuss. The first thing I noticed about this tequila is its rich bronze coloring. By law, anejo tequilas age at least one year. Partida likes to use once used Jack Daniel's barrels for their anejo, and you can tell by the warm color that its been laid down for some time (18 months actually). Next, the bouquet, something I don't usually like in tequilas, is exceptionally nice. There is a soft oakiness up front, followed by subtle hints of vanilla and honeysuckle with just a hint of green chili pepper lurking underneath. It makes for a heady aroma, and my mouth started watering in anticipation of the flavors to come. Luckily for me, the Partida anejo didn't disappoint. Opening up with a certain earthiness on the palate, it follows with some big vanilla and caramel notes. After the vanilla and caramel begin to fade, a slight whisky flavor emerges, only to be replaced by some citrus and smoke notes. Finally, hints of agave sweetness begin to appear, providing a nice counterbalance to the smokiness. There is a bit of an alcohol bite to this, but I like a bit of sharpness to my tequilas so I really enjoyed tasting the alcohol. The finish is moderate, with more smoke, and some dried fruit on the back end. This is a very well made tequila and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm now really intrigued by the Partida Elegante as I'd like to see what this tequila does with a few more years in oak.

Highly Recommended

While I don't usually mix with anejo tequilas, this is a fun and interesting cocktail that highlights Partida Anejo's best qualities. I might suggest making this delicious flip for your special tequila afficionado this Valentines Day.

Partida Anejo Flip
2 oz Partida Anejo tequila
3 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 egg
cinnamon and nutmeg to dust

Place all ingredients (except cinnamon and nutmeg) in a mixing pint. Add ice, shake vigorously and strain into a wine glass. Dust with cinnamon and nutmeg and serve.

Barrel Aged Orange Bitters Update

Well, I've left the barrel outside all week, I'll probably bring it into the garage now, but I want it to experience some weather to bring the madeira in and out of the wood.

I put together my bitters recipe Wednesday night. I'm going to let this soak for a month, and then into the barrel in June. Here's what I'm doing-

2 750 Ml bottles of Everclear
5 orange peels
8 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 bay leaf

Its in the basement right now, sitting next to the Bacon Bourbon. More on that soon.

So what do you do when you make bitters and end up with 5 peeled oranges? I make dessert.

Navan Oranges
5 oranges, peeled and sliced into rounds (if this was for a dinner party, I'd slice the pithy edges off, but at home I leave it as is)
3 oz Navan Liqueur
3 dashes Angostura Bitters

1) In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly to incorporate
2) Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours
3) Serve and enjoy. Best topped with a little whipped cream spiked with Grand Marnier.

Drink Du Jour- The Sahityika Chori Cocktail

1 oz Kazkar feni
1/2 oz Sub Rosa Saffron Vodka
2 dashes Blood Orange-Saffron Bitters
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz orange juice
1 oz apricot nectar
Perrier to top
mint sprig garnish

1) Combine first 6 ingredients in shaker, add ice and shake until your arm hurts.
2) strain, fill with Perrier
3) Spank a mint sprig like an unruly child to release the bouquet and garnish

Blood Orange Saffron Bitters

I pulled the Blood Orange Saffron bitters out of my cask after spending a week in American oak. The oak imparted a nice vanilla flavor and added quite a bit of complexity to the bitters. These may be my best bitters yet. In fact, if saffron weren't so damn expensive, I might be tempted to give Mr. Gary Regan and the brothers Fee a run for their money. I think I'll barrel age all my bitters in the future, its made a signifigant difference to the final product. I can't wait to give these a trial run. I'm thinking of incorporating these bitters into a new cocktail creation built around cashew feni and the bitters. Look for it soon.

Weekend Update- Blood Orange Saffron Bitters, Bacon Bourbon and Chinese Apothecary Bitters

Well, I'm flying out to spend the week on Salt Lake City tomorrow. I don't think I could be more underwhelmed by a business trip. I already hate business trips as a general rule, but spending a week at the Salt Lake airport, eating in chain restaurants and dying for caffeine and a decent drink. Anyway, the thought of living a monk-like existence spurred me to focus on some of my projects.

First, my Blood Orange-Saffron Bitters (pictured above) looked and smelled fantastic. I put them into an American oak barrel for a little aging, just to add some more depth and complexity. I think I'll pull them out when I get back.

Second, I think I've perfected my bacon infusing technique after a conversation with Phil Ward of Death and Co. I started a Bacon Bourbon (I used Bulleit because I liked the flavor profile with bacon), which should be ready in a couple of weeks. I want to do a homage to the wonderful Praline Bacon served by the Screen Door here in town. I'm thinking Bacon Bourbon and a Demerara Pecan simple syrup and maybe some bitters and I might have a cocktail.

I checked on my Apothecary Bitters as well. I should really quit calling them a bitters until I taste them, but they look good but I just want to give it a little more time to allow a little more extraction. Sven the seahorse is still as hard as a rock. Somehow, I thought Sven would be a little more pliable by now.

I tried feni this weekend. Kazkar feni to be exact. Made in India, feni is either produced from Cashew apples (as Kazkar is) or Coconuts. Think really funky cacahca and you might be close to the taste. The bouquet smells of old sweat socks, but the product itself mixes nicely and I thought it worked incredibly well subbing for cachaca in a caipirinha. I'll get a review up soon, when I have some time to mix it and play with it a little more. Fun stuff though.

Chinese Apothecary Bitters

So I've been rolling around a concept in my head ever since I've been reading some posts about asian liquor on the OBG's forums. I'd like to put together a cocktail with asian ingredients, maybe using a tea reduction, soju, maybe some lemon juice and bitters. Instead of a western style bitters though, I've been trying to think of something distinctly asian to use. Yesterday, some of the OBG board met for a Portland Monthly photoshoot (look for my ugly mug to appear in the May 2008 issue), and as I caught the bus downtown in the morning, I went walking through Chinatown on my way to the location. As I was walking down the street, I spotted a Chinese apothecary that I hadn't noticed before. There was a great poster in the window advertising Jin tonics containing deer antler, horny goat weed, sea horse and other exotic ingredients. A year ago, I would have walked on by and never given it another thought, but my recent experiences with acupuncture have made me a real believer in Eastern medicine. I've had terrible back pain for years, but after my first acupuncture session, I felt better than I have at any time since I was a teenager. If a few needles can give me that kind of relief, I'm more than willing to drink something that contains deer antler if there are some purported health benefits.

In fact, my friend JT and I have had vodka steeped with deer antler and some other exotic ingredients at a very good (and quite strange) restaurant at the Santa Monica airport, Typhoon. I seem to recall the drink being rather full flavored, almost a pronounced leather flavor on the palate, and as I was remembering these flavors, I thought an herbal tonic from the apothecary would be the perfect base for an asian style bitters.

Today, during lunch, I hopped a bus to Chinatown and wandered into the apothecary, Each wall was filled floor to ceiling with giant jars of things like cuttlefish bone, strange roots, and dull colored powders. Some of the labels had english translations, but most did not. I explained to the herbalist that I wanted a mens formula tonic, something to increase my general well being. He asked me a number of questions to eliminate any potential health problems, and when he decided that I was healthy, he asked if my sexual functions were ok. I assured the man that I was fully functional, and he indicated that he could add some ingredients to bring me to new sexual heights. Never being one to turn down opportunities for maximum virility, I said sure, add whatever you need to make this a very manly tonic. The clerk started calculating and talking to himself, peering in jars and sniffing others, before he finally made up his mind. He would create a good all around health tonic and throw in a sea horse for male potency, I would just need to come home and steep this whole concotion for at least two weeks. Even better, while he said that water or wine would work ok for this tonic, he suggested vodka as the best way to get maximum effect from the tonic. "Drink up to two shots a day" he told me, so I knew as a bitters, I'd never get close.

Here is what he put together

Chinese Apothecary Tonic/Bitters

30 g ginseng root
30 g Astralagus root
30 g schizandra fruit
30 g peony root
30 g epimidium leaves
30 g codonopsis root
30 g atractylodes root
30 g dan gui root
30 g lycium root
10 g licorice root
30 g pseudoginseng root
30 g ligustrum
30 g hoa shou wu
1 sea horse, dried (I named mine Sven)

Soak in 2 750 Ml bottles of vodka (I used 1 bottle of Everclear and 1 of vodka) for at least 2 weeks and up to 3 months. Apparently, leaving out the sea horse makes this an appropriate tonic (although less effective than other womens formulas) for women.

I started this tonight. The clerk told me that this would have a pronounced bitter flavor, however, if its not quite bitter enough, I'll hit it with some gentian at that time.

I'm really excited to have a bitters that would be appropriate for asian style cocktails. Even better, if I can offer something that has the potential to have health benefits, I think that it will be an interesting concept.

I always say that as long as I learn and take something away from each experiment, I'm succesful. I've already learned a lot today and I can't wait to see how the bitters turn out.

Smuggled Saffron, Missouri Oak and the OBG

One of the first collaborative events the Oregon Bartenders Guild members are doing is creating bitters together. I know Jeff Morgenthaler is looking to recreate the old Bokers bitters recipe, a couple of the brilliant minds at the TearDrop Lounge have been discussing attempting an Oregon Truffle bitters, and even a pine bitters has been proposed. If you are curious about some of the discussions going on, check out our forum (you need to sign up for access) here .

One of my current favorite bitters is Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters, a lovely, complex bitters tasting of cinnamon spice. So far, all of my previous bitters creations have been made in glass, but barrel aging adds a depth and complexity that is complimentary to many styles of bitters. In fact, I've even been contemplating making a barrel aged orange bitters to contrast with the commercial orange bitters on the market. In order to facilitate the production of barrel aged bitters, each board member of the OBG has ordered a small Missouri oak barrel to produce unique styles of bitters from Steinbart’s. It should be interesting to see what everyone creates. I've been toying with the idea of a coconut bitters in addition to the barrel aged orange and saffron bitters I'm planning. Speaking of bitters, I'm quite excited to see that there is going to be a new player entering the market, Bittermen’s, I've heard good things about their products and can't wait to try them.

Last night, I was perusing my liquor cabinet, looking for something a little bit different (and also trying to free up some room, I definitely need a larger liquor cabinet) when I noticed that I had just enough Sub Rosa Saffron Vodka to pour myself a nightcap. I picked up a bucket, in went a couple of ice cubes (Tovolo to be exact)and I poured myself two fingers of vodka, finishing off the bottle. I don't generally drink vodka on the rocks, but the Sub Rosa saffron has some interesting spicy curried notes that make it worthwhile to drink that way. I was sitting at home, nursing my drink, enjoying the exotic spiciness and unwinding from a hard day. As I was admiring the orange red hue of the vodka a thought popped into my head, "why don't I make a saffron bitters?". Strangely enough, I recently met a saffron smuggler (who knew?). A few weeks ago, he surreptitiously handed me a glass vial that I thought might be something illegal, so I freaked out a bit, gave a stern lecture about not being a kid anymore, etc, etc, until I looked down and saw that the vial was filled with red threads. I was a little surprised, especially since I don't know this person well. "Its saffron, the most expensive spice in the world. I get it in Cairo for .80 an ounce and smuggle it in." I guess in the grand scheme of things being a saffron smuggler doesn't rate too high on the priorities of most law enforcement agencies, perhaps being just a slightly lower target than those dastardly tapioca smugglers. I just hope he didn't have to keester it in.

Anyway, Mr. Saffron Smuggler provided me with a full gram of the Egyptian stuff, so I went downstairs and added the threads to a fifth of everclear, which I'm going to use as my base. I doubt I'll barrel age this stuff, but once the saffron infuses the alcohol, I may add some secondary flavoring agents to the mixture. I'm also curious to compare it to the Sub Rosa saffron vodka to see the differences.

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.

With apologies to Mary Decker...

So my friend Daniel Shoemaker, bartender extraordinaire and owner of the best cocktail bar in Portland, the TearDrop lounge, makes this wonderful rum drink with tepache. Tepache is basically flat beer, pineapple rinds and mexican sugar left to ferment for a few days until it becomes a mildly alcoholic beverage. Daniel's is amazing, far better than the stuff I've actually consumed in Mexico, and I really think it makes an interesting base for rum drinks. Wanting to experiment with fermenting a pineapple based beverage, I started doing some research and came across a recipe for South African Pineapple Beer. Since it was going to be my first attempt at making this, I followed the recipe exactly as written (well, mostly). If I was to attempt this again, I'd add some cream of tartar for a little more carbonation. The pineapple beer does have some carbonation, but to my taste, its just a bit flat. It works fine as is as a base for a cocktail, but if I was to consume it straight it would need more carbonation.

Pineapple Beer (yields approximately 7 750mL bottles)

1 whole pineapple, chopped into 1/8 wedges about 1/2 inch thick
7L mildly warm water
500g dark brown sugar
75g rasins
1 packet dry yeast

1) Wash the pineapple well and chop into wedges
2) Mix pineapple, water, sugar, and raisins together in a large container
3) sprinkle yeast over the mixture and let stand 30 minutes
4) cover loosely and let stand in a cool, dry place for 24 hrs
5) Strain through a chinois and bottle
6) Beer is ready after 2 days in the bottle

I wouldn't serve this to your kids, its very mildly alcoholic, but it would be hell to catch a buzz off of this stuff.

So now onto the good stuff. Creating my first cocktail with the pineapple beer as a base. A quick perusal of the liquor cabinet here at the house gave me two options for rum. Bacardi Silver and Gosling's Black Seal. I'm a big fan of Gosling's, a Dark and Stormy just doesn't taste right without Black Seal and I use just a bit of it to round out the different types of bitters that I make. Some decisions just make themselves. Next, I'm a big believer that almost all cocktails benefit from the addition of some sort of bitters. I pondered using my own grapefruit bitters or Peychauds bitters, but then decided on Regan's Orange Bitters. Regan's is a nice bitters, and reliably safe. After tasting the results of the final cocktail, I think the Regan's ended up being the best possible choice. It added some nice background notes, some depth and really balanced things out. I debated adding some falernum to the drink, but as I play around with the pineapple beer, I'll definitely do something with pineapple beer and falernum. With no further ado, here is the recipe for tonights cocktail, the Zola (named after Zola Budd, the South African long distance runner).

Zola Cocktail
2 oz Gosling's Black Seal Rum
3 dashes Regan's Orange Bitters
4 oz South African Pineapple Beer

Build in a double rocks glass over ice, garnish (if desired) with a pineapple wedge and an orange twist.