PS

Hello all.  It's been a while but I'm back with a new drink.  It's nice, fresh and bold.  I certainly enjoy it and I hope you do too.  It has a short name, 'PS' for peach and sage.  Recipe below.

 

•  2 oz bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)
• 1/2 oz of St. Germain
• 1/4 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 4-6 fresh sage leaves 
• 1/2 a small peach (sliced into cubes)

First, in a cocktail shaker, add the lemon juice, peach and sage and muddle them until the peach is thoroughly smashed.  Next add the rest of the ingredients along with some ice and shake.  Again, shake until your hands freeze or you're too tired to go on.  Next take a sieve and place it over a double old fashioned glass and pour.  You want to make sure all the little debris from the peach and sage are caught in the sieve and don't leak through into the beverage.  After all the liquid has been extracted out of the tumultuous mixture, pick a single small sized sage leaf and place it on top of the drink as garnish.  There you go, the PS.  Hope you all enjoy.

 

Tasting Notes

Dominant Flavors: Sweet and aromatic

Texture:Crisp

Flavor Intricacy: High

Contrast Flavor: Slight tartness from the Lemon Juice

Finish: Fresh, sweet and sage-y

Recommendation:  Another perfect marriage between rough and girly for those who are not ready for crown on the rocks and are tired of Midori sours.

I hope you all enjoy!  See you soon with that update on the apple bitters.

Picante y Fresco

Good evening.  I've returned from a short couple days of boozing and cruising through Los Angeles for inspiration.  I visited multiple spots in downtown LA and some on the West side.  Two ended up leaving an impression through their use of unconventional ingredients and ability to create complex flavor profiles in their drinks -Mas Malo in downtown LA and Ray's Stark Bar at the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).  Tonight, I decided to put a spin on one of the drinks from Mas Malo that I ordered not once but twice.  It was spicy and fresh, hence the name Picante y Fresco.  Recipe as follows:

• 2 oz of Tequila (I used Corralejo)
• 1 oz Agave nectar 
• 1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2-3 dashes of Tabasco
• 5 slices of cucumber 
• 1 egg white
• 1 dried chili pepper (whole)
• 2-3 pinches of paprika 

Take a cocktail shaker and combine the tequila, agave, Tabasco, lime juice and cucumber slices.  Take a muddler and start muddling the ingredients until the cucumber is broken up and there's a hint of their fragrance.  Next, add the egg white and dry shake the mixture for about 15-20 seconds to properly incorporate the egg.  Afterward, add ice and shake until your hands are completely frozen or you're just too tired (40-45 seconds).  When you're done shaking, pour the beverage into a chilled double old fashioned glass.  On top of the egg white foam, carefully place a dried chili pepper and sprinkle paprika for garnish.  He aqui!  It's pretty much a spicy margarita sour with a few twists and turns.  It's definitely delicious and my boyfriend has enjoyed this more than any other drink I've made so far.

Tasting Notes

Dominant Flavors: Spicy and the freshness from the cucumber

Texture: smooth

Flavor Intricacy: High

Contrast Flavor: Tartness from the lime juice

Finish: Fresh and Spicy, bold tartness and a lingering subtle sweetness

Recommendation:  For all margarita lovers, this one hits the spot!

I'll be back with some more creations soon!  Also, this coming Wednesday (July 25, 2012), hits the 2 week point for my apple bitters.  I'll most likely be doing my update on the finish sometime this week!

Get excited!

Smoked Dutchman

Happy Monday everyone.

Since Mondays are generally associated with such a dismal feeling, I decided to create something a little whimsical, refreshing and complex.  I kind of went overboard with this one.  Anyway, I went to Osteria Mozza last night for dinner and had their Dutchman -a cocktail consisting of Gin, ginger syrup, grapefruit juice and Angostura bitters.  While it was good, it was a little sweet for me.  When I got home from work today, I was inspired to put my own little spin on this wee beverage.

So the first thing I did was make myself a ginger syrup.  Pretty simple:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped and smacked-with-a-clever ginger disks

Boil all ingredients in a sauce pot, remove once boiled and allow syrup to cool.  After it's cooled down significantly, use a funnel and sieve to bottle.

While the syrup was cooling, I decided to use my smoker and smoke the grapefruit before juicing it.  I used apple ceder and smoked half a grapefruit for about 20 minutes at 275 degrees (please note the smoker took 15-20 minutes to preheat).  I wouldn't smoke the grapefruit for too long since you still have to juice it.  After about 20 minutes, it should omit a nice fragrance and be slightly browned on the top.  I kept the grapefruit in the smoker for about 15 extra minutes while I bottled the syrup and prepared my other ingredients for the drink so it would absorb the residual smoke. 

Now that I've completed my ginger syrup and smoked grapefruit juice, it's time to mix!  Recipe as follows:

• 2 oz dry London gin
• 1 oz smoked grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz ginger syrup
• 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
• A couple drops of liquid smoke (for added aroma and flavor)
• Thick piece of grapefruit zest for garnish

In a old fashioned glass, combine all the liquid ingredients.  Add 3-4 large ice cubes and stir for about 40 rotations.  The outside of the glass should begin to build a film of condensation.  You can add more liquid smoke to adjust the smokiness.  But please, do not add more than a teaspoon.  You'll bitter the entire drink, in a not-so-awesome way.  Once you've acquired the flavor desired, add the grapefruit zest and voila!  A Smoked Dutchman everyone.  Cheers.

Tasting Notes

Dominant Flavors: Smoke and dryness from the Gin

Texture: smooth

Flavor Intricacy: High

Contrast Flavor: Citrus from the Grapefruit

Finish: Smokey, sweet and a little bitter

Recommendation:  This drink is slightly heavy.  I would recommend this for people who like the flavors of Laphroaig and Mezcal.

More to come everyone!  Thanks for reading. 

Sequiem Farm Faire

Hello.

I've done it.  I've created a new drink utilizing the honey lavender syrup I made a couple nights ago.  I played around with a couple different combinations, but I think I'm happy with this one.  I'm calling it the Sequiem Farm Faire after one of the most famous lavender fields in the Pacific Northwest.

Here's the recipe:

• 2 ounces of rye bourbon
• 3/4 ounce of honey lavender syrup
• 1 ounce of freshly squeezed citrus juice (both lemon and orange work great -use orange for a sweeter finish and lemon for a tart finish, naturally)
• 1/2 ounce of St. Germain
• Sprinkle of dried lavender for aroma and garnish

In an old fashioned glass, combine the bourbon, honey lavender syrup, juice and St. Germain.  Add a large cube of ice to minimize dilution while stirring (I used a 2 inch by 2 inch cube of ice made with Tovolo's king cube mold).  Using a mixing spoon, stir the drink around 35-40 rotations.  Make sure condensation begins to appear on the outside of the glass from the cold before serving the drink.  After the drink has been properly stirred, add a pinch of dried lavender on the top of your ice cube for added aroma and an easy garnish.  A trick I learned to keep the lavender in place is to make your ice with a small spoon resting on top of the mold.  The spoon will create a nice divot for you to conveniently place any type of garnish without the danger of it spreading across your beverage.  When you're done garnishing and you're satisfied after a quick taste test, you're good to go.  Enjoy!

Please note that the cube of ice in this photo was not made with the divot

Tasting Notes

Dominant Flavors: Sweet, dry and floral

Texture: smooth

Flavor Intricacy: High

Contrast Flavor: Lavender 

Finish: Sweet with a little bit of bitterness

Recommendation:  A good bridge between girly and burly -not too sweet and not too rough.  Good for the those who are trying to venture away from Sex on the Beach and Mojitos 

Hope ya'll enjoy this one.  Stay tuned for more.  Thank you.

Honey Lavender Syrup

Hi there.  Tonight I decided to do some prep work by making a honey lavender syrup using a recipe of my own.  I'm going to create a new drink sometime this weekend that will utilize this scrumptious creation.  Pretty excited.  Anyway, here's the recipe:

• 1 cup of water 
• 1/2 cup of Honey
• 3 tablespoons of dried lavender 
• 1/2 a vanilla bean (scored and scraped clean)

In a sauce pot, combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Note, do not put vanilla bean seeds inside the mixture.  I know it's kind of a waste, but I wiped the knife clean and threw the napkin out.  If you happen to be cooking something or baking something that can utilize the seeds, by all means do.  Vanilla beans do not come cheap.  After the mixture has reached its boiling point reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, remove the pot from the heat and allow the syrup to cool.  Once cooled thoroughly, use a sieve and a funnel to bottle.

There you go!  A bottle of sweet aromatic honey lavender syrup.  The syrup is to be stored in the refrigerator and will have a shelf life of 7 days.

Enjoy!  Stay tuned as I'll be creating a cocktail sometime this weekend with this syrup.  Hmm...

Beatrix Potter

As promised to myself, I would try and concoct an original tonight; and I did.  I've decided to call this thing "Beatrix Potter."  My boyfriend had the first sip and immediately said, we should name it after Beatrix Potter.  So I did name it after the upper class mycologist turned artistic children's book author.  "Why," you ask?  "Why not," I ask you. 

The drink, essentially, is a different approach to one that I've had many times at clubs and dive bars -the Chambord Sour which is made by bartenders blindly pouring Chambord and Midori Sour together in a glass of ice.  I've taken the traditional sour route by adding an egg white as an aerating agent.

The "pop" accent flavor I decided to add is a rosemary infused vodka I made earlier in the day.  I took four rosemary springs, smacked them with a cleaver to release their natural essence and combined them with two cups of vodka in a small sauce pot.  I brought the mixture to a boil and removed the pot from the heat immediately and allowed it to cool before re-bottling with the rest of the vodka.  The rosemary flavor definitely stuck and I was extremely happy with the result.

The recipe is as follows:

• 2 ounces of Chambord
• 1 ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 ounce rosemary infused vodka
• 4 dashes of Peychaud's bitters
• Rosemary for garnish

Combine the Chambord, lime juice, egg white and vodka in a cocktail shaker.  Dry shake for 10-15 seconds.  Add ice cubes (ideally 1 inch by 1 inch cubes) to the shaker and continuously shake until your hands freeze or you're just too tired to go on.  That's when you know your beverage is cold enough to serve.  Using a julep strainer, pour the mixture into a chilled classic coupe glass.  Gently dash four drops of bitters on the top (the design is up to your personal interpretation).  Pick a small sprig of rosemary and place it in the center.  Voila!

Tasting Notes

Dominant Flavors: sweetness of the Chambord and tart from the lime juice

Texture: Creamy, Rich texture

Flavor Intricacy: Medium

Contrast Flavor: Rosemary

Finish: Sweet

Recommendation: The drink is on the sweeter side with  no dryness at all. 

                     I can see many girls ordering and liking this drink.

Ladies and gentlemen, Beatrix Potter.  

Cheers and enjoy.

Apple Bitters

I'm not going to pretend like I know how to mix and create bitters recipes just yet.  I'll gladly admit that I am not ready to venture down that avenue.  Therefore, I decided to make homemade bitters using Brad Thomas Parson's recipe for Apple Bitters.  The recipe calls for:

• Peels from 6 medium to large apples
• Zest of 1/2 a lemon, cut into strips with a paring knife
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice berries (whole)
• 1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cassia chips 
• 1/2 teaspoon cinchona bark
• 4 cloves
• 2 cups high-proof bourbon, or more
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons rich syrup

Some of the herbs and spices required to create Brad's bitters are downright out of the ordinary.  Not to worry, I ordered all my spices from an online botanical store called the Dandelion Botanical Company.  They'll carry everything you need.  The order took a total of about 10 days to process, ship and deliver.

When all the ingredients have been gathered, place them all in a quart sized sealable jar (sans the syrup and the water.  They will be invited to play in a fortnight) and pour the high-proof bourbon into the jar until the solids are submerged.  The recipe calls for 2 cups, but I used about 4/5 of the entire bottle (tip: do not use a high-grade expensive bottle of bourbon.  I used Wild Turkey 101 proof -750ml for $20).

Presto!  Now store the jar out of the sun at room temperature for 2 weeks.  Please note you'll be required to shake the jar once a day for the two week "sitting" period.

That's it for now.  I'll be back with Apple Bitters part II after two weeks.  In the interim, I'm tempted to create my first cocktail tonight.  I'll see how it goes.

Stay tuned!

  

Introduction

Hello.  I want to utilize this first post as a brief introduction to who I am and the purpose of this blog.  In recent years I have become extremely infatuated with taverns that serve cocktails reminiscent of the "Golden Era."  I continue to make a strong effort in seeking out hidden speakeasy-esque establishments around the greater Los Angeles area to experience the outstanding concoctions made by the finest mixologists.  There have been a couple standouts that I frequent, probably too often, and its slowing creeping into my saving-that-money-for-the-future fund.  So I have decided to take this "mixology" into my own hands by turning it into a hobby.  Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend who purchased a book for me that explores the art and allure of the classic cocktail, I am now starting to fuse my own liquors, create my own cordials and develop my own personal flavor profiles.  Entertaining this hobby may seem expensive, but it really isn't.  In short, the purpose of this blog is to chronicle my creations and track my journey into this new found hobby of mine.  I hope you, whoever you are, will enjoy the ride with me and feel inspired to try some of your own creations in the near future.