A Subtle Champion: The Prado Cocktail

I was recently in the mood to use some fresh farmers market eggs in a cocktail.  I looked at a couple books including the Playboy Bartenders Guide (don't laugh, it's actually pretty useful) that my mother-in-law of all people bought me.  I found an interesting cocktail that I'd heard of before but never tried:  the Prado Cocktail.  Much like the Hotel Haute Savoie Cocktail, it has a lot going on. containing five ingredients plus garnishes.  Typically my rule of thumb is that less than three and a cocktail isn't terribly complex but more than four and it's parts start to blur more than complement each other.  Nonetheless, I gave it a try and I'm glad that I did. 

Ingredients

1.5 ounce of blanco tequila (Milagro)
0/75 ounce of lime juice
1/2 an egg white (regular size)
0.5 oune of maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
1 tsp grenadine (shamefully... store bought)

Directions
Shake ingredients without ice to mix  the egg white and then with ice.  Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry and lime wheel.

Outcome

The cocktail looks pretty has an interesting appearance.  The grenadine, which I might reduce next time, gives it a pink look, while the half an egg white adds a bit of a frothy look and taste without the milkshake look a full egg white would give.  As for the taste, it's quite good.  Somewhat reminiscent of the  Last Word Cocktail due to the mix of maraschino (probably the dominant flavor in this drink) and the lime.  Unlike the last word, this is not a particularly intense or challenging drink, as blanco tequila is much more subdued  that Green Chartreause.

I found this drink quite enjoyable, with all of the other ingredients holding the maraschino licqueur in check.  It's a hair above my optimal sweet spot, so I might lower the grenadine a smidge.  Nonetheless, this was a tasty cocktail that I'll recommend for my more adventurous guests.

Adventures with Pimm's: South of Wimbledon Cocktail

This being a remarkably hot stretch in DC, I have found myself (and company) wanting cocktails on the light and refreshing side.  Thus, I have revisited Pimm's.  However, I was looking for something a bit punchier than a standard Pimm's Cup and perhaps a bit more complex.  I have found tequila to work well with herbal/savory drinks so with that in mind I designed the Cocktail, South of Wimbledon.

Ingredients
1 ounce of blanco tequila
1 ounce of Pimm's
.5 ounce of lemon juice
3 ounces of ginger ale

Directions

Shake tequila, Pimm's, and lemon juice and strain into a tall glass with ice.  Top with ginger ale and garnish with a cucumber spear and lemon peal.

Outcome

The South of Wimbledon Cocktail turned out very nice.  Two days after first making one, my wife requested one of her own, always a good sign.  I also gave it to a few guests at a small gathering we had and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  As for the flavor, this is a drink lacking a dominant flavor, though the lemon probably cuts through more than anything else.  The Pimm's adds sweetness but not so much as to overwhelm the other flavors.  I thought that the tequila and the cucumber made for a nice background for the drink.  I think that this is very much a warm weather beverage and a pretty light one at that.  Even though it wasn't too sweet, the sugar in the ginger ale and Pimm's combined with the relatively low alcohol content was such such that I don't think this is a particularly good vehicle towards a serious buzz but rather a way to cool off with something interesting.  It was a fair amount of work to put together with the pealing of a cucumber and the juicing of the lemon, but made in bulk, it was manageable.

The Latin Negroni: The Agavoni

One of the things that I've been seeing crop up more and more in both cocktail bars and in the cocktail nerd community is the mixing of geographically disparate spirits to make unconventional cocktails.  Although cocktails have always combined spirits from different places (think gin and vermouth or absinthe and rhy) for certain spirits, there seems to be a limited amount of geographic diversity.  I don't see too many Northern European spirits like genever gin mixed with rum for instance.  Sometimes there is a good reason for that because the flavors just don't work out but other times I think some creativity is rewarded.  That brings up a drink I made last night, the Agavoni, courtesy of Bastian Heuser editor of the German magazine, Mixology.

As the name somewhat implies, this drink combines agave, the primary ingredient of tequila, with the Negroni, an Italian cocktail that includes gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth.

The Agavoni

Ingredients
0.75 ounce of blanco tequila (Tres Generations)
0.75 ounce of Campari
0.75 ounces of sweet vermouth (Dolin)
2 dashes of orange bitters

Directions
Fill an old fashioned glass with ice cubes.  Add ingredients and stir gently.  Garnish with a grapefruit peal.

Outcome
I thought that, while sharing the Negroni's bitter interplay between the vermouth and the Campari, the Agavoni, felt a little more accessible, even with the orange bitters.  The tequila created a smooth, almost herbal background when combined with the bitters and grapefruit peal oils.  All and all, this makes a nice sister drink the Negroni.  It is not as clean as the Negroni, but the added complexity is coherent and purposeful.

A Taste of Mint: Drinking by Produce

There are a lot of reasons to drink specific cocktails.  I've I've discussed, sometimes cocktails should match an occasion.  Other reasons  include wanting to try a new spirit, drinking whatever is local when on the road, and needing to please others with specific tastes.  This time of year, I'm reminded that, as with my dinner table, whatever produce is fresh can dictate my drink menu.  For instance, June might be the best time to drink something with strawberries.  July is the time for a Pimm's Cup with fresh cucumber.

Well, via the bounty of a friend's CSA (local food share) we have some fresh mint.  That combined with a beautiful mild Friday night and my wife's suggestion had me looking for new cocktails with mint.  As a general matter, there are three, somewhat related, types of mint cocktails.  One is the bourbon-based mint julep.  Two is a tiki drink/daiquiri and three is tequila-based drinks.

Primo Trace Smash

Ingredients
2 ounces of bourbon (Buffalo Trace)
1 dash of maraschino liqueur 
3 lemon wedges
1 ounce of simple syrup
5 mint leaves and a spring for garnish
1 raspberry or strawberry

Directions
Muddle mint and lemon and pour with other ingredients into an old fashioned glass with ice and garnish with berry and mint.

Outcome
This was a pleasant but generally unmemorable drink.  It was really all about the bourbon with the maraschino and lemon adding a bit of nuance and balance around it.  Next time, I might tweak it a bit by using more lemon and less simple syrup.

Mexican Mojito

Ingredients
2 ounces of blanco tequila (Tres Generations)
1 ounce of agave nectre
1/2 a lime in wedges
1/2 a lemon in wedges
splash of club soda
10 mint leaves plus a sprig for garnish

Directions
Muddle lemon, lime, and mint, add tequila and agave, stir, and pour into a glass with ice.  Add club soda, stir gently, and garnish with a mint sprig.

Outcome

As the name implies, this taste a good deal like a Mojito.  However, the agave and tequila gives it a nice twist.  My wife drank this one and thought it was "awesome" and it "got her over her aversion to tequila."  I thought it had a little more going on than the normal Mojito, as I consider decent blanco tequila a more complex spirit than white rum.  Overall, although not the most adventurous cocktail, this is an excellent drink, particularly for those who like their drinks on the light side.

Mixology Monday: South of Tuitan

This month's Mixology Monday, hosted by The Barman Cometh, challenges participants to devise a cocktail using a floral ingredient.  This theme dovetails nicely with a cocktail I'd been playing around with, whose final iteration I've named South of Tuitan.  From the beginning, the intent was a subtle but flavorful drink based on blanco tequila and featuring Elderflower Liqueur or Creme de Violette as well as grapefruit juice and some sort of bitters.

For this cocktail, I sought to feature the flavor profile of the tequila while hosting an interplay between the grapefruit juice and the floral liqueur.  After playing around with the ratios, use of red or white grapefruit juice, use of Angostura or orange bitters, and stirring or shaking, the final version is as follows:

South of Tuitan

Ingredients:
1.75 ounces of blanco tequila (Tres Generations)
.5 ounce of elderflower liqueur (St. Germain)
2 dashes of orange bitters (Bitter Truth)
.75 ounce of red grapefruit juice

Directions:
Stir ingredients with ice, pour into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a twisted grapefruit peal.

Outcome:
I think that the drink works really well.  The orange bitters kept the aftertaste from coming off too sweet, while playing up the citrus of the grapefruit juice.  The swallow first features the tequila and gives way to both the grapefruit juice and the St. Germain and I believes maintains good balance.  I think that the drink works with Angostura bitters as well, though they are a more assertive portion of the flavor profile than orange bitters.

Revisiting a Shunned Spirit: Tequila

Like many people, I got turned off from tequila in college.  I didn't have any singular "tequila night" but more the combination of lame experiences and the ghastly taste of Jose.  It seemed the novelty of tequila was to take something really nasty, combine it with lime and salt, perhaps with the assistance of someone of the opposite sex, to hide the taste, and show your mettle by quaffing it.  The point was, if anything, overcoming the nasty taste of the tequila.   It seemed like one of those things best left at school.  Since then, except for the occasional margarita at a Mexican restaurant, I've avoided the stuff.  I've recently gotten around to buying a decent bottle of blanco and giving tequila a second look.  One of the first recipes I started with was the Lolita, which includes tequila, angostura bitters, lime juice, and honey.  Below is a spin on it called the Road to Juarez.

Road to Juarez

Ingredients
1.5 ounces of blanco tequila (Tres Generations)
.25 ounce of lime juice
3 dashes of orange bitters
1 teaspoon of agave nectar

Directions
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime wheel.

Taste (flavor, balance, and clarity):  8.5
Though I'm a neophyte regarding tequila, I really enjoyed this cocktail.  I never extpected to write that a drink with tequila was smooth and dangerously drinkable.  The flavors worked very well together with the orange bitters combining with the lime to enhance the citrus flavor.  The agave nectar took the edge of the tequila and lime to soften the drink wihtout standing out too much.  The tequila taste lingered after the swallow in a nice way as well. 

Versatility (when and for whom the drink works):  8
I think that this drink could be enjoyed by a lot of folks because its is fairly mild.  While quite strong, it doesn't taste to boozy.  I do think that this is more of a warm-weather drink though.

Hassle (cost and time): 8
The drink included decent tequila but all in all was not too expensive.  I had to juice a lime but otherwise it was quicker to make.

Overall:  8
I really enjoyed this drink.  It was flavorful but subtle and unexpectedly smooth.  Not a bad drink for a party at all.  No specific improvements for this drink come to mind.