Complex or Muddled: The Hotel Haute-Savoie Cocktail

One of the things that I like about cocktails is dissecting how the different ingredients come together and interact.  To do this you have to be able to discern the various flavors.  This is not, however, always possible.  Take for instance the Long Island Iced Tea.  Though recipes differ, the Long Island usually has 8 ingredients.  I at least cannot differentiate each of the ingredients.  A couple stand out but for the most part it does not taste like eight ingredients, it taste like a Long Island Iced Tea.

This raises the question of the value a drink where the combination is so muddled to the point where some or all of the ingredients no longer stand out.  As mentioned above, I like to see their interactions.  On the other hand, if something taste good (and I'm not saying the Long Island does) its flavor should be able to stand on its own - regardless of its components.  This is the case with a drink that I recently made, the Hotel Haute-Svoie.

Ingredients
2 ounces of rhy
1 ounce of elderflower liqueur
1/2 ounce of dry vermouth
1 teaspoon of absinthe
1 dash of angostura bitters
1 dash of orange bitters

Directions
Stir ingredients and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

Outcome
As mentioned above, the ingredients really meshed.  I could taste the rhy initially and very faintly in the swallow.  The absinthe primarily showed in the swallow and the aftertaste.  I couldn't pull out the vermouth or bitters at all.  Most surprisingly, I could hardly, if at all, taste the St. Germain.  I was worried that it would overwhelm the drink, both in flavor and sweetness, but this simply was not the case.  The drink came off pretty balanced and very fragrant with the absinthe and the elderflower giving it a very distinct nose.  The bitters, vermouth, and rhy all balanced it out.  The overall flavor is hard to describe without deconstructing, but it worked, and in the end I think that's what matters.  This is a cocktail that I'll no doubt make again.

It's All About the Proportions: The Chrysanthemum Cocktail

Some cocktails are like burgers.  A burger is good if it's a little raw or a little overcooked.  It's a forgiving food.  I might put a daiquiri in this boat with respect to sensitivity, though for booze and not heat.  A little too much rum or lime won't kill the drink.  Conversely, other cocktails are like certain seafood, such as scallops, where too little cooking makes it raw and both unpalatable and unsafe.  Too much time on the skillet and it becomes a rubbery mess.  Certain cocktails share this precariousness, chief among them, cocktails with very potent spirits.  The precise amount of absinthe, Chartreuse, or elderflower liqueur will make or break many drinks.  This was the case with the Chrysanthemum Cocktail. This cocktail is a particularly good example because of the wide range of Benedictine, a very potent and sweet liqueur, in it that I saw in various recipes for the drink.

Ingredients
2 ounces of dry vermouth (Dollin)
1 ounce of Benedictine
1 teaspoon of absinthe (Leopold Bros.)

Directions
Shake ingredients with ice and garnish with an orange peel.

Outcome
I almost really liked this drink.  I thought the flavor interplay between the absinthe was interesting and the orange peel cut though it nicely.  However, there was simply too much Benedictine for my taste or for that of my wife who though the cocktail was syrupy to the point of borderline disgusting.  Benedictine, in addition to being sweet, is quite syrupy.  The recipes that I saw ranged from 0.25 to 1.25 ounces of the stuff, with most at the one once mark.  I look forward to trying this again with a bit less, perhaps 0.25.  I'll make note here of my results.

Explorations of a Stubborn Spirit: Beyond the Pimm's Cup

Certain spirits are inherently tied to a specific cocktail and lack a whole lot of ink on what else to do with them.  For instance, you aren't going to find a lot of recipes for pisco beyond the Pisco Sour.  Pimm's is kind of like that.  I like the spirit.  It has both sweet and savory elements and is more of a subtle than a powerful spirit.  I wanted to make something with it that was a bit boozier than the Pimm's Cup but maintained the sweet/herbal balance.  I've tried doing so before with very mixed results, including a cocktail that thanks to some celery bitters, ended up tasting like a Bloody Mary.

Pimm's Sipper

Ingredients
2 ounces of old Tom gin (Ransom)
0.5 ounce of Pimm's
0.5 ounce of dry vermouth (Nolly Prat)
0.75 ounce of lemon juice

Directions
Shake ingredients with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a lemon peal.

Taste (flavor, balance, and clarity):  6.5
This drink hammers the savory notes with the Old Tom Gin being the dominant flavor but the vermouth adding some bitterness.  It does not feel as balanced as I might like but picks a direction and goes with it in a fairly coherent manner.  It's pretty strong as a general matter but the flavors seem to complement each other.  I actually enjoyed it a bit more as I drank it after a first swallow that was kind of startling.

Versatility (when and for whom the drink works):  6

I would classify this drink as "challenging" much as I would a Negroni so I'm not sure how many people would enjoy it.  On the plus side, I think it works in a lot of settings and is not strictly a patio drink like the Pimm's Cup.

Hassle (cost and time):  8

This drink is not a lot of trouble to make beyond squeezing some lemon juice.  The old tom gin, which I think is essential given its much more herbal flavor than London dry gin, is pretty pricey but the other ingredients are cheap.

Overall:  6.5

I'm not sure what to make of this drink.  It was pretty challenging but I like the intense and multifaceted herbal flavors.  I think the lemon was also important (I tried making it as a martini without the lemon but it tasted muddled).

Potential Improvements

I might try using sweet as opposed to dry vermouth which could make it more accessible.  Using lemon bitters might work as well.

Explorations in Sloe Gin: Sipping the English Countryside

Since purchasing a bottle of sloe gin a while back, most of the resulting cocktails have have been relatively light and citrus based, like a Cloudy Sky (sloe gin, lime, and ginger ale) or a sloe gin fizz (sloe gin, soda water, simple syrup, and lemon juice).  These are very tasty drinks but not particularly complex and pretty thin on the alcohol front.  I wanted to try or create drinks that were a bit more challenging or at least stronger.

The first of a couple of half-sized drinks that I made was simply called the Sloe Gin Martini, found though the wonders of the internets.  I wouldn't call it a martini, as there is no gin (no, sloe gin is not gin) but it seemed interesting regardless.  I stirred rather than shook it but otherwise followed the recipe.

Sloe Gin Martini

Ingredients
3 ounces of sloe gin (Plymouth)
1 ounce of dry vermouth (Nolly Pratt)
4 dashes of Angostura bitters

Directions
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist.


Outcome
Pretty good.  The first thing that hit me was the sweetness of the sloe gin, which had me thinking "uh oh."  But before the sweetness could get too intense, in the mid swallow the bitters and vermouth came to the fore.  The drink turns out to be well balanced, if a bit light.  This drink got good reviews from my wife, who drank the bulk of it, and I think would work for a pretty diverse crowd.  Given the amount of sugar, I'm not sure if you would want more than one, but it was a relaxing spring beverage, though not as sweet as most cocktails with sloe gin.  Another plus was that it was really quick to make, involving relatively few ingredients and no syrups, juicing, muddling, or any such nonsense.

The second sloe gin cocktail, which I came up with, was a bit stronger and more complex.

English Accent

Ingredients
2 ounces of sloe gin
1 ounce of old tom gin (Ransom)
1 ounce of lemoncello (homemade and relatively strong)

Directions
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime wedge.

Outcome
This drink really shined.  Despite its relatively low amount, the old tom gin was the initial and probably strongest flavor in the drink.  Its slight sweetness and herbal quality complemented the liqueurs.  I like to think of sloe gin and lemoncello as cousins because both were traditionally made with fruit by farmer types in the countryside.  Homemade hooch is the best.  Anyway, they worked well together.  The swallow ended with a twisting of the two liqueurs followed by a bit of a warm taste from the gin.  All in all, most pleasant.

It's a bit more challenging than most sloe gin concoctions, being cut with nothing but liqueurs but still relatively accessable.  Also note that the lemoncello that I used was relatively strong and not too sweet.  Otherwise you might need to use some bitters or at least amp up the amount of old tom gin.  The English Accent was also very easy to make.

Next time I might try garnishing it withe a rosemary or mint sprig to play up the herbal flavor instead of the lemon wedge, which slightly cuts down the sweetness and amplifies the lemoncello.  I also think that I could dial back the sloe gin to 1.5 ounces and perhaps up the old tom gin to .75 ounces.

Consuming the Shame Part 1: Ginja

As mentioned in my last post, I have a small bottle of a Portuguese liqueur called Ginja, perhaps the most unusual thing in my liquor cabinet.  It's 38 proof and taste very sweet, like the syrup in a bottle of maraschino cherries.  It isn't as strong a flavor as my Luxardo Maraschino liqueur and does not feature as complex a flavor profile.  Traditionally, it is either sipped as a dessert or taken in shots.  Further adding to my challenge, I think I bought a crappy brand.  I saw this particular brand in a lot of stores and picked it up pretty cheap, but looking at Google Images, there are some bottles that look nicer, though I really can't gauge quality on this type of drink at all.

Before getting to the drinks, a couple thoughts about trying to salvage "challenging" spirits. 

1. Don't be afraid to fail, because you probably will.
2. Feel free to throw away bad drinks.  If something taste bad, don't feel guilted into finishing it.  It will make such experimentation most unpleasant.
3. Don't use the highest end spirits to mix your first tries.  You will waste good booze.
4. Make half drinks.  Since you will probably make mistakes, make them smaller.
5. Start simple and work towards complex.  Before you understand the basics of how a spirit works with others, avoid more complex concoctions.
6. Find analogues and work from there.  For instance, if yours is a sweeter, tarter, stronger, or weaker version of a more common spirit, consider trying a variation on a drink using that spirit but adjust the ratios of all ingredients based on the special characteristics of your new spirit.

Onto the trials and errors.
My first attempt was a variation on the Boulevardier, which uses bourbon, Campari, and sweet vermouth.  The idea was to balance the sweetness of Ginja with the bitterness of Campari.  This drink, as I will discuss, deserves no name.

Ingredients:
1.5 ounces of bouron (Jim Beam)
.5 ounces of Campari
.5 ounces of Ginja

Directions:  Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass and garnish with a lemon peal.

Outcome:  Utter failure.  Perhaps the ratios could have been a bit different (the Boulevardier uses more vermouth and Campari.  Really though, I don't think this had much of a shot.  The Campari overwhelmed the Ginja, which mixed with the bourbon to give a sickly, sort of medicine-like aftertaste.  I did not finish the drink.

My next attempt, which I will call The Slipper, was a variant on a martini.  This was not very ambitious but avoided the bad interplay between the bourbon and the Ginja.

Ingredients:
2 ounces of gin
.5 ounce of dry vermouth
.5 ounce of Ginja

Directions:  Stir with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

Outcome:  Surprisingly not bad.  Not particularly good, but certainly drinkable.  If anything, I probably could have added a bit more ginja, as it kind of get's lost behind the vermouth and the gin (I used Beefeater).  As pungent as Ginja is, the drink's nose was dominated by the gin.  The balance was relatively good and the contrasts in flavors worked reasoanbly well.  At a technical level there was nothing wrong with the drink, I just didn't particularly like it.  I think this is a personal thing that I have with cherries.  I like cherries - I just don't really like them in stuff. Cherry pie?  No thanks. Jam?  I'll pass. Garnish for a Manhattan? I'll go with the orange peal.

My last attempt took for inspiration a drink I found on Webtender I think.  I'm calling it Abe's Revenge. 

Ingredients:
2 ounces of orange juice
1 ounce of blended Scotch
.5 ounce of sweet (French) vermouth
.5 ounce of Ginja

Directions:  Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass.  Further recommendation, unlike what I did, strain the OJ through a sugar sifter to get rid of the pulp. It will make your drink look nicer and taste smoother.

Outcome:  Legitimately decent.  This drink was something that I might have again at some point.  The interesting thing is that the tastes seem to progress - from OJ, to scotch, to Ginja and vermouth.  The cherry gives the drink a pleasant smell and the flavors balance relatively well.  I'm still not in love with the cherry flavor of Ginja, but it works pretty well here.

The Old Pal Cocktail

Ingredients

1 ounce of rhy
3/4 ounce of dry vermouth
3/4 ounce Campari
lemon twist

Directions:  Stir and pour into a cocktail glass and garnish with lemon

Taste (flavor, balance, and clarity): 7
I'm of mixed minds about this drink.  If you want a strong but tart drink, this is an excellent choice.  The taste is layered with the rhy and Campari coming through and the vermouth laying in the background.  On the other hand, it is not balanced.  That might not always be a bad thing though.  While I typically don't prefer drinks with multiple sweet or bitter taste (the vermouth and Campari are both pretty bitter, as is the lemon), the drink has a very coherent flavor profile, which I appreciate.  While I'm usually not a fan of putting ice in drinks, I think it really helped the Old Pal.  Because the drink is so strong, it lends itself to sipping. Further, I think the ice took away the "sharpness" of the vermouth so that as the 20 or so minutes that I drank the the Old Pal wore on, the flavors blended better and the rhy came through a bit more, which was a good thing.

Versatility (when and for who the drinks works): 3
 This is a strong drink that one must sit down and savor to enjoy. I don't think of the Old Pal as something I would quaff on my patio while working the grill.  This is more a drink that I sip while chatting with friends or reading.  This is not a drink for the casual imbiber, such as my wife.  Most of my friends shy away from particularly bitter drinks and they don't get too much more bitter than this.

Hassle (cost and time):  9
This drink is really easy to make.  Just dump the ingredients in the shaker, stir poor, and garnish.  Further, the ingredients, especially with my middling rhy and Martin and Rossie vermouth were quite cheap. 

Overall:  6
I initially didn't much care for this drink, finding the Campari and dry vermouth redundant, as the drink settled and the ice melted a bit, it really came together though.  More than bitter, I would call this drink spicy, with relatively hash notes from the Campari and rhy and accented by the lemon. That said, I think the Old Pal is for a very specific setting and won't work well for most people, hence the low rating - but for the right person and the right time, it can be a low-effort gem.

 Potential Improvements
 I like the interplay with the rhy and the Campari, though I might use a tad less of the former, as it's by for the strongest flavor in the drink.  My concern is more with the dry vermouth, which feels a little redundant with the Campari and perhaps pushes the Old Pal to be a little bit more bitter than is ideal.  I might try replacing it with 1/2 ounce of Contreau.  Alternatively, 1/2 ounce of lemoncello would maintain the citrus flavor of the lemon and Campari but sweeten the drink little.

Update:  The Orange Pal
I made this cocktail again but substituted 1/2 ounce of Contreau for the vermouth.  Although perhaps a little less coherent, I thought the drink had better balance.  A friend of mine tried it and though it was an elegant cocktail that was much less challenging than the traditional Old Pal.  Though Contreau is a bit pricier than vermouth, I'll bump this cocktail up to a 7.5 because I think it is more balanced and a lot more people would enjoy it than the rather bitter Old Pal.