Explorations in Guaro

In an effort to put something together for this month's Mixology Monday (using obscure base spirits), I've decided to try to do something with guaro, the very mild sugar based spirit from Costa Rica that I've previously blogged about.  Though cane-based, guaro is probably closer to a coarse vodka in taste.  Much like they like their cheese, evidently Costa Ricans like their booze a bit subdued.  Guaro is traditionally consumed with lime and sugar like a daiquiri, though I've had it with mango as well.  I've made a several attempts, none of which quite hit the mark for different reasons.

After a disastrous experiment involving guaro, lemon, and cynar that I won't go into any more, I though that I'd stay with a tropical theme but use a more northern, but still mild, sweet mixer, watermelon.  The resulting cocktail is called the White on White.

White on White

Ingredients
2 ounces of guaro
1 ounce of watermelon juice
0.5 ounce of lime

Directions
Stir ingredients with ice and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a twisted lime peal. 

Outcome
Meh.  The goal of the drink was to surround guaro with as mild of flavors as possable in order to allow the natural flavor of the guaro to show through.  The problem was that rather than create subtlety, it led to blandness.  Not a bad drink, as my wife an attest, but not a memorable one.  Sort of the Miller Light of cocktails - high on "drinkability" but not so much on flavor.  Watermelon is a very mild sweetening agent (not a whole lot sweeter than water), requiring me to use a good bit of it to get the desired effect and the lime is similarly fairly mild, which in many cases like my Painted Forest Cocktail is a good thing, but contributed to the washed out flavor here.

My next attempt tried to keep with the watermelon but feature another booze instead of the lime and be more of a stiff drink.

Halo Effect

Ingredients

1.5 ounces of guaro
0.75 ounce of watermelon juice
0.5 ounce of lemoncello (homemade)

Directions
Shake ingredients with ice and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a mint sprig.

Outcome
Better but still not great.  The lemoncello probably came through more than the other ingredients.  Though boozy, and not as watered down, this drink came across a bit sweeter and gave way to a pretty solid lemon taste.  I think my lesson here is that there is a reason that you don't see watermelon juice used in cocktails:  it's flavor per volume ratio just isn't high enough. I'm going to give guaro another shot but probably pair it with a couple of stronger spirits and let it add the booze but not flavor quotient.

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.