Breakfast at the Italian Farmhouse

1) Combine 4oz espresso with 1 tsp demerara raw sugar
2) Dry shake 1 egg and 1 oz Cynar
3) Combine shaken ingredients with espresso in shaker
4) Add to shaker:
    * ice
    * 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
    * 2 dashes Angostura bitters
    * 5-8 drops vanilla
5) Shake vigorously. Double-strain into glassware of choice (I used a martini glass).

Still searching for a name. Currently thinking "Breakfast at the Italian Farmhouse"

Pear Ginger Concoction

Decided to try to make a pear ginger concoction and it came out really well.

* 1.5 Rye

* 1 freshly squeezed pear juice

* 3/8 Agave nectar

* 1/8 fresh ginger juice. 

If you're a total ginger freak, can up this to 1/4 oz ginger. 

Bitter Mai Tai

* 1 Smith and Cross Rum

* 1 Campari

* 1 Lime juice

* ¾ Orgeat

* ½ Cointreau

Shake with ice, serve in rocks glass over crushed ice. Garnish with orange slice. 

Old Pal

Equal Parts:

• Rye Whiskey
• Campari
• Cocchi Americano

This becomes a Boulevardier if you swap Bourbon for Rye.

The Guadalajara

I'm a dangerous guy: I have a bottle of Fernet Branca and have no idea what to do with it. Fernet is bitter and aromatic, to the point that the wikipedia article goes out of its way to mention that "[its] strong taste can overwhelm other ingredients."

I decided I would use tequila as the base for this cocktail, and did a quick google search, which led me to the Guadalajara recipe on Cocktail Quest:

• 2 Tequila
• .5 Fernet Branca
• .5 Agave Nectar
• 2 dashes Xocatle Mole Bitters

The recipe also recommends squeezing the oils from a grapefruit peel, but I didn't have one handy.

It's yummy and a good use of Fernet Branca, should you find yourself with some to spare.

Mescal Rosita

Another fabulous cocktail from the geniuses at Drink. Joe made this one for me, as part of a series of drinks that include Campari. 


The formula:

• 1.5 Mescal (Vida)
• .5 Cocchi Americano
• .5 Bonal
• .5 Campari
• dash of Orange bitters

It's delicious! When making it at home, I used Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, which is not the same, but it is in the right ballpark. If you like smoky, slightly bitter, complicated things, this is for you.

Three G

Need more bars? Try a 3G cocktail! I found this recipe over at Bar None Drinks, but added a dash of grapefruit bitters to perk it up a bit.

• 1.5 Gin
• 1 St. Germain
• .5 Domaine de Canton Ginger liqueur
• 1 dash Grapefruit bitters

I didn't have Ricard, so I rinsed the glass with Chartreuse instead. It came out quite well.

Franciscan Cherry Picker

This is a new cocktail, as far as I know. A collaboration between @reiddraper, @also, and @jsundram, it is loosely inspired by an espresso martini.

The name could use some work, so suggestions are welcome. . .

Formula:

• 1.5 Old Monk Rum
• .75 Stoli Vodka
• .75 Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• .25 Kahlua

Franciscan Cherry Picker

Aviation

We've gotten our hands on some Crème de Violette, so now we can make Aviations the way God (er, Hugo Ensslin) intended.

• 2 Gin (Beefeater)
• .5 Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
• .5 Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
• .25 Crème de Violette 

The result is tasty and colorful!

Aviation

Bitter Elder

Campari and St. Germain, we wondered. Can it be done? Has it been done? Before rushing to concoct a brand-new and potentially problematic cocktail, I consulted the vast wisdom of the internet. And found a lovely recipe, The Bitter Elder in a comment by "Ameture Hour" on a post called Campari: Take 4 at Oh Gosh!.

• 1.5 ounces gin
• .75 St. Germain
• .5 Campari
• .5 fresh lemon juice

I amended this to 1 unit St. Germaine for friendliness, and .75 Campari, because there's no sense being too friendly. The result was astonishingly pleasant, and quite pretty as well. 

Bitter Elder with Orange garnish, on yellow background

The Last Word

Extreme close-up on the garnish

Astute readers of this blog will recall that this drink was first mentioned as part of the Featured Ingredient: Chartreuse post. It's such a popular choice that I felt it deserved its own post. This is a prohibition-era cocktail; I found the recipe on Cocktail Chronicles. Equal parts all ingredients makes this an easy recipe to remember!

• 1 gin
• 1 maraschino liqueur
• 1 chartreuse
• 1 lime juice
• garnish: ultra-thin lime slice

The Last Word

Saffron Sweetie

God knows why, but we at IYMI HQ decided that we needed to make saffron vodka. So we looked for tutorials and then instantiated them.

Our version had a sixteenth of teaspoonful per cup of vodka, and we used Smirnoff Blue--a 100 proof vodka, which was recommended by Mike Sherwood of Sub Rosa Spirits for saffron infusing. We let it infuse for 24 hours, at which point the vodka had acquired a lemony color and the saffron threads had turned from red to a pale saffron (appropriate, no?).

Saffron-infused Vodka

The first thing to do with any sort of new vodka is attempt a basic martini; so we rinsed an ice-water-chilled martini glass in vermouth and left a tiny bit in the bottom before adding the saffron vodka. We had them with a dill shrimp scampi, and the overall impression was that the saffron paired beautifully with the shrimp scampi but was perhaps a bit strong for a non-food-paired martini.

Saffron Martini (lemon garnish)

Among the cocktail recipes we found, the Saffron Cosmopolitan stood out:

• 2 saffron vodka
• 1 Cointreau
• 1/2 simple syrup
• 1/2 lime juice
• Mango juice according to taste (generally 2 dashes to 2 units--we used 1/2 unit strained mango pulp)

Saffron Cosmo (top view)

The saffron gets a bit stomped on--it's less a cosmo than a mango party--but it's quite an enjoyable cocktail for summer or seafood pairing.

Saffron Cosmopolitan

Picasso Martini

Today we hauled out a pile of cocktail reference books and looked for interesting things. This is a tricky business: you have to find something appealing, interesting, and for which you have all the ingredients. The first one fitting these criteria we found, from Good Spirits by A.J. Rathbun: the Picasso Martini.

The good Mr. Rathbun credits Alston Chase with discovering The Martini Diaries, and this recipe therein.

• 3 gin (we used Hendricks)
• 0.5 Calvados
• 0.5 coffee
• 0.5 simple syrup
• Garnish: two roasted coffee beans

Good and subtle--we liked the combination of gin and coffee, although the two were sequential rather than happening in parallel. We would back off on the simple syrup, but none of us are particular fans of sweet cocktails (unless advertised as such after dinner).

G and Tea

Ginger beer has always been a favorite drink at IYMI headquarters--two of our number are ginger FREAKS, and the other two like ginger quite a bit. Tonight we're going try pairing ginger with green tea, in both cocktail and mocktail form. Our base liquor will be gin. So we really have two G's (Gin, Ginger) and Tea. Or even 3 G's (Gin, Ginger, and Green (tea)). But Gs and Tea  doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

There are quite a few recipes out there that use ginger and green tea in marinades and other parts of cooking, and it seems like a natural fit for a cocktail, since the sweetness can be ratcheted up for drinkers less fond of the pure ginger hit.

We found this recipe on Savvy Housekeeping, and used it as a point of departure.

• 1.5 Gin (Beefeater)
• 1 Ginger liqueur (Domaine de Canton)
• 3/4 oz Green tea (Freshly brewed, then chilled)
• Garnish: thin lemon slice

The sweetness of the ginger liqueur was too strong, so we reformulated:

• 2 Gin 
• .5 Ginger liqueur
• 1 Green Tea (Freshly brewed, then chilled)
• Garnish: thin lemon slice

This was more balanced, but the green tea flavor was still quite subtle. We brewed up a batch of strong green tea brew (4 teabags, one cup) and came up with the final iteration, with the following proportions:

• 2 Gin
• 1 Ginger liquer
• 2 Green tea (freshly brewed at 4x strength, chilled)
• Garnish: thin lemon slice.

G and Tea, second iteration

In this incarnation, the green tea came through quite strongly, and the ginger rounded it out nicely. 

The virgin version came out just right the first time:

• 0.25 Ginger juice
• 0.25 Simple syrup
• 3 Green tea (freshly brewed at normal strength, then chilled)
• Garnish: thin lemon slice

G and Tea, virgin-style

The Pregnant Lady and the Lushes

Since one of our number (me, the Queen of Sheba) is pregnant, many of the following entries now will be dual-purpose: with one drink for lushes--whom I would ordinarily join oh so happily--and one for me. As a side note, it has never occurred to me how ironic it is that pregnant ladies only order virgin drinks.

Anyway.

Tonight's drink, courtesy of Jason, is the Ginger Lime Grenade.

• 1 vodka
• 1 fresh ginger juice
• 1 fresh lime juice
• .5 grenadine (homemade)
• .5 simple syrup

Build in a highball glass, finish with soda water.

And for the pregnant lady, again courtesy of Jason, the Ginger Lime Rickey, aka Unexploded Ordnance. It's exactly the same, except ... no vodka.

Ginger Lime Grenade and Ingredients

Three reasons to go to Drink

Drink is without a doubt my favorite bar in Boston. The cocktails are fantastic, the bartenders are deeply knowlegeable and serious about their craft, and the bar has an artistic, industrial elegance befitting a place in the Fort Point neighborhood. It is a short walk from South Station, and an evening there often results in a cab ride home, since last call happens after the T stops running.

The greatest thing about Drink is that the bartenders are happy to share their carefully crafted recipes with their customers. All they want is for the general public to enjoy more great cocktails -- whether at Drink, or at home. And the cocktails are so unique and memorable that there's a huge thread on Chowhound where satisfied patrons record what they drank at Drink.

Here are 3 formulas I've particularly enjoyed at Drink, courtesy of John Gertsen and Scott Marshall. John even took the time to dictate a recipe over the phone when we called one night, desperate for a coffee flip and unable to get it right on our own.

Irma La Douce

• 1.5 Hendrick's gin
• .5 Green Chartreuse
• .5 cucumber puree
• .5 lemon juice
• .5 grapefruit juice
• .25 simple syrup
• Garnish: thin cucumber slice

Maxmillian Affair

• 1 Milagro
• 1 St. Germain
• .5 Punt e Mes
• .5 lemon juice
• Garnish: None (!)

Coffee Flip

• Muddle 10 espresso beans
• 2 Old Monk rum
• .5 St. Germain
• .25 simple syrup
• 1 large egg, don't use the whole white (it adds too much volume)
• Shake 15 seconds without ice, then 1 minute with ice
• Garnish: 3 espresso beans

Happy New Year from all of us at If You Mix It!

Mai Tai

The Pegu Blog has a nice post about the hotly contested origin of the Mai Tai. At the time, I was more interested in consuming one than learning about the drink's rich and fabled history, so I went for the easy-to-assemble Trader Vic's Modern recipe:

• 1 oz gold rum (Bacardi)
• 1 oz dark rum (Meyer's)
• 1 oz triple sec
• 1/2 oz lime juice (freshly sqeezed, of course)
• 1/2 oz Orgeat syrup 
• pineapple garnish

This is simpler than the Trader Vic's original 1944 recipe, and was quite refreshing and delicious. Lest you think there is only one way to make a Mai Tai, check out a list of 10(!) here.

Perfect Margarita (rocks)

It might be a little late in the season for margaritas, but I'm in Albuquerque, and tequila seems like the official beverage of the southwest. The proportions of this Margarita are from Dale Degroff, of course, but I've added a little agave nectar to smooth things out. This was my first use of Patron Citronge (read more about how it compares to Cointreau and other alternatives here), and I have to say that I'm a fan. 

• 1.5 Tequila (Milagro Blanco)
• 1.25 Patron Citronge (cheaper than Cointreau and very tasty)
• .75 Lime juice, freshly squeezed, no pulp.
• .375 agave nectar

Shake with ice and strain into chilled glasses with ice.

margarita atop formula

Ginger Lemonade Martini

Based on Dale DeGroff's Ginger Lemonade Highball, but in a martini form factor, and much gingerier.

A great follow up to Erin's Vegan Ginger Cookies.

• 1.5 vodka
• 1 fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 simple syrup
• 1 ginger juice (not ginger syrup -- juice from pressed ginger)
• dash of grenadine
• dash of Q tonic (no club soda handy)
• lemon twist to garnish

The verdict: Extreme ginger, but good. 

The Sling

As noted in Dale DeGroff's superlative The Essential Cocktail, the class of alcoholic beverages known as slings have been around longer than the venerable cocktail itself: a sling is simply strong liquor plus water plus sweetener, so a cocktail was a bitters sling until at least 1806. According to Jerry Thomas in 1862 (by way of the helpful Musings on Cocktails), a sling was a teaspoon of powdered sugar, half a glass of water, half a glass of spirits (probably whiskey or a Holland gin), and a lump of ice. The sling did long and honorable service in a number of forms as it morphed into the fruitier and currently better-known Singapore Sling, while the rest of the sling family languished in obscurity.

Tonight we mostly followed DeGroff's recipe, with a few necessary and a few improvised substitutions. This makes a very light and summery drink--an alternative gin and tonic, perhaps for those who really can't stand quinine.

• 1 1/2 oz gin (we used Beefeater's)
• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (we used Lillet, more by dogma than anything else)
• 1 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice (we used lime cause that's what we had)
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• Dash of Angostura
• top with club soda
• garnish: lemon

lemon garnish by feleghazy