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.