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

Can't Wink in this City

New Cocktail, based on Dale DeGroff's Manhattan East, made with ingredients on hand:

• 2.5 Van Winkle Bourbon
• .5 Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
• .5 Stoli Vodka (Dale uses Sake here)
• 3 dashes Orange bitters
• garnish: flamed orange peel (I was out of oranges, so this cocktail went naked. Shame!)

Delicious and autumnal. I recommend! 

Featured Ingredient: Chartreuse

It seems like I can't drink anywhere without hearing Chartreuse mentioned these days. So I decided to do a little investigating and whip up some Chartreuse-based cocktails. Like Bénédictine and Frangelico, Chartreuse is an herbal liqueur developed hundreds of years ago by monks, in this case the Carthusians.

I chose the following two cocktails based on availability of ingredients. Both were a success; the flavors of the Chartreuse's 130+ herbs  made for a clean but complex flavor that was fun to savor.

The Bijou

• 4 gin
• 3 chartreuse
• 2.5 lillet
• .5 vermouth
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Bijou, which means "jewel" in French, also has the advantage of being fun to say. It is typically made from gin, sweet vermouth, and chartreuse. I used Lillet because I always have it around, and I like the taste. CocktailDB puts the ratio at 3:1:1, but I fine-tuned it a bit to suit my taste.

From iPhone

The Last Word

• 1 gin
• 1 maraschino liqueur
• 1 chartreuse
• 1 lime juice

This is a prohibition-era cocktail; I found the recipe on Cocktail Chronicles. Equal parts all ingredients makes this an easy recipe to remember!

From iPhone