Fernet Branca is member of the Amaro category of Italian liqueurs and bitters. In The Craft of the Cocktail, by Dale DeGroff, he recommends first trying Amaro Averna, which is both sweet and a bit bitter, and Branca Menta, which is Fernet Branca blended with creme de menthe. After enjoying those, he explains, you may […]
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Pastis – Mixology Monday
Pernod is intense. And lot’s of people find the pungent combination of star anise and aromatic herbs quite unpleasant. To be honest, anise used to be on my top five hated foods list as of four months ago. I didn’t really discriminate between licorice and anise, either. Nearly everything with those flavors, especially liquor, tasted […]
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Gin and Tonic Tasting – Round 2
“Let’s do a taste test of the tonic water!” Dan utters with excitement after he notices that I’ve been grabbing both Schweppes and Canada Dry from the fridge during the tasting. By this point we had sampled several new “finds” from far away liquor stores in addition to conducting some unscientific comparisons between various whiskeys […]
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Summer has Arrived – Gin and Tonic
According to the seasonal calendar of Kaiser Penguin, summer begins when the temperature hits a balmy 60° F, and I see no room to argue, because with warmer weather comes gin and tonics. Some would argue that drinks belong with their season. And although there are no hard-fast rules when it comes to matching drinks […]
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Pancho Villa
Technically, the Pancho Villa takes its name not from the famous Mexican revolutionary, but from a Filipino Boxer who adopted the nickname. The fighter (real name Francisco Guilledo) is considered a national hero in the Phillipines. For more information, visit the Wikipedia article. This drink benefits from being very cold, so I would recommend using […]
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Digging In – Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails
My first cocktail book was The Craft of the Cocktail, by Dale DeGroff. Its tattered, multi-colored sticky pages continually bring me back for old favorites and new finds. When I got the book, I knew next to nothing about making cocktails; I had my assumptions, but that’s about it. Loving to cook, I figured that […]
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Singapore Sling
When I began looking through my library for references to the Singapore Sling, it immediately became apparent that I could easily turn this article into a recipe comparison. The variety of recipes was astounding. So astounding, in fact, that I’ve decided to save the comparison for another time. Instead, I’d like to marvel at how […]
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Cocktail Chill – A Scientific Experiment
“I’d like a Martinez, heavy on the vermouth, warmed in the microwave for 23 seconds.” What’s the difference between a chilled cocktail and an Arctic-cold cocktail? One word: perfection. The colder you can get a drink and the longer you can keep it cold, the better. I could make this article a treatise on the […]
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The Astor Hotel Special
The Gentleman’s Companion Volume II: The Exotic Drinking Book lists many recipes that contain raw eggs, including many modern recipes that have since omitted them. A well-shaken egg changes the texture of the drink, adding a bit of foamy creaminess to it, and in the case of a yolk, a richness that only a golden […]
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Bobby Burns
When I first saw this cocktail, I grinned. Not because it was so similar to one of my loves, the Rob Roy, but because I recognized the name. My grandfather is Robert Burns. It just so happens that he, Mr. Burns, worked much of his life as an executive for a nuclear engineering firm, but […]
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