Kentucky Derby day means only one thing for imbibing, MINT JULEP TIME!

Today is the running of the 137th, 2011 Kentucky Derby. While thoughts may focus on things of big winnings, fancy hats and dress, or the sense of Kentucky pride, there is one thing that stands out as a tradition that every person should enjoy on this day. That tradition is to enjoy a mint julep cocktail.

To me a proper one is very simple to make, but it takes some preparation and some right tools to get the job done right.

First get a silver cup. You will need this to make your drink ice cold and refreshing. It doesn't get any better than this. Second use crushed ice to give your drink a frosty kick and feel. Third gently muddled your mint inside the cup without dangerously bruising it or making a salad, and finally pick a good bourbon you like.

It's really that simple. Enjoy bourbon whiskey on this day it is a great time to be doing it, and no cocktail is more fitting for such a time. To learn more watch the video below. Cheers!

A gin fizz and an egg are much fun to have together

When I got into making cocktails, I always enjoyed using egg white and making frothy drinks. Unfortunately the by product of an egg white, is of course the egg yolk. I would stare at the white blob and say to myself, "Ok.. so what do I do with this now?" Well the reality is you can still use it in a cocktail, and a good way to show off an egg in a cocktail, is to make a fizz.

A fizz is a cocktail that has a standard base, mostly gin and lemon and some type of sweetener (simple syrup) with soda water. However, when you add an egg you can have three different types of fizzes. Adding egg white to a basic fizz makes a silver fizz, add only the yolk, and it's a golden fizz. If you add the entire egg you get a royal fizz. This is just a real basic fizz, and there are THOUSANDS of fizz recipes adding many ingredients. You can really go nuts with this type of cocktail in varying it.

This is actually a refreshing, but sometimes messy drink. It's fun to make a lot of froth and foam and feels like a good thing to have in the summer on a hot day. Watch below to see how to make one.

Beauty this Christmas is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the Buddha's Eye

The Buddha's Eye Cocktail is more than likely not an official type of Christmas cocktail but it might as well be. There is no candy cane, it's not a steaming hot buttered rum type of drink that you could associate with winter, there is no egg nog to be found.

However, for me the drink has this great green shade when matched with mint leaves for garnish that looks and reminds me of holly. Looks aside, and I am a sucker for emerald green... the second reason is that this was one of the first cocktails I have ever had when I was an imbibing youth, and it was during Christmas. It has a cool crisp winter breeze added by creme de menthe as if ice was to be forming on your breath. This is without question a winter drink.

The recipe came from a Julia Child cookbook that my mother had. I was kind of surprised that a drink would be in a cookbook. You may not have known how to cook but everyone knew who Julia Child was back in the day and the importance and respect she had for food. When I thought that suddenly a drink was mentioned by her it would have been something extraordinary, such as the 24 hours it takes to make Peking Duck or something... Drinks with alcohol weren't just simple, they could be works of art and elevated to a level of sophistication and importance.

I realized that when it came to drinking, thoughts and efforts mattered. Drinks could involve craft, they could have taste, drinks... WERE IMPORTANT.

My life has never been the same....

So I present to you this December, and no you don't have to have this just during Christmas, although it is a very winter drink... The Buddha's Eye Cocktail.

Whisk(e)y Sour... take me home...

If there is one cocktail that I could have an desire anytime for the rest of my life it is the ubiquitous, an simple whisk(e)y sour. Through numerous bourbon tastings I have a lot of left over whisk(e)y being asked to play with. It sits in corners, book case drawers (I am not lying when I say that), almost screaming pick me pick me!

The past turkey holidays of November are gone, and back then it never felt like I had time to sit and make a nice drink. Now with the pleasantries of personal time to myself, I think I have stepped on to, a perfect sour, and discovering the ultimate key to a good one and how to get it. The big key (among many) is froth (pictured to the left) from the egg white.

A good whiskey sour is fun to make, but many times it is hit or miss. I demonstrated one in the past using my Boston shaker, and as much as I like that big burly bastard, it's cumbersome, I hate cleaning it, and sure you can hear a million times from others, just twist or tap to break the "seal" in order to get your yummy contents out.

The reality is though, that seal... isn't easy sometimes. I don't care how you stick your glass in, or angle it, it doesn't matter. sometimes... daddy doesn't want to play, and you can't get your liquid goodies inside no matter how much you beg and plead. Other times you think you have it sealed, then start shaking, and you realize you gave yourself a shower cause the contents edged out "somehow" and are now all over your face (or if its really bad the guest you are making it for). One guy who like me has made several drinks with one said he has been behind bars numerous times, just hammering the thing like a construction worker. I agree with this sentiment and have been there. So I went back to sour land drawing board, and stumbled upon what I call a happy find. I need to use... the little bullet as I call it, my really small 3 piece shaker (pictured).

One thing I noticed is that the Boston shaker when doing the dry shake for the sour didn't give as much froth. You had lots of air and little contents in the shaker, and had to REALLY shake hard, but also much of the froth just coated the shaker and didn't come out on the pour. The success really worked when I used my really small 3 piece shaker for the dry shake, as I got foam and froth that could have been used for a bubble bath. It hit me, my Boston shaker was too big for this (or I didn't have giant paint can shaking arms I guess).

So who likes things easy... yup me... If you put the liquid contents in for the dry shake in a TINY shaker like this one, you will get monster froth, and you won't have to shake as long or as hard either to get it. Do however, pop the seal half way because the can will literally want to explode. Shake vigorously, when you feel the pressure, STOP, break the seal, and do it again for a little while for the dry shake portion. Who said making cocktails wasn't dangerous huh! That's half the fun!

I ended up grabbing the Rare Breed which had giant tobacco on the taste for this drink, but why not... it was a Turkey holiday recently so lets have a turkey right!? Use whatever whiskey you like. When the cocktail was poured for the second part, a massive head of froth came out leaving about a good solid size finger of bubbles. It looked like a real good beer. More importantly adding the killer fabbri amarena cherries sealed the deal, and the head made a perfect playground to drizzle some of the juice with red specks on top. Looks great, tastes even better. Enter cocktail win.

Here's some more detail on how to make this drink, it's a standard:

Ingredients:

• 2 oz of whiskey (use your favorite I have many) if you really like whiskey add 2 1/2 oz
• 1 oz of simple syrup (make your own)
  
• 3/4 oz of fresh lemon juice (not the FAKE STUFF, use real lemons, if you don't your sour will taste like ass) and DON'T USE SOUR MIX!
  
• egg white from one egg

Tips:

• If you haven't made this drink before, start with just 2 oz of whiskey, it balances the cocktail out and you may prefer it, more whiskey may make the other ingredients harder to taste
• The ratio of sweet to sour here is 4:3 which is a common standard giving a decent tartness. Try this ratio first, if you like it sweeter, more sour.. then adjust
• Crack the egg OVER your shaker so the white will fall in the glass, toss the yolk between the shell until all the white is gone. Do whatever you want with the yolk, maybe make a Golden Fizz, bake a cake, custard, feed it to your dog, garbage... whatever...
  

Directions:

• Combine all liquid ingredients, with egg into a TINY 3 piece shaker with NO ice (this is a dry shake)
  
• Cap and shake hard, when you feel the shaker expanding, pop it to break the seal, then shake again. You should have a big froth inside.
• Open you frothy contents and add ice. Shake hard till its nice and cold (7-12 seconds).
• Strain into an old fashioned glass with ice, pour fast, if you're like me, get as much froth out as possible by opening the strainer and getting the remaining goodness.
• garnish with a cherry

And with that... you can have imbibing heaven!

Trip to Jupiter is cocktail nirvana!

Having spent some time reading up on old cocktails I came across one of many intriguing cocktails in Ted Haigh's Vintage Cocktail and Spirits book. One of them immediately caught my attention for 2 reasons. Firstly, the cocktail was described needing specific measurements of a teaspoon. Suggestions were strongly mentioned in writing that coffee spoons, or just eyeballing it "wouldn't cut it". Secondly you would need one item besides gin, vermouth, and orange juice. You would need a special liqueur I have never heard of before called Parfait Amour. If you didn't measure this liqueur in the cocktail correctly, it would overpower everything.

Parfait Amour is actually a very interesting liqueur. It has a grape jelly bean quality, with marshmallows, somewhat orange-"y", and even a little licorice aftertaste. It does seem kind of well... "girly" but at 50 proof it can pack a punch. It is not to be taken lightly.

Here is how to make the great classic Jupiter cocktail based on Ted Haigh's suggestion. Try one for youself it's great.

The Old Fashioned Cocktail, Old is new again and will never die...

It seems like when you discover something that is old and been around for a long time that you really enjoy, but not many people seem to know about, that's when you know you've hit something special.

When I first got into cocktails intently and spirits many years ago, I realized that many of them went past the ones we probably have all heard before such as the Martini.

The reality is that cocktails had their start long time ago and were concoctions mostly out of apothecaries, medicine shops, filled with bitters and tonics that were to be cure-alls if you will. I wont repeat much of that history but it's a fascinating one going back quite some time ago.

When I started jumping into the land of Bourbon, I discovered a classic old cocktail that I had never heard before that really fit in this realm. What??? There's something more to cocktails than Martinis??? Really??? you better believe it.. and it's a classic standard.

Below is a classic Old Fashioned recipe. I took this after much playing around and practicing and felt that the recipe provided by Chris McMillan (someone put YouTube videos of him up) was the best I've ever tasted. I duplicate it here for your pleasure with the exception of the Whiskey I used. I make some comments based on a previous recipe and give my thoughts on this great drink which is a favorite of mine. I found a great book that was recommended by Mr. Booze (see previous Blog postings) that was written by Ted Haigh (Dr. Cocktail!) called Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Ted is also one of the developers of http://www.cocktaildb.com/I plan to make more of the drinks in this book, some of which you probably never heard of, but it's always good to make some basics first. Like I say... you have to learn to crawl first before you walk.

Yes I did it very much like Chris did, but the reality is this is how it's suppose to be done with I feel these correct measurements, which were also echoed in many other recipes I found also for this drink. Many other bartenders make this drink the same way on YouTube as well, some slightly varying it... but not by much. Regardless... it's fantastic and you should make one.

Check the video below to learn how! And stay tuned for another cocktial classic... the Whiskey Sour.

Cheers!

Ginger Peach Julep - how to make!

Summer comes and Summer goes, just like everything else in life. Orchard fruit comes in abundance then suddenly it's as rare as hen's teeth. Coming up on the end of Summer my wife makes sure to get her peach fix in. She is without question the biggest peach connoisseur I have ever known. There is nothing better than to share with someone the joys of the finer things in life. Peaches don't just make good eating, they make a great cocktail as well.

I came across a recipe for a cocktail in the Washington Post some time ago. It was written by the spirits columnist Jason Wilson, and he talked about a fantastic drink that was part of a competition in 2009 at the Tales of the Cocktail contest in New Orleans. My wife who loves to just cut out recipes for everything under the sun, and the comes to me and says... can you make this???? found this knowing my love for Bourbon and Juleps and her joy of peaches. At least this time it wasn't Peking duck.

I love mint juleps. This is without question one of the greatest American drinks ever created. I used Kentucky Colonel mint which works like a charm. My wife being the peach aficionado is the one who found the recipe and figured this could make something beautiful marrying my love for juleps, Bourbon, and cocktails with peaches. Some things are just meant to be true...

Here for you I present my adaptation of an adaption done by Wayne Curtis, drinks correspondent for the Atlantic, which I first saw in the Washington Post back in 2009. The Ginger Peach Julep. If you want to see the recipe click here.

Cheers.

There is GOLD in dem dar mojitos! Organic sugar becomes diamond in the rough

While going back and tasting libations, there is much to decipher. Summer is coming to a close in DC, suddenly there is a hint of chill in the air. This is not a bad thing, it has been particularly hot this summer so we are all ready I think for a change, and with change comes different imbibing. However, the mint has been revived a bit and I went back to try some of my other rums and still mojitos and daiquiris still keep calling.

The gold rums I tasted were all very good (if you refer back to my blind rum tasting). The last rum I tasted however though was the 10 Cane a product from Trinidad/Tobago. While I did conclude that it was good I had to admit the other golds were superior with the Oronoco being just sublime. Just to note the Oronoco rum is not worth a mojito it really should be drank on the rocks with NOTHING. There was nothing to hate about the 10 Cane rum but it needed to be tested, I couldn't "TASTE" anything off of it. To cut to the chase, I decided to try the 10 Cane with my standard mojito making and also in a daiquiri. There was one slight difference though, I pulled out another weapon in my arsenal for making of the mojito. Something I wish I used more often... a bag of organic sugar.

Lets just cut to the chase. I remember when doing the tasting that the rum didn't have much sugar coming off of it in the taste. The Mount Gay Special Reserve seemed to fit that a bit better. However, when making the mojito with the organic sugar something wonderful happened. Suddenly the drink exploded in flavor.

Organic sugar has a much different appearance. it is slightly gold and brown much like it's gold rum namesake and partner. It's as if they were made for each other. When pairing the organic sugar with the 10 Cane suddenly the rum came alive, there was bouquet, vapor, the mint came off even more, and there was a lingering sweet finish but not a harsh sweetness. Long story short, it seemed the sugar brought out the rums flavor considerably.

I still had to be convinced and even used a light rum with the organic sugar for another mojito (Appleton). Still great, but the sugar didn't bring out the flavor profile as much, somehow it seemed the 10 Cane and organic sugar were in harmony.

Some things just happen by accident, some by research, other times you just get friggin lucky.

Unfortunately, I traded my Special Reserve Mount Gay for some 7 year dark, I am now missing it so for this drink. I am trying to get in as many 10 Cane organic sugar mojitos as I can, before time runs out... Seems like summer... is coming to and end.
Cheers!