It as been a year since the first post here on Tessin Rinpoche!  Our posting rate has ebbed and flowed, some of our drinks were better than others, but it’s been fun.

I’ve learned some things:

1) kitchen torches are overkill for lighting things on fire: Raw Milk

2) I come from a long line of sophisticated mixologists: Home Bar Tours

3) batches are good for parties: Party Ritas

4) candy is for kids, not for drinks (and drinks aren’t for kids): Why, Empire Hotel? Why?

5) I still fall back on my classics most of the time -

Most days, over the summer in particular, if I find myself in a situation where I need to order a drink I order either a Manhattan, a Gibson, or a Negroni.  I’ve shown the first two here, but now we’ll have my favorite in celebration of my the TR anniversary.

THE NEGRONI

1 Gin

1/2 Campari

1/4 Sweet Vermouth

You can vary the proportions to taste, but this is the way I prefer to make them.  Sometimes I use Dolin’s Blanc vermouth to lighten the drink further.  You can shake this drink and serve it up, or stir it and serve it on the rocks.  I vary how I order it based on locale and how I want to experience the drinks – hot and sunny, on the rocks; cool crisp evening, up.  Garnish with citrus, or be lazy and don’t bother.

While I think it is pretty cheesy, I check my UrbanDaddy email everyday because, well, it tells me things I appreciate knowing.  A few weeks ago (I was lazy during August), it told me about Breuckelen Gin.  If it’s not obvious, this stuff is made in Brooklyn, and mostly sold in Brooklyn.  They use local organic ingredients, which is an added bonus.  So, I headed to the only store in Manhattan that sells the stuff (Park Avenue Liquor) and got their last bottle of the week!  They should have re-stocked by now though…

I’ve said before that I have no desire to do product reviews, and that is still true, but I’m going to go ahead and do this one because I really like the local aspect of this one.  Even more fun, the gin is really good.

I would describe it as Hendricks without the cucumber – very floral, but not as junipery smelling as Bombay Sapphire.  Put another way, it is also more like a dutch Genever, which may be part of the point behind the name, but it is still dry enough for a martini or other classic gin beverage – I made a negroni:

Anyway, I hope it works out for the Breuckelen folk.  You can order online from some of their sellers, who they list here (excluding Texas – sorry Texan pals call your elected officials and tell them to change the rules if you want to receive gifts of booze from me).

The Double E isn’t exactly a new creation, and someone may well have already given another name to a drink very much like this one. But if they did, I don’t know about it.

The Double E (in front of a lamp EE favors, but that I do not)

The Double E’s story begins when EE learned to order her cosmos with gin quite some time ago.  She got on alright ordering in this way (“I’d like a cosmopolitan, but with gin instead of vodka”) – which always resulted in one of the following:

- a very confused waiter who didn’t know what’s in a cosmo
- an eye rolling bartender who makes all pink drinks the same way regardless of the request
- a bartender who takes the opportunity to ask the other ingredients as well because he has no clue how to make a drink.

This pattern was smashed on a rooftop in rome one fine may evening. The astoundigly competent Italian waiter acted like he’d been talked down to and says, “of course, you want a swanky cosmo”.   This proper name provided no relief to EE’s subsequent ordering at other places, but it is a better order at home.

Fast forward to this spring when we got lazy about going to the store and ran out of cranberry juice.  The simple substitution was pomegranate.   This variant had no name, it was simply the illegitimate child of our irresponsibility, but one that EE took a shine to.  Then we went to a family weekend at a beach house and the drink earned a name.

Lo and behold, another person one could accurately refer to as EE (much less cute, more gruff, and harder to please with a drink, but still very loved) really liked this drink as did everyone else.  So I named the drink for its following of Double Es and began making pitchers of them everyday at about 5, you can guess where things went from there.

The Double E:

Ingredients

1 gin (I was using Bombay Sapphire)

3/4 Cointreau

1/2 Pomegranate Juice

Juice from 1/2 a lime

Combine ingredients over ice and shake well.  Serve up.

Ingredients (again, I put my ingredients in parts – for batching this is especially useful as 1 can be 1 shot or 1 liter - just maintain the proportions. Because this is batching, I’m getting a little more granular with the proportions…  1/8 of a single shot is not too different from 1/4 in terms of actual liquid and bartenders’ ability to measure it, but 1/8 of a liter is quite different from 1/4…)

1 Tequila (not too fancy)

4/5 Cointreau

1/5 Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur

1/2 Pomegranate juice

1/8 jalapeno infused tequila (sooo easy too make, but it tends to run hot, hence the small amount)

Lime juice from as many limes as there are shots in the mix

Combine all the ingredients in a pitcher and stir with a few cubes of ice to chill it a bit.  Set it out with an ice bucket.  Be sure to fill the glasses with ice before pouring – it needs the chill, and the water.

Why does this work?  Well, pink is a pretty color, the heat of the jalapeno appeals to people who don’t like sweeter drinks usually, and the sweetness and fruityness appeals to those who do.  The heat and ginger also keep people from guzzling a cold drink on a hot day and ending up schnockered.  So far it’s been popular…

EE has been a guacamole-making fiend this summer, and I highly recommend serving guac and chips with the tray above.  Then, take the whole party out for cheeseburgers.  It never gets old.

Perfecting the luxury of a functional bar tray is an ongoing challenge here.  Tessa thinks this EE-creation is a good one:

Water.  Ice.  Glasses.  Cocktail.  Soda.  Napkins.  Minimal unnecessary clutter.

ALSO: The tall, slim pitcher featured in the photo is invaluable when hosting 4+ people for drinks.  It was a wedding gift long ago, and not an expensive one, so I highly recommend the purchase of something similar if you don’t have one.  Mixing one batch of drinks in this is far easier than making an individual drink for so many people, but it’s still a pretty small quantity, so there’s no quality compromise.  Setting a batch of good, fresh cocktails on the bar tray is a quick and easy substitute for a boring decanter.

Hello world, Tessin is re-engaging the blog.

I had my time sucked away by work and the CFA for a while, and I’ve been catching up on having fun since.  Writing about the fun would have detracted too much from having the fun…

Anyway, what do I have to share after this hiatus?

1) Cucumbers.  Want to bring wintery drinks into the summer vibe?  Infuse things with cucumber.  Warning: not all drinks work well.  Rye works very well.  Bourbon would not.

2) Watch the World Cup; it’s great.  The World Cup offered me these two lessons:

  a) Rum.  You can do a lot with rum.  Seems like a stupidly obvious statement, but I get asked what to do with rum other than add it to Coke…  Adding it to Coke is a fine option at many a beachfront-type scenario, but one can also add ginger beer (like a Dark n Stormy), or lime juice and sugar (it’s a daquiri!).  If you’ve got time to plan ahead, add mint, or some fruit, or anything else, and let sit overnight.  Rum does really well with infusions.  Ultimately, the most recent version of this request had a simple answer, as the drinker was whiling away the opening rounds at a French bar on Mauritius: drink it straight.

  b) Micheladas.  Beer, lime, spices, they vary a lot, but that’s part of the joy - so long as they’re cold and spicy.  Even if it’s not on the menu (in fact, it’ll probably be better if it isn’t), ask for one at your favorite Mexican place.  With Tecate.  Don’t ask for this if it’s less than 80 degrees or after 5.

3) Go surfing.  Seriously, it’s fun and not actually that hard.

Bertessa’s first surfing lesson.  Cowabunga.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Bermuda (sans TR, who had to work – a common theme).  Actually being in Bermuda made me:

1) Love Bermuda pink even more

2) Think maybe I’d had enough of it on the walls of my Manhattan living room

So, introducing the newest incarnation of the Tessin Rinpoche habitat:

The concept is more clubby, more Central Park-y. 

It is a pure experiment, putting a dark color on the walls.  But so far, we like it.

Happy 4th of July.   With luck, the enigmatic Tessin himself will be inspired to post some holiday cocktails.

Infusion is the key to making home mixology sparkle.  Half the fun is making drinks that I can’t get in a restaurant or bar.  My home drinks are mostly distinguished by quality: most bars use mixes and shortcuts.  But increasingly, they are also distinguished by unique ingredients.

I’ve made mention of using various infusions already, but some questions I’ve received suggest that other home mixologists are still suffering from a crisis of confidence when it comes to infusing things on their own.

How to infuse?  Simply take some liquor and put something that provides a new flavor into the liquor.  Leave it overnight.  Strain out the non-liquid item.  DONE!

There are methods of hot infusion that some bars use for consistency.  I don’t have the inclination to bother.  I kind of like each infusion to be different.  It changes my drink-making inspiration.  That said, some infusions are simple and reliable:

1) Lavender and gin – Buy lavender at the store in the herb section.  Pick it fresh; don’t use the dried kind

2) Jalapeno and tequila – need I elaborate?  But watch out, because this can get VERY HOT.  It’s ok if it does… I just put in a little and use uninfused tequila for most of the drink

3) Dill and vodka – this is fantastic for bloody mary’s, or even a simple vodka-tonic.

And taking it to the next level, keep in mind the potential of infusions for:

• Ice.  Not even an infusion really, but you don’t risk a bottle of liquor being wasted.  Last year we hosted a Kentucky Derby event, and EE had the excellent idea of making mint-infused tea and turning it into ice cubes.  Just pour boiling water over whatever you want the ice to taste like, then freeze the water in ice cube trays.  This was great for the party, because it easily enabled guests to make themselves truly minty mint juleps.
• Gifts.  A shout-out to some of my Texan kin, who gave pineapple-infused vodka to various family members (including me, of course) for Christmas.  It was a very charming and obviously useful present.  Tessa loves a practical gift.  I shared mine with the crowd in the form of brunch blood  mary’s, and later, a refreshing evening cocktail involving tonic, lemon, and an ancient Galliano-like liqueur I found in my grandparents’ bar.

If you really want to go to the next level, you can start making you own liqueurs, but that’s a topic for another time.

The Bevvy Alexander.  A cocktail for cold nights.

I’ve been needing to get this up for a while, and now I’ve just about missed the season, but there are some chilly spring nights to come.

The excellent request made by a lovely guest: a great cocktail that’s warm, for when the weather is cold

I looked around and found lots of cider recipes and coffee-based drinks.  I hate apple juice.  I like my coffee to be coffee.  Ultimately, I just made a good cocktail and added hot water.  This may sound cheap, random, not very well-considered, I don’t know, just sort of wrong.  My guest liked it, though.  And, if I wanted a hot drink, I’d like it too.

At the end of the day, the Bevvy Alexander is hot and it tastes good.  It looks good too, in a lovely sort of way.  What’s wrong with that?

Ingredients

1/2 darker rum

1/2 Stone‘s ginger currant wine

1/4 Maraschino liqueur

few drops lavender & bergamot infused vodka

a squeeze of agave nectar

Combine all ingredients in a teacup (they should fill about 1/3 to 1/2 of it) and top with very hot water.  Stir and garnish with a twist.

I realize high-waisted, pleated women’s trousers are not exactly breaking news in the world of serious fashion, but they’re breaking news in my world.  Because I finally tried them on myself… and am now completely convinced that they’re very, very cool. 

Not every pair is right for everyone, and they won’t work with every shirt and sweater in your closet - nonetheless, I submit that figuring out how to wear them well is well-worth the bother. 

Chloe, Fall 2009

Let’s review the cool report card:

• Style: They look really good.  Especially if you, like me, would rather pants cinch your waist than the widest point of your hips.

• Tradition:  First popularized by Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn in the 1930s.  Here’s the evidence:

Marlene Dietrich

Katharine Hepburn

• Function:  They became popular for women largely because of their function, versus skirts and dresses.  Today, after a decade of low-rise pants creating awkward mid-section gaps for every woman trying to sit gracefully on a barstool, they seem functional in a whole new way.  It’s very reassuring to tuck my silk blouse into their waist, belt it, and be able to stride (and it) comfortably and confidently.  Bonus: they work really well with both sensible and fun shoes, especially with great hosiery.

Chloe, Fall 2009

• General conscientiousness:  There are not a lot of clothes that, in and of themselves, inspire me to look forward to getting dressed and spending time at the office, but these do – which almost no matter what they cost, makes them very good for the bank account. 

   They’re also stylish and comfortable enough to transition nicely to a cocktail and dinner at home.

Katharine Hepburn again.  Deciding what cocktail Bertessa will make her.