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.

(EE-craftiness: part of a heart garland.)

I love Valentine’s Day.  I view it as an ideal holiday, and strenuously disagree with those who consider it to be over-commercialized, depressing, and all the rest.  Valentine’s is a bright spot in in the otherwise desolate month of February (at least in the Northeast).  Even before the days of EE, I was always happy to invite a pretty lady to be my valentine (and in my limited experience, ladies always enjoy being a valentine).  What could be better than fine dining, and perhaps the exchange of an extravagant gift or two, with someone whose company I enjoy?  Share the love, that’s what I say.

(Only on Valentine’s Day will your friends give you this card.  Hopefully.)

This year, EE and I somewhat reinterpreted our traditional Valentine’s celebration: we threw a cocktail party!

We hosted about 30 guests, a mix of singles and couples, for the express purposes of Valentining and having cocktails.  The goal was not to provide dinner - it was to provide an extra oomph of glizt and glam (and maybe even gossip and drama) to whatever evening people may or may not have planned for themselves.

In preparation for this momentous event, I went to work creating some drinks that fit the occasion.  The challenges/criteria were:

• 3 colors – EE often thinks in colors, so we determined the need for a red drink, a pink drink, and a white drink.
• Glassware – we only have so many of each type of glass, and wanted to avoid plastic.  The drinks had to spread across tumblers, stemmed wine, and stemmed cocktail glasses.
• Flavors – needed more than one type of flavor profile for a range of drinkers.

The results were (bearing their Valentine names):

Passion

Color: Red

Glass: Tumbler

Flavor area: Bitter

Ingredients

1 Tequila

3/4 Campari

3/4 Blood Orange Italian Soda (I bought this at Whole Foods)

1/3 Sweet Vermouth

drop Orange bitters

A muddled cherry (buy the frozen ones)

Muddle the cherry, stir vigorously with ice and all ingredients except the soda.  Strain into serving pitcher, add soda and stir gently.  At the party, I mixed batches of these in a pitcher, which we put out with an ice bucket and the correct glassware.

Blush

Color: Pink

Glass: Cocktail

Flavor area: Lightly fruity, easily accessible gin

Ingredients

1 Bombay Sapphire

1/4 Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur

1/4 Kumquat liqueur (you have to make it yourself – a post for another time – substitute Cointreau)

half a Lime’s juice

drop of Cranberry juice

Combine all ingredients with ice in a shaker and shake vigorously.  At the party I shook up batches and funneled them into a good-looking clear liquor bottle that I had de-labeled and cleaned.  The bottle was then left in an ice bucket next to the correct glassware.

Lovely

Color: White (ok, it’s yellowy, like white wine is white.  But true white is a pain)

Glass: Wine

Flavor area: Light, aromatic, refreshing, and sweeter

Ingredients

2 Seltzer Water

1 White Wine (something dry and simple – I used an Austrian wine made by Berger)

3/4 St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

1/4 Dry Vermouth

1/4 Dolin Blanc Vermouth

Combine all ingredients and stir.  Or, if using a siphon for the seltzer (a superior way to go), just add the seltzer last and allow the blast of seltzer to do the mixing.  For the party, I had some old french lemonade bottles with flip-tops that I put batches into and then topped with seltzer.  We left the bottles in a bowl with ice next to the correct glassware.

Note:  Sadly, we had such a good time at the party that we didn’t take any drink/party pictures.  Sorry, that was lame of us.  Here’s a final photo:

(My present to EE this year – they are antique sterling stirrer-straws. I was a little wary of giving her something cocktail-related, given it’s kind of my own hobby at all, but she does seem to like them very much.)

]]> http://www.tessinrinpoche.com/2010/02/15/a-valentines-threesome/feed/ 1 http://www.tessinrinpoche.com/2010/01/11/drinking-provence-or-an-insight-into-making-things-up/ http://www.tessinrinpoche.com/2010/01/11/drinking-provence-or-an-insight-into-making-things-up/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:08:58 +0000 Bertessa http://www.tessinrinpoche.com/?p=744 When I make drinks for people, I am frequently asked how or why I created the drink.  To me the answer seemed obvious: grab some bottles, pour, mix, taste.  Upon reflection, however, I realized that I do always have some sort of target.  The inspiration for that target can take many forms. 

A drink target could involve an objective property of the drink being designed: flavor (spice, citrus, basil), glass-type (cocktail, highball, solo cup), color (red, clear, orange), garnish-use (onion, brussel sprouts, licorice)… really anything that describes some aspect of the drink.

Another drink target could be a concept, feeling, or vibe that the drink should impart.  This type of criteria is trickier because it is inherently more subjective, but it is often my most effective method when mixing for those I know and love the most.  Since I’m a home mixologists, most of my guests are in this category.

As an example of designing a drink by feeling, I have two recipes for the same feeling.  The two recipes are nice because they illustrate differences of interpreting the same mandate, and because one is simple, the other complex.

EE said to me one Thursday, when making omelettes – something she’s very, very good at –  ”I’d like a drink that tastes like herbs, like in Provence.”  Nevermind that neither of us have been to France outside Paris.  I thought I got the idea: fields of lavender, soft skies, not too sweet, not too anything. 

In my head, at least, I saw something like this:

Fields of Provence, with lavender flowertops and soft light, is a good example of a concept or feeling a drink can seek to capture.

The result was the light and relatively simple:  

Flowertops:

Ingredients

1 lavender-infused gin

1/2 Dolin blanc vermouth

1/3 St. Germain’s elderflower liqueur

5 drops lemon bitters

couple leaves of mint

Shake vigorously.  Serve up.  Garnish with a flower, piece of fresh lavender, or any herb you have around (you know, make it pretty).

Unfortunately (but not that unfortunately, as come on, we’re talking about mixology here), this isn’t what EE had in mind.  She refined her request by saying, “No, no, it needs to be red and yellow too!  Like a tablecloth.”  She was thinking of vibrant, Provence-style linens, and of something much more earthy.  Ah!  Got it.  The concept of rich, aromatic soil is a much more challenging flavor, because it is quite complex. 

The Provence-style linens EE was thinking of, to complement her omelettes.

Still Provence, but more earth, and red soil - the Terroir.

The result was a drink that got high marks for meeting the desired target, and for just being a great drink:

Terroir de Provence (Cheesy name, yes, but there are enough ingredients to merit the grandiosity.  As I say, I’ve never been there, so there’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek involved in this whole project):

Ingredients:

1 lavender-infused gin

1/2 sweet vermouth

1/2 St. Germain’s elderflower liqueur

1/3 basil-infused bourbon

1/3 Bols genever

splash of brandy

whisper of dill-infused vodka

a little freshly grated ginger

Stir.  Serve up with an herbal garnish (EE voted for a rosemary sprig).

Two great drinks (Flowertops for me, Terroir for EE) to accompany a simple meal at home. 

Bon apetit.

This post is about the perfect Christmas house party drink.  What do I mean by house party?  I mean being in a house for days surrounded by fudge, pie, frosted cookies, any number of other sweets, and hard candy.  I’m in this situation every year, and I pretty much pick up a sweet bit every time I walk between rooms.  Unfortunately, most drinks do not pair well with the sweet parade.

Many drinks are themselves sweet, which becomes overkill, or they are too dry/tangy/whiskey-based (though I’ll allow that some may like whiskey and candy).  I have solved this problem in the form of a concoction I call the Hard Candy Christmas.

Am I getting fired or tossed out of my apartment?  No.  The name of this drink isn’t about my hardship, and I actually invented and named the Hard Candy over the summer while in search of something totally different.  Even those many months ago, I realized how perfect it would be for this time of year.  The name is the name for four reasons:

1. Honors my childhood car rides (original Chrysler minivan) across Texas listening to Dolly Parton (if you don’t know the song, click here)  and Crystal Gayle
2. It smells sorta like a Christmas tree – not sure why, but trust me
3. It goes really well with sweets, like hard candies
4. It is a really pretty red color, appearing rather like a hard candy

Ingredients

1 Tequila

1/2 Stone’s Ginger

1/3 Tournement absinthe

1/4 Campari

3 drops orange bitters

1-2 frozen strawberries

grated ginger (I keep some fresh ginger in the freezer and grate it as needed)

Combine everything but the absinthe in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously.  Stir in the absinthe and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with something festive (frozen cranberries, green sugar on the rim, etc).

These could definitely be  pre-mixed and made in batches for a party.

Merry Christmas!

Cranberry-infused Gin with Tonic (plus some squirrel candles)

EE and I are uber-excited to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year!  Because we live far from our families, and because I’m working on Friday, we are staying in Manhattan.  This will be our first chance to see the parade, and our first major holiday together without the presence of relatives.  (Relatives that may be reading this: we are very sad not to see you.)  To make the best of the situ, we have teamed up with pals to build a guest list that is an ideal mix of friends, friendly colleagues, relatives of guests, and people we haven’t met.  I’m particularly fond of the last guest category as having people who I’ve never met at the table seems very in keeping with the sharing and giving themes of the holiday.

The most surprising aspect of planning for this Thanksgiving has been the manner in which people seriously consider the invitation to come over.  We kept hearing, “Sounds great, but I’ll only come if I can make and bring X, Y, and Z.”  This response has been a huge relief, because I’m not pressured to provide people with the special dish they associate with giving thanks.  For my part, I love the traditional Thanksgiving spread: turkey (ours is a bronze heritage bird raised on pasture upstate by Wendy), stuffing (I’m making oyster stuffing with my Grandmother’s recipe), pie (I can’t bake to my own standards - luckily others are providing this), etc.

The one aspect of the feast that isn’t embedded in any childhood traditions: a concept of perfect Thanksgiving cocktails.  This is an amazing opening for the home mixologist, and I’ve been working on ways to fill the void.

A few general principles I’ll be mixing by:

1. Have fun
2. Don’t judge; serve people what they want
3. Honor the season, somehow
4. If not the season, a well-worn concept of the Thanksgiving holiday

There are some challenges to consider:

1. Large groups
2. Diversity – just because you may be related, doesn’t mean you like the same drinks
3. Long time-periods (waiting for the turkey to cook)
4. Crowded kitchens

Some tactics I’ll be trying:

1. Infusion – easily (I promise, see below) handles principles 3 or 4.  An infusion allows a novel drink without too many ingredients to mix.
2. Long drinks – they’ll help people keep pace, be refreshed, and stay out of the kitchen.

Cranberry-infused Gin & Tonic

Infuse the gin

Buy some raw cranberries.  Take a jar, fill 1/8 with cranberries, just cover the cranberries with gin and muddle (basically just pop most of the cranberries).  Fill jar with gin.  Leave overnight to 24 hours.  Strain out the cranberries.

Use the infusion to make a Gin and Tonic as described here, but garnish with frozen cranberries instead of lime.

Refresher course on making a Tessin Gin & Tonic

Turkey Carver

Ingredients

1 Bourbon

1/4 Maraschino liqueur

1/8 Fernet Branca

1/8 Kahlua

Squeeze lemon juice

Stir the ingredients in a tall glass filled with ice and top with tonic.

Kitchen Commander

Ingredients

1 Rum (whatever you’ve got)

1/2 Stone’s Ginger

1/4 Cointreau

a few cranberries (frozen or otherwise)

Shake (have to break down the cranberries a bit).  Pour in a tall glass filled with ice.  Top with sparkling water.  Garnish with frozen cranberries.

160 Degrees (or Is The Turkey Ready?)

Ingredients

1 Bourbon

3/4 Stone’s Ginger

1/3 Pimms

dash Anisette

2 drops Peychaud bitters

Stir, strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist.

160 Degrees

Of course, wine will be served with the meal, but I’ll leave wine blogging to others.  Hopefully some of these drinks may inspire a cocktail or two at your festivities this week!

Some fun pics of the squirrels (they are way too fun; I can’t wait to light them):

If you’ve ever been to a Mexican food restaurant, then you should be familiar with the margarita.  Anyone who has lived in Texas for any period of time should be familiar with this simple masterpiece.  Falling into both camps myself, I am very familiar with the margarita. Very.

Here’s the good news: margaritas are simple and customizable.  I truly don’t believe there is one specific way to rock the rita (but there are some wrong ways).  We all have different tastes, and indulging our individual tastes is part of why home mixology is so fun.

Sadly, I am disappointed in most restaurant margaritas.  They normally contain artificial sour mix, which honestly grosses me out (high fructose corn syrup plus citric acid just isn’t lime juice).  But whatever, if that’s your thing, or the place you go makes them with real ingredients, then more power to you.

The frozen branch of the margarita family doesn’t happen to be most appealing to me, though I’ll allow they play an important role in warmer climes.  I think frozen ones are best when they’re from one of those big stirring machines, which is not commonly done at home.  You can rent one (which I’ve done), or you can buy one from Sur La Table, but you risk causing the nation’s economic collapse.

Furthering the need to make margaritas at home: regrettably, not all parts of the world offer convenient Mexican restaurant options.  We faced this situation living in London, and I hear from a trusted source that Israel has the same issue.  But most parts of the world do provide access to the ingredients you need to make your own.

One way not to customize a margarita is by adding aloe vera juice to the mix.

blechhh

I read about all these possible health benefits of drinking aloe juice, and thought I’d give it a try.  My adventurousness was ill-considered.  The liquid smells like Bactine, and I can’t tell you what it tastes like, because it was far too nasty to keep in my mouth long enough for my mind to work out a description.  I got a bit down, but I don’t feel any better for having done so.  EE actually spit it out. 

I had thought aloe might play well with a margarita by being a relative of the agave plant (they’re both in the order Asparagales).  I was wrong.  Nothing could play well with aloe.

Agave (l) and Aloe (r) seemed similar enough to be good together.

Luckily, a classic margarita was able to right my wrong.  Margaritas have always been common around here, but I’ve recently been making a lot of Ginger Margaritas.  They have a little more zip, but don’t lose the beautiful balance inherent in a margarita.

How can you share in this bounty? Like so:

Ingredients

1 tequila (pick it yourself; everyone has a different taste)

3/4 Domaine de Canton’s ginger liqueur

1 lime’s juice

Combine in a glass and stir with a few pieces of ice.  Fill glass with ice.  Garnish with wedge of lime.

The classic margarita simply replaces the ginger liqueur with orange liqueur (Cointreau is probably most classic, but I’ll allow that Grand Marnier is common as well).  I’ve made one here:

As stated above, ritas are customizable.  If you want it up, serve it up.  If you want it on the rocks, serve it on the rocks.  If you want salt, add salt.  If you want it frozen, serve it frozen.  If you want it sweeter, add more Cointreau.  If you’re into tequila, use more tequila.  If you don’t care about tequila, use cheap tequila.  If you’re making for others, give it the way they like it.

Margaritas rock.

* P.S.: Mad props to Sur La Table for embracing the South Park episode and linking to it from the Margaritaville machine page

A Tessin restorative

My crime today was introducing my coworker J$ to the El Rey del Sabor food cart.  The beef pastelillo (Puerto Rican empanada) I ate while waiting for my burrito was probably a bit much…

Stomach-soothing cocktails must be individually created based on the nature of the underlying upset, but there are some ground rules I mix by:

No clear liquors – too much alcohol with a cutting effect.  I imagine it pitting my upset stomach lining.

Include ginger – widely known as a homeopathic stomach ailment remedy, I use it in drinks for flavor anyway!

Use bitters – like snake oil, many were created as healing tonics.  I doubt they scientifically serve a healing purpose, but the bite on the tongue makes me feel like I am suffering just enough to earn my health.

Use herbal liqueurs – herbs must be good for the stomach.  More importantly, we need a little sugar in this drink and need to keep that medicinal feel if we expect a decent placebo effect.

Keep it on the rocks – these drinks just don’t work up.

My Arsenal of Soothing Ingredients

From Left to Right (back row): anisette, ginger liqueur, Angostura bitters, Dubonnet, Peychaud’s bitters, Pimm’s, orange bitters, brandy, sweet vermouth, Stone’s Original Ginger.  Front row: frozen blueberries, frozen ginger, frozen cranberries.

For tonight’s stomach-soother I used:

Ingredients

1 brandy

1/3 Stone’s Original ginger

1/4 Pimm’s

4 dashes orange bitters

ginger shavings to taste (keep ginger in the freezer and grate into drinks)

Combine over large ice cubes in a tall glass.  Top off with seltzer.  Using your own siphon is great because it will blast the drink enough to mix without stirring.  If you don’t have a siphon, stir.

Cheers (and feel better)!

I was Dick Tracy for Halloween in second grade.  I had style.

Since then, honestly, Halloween has not been my best holiday.  I’ve never gotten arrested, beaten-up, or improperly drunk.  Maybe it’s for the lack of such events that I’ve found Halloween a bit of a let-down.

Luckily I now have a blog, and blogs can fix anything.  How might Tessin Rinpoche pull this off?  I have as many option as a super-hero’s tool-belt (yeah, blogs are just as awesome as yellow belts over spandex), but I’m only dealing with one of them today: the Vampire’s Tan.

Maisie the Halloween cat guarding a Vampire's Tan

Ingredients

1 white rum

3/4-1 Stone’s

3/4 Aperol

1/3 Cointreau

dash Peychaud

Combine the ingredients in a shaker and shake!  Alternately, if making pitchers, feel free to just stir like crazy.  Serve it up or on the rocks.  Garnish with a piece of black licorice.

Why this is a great Halloween Drink:  It…

1. is orange – people can find it through the eyeholes of their masks
2. tastes good – almost swillable, but not quite so lethal as the Nevermake
3. is resilient – you can just pour it into whatever receptacle you have handy
4. is orange – yet it doesn’t use orange juice, which is typically yellowish anyway
5. uses white rum – a special request from a bride with wedding rum to burn (but not BURN)
6. has a cool name – people have to ponder it a bit (ok, maybe only dorks like me will think it’s a good name)

All in all, I think this is a great, simple winner.  The only downside is that it may be a bit much for a long party, especially if people need to drive home.  This is Halloween, though, so driving is a bad idea no matter what.  You can solve this simply by partying with your neighbors (they’ll be wearing masks anyway – you can pretend they’re your normal friends).

Cheers,

Count Poche

EE and I attended the Employees Only “Tales From Behind the Bar” seminar.  It was spectacular.  Jason and Dushan told the entire EO tale, which they punctuated by serving drinks relevant to particular points in EO’s history (drink-making was assisted by Steve and Vince).  In all, we ended up being served six* drinks (ok, seven, but only because we hung out and sweet-talked Steve).

First we had a vintage recipe Manhattan:

Bourbon (Maker’s)

Vermouth

Grand Marnier

Bitters

After a bit of Manhattan (or the whole thing for the guy next to me), we were onto the EO Provencale:

Lavender Infused Plymouth Gin

Herbs de Provence-Infused Vermouth

Cointreau

Had some Provencale (guy on next stool got it all down again), and it was time for a Mata Hari:

Courvoisier VS

Chai-Infused Vermouth

Fresh Squeezed Pomegranate Juice

I didn’t really like the Mata Hari.  I think I dislike pomegranate juice (guy next to me apparently does like pomegranate juice – he got it all down again).  EE thinks that the next drink was the Billionaire Cocktail:

Bakers Bourbon

Lemon juice

Homemade Grenadine

Absinthe Bitters

I don’t remember much of the Billionaire, assuming EE is correct that we had it (and guy next to us had it all – maybe he drank mine?), but more importantly, all previous drinks were then eclipsed.  We received the most amazing drink of the day, a Gimlet:

Gin

Lime Cordial

I’ll explain the Gimlet’s magnificence more a bit later (guy next to me seemed to enjoy all of it as well – I had to join him for the Gimlet), but we were then refreshed with the final cocktail, whose name I do not know.  This drink is supposedly new and recently invented by one of the apprentice bartenders who was not present.  It might have been called a Quiet Storm (I got up to use the WC at the point they introduced it).  Regardless, it was great.  It involved ginger beer and seemed like a relative of a Pimm’s Cup.  Look for it on the EO menu.

That’s a wrap!  We mulled about sipping and chatting.  But this is a bar, and chatting led to discussions on drink-making, which led to EE asking about scotch-based cocktails.  Naturally, a sample had to be produced.  The currently trendy (at least based on Twitter) Blood and Sand resulted.  I liked it, EE didn’t, but not my favorite way to drink scotch.  I just don’t like OJ.

A bit more on the Gimlet.  I’ve had gimlets; I’ve made gimlets.  Gimlets were always a somewhat lame combination of gin and lime juice, if the maker was snobby about fresh ingredients, or gin and Rose’s if not.  Apparently, that’s not what gimlets were meant to be.  EO created a lime cordial that does not exist in the market currently, but was commonly made back when the gimlet was born.  The lime cordial has bite from using the peels of the limes in addition to the juice.  The EO Gimlet was a truly revolutionary cocktail experience.  Luckily for all us sinners, EO is going to be releasing a line of products for public consumption – they’re including the lime cordial.  I’m just hoping it gets to stores before my graciously gifted little home stash runs out.

MCC was not all tastings and history, though!  There was a bar at the Astor Center where everyone gathered from the various tastings and seminars at different bars around town.  Anyone who attended could have sampled the aformentioned lime cordial in some of the drinks on offer.  The MCC bar and Astor Center were lovely, but cocktail hour just isn’t the same following an afternoon of cocktails.  It seemed like we weren’t the only ones who had been cocktailed-out, but I think it would have been great to go back to Astor Center today for the party.

Overall, the event was spectacular and I encourage anybody who can to attend in the future.  Jason and Dushan’s talk also helped me refine my Theory of the Cocktail a bit.  They reinforced my ideal that drinking should be fun, and that a large part of the fun is bringing new creations into the world.  This seems obvious, but it’s not.  As soon as I started paying more attention to my fellow mixologists I started seeing lists of drinks “every bartender should know.”  While it’s true that a bartender should know those drinks (I do like being able to order and know what I’ll get), I don’t think the rest of us should know them.  We should make things we like for the joy of creation – an idea I have now embedded in the Theory.

So why do I write the blog if everyone should make their own drinks?  Inspiration.  Standing on the shoulders of giants (EO, not me) and all that jazz.

Have fun.

* There is some debate as to how many drinks were served, the order of those drinks, and in what glasses they were served.  EE is probably correct, but it’s hard to say – I mean there were more than five for sure.

Conceptually, I began Tessin Rinpoche as nothing more than a repository for drink recipes that I concoct.  Such a repository is necessary because I don’t believe in making “drinks every bartender should know” nearly as much as I belive in creating a drink to fit the moment.  In the original spirit then, expect to see many more short posts with not much more than a recipe.

I made this drink Thursday.  I’m calling it the Nevermake because it is like crack.  This drink may well ruin the drinker’s evening, if not life.  It goes down like cream soda.  I’ve never had a more drinkable drink.

Ingredients (always in parts)

3/4 bourbon (used Bulleit)

3/4 Stone’s Original Ginger

1/4 Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur

few dashes Peychaud bitters

squeeze of lime juice

dash absinthe (used Le Tournement)

Combine the ingredients, less the absinthe, over some ice in a shaker.  Dash in the absinthe and stir.  Strain out into a cocktail glass.  Try to restrain yourself from downing in one gulp.