Cocktail Hour - Dark Rum Sour

To Cuba via South America this week, all in the name of booze.

Those of you who've read the previous cocktail columns will know that I have something of an obsession with sours. I've tried various ones over the years, but never with rum.

Purely to help the digestion you understand...

To that end I spent a while researching recipes and came up with a rum based take on a Pisco Sour. (Pisco is a South American grape brandy produced in Peru and Chile - something to add to the tasting list if I can find it.)

I used a 7 year old Havana Club, simply because that's what I currently have in the drinks cabinet, but I suspect this cocktail would work really well with a darker navy rum or Goslings just to really give the sweet and sour contrast a kick.

Egg white, deliberately missed by some bartenders in sours, adds a smoother texture to the finished cocktail so I urge you not to skip it.

The Angostura Bitters gives things a nice lift, its medicinal botanicals technically making this sour an aperitif - a perfect pre dinner snifter.

It's just a pity we don't get to enjoy any of that Cuban sunshine in Denmark...

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 60ml dark rum
• 30ml lime juice
• 20ml simple syrup
• 1 egg white
• 2 dashes, Angostura Bitters
• Ice
• Cocktail shaker
• Rocks glass, cooled (or old fashioned glass, if you have one)

Procedure

• Dry shake the egg white with the rum, lime juice and simple syrup (shaking egg white without ice properly emulsifies the ingredients before adding ice and re-shaking). 
• Shake vigorously. Add ice and re-shake
• Shake a couple of dashes of bitters in to the cooled rocks glass, over ice if you like
• Pour contents of shaker in to the glass
• Garnish with a little mint

Bottoms up! (This cocktail is quite bracing, so I suggest sitting before consuming. Definitely don't attempt to fashion a coherent blog post.)

Cocktail Hour

Quince Two Times..

It seems fitting that my last post before the Christmas hiatus is booze related.

As observant readers will already know I recently ended up with rather a lot of home-made quince cordial (after a rather less than successful attempt at making jelly.)

As nice as cordial is mixed with water, the mind naturally drifted to how I might more pleasantly imbibe some of this blasted stuff. Cocktails, that's how.
After much experimentation (well, a pleasant gin-soaked afternoon) I came up with the following:-

The Quince Regent.

This first cocktail is a variant of last week's Gin Fizz. I simply swapped the simple syrup for the quince cordial. Taste wise a hit of aromatic quince gives way to a very zesty finish, the soda water making for a refreshing winter bracer. 

Essentially you end up a rather enjoyable gin & quince laced lemonade - giving you a deceptively strong highball that it's all to easy to gulp down quickly!

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 40ml Dry Gin
• 20ml Quince Cordial
• 20ml Lemon Juice
• Bottle, Fever Tree Soda Water
• Lemon wedge, to garnish
• Highball glass
• Cocktail Shaker
• Ice

Procedure:

• Add the gin, cordial and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker and, well, shake.
• Pour over ice in to a highball glass.
• Top with the soda water and stir.
• Garnish with the lemon wedge

The Quinclet.

Essentially the bastard child of a pink gin and a Gimlet this one. Despite the fact it is inescapably pink, this drink will put hairs on your chest. Don't let anyone tell you different.

The quince gives the finished article a more rounded flavour than a straight gimlet, however the lime juice and bitters lend a pleasing bite to the finish.

Ingredients & Equipment:

40ml Dry Gin

20ml Quince Cordial

20ml Lime juice

Liberal dash, Angostura Bitters

Lime zest, to garnish

Cocktail shaker

Ice 

Martini glass, chilled

Procedure:

Pour a couple of drops of bitters in to the martini glass.

Give the gin, cordial and lemon juice a jolt in a shaker with a couple of ice cubes.

Strain in to the martini glass and garnish with a strip of lime zest.

Sit down before drinking!

I am now retreating to darkest rural Sweden for the duration of the Festivities, but will be back with more drink and fashion related ramblings in the New Year. 

I wish you all a very merry Christmas. Tinkerty-tonk!

Cocktail Hour

Sloe Gin Fizz

Amidst the countless Egg-nog recipes that pop up when researching festive cocktail options one alternative that caught my eye was the Sloe Gin Fizz.

The Gin Fizz, essentially a sour with added soda water, dates all the way back to the 1862 tome How To Mix Your Drinks by Jerry Thomas. It is important to distinguish between a Gin Fizz and a Tom Collins - the former is made with dry gin, the latter with sweeter Old Tom gin. 

If we're being strict about things a gin fizz should not be served with ice, whereas a Tom Collins is poured over rocks. I've ignored that here. 

You should really use a soda syphon too, if you don't have one just pour the soda vigorously to create lots of bubbles.

My dear old mother makes a batch of sloe gin every autumn, bottles of which are generously donated to yours truly.

I normally drink it straight or on the rocks, with only a single ice cube. But sloe gin also makes for a fantastic cocktail ingredient. In this case it turns a refreshing summer high-ball in to a pleasing winter treat.

I've not tried the commercially available sloe gins, though I suspect they are rather less sweet than the family home brew. I have upped the lemon juice content accordingly. If using shop bought gin use 10cl less lemon juice. I've also sharpened things up with a jolt of Tanquary, but feel free to experiment.

Ingredients / Equpment

• 30cl Tanquary Gin
• 30cl Sloe Gin
• 30cl Simple Syrup
• 30cl Lemon Juice
• Bottle, Fever Tree Soda water
• Cocktail shaker
• High-ball glass
• Ice
• Lemon wedge to garnish

Procedure

• Mix the gins, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker
• Fill a high-ball glass with ice and pour over contents
• Top up with soda water
• Stir and serve with the lemon wedge

As ever, if anyone has any variants of this recipe that might be of interest do let me know.

Cheers chaps!

Cocktail Hour

The Gin Sour.

Continuing on last week's sour theme, today we discuss the Gin Sour. A very traditional cocktail, popular before Prohibition, this cocktail's precise history is uncertain. It was mentioned as far back as 1862 in Jerry "The Professor" Thomas' The Bar-Tender's Guide.

Again, it is worth mentioning that most modern recipes skip the egg white. Presumably over 'elf & safety concerns, but I urge you not to. The addition of egg white makes for a much smoother cocktail.

The original used soda water in the simple syrup, to my mind making the cocktail half Gin Fizz half Sour. The recipe here uses normal simple syrup.

Traditionally, gin sours were made with Old Tom gin - a sweeter style of gin popular in the 18th century and one that is making rather a comeback today. Fear not if you don't have it, one of the more botanical gins like Hendricks will work just as well.

Ingredients:

50ml Gin

25ml Lemon Juice

15ml Simple Syrup

egg white (I normally use 1 egg white for 2 cocktails)

Lemon wedge to garnish.

Equipment:

Shaker

Short glass, chilled

Procedure:

Dry shake the egg white, gin, lemon juice and syrup.

Add 2 cubes of ice and shake hard.

Strain over ice in to a short glass

Garnish with a lemon wedge & serve

Chin chin!

Cocktail Hour

The Bourbon Sour

After the recent glut of Gin based beverages it's time to surprise our livers with another favourite spirit of mine - bourbon. I bow to no man in my appreciation of sour cocktails, and the Bourbon Sour is an absolute favourite.

The rather lovely barmaid at Ruby swears by Four Roses, however as I have Makers Mark at home that's what I'm using. The sweetness of the bourbon, particularly the vanilla note to Makers Mark, offsets the sharpness of the citrus perfectly.

Some sour recipes skip the egg white. I would urge you not to - it adds an extra smoothness to the finished article and is worth the minimal faff of separating an egg.

Ingredients:

1. 50ml Makers Mark
2. 30ml lemon juice
3. 15ml simple syrup
4. 1 egg white
5. ice
6. lemon wedge

Equipment:

1. shaker
2. short glass

Procedure:

1. Dry shake the egg white first. (This improves the texture.)
2. Add the lemon juice, bourbon, syrup and a couple of ice cubes.
3. Shake well.
4. Strain over ice in to a short glass.
5. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Bottoms up chaps! Enjoy.