Ford

 

Story

The Ford goes back a little ways, first appearing in the book “Modern American Drinks” by George Kappler in 1895.  The drink predates Henry Ford so the theory is that it was named after Malcolm Webster Ford, a famous decathlete in the 1880s. Both the Ford and the modern martini, along with a number of other famous drinks, evolved from the common martini recipe in the 1800s.  The Ford features old tom gin, which is a mellow, sweetened type of gin that fell out of favor for decades but has had a revival only recently. Our old friend Benedictine makes an appearance here, along with two orange components.  Together, they make a citrusy, herbaceous drink that’s light and easy to drink but has underlying complexity.  I used Fee Brothers Orange Bitters, which are made with glycerin.  They add a smoothness to the mouthfeel that rounds out the drink nicely.

Recipe

1 oz old tom gin
1 oz dry vermouth
0.25 oz Benedictine
3 dashes orange bitters
orange twist
-stir ingredients in a mixing glass with ice to chill. Strain into chilled Nick & Nora or coupe.
-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

Night Shift

 

Story

This is another cocktail from Maggie Hoffman’s book, “Batch Cocktails”.  It’s a split-base Manhattan variant with allspice dram instead of bitters.  Complex and citrusy, it’s got a clear rum undertone with soft notes from the allspice in the background.  I love it.

Jamaican rum is a key player here.  Like most rum, it’s made from molasses.  It’s fermented in casks and then distilled in pot stills. These copper stills work more slowly and less efficiently than column stills.  In practice this means that more of the non-alcohol fermentation products (congeners) remain in the rum after distillation.  These congeners lend distinctive flavors to Jamaican rum that are lacking in more completely-distilled rums.  These flavors create the oft-referenced Jamaican rum “funk”, with notes of tropical fruit, wood, smoke, spices, and caramel.

The Night Shift was created by bartender Sean Kenyon at American Bonded in Denver.

Recipe

1.25 oz cognac (VS)
1 oz Jamaican rum
1 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
1 tsp allspice dram
orange twist
-measure ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice.
-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

Ti' Punch

 

Story

English sugar plantations were established in the Caribbean in the early 1600s and molasses, which is an industrial waste product from sugar refining, was in plentiful supply.  Sometime in the 1640s, plantation workers in Barbados realized that molasses could be fermented and distilled to create a powerful spirit that they called “kill-devil” or “rumbullion” – later shortened to “rum”.  Caribbean colonies quickly became major producers.  Due to global economic changes in the late 1800s, the market for refined sugar shrank precipitously, and the innovative producers began distilling fresh sugarcane juice instead of molasses. The resulting spirit was called “rhum agricole”, French for “agricultural rum”. Rhum Agricole has a distinct earthy, grassy flavor that varies significantly depending on where the sugarcane was grown. 

Ti’ Punch is the national cocktail of the French Caribbean islands Martinique and Guadeloupe (ti’ is short for “petite”).  It’s made with sharp, vegetal white rhum agricole if enjoyed early in the day, and with a mellower aged rhum agricole in the evening.  Ice is optional and locals typically enjoy Ti’ Punch without it.  I tried it both with and without ice, and I’m going to ask you to trust me and try it without.  Sipping a nice Ti’ Punch puts me in mind of sitting on a beautiful beach at dusk, feeling the breeze and watching the world go by.

Recipe

Lime wheel
1 tsp cane sugar syrup (Steen’s)
2 oz rhum agricole (aged or white; I used aged)
-squeeze lime wheel into a rocks glass; drop the wheel into the glass
-add the cane sugar syrup and stir to combine
-add rhum Agricole and stir briefly to mix

Montenegroni

 

Story

The story of the Negroni is like a lot of classic cocktail history – vague.  There are several reasons for this murkiness.  Cocktails are invented in bars, where there are few precise records. As such, cocktail stories are often muddled in the memories of people who were actively drinking when collecting the information.  There are a number of stories about how the Negroni came to be, but none can be verified.  The evidence is that the base drink appeared in the 1920s. The modern version (equal parts Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth) first showed up in a book in 1953, although that drink was stirred rather than built in the glass, was served up, and was garnished with a lemon twist.  The International Bartenders Association’s modern recipe is built over ice in a rocks glass and garnished with an orange slice.

There are books full of Negroni variants. This one swaps out the Campari for Amaro Montenegro.  Both are bittersweet Italian liqueurs, but the Montenegro is darker, smoother, and more floral.

Recipe

1 oz gin (London dry)
1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino (sweet)
1 oz Amaro Montenegro
orange twist
-measure ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice.
-(alternative: build in a rock glass over ice; stir)
-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

National Treasure

 

Story

I heard Sother Teague say on a podcast that the only misuse of bitters is to miss using bitters, and I got to wondering about some of the great Club drinks that don’t include them.  Then I learned some definitions that I didn’t know.  An extract is made by soaking a single flavoring agent in alcohol (e.g., vanilla extract).  Tinctured bitters (aka non-potable bitters) are an extract with the addition of multiple flavors and a bittering agent.  These are the little bottles like Angostura bitters that are used to season a drink.  If you add sugar to the mix, you get potable bitters, which are intended to be sipped alone or mixed into a drink.  The different types of amari (Campari, Averna, Montenegro) are examples of potable bitters.  “Amaro”, it turns out, is Italian for “bitter”.  So if we’re using an amaro, the bitters component is already there.

This week’s cocktail is a variant on the Boulevardier (1.5 bourbon / 0.75 sweet vermouth/ 0.75 Campari).  Here the base is split between rye and apple brandy, the Cynar adds some earthy bittersweetness, and the ratios are shuffled a bit to create balance.  This is another drink where each sip is a journey through different flavors.  

The recipe way created by bartender Brian Kane during his time at the now-shuttered Abe Fisher in Philadelphia.  I learned of it in the excellent book Batched Cocktails by Maggie Hoffman.  Maggie is formerly of Serious Eats and now has her own site, The Dinner Plan.

Recipe

0.75 oz bourbon (Rittenhouse)
0.5 oz apple brandy (Laird’s)
0.5 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
0.5 oz Campari
0.25 oz Cynar
-measure ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill. Strain into rocks glass over fresh ice.
-express lemon twist and use as a garnish.