Fog Cutter

 

Story

The Fog Cutter is a classic tiki cocktail recipe from Victor Bergeron, aka Trader Vic.  As one of the two entrepreneurs who pioneered the concept of the tiki bar in the late 1930’s, Vic invented some of the original cocktails that bartenders continue to imitate and refine today.  The Fog Cutter combines Trader Vic’s signature template (rum, orgeat, lemon, orange) with another one of his favorite tools – a blend of multiple base spirits.  This drink manages the same trick that you find in a well-made Long Island Iced Tea:  a bunch of ingredients that don’t seem to match up and a final flavor that doesn’t seem like any of them. This version of the Fog Cutter is from Chicago bartender Paul McGee, who felt that orange juice made the drink flabby and unfocused.  He brought in the orange flavor with dry curacao instead.  The result is a version of the drink that's flavorful and refreshing, with hints of tart citrus and echoes of rum.  Just the thing as the days grow warmer.  Cheers!  

Recipe

1 oz aged Martinique-style rhum
0.5 oz cognac
0.5 oz London dry gin (Ford’s)
1 oz lemon juice
0.75 oz orgeat
0.5 oz dry curacao
0.5 oz amontillado sherry

-Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker with a cup of pebble or crushed ice.  Shake 5-10 seconds.
-Dump everything into a pint glass or tiki mug.  Fill the remainder of the glass with additional pebble or crushed ice.
-Optional garnishes: orange peel, mint bouquet. Serve with a straw.

Toasted Old Fashioned Godfather

 

Story

The Godfather is a simple mix of blended Scotch whisky and amaretto liqueur served over ice.  It became widespread in the 1970s after the movie The Godfather exploded in popularity, likely due to a marketing effort by the makers of amaretto.  Unfortunately, it contains blended Scotch, which just isn’t for me.  Fortunately, someone saved the day by inventing this alternative. Stepping back to the 1800s, the classic Whiskey Cocktail was whiskey, sugar, bitters and water – what we call an Old Fashioned today.  An “improved whiskey cocktail” added a liqueur to expand the flavor of the classic whiskey cocktail, giving us drinks like the Godfather.  At some point someone switched spirits to create the Toasted Old Fashioned Godfather, where the split rye/bourbon base takes the place of the blended Scotch.  The result is a delightfully smooth and rich sipper with a touch of almond.  There aren’t scores of competing flavors here, and that purity is part of its strength.  Not everything needs to be complicated.

Recipe

1 oz rye (Rittenhouse)
1 oz bourbon
0.5 oz amaretto liqueur
2 dashes Angostura bitters
-Stir ingredients with ice.  Strain into old fashioned glass over ice.

-optional: garnish with toasted almonds (really only for looks, the flavor is unchanged)

Division Bell

 

Story

The Last Word is an equal-parts drink of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice that dates back to 1915.  After many years out of memory and time, it was unearthed in the early 2000s in the Seattle bar scene.  Like many great cocktails, it inspired a lot of variants, including the Paper Plane (bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, lemon juice) and the Naked & Famous (mezcal, Aperol, yellow Chartreuse, lime juice).  The Division Bell is similar to the latter, but the ingredient substitution and rebalancing make it distinct.  The result is super interesting.  The mezcal flavor is definitely there, but the other ingredients add complexity and variation.  It’s got a balance of sweet, savory, and tart that make it memorable.  Cheers!

Recipe

1 oz mezcal (Del Maguey Vida)
0.75 oz Aperol
0.25 oz maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
0.75 oz lime juice
Grapefruit twist
-Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Express grapefruit twist and discard.

District B-13

 

Story

I’m obviously a fan of the Death & Co. family of bars and I’ve learned a lot from their trio of cocktail books.  The third book in the series, Welcome Home, has a well-deserved reputation for talking a lot about becoming a better home bartender and then listing a set of recipes with really obscure ingredients.  This cocktail is one of the few that I could make without a special trip to the store.  Luckily, it’s terrific.  The drink is the sort that creates a flavor journey: there’s a citrus and grape scent, followed by the smooth cognac.  The vermouth and the nutty sherry then get into a bit of a tug-of-war for dominance only to have Cynar waltz in at the end and trounce them both.  The Luxardo adds interesting little grace notes throughout.  The resulting cocktail is bitter and boozy, not too sweet, and definitely worth savoring.

Recipe

2 oz cognac
0.75 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
0.5 oz oloroso sherry
0.25 oz Cynar
1 teaspoon Luxardo maraschino liqueur
-stir ingredients with ice in a mixing glass
-strain into chilled coupe or Nick & Nora.  Express lemon twist and discard.

Rock and a Hard Place

 

Story

You can always tell which cocktail book I happen to be reading.  Currently it’s the NoMad Cocktail Book by Leo Robitschek, which won the James Beard Book Award in 2020 in the Beverage With Recipes category.  So it’s good, is what I’m saying.  This drink was created by Alisa Bobcat Rabovsky, a former bartender at NoMad who now does event planning for a participatory art group. Seems like a cool person, is what I’m also saying.  The Rock and a Hard Place is a variation on a Perfect Manhattan (“perfect” meaning that it’s got equal parts sweet and dry vermouth).  Here that’s augmented by the caramelized sugar and citrus notes of Amaro Nonino and the nutty combination of walnut liqueur and walnut bitters.  The walnut comes through clearly but doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the flavors, and the edges of the vermouth are rounded off.  It’s not highly complex, but there are some terrific subtleties to be found here.  

Recipe

1.5 oz rye whiskey (Rittenhouse)
0.5 oz Dolin dry vermouth
0.5 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
0.5 oz Amaro Nonino
1 teaspoon Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur
2 dashes Fee Brothers Black Walnut bitters
-stir ingredients with ice in a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled coupe or Nick & Nora glass.  No garnish.