Imaginary Grace

 

Story

Cream sherry is an ingredient I’ve seen in a number of cocktail recipes, but I assumed the name meant it was something like Bailey’s.  Not even close.  As we know from previous cocktails like the Bone Machine, the McKittrick, and the Trident, sherry is a dry white wine that’s fermented, fortified with a neutral grape spirit, and then aged in different ways to produce all sorts of amazing varieties.  Cream sherry is created when a dry style of sherry is blended with sweet Pedro Ximenez sherry or dessert wine.  The result is dark, slightly sweet, and smooth.  The smoothness is supposedly how cream sherry got its name, although the origin stories all clearly sound like a drunk person made them up.  Joaquín Simó of Death & Co. created the Imaginary Grace in 2009.  He apparently has a habit of naming cocktail after song lyrics, with this one deriving from Modern English’s 1982 banger “I Melt With You”.  The nose on this drink is nothing special, but on the sip it reveals itself to be many-layered and super interesting. The sherry and bitters have chocolate and nutty notes that build on the aged tequila base.  My notes say, “love, love, love”.

Recipe

2 oz reposado tequila
1 oz cream sherry
0.5 tsp Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
0.5 tsp pear brandy
0.5 tsp agave nectar
1 dash Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
1 dash angostura bitters
-Stir ingredients with ice.  Strain into chilled coup or Nick & Nora. No garnish.

Manhattan Transfer

 

Story

Recipes in the Club use a lot of amari.  (That’s the pleural form of amaro, although I immediately sound like an “actually…” guy whenever I say it, so I’ll try to use the singular as much as possible.)  We know that an amaro, speaking extremely generally, is neutral spirit + bittering agent(s) + herbs/spices/aromatics + sugar.  What’s interesting is how these amazing bittersweet liqueurs are used in Europe compared to how they’re used in the U.S.  In Italy and much of continental Europe, a small pour of room-temperature amaro is often consumed after dinner as a digestif (digestive aid).  These are typically the darker, stronger amaro varieties, meant to help settle the stomach.  Lighter types of amari (Campari, Aperol – pretty much anything clear or red) are usually consumed before dinner as an apertif to stimulate the appetite.  In the U.S., of course, if we drink an amaro at all it’s almost always in a cocktail.  It’s thought that, because we ‘Muricans prefer things that are sweet rather than bitter, we needed cocktails as a way to initially appreciate an amaro’s flavor.  The Manhattan Transfer takes advantage of a terrific amaro to add complexity to a Manhattan.  Phil Ward came up with it in 2008 at Death & Co.  Ramazzotti is an Italian amaro created over 200 years ago.  With notes of baking spices, chocolate, and mint, it’s great to sip on its own and really elevated this Manhattan.

Recipe

1.5 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz Ramazzotti Amaro
1 dash orange bitters
-Stir ingredients with ice.  Strain into chilled coup or Nick & Nora. No garnish.

Lilywhacker

Story

The Manhattan – just a spirit, vermouth, and bitters, stirred with ice to chill and served up.  The vermouth is what differentiates a Manhattan from an Old Fashioned (spirit, sugar, bitters).  So what exactly is vermouth?  It’s technically a “fortified and aromatized wine”. It starts out as white wine.  A neutral grape spirit or brandy is added to raise the alcohol content.  It’s then blended with a botanical infusion made by macerating botanicals (bittering agents, spices, citrus, and so on) in alcohol.  Sound familiar?  It turns out that vermouth has a lot in common with amaro, which starts with a spirit base rather than a wine base.  Exact processes and recipes vary by type and brand, of course, and amari generally end up with higher ABV, but the similarities are pretty cool.  All of this is to say that the Lilywhacker, invented by Phil Ward of Death & Co. around 2008, is a Manhattan variant that uses apple brandy as the spirit and features a bit of Cointreau to balance the flavors.  The apple brandy is Laird’s Bottled In Bond, which is strong enough to stand up to the other flavors.  This one should come in kind of hot, but it doesn’t.  Balanced, fruity, delicious.

Recipe

2 oz Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy, Bottled in Bond
0.75 oz Carpano Antica
0.5 oz Cointreau
1 dash Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
-Stir ingredients with ice.  Strain into chilled coup or Nick & Nora. No garnish.

Pressure Drop

 

Story

The Martinez is a classic cocktail that first appeared in print in 1884 in The Modern Bartenders’ Guide by O.H. Byron.  The origins of the cocktail are lost to time, but it featured equal parts gin and sweet vermouth, plus some maraschino liqueur and bitters.  There is some evidence that the Manhattan was invented first, the Martinez was a variant, and further tweaking over time resulted in the modern martini.  Thomas Waugh created the Pressure Drop for Death & Co. in 2009 as a riff on the Martinez.  By replacing sweet vermouth with a dry vermouth / amaro mix and dropping in a bit of pear brandy as a fruity accent, he created a marvel.  The aroma is all gin, but a sip reveals a balanced interplay of fruit, saffron from the Meletti, and a hint of bitterness wrapped up in a smooth pillow of Old Tom.  Easy to make, even easier to drink.

 

Recipe

1.5 oz Old Tom gin
1 oz Amaro Meletti
0.5 oz Dolin dry vermouth
1 tsp pear brandy
1dash Angostura bitters
-stir ingredients with ice
-strain into chilled coup or Nick & Nora
-no garnish

Walnut Crown

 

Story

It all started when I picked up a bottle of Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur.  It was bitter and nutty and interesting, and I couldn’t figure out what to do with it.  I happened on a recipe called the Storm King (2 oz blended Scotch, ½ oz walnut liqueur, ¼ oz Benedictine, ango bitters), which of course I had to make because of the name.  Unlike the distinctive smoky, peaty flavor of Islay Scotch whisky, blended Scotch is typically smoother and more balanced.  Monkey Shoulder Scotch, which I used, is not smoky at all.  I hated the Storm King, probably because it turns out that I don’t like blended Scotch.  I keep wanting it to be bourbon!  So, I thought, let’s take out the Scotch in favor of bourbon while also mixing up the bitters a bit.  The result is a classic-tasting Old Fashioned topped off with a nifty flavor of walnut and a bit of honey.  Much more to my tastes.

 

Recipe

2 oz bourbon
0.5 oz walnut liqueur
0.25 oz Benedictine
1dash Angostura bitters, 1 dash Bittermens Elemakule Tiki bitters
orange twist
-stir ingredients with ice
-strain into rocks glass with fresh ice
-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

Lost Horizon

 

Story

Lost Horizon is an Old Fashioned variant created by Tyson Buhler, manager of beverage operations at New York bar Death & Co and winner of the 2015 World Bartending Championship.  The drink features a split base of cognac and Jamaican rum with Fernet Brance serving as the bitter ingredient.  The sweetener is a banana liqueur from Giffard, a French company that makes a series of outstanding flavored liqueurs that avoid tasting either artificial or too sweet.  In the case of Giffard banana du Brasil, it smells and tastes like banana bread.  The Lost Horizon is rich, fruity, smooth, and bittersweet.  The subtle smoke from the Islay scotch rinse is great, but if you’re smoke-averse the drink is terrific without the rinse as well.

 

Recipe

Islay scotch (Laphroaig 10-year), to rinse
1 oz cognac
1 oz Jamaican rum
2 tsp Giffard banana du Brasil
1 tsp Fernet Branca
-Rinse rocks glass with scotch and dump excess.
-measure remaining ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill.  Pour into glass.
-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

Aces and Eights

 

 

Story

“Aces and eights” is a reference to what’s also known as the “dead man’s hand” in poker: two black aces and two black eights.  Legend has it that Wild Bill Hickock was holding this hand when he was shot in the back at a poker table.  There is absolutely no evidence that this was the case, but I don’t see why that should make a difference.  The drink itself is a flavor bomb that was invented by bartender Jarred Weigand in 2016 at the New York bar Death & Company.  Coffee is a prominent flavor, but the amaro and bitters add chocolate and spice notes.  The tequila adds richness to the drink but the tequila flavor itself only peeks out shyly from the background.  You can think of this as a type of Old Fashioned, which is a spirit (tequila), sweetener (amaro, vanilla simple), and bitters (mole bitters, coffee liqueur).  This cocktail is both bold and easy to drink.  Bang!

Recipe
2 oz reposado tequila
0.5 oz Meletti Amaro
1 tsp Mr. Black cold brew coffee liqueur
1 tsp vanilla simple syrup  (1:100 vanilla extract to simple syrup, very roughly)
1 dash Bittermens Mole Bitters
-measure ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill. Strain into rocks glass over ice.
-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

iiekanzou (ē-CON-sō)

 

Story

A home bartender named Matthias Soberon created a drink called The Nawashi (Japanese for “rope master”) that won a Home Bar Award and ended up on the menu at Amor Y Amargo in NYC.  It contains dry vermouth, CioCiaro amaro, benedictine, Peychaud’s bitters, and a whopping 0.75 oz of absinthe. As you might guess, it tastes like a glass of black licorice.  Despite that, it managed to be balanced rather than overwhelming, and was interesting because it has powerful flavor but no base spirit.  There were some suggestions online that Green Chartreuse might serve a similar role as absinthe in the drink without being quite so divisive, so I swapped that in and switched to tiki bitters instead.  Bingo.  Now the flavors are more equally represented and interesting.  The vermouth lengthens the punch of the chartreuse, while the amaro and benedictine amp up the fruitiness and the bitters tie it all together.  The name is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for “no licorice”.

 
Recipe
1.5 oz dry vermouth
0.75 oz green chartreuse
0.5 oz Ramazzotti Amaro
0.5 oz Benedictine
1 dash Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters
-measure ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill. Strain into coupe or Nick & Nora.

-express orange twist and use as a garnish.

Trident

 

Story

Steven Wright had a bit back in the 80s: “I got up the other day and everything in my apartment had been stolen and replaced with an exact replica.”  This drink is kind of the equivalent of that for the Negroni.  Each ingredient has been swapped out, not for an exact replica, but for a distant cousin.  Aquavit replaces gin, Cynar subs in for the Campari, and sherry takes the place of vermouth.  A couple dashes of bitters to connect everything and you’ve got a harmonious blend that’s both familiar and completely different.  The complex aquavit starts things out both savory and sweet, closely followed by the nutty amontillado sherry.  Then the Cynar shows up and closes out the sip with some welcome herbal bitterness.  Lovely.

Recipe

1 oz aquavit
1 oz Cynar
1 oz dry sherry (amontillado)
1 dash orange bitters
1 dash peach bitters
lemon twist
-measure ingredients into mixing glass with ice.  Stir to chill. Strain into coup or Nick & Nora.
-express lemon twist and discard.

Port Manhattan

 

Story

I’ve got a secret – sometimes I don’t like sweet vermouth.  Don’t get me wrong, it features in a lot of my favorite cocktails. But at times the spirit and the vermouth line up in such a way that it reinforces some flavors that don’t match my palate.  This version of the Manhattan sidesteps that occasional issue by swapping out sweet vermouth for port, which was the first drink I fell in love with.  Port is a fortified wine that’s made in the northern part of Portugal.  It seems that they start making wine the usual way, then at some point they dump in a neutral grape spirit called aguardente (Portuguese for “burning water”).  This stops the fermentation process early, which prevents the natural sugars from being consumed.  It also increases the alcohol content, because they just dumped in a bunch of alcohol.  Port comes in a variety of styles, of which ruby is the most common. 

This cocktail doesn’t have a dozen layers of complexity or spiced syrups or unexpected ingredients, but sometimes being amazing is enough. 

Recipe

2 oz rye (Rittenhouse)
1 oz ruby port (Warre’s Warrior)
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.

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