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Tequila, Honey, Maraschino, Bitters

In a recent blog post on FineCooking.com, I post a recipe from Brendan Dorr of Baltimore. 

 

The drink contains Partida tequila, Barenjager, Marschino liqueur, and bitters. 

 

El-Oso
By Brendan Dorr

1.75 fl. oz. Partida Anejo Tequila 
.75 fl. oz. Barenjager Honey Liqueur
.3 fl. oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
2 dashes Jerry Thomas' Own Decanter Bitters
Orange Peel for Garnish

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice and stir until very cold. Strain into an old fashioned glass with new ice and garnish with orange peel.

The full post on FineCooking is here.

 

Book Review: Barrels & Drams

I recently read Barrels and Drams: The History of Whisk(e)y in Jiggers and Shots. It's an anthology edited by William M. Dowd. 

The book contains essays by people like Bill Owens, James Rodewald, F. Paul Pacult, Charles Cowdery, Daniel Okrent, and David Wondrich. Most of them have been previously published in distiller biographies, category books, history books, Whisky Magazine, and Scottish Field Magazine, but a few are brand new. 

The book has sections, each with several essays. The sections are on spirits and distilling, famous distillers, American whisky history, Prohibition, global whisky, a few how-tos, and a miscellaneous section. 

I particularly enjoyed the essays in the Global Whisky section, learning about whisky in India, Japan, and South Africa. I got a few ideas from the Home Vatting essay, and picked up new facts here and there throughout that will inspire further research. 

The book isn't a narrative, nor a text book, and it isn't exhaustive in any one section, but is just a group of essays themed around whisky. People like me who are into whisky tend to like to read about whisky (vodka drinkers, not so much) and will probably also enjoy the book. 

Show Us Your Sugar: The Sugar House in Detroit

 

As part of my ongoing study of sugar in spirits and cocktails, I am curious to know what sugars bartenders are using in their bars - raw sugars, simple syrups, and any other sugars.

 

Bartenders: I'd love it if you'd send me a picture of your sugar and tell me about your program. 

I got the idea for a series from Dave Kwiatkowski of Sugar House in Detroit, who sent a picture of his sugar. 

 

 

Kwiatkowski says, "It's certified fair trade Malawian natural demerara sugar.  It's extremely sweet and an amazingly rich tasting, so instead of a 2:1 we use a 1:1, and often have to dial back the syrup just a bit."

"Before we hooked up with Wholesome, I was running around to all the Mexican markets in Detroit buying up all their Zulka every other day, as none of the food purveyors here seem to know what natural sugar is about.  Needless to say, that got old."

I didn't realize how much sugar bars actually go through. Kwiatkowski says, "We started buying it in mid November, and I've already purchased about 475lbs, with a few bags left." That was in January.

By my calculations that's about 60 pounds of sugar per week!

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Want to show off your bar's sugar program? Please send me an email. 

 

The Sugar Spirit Project is sponsored by Bacardi Rum. Content created and owned by Camper English for Alcademics. For the project index, click on the logo above or follow this link. 

 

Book Review: The PDT Cocktail Book

By now, you've probably heard of The PDT Cocktail Book: The Complete Bartender's Guide from the Celebrated Speakeasy by Jim Meehan. 

With the many wonderful illustrations by Chris Gall, the book is basically a modern Savoy Cocktail Book. Its 300+ recipes include both the classic canon of cocktails and recent inventions, with a particular focus on the drinks served at PDT and in New York by other notable bartenders. And unlike the Savoy Cocktail Book, all of the recipes' creators are noted. 

One unusual aspect to the book is that every recipe includes specific brands to use in it. That's both a pro and a con: By knowing the specific brands you'll know exactly how to make the drink as it is made at PDT, one of the most-respected bars in the world, but this also makes the prospect of making a large portion of the recipes very daunting lest you screw them up with the wrong ingredients.  

Many of the ingredients are are unusual and hard- or impossible- to find. Not just the base spirits (which can be more easily substituted with others if you know enough about the brand called for), but particularly modifiers, such as Clear Creek Kirschwasser, Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos "Red Label", and Amaro Ciociaro.  As this New York Times story implies, making many of the drinks in the book as directed is a very expensive proposition. 

Regardless of your feelings on that, the PDT Cocktail Book is a new essential cocktail book to own and I'm sure it will be cited in the future as much as many of the books we consider classics today. 

And if you'd like to see a simple recipe, I put one up on FineCooking.com in my weekly blog over there. The drink is the Le Pere Bis, by Jim Meehan. It contains Ardbeg, St. Germain, honey, and chamomile tea. Yum. 

The recipe is here.