Holy Smokes! They put my story on Summer Whisky Cocktails on the cover of Whisky Advocate Magazine!
Inside it's 7 pages of deliciousness, with recipes brought to you by:
There are swizzles and punches and highballs and bucks and smoky drinks! Run screaming to your local newsstand and pick up the Summer 2012 issue of Whisky Advocate today!
What is pot still whiskey?
The obvious answer is "whiskey that's made in a pot still," but apparently that's not true if you're in Ireland.
I was on a trip recently with whiskey writer/expert/class clown/author Dominic Roskrow and was showing off my sexy Irish whiskey distillery diagram, when he called me out on it. He said that the Cooley distillery makes no pot still whiskey.
"But they have pot stills in which they make whiskey, so obviously they make pot still whiskey," I said. It went back and forth for a few days, but the argument comes down to this:
In Ireland, "pure pot still" whiskey has long meant whiskey distilled from a combination of malted and unmalted barley. Thus "pot still Irish whiskey" doesn't tell us the type of still used to make it; it tells us the barley blend used. They claim if you distill another type of whiskey in a pot still (such as all-malted barley) in Ireland it is not pot still Irish whiskey.
That's like a basketball player arguing that an soccer ball is not a ball because it's not a basketball.
But apparently there is no use arguing logic in Ireland… so let's look at the law.
In his efforts to prove me wrong, Roskrow turned to someone with even more expertise in Irish whiskey, Peter Mulryan. Mulryan filled us in on how they've changed the legal definition to fit their local definition of pot still Irish whiskey. Mulryan wrote in an email:
Until very recently there was no legal definition of what constituted a Pot Still Irish whiskey, this allowed John Teeling [of Cooley distillery] to say that his single malt was a pot still whiskey, as it was distilled in a pot still. This was of course nonsense, as the traditional industry definition of a pot still whiskey has nothing to do with the distillation process itself; it was and is, all about the mash. A pot still whiskey is made from a COMBINATION of both malted and unmalted barley. Simple.
The industry and the Irish Government have recently clarified this new definition and it is now certified by the EU, John Teeling has backed down and he too now endorses this new legal status. At the same time the word 'Pure' was dropped from packaging, as the word had no standing in law, it was replaced by the word 'Single', this now appears on all Irish Distillers bottlings and literature.So from the start of 2012 a single pot still Irish whiskey is one made on the island of Ireland, from a mash of malted and unmalted barely, which has been matured for at least three years in oak. However that was always accepted as the norm, the law simply enforces best practice.
But here's the thing: in order to conform to international standards, they had to drop the word "pure" from "pure pot still Irish whiskey." So apparently you can't just completely make things up in Ireland after all!
It's just too bad their also-historically-accurate-but-logically-nonsensical definition of "pot still" made it through legislation.
In the current issue of Mixology Magazine, the premier German-language bartending magazine, I have a big story about the Aviation cocktail.
It covers a bunch of the history of the cocktail – how it originally had creme de violette and then the recipe was probably copied incorrectly and it was not made the right way again for decades. (I wrote a brief blog entry about that here.)
Then it delves into bartenders' preferred types of gins, maraschino liqueurs, and creme de violette, plus a whole bunch of variations on the cocktail. It includes recipes from Sierra Zimei, Humberto Marques, Brendan Dorr, Jacob Grier, and Olivier Jacobs.
It doesn't appear to be online yet, so I hope you German-reading print subscribers will enjoy it.
As you may recall, through much experimentation I figured out a way to make clear ice at home.
I later found an ice cube tray that uses the same principle (controlling direction of freezing) to make clear ice.
And now someone just pointed me to another ice cube tray that also uses the same principle (and has the same name as the last one). The Polar Ice Crystal Clear Ice Cube Tray is more compact than the other model, but it makes just one big cube at a time.
Like the other model, this is an insulated container with a tray inside. The interior tray is perforated, so all the cloudy parts of the ice are frozen beneath the perforation and you chop it off after it's frozen.
This one costs $18.99. More info is here.
An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.
In the June/July issue of Fine Cooking magazine I have a story about sangria.
We kind of rewrote it a bunch of times and now it's mostly a list of tips on how to make a good sangria, but here is the intro.
Traditional sangria is delicious, but it can also be a bit predictable: a pitcher of red wine with orange liqueur or brandy, slices of citrus, and sometimes a splash of soda for fizz. Recently, though, sangria has been showing up to the party dressed in new shades—pink, white, and even yellow—thanks to a base of rosé, white, or sparkling wine. The fruit accessories have diversified, too. Some recipes call for vibrant peaches or pastel pears, and others boast a rainbow of kiwi, pineapple, strawberries, and blueberries. With so many options, today’s sangria is practically a year-round drink, changing to suit the season and the occasion.
There are also two sangria recipes. The first is from Kathy Casey, a strawberry-melon sangria in a deep red color.
The second is by Kim Haasarud, author of 101 Sangrias. It is a yellowish pineapple-orange sangria with peach vodka and Riesling.
The pictures are better in the print magazine, I promise.
I haven't talked about this use of dehydrated liqueurs yet, which is making high-proof spirits with them. Simply add neutral grain spirits plus dehydrated liqueur, plus some of the original liqueur to keep taste consistency.
First I dehydrated some Aperol (I can't remember if I used the stovetop method or the oven method– they produce the same thing).
Then I made Extreme Aperol.
Extreme Aperol
2 ounces Aperol
2 ounces Everclear Grain Alcohol
1 ounce (by volume) Dehydrated Aperol
Combine ingredients and shake container until dehydrated Aperol is dissolved. (I had to break out the muddler as I had some big chunks.)
Everclear is 75.5 percent alcohol and Aperol is 11 percent alcohol, so by my rough calculations ((.4 x 75) + (.4 x 11)) this comes out to 34.4 percent alcohol.
And the stuff is flipping delicious, like Aperol on steroids.
Then I decided to make a Negroni with it. Many people new to Campari (a Negroni is equal parts Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth) find it too bitter and weird for their taste, so bartenders sometimes substitute the more orangey and less bitter Aperol.
The problem is that Campari is 24 percent alcohol, while Aperol is only 11 percent. I don't think Aperol holds up well in the Negroni. Thus, using Extreme Aperol should keep the same flavor of Aperol but have a higher proof.
To make Extreme Aperol the alcoholic strength as regular Campari I'd need to water it down to 70% Extreme Aperol to 30% water, so in this recipe I just used .75 ounces Aperol instead of the usual ounce.
No Baloney Negroni
.75 ounces Extreme Aperol
1 ounce Gin
1 ounce Sweet Vermouth
Stir all ingredients over ice and strain over new ice or serve up if you prefer. Consider garnishing with an orange peel.
This drink has the same syrupy texture as a Negroni, but the orange is more present than in the standard recipe. Awesome!
This post is part of the ongoing Solid Liquids Project. If you liked it, you may want to read Campari Fruit Roll-Ups, the non-alcoholic Campari & Soda, or the Missing Link Aviation.
In yesterday's post I described how I bought a pill press to make tablets out of the liqueurs.
I started with Angostura bitters, but then made additional "flavor pills" out of Campari, Midori, and Aperol.
I was thinking that these would be fun flavor enhancers for drinks, especially champagne drinks.
A cool presentation might be to give a guest a glass of champagne and a variety of flavor enhancers from which to choose. To make it extra fun, I put some in a pill box.
Then you pick your pill and add it to the sparkling wine. It fizzes up nicely.
And eventually it breaks down and colors and flavors the drink.
It does take several minutes for the flavor to become noticeable in the champagne. I tried to speed up the process by experimenting with adding baking powder to the mix, but this affected the flavor of the drink.
Thus this works best with the most strongly flavored liqueurs, and using rather large sized flavor pill tablets. It could also be a fun addition to hot tea.
Sometime soon I'll do some experimenting (I've run out of sparkling wine for now) to see which flavors work best in this format.
I hope this inspires some fun experimenting!
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wanted to find some more uses for the dehydrated liqueurs I spent a few months developing. The index to that experimentation is here.
Yesterday I tried putting dehydrated liqueurs into pill capsules, but these did not readily dissolve in any of the drinks I put them in.
So I went online and bought a pill press. You'll find them online often called a "pollen press" to make some sort of pollen pills (and I get the impression that they're also used in vaporizers with marijuana). Anyway, the one I bought was this simple split pipe and sleeve on Ebay. I bought the half-inch size.
You simply put some powder in the sleeve and the metal pipes into either end, then bang them together using a rubber or wooden hammer. It produces a tablet of sorts that you can make in any thickness.
So now they're ready to use. One of the first ones I made was not the Campari or other typical liqueurs, but Angostura bitters. (I mixed Angostura and sugar and dehydrated them together in the oven.)
That way, this "bitter pill" of Angostura and sugar can be added to bourbon to make an instant Old Fashioned cocktail.
It can also be added to champagne to make a Champagne Cocktail.
You'll remember I spent a few months figuring out the best way to dehydrate liqueurs into flavored sugars.
Now I'm finding new ways to use those liqueur-flavored sugars.
Typically bartenders who use these dehydrated liqueurs sprinkle some on top of an egg white foam or use them as a rimming sugar on a cocktail glass. But I had the idea to use them as an optional flavor enhancer to cocktails – give the customer a drink and some powdered liqueur and let them add it if desired. (Some bars do this with bitters and tinctures.)
So I bought some vegetarian capsules and filled them with dehydrated liqueurs.
They look awesome, right?
But unfortunately, they didn't perform as expected. When adding them to a cocktail the capsules didn't dissolve. I tried a boozy cocktail, a fizzy cocktail, and an acidic cocktail in the hopes that these would help speed up the process. I even tried a hot cocktail to see if that worked.
In all forms, the capsules dissolved eventually, but if you want to wait 20+ minutes for that to happen you're a more patient drinker than I.
Ah well, it was a cool idea that didn't work out.
But in tomorrow's post, I'll talk about a technique that actually worked…
Read more about the Solid Liquids Project and how to deyhydrate liqueurs here.
I created the Golden Gate 75 cocktail in tribute to the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary. They are doing a whole series of events around the anniversary with a big party on May 27th.
I had an idea: Golden Gate 75 is close to French 75. And if we swap out gin and lemon for Campari and orange juice, the color could match the famous "international orange" of the bridge!
It took a lot of experimenting to get the color right. I couldn't make it happen with regular orange juice (Campari wants to go pink) but luckily blood oranges had just come into season. It turns out that was the key. So then I talked to the Campari folks and they had it professionally photographed. I got the color pretty close I think.
Golden Gate 75
By Camper English2.5 ounces California Sparkling Wine
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Blood Orange Juice (Or substitute regular orange juice)
.5 ounces Rich Simple Syrup*
1 dash Orange Bitters (Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6 recommended)
Orange peel for garnishDirections: Blood orange juice helps turn this cocktail a color resembling the Golden Gate Bridge, celebrating its 75th birthday this year. Add Campari, orange juice, simple syrup, and bitters to an ice-filled shaker. Shake and fine strain (to remove any pulp) into a champagne flute or coupe. Top with sparkling wine. Zest the orange peel over the top of the drink and drop the peel in the drink or discard.
*Rich Simple Syrup: Heat 2 parts sugar to one part water and stir until dissolved. Store covered in the refrigerator between uses. Depending on the sweetness of sparkling wine used, you may use less simple syrup.
Now, this drink is delicious, but it's not rocket science. There are several recipes I found online for the combination of Campari, sparkling wine, and orange juice, this is just a small adjustment with bitters and simple syrup, and of course using blood orange to make it match the bridge.
When I made this at home, I used aspic cutters to make a "75" out of orange peels. But they were pretty big so they kind of sank.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the drink!
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