Category: Cocktails

Sometimes cocktails garner their names from a moment in time.  Such is the case of the Japanese Cocktail.  There’s nothing in this cocktail that would lead you believe the drink would be inspired by Japan, but rather, the cocktail was made in effort to impress dignitaries from Japan.  Legend has it that these dignitaries were staying in New York in the 1860’s and this was the cocktail made to impress them.  So is it still impressive to everyone else today?

Japanese Cocktail

Japanese Cocktail

2 oz

Cognac

½ oz

Orgeat

2-4 Dashes

Aromatic Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir. Double strain into a chilled rocks glass over a large cube. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The Japanese Cocktail is sweet, fruity, lightly caramelized, and subtly aromatic.  The flavors are complex, yet integrated, showing off the distilled fruit from the cognac (hints of berries and grape), backed up by this caramelized nuttiness and a great mix of cardamom herbal-aromatics.  The integration results in something slightly sweet, but overall well balanced and indulgent sort of cocktail.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

There’s a lot of bitters in this, so your cognac is going to fight for dominance.  The orgeat will make a huge impact if you’re not using something natural, like Small Hand Foods.  In this particular case, I would suggest using a higher end orgeat and a lower end cognac.  If you can’t accomplish that, and have to use a lower end orgeat (read: artifical), think about reducing the quantity to keep the sweetness in line, and switch to brandy.

Alternate Recipe Notes

The other major note to this drink is the variation that exists in recipes.  While the recipe we present here appears to be the minority, there is another popular recipe that eschews the Boker’s Bitters we used for Angostura, and adds ½ of lime juice.  In the event you go this route, remember that you need to shake the cocktail under these circumstances, and will serve it up (no garnish).  So why didn’t I choose this recipe?  Simply put, this variation creates a rather pedestrian cocktail that muddles the cognac, bitters, and adds acidity for the sake of levity at the cost of everything else.

• Cognac – We recommend using Pierre Ferrand 1840 or Ambre for cocktails.  The price is reasonable, and contributes great quality to the drink.  If you don’t want to pay for cognac, feel free to substitute a brandy, such as Lustau Brandy de Jerez Solera Reserva .
• Orgeat –  In this application we recommend something natural like Small Hand Foods Orgeat*, as it adds nuttiness, but not unneeded candied flavors.  From what we’ve heard from fellow enthusiasts, Liber + Co might also work as a substitute.  If you can’t find it, or don’t want to pay the premium, feel free to reach for something more candy almond like Ferrara Orzata Almond Syrup* (which will change the character of this drink).  As such, we may recommend you even cut the amount in half to a bar spoon. Monin may also work in this reduced amount.
• Bitters – In this case, the record is disputed as to which bitters were original, and work best.  We recommend you experiment with aromatics to determine which you find best.  In our cocktail, we used Boker’s Bitters, which have a strong citrus and cardamom notes.
  • Boker’s Bitters – There are few manufacturers of these bitters, and for a period of time, they stopped existing.  The most oft recommended brand, and one we use is Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Boker’s Bitters.  Be aware they’re slightly pricey, but you’re going to be using a small portion of these most of the time.
  • Angostura Bitters – These are the classic bitters for most cocktails, and we recommend you keep a bottle on hand.  If you’re making the more modern variant that includes lime juice, this is the standard recommendation.
• Lime Juice (Optional) – For best results, use fresh squeezed.

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Happy New Year!  We’re kicking off the year with a cocktail featuring an egg white, that will in no way help your diet, the Pisco Sour.  Originating in Lima in 1903, this cocktail is heavily dependent on the pisco you select.  Regardless of which varietal based pisco you use, you’ll ultimately need to make sure you properly emulsify the drink for the right texture.  To do so, make sure you use the double shake as listed in the recipe.

Pisco Sour

Pisco Sour

2 oz

Pisco

¾ oz

Lime Juice

¾ oz

Simple Syrup

1

Egg White

Drops

Angostura Bitters (Garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker vessel. Add 1 – 2 small ice cubes or a spring from a strainer and add to the shaker tin. Seal and shake hard for 15-30 seconds. Unseal, add ice and shake until chilled. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with Angostura Bitters.

The Pisco Sour is creamy, bright, sweet, and floral. The notes of the brandy accentuated by the lime deliver hints of grape and floral notes. The angostura adds a wonderful hint of spices to the mix. Little touches of tropical fruit and vanilla like hints come with the sweetness. The brightness keeps it from becoming too heavy or rich.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Pisco Sour is probably the definitive Pisco cocktail in the US, and therefore the place you’re most likely to see it used.  The formula is pretty simple, but be aware there are some debates about the choice of citrus.  While we’re going with the default lime here, there’s also good footing for an argument that lemon could be used here.  We recommend you use lime for the first, but then mix it up to see what you like best.  Keep the amount of citrus to no more than 1 oz, with ¾ oz being the target in our opinion.

• Pisco – The most commonly available Piscos you’re find are going to be perfectly serviceable here, such as the Macchu Pisco we used here.  Don’t be afraid to step up market, the Pisco will shine through in a Pisco Sour.
• Lime Juice – For best results, use fresh squeezed.  The same note if you use lemon juice here.
• Simple Syrup – A traditional 1:1 water to sugar simple is classic for this recipe
• Egg White – Use the freshest possible eggs.  If you’re concerned about salmonella, consider using pasteurized egg whites.
• Angostura Bitters – These are the classic bitters for most cocktails, and we recommend you keep a bottle on hand.

The Stinger is not the kind of drink most enthusiasts take seriously.  Made with brandy and creme de menthe, most avoid this sweet and minty concoction due to it being made with rotgut ingredients.  If, however, you happen to have access to good ingredients, you might just find there something delicious about this 2 ingredient cocktail.

Stinger

Stinger

2 oz

Cognac or Brandy

1 oz

Creme de Menthe (White)

Combine all ingredients in a shaking tin. Add ice and short shake (5 seconds). Strain into a double rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a mint spring if desired.

In a Stinger, you need to like mint. The fruitiness of the brandy plays off the herbalness of the mint, and the whole thing is tied together with sweetness. Bear in mind, this drink is more traditionally an after dinner drink, so this isn’t that unusual. So if you like mint, and the fruit and raisined fruit notes in cognac with a hit of mint, this one is for you.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The biggest component here that matters is the mint.  If you use a rotgut bottom shelf creme de menthe, you’re going to end up with a rotgut cocktail.  Use something nice though, like a Tempus Fugit’s creme de menthe, and you’ll find  you have something special.  Also, be aware that the template here is very much customizable to taste.  While the original appears to be a 2:1 ratio, modern variants suggest creme de menthe ranging from a full 2 oz (1:1 ratio) to a mere ¼ oz (8:1 ratio).  Depending on how dry or sweet you like your Stinger, will decide how you enjoy it made, but this will be important to remember if you order it out.

• Cognac/ Brandy – This is one of those cocktails where quality matters, and we recommend you choose a cognac or brandy that you like.  We used Lustau Brandy de Jerez here, but would recommend Pierre Ferrand 1840.  Christian Brothers also works in a pinch.
• Creme de Menthe – This is the most important ingredient in the Stinger.  We recommend Tempus Fugit or Get’s offerings.   If you must make it with Dekuyper, we’ll understand as there are a lot of places that don’t get those specialty ingredients.

Few drinks are so well known as the Rum and Coke.  Made with two ingredients, this drink is known by practically every bartender and cocktail enjoyer on the planet.  Just by naming it, you can make it.   But would you believe that the origins of this cocktail go back to the early 1900’s in Cuba?  Enter the Cuba Libre.

Meaning “Free Cuba”, this drink originated in Cuba sometime around the late 1890s (but not coinciding with the entrance of bottled Coke entering Cuba).  Instead, the original had a mixture of water and brown sugar.  Legend has it that some time after 1900, an individual ordered a Bacardi and Coke, intriguing some local American soldiers, and the drink took off. Like all origin stories, this owes itself to an affidavit some 60 years later, so take it with a grain of salt, but enjoy the drink – which includes lime juice in many versions (unlike a standard Rum and Coke).

Cuba Libre

Cuba Libre

2 oz

Lightly Aged Rum

4 oz

Cola

⅛ oz

Lime Juice

In a highball add 3-4 ice cubes. Add rum, lime, and cola. Give one stir, and top with ice. Garnish with a lime.

The Cuba Libre is a classic combination of smooth rum and sweet cola.    The slight note of lime gives a nice brightness here that opens up the flavor of the cola and the tropical notes of the rum.  The rum’s subtle vanilla plays well against the cola’s caramel notes.  Overall, they’re super easy to make and drink, and an obvious classic for this very reason.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The most obvious difference in recipes for a Cuba Libre (or a Rum and Coke) is the addition of the lime juice.  The lime juice adds the pop of brightness here that some people like, and some hate.  If you find you don’t like it (we admittedly like a little, but not a lot), feel free to omit it.

• Rum – Almost all recipes will recommend you use a lightly aged or ‘white’ rum here.  While these make the simplest Cuba Libres, there’s no reason you can’t choose your favorite rum or what you have on hand.  In our example, we used El Dorado 3, but we’ve made them with Appleton Reserve, Plantation Original Dark, Doorly’s X.O., and others.
• Cola – We recommend using fresh Coke for this.  While we have a slight preference for Mexican Coke, there’s not a need to have it.  Be aware, we emphasize fresh, because nothing will make a Cuba Libre more disappointing that old, flat, dull, Coke.  You can also use other cola, if you don’t like Coke.
• Lime – For best results, use fresh squeezed.

The Stone Fence traces it’s origins back to the Revolutionary War, where it served as a “savage mixture” of rum and hard cider. This isn’t your modern rum either, this is gnarly, unrefined, New England rums (as frequently used as currency as drink).  Roughly one hundred years later, Jerry Thomas republishes this drink as a bourbon cooler.  Almost a century and half since, this is one of the few drinks that calls for apple cider, so should you have it on your short list for fall?

Stone Fence

We’ll present the Stone Fence in two ways, one reflecting the original Jerry Thomas recipe, and the other showing a more modern, gentle riff on the classic.

Stone Fence – Classic

2 oz

Bourbon

3 oz

Hard Cider

¼ oz

Maple Syrup (Optional)

Add ice ¾ of the way up a Collins glass. Add ingredients to the glass. Top with ice to fill to top, and garnish with an apple fan.

The original Stone Fence is dry, strong, and bourbon forward.  While the spicing of the bourbon’s oak comes through, the cider adds a bit of levity.  The sweetness is really completely subdued.  The result is an aggressively strong drink that begs for strong hard cider to temper it.

Stone Fence – Contemporary

2 oz

Bourbon

4 oz

Apple Cider

Add ice ¾ of the way up a Collins glass. Add ingredients to the glass. Top with ice to fill to top, and garnish with an apple fan.

The more contemporary Stone Fence is full of apples and spicy, oaky, bourbon with a slight bite.  Unlike the original version, this is more of a sipper, where the bourbon plays nice with the apple cider, and displays a nice balance between the two.  The result is that as it dilutes, the sweetness combines between the two and opens up both the bourbon and the fresh pressed apple notes of the cider.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The original drink was described as a “savage mixture”, and that’s an assessment we could probably agree on.  If you like your drink boozy, definitely feel free to enjoy the original.  For those looking for something softer, the dilution in the modern version that used non-alcoholic cider is your best bet.  Bear in mind, it’s still pretty booze forward.

• Bourbon – The recommendation here is bonded bourbon, but for modern palates, this is probably going to be a bit aggressive.  Feel free to turn things down and reach for something like Buffalo Trace or Maker’s Mark.  If you decide to go higher, we suggest the good old fashioned Wild Turkey 101 or Old Forester Signature.
• Apple Cider –
  • Hard Cider – If you’re choosing to use hard cider, we highly recommend you choose one that’s unfiltered and around 5-6% ABV (as this is boozy enough as it is).  This is going to be some what of a local exercise, as cider distribution is pretty localized.  If you have to, Angry Orchard kind of works, but it suggests that non-alcoholic local cider is almost certainly going to have an advantage.
  • Non-Alcoholic Cider – Using your freshest local cider is the best way to get the best results.  We used a friend’s family farms cider, but your local grocery should work just fine.
• Optional Ingredients – There a number of tweaks for this recipe, see below for ways you can make adjustments:
  • Base Changes: Either Rye or Rum are acceptable her based on the standard.  For rum, we recommend using something aged to bring out the caramel and spice notes to join the apple cider.
  • Bitters:  To add more depth, consider a dash of Angostura bitters.  This will work better in the non-alcoholic version.
  • Sweetener:  If you want to take the edge off, consider using a ¼ oz of Maple Syrup
• Garnish – As apples should be in season, an apple fan is ideal, but mint can be used as well for aromatic purposes.

The Martinez is frequently credited as a forerunner to the Martini, but like all pre-prohibition cocktails, there’s room for debate.  This idea most likely originated from the fact that maraschino liqueur was somewhat hard to track down at the start of the cocktail renaissance. Once it was tracked down, it become apparent that the lack of Old Tom gins might be influencing ability to truly evaluate the drink.  In the interim of these two events, it became suggested that perhaps the drink was the predecessor to the Martini.   Like all drinks, ingredients matter, and switching to the bolder Old Tom style gin shows this drink has more in common with the Manhattan than the Martini.

Martinez

Martinez

1 ½ oz

Old Tom Gin

1 ½ oz

Sweet Vermouth

¼ oz

Maraschino Liqueur

2 Dashes

Boker’s Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with an orange twist.

The Martinez is sweet, spicy, and layered.  The complexity of the herbal notes of all the elements vibes into a spiced, layered, and complex flavor.  The sweetness from both the old tom gin, and the caramel notes with the sweet vermouth gives a richness.  The slight fruitiness comes in, and is somehow bound with the cardamom notes from the Boker’s bitters to bind the entire drink into something more than the sum of its parts.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Martinez being one of the forerunners to the Martini is interesting because its incredibly sweet comparatively.  Most people tasting this wouldn’t get to dry and clean vermouth from the spice, sweet, and fruitiness.  Some of this is driven by the sweet vermouth, but the gin is sweet too.  The bitters will help to balance this, but this drink will never quite reach ‘dry’.

• Old Tom Gin – This style of gin is made with licorice, which imparts sweetness more than licorice flavor.  The result of this is a softer, smoother style of gin that lends itself well to making a less juniper, more aggressive style of gin.  You could use a modern or London dry gin here, and it will turn down the sweetness while adding a bit more juniper.
• Sweet Vermouth  – We utilized the more vanilla forward Carpano Antica here  (which is our go to), but you can modify some of the flavors present by using a more caramel forward Cocchi or a fruit forward vermouth like Lustau.
• Maraschino Liqueur – The subtle cherry, almond, and spice notes are best in Luxardo’s Maraschino Liqueur (in our opinion).  Feel free to use your favorite or what is locally available.
• Boker’s Bitters – Boker’s bitters are one of the most popular pre-prohibition cocktail bitters, and made of cassia, cardamom, and bitter orange peel.  When prohibition hit, these bitters disappeared, and weren’t recreated until happenstance allowed the recreation in the early 2010’s.  Today prominent recipes exist from Dr. Adam Elmegirab*, and The Bitter Truth.  If you can’t find them or aren’t willing to pay to have them shipped, consider using the cardamom favored Regan’s orange bitters and Angostura.

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The creator of the Aviation was an individual by the name of Hugo Ensslin.  While most have never heard of Hugo Ensslin, most cocktail enthusiasts have either had or are aware of his creation.  What few folks are unaware of, is that Ensslin has another cocktail that’s about as far away from the Aviation as  you can get.  Instead of gin, maraschino, lemon, and creme de violette, the Up To Date features rye, sherry, Grand Marnier, and Angostura bitters.

Up To Date

Up to Date

2 oz

Rye

¾ oz

Sherry

½ oz

Grand Marnier

2 Dashes

Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The Up To Date is dry, nutty, and slightly spicy. The more herbal notes in the dill join with the rye spice and Angostura to make a spice bomb. Light orange notes come through in the background to add depth to a sort of earthy and nutty overtone. Those who are at home with drier cocktails, like a Martini may find things to love here.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The dryness of this cocktail is likely why it fell out of vogue. Combined with rye’s hit and miss popularity – it isn’t an obvious cocktail to even look up. That said, this is a template worth knowing about, if only for it’s relation to the Manhattan as a potential vehicle to riff on.

• Rye – We went full on into the earthy / herbal side of rye with Wild Turkey 101 Rye here.  Feel free to experiment to make a sweet combination, with ryes that are less spice and herb focused (Rittenhouse / Sazerac) or bourbon.
• Sherry – Your choice of sherry here makes a bit of difference between dry and sweet.  For the driest experience, we recommend using Manzanilla or Fino sherry.  For a more well rounded experience, utilize Amontillado or Oloroso sherry.  PX and Cream Sherry will also work, but make things sweet and add more dessert notes.
• Grand Marnier – Made from Cognac instead of neutral spirits, Grand Marnier is actually called out for this drink.  If looking to substitute, look for an orange liqueur that uses brandy or cognac.
• Angostura Bitters – These are the classic bitters for most cocktails, and we recommend you keep a bottle on hand.