Face Of New Orleans

Hey kids, here’s my three creations for a coffee bar during Tales (Thursday-Saturday, 9AM-11AM). You’d be foolish to be anywhere else.

Wood, Earth, Spice

1 oz Gran Duque D’Alba

1/2 oz Cesar Monterrey Silver Tequila

1/4 oz Marie Brizard Orange Curaçao

1/4 oz Velvet Falernum

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Shake and Strain into a flute, add 1 1/2 oz Seltzer.

Taurus

1 oz Gran Duque Alba

2 1/2 oz Hot Milk

2 dashes Pechaud’s Bitters

1/4 oz Crema De Alba

1/4 oz Marie Brizard Apry

Put all ingredients in a pre-warmed mug. Dust with Filé Powder.

Swindler’s Whistle

1 1/2 oz Cold Espresso

1 1/2 oz Gran Duque D’Alba

1/4 oz La Fée Parisienne

2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Shake and fine strain into a cocktail glass.

Something for this month’s USBG meeting. Name and pictures and whatnot to come later.

1/2 oz Lemonhart Demarara 151
3/4 oz Amsterdam Gin
1/4 oz Suze
1/4 oz Martini And Rossi Bianco

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.

This swirling pot of delicious comes to you care of my muse. I don’t have a great deal to say about it other than it is an amazing concoction that uses warm La Fée Bohemian absinth.

Uphill Climb

1 1/2 oz of La Fée Bohemian

1/4 oz of R. Jelinek fernet

1/2 oz of Marie Brizard Apry

4 oz of boiling water

1/4 tsp of oregano

3/4 tsp of sugar

1/4 oz of whole milk

Steep oregano in the first four ingredients for approximately 1 minute. Remove oregano, add sugar, then milk. Stir and serve in a teacup.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.

Here’s a little something I put together for a Glazer’s event tonight featuring Jim Beam Bourbon:

Gold Rush

1 1/2 oz Jim Beam Bourbon

1/2 oz Herbsaint

1/2 oz Marie Brizard Orange Curacao

1/4 oz Pineapple Juice

Shake and Strain into a cocktail glass.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.

For a new method, this wondrous bowl was created by basing the flavor around orgeat and falernum. Also, it gave me a use for my orange tincture (made by half filling a jar with orange peel and then filling completely with vodka). It’s my first punch actually, and it’s damn tasty.

Toccata

1/2 oz of orgeat syrup

1/2 oz falernum

1 oz of Barsol acholado pisco

1 oz of Gordon’s gin

1 oz of Gosling’s black seal rum

1 oz of lemon juice

1/4 oz of orange tincture

Shake with crushed ice for a good bit, pour into a large glass. Float 1/4 oz of 151 Demarara rum, drink with a straw.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.

Let me preface this post with saying that I thought it pretty well impossible for me not to enjoy a spirit. I found two recently that damn near nauseate me. And no, these aren’t rot-gut whiskies or anything. These are “quality” spirits, and priced as such. The Bái Jiǔ from Baojing runs about $35 a fifth and the Juniper Green gin ranges, but I paid about $27 for a fifth of it.

Bái Jiǔ is an asian spirit that, in the case of this particular brand, is “filtered through 168 carats of diamonds for pristine taste and for good fortune.” Gord. I don’t care if its filtered through Mother Theresa’s panties as long as it doesn’t taste as horrendous as this mess of crap did. Its become somewhat of a feigned threat in our house as a punishment during drinking games. The Bái Jiǔ was actaully the more pleasing of the two, because I had no preconceptions of what it would taste like.

Juniper Green’s “london dry gin” is nothing of the sort. The thing that was most dissappointing about it was that I had been looking forward to trying this spirit for about two years and just never got my hands on it. It tastes like a rancid clear malt whisky with some pine and other oddities in it. It almost felt like it could be something like a jonge genever, but it doesn’t even have a pleasant taste to it. Juniper Green is uneven on the palate and honestly, the only way I was able to use it was to make a punch out of it so the “flavor” wasn’t so prevalent.

Don’t buy these. I’m not saying this to intrigue you or challenge you into buying them. Don’t. They’re horrible.

Everyone fantasizes about being a part of a secret society. It’s at the very least an ego boost. You get to know things that most aren’t privy to and feel special about the things you’re allowed and encouraged to do. The only problem is that, sometimes, that ego can overcome good judgement. If you do find yourself paying attention to shadows more so than you used to, you’ll at least be able to find comfort in knowing that the favored tool of choice here is a bit of a velvet hammer.

Mob Hit

1 3/4 oz Brugal Light Rum

1/2 oz Campari

1/4 oz Strega

1/4 oz Orgeat

5 Cloves

Egg White

Shake the everlovin’ piss out of this with plenty of ice. Garnish by using a peeler on an orange, fold up the zest, and spear it with a clove as shown.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.

This drink actually has a story. One time during college, Em and I were driving out of Arkansas and Em said out loud, “hell is hot.” I tried to maintain control of the car, but had to ask what in god’s name she was talking about. As I looked over to my right, I see a small wooden sign tacked to a tree that says, surely enough, “hell is hot.”

We bring the story up occasionally, prefacing it with…”only in Arkansas.”

Fast forward a bit to the tasting of this particular cocktail. Trying to figure out a name for it, Hell Is Hot popped out of Em’s mouth like magick.

So, I give you:

Hell Is Hot

3 dashes of Angostura Bitters

2 oz of Diabolique Rum

1/4 oz of Clement Creole Shrubb

1/2 oz of simple syrup

1/8 oz of Pyrat Pistol Rum

Add ingredients into empty rocks glass (no ice). Pour into another rocks glass that’s filled with sno-ball type ice (beat the hell out of your cubes). Garnish with grated nutmeg and a cherry.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.

Prepared as follows:

Curaçao Punch

1 Heaping Barspoon Sugar

Enough Lemon Juice To Moisten (about1/4 of a lemon)

1 oz Seltzer

2 oz Orange Curaçao (I used Bols)

1 oz Brandy (I used Torres)

1 oz Dark Rum (I used Gosling’s Black Seal)

Add sugar, lemon juice, and seltzer to a collins glass (I use the Riedel Vivant ones, and yes, they call them highball glasses….they’re wrong). Muddle to incorporate. Then pound a bunch of ice like you were trying to get a rent check out of it and fill the glass. Then add the curaçao, brandy, and the rum. Frappé. Enjoy.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.

If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to be a Greek god and hundreds of women are feeding you grapes, now you can. Just take a sip of

Bacchae

1 1/2 oz of Barsol Acholado Pisco

1/4 oz of Vya Sweet Vermouth

1/8 oz of Suze

1/4 tsp of Marie Brizard Parfait Amour

1/4 tsp of Grenadine

Stir for a very long time (45 seconds or more for me). Strain into pre-chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

Photography by Emily W. Kincke.