Scofflaw's Den

We have, finally and officially, moved.

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:04:07 GMT

If you are reading this on LiveJournal - well, that whole community.livejournal etc. etc. etc. URL - we are no longer posting on there.

LJ was a fine place to start off at in the blogging world. I didn't see that much wrong with it, but between having a paid account and using lots of ad blocking software, I would of course not.

I won't get into all the "Behind the scenes" drama that seems to flit around LJ at times - I've always avoided that.

But we've wanted greater control over our future and with our new host we have it. We'll actually be hosted on Yahoo!'s servers which means that it should be easier for people to hit our site if they're in a location that blocks big blogging areas (such as LJ and Blogspot).

We're moving to WordPress, which means we'll have more flexibility in what we can do, and you'll see that almost right away.

We're going to have some nifty other things, too, as time goes on. You'll see a "Forums" link, for instance, which isn't active right now but will be down the road.

Enough of the promotional blather, how do you get to this miraculous host of a blog, you may ask?

It's easy. Just go to www.scofflawsden.com.

Soon - not right this instant (i.e. 6:01 PM EDT) - you'll be able to use the rest of the Scofflaw's Den URLs:
www.scofflaws-den.com
www.scofflawsden.org
www.scofflawsden.info
www.scofflaws-den.org
www.scofflaws-den.info

The best is going to be scofflawsden.com, though I've liberally linked to scofflaws-den.com.

Come on over, we can't wait to see you!

Central Michel Richard

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:06:50 GMT

If you remember back a while, we went to a dinner for the Museum of the American Cocktail, where Justin Guthrie, bar manager at Central Michel Richard, made a tarragon gin fizz that I loved. After the dinner, he sent me a message, inviting us down to visit the bar at Central and to check out some of the goings-on that he has, uh, going on, down there. It's been a hectic time of year but yesterday Marshall and I finally made our way down there.

And it was a scorcher out! Coupled with a train breaking down on Metro right in front of me, I was in dire need of a refreshing libation when I made my way into Central. Justin was right there, explaining how it's gin rickey month here in DC and offering me up a black pepper and lime gin rickey made with Zuidam gin.

Talk about refreshing. There's a competition going on between several of the bartenders in the area for their gin rickeys, a drink that Justin informed us was invented here in DC. At the end of the month several celebrity judges, in the cocktail world at least, such as Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Eric Felton of the Wall Street Journal, will see whose gin rickey will reign supreme!

Which makes me disappointed that I didn't try a gin rickey over at PX on Wednesday night, but alas, maybe that's an excuse to go back.

Next up was an apricot sour. An interesting thing about how they make them at Central is that they use powdered egg whites. There are several reasons for that, including less questions from customers about safety, cost effectiveness, time constraints, and not having to deal with yolks. But the big thing is for drinks like their sour is that powdered egg whites are frothier than their real counterparts, which helps when you want to stencil your restaurant's logo on top with a spritzer of what appeared to be bitters:

(Yeah, there was a little dot in there but you know what? It was still really cool.)

Perhaps unfortunately for me, I'm not a huge apricot fan. I'd experimented with apricot flavored brandy in the past and it had just reiterated to me that, you know what, I'm just not that much into apricots. I could still appreciate the drink, it was good, I liked it - but just not in the "I can drink a whole one" kind of way.

(Sound weird, maybe? I guess. I've learned a lot lately on how to appreciate tastes without necessarily loving them.)

Next up was a ginger dacquiri. It was made with Neisson Agricole Blanc rum, a rum that I like in the taste but not in the aroma, so that hit me a bit. It was also made with creme de gingembre for a light, subtle ginger taste that really enhanced the taste of the drink without overwhelming it. This was another great summer time drink that I could've drank more than a few of, if we hadn't been whisked into the direction of other drinks first...

About this time they brought out some peanuts for us to munch on. There were ordinary peanuts and then there were the wasabi peanuts - peanuts in a hard shell, bright green, and a sinus blasting shout of wasabi that I loved, particularly when (weirdly enough) eating multiple of them at once.

Next we talked about quinine. I've become a bit more discerning in my choices of tonic water lately - I've found that I'm not a huge fan of the Q, but I do like the Fever-Tree and the Stirrings a lot, which makes this month's Imbibe and their taste test of tonic to be reassuring to me - and I have thought about making my own in the past.

Justin had bought bulk quinine and described how it came packaged. He pulled out a small jar of the dried brown powder and put it in a glass then added soda. Presto, tonic water! Mixing it with some G-vine gin (the French gin made from grapes that I first had at our recent trip to New Heights restaurant, which led me to immediately buying a bottle) he made up a refreshing gin and tonic that we sipped on for a while.

(Would it be redundant to say that I would've drank lots of those? Look, seriously, unless I mention otherwise, just assume that every single one of Justin's (and later Brian's) concoctions was so full of delicious-ocity that I would've sucked down multiples of them gladly - and I'm also glad that I didn't, so I got a chance to try everything else that was coming up on the list.)

While we wiled away the evening, we switched over to trying out some different liquors. The first off was the Yamazaki 12 year old single malt whiskey - a Scotch in everything but name, since it's made in Japan from Japanese ingredients, though the original distiller had learned his trade in Scotland and even married a Scottish woman. I'd always wanted to try it and enjoyed it greatly - I think I know someone who is going to get a bottle of it as his next gift.

(No, not me!)

Next up was a taste test of Old Weller 107 proof and Four Roses bourbons. Old Weller 107 is a good value for its price and tasted to me like a better mixing bourbon rather than one that would be drank straight up. Four Roses, which is actually owned by a Japanese firm and only sells its whiskey in a 50 mile radius around the distillery, lived up to the grand reputation that I've heard about it and made me quite desirous of a bottle for my own consumption.

After that we went over to a taste test between Pyrat and Pusser's rums. Surprisingly enough for me, I enjoyed them both quite a bit, even though I'm not the biggest rum guy in the world. There was a subtle variety to them, we thought that we could taste some orange in the Pyrat, and both went on my list as "maybe I'll get some of these, too."

Not that I really need any more liquor in my collection...

The next drink whipped up for us was a blackberry bourbon cobbler by Brian, one of the other bartenders at Central.

In the background you see the wasabi peanuts; I'll get to the rest of what you see in a few minutes. But first, take a look at that blackberry!

That's huge tiny E! And Justin claimed that it was the runt of the batch!

I think he was gluing together other blackberries, but that was just my paranoid conspiracy theory of the night.

That was another Damn Fine Drink. Cold, thick, refreshing, a bit tart...I wanted a pitcher of 'em. And a straw. And for Marshall to get his mitts off the glass...ahhh, well.

We were starting to get hungry and decided to order up. We split an order of the cheese puffs, which were light and flaky with a bit of cheese in each small one. They made for great bar food.

Marshall went for the burger, something he's been looking forward to for quite a while. I was still recovering from burger nirvana thanks to Ray's Butcher Burgers over in Rosslyn Tuesday night so I got what I'd been craving since Wednesday - sauteed calf's liver, which came with bacon and onions on it and on top of some really creamy (I believe) mashed potatoes.

Justin matched up the liver with a pinot noir that was light and fruity, a perfect accompaniment to the liver - he felt they were made for each other. Marshall enjoyed an Argentinian malbec (I believe it was from Argentina, not Australia - I unfortunately failed to note that) that looked like it was quite good, too. I made mental notes to bring my brother and his fiancee here for food, they would've loved it.

Finally, we got to the moment that Justin had been waiting for - the Del Maguey Pechuga. This is a triple distilled mezcal made on an isolated rural hillside by a farmer in Mexico. On the third distillation he adds in a number of fruits to the clay and bamboo still, then puts in a raw chicken breast, bone structure intact, for the alcohol to filter through.

I am glad that I had a chance to experience it. Unlike most of the other drinks we had, I probably would not have more than one of those as a drink, especially given the expense, but it was definitely an experience.

At this point Justin had to take off, so we made our goodbyes with him, and he left in the hands of his very capable cohort Brian. Brian made up a Sazerac for me that did credit to the cocktail gods, using a Van Winkle rye that I hadn't tried before.

For Marshall he made up a "rhubarb negroni", using G-vine gin, Vya vermouth, and Aperol instead of Campari. I usually use Aperol in my negronis as well so I, of course, approve of such a decision.

(And now I want a negroni!)

I have to say that Justin, and the rest of the staff at Central, were amazing. They were exceedingly friendly and handled even the most difficult situations that we saw with aplomb, finesse, and diplomacy. I had a great time down there and meeting the bartenders, wait staff, and of course, Justin, and I cannot wait to go back. As I write this I'm doing my best to reimagine my Coke Zero and Lean Cuisine pizza as a black pepper lime gin rickey or a blackberry bourbon cobbler and a plate of sauteed liver, so tender you cut it with a butter knife...

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone down at Central!

Upcoming plans

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:13:06 GMT

In case any of you wondered...we're coming up on 4th of July weekend, and more importantly, tomorrow is my birthday. So I thought I'd share my more cocktail-related plans with y'all...

Tonight is pretty ordinary. Just going to an Irish place up the street with some coworkers (Ireland's Four Courts) for happy hour type drinks. Though we might stop at Ray's the Steaks new burger place (Ray's Butcher Burgers) for a $6.95, 10 ounce awesome sounding cheeseburger if it's not too insane.

Tomorrow night it's off to The Majestic, owned by the same group that does Restaurant Eve and PX, followed by a trip to PX. Hopefully we'll get to sit at the bar at PX.

Thursday Marshall and I will be heading over to visit Justin at Central Michel Richard and check out some of what he's got going behind the bar, including something called Del Maguey Pechuga, a triple distilled mezcal that goes through the last distillation with a raw chicken breast in the still.

No plans for Friday as of yet, but Saturday will be my "birthday party", cooking out at my condo complex and perhaps making up the latest drink I invented which I named after my kickball team, "DC Detention". It's somewhat orange in color and, according to my parents, tastes like Orange Nehi; they thought it would be very dangerous as it was quite easy to drink.

I'll post the recipe once I'm positive I've gotten it straight.

Should be a fun weekend! I haven't Twitter-ed much lately thanks to Twitter having so many problems but I might try to get some of this on there...

That's it for Thompson

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:04:16 GMT

My grandfather smokes cigars, my dad smokes cigars, and I smoke cigars.

Granddad typically sticks with Philly Blunts, a fact that amuses me to no small end. He does like other cigars, he just doesn't go out of his way to get them. Dad tends to smoke small cigars when driving but has also enjoyed others such as the Lone Wolf cigars I introduced him to a year or so ago.

I smoke a lot of different things. My usual brands are La Aurora, La Gloria Cubana (typically the Serie R), and Rocky Patel.

Father's Day came by recently and although I am quite slow, I managed to get the presents out only a few days after it. My dad had commented that granddad was a fan of the "sampler packs" that you can get from various cigar retailers. I buy most of my cigars locally but thought that it would be easiest to order such a sampler for both dad and granddad. Looking through a couple of different websites, I eventually decided to go with Thompson.

I've bought from Thompson a long time ago just after college. Since then I've gotten their catalogs and their e-mails but not paid much attention to them. In this case, however, they seemed to be the best deal for my time frame and I got two samplers.

I had to provide a phone number for the order which isn't unusual. The other day I missed a call from an 888 number, didn't think much of it, and there was no message. I was at work today and another call came in from an 888 number so I answered it.

It was a representative from Thompson. He confirmed my orders had shipped to the two different addresses that I gave which was nice. He then started telling me about a deal that they had where you get points for the cigars you buy, and that leads to a discount/refund of some sort, it was free, blah blah blah...

That started tweaking my radar. I remembered something about a plan somewhere in the Thompson catalog but I usually don't really read them that closely. There's something about the catalogs and the prose describing the cigars that just turns me off from the catalog (actually, I know exactly what it is - it's how every cigar seems to be sold as the best cigar in the world, with more on "how wonderful it is" than exactly what to expect from it - I feel like I can't trust their marketing).

The salesman eventually said he wanted to give me a free gift and after a few false starts (mostly offering things I already have - maybe because I underestimated how many cigars I smoke in a week) he said he'd send me a sampler of the Thompson house brand (if I recall the name correctly). Sure, fine, whatever, that's good...now I just need to talk to his supervisor to confirm it, don't worry, I'd have a month to think about it, but it's free, and if I need more time or less time we can figure that out...

Waitaminute...

The supervisor comes on and only then can I get a confirmation that this is a SUBSCRIPTION to get cigars every month.

Uh - no.

You know, if he'd come on right away and told me "we want you to basically buy X number of cigars a month, and we'll send them to you automatically, and you get free stuff", I probably would've done it.

But giving me the quick-talking hard sell - no. Absolutely not.

And now I won't buy them from again now. You know why? Because that type of marketing makes me not trust you.

Hmmm...maybe their cigar catalogs should've been foreshadowing...

And with that, I think I might go see about restocking my Lone Wolfs...maybe getting some five packs or something...it is my birthday next week...

One late MxMo entry...

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:45:53 GMT

Someone (cough cough cough) sent their entry to the wrong address...

I mention this for one important reason: vanilla cane orgeat.

Mixology Monday Bourbon Recap

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:14:16 GMT

Wow. I mean...just...wow. The response was amazing this month!

As my fellow scofflaw Marshall mentioned in his write-up, bourbon has a special place in our hearts. If I had to pick a "desert island' liquor, it'd be bourbon. If I thought about what I drank the most in college - other than beer - it'd be bourbon (or even after college). Heck, my parents rubbed bourbon on my gums back as a kid to help with teething!

Well, for all that, I was excited to see the entries this month. We've got some doozies! It really makes me want to get back into the bar and make up some of these delicious sounding drinks.

So enough of all that, let's get into the recaps - but first, something else...

I received an e-mail last week from Mike Manning at Bulleit Distillery. I'd only ever had Bulleit in minis or the occasional mixed drink and he asked if I'd like to have a sample and some material about it. I, of course, said yes. Sure enough a package showed up on my doorstep on Monday (and was fortunately brought inside by my brother before the monsoons could wash it away). Inside was a 750 mL bottle of Bulleit and some papers.

If you haven't had it before you should give it a shot. I tried about half a shot of it first, just sipped it, and liked it better than I had remembered when I'd last tried it straight. The bottle is also just neat looking. I've been into Westerns for a long time and it just looks Western, and it seems they used it on the show Deadwood for that very reason. It's definitely more authentic than that "Wild Spirit" stuff I used to drink a while ago!

So I've gotta thank Mike for his donation. I used it in my drinks last night; I'm sure Marshall and I (assuming I let him have some) will have to see how it works out in some others.

One quick other thing: the Den is what we consider an "online speakeasy". With our new digs (see bottom of the post) we'll hopefully be able to work on the sense of community and camaraderie much better than our current host. As I see it, Marshall and I are your bartenders for the evening. Though most evenings there's only one or the other of us on shift; for instance, I handled this MxMo, but I know Marshall is chafing at the bit to host one of his own!

One last thing before the recap: if you're a blogger in the Washington, DC, area, leave a comment or drop me a line at seanmike -at- scofflawsden -dot- com. I've seen at least a couple of you out there and would love to see who we could get together for a ~~rampage~~ ~~drinking binge~~ cocktail tour of the DC area or something.

Mark Sexaur responded first with a post on his cocktail blog, back a solid week ago, with his drink, a Maker's Mark and Anti-Cola. He mentions how you can get a chance to get your own barrel of Maker's Mark and also provides the recipe for his "anti-cola" which he thinks is better than coke and, hey, sounds darn good to me! I might have to give it a shot sometime soon.

Next up we have the Nickel Fizz from Max Heusler, the "editor in fly" of the FlyboyzNYC blog. This is a combination of bourbon, vanilla beans, and cherries, along with Boylan's black cherry cola - one of the flavors that I can find pretty readily in my local grocery stores. He doesn't say if he used sweet or sour cherries, but if I made it, I'd use sweet cherries because I've got a huge sweet tooth.

Next up is the Monte Carlo from Married...with dinner. This is a simple drink of whiskey and Benedictine plus some bitters. It goes to show, as some other cocktails in this recap will also do, that you don't need fourteen thousand ingredients to make a good drink. I'd say "or anything esoteric" but I tend to forget that I'm a compulsive collector, and thus, Benedictine might not be in everyone's bar necessarily. Heck, I've been to bars that didn't have it, or just had B&B...(but that's a rant for another day)....

Keith over at his blog, moving at the speed of life, brings up one of the most classic bourbon drinks out there - the mint julep. I claim that this is the drink that taught me how to make simple syrup, as the recipe I always used is very similar (well, pretty much exactly the same) as the one in The Joy of Mixology. Keith takes it up one step and gives us a few different variants putting in different liqueurs to accentuate the tastes. Man, I'm thirsty just thinking about it...it's such a nice day outside...sigh.

Bruce at WorldWideDrinks brings us the Allegheny, a mixture of bourbon, dry vermouth, blackberry brandy, and lemon juice. He also goes into a bit of the history of bourbon, and more specifically the Bourbon county area. Explaining how Bourbon County was part of the "Kentucky District of Virginia" might help explain why we Virginians still love it so much (other than the fact that, hey, it's good!).

Next we had Seamus over at bunnyhugs with his drink, the Derby, from Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. He describes this drink as a combination between a Manhattan and a whiskey sour which is fascinating to me. Manhattans are one of my current "go to" cocktails and whiskey sours were one of my favorites back in college (when I wasn't drinking bourbon and cokes, that is). Seamus also gets bonus brownie points for using Bulleit this month.

Keeping on the Bulleit fixation, Kez over at Kez, mixed gave us the "Kentucky Kernel", which we are warned is not named after the KFC founder but rather refers to the fact that it uses apricot brandy. Kez also points out that the University of Kentucky's student newspaper is called the "Kentucky Kernel". That actually fits in appropriately for the bourbon Kez used but as to why that is I'll leave for a trivia question - answer in the comments if you think you know! (And no, it's not because bourbon is from Kentucky.)

Because I'm a right awful bastard sometimes I even made Marshall follow the instructions I laid down and send me an e-mail with the URL of his beverage posting! Grumbling, he complied, posting about his Kentucky Orange Blossom, a drink that sounds better than it seemed to end up, and his variation of a Lynchburg Lemonade that he called the Front Porch Cooler. It is that lemonade variation that stopped me from doing my own, which was going to be primarily lemonade, bourbon, and orange Angostura bitters. But his sounds pretty good, too.

TraderTiki had to break from his usual retinue of rums to experiment with a bourbon drink and found the only one that he really enjoys. While I'm glad he found one, I think what that truly means is that the Scofflaw's Den resident tiki expert, Marshall, needs to hunt Blair and pour various bourbon drinks down his throat until we find another one that he likes! And another one, and another one, and another one...at our hearts, we're really just good, decent, humanitarians.

Oh, that Jamie Boudreau! He took the bourbon theme to heart SO HARD that he actually WENT to Bourbon county, Kentucky, and visited distilleries, such as my college nemesis Jim Beam and one of my current favorites Heaven Hill. He talks on and on about the wonderful things he got to do, with beautiful pictures taken, and finally gives us the Seelbach Cocktail, with two different kinds of bitters and a topping of champagne. I've got to decide if I'm just incredibly envious or what with the stories he had from that trip...

Not being the types to let their personal tastes get in the way of science! the fellows over at Infusions of Grandeur went about making their own cherry bounce - for historical reasons, honestly. If you're interested in cherry bounce I know that the book Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread & Scuppernong Wine: The Folklore and Art of Southern Appalachian Cooking talks about it as well as other old-school drinks. All in all it's a pretty good book, in fact - I should write more on it later.

"The German one", Chris, posted his entry about an Elderflower Manhattan. Just to warn you, the whole post is in "German", and while I can't read German, I can read the recipe other than its crazy "metric" measurements! No, I'm just kidding (I say before the Infusions of Grandeur scientists throw beakers at me), I know metric, and I also think that this drink sounds fairly interesting. Bourbon, dry vermouth, and St. Germain, with a dash or two of bitters...

The drink that another northern Virginia-ite, Jacob Grier, sent in is called "Amy's Mom". I read his e-mail, which included the recipe, and was pleased when I read his post and saw that I was right about the inspiration for it (the "Bufala Negra" from the Food and Wine 2008 Cocktails guide. The use of balsamic vinegar in a drink is fascinating to me, and this was another drink I'd considered doing myself - but I didn't have any ginger slices. (And now I remember that I actually freakin' GINGER...sigh.)

He might be a "rum dood" but Matt sent over a bourbon drink nonetheless. The Sherman also has rum in it. Fiddling around with the recipe, Matt added Scofflaw's Den-favorite Creole Shrubb to it and says that it made an okay drink awesome. That makes me happy to hear and I've got YET ANOTHER DRINK to add to the rotation! I bet Marshall gets to it first, though. Oh, and hey...you forgot your picture of your drink!

Ian over at the Iceland Spar kept the bourbon manly and simple by just adding nothing more than raw egg to it. Well, there's also a dash of simple syrup, and you can might want to add a dash of aromatic bitters, and you also grate nutmeg over it...okay, so it's not PERFECTLY simple but it's still pretty bare bones. And easier than drinking raw eggs by themselves (for you boxers out there)! If I had a picture of eggs I'd include it with a picture of a bottle of bourbon, but I don't, and I'm lazy, so I included a picture of Ian from his blog.

Lance Mayhew over at "My life on the rocks" comes back to MxMo after missing a few to give us the Screen Door cocktail. He gets double mega extra super brownie points for not only using Bulleit, but using bacon-infused Bulleit and combining that with a hickory smoked pecan simple syrup and a couple of other things. Seriously folks, can you READ THAT SENTENCE AND NOT DROOL? I can't. My coworkers are looking at me funny now...

If you're anything like me, and for your sake I'd hope so because I'm awesome, the first thing you'd think of when you'd hear the phrase "Amber Daughter" is perhaps the Polynesian equivalent of a "farmer's daughter" joke. However, A Dram of Brine shows us it's actually a fruity bourbon drink with Bulleit Bourbon, chopped mango, and orange juice plus Angostura. That sounds like a summer day kind of drink to me!

I've got to admit that I'm insanely jealous of the name of Sonja's blog - Thinking of Drinking - but she shows how appropriate it is for her as she thinks a lot more than I do. This time, she links to a couple of drinks she invented recently but showcases a classic drink, the Brown Derby. Of course, she has to add a bit to it, but it only could make it better.

Jay over at Oh Gosh! gives us the Frisco Sour and throws out some cheers to Marshall, too. The Frisco Sour has two of my favorite things in it - bourbon and Benedictine - plus some lemon and lime juices. But Jay, where are the bitters? Where is...dare I say...the love? (And hey, man, we got ideas for when Marshall hosts a MxMo - but that'll probably be after we move, and we've got to figure out a good topic for him to use...)

Doug over at Pegu Blog thinks he's lame for sticking with a Manhattan, and I'm not one to pass judgment. What I will say is that a Manhattan is NEVER lame, it's always good, and the bourbon he uses - Blanton - is a bourbon that I dearly love (though I don't have a bottle of it right now). What is lame is that he uses a generic store-bought maraschino cherry. Doug - do yourself a favor, marinate some cherries in bourbon and try that. It's awesome.

At the Art of Drink, Darcy gives us a bourbon Old Fashioned made with birch syrup, along with a good discussion about bourbon in general. Seriously, folks, I can't drink at work! Why are you making me so thirsty? This birch syrup combination sounds, as my brother would say, fan-fugu-tastic. I'm going to stop by the store on the way home and see if they have birch syrup. (No! Must go to gym first! Sigh. Wonder if I can bring in a bourbon drink to sip on while working out?)

Natalie, the Liquid Muse, doesn't leave us with a recipe this month but she's got a lot of delicious ones on her site. Instead, she gives us a funny anecdote about her visit to a bourbon festival last year and why one should be careful about the proof on the bourbons that one is imbibing. That's a fine lesson to learn for ANYONE out there, believe you me. Fortunately I have a switch!

The Intoxicated Zodiac uses black tea, sugar, orange juice, and bourbon to make a drink called the Bourbon Freeze. This is a pitcher drink and Gwen says Aries can drink the entire pitcher by herself. I'm not an Aries, (I'm a Cancer, and I'll thank you for NOT making the usual joke, given my birthday is in 15 days!) but I think I could drink the whole pitcher, too, and I think it would make for a very fun pitcher to drink.

Over at Ana Bolena perdio su cabeza, home of our LJ friend anavolena , she came up with the very neatly-named Purosangue cocktail, a variation of the Manhattan. She experimented with various vermouths and Ridgemont Reserve 1792 bourbon, but in the end went with Amaro Ramazzotti, something I've never heard of before but that sounds really good (and like something I'm going to have to buy now, gee, thanks!). I am glad her chief taster was so excited about a bourbon theme!

Experiment 33.2 had a "Frozen Hawaiian Fashioned", a drink that I had no idea what to think of when I heard the name but once I saw the recipe I thought to myself, you know what, Marshall should make this drink for me. It uses hibiscus and there's a couple of different routes towards making it in the post, plus some pictures that'll make you wish for tropical climes.

Chuck, over at Looka!, gave us a couple of different recipes. The first was his long-time favorite the "Fancy-Free Cocktail", a mix of bourbon, maraschino liqueur, and two kinds of bitters. The other one, the one he was afraid might be duplicated, involved bacon-infusing a bottle of Buffalo Trace bourbon and using that in an Old Fashioned with maple syrup. Well, there's at least one CLOSE to it so far...but we welcome everyone's contributions, no matter how many times they've come in! How many people stop with just one of a drink, eh?

Over at the Lush Life they submitted as a group and so their cocktail assassin, Allan Delgado (pictured left), came up with a Sunset Gun and a Lady Demeter Sour. Both sound pretty good, and that's now two bourbon cocktails with hibiscus! They even included videos on three ADDITIONAL cocktails! The only thing they didn't include was a good still shot for a thumbnail, so hey, I takes what I can find.

At "A Dash of Bitters" Michael pulled out the Preakness Cocktail, yet another one on my list of drinks that I was seriously considering making. This is pretty close to a Manhattan with Benedictine in it. There was no picture for it, unfortunately, and I couldn't find a good one in a couple of minutes of poking around and so we'll have to go with this...

My Brilliant Mistakes has a video, too, and has the cocktail called "Bitter Bourbon" - bourbon, Campari, and green Chartreuse. I can't view the video because I can't view YouTube at work, but I'm sure it's awesome. We did shots of Chartreuse after watching Grind House the other night and now I'm a big fan of it. I also note that Cynthia is from the Pittsburgh area, which makes her extra awesome (GO STEELERS!).

We're off now to one of my regular blogs to hit (when I pry myself out of Popcap games, at least) and that's Marleigh over at SLOSHED! She gives us the Penny Cocktail this month. She takes what sounds like an awful, awful drink (Early Times bourbon and Squirt) and turns it into a pleasant cocktail. I'm reminded of how I used to drink Mountain Dew mixed with Goldschlager for those early morning band practices (I called it a Gold Rush or something like that) or Mountain Dew and Wild Turkey for night parties - and no, I never had a mullet.

Ted at Le Mixeur gives not only a cocktail but a story. The Ajeticha is based off the Satan Cocktail, and even though he replaces the bourbon in the Satan with rye with the story he used, and since he left in the other recipe, I guess we can let that slide. It goes from bourbon, sweet vermouth, pastis and Peychaud's to rye, Punt e Mes, absinthe, St. Germain and Peychaud's.

Robert over at Drink Dogma makes a good point - that often in the cocktail world as of late we've ignored bourbon in favor of rye. Well, I'm happy to say that in my world, I always love me some bourbon, but I will admit that I have fallen prey to that same gambit. No more, I cry! I shall make the Maple Leaf Cocktail, a blend of maple syrup, lemon juice, and bourbon, and I will punch rye in the face! Not really. I love all my liquor children equally. They all have a place in the vast scofflaw's liver in a blurred haze of love.

Hey look, over at Blotto they have the Ramazzotti Amaro again! Their drink is called the Marc Antony, which, if I remember my history correctly, is named after a Roman R&B singer who had a thing for Caesar salads. It was either that, or I'm starting to get punchy, but I'll console my thoughts of that amaro, bourbon, orange juice and falernum. Oh, and no picture here, either, so here's a picture of my cat The RZA sitting on top of a computer. We did not know she was a girl when we named her. (Her brother is Master Shake.)

Next we had the instigator of this entire tradition, Paul of Cocktail Chronicles, and what I thought had the best name for a cocktail in the whole thing, the FBI Fizz! Too bad it wasn't the FBI Fuzz...but unfortunately, the drink was quite "eh" to Paul, the mixture of cherry Heering, bourbon, and Jamaican rum topped with soda just not working out. He didn't even bother to post pictures of it, that's how boring it was! But since he did, you know, come up with this whole thing, I'll put the MxMo logo over there.

Jimmy of jimmy's cocktail hour gave us this month the Nectarine Daisy, a delicate blend of bourbon, Grand Marnier, sparkling water, simple syrup, bitters, and a nice piece of nectarine. I'm betting that the fresh nectarine really helps it out a lot here; over here on the Right Coast we don't get 'em as fresh as maybe you can on the ~~Wrong~~ Left Coast. (No, I'm not bitter about having to go to LA next month, not at all!)

Over at "Beers in the Shower" - and who doesn't take a beer into the shower occasionally? - he came up with a Hick Tipple, featuring bourbon, lime, simple syrup, and Fee's mint bitters, a bitter that I've really dug since I got. He rambles a bit about other stuff in there, too, but politely enough also provides a link to Jeffrey Morgenthaler's "Bourbon Renewal" post which now I need to re-read.

Mary over at Cooking 4 the Week keeps it short and sweet with a strawberry julep. I'm not a huge strawberry fan but there's something very summer and refreshing looking about a drink like that. If I have a bourbon drinking friend who is also big into strawberries I'd definitely make something like this for that person - it looks quick and easy to make yet delicious.

Over at eGullet there were three responders to be included. Erik "eje" Ellestad, who organized the thread (and thank you!) recalled Murray Stenson's "Porteno". Tiare came up with something called a "Spiced Paprika Whiskey Sour" which sounds like it hits a number of my favorite things. Bostonapothecary came up with a drink from the Savoy Cocktail book called The Artist's Special.

Finally, I took advantage of Bulleit Bourbon's kindness and experimented a bit. First I hit the "Corpse Reviver No. 1" and replaced it with all American ingredients, dubbing it the Corpse Reviver No. 1976. Next, I fiddled around with the ingredients in the Scofflaw Cocktail to make it one that the two scofflaws here might enjoy more. Finally, to end off the night I grabbed my trusty shot glass and made a drink that I was certain wouldn't make anyone's cocktail list, the boilermaker.

That's it for this month! I'm not certain who has it next month during the long hot days of July, when all the lucky bloggers are down in N'awlins and I'm stuck in LA at E3, but we'll see what happens!

And don't forget - Scofflaw's Den is moving! We are almost done with the site migration; soon, any of our domain names (scofflawsden.com, scofflaws-den.com, or .org, or .info) will go to the new site (right now only one of those does). And we'll be posting on there, too. For now I'll be trying to keep up with copying over our archives to the new site.

Mixology Monday: My Entry for Bourbon

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:39:17 GMT

I can't forget to include MYSELF, can I?

Bourbon is an old friend of mine, and with that, I couldn't resist at first going for a variation of a Lynchburg Lemonade. I had a lot of ideas on how to deal with one of those and then I had this (censored) conversation with Marshall:

seanmike: so i think i'm going to do a lynchburg lemonade variant for my drink for MxMo
T. Marshall Fawley III (Talk.v10451282F45): G*****N YOU, I was doing the same!

So I thought about and thought, well, maybe I'll go with Lime-ade instead. I'd planned on buy the "Simply Limeade" but instead ended up with "Nature's Own" thanks to Giant.

Thus, instead of a Lynchburg Lemonade, I'll go for an Arlington Limeade:

In a mixing glass, muddle 2-3 kaffir lime leaves and 7-8 mint leaves in 1/2 ounce simple syrup. Add in 2 ounces bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace), 1/4 ounce allspice dram, and four ounces limeade. Shake, and then strain into an ice filled collins glass, garnish with a kaffir lime leaf and a mint sprig.

I'd suggest experimenting with dropping the amount of simple syrup to 1/4 of an ounce - remember, I have a sweet tooth - and/or pushing the allspice dram to 1/2 ounce. Even my brother liked this drink, though he commented on how complex it was.

But, hey, here in the Den, we always do more than one drink. What to do next?

Bulleit Distillery, having seen that I was doing a bourbon Mixology Monday, offered to send me a sample. I couldn't resist though I'll go more into that in the MxMo recap posting. I thought and I thought and I thought and finally I decided to thumb through a few books. In the end I grabbed my copy of The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan.

First was the Corpse Reviver Number 1. In the book, it's 2 ounces of applejack, 3/4 of an ounce of sweet vermouth, and 3/4 of an ounce of brandy.

With Bulleit Bourbon, having tasted it thoroughly, I thought we should make an All-American version of the Corpse Reviver. Thus, I give you the Corpse Reviver No. 1976 (the 200th anniversary of the United States, and the year of my birthday):

Corpse Reviver No. 1976
2 ounces Bulleit Bourbon
3/4 ounce Vya sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce Clear Creek apple brandy
Stir with ice in a mixing glass and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Note the ingredients; I wanted to make sure everything was made in the US of A.

You know what? Tasty. Even better, actually, when it got a bit warmer. And that Vya bottle was a pain in the butt to open!

Okay, so there we go, two drinks.

No, no, no, that won't do for THIS MxMo. I need more!

I've done the "Scofflaw Cocktail" before. I wasn't impressed with it then; it just didn't taste right, probably too much dry vermouth. The original recipe, according to The Joy of Mixology was two ounces of bourbon, 1 ounce dry vermouth, 1/2 ounce lemon juice, 1/4 ounce grenadine, and orange bitters to taste.

I changed that up a bit. I wanted to make a Scofflaw's Den Cocktail and this is, at least, the first draft of it:
Scofflaw('s Den) Cocktail
2 ounces bourbon
1 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1/4 ounce grenadine
2 big dashes of Fey's West Indian Orange Bitters
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

That worked well. It got better, too, as I drank it. I'd like to experiment with raising the amount of bourbon in it a bit, maybe making it a bit more like a whiskey sour tempered with dry vermouth and grenadine. We'll have to see.

You'd think that'd do it, but I'm a masochist sometimes.

No, we need one more drink.

It needs to stick out.

It needs to kick past those two Sierra Nevada Pale Ales I had at Clare and Don's...past the half shot of Bulleit I sipped as a taste test...past the two cocktails and the liquor inherent in those...

Oh, no.

It is.

It is THE bourbon and beer drink.

The drink of ages.

THE BOILERMAKER.

Do you need a recipe for it?

A shot of bourbon. A beer.

You can drop the shot in the beer, or you can do the shot then sip the beer.

Given that the beer you see there is almost 24 ounces of Stella Artois, I went for the latter.

Bulleit has a great freaking bottle, in my opinion. It's very Western, and they even take credit for it in their material:
"The Bulleit Bourbon bottle, which draws its design influence from the glass produced in the mid 1800s in Pennsylvania and Ohio, reflects the Frontier Whiskey heritage of Augustus Bulleit. Its authenticity was acknowledged by the Director of HBO's Deadwood series where Bulleit Bourbon appeared regularly."

(Though Augustus died in 1860, and while most of my Deadwood knowledge is from the game Deadlands, you'd have to assume it was for the design of the bottle that it seemed more appropriate. Either way, I'm a big fan of the design just in general.)

But with the Western influence, to me, that says: "do shots of me".

So, yeah, I did. It was tasty. And the beer is a great chaser, even if it's a bit...European...to be chasing a quality American spirit. But hey, it's what we have on tap in the kegerator.

Well, I hope you liked my entry. We've still got time for people to post their entries for MxMo, and so therefor and thusly, I'll be keeping my eyes open - or, more appropriately, will NOT be keeping them open, and instead going to bed. Hopefully the recap should up by the end of the day of Tuesday, but if it's not, there's only one group you can blame - the government, keeping me from something as important as that for "work".

Now, do I have the cojones for another shot of Bulleit...or is that even a question? Of course not...

Mixology Monday - Bourbon!

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:54:11 GMT

Hey Folks!

Another Mixology Monday is upon us and I want to thank Sean aka runoknows, my cohort here at the Scofflaw's Den for hosting this month. He is doing the heavy lifting of the round-up while I sit back and drink some tasty bourbon concoctions. Yep, this month's theme is Bourbon.

Both of us here at the Den love this spirit, maybe above all others. For me, the love dates back to my undergraduate days at the University of Virginia. Our drink of choice was the simple Bourbon and Coke and we certainly had plenty of them. But now our tastes have changed and I've learned more about bourbon than I ever thought I would. From wheaters to high-ryes and tastings at one of our favorite DC bars, Bourbon, I feel like my education is ongoing and endless when it comes to this particular spirit. Of course, that doesn't mean that for the first home UVa football game, I don't break out the Jim Beam and Diet Coke and enjoy a glass or two while cheering on the Cavs. As an old friend of mine would state whenever he smelled bourbon, "Smells like football season!."

For all my appreciation and love for bourbon, Sean picked a challenging time for MxMo. The Kentucky Derby and the Mint Juleps are generally my last great dance with bourbon until the heat of summer subsides. Of course this doesn't mean I completely turn my back on bourbon during the scorching days and nights of summer. I'll still whip up some Mint Juleps, have a bourbon and coke or maybe just have a nice dram over an ice cube after a long day at work. But still, bourbon isn't really what I think of as a summer spirit. This makes finding suitable libations a bit more daunting.

When trying to decide what to write about, I wanted drinks that were refreshing and easily drinkable. Something with lots of ice, full of flavor and really beat back the hot humid weather. What I came away with is one winner and one that needed some work. First, lets look at the one that needed some work.

Kentucky Orange Blossom
1.5 oz bourbon
1.5 oz tangerine juice
.75 oz Cointreau
1 dash orange flower water

*Shake everything with ice and strain into an ice filled rocks glass.

I found this drink while looking up recipes for bourbon drinks. It was a variation on a bourbon based sidecar that used tangerine juice. Frankly, I've been drinking lots of sidecars lately so the variation sounded better. Maybe that should have been a clue . . . The drink was "eh." It was very dry and none of the flavors really popped out at me. The bourbon was muted and even though everything else is orange based, the orange flavor really disappeared. I was pretty disappointed. I decided to tinker a little bit and see if I could save this drink, at least for my tastes. I think it has a great base, but I really wanted to sweeten it up some. So I pulled out my orange-cardamom syrup and added about half an ounce. That really brightened up the orange flavor! I still think it could use a little something extra, but for now, it isn't half bad with the extra sweetness.

The second drink I wanted to give you folks is an original (at least, I didn't do any research so it's new to me!) and is a variation of a Lynchburg Lemonade. Now as I'm sure you know, a Lynchburg Lemonade is simply lemonade spiked with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. And since this is a bourbon themed month, J.D. had to step aside. Here is what I came up with:

Front Porch Cooler
2 oz bourbon
1 oz creme de peche
2 dashes Fees Peach Bitters
1 dash Fees Lemon Bitters
5 oz lemonade

*Shake the first four ingredients with lots of ice and strain into a chilled, ice filled chimney glass. Top with the lemonade.

Now, a few notes on this drink. First, taste your lemonade. Is it really sweet? Is it very tart? Commercial or homemade? You really want the lemon flavor to come through and most commercial lemonades are not very sweet or tart. If you don't have homemade lemonade that is good and tart, you can always add lemon juice and/or simple syrup to the final drink to up the tartness/sweetness to your own liking. If you want more peach flavor, consider muddling a slice of fresh peach or two in the glass with the creme de peche then add the other ingredients. The point is, you can vary this recipe endlessly to find what tastes good to you. Want to add blueberries, blackberries, raspberries or whatever else to the mix? Feel free! Enjoy!

Well, thanks again to Sean for tackling this Mixology Monday! There certainly wouldn't be a Scofflaw's Den with out him and he deserves a round of applause. Personally, I'll just buy him a beer sometime. Or better yet, I've got this nice bottle of Balvenie Doublewood Scotch that I just *know* he'd love to have some of . . .

Cheers!

Congratulations to a Local Mixologist!!!

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:54:06 GMT

One of the blogs that I check almost every day is Camper English's Alcademics. In yesterday's post, he linked to an article that he wrote for The Beverage Network's magazine titled "The Beverage Networks 10 Trendsetting Mixologists."

I am happy to report that NoVa/DC's own Gina Chersevani of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group - the good folks behind Rustico, Tallula, EatBar, Vermillion and Buzz Bakery -- is named as . . . wait for it . . . . one of the top ten trendsetting mixologists.

I had the honor of meeting and talking to Gina at the Museum of the American Cocktail Dinner held at Proof eariler this year and I can honestly say she is one of the nicest, coolest people I've had the pleasure to meet. I highly recommend trying some of her creations at any of the places above, you won't be disappointed.

Congratulations Gina!!!

You can read Camper's article here.

Cheers!

Mixology Monday "Bourbon" - June 16th, 2008

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:25:13 GMT

Yes, we're just about a week out from Mixology Monday, BOURBON!

The scofflaws here at the Den come from a strong bourbon background so it seemed to be an easy choice for me to make when hosting.

Now, here's the real question: what do we want to see from you?

Well, anything bourbon related of course!

There's a fondness, of course, for the traditional drinks, but I always like seeing what random things the brilliant people out there come up with. For instance, Todd Thrasher's "Smoker's Delight" at PX in Alexandria has bourbon and tobacco in it....

The site migration is taking more time than we thought, so when you have posted (by midnight, Monday, June 16th), send an e-mail to seanmike - at - scofflawsden - dot - com.

You can also post a comment here off of this post (or any other post done by runoknows after this time) but I'd prefer the e-mail. Include your name, a link to your post, and your drink.

I'll compile them and get them up ASAP.

See you soon!

Looky what the postman left for me today . . .

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:07:56 GMT

AH-HA!!! I finally have the elusive Angostura Orange bitters! Wooo-Hoooo!!!!

I'm afraid that I won't be able to post much about them until next week. The Scofflaw's are taking a well deserved three day weekend to the beach. But as soon as I get back, I plan on doing a tasting between the three types of orange bitters I now have, Regan's #6, Fee's and the Angostura. I'm sure if my co-hort Sean wants to join in the tasting that can be arranged. I can't wait!!!

If you're wondering how the new site is coming, well . . . its coming. That's about all I can say for now. But rest assured that Sean is working on getting it up and running and then you'll see a marked uptake in posts from us. We still have lots of fun stuff planned and I, for one, can't wait to get started!

See you at the bar!
Marshall

Cocktail quiz

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:32:31 GMT

A quick note to start you on your week...

If you read Slashfood, you've already seen this. AOL Food has a "Cocktail Ingredient Quiz" up, 20 questions about what's in cocktails.

I got 20 out of 20. Oh, yeah.

No egregious errors that I noticed, though AOL's stupid webpage is always cut off for me in Firefox.

(Back to working on the new site!)

Upcoming weekend

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:21:58 GMT

I know we've been quiet this week. I've finally got the blog looking the way we want it for the new site, but I just need to be able to get the nav bar working with the HTML setup so everything "clicks". I want it done by Sunday, but we'll see what happens...

...because I'm going to Amelia this weekend to visit the 'rents. Sigh.

Tonight is a "happy hour" at my condo complex. I've got a couple bottles of nice beer to try and I'm taking a bottle of Castries (a peanut rum liqueur) to my parents.

Last weekend Marshall and I had a couple of drinks out of the Food & Wine guide - I plan on blogging those here soon, along with the drink I came up with at a party (named for a guy whose name was Adam, so I called it the Adam Bomb). I'd love to see if I can get through all 150+ cocktails in the Food & Wine book.

Anyways - if you don't hear from me soon - uh - (channels Arnold) "I'll be back!"

Okay, let's hash this out: vodka

Fri, 23 May 2008 16:54:37 GMT

Here we go, oh noes!

If you read this regularly you know how the illustrious tmfiii feels about vodka. In short, he keeps some for its usefulness as a preservative, and only rarely if ever uses it for anything else. My old friend Bill used to say "all vodka SHOULD taste the same", given that it's a neutral spirit yadda yadda yadda.

This despite my exhortations that Marshall simply must make a bacon-infused kosher vodka. Did you know Smirnoff is kosher? I could've sworn I saw a kosher logo on the back! Maybe it was a different brand. Whatever. There's a bottle at Ace that has a big kosher thing right on the front of the bottle and that could really go for a bacon infusion, or maybe a bacon and cheese infusion. The bacon cheeseburger vodka would be wonderful! Or maybe not. And maybe I'm digressing...

I, on the other hand, think that there is SOME variety amongst vodkas, if not that much. Aristocrat and Bowman's might've been okay back in college, but for drinks that require vodka I typically keep a bottle of Charodei around. I like it both straight and mixed and only buy it when it's on sale at Virginia ABC.

The other vodkas I have are all flavored. Vanilla Absolut for a drink I came up with last year, black cherry Smirnoff for replicating a drink I had at Clare & Don's, Absolut Kurrant that I bought simply for the bottle, horseradish-infused Fris for a recipe from Imbibe!.

I have tasted a difference in even the "super premium" ones, I believed. There was a vodka tasting at a liquor store in DC we hit on our way between a trip to Bourbon and to a Young Republicans room party (don't ask). I can't remember the exact brands but I definitely felt there was a slight difference between the two.

As part of the usual retinue of websites I review each day, I hit The Consumerist as I tried to distract myself from the drudgery of cube life in corporate America. One of their lead articles is "All Vodka is Pretty Much the Same", linked from a BusinessWeek article.

The most important part of the article is the conclusion, after he's done his taste test with his friends and etc. etc.:

The goal of vodka distilling, according to the spirits executives and distillers I have spoken with over the years, is to come up with a spirit that is as pure and clear as possible. The taste notes of vodkas can be so slight and subtle, most often depending on the grain used, and the number of times the spirit is distilled, that they really only exist when drunk straight with purified ice, at room temperature, served straight up or frozen straight up.

Compare that to the notes on the tasting of Charodei from the link up above.

The thing about that quotation, to me, is that last part - "frozen straight up". It was my understanding that the colder a drink is, the harder it is to taste the subtleties in it, which is why a lot of American megabrews want their beer so cold. But I haven't really experimented with that.

Some of the other parts of the article rang true to me. My mom always drinks Grey Goose, for instance, but I've used various other brands of vodka in its stead and she's never seemed to notice (or mind, but then again, she is my mom).

I'm going to throw it out to you, gentle readers: What do you think of vodka? How do you drink it, if at all? What do you think of its position in drinks and mixology? Do you really think there's enough of a difference between brands to matter? If your goal in making drinks is to use the best, most appropriate ingredients possible, should you be going for the most neutral vodka possible, embrace the slight differences between them, or just say "you can't taste it past the other ingredients" and let it be?

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:28:05 GMT

Back to gin...

When we went to New Heights Restaurant last week, I had a lot of fun. Marshall wrote up his long post on it but I wanted to touch on some of the points of my visit.

Like I said, I had a great time. Everyone was very friendly there. I felt a bit bad for our bartender, Chris. He was a pretty nice guy but was almost overwhelmingly slammed a good bit of the night. Two different tables ordered brandy alexanders! There were a lot of no-reservation walk-ins for both the dining room and the bar thanks to a convention and the article in the WaPo (I heard them say).

Marshall is s-m-r-t ... errr... smart. When we first walked in it was fairly empty so we took seats right at the very end of the bar. That kept us from getting surrounded when the large group came in. I still got jostled a lot by one of the first guys in from that group. I was convinced that they were going to be quite annoying but in fact they were very polite and when they realized they were running into me made it a point to be careful about it. You know what? Thanks! Honestly, I appreciated their concern and effort to be conscientious bar-neighbors.

(Compare that to the other night at Bailey's when the guys next to me - even a few chairs down - seemed nice at first but quickly grew annoying, to the point of having my chair stolen when I was in the bathroom and smoke blown at me.)

For the most part that night I stuck with gin and tonics. My reasoning - which seemed to be accurate - was two-fold.

First, that'd provide a consistent tasting amongst the different gins. To be completely consistent I should've stuck with the same tonic all the time. They had a list of tonics and how to pair gin with tonic so I stuck with those guidelines. At home I tend to stick to one kind of tonic.

Second, it would be easier for the bartender. That it was - I definitely got drinks faster.

It looks like I didn't manage to Twitter EVERYTHING...oh well. I definitely had a gin and tonic to start, I just don't remember which one! Andrew (our original bartender) made us an Aviation with Aviation gin. I liked it more than previous ones I'd had, though Marshall does have that creme de violette fetish.

Next was the #24. They had a couple of these "numbered" drinks and I neglected to ask what was up with that naming schema. This one was, according to my Twitter, G-vine gin, St. Germaine elderflower liqueur, Peychaud's bitters, simple syrup, kaffir lime leaf, lime juice, Schweppes tonic. I'd never heard of G-vine gin before that night and they had sent the pastry chef out to buy some more of it. It's a French gin and I actually found later in a gin and tonic that I liked it a lot.

Next up was another gin and tonic. This time I tried the Old Raj, blue label, with the Fever-Tree tonic. That was quite good. There's another label (red, I believe) of Old Raj, but the blue is stronger and I wanted more of the taste to shine.

Around this time we got our food. The ham & cheese croquettes were awesome, as were the truffle fries. I also got the pickled herring (MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE) and I loved it. Honestly - I think it was the best pickled herring I've had. To be completely honest, I've only had it a couple of other times but I think it was better than it was at Aquavit.

I threw Chris a curveball for the next drink. Let's avoid the gins and hit the classic - a Sazerac. It's always interesting how other people make it. He used St. George absinthe, for one. Due to the expense of St. George, as he pointed out, he doesn't just toss it out as you're supposed to do with the pastis. He just pours a little bit in. Then there was a sugar cube, both Peychaud's and Regan's bitters, and Russell's Reserve rye. That rye is one I use a lot in Sazeracs. It was quite tasty, if not as sweet as I tend to prefer mine.

Next was back to the gin and tonic. I knew I needed something big to cut through the remnants of taste in the Saz. I went with the G-vine and Fever-Tree bitter lemon tonic. That was a SPECTACULAR choice. I'm really digging the G-vine.

Jake had been hanging out with us and had been waiting on a complimentary Aviation for a while but finally needed to leave. Just after he left it came up so Marshall and I polished it off. I'd had a Rogue Spruce gin and Schweppe's before that and needed to clear some of the taste out of my mouth; it wasn't that bad but it wasn't something I particularly go for. Kind of like how a really peaty Scotch might not be everyone's cup of tea.

The final drink of the bar for me was a martini - I'm a huge martini fan, I've found. And it was good. Marshall had a champagne cocktail of some sort.

We went home after that. Just as I got home some friends of Cathy's were coming in for the birthday of one of her really good friends. Cathy wanted a drink and surprisingly enough, not a champagne drink like she usually has. I ended up drinking the Kir Royale made with sparkling shiraz (not the best drink ever) while I thought up something. I called it the Cathy Cocktail:
3/4 ounce Hendrick's gin
1/2 ounce creme de cassis
1/4 ounce simple syrup
dash of Regans bitters

Shake, pour over ice in a collins glass, top with Sprite.

Later her friends and I did an absinthe tasting between the Kubler and the Lucid. While tasty, it was not what I needed at that point in the evening...it definitely led to a rough morning when I had to get up early to take care of the block party!

Beer, cachaca, and cigars.

Thu, 22 May 2008 15:39:12 GMT

(I was going to do one long post for all this but the first part got longer than I thought - so it's here, and I'll follow up with a post about New Heights in a minute or two.)

I've had some good beer this week. Last night I had an Allagash ale aged in oak bourbon barrels. I didn't care for it at first but it grew on me rapidly, though one may also blame the fact that it is 11% ABV and I decided to sip some Willett pot still bourbon with it. I was also smoking an Oliva cigar; that was a nice smoke. Needless to say, I was a bit schnockered when I walked back inside.

The night before I enjoyed a Brooklyn Brewing Co. Local #1. That was REALLY good, and at 9% wasn't quite the punch that the Allagash was. I followed it up with a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA and a Stone Pale Ale.

Somebody had left some Fiddler's Green Pale Ale after the party. I liked that one too. We're on a big pale ale kick around my house. I like IPAs more because I like hoppy beers. Matt, my brother, doesn't care for them so much so we often compromise and get beers like Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale (which has been losing its appeal to me, admittedly). Then again, with Stella Artois on tap right now, and it requiring the special coupler, we may stick with that again for the next keg or something using the same keg coupler.

Last night the plan had been to have a cigar with Marshall. Unfortunately he got all tuckered out. I happened to be over in Ballston Mall (across the street from where he lives) when he told me that because I was shopping for iPod headphones and considering getting a haircut at the barber shop there - usually I'd have gone to Tyson's for that, but I didn't feel like driving. I got neither (all the headphones were too short and the haircut place had a line) so I wandered over to the ABC store near his house.

There they had a bottle of Leblon (and I hope I'm spelling that right) cachaca. I'd looked at that bottle about a week ago plus the other two cachacas there. The next day I'd gone online and found that the Leblon is considered one of the better cachacas available, but at usually 50% more than others ($30 versus $20 in Virginia) it's not worth the extra money.

However, VA ABC had it on sale for $24.95. So last night I bought a bottle of it and took it home. I haven't even cracked it yet but I've got some ideas for it especially thanks to the fact that I picked up Food & Wine magazine's Cocktails 2008 book. More notes on that later, and the idea I've had FOR A PLAN FOR THE BOOK!

A New Height for Gin

Tue, 20 May 2008 02:39:23 GMT

This past Friday, runoknows and I decided to try a bar here in DC that had recently been written up in the Washington Post. The article talks about how Chef John Wabeck became a gin aficionado and decided to turn the bar at his Woodley Park neighborhood in to a modern day "Gin Joint."

We arrived around 6:15pm and took seats at the end of the bar. The bar is located on the ground floor of the restaurant and a short narrow affair. There are about 15 seats at the bar and, if I remember correctly, two seats by the window overlooking the sidewalk. The restaurant proper is upstairs. After arriving, I wanted to run upstairs and say hello to the manager, Kavita Singh. I introduced myself and she introduced me to Chef John Wabeck. We then went downstairs to start the gin journey.

John stayed with us for a while and introduced our first bartender Andrew. Andrew did an admirable job at explaining the drinks has he made then and John would interject tidbits of wisdom and opinions on cocktails, mixing and gin in general. The conversations we had with everyone were wonderful.

The restaurant and bar started getting really busy about 7pm. John had to get to work after about half an hour and soon Andrew had to leave us because he was the only server for the evening. During his time behind the stick, Andrew made us several drinks. The first was a "#138" containing Damrak, cinnamon syrup, lime juice, peychauds bitters and ginger ale. The drink was described as liquid Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. Damn, was it ever! Andrew also made us an "Aviation" using Aviation Gin. I asked why they didn't use Creme de Violet in their Aviations and John's answer was great. "I don't like to." When then had a good conversation about the Violet and it's place in the cocktail. Personally, I disagree and think an Aviation needs a little Violet . . . but regardless, this was a tasty beverage! The interplay between the Aviation Gin, lemon juice and Luxardo Maraschino was delicious.

The next drink I tried was the "#24." It contained G-Vine gin (a gin from France!), St. Germain, Peychaud's bitters, Kaffir Lime leaf syrup, lime juice and Schweppes tonic water. I was very happy the French gin didn't turn around and run, er retreat, from the bar. The drink was very good . . . a very good entry level gin drink, especially for people who say they don't like gin.

John had talked about Pink Gin. Ohhhh . . . now Sean has written about Pink Gin before, but I have honestly never tried it. The traditional is Plymouth and a healthy dose of angostura bitters. John suggested trying a Pink Gin with Van Gogh Gin and Peychaud's bitters.   So that was the next order. I can't say it was my favorite drink of the evening, but it was good. Probably not an "I should order this again" good.

While we were sitting at the bar, we saw two people we knew. Heather, whom we met at the rum tasting, is a donrockwell.com regular and was also at the Museum of the American Cocktail dinner. She was enjoying dinner at the bar when along came Mr. Jake Parrot of Ledroit Distributing for a drink and some food. It was really nice seeing some folks that we knew. And later in the evening, Jake would come by and hang out for a bit.

One thing, I want to point out at this point. As I said earlier, the bar isn't very big - about 15 seats - and is pretty narrow. If a big group comes in and is clustered around two or three barstools, as happened Friday night, moving is pretty darn difficult. This is by no means the fault of New Heights, and it certainly is good to see the place busy.   But I bring this up to say that if you go, go early so you can get a seat at the bar. You'll be happier for it.

After Andrew had to run upstairs, our bartender for the evening was Chris. Chris was a very nice guy and was doing a pretty good job managing the bar. Our orders took longer to get to us, but we both realized that Chris was doing just about everything by himself - and it was only his second week on the job. So yeah, we'll cut him a break this time!

Another gin drink on their menu is an original libation called the "Knickerbocker" consisting of Broker's Gin, Vya Dry vermouth, a splash of Vya Sweet vermouth and a lemon twist. Out of all the drinks from the menu that night, this one was my "eh" drink. Nothing was wrong with it, it just wasn't my cup of . . . well that joke is just too easy to make!

We also had a chance to try some of the food from the bar menu. Everything we ate was absolutely fantastic. We ate truffled fries that were hot and earthy with a homemade thousand island dressing. Sean got the pickled herring which I tried a bite of and thought it was very good. Finally, we got an order of the Tasso Croquets. Little fried balls of tasso ham and cheese . . . ohhh, these were awesome!

Our drinks from this point on became a bit of, what are we in the mood for and what is Chris in the mood to make us. Sean ordered a Sazerac. Chris used Russell's Reserve Rye, a sugar cube, Peychaud's bitters and St. George Absinthe. I tried a sip and thought it was good. A little on the dry side, but good.

I spied a bottle of Green Chartreuse behind the bar and asked Chris for a drink using the green elixir. He thought for a second and said he was going to make me something different instead, something special. Hmmmm . . . couldn't he make something special with chartreuse? Regardless he ran up to the kitchen to get a "special ingredient." He worked furtively behind the bar and came out with a collins glass filled with a slightly greenish tint. I took a sip and the first thing I got was jalapeno . . . ahhhh the secret ingredient. He called the drink a "Sapphire on the Bayou" and used Bombay Sapphire gin, cucumber and jalapeno.   The jalapeno was just the right amount of heat and the cucumber cooled it down in a pretty good interplay. Chris said that this was a drink that he created while behind the bar at The Source, Wolfgang Puck's outpost in DC.

The funniest thing of the night happened sometime around this point. Sean and I were waiting for out last drinks and we waited for quite a while. Chris comes up to us and says that he had to admire us. Most customers who have had as much to drink as we had, after a good 10 minute wait would have fallen under the bar. Chris said that yet here we are, the Scofflaw's, looking stoic and just calmly awaiting our next drink. He said he took his hat off for us, that we were professionals. As he turned to make his next drink, I leaned over to Sean and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty drunk."

Chris then made my last drink of the night - a mint julep. It was a good julep, not as sweet as I make them, but very good. It was kind of jarring to have bourbon when your taste buds have been tuned to gin for almost the entire evening. But it was good.

For me, the visit to New Heights Gin Joint was a real great time. I'm certain that Sean had just as much fun as I had. Everyone was nice, very accommodating and the best part - the food and drinks were great. If you are a gin fan, want to become a gin fan or want to try and convert people who think they aren't gin fans, you will find something here you like. If you go, tell them the Scofflaw's sent you. You won't get anything, but maybe a strange look or two, but it would be cool for us!

New Heights Gin Joint
2317 Calvert Street, NW
Washington, DC
202-234-4110
www.newheightsrestaurant.com

If you've been to New Heights, leave us your thoughts in the comments. If you have any questions about our trip, feel free to ask in the comments. In short, leave a comment.

Cheers!

What is up with you?

Mon, 19 May 2008 19:55:51 GMT

Me, I'm tired (still) but slowly recovering.

I'll try to knock something out on the weekend with the Den, but we had a lot of stuff over the past week. Let's see what my week was like, for instance:
Monday: Dinner for the Museum of the American Cocktail
Tuesday: Last physical therapy appointment, fliers for the Block party, bowling
Wednesday: doctor, Kickball
Thursday: a friend's birthday dinner
Friday: A visit to New Heights restaurant here in DC (I'll let Marshall post on this first, then follow-up with my thoughts), another friend's birthday (at my house)
Saturday: Block party
Sunday: DR picnic

It's been a helluva week. And that's not counting work! This week may be a bit quiet as I recover (and don't drink) but I'll also try to get some stuff out as I work on the new website and get ready for June's Mixology Monday that I'm hosting: BOURBON!

video game drinks

Wed, 14 May 2008 18:30:21 GMT

Since my "other unpaid second job" is a video game reviewer for GamersInfo.net, I spend at least a bit of time each day perusing sites such as Kotaku. Today on there I saw this post listing out the drinks EA came out for the EA Games Spring Break 08.

I was even more amused to see this after instantly recognizing the reference to a video game in the punch drink from Monday night's dinner. Let's see what my initial looksie here has me feeling...

Battlefield: Bad Company: Herradura silver tequila, cointreau and fresh squeezed lime served on the rocks.

Battlefield: Bad Company got some bad press initially due to the fact that it was going to give an advantage to players who paid more by giving them better weapons. The basic concept of the game is much like Kelly's Heroes, the classic Clint Eastwood movie where soldiers basically go AWOL to go after a cache of gold. This game is set in the modern day as an FPS and seems a bit grimmer given the descriptions, so having what is basically a margarita without simple syrup seems like an appropriate choice - though not necessarily one I'd drink.

Battlefield: Heroes: Hendrick's gin, fresh rasberry, cucumber, shaken and strained, served up with a splash of kumquat dry soda.

Unlike the other Battlefield game, Battlefield: Heroes is a more cartoon-ish game, a third person multiplayer-only free to play online game set between two sides, the Royals and the Nationals, who are having a dispute over the Olympics. It's more of a casual, have fun, almost kind of care-free killfest from what I've seen, and thus the combination of light, fruity tastes in the Hendricks and its companions in the drink sound quite refreshing. I'd just be careful of having too many while playing, but outside (gasp!) in the summertime I'd be all over this drink like grenade spam from a newbie.

Left 4 Dead: Fresh muddled lime wedges, mango puree, cachaca, shaken and poured over rocks.

I'd say that the Left 4 Dead cocktail reminds me of the caipirinha, or the classic cocktail of Brazil, but honestly, that's probably just due to the cachaca, as this one has no mint in it. Still, it's another fruity drink, this time named after a first person shooter slash survival horror game that emphasizes teamwork for the humans and 28 Days Later-esque "Infected" zombies on the other side, some with grotesque powers, others who will curbstomp you while you're down. Like the zombies, I'd bet this drink would pound your head into the curb if you're not careful. Cachaca can be dangerous stuff.

Warhammer Online: Oronoco rum, freshly squeezed lime, simple syrup and muddled cucumbers, shaken hard poured over ice.

Ya see, we get into a game I'm really, really looking forward to and from a company that's local here to me (EA Mythic, over in Fairfax, all of whom are nice guys and gals the times I've met them) and it has a drink that I'm a bit confused as to how it relates to the game. Warhammer Online is the upcoming PvP-focused MMORPG based off the legendary Games Workshop IP. It's grim but with a sense of British black humor (would that be humour?) to it, and given Mythic's experience with Dark Age of Camelot it should be a lot of fun - and it has been the times I've tried it. Somehow, though, the background, to me, doesn't say "rum", with what almost ends up being kind of a tiki drink here. I'm not saying it'd be bad, though I may have to leave this one for tmfiii to try out.

Dead Space: Maker's Mark, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, Disaronno amaretto, served up with a cherry.

What happens if you rip a planet apart and there's something in there? That's the basic premise of Dead Space, the space-horror game that keeps making me think of the ancient ICE title from the 1980s. I'm still up in the air on this game from what I've seen - the big thing being the sci-fi background to it, it seems like they're going for a more hard sci-fi background but then you have a whole premise of mining entire planets by destroying them and a serious lack of natural resources which seems hard to justify (to me). I will admit I haven't seen the whole background story yet but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. The drink, on the other hand, looks really good to me, a variant of the Manhattan with amaretto added. We used to sometimes add amaretto to our bourbon and cokes in college, but I do have to admit that I'm wondering if they added bitters to this drink. If not - for shame.

And it better not have been one of those fluorescent red "maraschino" cherries that any good reader of the Den would know isn't a true maraschino cherry. Maybe that's the "horror" aspect of it if it was a fake cherry...

Rock Star: Drink like a rockstar, Skyy citrus, fresh lemon and lime, served sparkling in a tall glass.

If you haven't played Rock Star you're really missing out, it's a heck of a game. Up to four players, with lead guitar, bass, drums, and a singer, it's a great party game. I'm leaving this as quoted from the article because I'm really hoping that they didn't add that horrific "Rockstar" energy drink to the drink. I'm not a huge Skyy fan, and I'm assuming that by sparkling they're adding club soda or seltzer water or something, but as a light drink this doesn't seem like it'd be overly bad unless you're an anti-vodka fanatic like Marshall.

Skate It: Jameson, fresh lemon, ginger beer, a touch of blood orange bitters and pomegranate.

I'm going to be honest here. I'm not a skateboarding fan. Sure, I have a long sleeved Tony Hawk t-shirt garnered from E3 one year, and I always seem to end up covering those games at E3 even though I don't like or really understand the appeal to them, but there you go. So I know nothing about Skate It. I don't know if Irish whiskey would really be "skater" but actually I like the idea of this drink a lot. I'd have to think the Irish will be rather subtle when coupled with the ginger beer but this is another one that I might have to try to make sometime soon.

Mass Effect: Fresh basil, Lotus vodka and fresh lime juice served straight up.

Bioware's RPGs have always been a lot of fun and Mass Effect really sucked me in. I've even read the novel twice and will probably buy the sequels. At first glance, a combination of basil, Lotus vodka (I've never heard of Lotus vodka - but according to its website it has a "vitamin vodka" and an "energy (drink) vodka" though the article doesn't say which is used), and fresh lime juice seems a bit weird for the game, but the more I thought about it the more appropriate it seemed, especially for the more "biotic" characters.

So hey - at least one drink in here listed bitters. I'm betting it was the Stirrings Blood Orange bitters. If anyone out there got a chance to try one I'd love to hear how they are, and as I said, I might try to make one for myself. I just wonder if EA would get mad if I drank an unauthorized one while playing GTA IV...

I am not a beer snob

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:46:19 GMT

Drink of choice for flip cup, bowling, and diet purposes? Miller Lite.

If I can find that 64 calorie Beck's Light, though...

(Random post for the day thanks to a night of bowling. Next post has more meat in it, I promise!)

Museum of the American Cocktail dinner at Proof details

Tue, 13 May 2008 05:07:03 GMT

Let's see what I can knock out here as I try to fall asleep...

If you followed the Twitter feed you saw the order things happened. I had a bit of Drambuie and left my house at around 5:30-ish (having to come back twice for my iPod headphones and my Scofflaw's Den cards, respectively). I got down to Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro around 6-ish, where I called tmfiii and arranged to meet him at PS7.

At PS7 I had a vanilla sidecar (very good) and a gomme de guerre, described as a rich cousin to the margarita but not one I was a huge fan of tonight. Marshall had a lavender gimlet - as I knew he would - and a vanilla sidecar. Both were very tasty.

Off to Proof. There was a bit of a line at the door and we had a chance to chat with Jake Parrot, local distributor extraordinaire, and Heather, whom we had met at the rhum tasting at Bourbon.

Once inside we were immediately shuffled off to the right where we got to try the PaRappa the Rapper Punch - yes, you heard it right, a punch named after a video game. It was invented by Adam Bernbach of Bar Pilar who had a much longer name for it. It was Tommy Bahama gold gum, strawberry, szechuan pepper & tonka bean syrup, lime juice, tarragon and strawberry puree, and Peychaud bitters.

As we gnoshed on appies and talked to people we moved on to the Lady Randolph's Revenge. Legend had it that Churchill's wife (if I remember correctly) would order Manhattans but only for the cherries. This was Woodford Reserve bourbon, homemade bing cherry and Madagascar vanilla vermouth, Luxardo maraschino, Fee Bros. whiskey barrel aged bitters, and maraschino espuma, made up by John Hogan of Hudson Lounge.

We moved on and got a chance to talk briefly with the legendary Todd Thrasher of Restaurant Eve, PX, and Majestic. By this point I'd grabbed a Zenzero Apertivo by Chantel Tseng of Tabard Inn, a mixture of sparkling wine, Caravella lemoncello, ginger syrup, and a dash of absinthe, with a a candy structure of ginger in it.

We went on to try to talk to Gina from EatBar but she was busy, but we did meet a friend of hers and had a good time hanging out with her (I'm not certain how to spell her name, I believe it was Kiljay). Next we had a Tarragon Gin Fizz, from Justin Guthrie of Central Michel Richard, and that was tarragon-infused Hendrick's Gin, lemon juice, a Georgian beverage called Natakhtari Tarragon Soda, and some Fee Bros. lemon bitters. I could've drank tons of this one.

The last drink in the appetizer course was the Puffin du Velay by Rico Wisner of Poste Modern Brasserie. It was Reyka vodka, fresh sour mix with agave syrup, Vervaine du velay, and sparkling wine. I also around this point got to meet Don Rockwell, whom I'd always considered more of a force of nature rather than the very nice and gracious guy I got to talk with briefly. Hopefully that doesn't break any mysterious Interweb personas out there. (grin)

It was time to sit and we sat with two very nice ladies to talk the night away. The first course was chilled seafood and hearts of palm cocktail, almost like a cold soup. It was served with Todd Thrasher's "The Dr. Who Cocktail", made of Machu Pisco, celery and jicama soda, and homemade celery bitters. While perhaps an odd combination it worked very well and also very well with the food.

The second course was sake glazed salmon with pickled honshimenji mushrooms, local asparagus, and tamari-radish emulsion. With it was a Hibiscus Fizz from Derek M. Brown of Komi - Finlandia vodka infused with hibiscus, rose hips, and orange peel, yuzu and lemon juices, topped with soda. I really dug this drink and food. Both were excellent on their own but together they just sang!

Next was braised Shenandoah lamb with spring pea-tarragon risotto and grilled ramps. On its own, this was one of the most amazing dishes I've ever had. It was served with Gina Chersevani's (of EatBar) Cereza la Fuma, a drink made with Milagro silver tequila, Lillet Rouge, Cherrywood Smoked White Pepper Meringue, Agave Nectar, Lime Juice, and topped with Fleur de Sel. The drink was definitely peppery and paired fine with the food though at least one person at our table, despite her love of spirits, wished for a glass of wine with the amazing lamb.

The next dish was simple but - wow. Cheese. Four different kinds of cheese, I couldn't tell you what they were, but if someone could tell me please do because the two on the outside (the blue cheese and the other) just blew my pathetic taste buds away. It was served with Sebastian Zutant's (from the hosting restaurant, Proof) "Medicine Man" aka "Sebby Potter and the Teeming Cauldron of Booze". Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Blandy's Madeira, Lillet Rouge, Lustau East India Sherry, Fee Bros. whiskey barrel aged bitters, garnished with an armagnac and port soaked (for, like, 3 weeks) prune.

As the kids would say "OMGWTFBBQ". This drink, especially with those cheeses, was flat out amazing. This course was worth the price of admission right there.

Finally, dessert was a strawberry & pink peppercorn shortcake with creme fraiche and honey lavender ice cream. Honestly, the dessert let me down a bit after the previous course and I was pretty full at this point. The accompanying drink wasn't bad, and worked well with it, though. It was a Truffled Amaro Flip by Tom Brown of Cork - Korbel brandy, Ramazzotti Amaro, egg whites, lemon juice, truffle oil, and Jerry Thomas Decanter bitters. This led to a great sight of all those amazing mixologists shaking tons and tons of shakers of the drink.

All in all this was an amazing event. If you didn't make it, you really missed out. I headed out fairly quickly to grab a train and got to say hi to Derek Brown of Komi, who said he wanted to grab a drink some time, and ~~his brother~~ Fritz (edit: see comments, as I'm a dumbass). I grabbed my swag bag which had a bottle opener from Finlandia, a pen from Tommy Bahama, a mini of Hendrick's gin, a couple of cards from Proof, and a black t-shirt from Finlandia that said "Bartenders are gods". Unfortunately, I can't wear a large, so I gave it to a blonde cop from LA that we met at Metro Center who used to be a bartender. Hey, it'll look better on her...

I can't say how much of a great time I had. I'm still jacked and keyed up, and I need to sleep. So it's back to my scotch and desperately trying to sleep. My cat will be happy once I do.

AND HEY - if y'all were there tonight, give a shout in the comments and say hi! Tonight was a great example of how awesome the cocktail community in DC is!

Museum of the American Cocktail dinner tonight!

Mon, 12 May 2008 21:02:58 GMT

I've rallied my (internal) troops to overcome my "blech" feeling today and get ready for the dinner.

If you're looking to follow along, I plan on Twitter blogging as much about it as I can. Make sure to let us know what you think!

Mixology Monday: On a Dark & Stormy, a Ti' Punch

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:17:41 GMT

if you know how we roll here in the Den - and if you're reading this, you might quite possibly understand - we tend to do two things for every month's MxMo and I, at least, tend to post on Sundays because I can never guarantee getting one out on a Monday. A big "hooah!" out to Trader Tiki for hosting this month.

As I'd mentioned previously, my plan had always been to get my friend dan_oz to help me pick out rum drinks. Unfortunately (or not), that didn't happen. Not only did we not make it to the kickball party I'd been planning on going to but we just hung out with our friend Roy and my brother Matt at our house and at the new local bar Dogwood Tavern, drinking copious amounts of beer. I did manage to give him his bottle of Scarlet Ibis and I can't wait to hear what he thinks of it. Still, I'm not a huge rum guy.

Today, after a brunch downtown at Kramerbooks, I was talking with my cohort tmfiii and we remembered MxMo (which I had completely forgotten):

[17:35] T. Marshall Fawley III (Talk.v104DAA3B7B8): after dinner, I need to figure out mxmo . . . doh
[17:36] seanmike: oh crap
[17:36] seanmike: hey it's rum

Notice the blistering level of discourse that goes on behind the bar in the Scofflaw's Den.

But I'd talked about something yesterday, hadn't made it, and so now it was time.

Before that, though, it was time for dinner. We cooked up some steaks, corn on the cob, some green beans, but in the kitchen, because, well, the weather...

(Not pictured: rain pouring down)

Let's try the other side of the house.

Feh.

Trust me, it looked more rain-ful in real life.

While cooking, I decided to make a drink before we hit the true "Mixology Monday" drink of the night.

Dark and Stormy
3 ounces Goslings Dark Seal Rum
8 ounces ginger beer

Mix in a tall glass, garnish with a wedge of lime.

(Recipe from a card deck called "Classic Cocktails" from Barnes & Noble.)

I'm not huge on exact proportions for things like this...

That's a 9.8 ounce bottle of ginger beer, but I stuck with the 3 ounces of rum.

(And no, that's not my broccoli in the background.)

Refreshing.

We had a tasty dinner, watching that Mother's Day marathon of "The Deadliest Catch", and despite the rain I thought I'd have a cigar. I didn't get one last night and appropriately enough I had one perfect for this month's MxMo.

It was time for a Ti' Punch.

I'll quote from the Caribbean Spirits little recipe card I got at the rum tasting the other month...

Ti' Punch
Traditional Recipe

Splash of Petite Canne Sugar Cane Syrup
Slice of lime rind
Rhum Agricole Blanc
Stir, Add ice

Now, this recipe suggests using the Neisson Agricole Blanc, which I have a bottle of, but I have to be honest, I use it more as a mixing liquor rather than a drink it nearly straight. I wanted to use the La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux, which is whisky and bourbon barrel aged, so I did. I did the following proportions:

2 ounces La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux
1/2 ounce Petite Canne Sugar Cane Syrup
etc.

I mixed it up and pulled out my cigar accoutrements. It was time...time for the La Aurora Rum Barrel Aged cigar!

Told you it was appropriate.

I have to tell you what - I really, really liked that ti' punch. It was sweeter than the one I had at Bourbon lo those many ~~months~~ weeks ago, and I just enjoyed the heck out of it.

The cigar itself was also extremely good. As I'd been warned by a coworker you need to let it go for a minute or so first to get the taste right up and I enjoyed the heck out of it all the way down to the end.

So that's it for me tonight. Two very simple rum drinks - but both quite good in their own way, and, I think, a good way to show off that rum doesn't have to be just in tiki drinks.

Mixology Monday - RUM!!!

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:12:29 GMT

Arggghhhhh, Matey! I guess'd ye be searchin' for a cuppa grog . . . or maybe ye tongue wants to lash at a Zombie or a Mai Tai . . . ye look like scurvy dogs from down here in ye old Scofflaw's Den.

But AYE! It be yet another Mixology Monday hosted by the esteemed Trader Tiki. The poison this Cap'n of the High Seas has chosen is that nectar of Aphrodite, that elixir that keeps a Scofflaw's tongue whetted . . . RUM.

Alright, so a full post in pirate talk would be a bit much and I'm about ready to kick my own ass if I keep this up much longer.

I love rum. There isn't any other way to say it as clearly as that. I love it. This has also been a pretty hectic weekend for me and unfortunately I'm afraid it is going to have to infringe on my MxMo day. But I don't want to make a bunch of excuse, lest you make me walk the plank.

When I started thinking of what to write, I decided to first take stock of what rum I had in this Scofflaw's Bar.

From left to right I have:

Ron Zacapa 15yr
Depaz Blue Cane Rhum Agricole
Dogfish Head Honey Brown Rum
El Dorado 12 yr Demerara Rum
Mt. Gay Rum
Cruzan Black Strap Rum
The Scarlet Ibis Rum
Dogfish Head Wit Spiced Rum
Neisson Rhum Agricole Blanc

After I took stock, I felt completely overwhelmed. I guess I should take a perverted sense of pride in this feeling. Most folks probably has a bottle of rum . . . maybe two.   I also wasn't sure of what to do for a cocktail for you good folks. Should I go tried and true tiki? I love me some tiki (as I have said over and over), but think a lot of folks will do traditional tiki drinks. One I idea I had, and will do eventually, is a tasting of Rum Collins - try each of my rums with a squeeze of lime and some tonic water. Sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon if you ask me.

So I turned to the books. Again, tons of rum drinks and none that really grabbed my attention. Maybe it was the feeling of rushing around and I was trying to force something . . . not allowing the spirits (heh!) of those by-gone Pirates flow through me and give me inspiration when I needed. I needed the spirit of William Dampier to infuse my soul with a yearning to find something new.

So when all else fails, pick something at random!!!

I chose the Tahiti Club from Gary Regan's Bartender's Bible. It goes something like this:

Tahiti Club
1 oz light rum
1 oz dark rum
1 oz pineapple juice
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz lemon juice
1 tsp maraschino liqueur

Shake, strain over fresh ice cubes in a rocks glass.

As you can see from the picture, I used the Depaz and the El Dorado. Just a quick note to say that I really love the Depaz Blue Cane Rhum Agricole. It smells of sweet grass, fresh sugarcane and has almost a whiskey/bourbon undertone as well.   It is also one of the few (maybe the only one?) rums to receive the Appellation d'Origine Controlee from the French Government.

The cocktail was good - but very tart! For my tastes, I think the tartness hid some of the nuances of the Depaz and the El Dorado. I think a dash of rich simple syrup would really bring the inherent flavors of the rums from behind the juices. The maraschino liqueur lent an interesting funkiness to the nose of the drink, but worked very well with the fruit juice flavors.

Hmmm . . . now that my whistle was whetted, I wanted to do a little concoctioneering. Actually, I was going to use this space for a drink I came up with while over at Sean's Friday night, but he beat me to it and posted it here. That scurvy bastard . . .   :-) So check out his post for an extra-special-hey-look-there-is-an-extra-chest-of-booty-type rum drink from your's truly.

So yeah, concoctioneering. I had some coconut milk left over from some coconut sticky rice I made a few days ago. I decided to try and use that in a drink. This isn't the pre-sweetned Coco Lopez stuff, rather it is what you find in the Asian section of your market. For help using it, I turned to some notes I had written one afternoon playing with some coconut water. The water is the clear juice that is inside the coconut right when you open one up. One of the recipes I had tinkered with was the following:

2 oz rum
2 oz coconut water
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz falernum
.25 oz grapefruit juice
.25 oz raspberry syrup
1 dash maraschino
1 dash absinthe

I really liked this mix. It was boozy, sweet and had flavors and aromas coming out of the waa-zoo. For me, definitely a keeper. But at some point I'll need to name it . . . . But this was the launching pad to use the coconut milk. What I came up with was this:

2 oz rum
1.5 oz coconut milk
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz falernum
.25 oz Aperol --> I ran out of grapefruit juice and wanted a substitute for the bitterness in grapefruit.
.25 oz raspberry syrup
.25 oz grenadine
1 dash maraschino
1 dash absinthe

Now to be honest, the drink came out looking kind of funky. It was a creamy dark pink color. Not unappetizing by any stretch, but just not a color that I normally associate with drinks. It kind of looked like the pinkish hue you find on seashells. Hmmm . . .

The taste was also something I wasn't expecting. It was much more tart than anticipated. It was creamy, sweet and tart. The rum gave it a good backbone (I used the Mt. Gay) and the Aperol tamed the sweetness of the syrups. (If anyone out there tries their hand an making this, please, please let me know what you think . . . any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!)

Alright, I think it's time for me to bring my MxMo post to an end. Again, I want to thank Mr. Blair Reynold's, aka Trader Tiki for allowing us on deck for this rum soaked episode of Mixology Monday!

Cheers!

I'm such a sucker

Sat, 10 May 2008 18:39:38 GMT

IF YOUR NAME IS DAN OZDOWSKI DO NOT READ THIS UNTIL 5/11 OR LATER!

Just kidding. I'd be shocked - shocked, I tell you, shocked! - if you actually had the opportunity to read this before you show up tonight.

They say a good salesman can see a sucker coming a mile off, and in my case, that is perhaps not inaccurate. (I definitely don't not love me some double negatives, too.) Or maybe it's just that I'm special but not the kind of special that necessarily requires a helmet.

I had a very specific goal in going down to visit Ace Beverage again today. One of my best friends, the quiet-as-of-late dan_oz, is in town and will be coming by my place later tonight. His birthday was the other week so I needed to procure him a present.

I wanted to get him something that he couldn't get down in smelly ole North Carostinkylina. Given the fact that he's a huge rum nut (rummy? Rumsfeld? rumoholic?) I thought that a good gift would be a bottle of the Scarlet Ibis rum.

Having that in mind, I also decided that I would like to get myself a bottle of the La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux. That's the whisky and bourbon barrel aged rum that I tasted at Bourbon a few weeks ago. Given that I got a couple of the rum barrel aged cigars this week I really wanted to make a ti' punch with it.

This is what I ended up with when I got home today:

We have, from top to bottom: a fifth of Maker's Mark and a bottle of Drambuie (both bought at VA ABC), a bottle of Petite Canne Traditional Martinique Sugar Cane Syrup, the Scarlet Ibis, Bloodys by Buz Full Flavor Original Bloody Mary mix, Green Chartreuse, Damrak gin, the La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux, and a bottle of Black Bottle five year old blended Scotch (that Master Shake is attempting to taste).

Let's go over each.

Maker's Mark - my standard mixing bourbon, especially for the always popular bourbon and cokes and for mint juleps. My brother Matt wiped out my bottle recently so it was time to replace it. I thought about going for the liter bottle but the price point per liter in Virginia is almost the same between the fifth and the liter.

Drambuie - I thought that it was the same price in Virginia as it was at Ace. Unfortunately, it was $5 more. I was already stuck though with either getting it in Virginia or going back out, and I didn't feel like doing the latter, so here we are. I first tasted Drambuie a few weeks ago after kickball one night and I quite enjoyed it. Given the Scotch, I wanted to try a Rusty Nail at some point as well. In general, I feel like you can't have too many liqueurs of this sort because they're really quite very tasty especially after dinner while smoking a cigar.

Petite Canne Traditional Martinique Sugar Cane Syrup - whew! When I mentioned to Joe that I was going to make a ti' punch with the rum, he asked me if I was going to use sugar cane syrup. Slightly befuddled, I responded that I usually use rich simple syrup. He poured me a taste of this stuff, adding that it made him think of pancakes, and it was "BIFF BAM BOOM!" right to my head. Damn good stuff. It's simple syrup on crack. (Actually, I think Joe said "simple syrup on steroids" but that makes me think of Jose Canseco making simple syrup and my brain cries a little bit.)

The Scarlet Ibis - this is the rum formulated specifically for Death & Company in NYC. I haven't opened my bottle yet but everyone seems to rave about how good it is and thus I figure Dan will get a big kick out of it.

Bloodys by Buz Full Flavor Original Bloody Mary Mix - According to my mom, I make really good bloody marys. My granddad agreed. However, mom always insists on using Clamato, and seriously, clam juice and tomato juice is just not a combination that makes me a happy camper. I thought about buying a bottle of clam juice so she could just bring regular tomato juice, or maybe juicing my own clams (JUST KIDDING) but both thoughts made me unhappy. Joe had highly recommended this mix, and, well, you know what, I just looked at it and saw that it had clam juice in it, so maybe it'll make mom happy.

And maybe I should be careful about adding horseradish infused vodka to it. Ingredient List: Tomato Puree, Water, Horseradish, Clam Juice, Sugar-based non caloric Sweetner, White Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Anchovies, Tamarind Extract, Buz's Full Flavor Original Spice Mix, Sodium Benzonate, Potassium Sorbate added for freshness. I bet it's the Sodium Benzonate that really makes it sing!

Green Chartreuse - Chartreuse is one of those expensive liqueurs that's needed in so many drinks. Ace had a good price on it so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on some. They only had green, however, so I'll still need to find yellow somewhere.

Damrak Gin - tmfiii was over last night and between beers, an unexpectedly shaken Sazerac that I made (oops), and the very very good Padron Anniversary Edition cigar I smoked (did I mention very good?), I found that I couldn't stop thinking about his bottle of Damrak Gin. Seriously. I'm a little disturbed by how fixated I was on it. I didn't mention it to him because, I don't know, it might seem creepy or something, but there it is. And now here it is.

In honor of last night, here's a recipe Marshall pulled out of the air:
Marshall's Randomass Tiki Drink
2 oz. pineapple juice
1 1/2 oz. gold rum
1/4 oz. brandy (he used the E&J brandy I had that is slightly infused with apricot)
1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur
5 solid dashes Regan's Orange Bitters
1 dash Angostura
1 big dash rich simple syrup (my bottle, she is very big, and pours quickly)

(Master) Shake with ice.

Strain and drink and pontificate.

La Favorite Rhum Agricole Vieux - Obviously, I've talked a good bit about this one already. Is it time for me to go outside and drink it? Maybe if I can just shut up on here!

Black Bottle Five Year Old Blended Scotch - Just as I was about to leave I asked Joe about a good mixing Scotch. I'd tried Pinch before and it had seemed to work but I trust other people's impressions. The thing is that you can always mix with single malts, but, I've found, they're so different in tastes between bottles that it can take a lot of guess work in how something will work with one versus another. This was a good deal so I had no problems giving it a shot. It appears to be the same company that also makes/distributes Deanston, Bunnahabhain, Ledaig, and Tobermory Scotch.

So that was my unexpectedly expensive liquor run for today. If you'll excuse me, I'm finding that sobriety is become more and more of a chore on this lazy Saturday afternoon, so in the words of a wise man: "Screw you guys, I'm going home."