Raiders of the Lost Cocktail - Apricot Brandy
I figured - given the events of tonight - it was time to make some drinks and you know what, let's try out the apricot-flavored brandy. I'd tossed out the Jacquin's crap, but I still had the Dekuyper.
I went through a couple of my books, did some research online, and just looked around. You have to remember the rules: it has to have the apricot brandy, it has to be fairly simple, and it has to be published somewhere (no originals).
So what happened?
The "simple" part of the instructions gets harder and harder as your bar gets better and better, I think - heck, now that I can go to so many bars and say "eh, I've got better at home" I keep forgetting things like "oh, most bars don't have Calvados".
Anyways - I still have plenty of things I want to make for experimentation purposes - and to post on here!
Given that I fell on ice tonight and broke my laptop, and that it was a hellacious ride home - I had a nice sip of some Glenfiddich 15 year old.
What would you have drank?
I went through a couple of my books, did some research online, and just looked around. You have to remember the rules: it has to have the apricot brandy, it has to be fairly simple, and it has to be published somewhere (no originals).
So what happened?
I had planned on waiting until tomorrow and getting my co-conspirator at the Den to help me, but then I figured, what the heck, I think I know what I want to do.I was just excited to be in a contest with as esteemed people as this one. But hey - maybe people will like my suggestions.
I don't have a lot of the really old cocktail books, but I saw four recipes in Ted Haigh's _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_ and a number of recipes in Gary Regan's _The Joy of Mixology_.
I skipped a number of them that had stuff like rum in them since I didn't feel like dealing with rum this week. I went through the rest and got rid of ones I felt were derivative of each other, or at least rather similar.
Finally I had one recipe and it was time to give it a shot - I wouldn't make y'all drink something that I wouldn't drink myself! So I made one, and hey - not bad. Then I realized it had Calvados in it, and that's not exactly the most common ingredient in the world - I still get overly excited when I see a bar with it.
Thus I had to go with a different one. It's from the same book, but had what I liked - a nice clean taste, simple construction (no ambiguities), and best of all, I didn't have to try to make a lemon twist or something (which I'm not very good at).
It had a nice tart taste to it - I'll be making it again when we get up to Kentucky Derby time, since it's named for a private club in Louisville. I got it from page 102 of Haigh's _Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails_.
Pendennis Cocktail
2 ounces gin
1 ounce apricot brandy
2 or 3 dashes Peychaud bitters
3/4 ounce lime juice
Shake in an iced shaker and strain into a cocktail glass.
My second place cocktail, with that whole Calvados problem, was this one from pages 38-39 of the same book:
The Golden Dawn
3/4 oz Calvados
3/4 oz dry gin
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz apricot-flavored brandy
3/4 oz orange juice
Shake and strain. Drop a stemless cherry into it as a garnish. Dribble some real grenadine into it (but don't stir!). (I can't wait to try this one with applejack, but I see that even less in bars around the DC area than Calvados.)
Anyways, hope y'all enjoy.
- SeanMike in the Scofflaw's Den (East Falls Church outpost)
The "simple" part of the instructions gets harder and harder as your bar gets better and better, I think - heck, now that I can go to so many bars and say "eh, I've got better at home" I keep forgetting things like "oh, most bars don't have Calvados".
Anyways - I still have plenty of things I want to make for experimentation purposes - and to post on here!
Given that I fell on ice tonight and broke my laptop, and that it was a hellacious ride home - I had a nice sip of some Glenfiddich 15 year old.
What would you have drank?
