 I love a good Bakewell tart, but if you’re not English or a fan of The Great British Baking Show you might not know what I’m talking about. Just to bring everyone up to speed a traditional Bakewell tart is strawberry jam toped with an almond sponge and feathered icing, it’s very good. So when I saw a cocktail recipe for a Cherry Bakewell Sour on speakeasier.co.uk I was instantly intrigued. The original recipe calls for a flavored Polish vodka call Soplica which imparts the majority of the cherry and almond notes to the original recipe. I couldn’t get my hands on the specific vodka brand used so I substituted with amaretto and cherry herring. In order to bring the drink back to being vodka forward I increased the straight vodka and cut out the Chambord. I used slightly less lemon juice, which is just to my personal taste. I included red tinted cherry vanilla bark bitters to create the design in the foam, for a little olfactory moment, I think almond would work here as well. If you would like to see the original recipe you can link to it here.  Cherry Bakewell Sour (original recipe from speakeasier.co.uk)
1.5 oz. Beluga Allure Noble Russian Vodka 1 oz. Cherry Heering Liqueur .75 oz. lemon juice .5 oz. Knight Gabriello Amaretto Di Toscana .25 oz. Licor43 Egg white Garnish with Bittercube Cherry Vanilla Bark bitters Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Dry shake for approx. a minute and thirty seconds, add ice to shaker and wet shake for an additional thirty seconds until chilled and slightly diluted. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Add red food coloring to the bitters and decorate the foam in a feathered pattern. Enjoy. Cheers!
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 This weeks cocktail is a Sazerac riff inspired by the Sazerac Cocktail served at the Pacific’s Edge Restaurant at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands. I usually find Rye cocktails a bit heavy-handed and for some reason they can really be a night ender. Give me a glass of pure Gin and I’m totally fine… so that science. I was pleasantly surprised by this particular drink and have made my best attempt to recreate it. This recipe is a bit more of an easy drinker than the original Sazerac cocktail. I’ve added lemon juice to help dilute the heaviness of the Rye and used simple syrup just to help create a lighter base color and I find a better distribution of sweetness compared to the traditional sugar. Not only is this version a little more refreshing, but it also has the prettiest color thanks to the bitters.  Highlands Sazerac
2 oz. Michter's Straight Rye .5 oz. simple syrup .5 oz. lemon juice .25 oz. Emperor Norton Absinthe Dieu 3-4 Dashes Peychaud's bitters Rim with lemon rind Garnish with caramelized lemon slice Combine the Rye, simple syrup, lemon juice and bitters in a mixing glass, stir. Rinse a chilled low ball glass with the absinthe, pour out excess. Place a large ice cube into glass and then pour in the rest of the cocktail. Rim the glass with a lemon rind and enjoy. Cheers!  Fire! In this cocktail… I’ve been thinking about shooting some fire for a while and since I make and shoot 99% of these cocktails alone I thought I would take it easy(ish) on myself and do the Granny Smith cocktail from the Aviary Cocktail Book, and hope that I didn't set my house on fire. It was fine and I got to experiment with some moodier lighting, so that was fun. Now to come up with my own recipe! There were some slight variations from the original recipe, usually I try to replicate these Aviary cocktails exactly, buuuuut I’ve managed to accrue quite the collection of Alcohol and since I happened to have both Mezcal and Tequila blanco in my bar right now I couldn't really be bothered to go out and find the exact right bottles. I also substituted the simple syrup with Agave Syrup and cut the quantity in half. Why would I do that you ask? Well, I’m doing what I like to think of as a 30 day reset, no refined sugar, processed foods or alcohol (except obviously I drank this cocktail and there’s a tiny bit of sugar in the apple juice…oops). This is just me being transparent and you should feel free to follow the original recipe.  Granny Smith 2 oz. apple juice (use the recipe from the Aviary Cocktail Book) 1 1/2 oz. Espolón Tequila Blanco 1/2oz. El Silencio Mezcal 1/4 oz. Green Chartreuse 1/2 oz. Lemon juice 1/8 oz. Agave syrup Small Sage bunch Combine all in ingredients except the sage in a Perlini shaker with ice. Carbonate as per instructions and then shake for 10 seconds and let rest for 30 seconds. Pour into a tall glass with ice. Dip sage into some Green Chartreuse and garnish cocktail, lite and let it burn out naturally. Cheers!  This infused cocktail recipe has been rattling around in my brains since the @homebarawards monthly challenge, and I finally got around to actually testing it out. I think this has a nice balance of floral and herbal with some citrus notes that makes it very reminiscent of an Italian Appertivo. I like the idea of serving this in a cute little bottle with a small glass so that you can experience how the cocktail changes in flavor and color as it steeps over time. It’s low ABV so it’s perfect for a mid-day refresh or before meal cocktail.  Garden Party Infused Cocktail
Base 1 oz. Verjus Blanc 1 oz. El Silencio Mezcal .5 oz. Chareau Aloe Liqueur .5 oz. Cinque Appertivo .25 oz. Dry Curaçao 3-4 dashes Bitter Houswife Bull Run Barrel Aged Bitters 3 oz. water To the bottle 1 tsp. dried rose petals 1 tsp. dried hibiscus 1 sprig thyme 2 twist meyer lemon peel pith removed Combine all of the base ingredients in a mixing glass and reserve in a refrigerator until chilled. Place the all of the ingredients in a small (~6oz.) bottle. Once chilled pour base into bottle and serve with a grappa glass. Cheers!  Happy New Year! I’m starting the new year off with a classic beauty, the Aviation. This is a great cocktail, its looks good, is easy to make and it’s very tasty. I used Ford’s Gin instead of the classic Tanqueray, because I’m trying to use up some of my gin library (so I can get some new gin, obviously). I think you could use any London Dry gin that you happen to have on hand, of course you’ll probably have to go out to pick up a bottle of the Creme de Violette any way so… If you know anything about Creme de Violette it’s probably that it can be a bit soapy. I personally think that the trick to this cocktail is to properly dilute it while shaking.  Aviation
2 oz. gin .75 oz. lemon juice .5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino liqueur .25 oz. Rothman & Winter Creme de violette Combine all ingredients in a shaker and shake until chilled and slightly diluted. Cheers! |