alphatinis

Earth, Air, Fire, Water

Sips

Thank you, everyone, for being patient during my August-off. I did get quite a bit done, but now it’s back to the usual blogging schedule and back to the bar!

~~~oOo~~~

Elemental Cosmos Cocktail

Elemental Cosmos

So, this week’s Alphatini asks us to tackle the letter E. Early brainstorming turned up eggplant (not sure how that would work), eggnog (which was a contender, if a little predictable), and Everclear (just say no!). The everything concept, a la the bagel with everything on it, also made a brief appearance on the list but I figured the Long Island Iced Tea has the ‘everything’ vote covered. The wonky weather these last few weeks had me thinking earthy–but what flavor (other than, say, dirt) says earth? Mushrooms and brie, but even I don’t view those as potential cocktail comestibles.

Accompaniments, yes. Ingredients, no.

Earth kept bumping around in my brain (no jokes about having a big head, please) and I was this <-> close to concocting something with the name EarthShake, but I was still stuck on my primary flavor inspiration. Meanwhile, the idea evolved–maybe not just earth but all the rest of the elements too! Not that that helped with the earthy-flavor issue, but it gave me more to play with.

What’s better than over-thinking a cocktail theme on your own? Musing aloud to the Tester Monkey!  He came up with the brilliant idea of carrot juice–or some other liquid from something that was grown in the earth (peanuts, potatoes, grains, etc.). Then he struck gold, quite literally, when he suggestion Goldschlager. I mean, what’s more natural than a mineral straight from the earth?

The Elemental Cosmos

1.5 oz Pepper Vodka (like Absolut Peppar)
1 oz Cranberry Juice
3/4 oz Goldschlager
1 Orange slice (plus one more for garnish)

Combine vodka, juice and liqueur over ice. Squeeze in the orange slice and drop the rind in for good measure. Shake like the creation of a world depends on it and strain it into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the second orange slice and enjoy.

Even if earth took some time to come up with, fire was an easy match: pepper vodka fit the bill nicely. I took a bit of liberty with water and air, though, choosing both for their environment: oranges grow hanging in the air and cranberries are harvested by flooding their bogs.

Of course, when you’ve got citrus, vodka and cranberries staring at you across the bar, the first thing that comes to mind is the classic Cosmopolitan. Using that drink as a guide for the quantities in this version, I was pretty certain some tinkering would be necessary to get a balanced drink. I definitely though we’d need more juice to balance out the 2 very strong alcohols.

Turns out, you should never doubt the classics.

Which is probably a good philosophy to live by in general, doncha think?

~~~oOo~~~

Hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend. Yes, it’s the unofficial end to summer but I happen to really love fall and everything that comes with it, so I’m looking forward to the next season or two!

Next week we’ll be back with a fabulous f-themed cocktail!

Have I Got a Dill For You!

Sips

As promised, this week in Alphatinis is a savory sipper perfect for hot summer days.

~~~oOo~~~

Pickled Puppy Martini

Pickled Puppy

I knew, when I (loosely) planned out this series, that D would have something to do with dill. A dill cocktail practically cries out for gin–it all but hops over and into the bottle just to be closer to the already herbalicious spirit. So a dill-infused gin it would be but then! Then I remembered this really nice cucumber-mint mojito with cucumber-infused gin I had once at Bonefish (whose cocktail menu I’ve found lacking in the past) so I decided to throw cucumber into the mix.

Infusing liquor is a fairly simple process: put your fruits or veggies or herbs* into a seal-able glass container, cover with base alcohol of choice and let sit until ready. It does, however, take time. I’m glad I started the infusion 5 days before it was time to try out the cocktail. In about 2 days the dill had made it’s mark but it took the other 3 for the cucumbers to really join the party and mellow the whole mix out. (For the curious I used half a cucumber, sliced, and one very fluffy sprig of dill to about 8 oz of dry gin.)

But what would I pair this very interesting gin with? I didn’t want to go too sweet, obviously, but I didn’t want it to be like drinking pickle juice, either!

Thinking about the gin drinks I enjoy–gin & tonic, gin & cranberry, gin & grapefruit–oh, wait, a twist on a Greyhound might be just the thing. And I happened to have a bottle of Pamplemousse rose Perrier on the shelf as well as pink grapefruit juice. Sold!

Pickled Puppy

2 oz Cucumber-Dill Gin
1 1/4 oz Pink Grapefruit-flavored Sparkling Water
splash of Pink Grapefruit Juice
garnish: cucumber, dill

Combine gin, water and juice over ice in a mixing glass and stir like a dog chasing his tail. Once thoroughly chilled, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish.

I used a long strip of fresh cucumber threaded with dill and a bamboo skewer as a garnish but you could also use some of the cucumber rounds from the infusion. Keep in mind, though, that those cucumbers will be super-potent.

This cocktail turned out so well, my take on the more traditional Greyhound, that I’m keeping the infused gin on hand to make more this weekend–it’s a fabulous, low-impact summer cooler.

~~~oOo~~~

*Yes, I know you can infuse with proteins, too, but I just don’t see the point. Fat-washing doesn’t really appeal to me.

No clue, yet, what our e-themed cocktail will be. Guess we’ll all be surprised next week!

Give Me 3 CCs–Stat!

Sips
3-C Martini

3-C Martini

Unlike a goodly portion of human adults, I don’t rely on a cup of coffee or three to start my day (part of it is that whole no-caffeine thing, of course). Sure, I indulge in the occasional Venti Decaf Soy Caramel Macchiatto when I manage to leave the house a little early but, for the most part, my coffee-flavored indulgences happen later in the day.

Much later.

A good after-dinner coffee drink–with plenty of cream, of course–can only be improved by one thing, in my mind: chocolate. So I offer up this take on the chocolate coffee martini.

3-C Martini

1 oz Vodka
1 oz Coffee
3/4 oz Irish Cream Liqueur
3/4 oz Chocolate Liqueur (Godiva, preferred)
Garnish: whipped cream, chocolate shavings

Combine liquid ingredients over ice and shake enough to knock the last vestiges of sleep from your thoughts. (Not that I’d advocate this as a morning beverage, unless we’re talking Sunday brunch and you’re not going anywhere for a while!) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with whipped cream and freshly-shaved chocolate.

I made two versions of this drink–one with coffee and the other with coffee liqueur. While the Kahlua version was divine, the coffee flavor is much more muted than if you use fresh coffee, straight from the pot. In the latter, thanks to the other ingredients, the coffee is strong but not bitter. Feel free to substitute based on your personal preferences.

The one thing you’re not going to want to substitute is anything other than a premium vodka. I’ve often been told that the better the vodka, the cleaner the flavor. Or, in some cases, the lack of flavor–at least readily discernible flavor. Not being a vodka-neat type, I didn’t really think much about it until I received a bottle of a premium vodka to try–Cinco Vodka from San Antonio, TX–and now I am a true believer! When placed next to a common call brand vodka the finish and feeling that the Cinco gave was far beyond the burn that the call brand gave. So consider this your tip of the week–buy a better vodka and reap the rewards!

A Blast From Our Blueberry-Tinged Past

Sips

Welcome back for our second installment in the Alphatinis series. This week B is for Blueberry, but a little blueberry should never be left in the cold (vodka) on his own.

~~~oOo~~~

Blueberry Pomegranate Martini
A couple years back, Todd and I attended a local fundraiser and sampled an amazing Blueberry Pomegranate cocktail. It was so good that we decided to try our hand at recreating it at home–the first of many such experiences, some of which will find their way into this series (indeed, could even be considered the inspiration for it).

Trying to find a recipe online yielded the most likely answer: that the restaurant serving the drink was probably using a mix. Still, we had to give it a try and after 5 versions and some tweaking here and there, we hit upon the best possible combination of vodka and juices to match what we’d had that night. And I tucked the recipe away in that year’s little red notebook for future use.

It’s wonderful living in the future!

Blueberry Pomtini

2 oz Blueberry Juice
1 oz Pomegranate Juice
1 oz Vodka
1 oz Simple Syrup
Garnish: Fresh Blueberries

Combine all liquid ingredients over ice and shake like a brisk breeze is blowing through your arms, right into that chilly mixing glass. (Make sure to get a good seal on that Boston shaker–this mix will stain for sure!) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a skewer of fresh blueberries.

A sweet, generous cocktail, the Blueberry Pomtini is one you can enjoy as a quick drink or sip over the course of an evening without a lot of alcohol going to your head. Earlier version were based on a simple 2:1 martini ratio (not smooth at all) and even one a la a Cosmopolitan (the triple sec–this was before I was using strictly Cointreau–overpowered everything, as it’s wont to do). And without the sugar syrup the juice and vodka alone were much too tart.

That testing, however, was before we discovered our fondness for vanilla vodka (the brand we’re loving right now? 360 Madagascar Vanilla) so tonight I trotted out that little red notebook and gave the old favorite a run with our new favorite just to see how it fared. While the vanilla version was quite tasty–the vanilla lends a certain warmth to the drink–it did overshadow the delicate blueberry flavor more than we would have wanted. Ergo, we present it as originally concocted.

Now, for this past Halloween I made a version of this as a punch, Blue Blood Punch to be specific. Combining large containers of Cran-Pomegranate and Cran-Blueberry Juices with a 2-liter of Ginger Ale in a punch bowl or (in our case) 3-gallon drink dispenser with ice makes a very good punch for the masses. And for those who wish a little more bite to their drink could go inside to the bar and add a splash of spirits.

~~~oOo~~~

Every Friday we’ll be wending our way through the new Alphatini series. Discouraged by 2 sweets to start? Well, if you’ll hang with us through the C-tini to come next week, I promise a different twist is coming when we get to the big D!

Beware the Hag With the Poisoned Apple

Sips

Welcome to the first of our new Alphatini series where we take a look at 26 varieties of the classic martini and come up with the best possible version of each, maybe even creating some new ones on the way.

~~~oOo~~~

A is for Apple

If we, in our gin-soaked haze, remember nothing else from those early learning years it’s that A is indeed for apple. That big, red, juicy fruit purported to keep the doctor away with one a day, win us extra points with the teacher and even find the first initial of our true love in it’s peel. Whether piled high in a pie, cooked down to sauce or juiced for convenience we’ve all had some sort of experience with apples in our life.

And while apples come in reds, greens, yellows and combinations thereof, exactly when did they become neon-hued and sour? While we may have become used to the chartreuse cocktail billed as an Appletini, it resembles an alcoholic candy more than what some believe the serpent tempted Eve with.

Let’s see if we can’t come up with something better, shall we?

Surveying the Orchard

Taking a quick stroll through bartending guides and web recipe repositories, the Appletini always seems to have a vodka base (sometimes a flavored vodka but often plain). The other main ingredient is apple schnapps–usually the sour sort like DeKuypers Apple Pucker. It’s not a bad ingredient, really, but I’d like to at least see a little apple juice in my apple martini (I know, shocking), not just booze. What I certainly don’t need is sour mix, citrus soda or cranberry juice mucking around my glass. They’re all find ingredients in their own right (well, except the sour mix–make your own!), just not what we really need here.

What could we add instead? Obvious would be apple juice or you could go even more direct with some apple puree. If you want to invoke the feel of a warm apple pie some vanilla and cinnamon would not go amiss (hello, vanilla vodka and maybe some cinnamon schnapps or syrup), even some condensed milk shaken in for that a la mode vibe. Or you could go a little classier with some Calvados (apple brandy) and a cinnamon stick for a cider-like cocktail.

In Search Of…

Caramel Apple Spice MartiniOnce, in a fairly decent chain restaurant, late one night after a holiday concert, I was intrigued enough to order a Caramel Apple Martini expecting something I wanted to just curl up in and take a nap. Instead what was brought to me was thin-tasting, bitter and gritty from the powdered cinnamon around the rim. The only thing it had in common with a real caramel apple was that it was sticky.

It’s so sad when a drink doesn’t live up to the menu’s hype.

Enter my solution: a dreamy, creamy caramel apple flavor with just a hint of spice. It’s definitely a dessert drink and even with less than 2 oz alcohol in there it’s pretty potent (the sugary ones always are). Sip it slowly and savor it.

Caramel Apple Spice Martini

1 1/4 oz Vanilla Vodka
1 1/4 oz Apple Juice
1/2 oz Caramel Sauce
1/4 oz Cinnamon Schnapps
Garnish: cinnamon-demerara sugar, apple slice, cinnamon stick

Combine the vodka, juice, caramel sauce and schnapps in a cocktail shaker over ice. Give it a good, long shake to toss the caramel sauce around and strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with cinnamon-demerara sugar. Garnish with a slice of apple and a cinnamon stick.

The “secret” is to use a caramel sauce and not a syrup–the syrup will give a thinner mouth-feel and can have a very chemical edge to it. And yes, I mean sauce like you’d use for ice cream topping. When you mix the cinnamon sugar, go easy on the cinnamon–it really doesn’t take more than a sprinkle in a quarter cup of sugar (I prefer demerara for the natural color and large crystals) to get the point across without any grittiness.

For an extra treat, try sipping the drink through the cinnamon stick!