The Jolly Bartender

South Pacific

There's no liqueur that represents the Pacific Ocean in the way that Caribbean rum or Scotch represent the Atlantic. That opens the door to vodka (mainly) or brandy, which comes in handy as the brown spirit in exotic drinks. I really like this cocktail. That may be because I like brandy and Martell cognac is the clean tasting spirit that a punch-like drink needs. But I also appreciate the need for vodka to control for color and also to keep the drink strong. It wouldn't do to just add more brown spirit in this instance when vodka can thin out the richness and keep the drink bright.

Banshee

The Banshee is an Irish mythological creature of ill omen, but the cocktail named after it is very sublime. Banshee stories are a bunch of malarkey, as the Irish say. While the ingredients, creme de bananes in particular, have nothing to do with monsters that I can tell, your choice of spirit can be somewhat Irish. MurLarkey banana whiskey gives this creamy drink more traction. You taste real bananas, not fake liqueur, you get a real-looking yellow color, and there's a bit of whiskey spice to keep it interesting. Heed this banshee's call.

Fare Thee Well

Fare Thee Well is the name of an old Celtic love song with the title repeated at the end of each verse. In it the singer is going away, maybe never to return, and he wishes his "Honey" a goodbye. This bittersweet song is a great name for a cocktail that's made best with Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin from Ireland. This gin is so bright and fresh that it's floral notes are the main sensation in this Martini variation of a cocktail. The blue-ish color of the liqueur is a result of the botanicals releasing into the ice-melt from mixing, as this non-chil filtered gin will do.

(Heritage) New York Sour -- Return to the Old Country

I'm revisiting the New York Sour now that I have a Sour glass and I understand how this drink is intended to be made. That means no ice cubes, with a layer of dry red wine on top. Ice cubes can screw up you wine float, as can a straw with which it is tempting to stir the drink. Using the Sour glass almost guarantees the drinking experience will be consistent with each cocktail: you have to drink through the dry wine to get to the sweetened and sour whiskey. A typical Whiskey Sour is made with blended whiskey. You won't find peated or rich ryes in the early examples of Sours. So Irish comes to mind, and and Irish-American whiskey like MurLarkey's Heritage is perfect for this occasion. A note about the float. It is difficult to get a wine to float on a dry cocktail. More sugar might necessary to give the Whiskey Sour beneath enough density to support the wine. I recommend a half ounce of simple syrup--which is fully dissolved--to make sure that you don't get a red Sour.

Grasshopper

A standard Grasshopper (of which there are many variations that I have yet to do for the blog) is an all liqueur dessert drink. That doesn't mean it is weak. All that sugar, though, is pretty dangerous for your brain and your waist size. I forget how good these things are and manage to go years between making them for myself or guests. They are addictive, however. Proceed with caution.

2 oz. green creme de menthe

2 oz. white creme de cacao

2 oz. half-and-half

Panama Cocktail

I really am not sure how this drink fits the Panama theme of its namesake. It is a dessert drink with lots of sugar and cream and rich brandy flavors. The color might be similar to a Panama hat, but I think that's a stretch. The Panama Cocktail is a tasty, if a little boring, drink with slightly more than one note of milk chocolate covering the rich brandy.

This is my last cocktail needed to finish the New York Bartender's Guide circa 1997. I still have several punches to go before I can claim to have done them all.

2 oz. brandy (Asbach Uralt used)

1 1/2 oz. white creme de cacao

1 1/2 oz. half-and-half

Brandy Vermouth Cocktail

I skipped this cocktail for some time because, with ordinary vermouth, it would turn out no different from a Brandy Manhattan. I decided to hit the Brandy Vermouth cocktail again just to try out this new Virginia vermouth by Mt. Defiance. This vermouth--like all sweet vermouths--is made with white whine. It is golden in color, though, and its herbal sweetness is backed up by bitterness in the botanicals and in the whine itself, which is a little wild tasting. Mt. Defiance really stands out in larger proportions in this cocktail--try it to experience a sweeter Brandy Manhattan.

2 oz. brandy (Asbach Uralt used)

1 oz. sweet vermouth (Mt. Defiance used)

1 dash Angostura bitters

MurLarkey Coffee Toreador

I've done the Kahlua Toreador before: egg white, coffee liqueur, brandy blended--done. But it's not really living up to the name of Toreador if there's no topping, no fluffy whipped cream.

This Toreador is rich, but not so much as those dessert cocktails that included blended half-and-half. The egg white adds the creaminess that you expect from a coffee dessert drink. The fun thing about this recipe is that chocolate chunks are perfect to pair with brandy and

MurLarkey coffee whiskey

2 oz. brandy (Asbach Uralt)

1 oz. MurLarkey coffee whiskey

1 tsp. sugar syrup

1/2 egg white

whipped cream

grated dark chocolate

Charles Cocktail

Bitter Brandy cocktails are fashionable in the winter. They taste like rare antiques, beautiful in the correct setting. It's not a bad idea to dust off this old recipe that has a lot of similarities to a Brandy Manhattan.

To increase bitterness, I chose Punt E Mes vermouth, one of the most bitter sweet vermouths on the market. I also go liberal with the Angostura bitters. When given a choice to use between three and five dashes, I always use five.

2 oz. brandy (Asbach Uralt used)

1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Punt E Mes used)

3-5 dashes Angostura bitters

Stirrup Cup

The idea of the Stirrup Cup goes back to drinking at the village in the days of horse travel. A drinker, probably a big spender, finishes up a session of drinking and requires help getting on his horse. Once his feet are in the stirrups, he is given a combination of liquors that he had been drinking already in a cup of booze that will ensure he is done with drinking for the night. He passes out in the saddle and the horse takes him home. A main ingredient in Stirrup Cup cocktails is brandy, and I just got a bottle of Asbach--not cognac--to try with it. Cherry Heering is a rich black cherry liqueur, and it is sweet enough to balance an equal portion of lemon juice.

Silver King

There are many "Silver" cocktails, most of them having something to do with egg white and gin. The title of King goes to the one that uses excellent gin and fresh ingredients for a hands-down winner of a cocktail that is elegant and simple. Monkey 47 is beautifully aromatic with 47 uncommon botanicals. It is very dry and light, so that an egg white cocktail can be both bracing and not weighed down by the notes of the spirit. A king, after all, is graceful.

Three Tea Old Fashioned

I'm still having fun with this MurLarkey three tea whiskey; this time it is in an old standard--The Old Fashioned. Three tea whiskey is especially intense. It tastes just like real tea: floral, earthy, and dry. I like to add it to Heritage, the good stuff, to scent this cocktail with the notes of real tea. One crafty ingredient I made that really accentuates this cocktail is tea bitters. These bitters are easy to make. Simply wash some tea (Earl Grey or floral scented tea recommended) with vodka or neutral spirit so that the scented oils of the teas end up in the liquor. I recommend doing this with a drip pour coffee filter and room temperature spirits. Don't worry about straining out solids if any make it through. They will continue to add to the bitterness and darken the bitters over time.

Newport Cooler

Is this a Rhode Island or Virginia Drink? Where is Newport anyway? It doesn't matter. I made it with Vitae Modern Gin and that settles the issue. This is now a Charlottesville, VA cocktail. The Newport Cooler is a summer drink designed to cool you down. These long drinks have a lot of ice and liquid that make them easy to drink. There's also a lot of flavors going on in this cocktail. Besides the juniper and orange you get from the gin, there's peach and brandy and the richness of sugary ginger ale. I used Bird Dog peach whiskey instead of peach liqueur with not problems. There's enough sweetness here that you don't miss in in that small portion of peach flavor.

Irish Tea

Black tea is used in many hot winter cocktails. This makes a lot of sense, because it warms whatever liquor you use and often the flavor of the liquor provides a sweetness that makes the whole experience more enjoyable. But what if the point of the liquor is to taste like the tea? What if it tastes so much like tea that you almost can't tell that the tea is spiked? MurLarkey makes this really cool three tea whiskey (so new it's not on their website yet) that infuses white whiskey with Darjeeling, Earl Grey and English breakfast teas. It makes a great breakfast cocktail that goes perfectly with toast and jam. The Irish enjoy especially strong black tea, and I recommend it as the namesake of this boozy breakfast drink.

Biscayne Cocktail

It's been a long road to this cocktail. The New York Bartender's Guide of 1997 includes a drink of this name made with one ounce of Forbidden Fruit, a spirit that has been defunct since the middle of last century. That meant I had work to do. I'm not opposed to faithfully recreating a spirit for the sake of this blog, and I've been known to travel to Paris or Iceland to get something I'm looking for, but this spirit is probably my greatest success--and not undeserved. A lot of things went right about the Biscayne Cocktail, as it turned out. Firstly, that I chose a full-bodied gin like ImaGination by MurLarkey. It is tempting whenever rum and gin are listed in the same recipe to use Vitae gin to match their rum, but I wanted that rosemary and grains of paradise (not to mention barley) to stick out and ground things. Vitae rum, however was a good call because it has a noticeable tropical taste. But what went off splendidly was the Forbidden Fruit liqueur I made from this recipe I found on Three Points Kitchen. This recipe perfectly balanced the ounce of lime juice and was actively present in the taste throughout. It was a three week process (and months before that of scanning Asian markets for pomelos, which are in season in the winter here in the U.S.), but well worth it to make this spirit. Once I had these fruits in hand (or by the armload) it was about juicing and peeling. I assembled and crushed the spices according to the recipe and was sure to include blood oranges and orange blossom honey. These items aren't available just anywhere at any time of the year. Vanilla beans, cardamom pods, coriander, vanilla, cinnamon--this was a challenge. I picked out Meukow VS cognac for the infusion. This turned out to be a good choice because this young cognac had a heavy honeyed nose, but being aged in French oak, was smoother than American brandy, which hews closer to whiskey.

After two weeks of infusing the juice, fruit peels, cognac, and spices, I removed the solids and added the orange blossom honey. And I'm glad I took the recipie's advice and looked for this specific organic honey. The scent and particular sweetness is exactly what this exotic liqueur needed. After another week, I used a coffee drip filter to remove fine particles and bottled the Forbidden Fruit in a cognac bottle.

General Harrison’s Eggnog

At first I thought of this drink as a low-ABV eggnog cocktail. I considered that this cocktail named for President and U.S. Army general William Henry Harrison took into account the man's penchant for sobriety by using less potent liquors like wine and hard cider over brandy and rum. Then I looked at the glass size, the fact that there's no ice in this eggnog, and the directions saying to top up with either cider or dry red wine. Any way you cut it, that's a lot of wine or cider in one drink when there's only an egg and a bit of sugar in the drink. So my guess is that General Harrison made his eggnog with what he had available in an army camp. Cider or wine? Check. Eggs and sugar? Check. This was an easy nog to make considering. I chose Angry Orchard Cinnful Apple cider because cinnamon would only go along with the winter spices in this drink. I also wanted to avoid a bruit cider that would be awkwardly dry in such a rich cocktail. The effect was pretty awesome! The bubbles in the cider forced the egg foam to rise half way up the glass and force cinnamon and nutmeg scents toward your nose. Underneath is a silky but not overly rich cider nectar.

Coffee Eggnog

This is my final Eggnog post of the New York Bartender's Guide. It may be my final Eggnog post of the year. That has yet to be seen. As it stands I've done all of the other Eggnog drinks on the list, and I have to say that I think this is better than most, particularly the ones that use brandy, sherry, or cider. I guess I'm just partial to coffee. And there is something to that feeling that you are getting your coffee with your liquor in this holiday drink. That and the fact that this cocktail is blended for extra fluffiness, and you have your cold Coffee Eggnog Latte right here. The original recipe calls for instant coffee. That seems a little basic nowadays, but I can see the logic. A coffee liqueur back in the 90s didn't have the real coffee taste of cold brew coffee. It would be mostly rum and sugar, so adding instant coffee would just accentuate the real coffee flavor. But you are blending this drink, so there's no harm in using a pinch of real coffee. Better still, substitute MurLarkey Coffee Whiskey for the coffee liqueur, and you will have an all-whiskey Eggnog that tastes more like real coffee. Nothing else needs to change in this recipe except that you can add more sugar syrup to taste.