Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | March 18, 2010

Washington Post’s Beer Madness

The Washington Post has launched a March Madness tournament style beer competition, wherein a small group of judges picked from 32 bottled beers in four categories to see which was the best of them all.The categories are Lagers, Dark Beers, Pale Ales and Freestyle (though the word Pale in the Pale Ale category was clearly not influential).

In consultation with Brickskeller owner Dave Alexander, we picked 32 beers (all bottled) from 22 nations on six continents. (All right, England and Scotland are part of a single entity called the United Kingdom, but they have very different brewing traditions, so we didn’t let questions of sovereignty deter us.) We wanted strong contenders, but nothing too obscure; that would defeat the purpose of narrowing the field to that most spectacular beer anybody could — and should — quaff.

The bracket is viewable here.

I have to say that while the selection has some cool imports and four solid American microbrews (one in each category), the desire for a really international competition substantially watered down the pool, especially but not exclusively in the lager category. That one includes Stella Artois, Tsingtao, Singha, Dos Equis Amber, Pilsner Urquell and Heineken. Other prominent global brands include Guinness, Fuller’s ESB, Smithwick’s, and Chimay Red. Look a lot of these are beers that I like quite a bit (Guinness, Smithwick’s & Chimay). But frankly, if the beer has ads on TV, that should almost immediately disqualify it for consideration. Do American microbrews really need to be paired against beers that spend more in annual ad budgeting than these breweries do in production? Why not spend more time identifying interesting picks or international microbrews instead? I mean, Heineken, but not a single entry by Dogfish Head? It’s pretty crazy. Moreover, even some of the good international beers could be represented by less famous big breweries.

Of course, griping about the bracketology is just the beginning. If I see Heineken or Tsingtao in the finals against Hitachino Nest White Ale and Hitachino Nest doesn’t win…wow.

More than anything else, it’s clear that even in the Brickskellar, there are people who aren’t going to explore and find new, creative, lesser-known beers, many of which are still widely available.

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Posted in Beer & Cider

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | March 16, 2010

Clyde Common

I was lucky enough to be in Portland, Oregon for less than twenty-four hours for work last week. I got in late from LA on Thursday night and sought out a quick bite to eat and a cocktail with a coworker. Naturally, I suggested we go to Teardrop Cocktail Lounge, given how much I enjoyed it when I was there last fall. It was a great choice, as we enjoyed a few of David Shenaut’s original creations. After a round or two, Jeffrey Morgenthaler came into the bar. Jeffrey is a bartender and blogger who I’ve met a few times on his trips to hang with cocktailians in DC. Jeffrey rightly gave me grief for not giving him a heads up that I was coming into town and that I hadn’t yet been to his bar, Clyde Common. He said that he wasn’t going to be around the next day, but strongly encouraged me to go by for lunch if I had time (I was flying back to DC the following evening).

Since we’d come for lunch, we quickly started off by ordering $3.5 happy hour beers (I had a porter native to Oregon whose name I forget). Both my colleague and I had absolutely delicious cheeseburgers, as well as orders of pickles and olives. The food was great – perfect for snacking on a rainy Friday afternoon with the only thing in front of us being a long trip home on a red eye flight from the Pacific Northwest to the Mid-Atlantic. While I was enjoying my porter, I immediately regretted not ordering a cocktail. Their happy hour had a selection of $5 craft cocktails, a few of which looked great.

After the food was done and it became clear we didn’t have much work to do prior to heading to the airport, we hunkered down to sample a cocktail or two before we left. I started off with a Tonga-Tonga, a Tiki drink made with Smith and Cross Traditional Jamaica rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice, and Trader Tiki’s orgeat. It was pretty fantastic, with great balance and spice. Smith and Cross is a really interesting rum – with lots of savory vegetable flavor and a good kick of vanilla-caramel. The Tonga-Tonga is a great example of how Tiki drinks can balance out multiple juices and syrups and still be, well, balanced.

For my next drink, I was debating between the One-Trick Pony (Pelinkovac bitter, maraschino liqueur, house-made tonic water, lime juice) and a Barrel-Aged Negroni. Obviously I’m a fan of potable bitters and the One-Trick Pony sounded like the sort of digestif that would be right up my alley. Pelinkovac is a spirit that I’ve seen in used on every Portland cocktail bar menu that I’ve seen, though I’ve never seen it used in the DC cocktail scene. It remains a mystery to me as the bartender, Johnny, talked me into trying the Barrel-Aged Negroni. Now since the Negroni is one of my four or five favorite cocktails, it didn’t take much to convince me to try it. Clyde Common’s Barrel-Aged Negroni is the sort of cocktail that just jumps off the menu at me. They make it with Beefeater, Cinzano Rosso, and Campari, which is totally reasonable so far. But the beauty of this drink is they buy Tuthilltown Spirits used bourbon casks, fill it with sherry and age it about a month, then drain the sherry and fill it with the Negroni, which they then age for another six weeks. The result is amazing. It’s still a Negroni, with a nice bitter orange and gin spice, but the aging in the sherry and bourbon soaked oak really mellows out its edges. It doesn’t have the sharp spikes a Negroni has and instead is rounded with sherry tones and on an even lower level, hints of whiskey. It was one of the most interesting cocktails I’ve ever had and it makes me want to go out and buy a used bourbon cask to try some aged cocktails of my own.

Before we ended our session, I noticed that there was a bottle of Amer Picon on the back bar. It’s hard for me to be at a bar that has Amer Picon and not order a drink with it. I asked Johnny to make me anything he wanted as long as it included the Amer. He made me a cocktail that was right in my wheelhouse – gin, Lillet Blanc, and Amer Picon, stirred and topped with a float of Amer Picon. It was dry and had a terrific mix of the bitter orange Amer Picon. I’m not sure what Johnny called this drink, but it was a good one.

We had a great time hanging out at Clyde Common and, to me, it’s another example of how great the cocktail and food scene in Portland is.  Yet another evidence point for me in my considerations of finding an excuse to live in Portland at some point in my life…

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Posted in Bars, Reviews

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | March 14, 2010

Advancing in the Magnificent Bastard Contest

Well, my entry to the Magnificent Bastard contest has made it through another round. It’s on to the Elite Eight, where I’ll be squaring off against Sean Zimmer. Here’s his cocktail:

Sean Zimmer’s Magnificent Bastard

2 parts Alberta Premium Rye Whiskey
2 parts Drambuie
1 part Cointreau
1.5 parts fresh lime juice

Stir with ice 10 times clockwise, 10 times counter-clockwise. Drain into chilled martini glass. Repeat until Bastardized.

It certainly sounds interesting, a very unique recipe for sure.

What I really like about my recipe is that it has its roots in a very old, classic recipe native to DC: the Hong Kong.

The Magnificent Bastard Cocktail

1 oz Mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)*
.5 oz Dry Vermouth (Dolin Dry)
.5 oz Sweet Vermouth (Dolin Rouge)
1.5 bar spoons Maraschino (Luxardo)

Stir all ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Hong Kong is very similar – made with scotch instead of mezcal and with less maraschino. But the switch from whiskey to mezcal makes a huge difference in the flavors of the drink, while maintaining a great deal of complexity. The original Hong Kong reminds me a lot of the flavors and levels of a Martinez, while my recipe finds a similar citrus dimension with the fruity Chichicapa mezcal.

I expect the next round of judging in the contest to take place in the next couple weeks…stay tuned.

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Posted in Contests, MBH Creations

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | March 4, 2010

Domaine de Canton Cocktails

Last night I happened to be in Bourbon in Adams Morgan, stopping by for a quick dinner and cocktail, when I found out that, fortuitously enough, Phil Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail would be stopping by to serve special Domaine de Canton cocktails. The menu included five drinks, two of which I was able to sample. What was really nice was that Phil’s menu included not just ingredients, but the exact recipes.

The first one up was the Basil Faultless Cocktail. It was surprisingly dry and tart, with a light spice from the Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. The basil adds a fresh aroma that further adds complexity to the drink. Given how much Domaine de Canton is in this cocktail, it really wasn’t too sweet at all.

Basil Faultless Cocktail

1.5 oz gin
1 oz Domaine de Canton
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
3-4 basil leaves

Shake well with ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass, add dash seltzer.

The drink that I really enjoyed was the Cook Strait Sling. This is a cocktail that Phil created for a Cocktail World Cup hosted by 42 Below vodka. It has made it to the US finals and is still in the mix to win a big prize. The Cook Strait Sling is a variation on a Singapore Sling, with vodka replacing gin and Domaine de Canton replacing Benedictine. The Cook Strait is between the north and south islands of New Zealand, where 42 Below vodka is made.

Cook Strait Sling

1.5 oz vodka
.75 oz Domaine de Canton
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz Cherry Heering
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake all ingredients well with ice. Strain into a Collins glass filled with ice, top with seltzer

This was a really great cocktail. I tend to not like vodka-based cocktails, as I think they are primarily a missed opportunity to add some flavor. But this was so rich with layers from the lemon, cherry heering, and bitters that it’s hard to imagine much more coming into play had this been made with, say, white rum or gin. It was tart and slightly bitter, with enough sweetness to make it really palatable. It’s no wonder that it’s had success in the Cocktail World Cup, as it is a phenomenal use of ingredients.

Domaine de Canton is a really great ingredient. It is sweet enough to replace a sweetener in many recipes, but adds a great spiciness to drinks and opens doors for expanding flavor profiles in classic cocktails. The drinks I had last night by Phil Greene at Bourbon were perfect examples of the flexibility of Domaine de Canton. No wonder he’s out repping for the brand!

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Posted in Domaine de Canton

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | March 1, 2010

The Monk’s Cherry

My good friend Han is getting into the cocktail scene and it is a good thing. He sent me a good write-up of a visit to a beer and whiksey bar that’s emerging as a legit place to have some craft cocktails in San Francisco, called Elixir. I’ve never been but now I think I’ll have to put it on my list for places to check out the next time I’m in the Bay Area.

Anyway, Han was at Elixir last night and sent along details about what sounds like a great drink, The Monk’s Cherry. He got the recipe:

The Monk’s Cherry

2 oz Bulleit Bourbon
1 oz Green Chartreuse
1 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
4 Bourbon Bing Cherries
Fresh Lavender

Muddle 4 bourbon Bing cherries along with a bar spoon of fresh lavender (sans stems) in a mixing glass. Add ice, bourbon, vermouth, and Chartreuse. Shake and fine-strain into coupe cocktail glass. Garnish with de-stemmed bourbon cherry 1/2 sliced to sit on stem with a small spear of lavender stuck into it, as if it’s the stem.

Han writes of The Monk’s Cherry:

Naturally, it’s quite floral but the sweet, boozy cherries and lavender and chartreuse balance each other beautifully and the unique vermouth (I know you’re a fan) rounds out the slightly spicy Bulleit. Damn, it’s good! Try it if you can find some decent fresh lavender… and if you have the patience to steep some cherries in bourbon for a while (maybe you already have?). I’m definitely gonna try to add this to my repertoire.

Well Han was right – I keep batches of bourbon, rye, and maraschino cherries in my fridge for moments like this, when you just have to have some beautiful big cherries soaked with bourbon! Actually, this is one of the first and easiest things I got into in the cocktail world. It takes literally no effort to make these cherries and the bonus is you will always have some to put in your Manhattan that matches the base spirit.

In terms of The Monk’s Cherry, this looked so good I just had to try it tonight. The only problem is that I am currently sans Carpano Antica and, not surprisingly, I don’t have any fresh lavender lying around, either. So I had to improvise. Here’s what I came up with:

The Monk’s Garden

2 oz Four Roses Small Batch
1 oz Green Chartreuse
1 oz Dolin Rouge
1 bar spoon Creme de Roses
4 Bourbon Bing Cherries

Muddle 4 bourbon Bing cherries along with a bar spoon of Creme de Roses in a mixing glass. Add ice, bourbon, vermouth, and Chartreuse. Shake and fine-strain into coupe cocktail glass. Garnish with de-stemmed bourbon cherry 1/2 sliced to sit on stem with a small spear of lavender stuck into it, as if it’s the stem.

Now, given I wasn’t using Carpano Antica, I thought a less spicy bourbon was in order. The Four Roses is still strong and rich, but it doesn’t have the same pepper as the Bulleit. It works really well with the Dolin. Creme de Roses is not available in the US, but if you’re reading this blog you can probably imagine what it is like. It’s similar to Creme de Violette, only with a rose base instead of violet. It’s sweet and oily, but not overpowering. Added here, it provides a nice floral bouquet to the cocktail. The drink is surprisingly balanced for the amount of Chartreuse here, though I’m sure a little tinkering could get this to the point where it really hums without as much of a sweet taste.

All that said, the folks at Elixir are clearly onto something with the marriage of this range of ingredients. It’s a fun cocktail – close in relation to a Manhattan, but with far more going on. Give one or both of these recipes a stir and let me know what you think.

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Posted in Bourbon, Cocktails, Creme de Roses, MBH Creations

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 25, 2010

Police Gazette Cocktail

In his San Francisco Chronicle column, Gaz Regan writes about an interesting cocktail whose recipe apparently took seventeen years to make. The reason for the delay: for a long time, vermouth in America just plain sucked. Only the recent arrival of the Dolin line of vermouths has allowed the drink to reach perfection. Looking at the recipe, I can say it is definitely something I plan on trying in the very near future.

Police Gazette Cocktail
Adapted by Gaz Regan from a recipe by Francis Schott, Catherine Lombardi and the Stage Left restaurants, New Jersey.

2 1/2 ounces Old Overholt or other straight rye whiskey
1/4 ounce Dolin Blanc vermouth
1/4 ounce Senior’s Orange Curacao di Curacao
1/4 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur
1 cherry marinated in maraschino liqueur, as garnish
1 dash Angostura Bitters, as an aromatic garnish
1 dash Regans’ Orange Bitters No. 6, as an aromatic garnish

Place all the ingredients, except the cherry and bitters, in a mixing glass. Add ice, stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the cherry, and dash the bitters onto the top of the drink.

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Posted in Cocktails, Rye

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 22, 2010

Classic Cocktails Seminar

Phil Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail is going to be back in DC  next month to host a seminar at Occidental Grill & Seafood on four classic cocktails – Martini, Manhattan, Daiquiri and Old Fashioned – and how they relate to many other common drinks in structure and taste profile.  It looks like a great event and exactly the sort of thing that gets me excited about cocktail history and genealogy. Here’s the full description:

The Museum of the American Cocktail Presents:

Introduction to Cocktails – Mastering the Classics

$45.00 per person pre-register

The ‘at-the-door’ fee will be $50.00.

Monday, March 22 2010, 7:00 – 8:30 pm

Occidental Grill & Seafood
1475 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20004

At this fun and informative seminar, you’ll learn the general history of cocktails by looking at four classics, the Old Fashioned (which is simply a variation on the original “cocktail”), the Manhattan, the Martini, and the Daiquiri. From these four classics we’ll look at variations on each one, how each drink and category evolved, historical anecdotes, pop-culture references, etc. Looking especially at the Daiquiri, we’ll see how this drink is one of the many “sours,” and to master one is to master a concept that allows you not only to make other classics (Sidecar, Margarita, Whiskey Sour, Aviation, White Lady, Pisco Sour, Jack Rose, and many others), but to invent your own variations, as well. You’ll also learn many basic cocktail making tips throughout this event.  All the while, you’ll enjoy tasty appetizers created especially by the Occidental’s acclaimed chef.  Please register at:

http://museumoftheamericancocktail.org/Events/Default.aspx#Seminar52

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Posted in Events

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 21, 2010

Out of Round 1

Good news on the Magnificent Bastard cocktail contest front…I made it out of Round 1, with my mescal, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth and maraschino libation winning over Billy York’s Tequila/St Germain Old Fashioned-type drink 4-1. Say the judges:

Winner: Matt Hamlin
Score: 4-1
Game Summary: York’s cocktail was interesting because it contained a cloaking device (tequila was disguised as the main liquor). However, it couldn’t hold the jockstrap of Hamlin’s tequila Rob Roy, which was well balanced, finished beautifully, and forced most of us to drink the whole thing.

Not the diction I may have chosen, but hey, it’s fun. In Round 2 I’m up against Gary Cartwright’s very successful entry:

Gary Cartwright

Ingredients:
4-6 mint leaves
1 3/4 oz bourbon
3/4 Citronge or other quality triple sec
splash sweetened lime juice

Instructions:
Rip and lightly crush mint leaves in a shaker tin with spoon or whatnot, then add lots of ice, the spirits and lime. Stir well, until tin dews up, and strain carefully over ice, with a lime twist or wheel garnish.

I can see that there’s a lot to like with this drink, which looks to be a julep relative. Cartwright’s drink cleared the first round 5-0 with the judges.

I’m guessing the results for Round 2 won’t be in for another week or two, but I’ll keep you all posted.j

The only other thing I’ll say is the long waits and the round by round color commentary make this a far more stressful contest that most judged-in-one-night events.

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Posted in Contests

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 16, 2010

Worst Cocktail Ever?

As I’ve frequently mentioned before, I get a lot of emails from PR representatives for liquor companies promoting their client’s product. For most established brand, the messages usually are requests to promote new recipes using their product — often focused around an upcoming holiday. Thanksgiving, July 4th, Halloween, New Years, Mardi Gras…you name the holiday and there is probably a PR email somewhere in my inbox with new and marginally creative ideas for a special cocktail. Sometimes the cocktail ideas are good. Usually they look sweet, unbalanced, and unappealing.

But only rarely do they look laughably bad.

Today I received an email promoting Jagermeister-based Mardi Gras cocktails that included this recipe:

Bourbon Treat

1/3 oz. Blue Curacao
1/3 oz. Goldschlager
1/3 oz. Jägermeister
1/3 oz. Ouzo
1/3 oz. Rumple Minze
1/3 oz. Bourbon

Layer in a 2 oz. shot glass in the given order.

Now, I’m guessing since this is a layered shot, it looks fairly cool in a glass. But it’s really hard for me to imagine a recipe that, at least on paper, looks worse tasting than this concoction without specifically calling for spoiled milk or Marmite. I mean, orange, cinnamon, Jager, anise, peppermint and bourbon? Really??

It got me thinking – what’s the worst cocktail you’ve ever seen marketed or put on a menu in a bar? I’m not thinking about things you drank in college for the sake of getting drunk. I’m talking about something that someone, somewhere, presumably with a straight face, said, “Gee, I think people will like this!”

So, let me know in the comments – what’s the worst cocktail you’ve ever seen or tasted?

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Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising, Cocktails

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 8, 2010

Magnificent Bastard Contest Brackets

The brackets for the single elimination Magnificent Bastard cocktail contest are live. You can see the full chart here. There are a lot of good cocktails in this 32 entry contest, though I haven’t seen this much St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur since early 2008… The Bartender’s ketchup indeed!

Kidding aside, I’m up against Bill York’s submission, which while including St. Germain, also looks pretty damned tasty:

Bill York’s Magnificent Bastard

2 oz Herradura Silver Tequila
1 Tbsp St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
2 healthy dashes Angostura Bitters
Lemon twist

Combine ingredients in an ice filled glass. Strain into cocktail glass & garnish with lemon twist OR serve on the rocks.

Bill’s drink is basically a tequila Old Fashioned sweetened by St. Germain. I’ve had plenty of drinks that pair St. Germain with a silver tequila and I’ve always been a fan of the results, so I’m clearly up against a tough first round opponent.

As a reminder, here’s what I’m bringing to the table in the Magnificent Bastard cocktail contest:

1 oz Mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)
.5 oz Dry Vermouth (Dolin Dry)
.5 oz Sweet Vermouth (Dolin Rouge)
1.5 bar spoons Maraschino (Luxardo)

Stir all ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I like how my cocktail stacks up against Bill’s, but then again, I’ve been working this a while and have grown quite fond of it.

The first round of judging begins on February 11th, so I’ll keep you posted on what happens. The contest will conclude on April 5th.

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Posted in Contests

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 5, 2010

Cameron Bogue & Nathan Fong

Some good summer drinks for mid-winter. Recipes here:

Piñasca

2 oz Sagatiba Cachaça
2 Slices of Grilled Pineapple*
1 oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
½ oz 1:1 Simple Syrup
Sweet & Spicy Rim**

Muddle, Shake and Strain into an ice filled, sweet & spicy rimmed high ball glass. Garnish with grilled pineapple and lime peel.

*Cut fresh pineapple, slice lengthwise and grill until the simple sugars are caramelized with beautiful grill marks.
** 1T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1/8 t cayenne pepper

The Fong

2 oz Beefeater
½ oz Lillet
½ Garam Masala Grilled Lemon
¾ oz Honey Cardamom Syrup

Method: Squeeze Lemon and add addition ingredients, shake, double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with grilled lemon zest.

Via my mom.

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Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising, Cocktails

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 3, 2010

The Magnificent Bastard Cocktail

For the Magnificent Bastard magazine cocktail contest:

The Magnificent Bastard Cocktail

1 oz Mezcal (Del Maguey Chichicapa)*
.5 oz Dry Vermouth (Dolin Dry)
.5 oz Sweet Vermouth (Dolin Rouge)
1.5 bar spoons Maraschino (Luxardo)

Stir all ingredients over ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I think this is a cocktail that really fits into the idea of Magnificent Bastard and the type of drinks their editors seem to enjoy. It is very complex – smokey, sweet, bitter, deep and balanced. Each sip reveals a slightly different layer, showing the magnificence of this drink. But it’s also straight spirits and packs a strong punch. You may be intimidated by the mezcal, but don’t be — this isn’t the Mezcal from your college visit to Tijuana or Cancun. This is A Serious Spirit. Embrace it and let it free you.

* I also have made this with Del Maguey’s San Luis Del Rio. It is smokier than the Chichicapa, which has a strong citrus mix that I think works better for this cocktail.

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Posted in Contests, MBH Creations

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 1, 2010

Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur & Bee’s Knees

I started seeing promotional materials about Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur late last year. It seemed like they were shooting for a “We’re the new Jagermeister” sort of thing, which appeals to me about as much as Jagermeister. Frankly I’m not that interested in spirits that taste a little funky and can be consumed en masse by party goers at college bars and dance clubs.

But then I recently received an email from someone with Bärenjäger that included a variation on a classic cocktail, The Bees’ Knees. The Bee’s Knees is one of my favorite sweet-tart gin cocktails and it’s spent a long time on the menu at Bar Pilar. It’s traditionally made with gin, lemon juice and honey, though Jeffrey Morganthaler has a great variation using white rum in lieu of gin. In any event, I like to see spirit companies do outreach with classic cocktails so it piqued my interest to try Bärenjäger.

Their promotional materials describe Bärenjäger as:

Made in Germany, this 70 proof vodka-based honey liqueur is made with premium quality honey from the Mexican province of Yucatan. Each 750ml bottle contains 225 grams of natural honey and a mixture of botanicals resulting in a subtly sweet, spicy and herb edged taste profile.

One thing that immediately stands out to me is how sweet Bärenjäger is. It is sweet. Really, really sweet. Not subtle at all, in fact. It smells intensely of honey and it tastes like honey, with a light bit of spice at the end. Sipped warm, it’s not very appealing. Taken as a chilled shot, I can see this having a lot of appeal as a Jagermeister alternative.

But that doesn’t interest me all that much. What interested me was the Bärenjäger variation on the Bee’s Knees. This is the recipe I received from the company promoting this spirit:

Bees’ Knees

2 parts Gin
1/2 part Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur
1/4 part simple syrup
1/2 part fresh grapefruit juice
Combine gin, Bärenjäger, simple syrup, and grapefruit juice in a bar glass over ice an shake well. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.

The first thing that stands out is that there is no way in the world this cocktail will need the simple syrup. The Bärenjäger is more than sweet enough and adding more sugar will make this unpalatable, at least to me. So I took the simple syrup out and did the rest as described:

Bees’ Knees (MBH variation)

2 parts Gin
1/2 part Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur
1/2 part fresh grapefruit juice
Combine gin, Bärenjäger, and grapefruit juice in a bar glass over ice an shake well. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.

This was actually a pretty great cocktail. It was light, sweet, tart and refreshing. It’s different from a classic Bee’s Knees, but the changes are positive.

Like many sweet liqueurs, Bärenjäger is an interesting and challenging ingredient for craft cocktails. It’s sweetness makes balance harder to achieve. But I’m sure people will find other good applications of this spirit in quality, balanced cocktails. I could see it playing a nice role in a Whisky Skin variation, for example. I’ll also be curious to see if Bärenjäger is able to compete with the famous shooting liqueurs or if they push more towards craft cocktails.

Disclosure: This post was made possible because I received a free sample of Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur.

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Posted in Liqueurs, Reviews

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | February 1, 2010

Joaquin Simo on Absinthe

The fine folks at Pernod have put out this video of one of America’s top bartenders, Joaquin Simo of Death & Company, talk about the history of absinthe and the role of the bartender as a technician and host. It’s a good mix of history and craft, and exactly the sort of web video production I like seeing out of spirit companies. Well, the techno soundtrack is a bit much. But other than that…

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Posted in Absinthe, Blogs, Media, & Advertising

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | January 31, 2010

Rachelle Cocktail

My girlfriend started a bourbon infusion project for me as a Christmas gift and this cocktail is the result. She had seen a number of recipes that included fig and vanilla infused bourbon and thought it would be fun to make. After a minor snafu or two, we settled on infusing Buffalo Trace bourbon with a good amount of fig and vanilla.

The process is incredibly simple: quarter fresh figs, place them and a fresh vanilla bean into a liter mason jar and cover them with bourbon. Agitate the mixture once a day. After 5-7 days, the bourbon should take on a strong fig and vanilla smell, a sign that the infusion is done. The end product is actually very sweet, with strong fig flavor and a potent vanilla waft. It’s a great combination with bourbon. I like Buffalo Trace as a choice, as it’s a great bourbon for cocktails and isn’t too expensive, while still being enjoyable on its own. And infusing a spirit like this is incredibly easy. There’s really no reason why anyone reading this post can’t make their own fig and vanilla infused bourbon.

The Rachelle Cocktail is one I created for this bourbon infusion. It plays off the fruitiness of the bourbon and adds a bitter sweet punch from the amaro. The Bitter Truth’s Jerry Thomas’ Own Decanter Bitters add some spice and balance to what is otherwise a fairly sweet drink and the club soda makes it light and mellow, enjoyable to almost any palate (or at least it was at the party I hosted last night).  Cheers!

Rachelle Cocktail

2 oz Fig and Vanilla infused Bourbon
0.5 oz Amaro Ramazzotti
3 dashes Jerry Thomas’ Own Decanter Bitters
1 oz club soda

Combine bourbon, amaro & bitters in a rocks glass. Fill with ice & stir. Top with a splash of club soda.

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Posted in Bourbon, MBH Creations

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | January 28, 2010

Light Watts

Perusing an old post at Kaiser Penguin’s pad in which he regales us with a visit to DC this fall, I saw that Rick had posted an approximation of a cocktail by Adam Bernbach at Proof that I’ve had and is pretty tasty, the “Light Watts.” Rick’s estimation:

Light Watts

2oz Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal
1/2oz Campari
1/4oz Chartreuse
3/4oz lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled vessel of imbibement.

I had this cocktail this fall during a visit to Proof. It’s a great mix of bitter, smokey, and sour. Adam has a great history of playing with mezcal and Del Maguey’s Crema de Mezcal in interesting ways. This was clearly another success. What I find really interesting about it is the avoidance of a non-spirit sweetener. Chartreuse is a sweet spirit and really does the job in this cocktail.

Del Maguey’s Crema de Mezcal can be tough to find at your neighborhood liquor store. Ace Beverage carries it in DC, though I’m sure some others do too. It’s a great product, though. It’s sweeter and less bracing than mezcal, while retaining a lot of the flavor profile of Del Maguey’s phenomenal line of mezcals. Plus, the product’s slogan is “For Women Only…and…A Few Strong Men.” Kinda bad ass, no?

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Posted in Cocktails, Mezcal

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | January 21, 2010

Institute for Cocktail Excellence’s Hall of Fame

I recently became a founding member of the newly-formed Cocktail Hall of Fame Institute for Cocktail Excellence Society. The Cocktail Hall of Fame Institute for Cocktail Excellence  is a new entity, which has only just started to get up and running. Members of the Society include prominent bartenders and cocktailians and it is steered by a panel of experts that includes Dave Wondrich, Gaz Regan, Dale DeGroff, Jamie Boudreau and Ryan Magarian. The Institute for Cocktail Excellence President & founder is Steve Bohler.

We recently held our first round of voting on the inaugural induction to the Institute for Cocktail Excellence Hall of Fame. Prior to that, each member of the ICE Society submitted their nominations to the Hall. Let’s just say that the first round of voting included the drinks that you’d expect, but there was one clear winner: the Old Fashioned.

The Old Fashioned’s entry in the Institute for Cocktail Excellence is now live and definitely worth a read, as it includes the preferred formulations for the drink by each of the ICE’s expert judges. It’s interesting to see each of these masters’ own take on such a classic.

Personally, I have always enjoyed the immense variety of ways you can make an Old Fashioned, varying every aspect of the drink: base spirit, sweetener, bitters, garnish, and even how dilute the sweetener is. That said, it’s impossible to have a post on the Old Fashioned and not harken back to original usage of the word “cocktail” in print and definition of the Old Fashioned cocktail in The Balance and Columbian Repository in 1806:

As I make it a point, never to publish anything (under my editorial head) but which I can explain, I shall not hesitate to gratify the curiosity of my inquisitive correspondent: Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said also, to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else.
Edit. Bal.

Any spirit. Sugar. Water. Bitters. Have at it, Old Fashioned drinkers!

Update:

The organization I was referring to as the Cocktail Hall of Fame has undergone a name change and is now the Institute for Cocktail Excellence (ICE).

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Posted in Cocktails

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | January 20, 2010

A Good Decade

Jonathan Miles of the New York Times makes a good point – the first decade of the twenty-first century was a very good one for cocktails and fine drinking.

If you observed the ’00s from a barstool, and limited your reading to cocktail menus (as I did, as author of this column for almost four years), you’d be forgiven for deeming the decade a bona fide golden age. For my final column, then, a toast: to 10 years of fizzes, slings, juleps, sours, cobblers and rickeys, to a time when the avant-garde seemed to shift almost nightly, to the best decade in generations.

We greeted the decade with sugary, vodka-based “-tinis” — which, despite their suffixed claim to noble descent, were in some ways extensions of the neon drinks of the ’80s: alcoholic candy.

Yet a quiet revolution was already under way. Building upon the work of Dale DeGroff, the former Rainbow Room bartender, young bartenders, casting aside process mixers, were gleaning inspiration from their counterparts in restaurant kitchens and perusing antique cocktail books like scholars combing the Dead Sea scrolls. The first half of the decade saw a wave of creativity and experimentation come crashing through barrooms in cities like New York and San Francisco and Portland, Ore., followed, in the decade’s second half, by a counterblast of earnest classicism.

The cocktail was no longer a fashion accessory, as it was in the ’90s. It was fashion itself. What had once merely lubricated conversations became the subject of conversations, in much the same way that dinner parties, with the rise of foodie-ism in the ’90s, became more about the dinner and less about the party.

Bar patrons broadcast their selections over Twitter. Home bartenders blogged about their latest experiments. Surrendering your drink choice to the bartender, the way diners at sushi restaurants request whatever is freshest, became the ’00s hippest drink order.

By the end of the decade, bottle service, once a mark of downtown sophistication, had come to be viewed as the province of rubes. The cocktail — especially the classic, painstakingly made variety, served with hand-cracked ice or in recherché glassware — had triumphed.

Miles is right. Drinking in America achieved new levels of class and sophistication in the Aughts. And it’s only getting better. I appreciate that Miles took the time to recognize this development, as most retrospectives of the last decade were less positive.

Miles’ best point comes in his closing and really can’t be expanded on: “the art of the cocktail, as practiced by pre-Prohibition bartenders — that, after the ’00s, can no longer be called lost.”

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Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising, Cocktail Culture

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | January 17, 2010

Haiti Benefit @ Public Bar, Monday 5-8pm

Heads up: Me and a a bunch of friends/political types are throwing a fundraiser on Monday at Public from 5-8. The Red Cross will be on hand to accept donations for their Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund and the suggested donation is $40. And, Public is really stepping up – donating the space, labor, and at minimum the proceeds from a keg of Miller Lite.

You can RSVP for the benefit on Facebook. Please come and feel free to bring many, many friends.

Thanks,
Matt

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Posted in Events

Posted by: Matt Browner Hamlin | January 13, 2010

A Good Outreach Email

I’ve written a few times about how I receive a lot of emails from PR firms that represent liquor or beer companies, along with quite a few for non-alcoholic mixers, hangover remedies, and bar or restaurant openings. More often than not, PR firms will send out emails with cocktail recipes to go along with promotional language for their product. And, sadly, more often than not, the recipes included therein are crap. They often include things like sour mix, flavored vodka, or ingredient ratios that anyone who had ever touched a drop of liquor to their lips could tell will taste awful. I’m used to it and long ago stopped holding out hopes that liquor companies will start promoting their products with interesting, complex, and well balanced cocktail recipes.

I got an email today from a woman named Cortney who had information about a cocktail recipe Bacardi is promoting around Valentine’s Day. Oh, that’s the other thing, around holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, July 4th, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc) the volume of emails promoting special holiday cocktails reaches a fever pitch. Anyway, I got an email from Cortney with the subject line, “Celebrate Valentine’s Day with a Naked Lady (cocktail)!” While I have a girlfriend and I look forward to celebrating Valentine’s Day with her, I wasn’t exactly looking for advice about what particular seasonal cocktail I should make for her this year. But I have the bad habit of reading 99% of the emails that enter my Inbox so away I went.

It’s very rare for PR firms to promote their client’s spirits with classic recipe. But that’s exactly what the recipe for a Naked Lady Cocktail is – a classic. Not made up this winter to put in glossy magazines or on the menu at college night clubs. A classic, with classic ingredients.

Bacardi Naked Lady Recipe

1 2/5 parts BACARDI® Superior Rum
1 2/5 parts Noilly Prat® Rouge
1/5 part Apricot brandy
1/5 part Pomegranate Grenadine (monin)
1/5 part Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Cubed ice
Lemon zest to garnish

Step 1. Put all ingredients into a shaker.
Step 2. Throw in the ice.
Step 3. Shake that baby until the outside of the shaker gets very cold.
Step 4. Double strain into a chilled or frozen glass.
Step 5. Garnish with the lemon zest.

Two things stand out about this recipe. First, these are some of the strangest ratios I’ve ever seen in a cocktail recipe. Second, this recipe has much more rum, sweet vermouth, and grenadine than a traditional Naked Lady Cocktail. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty interesting take of a classic recipe. Good on Bacardi for using a classic, somewhat obscure drink with craft ingredients to promote their product. And good on Cortney for sending it my way. This, unlike the bulk of the recipes I’m sent, actually makes me want to break out my tins and shake up a drink.

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Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising, Rum

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