Drink Spotlight: Champs Elysees

...it's not exactly like I haven't been drinking. I mean, it's been the holidays! I've just found not very much drive to continue in my quest for making every drink ever. I'm sure someday I'll come back to it, but in the mean time, I thought I'd feature a few more drinks. The first one is this: the Champs Elysees.

It's funny how drinks come in and out of style. I mean, here in St. Louis, there really aren't many craft cocktail bars around. Unfortunately, it's still way, way easier to get a delicious craft beer in this town than anything resembling an exquisite cocktail. That is, of course, unless you're at my house! But supposedly, this may be one of the next big cocktails get revived, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And I've been looking for something to do with my Chartreuse....

The Champs Elysees:

• 1 1/2 oz. brandy or cognac
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• 1/2 oz. Chartreuse
• 1-2 dashes aromatic bitters

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

If you're looking for an analog, this cocktail is quite similar to the Sidecar. It's built very similarly, but where the sidecar uses triple sec as a sweetener, the Champs Elysees opts for equal parts Chartreuse and simple syrup. The Chartreuse is an herbal liqueur, so it has a very definitive sweet component, and it makes for a fairly balanced cocktail. The cocktail is definitely tilted slightly towards the "sweet" side, but not overbearingly so. The herbal nature of the Chartreuse offers a lot of complexity to the Sidecar, and the dash of bitters, just a bit of spice. It's a good thing, too, as brandy is good but not particularly assertive, so it makes a good base for more intense flavors.

I'd highly recommend this one. It's a good introduction to Chartreuse and it's delicious!

Drink Spotlight: Le Matin

Looking for a nice update for the Old Fashioned? This, like the Sazerac, is a fancy update.

Le Matin:

• 2 1/2 oz. Rye whisky
• 1/4 oz. Benedictine
• 1/4 oz. Maraschino liqueur
• 3 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Build in rocks glass full of ice, and stir.

Good. Just good. Takes a little bit of time for the ice to mellow things out, but it's just great. The Maraschino and Benedictine add few complex, but still well-blended, flavors that really define the drink. It's still very rye-centric, and since my stock rye is Rittenhouse 100 proof, it's got some kick to it, so you definitely have to enjoy cocktails like the Old Fashioned, or even just be a fan of whiskey in general, to appreciate this cocktail, as otherwise you might not be able to get over the burn of the alcohol. But then, what were you expecting from a drink composed of just over 3 oz. of alcohol and some ice cubes?

I'm a little surprised that there's no garnish; a Maraschino cherry seems like a no-brainer, given the Maraschino liqueur within. It would definitely help overcome the extreme rye-ness of the whole drink. It's quite good, but then, I love whiskey....

Drink Spotlight: Singapore Sling, take 2

So having discovered some discrepencies between what I thought was a Singapore Sling and what Wikipedia believes to be a Singapore Sling, I thought I'd do the honest thing and try out both. It should be noted that the changes are minor and all of the ingredients seem to be accounted for, it's just the ratios that are slightly different. All that said, here's what I came up with.

Singapore Sling (IBA version):

• 2 oz. Gin
• 1 oz. Cherry Heering
• 1/4 oz. Cointreau
• 1/4 oz. Benedictine
• 1/2 oz. Grenadine
• 4 oz. Pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 oz. Lemon juice
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake very, very well and strain into some sort of very large glass (mine is 15oz.). Garnish with whatever you have lying around, but probably a pineapple chunk and a Maraschino cherry.

This version is actually very, very tasty. Wikipedia suggests using a blender to get the frothiness that you so desire, but I just shook the bejeezus out of it and got a fairly good amount of foam. Since the drink doesn't have any ice in the glass, you could probably fit it almost perfectly into a pint glass, but I decided to go on the larger side just to be safe. I did garnish with a cherry floating in an orange-peel boat, but it decided to sink. All for naught anyway, as the foam would have covered it up. Just jam something on the rim for color.

The only substantive difference between this version and the other version is Lemon vs. Lime juice. The other version is the one that you'll get if you go to the hotel that invented the drink, but the actual original recipe has been lost to the ages so even they will say that theirs is an approximation. The above recipe is the International Bartenders Association standard, though it should be noted that the IBA isn't exactly the end-all, be-all of mixed drinks.

I think I'd probably take the other version and shake it, and then it would be a game-time decision as to whether it's served up or on the rocks. But shaking it gives it a great, foamy pineapple head, which is just delightful and really added a nice texture to the drink. But the other version is definitely more complex since it's not being drowned out in lemon juice and the other ingredients are a bit more prominent. This one was dangerously easy to drink, though. Probably depends on the mood....

Drink Spotlight: Bombshell McGee

I was looking for something to break up the monotony of continuous Apricot brandy, and boy, did I find it. I came across this little gem that actually manages to use Jagermeister, well, competently. That's quite a chore because most booze nerds shun the stuff as rocket fuel for frat parties, as well as being so potent of flavor (think of how difficult it is to mix with scotch...), but it's actually a legit liqueur that just happens to have some very, well, brash flavors. Well, here's a drink for you:

Bombshell McGee:

• 1 oz. spiced rum
• 1 oz. Kaluha
• 3/4 oz. Jagermeister herbal liqueur
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

Build in a rocks glass filled with ice, and top with splash of club soda. Garnish with orange twist.

This drink comes to us care of the great Dr. Bamboo, who is, quite sincerely, one of my favorite in a long line of people who mix alcohol and the internet. He spoke in great depth of his love for Jager, despite it's unpopularity, and finished it off with a drink that he deemed a "low-rent Negroni," which is fair. It's definitely got some rough edges, but that's rather the point. The Jagermeister fights with the coffee liqueur (which I've often thought overpowers any drink it's put in; case in point, put it in twice as much tequila and you get a great drink that is still dominated by the Kaluha....) and both kind of overwhelm the spiced rum, but that's okay. He used Sailor Jerry which I heartily endorse, though I didn't have any lying around so I went with the inimitable Kracken, which is a dark spiced rum. Delicious.

I really like this drink because it's complex and has layers of flavor. The Jagermeister is definitely there and adds a lot of interest to the drink, and the spiced rum basically just waters down the coffee liqueur and makes it palatable. The orange peel does it's job, too. Definitely a good cocktail if you're trying to figure out what all Jager can be, especially if you're not the typical Jager-bomb connoisseur.

Drink Spotlight: Singapore Sling

So here we have an interesting but of drinking history. The original recipe was lost, and what follows has been pieced together from best guesses and reputable sources. That being said, it's recently come to my attention (as of Googling "Singapore Sling" just two moments ago,) that the Singapore Sling is shaken and served up, not on the rocks, which would result in a nice, foamy texture via the pineapple juice. But either way, the recipe seems to be fairly close.

Singapore Sling:

• 1 1/2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
• 1/4 oz. Cointreau
• 1/4 oz. Benedictine
• 4 oz. Pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. Lime juice
• 1/4 oz. Grenadine

Build in a highball (here, pint glass) filled with ice and stir. Float a drop of Aromatic bitters and garnish with orange slice and cherry.

Let's just say that this drink is intense. It's really, really good but just look at all of those ingredients! It tends to be the case that Tiki-styled drinks can really rack up the ingredients, and while this drink has no rum in it at all, the large number of fruit juices and such, especially the pineapple juice, place this thing firmly in the "Tiki" camp. It's also really, really good. Really complex, too. The combination of gin and Benedictine is a winner, and it's really well balanced between sweet and sour, bitter and fruity. And refreshing, too. A great drink, but the reason why I'm only just now putting it together is that it took me a while to acquire all of the ingredients.

Not that Cherry Heering and Benedictine are particularly difficult to find, but they are expensive and it took me a while to make it happen. Well worth the wait.

Drink Spotlight: Tequila Old Fashioned

I really like the "Old Fashioned" family of drinks, so much so that I decided to take a brief detour away from the Old Mr. Boston to look at this drink in particular. As with any particular foray, this one wasn't without cause; I've been in search of a good Passionfruit syrup as for some reason or other I've gotten it into my head that I needed to make a Hurricane for today, Mardi Gras. Which is, incidentally, an overly Catholic holiday representing one last chance to get all of your sin out before Lent begins. So it's a great day to be Catholic, so much so that the rest of the world took it upon itself to have a hell of a party for pretty much no good reason at all. But I guess everyone's Catholic on Mardi Gras....

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Passionfruit syrup is proving very difficult to find in St. Louis, MO in the middle of March, so my quest took me to all manner of hippie-style organic grocery stores, all to no avail. However, I did manage to pick up a few random things that I've been wanting to try out: coconut water, Q brand Tonic water (which I've heard great things about, and am scared that it's going to live up to the hype so I won't be able to buy the $0.99 stuff anymore) and Agave syrup. These are all odds and ends in various esoteric drinks, but I wanted to give at least one of them a shot before my drinking habits devolve slightly over the next 40 days. Not that that's my Lenten thing, just doesn't seem to be right to be boozing it up like crazy during some of the most solemn days of the year. So, to the point, the Tequila Old Fashioned.

The Old Fashioned is a venerable cocktail that I haven't gotten around to yet, so here's the brief rundown. Basically, it came about when someone would say "I'd like a whiskey cocktail, in the old-fashioned way" at a bar, the term "cocktail" originally meaning a drink consisting of some sugar, some spirit, and some bitters. That's all that you had to have to be a "cocktail", and yet it's amazing the number of "cocktails" in existence today that can't even satisfy those basic requirements... But regardless, the Old Fashioned Cocktail came to be known as a whiskey drink (or a brandy drink in some parts of the country), whereas the original Old Fashioned Cocktail was just any spirit with sugar and bitters. And I love whiskey, but this particular drink is a great way to explore other spirits and enjoy different tastes. Behold:

Tequila Old Fashioned: 

• 1 tsp. agave syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 2 oz. tequila

Combine agave syrup and bitters in an old-fashioned glass. Add ice and stir to mix ingredients and start ice melting. Add tequila and stir some more. Garnish with lime peel, expressing oils over glass.

It's a really simple recipe that really lets you get creative. Note that the spirit in question is all-important in this drink, so use quality tequila. This is not the time nor the place for Montezuma. I used a reposada, 100% agave gold tequila, but anything that is 100% puro de agave will do. The agave syrup is a twist on the standard sugar cube, and it helps to keep tequila's flavor nice and forward as the drink dilutes. What I noticed immediately is that tequila is a surprisingly mild product. I've certainly had my share of bad tequila, and I would never call myself a "tequila" man, but I was expecting harsh, intense flavors. What I got was mild and complex, and it really let me discover what this particular tequila is really all about. I can see why some people compare great tequila to a great scotch. There's the smokiness at first, but also the depth of flavors. I could easily imagine premium, single-malt-style tequilas that have all kind of different flavors hiding beneath the agave notes. I wonder if that's a thing? The sad thing is, probably not, because the dominance of good old Jose Cuervo has ensured that any Americans that might be in the market for such a product were long ago turned off on tequila as a bad experience.

Drink Spotlight: Gin and Tonic

I realized yesterday that it's probably been several months since I've even thought about putting up any booze-based information, and while the vast majority of my (imaginary) audience is way more interested in guitars than in gin, I felt I was being untrue to the spirit of this place! So I decided I'd share with you one of my all time favorite cocktails: the Gin and Tonic.

What? Way too simple? Pedestrian, even? I'm okay with that. As much as I appreciate a well-crafted cocktail made with foreign and difficult to obtain ingredients and mixed just perfectly, there's a lot to respect with the simple G&T. For one, in the modern-era bars where service is defined as speed at all costs, one of the very few cocktails that is "safe" to order is the beloved Gin and Tonic. It's really, really difficult to screw up, particularly in most bars where the hand holding the liquor bottle is a bit on the light side. It's one of very few cocktails that you can order in a bar that will turn out exactly like you'd expect, no matter what bar you order it in. And, well, gin is delicious.

That's not a popular opinion, but it is mine. Whenever I try or get a new gin, the iconic Gin and Tonic often does as much for me in telling me about the gin as taking it straight. The other litmus-test cocktail for me on the gin front is, of course, the Martini, but there are a lot of gins out there that simply aren't balanced well for a Martini, some of which will give you a truly awful drink no matter how you mix it. Tonic is forgiving, however.

So, let's talk about it:

The Gin and Tonic:

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• tonic water

In an 8 oz glass filled with ice, build gin and top with tonic water. Garnish with lime.

Extremely easy, but there is one detail that is very important, and is often missed or misunderstood by the beginner. The term "top" is a very dangerous one, as any recipe that involves topping a cocktail with something needs to pay very, very close attention to the size of the glass. In an 8 oz. glass, as I've suggested, this will tend to work out to around 3 oz of tonic water, which is just about perfect, once the ice melts a bit. A bigger glass will require more gin, a smaller glass, less, but always try to account for the volume of ice, and attempt to get your tonic:gin ratio to 2:1, as that's where the magic happens with this particular drink. Once you've found a suitable recipe for any particular glass, this actually makes dispensing Gin and Tonics extremely easy, as the only ingredient requiring measuring is the gin.

This drink, perhaps more than any other, is summer to me, so wherever you are, as the temperature begins to approach that of the ninth circle of hell, enjoy!

Drink Spotlight: The Sazerac

So I realized the other day that the last cocktail I'd written about was the Sidecar way back in mid-December. There just hasn't been much opportunity for cocktails lately, having been focused on the retreat that just ended (phenomenally!) this weekend and prepping to play for that. And now that Lent has officially started, drinking opportunities are going to be rather few and far between; not because I think it's evil or sinful or anything like that, but it is a luxury, and I try to keep those to a minimum to prepare for Easter time. But for Fat Tuesday...

I present to you, perhaps one of the greatest cocktails ever invented. Not for the weak, this is a staple of Bourbon street in New Orleans (though it is made with Rye) and it packs as much of a punch as it does history. The Sazerac.

And because this is a special occasion, perhaps one of my favorite drinks, and one wherein preparation is a major, major component, I've included a lot of pictures to hopefully help you in getting this one right.

First, the ingredients:


The Sazerac:

• 2 oz Rye whiskey
• 1 sugar cube
• 2-3 dashes Peychaud's Bitters
• Dash Absinthe

Prepare as follows:

I'll also take this opportunity to let you in on the second family of drinks: The Old Fashioned. I'll make a proper one someday, but it's perhaps the oldest and simplest of cocktails. Spirit, bitters and sugar with a citrus peel for garnish. In the standard, Whiskey Old Fashioned, you soak the sugar cube in bitters, add the whiskey and ice and stir well, at which point you make an orange peel and add it, et voila. Not much to it, but a lot of ways it can go wrong, particularly when uninformed bartenders start adding muddled fruit or, God forbid, club soda or Sprite. Barbarians.

As you'll see, the Sazerac is very similar, but has a much more in-depth preparation, and adds the extra zing of Absinthe, which is just phenomenal. First, take two old-fashioned (or rocks) glasses. Chill one, and in the other, place the sugar cube. Soak said sugar with bitters.


Next, put the sugar into solution. Here I'm using a muddler, simply because it's the easiest way that I've found. I also add a small amount of water, as sugar doesn't tend to dissolve well in either alcohol or in a cold environment, both of which are going to be present in any alcoholic drink, and so a bit of water turns into some simple syrup, only with precise control over the water content and sweetness.


Add the whiskey and some ice cubes and stir to chill.


Empty the second old-fashioned glass of the chilling material, and pour a very scant amount of Absinthe (or Pernod if you must) into it. Coat the glass with this expensive and dangerous spirit, and dispose of the excess. I chose to use my mouth, but the sink works just as well when you're not serving yourself. Also, patrons tend to frown upon bartenders drinking out of a glass that their drinks are then served in.


Strain the first old-fashioned glass into the Absinthe-coated one. This leaves you with a chilled and diluted cocktail with no ice in it to dilute further, as well as a nifty bit of presentation.


Finally, make a lemon twist, making sure to spray the top of the drink with the lemon oils.


At this point, there's been much debate over whether to leave the peel out or drop it in. My tastes aren't nearly refined enough (and become even less so upon the consumption of this drink) to detect a difference, though be mindful that, in theory, leaving the peel (or, more precisely, the bitter white pith that is attached to the peel) in the drink should increase the bitterness ever so slightly. As I can't tell, and as the striking yellow peel in the orange drink is visually appealing, I leave it in. Perceptually, and as a psychologist, I certainly believe that a garnish can make or break a drink, even when it should have no reason to alter the taste. Sometimes those tiki umbrellas add just the right amount of spice!

There you have it. Perfection. This drink single-handedly taught me about layers of flavor, about the importance of expressing essential oils over a drink when creating a twist, and just how volatile some ingredients (here, the Absinthe) are; it's easy to go overboard, whereas the smallest amounts can sharpen your senses and focus you on tastes you never knew were there.

Also, apparently the Sazerac has made some inroads into popular culture. In Live and Let Die, James Bond's best CIA friend Felix Leiter orders a round (something I've never noticed, and I have something of an obsession with 007), and while I've never seen the movie, it is a favorite drink of Benjamin Button. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Drink Spotlight: The Sidecar

You know, bartending really isn't all that difficult. You see books with hundreds or thousands of drinks (most of which are utter dreck), and you think, man, I could never be a bartender, how could I ever memorize all those drinks? The short answer is that, if you know 10 specific drinks, then you can cover literally 99.9% of the drinks that your common frat boy or sorority girl will order. But for a more interesting answer, once you understand drink families, you've got it made.

What are drink families? Put simply, when you do research the hundreds of different drinks out there, you'll find that they start to look similar to one another. That's no accident; people's tastes may have changed a bit in the past 100+ years, but a good drink is, above all, balanced. Not too sweet, not too sour, not too strong, not too weak. So when you're looking to make a drink that walks that fine line so well, you'll find that some ratios just work. The Sidecar is one such example.

Never heard of a Sidecar? For shame! The story goes that there was a particularly fat captain in WWI who frequented the Ritz Hotel bar in Paris, and did so more often than not in the sidecar of a motorcycle. Whether this actually occurred, or where specifically the drink was created, is up for debate, as is most cocktail history. Somehow stories told in bars aren't always 100% accurate...

But even if you've never heard of a sidecar, you've no doubt enjoyed it's most famous cousin, the Margarita. How close of cousins?

This family, which I've heard called the "daisy" family before, goes like this:

2 parts spirit
1 part sweet liqueur
1 part citrus juice

Which combines very, very well to properly balance the sweet, the sour, and the spirit. As such, the Sidecar is quite simply:

The Sidecar:

• 2 oz. brandy (or Cognac)
• 1 oz. triple sec
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1-2 dashes simple syrup

Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

As you can see, it's not exactly as described. I've opted to add in a small amount of simple syrup to bring the sweetness a bit more forward for modern tastes. It is still a perfectly delicious cocktail without, but the bit of extra sweetness really carries the flavors. And Brandy in the winter time is just right. Definitely top 5.

If you're wondering just how close of a cousin the Margarita is (at least, as the cocktail was originally invented), you simply swap the lemon juice for lime juice, and the brandy for tequila. Then use the salt rim, the lime wedge, all that. The point being, you know the Margarita will be balanced because the fundamental ratio remains the same, ensuring that your drink will be just right! And if the drink families intrigues you, look for the next few Drink Spotlights, which will each feature an iconic drink from each family.

Drink Spotlight: The Bourbon Renewal

Something of a departure from what I normally spotlight, that is, classic cocktails and the proper way to make them, this drink comes to us from the great Jeffrey Morgenthaler. A bartender by trade, Mr. Morgenthaler has long been a champion against the tide of really awful bartending that has run rampant in the United States since about the mid-80's (when a Tom Cruise movie which shall go unnamed (but sounds an awful lot like the word "mocktail") forever destroyed the classic image of the professional bartender), and has invented several very, very tasty drinks, each being true to what a cocktail was originally. This, along with the Richmond Gimlet, is one of my favorites of his.

The Bourbon Renewal:

• 2 oz. bourbon whiskey
• 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. creme de cassis
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• Dash Angostura Bitters

Stir all ingredients and strain into rocks glass full of cracked ice. Garnish with lemon twist.

This is one of those rare whiskey-heavy drinks that probably fits better in the Summer or the Spring than in Fall and Winter. It's surprisingly light and refreshing, which is in no small part due to the cracked ice, which will melt a bit more quickly than the standard cube. The creme de cassis is not something that everyone has in the old liquor cabinet, but it forms a large part of the sweet component in this fancy whiskey sour, and it just works.

Upon further research, it looks like the original garnish is a simple lemon wedge or wheel, which I could definitely get behind, but as I made this one with a twist, here's a bit of bartending knowledge.

How do you make a sweet twist? By far the easiest way is to find yourself a channel knife and go to, though I've seen people with far more skill than I use a paring knife. The important point is this: when you are making the peel, be sure that you are doing it in such a way that the oils that spray out of the fruit are misted over the drink. Without this, you often don't get the point of a twist, mistaking it for something that's just pretty to look at. But when done properly, you'll notice a very bright, sharp lemon component added to the drink, both in taste and especially in the nose. While it's a bit more difficult to differentiate in a drink like this which already has a large amount of lemon juice in it, when done with a drink like a Martini (which we'll get to, don't you worry), it will blow your mind.

Drink Spotlight: Schlafly Pumpkin Ale

So I'm now going to say something that at the same time makes no sense and yet still makes all the sense in the world. I have never before this Fall tried a pumpkin beer. Yet, at the same time, it simply cannot be Fall until I have had myself a pumpkin beer. Yeah. It makes sense in my head, but only in a weird, paradoxical, "there is no spoon" kind of way.

I love cocktails, but my first love will always be a great beer. Not so much wine, though. I mean, the girly, sweet, tasty wines are delicious, but I haven't had enough experience to appreciate fine wine. Though I suppose there's still time. But anyway, beer is an art form. You can tell because you can order anything from Bud Light to Guinness, and all the colors in between, and you always get something different but undeniably "beer". There's beer for all seasons, beer that is dark and hearty or light and refreshing, even dessert beer, though I would probably never enjoy a beer with ice cream...at least, not without trying it first...

Like I said, never had a pumpkin beer before, but I made it my mission this Fall to try every one I could and find my favorite. Well, I'm about 2 beers in, and this one is just great. It probably helps that Schlafly is a St. Louis product, meaning that even bottled, it's relatively fresh and newly bottled. What I particularly like about this beer is, well, it tastes pumpkin-y. I guess that's what I'm looking for in a pumpkin beer.

It's medium-dark in color, but fairly light in flavor. It's got a good, rich head that smells wonderfully of jack-'o-lanterns and pumpkin pie. If I'm not sick of it by then, I'll definitely be having this as at least an option to pair with Thanksgiving dinner. And without question, Fall will not have begun without this new seasonal tradition.

Sorry, I'm not so good at finding words to fill up something that I didn't actually physically make, but this beer really is quite good. If you're looking for something different, and more importantly, something for Fall and only for Fall, I'd recommend you give this one a shot.

Drink Spotlight: The Mai Tai

Fall is definitely in the air here in mid-America, and so before the leaves start falling and the long winter begins, I was looking for a nice, tropical drink to celebrate the end of a great summer and the last (hopefully, but probably not...) grass trimming that I'd just completed. So I turned to one of my all-time favorites, and one drink without which, it just would not be summer: The Mai Tai.

Mai Tai, so the story goes, is Tahatian for "Perfect" or "Out of this world", and was invented by the incorrigible Trader Vic Bergeron. As with a lot of things that Trader Vic has been involved with, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. For one, Vic was extremely paranoid that the bartenders in his restaurant would be coaxed away from him by competitors, and so as a result, his recipes were kept secret from even the people who were preparing them! Vic prepared many different syrups and mixes that were combined by his bartenders, but the true ingredients of which were kept as a closely guarded secret.

What was most unfortunate about this secrecy is that it did not stop rival bartenders from trying to recreate Vic's drinks. Before long, there were hundreds of different recipies from almost as many bartenders, all of them masquerading as a "Mai Tai". This misnaming, commonplace today in the era of the "Frozen Daiquiri", which is often little more than an alcoholic slushie, and a seemingly infinite number of drinks parading themselves around as a "______ Martini", was a real problem for anyone looking for any kind of consistency from one bar to another, and to this day has made the venerable Mai Tai into something with pineapple juice, grenadine, amaretto, and topped with club soda or, horror of horrors, sprite. In many bars, the "Mai Tai" is nothing more than a mix of random rums and juices. I'm all for improvising, but there can be only one Mai Tai. And Highlander.

So how do we have this recipe? Trader Vic took pity upon the masses and, more importantly, wanted to try to end the confusion and just came out with his recipe. You can find it on his website, or in certain good Tiki drink books. Or, below.

The Mai Tai:

• 2 oz. rum*
• 3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
• 1/2 oz. Orgeat syrup
• 1/2 oz. orange Curacao
• 1/4 oz. simple syrup

Shake well and strain over highball or Tiki mug full of crushed ice. Garnish with spent lime hull and sprig of mint.

*A note on the rum. A bottle of J. Wray & Nephew 17-year rum is what Trader Vic had on hand when he first conceived of the drink, but within a few years as the Mai Tai grew in popularity, the already difficult to find rum became ultra-rare and prohibitively priced to the point where Vic began experimenting with mixing different rums to try to get the same character. Rather than spending several hundred to several thousand dollars per-bottle, Vic decided that this was a fair compromise.

The rum combination that I actually used on this occasion, and my favorite combination so far, is 1 oz. Appleton Estate 12-year and 1 oz. Myer's Dark rum. The aged-Appleton is Jamaican rum is a nod to the Jamaican origins of the drink (and is a delicious aged-rum in it's own right), and the Myers adds some depth and funk that really brings the drink together. But you can use any rums that you have handy, and you will find that some combinations just work better than others. I can't recommend the Appleton 12-year highly enough, though.

The other ingredient that you likely don't have just lying around is Orgeat syrup. It took me quite a while to find this almond syrup, and until I did, I had no idea what I was missing. It's worth doing some searching for this drink alone, though several classic cocktails do use it. I found mine at the previously mentioned Lukas Liquor, though there are some recipes around the 'net for home-made, and that will be my next bottle.

And, like the Mojito, make sure you use crushed ice. It helps to tame the otherwise strong flavors in this drink and turns this potent cocktail into a refreshing one. One taste, and you'll know what those Tahitians were talking about. Perfect.

Drink Spotlight: The Aviation

So for my birthday, my sister got me a gift card to my favorite store in the St. Louis area. Called Lukas Liquor, this place has everything. Well, okay, not everything. But it does have the largest variety of spirits and beer (and probably wine, but I will confess my complete wine ignorance) that I have ever seen, and it is always expanding.

Case in point: used to be the only bitters in town were good old Angostura Aromatic. Even the gigantic liquor superstore that is forty-five minutes from my house only carried Angostura. About a year ago, I went in just to browse, and I saw another bottle sitting next to the Angostura; the much regarded Antoine Peychaud had joined in on the fun. Then, last time I was in, I wandered by the bitters section, and noticed that it is now a whole section, with Fee's (chocolate, rhubarb, celery, mint, the whole gang), as well as Angostura Orange and all sorts of others. It is a good time to be a cocktail enthusiast!

Well, I needed a good way to spend this gift card, when I stumbled upon this:

Creme de Violette. Once so rare and valuable that only the seven richest kings of Europe had access to it(I think. At the very least, I'd never seen a bottle.), now sitting on a shelf in my favorite store, ten bottles deep. With a sticker that says "New Product!". So what was I supposed to do?

And so, whenever I find a new bottle of something delicious at my favorite store, I immediately think of any drink I can that uses the obscure and hard-to-find ingredient. In this case, only one jumped out to me, and that was specifically because it's probably the best cocktail for showcasing this particular spirit.

The Aviation has been around since men first learned how to fly. The roaring 20's were known for flapper dresses and incredible prosperity as we as a country had industrialized and had not yet had WWI to bring us down. There were parties, and there were cocktails. And, while I may idealize drinking pre-1980, this was certainly a good time for the cocktail.

The Aviation:

• 2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/4 oz. Maraschino Liqueur
• 1/4 oz. Creme de Violette

Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a Maraschino cherry.

I'd made the Aviation once before, when I didn't have any Creme de Violette (as some say is possible), but I was not impressed. It is an extremely different drink when made properly. Maraschino Liqueur is, as you would guess, cherry flavored, and is fairly difficult to find, but was plentiful in the days before Prohibition. You see, back then, the Maraschino Cherry was simply a cherry that had been preserved in Maraschino Liqueur, which was distilled from the Maraska cherry. That's a big circle, but essentially, they needed a way to preserve cherries, so why not use a liqueur that was made from cherries?

Then, Prohibition kicked in, and not only could you not get a good drink anywhere, but it was suddenly illegal to use alcohol for anything. But children still needed their Maraschino Cherries. So, whereas bathtub-gin became a huge health risk as people distilled their own liquors to vastly inferior quality (because people needed their gin, and there was no regulation of an illegal industry), the Maraschino Cherry took a turn for the worst. The new process of preserving cherries involved using chemicals to extract all of the color and flavor from a perfectly good cherry (but in doing so, keeps the cherries firm), and then using artificial flavors and colors to put those things back, since no one wants to eat a white cherry. And that's still the way it's done today.

There has been a lot of talk about what exactly those preserving chemicals are (from formaldehyde to lye), and the Maraschino Cherry industry (which resides in Oregon, of all places) has, of course, taken the opposite position most of the time, but one thing cannot be disputed. These freak cherries are soaking A LOT of sugar. It may seem weird to hear someone who espouses the benefits of drinking to be health-conscious, but frankly, we all have way too much sugar in our diets as it is. Wherever you can cut back a little, it's probably a good thing. So I of course made my own.

Simple process, from what I can tell. Take as many Bing cherries as you can fit into a jar, and then add Maraschino Liqueur. Wait at least a few weeks. I also made Brandied cherries and cherries that were a mix of Brandy and Maraschino Liqueur, just to find the best way, because Maraschino Liqueur is not cheap. And so that's what you see sitting in the bottom of this cocktail.

That was a lot about cherries. The drink itself? Very tasty. Also, very different from pretty much any cocktail I've ever had. The two liqueurs are very aromatic, almost perfumed, and they combine nicely with the gin. Which, in this case, was Tanqueray. One of my family's quirks is that they are very frugal (my Grandma was one of nine, and she herself had ten children), but for some reason, no one will drink any gin other than Tanqueray. So as a result, it's the house gin. Lucky me!

Drink Spotlight: Mojito

Sorry for the brief lack of posts, Sept. 3rd was my birthday and I took a little trip back to the alma mater to celebrate. So I think I'll start back up with my first drink post!

There's a lot more to making a good drink than looking in a book or searching the internet. Sure, you can do that. But you'll often end up with almost as many different recipes as you have sources. Not only that, in even the most sacred of drink sources, some drinks just don't work as originally conceived, either because modern tastes have evolved, or because, let's face it, nobody bats 1,000.

With that in mind, I give you the Drink Spotlight. These posts represent drinks that I've tested and tuned, in most cases using the utmost care to preserve the wealth of historical information and, most importantly, to bring you an accurate and delicious drink. Up first, the Mojito.



Having experienced an explosion in popularity ever since James Bond ordered one in the otherwise unremarkable Die Another Day (and note, I LOVE 007, but Pierce Brosnan was a pretty average James Bond, aside from Goldeneye), the Mojito actually has a lot of history to it. On one hand, the combination of sugar, lime juice and rum is nearly as old as rum itself, but it was really Ernest Hemmingway who popularized the drink.

The Mojito:

• 2 oz. white rum (typically Bacardi)
  
• 1 oz. fresh lime juice
• 3/4 oz. simple syrup
• mint leaves

In a Collins glass (10-12 oz.), muddle six to eight mint leaves in the simple syrup. Add the lime juice and rum, and top with crushed ice. Stir to combine and top with club soda. Garnish with lime wedge and a freshly spanked mint sprig.

More than a few notes. Muddling is something of a lost art. The Bacardi company has done a lot for this drink. Bacardi is now located in Puerto Rico, but prior to the U.S. embargo, Bacardi Rum was made in Cuba. As a result, when you want a light Cuban rum, you can't really do any better (at least, not in the U.S.) than Bacardi Superior white rum. But despite all that Bacardi has done for the Mojito, they released a commercial with a bartender, ostensibly a professional, making a Mojito in time with the music.

DON'T DO THIS.



Mint is a plant. And, like all plants that are green, mint has chlorophyll in it. This magical chemical, the one that makes photosynthesis possible, is an incredible invention of nature. It is not, however, pleasant tasting. It is bitter.

When you muddle mint, do it ever so gently. Press the mint into the simple syrup. If you grind it like that guy in the Bacardi commercial, you'll end up with a drink that tastes strongly of mint, true, but also has a very unpleasant bitter component to it. In actuality, all you have to do to release the mint's aroma is clap it between your hands or rub it between your fingers.

Also, simple syrup. You can just use sugar, and in a few cases, it's correct to do so, but sugar doesn't dissolve well in either cold liquids or alcohol, both of which are typically involved in making a drink. But luckily for us, simple syrup is, for lack of a better term, simple to make. Take equal parts sugar and water, make the water hot and stir in the sugar until it's clear. If you make it 2:1, you have rich simple syrup. If there is one product that will be used the most in your bar, it is simple syrup, and it's so much cheaper to make yourself than to buy it at a liquor store or wherever. You can use whatever sugar you want, from Demarara to raw sugar to plain old white, granulated sugar.

Ice is a very interesting topic that I don't think gets enough press (I mean, it IS just ice, but it's a big part of any drink you make), and I'll do an ice post sometime, but for now, know that crushed ice is very, very important to this drink, as it is to most tropical or Tiki drinks.

And fresh lime juice. Use the stuff in the bottle if you absolutely must, but just remember this axiom: garbage in, garbage out.

When made properly, this drink is sweet, sour, with a hint of mint, and is extremely refreshing. It will take you a few minutes to make it properly. If you're ordering it at a bar, be careful. If they are busy, your drink won't get the love that it needs to even be decent. And if they reach for the sour mix, just leave. Nothing good will come of it.