Cocktailians

Tonic Water Shootout, Part 2: The Results

If you'll recall from our last installment, we're investigating tonic water and trying to figure out which one is best. We've settled on a method, lined up judges, and introduced our contenders. Joanna, being a bona fide college professor and certified Smart Person, suggested that we taste the G&Ts made with the premium tonics first, then the mass-markets, and then the syrups, so our palates wouldn't get confused or lulled by an orderly progression from least to most robust. So, how'd they do?

Group 1: The High-End Sodas

Here are comments and tasting notes from judges, aggregated by each tonic. (As you'll recall, the judges didn't know which tonic was which until the end of the tasting, and were referring to cups marked with letters.)

• Q Tonic: "Not dry dry, but a different quality from the others"; "Almost chalky -- it draws the moisture out of my mouth like a very dry white wine. Is it alkalinity that I'm tasting? Very delicate flavor"; "It doesn't jump out much; any bite I'm tasting is from the gin, not the tonic."
• Fentimans Tonic Water: "Odd dry-acid aftertaste, but not unpleasant. Lemony."; "Quite dry -- not too acidic. Smooth and unobtrusive."; "More quinine than [Q Tonic]."
• Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water: "Sweet, kind of bland. Not much there. Closest to tonic off the gun."; "Citrusy, sweeter, but nicely balanced. More lime-y" than the others."; "Way sweeter, but the most tonic-y. What I think of as tonic."
• Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water: "Longer flavor, lime-ier."; "Very nice. The tonic flavor comes out fast, but doesn't linger. There's something almost herbal here."; "This tonic plays better, and the tonic flavors are integrated with its other tastes."

Then, we ranked our choices from most to least favorite:

• Sam chose Fever-Tree Mediterranean, then Fever-Tree Indian, then Q Tonic, then Fentimans.
• Joanna chose Fever-Tree Mediterranean, then Fentimans, then Fever-Tree Indian, then Q Tonic.
• Tony did exactly the same, and chose Fever-Tree Mediterranean, then Fentimans, then Fever-Tree Indian, then Q Tonic. He commented "My tonic should taste like tonic. If I want a gin and soda, I'll order it."

Fever-Tree Mediterranean was the first-ranked by everyone and thus the clear winner. We were impressed by the different approaches taken by the various premium tonic brands -- they certainly didn't march in lockstep like the mass-market brands -- and surprised by how different they all were from each other, with varying botanicals, acid and bitterness levels, and sweetener choice. Working with cane sugar and agave nectar for sweetening was a definite help. 

Group 2: The Mass-Markets

Once again, comments and tasting notes from judges, aggregated by each tonic:

• Schweppes Tonic Water: "Swimming-pool chlorine flavor. Chemical. Burny."; "Not as terrible as you describe...it's like gin & tonic next to a pool. This is doing a better imitation of a G&T."; Terrible. Serious chemical taste, almost like cleanser."
• Canada Dry Tonic Water: "Not terrible. Very average, but not bad."; "Not as terrible [as Sodastream.] Still a little fake tasting, but better balanced. It doesn't crush the gin, nor is it crushed by the gin, but it's one-note."; "Better than [Schweppes or Sodastream]. I can only taste it in the top of the palate. With this G&T, I can only taste juniper when I exhale through my nose."
• Trade Fair Premium Tonic Water: "There's not much there -- it makes gin less interesting."; "I can't taste the gin. Really floral and soapy."; "In this company, [Trade Fair] is the shining light."
• Sodastream Tonic Sodamix: "Big fake lemon + sugar flavor."; "That tastes a lot more like chemicals. The tonic isn't working very hard; I  can definitely taste the gin. It's like gin diluted with sugar water, but the sugar flavor is fake."; "This just tastes like a glass of gin with ice. Except that it's got a very Splenda/Lemsip flavor to it."

Then, we ranked our choices from most to least favorite:

• Sam chose Canada Dry, then Trade Fair, then Schweppes, then Sodastream.
• Joanna chose Canada Dry, then Schweppes, then Sodastream, then Trade Fair. (She singled out the soapiness she detected in Trade Fair as definitely sending it to the bottom of the list.)
• Tony chose Trade Fair, then Canada Dry, then Sodastream, then Schweppes.

As I'd kind of expected -- yeah, we're snobs -- the mass-markets performed poorly compared with the other categories. The three tonic waters were all sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, and there wasn't much distinctive about any of them individually or collectively as a category. I believe the quinine in all of these is artificially produced. The Sodastream tonic concentrate is sweetened with a sucrose/Splenda combination, which may have contributed to its low position in the rankings. (I bet they have to have Splenda in the mix to get it as concentrated as it is; one 500ml bottle makes 12 liters of tonic water.)

Group 3: Syrups & Such

Once again, comments and tasting notes from judges, aggregated by each tonic:

• Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Tonic Syrup recipe: "Rich, big, voluptuous. A very nice balance of bitterness, darkness, & citrus. Best in Show."; "I get ginger from this. Citrus and clove. Spicy. It doesn't taste a lot like a gin and tonic, but I like it a lot. It's herbal and assertive. Not classic, but very nice. Lovely."; "I'm speechless. It's got Christmas-y spices, and a definite nutmeg-ish note."
• Toby Cecchini's Quinine Syrup recipe: "Acidic. Bright lemon/grapefruit."; "Citrusy, but not a citric-acid flavor. Delicious, and mellower [than Morgenthaler's.]"; "I get oranges from this. I really liked it."
• Tomr's Tonic: "Yum. I get ginger, bitterness, and astringency. Balanced, but with a heavy bitter edge."; "Bitter. It starts a little fruity, then takes a left turn and crashes into a bitter wall. It's got a bark flavor and strong spice, and it may have overtaken [Cecchini's] in my ranking."; "Bitter. I'd put it up with the top two [Morgenthaler's and Cecchini's.]"
• Bittermens Commonwealth Tonic Liqueur: "Very floral, with higher alcohol. I don't like it much, though, as it doesn't mesh with the gin."; "Very bitter, and one-note bitter. It tastes like flowers gone bad."; "Very floral, like a dandelion salad. The gin still exists in the glass, but not as much."
  • UPDATE: Avery Glasser from Bittermens has been in touch, and asks if we perhaps goofed on the proportions, and mixed this G&T with as much as double the amount of Commonwealth that they recommend. This could easily be the case, and we will investigate, re-taste, and update our findings here ASAP.
  • UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: We definitely goofed on the proportions -- apologies. We made another G&T, in the same kind of glass, using the same amount of ice and the preferred recipe on the Bittermens website. However, none of the three of us really liked this one too much either, although it was better than the original one we'd tasted. The floral notes weren't nearly as overwhelming as in the first one we'd made, but the correct one was still extremely bitter and we didn't think it played well with the gin. Fair enough; the website does say that they like their gin and tonics "very bitter, very dry", and this totally qualifies. We then tried their "very well balanced variant" on their preferred recipe, which replaces a quarter-ounce of the cordial with simple syrup: while this was much better -- the best of the three G&Ts with the Bittermens Commonwealth we tried -- and went down easier, our consensus was that it was still way too bitter and unbalanced. So if you like a really bitter G&T, the Commonwealth may be for you. We're not saying it's a bad product, but its flavor profile does skew extremely heavily in that particular direction. (I haven't had any of the other Bittermens Spirits line, though I really do want to try their New Orleans Coffee Liqueur with its chicory notes.) And of course, we love their line of bitters.

Then, we ranked our choices from most to least favorite:

• Sam chose Jeffrey Morgenthaler's recipe, then Toby Cecchini's recipe, then Tomr's, then Bittermens.
• Joanna duplicated this exactly: first Jeffrey Morgenthaler's, then Toby Cecchini's, then Tomr's, then Bittermens.
• Tony switched up the first two and chose Toby Cecchini's, then Jeffrey Morgenthaler's, then Tomr's, then Bittermens.

We were expecting strong flavors -- and strong opinions -- in this batch, and we certainly weren't disappointed. The idiosyncratic approaches to tonic syrups mean that they diverge wildly. As you'll see above, there were many mentions of Christmas spices such as clove and nutmeg; those particular spices weren't in the recipes, but judges were picking up on the allspice that was in both homemade syrups. (Toby Cecchini's syrup had the addition of cardamom and lavender as well.) The homemade syrups clearly beat the packaged syrup and the liqueur, and our wonderings about an alcoholic tonic water skewing the flavor were mostly unfounded. One nice thing about making your own syrup is that you can tweak the recipe; as Jeffrey Morgenthaler suggests, you could increase the orange peel if you'll be mixing it with a softer, citrus-y gin such as Plymouth.

So: what have we learned here?  Each of the three of us picked a Best in Show: Sam chose Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Tonic Syrup recipe. Tony picked Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water. And Joanna equivocated a bit between the two positions: "Fever-Tree Mediterranean is the best for what I understand a Gin & Tonic to be. But both the homemade syrups make delicious drinks." I think she's getting at something here: the syrups do represent a very different approach to a G&T than a traditional bottled tonic water, and a drinker's expectations have to enter into it somewhere as well. One thing we all agreed on, as Tony put it, was that "Big-brand tonic is crap. I am amazed at the gulf between the various premium brands and the mass-market ones." 

We expected the homemade syrups to do well, since the ingredients are fresh and the syrups don't need to have preservatives or be shelf-stable. But what we weren't expecting was a clear winner in the boutique tonic brands, the brand-new Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water. A surprise, since this tonic was designed to pair with vodka! So: what about this tonic makes it go well with vodka, blank canvas that it is, and why did we like it so much with gin? Does the rosemary in the tonic hook up with the juniper in the gin and make sweet piney love? The herbal notes from the rosemary and the lemon thyme just really sang with the gin, and the combination of citrus and herbals was inspired. This may be an avenue worthy of further experiments with homemade syrups as well -- maybe add more savory herbs to the citrus and other spices in the recipe and see what happens.

Another important thing to note is that this was a head-to-head test, designed to highlight relatively small differences in the various tonics, in narrow categories. While most tonics that we tasted would beat a G&T put together by an indifferent bartender with well gin and tonic off the soda gun, the best Gin & Tonic is generally the one that happens to be currently in your hand, whatever the circumstances. For instance, Tomr's Tonic scored third out of four in its category in our tasting, but the Beefeater and tonic that brand proprietor Tom Richter mixed me at the Beagle was by far the best Gin & Tonic that I've ever had at a bar. The high-quality tonic syrup helped in that, for sure, but Tom's good-humored attention, concentration in his approach to the task, and passion for his work all translated directly to what I tasted in the glass. And, that attention and care can pay off for your gin and tonics at home.

Celebrating National Rum Day with Sailor Jerry

I wasn't expecting much from the Sailor Jerry's National Rum Day celebration at Mother's Ruin. They weren't launching a new product, just promoting some punches for the back end of Summer, and having a nice get-together for a few of their closest friends^[1].

Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins was a tattoo artist who served in the South Pacific before and during the second World War, where he developed his artistic style. He also played saxophone in various bands, hosted radio shows and gave lectures on tattoo art, and extended his tattoo brand into all kinds of ventures, most importantly (to us, anyway) to spiced rum.^[2]

Rum was one of the earliest distilled spirits to be grown in North America, and in the 17th and 18th century was drank by rich and poor alike, not just pirates and hoodlums. But when prohibition hit, bootleggers turned primarily to whiskey and gin to keep underground America lubricated. Rum managed to thrive as a niche drink from the Caribbean, that had developed a foothold in Cuba and the Antilles, but it's taken much of the last 75 years to regain a serious foothold in American cocktail culture.

That said, on to the cocktails themselves. My main use of Sailor Jerry is in Dark & Stormys, so while the rest of the world is used to citrusy rum concoctions, I was coming to this with a relatively clear palate.

Two of the samples really stood out. The Rowes Wharf Punch refreshes on a hot day the way a good punch should.

• 1 part blackberry grapefruit tea oleo syrup^[3]
• 1 part grapefruit juice
• 1/2 part lime juice
• 2 parts spiced rum
• 1/8 part Angostura bitters (or to taste; we like more)
• 2-3 parts ginger beer

Combine everything except the ginger beer into a bowl, add ice and stir, then add the ginger beer. serve over ice. Once you have the ingredients assembled, you can make these all day & night.

But the centerpiece of the evening was clearly the Wahine Pina Colada, a surprise to me as I have never been a big pina colada fan. Maybe people making them were trying to be too cute with the ingredients. This is a brute-force recipe that came out fantastic. Then again, I do love pineapple.

• 1 part fresh pineapple juice
• 1 part cream of coconut (two cans coconut milk + 2 oz. lime juice)
• 1 part spiced rum

Pour it into a hollowed-out pineapple, if you have one, and garnish it with coconut flakes, an orchid, or an umbrella, if you have them.

A Wahine is a Hawaiian female goddess, though my first thought whenever I see the term is the first song in this montage. Happy National Rum Day, everyone. If you missed it, make it up this weekend. Stay cool.

[1] or, in my case, friends of friends.

[2] One of Sailor Jerry's proteges was a young Ed Hardy, who learned some of the master's lessons very well, though his vodka is a stylistic mess.

[3] To make the oleo syrup: Brew a strong cup of English tea, and (separately) muddle a grapefruit peel and a handful of blackberries into a cup of cane sugar. (You can swap out other rinds and berries if you have them, as long as you have both.) This is a useful fruity syrup that works in a lot of other cocktails.

Tonic Water Shootout, Part 1: The Contenders

The Problem: It's still summer, and it can still be H-O-T out there.. And tropical levels of humidity demand something cool and refreshing. Maybe with bubbles and some lime, to cut the stickiness. In short, summertime demands a gin and tonic. And you want -- you deserve -- the best possible G&T, no? So how do you make sure you get the very best?

We need to determine the best gin and the best tonic, obviously. Scientifically, by making lots of gin and tonics, changing slight variables, and seeing what's best. Fortunately, the fine folks at the Ultimate Cocktail Challenge were on the case, and last year they evaluated dozens of gins and determined the best one -- not just by itself, but the best gin for various cocktails such as a Negroni, Martini, or Aviation. (I stopped by the cocktail judging last year -- here's my report for Cocktailians.) The judges have spoken: the best gin in a Gin & Tonic is Beefeater 24. 

Thus, it's high time for a Tonic Water Shootout to determine which tonic is best. It should combine quinine bitterness with citrus brightness, and mesh perfectly with gin to produce a delightful drink. Which tonic would emerge victorious?

The Method: We used 10oz plastic cups, filled them with equal amounts of ice, and added 2 oz. of gin. (We went with Beefeater as our gin of choice. It placed second in the Ultimate Cocktail Challenge for Gin & Tonic, three points behind Beefeater 24, and is both a fine London Dry gin and a real bargain.) We then added an eighth of a lime (unsqueezed) and filled the cup with the tonic being tested and gave each cup a quick stir. (For the concentrate, we followed the directions and used a capful of concentrate to flavor one liter of carbonated water. For the tonic syrups, we followed the directions in their recipes or on the bottle label. The tonic liqueur didn't have proportions recommended on the label, but we used the same proportions recommended by the tonic syrup.)

It wasn't entirely a double-blind tasting, but we did label each cup with a letter of the alphabet, recorded which tonic was which, and then set that log aside until after we'd tasted everything, discussed our tasting notes, and ranked our favorites. When tasting, we referred to the tonics by letter; it was pretty easy and fairly quick to forget which tonic corresponded to any given letter. (We were drinking, after all.)

The Judges: Much as in our evaluation of the cocktails of the Triple Crown, the judges consisted of Sam Meyer (yours truly), co-author Tony Hightower, and Special Guest Star Joanna Scutts, author of life.savour..

The Contenders: I tried to round up as many different kinds of tonic water as I could, and wound up with twelve, spanning the styles from store brand to premium tonic water brands. (I purchased all of the tonics myself, with the exception of the two Fever-Tree tonics, which were sent to me, unsolicited, by the brand's PR firm as samples.) We had a few tonic water syrups -- both store-bought and homemade -- and one alcoholic tonic liqueur. We felt that it would be fairest to test the tonics in groups roughly determined by their styles, and as luck would have it this shook out to three groups of four tonics each. Here are the groups in the order we tasted them:

Group 1: The High-End Sodas

These four tonic waters are premium boutique brands from soda and mixer companies who are trying to deliver a better tonic experience. They aim for an upscale, gourmet market, and were all packaged in small glass bottles. They are:

• Q Tonic: One of the first brands to offer an alternative to supermarket tonic waters, Q Tonic uses Peruvian quinine and Mexican agave nectar. The company started in Brooklyn, and the tonic is produced in Massachusetts. (Note: Q Tonic also comes in 750ml bottles, but I would think that would kill the carbonation.)
• Fentimans Tonic Water: This soda company was founded in 1905 in England, but their products for the North American market are made at the Lion Brewery in Pennsylvania. The tonic water incorporates milled quinine bark, an organic grain base, and Asian lemongrass, and is sweetened with cane sugar.
• Fever-Tree Premium Indian Tonic Water: Named after a local African nickname for the cinchona tree, Fever-Tree was started by Charles Rolls, former marketing director of Plymouth Gin, and luxury food marketer Tim Warrillow in 2005. Their cinchona comes from the Rwanda/Congo border region, and they boast that they use eight botanicals including marigolds (!) from Africa, lemons and lemon oil from Sicily, and hand-pressed orange oil from Tanzania. The tonic is sweetened with cane sugar.
• Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water: This brand-new offering from Fever-Tree claims to be the first tonic specifically formulated to pair with vodka. Its botanicals differ from the Indian Tonic Water, and include lemon thyme and rosemary from Provence, as well as citrus. It can be fairly difficult to find and isn't even listed on the Fever-Tree website yet.

Group 2: The Mass-Markets

Here we have the big two brands available at most supermarkets, as well as a store brand from a local grocery chain. If you go out in search of tonic water, one of these types of products is probably what you'll find fastest and cheapest. All three are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and were packaged in one-liter plastic bottles, though small glass bottles of the big two brands are readily available as well. We also include a tonic concentrate designed to be mixed with carbonated water.

• Schweppes Tonic Water: One of the massive brands of beverage mixers, Schweppes was founded in Switzerland in 1783 and moved to London nine years later. After various corporate machinations, Schweppes is now owned by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, which is headquartered in Plano, Texas, and also produces many other brands including Rose's Lime Juice, IBC Root Beer, Stewart's Fountain Classics, Vernors, and, surprisingly, the other big mixer brand, Canada Dry. 
• Canada Dry Tonic Water: Canada Dry was founded in Toronto in 1890, and launched its best-known product, ginger ale, in 1904. Canada Dry Tonic Water was introduced in the 1930s, when Prohibition demanded more mixers that could disguise the taste of bootleg and bathtub liquors. After similar corporate machinations, it was purchased in 1986 by Cadbury Schweppes and is now also owned by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.
• Trade Fair Premium Tonic Water: Store brand from a local grocery chain in western Queens, New York. This bottle was purchased right next to corporate HQ in Astoria, NY, a three-minute stroll from Cocktailians HQ. And according to the label, the product contains not cinchona, not quinine, but "QUINNNE." [Sic] transit gloria mundi!
• Sodastream Tonic Sodamix: From popular home carbonator manufacturer Sodastream, this concentrate is part of their line of soda concentrates, which extends to over 60 different flavors of sodas, teas, and naturally-flavored drinks. The company was founded in Israel in 1991, and has been operating in the US since 2003. Unusually, the tonic sodamix is sweetened with a combination of sucrose and sucralose (aka Splenda), not with high-fructose corn syrup.

Group 3: Syrups & Such

This group is everything else: two different recipes for homemade tonic syrup, one commercially available tonic syrup from a small company, and an alcoholic tonic liqueur. The tonic syrup market seems to have greatly expanded in the past year or two. I'd like to try more tonic syrups, such as the offerings from John's Tonic, Liber & Co., or Jack Rudy, but either wasn't able to track them down in fairly limited time or wasn't able to get to where they were sold. Nevertheless, these four tonics represent an artisanal approach to tonic water, usually coming from very small operations or sole proprietors determined to make better tonic.

• Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Tonic Syrup recipe: Ace bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler needs no introduction, as he writes one of the best cocktail blogs around while also managing Clyde Common in Portland. This recipe combines the zest and juice of an orange, a lemon, and a lime, as well as allspice berries, fresh lemongrass, citric acid, and kosher salt, as well as the all-important cinchona bark. These are cooked with water, strained, filtered, and mixed with agave nectar to sweeten. (One note: the recipe specifies 3/4 cup of agave nectar for each cup of hot mix, but I found this way too acidic and not sweet enough. After adding more nectar to taste, I wound up with about a 1:1 agave nectar:hot mix ratio. I also added half an ounce or so of vodka to the finished syrup as a preservative.)
• Toby Cecchini's Quinine Syrup recipe: Toby Cecchini owned Passerby in New York, claims to have invented the Cosmopolitan, and pens the "Case Study" column on drinking in T, the New York Times' Sunday magazine supplement. He notes that while his syrups "can make some spectacularly interesting cocktails as a straight syrup, they produce curious G&Ts. Great for their odd, homemade quirkiness but maybe not for everyone." This recipe is pretty similar to Jeffrey Morgenthaler's above, but ditches the citrus juice, adds lavender and cardamom, and ups the amount of the citrus zest. (And instead of an orange's zest, it substitutes a Seville orange's, or a grapefruit's or a pomelo's. I used grapefruit.) This mix is sweetened with rich simple syrup, and similar to the other recipe I added a small amount of vodka to the finished syrup to prevent mold and spoilage.
• Tomr's Tonic: Made by New York bartender Tom Richter, whom I encountered at the Beagle in the East Village. His friendliness and enthusiasm put his tonic syrup on my radar. His syrup, which he describes as combining the best aspects of several different readily available recipes, is sweetened by organic cane sugar.
• Bittermens Commonwealth Tonic Liqueur: By the Bittermens duo of Avery and Janet Glasser, better known for their very fine line of cocktail bitters. They've recently branched out to some esoteric spirits that are interesting indeed. They write, "Our issue with the new garde of tonic waters is that they just aren't tonic-y enough. We figure that it's because there's only so much bitterness that you can extract without using a bit of alcohol." This liqueur is 21%abv and is, to my knowledge, unique as a tonic liqueur. (Though, of course, there are lots of wine-based quinquinas out there.)

The Results: Well, you're just going to have to wait for the next installment. Isn't this one long enough?

Tequila (y Paloma) por Mi Amante

There are many wonderful books on drinking, some of which truly reside in the canon of greatness. Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology, David Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book...but the most entertaining one, for my money, is Charles H. Baker, Jr.'s The Gentleman's Companion, originally published in 1939. Baker was a writer for cruise ship newsletters and Town & Country magazine, and he basically ate and drank his way around the world, and wrote about it as enthusiastically and winningly as anyone else out there. Shortly after I picked up a copy (the two volumes have been reissued, separately and under new titles, by Derrydale Press; you want Jigger, Beaker, & Glass: Drinking Around the World), I found myself reading huge chunks of the book aloud to anyone who would listen, for his wonderfully breezy, engaging style. From the introduction:

[Per] hour of elapsed time, man and boy, we probably have been happier when mildly looking into the ruddy cup than at other times. Even granting our lethal morning-after disease we question if willingly we would exchange even our hunting, fishing, or blue water sailing experiences for those mellow and gorgeously spiffed hours!

. . .how about the time after the Art Students' League Ball on 57th Street, across from licit Carnegie Hall, and we went with a girl who unexpectedly turned out to be painted half in gold and half in silver under her evening wrap; later ending up in our Arab Sheikh's burnous and red turned-up-toe shoes doing telemark turns through the snow to lace a pink satin corset on the front of General Sherman's statue at the Plaza? Does anyone dream that raspberry vinegar could produce a triumph like that?

No, I guess not. This easy recipe comes from Baker, and I first was pointed to it by the estimable Chuck Taggart, who not only pointed me towards cocktails but pointed me towards good ones and reliable sources. For years now, I've pored over his recipes, and was always intrigued by Tequila por Mi Amante, or "tequila for my beloved." Why'd it take me so long to try it?

The titular beverage is a simple infusion of strawberries in tequila...but oh, it's so much more. One fine day in early June, when the berries at the farmer's market were at their peak,  I washed, hulled, and halved a couple quarts of strawberries, covered them in a large jar with a bottle of reposado tequila (use the 100% agave stuff, and definitely go for the reposado -- you want something with a little age and character), and tucked them into the refrigerator for three weeks. Every day or two, I'd take the jar out of the fridge and gently shake it. Strain out and discard the berries, and you're done, though Chuck suggests letting it age in the fridge for another three weeks or so.

Baker says "This berry process extracts some of the raw taste, adds a rosy dawn touch. Our Mexican drinks it straight always. We opine that handled in the same way as sloe gin, discoveries would be made..." and what do you know, he's right. The finished product is a gorgeous red in color, "like a beautiful, brilliant ruby", and the tequila's acrid bite has been softened by the berries' fruitiness. It's good -- really, really good -- on its own with maybe a splash of lime, but Paul Clarke had an even better idea: use it to make Palomas.

The Paloma is already a fantastic warm-weather cocktail and, to my palate, even more refreshing than the usual Margarita. Here's David Wondrich's take on La Paloma:

[grapefruit soda is] sweet, but not very, refreshingly tart, and a little bitter. What it isn't, however, is alcoholic. . .So to make it Mexican, just pitch in a little tequila, right? Not quite. You know that business with the tequila, the salt, and the lime wedge? Pitch the whole thing in. Then you've got La Paloma, perhaps the most refreshing triple-H remedy ever created. Sweet, sour, bitter (a little), and salty, it's got all four taste groups, plus ice, bubbles, and hooch; what's not to like? We don't know who first assembled it or named it. . . But in the summer, in New York. . .we regard this unnamed genius as a benefactor of humanity up there with Albert Schweitzer and the guy who invented the deep fryer.

But if you sub out the regular tequila with the Tequila por Mi Amante? It sends your taste buds straight into orbit. This recipe looks simple and a bit obvious, I know, but damn if it isn't utterly perfect, especially on one of those triple-H (hundred-degree-heat, hundred-degree-humidity) kind of days.

Paul Clarke's description:

Strawberry tequila; lime juice; salt; grapefruit soda. I feel like I’m in one of those old Warner Brothers cartoons, in which I take a sip and then my eyes should start spinning like the dials on a slot machine until they come up “JACKPOT!” as bells start to ring, my hat flies off — not that I wear a hat, but stay with me for a moment — and steam blows out of my ears accompanied by a loud, “A-OOOH-GAH! A-OOOH-GAH!”

Yes, it’s that good.

It really is. Try it yourself. You can still get halfway decent strawberries, and six weeks later your tastebuds will thank you.

Tequila por Mi Amante

• one 750ml bottle reposado tequila (I used the very good -- and inexpensive -- Camarena.)
• 1 1/2 to 2 quarts fresh strawberries. (The more organic and in season, the better.)

Wash, hull, and halve the strawberries. Place them inside a large jar and cover with the tequila. (For me, the hardest part about the recipe is finding a jar big enough to let the full bottle of tequila cover the strawberries but that will still fit in my fridge.) Let the berries macerate for three weeks, and gently agitate the jar each day or so. After three weeks, strain out the berries and squeeze the remaining liquid out of them through cheesecloth. Discard the berries and strain the resulting liquid again to remove sediment. Let the infused tequila age for three more weeks or so in the fridge. Serve on the rocks, up, with a splash of lime, or in...

Paloma por Mi Amante

• 2 oz. Tequila por Mi Amante
• juice of 1/2 lime
• pinch kosher salt
• grapefruit soda (the Mexican-made Jarritos Toronja soda is the way to go here if you can find it, but otherwise try Squirt or Ting. Or make your own with grapefruit juice and simple syrup.)

Build in a Collins glass over plenty of ice, and top up with the grapefruit soda. Give it a quick stir, and stand back.

(Many thanks to Joanna Scutts for the use of her fine photo of the Palomas.)

Tequila por Mi Amante

• one 750ml bottle reposado tequila (I used the very good -- and inexpensive -- Camarena.) 
• 1 1/2 to 2 quarts fresh strawberries

Ultimate Cocktail Challenge Judging

The Irish comedian Dylan Moran has a great routine about wine:

“There are two types of wine essentially, and everybody knows this. There’s the one where you drink it and go, "Mmmm, well that’s ok, can we get eight of those please, give us eight of those." There’s the other one, you know, where you go "Ga…bt…Jesus, WHAT is that?"

But with spirits, 'tain't always that easy. There are lots of different kinds of spirits, distilled from many different things, and the range of flavors is enormous. And there’s been an explosion in the spirits market lately, what with the renewed interest in cocktails: there are more vodkas, rums, gins, whiskeys, than ever. So how are you supposed to figure out what’s what? To separate the plonk from the good stuff? And would the same spirit work in very different cocktails?

To address these kinds of questions, there are various judging panels and organizations that have sprung up to rate spirits, kind of the modern equivalent of the gold medals awarded by expositions of yore – the Stolichnaya vodka and Angostura bitters bottles bear these medals proudly, for instance. And the Ultimate Beverage Challenge, which invited me to drop by their cocktail judging recently, is attempting to go one better. Not only are they identifying what they say are the best examples of various spirits – they’re trying each of the spirits in classic cocktails to see which one comes out on top. As David Wondrich told me, the same tequila might not work as well in a Paloma or a Tequila Sunrise as in a Margarita. So, it was the judges' task to taste them all. (Wondrich also noted, a touch wearily, that they'd tasted twenty Palomas so far that day -- the second of three days of judging -- and that they'd been going since 10am.)

And, this year brought another changeup: not only was the UCC evaluating spirits on their own, and spirits in various classic cocktails, but this year they also added signature cocktails: recipes that a liquor brand presented to showcase their own spirits. These were judged head-to-head on the basis of which recipes were most appealing and tasted best, but obviously they weren't going to try, say, Old Raj gin in a cocktail specifying Hendrick's.

When I walked into the judging room, the cocktail dork in me was impressed by the star caliber of the judges: the owners and managers of some of the best bars in the country were there, as well as spirits writers, beverage consultants, and other exponents of the mixological art. (DeGroff! Saunders! Sharpe! Bezuidenhout! Meehan! Tello! Hess! Wondrich! Reiner! Regan! Shine! Pacult! All of whom looked as fresh as daisies, and most of whom I'd seen not-terribly-long before at the Bulleit Rye launch the previous night!) Several tasting panels huddled around bars where bartenders turned out several identical drinks from standardized recipes. (Because it’s a double-blind competition, the bartenders were mixing from numbered carafes, not labeled bottles.)

Bulleit Rye Launch Party

I recently attended the launch event for Bulleit Rye in New York. This was exciting, as I've long been a fan of Bulleit bourbon -- it's a spicy, "high-rye" bourbon, with a goodly percentage of rye (28%, which is fairly high for bourbon, plus 68% corn and 4% malted barley) in the mash bill. It's balanced and very mixable. The rye whiskey is much higher in rye content at 95% rye and 5% malted barley, which is perhaps the highest-rye whiskey I can think of, with the exception of Anchor's various Old Potrero whiskeys at 100% rye.

Seven years ago, brand impresario Tom Bulleit began planning this rye offering, and I'm very glad he's brought it to market. (The whiskey is aged for four to seven years, so he apparently got started right away when he had the idea.) It's got a great spicy-fruity aroma, and far less bite than I'd have expected for a whiskey with so much rye in it. It's got a strong rye flavor -- but not quite as peppery as some other ryes -- and it's complex, dry, and balanced, with lots of toasty toffee and oak notes. It's really good for straight sipping; normally I choose bourbon's sweetness and corn mellowness for a sipping whiskey, but this rye is well-balanced enough that it goes down easily. (Or rather, it goes down easily, but lets you know it's there on the way down.) And since I love rye whiskey cocktails, I was excited to taste it in some mixed drinks. I had a very good Manhattan (made with a splash of Averna in addition to the vermouth and bitters) and a simple yet superb Old-Fashioned, where the whiskey shone.

Beefeater Winter Edition Launch Party

Beefeater recently launched Beefeater Winter Edition, the latest brand extension from Pernod Ricard with a party at New York's Lambs Club. Of course, Beefeater London Dry has been around for a long time, and Beefeater entered the super-premium gin market last spring with Beefeater 24 (see my review and report from the launch party). This summer came the limited-edition Beefeater Summer Edition, with elderflower, hibiscus, and blackcurrant botanicals. (I also just got my hands on a bottle of this, so a review will be forthcoming.) And so this newest limited edition has arrived: Beefeater Winter's botanicals highlight cinnamon, nutmeg, Seville orange, and pine.

These are interesting botanicals, and they really do convey a wintry feel to the gin. Normally I think of the white spirits as spring and summer beverages and the brown liquors as being appropriate for cooler climes, but I'm not really sure why I think that way -- after all, a whiskey sour is refreshing on a hot day, and I make my share of gin cocktails during the winter. And, gin's clarity and juniper do make it well-suited for that snow-on-the-evergreens feel. This gin adds the "Christmas spices" of cinnamon and nutmeg, so well-conveyed in Angostura bitters, and the noticeable orange flavors contribute to a winter taste profile as well. I didn't notice the pine right off the bat, or rather I had difficulty distinguishing between the juniper and the pine botanicals. (I'll try some more, and compare it with the regular Beefeater London Dry. The sacrifices we cocktail bloggers make...) But, the pine is there. Master distiller Desmond Payne told me that "the pine is treated in exactly the same way as all the other botanicals, that is: all the botanicals in the Winter recipe, including the pine shoots, are steeped in the gin still for 24 hours with the neutral spirit. On the second day the distillation takes place in the usual way. For London gin no flavors can be added after distillation." (This approach is similar to how Clear Creek makes their wonderful Douglas Fir Eau de Vie -- they macerate just-picked Douglas fir buds in neutral grape brandy before distilling.) Brand Ambassador Nick van Tiel let me sample the gin neat, and it was more appealing than any other gin I'd tasted in this way: its slightly oily, viscous texture and sweet warm notes were quite pleasant. (Most gins, including some of my very favorites, tend to do better when cooled, diluted slightly, or otherwise mixed.)

At the party, they had a few different cocktails available. The first was a "Hot Apple Gin" -- basically heated cider with the gin added. I couldn't really taste the gin in this, but it was warming and certainly welcome -- to come in from the very cold outdoors and have this thrust into one's paw upon arrival was a pleasant way to warm up.

They also offered the "New Year In Lambeth": the Beefeater Winter Edition, some Plymouth Sloe Gin, apple juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, and Champagne. This was sweet and went down easily, but I think it had a few too many moving parts for my taste, and there were an awful lot of sweet ingredients. Tasty, though -- I might try to adopt a similar approach, but maybe paring down the sloe gin and ditching the apple juice. (By this point, my notes were getting a little sozzled, or at least I was: my phone's speech-recognition feature records my impressions of this cocktail as "apple gymboree reminiscent of amstel intercom the new year and lambert tube.")

I also tried the "Fashionably Ginger", which I liked the best of the three on offer: Beefeater Winter Edition, of course, with the addition of creme de cacao, Monin gingerbread syrup, and Regans' Orange Bitters. This was the most balanced and was quite refreshing.

However, what I most wanted to try, after tasting the gin neat, was to accentuate the cinnamon-nutmeg botanicals with Angostura bitters in a Pink Gin. (That fusty, redoubtable relic of the British Empire and most specifically the Royal Navy -- no, they didn't drink just rum -- tends to be undrinkable to my palate unless made with Plymouth, which is not a London Dry gin but rather its own unique style.) The resulting Beefeater Winter Pink Gin was staggeringly lovely, balanced, and dangerously smooth and sippable. I think this one is definitely going into the repertoire, for real gin aficionados.

Incidentally, if you want to pick up some of the Beefeater Winter, you'll have to move fast: it's truly limited-edition, with just 300 cases hitting the US (split between New York and San Francisco.) It's also got a relatively low price point of $18.99, which puts it much closer to normal gin pricing than the super-premium market (such as the higher price point enjoyed by Beefeater 24 and Tanqueray Ten, for instance.) It should be available in bars and at your more comprehensive liquor stores.

(You can see a few more pictures of the event here.)

Noggin' It

You really should go over to Eatocracy and check out this post I wrote on eggnog and some variations thereof. (Included: Jeffrey Morgenthaler's eggnog recipe, my mother's favorite eggnog recipe, and my grandmother's recipe for Southern Boiled Custard. All yummy.)

Countertop Ice Maker Review

What’s the first thing you run out of when you’re serving up cocktails? For me, it’s not the gin (perish the thought!), the Antica Formula, or even the fresh lemons. No, the Achilles heel to my party plans is always the ice. My smallish freezer has room for two ice-cube trays, and with a little planning I can usually sneak in enough plastic containers to make big chunks of ice. But if I’m going to be shaking up a lot of drinks or if more than a few people are coming over, then I always need more ice than I have. My downstairs neighbor (and co-author) Tony Hightower has graciously provided trays of ice, and I have resorted to picking up a bag of ice down the street at the 7-Eleven.

However, this all changed when the folks at Air & Water got in touch and asked if I’d consider reviewing their NewAir AI-100SS countertop ice maker. Despite my not having too much countertop to spare – I have a small New York City apartment – I agreed, and they sent one to me so I could check it out.

It’s fairly big as far as countertop appliances go, but isn’t huge – I fit it right in between my microwave and my fridge fairly easily. It’s simple to operate, too: fill it with tap water, turn it on, select a cube size, and it goes to work. The first cubes come out in six minutes or so, but they’re smallish and wet. It produces only a few cubes at a time, so if you’re looking to fill up a Boston shaker or even a Collins glass, it’s best if you wait a while. I had the best results when I could start the machine going several hours before my guests arrived, so it would have time to really fill up the ice receptacle. (I like the design – one neat feature is that the slotted bottom of the ice bin drains into the water tank, so any meltage gets captured and recycled into new cubes. And it keeps making ice until it either runs out of water, the ice bin is full, or you turn the machine off.) Once it’s filled up the ice bin, I tend to empty the bin into an ice bucket or put the ice in the freezer so the ice maker can make more. After the party, any water that’s left in the machine can be drained out a side port, and that’s pretty easy as well – I just tend to turn the ice maker sideways on the counter and place a plastic cup underneath the drain before I open it up.

I cleaned it thoroughly when I received it, and have used it several times since. I notice a strong new-plastic smell when I open up the lid to get the ice or fill it with water, but that hasn’t affected the taste at all. The ice it makes is cup-shaped, with lots of surface area. It’s not a Kold-Draft, but then again it's a lot cheaper, smaller, and doesn't need a water line. The ice it produces is fairly warm as ice goes, and melts faster than big cubes or spheres -- it doesn't last long in the shaker, but is just fine for stirring or cooling drinks quickly -- but it is really nice to have a steady supply of ice available when I need more than my two measly plastic trays can provide.

(Top pic courtesy Air & Water, Inc. Bottom two pics are mine.)

Drinky Linky: Thanksgiving Edition

Happy Thanksgiving from all the Cocktailians to you.

I don't have a particular Thanksgiving cocktail to share with you, but I will probably be making Tippecanoe Sparklers tonight after the day job releases me.

And, recently I was the lucky recipient of a gift of Pumpkin Spirit from the Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee. (Well, the gift was from my friend Anne -- thanks! -- and the spirit was from the distillery.) The stuff isn't quite what I'd expected, as the pumpkin nose is immediately apparent on opening the bottle, but the flavor isn't as readily noticeable, and exists more as a light aftertaste. The spirit isn't sweet at all, and it tastes like a whisky, with its attendant burn. But it's a burn redolent of pumpkins and spice. I can attest that it makes an excellent Old-Fashioned, particularly with Fee's Whisky Barrel-Aged Aromatic Bitters.

What's going on with you? Here's some stuff that's caught our eye lately:

• Do you get your turkey drunk before slaughtering it?
• Or do you infuse it with various horrible-sounding flavored vodkas before you cook it?
• The Chicago Tribune covers what they term "the most unnecessary bottle of vodka in the world", which is really saying something;
• CNN.com's Eatocracy spoke with Dale DeGroff;
• This is interesting. Has anyone ordered these "bitters pack" recipes and ingredients from this guy on eBay? I'm very curious about these bitters kits;
• Frank Bruni's excellent "Tipsy Diaries" column in the Times covers coffee cocktails;
• ...and bars with art;
• ...and the Frisco Cocktail;
• The Times' tasting panel also tackles hard cider;
• Is rum -- which definitely seems to be an increasingly-trendy spirit -- really "the bore behind the bar?";
• Jeffrey Morgenthaler of Clyde Common (my review here) concocts an original holiday cocktail for downtown Portland;
• Camper English has possibly solved the mystery of Pyrat rum's strong oranginess;
• how "proof" works, and how gunpowder is involved;
• and last but far from least, a celebration of David Wondrich's new book Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl. I'm in the middle of reading it, and it's excellent and as much of a tour de force as his prior book Imbibe!. I'll post a full review when I'm done, but here are interesting reviews and stories about it in the Wall Street Journal, the Times, and the Chicago Tribune. I would also be remiss if I did not note that you can purchase bartending-themed shirts from his concern Drunkistan, and also mention that he has founded the North Gowanus Institute for Cranial Distempers. (I assume the Institute is rather more devoted to the creation than the alleviation of said distempers. At any rate, carry on.)