Cocktailians

The Curse of Tezcatlipoca

The weather's finally starting to warm up here in da Nort'woods, and I've been feeling the need for an exotic summer cocktail; something a little sweet, a little tart, and very aromatic. Basically, I wanted a Mojito that didn't suck, so I whipped up the following drink, based around Pisco, a Peruvian grape brandy, and AGWA, an herbal liqueur made from Bolivian Coca leaves. The result was, if I may toot my own horn a bit, proof positive that I have a knack for concocting well-balanced tropical libations (having interesting ingredients to work with sure doesn't hurt).

By the way, Tezcatlipoca was the Aztec god of night, the North, temptation, sorcery, beauty and war. Seemed apropos somehow...

8 fresh mint leaves
1.5 oz. Peruvian Capel Pisco Reservado grape brandy
3/4 oz. AGWA de Bolivia Coca Leaf liqueur
1 oz. 10 Cane Rum
1/2 oz. Trader Vic's Passionfruit syrup
1 oz. Fresh-squeezed lime juice
1/8 tsp. Absinthe or Pernod
Dash of Fee Bros. Grapefruit Bitters

Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of a cocktail shaker, then add all the other ingredients. Shake with 1 cup of crushed ice, then pour into a double Old-Fashioned glass and fill to the top with more crushed ice.

History's Heftiest Hangovers

The New Yorker probes the myths, customs and remedies for the hangover, and finds many of the latter to actually be varying degrees of helpful:

...anyone who discovered a widely effective hangover cure would make a great deal of money. Doing the research is hard, though. Lab tests with cell samples are relatively simple to conduct, as are tests with animals, some of which have been done. In one experiment, with a number of rats suffering from artificially induced hangovers, ninety per cent of the animals died, but in a group that was first given Vitamins B and C, together with cysteine, an amino acid contained in some O.T.C. remedies, there were no deaths. (Somehow this is not reassuring.)

Death & Co., an NYC Favorite, Sues State Liquor Authority

Death & Company, the Lower East Side haven much beloved by the purveyors of this blog (see: [a], [b]), is currently suing the New York State Liquor Authority for unfairly targeting them, being one of the newer kids on the block, for filling the gentrifying streets with drunk people.

As the Gothamist mentions, D&C is barely on the radar of actual offenders on this tip; the Cherry Tavern and the Sidewalk Cafe, to randomly name two on that block, are both way louder at street level and create way messier drunks than the vastly classier upstart. But those two bars have something the new kid doesn't: tenure. And the sedate people moving into the neighborhood have decided, once again, that what makes the neighborhood interesting enough to live in in the first place makes it less than savory to actually live beside.

If Death & Co. closes, it would be a very bad sign for more than just the other bars in the LES, who would clearly be next on the hit list; it would be another nail in the coffin of what is honestly my favorite neighborhood in New York, where I lived happily for two years, and where I would still be living, noise, drunks and all, if the newcomers to the area weren't so goddamned hell-bent on gentrifying the place into homogenetic oblivion.

Hang in there, guys. We have your back.

Robby the Robot Meets Mr. Boston

Mind-reading robot mixologists that monitor your alpha waves and mix drinks accordingly?  Self-propelled kegs of Sierra Nevada?  Lego-based shot-pouring robots?  Theremin-derived automatic toasting machines? 

It was all on display at Roboexotica SF, which sounds like a seriously good time.

Scorpion Rising

Aloha,

I've been making myself scarce (and keeping myself sober), for the past couple of months due to  dietary/health concerns, but after officially shedding 20 pounds, and shaving almost 20 points off my blood pressure I decided it was time to celebrate by treating myself to a tropical libation.

In a recent e-mail discussion with fellow Cocktailian, Kosmonaut, regarding what would constitute an appropriate tiki drink for a large group of people, I'd suggested going with a classic bowl drink like the Scorpion, and multiplying the ingredients to serve the requisite number of imbibers. Consequently, I had Scorpions on the brain all day today, so I opened up my copy of Beachbum Berry's Sippin' Safari to the Kelbo's Scorpion recipe, and started tweaking away down in the basement bar. The result can be seen there on the left, and I have dubbed it  "Scorpion Rising". No, it's not a tribute to the films of Kenneth Anger, just the cleverest play on words that I could come up with in my semi-inebriated state.

As I said, the Scorpion is a bowl drink, meant to serve 2. Unfortunately, I have yet to locate a tiki bowl to add to my collection, so I pulled my large Disney World Polynesian Village goblet down off the shelf to serve in it's place.

The recipe is doubled from the Bum's, and I've added several additional ingredients (I'll let you guess which ones). With the addition of a bit more ice, this could've filled a small bowl quite nicely and served 3-4 aloha-shirted, fez-bedecked hipsters equipped with long straws.

1 1/2 oz. Fresh-squeezed Lime Juice
1 1/2 oz. Fresh-squeezed (or not) Orange Juice
1 1/2 oz. Brandy (V.S.O.P.)
1 oz. Gin (Hendrick's)
2 oz. Dark Rum (Cruzan Blackstrap)
1 oz. Trader Vic's Passionfruit Syrup
1 oz. Orgeat Syrup
2 tsp. Pimento (Allspice) Liqueur (Berry Hill)
1/8 tsp. Absinthe (Mr. Jekyll)
2 dashes of Fee Bros. Peach Bitters

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker half-filled with crushed ice. Shake, then pour into a large goblet or bowl. Add more crushed ice to fill. Garnish with beak flower.

The resulting cocktail is smooth, light, and thanks to the Absinthe and bitters, quite aromatic, but it has a serious bite that sneaks up on your about a half-hour later, so don't go making 3 or 4 of these and drinking them all by yourself!

Okay, celebration's over. I've got another ten pounds to lose...

Aloha,

Mr. BH

Smooth, Round, Perfect Balls

May I present to you the latest innovation in whiskey perfection: the ice sphere. Apparently rounded ice cubes, having less surface area than regular boring old six-sided ice (or D4s or D20s or whatever other shapes they make ice trays in these days), melt slower, thus ensuring more nursing time for you and your drinkable accessory.

This means you can finish that crucial point about the electoral process or how it was really you who broke up with that jackass or which Miles Davis album you prefer without interruption, while your half-chugged tumbler of ripple doesn't completely melt away into Kool-Aid. Also, it looks real cool in the glass, which is certainly a consideration, I ain't gonna lie to you.

Taisin (Warning: Japanese!) makes special ice molds that create perfect seamless round ice balls (they claim at the rate of 30-40 per hour, which means every two minutes or so, which seems a bit fast to make an ice cube, but they do sound rather like engineers, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was accurate and my skepticism was completely unwarranted).

Kool-Aid™ is a registered trademark.