Cocktailians

Thinking and Drinking

The Cocktailians tend to be Jeopardy! fans; co-author Tony Hightower is, as has been previously noted here, a former J! champion who mentioned this li'l ol' blog in one of his chats with Alex. (And, your humble correspondent was a Season 17 one-and-done.) Of course, one of our favorite categories would have to be Potent Potables.

So here's the story on my @jeopardy TOCktails:

The SuperChamp mule is inspired by Matt's CT being home state of the Moscow mule, modified for Mattea with a Canadian Rye and floated on top with the national drink of the Bay Area for Amy: Fernet Branca.

The other one is purple. pic.twitter.com/Si50gAA8xA

— Austin Tyler Rogers (@austintylerro) November 2, 2022

Which made us especially interested when the show posted this lineup of "TOCktails" themed to the show's currently airing Tournament of Champions. The drinks were created by 12-game superchamp Austin Rogers: trivia host, bartender, and owner of the Gaf West bar in Manhattan. The first drink, the Super-Champ Mule, was inspired by the geographic origins of the three biggest superchamps of Seasons 37 and 38: Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, and Mattea Roach. (They each got a first-round bye in the TOC, and played an exhibition game tonight.) As Austin explains it:

Austin, the owner of the Gaf West in Manhattan, looked to Matt Amodio’s hometown of Hartford, Conn., to come up with the base for the first cocktail, the Super-Champ Mule. 

“I did not know the Moscow Mule had origins in Connecticut,” Austin said. “But that’s the beauty of being a Jeopardy! fan—you get to figure these things out as you go along.”

To put a Tournament of Champions twist on the classic mule recipe of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice, Austin turned to Mattea Roach’s home country of Canada. 

“Canada is really famous for their rye [whiskeys], so the next part is we take out the vodka from the mule and supplant it with a nice hardy Canadian rye,” Austin said. 

To balance out the recipe, Austin added a bit of Amy Schneider’s hometown of Oakland into the mix with a dash of Fernet-Branca, an Italian-style bitters that’s widely enjoyed in the Bay Area.

“The Bay Area consumes more fernet than anywhere else in the world except for maybe Argentina,” Austin explained. 

Super-Champ Mule

• 2 oz. rye
• ½ oz. fresh lime juice
• ½ oz. honey syrup (honey diluted in hot water 1:1)
• Ginger beer
• ½ oz. Fernet-Branca

Shake rye, lime, and honey syrup, strain into highball glass with fresh ice. Top with ginger beer and float Fernet-Branca on top, garnish with lime wedge.

I did some tweaks to this recipe; the original mixed "parts" of rye with half-ounce measurements of the lime, honey syrup, and fernet. I think Rogers meant to use ounce measurements throughout. I also switched the mixing method from the originally-specified stir to a shake since it incorporated citrus juice. Also, I wasn't aware that the Moscow Mule originated in Connecticut; there are varying stories, but most seem to agree that John Martin, president of the Heublein Company of Hartford (which imported Smirnoff vodka), got together with Jack Morgan of the Cock N' Bull Tavern in Hollywood (which produced (and still produces) ginger beer), and came up with the recipe, which is essentially a Mamie Taylor with vodka subbed for Scotch. This happened either at New York's Chatham Hotel or at the Cock N' Bull in Hollywood, but at any rate it was mentioned in the press as early as December 1942.

Rogers also supplied a low-abv version of this drink, using strong tea instead of rye, and vanilla extract instead of Fernet-Branca; I didn't try it but think that tea may not substitute well for whiskey on its own. Also, a warning to the teetotal (such as J! host Ken Jennings): half an ounce of vanilla extract isn't exactly alcohol-free (vanilla extract has to be at least 35% alcohol per federal law, the same 70 proof as Southern Comfort or Captain Morgan!) And, vanilla extract has a really strong flavor! I'd think I might go with ginger beer, aromatic bitters, and a squeeze of lime.

The other drink, served at J! 5-game champ Tyler Rhode's watch party for his own Tournament of Champions game (and mixed up by Alexa Geltzeiler) was a little different; as Rogers explained it, he was thinking of a drink to match one of Jeopardy!'s colors, and got some assistance from Gaf West mixologist Corey. "The second drink I was actually averse to. . .I did not want to make a drink that emulated the colors of Jeopardy! because I think colored drinks are cheesy. But better wisdom prevailed, and Corey said 'let me convince you to go otherwise.' . . . It's got a nice rich purple color, which is a Jeopardy! legacy color, and a cool frothy top. I think it's just sweet enough that it'll be [palatable] to the people out there who have a sort of sweet tooth for their cocktail but it's definitely boozy enough for someone who wants to get a kick out of it."

Make It A True Daily Double

• 2 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. creme de cassis
• ½ oz. fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz. triple sec
• dash grenadine

Shake all ingredients with ice, strain into chilled coupe or cocktail glass, garnish with lemon wedge.

I also haven't tried this one as I'm not generally a fan of vodka drinks, but it seems like it'd be tasty and fruity, as long as there's enough lemon to keep all the sugary ingredients in balance. 

Enjoy your Daily Double Shot!

Festive Drinks

We're squarely in the middle of the holiday season, and I've got several festive drinks to consider. Whether you're hosting people for a party, want something rich to sip by the fire, or something crisp and light to accompany a feast, this selection will have you covered. 

Are you throwing a party? You're going to be busy and running around anyway to take care of everything and make sure everyone is having a good time, and you likely won't have the bandwidth to take drink orders or shake up custom cocktails. There are two ways to handle the drinks while preserving your sanity as the host - either do something large-format so guests can serve themselves, or set out a bunch of options (and provide a little bit of guidance) and let them roll their own. 

For the former, Punch is the way to go. It gets a party started, and people gravitate to the bowl, serve themselves, and loosen up as the conversations start and the "flowing bowl" works its magic. You don't want something too high-octane here; it shouldn't be the strength of a cocktail. The whole idea is that you'll have some, want a little more, and each time you go back for another ladleful you'll talk to someone else, and it'll be a lovely time.

• One of the most festive and showy punches – you set it on fire! – is also very easy. If you don't mind everyone congregating in the kitchen, Charles Dickens's Punch is wonderful. You can serve it either hot or cold, but I like it best hot. Here's drinks writer David Wondrich describing the punch, walking you through the recipe, and even suggesting talking points for your guests. 
• Another punch I like is Admiral Russell's Punch, which was first made for a Christmas party in 1694. Royal Navy Admiral Edward Russell, who was forced to overwinter his fleet in Cádiz, Spain. Unhappy about the prospect of spending the winter so far from home, he resolved to throw an enormous blowout party at the local governor's estate. It reportedly featured 800 waiters serving 150 dishes, but the star was the Delft-tiled fountain in the garden which had been cleaned and filled with nearly 800 gallons of Punch, and the ship's boy in the rowboat in the fountain who paddled around and served the guests. Here's a recipe for a scaled-down version, but it's certainly a fun story to tell. 
• Another very easy and very, very popular punch is Wondrich's Royal Hibernian Punch, involving Irish whiskey and rainwater Madeira. People love this stuff and it tends to disappear quickly whenever I serve it. It's so straightforward the recipe fits into a tweet!

Another large-format drink that's a little less well-known these days (unless you're from certain parts of the Midwest)  is Tom & Jerry. It's a very old drink, having recipes in print since at least 1827, and it's kind of a soothing, boozy hot eggnog that's rich and delicious. In a 1932 short story, "Dancing Dan's Christmas," Damon Runyon praised it:

This hot Tom and Jerry is an old time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.

It was all the rage through the second half of the 19th century, but fell out of style around the turn of the 20th. It's a little bit of work; you separate eggs and make kind of a batter with the yolks, sugar, spices, and booze, then lighten the batter with the beaten egg whites. To serve, dollop a generous spoon of the batter into a mug, add rum and brandy and top with not-quite-boiling milk. A lot of work? Sure. Festive? Indubitably. I like the variation by Audrey Saunders of New York’s Pegu Club. (It closed last May. I miss it.)

The other approach mentioned above is to just set out a bunch of different options for your guests, and let them mix and match to their hearts' content. If you choose things that go together well (think apple-y things, red wine, and baking spices), it's what CNN's Eatocracy blog dubbed the Garanimals of holiday drinks.

Of course, there's always eggnog – and you can do way better than the too-thick, annato-colored sludge sold at the grocery store. Making your own is super-quick and it's fresh and tasty. Cocktail blogger and ace bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s recipe is simple, fairly light in texture and has an intense, eggy flavor tempered with brandy and spiced rum. You make it in the blender, and it’s a snap to put together. (Just don’t use a commercial blender, as it can heat the contents. Sweet scrambled eggs don’t make a tasty holiday treat.) Jeff told me that it ages well, so I'm trying that now for the first time - I made it a couple weeks ago, and am tucking it into the fridge until Christmas Eve. (is it safe? Sure is - Rockefeller University microbiologists tested eggnog aged for three weeks and found that it was sterile, with less bacteria than the store-bought stuff! It's all about the booze.)

For a big holiday meal like Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, I tend to steer away from cocktails to accompany the feast. Too boozy. Too strong and intense. You're in a marathon, not a sprint. My pick requires a little bit of work ahead of time, but it's delicious: Eve, a very simple infusion of McIntosh apples in dry vermouth. Slice six apples thin with a mandolin, cover them with a liter of dry vermouth (Noilly Prat is perfect for this, but any will do), and let it sit in the fridge for five days, giving it a gentle shake every day.

Sometimes, though, a traditional cocktail is what you want for your holiday libation. It doesn't have any particular connection to holidays except in my mind, but one of my favorites that I tend to serve is the Honey Fitz, a delectable sour from Jackson Cannon that's a variation on the older and more famous Brown Derby and De Rigueur cocktails. The Brown Derby uses bourbon, the De Rigueur uses blended Scotch, and the Honey Fitz uses aged rum, mixing them with grapefruit juice and honey syrup. The Honey Fitz also accents its flavor with a dash or two of Peychaud's Bitters, the complex, tart New Orleans-derived bitters that are a must in any proper Sazerac. The recipe calls for Ron Zacapa 23, which is completely delicious and works very well, but for extra-special occasions, I break out the very good (and slightly illicitly obtained) Havana Club 7 from Cuba. Fresh-squeezing the grapefruit juice also really elevates this particular drink.

And the last holiday cocktail I'll leave you with is the Réveillon, created by my friends Chuck Taggart and Wesly Moore. Named after the New Orleans (and French) tradition of long, luxurious holiday dinners, the Réveillon combines dry apple and pear brandies with spicy sweet vermouth, allspice liqueur (often referred to as allspice dram or pimento dram), and aromatic bitters. Fee Brothers's Old-Fashioned bitters work the best in this drink, with their heavy cinnamon note, but Angostura bitters also work well and add clove and other baking spices to accent.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

Imbiber's 100, Revisited

I guess Facebook Meta is good for something after all, as it reminded me that I posted this 13 years ago today: Darcy O'Neil posted "The Imbiber's 100" -- a list of 100 beverages you should try before you die -- over at The Art of Drink, and I added up my score. 

Since then, I've added nine more to my 2008 list (XO Cognac, Fernet-Branca, PX sherry, vintage Port, El Dorado 15, Soju, pulque, Cuban rum, and akvavit), bringing my total so far to 84. And I enjoyed all of the nine that I've added! 

Brandy Trivia! Part 4

As seen here earlier, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about brandy. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller images to embiggen them.

10.  The Spanish Brandy de Jerez is aged in oak sherry casks. The aging system involves filling bottles from the oldest of a range of casks, which are refilled with brandy from the next-oldest cask, which is refilled from the next-oldest cask after that, and so on, with new distillate placed in the youngest cask. In theory, traces of the very oldest brandy, and of all the ages, can be found in the finished product. In Sicily, where it’s used to produce Marsala, this system is called in perpetuum. In the Banyuls area of France, it’s called sostrera. What is this system called in Spain, where they also use it for sherry?

[SOLERA]

“The [solera] system of aging Spanish Brandy works so well because it marries younger, more vigorous spirits with older, mellower spirits in a deliberate process, thereby reaching a balance of virtues,” explains Paul Pacult, brandy expert and editor/publisher of Spirit Journal.)

I tried to explain the [solera] system in a clear yet succinct way, and the testers were very helpful in refining the wording. It’s most often encountered with sherry, but it’s an interesting approach to aging spirits as well - Zacapa 23 rum, Hillrock bourbon, and Glenfiddich 15 Scotch, among others, all use the solera system.

I need to get more familiar with Spanish brandy, as it sounds interesting and I am enjoying learning about sherry. Here are primers on Brandy de Jerez from Eric Twardzik of Bevvy and from Inka Larissa of On The Sauce Again.

11.  The Curaçao style of orange liqueur is based on brandy. One of the greatest is a blend of 51% Cognac and 49% house-distilled orange liqueur, bottled in pot-still-shaped bottles, and its most common expression is decorated with a red ribbon or cordon rouge. Originated by Louis-Alexandre M. Lapostolle in 1880 and named by his friend hotelier César Ritz, what liqueur is this?

[GRAND MARNIER]

The M. in Louis-Alexandre Lapostolle’s name stood for “Marnier,” of course. The Grand Marnier line of liqueurs is first-rate. (I once was lucky enough to get to taste the full line of their expressions, including the mind-bogglingly spectacular Quintessence, made with Cognacs ranging from 25 to 100 years old.) Mostly I use the much cheaper Cordon Rouge which is also pretty darned delicious.

The universe of orange liqueurs is pretty huge, and ranges from triple secs to Curaçaos to rum-based liqueurs such as Creole Shrubb. [Grand Marnier] is amazingly consistent, considering how much they make of it and that just over half of it is a careful blend of Cognacs, which can of course vary from batch to batch and with the vagaries of aging. (It’s downright astonishing, actually, that the various Cognac producers achieve such consistency and quality in their blends, given that everything they’re working with is a pot-still distillation, aged for varying lengths of time.)

The MCWA by far was the estimable Cointreau, which is delicious itself and arguably more versatile than [Grand Marnier] (I tend to use it in more mixed drinks than I do [Grand Marnier], unless I really want to play up the brandy and oak-aged vanilla flavors that [Grand Marnier] brings to the table.) Cointreau is a triple sec, and it’s based on neutral spirit distilled from sugar beets. (In an apparent nod to [Grand Marnier]’s success, Rémy Cointreau (formed in 1990 by a merger between the family companies that controlled Rémy Martin and Cointreau) introduced Cointreau Noir in 2012; it combines 70% Cointreau and 30% Cognac from the House of Rémy Martin, as well as some natural walnut and almond flavoring.)

(This question originally included this bottle shot, but I took it out because it was fairly easy without it and a downright gimme with it.)

12.  Applejack isn’t the only apple brandy out there. Some of the greatest comes from northwestern France, and it can include pears alongside apples (at least 30% pear content in the Domfrontais region.) When it’s made in Brittany it’s called lambig; what is the name – after the département where it’s produced – for apple brandy from neighboring Normandy?

[CALVADOS]

It seemed appropriate to wind up this quiz with a digestif, and what better than a [ Calva ]? The best apple brandies aren’t necessarily sweet, but have astonishing power, fruit aromas, and depth from careful aging. A recent trip to Brittany and Normandy was great fun - I sampled lots of cider, lambig and [ Calvados ], visited distilleries in both regions, and wished I could have carried many more bottles home. (I also hadn’t known that Calvados was a département until I saw it on a road sign.)

I had originally included the map found here of the [Calvados] growth regions, but it wasn’t necessary for the question.

Some extra questions cut from the first draft of the quiz:

X1.  The Old-Fashioned is typically a whiskey drink, except in Wisconsin, where the Brandy Old-Fashioned reigns supreme, especially in supper clubs. After the bartender muddles cherries and oranges with sugar and bitters, and adds a slug of brandy, patrons usually specify one of three styles for the drink: sweet (when it is finished with 7-Up), sour (when it is finished with sour mix or Squirt), and what third option, which is usually finished with half 7-Up, half club soda?

[PRESS]

The Wisconsin-supper-club-style Brandy Old-Fashioned is indeed a unique take on a drink, and the reason why so much California brandy winds up in the Upper Midwest.

But the “press” variation is apparently far less common than the “sweet” or “sour” styles, and this question was already dangerously far into YEKIOYD territory, as it was so regionally specific.

X2.  There aren’t a ton of cocktails that rely on crème de menthe. What crème de menthe and brandy cocktail’s name is redacted from the following passage? (Note: it’s not “Irving.”)

[STINGER]

The other crème de menthe and brandy drink is, of course, the Grasshopper, and the “Irving” references this hoary old joke. I added the reference when testers wisely raised concerns about differentiating it from the other drink with the insectoid name, but it was ultimately easier to get rid of it entirely.

The quote is from David Wondrich’s marvelous book Imbibe!, which goes on to note that the [Stinger] was the favorite drink of Reginald Vanderbilt (father of Gloria, grandfather of Anderson Cooper), who would mix them up for guests in his Fifth Avenue mansion, standing behind a marble bar he’d imported from a Norman coaching inn. Here are some variations on the classic recipe. [Stingers] have been enjoyed by high society types, but they've also been ordered by Cary Grant’s character in “Kiss Them For Me” and James Bond. (Much like Bond’s Martini, [Stingers] are one of the very few all-spirit cocktails (i.e., no juices) that’s shaken with ice rather than stirred.)

Brandy Trivia! Part 3

As seen here earlier, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about brandy. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller images to embiggen them.

7.  Slivovitz, Țuică, eau-de-vie de Quetsche, and Mirabelle brandies are made from what fruit?

[PLUMS]

Fruit eaux-de-vie are a big part of the brandy universe, though grape brandies tend to get most of the attention. Central and Eastern Europe are especially known for their fruit brandies (though Oregon’s Clear Creek brandies are extraordinary - covered here several years ago), and other giants of the form include Poire Williams and Kirchwasser.

If you recognized the varietal names of Mirabelle or Quetsche [plums], this was an easy in, and slivovitz can be amazingly good. Țuică is [plum] brandy from Romania, and I still want to taste that sometime.

8.  What brand of Cognac does Jay-Z partially own, together with Bacardí? He reps it enthusiastically, drinking it out of a Grammy in 2013, and mentioning it in several tracks: (Note: NSFW lyrics)

Jay-Z Cognac montage

[D’USSÉ]

I wanted to include a question that touched on Cognac's popularity among the African-American community and specifically within hip-hop culture, and there are certainly a ton of Hennessy (and to some extent Rémy Martin and Courvoisier) mentions that seemed fairly obvious. I thought Jay-Z’s partial ownership of D’ussé (produced by Otard, a subsidiary of Bacardí), provided an interesting in, and he certainly has embraced the brand; here he is drinking it out of a Grammy as mentioned in the question.

The montage was fun to put together and consists of, in order, excerpts from Hova’s “Part II (On the Run)”, his verse on Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie”, his “F.U.T.W.”, his verse on Beyoncé’s “Drunk In Love”, and his verse on Rick Ross’s “The Devil Is a Lie.” I tried to find lyrics that would lead you to “D’ussé” with the rhymes, assonance, or wordplay. (Here are just a few more mentions.)

9.  The Sidecar, a perfect marriage of Cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice, is arguably the most famous brandy cocktail. An ancestor of the Sidecar, though, has been called “the absolute pinnacle of the nineteenth-century bartender’s art.” It’s kind of halfway between an Old-Fashioned and a Sidecar, and is possibly named for its glass’s sugared rim; what word has been redacted from the following recipe?

[CRUSTA]

The Brandy Crusta is a great drink that really lets the Cognac shine, but also accents it with the Cointreau and just a splash of lemon juice. The drink is from 1840 and Joseph Santini, manager of the City Exchange bar in New Orleans. The picture and recipe cited here are from the 1862 edition of The Bar-Tender’s Guide: How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant’s Companion by Jerry Thomas, the first bartending book published in America. The [Crusta] rates one of only a handful of illustrations in the entire book, no doubt because of its striking presentation with the full lemon peel and the sugared rim.

The quote dubbing it "the absolute pinnacle of the nineteenth-century bartender's art" comes from this great piece by drinks historian David Wondrich, the authority on pre-Prohibition drinks (and a good deal more besides), and it's worth reading in full. (And you can go here to watch Dr. Wondrich prepare a Brandy [Crusta], in a video from Google Play when they released an enhanced edition of Thomas's book with added commentary.)

Later on, the Sidecar would evolve - it’s something like a daisy, a sour with a liqueur added, but also something like the Fancy Brandy Cocktail, which was essentially an Old-Fashioned cocktail made with brandy, but in a fancier glass and with a piece of lemon peel added. The Sidecar increases the amount of lemon juice, and possibly borrows its sugared rim from the [Crusta].

But let me encourage you to try a Brandy Crusta if you haven’t had one, as they really are wonderful. (I think I’ve run across them on a menu in only a couple bars - it’s made my day each time.)

Brandy Trivia! Part 2

As seen here yesterday, I recently put together a trivia quiz all about brandy. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller images to embiggen them.

4.  American apple brandy is often sold as “applejack”, which these days is a blend of apple brandy and neutral spirits. The largest producer is Laird & Company; the family-owned business claims to have produced spirits since 1698 and once provided their recipe to George Washington at his request. Laird’s distills in Virginia, but their aging, bottling, packaging operations, and headquarters are located in what agricultural state?

[NEW JERSEY]

This question originally sought the company name (with this redacted bottle shot), but testers pointed out that it really was deep into YEKIOYD territory, so I reworked it at one tester’s suggestion to ask for the state where they’ve been operating since 1698. The first federal distillery permit was issued to Laird & Co. in 1780, and the company is currently run by the ninth generation of Lairds to make apple spirits. Laird’s bought the former Virginia Fruit Distilling Company distillery in North Garden, VA in the 1940s, and wrapped up distilling in the [Garden State] in 1972 due to dwindling apple orchards.

Their facility in Scobeyville in [New Jersey]’s Monmouth County, just down Laird Road from Bruce Springsteen’s massive horse farm, has aging warehouses and bottling operations as well as the family house that serves as the company’s offices.

(They sell unaged apple brandy as “Jersey Lightning”; it’s soft and fruity and interesting, though I’m partial to their Bottled in Bond Straight Apple Brandy and their 7 ½ Year Old. Try an American Trilogy cocktail with the Bottled in Bond.))

5.  One country’s brandy industry was seriously disrupted during the pandemic when the government imposed four separate bans on the sale of alcohol. Producers affected included KWV and Van Ryn’s, which produce their brandy in the Paarl and Stellenbosch regions respectively. What country is this?

[SOUTH AFRICA]

[South Africa] is known for its wine industry, but less so its spirits; I think much of its brandy production is enjoyed locally rather than exported. And much of the brandy produced occupies the “value” category and is often drunk with cola. However, the longer-aged vintage brandies can be very good indeed, holding their own with those from Europe. (I sampled a flight of the Van Ryn’s expressions at their distillery, and especially enjoyed the 15 Year Old, and Roger Jorgensen’s 15-year-old Savignac brandy is downright special.)

The COVID bans really did a number on the country’s spirits industry, and I hope that it can recover, and I look forward to greater availability of vintage [South African] brandy in the US.

I mentioned the regions and the producer KWV to clue in oenophiles who may have recognized the [South African] names. (It makes sense that the Netherlands was the MCWA for this question, given the links between Dutch and [Afrikaans].)

6.  Unaged grape brandy from Peru and Chile is typically known by what name? It’s most commonly served in its namesake cocktail, a delicious classic sour with (in the Peruvian version) egg white and bitters.

[PISCO]

Both Peru and Chile insist that theirs is the true pisco, though there are differences in region, grape selections, and aging. Peruvian [pisco] tends to be more available, though both are exported. I remain agnostic, only choosing to enjoy the stuff in many forms, including the delectable pisco punch and the wonderful [pisco] sour, which can be made in a Peruvian or Chilean style.

Brandy Trivia! Part 1

Similar to the rum (parts 1, 2, 3, 4) and gin (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) trivia quizzes I wrote for the world's best online trivia league in past years, I recently wrote a quiz on brandy. I figure readers might be interested in this, so I'll include the questions and my recap notes at the end.

I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on small pictures to embiggen them.

Thanks to everyone - all 511 players! -- who took the quiz when it was on LearnedLeague last month, and it was especially fun to see participation from beverage-industry folks like Craig Ganzer (who won), friend of the blog Damon Dyer (who went 12 for 12, placing seventh) and Skip Tognetti (who did very well indeed, tying for ninth place.)

I'd be remiss as well if I failed to thank Ms. Franky Marshall, who was my first contact on beginning to smith this quiz when I was just kicking around ideas for questions. She is not only a mensch and a good egg, but a fount of wisdom about all things distilling, spiritous, and mixological.

1.  Actually, it's only Cognac if it comes from the Cognac region of France; otherwise, it's just brandy. But the Cognac region is divided into six growth regions for its grapes, or crus: Fins Bois, Bon Bois, Bois Ordinaires, Borderies, Grande ___________, and Petite ___________. What one word fills both these blanks?

[CHAMPAGNE]

Gotta start with the most famous brandy out there, bien sûr? (Plus it was easier than trying to write around “Cognac” for an entire quiz.)

The “Actually…” at the top of the question was, of course, trying to clue you into [Champagne]. (And in an early version of this question, showed me that the LL website doesn’t do strikethrough text, leading to some wacky formatting.) The sparkling wine is made in its eponymous region in northeastern France, east of Paris, while Cognac is made some 300-odd miles away, around the town of the same name in southwestern France...so what do they have in common? The brandy isn’t made from [Champagne] wine, but the two most favored crus of Cognac have chalky limestone soil that’s similar to that of the [Champagne] region. If you see “Fine [Champagne]” on a Cognac label, it’s a blend of brandies from the Grande [Champagne] (at least 50%) and Petite [Champagne] crus. (Rémy Martin is notable for producing only Fine [Champagne] Cognac.)

Much more on the various growth regions here from Simon Difford and here from Cognac Expert, and an excellent rundown of all things Cognac from Eater’s Jake Emen.

The original version of the question included this map of the regions, but some testers wisely pointed out that it wasn’t necessary.

2.  The French marc, the Spanish orujo, the Italian grappa, and the Hungarian Törkölypálinka are all brandies made by distilling the remaining seeds, skin, stems, and pulp after grapes are pressed for winemaking. What is the most common name for this residue?

[POMACE]

Not just the stuff between Lucy’s toes, [pomace] consists of everything left behind after the grape juice is drained off to become wine. Some wineries use it as animal feed or fertilizer, but as we see here it can be distilled into some interesting brandies. Grappa can be shockingly rough and fiery or refined and elegant, and makes a good digestivo or added to espresso for a caffè corretto. Marc is more often aged, and it’s used to wash the rind of the sublimely aromatic/stinky Epoisses de Bourgogne cheese.

I included a scoring note not to accept MUST or LEES as correct answers; must is the direct result of pressing grapes, with juice and all the solids included; the solids are the [pomace] and make up 7-23% of the must. Lees are sediment in wine, most of which are dead yeast cells left over from fermentation.

Like the first question, I originally included a picture of [pomace] for color, but it wasn’t necessary, so I saved it for the recap.

3.  The most famous style of French brandy is Cognac. What is the name of Cognac's more rustic cousin? It's also named after where it's made, in southwestern France's Gascony region. This grape brandy is distilled once (contrasting with Cognac's double distillation), and is usually bottled at a higher proof than Cognac.

[ARMAGNAC]

I like Cognac just fine, but I'm a big, big [Armagnac] fan. It just has so much character, generally from the single-shot distillation, the higher bottling proof, the use of different grapes, and the greater prevalence of vintage releases and smaller producers. More on the contrasts between Cognac and [Armagnac] here from Wine Enthusiast’s Tammie Teclemariam, and here from Cognac Prunier’s Alice Burnez, who also points out that Cognac is distilled with a pot still and [Armagnac] is distilled on a column still.

One of my favorite trips was just about four years ago, when I visited Gascony during the Armagnac distillation season and went to a brandy festival (where I was lucky enough to sample a hot Armagnac punch, watch a fistfight break out on the dais at the gala dinner, see mobile stills on trailers, and wander around with a glass around my neck and taste a whole bunch of interesting brandies.)

Gin Trivia! Part 5

As seen here earlier, Kerry Greene and I put together a trivia quiz all about gin last year. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller pictures to embiggen them.

These are some bonus (i.e., unused) questions that we cut from the initial lineup of the quiz, in favor of the ones you've seen throughout the week:

♦    One ingredient characterizes all gins, no matter the style -- as a matter of fact, it’s legally required to include it if you want to call your spirit “gin.” What piney berry is obscured from this gin flavor diagram?

[Juniper]

This seemed too easy, even for a first question. The diagram depicts the flavor of Beefeater, from gin-review blog The Gin Is In. I like how they break down the six main flavor dimensions of gins. (I view Beefeater as the quintessential London Dry gin, and marvels at how good and especially how consistent it is; I was once talking with Beefeater master distiller Desmond Payne, who spoke of having a portrait of Beefeater founder James Burrough looking down on him from his office wall, and knowing that he’d have to be utterly consistent in following the old recipe, and to only innovate on his own time...which is what begat the brand extensions such as Beefeater 24.)

[Juniper] is lovely, and contains all sorts of interesting flavor compounds. London Dry style gins tend to really emphasize the [juniper]. “New American”/”Contemporary” or other new gin styles often minimize it or use it as just one element among many botanicals. (Some “gins” almost do away with it entirely, and Ketel One is even doing “botanical vodkas”, which are basically gins without the [juniper]. After all, gin is essentially flavored vodka that includes a particular flavor.)

♦    Both of your quiz writers count a particular classic cocktail among their favorites - the Aviation, a beauty that makes you feel like soaring. The renewed availability in 2007 of what liqueur on the American market made the Aviation’s recurrence in North American bars possible?

[Crème de Violette/Crème Yvette]

Punch limns the history well:

Though typically referred to as a “forgotten classic” in the early years of its revival, the Aviation had never completely vanished, thanks to its inclusion in the oft-consulted Savoy Cocktail Book, published in 1930. However, when curious young bartenders commenced their spelunking ways in the 1990s, digging through libraries and used books stores in search of old cocktail manuals and the formulae they contained, the Aviation quickly became one of the prime beneficiaries of their research.

One of those drink detectives was San Francisco bartender Paul Harrington, who inserted the Aviation, as well as a history of the drink, into his seminal 1998 book, Cocktail. “I was not aware of anyone else making the drink at that time,” remembers Harrington. The drink was also featured in other influential volumes, including William Grimes’ history of the cocktail, Straight Up or On the Rocks (1993, reissued in 2001), and The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff (2002).

Those books all featured the Savoy recipe, which called for only gin, lemon juice and maraschino liqueur. A sea change in the Aviation’s fortunes came when an earlier recipe was found in Hugo Ensslin’s 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks. That spec called for a fourth ingredient, the then-mysterious [crème de violette]. (Drinks historian David Wondrich, in the introduction to the 2009 reproduction of Ensslin’s book, memorably recounts how, in 2004, he nearly dropped his beat-up volume in a bowl of soup upon clapping eyes on the Ensslin Aviation.)

The new evidence arguably added to the drink’s mystique in the eyes of bartenders, and kicked its rise into high gear.

Morgenthaler first glimpsed the recipe in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh (2004). (Haigh advocates the Savoy version, but noted that the original recipe contained [violette].) He never cared for the drink, even then, finding it too sour and floral, but he understood why his fellow bartenders began to serve it.

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” says Morgenthaler. “It was purely because maraschino and [violette] were nearly impossible to find. It developed this almost mythological status among those of us who had never tried it.” Add to that its pre-Prohibition status and the then-aborning thirst for gin cocktails, and the Aviation had the goods in spades. It was primed to be belle of the bibulous ball.

♦    Monkey 47 is a super-premium gin from the Schwarzwald area of Germany. What does the 47 in its name refer to?

 

[47 different botanicals/bottled at 47% abv]

 

♦    One of the most common botanicals found in gin is a root also found in Chartreuse, Benedictine, and Galliano. The plant is known as hvönn in Iceland and Sonbol-e Khatāyi in Iran, but what is its English name?

 

 

[Angelica]

 

We had another question along the lines of “what’s this botanical called?”, and Kerry and I liked the other one better. We thought about putting in clues about how this wasn’t John Huston’s daughter or an art-house movie theater chain headquartered in New York.

 

♦    Gin starts out as unflavored neutral spirit (essentially vodka), and is most commonly made by redistilling this spirit with botanicals for flavoring. However, another method of making gin doesn’t involve distilling, and just combines the botanicals with the spirit and strains them out after they’ve added their flavor. What term describes gin made in this manner?

 

[bathtub gin/compound gin]

 

Most gins use the redistilling method, either with a “flavor basket” suspended in the still to hold the botanicals as the alcohol vapor passes through them, or macerating the botanicals in the neutral spirit for a while and then distilling it, or both. (Bombay Sapphire is notable for only using the flavor basket, which they place fairly distant from the heated still.) Some other gins will distill some of their components separately (London distiller Sacred does this, producing a distilled spirit for each botanical and then blending them together in various ratios to make their line of gins.) And some, like Sacred, Oxley, or North Carolina-based Durham Distillery, “cold-distill” their gins or elements of them, using a vacuum system to lower the boiling point so botanicals don’t taste cooked.

[Compound gin] is usually the cheapest possible gin and has a reputation for not being particularly good, but there are even artisanal [bathtub gins] on the market. (You can make your own!)

 

♦    Yes, a Martini is a gin cocktail. Make sure you include vermouth, and it’s traditionally garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. If you switch the garnish to a small pickled cocktail onion, what drink do you have?

 

[Gibson]

 

We had a ton of “what cocktail is this?” questions and we thought the gimlet one worked best. This is a pretty standard bit of cocktail trivia, too.

 

♦    A popular drink in Northern Italy during the late nineteenth century was the Milano-Torino, which combined equal parts of the bittersweet orange Campari from Milan and Martini Rosso sweet vermouth from Turin. A refreshing variation on this drink was the Americano, which lengthened the Milano-Torino with a couple ounces of soda water. Another variation achieved greatness in 1919 or 1920, when a nobleman asked a Florentine barman to “irrobustire” or “fortify” his Americano with gin in place of soda. What was the Count’s namesake drink, comprising equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari?

 

[Negroni]

 

♦   

“A dry martini,” he said. “One. In a deep champagne goblet.”

“Oui, monsieur.”
“Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”
“Certainly, monsieur.” The barman seemed pleased with the idea.
. . . “This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I can think of a good name.”

What name does James Bond eventually settle on for this variation on the classic Martini?

 

[Vesper]

 

Great passage (from Casino Royale, later used more or less verbatim in the 2006 movie), but it's not a great drink and as noted we had a bunch of "ID-the-cocktail" questions. An earlier version asked players to name the brand of gin called, and we didn't love that either.

 

♦    Whiskey that's bottled at a high level of alcohol (50% abv or more) is often referred to as "bonded" or "bottled in bond." High-alcohol rum is often called "overproof." What's the most common term for gin bottled at at least 57.1% abv?

 

[Navy strength]

 

We didn't want to have two questions referencing the [Royal Navy]. Also, "[navy strength]" is a relatively recent marketing creation from the '90s to sell overproof spirits.

 

♦    A classic cocktail that’s been described as “the evolutionary missing link between the Manhattan and the Martini” was possibly named after the county seat of Contra Costa County, California. Stir [Old Tom] gin, sweet vermouth, Maraschino liqueur, and bitters together over ice, serve up, and garnish with a lemon twist, and what do you have?

 

[Martinez]

 

I happen to really like this cocktail, and we liked the geographical angle, but it's another ID-the-cocktail question. (The quote comes from this Saveur article, and Imbibe had a great history of the drink.)

 

I hope you enjoyed the quiz; we used Richard Barnett's The Book of Gin: A Spirited World History from Alchemists' Stills and Colonial Outposts to Gin Palaces, Bathtub Gin, and Artisanal Cocktails, with Aaron Knoll's Gin: The Art and Craft of the Artisan Revival, Tristan Stephenson's The Curious Bartender's Gin Palace, and Dave Broom's Gin: The Manual in our research. 

Gin Trivia! Part 4

As seen here earlier, Kerry Greene and I put together a trivia quiz all about gin last year. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller pictures to embiggen them.

10.    Snoop Dogg famously drank gin & juice in the 1994 song. Name both brands of gin namechecked in this (NSFW, of course) excerpt.

Gin & Juice (redacted)

[Seagram's, Tanqueray]

The success of “Gin and Juice” reportedly led to a roughly 20% increase in the sales of [Seagram’s Gin]. In the words of tha D-O-double-G himself, “Gin is upper echelon. It's a step up. Because you just don't find — and no disrespect — regular winos just drinking [Tanqueray].” And Snoop did end up with a jobby job as a brand rep for [Tanqueray] Ten, and mixed up an enormous gin & juice with 180 bottles of Hendrick’s a couple years ago.

11.    Think fast! What gin-based liqueur is traditionally made by steeping the tart plumlike fruit of the wild blackthorn shrub in gin with sugar?

[Sloe gin]

There used to be so many crappy artificially flavored, cloying [sloe gins] out there, but good ones are thankfully easier and easier to find. Or, you can make your own! Damson gin is very similar and good as well.

You could do like the narrator in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and use it as a dessert topping:

I’d like to hear five recordings of Louis Armstrong playing and singing ‘What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue’ – all at the same time. Sometimes now I listen to Louis while I have my favorite dessert of vanilla ice cream and [sloe gin]. I pour the red liquid over the white mound, watching it glisten and the vapor rising as Louis bends that military instrument into a beam of lyrical sound. Perhaps I like Louis Armstrong because he’s made poetry out of being invisible.

 

12.    Gin from a certain town in England carried a geographical appellation — similar to Scotch whisky or Cognac brandy — until 2015. Only one brand of gin is made there now, and it's a unique style, distinct from the more common London Dry. This earthy, versatile gin has long been the tipple of choice for Royal Navy officers. It's named after the town in which it's produced; what gin am I describing?

 

[Plymouth Gin]

 

[Plymouth Gin] is great and very versatile for mixing. (The most recent drink I had was a [Plymouth] Martini, on the wet side, with orange bitters and a twist. Yum.) As The Gin Is In notes above, maintaining their geographical appellation for [Plymouth] would have meant that brand owner Pernod Ricard would have to disclose the exact recipe, so they decided to drop the appellation instead. Here are more details on [Plymouth]’s history and distillery. 

Gin Trivia! Part 3

As seen here earlier, Kerry Greene and I put together a trivia quiz all about gin last year. Here are the next few questions, along with my discussion of the answers. As before, I've obscured the answers by putting them in white text on a white background; just highlight the area between the brackets to see what's there, and click on smaller pictures to embiggen them.

7.    Whose portrait is redacted from this bottle shot?

[Queen Victoria]

Bombay Sapphire is a relatively new gin, created in the ‘80s by Michel Roux (who died last April, and who had marketed Absolut Vodka out of obscurity) as an update on Bombay Gin, which was introduced in 1831 as Warrington Gin but rebranded in the ‘50s. The Bombay Gin bottle features the same portrait of [Victoria], but Roux added the iconic blue bottle and named the brand extension after the Star of Bombay, a 182-carat star sapphire given by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. to Mary Pickford, who bequeathed it to the Smithsonian. (Ironically, it’s from Sri Lanka and not Mumbai.) Bombay Sapphire was a monster success and is one of the most popular gins in the world today.

8.    What cocktail name has been redacted from this passage from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye?

[Gimlet]

As Troy Patterson put it in Slate, “in 1952, with the first draft of The Long Goodbye already complete, the [gimlet] discovered the writer on an ocean liner and thus worked its way into literary history. No other drink has such a significant presence in such a great performance of American fiction.”

This is actually a crummy [gimlet] recipe, in my opinion: not only is Rose’s Lime Juice a not-very-good lime cordial loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and blue food coloring, but a [gimlet] demands both tartness and sweetness, and a 50:50 mix of gin and Rose’s is just way too sticky-sweet. A mix of just gin and lime juice, however, tips the balance in the opposite direction and is just too acidic and spiky for my tastes, requiring a sweetener. (If you take gin and lime juice and lengthen it with soda, you have a gin rickey, which is also refreshing.) There are lots of ideas on how to achieve the ideal [gimlet], but what I do is split the citrus component between fresh-squeezed lime juice and a lime cordial. I used to use Rose’s, but then I discovered the Employees Only lime cordial recipe (and the bottled version thereof.) I’m also told the Rose’s available outside the US is better and sweetened with sugar instead of HFCS.

(Marlowe goes back in Chapter 22 and orders a [gimlet] in memory of Lennox. “It was both sweet and sharp at the same time.”)

9.    The national and traditional liquor of the Netherlands and Belgium is a precursor to gin. It's often distilled from malt wine and can have a whiskylike character, especially if it's been barrel-aged. aka "Dutch courage" or "Hollands gin," what is the name of this spirit?

[Genever/Jenever/Geneva/Peket/Genievre]

Here’s a good primer on [genever] from Simon Difford. Korenwijn is another Dutch grain spirit but doesn’t have to be flavored with juniper...or any botanicals at all, for that matter. Akvavit is something else entirely, from Scandinavia, and is usually flavored with caraway (and sometimes dill.) And wacholder is juniper-flavored, but from Germany.