Mmminty Cocktails

Before the bottom of my first bottle, Creme de Menthe has become an ingredient I should have bought long ago. After drunkenly adding it to a shot of brandy a few nights back because I wanted a stinger to go, I decided I should go ahead and try out a few good looking recipes that make different uses of Creme de Menthe.

First off is the Consolation Cocktail. I chose this to start because of my love for gin and the simple ingredients. With ingredients only a step removed from a Gin Cocktail or a Gin Sour, the Consolation does a great job of smoothing over a bunch of pretty strong tastes.

Consolation Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Creme de Menthe
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
Dash Angostura Bitters

I thought the lemon was a little too much, so I lowered it to only 1/4 oz the second time around. I think this is a better balance of the four, but whatever you prefer. The refreshing quality of the mint goes well with the juniper taste of good strong gin. I'd drink one of these again!

Image from Absolut website recipe

Although I'm fairly certain it is not a problem too many men encounter, I'm sure there are times when your ladyfriend needs to be reminded not to be a bad girl? Anyway, I can't seem to find any information on where this cocktail comes from or what gives it its name. The base of brandy and sweet vermouth is such a palate pleaser that there are dozens of variations you can add to them to make a suave-tasting cocktail.

Lady be Good
1 1/2 oz Brandy
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Creme de Menthe

The Lady be Good did not surprise me. It tasted like a Stinger with sweet vermouth, and I'll gladly try this one again.

A Day of Rosiness - Midday Tincture

That's right, it's time for the second installment of rosy drinks to get you through the day. Hopefully your Morning Effusion has put you in a perfect place to appreciate your very own Midday Tincture:

This drink started its life as a Rosy Deacon, but quickly morphed into something different. At first taste, the Rosy Deacon is a little jarring to me. The gin and grapefruit juice certainly pair nicely, but the sloe gin is too sweet and thick in your mouth and throat. Instead of leaving you hungry for more, it almost makes you want to - gasp - clear your mouth with some water.

Rosy Deacon
3/4 oz Gin
3/4 oz Sloe Gin
1 oz Grapefruit Juice
Sugar to Taste

Rosy Deacon (Try 2)
1 oz gin
1/2 oz Sloe Gin
1 oz Grapefruit Juice
Sugar

For the second try, I went with frosting the glass with sugar rather than actually mixing any into the drink, as the original was more than a little too sweet. This one was better, but still not a cocktail I'd recommend. I liked the dryness of the grapefruit juice, but since I know I won't usually have grapefruit juice on hand, I tried out a new recipe that substitutes vermouth for the fruit juice. The result is a cocktail I could happily drink to keep me Rosy.

Rosy Layman
1 oz Gin
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Sloe Gin
1/4 oz Grenadine Syrup
Sugar

Once again, I frosted the glass with sugar, which was very successful. The Rosy Layman has a sour taste, but the sugar from the rim sweetens it up just a little bit. The combination of dry vermouth and gin are crisp enough that they cut through both the sloe and the grenadine. I was a little afraid that this would be little more than a gin martini, as the scent when I make it is very similar. That ended up being a totally unnecessary worry, and the Layman is its own beast.

Until Alpenglow, stay rosy.

Satanic Cocktails - Demon of Destiny

A vortex of taste greets your pallet - the scent is undefined, but crisp and fiesty. You get a feeling like there is someone waiting behind you, or is that just the hair on the back of your neck standing up as your tongue goes numb with the next sip?

The effervescent cocktail before you beckons you with riches, it's golden shade mocking your impoverished soul, daring you to dream of the riches your hellish desires contain.

You may have just been shown your demonic destiny.

Demon of Destiny
1.5 oz. Gin
.75 oz Sweet Vermouth
.5 oz Absinthe
.25 oz Tequila
.25 oz Agave Syrup

Add all ingredients into a shaker half full with ice. Shake like you want the minions of hell to break out of their fiery (icy) tombs. Double strain to remove all of the small ice chunks - you want this cocktail to glisten. Let the demonic struggle begin as the tequila, absinthe, agave, and gin all fight tooth and horn to be the last taste left in your mouth.

Progenitor: Destiny Cocktail

White Dog

According to my research, the bottle of White Dog Whiskey I just picked up is a sign of the new small distilleries coming to the whiskey scene.  I have to make a stunning confession - I've never had moonshine.  I know, shocking, right.  Well, this is a 62.5% bomb that will burn your taste buds like a flask of 151º at Hallomass

Recipe attempts:

2 oz white dog
3/4 oz lemon juice
spoonful sweet vermouth
1/2 oz agave syrup (or simple syrup)
1 dash orange bitters

Taste not complete, strong white dog finish


2 oz white dog
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz agave (or simple syrup)
2 dash angustura bitters

Taste still not complete


1 1/2 oz white dog
1 1/2 oz london dry gin
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz lime juice
1 egg white
1/2 oz agave (or simple syrup)
2 dash angustura bitters


1 1/2 oz white dog
1 1/2 oz london dry gin
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz agave
2 dash angustura
1 egg

I wrote down these recipes months and months ago when I first bought White Dog. I got drunk making this post and never finished it. I decided to post it despite not having a complete recipe to present. At some point I plan on finishing it and presenting a Redface Original.  TBA.

Inaptly Judging a Drink - Color

In my opinion, too many drinks are judged by one of these three things, when they should be judged by their taste, liquor content, and history.

Color

Glassware

Name

I'll tackle color first - once you've made a few different types of cocktails, you start to recognize the colors and textures of different types - the telltale creaminess of a drink with egg whites, the (surprising) rosé of a whiskey cocktail, the silky-clear top to a gin drink. If you drink Manhattans often, you might have already had this conversation before:

You walk into the room or across the bar with a nice Manhattan in a cocktail glass
"Whatcha got there, girlie-man?"
"A Manhattan."
"What's in it? Unicorn tears and heartstrings, why not drink a real drink?"
"Whiskey. Vermouth. Bitters. A few of your teeth soon."

The problem is, even with the recent renaissance in the cocktail world, few people even know the history of the word cocktail, let alone the storied past of drinks ranging from the Pink Lady to the Papa Dobles. Here in America, the birthplace of the cocktail, a drink that isn't clear or silty brown comes with the presumption of feeble drinking abilities.

Now, sometimes it is appropriate to judge - or at least assess - a cocktail based on its color. However, you should first verify your suspicions by a hearty taste, and perhaps a request for a trial cocktail on the house. Once you know for sure that the yellow-green-neon concoction with a parasol and a fruit bouquet is indeed dreck, then go ahead and assume all the matching drinks on the premises are of similar quality.

All of this goes to the point that while a Duchess might look girly, it's 1/3 absinthe, and the other 2/3 vermouth, so back off you dolt.

Bobby Burns

Over the last month and a half or so, I must apologize for my lack of posts - its been a busy few months, and I have been reduced mostly to swilling liquor neat or quaffing Stellas.  I know, life is hard, right?  Today, however, I'd like to pull out an old classic I've had a few times before, and in the last few days have made a bunch of times:  The Bobby Burns.

I can't find a recipe online that is quite what I've been using from Dale Degroff's paragon of drinking insight, The Essential Cocktail.  I won't reprint his here, but I will say, he favors more Scotch than vermouth or benedictine - most recipes online seem to favor either splitting it three ways, or keeping the scotch and sweet vermouth even.

Bobby Burns
Scotch
Sweet Vermouth
Benedictine

Add to shaker, stir, pour, and sit back and enjoy.

This one is obviously a close cousin to the Manhattan, so if you enjoy a silky, cool Manhattan at the end of the day, try out a Bobby Burns.  With the woody/oakiness of the scotch, and the tangy finish of the Benedictine, this drink differs from the Manhattan in its finish.  Usually on my first sip, it has a taste nearly indistinguishable from a Manhattan. It is often not until the second or third taste that I can pull out that it's scotch, and has the telltale bitter finish of benedictine. 

Since I recently ran out of Benedictine, I've been making the last few with B&B, which mellows the flavor a little.  I like it better without the brandy, but it's pretty good either way.

The Preakness

Sometimes it startles me how lost I was in drinking before I found the Manhattan. It is such a quintessential part of drinking in the United States.  I know that I'd heard about it many times - maybe it's my contrarian nature, maybe it's the fact that when you're in college, anything more complicated than a screwdriver or a whiskey sour (using sour mix) is out of the question. 

Anyway, as I've delved into Manhattans, I've found a few fantastic variations along the way.  Tonight's cocktail is one of the many drinks in the fashion of the old standby.

The Preakness (Or The Bull Manhattan)

A couple ounces Bourbon
Around an ounce of Sweet Vermouth
A pour or two of Benedictine (or B&B if it's what you have)
A dash of bitters

Stir and serve in a manly-ass glass.

This will not overwhelm you with fine taste, surprise you with unexpected depth, or disappoint you by skipping the alcoholic punch.  It's a straightforward bourbon drink, and it will taste similar to a Manhattan.  Personally, I prefer it without the bitters, and with a heavy helping of B&B, but if you put too much in, you run the risk of creating a new bourbon-brandy cocktail, and not really following the flavor of the Manhattan. 

The Fiery Dog

Inspired by a recipe I came across on CocktailDB while looking for variations on a Manhattan to try, the Fiery Dog is a complex and powerful cocktail.  With its odd set of ingredients, I doubt you'll be trying it out anytime soon unless you come on out to NY to visit your friendly Redface.

The Fiery Dog
1 oz White Dog Whiskey
1 oz Italian Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Absinthe
1/2 oz Benedectine
1 Dash Peychaud's Bitters


Shake and strain into a rocks glass.  Please don't put any White Dog in a cocktail glass. 

I've been trying to figure out Benedictine for a few months now, and this is the first time I've been able to add it to a cocktail and not have to choke it down.  Every ingredient has quite a powerful taste, which leads to a shifting feel in your mouth and down your throat as you drink a Fiery Dog.  The 62% White Dog makes itself known, but is unable to overpower the other ingredients.

Enjoy!

Palative Potables - Outraged

Now, to be perfectly honest, I turn to the Dry Gin Martini frequently, for a variety of reasons, and even when I have no particular reason.  However, there is at least one occasion in particular when I turn to the dry gin martini - when I am pissed off.

A dry martini doesn't mess around.  It doesn't compromise, and it doesn't hide.  A dry martini has few ingredients - and they are both easy to find.  You can make as many different dry martinis as there are gins, dry vermouths, and ratios between the two.  When you drink a dry martini, it takes about as much from you as you take from it.

A Martini Moment

When I am angry and need to clear my head, I often turn to a dry martini.  It's no-nonsense complexion demands my attention at the same time that it oils my gears.  No matter how sour the thoughts on my mind, the cutting combination of dry spiced wine and London Dry Gin will force me to grimace and grin in a way that only the martini-drinkers of the world will understand.

My personal dry gin martini recipe (I am playing around with the classic touch of adding orange bitters, give it a try)

Redface's Personal Dry Gin Martini
5 parts London Dry Gin
1 part dry vermouth

Place 4-5 ice cubes in shaker, 3-4 cubes in a small cocktail glass.  Add the dry vermouth (or add a full shot and then strain it, your call) and the gin.  Shake three times lightly.  Slowly and deliberately double strain the martini into the cocktail glass (discard the ice obviously from the glass).  Add no garnish.  Gripping the glass fervently by its stem, think angry thoughts and then snarl into the glass as you suck in a full first sip.

You Always Thought You Were Smarter For Loving Booze.... Now You Know

The beauty in this new report on "Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol" is that it defines things so methodically that I couldn't find a single hole in the logic in two full reads (one sober as a monk at matins, the other a few degrees in).  Evolutionarily speaking, smarter individuals try new things - and alcohol is new.

I love it!  Plus, that zinger that finished off the third paragraph had me laughing my ass off.

The final paragraph also had a tidbit of sense that I find refreshing: 

That such behavior [binge drinking and getting druuunk] is detrimental to health and has few, if any, positive consequences, is irrelevant for the Hypothesis.  [The hypothesis] does not predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in healthy and beneficial behavior.  Instead, it predicts that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in evolutionarily novel behavior.  

 Intelligent people are not, ceteris paribus, more likely to make good (healthy, moral, salacious) decisions, they are just more apt to do novel evolutionary things.  Brilliant!  This means I can still plausibly claim to be intelligent while also explaining why I am ombibulous and spent the whole day Sunday feeling like crap.

The Duchess

Simple cocktail recipes always make me happy.  There's something rewarding about mixing a cocktail with even proportions, simple combinations, or easily accessible ingredients.  Well, the recipe I have in mind today fits two of those three - absinthe is still not quite as accessible as most liquors. 

You might remember the Duchess Cocktail from A Night of Vermouths.  The Duchess was a pleasant surprise, and one that has set me down a whole different path in cocktails since then.  There's something snooty about vermouth to me.  Maybe it's the fact that Jungle Juice was about the flavor complexity available in college before the Slickheel Saloon opened up.

Either way, the Duchess is a perfect example of a simple cocktail that uses the flavors of strong ingredients to craft a unique taste.

The Duchess
1/3 Sweet Vermouth
1/3 Dry Vermouth
1/3 Absinthe

Last time I said give it a light shake, this time I'll advocate stirring it.  It won't make too much difference, so do it however you'd like.  Now after a few of these, I decided the flavors were a little too touchy - one of the ones I made had a little too much anise aftertaste, one had too much dryness.  So to remedy both, I decided to add (what else?) some bitters.  My call was Peychaud's bitters, as it darkened the drink a little (I was having a little trouble with the color being a sickly mix of green absinthe and sweet vermouth, so some peychauds darkened it up). 

Gan Bei!

Satanic Cocktails - 吃 火 魔鬼

This installment of Satanic Cocktails is the Meehouland - The Fire Eating Devil.

吃 火 魔鬼
1 1/2 oz Sloe Gin
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
1 Dash Orange Bitters
Lime Wedge


Stir and strain.

I would suggest that you pour this into a thin, curvaceous glass, rather than a more angular glass like a rocks glass.    I'm not sure about the taste, because of the Sloe Gin, it has that sticky sweetness that a fake colored liqueur gives, and it stays coloring the glass.  I've come to love the effect perfect vermouth has on most simple liquor mixtures.  I'm glad my distaste for dry vermouth in my martinis (which endures) did not prevent me from learning to love vermouth in all sorts of cocktails.

Mustard Slap

When I taste a new cocktail, liquor, or wine, there are always a bunch of different things that go through my mind.  I've never bought into the whole arrogant, dismissive vibe that a lot of oenophiles and cocktail enthusiasts and douches seem to like - that anything you are imbibing for the first time must inherently be worse than what you've already encountered.  Instead, the three things that often go through my mind as a checklist of the quality of the potable are:

1. If I got really really drunk on this shit, and this alone, what would it be like?  Do I need to have an especially large/heavy/small/carnivorous meal before I imbibe it in order to appreciate it the most?
2. How big is the quality gap between the Nicolai and the Grey Goose, the Pépe and the Patrón, for this particular spirit?  I bought a bottle (or two) of "Hawkeye" bourbon in Iowa earlier this year - it's 80% grain neutral and 20% 36 month-old whiskey.  I sit it right next to my W.L. Weller to keep me honest in my taste assessment.
3. What would this mix well with?  What would it utterly fail with? When can I try it out?

Patrón

Pépe

With that in mind, I ask you to consider this new addition to my cocktail repertoire, the Mustard Slap.

Born out of a desire to have a powerful cocktail taste like a powerful cocktail without any alcohol taste at the end, I chose the ever-effervescent absinthe to mix with a "perfect" vermouth combo.  It has an abrasive opening taste, but fades quickly from the mouth, leaving you wondering if you got the taste quite right.


Mustard Slap
1 1/2 oz Bourbon
1 1/2 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
3/4 oz Absinthe
Juice of half a Lemon (1 oz)

Shake and strain into a rocks glass.  Garnish with a lemon rind lightly coated in spicy brown mustard.  Alternately if you don't have a fresh lemon, just drop a tiny ball of mustard into the glass - be aware it's ugly, and don't drink it at the end :-)

Black Feather

Robert Hess is one of the big names in cocktails.  When he suggests a drink, I find myself inclined to believe it is very good.  So it was with the Black Feather.  After watching his video about it some months ago, I put it on my list to try out.

The Black Feather certainly does not disappoint - in fact, it is a surprising blend of flavors that is at once light on the tongue and yet flavorful!  With a unique taste, and a dryness that does exactly what he says (the vermouth sets the perfect balance between the brandy and the triple sec), it is quite a tasty cocktail.  Tasty enough in fact, that I had three or four before I even stopped for a breath.

Black Feather

4 Parts Brandy
2 Parts Dry Vermouth
1 Part Triple Sec
1 Dash Angostura

Stir with ice and strain

Yum.

A Shark's Tooth

Some days I find that every drink I mix comes out exactly as I imagined.  Whether it's an ingredient I've never used before, or one I'm deeply familiar with, there are days where I could plow through half a dozen new recipes without a bad one popping up.  Last week I had one of those days with margaritas and Sloe Gin. 

Those of you who know me are well aware that I love browsing in a liquor store.  I always feel I can get a sense both of the expected clientele, and the personality of the manager/owner of a store based on the layout and wares.  The "Wine Bazaar" a block from my house is a little confusing that way.  The guy who runs it is exceptional at pairing wines with housewives - most of their clientele is mothers coming in straight after buying groceries at the Stop & Shop next door.  I've been disappointed multiple times before at their liquor options, as the liquor seems to cater to the young and trendy crowd rather than the crotchety old man crowd that likes my kind of amber nectar. 

One thing they do always have is Eagle Rare at sale prices.  If you get a chance, it's buffalo trace's bigger, more mature older brother.

Back to the Sloe Gin - After asking several nicer liquor stores if they had some sloe gin in the last six months, I happened upon it in the "Wine Bazaar" purely by accident.  I'd listened to a podcast on midori and was willing to buy a bottle to try it, and right next to the midori was some sloe gin. 

After that successful night making a few sloe cocktails - expect a Satanic Cocktail coming soon with sloe gin - including improvising several delicious margaritas with sloe gin, tonight I decided to try the Shark's Tooth. 

Shark's Tooth
1.5 oz Dark Rum
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime
.25 oz Sweet Vermouth
.25 oz Sloe Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters

Shake and pour into snifter or cocktail glass

I found the original version to be way too sweet (admittedly, I don't have passion fruit syrup, so I substituted Rose's, and I didn't have gold rum, so I went with some Bacardi Select).  It had a nice taste, but way too much sugar.  Looking at the alternate version, I can see that someone else must have had that same opinion, as it switches out the sweet vermouth for dry vermouth.  I refuse to drop the bitters though...

Shark's Tooth Variation

1.5 oz Dark Rum

.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime
.25 oz Dry Vermouth
.25 oz Sloe Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters

Talk about a transformation.  From a 'nice taste' but too sweet, to just plain colored dishwater.  I'm done with the Shark's Tooth.

Sloe Gin, however, I will keep sampling.

A Derby Cocktail

After reading the Cocktail Hacker post on the Derby mash-up drink, I was intrigued enough to want to make a few.  They fit his billing exactly - close enough in flavor to a whiskey sour that it would be tough to call out the vermouth without knowing it was there.  With the ingredients he listed, however, I think you would be hard pressed to list any flavors but lime!  Maybe it was because I used my well bourbon, or maybe it was because the drink was 40% citrus flavor, and only 40% whiskey.

The Derby Cocktail (Cocktial Hacker)                  Derby # 2
1.5 oz Bourbon                                                          1.5 oz Bourbon
.75 oz Sweet Vermouth                                           .75 oz Sweet vermouth
.75 oz Lime Juice                                                      .5 oz Lime Juice
.75 oz Triple Sec                                                       .75 oz Triple Sec

Either way, the drink satisfied its purpose - cooling me down on a hot afternoon/evening.  After a sweaty afternoon, I was wishing hard for a cocktail to cool me down, and the Derby did just that.  But since I wasn't satisfied, I did what I usually do, I tweaked until I got to the cocktail I liked best.

It might just be that I recently made orgeat, but I felt the need to try out the Derby with a little nutty (and more importantly, non-citrus) flavor added.

Derby # 3 
1.25 oz Bourbon
.25 oz Applejack
.75 oz Sweet Vermouth
.5 oz Lime Juice
.75 oz Triple Sec
.5 oz Orgeat

My first response to this one: "Wow"
The applejack brings out just a little apple flavor, and the orgeat allows the complexity of the vermouth to come through.  All without losing the dark and sour complexion of the whiskey and sour.  I don't think I can honestly call this a derby though, so if I end up having a bunch more of these in the next few weeks, I'll have to give it a new name.

A Night of Vermouths

Last night was a night of exploring different recipes - I decided to drink only drinks that had both sweet and dry vermouths.  I expected it to be an interesting limitation in ingredients, and it did not disappoint.

My first drink under this rule was an Alfonso Special.  I'm not knocking it, and I'd totally drink it again, but it was far too bland to get a 'special' attached to its name.  I had planed on starting with a Beachcomber's Gold, but seemed to have misplaced my bottle of rum in my stomach - I'll have to get a new one before I can try that recipe.

Next came the Duchess.  As a 8:1 or more gin martini guy, I have been shocked recently to enjoy cocktails with strong dry vermouth components.  Though I will still not be increasing my vermouth ration in the martini, I do begrudgingly accept that dry vermouth can add significantly to a cocktail.

The Duchess

1/3 Dry Vermouth

1/3 Sweet Vermouth

1/3 Absinthe

(Use Redface's "Shake and Twirl" method for reddest results)

Next up came the Honorable Cocktail.  Finishing up the before-dinner cocktails, this was a solid pick.  I think I put a touch too much dry vermouth in it, but that could just be my sensitivity to the dry vermouth.  After a bland cocktail (Alfonso) and a complex if muddy cocktail (Duchess), the familiar warmth of bourbon was welcome.

The Honorable Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Bourbon

1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth

1/2 oz Dry Vermouth

(Shake and Twirl, then strain)

The Honorable Cocktail was surprisingly smooth, I'm beginning to buy into the whole mixing the sweet and dry vermouths.  Though they both have very powerful tastes, they seem to consistently allow their liquor companions to shine through. 

To finish it off, I came across a recipe that filled the gap I've been having for quite some time.  I haven't had a whiskey sour in a while, and the Manhasset more than fixes that.  

Manhasset

1 1/4 oz Bourbon

1/2 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz dry vermouth

1/4 oz sweet vermouth

Without any of the throat-sticky-sweetness of most bar's whiskey sours, and without the sugar component, the Manhasset does away with most of what makes me get tired of whiskey sours after one or two.  Instead, this one packs the bourbon taste down to make room for the vermouths, and finishes with the way sour lemon aftertaste.  It's not until after the lemon that you get the whiskey heat, and even then, it's fully tempered by the sour, sweet, and dry ingredients.

The Elephant's Ear

Who has the Elephant's Ear these days?  With Rush Limbaugh jumping off the deep end as often as possible, Glen Beck coming in remarkably high on Time's 100 Most Influential People in the world, and just slightly edged out by Sarah Palin at that (!), predicting the direction of the GOP is nebulous.

Well, I sat down today to puzzle over just that.  With no answers forthcoming, I slurped down a few Elephant's Ear Cocktails, turned off Fox News, and went to do something productive.  With no clear leaders, or even people willing to put forward an accomplishment (Think McCain and Immigration, or Romney and Health Care, Palin and ??????), I can't imagine the GOP coming up with any sort of victory in 2012.  But that's just me.

 I found it a little difficult to take a good picture of the drink - I kept having the problem of too little drink left, because who wouldn't want a sip or two in between frames?

1oz Gin
3/4oz Dry Vermouth
3/4oz Dubonnet Rouge

It says stir, but as usual, I found the 'Two shakes and then swirl" method more tasty.  Enjoy!

The taste was interesting, but I suggest you make your own if you'd like to know what it is.

Satanic Cocktails

Last week's newest cocktail:  The Satan Cocktail found on cocktaildb.

I was looking for a recipe that used Peychauds and the new bottle of Ouzo I just got, and I wasn't having any luck.  Since I'd never heard of Pastis, I didn't think the Satan would be something I could make.  However, with a name like the Satan Cocktail, how could I not give it a look...

Turns out the suggested substitute for Pastis is "Ouzo or other anise-flavored liqueur"  My immediate response was - how quickly can I whip one of these up?  After trying several less-than-spectacular variations on a cocktail starring Ouzo the night before, I was up for it playing a supporting role instead.

For those not in the know on Ouzo (and I count as one of these) a fun intro would be to watch the Lesbos episode of Three Sheets.  Ouzo is a anise flavored liquor, and if that doesn't help describe it, think absinthe- and if that still doesn't help, think peppermint mixed with christmas trees mixed with jaegermister.  Or something like that.  It's a powerful taste, and hard to shove aside.  Something I would like to really work with, since I had no luck whatsoever coming up with a cocktail that didn't taste like pungent dishwater.

Anyway, to the Satan Cocktail!

I used the handy-dandy glass size meter to increase the proportion in this drink, so it doesn't quite match the basic version in the database.

2 1/4 oz Bourbon
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Ouzo
2 Dashes Peychaud Bitters

Pour all ingredients over ice in a shaker, shake twice, then twirl shaker and strain into cocktail glass (I like Whiskey glasses, but choose your own)

I found it to be a little harsh with just hardy stirring, and like it much better with the shake and twirl.  Your Smilage May Vary.

Coming next in the Satanic Cocktails section:  Diabolo Cocktail

Sweet Vermouth

It has recently come to my attention that I should have been paying more attention all this time to what brand of vermouth I use.  I have always been an 8:1 Gin martini guy.  Call me extreme, or just say the truth: I love the taste of icy gin.  However, after reading about Noilly Prat Vermouth today over at DrinkBoy.com, I decided to try a bottle of the Noilly Prat Rouge.

Well, I'm convinced.  The Demon Of Destiny I've been drinking since I got that bottle of Absinthe this weekend,  has never tasted this way.   I had three or four with the cheap sweet vermouth, and it isn't the same cocktail.  Repeat: it is not the same cocktail with cheap sweet vermouth.


I was a little skeptical in the liquor store, and ended up not getting any grand marnier, or curaçao, since I wasn't willing to pay that much for a bottle I would us up rather quickly for a liqueur.  I might have to start stockpiling these expensive or hard to find liqueurs.  If switching to a good sweet vermouth makes that much difference, I dare say I might... ...just... ...try... ...a... ...different... Martini... Recipe...

Crazy, but this sweet vermouth has so much more apetizing of a nose and body that it might be worth trying a different martini recipe.  We'll have to wait and see.