Category Archives: recipes

Gin and Tonic

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juniper green gin and jack rudy tonic

“In addition to being a marvelous dancer, Jack Rudy loved to entertain and was known to overindulge in drink, smoke, and his wife’s gourmet cooking.”

My first cocktail order at a bar was a “vodka martini: shaken, not stirred,” which is pretty embarrassing in hindsight. I actually said “shaken not stirred.” Sigh. I can thank the Gin and Tonic for setting me on a course to enjoy more classically-styled cocktails, though, and I’ve found G&Ts to be a pretty accessible drink for most people.

As you may gather from my occasional ramblings here at Simple Cocktails, I like things a certain way: fresh, natural, and enjoyable. I think it adds to the pleasure of cocktails and make home parties better. I avoid high fructose corn syrup, which means that the grocery-store tonic water like Schweppes or Canada Dry never make an appearance in my home bar. Hansen’s Natural makes Tonic (Amazon link), which I’ve been stocking in my bar for several months, but it’s too sweet for my taste.

All of that considered, I recently made the best-tasting Gin and Tonic that I have tasted. Here’s the recipe:

 Gin and Tonic

  • in a 10 oz glass filled with ice, add:
  • 1 1/2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz tonic concentrate (see below for info)
  • top with club soda
  • lime wedge garnish
  • optional: add some mint leaves and a mint sprig

Now the individual components of this particular G&T include Juniper Green Organic Gin and Jack Rudy Tonic. Juniper Green has a touch of sweetness and a fresh, minty, herbal flavor ($33 a bottle). Jack Rudy is a traditional tonic that comes in a cool apothecary bottle ($32 for 2- 17 oz bottles). Jack Rudy has now spoiled me on tonics as it isn’t overly sweet and has more quinine/bitter flavor.

Powder Rum and Class V Vodka

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syntax spirits rum and vodka

Syntax Spirits distills Class V Vodka and the newly-released Powder White Rum in Colorado. Proud of their heritage, they use 100% wheat and snow melt from their native state to distill their vodka.

Both the rum and vodka are functional in cocktails, though I don’t know if I’d recommend drinking them neat. At $25 each, the rum has a full-mouthed burn that gives your Daiquiris quite a punch. Their vodka is sharp, grainy, and almost chalky. It’s a pretty interesting tasting experience because it’s so full of flavor, which is unusual for vodka. I used Syntax Class V to make a lemon drop:

Lemon Drop

  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • lemon wheel garnish

Simple St. Patrick’s Day Cocktails

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3 leaf clovers

Since the U.S. celebrates Irish heritage annually through “cultural” overindulgence on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m going to give you some easy recipe choices for your home bar that are neither green nor lame. Let’s start this list with a Simple Cocktails first: a beer cocktail!

Caramel Guinness

  • 1 1/2 oz caramel liqueur, such as Lovoka or Godiva
  • fill remainder of a pint glass with Guinness Extra Stout

Benjamin Guinness single-handedly saved St. Patrick’s Cathedral from ruin in 1860 with a £150,000 donation (roughly $15 million in 2013 money), paying for the entire cost of a full restoration of the church.

Potato Famine (by Greg Mays)

Irish Old Fashioned

  • Add 1 tsp of simple syrup to an old fashioned glass
  • Douse with 3 dashes of orange bitters
  • Add a splash of club soda and stir well
  • Fill glass with ice, add 2 oz of Irish whiskey, stir until cold
  • Take a piece of orange peel, squeeze over the glass and rub it around the rim
  • Top with another splash of club soda
  • Garnish with the orange peel

Thomas Tew Rum

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thomas tew rum xyz cocktail

Thomas Tew Rum is distilled and aged in Rhode Island from blackstrap molasses. Named for the infamous Rhode Island Pirate, this rum is created in small batches and is tough to find outside of Rhode Island itself.

Thomas Tew Rum has the scent of molasses and maple syrup, but has a very dry finish. While Tew is a good sipping rum because of that clean sweet/dry combo, I found it is a particularly good rum for making mixed drinks. Here’s one of my favorite cocktails with dark rum: rich, sour, and sweet all at the same time:

XYZ

  • 1 oz dark rum (I used Thomas Tew)
  • 1 oz triple sec (I used Giffard Premium)
  • 1/2 oz lemon juice
  • shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • lemon wedge garnish

Vya Vermouth

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vya vermouth

Vermouth is one of the first bottles you need to buy when you’re outfitting your home bar. A fortified wine that’s seeped with herbs, vermouth is higher-alcohol than wine and more shelf-stable. It’ll keep for weeks (sometimes months) in the fridge as opposed to wine which spoils within days.

Bottled in Madera, California, Vya Vermouth can be found for $15-20 a bottle. I’ll admit that I usually cheap out when it comes to vermouth, buying the $4 bottles at Trader Joe’s and I’ve thought that was good enough. As soon as I tasted Vya, though, I discovered that I was wrong. The cheaper vermouths are overly bitter and sometimes sour. Vya is softer, smooth, mild, and well-spiced.

Vya Extra Dry is a traditional martini vermouth. This version is acidic and floral, with the flavor balanced somewhere between fresh Italian herbs (like basil) and citrus. It makes a tasty martini and Vya complements the gin well as opposed to the cheap vermouths I’ve been using, which have been making my martinis harsh and sour.

Vya Whisper Dry is a unique vermouth that Vya has created, both less acidic and less herbal than Extra Dry. Whisper Dry is milder and fruitier and the flavor is more similar to white wine than a typical vermouth. Mix this vermouth with a high-quality vodka for a subtle, sweeter martini. I think this is the best Vya to drink by itself, on the rocks before dinner.

Vya Sweet is the vermouth you should use in a Manhattan cocktail or the Turf Club (below). This has a sweet red wine flavor, sure, but there’s also some cloves and cinnamon mixed in there to offset the sweetness. I could almost see this warmed on the stove for Christmas, it’s a really pleasant sweet/spice combination.

Turf Club

  • 1 1/5 oz of Old Tom gin (I used Tanqueray Malacca)
  • 1 1/5 sweet vermouth
  • 2 dashes of bitters
  • stir and strain into a cocktail glass
  • lemon peel garnish

Coffee Liquors

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coffee ums and liqueurs

A few new coffee liqueurs are hitting the market, and I got to try them. Below Deck Coffee Rum retails for $18, Kahlua Midnight for $22, and Hoodoo Chicory is $24 for a half-sized bottle  (375 ml). Other than the coffee connection, these are all pretty different products.

Below Deck Coffee Rum is from Eastside Distilling in Portland, and it shows. Marketed as coffee rum rather than coffee liqueur,  Below Deck smells like your favorite corner coffee shop. This is a strong drink (70 proof), and while I tried mixing it in traditional coffee liqueur cocktails like a White Russian, I found Below Deck tasted the best on the rocks with a splash of cream.

Kahlua Midnight. The replacement for Kahlua Especial, Midnight is very much a Kahlua product. It has the iconic Kahlua flavor, but with less of the syrupy characteristics you find in standard Kahlua. It’s a stronger drink, too (70 proof), and much like Below Deck, it’s less mixable as a result. White Russians were too strong and unbalanced with Midnight, and I realized that Midnight and cream was the best fit here, too.

Hoodoo Chicory Liqueur. Made by the same folks that make Cathead Vodka, Hoodoo is closer to a traditional coffee liqueur. It’s lower proof  (40), so it’s a better fit for coffee cocktails. Chicory is a root that’s often used as a coffee additive or coffee substitute, particularly in the South, and as a result, Hoodoo is more herbal-tasting than the other here. Anyone familiar with New Orleans-style coffee will recognize the rich flavor. I took Hoodoo’s recipe for a Café au Lait, converted it up, and made a thermos full of it for a party:

cafe au lait thermos

Thermos of Café Au Lait

  • 10 oz Hoodoo Chicory Liqueur
  • 12 1/2 oz warmed milk
  • 25 oz of strong brewed coffee
  • while brewing the coffee, warm the Hoodoo and the milk on the stove over low heat, stirring constantly
  • once hot, pour it all into a big thermos like this one (Amazon link)

Infusions

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gin rosemary infusion
by guest writer David Coveney, The Spirit Cellar Online

I have been doing liquor infusions at home for quite some time now, and I love using gin.  One of my favourite infusions is rosemary gin:  leave 20 sprigs of rosemary in an entire bottle of gin for around 9 hours, depending on the gin. If you use a richer gin like Tanqueray or Beefeater then leave the rosemary too steep for a little longer. If you are using a light gin like Bombay Sapphire or Martin Millers, then 9 hours is enough. Once the rosemary has fully infused, the gin will be a red/brown colour.

Are you a fan of those after-work Cosmopolitans? Why not make your own lemon vodka, instead of buying Ketel One Citroen? Simply peel 10 lemons, making sure you remove all the pith, as this will add too much bitterness. Add the peels them to a bottle of vodka and leave to infuse for 24 hours. Once the 24 hours is up, peel a further 10 lemons in exactly the same way, remove old peel from the vodka and add the fresh lemon peel.  This double infusion will create a fresh, zesty vodka after another 24 hours of infusing.  Perfect with a dash of simple syrup and soda water and brilliant in your Cosmos:

Cosmopolitan

  • 50 ml (1 1/2 oz) lemon vodka
  • 20 ml (1/2 oz) Cointreau (or orange liqueur/triple sec)
  • 25 ml (3/4 oz) lime juice
  • 20 ml (1/2 oz) cranberry juice
  • garnish with a lime wheel

If you have a sweeter tooth, mix two thirds of your new lemon vodka to 200ml (about 7 oz) of simple syrup. Mix it well and you have a fantastic, punchy, homemade Limoncello.

What’s an Amaro?

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aperol cynar campari

Amaros are already very popular in the craft bartending scene, so it’s a good idea to get you home bartenders on board as well. An “amaro” is an Italian bitter liqueur, usually meant as a aperitif (before-dinner drink) or digestif (after-dinner drink). I realize that I talk about bitters all the time, but remember there are 2 types of bitters: drinkable and non-drinkable. Angostura bitters are meant as a cocktail flavoring, you’d never pour a bunch on ice and drink it straight. Amaros are drinkable bitters, though.

There are a long list of Amaros, but 3 of the most popular are Campari, Aperol, and Cynar (pronounced CHEE-nar). The bitterness of these helps to offset the sweetness that liqueurs have, and all three of these are good served over ice, mixed with club soda, or in a cocktail.

Campari you’ll recognize as an essential ingredient for the Negroni. It’s electric red, slightly bitter (think orange rind bitter), but also quite sweet and low in alcohol (about 20%).

Aperol is similar to Campari, though it’s lower in alcohol (11%) and more orangey, both in color and flavor. It’s very refreshing and easy to drink, and I use it as a substitute for Campari in a Negroni, or just serve it over ice after dinner.

Cynar is a dark, herbal liqueur that’s 13% alcohol. It’s primary flavor is artichoke – note the glorious artichoke logo on the bottle above. The flavor of Cynar reminded me a little bit of Fernet Branca, minus the mintiness, or maybe like a less sweet Jagermeister. It’s an herbal, slightly syrupy, drink with a dry, clean finish. Drink Spirits recommends it as a top 10 liquor to carry in a flask.

Here’s a Cynar recipe, a take on a Manhattan, originally published in Imbibe Magazine:

Little Italy

  • 2 oz rye whiskey
  • 1/2 oz Cynar
  • 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
  • stir on ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with 2 cherries

What is a cocktail?

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definition of cocktail

The very first definition of “cocktail” is believed to be published in an answer from the editor of The Balance and Columbian Repository in 1806. It said: “Cock-tail, then, is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters.” This definition–shown above–is still a helpful guideline for drinkmaking, though it certainly shouldn’t bind you to particular ingredients. For instance, I noticed this definition doesn’t include citrus juice, which is used pretty often.

Let’s describe each element:

Spirit: gin, whiskey, vodka, brandy, tequila, rum, wine, vermouth, even beer.

Sugar: granulated sugar; a liqueur (which is a sweetened liquor); simple syrup; maple syrup; agave syrup.

Water: diluted ice from mixing the cocktail; club soda.

Bitters: cocktail bitters, like Angostura or Bitter End; digestive bitters like Fernet Branca or Campari, which are also considered liqueurs.

So let’s put it all together in a classic simple cocktail, the Manhattan:

  • 2 oz rye whiskey (spirit)
  • 3/4 oz sweet vermouth (let’s call this a spirit and a sugar)
  • 2 dashes bitters
  • stir with ice (water) and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a cherry

Burnside Bourbon

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burnside bourbon and j.r.'s revenge

Burside is a 4-year-old bourbon from Eastside Distilling. Though Eastside touts it a “bold and spicy,” I found Burnside to be smooth to drink straight and it’s got more corn-sweetness than I expected from their description. My favorite bourbons tend to be the most balanced: sweet from the corn, spicy from rye and barrel aging, strong and smooth. Burnside fits this bill as a strong (48% ABV) and well-balanced booze.

I used Burnside in this cocktail from the Bartender’s Bible:

J.R.’s Revenge

  • 1 1/2 oz bourbon
  • 1/4 oz Southern Comfort (I used Bold Black Cherry)
  • 2 dashes of bitters
  • stir on ice and strain in a chilled cocktail glass