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Aviation Gin

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Aviation Gin

From the great state of Oregon comes Aviation Western Dry Gin, a $30 bottle with quite a bit of character. When I taste gin, I always have it stirred on ice and strained into a chilled glass, like a 100% dry martini. I’ve found it helps me nail down the stand-out flavors of each bottle, and with gin, there’s always a stand-out flavor. Juniper may seem the obvious choice, but depending on the distillery, citrus, spice, or some other botanical may lead the way.

Aviation says that Western Dry gin takes its cues from London Dry gin, but also lets another flavor “share the stage” with the juniper. With Aviation, it’s lavender, and this is the most floral gin I’ve tried yet. So what do you do with a floral gin? A martini is always a great way to enjoy the subtle differences between gins, and making one with lavender flower garnishes instead of an olive is great. Beyond that, though, is the classic cocktail that shares it’s name with this very gin: the Aviation.

Aviation

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur (like Luxardo)
  • 1/4 oz lemon juice
  • Shake and strain into a cocktail glass
  • Garnish with a cherry

Drambuie and the Rusty Nail

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Drambuie Famous Grouse Rusty Nail

Because scotch is one of the finest beverages in the world, there are very few cocktails that contain it. The general opinion is that you should use lower quality booze for mixing drinks and higher-quality, more expensive liquors should be drunk straight.

Drambuie (dram-byoo-ee) is a liqueur that contains scotch, heather honey, herbs, and spices. It has a bit of an anise flavor and the spices taste great, but it’s too sweet to sip it straight. The signature Drambuie drink is the Rusty Nail, which is one of the few scotch cocktails:

Rusty Nail

  • 1 oz Drambuie
  • 2 oz scotch (I used The Famous Grouse)
  • Serve neat or on the rocks

The nice thing about cocktails like this is that the ingredient ratio can be adjusted easily for the drinker’s preferences. Want a sweeter Rusty Nail? Use less scotch and more Drambuie. Drier? Have just a splash of Drambuie in your scotch. Drambuie will run you about $30-40 a bottle.

Gran Centenario Añejo Tequila

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Gran Centenario Añejo Tequila

Proximo Spirits, responsible for importing Three Olives, Maestro Dobel, and Kraken Rum, imports Gran Centenario Añejo tequila as well.

Tequila must be distilled in Mexico generally comes in these varieties:
Blanco: White/silver, unaged.
Resposado: “Rested,” aged 6 months.
Añejo: aged more than 6 months, usually about a year.
Extra Añejo: aged more than a year.

Añejos are usually aged in American whiskey barrels, so they can take on some whiskey-like qualities. They are usually smoother than unaged tequilas, so they’re great for sipping straight. Gran Centenario surprised me with an apple flavor that’s joined by the whiskey barrel/woody taste. It retails for $20-30, and particularly if you like the traces of apple it has, this tequila is a good buy. Because Fall is in the air, if you’re not drinking Gran Centenario straight, add a shot to a pumpkin ale or try it in a T.A.P.:

T.A.P. (by Greg Mays)

  • 1 1/2 oz of Gran Centenario Añejo Tequila
  • 2 oz of unfiltered apple cider
  • Stir and serve over ice in an old fashioned glass

Old Fashioned

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This is simple in it’s ingredients, a little fancy in it’s preparation. Oh and it’s the best cocktail ever.

Rye Old Fashioned

Old Fashioned

  • Add 1 sugar cube (or spoon of sugar) to an old fashioned glass
  • Douse with 3 dashes of Angostura bitters
  • Add a splash of club soda and stir well
  • Fill glass with ice, add 2 oz of rye 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 and a cherry (I wrap the cherry in the peel)

Gin Old Fashioned

Gin Old Fashioned

  • Add 1 sugar cube (or spoon of sugar) to an old fashioned glass
  • Douse with 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
  • Douse with 2 dashes of orange bitters.
  • Add a splash of club soda and stir well
  • Fill glass with ice, add 2 oz of gin, 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 and a cherry (I wrap the cherry in the peel)

Kinky Liqueur

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Kinky Liqueur

Kinky Liqueur comes in a curvy bottle filled with a bright pink liquid that promises a bit of vodka with “passion fruit, blood orange, and mango.” It’s a 34 proof liqueur (gins or vodkas are 80+ proof), and will run you under $20 a bottle. I imagine it appeals most to those who are going to buy this to make Kinky-tinis or Kinky Margaritas. Wink, wink.

Here’s the thing, though: Kinky actually tastes pretty great.

The fruit flavor is natural and sweet. I imagine Kinky could become a staple at brunches, maybe bridal showers, and it would taste great splashed in champagne or mixed in tiki drinks. This liqueur is really simple to mix, too, because all you need to do is adjust the vodka-to-Kinky ratio up or down in the recipe below, depending on the person’s taste. Here are some simple cocktails you can make with Kinky:

Simple Kinky Pinky Drinky

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 1 1/2 oz Kinky Liqueur
  • shake with ice and serve in a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with an orange twist

Kinky Margarita

  • 2 oz Kinky
  • 1 oz silver tequila
  • 1/4 oz fresh lime juice
  • shake with ice and serve either in a chilled cocktail glass or on the rocks
  • garnish with a lime wedge

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Caorunn Gin

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Caorunn Gin

Caorunn is a new Scottish (or is it Scotch?) gin in the tradition of small batch, handcrafted Scottish gins. As a gin lover, I’m always looking for new stuff to try, and when I saw this gin, I was surprised that I had not yet heard of it. Caorunn (pronounced ka-roon) has 5 unique ingredients: rowan berry, heather, bog myrtle, dandelion, and coul blush apple. This idea of 5 translates into the marketing too, as a five-pointed red asterisk appears on the bottle and the stopper. The bottle shape itself has five edges and there’s a five-pointed star hidden below the bottle, too. Apples are used often in Caorunn’s marketing, too, and many of their signature cocktails have apple slice garnishes.

I would describe the flavor of Caorunn as mild, floral, and soft. Juniper, the primary ingredient of gin, is the “pine tree taste” that people usually love or hate. Juniper is very subtle in this gin, unlike more juniper-heavy gins like Tanqueray or Beefeater. Caorunn also lacks the sweet citrus of Bluecoat or Bombay Sapphire. This is not a gin to use in a complex cocktail because it’s delicate and the flavor is overpowered easily. So far, I’ve enjoyed this gin most in a very simple cocktail, the totally dry martini.

Totally Dry Martini

  • 2 oz high-quality gin
  • stir vigorously on ice for 20 seconds
  • strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • no garnish

Perrier and Cocktails [+ Giveaway]

perrier flavors

A staple to any home bar is club soda, and I find myself running out of it more often than anything. There are several “fizzy waters” that you can outfit your bar with – club soda, seltzer, or mineral water – are they all the same and will they all work in cocktails? I’ve found the answer to be yes, but The Kitchn will give you the science behind it all. My short answer? Mineral water can be more flavorful and is more natural. That brings us to the mother of all mineral water: Perrier.

perrier cocktails

Lemon, Lime, Pink Grapefruit, and original Perrier, all great in their own right, also make some great simple cocktails:

Perrier Mojito

  • 2 oz white rum
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • muddle the above with mint leaves
  • fill with ice, top with Perrier Lime
  • garnish with mint sprig and a lime wedge

Perrier Tom Collins

  • 2 oz gin
  • 1 oz lemon juice
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • fill with ice, top with Perrier Lemon
  • garnish with a lemon wedge and a cherry

Cape Perrier

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 1 oz cranberry juice
  • fill with ice, top with original Perrier
  • garnish with lime

Perrier Greyhound

  • 2 oz vodka
  • fill with ice, top with Perrier Pink Grapefruit
  • grapefruit or orange peel garnish

Perrier has generously offered to ship one of our readers a 2 month supply (2 cases) of Perrier for your home bar! Just leave a comment below saying which of these cocktails you would try first, and you’ll be entered to win! (sorry, U.S. addresses only) Contest ends September 30, 2012.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Martini

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Chocolate Covered Cherry Martinis

This cocktail is really simple once you have the ingredients. I tried it with both Don Quixote Blue Corn Vodka (a sweeter vodka) and Bombay Sapphire Gin (a softer, more citrusy gin). They were both really good, so just use what you prefer or what you have in the cabinet.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Martini

  • 2 oz vodka or gin
  • 1/2 oz Luxardo Cherry liqueur
  • 2 dashes of Fee Bros. Aztec Chocolate bitters (Amazon link)
  • stir well with ice, strain into a cocktail glass
  • garnish with a cherry (of course!)

Jalapeño Bacon Margarita

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Tanteo Jalapeño Bacon Margarita

Tanteo Tequila is a mid-range ($40-50) flavored tequila that comes in tropical, chocolate, or jalapeño-infused flavors. The jalapeño variety is a faint green and has a very natural taste, but can be a bit off-putting in the wrong drink. I found Tanteo Jalapeño in a regular margarita to be interesting, but a bit too pungent because the jalapeño on your breath will likely stick around longer than the tequila in your blood.

I developed a drink based on an idea my wife had. She makes these killer bacon jalapeño poppers and said “why don’t you try to make a drink like that?” I created something that worked really well.

Tanteo Jalapeño Bacon Margarita

The Jalapeño Bacon Margarita (by Greg Mays)

  • 2 oz Tanteo Jalapeño tequila
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • 1/2 oz triple sec
  • 1/2 oz Torani bacon syrup
  • serve in a salt-rimmed glass, up or on the rocks
  • lime wedge and/or jalapeño garnish

For the vegetarians out there, Torani Bacon is both vegan-safe and Kosher, so this may be one of the few meat-based cocktails that’s safe for all consciences. On a safety note, however, don’t get this in your eyes. As I was dropping ice in my shaker, I got a splash of the lime/jalapeño in my eye. Ouch.

Karlsson’s Gold Vodka

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Karlsson's Gold Vodka

Karlsson’s calls their vodka “a natural vodka with taste.” It’s distilled from virgin potatoes in Sweden once, which is really unusual for vodka – most vodkas are distilled 4-6 times to render it properly flavorless. Karlssons has lots of flavor then, just as they claim. It has a very earthy scent, not the usual vodka ethanol smell I expected. I had it in their signature drink: the Black Gold. This may be the simplest cocktail yet.

Black Gold

  • 2 oz Karlsson’s vodka, poured over ice
  • dust the top with fresh cracked black pepper

I could never imagine drinking vodka this way and being able to describe it as “refreshing,” but it is certainly that. Karlsson’s is full-flavored, sweet, earthy, with minimal alcohol burn, and as far as I can recall, it may be the most interesting sipping vodka I’ve tried.