Category Archives: reviews

Bar Spoons Compared

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bar spoons compared

As a companion piece to my recent post 7 Essential Bartending Tools, I thought it would be fun to compare and price several bar spoons. There are really 3 things that make a good bar spoon: the shape and size of the bowl, the shape of the handle, and additional utility. I’ve found that:

              • Smaller spoon bowls make stirring easier, but you can’t measure with them.
              • The more round a handle is, the better it stirs.
              • Additional tools are nice, but not necessary.

red knob bar spoon

First we look at the “Red Knob” Bar Spoon. I got this one at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $2.99, and you can get it lots of other places, including Amazon, for about that much. It doesn’t stir well because it has a big bowl and a flat, twisted handle. I can promise you that the red knob will fall off, too, either in the dishwasher or at another time.

bar products bar spoons

BarProducts.com generously sent me 6 spoons for this writeup, ranging from only $1 to $3 in price, plus shipping of course. From top to bottom:

  • Classic Bar Spoon. Like the Red Knob, but without a red knob to lose. It’s an ok spoon if it’s all you’ve got. (Note: link actually goes to the red knob version. Apparently I lost my knob in shipping. Told you they fall off!).
  • Ball Tip Spoon. An improvement from the red knob (the ball tip doesn’t come off), though it’s still a flattened handle with a large bowl, so it’s still not the best option for stirring.
  • Spoon With Steel Knob. One of my favorites in this batch. The handle is perfectly round and the spoon bowl is small, so it stirs drinks very well. The weighted knob on the reverse side is handy for crushing individual pieces of ice in your hand, too.
  • Bar Spoon with Disc. A helpful spoon if you don’t have a muddler to crush your mint or citrus with. The flat handle and large bowl make it not as great for stirring, though.
  • Bar Spoon with Fork Tip. This spoon still suffers from size and shape issues, but it adds a reverse-side fork for your garnishes. While the fork is handy, it’s a little too small, and I found the bar spoon end was better to scoop olives out of their jars.
  • Long Handle Oval. This spoon is another one of my favorites from Bar Products. Long, elegant, and round-handled. The small bowl makes this a really good stirring spoon, so I don’t really miss the lack of additional tools.

world market bar spoon

World Market Bar Spoon. For $3 at World Market, this has served as my favorite bar spoon for quite a while. It’s got some impressive weight and the handle is twisted but well-rounded, and the spoon is good for measuring. The lack of additional tools and the large bowl have made this one a target of some of the other spoons in this list though.

rsvp endurance bar spoon

RSVP Endurance Spoon. I bought this spoon for $7 from Amazon, and I’ll just admit that I’m crazy about it. Not specifically marketed as a bar spoon, the RSVP Endurance is the slimmest of the bunch, and I can stir drinks long and fast with almost no ice noise or spillage. You get no measuring or additional tools with this spoon, but the RSVP Endurance the best stirring spoon I’ve used yet.

cocktail kingdom trident bar spoon

Trident Barspoon. From Cocktail Kingdom, this is the top-of-the-line spoon on our list at $19. This spoon is elegant and shaped well for stirring. The spoon bowl is not tiny, but is a good shape for both measuring and stirring, and I found the trident to be more useful than the fork tip model above for garnish-fishing.

Crater Lake Rye

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Crater Lake Rye

Crater Lake has a wide range of spirits (distilled by Bendistillery), though this rye is their first aged spirit,. Until now, it was just clear stuff – gins (which I really liked) and vodkas.

I love rye whiskey, and this is a decent one, though a tad on the mild side. Crater Lake is a nice, copper colored whiskey that’s 95% rye and 40% alcohol. Even with 95% of the grain being rye, the spice is pretty tame. Maybe this is because of the 40% alcohol level (some of the more premium ryes can be as high at 60%), or maybe it’s something in the aging (Crater Lake doesn’t list the age of this whiskey).

At $30, Crater Lake Rye will get you a whiskey that has a really nice smell, some marzipan/almond sweetness in the flavor, with a touch of apricots and cherry. The alcohol hits you in the nose a little bit, particularly for a lower-alcohol spirit. It is a good cocktail rye, and it’s a good sipper too.

The Murph’s Bloody Mary

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The Murph's Bloody Mary

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to try several different Bloody Mary mixes, from BBQ varieties to one with ghost peppers. With 5 different bottles mix in my fridge as of now, I’ve gotten used to pouring myself a Mary on a Sunday afternoon.

My current fave is The Murph’s, particularly the Hot and Spicy variety. Available primarily in New York and New Jersey right now, The Murph’s is very much a traditional-tasting Bloody Mary. It’s very tomato-forward overall, which is exactly what you’d expect. The ingredient list is the same for both versions of Murph’s, though it seems Hot and Spicy just has a heavier dose of horseradish, cayenne, and black pepper (which I love).

There is unfortunately one drawback to The Murph’s: one pesky thing I found in the ingredient list, and that’s corn syrup. Now I’m no scientist or doctor, so I can’t give you a technical reason why, but I don’t like corn syrup. In fact, I avoid the high-fructose variety (HFCS) altogether. Now, the corn syrup in The Murph’s is one ingredient of one ingredient (the Worcestershire sauce), so I can forgive it to some extent, but I just wish it wasn’t in there.

I like The Murph’s and I like the traditional flavor of the mix. On the whole, it make for a tasty Bloody Mary, and it’s a valid choice when you see it on the shelf, I just wish they could dump that one pesky ingredient to perfect the recipe (in my eyes).

G’Vine Gin

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g'vine gin, southside cocktail

There are some pretty common subcategories popping up in the gin world, though it seems the most dominant ones are the traditional London Drys (like Tanqueray or Beefeater) and the “softer” gins (like Hendrick’s or Aviation). Most gins share common botanical elements, and the way those botanicals taste will likely help you choose a gin for your cocktails.

G’Vine Gin is distilled from grapes in Cognac, France. It’s flavor is primarily licorice, which has a bit of a bite at the end of your sip. It’s a little bit sweet, too, and while the flavors are clear and pronounced, they’re also pretty mild, giving you a subtle cocktail ingredient that’s somewhere between vodka and the bolder London Drys.

I found a great cocktail for G’Vine. The Southside Fizz is growing in popularity, and to the unfamiliar, it’s really a “Gin Mojito.” You can also serve this without the soda and ice in a cocktail glass (just called a Southside then). Here’s the recipe:

Southside Fizz

  • in the bottom of a Collins glass, muddle mint leaves in:
  • 1 oz simple syrup
  • 1 oz lime juice
  • fill the glass with ice and add 2 oz gin
  • top with club soda and stir well

Averna

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averna

Averna is an amaro, one of the charming Italian bitter liqueurs that are hugely popular with certain groups of people, and nearly unknown to others. Campari is the most popular amaro, and just this week, Campari purchased the Averna brand to include in their catalog of liqueurs.

Here’s a question I haven’t answered yet at Simple Cocktails: why bitter? Mrs. Simple Cocktails refers to bitter as a flavor “she tries to avoid,” yet amari are unique drinks as they can be served as both aperitifs and digestifs. An aperitif is meant to whet your appetite before dinner, and aperitifs are usually dry and bitter. Bitterness causes your tongue to salivate, effectively preparing your mouth to eat. A digestif is meant to finish your meal with both sweetness and aiding digestion. Because amari are bitter and sweet, they fit both definitions, and they’re a fun cocktail ingredient as well.

Amari can have a wide variety of dominant flavors, from vegetal (Cynar) to herbal (Fernet Branca) to citrusy (Aperol). Averna is a sweet cola-like experience, almost like root beer. It’s tasty combination of cherry and coffee, too, and actually leaves a little tingle on your tongue just like soda. It’s closest amaro comparison would be Fernet Branca, though it’s not minty and is much less bitter.

Averna is the most accessible amari that I’ve had yet, and it’s great on the rocks after dinner, or a shot in a glass of club soda makes a great, natural, old-timey “soda.” It’s earned a permanent place in my home bar.

Jack Daniel’s Rested Rye

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jack daniel's rested rye

Jack Daniel’s is working quickly to get into the increasingly important rye whiskey game. Months back, they released an unaged limited-edition taste of their rye to retail, and now, it’s time for a rested version, 2 years in a barrel, still limited-edition, and still not a finished product. It’s an interesting way to ramp up a product which must age for several years before it’s finished, and it’s certainly a unique approach to marketing an aged spirit.

At $50 a bottle, Rested Rye is mostly a collector’s purchase, since it won’t be available long-term. I’m under the impression that 4 years is the goal for the final Jack Daniel’s Rye product, so this whiskey is young and brash, and everybody knows it. Other than the brashness, the flavor starts with a sweetness that’s particularly unique to Jack: like pancakes with maple syrup. The flavor ends up with a charred wood flavor that’s a touch bitter.

The rough edges of Rested Rye will be sorted out as the product ages, and I will say something I recall thinking when I tried the unaged version: this is a unique rye whiskey, particularly in the sweetness of the flavor. There’s no shortage of great ryes on the shelf, but having Jack in the game is still a very welcome addition.

Flaviar Tasting Kits

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flaviar best of 2013

At Simple Cocktails, I get tot taste a lot of different liquors, but most of you don’t have the same opportunity. One option for trying a lots of different liquors (without going broke) is to subscribe to a tasting service like Flaviar.

Flaviar has developed tasting kits that you can either subscribe to or purchase individual packs. Monthly memberships are about $40, and individual tasting packs run $30-50. Each pack includes five 1 1/2 oz vials of liquor and instructions for tasting them. The packs are measured for 3 people to each have a taste, and the box includes a small instruction and tasting notes brochure.

I received Flaviar’s Best of 2013 pack, which includes Aviation Gin, High West Double Rye, Nikka Whisky from the Barrel, Gosling’s Family Reserve Rum, and Mascaro Ego XO Brandy. From what I can tell, the packs regularly include hard-to-find and high-quality liquors like these.

I think Flaviar is an interesting choice for tasting spirits without having to commit to a whole bottle (the Gosling’s Rum alone would run you $70). In Flaviar packs, you’ll taste a wider range of liquors than you would if you went to a store and bought a handful of miniatures anyways, and a tasting is a fun experience to have with guests at your home bar.

Galliano

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galliano harvey wallbanger

Galliano is a very unique, very….yellow….Italian liqueur that’s most famous as the central ingredient of the Harvey Wallbanger cocktail.

The liqueur itself is an herbal and vanilla tasting drink that’s pretty high in alcohol (for a liqueur), much like Chartreuse. This is not something you’d likely drink on it’s own, but in the cocktail below, it adds some great depth (otherwise it’d just be a Screwdriver). After sipping Galliano on its own, I realized that it would taste great with just a splash into 2 1/2 of gin, stirred and served like a martini.

Either way, this is a classic, tasty, great liqueur to have in your home bar.

Harvey Wallbanger

  • In a tall glass full of  ice, add:
  • 3 oz orange juice
  • 1 1/2 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz Galliano
  • garnish with an orange slice
  • serve with a straw

Bols Genever

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bols genever

One of my first reviews at Simple Cocktails was some genever, and as a gin lover, I didn’t really know how to process it, because while gin developed from genever, genever tastes nothing like gin. Since that initial taste of genever I’ve been told that Bols Genever is the standard of quality for genever, and I finally picked up a bottle.

I’m going to repeat myself once more: the flavor of genever is nothing like gin. I would venture to say it’s unlike all other base spirits out there, but it most closely resembles scotch. Bols’ genever is malty, rich, and tasty, but I would suggest you avoid many gin cocktails and try it in more traditional scotch cocktails, or just serve it neat or in an Old Fashioned. Here’s a genever version of the Rob Roy cocktail:

Amsterdam Sunshine

  • 2 oz Bols Genever
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • orange peel garnish

Willa Vodka

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willa vodka vodka swizzle

Willa is an Illinois wheat vodka, a relatively new product with a very limited reach right now. Willa is a certified organic craft vodka in beautiful bottle with a long, slender neck. Vodka is a busy spirits category and Willa has labeled itself as an active lifestyle vodka – according to their website: “…[the creators] expressed their desire for a organic, lower calorie, clean tasting spirit.”

I found Willa very pleasant to drink on the rocks, and because it’s 70 proof (as opposed to “normal” 80-proof vodka), it’s a lighter vodka in both flavor and alcohol. My vodka tasting expert is Mrs. Simple Cocktails, who loves Grey Goose (another wheat vodka). She said that while Willa tastes good, it loses some flavor it it’s light-ness. After 2 dirty martinis with Willa, she said the alcohol effect was noticeably lower, too.

Willa will run you about $30 a bottle, and because it’s lighter, I found it a good fit for warm-weather outdoor drinking, like in a Bloody Mary at brunch, or in a fruity punch at a garden party. Try it in this refreshing cocktail with crushed ice:

Vodka Swizzle

  • 2 oz vodka
  • 1 1/2 oz lime juice
  • 1 tsp superfine sugar
  • 1 dash bitters
  • shake and strain into a tall glass filled with crushed ice and stir
  • top with 3 oz club soda
  • stir and garnish with a swizzle stick