I’m not gonna lie: this is one of the most herbal, flavorful, tingle-your-tongue cocktails I’ve made in the last year, and it’s most certainly the most herbal rum cocktail I think I’ve ever tried (thanks Galliano!).
Yellow Bird Cocktail
We’ve made a Yellow Bird on the Simple Cocktails Podcast, too. Listen here.
As a refresher for those who’re new to this blog, gin was really the liquor that eased me in to quality, classic cocktails. My first year of blogging took me from a time when I’d tasted 1-2 gins to tasting dozens.
I’ve also realized that like any liquor, there is a massive variety of flavor possibilities and I prefer some gins over others. At this point, though, I’m realizing that flavored gin is not so common. Seagram’s has a variety of gin flavors, sure, but up until now, the only flavored gin I’ve tried is Tanqueray Rangpur.
Lisa and I tasted Uncle Val’s Peppered Gin for the first time on this week’s podcast episode. One thing’s for sure: this is a unique gin. The specific ingredients in Uncle Val’s Peppered are red pepper, black pepper, and pimento. The pepper is not present at all in the nose at all, but your throat gets fills with a peppery hotness when you swallow. So much, in fact, that it’s a little alarming.
We wondered if maybe a Red Snapper (a gin Bloody Mary) or a Gin and Tonic would be good fit for this gin, and it turns out that it is. I made a G&T (shown above) and it was quite good: sweet, peppery, and herbal in it’s flavor – a good fit. I imagine a Red Snapper will be equally great.
I REALLY like black pepper, as you may have seen in some of my breakfast instagrams, and I really like gin too, but this is a new flavor profile for me. It smells like a soft citrusy gin and tastes like a lot of pepper. Because of that, your Snappers and G&Ts will welcome the change of pace, but your Martinis may be a little too rough-tasting with this specific gin.
Catoctin Creek is a relatively new distillery in the United States, founded in 2009 in Virginia and distilling mostly rye whiskey, gin, and brandy. Their portfolio perked up my attention and I got a bottle of their 92-proof Roundstone Rye, the middle product in their rye lineup, and one that will run you just over $50 a bottle.
For a 6-year old distillery, their whiskeys are going to be aged for that amount of time or less. Roundstone spells it out on the bottle: “Aged 5 years or less.” For a whiskey that’s traditionally pretty spicy and dry, a younger rye takes on a surprising candy sweetness in the taste that sets it apart from many other ryes I’ve tasted. In fact, the only other whiskey I can compare Roundstone Rye to is also young, spicy, sweet and brash: Jack Daniel’s Unaged Rye.
In honor of Catoctin’s rye and gin lineup, I chose a cocktail from Old Mr. Boston’s Bartenders Guide – a handy midsized cocktail book with some great recipes. Pairing gin and whiskey into one drink, here’s the Double Standard Sour:
Double Standard Sour
Berentzen is a 200-year-old German liquor company that has recently (2013) begun packaging and distributing their products to the United States. I’ve had the opportunity to try two of their liquors: IceMint Schnapps* and Bushel and Barrel, an apple/whiskey liqueur.
Apple whiskey is probably the next big thing in flavorings, now that the cinnamon and honey whiskeys have been on the market a while. Even big boy Crown Royal has released their Regal Apple flavor in the last few months, too.
On a recent episode of the Simple Cocktails podcast, Lisa and I tried Bushel and Barrel for the first time. It’s certainly sweet, but not sticky or syrupy. It’s flavored and partially sweetened with apple juice, and as I discovered with Midnight Moon, that gives you apple flavor and sweetness without a whole lot of sticky-sugary mess. It’s 30% alcohol, which places it squarely in the middle of straight whiskey and liqueurs, and it’s definitely drinkable straight. In fact, it’s whiskeys like this that are pretty great flask-fillers for camping or game day.
Another important tasting note about Bushel and Barrel is that it’s base is actual Kentucky Bourbon, so there’s quite a bit more wonderful whiskey character to this drink than, say, apple pie moonshines.
This is a pretty flexible cocktail ingredient, and other than a simple Bushel and Barrel and Ginger Ale (or Coke), splash it in your favorite bourbon too (1 part Bushel to 2 parts bourbon maybe) just to change the flavor profile or tame the bite a bit. Overall, this is an enjoyable liqueur at about $20 a bottle, a decent addition to your home bar.
Just like I did with ryes last week, I’m working my way through some new bourbons, too. Here are two that have recently taken their places on my “sipping bourbon” shelf:
Stagg Jr. Barrel Proof. This variety of Stagg comes in at a huge 130+ proof,….like it says, barrel proof (most whiskeys come out of the barrel at a higher proof than they’re bottled at). I’ve been drinking Stagg Jr. in 1 oz splashes with lots of ice, and this is a very palatable bourbon. Because of both the strength and the dark label on the back, this pours in a darker, tobacco-brown color as opposed to your usual copper bourbons. I found Stagg to be surprisingly rich and spicy – it’s a mouth-filling flavor with hints of licorice and clove. I tasted more spice than the sweet corn bourbon that I was expecting. As a high-quality bourbon that’s high proof, Stagg Jr. will run you $80-110.
W.L. Weller Special Reserve. Billed at the “original wheated bourbon” (we’re talking to you, Makers), Weller is a nicely balanced bourbon, and through it has a maple sweetness, there’s a good big mid palate woodiness, too to round it out. This is an easy drinking bourbon that has the elements you’ve come to love: sweet, spice, woody, and smooth. Weller 7 year is around $50 a bottle.
In winter, there are usually lots more opportunities to drink whiskies of all sorts, as our gins and vodkas take a break until the warm weather returns. I’m not shy about the fact that I love rye whiskey, so I dug up a few brands that I haven’t tried yet and gave them a sip.
Sazerac Rye. Named for the official cocktail of New Orleans (or is it the other way around?), Sazerac is a spicy, quality offering that Lisa and I tasted on a recent podcast. A sexy and slender bottle that would look great as a Christmas gift, this version embodies the spice and bite that you’ve come to expect from a rye. This is a good choice rye for the cocktail that bears it’s name, and is a quality sipper for the price, too. $30.
Col. E. H. Taylor Rye. A more premium product, Col. Taylor’s Rye is very different than Sazerac. It has the scent of homemade candy and has a more complex profile than just your standard rye spice. Taylor starts sweet and drys out into a woody richness as it coats your mouth. I made an outstanding Manhattan [recipe] with this whiskey, but this one is for the person who just prefers to savor a quality rye slowly…it’s awesome. $70
This summer, I tried G’Vine gin for the first time. What I didn’t really realize at the time was there are two varieties of G’Vine: Flouraison and Nouaison. Flouraison, as I described in my previous post, is a mild, soft gin with quite a bit of sweetness and traces of minty licorice.
Nouaison, I’ve discovered, is more akin to a London Dry as it’s a spicier bitier gin with cinnamon and clove. Nouaison is more in line with my personal preference in gins, as I tend to prefer London Drys to many of the milder gins.
In cocktails, Nouaison has a very different character than it’s more herbal brother, and I can see why G’Vine told me that they consider Flouraison a warm-weather gin and Nouaison a cold-weather gin. This would be a great gin in a hot toddy or a tea as the spice profile is a perfect fit.
Somewhere on the list of my favorite gins, Nouaison has elbowed it’s way in. This is a unique winter gin, and reminds me of Big Gin a little bit because of it’s flavor profile. Nouaison is definitely one to try if you like your gins spicy with a bite.
Time for a quick review of what an herbal liqueur actually is. It’s sweetened, which makes it a liqueur. Herbal means you have various herbs seeped into the liquid as it’s made: bitter herbs, sweet herbs, and all variety of spices. Similar herbal liqueurs include stuff like Chartreuse, Drambuie, or the many Amaros.
Underground Herbal Liqueur is distilled by Ogden’s Own in Utah (I’ve recently covered Five Wives and Porter’s Fire from them, too) at 40% alcohol and sells for a very reasonable $20. The flavor of Underground falls somewhere around Jägermeister and Fernet Branca. It’s a minty, syrupy, flavorful elixir, and like Jäger, they recommend you serve it very cold (Jäger wants you to keep their liqueur in the freezer).
So at a pricepoint similar to Jägermeister and lower than Fernet, the question is really why choose Underground? Because it tastes better, that’s why. The herbs and the minty finish, while syrupy, are balanced together very well and complement the spicier flavors of clove and cinnamon too. As a digestif, it’s a great-tasting dessert. You don’t really need to freeze Underground, either, because it tastes really good at any temperature. Though I love Fernet, a lot of people don’t, and the drinking masses will certainly find Underground comparatively better-tasting.
With the claim to “America’s first herbal spirit,” a great taste and a great price, too, there’s no reason not to pick up a bottle of Underground next time you visit the liquor store.
It’s going to be a little hard to hold this one in, because I discovered one of the best tequila cocktails I’ve ever tried. Stay tuned for the recipe – first, let’s talk about Espolón Tequila.
Espolón is a 20-year-old tequila brand and produces the typical blanco/reposado/añejo portfolio of tequilas, but we’ll focus on Espolón Añejo for two reasons. First, it’s only recently available in the United States (you won’t yet find it on the company’s website, in fact). Second, the añejo’s aging is finished in Wild Turkey bourbon barrels. While bourbon barrels are not uncommon for tequila aging, I suppose the specificity of the fact that these are in Wild Turkey barrels makes it all the more interesting to me.
Espolón Añejo, at $35 a bottle, is a really nice experience. Many a tequila maker is trying to sway the reputation of their product from the “shooter” market, and highlighting the quality you’ll find in a fine tequila, and this is one of those. This is not a muggy, sour tequila experience, and while you will certainly taste tequila in your glass of Espolón Añejo, this is much more of an oaky, crisp, smooth-drinking experience. I replaced my nightly glass of whiskey with it for a few days, and found it to be an equivalent experience, though somehow wetter and more refreshing than the brashness (not an insult) of whiskey.
So here’s the deal: a quality aged tequila is different than even a quality unaged tequila, and your cocktail recipes should reflect that. I found the following recipe, which contains a small amount of the Scotch-based liqueur Drambuie, and between Drambuie’s smokiness and the grittiness of the granulated sugar, this is a very tasty cocktail to drink with an añejo tequila, particularly one with whiskey elements like Espolón Añejo. Try it out:
Cactus Juice
We make Cactus Juice on the Simple Cocktails Podcast. Listen here.
There’s no denying the RumChata has been a big hit in liquor stores over the last 2 years, particularly around the holidays. It’s no surprise then that a major liquor company – in this case, Sazerac – would enter the fray with their own Horchata liqueur.
Chila ‘Orchata is familiar, then: rum, cream, and cinnamon and spice, at a $20 price point, and at 14% alcohol. We decided to taste Chila side-by-side with RumChata, since those are likely to be side-by-side on your liquor store’s shelf.
We really like both these Horchata liqueurs. The rum in the Chila ‘Orchata stands out just a tad more, and makes it taste marginally spicier as a result. Going back to RumChata, it was a touch milkier, but to be really frank, they’re nearly identical, and they both taste very good, even drunk by themselves on ice. Take from this what you will, but of the group of us that tasted it, the guys leaned toward Chila ‘Orchata, and the gals favored RumChata a little more.
I made a tasty winter cocktail with Chila ‘Orchata. Try this one out:
It’s Chila Outside (by Greg Mays)
We taste Chila Orchata on the Simple Cocktails Podcast, too. Listen here.
