Bottle Buy: Italicus

If you're not already seeing this beautiful blue glass bottle everywhere, I can guarantee you will shortly. It belongs to Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto. Not since St. Germain have I seen a new ingredient as talked about and adored. It launched in 2016 and won a number of awards the following year, including Best New Spirit or Cocktail Ingredient at Tales of the Cocktail.

Italicus is a Rosolio, a classic type of Italian liqueur. The name is comes from a species of sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, that was classically used to flavor the liqueur. The plant is called "ros solis" in Italy. Rosolios are also frequently flavored with rose petals, which makes many people (including me!) think that this is where the name comes from. Difford's Guide offers the best explanation and history of Rosolio that I have found if you're interested in reading more about the category in general. While many people outside of Italy are not familiar with Rosolio, within the country it is still frequently made (often at home) and consumed as an aperitivo.

Italicus was created by Giuseppe Gallo. Born in Campania, Italy, Gallo worked as a brand ambassador for Martini & Rossi and has an extensive knowledge of amari and vermouths. He was surprised that no one outside of Italy was drinking Rosolio. He wanted to create a new spirit, drawing on his Italian heritage. He used the citrus fruit Bergamot (the same one that flavors Earl Grey tea) to flavor the liqueur, remembering how his mother would flavor dishes with its zest. The Bergamot comes from nearby Calabria, where it has been grown for centuries and is frequently used in Rosolio. Gallo set out to make a Bergamot-flavored Rosolio that would be at home on a modern bar. "It was really important to me to add to it a modern twist, a new profile that would allow bartenders to play with an additional flavor," he told Tales of the Cocktail.

In addition to Bergamot, Italicus is flavored with cedar, chamomile, lavender, gentian, yellow rose, and lemon balm. It is bittersweet like an amaro, but much lighter, with notes of citrus and herbs. I get a slight menthol flavor from it that I did not expect. It's easy to mix with and makes a perfect aperitif. While its flavor speaks for itself, its beautiful bottle (designed by Stranger & Stranger) doesn't hurt either. It seems to me like a perfect example of a spirit where every aspect, from conception to creation to packaging to marketing, was done to perfection. It's been popping up in cocktails all over Boston and no doubt elsewhere as well.

Italicus

Price: $37
Alcohol Content: 20%
Popular Cocktails: Negroni Bianco Bergamotto, Ipalicus, Spritzicus, Gin and Italicus

While I'm not too keen on the "Spritizicus" moniker its creators gave it, a classic spritz made with Italicus is definitely an enjoyable aperitivo and a great way to try out this liqueur. A garnish of olives may seem strange, but it's a perfect contrast to the sweetness of the liqueur. If you like an Aperol Spritz, switch it up and try some Italicus.

Spritzicus

3 oz. Italicus
3 oz. prosecco

Build in a wine glass filled with ice. Stir briefly and garnish with three Castelvetrano or Gaeta olives.

Recipe from Italicus. Historical and brand information came mostly from Difford's Guide and Tales of the Cocktail.

Bottle Swap: Swedish Punsch

It's time for part two of my latest Bottle Swap with Mr. Muddle! Last month we traded half a bottle of St. George Spiced Pear liqueur and it's become one of my favorite ingredients since then. Today we have a bottle I've been curious about for a long time: Swedish Punsch.

Punch was a big thing back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Individual cocktails were not the norm - if you wanted to go drinking with your friends, you'd get a big bowl of punch to share. This was usually made with rum or arrack and flavored with sugar, fruit juice, and spices. Swedish Punsch was a particular recipe that originated in - you guessed it - Sweden, when the Swedish East India Company began importing arrack from Southeast Asia in 1733. It was often served hot, which is a bit unique for a punch (but understandable given the climate in Sweden).

Punch was popular enough across Europe that many distilleries began bottling pre-mixed punches. Swedish Punsch was no exception, and the first bottled Swedish Punsch was created in the 1840's. It was popular enough that bottles of it ended up in the US and England, where enterprising bartenders began using it in cocktails. Prohibition and World War II limited its availability and, like many unique spirits from this time, it all but disappeared on the international stage. With the revived interest in classic cocktails, Kronan began bottling and exporting Swedish Punsch in 2012.

So what's in a bottle of Swedish Punsch? It's a blend of both arrack (a Southeast Asian spirit made from red rice and/or sugarcane) and Caribbean rum, along with citrus, spices, and sugar. It's essentially a bottled cocktail that you can enjoy on the rocks as-is. The label boasts "notes of rich toffee, smoke, molasses, and leather." These flavors are definitely all there, but I'd say the smoke and leather take a backseat to the bright toffee sweetness, spice, and classic "funk" you'd expect from a Jamaican rum.

Swedish Punsch

Alcohol Content: 26%
Price: $30
Popular Cocktails: Doctor Cocktail, Havana, Waldorf

After reading about Swedish Punsch I was intrigued by the Doctor Cocktail, one of the simplest and best-known Swedish Punsch drinks. It's essentially a Daiquiri that uses Swedish Punsch instead of a sweetener. I also enjoyed reading Fred Yarm's writeup on Cocktail Virgin Slut, which includes some advice on what other flavors work well with Swedish Punsch. I decided to mash-up the Doctor Cocktail with a well-known Tiki drink, the Jungle Bird, to make a Doctor Bird. This is the local name of the national bird of Jamaica, a beautiful hummingbird with an incredibly long tail (and the subject of my undergraduate thesis research). I love the way this drink came out. It's bright and tropical with a hint of bitterness. It's also a lovely shade of orange!

Don't forget to head over to Mr. Muddle's blog and check out his Swedish Punsch drink, the Field Promotion!

Doctor Bird

1 1/2 oz. Plantation Pineapple Rum
1 oz. Swedish Punsch
1/2 oz. Aperol
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/4 oz. Demerara syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe and garnish with a slice of pineapple.

Historical information came from Cocktail Virgin Slut and Punch.

Bottle Swap: St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur

It's high time that Mr. Muddle and I did another bottle swap! This is when we each buy a bottle of something new for our bars and trade half. If you've got friends who like making cocktails at home, this is a great way to try twice as many new ingredients! In the past we've swapped Ancho Reyes, The King's Ginger, Suze, and Giffard Banane du Bresil. Today's bottle is the perfect holiday liqueur, St. George Spiced Pear.

If you're not familiar with St. George Spirits, they're a California-based distillery that produces some incredible stuff. They're probably best known for their gins, but you may have seen their Bruto Americano, Absinthe, or Green Chile Vodka on the liquor store shelf as well. Their Spiced Pear Liqueur is another winner. To make it, they start with their Pear Brandy and add additional fruit juice and spices. It's positively bursting with fresh pear, cinnamon, and cloves, and has just the right amount of sweetness to be sipped on its own or mixed into a cocktail.

St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur

Alcohol content: 20%
Price: $40
Popular cocktails: Check out St. George's suggestions here

My cocktail with this liqueur is a little riff on the classic Philadelphia Fish House Punch. This is a drink with a long history, going back to the early 1700's. It's traditionally made with aged rum, Cognac, peach brandy, lemon, and sugar, and served in a large format from a punch bowl. For my Spiced Pear Punch, I replaced the peach brandy with the Spiced Pear Liqueur, used maple syrup as the sweetener, and added a dash of vanilla. Since it was just me drinking this one, I stuck to a single serve, but this would be a great big-batch cocktail for your next holiday party!

Spiced Pear Punch

1 oz. aged rum (Jamaican recommended - I used Appleton Estate Signature Blend)
1/2 oz. Cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840)
1/2 oz. St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur
1 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. maple syrup
1 dash vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a punch glass or rocks glass over ice. Garnish with a pear fan.

Check out Mr. Muddle's cocktail, the Decoder Ring!

Bottle Buy: Luxardo Bitter Bianco

Hello again! I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, though I've been quite active on Instagram - if I want to just snap a single photo of a drink it often ends up there instead of on here.  I've also had the opportunity to partner with some additional brands like The Elan Collective and Coco Sky on recent (and upcoming!) recipes. So be sure to check it out if you want some additional drinks and pictures!

Today I want to introduce one of my new favorite bottles: Luxardo Bitter Bianco. This herbal liqueur is a bitter like Campari, Aperol, or Suze. In fact, the popularity of swapping Suze for Campari to make White Negronis seems to have been one factor that influenced Luxardo's creation of the colorless Bitter Bianco. It's made with a number of different botanicals, including wormwood, quinine, rhubarb, cardamom, bitter orange, and three mystery herbs. While it is definitely a bitter liqueur, it has notes of bright citrus and a good bit of sweetness to it.

Versatility is usually one of my main criteria when I add a new bottle to my bar, but with this one I had a single drink in mind. I absolutely love a Negroni made with Luxardo Bitter Bianco. Called a Negroni Bianco, it's usually made with blanc or dry vermouth to keep it entirely colorless (while one made with Suze is called a White Negroni, even though it's actually yellow). I've got recipes for both of these in the Negroni Round-Up I posted not long ago. I honestly prefer the Negroni Bianco to a traditional Negroni, and if you're a Negroni newbie I think it's a perfect gateway cocktail. It's definitely less polarizing than the classic, while still keeping with the spirit of the drink.

But my love for the Negroni Bianco doesn't mean that Bitter Bianco isn't versatile. It's similar enough to Campari in spirit that you can safely try substituting it anywhere its bright red friend is called for. It's more approachable and less bitter than Campari, which might even make it more versatile. I haven't played with mine nearly enough because I can't stop making the same few delicious recipes with it.

Luxardo Bitter Bianco

Price: $25-30
Alcohol Content: 30%
Popular Cocktails: Negroni Bianco

Since I love the Negroni Bianco, I wanted to use the Luxardo in another riff on the Negroni, the Negroni Sbagliato. Translating roughly to "mistaken Negroni," this drink was supposedly invented when a bartender poured prosecco into a Negroni instead of gin. It doesn't exactly seem like an easy mistake to make, but we can suspend belief in favor of a good story.

The Negroni Sbagliato is usually made with equal parts sweet vermouth, Campari, and prosecco. Before I looked up the recipe, however, I had it in my head that it must be equal parts gin, Campari, and prosecco, and I was excited to take advantage of the Luxardo's lack of color to let the gorgeous purple of Empress Gin shine through. When I realized my mistake I decided to go ahead with my recipe anyway. And it's quite good - a lovely, bitter, sparkling aperitif. You can substitute a non-purple gin, or go with a more classic Sbagliato using dry or blanc vermouth instead.

Sbagliato Errato

1 oz. gin (Empress)
1 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco
2 oz. prosecco

Combine gin and Luxardo in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute and top with prosecco. I garnished mine with dried orchid petals.

Bottle Buy: Apricot Liqueur

I've always wanted this blog to be a resource for people who don't know a lot about making cocktails at home, and part of that has been introducing new ingredients as I add them to my bar and start making cocktails with them. So I was alarmed when I realized I had posted the Periodista without saying a thing about its star ingredient, apricot liqueur. Specifically Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot.

Apricot liqueur may seem a bit specific or obscure if you've only got limited space in your bar, but it's an ingredient that comes up surprisingly often. It appears in a number of recipes from the early 1900's, and in a lot of rum cocktails and Tiki drinks. Like many ingredients we've discussed, the quality and availability of apricot liqueur declined along with the popularity of the craft cocktail during the mid to late 20th century. But now it's back, and there are tons of classic and new recipes to make with it.

I knew apricot liqueur would be a good buy because I've already made - and loved - several recipes that called for a small amount of it. Not having a bottle, I subbed in a bit of apricot preserves, which really did work pretty well.  But for more apricot-centric drinks like the Periodista and the Tradewinds (below), you need the real thing. And now I can go back and make those other drinks right.

Apricot liqueur is often referred to as apricot brandy. The two terms are frequently used interchangeably, but I think certain aspects of how the liqueurs are made may prevent the word "brandy" from appearing on the label - likely the addition of fruit and sugars after distillation, although I'm not sure. The quality apricot liqueurs are essentially fruit brandies or eaux-de-vie - spirits distilled from fruit other than grapes, in this case apricots.

One of the easiest bottles of apricot liqueur to find, and the one that seems to be recommended the most often in my cocktail recipe books, is Rothman & Winter, which is imported from Austria by Haus Alpenz. It's made from Klosterneuberger apricots grown in the Danube Valley. Two of the other most popular varieties, Giffard and Marie Brizard, are made in France.

Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur

Price: $25
Alcohol Content: 24%
Popular Cocktails: Tradewinds, Periodista, Golden Gun, Flor de Jerez, Charles Lindbergh, Hotel Nacional

It's been a while since I made a genuine Tiki drink, but after a couple of recent trips to Tiki Rock in Boston, I was itching to make one at home. I love drinks with coconut creme - Tiki Rock had a Painkiller that was really amazing - and the Tradewinds had been on my list of drinks to make once I finally got my hands on some apricot liqueur. It's an undeniably tasty cocktail, creamy and tart. The traditional garnish is a lemon wedge speared on an inside-out cocktail umbrella (as if the wind has blown it that way), but I thought a mini pinwheel was appropriate.

History: According to Martin Cate in Smuggler's Cove, the Tradewinds originated in the Caribbean in the 1970's. The recipe appeared in Beachbum Berry Remixed.

Tradewinds

1 oz. black blended rum (Cruzan)
1 oz. blended lightly aged rum (Appleton Estate Signature Blend)
1 oz. apricot liqueur (Rothman & Winter)
1 1/2 oz. coconut cream
1 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with 12 oz. crushed ice and a 4 large "agitator" cubes. Shake or flash blend and then open pour into a zombie or pilsner glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge speared on an inside-out umbrella, or a little pinwheel. I added some mint as well.

Recipe adapted from Smuggler's Cove.

Bottle Swap: Suze

Today is the second installment of my latest bottle swap with Adam of Mr. Muddle! A few weeks ago, we each made a cocktail with Banane du Bresil, which surprised me by being ridiculously tasty and extremely versatile. Today, the bottle we're working with is Suze - definitely more of an acquired taste than a crowd pleaser, but an ingredient I'm pretty excited to be adding to my bar.

Suze is a bitter French aperitif flavored with gentian root. It was first sold in 1889 by French distiller Fernand Moureaux. Some say he created the recipe with his partner, Henri Porte, and named it after his sister-in-law, Suzanne Jaspert. Other accounts allege that he purchased the formula in 1885 from a Swiss herbalist named Hans Kappeler, and that Kappeler inspired the name by saying that his aperitif would flow in France just like the river Suze. This turned out to be pretty accurate. Suze became incredibly popular in France, and was a fixture of cafe culture. Porte's design for the tall, distinctive bottle and its vivid yellow color made it instantly recognizable. It was even immortalized (albeit extremely abstractly) in Picasso's 1912 painting Verre et bouteille de Suze ("Glass and Bottle of Suze").

Though it has remained popular abroad, Suze was not even available in the United States until 2012, when Domaine Select began importing it. Since then, craft cocktail bars and home bartenders have been reintroduced to Suze, and are including it in all sorts of different recipes.

Suze's label refers to it as "Saveur d'autrefois," meaning "the flavor of yesteryear" or "the flavor of another time." This really sums up what I love about Suze, and about most other spirits and liqueurs that have been in production for a similarly long amount of time - when you drink it, you really are tasting the same thing that someone might have sipped in Paris in 1900, or that Picasso drank while he painted the bottle in 1912. It's a very romantic notion.

Suze is an excellent ingredient for adding to cocktails, but it can definitely be tricky to work with. Its flavor is bitter and vegetal, with hints of citrus. Its taste is as distinctive as its bright yellow color. The closest thing I can compare it to is Campari, though I would consider Suze more floral and earthy, and therefore more of an acquired taste. It adds some sweetness to your drink, but not without a big wallop of a bitter finish. As such, I tend to use it in fairly small amounts when I want it to play well with other ingredients. But it can also be enjoyed on its own on the rocks, or with soda or tonic.

Suze

Alcohol content: 20%
Price: $30
Popular Cocktails: White Negroni

Suze plays particularly well with fizz, and it's been way too long since I made a sparkling cocktail, so I knew where I wanted to go with this one. Suze and champagne is just ridiculously elegant and oh-so-French. Gin blended well with Suze's herbal notes, and I decided to amplify the floral, sunny flavors with a honey chamomile syrup and a bit of lemon juice. This cocktail tastes like wandering through French fields surrounded by wildflowers and buzzing bees. It's herbaceous and bitter, bright and fizzy. La saveur d'autrefois.

Be sure to check out what Adam has done with his half of the bottle over at Mr. Muddle! It's an equal-parts cocktail with mezcal and creme de menthe called Power of the Glow.

Apiary

1 1/2 oz. gin (GrandTen Wire Works)
1/2 oz. Suze
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. honey chamomile syrup*
3-4 oz. sparkling wine

Combine gin, Suze, lemon juice, and honey chamomile syrup in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with an edible flower.

*For honey chamomile syrup, heat 1/2 cup of brewed chamomile tea in a saucepan until it simmers. Add 1/2 cup honey and stir to dissolve. Remove from heat and let cool before using.

Suze history mostly from Frenchly.com.

Bottle Swap: Banane du Brésil

It's finally time for another bottle swap with our good friend Adam of Mr. Muddle! I say "finally" because we organized this one and swapped the bottles before I got pregnant with Luke, and it's been on hold now for over a year. And let me tell you, this Giffard Banane du Brésil has been burning a hole in my bar. I did not expect it to become an ingredient I used frequently. Banana can be such an overpowering flavor and aroma. But I have been shocked to find myself reaching for this bottle over and over again. I try not to post recipes with ingredients I haven't officially introduced, but with this one I couldn't help it. It found its way into my Banana Stand for #TikiTheSnowAway (which was featured in an article by Liquor.com, by the way!) and my Savannah Sunrise for Amarula. It was also great in the L'Acajou, which I posted on Instagram. Banane du Brésil has probably been the single most surprising thing I've added to my bar.

I think Banane du Brésil is so good because it's not just some sugary banana-flavored liqueur. It's made from a mixture of neutral grain spirits macerated with bananas and a spirit actually distilled from bananas. A bit of Cognac adds the finishing touch. It's sweet, yes, but it has a rich flavor like caramelized bananas with hints of vanilla. I've just been shocked at how versatile it is. Mixing it with bourbon or aged rum brings out its richer notes, while lime juice and coconut play up its more tropical banana flavors.

Banane du Brésil

Price: $35
Alcohol content: 25%
Popular cocktails: Often added to daiquiris, Tiki drinks, and spirit-forward rum cocktails

For this cocktail, I was inspired by a drink I had at Blossom Bar in Brookline that had both banana liqueur and brown butter in the ingredient list. I love baking and cooking with brown butter, and fat-washing a spirit with it seemed genius. And it was. I know this post is supposed to be about the banana liqueur, but this brown-butter washed rum is AMAZING.

I've only fat-washed a spirit once before, when I made an olive oil-washed gin. Fat washing is one of those techniques that sounds intimidating but is actually incredibly easy. Basically, it involves mixing a spirit with a fatty substance like butter or oil and then chilling or freezing the mixture until the fat separates and rises to the top. Once the fat is strained out, the spirit retains its flavor. It can be done with a number of different fats and spirits. I've seen bacon-washed whiskey, coconut oil-washed Campari, sesame oil-washed gin, and more.

Washing an aged rum with brown butter gives it an incredible rich, toasty, buttery flavor that goes perfectly with Banane du Brésil.

Brown Butter-Washed Rum

1 stick butter
1 cup aged rum (I used Plantation 5-Year)

Place butter in a saucepan and melt over medium heat, swirling the pan frequently. The butter should melt and then begin to foam up. Continue to swirl the pan frequently until the foam begins to go down, brown solids appear, and the butter gets a toasty, nutty aroma. Remove from heat and slowly stir in the rum - the butter will foam and sizzle a little. Let cool slightly and transfer to a cup measure or jar. (This is the stage pictured above.) Let cool completely. A layer of fat will begin to form on the surface of the rum. Once it is cool, transfer it to the fridge for 48 hours, then stir it to break up the fat and strain it through a coffee filter or cheesecloth. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

With my Banane du Brésil and my brown butter rum, I wanted to create a cocktail that basically tasted like banana bread. It's sweet, nutty, and boozy with a thick, buttery texture. It's downright decadent. And it does a nice job of showcasing this fantastic banana liqueur.

Don't forget to head over to Mr. Muddle to check out the Pratfall: peaty Scotch, Banane du Brésil, maple syrup, and apricot liqueur!

Banana Bread

1 1/2 oz. brown butter washed rum
3/4 oz. Giffard Banane du Brésil
1/2 oz. Amaro Averna
1/4 oz. Allspice Dram
1 dash maple walnut bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube and garnish with banana chips and walnuts.

Bottle Buy: Amarula

Even though my bar has grown quite a bit over the last few months, it's been a while since I properly introduced a new bottle. I'm particularly excited to introduce Amarula today because of a wonderful campaign they are running right now - keep reading for details!

A friend of mine who has spent a lot of time in Africa introduced me to Amarula several years ago. I fell instantly in love. It's a rich, silky cream liqueur that puts Bailey's to shame with its complex flavors and just the right amount of sweetness. If you think you don't like creamy dessert liqueurs, give Amarula a try before you give up.

Amarula is made from the fruit of the marula tree. This bright yellow fruit has a unique flavor described as a "citrus tang and a creamy, nutty taste." It only grows in sub-Saharan Africa and cannot be cultivated. The fruit is hand-harvested from wild trees to make the liqueur. The marula pulp is fermented, distilled, and aged in French oak barrels for two years. After this, cream is added to give Amarula its silky texture. The resulting liqueur has a rich and nutty flavor with hints of citrus and coconut. It's definitely sweet, but not tooth-achingly so, making it versatile enough to use in cocktails but also perfect to sip on its own.

Marula fruit is a favorite food for elephants. When the fruits are in season, elephants will travel for miles to find trees with ripe fruit. Amarula has long been dedicated to the conservation of these incredible animals, and this fall they have launched the "Don't Let Them Disappear" campaign to raise awareness and support elephant conservation. Until the end of the year, Amarula will donate $1 of every bottle sold to WildlifeDIRECT to support their efforts to save the African elephant. So now there's even more reason to try a bottle of Amarula! You may even find one without the elephant on its label, an illustration of the danger of elephants disappearing within our lifetime.

Amarula

Price: $24
Alcohol Content: 17%
Popular Cocktails: Often served on the rocks or with coffee

For a cream liqueur, Amarula is surprisingly versatile. It works well with tropical flavors like banana, coconut, and rum as well as with dessert flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and coffee. I decided to play with this a bit in my first Amarula cocktail, the Savannah Sunrise: Amarula, dark rum, and Giffard Banane du Bresil (a banana liqueur) served over coffee ice cubes. The rum and Banane du Bresil bring out the more citrusy, tropical notes in the Amarula, but as the coffee ice cubes melt, they change the character of the drink and emphasize the sweetness of the liqueur and the caramel and vanilla notes from the aging process.

Plus, I made the coffee ice in these adorable elephant-shaped ice cube molds that Amarula sent me. It just doesn't get any cuter.

Savannah Sunrise

1 1/2 oz. Amarula
1 1/2 oz. dark rum
3/4 oz. Giffard Banane du Bresil
Coffee ice cubes

Combine Amarula, rum, and Banane du Bresil in a mixing glass with ice and stir briefly until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over the coffee ice cubes.

You basically can't work with something as decadent as Amarula and not make a dessert drink. It's absolutely heavenly served over vanilla ice cream, so it seemed pretty clear that a boozy milkshake was the way to go. A little bourbon goes great with the vanilla and adds some depth and caramel flavor. It's so ridiculously good.

I garnished the milkshake with whipped cream and edible gold leaf, because why not?

Amarula Milkshake

2 scoops vanilla ice cream
1 oz. Amarula
1/2 oz. bourbon

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a glass and top with whipped cream.

Props and liqueur supplied by Amarula; copper straws and strainer from Viski.

Bottle Buy: Cynar

I am way behind on my bottle buy posts. It used to be such a rare thing when I would buy a new ingredient for my bar, but lately I've been doing it pretty frequently - probably far more frequently than I should! There's just so much great stuff out there. And while some of the best of it is quite pricey - I'm looking at you, Green Chartreuse and Amaro Nonino! - there are a lot of great bottles that are very affordable. One of these is Cynar.

If you're on a tight budget and can only buy a couple of new things for your bar, I think Cynar should be on your list. Cynar (pronounced "chee-NAHR") is an amaro flavored with artichoke and 12 other herbs and plants. It's different from anything else you've got in your bar, it's extremely versatile, and it's very cheap - around $20 for a one liter bottle. That's my kind of booze.

Cynar was created in 1952 by a Venetian named Angelo Dalle Molle. He sounds like pretty interesting guy. He's described as a philanthropist and entrepreneur who believed that technology would lead to a utopian world. Later in life, he invested heavily in research on artificial intelligence, setting up four research institutes in Switzerland. He died in 2001, over 90 years old.

Cynar is named after the genus of the artichoke, Cynar scolymus. It gained rapid popularity after it was introduced through a marketing campaign featuring Italian actor Ernesto Calindri with the slogan "Contro il logorio della vita moderna" or "Against the stress of modern life." In one TV spot, he was pictured sipping Cynar in the middle of traffic in Milan:

If an artichoke-flavored liquor doesn't sound up your alley, I encourage you to try a Cynar cocktail before you write it off. It doesn't really taste like artichoke. If anything, it tastes a bit like Campari, though sweeter and more vegetal. Like most amari, it's quite nice on its own as a digestif. But I also find it particularly versatile in cocktails.

Cynar

Price: $20 for 1 liter
Alcohol Content: 16.5%
Popular Cocktails: Presbyterian Revenge, Cynar Sour, Cynar & Soda, Little Italy

It seems like everybody likes to drink Cynar differently: straight as a digestif, on the rocks with soda or tonic, up with aged rum or tequila, with orange juice, a dash in a martini or Manhattan, or swapped out for another amaro in a favorite cocktail recipe. It's a liquor that's really fun to play around with.

While there are a ton of recipes out there that call for Cynar, few seem to be as widely known as the Presbyterian Revenge. It's a riff on a classic Scotch cocktail called the Presbyterian (Scotch, ginger ale, and club soda, so named because Scotland is largely Presbyterian). It's a good intro to a very vegetal and bitter spirit, as it's extremely drinkable while still showcasing Cynar's unique flavor. Refreshing and bitter, it makes a great summer cocktail, especially for Scotch lovers. It makes me think of a boozier, more bitter, whiskey-fied Aperol Spritz.

When you're making yours, don't skip the grapefruit twist! It really contributes a lot of flavor to the cocktail. If you don't have fresh grapefruit, try adding a dash of grapefruit bitters instead.

History: The Presbyterian Revenge was created by John McCarthy of Highlands in New York City. Here's a video of him making the cocktail.

Presbyterian Revenge

1 1/2 oz. blended Scotch (Black Grouse recommended)
3/4 oz. Cynar
1/4 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. simple syrup
Splash of club soda

Combine Scotch, Cynar, lemon juice, and simple syrup in a shaker. Add ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Top with club soda and garnish with a grapefruit twist (I used a "nest" of grapefruit peel). Stir gently before sipping. Full disclosure: the cocktail pictured is a recipe and a half.

Recipe from Serious Eats.

Bottle Buy: Amaro Nonino

A few months ago, I wrote about an amazing meal I had with some friends at Gramercy Tavern in New York. After dessert, our waitress recommended a couple of amari for us to taste. She brought out Amaro Averna and Amaro Nonino. Everyone else at the table seemed to prefer the Averna, but I liked the Nonino better. When I saw the price difference between them, however ($30 vs. $50), I made the Averna my first amaro purchase. But I suppose I was just delaying the inevitable - I finally bought a bottle of Nonino, and I think it was well worth the money. Its flavor is just beautiful. It's light and sweet and nutty, with flavors of vanilla, caramel, spices, and a bit of anise. I already snuck it into one cocktail, the European Vagrant, and I've got many more to come.

Amaro Nonino (officially Amaro Nonino Quintessentia) is made in Friuli in northeastern Italy. The Nonino distillery was founded there in 1897 by Orazio Nonino, who produced grappa, an Italian grape liqueur. Though the family has continued to produce grappa ever since, I was surprised to find out that Nonino is a fairly new product, born in 1992. It is made from an aged grape distillate infused with a number of herbs and spices including gentian root, saffron, bitter orange, licorice, rhubarb, tamarind, sweet orange, and carmelized sugar. It's traditionally served at room temperature after a meal as a digestif, but it can also make a nice aperitif when served on the rocks or in a cocktail. It's easily one of my favorite bottles in my bar.

Amaro Nonino

Price: $50
Alcohol Content: 35%
Popular Cocktails: Paper Plane, served up as a digestif

The Paper Plane is one of the better-known drinks that contains Amaro Nonino. Like the Last Word, it's an equal-parts cocktail with four ingredients: bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon juice. It's sour and tart, with a subtly bitter aftertaste. Nuttiness from the Nonino, bright citrus from the Aperol, and rich bourbon tie it all together. It's lighter and more refreshing than you would expect from its ingredients.

If you don't have Amaro Nonino and aren't ready to take the plunge (do it!), you could definitely try this recipe with other amari and see how it turns out. I've also seen a version that uses Campari instead of Aperol. There's definitely room to play around, but it's hard to beat the original.

History: The Paper Plane was created by Sam Ross at Little Branch in New York City. A former bartender at the famous Milk & Honey, Ross opened Attaboy with Michael McIlroy in the bar’s old space. He also invented the well-known Penicillin cocktail, so he’s kind of a big deal.

As I mentioned last week, I got to spend the weekend before Thanksgiving in New York City, crossing some amazing cocktail bars off my bucket list. One of these – my favorite, in fact – was Attaboy. I vaguely knew that Sam Ross owned the bar, but it didn’t occur to me to find out what he looked like or anything; for some reason I assumed that the big-name guys who own these bars never actually step behind them anymore. So when our bearded Australian bartender introduced himself as “Sam,” I just smiled and nodded and complimented the drinks. It was literally 48 hours later that the wayward neurons in my brain (no doubt a bit fried by the weekend of barhopping) made the connection, and I facepalmed pretty hard. No wonder the drinks were so perfect. Sam, on the off-chance you read this, thanks for a lovely time.

As for the Paper Plane, Ross named it after M.I.A.'s song Paper Planes, which he was listening to while he worked on the recipe.

Paper Plane

1 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Amaro Nonino
1 oz. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass. No garnish. Or get cute and fold a teeny tiny paper plane to hang on the glass.

Recipe adapted from Liquor.com.

Bottle Swap: The King's Ginger

This post is going to be a little different from my usual Bottle Buys, because this time it's a bottle swap! Fellow Boston cocktail blogger Mr. Muddle and I, lamenting the fact that we can't buy every single cocktail ingredient out there without bankrupting ourselves, decided to do a bottle swap where we each bought a new spirit and shared half of the bottle. Today and next Thursday, we're both using our new ingredients in original cocktails. Be sure to check out Mr. Muddle's blog today for the Thoroughly Polite Dustup, his take on The King's Ginger (and possibly the best cocktail name I've heard in a while - reference for the uninitiated).

The King's Ginger was Mr. Muddle's suggestion for the swap, and I was very excited to get my hands on some of this ginger liqueur. It's made by macerating ginger root in a high-proof brandy. Honey, lemon peel, and a bit of whiskey are added as well. It's a thick, syrupy liqueur with an intense ginger flavor and a spicy bite.

I love a liqueur with an interesting history behind it, and as you might guess from its name, The King's Ginger has got one. According to their website, the royal physician of King Edward VII commissioned the ginger liqueur in 1903 "to stimulate and revivify His Majesty whilst exposed to the elements on morning rides in his new horseless carriage." It was created by Berry Bros., a spirits company that has existed since 1698 and is still operating today as Berry Bros. & Rudd. They have supplied wine and spirits to the royal family since 1720.

King Edward VII was the eldest son of Queen Victoria. He was quite the bon vivant; you may recall some of his antics from my post on the Prince of Wales cocktail, one of his favored drinks. He enjoyed good food, cigars, hunting, and the company of ladies. (As The King's Ginger tactfully puts it, "The encumbrance of marriage didn't curb the socialising to which Edward had become accustomed.") He also enjoyed driving. He became the first monarch to own an automobile in 1900, when he bought a Daimler. He bought several more during his reign. These were open-air vehicles, and the Royal Physician was very worried about the effects of driving on Edward's health. He asked Berry Bros. to create a liqueur that would warm His Majesty up after his morning drives. And so the King's Ginger was born.

Edward VII in his Daimler.

I'm a little unclear on exactly how long The King's Ginger has been on the shelves - it was sold as far back as the 1980's, but the current version has only been around since 2010 or so. I don't know if Berry Bros. started marketing it immediately or if it remained something of a royal specialty for a while. But thank goodness it's available to us commoners now!

I was really excited about this liqueur, as ginger is one of my favorite flavors in a cocktail. It seems to work with any spirit. I've made ginger syrup in the past, but fresh ginger definitely isn't something I usually have on hand, and I love that this liqueur will be a permanent fixture in my bar. Unlike Domain de Canton, which is quite sweet, The King's Ginger really has some bite to it, and a wonderfully natural-tasting ginger flavor.

King's Ginger

Price: $35
Alcohol Content: 41%
Popular Cocktails: No classics I know of; try it in any citrusy or fizzy drink

The King's Ginger is an extremely versatile cocktail ingredient - a million possible recipes popped into my mind when I tasted it. I decided to try something a little fun and do a riff on a cocktail I'm not really a huge fan of: the Moscow Mule. This mixture of ginger beer, lime, and vodka is undeniably refreshing but not really all that complex or special, copper mug aside. So I wondered what it would take to make a version I'd like with the King's Ginger. Since I generally prefer cocktails that are served up instead of on the rocks, I decided the fizz was going to go - I was going to martini-fy the Moscow Mule. And I have to say, I'm kind of in love with the finished product. This is definitely a vodka cocktail that I like!

And this one doesn't need a special glass, right? Oh wait... they sell copper coupes? Um, yeah. I had to get one of those.

Moscow Martini

2 oz. vodka
1 oz. King's Ginger
3/4 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with lime and crystallized ginger.

Historical information for this post came from The King's Ginger, The Whiskey Exchange, and Anchor Distilling.

Bottle Buy: Drambuie

I've got another new ingredient to introduce today: Drambuie. Best known for its use in the Rusty Nail, this Scottish liqueur traces its roots back to English royalty. It doesn't seem to show up in that many cocktails, but it's got a fantastic flavor that I'd like to play around with more.

Drambuie is a Scotch-based liqueur flavored with spices, herbs, and honey. The exact recipe is a well-kept secret, and has been for a long time. The main flavors I get when I taste it are anise and honey, with hints of spices and citrus. It's thick and a bit syrupy on its own. It would make a nice after-dinner drink.

Drambuie claims that the recipe was first developed by the Royal Apothecary for Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 18th century. If you're fuzzy on your British royals like I am, let me fill you in. You don't need to know this to enjoy your Drambuie, but I think it makes it a lot more fun.

Bonnie Prince Charlie was a Stuart, a member of the royal house of Scotland. His grandfather James II was King of England, but he was exiled in the Glorious Revolution for being a Catholic. James II's son, also named James, tried to regain the throne and failed, so it fell to his grandson Charles (aka Bonnie Prince Charlie), who was named regent in 1743 at the age of 23.

Charles Edward Stuart, aka "Bonnie Prince Charlie," in 1745

With the throne of England, the legitimacy of the Catholic faith, and his family's honor hanging in the balance, one can imagine that Charlie might have needed a stiff drink every now and then. Drambuie says he would have a few drops of a concoction developed by his apothecary every day "for strength and vitality." Unfortunately, it didn't help him win the Battle of Culloden, and Charlie lost his chance to re-take the throne. He ended up on the run in Scotland, where the Highlanders protected and helped him.

Legend has it that one of these Highlanders was John MacKinnon, Chief of Clan MacKinnon, who helped Charles escape from the Isle of Skye. To thank him, Bonnie Prince Charles gave him the recipe for his liqueur. The clan passed it down for generations, until a hotel proprietor named John Ross began serving it to his patrons on the Isle of Skye in 1873. His customers loved it, calling it "an dram buidheach" in Gaelic, meaning "the drink that satisfies." It was popular enough that Malcom MacKinnon began producing it to sell in 1909, using the phrase as inspiration for its name, Drambuie.

How much of this is actually true? Probably not much. Attributing the recipe to Bonnie Prince Charles is a great marketing scheme. But you never know! After all, they're confident enough to put "Prince Charles Edward Stuart's Liqueur" right there on the label.

Drambuie

Price: $35
Alcohol Content: 40%
Popular Cocktails: Rusty Nail, Bonnie Prince Charles, Bobby Burns

When it comes to cocktails, Drambuie is basically synonymous with the Rusty Nail. A mixture of Scotch and Drambuie with a lemon twist, it's a simple but delicious recipe. It's also quite a strong cocktail. A knock-you-on-your-ass, I-don't-even-remember-doing-that sort of cocktail. It's something about the Drambuie that just makes it go down a little too easy. My parents introduced me to it a couple of Christmases ago, and they told me their notorious Rusty Nail story: a friend of theirs had a few too many and stumbled home drunk without his house keys. He ended up kicking down his own front door in the middle of the night. The next morning his toddler asked "Is Daddy a cowboy?"

By the same token, I have a couple of friends who say they'd love to get into Scotch but they just don't like it by itself. The sweet, herbal Drambuie makes the Rusty Nail a nice gateway cocktail for would-be Scotch drinkers.

A Rusty Nail usually calls for a blended Scotch. My current favorite is Monkey Shoulder. You'll also want to experiment with the ratio of Scotch to Drambuie. Drambuie is quite sweet, so I like the 4:1 ratio here. But it can go as high as 1:1. You can also add a little squeeze of lemon juice if you want a bit more citrus.

History: According to David Wondrich, the earliest mention of a Scotch and Drambuie cocktail is in 1937, when the B.I.F. was introduced by F. Benniman for the British Industries Fair. A 3:1 ratio served up with a dash of Angostura bitters, it wasn't quite the same as a Rusty Nail. After that, Drambuie + Scotch became a somewhat common cocktail formula, but it existed under many names, from the self explanatory D & S to the more obscure Knucklehead and Mig-21. At some point, somebody started calling it a Rusty Nail. Drambuie embraced the cocktail, and their chairwoman Gina MacKinnon (yep, still a MacKinnon) mentioned the Rusty Nail by name in the New York Times in 1963, putting to rest any other contenders. At this point, it was a 1:1 formula, meant to be built in a glass. Easy and unfussy, it became a very popular cocktail to make at home during this time. It was famously enjoyed by the Rat Pack.

Something about the Rusty Nail still evokes the image of a mirrored bar cart sitting in a den full of midcentury furniture, velvet sofas, and wood-paneled walls. It's retro, almost tacky. It's what your dad drinks. In the premier of the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, Saul Goodman makes himself a Rusty Nail at home, prompting Gothamist to write the article "Of Course Saul Goodman Drinks Rusty Nails." If you're at all familiar with the character, it totally fits. Maybe the Rusty Nail was just popular at an awkward time for cocktails - too recently to be lumped in with romantic, Prohibition-era recipes and too long ago to benefit from the current mixology renaissance. But I'd argue that it's still worthy of some attention. I hope we see a Rusty Nail comeback in the near future.

Rusty Nail

2 oz. Scotch
1/2 oz. Drambuie

Combine Scotch and Drambuie in a rocks glass with one or two large ice cubes and stir gently. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Bottle Buy: Yellow Chartreuse

Until I posted about Crème de Cacao a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't done a Bottle Buy post in quite a while. That was, quite simply, because I hadn't bought any new bottles. There's so much you can do with just a few spirits and liqueurs that I could probably never run out of drinks to make with what I've introduced so far. But there were still a few things on my wish list, and I finally went ahead and bought them. The first one I'll talk about is Yellow Chartreuse.

Yellow Chartreuse is the younger sibling of Green Chartreuse, which is probably the more popular of the two. Like Green Chartreuse, Yellow Chartreuse it is made by Catholic Carthusian monks in the Order of St. Bruno, also known as the Chartreuse Order. The Order has operated in the Chartreuse Mountains of France since 1084. In 1737 they made the excellent decision to start making booze. Their Green Chartreuse was initially sold to local villages as a health tonic, but people enjoyed drinking it for fun, so they reduced its alcohol content a bit and began selling it as a liquor. One hundred and one years later, they introduced Yellow Chartreuse.

Despite the fact that it hasn't been around as long, Yellow Chartreuse seems to appear in more classic cocktails than Green. Its yellow color comes from the addition of saffron. It's lighter and sweeter than Green Chartreuse, and also has a lower alcohol content (40% as opposed to 55%). Unfortunately it's only slightly cheaper - these are pricey liqueurs.

So, being a generally frugal cocktail blogger, I wondered: could you buy just one or the other, and use them interchangeably? And, if so, which one should you buy? In my mind, Yellow Chartreuse seems more versatile. It mixes well with anything - gin, whiskey, tequila, vodka, whatever. Whereas I feel a bit more squeamish about mixing Green Chartreuse with whiskey. I'm not sure why... maybe it's just the color? It doesn't seem right. But I wanted to know if there was any basis to my qualms. So I made two cocktails - the Last Word, which is usually made with Green Chartreuse, and the Greenpoint (recipe below), which is usually made with Yellow - following the original recipes, and then swapping the Chartreuses.

The short result is that neither cocktail seemed right with the other Chartreuse. The Last Word with Yellow Chartreuse tastes like a faint echo of the original cocktail. The flavors are there, but muted. It's too sweet and not complex enough. If you only had Yellow Chartreuse, you could make yourself a Last Word and get an idea of what the cocktail tastes like, but it wouldn't be the real thing. The Greenpoint with Green Chartreuse is a much better drink than I expected, but I don't feel like the flavors mesh as well. The Green Chartreuse is too overpowering. So I'm afraid you can't really get away with interchanging these two liqueurs. If you can only buy one, personally I'd still spring for Green first, because the Last Word is one of my all-time favorite cocktails, and I love the more intense flavor.

Yellow Chartreuse

Price: $50-60
Alcohol Content: 40%
Popular Cocktails: Greenpoint, Diamondback, Alaska, Widow's Kiss

The first cocktail I made with my Yellow Chartreuse was a Greenpoint. This is a variation on the Brooklyn cocktail, which is sort of a variation on the Manhattan (see more on this below). While Yellow Chartreuse doesn't exactly have a starring role in the Greenpoint, it's probably one of the best-known cocktails that makes use of it, and comparing the flavor to a traditional Manhattan will definitely help you see how the Chartreuse is working in the recipe. It makes the drink more sweet and herbal than a Manhattan, and the lemon twist and orange bitters provide a lovely hint of citrus.

History: The Greenpoint was created in 2005 by Michael McIlroy at Milk & Honey in New York. But its history really goes back quite a bit farther.

In the early twentieth century, there were five popular cocktails named after New York City's five boroughs: the Manhattan (rye, sweet vermouth, bitters), the Bronx (rye, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, orange juice), the Brooklyn (rye, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, Amer Picon or bitters), the Queens (gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, pineapple juice), and the Staten Island Ferry (rum, pineapple juice). For whatever reason, the Manhattan persisted in popularity and was elevated to classic cocktail status, while the other four fell somewhat into obscurity. As interest in pre-Prohibition cocktails was revived, so were these old recipes. The Brooklyn in particular has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, and bartenders began playing with the recipe and naming their new creations after Brooklyn neighborhoods: Slope, Prospect Park, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Bensonhurst, Red Hook. And, of course, Greenpoint.

For more on these Brooklyn-themed cocktails, check out this article from Punch.

Greenpoint

2 oz. rye whiskey
1/2 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Recipe from Liquor.com.