Pumpkin Spice Old Fashioned

It's a little hard to believe it's already Thanksgiving. Wasn't Halloween like last week? And to top it off, my extended family is celebrating Christmas on Thanksgiving day this year because most of us will be out of town in December. Definitely a condensed holiday season.

Thanksgiving is a perfect cocktail holiday. It already centers around sharing food and drink with friends and family. And there are so many fantastic flavors that we associate with autumn and Thanksgiving: cranberry, cinnamon, pecan, sweet potato, maple... and of course pumpkin! I've never put pumpkin in a cocktail before, but I did have a guest post on pumpkin cocktails a couple of years ago. I've been meaning to make one myself ever since. And since the pumpkin spice trend doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, it's high time to hop on the bandwagon.

This is a very simple Old Fashioned recipe made special by a pumpkin spice syrup. I tried a couple of recipes I found online and didn't think any of them had enough pumpkin in them, so this one is my own creation. You're going to want to whip up a big batch, because it is good in everything - try it in coffee or on ice cream! A jar of it would make a great gift for your host this Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 dash cardamom
OR 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice - I used Trader Joe's

Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Lower heat and add pumpkin and spices, whisking to combine. Let barely simmer for five minutes, whisking frequently. Then cover and let cool. Once the mixture has cooled, strain it through cheesecloth to remove the pumpkin solids. Store in the fridge.

Pumpkin Spice Old Fashioned

2.5 oz. bourbon
2 barspoons pumpkin spice syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash pecan or walnut bitters (or another dash of Ango if you don't have this)

Build the drink in a rocks glass. Combine bitters and syrup, and then add bourbon and stir. Add a large piece of ice and stir briefly. Twist an orange peel over the drink and discard. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

Recipe Round-Up: The Negroni

Unless you're living under a rock (or, you know, not on social media), you probably know that it's Negroni Week! Sponsored by Imbibe and Campari, this is a week-long celebration of what is arguably the cocktail world's favorite drink. Bars around the country serve Negronis and Negroni variations, with proceeds from the drinks going to various charities. I'm only getting in on the tail end of the week, but if you're reading this before June 10th, see what venues are serving Negronis for a good cause near you here.

The Negroni and I have a tumultuous history. When I first tried one, I did not like it at all, and I said as much in my original Negroni post three years ago. In the cocktail world, thinking that Negronis are anything less than amazing is a fairly controversial opinion, but I was prepared to stand by it unless I magically developed a taste for them. And I did. Not magically, exactly; I think it was a combination of buying better sweet vermouth (and storing it properly in the refrigerator) and developing a taste for more bitter drinks in general. Other less polarizing cocktails eased me into the flavors of the Negroni, and before I knew it I was a convert. But I still understand how someone might not enjoy them, especially if they're new to Campari or cocktails in general. So whether you love a classic Negroni or are looking for your gateway drink, I've rounded up some Negroni variations in honor of this iconic equal-parts cocktail.

Assume that all of these should be stirred over ice and strained into a rocks glass over ice (though the last two can also be served in a coupe). Alternatively you can build them in the glass for an even easier cocktail.

Classic Negroni

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth
Orange twist

The original: easy to remember, easy to make, and always great. Opinions will differ on the best gin and sweet vermouth for the job, but my go-tos are The Botanist or Wire Works and either Cocchi Vermouth di Torino or Carpano Antica Formula.

White Negroni

2 oz. gin
1 oz. Lillet Blanc
3/4 oz. Suze
Lemon twist

This variant from London bartender Wayne Collins is actually a lot more yellow than white, but let's not nitpick. Suze and Lillet make this Negroni a bit lighter but more herbal. It does diverge from the typical equal parts ratio, since Suze can be a bit overpowering. See my full post on this drink here.

Negroni Bianco 

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco
1 oz. blanc vermouth
Orange or grapefruit twist

This truly white Negroni is known as the Negroni Bianco, and it is my favorite drink on this list. In fact, it's easily one of my favorite drinks of all time. (Someone told me recently that I say that a lot on here. Well, tough. It's true, especially in this case.) It's beautifully light and balanced, still bitter but not overpowering. It would be a perfect introductory Negroni. I wish I'd had one years ago - I might have started liking Negronis sooner.

Special Negroni

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Lillet Blanc
Orange twist

I have a feeling this recipe exists under other names, but ever since I was served one at Canary Square in Boston, I call it the Special Negroni. This is the ultimate introductory Negroni - milder, sweeter, and a bit more citrusy, but still preserving all the crucial parts of the original.

Toffee Negroni

1 oz. aged rum
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Amontillado sherry
Grapefruit twist

I had never heard of this Negroni until I saw it in Kara Newman's equal parts cocktail book Shake. Stir. Sip. Created by Lynette Marrero, it has a deep toffee sweetness with just the right amount of bitterness.

Deconstructed Negroni

1 oz. gin
3/4 oz. dry vermouth
Dehydrated Campari
Orange twist

This one is a bit more of a novelty than a go-to recipe, but it seemed like I ought to include it. A bartender at Roosevelt in Denver told me how they dehydrated Campari and used it to serve a colorless Negroni with a Campari rim. I tried it at home and was pretty pleased with the result. See how to make it here.

Boulevardier

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth

This is another drink that definitely goes on my list of all-time favorites. I find the juniper notes of gin one of the more polarizing things about a Negroni, and subbing in bourbon makes a smoother drink that's more akin to a Manhattan. Say what you will, but I'll order a Boulevardier over a Negroni any day. See my original post on the Boulevardier (from before I developed my undying love for this cocktail) here.

Old Pal

1 oz. rye
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. dry vermouth
Orange twist

A close relative of the Boulevardier, the Old Pal is an even lighter cocktail that uses dry vermouth instead of sweet. You can take it one step further and try a Pen Pal, which additionally swaps the Campari for Aperol.

I've seen a ton of other interesting Negroni variations this week... what's your favorite?

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.

Old Fashioneds with Maker's 46

Last week, Maker's Mark invited me to participate in their Father's Day webinar. Pamela Wiznitzer teamed up with David Shapiro of Trunk Club in Manhattan to help us make some cocktails and come up with some creative Father's Day gifts. In addition to showing us several ways to wrap a Maker's Mark bottle (my personal favorite was tying a bowtie around it and gifting them both), Pam showed us how to make a couple of different Old Fashioned recipes with Maker's 46. At first I thought, "Well, I know how to make an Old Fashioned." But then I realized that (a) my currently-posted Old Fashioned recipe is a bit old and contains a lot more "fruit salad" than I prefer these days, and (b) Pam had some pretty great ideas on how to make an excellent cocktail, all of which are below.

I'm usually 1,500 miles away from my dad, and until this year my husband could only be considered a father to our adorable but badly-behaved dog, so I was really excited that my dad was coming up to Boston this past weekend and we could have a belated Father (and Father-to-be)'s day celebration with some Old Fashioneds. I set up all the ingredients we'd need for the two recipes Pam showed us and mixed up some drinks for the two of the most important men in my life (the third being the tiny one doing somersaults in my uterus right now). My dad also brought his incredibly nice Canon 6D and all of his expertise with Lightroom, so we got some great photos of the process!

Maker's Mark can make for a very special Old Fashioned. I personally love using bourbon instead of rye, and as a wheated bourbon, Maker's is particularly sweet and rich. We made these cocktails with Maker's 46, a special bottle from Maker's Mark that is aged for 2-3 more months with additional French oak staves. It gives the Maker's a more intense flavor, rich with caramel, spice, vanilla, and toasted oak. The distillers experimented with several different barrels for the special bourbon, and the 46th was the one that worked - thus Maker's 46.

For the first Old Fashioned, Pam kept it classic with Angostura bitters and regular simple syrup (1:1 ratio of sugar and water, either simmered and cooled or - as Pam suggested if you're pinched for time - shaken together in a mason jar until the sugar dissolves). Where she surprised me was suggesting a lemon twist instead of the usual orange twist. At first I was aghast - isn't that sacrilegious or something?? But she said it could really brighten up the flavors of the bourbon, and she was completely right. It was a nice twist on my usual recipe (no pun intended).

For the second recipe, Pam used two really excellent ingredients: Cocktail & Son's Spiced Demerara Syrup, which I've tried before and loved, and 18.21 Barrel Aged Havana & Hyde bitters, which were new to me but are going to quickly became a favorite in my bar. This Old Fashioned was an entirely different experience, full of spice and smoke. An orange twist and star anise were the perfect garnish.

The dads had a great time catching up and enjoying the Old Fashioneds. I'm really lucky that my son is going to grow up with two such wonderful men in his life!

Simple Old Fashioned

2 oz. bourbon (Maker's 46 recommended)
2 dashes bitters
2 barspoons simple syrup
Lemon twist

In a mixing glass, combine bitters, simple syrup, and bourbon. Fill the glass with ice, stir briefly, and strain into an Old Fashioned glass over one large ice cube. Twist a lemon peel over the glass, rub it along the sides, and drop it in. Alternatively, you can build the drink in your glass.

Spiced Old Fashioned

2 oz. bourbon (Maker's 46 recommended)
9 drops 18.21 Havana & Hyde bitters (or other barrel-aged bitters)
1 barspoon Cocktail & Sons Spiced Demerara Syrup
Orange twist
Star anise

Combine bitters, syrup, and bourbon in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir briefly. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass over one large ice cube. Squeeze an orange peel over the glass, rub it along the sides, and drop it in. Garnish with star anise. Alternatively, you can build the cocktail in your glass.

Mixology Monday: The Innocents Abroad

Hello from Louisiana! GarnishGuy and I are back home until Christmas, spending time with family and eating far more than we ought to. We're hoping to sneak away to New Orleans later in the week to celebrate our anniversary (eight years!) and check out some bars. Until then, we've been having fun experimenting with the contents of my parents' liquor cabinet, which has definitely grown since I started this blog! Last night's cocktails were, appropriately, the De La Louisiane and the Vieux Carre - both big hits.

Since we were pretty busy leading up to our trip, I didn't have much time to experiment with cocktails for this month's Mixology Monday. Luckily, the theme of this month's challenge, hosted by Stacey Markow, is digestifs. And I've had an absolutely fantastic recipe for a digestif that I've been looking forward to sharing. It's not an original recipe, but it's so good I can't resist sharing it for this challenge.

There's an excellent new restaurant in Boston's South End called SRV. It's a "Venetian-style Bacaro and wine bar" from the folks behind The Salty Pig and Canary Square, two of our favorite spots. We first went there for a drink while we waited for a table at Toro. We ordered a couple of cocktails and several of their bar bites, and we were really blown away. The bar snacks were ridiculously good: salt cod brandade on black bread with herbs, soft boiled quail eggs with white anchovies and a crunchy garlic pangrattato, grilled octopus with pine nuts and preserved lemon... I need to stop talking about this, I'm making myself really hungry right now.

The cocktail menu at SRV is heavy on amari and vermouth, which I love. They have a vermouth of the day ("We always drink to world peace") and some really great cocktails. One of these is The Innocents Abroad: Fighting Cock bourbon, Amaro Nonino, Gran Classico, and Kina L'Aero D'Or. It's been a while since I was so blown away by a cocktail that I thought, "I HAVE to make this at home," but that was what I thought about The Innocents Abroad, and I didn't really care how many bottles of liquor I needed to buy (three, it turned out - four if I wanted to use the same bourbon). On our second visit, I worked up the courage to ask the bartender for the recipe, which he happily shared. I hope they won't mind me re-posting it here, so that others can know the joy of this wonderful drink.

The Innocents Abroad is a perfect digestif. We recently made it after dinner for a couple of friends, and it was wonderful: sweet with just enough bitterness. It has an almost syrupy texture, thick on your tongue. It's one of those cocktails where the ingredients knit together so perfectly and tightly that it's hard to pick them all out. It's nutty, citrusy, and herbal, with the lovely flavor of the Amaro Nonino in the middle of your sip and the distinctive bitterness of the Gran Classico and Kina L'Aero at the end. It's definitely one of the best cocktails I've tried this year.

History: This cocktail was created for SRV by David Spielburg. According to this article, it's a something of a riff on the Paper Plane. I imagine it must have been named after the book The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrim's Progress by Mark Twain, which tells the story of his travels through Europe and the Holy Land on a retired Civil War ship.

The Innocents Abroad

1 1/2 oz. bourbon (Fighting Cock recommended)
3/4 oz. Amaro Nonino
1/2 oz. Gran Classico
1/2 oz. Kina L'Aero D'Or

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Recipe courtesy of SRV.

Pear Tree

I've got some very exciting news! I've been selected as one of Drizly's Top Shelf Bloggers. I kind of can't believe that I'm on the same page as so many awesome cocktail blogs that I've been following for a while: Apartment Bartender, Gastronomista, Holly & Flora, Stir & Strain... the list goes on! Be sure to check out some of the other bloggers on the list. And, seeing as it's freeze-your-nosehairs cold in much of the US right now, don't forget that Drizly will deliver booze right to your door!

Yes, the temperature has dropped and the holidays are here. I kind of can't believe it. I usually spend so much time looking forward to Christmas, and this year we didn't even get a Christmas tree! I'm seeing festive cocktails popping up left and right on Twitter and Instagram, and I haven't really had time to get into the holiday spirit cocktail-wise. So during last night's frenzy of packing - we're flying home to spend the holiday in Louisiana with our families, where I believe it's a balmy 60 degrees - I made this holiday-appropriate cocktail and named it in honor of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I even came up with a little verse for it:

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

A cocktail made with sherry!

I'm pretty sure you could write a whole song here... Four Roses, Three Olives, Two... um... well, I haven't really thought it all through yet.

I just love the flavors in this cocktail. Amontillado sherry is one of my favorite new ingredients, and I think it works really well here, adding its nutty and fruity flavor without contributing too much sweetness. It blends beautifully with pear juice and bourbon. In lieu of regular maple syrup, I used some Noble Chamomile & Vanilla Maple Syrup, which was a subtle but nice touch - their Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup would also be awesome. And it turns out all the syrups at Muddle & Stir are 25% off right now! Use the discount code syrup25. If you need some stocking stuffers, the Noble Maple Syrups are perfect.

Happy holidays!

Pear Tree

1 1/2 oz. bourbon

3/4 oz. Amontillado sherry

3/4 oz. lemon juice

1/2 oz. maple syrup (I used Noble Chamomile & Vanilla Maple Syrup)

1/2 oz. pear juice

1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a candied pear*.

*For the candied pears, I adapted recipe from Adventuress (albeit in a very haphazard way - read on, but don't expect a precise recipe). I sliced the pear as thinly as I could, sprinkled both sides of the slices with sugar, and baked them on parchment paper at 300 degrees for at least an hour, maybe longer (it's going to depend a lot on the thickness of your slices). I checked them and flipped them roughly every 10 minutes. After 20 or 30 minutes, they had released a lot of juices, so I drained and replaced the parchment paper. I think I sprinkled on more sugar at 40 minutes or so. It took a long time to get them stiff enough to hold their shape when placed on the rim of a cocktail glass, and the thinner parts threatened to burn, so even slices is a must. Also, FYI, after 20-30 minutes they may not be stiff but they are delicious. Throw a few extra slices in for eating. :-)

Hotel Belvedere

I'm a little late, but I should mention that the roundup for November's Mixology Monday has been posted over at Doc Elliot's Mixology! Check it out for eight brunch-appropriate recipes that will meet all your day-drinking needs. My contribution to the list was the Bombay Sour, which was inspired by my bottle of Black Cloud Saffron Mango bitters. It was the third drink I made with my Black Cloud sampler pack, and today I've got a fourth. Only bottle to go! I found all the flavors in the pack very inspiring, but when I tasted the Charred Cedar bitters, I was really blown away. They've got an incredible woody, smoky flavor that is amazing with bourbon. They make a mean Old Fashioned, but I was looking forward to tailoring a cocktail specifically for these awesome bitters.

I definitely wanted to pair the bitters with bourbon, and I liked the idea of them with Benedictine. This put me in mind of a drink from The PDT Cocktail Book I made almost exactly a year ago called the Hotel D'Alsace, made with Irish whiskey, Benedictine, and Cointreau. I decided to work with the recipe to include the bitters and make it a bit more to my taste, as I found the Hotel D'Alsace a little too sweet. I replaced the Irish whiskey with bourbon and the Cointreau with orange bitters. The result is rich, sweet, herbaceous, and a bit smoky. I made the first one in a Glencairn glass because it was what I had clean and nearby, and I liked the way the shape of the glass brought the smell of the cedar to your nose and forced you to get a good whiff of the rosemary. I decided to keep it in a tulip-shaped glass.

Since this version of the Hotel D'Alsace has charred cedar and burnt rosemary, I started thinking about ruined hotels when it came time to name it. I was reminded of an incredible experience my husband and I had in Croatia when we were traveling after college. We were exploring the Old City of Dubrovnik (now popularized for its role as King's Landing in Game of Thrones). Looking out from the harbor, you can see how the coast curves around slightly to the southeast, forming a small peninsula. On its tip was a big, beautiful building, and we wondered what it might be. Later, we walked a ways up into the hills surrounding the city to get an aerial view of the town and decided to walk there and see what it was.

As we got closer, we realized that while the building had once been beautiful, it was now completely in ruins. We had stumbled upon the ruin of the Hotel Belvedere, a luxurious hotel that was destroyed by the Yugoslav People’s Army on October 3, 1991, during the Siege of Dubrovnik.

The Hotel Belvedere - you can see why we weren't aware it was in ruins at first. Photo from Untapped Cities.

We wandered around for a while, exploring the hollow buildings and taking photographs. The gutted buildings are covered in graffiti and stained with rust. It was such a sad embodiment of the region as a whole, a real and chilling reminder of the violence that had occurred there not so long ago.

To this day I'm surprised the ruin was so empty, and that we hadn't heard about it before stumbling upon it. It's such a prominent landmark when you look out from Dubrovnik. If you Google it, you can find a few blogs where other travelers describe exploring the ruins, and there are spectacular photos here, here, and here. Part of it was used for the battle between Prince Oberon and the Mountain in Game of Thrones. I was happy to find an article that says the ruin was recently purchased by a Russian billionaire who is going to turn it into a luxury hotel once again. As interesting as the ruins were, they were a monument to a terrible conflict, and I'm glad the region is healing and moving on.

The Hotel Belvedere's sign in the ruins. Photo from Untapped Cities by Thomas Löbig.

Finding the Hotel Belvedere was one of the more memorable parts of our time in Croatia, and I think it makes a fitting name for this cocktail. Whereas Paris' Hotel D'Alsace is bright and sweet, the Hotel Belvedere is charred and bitter - but still elegant and strong.

Hotel Belvedere

2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. Benedictine
1/2 dropper Black Cloud Charred Cedar Bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a tulip-shaped glass and garnish with a sprig of rosemary. Briefly burn the tip of the rosemary so that it is smoky and fragrant.

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.

Ginger Sage Smash

Last Monday, I announced some big news - Garnish is now officially affiliated with Muddle & Stir! And it's high time we toasted our new partnership with a cocktail.

If you're not familiar with Muddle & Stir, they're an online retailer that sells tools, glassware, and mixers for cocktails. I love what they're about. In their own words: "We keep running into people who are intimidated to try and create something beyond a gin and tonic at home. As professional bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts, we know that making magical mixtures in your own kitchen is not only possible but fun, exciting and delicious!"

Amen, Muddle & Stir!

So what does this partnership mean? It means that I’m able to offer you guys a fantastic discount on everything at Muddle & Stir – 10% off your purchase plus free shipping when you use the code MS10GB. And if you buy any of their products with this code, a small percentage of the proceeds will come back to Garnish. So if you’d like to support the blog while getting some great new tools and ingredients for your bar, check them out! But don’t worry – this isn’t going to change the blog whatsoever. I’m here to write about great cocktails, not to sell anything. I’ve always liked writing about the ingredients and tools I use, and I’ll continue to do just that. I’ll never recommend anything I don’t love and use myself.

The first time I looked at the selection of bar tools at Muddle & Stir, I kind of had to stop myself from buying all of them. I’ve still got my eye on these clear ice molds and this julep mug. But so far I’ve only purchased two things I’ve been wanting for a while: a wooden muddler and a set of stainless steel cocktail picks. Until now, I’ve (somewhat ironically) been using a stainless steel muddler and wooden cocktail picks, and I wanted to upgrade both.

The muddler purchase was inspired by the Death & Co cocktail book, which it seems I'm not going to stop talking about any time soon. My stainless steel muddler has a rubber base with spikes on the bottom, which is pretty effective for mashing something to a pulp, but it's not really ideal for muddling herbs. To illustrate this, Death & Co recommends taking a mint leaf, gently pressing it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue, and tasting the flavor that is expressed. Then chew it up a bit and compare the way it tastes. The chewing releases a lot more bitterness, and it’s those delicate minty flavors that we actually want to capture. That’s why a blunt muddler might be preferable.

The cocktail picks, on the other hand, just look pretty.

Along with my new tools, Muddle & Stir kindly sent me a sampler pack of Black Cloud Bitters, which I was super psyched to try. Last week was basically like Christmas.

I love bitters sampler packs. Other than my bottle of Angostura, which I decimated making Trinidad Sours, I’ve never finished an entire bottle of bitters, so I'm a big fan of buying lots of smaller bottles so that you can try several varieties. And the varieties in the Black Cloud sampler are pretty crazy awesome: Charred Cedar, Saffron Mango, Garden Party (cucumber and celery), Black & Blue (blackberry and blueberry), and Prairie Rose. Since I’m currently in the midst of my first attempt at making my own bitters, I’m trying to train my palate to taste them a bit more skillfully, and I tried all of them in club soda to get an idea of their flavor. They're all excellent, and Charred Cedar in particular is a total show-stopper – the fragrance and flavor are incredible.

So to toast my new partnership with Muddle & Stir, I obviously wanted to create a cocktail that would use my muddler, my cocktail picks, and my new bitters.

I decided to build a drink around the Black & Blue bitters. A smash seemed appropriate for my new muddler. My first thought was to reach for some blackberries or blueberries, but I was afraid that would mask the delicate flavor of the bitters themselves, so I decided to keep the berries for a garnish and let the bitters themselves bring all the berry flavor to the drink.

I thought sage would work well with the bitters. I used bourbon to bring out some of their cocoa and vanilla notes, and a ginger liqueur to play up their ginger flavors. (The ginger liqueur is part of a bottle swap I did with Mr. Muddle, and I'm not supposed to introduce it for a couple of weeks, but I just had to use it here. Shhh!) Using a ginger simple syrup could yield a similar result.

I'm beyond happy with the finished cocktail, and so excited to create some recipes with the rest of the bitters. Stay tuned! And don't forget to check out Muddle & Stir!

Ginger Sage Smash

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur (I used King's Ginger)
3 sage leaves
2 droppers Black Cloud Black & Blue bitters

Put sage and simple syrup in the bottom of a glass and muddle until sage is bruised and syrup is greenish. Add bourbon, lemon, ginger liqueur, and bitters. Fill glass with crushed ice and stir. Top with a little more ice, two blackberries on a cocktail pick, and a sage leaf.

Fancy Free

I think most people would agree that the Old Fashioned is just a really good cocktail. It's simple, classic, and delicious. And because it's so simple and so good, there are a lot of variations out there. Some stay pretty close to the source material, like I did with my Autumn Cranberry Old Fashioned. Others go a bit farther afield with additional ingredients, like my Blood and Smoke or the Ward Eight, or new base spirits as in the Oaxaca Old Fashioned (tequila and mezcal) and the Gin-Campari Old Fashioned (gin and... you guessed it). Spirits, bitters, and sugar... it's a fun and easy combination to play around with.

In my favorite Old Fashioned recipe, I like to add a little liqueur from the jar of Luxardo cherries. So the Fancy Free seemed like a brilliant idea - it replaces simple syrup and/or cherry juice with Luxardo maraschino liqueur. Orange and Angostura bitters round it out. The recipe calls for bourbon, but I think it might be better suited for rye. It depends how you prefer your Old Fashioneds.

This cocktail is sweet and rich, with a lingering spice and bitterness. It doesn't stray too far from its inspiration - a wonderful, complex riff on a classic cocktail.

History: When I posted this, I incorrectly stated that this cocktail was a recent invention, but it turns out it's quite old! Which isn't too surprising, given its ingredients and simplicity. The recipe appears in Crosby Gaige's Cocktail Guide and Ladies' Companion from 1941. I found one blog that claims this is its first time in print.

I'd never heard of Crosby Gaige before, so I looked him up. Turns out he was a pretty interesting guy. Born in 1883, he was the son of a postmaster from Nelson, NY. He worked his way up to become a wealthy Broadway producer and publisher. His small publishing company attracted the likes of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. He lost all his money and then earned it all back again. He he was quite the foodie and a huge fan of cocktails. "In the world of potables the cocktail represents adventure and experiment," he wrote. I entirely agree.

But where did Gaige get the recipe for the Fancy Free? Apparently he had a huge collection of recipe books, so it might have come from somewhere else. If any of you cocktail history buffs have additional information, I'd love to hear it.

Most of my info on Crosby Gaige came from this article and a Wall Street Journal article by Eric Felten called "Easier Does It: Starter Cocktails."

Fancy Free

2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur
2 dashes orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in an Old Fashioned glass with a large ice cube. Stir to combine. Garnish with a large orange twist and a brandied cherry.

Recipe from Serious Eats.

Hot Toddy

In the search for a good winter cocktail, it's just about impossible to beat a Hot Toddy. Warm and strong and citrusy, it's the cure for chill and gloomy days, the ideal libation after a foray out into the snow and slush. It will warm you up through-and-through.

The Hot Toddy is a well-known cocktail for which I'm not sure there's really a definitive recipe. There are a ton of variations on the general theme of booze + citrus + sugar, and even the ones that call themselves "classic" vary greatly in their ingredients. Notably, a lot of them contained tea, which I didn't think was traditionally a part of the Hot Toddy. I ended up cobbling together my own recipe based on what I always thought a real Hot Toddy ought to be. I kept it simple, with nothing but bourbon, lemon, honey, hot water, and a cinnamon stick. I could definitely see playing with the base spirit and adding tea or other flavors, but for now this is utter perfection.

If this recipe isn't quite enough to stave off the winter cold, check out the round-up post for Mixology Monday CV over at Doc Elliot's Mixology!

History: The Hot Toddy as we drink it today probably comes from Scotland, originating around the 18th century. That makes plenty of sense, given the popularity of Scottish whiskey and the fact that the weather there begs for a nice warm beverage. The name may come from Tod's Well in Edinburgh. There's a poem by Allan Ramsey called "The Morning Interview" written in 1721 that refers to its water being used to make tea. In the passage, he describes how everything for a tea party has come from afar: the table from Japan, the tea set from China, the sugar from Amazonia. Only the water comes from Scotland:

Here Scotia does no costly Tribute bring,
Only some Kettles full of Todian Spring.

Tod's Well was a major source of water for Edinburgh. So it follows that if people began drinking warm water from the "Todian Spring" mixed with Scotch, they might begin to refer to them as "hot toddies."

However, like any good cocktail, the Hot Toddy's origin isn't so clear. It may actually originate much further back - and farther away - than the Todian Well. There are records from as far back as 1638 that refer to an Indian coconut tree as the "Toddy Tree." Its sap was used to make liquor called arrack (I've written about it before) that became very popular in punches.

Interestingly, there's a pretty big gap between either of these possible sources for the word "toddy" and any record of someone actually drinking a cocktail called a "toddy." The earliest use appears in the 1784 book A Tour of the United States by J.F.D. Smyth. He writes that between noon and one o'clock, the typical Southern "gentleman of fortune" would drink "a draught of bombo, or toddy, a liquor composed of water, sugar, rum, and nutmeg, which is made weak, and kept cool." This does help explain why the modifier "hot" needed to be added later on.

One of the earliest mentions of a "hot toddy" actually comes from a scientist, Yale chemist Benjamin Silliman, in 1808. On a visit to Britain, he wrote, "Both dinners and suppers, when they are meant to be hospitable, are here concluded by the drinking of a hot toddy." He describes how guests mix their own hot water, whiskey, and sugar in pint-sized glasses. "The ladies are not supplied with foot-glasses," he writes, "but the gentlemen occasionally lade out some of their own hot toddy into the wine glasses of the ladies, who thus partake of this beverage, although with much moderation." Hmph.

In his 1862 classic How to Mix Drinks, Jerry Thomas equates hot toddies with hot punches. This seems like further evidence that the toddy may have a direct link to arrack, the classic punch ingredient.

Thanks to Wonderland Kitchen for most of this historical info!

Hot Toddy

2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. honey (maple syrup also works nicely)
5 oz. boiling water
1 cinnamon stick

Add bourbon, lemon juice, and honey to the bottom of a warmed mug. Top with boiling water and stir briefly. Add the cinnamon stick. Garnish with a lemon peel if desired. Stay warm.

Autumn Cranberry Old Fashioned

My parents and sister recently had cocktails at Mondo, Susan Spicer's restaurant in Lakeview, New Orleans. They raved about a Cranberry-Satsuma Old Fashioned that they wanted to recreate at home. Since I wanted to embrace some holiday flavors in the coming weeks, I thought it was an appropriate challenge.

A minor obstacle was that the Whole Foods in my neighborhood didn't have satsumas. They did, however, have fruits they called "autumn honey tangerines," which sounded season-appropriate and very amenable to inclusion in a cocktail. They're sweet and have a wonderful flavor. Satsumas or even regular oranges would also do nicely.

I made a cranberry syrup to replace my usual simple syrup and brandied cherry syrup, as well as some sugared cranberries for a garnish. I popped in a cinnamon stick to cement the holiday vibe. All in all, I'm quite pleased with the finished product. The differences from a traditional Old Fashioned are subtle but festive: flavor and bitterness from the cranberries and a hint of spice from the cinnamon. And the sugared cranberries are really one of the prettiest garnishes I've made so far.

Autumn Cranberry Old Fashioned

2.5 oz. bourbon (I used Bulleit)
1 tsp. cranberry simple syrup*
5-6 fresh cranberries
2 slices autumn tangerine or satsuma
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Sugared cranberries* and cinnamon stick to garnish

Muddle tangerine or satsuma and fresh cranberries in the bottom of an old fashioned glass. Add cranberry simple syrup, bitters, and bourbon. Stir briefly and add one large ice cube. Garnish with sugared cranberries on a pick and a cinnamon stick.

*You can make the sugared cranberry garnish and the cranberry simple syrup together. Combine 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar and simmer to dissolve the sugar. Add about 1/2 cup cranberries. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Strain, reserving both the cranberries and the syrup. Arrange half of the cranberries on parchment paper on a wire cooling rack and let sit for one hour; these will be your sugared cranberries. Return the rest to the pot with the syrup and muddle. Let sit for another 10-20 minutes and strain again, discarding the muddled berries. Once an hour has passed, pour 1/4 cup sugar onto a plate and roll the remaining cranberries in it to coat.

Sugared cranberry recipe from Vanilla and Bean.