Queen Victoria with Empress Gin

Last week I had the opportunity to go on my first industry trip to Victoria, British Columbia, sponsored by Empress 1908 Gin. We stayed at the historic Fairmont Empress Hotel, which was the inspiration for the gin's creation. They really spoiled us. We had beautiful rooms at the Empress, a whale watching trip, a morning at the spa, a champagne tea, and two lovely dinners. And of course we visited Victoria Distillers, where Empress 1908 is made. It's a gorgeous distillery, with large windows looking out over the Salish Sea. They make a number of spirits there, including two other gins that are locally quite popular. But Empress 1908 has been their most popular product by far, and it's easy to see why.

I think it's safe to say that Empress is one of the most unique gins out there. You may have already noticed it on a liquor store shelf or in Instagram photos. Among an array of clear gins, its deep indigo color is hard to miss. But Victoria Distillers didn't set out to make a purple gin. They wanted to make a limited-edition gin to celebrate the renovation of the Empress Hotel (named for Queen Victoria, Empress of India). The Empress is famous for their tea, so the distillers turned to the tea menu for inspiration. They chose the Empress Blend black tea to infuse the gin, but they were also inspired by a tea blend called "Blue Suede Shoes" that contained butterfly pea flowers and was, as the name suggests, blue. So they added the flowers to the gin as well, giving it a gorgeous purple hue.

When Victoria Distillers started experimenting with Empress 1908 in cocktails, they discovered what drinkers of butterfly pea tea had already known for some time - that with the infusion of the flowers, the gin actually changes color when an acid like lemon juice is added, from bluish to pinkish. It's magical and fun, and definitely the thing that attracts most people to Empress. But it's also an excellent gin, with a style between a typical London Dry and an American gin with notes of juniper, tea, and grapefruit. If you think you're not a gin person, this lovely bottle might change your mind.

I had several great cocktails made with Empress 1908 while in Victoria. It's fantastic in a Bee's Knees or a French 75. When you make a Negroni Bianco with it, it keeps its bluish purple color, while a traditional Negroni comes out a deep garnet red even prettier than its usual bright crimson. One favorite was a Gin Smash made with mint and lavender from the Fairmont Empress' rooftop gardens. And of course we had lots of gin and tonics. Empress recommends Fever Tree tonic and a slice of grapefruit for garnish.

For my first cocktail made at home with the Empress, I knew I wanted to use eggwhites because the purple color looks so good with that layer of foam. I decided to double down on all things purple by adding a lavender simple syrup and bit of Creme de Violette to a traditional gin sour. The result is a colorful, floral drink pretty enough to do justice to this wonderful gin. Thank you again to Empress 1908 for having me in Victoria!

Queen Victoria

2 oz. Empress 1908 Gin
1/4 oz. Creme de Violette
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. lavender simple syrup*
1/2 oz. eggwhite

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled and combined, about 20 seconds. Strain out ice and dry shake for another 30 seconds or so. Fine-strain into a coupe glass and garnish with lavender buds and flowers.

*For lavender syrup, make a typical 1:1 simple syrup and pour it into a jar with several sprigs of fresh lavender. Let sit overnight to infuse.

Clover Club

Sometimes knowing a lot of cocktails can work against you. If you have a small bar and a few tried-and-true drink recipes, it's easy to figure out what to make when you want a cocktail or when friends come over. But when you have a massive arsenal of bottles and books at your disposal, sometimes it's difficult to pick a recipe, especially if someone asks you to just "make them something" and doesn't know enough about cocktails to specify much beyond that. A good bartender (or home bartender) knows what questions to ask to find the perfect drink for a guest. But sometimes the occasion isn't right for twenty questions and it's nice to be able to just hand someone a good drink. So I'd argue that a really good home bartender should know a few crowd-pleasers that anybody will like. And the Clover Club is going on my list.

I knew the Clover Club would be good - it's basically a raspberry gin sour - but I didn't expect just how much I loved it. I'm not usually a raspberry fiend, but the syrup imparts just enough raspberry flavor for my taste (and also gives the drink its gorgeous color). We planted a little raspberry bush in our backyard a couple of years ago, and it has flourished with very little encouragement, so I was able to pick the raspberries for the syrup and garnish the morning before I used them. The syrup is a bit unique in that it's not made on the stove - Julie Reiner, founder of the Brooklyn bar named after this classic cocktail, says that this will cook the raspberries and change their flavor. Instead, they are muddled, mixed with sugar, and allowed to macerate for 20-30 minutes. Then you add some water and strain the mixture. It's a very easy drink to make considering how absolutely beautiful it looks.

History: The Clover Club is a very old cocktail. It is named for a men's club that met in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. It was exactly what you are probably picturing - a bunch of old, rich white dudes (including William Butler Yeats) sipping drinks in a sumptuous lounge paneled in dark wood. It seems quite incongruous that a lot of them were probably drinking this pink, frothy cocktail. The Clover Club of Philadelphia, a book published in 1897, mentions the drink and that it originated the previous year, in 1896. It enjoyed a lot of popularity in the pre-Prohibition years but, like many other great cocktails, faded into obscurity afterwards, probably because of the egg whites and its girly appearance. By 1934, Esquire was referring to it as a drink for "pansies." The modern cocktail renaissance renewed interest in this delicious cocktail, and Julie Reiner's Clover Club bar ensured that the recipe got some extra attention.

Clover Club

1 1/2 oz. gin (Plymouth recommended)
1/2 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin recommended)
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. raspberry syrup*
1/4 oz. egg white**

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake well, for at least 20 seconds. Strain the drink, dump the ice, and return the cocktail to the shaker to shake again for at least 30 more seconds (this is called a reverse dry shake). Strain into a coupe and garnish with three raspberries on a pick.

*For raspberry syrup, muddle 1/4 cup raspberries in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup sugar and stir or muddle to mix it in well. The mixture should become bright red and juicy. Let it macerate for 20-30 minutes. Then add 1/4 cup water, stir well, and fine strain.

**It can be hard to pour small quantities of egg white - it all tends to goop out at once. I like to separate my egg white into a bowl and lightly whisk it so that it's easier to measure out 1/4 ounce.

Recipe from Julie Reiner via Imbibe. Historical info from Wikipedia, Punch, Gin Foundry, and The Cocktail Chronicles.

Ramos Gin Fizz + 3 Years of Garnish!

I'm celebrating! Today Garnish is three years old. I started the blog back in 2015, while I was still in graduate school. My first post was on building a basic home bar. And honestly, it holds up pretty well, except for the inclusion of Punt e Mes as the recommended sweet vermouth. (I love Punt e Mes, but it's more bitter than most vermouths; I'd recommend Carpano Antica Formula or Cocchi Vermouth di Torino now.) Live and learn!

Since that first post, so much has happened that I never expected. For one thing, there are actually people like you out there reading this blog, which in itself is pretty crazy and amazing. My home bar has grown beyond the few bottles in that first post to a ridiculous, sprawling collection that recently spilled over into the neighboring bookcase. I've gotten the opportunity to attend industry events, work with brands, and connect with other cocktail lovers. The biggest surprise has been Instagram - just this month, I hit 10,000 followers, with is insane. It has easily been the best platform for connecting with other home bartenders, and if you're not on there, I highly recommend you check it out.

Like any good celebration, this one calls for a drink! I chose the Ramos Gin Fizz to celebrate this milestone because I always thought of it as the Mt. Everest of cocktails. I tried to make one early on in my home bartending days and failed utterly; my foam was pitifully nonexistent and the flavor was just off. After that I assumed it was a drink that was just beyond my skill level. But no longer! I made a Ramos Gin Fizz. And guess what? You can, too.

The only ingredient in a Ramos Gin Fizz that you might not have on hand is orange flower water. This is a clear liquid distilled from orange blossoms that has a flowery flavor and fragrance. You can find this at many liquor stores or buy it online. You can also skip it if you must. Your Fizz will be lacking that hint of floral flavor that makes it extra special, but it will still be quite tasty.

The other big challenge when making a Ramos Gin Fizz is getting that foam just right. There are a lot of tricks you can employ. A reverse dry shake with a blender ball (see my notes in this recipe) is the best way I've found to get that really nice foam.

Actually, that's a lie. I'll come clean - the best way to get this great foam, and the way that I got the foam in the picture, is with an electric mixer. I know, I know. That must technically be cheating or something. And it creates some bubbles that are a bit too large for most egg white cocktails. But for the Ramos Gin Fizz, which benefits from a big, stiff topping of foam, an electric mixer with a whisk attachment can save your arms some serious work and basically guarantee that you'll get that beautiful drink you're striving for. And if anyone has a problem with that, then tough.

All that mixing and shaking will be worth it, I promise. The Ramos Gin Fizz is a heavenly drink. I've often seen it compared to a Piña Colada, which is sort of bizarre since they don't share a single ingredient in common. I think it's because they both have that perfect combination of creamy, sweet, and sour. The Ramos Gin Fizz just looks and tastes so special, from the magical cap of foam to the hint of orange flower water. It's a cocktail that shouldn't be missed.

History: The Ramos Gin Fizz is a New Orleans classic, so of course it was born there. It was invented by Henry C. Ramos in 1888 at the Imperial Cabinet saloon at the corner of Gravier and Carondelet. He called it a New Orleans Fizz. When he sold his bar and opened a new one right down the street called The Stag in 1907, he took the iconic recipe with him there. It was wildly popular. This was actually something of a problem, because Ramos' recipe required a staggering 12 minutes of shaking. To keep up with demand, he employed an assembly line of "shaker boys" who would each shake the drink for a minute or two so that they didn't become exhausted.

Ramos was actually a supporter of the temperance movement, quite surprising for someone who made a living slinging drinks. He discouraged any kind of drunkenness or misbehavior at his bar, and closed at the respectable hour of eight o'clock. When Prohibition began in 1919, he was quick to shutter The Stag and switch to mixing paint instead of cocktails. He died in 1928.

When Prohibition was lifted, Ramos' son sold the rights to the New Orleans Fizz to the Roosevelt Hotel, which trademarked the new name "Ramos Gin Fizz" in 1935. Their Sazerac Bar remains the most famous place to order one today. It was famously the favorite cocktail of Huey P. Long, who went so far as to fly one of the Roosevelt's bartenders to New York to teach the folks at the New Yorker Hotel how to make the drink properly for him when he was visiting. If you think that sounds a bit silly, you've never seen the bartenders at the Roosevelt make a Ramos Gin Fizz. It's a theatrical production, with white-suited bartenders energetically shaking the drink, performing an impressively high pour, and then doing that final top-up with club soda that causes the foam to almost miraculously rise above the rim of the glass. Ordering one there is a must if you visit New Orleans.

Thank you all so much for reading - here's to another three years! Cheers!

Ramos Gin Fizz

1 1/2 oz. gin (preferably Old Tom)
1 oz simple syrup
1 oz. heavy cream
1 oz. egg white
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. lime juice
3-4 drops orange flower water
2 drops vanilla extract (optional*)
Club soda

Combine all ingredients except club soda in a shaker with ice and shake well to combine. Strain out the ice and return to the shaker, adding a blender ball or spring. Shake very well to froth up the egg whites, 30-60 seconds. Alternatively, transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and blend with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment for 30 seconds.

Add a dash of club soda to the bottom of a tall Collins glass. Pour in the cocktail, raising the bowl or shaker as you pour to increase the distance between it and the glass - this helps the foam form. Top up the drink with club soda so that the foam rises above the rim of the glass.

*According to Stanley Clisby Arthur in his 1937 book Famous New Orleans Drinks and How To Mix 'Em, "Veteran barkeepers differ violently - practically come to blows - over the inclusion of the two innocent drops of extract of vanilla. Old-timers who worked for Henry Ramos in the past declare the original Ramos included no vanilla in its make-up. Others hold that the twin drops of extract wrung from the heart of the vanilla bean either make or break a real gin fizz - make it taste like heaven or the reverse." I will leave it up to you to decide where you stand on this divisive issue. Since I was having my fizz with a vanilla cupcake, I thought the two drops sounded like a lovely idea.

Recipe adapted from this video and from Famous New Orleans Drinks and How To Mix 'Em. (Note that the stated ounce and a half of orange flower water in the video is clearly a mistake!)

Historical information mostly came from Thrillist, Gin Foundry, Gambino's Bakery, and Famous New Orleans Drinks and How To Mix 'Em.

Pink Lady

It's Valentine's Day again, and you know what that means: it's time for red and pink cocktails. Just about every cocktail site I can find has some sort of round-up of romantic drinks in these hues this week. And luckily for those who will be making and drinking them, it's much easier to make a decent red or pink cocktail than one of any other color (except maybe brown). There are tons of fantastic ingredients that will lend a reddish hue to your drink: Campari, Aperol, Peychaud's bitters, grenadine, blood orange, raspberry... the list goes on. Other holidays - say, St. Patrick's Day, for instance - don't have this advantage. So I'm hopping on board and featuring one of the most classic pink cocktails of all time: the Pink Lady.

The Pink Lady has gotten something of a bad rap over the years, for reasons that I'll explain below. You might look at it and think it's a creamy, saccharine concoction, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It's actually not sweet at all, but quite tart. Egg white gives it a silky mouthfeel and a beautiful layer of foam. Grenadine lightly sweetens it and gives the drink its lovely pink hue. This is respectable classic, held back by its color and its name. But Valentine's Day is clearly the Pink Lady's time to shine.

About that egg white: I know it might be making you nervous. I used to avoid cocktails made with egg whites like the plague. I thought they gave drinks a bit of an odor that really turned me off. But if you use fresh egg whites and - I think this is key - not too much egg white, it should only impart texture to your drink, not flavor or scent. Most recipes call for a single egg white, but eggs have gotten much larger since pre-Prohibition cocktails like the Pink Lady were created. Half of a modern-day egg white is plenty.

Since I got over my aversion to egg white cocktails, another hurdle prevented me from making them: I could never quite get that lovely layer of foam. I'm still not sure how some people seem to do it so effortlessly. For me it took every trick in the book, but eventually I found a technique that seems to work pretty consistently. And you can do it too! See below for my tips.

History: The origin of the Pink Lady seems to have been truly and entirely forgotten. If you know otherwise, please comment and set me straight. But I can't find any real history on it. It seems clear that it was around before Prohibition, and that it's probably related to the Clover Club, another pink gin drink with egg white that uses raspberry syrup instead of grenadine and omits the Applejack. But that's about it.

The period of the Pink Lady's history that is well known is its post-Prohibition reputation as the first "girly" drink. Even though it's actually fairly strong and not that sweet, its delicate hue and ladylike name made it the stereotypical drink of girls who didn't really drink - they'd order one because it looked or sounded nice. In his 1951 The Bartender Book, Jack Townsend wrote that the woman who drinks a Pink Lady is "that nice little girl who works in files, who's always courteous but always seems so timid. She's the one who sort of reminds you of your aunt, the quiet one." He describes how she only drinks once or twice a year, and selects the Pink Lady because "she has seen the decorative and innocuous-appearing pink-and-white amalgamation passing on a waiter's tray and decided, 'Hmmm, that couldn't do me any harm.'"

Putting aside the unsurprisingly chauvinistic description of the "nice little girl," I have to say I feel immediate sympathy for the Pink Lady drinkers of the 1950's. Before I knew anything about cocktails, I was pretty intimidated by ordering at a bar. I would definitely select something with an appealing name, or point at the pretty drink the bartender was making for someone else and say I wanted one of those. I imagine we all have. So I say there's no shame in drinking a Pink Lady.

Still, Townsend's description cemented the Pink Lady's reputation as a girly drink for girls who don't drink, and this led to a definite decline in popularity. I imagine that the inclusion of grenadine and egg white, two ingredients that are so easy to get wrong, did not help. These days the Pink Lady can be found on cocktail menus once again, and finally commands a bit of the respect that she deserves.

Pink Lady

1 1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. applejack
3/4 oz. lemon juice
1/2 egg white (1/2 - 3/4 oz.)
2 dashes (1/4 tsp.) grenadine

Basic instructions: combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake very well. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with edible flowers or a brandied cherry.

To really master that foam: I've had the best success with the "reverse dry shake" method. A dry shake is when you shake the cocktail without ice first. However, when you do this with a warm cocktail, I often find that the shaker doesn't make a nice seal and tends to leak, and the foam doesn't form as well during that second shake with ice. So for a reverse dry shake, combine all your ingredients in a shaker with ice (I like a Boston shaker rather than a cobbler shaker, as there's more distance for everything to go with each shake) and shake very well until it's chilled. Then strain the cocktail and dump the ice. You'll probably see some foam, but nothing close to the perfect, frothy layer you're aiming for. So return the cocktail to the shaker and do another, longer round of shaking without the ice. For best results, throw in a blender ball or spring to help whip the egg. (I literally use one of these.) Shake it for at least 60 seconds. And I mean count with full Mississippis - 60 seconds is longer than you think, especially when your arms are getting tired. Strain into a coupe glass, open pouring the last bit to get the final, thick drops of foam.

Recipe adapted from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.

Mixology Monday: Mad Scientist

This month's Mixology Monday is hosted by Rated R Cocktails, and the theme is Spooky Sips. I love it! I had several different ideas aesthetically, from a bloody dark red cocktail fit for a vampire to some sort of witches' brew using this stuff, but actually making something that would taste good was the real challenge. I decided to go with this one because it has a theme close to my heart: the Mad Scientist. It's a Daiquiri with a lemon foam on top (raw egg whites are spoooooky) and a dropper of Green Chartreuse for you to mix in yourself (or just shoot straight from the pipette, I won't judge). I really, really wanted to work in some dry ice, but not only is it pretty unsafe to stick a chunk in an individual cocktail (if you swallow it, it's going to do some serious damage on the way down), it's also best to get food-grade dry ice to avoid any additional contaminants, and there's no way the stuff we use in the lab is food-grade. In retrospect I really should have taken some home anyway, because it would have looked great in this photo. Alas.

Mad Scientist

2 oz. white rum (I used Bully Boy)
3/4 oz. simple syrup
3/4 oz. lime juice
~1/2 oz. Green Chartreuse
1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

For foam: (Only use fresh egg whites when consuming raw, and be aware that there is a risk of salmonella.) Place egg white in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat with the whisk attachment until slightly foamy. Add in sugar and lemon juice and beat until the mixture reaches desired consistency.

For cocktail: Combine rum, simple syrup, and lime juice in a shaker with ice and shake until very well-chilled. Double-strain into a beaker. Spoon lemon foam on top. Fill a disposable pipette with Green Chartreuse. (It was a little difficult to get the pipette as full as I wanted it. After I sucked up what I could, it worked best to snip the tip off of another pipette, fill it, hold it with the opening facing down, insert the pipette going into the cocktail, and suck the liquid out.) Place pipette into the cocktail and serve.