Shiver Me Sphincters!

 

My first 'original' concoction, a riff on Puka-Puka Punch that was born from a bout of boredom and leftover ingredients from the previous day's Painkiller exploits.

 

Ingredients

• 3 ounces rum (for this iteration, I used 1 ounce Wray & Nephew Overproof, 1 ounce Appleton Estate 12 year, and 1 ounce Mount Gay Eclipse Navy Proof)
• 1 ounce pineapple juice
• 1 ounce cream of coconut 
• 0.75 ounces falernum
• 0.75 ounces passion fruit syrup
• 0.75 ounces lime juice
• 1 dash Angostura bitters 

Composition

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and either stir vigorously or shake without ice to ensure the cream of coconut is well incorporated. Pour into an ice-filled pilsner or highball glass. 

 

Commentary

Lightning struck one idle afternoon when I found myself with an opened can of Coco Lopez and a handful of hours to kill before dinner prep. The recipe for Don the Beachcomber's Puka-Puka punch served as inspiration, three ounces of rum, passion fruit syrup, lime, and falernum, all of which seemed compatible with cream of coconut and pineapple juice, so out came the jigger and tins.

 

I omitted Puka's simple syrup, but stuck with the three ounces of rum and equal pours of passion fruit, lime, and falernum. By default, I always pour equal amounts of pineapple juice and cream of coconut, which I bumped to a full ounce because I wanted a dominant coconut flavor. Things were promising after my initial stir and taste, the sweet and sour balance was to my liking, the ethanol oomph of the rum was perfect, but the drink seemed a tad shallow, missing the mythical 'it' factor. Instinctively I reached for a tropical drink stalwart, Angostura Bitters, and sure enough a single dash did the trick, expanding and enhancing the cocktail wonderfully. Tangentially, I must mention my eternal gratitude to the great New Orleans barman Chris McMillian, who in a series of now 18-year old videos that inspired and educated me all those years ago, preached the power of bitters in cocktails. In his Sazerac video, he tells the audience not to fear cocktail bitters, to think of bitters as seasoning for cocktails, like adding salt to a soup to enhance the flavor.

 

As for the selection of rums, after a few rounds of mixing, I have some thoughts: 

• This cocktail benefits by mixing different styles of rum, and at least one of those rums should be a higher-proof offering (though not necessarily a >75% ABV example)
• Funky Jamaican rums stand up well to the bold passion fruit and coconut, everything from Wray & Nephew White Overproof to Hampden Estate or Worthy Park will work well
• One of the rums should be an aged 'traditional' molasses rum, think of offerings from Guyana or Barbados
• If using a rhum agricole, I have found younger rhum agricoles work better than well-aged variants. Personally I would not use anything older than a VO rhum agricole

Now for the elephant in the post, the name. A long-time friend who shares my enthusiasm for food and drink helped inspire the name. Through the years of our gastronomic and imbibing adventures, my friend and I have come up with a seemingly endless repertoire of jokes, innuendos, and cliches centered around bodily functions and anatomy. We have (jokingly?) kicked around the names of cocktails if we were to create a bar menu of our very own, each referencing gaping, explosive, or inflamed orifices, organs, or fluids. As such, I originally named this libation 'Tickle My Sphincter' but felt the more tiki-esque 'Shiver Me Sphincters!' would be more fitting on a menu paying homage to mildly inappropriate swashbuckler adventures on the high seas. Cheers my friends, and keep the sanitary wipes handy.

 

 

Don the Beachcomber's Puka-Puka Punch

Another passion fruit inspiration from Jeff Berry's Potions of the Caribbean. Whereas yesterday's Siboney hailed from Trader Vic, today's offering is from Vic's legendary counterpart and chief competitor: Donn Beach, aka Don the Beachcomber.

 

Ingredients

• 1.5 ounces Pontalba rum (a Louisiana rum that is long extinct; I used a 4-year old rum from Australia which I'd wager tastes nothing like the Louisiana rum, but it does have similar 'exotic' origin vibes) 
• 1.5 ounces rhum agricole vieux
• 0.5 ounces falernum
• 0.5 ounces passion fruit syrup
• 0.5 ounces fresh lime juice
• 0.5 ounces simple syrup 

Composition

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, fill with ice, and shake vigorously until the shaker is well chilled. Strain into your favorite glassware, stemware preferred. 

Commentary

My immediate thought upon the first few sips of this cocktail was 'too sweet'. I was suspicious that would be the case when the recipe called for equal pours of three fairly sweet ingredients. There are two independent tweaks that could dial this cocktail in to suit my tastes: reduce the sugar or increase the lime. The simplest tweak would be to eliminate the simple syrup all together, tasting the cocktail before shaking and only adding simple syrup if required. As for the lime juice, my gut-feel is that a full ounce would be appropriate, but the safer approach is to start with three-quarters of an ounce, taste, and assess.

 

Despite the initial offering being too sweet, this cocktail has great potential. I particularly like the interplay between a rhum agricole and a molasses based rum combined with a controlled passion fruit influence. Perhaps the greatest aspect however is the cocktail's name. How can you not love a name like Puka-Puka Punch? That name has worm-holed its way into my brain such that I find myself randomly blurting it out as I meander through my day. Cheers my friends, may you find your inner-Puka.

 

Sweet Potential

 

Trader Vic's Siboney

 

Passion fruit syrup. The answer my friends is always anything with passion fruit syrup. If orgeat is the Mickey Mantle of tiki cocktail mixers, then passion fruit syrup must be the Stan Musial. While I do occasionally feel overwhelmed when perusing large collections of tiki cocktail recipes, any recipe listing passion fruit instantly captures my attention and is dog-eared for future reference. From Beachbum Berry's Potions of the Caribbean comes today's libation - the Siboney.

 

Ingredients

• 1.0 ounce dark Jamaican rum (0.75 ounces Appleton 12 year and 0.25 ounces Wray & Nephew Overproof for this particular mixing session)
• 0.5 ounces fresh lemon juice
• 0.5 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice
• 0.5 ounces passion fruit syrup 

Composition

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, fill with ice, and shake vigorously until the shaker is well chilled. Strain into your favorite glassware, stemware preferred.

 

Commentary

Ahhhh, this is a delicious concoction where the passion fruit syrup is the shining star. While I have complete respect for Appleton's 12 year offering, I feel it needs a boost in two areas: its ethanol punch and the funkiness associated with Jamaican rums. Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum ticks both of those boxes. Other personal favorite Jamaican rum 'boosters' that I use interchangeably are Planteray Xaymaca Special Dry, Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum, and Two James Doctor Bird Jamaica Rum. Any of these 'funky' Jamaican rums can be used to supplant a portion of the Jamaican rum called for in a recipe. I have a few more passion fruit infused posts in the hopper, cheers until then folks.  

 

From Potions of the Caribbean by Jeff Berry

Stay passionate my friends

 

A Bourbon Cordial

 

Years ago I was gifted a bottle of Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey. At the time, Skrewball was all the rage, picking up where Fireball had left off ushering in a new wave of flavored whiskey mania into American whiskey culture. Unfortunately I was not entirely a fan when I first opened my bottle and sampled a wee dram. On the positive side, the smell from the glass was instantly recognizable as roasted peanuts. In fact, the smell happily reminded me of the old scratch & sniff stickers I used to fervently collect in my 1980s youth. Things took a turn for the worse however when I took a sip and the cordial's sweetness overwhelmed my senses; Skewball was simply too sweet to my preferences. I ended up only trying a handful of pours all those years ago and stashed the bottle away, out of sight, out of mind... That is until a recent clean out and survey of the archives uncovered this long-forgotten bottle. 

 

Determined to find a use rather than pour this bottle down the drain, I tinkered and stumbled into a rather simple solution that produces a rather tasty beverage - dilute the sweetness of Skrewball with actual whiskey! While still sweet and best used as a dessert or end-of-evening night cap, Skrewball actually plays quite nicely with bourbon. I'd recommend trying 1 part Skrewball to 2 parts bourbon whiskey. If the resulting mixture is still too sweet, then add an additional part of bourbon. Stay squirrelly my friends.

 

Obligatory

Yesterday, Today and Amaro

 

I think it is fitting to break the 18 months of dust between posts to resume where I left off, a cocktail that is an Amaro riff of a Manhattan. While Descent into Averna was a reverse engineered recreation of a libation I enjoyed at Bern's Steakhouse, today's libation is a recipe I stumbled across while perusing the Interwebz recently.

 

Ingredients

• 2.0 ounces Rye Whiskey, preferably a 50% ABV (or higher) variant
• 0.5 ounces Cynar
• 0.25 ounces Benedictine
• 0.25 ounces Amaro (Averna used here) 
• Lemon peel for oil spritz and garnish 

Composition

Place the rye whiskey, Cynar, Benedictine, and amaro in a mixing vessel of some sort, add plenty of ice, and stir until well chilled (approximately 30 seconds for me). Strain into a preferred glass (coupes or stemware work well here).

 

Squeeze the lemon peel over the top of the drink and plop the peel into your drink or discard depending on your personal preference. 

 

Commentary

This recipe was categorized as both strong and bitter by the folks at Punch, correct on both counts to my tastes though the bitterness is the enjoyable kind, not the painful kind. The lemon oil from the garnish dominates the smell wafting from the glass, upon tasting however, the lemon takes a back seat. The first wave of taste is quintessential rye whiskey, charred oak and pepper spice. This is quickly followed by the unmistakable herbal sweetness of Benedictine. Interestingly, as the sip fades, the charred oak of the rye whiskey reappears, but the final ovation of the sip belongs to the Cynar with its slightly herbal bitterness. 

 

This, to my tastes, is a thoroughly delicious cocktail. It is exactly what I want from any Manhattan variant, it is bold, it is boozy, it is moody and complex. It is the type of libation that forces you to sit back, take small sips, and contemplate the complexities of life. It is a cocktail that is as bold and vibrant when freshly poured and cold as it is in its final room temperature sips. Bravo Mr. Brad Kane of Philadelphia, very nicely done.

 

More to come, and all the best. Cheers!

Descent into Averna

Continuing my love of reverse-engineering libations that I have enjoyed while out and about, we return today with a cocktail currently featured on the Bern's Steakhouse menu. Thankfully, the good folks at Bern's graciously publish the key components in each of their cocktails and what caught my eye on a recent visit was this particular libation's hybrid approach to a Black Manhattan and a Sazerac. As served to me at Bern's, the libation was well-balanced, but I felt the rye whiskey was the most pronounced component. Quite remarkable considering the drink contains not one, not two, but three absolute sledgehammers of aroma and taste: allspice dram, amaro and absinthe.

 

As the cocktail appears on the Bern's Menu, note the missing 's' in allspice, tsk tsk

 

For my first attempt at recreating this libation, I decided to honor my tried-and-true Black Manhattan recipe and use a 2:1 ratio of rye whiskey to amaro.

 

Edit - I've been tinkering with various ratios of rye to amaro and I do believe a two ounces of rye to three-quarters of an ounce of amaro is the sweet spot for this particular libation. The recipe below has been updated to reflect this.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces well-aged Rye whiskey (here I used Pikesville Rye but can also vouch for Rittenhouse rye)
• 1 ounce 0.75 ounces Averna amaro
• 0.25 ounce St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
• Six Four dashes of Black Walnut Bitters
• Absinthe rinsed stemware
  

Composition

Swirl absinthe into a chilled cocktail glass, set aside in the freezer while you mix the drink.

Place the rye whiskey, amaro, allspice dram, and black walnut bitters into a cocktail shaker, stir and taste. Adjust to personal preference and when happy, add ice to the shaker and stir until well chilled. Strain into the absinthe rinsed glass and garnish however you see fit.

 

Commentary

As I strained the cocktail into the glass and noticed its significantly dark color, I immediately suspected my version would be punchier than what I was served at Bern's. My suspicions were confirmed within a few sips; my version had a much stronger Averna (and allspice) vibe than the Bern's version. I'd wager that Bern's uses a half (ish) ounce of Averna, which is understandable considering they are making libations for a wide array of palates and amaro can be quite polarizing. To my tastes, I am sticking with the full ounce of Averna, but do recommend you tailor this component to your tastes. I will decrease the amount of walnut bitters I use in future versions however, somewhere in the two to four dashes range will work better than the six I used. Lastly, please do not omit the absinthe rinse. Just as in a Sazerac, the absinthe envelops the entire cocktail with an enchanting aura that is always present, yet never gratuitous in its presence. Delicious.

 

Cheers!

A Rum Old Fashioned

 

Inspired by Punch's Rum Old Fashioned contest, this concoction has cemented itself as my go-to favorite libation, particularly on a Friday night as I slide into a relaxing weekend. While an Old Fashioned is typically the playground of bourbon and rye, if you enjoy rum, I wholeheartedly recommend experimenting with this cocktail.

 

Ingredients

• 2 ounces well aged rum (see Rum note below)
• 0.25 ounces falernum
• 3 - 4 dashes orange bitters
• 1 teaspoon demerara syrup (optional and to taste) 
• Orange twist

Rum Note: Of paramount importance when it comes to selecting a rum for this libation is to ensure the bulk of the rum used is well aged - a minimum of five years, but the older the better in my opinion. You can use two (or more) different rums, just ensure the dominant rum has some maturity to it. I enjoy using two different rums when I am mixing this drink: an ounce and a half of an older, high proof 'sophisticated' rum (usually hailing from Barbados or Guyana) complemented by a half ounce of a wildly funky, but typically young Jamaican rum.

Composition

Place the rum, falernum, and orange bitters in a mixing vessel/cocktail shaker. Stir and taste, add demerara syrup as desired. Once satisfied with the libation's balance, add ice to the container and stir until well chilled. Strain into your favorite Old Fashioned glass over a large chunk of ice and garnish with an orange twist.

 

Commentary

This cocktail came into my life at just the right point in time. My interest in rum began about a decade ago and as the years passed, my knowledge and library of rums steadily increased. The lion's share of rum-based drinks in my repertoire have Tiki/Caribbean origins and I was curious to begin exploring the stirred rather than shaken world of rum drinks. I do recommend experimenting with various rums to find a combination that curls your toes. Speaking personally, I think heavy-bodied molasses based rums work best as the dominant rum with a smaller portion of a grassy rhum agricole or a high-ester Jamaican added to liven things up. A great rhythm section is always complimented by a vibrant horn section.

 

I do think the falernum is mandatory, but have found the need to add sweetness to be variable; be sure to adjust to your liking. Another mandatory component is the orange twist. Normally I'd say a drink's garnish can be skipped when mixing at home, but holy moly does an orange twist really boost the experience. It is because of this cocktail, and this cocktail alone, that I keep a orange in our refrigerator at all times so that should the mood strike, an orange twist is but a flick of the vegetable peeler away. 

 

Before closing, one word of caution regarding aged rum. Because whiskey is tightly regulated across the globe, age statements found on a whiskey bottle are completely trust worthy. The same cannot be said for rum. Sadly there are nefarious producers that market rums as being aged for a specific number of years when in fact they are no where near as aged as stated. When exploring specific rums for purchase consideration, please perform a bit of due diligence. A quick Internet search is indispensable in distinguishing the honest producers from the misleading producers. Happily over the past decade, I do feel producers are being more transparent and honest and the number of nefarious producers is decreasing. Cheers to that my friends.