Spooky Halloween Cocktails and Garnishes

Spooky Halloween Cocktails and Garnishes

Tomorrow night I will be at a clever "candy counting" party hosted by good friends. While the children check and trade their loot, the parents will have a few beers or perhaps ... cocktails! For those of you who, like me, are thinking ahead about spooky cocktails and garnishes.

The Crime Scene Garnish

To get that bloody, fleshy, call-the-coroner look, reduce pomegranate syrup over medium high heat until it has a thick consistency, about ten minutes. Splatter the syrup maniacally inside a cocktail glass and fill with the creamy cocktail of your choice. A couple of additional options:

John Doe #1

1 1/2 oz vodka

1 oz Irish cream liqueur

1 oz amaretto

1 oz heavy cream

Dash of pomegranate syrup

Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

John Doe #2

1 oz Hiram Walker pumpkin spice liqueur
2 oz light rum
1 oz Irish cream liqueur
1 oz Grand Marnier

Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Eerie Black Garnish

Black lava sea salt is a particuarly creepy garnish for Halloween, especially when paired with a margaritaor some other green cocktail.

Happy Halloween all!

Bourbon: The Fountain of Youth (At Least for Me)

Bourbon: The Fountain of Youth (At Least for Me)


How exactly is bourbon a fountain of youth? And what is this obscure diagram with the illegible notes?

As any lawyer will tell you, answer only one question at a time. How exactly is bourbon a fountain of youth? Happily, sadly, or both, I turned forty last month. The fortieth birthday might be a mixed blessing, but one upside was my wife's gift of a session for two at the latest bourbon class at Acadiana, a DC restaurant decadently and delightfully focused on Louisiana's cuisine.


The very chart you see above was set before our seats. Within each of the ten circles was a slim, tall shot glass with about a half ounce of bourbon. A bourbon nirvana. I thought I had a decent bourbon background, but after a few minutes it was clear I had a lot to learn -- for example, understanding the terms on the labels (single barrel, small batch, and so on) to the extent they mean anything at all.


I could resist no longer and started tasting. All these excellent bourbons were new to me, and tasting them side by side brought their differences into focus. My favorites were the three Four Roses bourbons (90 proof, 100 proof and 120th Anniversary), and paradoxically, I found the 100 proof version to have richer caramel and buttersctoch flavors. The 120th Anniversary bourbon had a more understated and floral nature. Noah's Mill made as much of an impression with its smooth, almost buttery texture as with its sweet flavor. Willet's bourbon had a pleasantly salty undertone that was an intriguing contrast -- like the flavor of salted caramel. We capped off the tasting with a few rare bottles -- such as Hirsch Reserve (aged 16 years -- in Pennsylvania, no less) and Pappy (aged 23 year) -- that I may never encounter again.


Lunch was wisely included in the program, and it was outstanding. The fried chicken was coated in a hearty crunchy crust, and the biscuits were tender and buttery. While I enjoyed the meat pies -- a savory pasrty reminiscent of an empanada -- the restaurant also prepared some Southern vegetable pies bursting with corn and pepper that stole the show. I will most certainly return to Acadiana for dinner, to include of course a couple of pours of these outstanding bourbons.

At the end of the tasting -- and a generous amount of bourbon -- I felt relaxed, satisfied, and even rejuvenated. That's a bold statement for a newly minted fortysomething.

36%

36%

Thirty-six percent -- butterfat, that is. That's what separates heavy cream from all its dairy counterparts, at least those still in liquid form, and that's what makes it such a decadent ingredient for cocktails. After all, fat is the messenger of flavor.

Why did I select heavy cream for this round of MxMo, and its dairy theme? After all, egg white is much more in keeping with my recent listing towards experimenting with (little "o") old-fashioned cocktail methods. Yet heavy cream pervailed. Perhaps I was still basking in the unctuous comfort of the pot of mashed potatoes I made for dinner tonight. They had plenty of heavy cream, of course. Maybe I am still inspired by the joyous, fatty epicurean scenes from Julie and Julia and the magnifique French dinner meal I had afterwards. Or I could be overthinking it. Heavy cream just might be, quite simply, the heavyweight champion of dairy mixers.


Aside: I will admit to a disastrous evening of mixing buttermilk cocktails. Buttermilk is an irresistable temptation, really, to a Kentucky guy like myself. The results were complex, but not exactly palatable.

Regardless, cream is the theme, and I came up with two selections. The first is an idea that I have been dying to try for years -- an ice cream inspired cocktail. I have tried a couple of times before, but never shook up a drink to my satisfaction. This time was different. I backed off the hard liquor and focused on cordials, yielding a smooth, full taste. Too bad it all fell in place in September rather than July.



The second drink truly struck me out of the blue as I was looking for another low-octane option. I thought the earthy flavors of calvados and marsala would marry well, and turned that base into a fizz on a whim. The result took me full circle, reminding me of those frothy egg white cocktails as the other path I had considered for this round of MxMo.



Recipes follow. Cheers!

Ice Cream Shots

1 oz heavy cream
Splash of whole milk
1 oz liqueur

Use a base liqueur of your choice. Three nice options are Midori, chocoloate liqueur (I used Godiva) and equal parts peppermint scnapps and chocloate liqueur

Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a small glass or large shot glass. The bottom of an ice cream cone makes an interesting and edible presentation.

Fall Fizz

1 1/2 oz calvados
1/2 oz marsala
1 oz cream
Club or lemon-lime soda

Shake calvados, marsala and cream together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with soda.
Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Cherry Limeade

While so many alternatives are available, the classic bright red maraschino cherry holds a nostalgia of its own. After all the cherries are gone, it would be a shame to pour the syrup down the drain. Let's take a moment to enjoy some simple, sweet, refreshing flavors.

Cherry Limeade

2 oz vodka

Juice of 1 1/2 lime

1/2 oz maraschino cherry syrup

Lemon-lime soda

Combine first three ingredients together with ice in a highball glass. Top with soda and stir.

Sea Foam

Another southwest Florida creation, frothy and particularly inspired by the sea, and not to mention a foray into the time honored technique of using egg white for body in a cocktail.

Sea Foam

2 1/2 oz white rum

1 oz triple sec

Grapefruit soda

1 egg white

1 oz creme de cassis

1 oz simple syrup

Shake rum and triple sec with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. In a separate glass or bowl, whip egg white, creme de cassis and simple syrup until foamy. Top rum mixture with grapefruit soda, then spoon on foam.

How's Your El Presidente?

My time on Florida’s Gulf Coast has produced a couple of new cocktails, but also other observations for the cocktail enthusiast. For starters, my first read was fellow Washingtonian Eric Felten’s How’s Your Drink. This book is engaging, well-written and full of history and anecdotes about classic cocktails. A friend of mine gave it to me at my Kentucky Derby party in May – a most fitting gift for a drinking event, even moreso considering its discussion of the history of the mint julep.

Enough about May, and on to the events of August. From my perspective, a handful of the classic cocktails in the book are anachronisms or curiosities. For example, I doubt I will ever need to pour many Grasshoppers or Pink Ladies, though the history of those drinks is fascinating. Others looked so tantalizing I had to give them a shake, particularly the El Presidente. Felten's recipe includes rum, pineapple and lime juices, and grenadine. The drink, I learned, was a wildly popular drink in the 1930’s. Perhaps something about a recession makes the cocktail appealing – but I think it has more to do with the cool, frothy pineapple juice balanced by the sharp citrus flavor. Or maybe the drink’s sunset color makes it so irresistible and even contagious. I asked for it by name at a couple of bars, and saw other parties order them soon after. It even became the next night’s cocktail special at one of the bars. Who knows -- perhaps El Presidente could be poised to make a comeback.

Beefeaters, Bludgeons and Maidens

When I twisted open a new bottle of Beefeater gin, my thoughts ran to an icy cool, shimmering, dry martini -- and I was not disappointed. Beefeater struck a satisfying balance between botanicals and dryness at a time when gins at both extremes of the spectrum are making their appearance.


Perhaps out of habit, I tend to think of gin as a fall and winter drink. Rum generally commands my summer shaker, but I needed to explore. Even the reggae radio station chided me by adding "Gin and Coconut Water" to its rotation. So, I slipped out of the current and tried some Beefeater in a tropical cocktail. The result was the Bludgeon, a spicy and citrusy cocktail of, yes, blue gin.


Bludgeon


2 oz gin (I used Beefeater)
1 oz blue curacao
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Juice of 1/2 orange
1 oz ginger syrup


Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Consider garnishing with a sugared rim and a lemon rind.


The Bludgeon is akin to the Maiden's Prayer, a cocktail I find myself pouring at least once a week. Beefeater in hand, I pressed further on my course towards new and summery gin cocktails by trying some variations. These variations were particularly delightful:


Twists on the Maiden's Prayer

Basic Recipe

1 1/2 oz gin (I used Beefeater)
1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The Twists

Add a mere splash of peach schnapps or orange flower water
Pool pomegranate syrup in the bottom of the glass
Garnish with a flamed orange rind or the barest sprinkle of orange water