Glassaholic: Old Fashioned
November 15, 2015
The Old Fashioned is a classic cocktail ruined by many a bad bar. There are two schools of Old Fashioned making out there. Here at NPS, we’re from the muddling school as you will see. This is a fantastic drink for a Fall day. You’ll need a muddling stick.
The Old Fashioned
2 oz bourbon (we’re using Bowman’s Small Batch here)
orange wheel slice
2 luxardo cherries
4 dashes Fee Brothers Old Fashioned bitters
2 t simple syrup
soda water
Slice an orange wheel and put it into your glass. Add two cherries, the bitters and the simple syrup. Muddle. Add 2 oz of bourbon. Stir. Add ice. Top with soda. Put in an extra cherry if you like cherries!
A delicious drink for the Fall in front of a fire.
Glassaholic: Moscow Mule
April 29, 2015
The Moscow Mule is very easy to make. About the only difficult bit is finding some copper Moscow Mule cups. That’s where Cardinal Spirits comes in. They provided me with some first run Vodka and some Moscow Mule cups last trip out to Bloomington.
So Moscow Mules it is!
Moscow Mule
1.5 oz Cardinal Vodka
1 wedge of lime
real ginger beer (barritts or home made)
pour the vodka over the ice, squeeze in the lime, add ginger beer. if you’re feeling adventurous, stir!
Cardinal Spirits, Bloomington, Indiana
Glassaholic: Old 48
April 19, 2015
The Old 48 is a cocktail that I came up with on the cusp of my 49th birthday. The heat from the hellfire bitters is a great blend with a not too sweet bourbon. I sometimes use Blanton’s bourbon and have also used Rye in variations. The hint of chocolate in this drink blends beautifully with the often cloying cherry to make something better than the sum of its parts.
Old 48
2 oz bourbon (basil-hayden)
1 oz blue Dolin’s vermouth (neither sweet nor dry!!)
.5 heering
1 dash chocolate bitters
6.5 drops Bittermen’s hellfire habañero bitters
Stir down. Strain over large cube. Lemon peel garnish (express and drop in).
Serving this on an ice sphere is far from necessary, but what the hell. Definitely do use a large piece of ice and not a pile of rocks if you can.
Glassaholic: Making a Spherical Ice Cube
April 11, 2015
We have a new toy at the Coal Stove Sink Bar. It melts ice cubes.
The collection (well, maybe 1/3 of it anyway)
New device
Doge says.
Wow. Such ice. So cold. Much tail wag.
Glassaholic: Sexual Chocolate
January 30, 2015
This is a drink discovered in Denver, Colorado at the Williams and Graham bar (quite a fantastic place). This cocktail was invented by Chad Michael George one evening with a gaggle of geeks—a delicious beverage that runs hot and a little sweet with a bitters kicker.
Sexual Chocolate
2 oz Rye (barrel proof)
.75 oz Cocchi Torino vermouth
.5 oz Cynar
teaspoon of cherry liqueur (heering or luxardo)
7 drops chocolate bitters
stir. strain over big cube. add a luxardo cherry on skewer
Glassaholic: Seelbach
November 30, 2014
The Seelbach is one of our favorite time-warp inducing cocktails. Named after either a Kentucky hotel or an upstate NY hotel depending on who you ask, this drink has been around since 1917.
The delightfully dangerous thing about a Seelbach is that you get an instant champagne buzz when you start drinking it, and when you’re done, you’ve just had a shot of bourbon.
We shot this episode of glassaholic at Nother’s Day.
The Seelbach
1 oz bourbon
.5 oz cointreau
7 dashes Angostura’s
7 dashes Peychaud’s
stir with a sterling silver spoon then top with dry champagne. Add a lemon twist to fancy it up.
Glassaholic: Mojito
September 3, 2014
The Mojito is a popular drink that you can find all over the place these days, even in bars that otherwise suck. The key to a good mojito is simplicity: fresh mint, fresh lime, simple syrup and a good muddling stick.
We make mojitos around here in the summertime when the mint is growing like crazy.
The Mojito
3 oz dark rum (my gay eclipse)
8 mint leaves (and the top of a sprig to garnish)
1/2 lime quartered
1 t simple syrup 1:1 (cane sugar)
Muddle the mint, simple syrup, and lime in the bottom of a sturdy glass. Add 3 oz of rum and stir. Fill glass with ice and top with sparkling water. Top with a mint garnish.
Delicious and summery.
Glassaholic: Nevada
April 20, 2014
The Nevada is a drink I found in the book Art of the Bar. It’s a great summertime rum drink that differs from the usual rum punch variety of drinks by not being overly sweet. If you make one at sunset at the beach, you can admire the beautiful color as you sip it on the deck.
We just got back from Salt Cay in Turks and Caicos, where we discovered some Salt Cay Rum. I’m using that here just for the heck of it, but a better rum would be Mount Gay Eclipse (or even Extra Old if you’re feeling adventurous). You definitely want a rum on the vanilla/syrupy side of the rum range for this drink. Turns out that Salt Cay rum is more like a central American rum (it is modeled after Zacapa), but we’ll ignore that distinction for now.
The Nevada
1.5 oz dark rum
.5 oz fresh grapefruit juice
.3 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz simple syrup 1:1 (cane sugar)
dash of Angostura bitters
mix in an ice filled shaker. strain. serve up in a cocktail glass. garnish with a lime wedge.
This is a drink that is so good that whenever I share it, most bars pick it right up and add it to their list. Some magic happens and a banana-like flavor emerges from the mix.
Glassaholic: Boris Karloff
April 6, 2014
This is my friend Pooh’s favorite drink (well, actually he likes whatever drink is currently in his glass best, but no quibbling). From the fun and mostly accurate book Boozehound.
This is a classic gin fizz derivative with some fun features. Get your ingredients together before you make this one. It takes confectioner’s sugar and an egg white. (The egg you use must be ultra fresh, laid the day of mixing.)
Boris Karloff
0.75 oz gin (we recommend Sipsmith for this drink)
0.75 oz St-Germain Eiderflower liqueur
1 oz lime juice
1 T confectionner’s sugar (10X)
1 egg white (FRESH)
club soda to top
lime zest (small pieces)
fresh ground pepper
Combine gin, st-germain, lime, sugar. shake well. add egg white and shake to foam (20+ seconds). strain into glass with ice. add soda to top. sprinkle lime zest and pepper on top.
Glassaholic: Margarita
February 24, 2014
Turns out that Saturday was National Margarita Day. Who knew? So we were compelled to adjust the Swiss fondue plans to include some homemade margaritas. Thanks Jacques.
This is a very easy drink to make, but it requires some magical wizardry nonetheless. The ratio MUST be 2:2:4 (and you can’t divide by 2). If you squeeze out all of your limes as a constraint, make sure that counts as 2 and not one! If it only adds up to 1, you have to go back to the store and get more limes.
Never make a margarita with glow in the dark green stuff from Food Dog or triplesec.
Maragarita
2 measures of fresh lime juice
2 measures of cointreau
4 measures of tequila
Stir or very light shake. Serve in a glass rimmed with flake salt.
