Glassaholic: Shift Ender
March 21, 2014
Here’s a great drink invented at Annbelle’s Bar and Bistro in San Francisco by barman Scott Campbell. We came across this one in our noplasticshowers travels. Every year during the RSA Computer Security Conference, we have one or seven of these.
This drink is complex but really good, and takes some ingredients that may be a bit hard to gather up.
Shift Ender
1.5 oz Malt whiskey (irish)
.5 oz Canton
3 dashes of orange bitters
stir in a Collins glass with ice. top with 1.5 oz ginger beer.
float with .5 oz Fernet Branca on top
top the drink with two cherries on a skewer and a generous slice of lemon peel expressed and dropped in
See a picture of Annabelle’s version in a previous posting.
No Stress: Carousing in Bergen
March 15, 2014
carouse |kəˈrouz|
verb [ no obj. ]
drink plentiful amounts of alcohol and enjoy oneself with others in a noisy, lively way: they danced and caroused until the drink ran out | (as noun carousing) : a night of carousing.
No Stress staff in action on a stressful Friday
Yes, even the Norwegians like to carouse. The best place to do it in Bergen is the No Stress bar (mentioned in a previous post). Once you find a place like that, you must return—even if it is Friday night.
The bar was way more crowded and raucous, and I am not sure that the people behind it were not stressed. But boy was it fun.
They are almost out of Pappy van Winkle 20. Alas.
Gøran watches the watcher
We also had a Pisco Sour, a Last Word, and some fernet branca—all classics. Video and pictures through google glass.
Isaac Staflin created a challenge cocktail we’ll call the First Time (since it has cherry and is Gøran’s first cocktail):
2 cl Heering
2 cl Gin (try swapping in Genever for more complexity)
2 dashes simple syrup
2 cl lemon juice
Rinse the glass with a smokey whiskey and angostura bitters. Shake and serve up. Flame a lemon peel and drop in. (Could also use a real luxardo cherry in the bottom.)
Glassaholic: Blue Moon
March 3, 2014
The Blue Moon is a summery drink with a very subtle flavor. It’s one of the top favorites here at Coal Stove Sink Bar. The only tricky bit about a Blue Moon (other than picking out the gin to use) is finding Creme de Violette. BTW, you should use a gin with nice balanced aromatics. Our favorite is Leopold Brothers.
The intense blue/purple color of the drink comes from the Violet Liqueur. Use a fancy glass.
Blue Moon
2 oz gin
.5 oz fresh lemon juice
.5 oz creme de violette
shake. strain. serve up with a skinny lemon twist.
The Great Blue Moon Experiment of 2014 involved tasting Blue Moon’s made with either Creme de Violette (thumbs up) or Creme Yvette (thumbs down). We also played with the gin parameter.
What’s better in a Blue Moon? The thumbs say it all.
Two violet liqueurs.
Note the strikingly different colors. Flavor varies WIDELY.
One dead soldier.
Died in the name of science.
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.
Glassaholic: Sazarac
February 14, 2014
A venerable old drink that some claim may be the first cocktail ever, from the Big Easy, we present the Sazarac. I’m making this one with top shelf unobtainium elixer—Sazarac 18—the best Rye in the world. Note that the Sazarac is great with almost every Rye, though, so get some Old Overholt and make one yourself.
Its worth saying that though this drink seems very simple, making it properly takes real practice. Don’t give up if your first few attempts suck! Measure carefully. You’ll see what I mean when you read the instructions below.
Sazarac
3 oz Rye
1 t simple syrup
4 generous dashes Peychaud’s bitters
absinthe rinse
while drinking glass is icing down, mix the sugar, rye and bitters in another ice packed container. coat the drinking glass carefully with absinthe (discarding the extra). put in a huge ice cube. stir down the liquid in the mixing glass. strain into the drinking glass. squeeze a generous slice of lemon peel over the glass, wiping the edges. drop in.
Glassaholic: Corpse Reviver #2
February 13, 2014
The Corpse Reviver #2 is one of my all time favorite drinks. Like the Liberal, this drink is simple, but the ingredients combine in a way that is hard to describe.
Make sure you call for a Corpse Reviver #2 when you ask for this drink. Corpse Reviver #1 sucks by comparison. Clueless bars will serve you one of those if you’re not careful.
Most any gin will work for this drink, and will have an impact on the final product. I like a gin at the “aromatics forward” side of the gin range. That is, anything from Hendricks on over to Leopolds. A strong gin like Plymouth can overpower the other ingredients.
Though the ingredients come in equal parts, it is important to measure for this drink carefully, especially the absinthe. Too much absinthe or lemon juice can ruin everything. 3 drops will do it.
Corpse Reviver #2
1 oz gin (in this case Bluecoat)
1 oz cointreau
1 oz lillet blanc
1 oz lemon juice (measure)
3 drops absinthe
shake. strain. serve up with a real Marasca cherry (Luxardo) in a classic cocktail glass.
Glassaholic: Dark and Stormy ][+
January 28, 2014
The dark and stormy is a famous drink of sailors worldwide. The usual way to make a dark and stormy is to liberally add a bunch of good rum to some real ginger beer. The more drinks you have, the more rum and less ginger beer ends up in the mix. This leads to talking like a pirate and toe sailing in most situations.
For the house dark and stormy, we’re getting fancy. First off we use Amy’s homemade ginger beer (grated ginger, yeast, sugar, water plus time). Then we add some Angostura bitters and lime to the ginger beer to plus it up.
Dark and Stormy ][+
2 oz Mt Gay Extra Old Rum (could use Goslings)
3/4 cup fresh ginger geer
4 dashes Angostura bitters
1/2 oz fresh lime
Stir the ginger beer, bitters and lime together in a whiskey glass with a big ice cube. Float the rum over the mixture.
Did we party?!
Glassaholic: Lion’s Tail
January 21, 2014
Here’s a glass’ed version of a Lion’s Tale. This drink is very nice on a cold day, but you have to like allspice to appreciate it. Since it snowed 6 inches so far today and is still snowing, a Lion’s Tail is just what the doctor ordered.
Lion’s Tail
2 oz bourbon (cask strength)
.75 oz allspice dram
.5 oz lime
teaspoon of simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
shake. strain. serve up in a cocktail glass.
Glassaholic: The Liberal
January 16, 2014
For a number of years, the house drink at coalstovesink bar has been the Liberal. We started making them with Torani Amer and Orange Bitters (that is, incorrectly, American style) way back when. Then we started flying Amer Picon back from France. The Amer Picon version is incredibly great.
In our studied opinion here at noplasticshowers, The Liberal is the best drink on the planet.
We even named our band The Bitter Liberals after it.
The Liberal
0.75 Bourbon (Blanton’s is a good choice)
0.75 Sweet Vermouth…use the cheap Martini variety, really
0.25 Amer Picon
shake. strain. serve up with a real Marasca cherry (Luxardo).
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