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	<title>Bullz-Eye Blog &#187; sweet vermouth</title>
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	<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com</link>
	<description>men&#039;s lifestyle blog, blog for guys</description>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The White Elephant (a la Wondrich)</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/05/17/drink-of-the-week-the-white-elephant-a-la-wondrich/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/05/17/drink-of-the-week-the-white-elephant-a-la-wondrich/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beefeater Gin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Wondrich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dumbo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[egg whites]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Noilly-Pratt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pink Elephants on Parade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the White Elephants]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=26819</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I sing now, for the umpteenth time, of the raw egg white, feared by many, adored by classic cocktail aficionados, and a sure way to get me to sit up and pay attention to almost any cocktail. That&#8217;s a good thing, because this week&#8217;s drink could definitely use a little love. I stumbled over it [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" alt="the White Elephant." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/white-elephant-2.jpg" width="150" height="234" border="0" />I sing now, for the umpteenth time, of the raw egg white, feared by many, adored by <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">classic</a> cocktail aficionados, and a sure way to get me to sit up and pay attention to almost any cocktail.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a good thing, because this week&#8217;s drink could definitely use a little love. I stumbled over it at the massive bevatorium assembled by David Wondrich for <em>Esquire</em> and was immediately grabbed by the drink&#8217;s eggy simplicity. I was also struck by the immense terseness of the usually voluble <a href="http://www.esquire.com/drinks/white-elephant-drink-recipe" target="_blank">Wondrich&#8217;s eight-word take</a>: &#8220;A wet martini with a head; see the Hearst.&#8221;</p>
<p>What could a drink do to be both worthy of inclusion, yet apparently unworthy of sufficient verbiage &#8212; or even a reasonably accurate graphic? Was both Wondrich and the <em>Esquire</em> art department tired and on deadline? Was he forced to grudgingly submit to pressure to include this drink from the vast and shadowy gin-sweet vermouth-and-egg-white-industrial-complex?</p>
<p>Finally, why was every other cocktail I could find on line called &#8220;White Elephant&#8221; a completely different concoction that usually involved ingredients like coconut milk, white creme de cacao, heavy cream, white rum, and other things that are very, very white and nothing but white? This drink, as my brilliant photographic work reveals, is not precisely white, as elephants go. What gives? Who knows, but clearly the first thing to do is try the damn drink.</p>
<p><strong>The White Elephant a la Wondrich</strong></p>
<p>2 ounces gin<br />
1 ounce sweet vermouth<br />
1 egg white<br />
1 cherry (garnish)</p>
<p>The drill is basically the same as for every cocktail involving egg whites or eggs. Combine the gin, vermouth, and egg white in a cocktail shaker, but with no ice. Shake well to emulsify the egg, then add ice and <em>really</em> shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or reasonable facsimile. Add a cherry for a bit of extra sweetness and color, and toast the pachyderm of your choice.</p>
<p>******</p>
<p>I have to say that while I thoroughly enjoy this drink and find it nicely refreshing yet neither too sweet nor too anything else, I can see what it maybe hasn&#8217;t taken off and has become, yes, a white elephant of a mixed drink. It&#8217;s not really sweet enough for the sweets lovers, nor is it boozy, complex, bitter, or tart enough for many a cocktail snob. It&#8217;s nevertheless got plenty of booze in it, and the combination of egg white, liquid, and ice guarantees it all goes down in the most delightful way. A wet martini not only with a head, but with a wonderfully comfy ova cushion.</p>
<p>I did try messing around a bit with ingredients and proportions. Lowering the amount of gin by half an ounce didn&#8217;t really hurt the drink, but the increase in sweetness turned out to be minimal. The results using both of my two fall back sweet vermouths, Noilly-Pratt and Carpano Antica, were just fine, though this time I leaned ever so slightly towards the lighter touch of Noilly-Pratt. Still, the only really wrong move I made was adding bitters. So often, bitters can really save a drink; sometimes, however, it&#8217;s just the reverse.</p>
<p>So, why is the White Elephant so benighted that even a chatty cocktail historian has almost nothing to say about it? I think it&#8217;s the name. Not only is it unflattering, it&#8217;s inaccurate. This elephant is not white. It&#8217;s another color entirely.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RJv2Mugm2RI" height="357" width="477" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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		<title>The Paris Manhattan</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/19/the-paris-manhattan/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/19/the-paris-manhattan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:00:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bourbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian Club Sherry Cask]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elderflower liqueur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Old Fitzgerald's Bourbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paris Manhattan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Simon Difford]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[St. Germain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Templeton Rye]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the Paris Manhattan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[whiskey]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=26079</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s a movie out right now called &#8220;Paris-Manhattan&#8221; but that is actually just a pretty massive coincidence. I haven&#8217;t seen this French homage to the films of Woody Allen, but I&#8217;m certainly willing to piggy-back on it by accident. What actually happened was I was looking for a cocktail that justified the big bottle of [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right_noborder" alt="Paris Manhattan." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/paris-manhattan.jpg" width="200" height="215" /></p>
<p>There&#8217;s a movie out right now called &#8220;Paris-Manhattan&#8221; but that is actually just a pretty massive coincidence. I haven&#8217;t seen this French homage to the films of Woody Allen, but I&#8217;m certainly willing to piggy-back on it by accident. What actually happened was I was looking for a cocktail that justified the big bottle of rather expensive St. Germain elderflower liqueur I&#8217;d recently sprung for. The Paris Manhattan is what I found.</p>
<p>As it happens, this drink is not an ancient <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">classic</a> like its antecedent, <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2011/05/20/drink-of-the-week-the-manhattan/" target="_blank">the Manhattan</a>, but was developed in the mid 2000s, reportedly by famed cocktail writer and entrepreneur Simon Difford. (As far as I know, no relation to the very talented Chris Difford of the band, Squeeze.)</p>
<p>Difford apparently was somehow involved in the creation of St. Germain, which has become the go-to elderflower liqueur for almost everyone, and he therefore has a vested interest in this cocktail. Indeed, I personally think he put just a bit too much of it in his drink. No worries, though, because I&#8217;ve fixed it!</p>
<p><strong>The Paris Manhattan</strong></p>
<p>2 ounces rye, Canadian, or bourbon whiskey<br />
3/4 ounce St. Germain/elderflower liqueur<br />
1/2 ounce dry vermouth<br />
2 dashes of aromatic/Angostura bitters<br />
1 cocktail cherry or orange twist (garnish)</p>
<p>Combine the liquid ingredients in cocktail shaker or mixing glass and stir vigorously. Strain into glass and add the cherry or orange twist garnish of your choice. Drink to Paris, Manhattan, some other city, or just drink. You&#8217;ll be fine.</p>
<p>****<br />
I actually tried shaking this one, but it really didn&#8217;t work. The extra water and ice crystals simply didn&#8217;t add anything, while nevertheless detracting from the flavor.  More importantly, I found that I thought the original recipe, which called for a full ounce of St. Germain, was too sweet &#8212; though I liked the results better with the remainder of my nearly consumed <a href="http://www.templetonrye.com/" target="_blank">Templeton Rye</a> than with Old Fitzgerald bonded bourbon. Oddly enough, no recipes I found online called for any less of the very sweet, you might say honeyish, liqueur.</p>
<p>I nevertheless tried it with only half an ounce of the elderflower liqueur, and that was a major disappointment. It didn&#8217;t taste any less sweet but was just kind of sharp in an unpleasant way.  Then, I tried only 3/4 of an ounce with the rye and &#8212; because I was running out, just a whiff of Canadian Club Sherry Cask. Bingo.</p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Tipperary</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/12/drink-of-the-week-the-tipperary/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/12/drink-of-the-week-the-tipperary/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[A Long Way to Tipperary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bushmills Irish whiskey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Concannon Irish Whiskey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Irish whiskey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mary Tyler Moore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roger Ebert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Corpse Reviver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Tipperary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tipperary]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=25852</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;ve heard of the Irish town of Tipperary, and you&#8217;re not from Ireland or the UK, odds are it isn&#8217;t because of this cocktail but because of the song, &#8220;It&#8217;s a Long Way to Tipperary.&#8221; Gary Regan surmises that the drink is actually older than the song, but in my opinion the drink has [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" alt="The Tippeary." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/tipperary.jpg" width="175" height="175" border="0" /> If you&#8217;ve heard of the Irish town of Tipperary, and you&#8217;re not from Ireland or the UK, odds are it isn&#8217;t because of this cocktail but because of the song, &#8220;It&#8217;s a Long Way to Tipperary.&#8221; <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/wine/cocktailian/article/It-s-a-long-way-to-new-Tipperary-Cocktail-3196159.php" target="_blank">Gary Regan</a> surmises that the drink is actually <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">older</a> than the song, but in my opinion the drink has aged at least as well as the somewhat treacly yet lovable English music hall ditty of World War I vintage.</p>
<p>With its combination of base spirit, sweet vermouth, and a small portion of the flavorful ringer that, in this case, is green Chartreuse &#8212; and its lack of bitters &#8212; it&#8217;s a fairly close relative of last week&#8217;s <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/05/drink-of-the-week-the-corpse-reviver/" target="_blank">original Corpse Reviver</a>. It&#8217;s also worth noting as being another of the very small but apparently growing group of cocktails to be made with Irish whiskey.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I found myself in an Irish pub in San Diego and I asked the bartender if he knew any Irish whiskey cocktails aside from Irish coffee. He had no idea. Well, now if you find yourself in an Irish bar, here&#8217;s another suggestion (assuming they&#8217;ve got some green chartreuse on hand).</p>
<p><strong>The Tipperary</strong></p>
<p>2 oz. Irish whiskey<br />
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth<br />
1/2 oz. green Chartreuse<br />
Lemon twist (garnish)</p>
<p>Combine the ingredients, stir, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. (A wine glass may also do for this one.) Add the lemon twist, sip, and salute the sweetest girl you know.</p>
<p>****</p>
<p>I can&#8217;t explain why, but I just couldn&#8217;t bring myself to try this one shaken, but I can&#8217;t stop you from doing so. As for brands, I tried both the classic Bushmills and the two less familiar brands that we&#8217;ve been playing with here in recent weeks, <a href="http://concannonirishwhiskey.com/" target="_blank">Concannon</a> and <a href="http://www.kilbegganwhiskey.com/agecheck?ReturnUrl=%2F" target="_blank">Kilbeggan</a>. While Bushmills is my actual favorite of the three &#8212; none of them are remotely bad &#8212; I was surprised to see that it was the darkhorse Concannon that held up most formidably among the onslaught of sweet vermouth and Chartreuse.</p>
<p>As for the vermouth, Carpano Antica, once again, beautifully dominated the drink, but Noilly Pratt, as usual, produced a nice harmony as well. If you feel tempted to try other proportions, feel free. There are numerous variations of this drink online that I wish I had time to play with. Gary Regan&#8217;s involves rinsing the glass with Chartreuse and then dumping the remains, which sounds a bit wasteful but might well be worth giving a try.</p>
<p>I could go on a bit more about this drink, but there&#8217;s really not that much to say. It&#8217;s been a sad and bittersweet week for those of us in the writing and media game as Roger Ebert&#8217;s death still hangs heavy in the air. Roger had stopped drinking before he became as world famous as he was destined to be and I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s even right to mention him here. At the same time, it doesn&#8217;t seem right <em>not</em> to mention him here, and he did enjoy spending time in a good bar even after he stopped actually drinking.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s even odder to post a clip from a classic TV show rather than a classic movie &#8212; except, of course, that Roger was also part of a truly great TV show &#8212; but this is the best usage of the most famous song about Tipperary that I know. It&#8217;s also about the ending of something wonderful.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Lv7m5_BG_1A" height="357" width="477" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Corpse Reviver</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/05/drink-of-the-week-the-corpse-reviver/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/04/05/drink-of-the-week-the-corpse-reviver/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple brandy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brandy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Calvados]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cognac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Punt e Mes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Corpse Reviver]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the Corpse Reviver #2]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=25635</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As promised when I took on the Corpse Reviver #2 last June, I&#8217;ve finally gotten around to the less known apparent original drink to bear the name. While my first attempts at a Corpse Reviver made it easy to see why it has been eclipsed by the gin and Lillet Blanc based sequel, with the [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" alt="The Corpse Reviver." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/corpse-reviver.jpg" width="175" height="241" border="0" /> As promised when I took on <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/06/08/drink-of-the-week-the-corpse-reviver-2/" target="_blank">the Corpse Reviver #2</a> last June, I&#8217;ve finally gotten around to the less known apparent original drink to bear the name. While my first attempts at a Corpse Reviver made it easy to see why it has been eclipsed by the gin and Lillet Blanc based sequel, with the right ingredients it really can wake up your taste buds and temporarily enliven your soul. We&#8217;ll simply ignore the fact that I happen to be writing most of this post on Easter Sunday of 2013.</p>
<p>In any case, the real reason for the name is that this drink is supposedly a hangover cure &#8212; though it&#8217;s not so much hair of the dog as a good chunk of the canine. Nevertheless, let us begin the <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">revival</a>.</p>
<p><strong>The Corpse Reviver</strong></p>
<p>1 1/2 ounces brandy or cognac<br />
3/4 ounce Calvados or another apple brandy<br />
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth</p>
<p>Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker or mixing glass. Although I&#8217;m generally in favor of shaking over stirring, I say you should stir your Corpse Reviver. Little ice crystals are the last thing you want in this drink. Nevertheless, stir vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass and drink &#8212; to life, I suppose.</p>
<p>****</p>
<p>I messed around with the ingredients a lot on this one, but I used only one type of apple brandy. Calvados seems to be the classic choice of apple brandy for this drink and the Calvados Coquerel I&#8217;m using is expensive enough for half a fifth that I wasn&#8217;t in the mood to try out any competitors or more downhome variations. (Some recipes call for applejack.) I had just enough left over <a href="http://www.camus.fr/en/our-cognacs/ile-de-re-fine-island" target="_blank">Ile de Ré Fine Island Cognac</a> on hand to make one very sophisticated, yet perhaps too understated, version of the drink using my standard Noilly Pratt sweet vermouth.</p>
<p>I moved on to my personal favorite value brandy, Reynal, which isn&#8217;t made with genuine Cognac grapes but which is produced by a company with <em>offices</em> in the French town of Cognac. Using the Noilly Pratt vermouth along with the Calvados yielded an acceptable, but very unspectacular drink.</p>
<p>However, I still had some <a href="http://www.infiniumspirits.com/brands/carpano-antica/" target="_blank">Carpano Antica</a> on hand that had been thrown my way by mysterious benefactors &#8212; improperly stored due to a massive snafu on my part but still acceptable for use. That yielded a lovely result, with the bittersweet, chocolate-like character of the high end vermouth providing a very nice bottom against the lighter, boozier notes of the brandies. I was less pleased &#8212; but still pleased &#8212; when I tried the exact same drink with another favorite, <a href="http://www.puntemes.com/" target="_blank">Punt e Mes</a>, which is in many respects very similar to Carpano but a bit sharper edged. Try it with one of those.</p>
<p>Now, we come to the point in these weekly missives where I usually like to make some kind of a quip or draw some larger conclusion about the drink. With a name like the Corpse Reviver, I suppose you&#8217;d expect that. The problem is that I really have no &#8220;larger&#8221; thoughts right now other than the fact that I certainly do not recommend this drink as a breakfast beverage. Maybe the gods of cinema can give me a hand.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bPmVhyHBRAM" height="357" width="477" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Vieux Carre</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/02/22/drink-of-the-week-the-vieux-carre/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/02/22/drink-of-the-week-the-vieux-carre/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bar Rescue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benedictine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brandy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cognac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cognac Blues]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dizzy Gillespie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ile de Ré Fine Island Cognac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Taffer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Noilly-Pratt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Punt e Mes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rye]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Templeton Rye]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=24149</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like most Americans, I&#8217;m not exactly a polyglot. Four years of junior high and high school Spanish have been of great assistance in helping me to order  items at taco trucks; three quarters of college French allow me to chuckle knowingly to myself when &#8220;merde!&#8221; is translated as &#8220;damn!&#8221; in subtitles. So, I can&#8217;t properly [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" alt="The Vieux Carre." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/vieux-carre.jpg" width="200" height="200" border="0" />Like most Americans, I&#8217;m not exactly a polyglot. Four years of junior high and high school Spanish have been of great assistance in helping me to order  items at taco trucks; three quarters of college French allow me to chuckle knowingly to myself when &#8220;merde!&#8221; is translated as &#8220;damn!&#8221; in subtitles. So, I can&#8217;t properly pronounce the name of the Vieux Carre, but I can tell you it means &#8220;old square.&#8221; That square, as it turns out, is off of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and this is another fine cocktail associated with America&#8217;s most intriguing cocktail capital.</p>
<p>Quite obviously, however, this is not in the same category as a Hurricane and it&#8217;s not the one of the scary, gigantic green drinks featured on this year&#8217;s season premiere of &#8220;Bar Rescue.&#8221; While, for me, the Vieux Carre doesn&#8217;t quite achieve the <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">classic</a> cocktail nirvana of a <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2011/07/15/drink-of-the-week-the-sazerac/http://" target="_blank">Sazerac</a>, this is one beverage that actually gets tastier the longer you let it sit. It&#8217;s perfect for a long conversation and, by the end of it, even ever-so-justifiably-furious bar rescuer John Taffer might get mellow enough to maybe stop shouting for just a second.</p>
<p><strong>The Vieux Carre</strong></p>
<p>3/4 ounce rye whiskey<br />
3/4 ounce cognac or brandy<br />
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth<br />
1 teaspoon Benedictine<br />
2 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters<br />
2 dashes aromatic  bitters (Angostura or similar)<br />
1 lemon twist (garnish)</p>
<p>Making this drink is about as easy to make as it is to get a buzz going in the French Quarter. Build over some ice cubes in a rock glass, stir, and add the lemon twist. Toast whatever or whomever you like, but do so slowly.</p>
<p>****</p>
<p>I&#8217;m very sorry to say that this week&#8217;s post completes my trilogy of drinks of cocktails featuring Camus&#8217;s <a href="http://www.camus.fr/en/our-cognacs/ile-de-re-fine-island" target="_blank">Ile de Ré Fine Island Cognac</a>. Sadly, that&#8217;s the case because I polished off the bottle last night. No disrespect to my value-priced go-to brandy, Reynal, but there&#8217;s a reason the Camus people get to charge the big bucks for this stuff. It&#8217;s great in a cocktail and remarkably easy and pleasurable to drink neat. Good thing I still have a few airplane bottles of various Ile de Ré expressions in my alcohol laden larder.</p>
<p>My rye for this double-base spirit cocktail was another new freebie favorite we&#8217;ve featured here before, the lovely <a href="http://www.templetonrye.com/" target="_blank">Templeton Rye</a>, previously featured in <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2013/01/11/drink-of-the-week-the-capone/" target="_blank">the Capone</a>.  I usually lean towards higher proof ryes like my old pal, 100 proof Rittenhouse, but that might have been a bit much in this context; Templeton&#8217;s more mellow flavor makes it a pretty perfect match for a Vieux Carre.</p>
<p>I experimented quite a bit with the other ingredients. Many recipes call for more booze and somewhat less of the Benedictine &#8212; a very sweet herbal liqueur which famously mixes well with brandy. I also tried three different sweet vermouths, all favorites. The lightest was Noilly Pratt, which was very nice, but an even better result was achieved with the greatness that is <a href="http://www.specialitybrands.com/Antica-Formula-Vermouth.htm" target="_blank">Carpano Antica</a>. (Yet another freebie <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/21/drink-of-the-week-the-jumbo/" target="_blank">previously featured here</a>).</p>
<p>I also tried it with another great product I&#8217;ll be featuring later, <a href="http://www.puntemes.com/" target="_blank">Punt e Mes</a>. In that instance, it sort of dominated the cocktail but, since I love, love, love me some Punt e Mes, I didn&#8217;t really mind.</p>
<p>One final note, apparently to <em>really</em> do the Vieux Carre right, some people suggest you should make it with just one very large ice cube. Sounds cool, but I guess I need to find an ice cube tray that make 3&#8243;x 3&#8243; ice cubes.</p>
<p>Anyhow, a moment of non-silence for my forever spent bottle of fine cognac. Mr. Gillespie, it&#8217;s time for a little Cognac blues.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MAkBVEMSOcc" height="350" width="477" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Hanky Panky</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/28/drink-of-the-week-the-hanky-panky/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/28/drink-of-the-week-the-hanky-panky/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Dec 2012 22:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arthur Sullivan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gilbert & Sullivan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gilbert and Sullivan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hanky Panky]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Julie Kavner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Late Night Check Out]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Tracey Ullman Show]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Three Little Maids from School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Topsy-Turvy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tracey Ullman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[W.S. Gilbert]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=22276</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If Christmas is a movie directed by Frank Capra as in &#8220;It&#8217;s a Wonderful Life,&#8221; then New Year&#8217;s and New Year&#8217;s Eve is a movie directed by Billy Wilder as in &#8220;The Apartment.&#8221; One is a holiday about what&#8217;s really important: family, love, friendship, and being good to your fellow man. The other is a [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/hp-e1356470160891.jpg" alt="Image ALT text goes here." width="200" height="229" border="0" />If Christmas is a movie directed by Frank Capra as in &#8220;It&#8217;s a Wonderful Life,&#8221; then New Year&#8217;s and New Year&#8217;s Eve is a movie directed by Billy Wilder as in &#8220;The Apartment.&#8221; One is a holiday about what&#8217;s really important: family, love, friendship, and being good to your fellow man. The other is a holiday about what&#8217;s really important: sex, drinking, and being able to look at yourself in the mirror after the sex and the drinking have run their inevitable course. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any mystery why a drink named the Hanky Panky caught my eye as a possible New Year&#8217;s beverage.</p>
<p>One thing that&#8217;s certain about 2013 is that we&#8217;ll almost certainly have to take the bitter with the sweet, and so the Hanky Panky contains the time-tested but increasingly trendy cult beverage, Fernet Branca. An old time <em>digestif</em> that&#8217;s been discovered by those infernal cocktail hipsters, Fernet Branca is yet another of the beverages that came my way through the holiday miracle of publicity. It&#8217;s kind of thrilling to have it on hand, as I&#8217;d never tried it before just a few days ago.</p>
<p>On its own, Fernet is a beverage not for the faint of heart or even, I think, many of the fairly stout of heart. I&#8217;m not saying it doesn&#8217;t taste good &#8212; drinking it straight is, shall we say, a strangely invigorating sensory experience beyond taste. In my case, that invariably includes a few facial expressions reminiscent of Red Skelton selling <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=Al2xOOTMmLo#!" target="_blank">Guzzler&#8217;s Gin</a>. On the other hand, it&#8217;s basically used in this drink as bitters and, on that level, it&#8217;s mighty dandy. In cocktails, proportion is everything.</p>
<p>The Hanky Panky itself is a good to superb drink but also mighty stiff&#8230;so much so, you might consider cutting this one in half, or not, depending on your plans.</p>
<p><strong>The Hanky Panky</strong></p>
<p>1 1/2 ounces gin or brandy/cognac<br />
1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth<br />
1/4 ounce Fernet Branka<br />
1 orange twist (extremely necessary garnish)</p>
<p>Combine your liquid ingredients in a mixing glass or cocktail shaker. Stir vigorously &#8212; I never discourage shaking, but I stuck with stirring on this one for instinctive reasons &#8212; and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add your orange peel, being sure to twist it over the drink to express a bit of that elusive citrus oil I keep reading about into the drink. I really think the additional bit of citrus flavor added by the twist is crucial here.</p>
<p>Sip, toasting the New Year and Ada Coleman, the legendary Savoy Hotel bartender who created the Hanky Panky.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>I tried this drink in several versions of the above. All were good and one version came close to knocking my socks off. We&#8217;ll start with that one, which turned out to be the least tried out version of the drink, which is usually listed as containing strictly gin but was, we are told, first made with Cognac.</p>
<p><img class="photo_right_noborder" width="100" height="219" src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-28.jpg" alt="Fernet Branca." />While I&#8217;m too cheap to buy the finest Cognac, I used my sturdy and very reasonably priced fallback brandy of Reynal (with <em>offices</em> in the Cognac region of France) which you can buy for about $12.00 at Trader Joe&#8217;s and BevMo.  The Reynal and the wondrous <a href="http://www.specialitybrands.com/Antica-Formula-Vermouth.htm" target="_blank">Carpano Antica</a> I featured <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/21/drink-of-the-week-the-jumbo/" target="_blank">last week</a> made such beautiful music together with Fernet Branca, I had to wonder at how this drink came to be pretty strictly identified with gin.</p>
<p>Well, gin is pretty much England&#8217;s official booze, give or take a Guinness, and the Hanky Panky is nevertheless quite good that way, too. It was very definitely a more pleasurable and interesting drink with the wondrous but relatively pricey Carpano (usually about $27-$30.00 for a big bottle), but it worked just fine with our old pals, Martini &amp; Rossi (about $10.00 a bottle). There&#8217;s no point at all, however, on trying to skimp on the Fernet Branca. Love it or hate it, there&#8217;s no hanky and no panky without it.</p>
<p>The only version I can&#8217;t vouch yet, since I haven&#8217;t had a chance to try it, is brandy with the more proletarian sweet vermouth listed above, but I can&#8217;t imagine any version is particularly unlovable. After all, isn&#8217;t it true that, like pizza, even bad Hanky Panky is still Hanky Panky?</p>
<p>****</p>
<p>Since this post is for New Year&#8217;s, I want to end with an appropriate entertainment. The connection here is that Ada Coleman worked at the Savoy&#8217;s American Bar, which was the hang-out of the legendary D&#8217;Oyly Carte Opera Company. As hardcore musical comedy geeks, and everyone whose seen Mike Leigh&#8217;s 1999 smash &#8220;<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151568/" target="_blank">Topsy-Turvy</a>,&#8221; knows, that highly dramatic opera company was widely associated with the work of W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan, whose particular gifts for combining music and often rather silly comedy foreshadowed everyone from Cole Porter to those South Park guys. While the connection might not be immediately apparent, I can&#8217;t think of a more apt accompaniment to your Hanky Panky than the scene below. Happy New Year, everyone.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fXF4nV3xlaw" frameborder="0" width="477" height="357"></iframe></p>
<p>P.S.You can see a more orthodox production of the same G&amp;S tune from &#8220;Topsy-Turvy&#8221; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXWkIZUPmDY" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Jumbo</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/21/drink-of-the-week-the-jumbo/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/21/drink-of-the-week-the-jumbo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Dec 2012 22:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fairytale of New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kirsty MacColl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rye whiskey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shane MacGowan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the Jumbo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Pogues]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=22087</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s a weird world out there as December 2012 heads to a close, but this week at DOTW Central our theme is holiday bounty. An example of that would be the bounteous bottle of Carpano Antica I received from a mysterious publicity benefactor late last week. For those not in the know about this sweet [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/jumbo.jpg" alt="The Jumbo." width="175" height="260" border="0" />It&#8217;s a weird world out there as December 2012 heads to a close, but this week at DOTW Central our theme is holiday bounty. An example of that would be the bounteous bottle of <a href="http://www.specialitybrands.com/Antica-Formula-Vermouth.htm" target="_blank">Carpano Antica</a> I received from a mysterious publicity benefactor late last week. For those not in the know about this sweet vermouth with a more complex, dark chocolate-like undercurrent, it&#8217;s become increasingly ubiquitous in the craft and <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">classic</a> cocktail scene. Some may find it more bitter than sweet, and its growing popularity probably says something about us cocktail snobs, which is not to say it isn&#8217;t completely tasty all on its own. Carpano made a guest appearance in <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/14/drink-of-the-week-the-brooklyn-canadian-club-sherry-cask-iteration/" target="_blank">last week&#8217;s beverage</a> where it actually kind of saved the day with its not so hidden depths. More about it later.</p>
<p>And what better drink to celebrate holiday and the benevolence of whatever cosmic powers you may or may not believe in than the Jumbo, a drink comprised of a trinity of historically benevolent boozes? Better yet, while <a href="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2011/12/23/drink-of-the-week-eggnog/" target="_blank">last year&#8217;s more traditional Christmas cocktail</a> threatened to make me jumbo &#8212; I&#8217;m not exactly microscopic right now &#8212; today&#8217;s drink is relatively quite low cal and 100% fat free. It&#8217;s also super easy to make and even easier to memorize the ingredients and proportions. So, hooray for all that.</p>
<p><strong>The Jumbo</strong></p>
<p>1 ounce rye whiskey<br />
1 ounce sweet vermouth<br />
1 ounce dry vermouth<br />
1-2 dashes Peychaud&#8217;s bitters<br />
1 cocktail cherry (optional garnish)</p>
<p>Combine the liquids in the most festive cocktail shaker or mixing glass you can find and then either shake or stir &#8212; I&#8217;m feeling ecumenical this week but I&#8217;d still shake it &#8212; for a good long time. Then, strain into ye olde chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry. If you&#8217;re a cheapskate like me, it&#8217;s likely to resemble Santa&#8217;s nose but, I have to admit, it will taste better if it looks more like, well, a black cherry. Sip in honor of a great holiday and, let&#8217;s hope, a better new year.</p>
<p>*****</p>
<p><img class="photo_right_noborder" src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Carpano-Antica-Bottle-amp-Tin.jpg" alt="carpano antica." width="100" height="205" />I actually tried this drink with two different vermouths and got two fascinating and kind of delightful results. With Carpano Antica, it was a not-so-sweet but charming drink with a rich, deep undercurrent.With Martini &amp; Rossi, the universal fall-back sweet and not at all bitter vermouth, it was light and enjoyable &#8212; your basic good natured, cocktail treat. A more easy going Manhattan. I  actually think both versions are perfectly legitimate and, in their way, almost entirely different drinks. Just another testament to the infinite variability of cocktails. My rye this time, by the way, was the new Knob Creek rye, which I&#8217;ve been really enjoying.</p>
<p>Speaking of ingredients, I once again need to speak up for bitters, in this case Peychaud&#8217;s. I mistakenly got the idea from something I read somewhere that at least some people made the Jumbo without bitters. And, so, I made versions of this that were completely bitter free and it was, well, a pale experience. Let me tell you folks, while Angostura/aromatic type bitters will do okay in a pinch, it really takes the lighter and more cheerful Peychaud&#8217;s to make the Jumbo sing.  Also, I found out, just as this was being posted, that some folks go with a bit more whiskey and dry vermouth and a bit less of the sweet vermouth, so if you find these versions too sweet, feel free to try out a drier Jumbo.</p>
<p>Finally, since the holiday is almost upon us, let&#8217;s end with a song. Remember, folks, only three drinking days left until even more drinking days.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NrAwK9juhhY" frameborder="0" width="477" height="357"></iframe></p>
<p>One singer is gone and the other is still with us and it&#8217;s not who anyone would have guessed. Life and death are beyond predictability; we don&#8217;t have a choice about that,  but that&#8217;s also all the more reason to cherish life.  On the other hand, that doesn&#8217;t mean you have to necessarily overdo it, at least not most of the time.</p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Brooklyn (Canadian Club Sherry Cask Iteration)</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/14/drink-of-the-week-the-brooklyn-canadian-club-sherry-cask-iteration/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/12/14/drink-of-the-week-the-brooklyn-canadian-club-sherry-cask-iteration/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amer Picon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian Club]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Canadian Club Sherry Cask]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Martini & Rossi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the Brooklyn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Torani Amer]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=21952</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This probably isn&#8217;t the first time, but we&#8217;re doing things a bit bass ackward this week.  That&#8217;s what happens when someone is nice enough to send something for free along with a recipe, and then that recipe turns out to be a very acceptable variation on a classic which we haven&#8217;t gotten to here yet. [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" alt="The Brooklyn (Canadian Club Sherry Cask)." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/brooklyn.jpg" width="150" height="225" border="0" />This probably isn&#8217;t the first time, but we&#8217;re doing things a bit bass ackward this week.  That&#8217;s what happens when someone is nice enough to send something for free along with a recipe, and then that recipe turns out to be a very acceptable variation on a <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">classic</a> which we haven&#8217;t gotten to here yet. So, we&#8217;re doing the variation first. We&#8217;ll get to the &#8220;real&#8221; drink later.</p>
<p>In the case of this week&#8217;s drink, my old friends &#8212; and I do mean &#8220;friends&#8221; &#8212; at Canadian Club saw fit to send me another of their very nice off-the-beaten track expressions and one I hadn&#8217;t tried before, Canadian Club Sherry Cask. It&#8217;s pretty much exactly what you&#8217;d expect, a slightly more complex variation on their highly underrated original whiskey. It boasts a very nice sherry finish and just enough extra alcohol to be interesting at 82.6 proof, as opposed to the usual 80 proof. It&#8217;s actually very drinkable just on the rocks and I&#8217;m sure would work nicely in most of your basic cocktails. It was nice &#8212; almost too nice and gentle &#8212; in an Old Fashioned. I imagine it would make a delicious Manhattan, but I&#8217;ll have to try that one out.</p>
<p>As for this week&#8217;s drink, a traditional Brooklyn is made with rye whiskey, a more peppery flavored relatively distant relative of Canadian whiskey. It also features dry vermouth. This version features sweet vermouth, and the proportions are different as well. It&#8217;s safe to say that the Canadian Club Brooklyn is a lot sweeter than the classic. I&#8217;m sure a lot of people will prefer it.</p>
<p><strong>The Brooklyn (CC Sherry Cask)</strong></p>
<p>1 ounce Canadian Club Sherry Cask Whiskey (Regular Canadian Club might also work, as might rye &#8212; but I can&#8217;t vouch for them)<br />
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth<br />
1/4 ounce Torani Amer<br />
1/4 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur<br />
Maraschino cherry (garnish)</p>
<p>Combine the whiskey, vermouth, Torani Amer, and maraschino liqueur in a cocktail shaker or similar vessel. If you&#8217;re a purist stir; if you&#8217;re me, shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail over your preferred cocktail cherry. Contemplate the fact that that, considering the way people are constantly tinkering with drinks, there&#8217;s no way I&#8217;ll ever run out of drinks to write about.</p>
<p>****<br />
<img class="photo_right_noborder" alt="Canadian Club Sherry Cask." src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/bottle.jpg" width="86" height="166" /> Now is the time at Drink of the Week when we discuss ingredients and their discontents. For starters, both the classic recipes with dry vermouth and rye and the one I received from Canadian Club contain a little known bittersweet liqueur called Amer Picon.</p>
<p>There are only two problems with this. First, Amer Picon&#8217;s recipe has changed so much over the years that some expert mixologists no longer recognize it as a proper ingredient for a Brooklyn. Also, Amer Picon is unavailable in the United States. On the other hand, many consider the 78 proof digestif, Torani Amer, to be far closer to the original Amer Picon recipe&#8230;and you can pick it up about $10 or $11 at BevMo. So, I used that.</p>
<p>My first tries were made using the universal fall back sweet vermouth, Martini &amp; Rossi. It was very drinkable, if a bit medicinal&#8230;in a good way, I think. Less like Robitussin and more like some of the now forgotten medicines my mom gave me back in the Paleozoic era when rock and roll was still slightly controversial.</p>
<p>Then, as fortune would have it, a long awaited bottle of Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth arrived from another benefactor. We&#8217;ll be discussing this stunning fortified beverage again very soon but, trust me, it&#8217;s worth the extra money if you&#8217;re into sweet vermouth. In this version of a Brooklyn, well, it was kind of perfect. Gone was the pleasant but non-idyllic medicine flavor and in it&#8217;s place was a lovely chocolatey undercurrent. This is the way to make this particular drink, I think.</p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Honolulu</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/10/12/drink-of-the-week-the-honolulu/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/10/12/drink-of-the-week-the-honolulu/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bakers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Booker's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bourbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dry vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Eleanor Powell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gracie Allen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[high proof bourbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Honolulu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Beam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jim Beam Small Batch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Punt e Mes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the Honolulu]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=19988</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last month, I was faced with the challenge of coming up with a cocktail to justify those free bottles of Booker&#8217;s and Baker&#8217;s bourbon that the Jim Beam Small Batch folks so kindly sent my way. This week, I have another &#8212; and I think even better &#8212; cocktail usage for these justifiably widely praised [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right_noborder" alt="the Honolulu" src="http://www.premiumhollywood.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Honolulu.jpg" width="140" height="237" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxp-" target="_blank">Last month</a>, I was faced with the challenge of coming up with a cocktail to justify those free bottles of Booker&#8217;s and Baker&#8217;s bourbon that the Jim Beam Small Batch folks so kindly sent my way. This week, I have another &#8212; and I think even better &#8212; cocktail usage for these justifiably widely praised high-proof and moderately pricey bourbons.</p>
<p>The Beam folks might insist that the best way to enjoy these bourbons is with just a splash of water or an ice cube, but I think they really work well in this week&#8217;s drink. It&#8217;s a bitters-free variation on the Manhattan (originally featured on BE <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">here</a>) that really comes into its own with a bourbon packed with flavor, and alcohol, than on an ordinary 80-90 proofer. It&#8217;s also about as simple as a cocktail gets.</p>
<p><strong>The Honolulu<br />
</strong></p>
<p>1 ounce bourbon<br />
1 ounce dry vermouth<br />
1 ounce sweet vermouth<br />
Lemon twist (garnish)</p>
<p>Combine in the bourbon and vermouth in a cocktail shaker with plenty of ice. Depending on your preference, stir or shake (I shake) vigorously. Strain into a highly chilled cocktail glass, add the lemon twist, and drink. You may also ponder what the connection could <em>possibly</em> between this drink and the famed Hawaiian metropolis. I haven&#8217;t a clue.</p>
<p>****</p>
<p>At least using Booker&#8217;s or Baker&#8217;s, this is a very refined drink for people who enjoy a lot of intriguing flavors dancing across the tongue. While using the very high-proof Booker&#8217;s resulted in a gentle-yet-tongue tickling beverage with a subtly spicy flavor, I actually leaned towards the version I made with Baker&#8217;s. At 107 proof, Baker&#8217;s is practically children&#8217;s fare compared to the massive 128.5 power of Booker&#8217;s, but at least using the Martini vermouths I had on hand, the result was actually more complex and intriguing.</p>
<p>I did try to experiment with this drink by substituting Punt e Mes for the sweet vermouth and adding a Badabing cherry. You know how they say that most experiments fail? Stick with the traditional Honolulu. This is a cocktail that&#8217;s interesting enough to entertain the brain while powerful enough to (oh so pleasantly) dull it. No reason to mess with something this good.</p>
<p>Say goodnight, Gracie and Eleanor.</p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IN3aETNaThI" height="357" width="477" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>[Writer's note: I'd like to dedicate this post to my mother, Charlotte Bows Westal, who went on to the great Coconut Grove in the sky at age 84, shortly after this post was put together earlier this week. Mom was never a really a writer, a big drinker, or a connoisseur, but she knew the value of good grammar and a well-stocked bar -- even if she wasn't above pouring the cheap stuff into bottles of the good stuff or reading questionable bestsellers. She would have liked today's clip, too, I think. Maybe she even saw it on the big screen back in '39.]</p>
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		<title>Drink of the Week: The Aperol Americano</title>
		<link>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/31/drink-of-the-week-the-aperol-americano/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2012/08/31/drink-of-the-week-the-aperol-americano/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bob Westal</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lifestyle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aperol]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campari]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Casino Royale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cocktails]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drink of the Week]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy Hour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Bond]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Labor Day weekend]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mariposa Agave Liqueur]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sweet vermouth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.bullz-eye.com/?p=18434</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What kind of drink do you want on Labor Day? Something so strong it&#8217;ll make you lose all ambition and forget you even have a job? Maybe you&#8217;d be better off with something so delicious and sweet it&#8217;ll make you glad you have some hard-earned sheckels and can actually afford some decent booze, but not [...]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="photo_right" src="http://blog.bullz-eye.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/aperol-americano.jpg" alt="The Aperol Americano" width="200" height="268" border="0" /> What kind of drink do you want on Labor Day? Something so strong it&#8217;ll make you lose all ambition and forget you even have a job? Maybe you&#8217;d be better off with something so delicious and sweet it&#8217;ll make you glad you have some hard-earned sheckels and can actually afford some decent booze, but not so heavy duty with alcohol it&#8217;ll dehydrate you in the late summer heat or blitz you out to the point that you&#8217;re going to have to call in sick on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>So, we turn to a variation on a genuine cocktail great,<a href="http://http://blog.bullz-eye.com/2011/09/23/drink-of-the-week-the-americano/" target="_blank"> the Americano</a>. This version substitutes Campari with Aperol, another liqueur from the same Italian manufacturer which only recently has become widely available on our shores but which I understand has been delighting Europeans en masse since some time not long after Benito Mussolini was given his eternal walking papers.</p>
<p>Aperol is something like a kinder and gentler lower alcohol variation on the super-sweet and super-bitter one-two punch of Campari. While I love it&#8217;s more potent cousin, Aperol is, on its own, a drink with just enough bitterness to underline its delightful sweetness.  Using it in an Americano turns into a super refreshing beverage that&#8217;s as user-friendly as anything, but just complex enough, I think, to placate a not-too hardbitten <a href="http://www.bullz-eye.com/microsite/get_real_guide/articles/classic_drinks.htm" target="_blank">cocktail snob</a>. It&#8217;s worth a little labor, but making this drink is about as easy as drinking it.</p>
<p><strong>The Aperol Americano</strong></p>
<p>1 ounce Aperol<br />
1 ounce sweet vermouth<br />
Club soda or seltzer water<br />
Orange slice (highly desirable garnish)</p>
<p>Add the Aperol and vermouth to an old fashioned glass with plenty of ice in it and maybe an orange slice or chunk. Top off with soda. Now here&#8217;s the difficult part &#8212; stir. You might consider toasting the hard working members of organized labor who helped you get that weekend you&#8217;re currently enjoying so much.</p>
<p>***<br />
When I wrote about the Americano just slightly under a year ago, I described it as &#8220;a perfect drink for lightweights&#8221; despite the fact that I also noted it&#8217;s the first drink ordered by none other than James Bond in none other than the first James Bond novel, &#8220;Casino Royale.&#8221; Considering that lower alcohol content of Aperol vis-à-vis Campari, I guess this would be an even more perfect beverage for lightweights.</p>
<p>If that&#8217;s a little <em>too</em> perfect for you, it&#8217;s perfectly acceptable to do what I did and increase the Aperol and vermouth to 1 1/2 ounces each and make the drink in a somewhat larger Tom Collins/highball glass. It&#8217;s way good and it still won&#8217;t remove you from the workforce.</p>
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