Tag: drink

34. St. Charles’ Punch

On By The Boozy NewsieIn Bon Vivant's CompanionLeave a comment

St-Charles-Punch-1

Happy Fourth of July to all my US readers! And, happy fourth of July to all the rest of you. (No reason not to celebrate the day, I say.) In honor of this occasion, another delicious punch from a very American hero — I’ve said it before, but just to note again — the Bartender’s Guide is the first American cocktail handbook. A piece of history! And this drink is very patriotically colored. Now go make yourself a glass, and watch the fireworks.

No super interesting news stories today (other than my realization that we are just ten years away from the 250th birthday of the United States, which is exciting and also surprising that it hasn’t even been that long), so instead, a quick quote about the inspiration for this drink. It’s apparently named after the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans at the time. Generously described in Mary Cable’s Lost New Orleans:

The St. Charles was certainly no common structure. It was taller than any building in New Orleans — six stories, surmounted by a gleaming white dome that could be seen for miles up and down the river. According to Norman’s 1845 guidebook, “The effect of the dome upon the sight of the visitor, as he approaches the city, is similar to that of St. Paul’s in London.” Mr. Norman, beside himself with admiration, went on to speak of the “indescribable effect of the sublime and matchless proportions of this building upon all spectators — even the stoical Indian and the cold and strange backwoodsman, when they first view it, are struck with wonder and delight.”

Sadly, it no longer exists. Drink to its memory!

Continue reading “34. St. Charles’ Punch” →

115. Soda Cocktail

On By The Boozy NewsieIn Bon Vivant's Companion1 Comment

2-Soda-Cocktail

After having five different more-or-less terrible light beers (more on that to come!), I decided to tone it down a little with the next – non-alcoholic – mixture from Mr. Thomas. This is actually a variation of his 114. Jersey Cocktail, which is the same thing but with cider (presumably alcoholic cider) instead of soda water, but we’ll get to that at a later point.

The following came up in a Google News search for bitters, so while it is not news, it’s actually pretty fascinating and therefore I think it counts. Everything you ever wanted to know about Angostura bitters. Check it out! Also I really want to try that Angostura Sour they mention, but I’ll need to buy another bottle for that.

Continue reading “115. Soda Cocktail” →

109. Whiskey Cocktail

On By The Boozy NewsieIn Bon Vivant's Companion2 Comments

3-Whiskey-Cocktail

I finally got my gum syrup! Which allowed me to start testing out a whole number of new cocktails from Jerry Thomas, including the following classic. Generally, this is regarded as one of the earlier recipes for what ended up becoming the Old Fashioned. So, yum. Of course, it’s not called the Old Fashioned because it wasn’t old-fashioned yet. And, the gum syrup is really not necessary, if you don’t have it, but it does add some nice smoothness.

There is really very little in the news that’s not cocktail related. I tried “old fashioned,” too, and that was way too broad. So, instead, let’s see what I can spin. Mainly, I just want to wish everyone a great Memorial Day — remember those who have fallen, and also have a good old-fashioned barbecue! This is a classic American drink, so it seems only right to post it today.

2-Whiskey-Cocktail-Ingredients

109. Whiskey Cocktail

(Use small bar glass.) [He kind of contradicts this later. I say, use a rocks glass.]

  • 3 or 4 dashes of gum syrup. [Again, you can use simple syrup if you don’t have gum syrup.
  • 2 dashes bitters (Bogart’s). [“Bogart’s” is a corruption of “Boker’s,” which did not exist for a while, and only fairly recently came back. I don’t have this, so I used the classic Angostura. Supposedly should be a little more cardamom-y, maybe.]
  • 2 oz. of whiskey, and a piece of lemon peel.
  • Fill one-third full of fine ice; shake and strain in a fancy red wine-glass.

4-Whiskey-Cocktail

Tasting Notes:

BN: This was nice. I mean, it was pretty much an Old Fashioned so honestly there’s not much to say. I missed the big ice cube typical of the OF nowadays, but the gum syrup made it a little smoother, and melded the flavors better together than I’ve seen previously with OFs. Stay tuned, as I’m going to make a post all about comparing gum syrup to simple syrup.

PiC: This was good, if you like that sort of thing. Which I don’t.

1-Whiskey-Cocktail

22. Milk Punch

On By The Boozy NewsieIn Bon Vivant's CompanionLeave a comment

3-Cold-Punch

Knocked out two in a row for this weekend. Why two? Well, because one is exactly the same as the other one, just differs in temperature. The hot version of this is over here. For now, the chilly one.

In the news world, not much to report. Louisiana apparently barred (or rather, chose to not allow) the sale of raw milk, due to health risks. Needless to say, I did not use raw milk for this. Sorry for the lame news (two in a row). It was either this or a story about donated breast milk, which is probably more interesting, but slightly less appetizing.

Continue reading “22. Milk Punch” →

17. Vanilla Punch

On By The Boozy NewsieIn Bon Vivant's CompanionLeave a comment

VanillaPunch3

Well, I spent all this time getting curaçao and then decided to make one of his drinks that doesn’t actually need it. Ah well, it was still delicious.

Vanilla Ice performed on the Today Show yesterday. I have no understanding of why this happened. Also, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were involved. This may have been a piece (one of the many) of 90s culture that I missed.

VanillaPunchIngredients

17. Vanilla Punch

(Use large bar glass.) [We didn’t.]

  • 1 table-spoonful of sugar.
  • 2 oz. brandy.
  • The juice of ¼ of a lemon.
  • Fill the tumbler with shaved ice, shake well, ornament with one or two slices of lemon, and flavor with a few drops of vanilla extract. [Presumably, you put the ingredients in first, and THEN fill with ice. Also, I used more like 6-7 drops of extract, and you should too.
  • This is a delicious drink, and should be imbibed through a glass tube or straw.

VanillaPunch4

Tasting Notes:

BN: I’m not sure why it follows that if it’s a delicious drink, it should be imbibed with a straw, but he’s right on both accounts. Vanilla isn’t a super common drink flavor, other than, say, milkshakes, but it paired really well with the citrus, and the bite of the alcohol. The only change I’d like to make to this drink is to maybe add some soda water, to cut the alcohol a tiny bit and, more importantly, make it last longer. Also, shaking with shaved ice is sort of strange, too, but it seemed to work. It was sweet, flavorful, and not overpowering in any particular way.

PiC: I liked it! It wasn’t too sweet, and I liked how much vanilla there was.

VanillaPunch1

129. Ale Sangaree

On By The Boozy NewsieIn Bon Vivant's Companion1 Comment

IMG_0617

And we’re back to Jerry Thomas! I’m still a little behind ingredients-wise, so this is one of his simpler ones, but as soon as I buy some non-blue curaçao we should be on a roll. Also gomme syrup, which is apparently like simple syrup but smoother and silkier, which is intriguing. There’s a trip to BevMo in my near future.

There weren’t many news stories to go after with these particular words, but I found this article that says that Shakespeare’s father was an official ale taster for Stratford. Pretty sweet job, if you ask me. And speaking of sweet ale…

IMG_0598

129. Ale Sangaree

(Use large bar glass.)

  • 1 teaspoonful of sugar, dissolved in a tablespoonful of water.
  • Fill the tumbler with ale, and grate nutmeg on top.

IMG_0601

Tasting Notes:

BN: This was a rather vague recipe; I assumed that it wanted you to mix the first ingredient with the ale in the tumbler, rather than just sort of look at it while you drank the nutmegged ale. For the beer, I used the Mammoth Brewing 395 IPA that I brought back from my trip, partially because it was around, but mainly because I thought that the sage and other herbal notes in it would work well with the nutmeg, which they did! In terms of the drink overall, it initially just tasted like beer, with a hint of additional spice, but I think our glass was probably larger than expected, and so there wasn’t enough sugar to go around. So, I added more (probably about double) and then you definitely got the sweetness, which was pretty nice. Hit the bitterness of the IPA and toned it down. However, at the end of the day, it was just sweet beer, which was not too exciting. Nothing compared to the Port Wine Sangaree…

PiC: I thought this tasted good but I wasn’t that impressed with it as a cocktail per se. Maybe the beer tasted worse in his time, so this made it easier to drink? I would drink it, but I wouldn’t make it again, unless I had a beer that was really bad.

Blogger’s Note:

This is not related to cocktails, but rather to the blog itself. As you know, I switched to a self-hosted wordpress site at the beginning of April and, well, it sucks. The hosting itself, that is. I have a bad provider, and while it’s free, I’d rather pay money and get faster loading, fewer errors, etc, because it doesn’t make it easy for readers like you to enjoy the content. So, does anyone know of any good options? I’m looking at BlueHost right now, which is recommended by WordPress itself, and has pretty enticing pricing. Thanks all!

IMG_0608

Mammoth Brewing Company – To Go

On By The Boozy NewsieIn To Go3 Comments

Time for the second in my series of breweries that have bears in their logo. This one makes slightly less sense than Big Bear Lake Brewing, but I’ll take it.

As some of you may know, I was actually living up in Mammoth for the past month. This made it a little tricky to create any drinks in my minuscule Airbnb kitchen, so that’s why you’ve been seeing all these reviews. I’ll get back to the cocktails soon, I promise. Anyway, the one thing I could do was taste all 15 beers available at the Mammoth Brewing Company. So I did. Continue reading “Mammoth Brewing Company – To Go” →

Big Bear Lake Brewing Company – To Go

On By The Boozy NewsieIn To GoLeave a comment

Door-Logo

I’m renaming this category! I’ve been traveling a lot lately, so there are more and more of these alcoholic postcards to write. Hence, “To Go,” which seems fitting, especially after our New Orleans experience of To Go booze.

Anyways, we were in Big Bear a few weekends ago, and of course we stopped in to their brewery — the Big Bear Lake Brewing Company — for a flight. It wasn’t a huge place, only 6 beers to try, but it was nice enough. They did have a very questionably “patio” that we chilled on with our friends; it was only about 1.5 people deep at maximum, but we could look out onto the oncoming rainstorm which was kind of fun.

(I’ve put a photo of their own tasting notes at the end of this post, if you’re interested.)

Barely Legal Honey Blonde – ABV 6.5%
This actually tasted like a sort of nutty, roasty mead. We didn’t taste licorice, though the card we got with it said that we should. Very malty, not hoppy at all. Nice!

Half Wit Belgian Wit – ABV 6.0%
I did not like this at all. It smelled like bananas, and had a similar aftertaste, which really wasn’t great.

Black Raspberry Session Pale Ale – ABV 4.3%
It smelled like raspberry but tasted like nothing. Hoppy, gross nothingness. It also wasn’t very bubbly, but that may have been because the tender poured it out of a pitcher for some slightly unclear reason. Our least favorite.

Ode to Winslow Chocolate Porter – ABV 6.6%
This was fine. Chocolate and coffee flavors like a classic porter / stout type drink. As you would expect.

Watergate Session Pale Ale – ABV 4.2%
Way too hoppy. But not many other flavors — almost watery. I hated it, but you could at least tell that there wasn’t much alcohol in it so you could drink a lot of it. If you liked that sort of thing.

Whispering Pine Belgian IPA – ABV 7.0% / IBU: 68
Still hoppy, but at least has flavors, unlike the other ones. The hops keep going and going on the aftertaste, but at least there’s a pine flavor to go along with them to make it a little better.

Well, we didn’t really love these. The Honey Blonde was the best of the bunch, but who knows — if you like IPAs more than I do (I feel like most people do) maybe you’ll like the brewery. And it’s still a fun place to go, even if you don’t like the beer.

Beer-Tasting-Notes