A Bitter Spirit

Day 12: Twelve Drummers Drumming Cocktail

Back at the beginning of December, I was chatting with our Mom and she asked "Are you doing your cocktail calendar again this year?" When I replied in the affirmative, she said "Well maybe you could make a nice punch. I'm always looking for a good punch to serve at parties." Since today is also Twelfth Night (and sadly the last day of this year's cocktail calendar), we thought that today's drink should be that nice punch! So here's one for you, Mom. You can make a glass or a batch.

Oh .. kind of like yesterday, this drink doesn't necessarily tie into drums or drummers .. but it's Twelfth Night, so that's pretty close.

 

Twelve Drummers Drumming Cocktail

• 4 parts Bourbon (we used Maker's Mark)
• 2 parts St. Germaine
• 2 parts grenadine
• 12 parts brewed tea (we used English Breakfast)
• 6 parts Limonata

Combine liquor, grenadine and tea. If you're serving by the glass, pour into individual glasses over ice and then top up with appropriate amount of Limonata. Garnish with an orange wheel and some loose pomegranate seeds.

If you're serving into a punch bowl, add the Limonata just before guests arrive to keep it bubbly. To fancy it up, add an ice ring to your punch bowl!

Cocktail Notes

• We used English Breakfast tea in this version; it was a smidge bitter. In the summer when we made bourbon slush, we used a bourbon vanilla tea; it was a little smoother and would probably work a little better. If you have some tea options, you can play around.

Day 11: Eleven Pipers Piping Cocktail

Hello, fellow cocktail drinkers.  Here we are at the penultimate cocktail in our Twelve Days of Christmas cocktail calendar.  For the cocktails thus far, we've made some connection to the given verse of the carol, whether it was a literal ingredient or inspired by the words or tone of the verse.  With this cocktail, we fully admit that the cocktail we made has nothing to do with the number 11, pipers or piping.  We found a recipe that adds olive oil to a brandy sour to make the cocktail a little deeper and richer in flavour.  We took that idea and riffed on it, making the sour out of a cherry and fig infused brandy.

Eleven Pipers Piping Cocktail

• 2 parts cherry and fig infused brandy (see cocktail notes below)
• 1/2 part lemon juice
• 3/4 part simple syrup
• 1 tsp good quality olive oil 
• 1 tsp egg white
• spritz of Pernod

Combine the brandy, lemon juice, simple syrup, olive oil and egg white in a cocktail shaker.  Dry shake for at least 20 seconds.  Add ice and shake until the cocktail is chilled.  Pour into a coupe glass and mist with Pernod.

Cocktail Notes

• For the brandy infusion, we used 1 cup of brandy, 1/4 a cup of dried cherries and 2 dried figs (roughly cut up).  Let that mixture set for at least 2 days to get the full flavour of the fruit in the brandy.
• The original recipe called for a mist of Herbsaint which we didn't have but found that Pernod married nicely with infused brandy.
• Make sure your olive oil is fresh!  We found out the hard way that some of the olive oil in the kitchen had turned.
• The dry shake is extremely important to help emulsify the ingredients together.  Without that, the cocktail won't taste like an integrated drink.

Day 10: Ten Lords a-Leaping Cocktail

“...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

Yep, you guessed it. THIS was our white whale.

It started off simply enough .. we thought "Hey, these lords, they probably want a good stiff drink after all that leaping. Let's give them something strong and (traditionally) manly. Let's start with a Blood and Sand and go from there." Aside from the obvious appeal that the original cocktail is from a bullfighter movie (talk about leaping!), it also uses whisky as a base. We try different booze bases to keep you, gentle reader, interested. After all, not everyone are the ardent bourbon-lovers like we are.

We tried several variations and combinations of Jameson Irish Whiskey (because the only scotch we had was Kate's birthday scotch, Glenmorangie with a Sauternes finish, and she'll be damned if she's putting that in a cocktail) with Lillet (instead of the sweet vermouth), orange juice, Cherry Heering, port (see cocktail note 1), Root, Fernet Branca and cranberry sauce (see cocktail note 2).

After multiple hours, we called it a day and resolved to start fresh on the 'morrow.

With a bourbon base.

Ten Lords a-Leaping Cocktail

• 2 parts bourbon (we used Buffalo Trace)
• 1 part Lillet
• 1 part Cherry Heering
• 1 tsp leftover cranberry sauce
• Apothecary Cherry Cedar Bitters

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake very well. Double strain over ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with a light twist of orange.

Cocktail Notes

1. We had a guest bartender attending during our first session. Part of the time we spent trying various ingredients to see if they would go together. One that surprised us was a 1:1 Lillet/port combo. VERY smooth. Our guest bartender, Marni, dubbed it "The Tipsy Mommy".
2. Jam cocktails are quite popular where Drew hails from (you go into a bar, choose a base spirit and a base jam, then they riff on it a bit and make you a tasty cocktail). We'd been wanting to try something like that. We had some cranberry sauce leftover from Christmas dinner, so we incorporated it. The sauce was homemade with real cranberries (hence the double straining); it also had maple syrup and Grand Mariner in it - so that may effect the taste of the cocktail, depending on what kind of cranberry sauce you use.

Day 9: Nine Ladies Dancing Cocktail

Some days, the process is easy. And some days, the process is hard. Once in every calendar, we run into our "white whale" - that cocktail that will just not coalesce into a tasty libation. Sometimes, it's because we don't have a clear idea of what we want (some might say it lacks a strong narrative thread) or sometimes it's because things just don't taste the way we thought they would. So a 20 minute fun exercise turns into a 3-hour, thousand glass-washing, tipsy tirade.

Fortunately, today's cocktail wasn't our white whale this year. This was probably one of the easiest to come together. For our dancing ladies, a pretty pink pomegranate margarita.

 

Nine Ladies Dancing Cocktail

• 2 parts pomegranate tequila
• 1 part amaretto (we used Sons of Vancouver limited edition, barrel-aged amaretto - I have bottle #17!)
• 1/2 part lime
• bar spoon of Campari

Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker over ice. Shake well. Strain into cocktail glass. Serve with a cute lime twist.

Cocktail Notes

• We originally tried Tuaca, along with the tequila and amaretto - but it didn't add anything new.
• The Campari is surprisingly delightful.

Day 8: Eight Maids a-Milking Cocktail

Drew has a tendency to store up random bits of trivia much like squirrels stowing away nuts for the coming winter.  Kate has chosen to find it charming.  In researching the Twelve Days of Christmas, he latched on to a few "interesting" bits of knowlege.  Relevant to today's cocktail, eight maids a-milking, is the phrase "smooth as a milk maid's skin."  Prior to vaccines, the general public often had pock marked skin while milk maid's skin frequently remained unblemished.  This is due to the maids being exposed to the cow pox virus. Similar to chicken pox, cow pox doesn't leave the typical pock marks on the skin but does offer some immunity to other pock producing viruses.  Thus, smooth skin!  Fascinating...well, ok...not really, but  you just learned something and by now you're thirsty. (Kate's note - ewww)

For today's cocktail, we knew we wanted to make something creamy but not necessarily use milk or ice cream. Kate had recently seen this recipe from Lauren Mote for a "Chartreuse Milkshake" that she thought was nifty. We modded it into a flip; using the full egg in the cocktail makes it extra rich and velvety.  

Eight Maids a-Milking Cocktail

• 2 parts gin (we used Wallflower gin)
• 1 part creme de cacao
• 1 part green chartreuse
• 1/2 part orange juice
• 1/2 part lime juice
• 1/4 part simple syrup
• 1 egg
• Fee Brother's Black Walnut bitters
• martini glass

Combine all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and dry shake it for at least 20 seconds.  Add ice and shake until cold.  Double strain into a martini glass and top with grated zest and chocolate shavings.

Cocktail Notes

As mentioned above, this drink is a slight riff on a drink by Vancouver bartender and bitter maker, Lauren Mote.  We put in a full egg to up the richness and creaminess and added the black walnut bitters to enhance the chartreuse notes.

Day 7: Seven Swans a-Swimming Cocktail

Here we are at the half way point of our cocktails and, even better than that, we're at the last of our bird days! Now, swans have a reputation for being cranky, even downright mean. But instead of focussing on this somewhat questionable personality trait for our cocktail's genesis, we decided to emphasize their royal nature: in the UK, swans are protected by the Queen. And what's the Queen's favourite drink? Dubonnet.

An additional factor: it's New Year's Eve and we knew we wanted a sparkling wine-based cocktail. So, we're riffing on the traditional French 75 and have created a "Royal 75", if you will, to ring in the New Year. Happy 2016, everyone!

Seven Swans a-Swimming Cocktail

• 1 part Dubonnet
• 1 tsp (bar spoon) Pernod
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• champagne, prosecco or other sparkling wine
• champagne flute

Combine the Dubonnet, Pernod and simple syrup in a champagne flute.  Top with sparkling wine.

Cocktail Notes

We tried two type of bitters with the drink, but ultimately neither added to the cocktail.

• We added lemon bitters, thinking the cocktail might need more of a top note.  The bitters flattened out all of the nuisances of the cocktail and made for a boring drink.
• We also tried Conifer Berry bitters from Apothecary bitters but they overemphasized the anise and "green" flavours in the cocktail.

Day 5: Five Gold Rings Cocktail

Overhead in the Trgovac Cocktail Test Lab...

So five gold rings.  Maybe Goldschlager?

No.  What are we, undergrads doing shots to get loaded?

Ok, ok.  How about that terrible (terrible!) Hungarian Golden Pear liqueur?

No. NO.  

Oooo ... banana liqueur?

NO! Look, we want this too be classy. We only have 12 days in this calendar - no joke cocktails.

Oh, how about that really interesting Chrysanthemum and Honey liqueur? That's kind of gold.

Brilliant.  

 

Five Gold Rings Cocktail

• 1 part Koval Chrysanthemum and Honey Liqueur
• 1 part Giffard's Ginger of the Indies
• 1 part smooth, sipping vodka
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until super-cold. Strain into martini glass. Express a bit of lemon oil from the twist onto the drink. Garnish with fancy lemon peel rings.

Cocktail Notes

• This came together beautifully. Amazing. Fresh. A little sweet. Needs the lemon.

Day 4: Four Calling (Colly) Birds Cocktail

Drew and I are a nerdy pair. When we were researching the twelve days of Christmas (the lyrics of the carol, the various feast days, etc.) we came across a lot of interesting (and historically questionable) tidbits. But one of my absolute favourite things is the lyric comparison chart in Wikipedia. I always figured that "gold rings" vs "golden rings" was the most contentious lyric. Not so. Apparently, it is the one from today, Day 4. The original 1790 version of this carol listed the Day 4 gift as "4 Colly Birds". Colly is, it seems, an English regional colloquialism for black. So these should be four black birds. (Sidenote: there are also lyric variants of Canary, Colour'd, and Calling ... so black may not be definitive, but that's what we're going with for this cocktail).

Upon reading this, I immediately thought "Black Russian" (possibly because I don't always have a lot of imagination). But then I remembered the challenge my wife, Rose, gave us at the outset, "Why don't you guys try using up some of the liquors you have before buying a bunch of new ones." Indeed. Here was the perfect opportunity to try to use some Root. Root is this very interesting spirit that calls up notes of sassafras, birch bark and, well, root beer. As you can imagine, it's tricky in a cocktail. This seemed like a fun one to try.

Four Calling Birds Cocktail

• 1 part vodka
• 1/2 part kahlua
• 1/2 part Root
• bar spoon creme de cacao
• bar spoon Fernet Branca
• few dashes General Ambrose Bitters

Combine all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake. Pour over ice in a rocks glass. Serve.

Cocktail Notes

• The Fernet Branca really makes this. It takes that last edge of sweet off of everything and makes this a nice, grownup drink.
• We also tried Whiskey Bitters. They brought up a wintergreen flavour which was tasty, but not what we were going for here.

Day 3: Three French Hens Cocktail

Well, here we are on the Third Day of Christmas which, coincidentally, happens to be half way through the gifts of birds in the song. Seriously! If any "true love" decided to gift us that many different kinds of fowl, we'd have to reconsider the future of that relationship. Regardless, we have drinks to make.

For this cocktail, Drew wanted to combine three French liquors to create something magical (or magique, en français)! Kate suggested making a sour so there'd be some kind of egg in the drink to reflect the hens. We settled on using brandy as the base spirit and then added Suze (a liqueur made from gentian flowers) for a little bitter and Benedictine for a little spice. Lemon, simple syrup, egg white and cherry bitters complete the drink.

Three French Hens

• 2 parts brandy
• 1 part Suze
• 1 part Benedictine
• 1/2 tsp simple syrup
• 1/2 part lemon juice
• 1 tsp egg white
• 3 drops of cherry bitters (we used Spirit Fire Cherry Cedar bitters by Apothecary Bitters)

Combine all ingredients into a shaker and dry shake for approximately 30 seconds. Add ice and shake until chilled. Pour into a coupe glass and top with bitters.

Cocktail Notes

The cocktail came together pretty much as we had tasted it in our heads. If you wanted to up the bitterness somewhat, you could increase the Suze by about 1/2 part.

Day 2: Two Turtle Doves Cocktail

Today is Boxing Day - it's an official holiday in Canada. It's a big shopping day, but also a good day to do fun outdoorsy things. And also a good day, depending on the weather, to stay inside and cozy up with your new book, game, movie, etc that you got for Christmas. So, we wanted to make something warm and comforting to drink - whether you're enjoying it after a day on the slopes or after the emotional fuckery of a Muriel Barbery novel (ok, so Kate STILL hasn't gotten over Elegance of the Hedgehog).

We were having a family brainstorming session about what a Turtle Dove cocktail might be like .. and Rose shouted out "Make a Turtles cocktail, like the candy!" And so, our cocktail was born.

Two Turtle Doves Cocktail

• 1 part Frangelico
• 1 part creme de cacao
• bar spoon absinthe
• drop of thai green chili cocktail spice
• hot chocolate

Combine all ingredients except for hot chocolate and stir gently. Pour into mug. Top with hot chocolate. Stir and serve.

Cocktail Notes

• tried Apothecary The Darkness bitters - didn't emphasize the right things
• tried an infusion of the creme de cacao with red pepper flakes - flavour wasn't very deep, and not even much heat on the end
• tried green chartreuse in place of the absinthe - was weird with the Frangelico