A Bitter Spirit

Day 13: The Cherry Tree Carol

Our cocktail inspiration for today is The Cherry Tree Carol, a Child ballad based on an apocryphal story about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. While traveling through a cherry orchard, Mary asks Joseph to pick a cherry for her. He refuses saying "get your baby daddy to pick your cherries" (we paraphrase). The in utero Baby Jesus hears his mother's request and bends a cherry tree branch down so she can reach some damn cherries.

We started with a pretty straightforward idea - something cherry. But we didn't want to do just a simple cherry sour or similar. Kate got a butane torch for her birthday last month. This cocktail was calling out for some kind of fire or smoke. Let's burn some cherry wood!

The Cherry Tree Carol Cocktail
2 oz bourbon (we used Trace - so smooth)
1 oz cherry-infused Benedictine
1 dropper Apothecary Spirit Fire Bitters
Orange rind
Cherry wood chips
Cocktail glass

• Combine bourbon, Benedictine and bitters in shaker. 
• Light a pile of cherry wood chips on fire. 
• Blow out fire when it starts to smoke. 
• Invert cocktail glass over smoke and capture in the glass. 
• Add ice to shaker and shake to chill. 
• Strain into smoke filled cocktail glass. 
• Take a slice of orange peel, express the oil over the cocktail glass and light on fire. 
• Note: this cocktail is a little easier to assemble if you have two people.

Cocktail Notes
To infuse the Benedictine, we added about 1/4 cup dried cherries into about 1/2 cup Benedictine and let it infuse overnight.

We also made a cherry infusion with Suze (same ratio). It was tasty, but not as good as the Benedictine.

Our cocktail is a variation of one created by the good folks at Apothecary Bitters - the Gedi Prime. They use a cherry-infused vermouth and then infuse the booze with the smoke, rather than fill the glass. We like the smoke-filled glass because of the effect when you serve it. And surprisingly, the smoke stays in the glass longer than you would expect. We refrigerated the cocktail for a few hours before drinking it, and the smoke could definitely still be tasted in the glass.

Listen Along

Day 12: The Seven Joys of Mary

The carol for today's cocktail is The Seven Joys of Mary. Ever since Mary has been venerated in the church, the significant events in her life are portrayed in art, literature or devotional material as collections: Seven Joys, Seven Sorrows, Five Joyful Mysteries, etc. Mary was a very busy lady. This song, celebrating seven joyful events in her life, is one of many "counting songs" that have found the way into our Christmas traditions - the most famous being the Twelve Days of Christmas.

One thing about Mary, even when it's supposed to be her "Seven Joys", it isn't. Because one of her joys is seeing her son crucified. Sure .. you could argue that if you look at the OUTCOME of that (from a theological perspective) it should be a joy. But c'mon, we're pretty sure she wasn't hanging out at Golgotha dancing a jig. She probably still needed a drink. And a stiff one at that.

So we created a good, strong "sipping" drink for Mary. Something to drink while you're PONDERING YOUR LIFE .. joys, sorrows, or what have you.

Seven Joys of Mary Cocktail
2 oz bourbon (we used Maker's Mark)
1 oz Gifford's Crème de Myrtilles (blueberry liqueur)
1/2 oz Art in the Age's Snap liqueur
3 drops Bittered Sling Elderberry bitters
Rocks glass

Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over ice.

Cocktail Notes
This was originally going to be a variant of a Last Word (equal parts gin, lime, green Chartreuse and maraschino liqueur). We considered kumquat and yuzu juice substitutions. Even golden berry juice. None of them worked for us. Also, Drew felt we were relying on the Chartreuse a little too much this holiday season. So we went in a completely different direction. No more juice - just a smart, sophisticated drink for a smart, sophisticated lady.

We started with bourbon as the base since it is a classic sipping liquor.   The blueberry liqueur added a slight sweetness (without relying on a simple syrup) and a dash of symbolism since Mary is generally portrayed in blue.  The Snap adds the perfect finish, a touch of spiciness and warmth as well as a throwback to the region where Mary grew up.  

In addition to testing Bittered Sling Elderberry bitters, we tried three others:

• Apothecary Bitters Eldergrowth: Makes it sweeter
• Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters: Has potential. Loses some of the berry taste.
• Fee Brothers Whiskey Bitters: Flattens out the cocktail

 

Listen Along

I love Great Big Sea's version of this. So kicky! There is a bit of an intro at the beginning; the singing starts around 50 seconds in.

 

Day 11: Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming

The song inspiration for today's cocktail is the German carol, Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. The text dates from around the late 16th century and was originally a carol about Mary, comparing her to the mystical rose of Sharon. There is also a source that states the true origin of the hymn is an apocryphal story of a monk in Trier, Germany who found a rose blooming on Christmas eve. He picked it and placed it before a statue of the Virgin Mary - which also explains the Christmas connection. But then the Protestants got ahold of the carol and made it all about Jesus. We're taking back the original meaning and inspiration in our boozy celebration of Mary! 

Given the title of the song, we wanted rose to be one of the dominant flavours in the cocktail but also didn't want it to taste like grandmother's Avon order (are we dating ourselves?). To avoid a perfumey pitfall, we created a very straight-forward gin sour that uses oleo saccharum, a popular ingredient in 19th century cocktails. Oleo saccharum (or "sugar oil") is a mixture of sugar and essential oils; the most common version is derived from lemon rind, but can be created from other ingredients. For this drink, we extracted the essence from the rose petals to create a rose oleo saccharum.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming Cocktail
2 oz gin, preferably Hendricks
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz rose oleo saccharum
1 oz egg white
3 drops Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
Cocktail glass

Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and dry shake for approximately 30 seconds. Then add ice to the shaker and shake until cocktail is chilled. Double stain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a rose petal.

Cocktail Notes
The cocktail is a straightforward gin sour.  We used Hendicks gin because it is infused with Bulgarian Rosa Damascena.

Originally, we intended this cocktail to be a variation on a Ramos Fizz with rose and pink peppercorn syrup. But the flavours weren't jiving well, so we pulled back and went with something fairly simple to highlight the rose.  We added the rhubarb bitters to help enhance the citrus and berry notes of the rose oleo saccharum.

We generally followed the instructions from London Eats in making the rose oleo saccharum. It took about 36 hours to make ours; we used the following procedure:

Rose Oleo Saccharum
8 edible roses
1/2 cup Castor or Superfine sugar

1. Pull the petals off of the roses and wash them, removing any that are damaged. Lightly dry.
2. Divide the petals and sugar between two resealable plastic bags. Seal the bags, squeezing as much of the air out of the bag as possible. Gently massage the sugar into the petals.
3. Leave petals in the bags for approximately 36 hours, massaging them into the sugar to facillitate their wilting and breaking down. After about 18 hours if no liquid has begun to form, add about a tablespoon of water to each bag and massage the petals more frequently.
4. After 36 hours, there should be a thick red liquid forming in the bottom of the bag. Cut a corner off the bottom of bag and strain the liquid through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Squeeze the petals to extract the remaining syrup. If the syrup looks cloudy, add a couple of drops of lemon juice. The syrup should be very sweet and have a complex flavour of roses. It will also be quite vegetal on the nose. This sorts itself out once the syrup is used in a cocktail.

Listen along

This guy playing Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming on harmonica rocks our world!

Day 10: Gabriel's Message

The carol inspiration for today's cocktail is Gabriel's Message. Popularized by Sting in the 1980s (YES! The 1980s), Gabriel's Message (aka The angel Gabriel from heaven came) is a traditional carol from the Basque region of Europe. The carol recounts the biblical Annunciation and quotes Mary's Magnificat from the Book of Luke.

To translate this carol into a cocktail, we researched drinks from the Basque region. Basque immigrants to California were known for making a drink called Picon Punch which used a bittersweet French aperitif Amer Picon. It became so popular in the Basque communities of the American West that it was shipped back to Europe where it also achieved a high level of popularity.

Amer Picon is no longer available in North America and its substitute is reputed to be a poor copy of the original. Knowing that the predominant flavour of Amer Picon was bitter orange, we combined two Italian bitters, Campari and Aperol, to try and recreate the idea of Picon. We kept the additions of grenadine, club soda and brandy as noted in the original recipes.

Gabriel's Message Cocktail
2 oz Aperol
1 oz Campari
1 oz Brandy
1 barspoon high quality grenadine (we used Jack Rudy Small Batch Grenadine)
Club soda
Collins Glass

Pour the Aperol, Campari and grenadine into a cocktail shaker to mix. Fill a collins glass with ice and pour in the mixture from the shaker. Fill glass with club soda. Float the brandy on top of the club soda.

Cocktail Notes
We obviously don't know what Amer Picon tastes like, but we were pleased with the bitter orange taste of this cocktail. The grenadine and brandy add just enough sweetness and the club soda makes it feel more like a punch than a cocktail.

We tried adding some Dubonnet to the mix but resulting drink tasted too "grapey" (it's a word) for us. We also tested three types of bitters but none of them contributed to how we envisioned the drink.

If you can, find a good quality grenadine or even make your own. In this day and age, Rose's ain't cutting it anymore.

Listen Along

This is the old school performance from 1987 that made us fall in love with this carol. Sure, there are a lot more cleaner and more modern videos of this carol, but you can't beat this original. Or Sting's original hair. Oh, my!

Day 9: Breath of Heaven

Today's cocktail inspiration comes from the contemporary song, Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song). Christian country singer Amy Grant first heard a version of the song when the composer, Chris Eaton, was a member of her touring band. Pregnant at the time, Grant thought the music and the chorus fit perfectly with the idea of a frightened young girl who was told she was going to bear the Messiah. She reworked the verses and turned the song into one with a Christmas message.

Breath of Heaven brought to mind something light and airy with a bright flavour. We started with a riff on the Twentieth Century cocktail which is a combination of gin, lemon and touch of chocolate; we used Godiva White Chocolate and added egg white to create a lighter texture. As noted below, we eventually changed out the lemon for orange and added a bit of sasparallia flavour to create a unique and fresh-tasting drink.

Breath of Heaven Cocktail
1 oz gin (we used Beefeaters)
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz Godiva White Chocolate liqueur
1 oz egg white
1 bar spoon of rootbeer liqueur (we used Art in the Age's Root)
1 dropper Apothecary Bitters Eldergrowth Bitters
Coupe glass
Orange zest for garnish

Pour all ingredients into a shaker. Dry shake for approximately 30 seconds. Add ice and shake until chilled. Double strain into a coupe glass.

Cocktail Notes
This cocktail underwent several trials (and some tribulations .. like Mary). We started with the lemon juice and Lillet Blanc (ala the Twentieth Century cocktail) but found that they didn't mix well with the Godiva. Eventually, we switched out the lemon for orange and went with a liqueur (Cointreau) instead of using any fruit juice.

The Root adds some caramel and sarsaparilla notes to the cocktail that reduce the sweetness and round out the flavour. Adding more than a barspoon causes the Root to overpower the cocktail. The cocktail is not necessarily meant as a dessert drink since it isn't that sweet. But it does have a unique creamsicle taste with a little bit of rusticness from the Root.

We tried three different types of bitters, all from Apothecary Bitters.

• General Ambrose: Brings out more of the Root spiciness.
• The Darkness: Keeps the Root but decreases the orange.
• Eldergrowth: Keeps the orange and brings out the sarsaparilla finish.

Listen Along

Day 8: The Holly and the Ivy

The carol for Day Eight of our calendar is the British carol, The Holly and the Ivy. Holly and ivy have played a large role in English Christmases since at least the fifteenth century. Since both plants stay green throughout the winter, they were frequently used to decorate the inside of country churches during Christmastide. When the carol was published as part of the New Oxford Book of Carols, it gained world-wide notoriety.

Holly and ivy hold a large amount of cultural significance in Europe and England. The druids commonly associated holly with the winter solstice and Romans considered holly to be the sacred plant of the god Saturn. Additionally in Victorian England, men associated themselves with holly for its "masculine" qualities while women affiliated themselves with ivy because of its "feminine" qualities. At least one recorded song has a "contest" between the two plants with men and women extolling the virtues of their identified botanicals while denigrating the other.

The greenness of the titular plants got us thinking about herbs; we focused on mint and making a julep-type drink for the winter months. So some bourbon, mint and a couple of other liqueurs round out the cocktail. Like the Coventry Carol cocktail, this one can be served either cold or hot. Also worth noting, this cocktail moves us from a week of celebrating the Christ Child to a week of celebrating Mary with cocktails inspired by carols associated with our favourite virgin mother.

The Holly & the Ivy Cocktail
2 oz bourbon (we used Maker's Mark)
1 oz Galliano
1/2 oz brown sugar syrup
1 bar spoon of Fernet Branca infused with mint
2 oz hot water (for the hot version, obvi)
Julep cup or rocks glass/mug

Place all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and stir until chilled. Pour into glass of choice. Add hot water if desired as a hot drink.

Cocktail Notes
We made the mint-infused Ferent Branca by placing a generous tablespoon of fresh torn mint into a container with a half cup of Fernet Branca. The infusion should be ready after a day but can sit longer, if desired.

We tried infusing some sweet and white vermouth with the mint to test in the cocktail. The mint flavour did not (read DID NOT) go with either vermouth.

This cocktail was originally inspired by the Winter Julep cocktail.

Listen Along

There's a little skip in the video about 1:45 .. but you can still enjoy Lennox's fantastic performance of this carol.