A Bitter Spirit

Day 8: The Annunciation

Our next cocktail in the Christmas Story Events series is the Annunciation. In biblical lore, the Annunciation is when the angel Gabriel visits Mary and breaks the news that she'll be carrying the Messiah. I know pregnant ladies aren't supposed to drink, but you tell me that if Gabriel showed up at the foot of your bed with that kind of news, you wouldn't have a good stiff drink? Jesus can handle it.

We wanted something celebratory (bubbles, anyone?) and also thought that the huckleberry we used in yesterday's drink, the Immaculate Conception, would provide a nice thru-line with the Christmas Story events that featured Mary. So, we've made a riff on a Kir Royale and a French 75. Think of this as a Nazareth 75.

The Annunciation Cocktail

• 1 part - Huckleberry Liqueur (we used Okanagan Spirits)
• 1 part - gin (we used Dillon's Unfiltered 22 - many thanks to Deuce who gave this to Kate as a birthday present this year!)
• Prosecco

Mix huckleberry and gin in a shaker over ice. Strain into a flute glass. Top with prosecco.

Cocktail Notes

• We originally had lemon bitters in the huckleberry/gin mix, but then when we added the prosecco, it flattened it out something fierce. We tried club soda - also terrible. And by this time, we'd had a lot of booze. And I suggested simple syrup. And then Drew called me an AMERICAN FOOD PRODUCER (implying that I think we should just add sugar and salt to everything). And then Rosemary started tweeting our drunken fight. And then Drew popped the top on the Cava (which was semi-sweet vs the brut prosecco). So we had to try that and it was so much better. But we didn't want to use Cava b/c we're using Cava in something later in this series. So we removed the bitters and tried it again with the prosecco. So much better.
• No more 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 1: Partridge in a Pear Tree Cocktail

Well, it's that time of year again (finally!). As we mentioned in the previous post, instead of an advent calendar (24 days prior to Christmas), we're doing a 12 Days of Christmas cocktail series - the days between Christmas and Epiphany. We're using the 12 Days of Christmas carol lyrics as a jumping off point (we also considered Bob and Doug's alternative 12 Days lyrics as well), but aren't sticking TOO closely to them (except for Day 1, funnily enough) - there won't be any foie gras cocktails on Day 6 (or will there ...). Anyhoo .. welcome to Day 1!

Day 1 is also Christmas Day. So we wanted something light to sip while opening presents, snacking on Chex Mix and looking up the Nick Offerman version of the Yule Log on YouTube. Kate also has a pleasant memory of friends making a fruit-based cocktail on Christmas morning. Kate's idea was too much fruit for Drew .. so we decided to go with something a little lighter, but still fruit-oriented. And since the gift on Day 1 is a partridge in a pear tree - we went with .. PEAR! Using prosecco made this kind of like a pear mimosa!

Partridge in a Pear Tree Cocktail

• 2 parts pear juice concentrate (You probably could muddle your own pear here and add some simple syrup, but you can also just use some pear concentrate - to save time, so you can spend more of it drinking with your family). We used Ceres (but forgot to include it in the picture).
• 1 part rum
• 1/2 part pear brandy (we used one from a local (British Columbia) distillery, but you could put any crisp pear liqueur in here)
• 1 tsp fresh lime (even though we used pear concentrate, we will never skimp on fresh lemon or lime juice - nothing beats fresh citrus)
• 1 tsp cherry heering
• 1 tsp simple syrup
• few dashes chocolate bitters
• prosecco (or other sparkling wine)

Combine all ingredients except for sparkling wine and stir gently. Pour into champagne flute. Just before serving, top with sparkling wine.

Cocktail Notes

• If your pear brandy is too sharp or alcohol-y, the chocolate bitters will round it out nicely.
• We also tried Apothecary's Mystic Caravan bitters (smokey pear) which were quite nice as well.
• We used Myers's Rum Planters Punch version. This was nice and dark, but may not be to your liking. Feel free to sub in your favourite rum :)

Day 15: Good King Wenceslas

The carol for today's cocktail is Good King Wenceslas. The lyrics tell the story of the 10th century Duke of Bohemia, Saint Wenceslas I.  Legend has it that he rose at night from his bed to bestow alms on widows, orphans, prisoners and others afflicted with various difficulties.

While the lyrics were written by an Englishman (John Mason Neale), the tune is based on an old Finnish spring carol, Tempus adest floridum ("The time is near for flowering"). Consequently, we wanted the cocktail to reflect Finnish culture in some way. There is a traditional liqueur made in Finland using cloudberries (called bakeapple or knotberry in other countries) so we decided to use that as the cornerstone of the cocktail.

Unfortunately, the Finnish liqueur is nearly impossible to get in North America. Luckily for us, a Quebec company makes its own version of a cloudberry liqueur using cloudberries (there called bakeapple) from Newfoundland. Even more lucky for us, Kate has a contact in Quebec who generously shipped a bottle to us (because BC Liquor stores don't stock it - what up with that, BC Liquor?!). So thank you very much, Michelle Sullivan! We couldn't have done this without you.

We want to keep as much of the cloudberry flavour in the drink as possible, so we riffed on a French 75.

Good King Wenceslas Cocktail
1 oz gin (we used Hendricks)
1 oz cloudberry liqueur
1/2 oz peppercorn simple syrup
champagne, prosecco or other sparkling wine
Bittered Sling Denman Bitters
champagne flute

Place the gin, cloudberry liqueur, simple syrup and bitters into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Fill the flute half way with champagne. Strain the contents of the shaker into the flute.

Cocktail Notes
We used Hendricks gin because we thought the floral nature of the gin would pair well with the cloudberry. The peppercorn syrup (mostly pink with some black thrown in) added a nice spiciness.

We tried two different bitters in this cocktail, Dillion's DSB & Bittered Sling Denman. Both worked well but the Denman enhanced the cloudberry the best.

Listen Along

Day 2: Fum, Fum, Fum

Our second carol is Fum, Fum, Fum, a traditional Christmas song from the Catalan region of Spain. Dating from the 14th or 15th century, it didn't become popular in English speaking countries until the 1950's when Robert Shaw & Alice Parker published it in their collection of Christmas carols.

"Fum" means "smoke" in Catalan but several carolbooks suggest that "fum" might be more of an onomatopoeia.  Perhaps it is a reference to the sound a strummed guitar makes or a reference to a rocking cradle. Regardless, it's nearly impossible not to have fun while singing this carol and periodically entoning, "Fum, fum, fum."

When crafting a cocktail that could embody this carol, we immediately wanted it to be fizzy to reference the  "fum." We also wanted gin to be the base spirit since Spain is the second largest global consumer of gin. The combo of gin and fizzy instantly brings to mind one particular cocktail, a French 75. At the time of this cocktail's conception, Drew had Moscow Mules on the brain and wanted to use lime and ginger.  Our Fum, Fum, Fum cocktail is a quirky combination/deconstruction of these two classic drinks. We sustituted cava, a sparkling Spanish wine, for the champagne traditionally used in the French 75. We used lime juice instead of the lemon ala the Mule and made a ginger-infused gin as the base.  

Fum, Fum, Fum Cocktail
2 parts ginger infused gin (see cocktail notes)
1 part lime juice
1/2 part simple syrup (see cocktail notes)
Cava
5 drops Addition Thai Green Chili Cocktail Spice
Ice
Highball or Collins glass

Fill the glass with ice. Add gin, lime juice and simple syrup to the glass. Top with cava. Add the cocktail spice and stir slightly.

Cocktail Notes
We made the ginger infused gin by placing about 5 inches of thinly sliced ginger root into a container with 1 cup of gin. The infusion is good to go after about a day but can sit longer for a bitier taste.

Both the gin and cava we used were very dry (Beefeaters & a brut respectively), and we needed the simple syrup to sweeten it up. If you use a sweeter cava, you probably won't need the syrup. We thought that the Thai cocktail spice really rounded out the ginger flavour and added another dimension of spice that you'd find in ginger beer. Scrappy's Firewater bitters or even a barspoon of a pepper vodka might also substitute.

Listen Along

Day 14: Prancer

Prancer, in our minds, is Santa’s gayest reindeer. He’s there, working the sleigh like a champ, holding his own with all those straight reindeer. That’s just one of the reasons he’s on Santa’s Nice list. In fact, he’s beyond Nice. He’s Fabulous.

Day 10: Clara

First in our advent calendar, we explored some characters who were definitely on Santa’s Naughty list. Next, we had a group of four endearing doofuses (doofusi?) that we dubbed the Loveable Lugs. This next trio of cocktails is based one of the most popular pieces of holiday music and dance, the Nutcracker. In the story, a little girl named Clara is given a nutcracker who eventually comes to life. With her help, he defeats the Mouse King and the pair then whisk away to the Land of Sweets. There they are presented with delicious goodies from around the world as the inhabitants dance for them. Clara falls asleep having been crowned the ruler of the Land of Sweets with her Nutcracker Prince.