Science Of Drink

There are several main theories as to the origin of the Jack Rose. The name of this famous classic cocktail associated with infamous gambler Jack Rose (Jacob Rosenzweig) or Frank J. May (aka Jack Rose) - a special policeman of the Pennsylvania Railroad or Joseph P. Rose - a Newark, NJ restaurater… Anyway, this cocktail has classic composition (and so similar to another classic brandy cocktail - the Sidecar) - main alcohol (this is rare chance to use specific apple brandy - calvados or applejack in cocktail), sweetener - grenadine and deluent - lemon or lime juice.

This cocktail has many proportions. First I tested the Jack Rose cocktail in proportions of Salvatore Maestro Calabrese. I use fresh homemade grenadine from fresh ripe pomegranate and sugar for best results.

Jack Rose

50 ml applejack or calvados
20 ml fresh lemon juice
10 ml grenadine
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The Jack Rose Cocktail has pungent fruit taste with great apple-brandy notes. This is so interesting cocktail.

Also I tested the Jack Rose Cocktail in proportions from Big Seven of Anthony Hogg (Hogg`s top cocktail from “The Cocktail and Mixed Drinks” by Anthony Hogg).

Jack Rose

45 ml calvados
20 ml fresh lemon juice
15 ml grenadine
Shake. Serve in frosted cocktail glass (with rim from sugar powder and grenadine) and garnish with lemon twist.

The Jack Rose Cocktail in this version has so sour taste with great calvados taste. This version is so smooth than above due to lemon juice instead lime. It is admirable cocktail.

This cocktail has interesting composition but very familiar and annoing name. Great Scottish poet and a lyricist Robert Burns merit bigger respect that “Bobby”.

Dale DeGroff specify that Bobby Burns Cocktail was created at one of the great and famous pre-prohibited bar of Amirica - Big Brass Rail (Waldorf) for celebration of Robert Burns Day. This cocktail has so similar composition to Rob Roy Holiday Style.

Bobby Burns

35 ml scotch
35 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml Benedictine
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Some sources specify that Drambuie is substitute of Benedictine in this cocktail. I think that is bad idea. If you do not have Benedictine but Drambuie - please try the Rob Roy Holiday Style but not Bobby Burns Cocktail.

The Bobby Burns Cocktail is one of the great cocktail with scotch, actually. It has very smooth, so sweet and aromatic taste.

This simple cocktail is standart woman cocktail as specify many authors. Equal parts of gin and sweet vermouth (It) and some interesting for garnish. My favorite Salvatore “Maestro” Calabrese garnish own Gin & It with a maraschino cherry and orange peel. I think is it optimal choice for this cocktail :)

Gin & It

35 ml sweet vermouth
35 ml gin
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a red maraschino cherry and orange peel.

The Gin & It Cocktail has good-balanced sweet and dry herbal taste. It is good evening cocktail and not for woman only. Some mixologist (like Dale DeGroff) reccomend to add some drops of Angostura bitter in the Gin & It Cocktail.

Gin & It (Dale DeGroff)

35 ml sweet vermouth
35 ml gin
1 dash Angostura bitter
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

This version has more complex palate with wide herbal bitternes of Angostura. It is good cocktail for any romantic evening.

My new passion is scotch. I explore blend scotch meanwhile. I have Johny Walker, Balantines, Famous Grouse an Chivas Regal in my bar. Today I explore the one of the classic whisky cocktail - the Rob Roy.

The Rob Roy (Robert Roy MacGregor) is folk Scottish folk hero, something like English Robin Good. The operetta about him (Rob Roy) was popular at Broadway in 1890s. The Rob Roy Cocktail was created at the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel in this time. It was popularized by famous Scottish whisky distiller Tommy Dewar.

The Rob Roy Cocktail is a Manhattan with scotch instead rye (or bourbon). As Manhattan it has three version - Sweet (common), Dry and Perfect. Today we explore this three versions of the Rob Roy Cocktail.

Rob Roy

35 ml scotch
35 ml sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

The proportions of the Rob Roy Cocktail may be variable.

The Rob Roy Cocktail is an excellent cocktail with so sweet complex palate with powerful scotch finish.

Dry Rob Roy

50 ml scotch
20 ml dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel or an olive.

The Dry Rob Roy Cocktail has so dry taste with dominant taste of scotch.

Perfect Роб Рой

40 ml scotch
20 ml sweet vermouth
20 ml dry vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon peel.

The Perfect Rob Roy Cocktail has interesting and good-balanced taste with herbal notes of vermouth and powerful scotch finish. I think that Rob Roy is a great cocktail.

Specially for my Rob Roy Cocktail exploring I get yet one bottle of scotch - Teacher`s Highland Cream. And I explore yet one version of Rob Roy - the Rob Roy Holiday Style, which was found on the CocktailDB.

Rob Roy Holiday Style

50 ml scotch
8 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml dry vermouth
8 ml Drambuie
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Actually the Rob Roy Holiday Style is magnificient cocktail. It has very balanced strong and sweet taste with wide whisky palate. I use one of my new bottle - Teacher`s Highland Cream, in result I have very smooth anв delicious cocktail.

In first sight the Blood and Sand Cocktail has awful composition - scotch, cherry-brandy liqueur, sweet vermouth (that’s enough!) and orange juice. But today this stuff seems to me very perspective.

The story of the name of this cocktail is well known, you may read it here. But name of the creator keep in the dark. I use recipe from CocktailDB. One of my favorite cocktail book The Essential Cocktail by Dale DeGroff prescribed equal part of all ingredients.

Blood and Sand

20 ml scotch
15 ml sweet vermouth
15 ml cherry-brandy liqueur
20 ml fresh orange juice
Shake. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

The Blood and Sand Cocktail has unique sweet and fruit taste with hint of specific scotch taste and flavor. It is admirable!

This cocktail has so familiar name but great composition. The Old Pal Cocktail recipe was found on the CocktailDB. Some times ago I found this cocktail in one of my favorite cocktail book - Cocktail and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg. But Hogg specified rye instead Canadian Club.

Old Pal

25 ml Canadian Club
25 ml dry vermouth
25 ml Campari
Stir. Cocktail glass.

The Old Pal Cocktail is great drink with piquant and complex bitter palate. It is great aperitive and very interesting cocktail.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is one of key-cocktail for my blogging. Some years ago this cocktail was found at Slakethirst (now defunct) and I was fascinated by it.

The Lucien Gaudin is an interesting cocktail which consist of four components - gin (as main alcohol), vermouth (deluent), cointreau (sweetener) and Campari (for piquant taste).

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

30 ml gin
15 ml vermouth dry
15 ml cointreau
15 ml Campari
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is awesome drink with compose bitter-sweet palate. It is great aperetive.

P.S. The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is so popular in mixosphere - about Lucien Gaudin Cocktail wrote drohnenton (russian), anonimous с (Slakethirst), Robert Hess (DrinkBoy) for The Spirit World, Rick Stutz (Kaiser Pinguin), Paul Clarke (Cocktail Cronicles) for Serious Eats, Chuck Taggart (Looka!), Jessica (сocktail virgin slut). Not bad! It is like great MxMo roundup :)

Some day ago one of my favorite cocktail-blogger Dr. Bamboo posted some words about marvellous liquor - the Midori. And my cocktail-friend from St. Petersburg, Russia nabocov wrote about Melon sour (Midori-based sour). Actually it is strange thing - three blogers on one week wrote about Midori…

I explore some cocktails with the Beautiful Green Liqueur last week too. First of all I prepared one of the signature Midori cocktails - the Japanese Slipper. This cocktail was invented in 1984 by Jean-Paul Bourguignon at Mietta’s Restaurant in Melbourne. This cocktail has very strange recipe with Cointreau liqueur as main alcohol.

Japanese Slipper

25 ml Cointreau
25 ml Midori
25 ml fresh lemon juice
Shake. Pour into cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

The Japanese Slipper Cocktail has light sour-sweet fruit taste. It is good cocktail for summer or tropic beach. If you replaced cointreau with vodka you may obtain more powerfull drink.

Next my cocktail is Suntory Cocktail. Suntory, as you know, is a large japanese beverage holding, which launched Midori worldwide. This recipe was found in The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff.

Suntory Cocktail

30 ml citrus-flavored vodka (Absolut citron)
20 ml Midori
20 ml fresh grapefruit juice
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The Suntory Cocktail has sweet candy taste with fruit-melon palate. Admirable cocktail.

The theme of MxMo XLVI (February 2010), which hosted at Thinking of Drinking (actually it is a great blog with great name, the name of this blog is (realy!) the description of my life), is Absinthe. Great choice, Sonja!

The absinthe is one of the great alcohol beverage in the world. It has interesting and dramatic story, mystic way and cloud of pseuds. I do not have real absinthe in my bar, actually. Now I has one of the popular imitation of absinthe - italian liqueur caled XENTA Abseta (with real wormwood contetnt as specified) and historic substitute of absinthe - Pernod. Pernod is one of my favorite liquors, some cocktails with Pernod, like Monkey Gland or Gloom Riser are my favorite cocktails.

Usually absithe consumed with a lump of sugar and ice-cold water (Absinthe drip). In this way also consumes Pernod and pastis (for pastis like Ricard sugar is optional).

For this MxMo I prepared two interesting old cocktails with Pernod. First cocktail is famous Chrysanthemum Cocktail, which was found at CocktailDB:

Chrysanthemum Cocktail

30 ml dry vermouth
30 ml Benedictine
15 ml Pernod
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

The Chrysanthemum Cocktail has unique taste. In the palate are sweet notes, a lot of herbs notes, mint, light honey, star anise… It is awesome cocktail. Actually I was fascinated by Chrysanthemum Cocktail with my first sip.

Also I use in this cocktail XENTA Absenta. The result is not so great, but an interesting too.

If you don`t have the Benedectine in your liquor cabinet you may use in the Chrysanthemum Cocktail sweet vermouth instead Benedictine. The Chrysanthemum Cocktail turn into Duchess Cocktail in this way.

Duchess Cocktail

30 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml dry vermouth
15 ml Pernod
Stir. Cocktail glass.

The Duchess Cocktail has sweet, herbal and anise flavor similar to Chrysanthemum Cocktail. The palate of the Duchess Cocktail is not so rich as Chrysanthemum but so interesting.

The Golden Cadillac Cocktail is one of the famous after-dinner cocktail from Alexander`s family. It was invented at Poor Red`s Saloon in El Dorado, California, near Sutter`s Mill, which was Gold Rush territory, hence the name (or only half of the name :) ). It has composition similar to Alexander - spirit, liqueur, cream. Simply and very tasty. This kind of cocktail is great stuff for St. Valentine`s Day evening.

Golden Cadillac

30 ml Galliano
30 ml creme de cacao white
30 ml cream
Shake vigorously and pour in a cocktail glass.

Salvatore ‘The Maestro’ Calabrese garnish some of creamy cocktail with ground-cherry. I think that is great idea. A ground-cherry is very interesting and good-looking garnish for cocktails.

The Golden Cadillac Cocktail has sweet, creamy taste with chocolate and vanilla with a hint of spices palate. It is admirable cocktail.

My next choice for Valentine`s evening is modern Creme Brulee Martini. This recipe was found on the so interesting site - Cocktail Times. It is so rare chance to use in cocktails another interesting italian hazelnut liqueur - Frangelico.

Creme Brulee Martini

45 ml vanilla-flavored vodka
30 ml Frangelico
15 ml Cointreau
30 ml half and half
Shake. Pour in a cocktail glass and garnish with a vanilla stick.

I use Absolut Vanilla in my cocktail. The result are excellent. The Creme Brulee Martini is sweet creamy cocktail with comlex palate. It is like an ice-cream from my childhood.