Science Of Drink

The Coffee Cocktail is so old fancy drink. It is so similar to flip. The oldest entry about Coffee Cocktail are in the Bartender’s Guide or How to Mix All Kinds of Plain and Fancy Drinks (1887) by Jerry Thomas and Bartender’s Manual or How to Mix Drinks of the Present Style (1882, rev. 1934) by Harry Jonson. This cocktail is truly genteleman’s desert cocktail and amazing nightcup.

For Coffee Cocktail I use Don Pablo Porto Ruby and Hennessy VS as brandy.

Coffee Cocktail (Savoy Cocktail Book)

the yolk of one egg
2 tsp sugar syrup
50 ml port wine
25 ml brandy
1 dash curacao
Shake well, strain into a small wineglass and grate a little nutmeg on top.

Coffee Cocktail is amazing drink. It has so sweet very pleasant taste with hint of … coffee! It is great cocktail! This cocktail is a favorite cocktail of many of my guests now.

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The Clover Club Cocktail is truly magnificient cocktail. This drink has all elements of great classic cocktail – the interesting story, simple and elegant composition and it is almost forgotten.

This cocktail was created (as Albert Stevens Crockett specify in his Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931) or The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (1935)) in the early 20th century in the bar of the Bellevue-Statford Hotel, Philadelphia which hosted Clover Club – the community of the lawyers and writers from Philadelphia.

Common recipe of Clover Club Cocktail include gin, lemon or lime juice, grenadine or raspberry syrup and egg white. Sometimes addition of the sweet vermouth or fresh raspberries is recomended. The Clover Club Cocktail has no garnish. If you garnish this drink with three mint leaf it morph into Clover Leaf Cocktail.

I use recipe from one of my favorite book -The Essential Cocktail by Dale DeGroff for my first Clover Club Cocktail:

Clover Club (The King of Cocktail)

45 ml gin
20 ml simple syrup
20 ml fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. grenadine
white of 1 small egg
In a shaker mix gin, syrups and juice. In a small bowl lightly whip the egg white and add a half the whipped egg white to the shaker. Shake vigorously – hard and long to emulsify the egg. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I omit the whipping of the egg white and use “dry shake” for preparing of this cocktail. Dry shake is interesting method of preparing cocktail with great amount of the eggs or heavy cream. First shake all ingredients in shaker without ice. You may add in a shaker a spring from hawtorn-strainer during first dry shake for best results. Then add ice and shake again very hard.

This my first Clover Club Cocktail is awesome drink. Actually it was love at the first sight sip. Certainly I explore this cocktail in original version from the Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock. I tasted this cocktail with berry-grenadine and raspberry syrup also lime and lemon juice.

Clover Club (Savoy)

50 ml gin
the juice of 1/2 lemon or of 1 lime
25 ml grenadine (or raspberry syrup)
egg white
Shake well and strain into medium size glass.

This cocktail are excellent with berry-grenadine. I prefer the Clover Club Cocktail with fresh pressed lemon juice. Juice a lime or lemon for this cocktail carefully. I think that essential oil of citrus skin is over this cocktail.

Actually I tested about twenty Clover Club Cocktails. My Ultimate version is:

My Clover Club

50 ml gin
25 ml fresh lemon juice
25 ml simple syrup
2 dash berry-grenadine
30 ml egg white
Shake all ingredients thoroughly. Serve in the wineglass.

Use good gin for best results. You may use in this cocktail homemade grenadine or raspberry syrup for great drink. Be carefully with raw eggs. Actually the quality fresh eggs are so safety, but you should wash the egg, keep refrigerated and keep your equipment and ware clean. Also I recomend to read good post about this cocktail and raw eggs by Robert Hess.

The Clover Club Cocktail is outstanding, awesome and fascinating mixed drink. Literally.

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Today we explore one interesting old cocktail with my favorite autumn spirit – gin. This cocktail has two similar name – Bermudiana Rose (in English cocktail books like Cafe Royal Cocktail Book by W.J. Tarling, 1937 or Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg, 1979) or Bermuda Rose (in American cocktail books like The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff, 2002).

At the heart of the Bermudiana Rose Cocktail are classic composition of gin and apricot brandy. Actually apricot brandy is not a brandy, it is so sweet apricot flavored liqueur. The composition of gin and apricot brandy we can found in some famous London Cocktail like Paradise, Claridge orGolden Dawn.

Bermudiana Rose

30 ml gin
15 ml apricot brandy
15 ml grenadine
15 ml fresh lemon juice
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The Bermudiana Rose Cocktail has bright appearance and taste with palate of apricot and gin botanicals. It is interesting old evening drink.

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In this post I describe real cock tail – amazing multicolor drink – Pousse Cafe. The Pousse Cafe cocktail is so old creation. This drink was invented in the Europe (France), probably. But we can found suggestions that this cocktail was invented in New Orlean, USA. The first print recipe with illustration I was found in the great How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant’s Companion by Jerry Thomas in 1862. Layered cocktail with name Pousse l’Amour consist of brandy, two liqueurs and egg yolk. The real fancy drink! The Gary Regan in yours The Joy of Mixology specify that Pousse Cafe are drinks made by floating one ingredient on top of another, or several others, to create a multilayered effect.

Actually this drink has awesome look. It is real rainbow in your glass. But the taste of this cocktail may be frustrating. This drink as a rule consist of sweet liqueur without any diluent. I hope it may be great digestive in some case. Now the Pousse Cafe cocktail has many modern reincarnation in so popular layered shooters.

The greatest modern Pousse Cafe is B-52 cocktail. This cocktail was created at Alice’s Restaurant in Malibu, USA, in 1972 or at the Keg Steakhouse in Calgary, Canada in 1977. This child of Cold War consist of Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream and Grand Marnier (the mnemonic: The B52 bomber Kills Bad Guys). Now I propose to explore some another popular modern shooters, several from them are variations of B-52.

K.G.B.

10 ml Kahlua
10 ml Galliano
10 ml Hennessy VS Cognac
Layer in the order given in a pousse-cafe glass (or in the liqueur glass, or shooter, or sherry glass).

For preparation this beautiful cocktail you should have steady hand, bar spoon and acceptable 1 or 2 ounce Pousse Cafe glass or something similar like sherry glass, shooter or liqueur glass. Pour first ingredient into glass then you insert the spoon into glass as far as it will go, with the back side of the bowl facing up. Pour next layer slowly and carafully. Repeat if required.

Bumble Bee

10 ml Kahlua
10 ml sambuca
10 ml Irish cream liqueur
Layer in the order given in an appropriate glass.

Slippery Nipple

5 ml grenadine
15 ml sambuca
10 ml Irish Cream liqueur
Layer in the order given in an appropriate glass.

Monkey Lunch aka Banana Sandwich

10 ml Kahlua
10 ml creme de banane
10 ml Irish Cream liqueur
Layer in the order given in an appropriate glass.

French Kiss

10 ml amaretto liqueur
10 ml Frangelico
10 ml Irish Cream Liqueur
Layer in the order given in an appropriate glass.

All of this cocktails are working. My choice is K.G.B. and French Kiss. And the Slippery Nipple has best look in this company.

And in the conclusion we explore two real infante terrible of the cocktail world, two ugly concoctions in the cyberpunk style – the Brain Haemorrhage and Hiroshima shooters.

Brain Haemorrhage

10 ml grenadine
30 ml peach schnapps
20 ml Irish Cream liqueur
Layer in the order given in tall shooter glass. Then drop few grenadine on top.

The taste of this potion is very, may be extremely sweet and it has absolutely ugly appearance.

Hiroshima Shooter

20 ml sambuca
20 ml Irish Cream liqueur
20 ml absinthe (XENTA Absenta)
Layer in the order given in tall shooter glass. Then drop few grenadine on top. Flame the absinthe and serve with dramatic laughter.

It is one of the most disgusting libations that I ever taste. It is awful drink.

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This entry was inspired by one of my new bottle of tequila – the OLMECA Altos Reposado – one of my new free sample.

Olmeca is a brand of tequila in Pernod Ricard`s spirits list. Now this company launch a new positions – premium tequila 100% de agave in medium price category – the OLMECA Altos. Altos in name of this brand means that agave for productions of this tequila harvested in best regions of the Jalisco – Los Altos (Highland). The point of ALTOS tequila is in using the ancient and authentic Tahona method in producing of this tequila. Tahona is a big millstone for pressing the juice (called tahona liquide) from cooked agave. This tahona liquid added to juice on fermentation. The OLMECA Altos tequila is result of unique partnership between well-known British bartenders Henry Besant and Dre Masso (from Worldwide Cocktail Club) and Olmeca’s own Maestro tequileros Jesus Hernandez. You may get some interesting facts about this tequila, it history ant productions from very interesting short-films.

The OLMECA Altos Reposado produced from 100% blue agave pressed in the Tahona way, distilled in traditional copper pot-still and rested for 6-8 month in small white oak ex-bourbon cask.

Actually the OLMECA Altos Reposado is an interesting and quality product. It is so good tequila with pleasant nose and right tequila taste. The nose of this spirit is complex and so sweet with note of cooked agave and pear and bright citrus note like orange and lemon peel. The taste has medium body with agave notes with a hint of vanilla and some wood in the aftertaste.

This tequila is great cocktail ingredient. I try the OLMECA Altos Reposado in the some my favorite tequila-based cocktails like Margarita or Silver Amour-a-Rita or Tequila Sunrise Straight Up with good results. But the OLMECA propose me one interesting cocktail for familiarity with this tequila. This cocktail is Tequila Mai Tai in fancy trend version with fresh passion fruit.

Tequila Mai Tai

50 ml tequila OLMECA Altos Reposado
15 ml fresh lime juice
10 ml fresh lemon juice
10 ml Orgeat syrup
5 ml grenadine
fresh passion fruit
Shake with a lot of ice. Strain into double rock glass over crushed ice. Garnish with an orange slice.

In original version this cocktail has interesting tropic sour taste. For best results I decrease the amount of fresh passion fruit and grenadine and balance drink with simple syrup.

The Tequila Mai Tai is great tropic drink with sweet and sour fruit and tequila taste. It is admirable cocktail!

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