December 2010 – Science Of Drink

December 31, 2010December 31, 2010

Happy New Year, 2011. Two champagne cocktails for New Year night.

New Year coming soon. And we need some special for our holiday party. We drink different cocktails year around and for New Year Night we need something unusual and festive. Many people has very good tradition – to celebrate New Year with glass of Champagne or another sparkling wine. Thus I select two very interesting and delicious champagne cocktail for this case. Now we try the Classic Champagne Cocktail and it’s special variation – the Alfonso Cocktail.

The Alfonso Cocktail was created for Alfonso XIII – dethroned Spanish King. The Alfonso Cocktail looks like French creation but first print mention we find in Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book. The Alfonso cocktail is variation of Classic Champagne Cocktail with Dubonnet wine instead cognac.

Alfonso Cocktail

1 sugar cube
1-2 dash of Angostura bitter
15-20 ml Dubonnet Rouge
Champagne
Place sugar cube in the flute and coat it with bitter. Add Dubonnet and fill the glass with cold Champagne. Add lemon peel or twist. Stir gentle and serve.

Original wine in this cocktail is Champagne. It is AOC and it is so expensive stuff. I try this cocktail with another French sparkling wine – Cafe de Paris Blanc de Blancs Brut by Cusenier (Pernod Ricard). The result are pretty good. The Alfonso Cocktail has so sweet, light and smooth taste with some bitter notes. It is very good festive cocktail.

Also I try the original – Champagne Cocktail. This cocktail is very old creation. First mention about Champagne Cocktail is in Jerry Thomases How to Mix Drinks, or Bon-Vivants Companion. The Champagne Cocktail is real cocktail – it consist of alcohol any kind (Champagne), sugar and bitter.

I use unusual recipe of this cocktail from diffordsguide.

Champagne Cocktail

1 cubes of brown sugar
3 dash Angostura bitter
15 ml cognac
Champagne
Place sugar cube in the flute and soak it with bitter. Add cognac and fill the glass with cold Champagne. Add orange twist.

I use Remy Marten VSOP and sparkling wine mentioned above. The Champagne Cocktail is very interesting drink with main palate of cognac and pleasant aroma of orange. It is good way to improve unloved wine :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR my dear readers. I wish you health, wealth and good luck in New Year!

Continue reading “Happy New Year, 2011. Two champagne cocktails for New Year night.”

December 27, 2010

Blue Paradise

This cocktail I was found in the awesome book – Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh. Dr. Cocktail suggest that this cocktail was created by Emil Bauwens – head barman of the Bar Saint-James in Brussels. The drink was described in the Emil’s book Livre de Cocktails. The name of this drink is unclear. Actually this cocktail has anything blue.

Blue Paradise

50 ml cognac
25 ml Dubonnet
4 dash Parfait Amour liqueur
Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Actually this refined mix was carefully stirred by me then shaked. I use Remy Martin VSOP Cognac and BOLS Parfait Amour liqueur for this cocktail. I think that the BOLS liqueur is best choice for Blue Paradise. This liqueur has main vanilla flavor with subtle hint of curacao orange and rose petals. This liqueur has so natural purple color which works well in cocktail.

Wow! The Blue Paradise Cocktail is amazing drink. It has very balanced so sweet round cognac palate. The Dubonnet and the liqueur play with cognac very good. It is great drink!

Continue reading “Blue Paradise”

December 24, 2010

Deshler

The Deshler Cocktail attract my attention at the one interesting cocktail bolg with good fotos – . . Cocktails with M . . – Adventures with (Mostly) Vintage Cocktails. The autor of this blog like old and classic cocktail and thi is very close to me. Now I explore many cocktail with Dubonnet – the Deshler among them.

The Deshler Cocktail is so old and rare cocktail. It name derived from name of famous lightweight pugilist Davide W. Deshler Jr. I found this cocktail in two my cocktail books – The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff и The Essential Bartender`s Guide by Robert Hess. The recipes are different. It seems that recipe from The Essential Bartender`s Guide by Robert Hess is original. The same recipe contain the CocktailDB. I hope this recipe is equal to first printed in Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo Enslin. The Dale’s version look like modern adoptation. I decide to try both variations.

The original type of whiskey for Deshler Cocktail is rye whiskey. The most common substitute of so rare american rye whiskey is blended canadian whisky. Actually is so different kind of whiskey but they have some similar characteristics – spiciness above all.

First of all I try old formula of the Deshler Cocktail:

Deshler

30 ml rye
20 ml Dubonnet Rouge
1 tsp. Cointreau
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
1 orange twist
1 lemon twist
Stir all ingredients (yes, with twists) with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel.

The first Deshler was mixed with WILD TURKEY 101 Rye. It is magnificient cocktail with great whiskey palate. The rye absolutely dominate in the drink. Another ingredient has minor notes only – some vine notes of Dubonnet, hint of orange from Cointreau, some bitterness from Peychaud’s. Main palate is powerfull spiciness of rye. Great cocktail!

As rye substitute I try two ordinary blended canadian whisky – Black Velvet and Canadian Club. The results are not awesome but very interesting. This cocktail with ordinary product is great demonstration of mixology goal – to improve drink. Both cocktails has so sweet vine entry, spicy whisky palate and so citrus finish with a pleasant bitterness. Great cocktails too!

In second I try modern version of Deshler Cocktail from The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff. This cocktail is so close to another classic cocktail with Dubonnet – the Dandy Cocktail (see The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock or it’s web-monument for details).

Deshler Cocktail (Dale’s DeGroff var.)

35 ml Dubonnet Rouge
35 ml rye
1 tsp. Cointreau
dash of Angostura bitters
Shake. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel.

Actually the shaking of this mix is a grand mistake. This method ruine this cocktail completely. Both modern Deshler (with canadian whisky and with rye whisky) are so poor (but cocktail with rye has great aftertaste) with unplesant sharp bitterness in finish. Certainly, the modern Deshler is not very bad but it is no so good as original.

Continue reading “Deshler”