Science Of Drink

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!

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.

This interesting rare cocktail was found in CocktailDB. The Orange Bloom Cocktail is classic combination of three classic cocktails ingredients – gin, vermouth and Cointreau.

Orange Bloom

45 ml gin
15 ml sweet vermouth
15 ml Cointreau
Stir and strain into cocktail glass. Add cherry.

The Orange Bloom Cocktail has beautiful gold-orange color and great strong and sweet taste with aromatic orange and herbal notes. It is admirable drink.

This awesome cocktail has strange name with mysterious etymology, great story and elegant old-school composition – main alcohol (gin), vermouth and Ferne-Branca as bitter. The story of Hanky Panky Cocktail related to Ada Coleman – famous head-barman of Savoy Hotel and actor Charles Hawtrey. You may read great post about this cocktail on the LUPEC-Boston, one of my favorite cocktail-blog.

I prepared Hanky-Panky Cocktail (recipe courtesy of John Gertsen).

Hanky Panky Cocktail

50 ml gin
20 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml Fernet-Branca
Stir. Cocktail glass, garnish with an orange peel.

Great evening cocktail with well-balanced taste – dryness and botaniс of gin, sweetenes and herbal vermouth, bitternes and compose of Fernet-Branca. Great composition for real connoisseur.

Cocktails are a good thing, but, actually, they contains poison :) One of great problem of imbibing is an abuse of alcohol.

Classic cocktails for case of abuse of alcohol are “corpse rivivers” and “pick-me-up”. I try something thereof. First recipe of Corpse Revivver #1 Cocktail was found in Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg. The author of this recipe is famous John Johnson from Savoy`s Amerivcan Bar. The cocktail was invented in 1948.

Corpse Reviver #1 (a)

30 ml brandy
30 ml Fernet-Branca
30 ml creme de menthe white
Shake. Cocktail glass.

It is wonderfull cocktail! Real remedy.

Another recipe of Corpse Reviver #1 was found on Cocktail DB. The author of this corpse reviver is Frank Meier, barman of parisian Ritz Hotel. The cocktail was invented in 1920s.

Corpse Reviver #1(b)

30 ml brandy
20 ml apple brandy
20 ml sweet vermouth
Stri well with ice. Cocktail glass.

This cocktail has very strong taste. It is not my choice.

The name of Pick-Me-Up Cocktail enamour me. This recipe was found in Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg.

Pick-Me-Up Cocktail

30 ml cognac
30 ml dry vermouth
30 ml pastis
Stir well with ice. Cocktail glass.

I shake this cocktail and use Ricard as pastis. The result is great! The Pick-Me-Up Cocktail is admirable cocktail. Another great remedy for crapulent.

Idea of this post is exploring of some cocktails named with female russian names. I found five cocktails of this kind. Taste of some female russian names. Some of this cocktails are pure and famous classiс – Ninotchka Cocktail. The Anouchka Cocktail is a signature drink of Salvatore Calabrese. This post I devoted all my female friends :)

First cocktail is famous Ninotchka Cocktail which named in honour of Gretta Garbo in “Ninotchka” movie (1939).

Ninotchka (Nintchka, Ninitchka)

45 ml vodka
15 ml light creme de cacao
15 ml fresh lemon juice
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The taste of Ninotchka Cocktail is very interesting and unusual. The combination of smooth sour taste of lemon and sweet choсolate taste of creme de cacao is great!

Recipe of Katinka Cocktail I found in The Classic Bar & Cocktail Book by J. Goodall. This is simple and interesting cocktail.

Katinka

50 ml vodka
40 ml apricot brandy
15 ml fresh lime juice
Shake. Cocktail glass. Garnish with fresh mint.

Sweet, no so strong cocktail with bright apricot taste and little sourness. Admirable!

My favorite CocktailDB list another and very intriguing recipe of Katinka Cocktail: gin, cordial Medoc, green Chartreuse and Angostura bitters. Sounds great! Worth to try.

Recipe of Natasha Cocktail was founded in The Bible of bartender by F. Evsevsky.

Natasha

30 ml vodka
15 ml Cointreau
15 ml creme de banane
15 ml strawberry liqueur
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The Natasha Cocktail has very sweet candy taste. It is amazing temptation.

Anouchka Cocktail was invented by Salvatore Calabrese. It is one of his signature cocktail. It is simple and delicious combination of vodka and sweet blackberry liqueur.

Anouchka

70 ml vodka
10 ml creme de mur (blackberry liqueur)
Stir. Chilled cocktail glass.

This cocktail has strong and sweet berry taste. Admirable!

Recipe of Svetlana Cocktail was found on my favorite Cocktail DB.

Svetlana

45 ml 100 proof vodka
15 ml sweet vermouth
8 ml kirsch
8 ml orange juice
Shake. Cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel.

This strong and elegant cocktail has comlex taste of vermouth and fruit with amazing bitter note in the aftertaste.

Cocktail Opening is one of my favorite whisky-based drink. This sweet and aromatic cocktail work well before club-night (jazz-club of course!).

Opening

30 ml rye (or canadian whisky)
2 tsp sweet vermouth
2 tsp grenadine
Shake (or stir). Serve in old-fashioned glass with a lot of ice.

Usually I use Canadian Club for this cocktail. Second key-stuff of this drink is homemade grenadine (cold-process) for perfect results.

I posted the Martinez Cocktail on my blog before, but I decided to return to this cocktail for detailed investigation. The Martinez Cocktail is one of my favorite classic cocktail.

The Martinez Cocktail is very old cocktail. Some peoples think that Martinez is the precursor of most famous cocktail of the world – The Martini cocktail. The author of Martinez Cocktail is legendary Jerry Thomas.

Some imbabers-bloggers give attention to this cocktail too. You can find more interesting information about Martinez on one of my favorite blog Oh, Gosh! (by Jay Hapburn) and, of course, on Spirits And Cocktails (by Jamie Boudreau).

First I discovered old-style version of Martinez Cocktail, which is more closest to original recipe by Jerry Thomas.

Martinez (Old Style)

60 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml gin (Old Tom gin is preferable)
1 tsp maraschino liqueur
1 dash bitters
Stir. Strain in cocktail glass. Garnish with a quarter of lemon wheel.

It is amazing cocktail with right and elegant taste. It is so week as for my taste, but rich complex taste of this version is very good for me.

Next step of my investigation is recipe of Martinez from CocktailDB. In this Martinez we can to try orange curacao as substitute of maraschino liqueur and dry vermouth instead sweet.

Martinez (Dry Style)

35 ml gin
30 ml dry vermouth
7 ml orange curacao (or maraschino liqueur)
1 dash orange bitters
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

This Martinez is so closest to Martini Cocktail. It has so dry, aromatic taste (I use MB Orange Curacao 30%). This cocktail is very good aperetive, but this version is not my choice.

This version of Martinez with maraschino liqueur has beautiful light sweet aromatic taste with floral undertones. This taste is more preferable for my understanding of Martinez Cocktail.

And of course I try modern version of Martinez Cocktail by Jamie Boudreau. It is one of my favorite cocktail.

Martinez (Modern style)

45 ml gin
45 ml sweet vermouth
2 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dash orange bitters
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon slice.

Magnificent cocktail! It is smooth and very aromatic cocktail. Sometimes I use Angostura aromatic bitters instead orange bitters, this work well in my opinion.

In conclusion I try my own version of this classic cocktail. I like to use sweet citrus vermouth by Cinzano in my Martinez.

My Martinez

35 ml gin
35 ml sweet citrus vermouth (I prefer Cinzano Limetto)
2 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dash Angostura bitter
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon slice.

It is beautiful cocktail with smooth aromatic citrus taste.

Campari is amazing bitter apperetif from Italy. It consist of some herbs, citrus zest and neutral spirit. Campari may provoke the appetite of a wolf :)

Campari has beautiful red (carmine) color like a sun.

Americano

30 ml Campari
30 ml sweet vermouth
soda (optional)
Build. Old-fashioned glass with lemon twist.

This admirable cocktail has very interesting bitter-sweet taste and amazing red shine.

Another classical cocktail with Campari is a Negroni. This cocktail has name of Count Camillo Negroni, who prefer Americano with gin instead soda and witn orange wheel garnish.

Negroni

30 ml gin
30 ml Campari
30 ml sweet vermouth
Build. Old-fashioned glass with orange wheel.

Admirable and very reflexing cocktail. It is my choice before party!

Please give me a pizza now!!!

Theme of this MxMo is local flavor. Actually it is very interesting for me. I glad to present to you our ukrainian authentic alcohol drink – gorilka. Gorilka is same thing that vodka – strong drink from wheat and rye (in common case grain) rectificated spirit with different aromatic additives such as aromatic spirits from plants, berries and other. The real ukrainian taste of gorilka is unusual and very brave combination of pepper and honey. It is very cool combination I must say.

For MxMo I prepare very unusual cocktail from Honey Pepper Gorilka – Honey Pepper Manhattan. It is coctail for real man with big heart :) And bad appetite ;) It is a joke!

Nemiroff Honey Pepper Manhattan

50 ml Nemiroff Honey Pepper Original Gorilka
20 ml sweet italian vermouth
1-2 drops Angostura bitters
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry.

This cocktail has unique combination of burning pepper and sweet honey taste.