55 replies to this topic

[Chris Amirault]

Over in the cocktail competition pinned at the top of the Spirits & Cocktails forum, Erik posted this:

Imbibe/Averna Cocktail Contest

Starting on January 1, you can enter to win a trip to Sicily and $1,500 cash by creating a winning Averna cocktail recipe. The submission deadline is March 31, 2008, at which point the field of entries will be judged and narrowed, and the top-scoring cocktails will be mixed at special Averna events during April. The four finalists from those events will each win a trip to Sicily in May to compete for the grand cash prize. Averna is a fantastic ingredient to work with, so this should be a fun exercise in cocktail-making. You have a while to come up with a winning recipe, so start experimenting now, and make us proud—we can't wait to see who wins this one!

More information at the Averna USA website.

I'm game to give this a go, particularly after my embarrassment at not reading the rules carefully before hitting send at the Spirit World Raiders of the Lost Cocktail contest for Benedictine. However, the Corsa Italia Cocktail that I submitted got me thinking about the Averno as well. Here's the Corsa Italia Cocktail:

2 oz rye
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz Fernet Branca
dash orange bitters & twist

I've got to run out but I hope to fiddle around a bit with the Averna tonight along those lines, maybe nix the Benedictine... try yellow Chartreuse... I dunno.

Anyone else interested to take a crack at a Sicilian vacation?

[TBoner]

Over in the cocktail competition pinned at the top of the Spirits & Cocktails forum, Erik posted this:

Imbibe/Averna Cocktail Contest

Starting on January 1, you can enter to win a trip to Sicily and $1,500 cash by creating a winning Averna cocktail recipe. The submission deadline is March 31, 2008, at which point the field of entries will be judged and narrowed, and the top-scoring cocktails will be mixed at special Averna events during April. The four finalists from those events will each win a trip to Sicily in May to compete for the grand cash prize. Averna is a fantastic ingredient to work with, so this should be a fun exercise in cocktail-making. You have a while to come up with a winning recipe, so start experimenting now, and make us proud—we can't wait to see who wins this one!

More information at the Averna USA website.

I'm game to give this a go, particularly after my embarrassment at not reading the rules carefully before hitting send at the Spirit World Raiders of the Lost Cocktail contest for Benedictine. However, the Corsa Italia Cocktail that I submitted got me thinking about the Avern as well. Here's the Corsa Italia Cocktail:

2 oz rye
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz Fernet Branca
dash orange bitters & twist

I've got to run out but I hope to fiddle around a bit with the Averno tonight along those lines, maybe nix the Benedictine... try yellow Chartreuse... I dunno.

Anyone else interested to take a crack at a Sicilian vacation?

I don't have near the expertise of most folks here, but I do loves me some Averna. I like your idea of messing with the Corsa Italia. I definitely think there's something to be done with rye here. Benedictine seems like a natural match to the Averna, but yellow Chartreuse could be a really interesting contrast.

Perhaps I need to break out a few things and fiddle with this. I'll post whatever I can come up with. Thanks for the heads-up on this.

[Chris Amirault]

While suffering through the third hour of a videotaped workshop, I drew a planning document that I've used for other sorts of projects. You stick the item in question in the middle, draw a circle around it, and then trace out spokes that describe components of the item, then build off of those.

I stuck Averna in the central circle and drew three spokes. One says "spice," and it has rye, Angostura, and question marks under it. Another just says, "Campari?" Ofer there.

Then I wrote "orange," by which I meant both the fruit and the color, and I started fiddling around with that idea. Thought about Aperol, then Apry, then...

I just submitted the AAA Cocktail, first on your list, last on your tongue:

1/2 oz Averna
1/2 oz Aperol
1/2 oz Marie Brizard Apry
1 1/2 oz Plymouth gin
orange twist

Stir, cook, pour into chilled glass, twist orange over glass, drop in.

The gauntlet has been thrown.

[conor610]

Cook?

[Chris Amirault]

Sorry: let it sit in the ice for a minute. From johnder's post on the topic:

It is pretty common practice for most cocktail centric bars in NYC to follow this practice of always building your stirred drinks first and setting them aside to "cook" while you make the other drinks. I wouldn't leave the stir drinks to cook too long, but in the time it takes me to make a aviation and a diablo from first pour of liquor to pour out into the glass is probably 1 minute and change.

[Chris Amirault]

Soldiering on, I fiddled around with a sour tonight, coming up in the end with this thing that I named the Italian-American Cocktail for reasons that will shortly be obvious:

1 1/2 oz Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy
3/4 oz Averna
3/4 oz lemon
1/2 oz simple
two healthy dashes Peychaud's

Shake, strain, lemon twist.

It's pretty damned tart, and the tang overpowers any interesting Averna notes. Not likely to get me to Palermo.

[Chris Amirault]

Just concocted and submitted another swell one, a variation on the Manhattan that takes full advantage of the nutty tones of Averna, Maraschino, and rye.

Arthur Avenue Cocktail

1/2 oz Averna
1/2 oz Luxardo Maraschino
2 oz Rittenhouse Rye

Stir with cracked ice, cook for one minute, strain, orange twist over glass and on rim.

[Chris Amirault]

I couldn't give up the idea that apple brandy or applejack would somehow work with this, so I hit the books and found the Whist Cocktail, which the Craddock makes with calvados in the Savoy and PG Duffy suggests with that or apple brandy. Given Averna's sweetness, I gave it a try with Laird's bonded. It needed a higher note at the top, so I added a lemon twist. It's a thick, layered drink, a friendlier Negroni.

After much searching, I decided to go with the name the Squadra Azzurra, after a famous team of Italian bridge players. (Whist, bridge, Italian.... Yeah, I know, a bit forced; at least the drink isn't blue.) It works. I give you entry number three.

The Squadra Azzurra

1 1/2 oz apple brandy (Laird's bonded)
3/4 oz Averna
3/4 oz white rum (Flor de Caña)

Stir, cook, strain into a cocktail glass. Edge the rim with a twist of lemon peel and drop it into the glass.

[bostonapothecary]

averna is a tricky beast and one of my highest regarded amaros...

my favorite averna cocktail so far is a apple brandy, averna, lemon juice sour... glorious...

my first cocktail idea was to make something like an negroni...

1.5 oz. apple jack
1. oz. sicilian cerasuelo vermouth
1. oz. averna

the first time i drank it i liked it. i must have been in some sort of mood where i'd drink anything (end of a double shift) because the next time i visited it i thought it was one of the most overly complex and challenging things i'd encountered... bitter on bitter is not for the faint of heart... to get it down i broke out a bar of 70% dark chocolate... results were one of the most reactive food and beverage pairings i've ever encountered... supposedl you can pair bitter food with bitter wine but i've never gotten it to work... the chocolate took credit for all the bitter in cocktail and all you tasted was the glorious fruit underneath... sorta magical... but with a catch... to get down this three oz. drink you had to eat an entire candy bar... yikes...

next up is dark flavors on dark flavors with something to lighten them...
african rye whiskey
averna
creole shrub or alpenze orchard apricot...?

seems to need a ratio like a red hook and the whiskey coming through on the nose is beautiful... apricot isn't even light enough... a dessert wine like passito di pantelleria from the island of marsala can match the exoticism yet be very fitting... the scirocco is the african winds that moderate the temperatures of these islands... the african rye whiskey is fitting becaus its character and color is like distilled sahara dust...

"scirocco"

2 oz. "african" rye whiskey
3/4 oz. averna
1/4 oz. passito di pantelleria
2 dashes bergamot orange bitters

[Chris Amirault]

I feel like Stanley when Livingstone showed up.

Nice sounding drinks, bostonapothecary, but here's the thing. I wonder if the Averna people are looking for pro bar staples in this contest; I was worried about the Apry, for crying out loud....

[eje]

[...]a dessert wine like passito di pantelleria from the island of marsala can match the exoticism yet be very fitting...
[...]

Not to be Mr. Stickler Guy or anything, but isn't Passito di Pantellaria from, uh, Pantellaria?

Lovely stuff, by the way, should you be in the market for an unusual and delicious dessert wine. Reminds me of one of my favorite dining experiences ever at Babbo in New York*. Ah, happy, gluttonous times. With its unique character, I can see why it would occur to you when mixing with Averna.

*Edit - Uh, ack, now that I think about it, I was mixing gluttonous after dinner wine experiences. We had Malvasia delle Lipari at Babbo. Passito di Pantellaria we had at Passione in London. Both were very happy experiences. Actually, I was thinking of the flavor of the Malvasia della Lipari which I think would be very interesting with the Averna.

Edit - Again, sheesh, glutinous times would be very interesting, indeed. And sticky.

Edited by eje, 05 February 2008 - 07:56 PM.

[Chris Amirault]

Screwing around with Licor 43 tonight. Given that it's foundation is vanilla, it's remarkably overpowering, so I ended up with a rinse. I wanted to try to bring in the yellow Chartreuse that seemed such a good idea a while back, too. Fiddled for a while and then...

Here's the European Union, historical metaphor in a glass. It's pretty damned brown, but the double orange peel (flamed and then rubbed) brighten up on the nose when you draw it near. First impressions in the mouth are colonial -- silk, sugar, and spice -- and it ends with an assertive yet complex nod to the future.

Can Italy, Spain, France, and England find happiness together? Build and find out.

The European Union:

1 oz Averna
1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
1 1/2 (Plymouth) Gin

Stir the above with ice and let it cook while you rinse the chilled cocktail glass with Licor 43 and dump the excess. Strain the cocktail into your rinsed glass. Flame a hefty slab of orange peel over the glass with great ceremony, then rub the spent peel along the edge of the glass. If you're feeling saucy about the future of the euro, drop it in with a smirk.

[bostonapothecary]

Australian Coffee Cup.

One pint of very strong black coffee, flavored with 1/2 teaspoon of bitter almond.  Cook in a double boiler with the yolks of 2 eggs, well beaten, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of thich cream.  When thick as custard remove from fire and chill.  When ready to serve, pour in a pitcher with a pint of whipped cream, sweetened, shaved ice and a quart bottle of Appolonaris or other charged water.

-Anna B. Walton.

the idea of averna and coffee seemed to appeal to me so i thought i'd try an adaption of Mrs. Walton's "Australian Coffee Cup". This style of drink has only ever been described to me by Italian people. I wonder how it ends up attributed to the Aussies...

1.5 oz. Averna
1.0 oz. Batavia Arrack (its all i drink these days. sub your favorite 80+/- proof)
3 tablespoonfuls of batter*
4 oz. soda water (made with my trusty sodaclub.com machine thanks to the recommendation of the velvet tango room.)

*this batter was tricky. only because i wanted to use 3 yolks to 1 cup of tanzanian peaberry coffee brewed in my mocha maker with only three spoonfuls of sugar and a spoonful of "liqueur". the crema of the coffee seemed to create an intense froth and the batter never became very silky and stiff. it just ended up highly foamy but definitely functional. i think a different coffee would work better.

the batter integrates into the drink really well adding body and complements the soda water. the flavors overall work really well... african coffee, averna, arrack... you can taste everything in relative harmony. this drinks seems to be rather refreshing... i'd be happy if it was given to me on a hot day...

the drink and its batter helps you to harness the power of the chicken. i feel mightier all the sudden...

[chefboy24]

Over in the cocktail competition pinned at the top of the Spirits & Cocktails forum, Erik posted this:

Imbibe/Averna Cocktail Contest

Starting on January 1, you can enter to win a trip to Sicily and $1,500 cash by creating a winning Averna cocktail recipe. The submission deadline is March 31, 2008, at which point the field of entries will be judged and narrowed, and the top-scoring cocktails will be mixed at special Averna events during April. The four finalists from those events will each win a trip to Sicily in May to compete for the grand cash prize. Averna is a fantastic ingredient to work with, so this should be a fun exercise in cocktail-making. You have a while to come up with a winning recipe, so start experimenting now, and make us proud—we can't wait to see who wins this one!

More information at the Averna USA website.

I'm game to give this a go, particularly after my embarrassment at not reading the rules carefully before hitting send at the Spirit World Raiders of the Lost Cocktail contest for Benedictine. However, the Corsa Italia Cocktail that I submitted got me thinking about the Averno as well. Here's the Corsa Italia Cocktail:

2 oz rye
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/4 oz Fernet Branca
dash orange bitters & twist

I've got to run out but I hope to fiddle around a bit with the Averna tonight along those lines, maybe nix the Benedictine... try yellow Chartreuse... I dunno.

Anyone else interested to take a crack at a Sicilian vacation?

there is a very brilliant bartender at dell anima who makes a brilliant averna cocktail... i believe he does it with some obscure orange liquor and a whiskey garnished with an orange twist. brilliant, balanced, delicious.

[campus five]

Here's my attempt:

Quadratto Vecchio (a "vieux carre" variation)
3/4 oz. Rye (WT 101 or RH BIB)
3/4 oz. Apple Jack (Lairds BIB)
1/2 oz. Averna
dash Peychauds
dash Fee's Whiskey Barrel Bitters

stir, strain, serve up
garnish with a cherry, grate cinnamon over top.

I originally tried equal parts, but it lacked bite, so I lowered the amount of Averna.

[Chris Amirault]

Did you submit it? It sounds good -- I'd try it out if it weren't, you know, 7:00 am.

[campus five]

submitted. c'mon chris - it's 5pm some where right?

[Chris Amirault]

Just made a Quadratto Vecchio with WT 101 and all else as campus five suggests, right down to those luscious Whiskey Barrel Bitters. I grabbed one of the cherries I started down the path to righteousness two weeks ago, and added a cinnamon stick instead of grating. Very nice -- and you're right about the bite. I think that, without care, you can make these drinks too sweet if you're heavy with the Averna. Next time, I think I'd omit the Peychauds (criminal, I know, for a drink based on the VC) and stick to the Fee's, as the licorice in the Peychauds seems to compete with the Averna in my mouth. But, as always, my mouth ain't yours.

[bostonapothecary]

joining the party...

3/4 oz. saz 18 (all i had)
3/4 oz. clear creak 8 yr applejack (all i had
1/2 oz. averna
dash peychaud's
dash angostura (all i had)

no cinnamon yikes!

wow, this is a very adult drink...

something in the drink gives it an intensely thick mouthfeel without being overly sweet in anyway... if someone surprised me with this drink, i would be very happy... i can taste where the rye and apple brandy intersect... i like these split spirit "animators"... this is not for everyone but it definitely thrills me... i wish i had an orange twist...

[campus five]

Thanks. I'm happy to hear something better than, "it made me hurl."

Anyway, I probably could have spent some more time tweaking it, because I couldn't even detect the Peychauds now that I think about it. I tried adding a dash of Fee's orange bitters to my already made and half finished drink, and thought it ruined it. However, my wife tried the Averna straight tonight and said it reminded her of Terry's Bitter Orange chocolate candy, so going the orange route makes sense.

Tonight I did a Derby/Old Fashioned riff, also thinking about the orange notes.
2 oz Rye
1/2 oz Averna
1/3 oz (2 tsp.) 1:1 simple syrup
2 dashes fees orange
2 dashes fees whiskey barrel
fat orange peel
stir, cook, strain, old fashioned glass
garnish with another orange peel (flamed if you like)

Name-wise I was thinking "Averna Fashioned" or "Moda Averna."
Ordinarily I'd go with RH BIB, but I bought a bottle of WT rye yesterday, so that's what I used. For either drink, I definitely think a 100ish proof rye makes a difference.

Edited by campus five, 08 March 2008 - 01:44 AM.

[Chris Amirault]

I agree about the rye proof (and for that matter the apple brandy proof), and though orange makes the Averna step up, here I worry about muddling everything up.

In an interesting development, I had the last sip of my drink after eating a dark-chocolate-covered marcona almond. That combination was very interesting indeed....

[bostonapothecary]

I agree about the rye proof (and for that matter the apple brandy proof), and though orange makes the Averna step up, here I worry about muddling everything up.

In an interesting development, I had the last sip of my drink after eating a dark-chocolate-covered marcona almond. That combination was very interesting indeed....

upthread i discovered that averna and chocolate can be great... i also learned that there is more than a couple of "passito de pantelerria's" and they are among the most expensive dessert wines out there... i used the common, delicious, and incredibly affordable pellegrino...

[KatieLoeb]

Nowhere in the cocktail information are there any "rules" for the entries. Is there a minimum amount of Averna for the cocktail? Does it have to be an "up" drink or can a tall drink compete? Is there a maximum number of total ounces of booze allowable? Do we have to use commonly available ingredients? Is there a maximum number of ingredients allowed? Can we use homemade syrups or cordials in the drinks?

All this stuff is usual cocktail competition regulations, so I'm surprised not to see it anywhere on the site or discussed anywhere on this thread. Is there somewhere to appeal for clarification? Time is running out....

Meanwhile I'm working on something with applejack, ginger, apricot(?), Averna and blood orange juice. We'll see how that works out.

[Chris Amirault]

I agree, Katie: not a lot of guidelines. I personally have wondered about whether or not the drinks should emphasize readily available ingredients (which I've stressed) or can be more eclectic or unusual: no sage-infused demerara for me here.

Though, thinking of that....

[bostonapothecary]

I agree, Katie: not a lot of guidelines. I personally have wondered about whether or not the drinks should emphasize readily available ingredients (which I've stressed) or can be more eclectic or unusual: no sage-infused demerara for me here.

Though, thinking of that....

readily available ingredients are boring... give me an excuse to drive to rhode island and i will...

i just read about sage prolifically growing across the steppe as modern man developed and mauraded following climate change... sage was always present and its scent must be ingrained in our minds effecting our insticts... averna and sage might induce a relapse of primal behavior... as long as i have the next day off to recover, sign me up...


*also the best of sage isn't completely water soluble from what i've read. dissolve it in alcohol and then make your syrup if thats the route you want to take...

Edited by bostonapothecary, 14 March 2008 - 06:55 PM.

[Chris Amirault]

As someone who's tweaking at least five different infusions or bitters currently, I'm not making the case for readily available ingredients in cocktails. I'm making the case for readily available ingredients in a cocktail contest that has no posted rules and may get me to Sicily.

[KatieLoeb]

I finally got an answer to my questions from someone at AvernaUSA. There are definitely no rules, but the contest is still limited to ONE entry per person, which makes the final beverage have to be one's best effort.

But that's as it should be I suspect. I'm still working on something with applejack and ginger. Fair success so far. No final recipe to report yet as there are too many permutations to decide which is best. Yet.

[Chris Amirault]

One entry per person? Uh oh. Where did you see/read that?

[JerseyRED]

One entry per person? Uh oh. Where did you see/read that?

Disclaimer

"Only one entry per person and per e-mail address will be accepted. Duplicate entries will be disregarded. "

[Chris Amirault]

Sounds like I'm sunk.

ETA: Sounds like that AAA Cocktail is going to be my first and only entry. Sounds good to me, as it's the one I've made a few times and found tastiest so far.

Edited by chrisamirault, 20 March 2008 - 02:00 PM.