MxMo XIX

[eje]

If any of you read (or write) blogs which cover cocktails, you might know that Paul over at Cocktail Chronicles has been organizing a monthly online cocktail event he calls Mixology Mondays.

This month's event is being hosted by Gabe on his Cocktailnerd blog. The theme is Fizz!

To quote Gabe:

So, as we watch the warmth of Summer seep into earlier and earlier evenings I’d be honored to have you share your favorite fizzy recipes, be they based on cola, soda, tonic, champagne, or any other myriad of possibilities so we give a final huzzah to Summer and anticipate Fall and her cool blanketed ways. And remember, school’s back in session and I know the lot of you got high marks, so I expect only top-notch work. Mark your calendars for next Monday, do all your homework over the next week, and bring your ‘A game’ folks; just post your entry no later than Monday, September 17th, and trackback to this post. Also, please fire me an email with your name and a hyperlink to your post.

If you would like to participate, please write up a cocktail you first read about on a blog or website in this topic before Monday, September 17th at midnight. I will compile a list of cocktails posted and mail them to the organizer.

Some combination of C2H6O with CO2 or NO2, whatever pickles your fancy, just as long as it bubbles!

[eje]

Apple Blow Fizz

The White of 1 Egg.

4 Dashes of Lemon Juice.

1 Teaspoonful of Powdered Sugar. (1 tsp. caster sugar)

1 Glass Calvados. (2 oz Germain-Robin Apple Brandy)

Shake well, strain into medium size glass and fill with soda water.

I've been itching to try some of the "category" recipes at the back of the Savoy Cocktail Book for a while now. The Fizz MxMo seemed like a fine excuse to check out the Fizz recipes in back pages. There are actually about 25 of them, ranging from the Apple Blow to the Texas Fizz.

I'm not entirely sure why this one has this name. "Blow" Fizzes have always seemed slightly salacious to me.

I'm disappointed with the head on my fizz today. Dunno if it's the weather, ingredients, or technique. I guess my soda water did seem a bit anemic.

In any case, serious head of foam or not, the Apple Blow Fizz is a tasty and refreshing beverage, and one which I would not hesitate to make again or recommend to any.

[mkayahara]

OK, this is where the dash measurement really starts to bug me. Four dashes? Really? It would've killed them to actually specify 1/4 oz. or 1/2 oz. or whatever that works out to? When people argue that a dash is a "to-taste" measurement, I can accept that as long as it's one dash. Two dashes start to get to me. But four? Yeesh.

Rant over. To keep this post on point, though, here's my contribution. It's kind of a work in progress, and still in search of a name, but it fits in well with this month's MxMo theme, so here goes...

Build in a champagne flute:

1/4 oz. creme de cassis

1 oz. tequila (I've tried it with Cuervo Tradicional, but I think a more peppery blanco might work better)

Top with prosecco

Garnish with a lemon twist (or maybe a dash of Fee Brothers lemon bitters?)

[eje]

Chuckle!

Well, OK, I probably used somewhere around the juice of a quarter of a small-ish lemon.

In the spirit of dashes, I didn't really measure, just partially squeezed a half lemon.

If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere around a quarter ounce of lemon juice.

Feel better?

Edited September 14, 2007 by eje (log)

[Scotttos]

Regarding the Apple Blow Fizz, I was turned onto this drink recently and think it's really delicious. The recipe I found uses Applejack (Bonded) and I think it works really well.

Edited September 14, 2007 by Scotttos (log)

[bostonapothecary]

i hope this counts as something with fizz...

i learned this from the very cool "art of the drink" while searching only for info on gingerale...

Apollo’s Cup

1 oz Plymouth Gin

2/3 oz Sweet Vermouth (Red)

1/3 oz Dry Vermouth (White)

1/2 oz Cointreau

3 Dash Fee's Orange Bitters

Top Ginger Ale

this totally captures the mix your way to greatness ethic and comes out much tastier than a standard pimms and gingerale... highly recommended. pimm's was backordered earlier in the summer and i wish i knew this recipe. whole foods had some gingerale made with cane sugar instead of the high fructose... they have a cola as well...

who exactly can i credit for this recipe when i mix it up?

[Dan Ryan]

Oops, MM has come upon me rather suddenly. Will have to break out some of my old recipes. As ever, a shot is 25 ml.

The Harper

glass: collins

2 shots gin

1 shot extra dry vermouth

1 shot cointreau

1 shot lime juice

top up with soda

Shake first four ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass, then top up with soda. Created when I sat on the jury for the Slovenian cocktail championships, and a long gin drink was requested. This refreshing combination popped into my head immediately. Don't overdo the soda.

The Melbellini

glass: flute

1 shot fresh white peach purée

1 spoon fresh raspberry purée

1 spoon creme de framboise

top up with prosecco

Add first three ingredients to glass and stir, then top up with prosecco. Bellinis are great, and so is peach melba. How hard could it be to come up with this combination? Be ready to adjust for sweetness/acidity according to how ripe your fruit is.

The Solano

glass: flute

1 spoon creme de cassis

1½ shots grapefruit juice

top up with prosecco / champagne according to how extravagant you are

Add first two ingredients to glass and stir, then top up with prosecco. Another blackcurrant and grapefruit combo, this makes a great aperitif. I love grapefruit in cocktails.

Edited September 17, 2007 by Dan Ryan (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

So I was going to do a different drink but sort of ran out of time but I may post it later this week as a bonus (been sort of in a cocktail rut lately ). Without further ado:

As others known to this community have noted, Drambuie is a really terriffic liqueur. Robust and manly but approachable and gentlemanly at the same time. Unfortunately, Drambuie's deliciousness is matched only by it's difficulty in incorporating into mixed drinks, and the few that do use it employ it either as an accent on an already scotchy Scotch base (Rusty Nail, Robert Burns), or, even more excitingly, in a dynamic state of tension with other, quite different, ingredients (Jabberwocky, Gansevoort Fizz). But a drink based on Drambuie? That would be unusual indeed. Enter Esquire Drinks and the Mackinnon Fizz. Tucked amongst the tall drinks about 2/3 of the way through the book the Mackinnon is a recipe that one might easily pass over, and so I did until last spring when I decided to mix one up with the fresh bottle of Drambuie I had just bought. What I discovered was my celebratory drink of the summer (and maybe the best use of Drambuie I know of).

2 oz Drambuie

1/2 oz White Rum (Flor de Cana)

1/2 oz lemon

1/2 oz lime

Shake with ice and strain into tall glass with a few large ice cubes. Top with soda.

Esquire Drinks suggests that the drink may have been a marketing ploy by Drambuie, as it is named after the family who owns it. If this is true, it's probably one of the last times that a liquor company came up with a drink worth making. Its slightly sweet, sure -- it IS over half liqueur, after all -- but not overpoweringly so, probably about as sweet as a Coke. The assertive nature of the liqueur is only slightly checked by the citrus and fizz, otherwise it's character shines bright. The white rum's role, as far as I can tell, is to sort of tame the sweetness slightly without adding additional acids, by stretching the base a bit; a role that today would likely be filled by vodka, but the floral characteristics of the rum contribute nicely to the drink's lengthy and complex finish. I think the drink is swell as printed here, though it's about as sweet of a tall drink as I would want and that, coupled with the high price of Drambuie*, make this a once-in-a-while treat for me. Here in Texas we've got at least another 6-8 weeks of tall drink weather, but if the weather is not so kind where you live, definitely try this one before the cool months arrive -- you'll still be thinking about when summer rolls back around.

-Andy

*Supposedly there's another Scotch & Honey liqueur out there called Glayva which I've seen for about half the price of Drambuie. Anybody had this or know if it's any good?

[jmfangio]

I won't be able to make this until my Amer Picon replica is ready, but here's a recipe from The Gentleman's Companion:

The Amer Picon "Pouffle" Fizz, something native originally to Paris, & encountered at the Cafe du Dome, where in spite of the American inundation of pseudo-bohemians is still a moderately consistent rendezvous for other Americans over there who do things with their brains and hands

Simply turn 1 to 1 1/2 jiggers of Amer Picon into a shaker, ad lots of cracked ice, the white of 1 fresh egg, 1/2 jigger of grenadine, shake, then turn everything into a big thin goblet and fill up with club soda to suit taste. This is a fine stomachic, and inspires interest in food.

[mkayahara]

*Supposedly there's another Scotch & Honey liqueur out there called Glayva which I've seen for about half the price of Drambuie. Anybody had this or know if it's any good?

←

Personally, I prefer Drambuie. I've never tasted them side by side, but it seems to me that Drambuie is more complex and less sweet.

[bostonapothecary]

*Supposedly there's another Scotch & Honey liqueur out there called Glayva which I've seen for about half the price of Drambuie. Anybody had this or know if it's any good?

←

Personally, I prefer Drambuie. I've never tasted them side by side, but it seems to me that Drambuie is more complex and less sweet.

←

i think they just put honey in whiskey and thats it...

i keep finding the sexiest honeys made under rare circumstances. add truffle honey to grappa... or add fire weed honey from alaska to a spirit of the same equatorial region... never use drambuie again...

[Chris Amirault]

Missed the deadline, but wanted to toss the Gingered Gentleman into the ring.

2 oz bourbon

1 oz lime

1 oz gingered simple syrup

Shake, pour over fresh rocks, top with Reed's Ginger Brew. Great with barbecue.

[JAZ]

I also missed the deadline, but I inadvertently came up with a combination of the classic champagne cocktail and the Kir Royale. I poured what I thought was only going to be a dash of homemade grenadine into a champagne glass, which I then intended to fill with a California sparkling brut. Turned out to be almost a quarter-ounce, so then I decided to add a very healthy dose (a teaspoon) of Angostura bitters to balance the sweetness. Turns out to be a really great drink. Who knew?

[thirtyoneknots]

I also missed the deadline, but I inadvertently came up with a combination of the classic champagne cocktail and the Kir Royale. I poured what I thought was only going to be a dash of homemade grenadine into a champagne glass, which I then intended to fill with a California sparkling brut. Turned out to be almost a quarter-ounce, so then I decided to add a very healthy dose (a teaspoon) of Angostura bitters to balance the sweetness. Turns out to be a really great drink. Who knew?

←

Ooh that sounds quite nice actually.

[evo-lution]

*Supposedly there's another Scotch & Honey liqueur out there called Glayva which I've seen for about half the price of Drambuie. Anybody had this or know if it's any good?

There are a good few 'honey/sweetened' scotch liqueurs on the market over here. I'd be willing to send some miniatures over to the States, but every time I've sent liquor over in the past it's been sent back to me. If anyone has any ideas...

Here's a few examples :-

Cock O' The North

Stag's Breath

Glayva

[eje]

Well, better late than never!

You guys better put a reminder on your calendars next time!

Round up of the various posts over on Gabriel's Blog:

MxMo XIX: Fizz!!

34 entries this time, one of the better turn outs for MxMo.