Batavia Arrack

[Troy Sidle]

Hank at The Violet Hour has a flip with Batavia Arrack, Cynar, and brown sugar coffee syrup.

It's disturbingly good.

[Chris Amirault]

Ratios? Very interesting....

[Troy Sidle]

1 oz Batavia

1 oz Cynar

.75 oz brown sugar coffee syrup

1 whole egg

1 oz cream

hard dash orange bitters

Shake with KD, and strain into a small glass with no ice.

Garnish with 3 drops Fee's Old Fashioned Bitters

[KD1191]

.75 oz brown sugar coffee syrup

This the same stuff that's used in the Winter Sazerac (brown sugar simple that's had ground coffee steeped in it, I think)?

Wondering about this stuff lately, pros/cons of making a syrup with brewed coffee/espresso instead of infusing a water-based syrup... Any thoughts?

ETA: I guess I got some bad info on the process for that syrup...

Edited February 26, 2010 by KD1191 (log)

[Chris Amirault]

I think it's what was in the Tribune a while back: 1 tablespoon each espresso and water plus 1/2 cup brown sugar, all mixed and allowed to marry up nicely.

[Chris Amirault]

I found a link for it:

For syrup, stir 1 tablespoon each espresso and water into 1/2 cup brown sugar. It will be a thick mixture. Let steep overnight. Keeps for one week refrigerated.

[Troy Sidle]

I asked Stephen at The Violet Hour how he's making the syrup, and he said, "magic". They don't have an espresso machine, so that might be how he's doing it.

[Chris Amirault]

I've got a Rancilio Silvia here, so I'm good, but I wonder if the Medaglia d'Oro instant espresso powder would work in this application.

[KD1191]

I asked Stephen at The Violet Hour how he's making the syrup, and he said, "magic". They don't have an espresso machine, so that might be how he's doing it.

Robbie told me they were steeping freshly ground Dark Matter in a brown sugar syrup base....but I did also find the recipe that Chris mentions attributed to Toby.

[Troy Sidle]

There are probably a million right ways to make the coffee syrup. The notable thing is how coffee and brown sugar tie in the batavia and cynar.

Hank said he's calling it the Batavia Flip. And I'm craving one right now.

[EvergreenDan]

Sounds delicious, but sweet. Maybe the coffee/brown sugar flavor could be accomplished with expresso and a touch of molasses?

I like that Cynar doesn't add much sugar to drinks. I had "The Search for Delicious" from Rogue Beta cocktails last night, and really liked it. It's mostly Cynar, and I think you'd have trouble doing it with something sweeter like Ramazzotti. (It is also a little low-alcohol -- perhaps one of those few times when a bit high proof vodka or something would help.)

[Chris Amirault]

I've got a pretty good version working here, using the good molasses suggestion and trashing the bad powdered espresso one:

200 g brown sugar

200 g molasses

120 ml espresso

Makes about 375 ml.

[Sunny&Rummy]

Of course once I posted my Batavia Arrack question in antihero thread I searched and found this one. Tried a couple of these recipes as well as Robert Hess' Elderthorn, and all were very tasty. I made up a batch of espresso syrup so I can try the Batavia Arrack Flip this evening.

I really like the stuff -- it has all the funk of a big pot still rum and isn't shy about showing that off. I can see where you wouldn't want to overdo the funk by pairing the Arrack with Smith & Cross or J Wray, but in a supporting role I can see this turning up in all sorts of drinks around here.

[EvergreenDan]

I believe that the Kindred Cocktails ingredient editor described it as like a buttered stripper pole. Apparently I like buttered stripper poles.

[Sunny&Rummy]

Wow. The Batavia Arrack Flip is crazy good. I have yet to actually taste buttered stripper pole though, so I can't make an informed comparison. Really, really good.

Currently, I am sipping yet another fine Batavia Arrack cocktail called the Dutch East India Daisy ( http://ohgo.sh/archive/dutch-east-indies-daisy-batavia-arrack-cocktail) ay at Oh Gosh wrote about a couple of years ago and I only stumbled across last night rooting around for interesting arak ideas. This is one the definitely needs to go into the KC database, Dan.

I am not sure how this stuff got such a bad rap as far as being difficult to mix with. It has been great in everything I have tried so far.

[EvergreenDan]

Hey Sunny -- I note that you have collected a couple of cocktails, but haven't posted any yet. Hint.Hint.

Looking through this thread, I need to try the Airbag, too.

I'd be interested in your feedback on the following. It's just an Arrack sour a bit gussied up with a little bitter and Tiki-esque flavors. Please excuse the name. I was suffering from a bout of creative insufficiency.

Arrack Attack

by Dan Chadwick, Kindred Cocktails

1 1/2 oz Batavia Arrack

1/2 oz Cynar

1/2 oz Ginger liqueur, Canton

1/2 oz Lime juice

1 ds Whiskey Barrel Aged bitters, Fee Brothers

1/8 pn Salt (tiny amount)

1 sli Lime (as garnish)

Shake, strain, rocks, low ball, lime wheel

Edited August 13, 2011 by EvergreenDan (log)

[Zachary]

Ah, Batavia Arrack... which does smell like buttered stripper pole, thank you very much

I too once had a fear of Batavia Arrack. This was one of the ways I got over that:

17th Century Cocktail

Zachary Pearson, for Kindred Cocktails

1 1/2 oz Batavia Arrack

1 oz Manzanilla Sherry (like Lustau)

1/4 oz Orgeat (homemade, if possible. If not, maybe add a drop of orange flower water to commercial orgeat)

4 orange cheeks off the sides of a Valencia (or better, a Seville) orange

Layer the orange cheeks in a shaker with the ice (so you can actually shake it), add ingredients, and shake. Strain into a coupe and garnish with a thin orange slice.

And yes, I know about the 20th Century cocktail wasn't named after the 20th century My goal here was to build a nutty accord between the Sherry, the Arrack and the Orgeat, with an orange note that would tie everything together. The goal here is to get orange flavor into the drink without using orange juice.

Thanks,

Zachary

[Sunny&Rummy]

The Arrack Attack looks right up my alley, and I will spin this one up tonight for sure.

Sometimes really good drinks have really forgettable names, and it doesn't make it taste any less great. I have been ruminating on some sort of spice-infused Arrack sour,and it looks like you've gone and done it for me. The names I was kicking around for something along these lines included Jakarta Spice Rack, or, if I went with a cinnamon syrup maybe Arrack Kiss. The latter name is an embarassingly dorky attempt at a pithy word play on the name of the spice planet from The Dune novels. At least I amuse myself once in a while.

I do hope I can get around to putting some of my favorite original drinks up on KC soon. What a tremendous resource you have given everybody!

Edited August 13, 2011 by Sunny&Rummy (log)

[Sunny&Rummy]

I am sipping an Arrack Attack now. I think most of the flavor combinations have promise. I might try it again and bribg the Canton up to a full ounce. I also used just a. Very small amount of salt but I think it is distracting just a bit from the other flavors for me -- less so as I continue to sip though. If there was a bit of mezcal in the mix maybe that would bridge to the salt accent a bit better.

What are your thoughts on this one, Dan?

[EvergreenDan]

Canton is a frustrating modifier. It has a mild ginger beer flavor. (Creme de Gingembre has a ginger ale flavor, which is less interesting to me.) Canton, is fairly mild right out of the bottle. If you soured it up and carbonated it, it would could be "Mike's Ginger Beer." It is also extremely sweet.

If you use more of it to increase the ginger kick (which I think would be nice), you will dilute the other flavors and I'm not sure which one(s) you'd want less prominent. You will also have to increase the acid probably 1:1, so you'd need a full ounce. You'll also have to scale back the overall volume, unless you want to bathe in it.

Let me know how your experiments go. I wish there were "ginger bitters" that I add to bump up the spicy ginger without affecting the other flavors so much.

My feelings about salt come from beta cocktails. If you can taste the salt, it's too salty. Feel free to omit, although a touch can bump up the savory dimension, I think.

[Tri2Cook]

I wish there were "ginger bitters" that I add to bump up the spicy ginger without affecting the other flavors so much.

I don't know the first thing about making bitters but it seems like it should be possible to create a ginger bump without adding sweetness or significant volume. The flavor from fresh ginger transfers really easily to other liquids even using cold process. When I want to infuse liquid with ginger for desserts, I always do it by putting fresh ginger in cold liquid and giving it an overnight in the fridge. I get a strong and pure ginger flavor that can actually be almost overpowering at times if I'm not careful. Of course the shelf life would be an issue with water or using pure ginger juice (although pressing fresh ginger through a garlic press gives some serious ginger flavor on the fly if convenience isn't an issue) but I'm wondering about simply infusing fresh ginger into a spirit base. Not an infusion that would be pleasant for drinking alone but a really powerful infusion that could be used in very small amounts to boost the flavor. Maybe using the isi cavitation technique to infuse a whole lot of ginger into a relatively small amount of booze that could be kept in a dropper bottle. The only thing I'm not sure of is flavor degradation but I don't see any reason why it would be any more of an issue that with the ginger liqueurs.

[mkayahara]

I wish there were "ginger bitters" that I add to bump up the spicy ginger without affecting the other flavors so much.

Maybe something like Jamaica Ginger?

[thirtyoneknots]

Ginger infuses potently and relatively quickly into booze, and the flavor is quite stable. I like putting about half a pound of it per 750 of utilitarian brandy for a week, chopped fine. Good way to add a gingery boost to punches, highballs, cocktails, whatever. Maybe because I started doing this before the widespread availability of Domaine de Canton is why I have never been all that enthusiastic about that stuff.

[Zachary]

Tri2Cook,

I like your idea of ISI cavitation to infuse ginger into alcohol - I might use Everclear or LH 151 for the base, and 200 g spirit to 50 g ginger, minced fine. One charge, let sit for 15 minutes, then relieve pressure, open it up, and strain off the ginger. I might have to try this out.

The other thing, and it's not cheap, is Hans Reisetbauer's ginger eau de vie, which is around $100 a 375 ml bottle. I also see that Bob's Bitters makes a ginger bitters.

Thanks,

Zachary

[haresfur]

I've made ginger infused vodka with candied ginger. I kept it in the freezer to keep the "heat". Didn't seem to add much sweetness. I'm sure you could do the same with fresh ginger, but the left over candied solids are nice put over fish and baked.

Aside from that I use Stones ginger wine where Canton is called for - for financial reasons. Doesn't solve the sweet problem but I can't bring myself to pay the price of vodka here.