MxMo XXV

[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 Rick over on his blog Kaiser Penguin The theme is Limit One.

To quote Rick from his explanation of the topic:

This round is devoted to cocktails that have a wee bit too much alcohol in them, yet somehow manage to be deliciously deadly.

Exotic cocktail spots would often advertise their potent potions by limiting a customer to one per evening. It wasn’t all gimmick, however; some recipes like the Zombie contained up to 5oz of 80-proof spirit! This phenomenon isn’t limited to just tiki drinks; in fact, many locales even have laws that forbid a bartender to create a drink with more than a specified quantity of liquor.

So for this month’s round of Mixology Monday, dig up your most potent cocktails. No Long Island Iced Teas allowed!

If you would like to participate, please write up a cocktail in this topic before Monday, March 17th at midnight. I will compile a list of cocktails posted and email them to the organizer.

Consume and write about your favorite, strongest drink. You know, the one that that is delightful, complex, and will leave you wanting to stay home from work the next day. It should contain at least 3oz of 80-proof spirit or have less than 1/2oz of non-spiritness.

The man is just evil!

[Chris Amirault]

Oh, man, this is easy.

I've been gaga lately over the Surf Room Mai Tai in Beachbum Berry's Intoxica. It's from the Surf Room of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki circa 1940s, where they claim the origin of the Mai Tai (contra Trader Vic).

1 oz demerara rum (Lemon Hart)

1 oz dark Jamaican rum (Cruzan blackstrap)

1 oz light PR rum (Flor de Cana)

1/4 oz curacao (MB triple sec)

1/4 oz simple (I go very light or omit)

1/4 oz orgeat (Fee's)

1/4 oz lemon

1/2 oz lime

1 oz pineapple

1 oz orange

Shake with crushed ice; strain into double old-fashioned glass (or tiki mug -- ca) with fresh crushed ice in it. (Float some Lemon Hart 151 -- ca.) Garnish with whatever crazy stuff you've got lying around: pineapple spears, mangoes, sugar cane sticks, mint, cherries, citrus, orchids....

[bostonapothecary]

i'm ignoring the 1/2 oz. spiritless max because i drink this mainly for the lemon juice...

"caco cocktail"

1.5 oz. wray & nephews 126

1 oz. brizard apry

1 oz. lemon juice

2 dashes angostura

shake with extra ice...

float .5 oz. lemonheart 151

i drink this quite regularly...

[thirtyoneknots]

I believe that I have of late finally at long last perfected my Hurricane recipe, after a long and ardurous quest (it was especially ardurous the next morning). I have found all published recipes wanting in some way, but the one that got closest for me was the one from Grog Log, but it was waaaaay too sweet and rich. After some tinkering with that formula I came up with the following, which is far from the dry sophistication of the Daiquiri, but the sweetness is pretty well balanced I think. Emminently drinkable, if I do say so myself.

3 oz* dark rum (I like the Appleton Extra, or your favorite)

1 oz* white rum (Flor de Cana for me)

4 oz lemon juice (fresh, duh)

2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (1883 is my favorite here, as it is usually)

1 oz, give or take, of grenadine (homemade; I've actually never measured this, I just add enough to catch the color...this is my best guess)

Pour all into a mixing glass with no ice and swirl or whatever to mix. Pour into whatever big-ass funky glass you've got handy (Hurricane glass is standard, it needs to be at least 24 oz tho) filled at least most of the way with crushed ice. Stir to chill (the glass should frost) and top off with more crushed ice. Try not to hurt yourself.

*These amounts work, I think, for those brands, but if using a less rich dark rum you may wish to omit the white, or conversely, if using something even more powerful like Demerara, you may want more white rum. Just make sure that the total amount of rum is around 4 oz.

Edit to add: This drink would actually be illegal to serve in the State of Texas, as it contains more than 3 oz of liquor, but I have been making them in half size versions at work when it's slow and I have time (we're not really set up for this kind of thing).

Edited March 11, 2008 by thirtyoneknots (log)

[misterdyer]

Alright, I'm game.

Old-Fashioned Headache

3 oz Sazerac 18

1/2 oz demarara syrup

5 dashes TBT Jerry Thomas' Decanter Bitters

1 dash Angostura

Stir, strain, rocks glass with big rock(s).

Garnish with three raisins on a pick.

Halleujah! Now where did I put the goddamned aspirin?

[Chris Amirault]

Garnish with three raisins on a pick.

←

Genius.

[bostonapothecary]

Alright, I'm game.

Old-Fashioned Headache

3 oz Sazerac 18

1/2 oz demarara syrup

5 dashes TBT Jerry Thomas' Decanter Bitters

1 dash Angostura

Stir, strain, rocks glass with big rock(s).

Garnish with three raisins on a pick.

Halleujah!  Now where did I put the goddamned aspirin?

←

i've made those decanter bitters before and they are wonderful. i drank mine by the glassful... thats looks like a great drink.

[thirtyoneknots]

I believe that I have of late finally at long last perfected my Hurricane recipe, after a long and ardurous quest (it was especially ardurous the next morning). I have found all published recipes wanting in some way, but the one that got closest for me was the one from Grog Log, but it was waaaaay too sweet and rich. After some tinkering with that formula I came up with the following, which is far from the dry sophistication of the Daiquiri, but the sweetness is pretty well balanced I think. Emminently drinkable, if I do say so myself.

3 oz* dark rum (I like the Appleton Extra, or your favorite)

1 oz* white rum (Flor de Cana for me)

4 oz lemon juice (fresh, duh)

2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (1883 is my favorite here, as it is usually)

1 oz, give or take, of grenadine (homemade; I've actually never measured this, I just add enough to catch the color...this is my best guess)

Pour all into a mixing glass with no ice and swirl or whatever to mix. Pour into whatever big-ass funky glass you've got handy (Hurricane glass is standard, it needs to be at least 24 oz tho) filled at least most of the way with crushed ice. Stir to chill (the glass should frost) and top off with more crushed ice. Try not to hurt yourself.

*These amounts work, I think, for those brands, but if using a less rich dark rum you may wish to omit the white, or conversely, if using something even more powerful like Demerara, you may want more white rum. Just make sure that the total amount of rum is around 4 oz.

Edit to add: This drink would actually be illegal to serve in the State of Texas, as it contains more than 3 oz of liquor, but I have been making them in half size versions at work when it's slow and I have time (we're not really set up for this kind of thing).

←

Ok so a followup to this. I had never actually made this in the full size amount so I decided to give it a go today on this glorious Thursday with nothing to do and all day to do it. Normally I would like it to be about 5 degrees warmer before I started diving into the tall fruity rum things but today I made the exception, all for you guys.

So I actually sort of measured the grenadine this time, little by little, and I think you could probably get away with 3/4 oz, although this contributes some nice flavors it's also for color and so ymmv according to your grenadine recipe (or brand, hah).

So I ended up with something like this:

4.5 oz lemon

2 oz Passion fruit syrup

scant 1 oz grenadine

4 oz rums

Now I'd only made this with Appleton Extra before but I'm currently low so I went with 1 oz FdC white, 1 oz Meyers' and 2 oz Goslings. In hindsight the Meyers' might have made the thing a little too rich but it wasn't a bad mixture. The real problem came with the size of my glass. I turned my ice crusher handle counter-clockwise to make a coarser crush but even then there was barely room for all the ingredients to go in my hurricane glasses (~23 oz). Crushed ice is clutch here because the drink is so rich, even at these preportions, that it absolutely needs the water that crushed ice adds in. In fact it ended up needing more, as I drank it down and topped off with crushed ice again to reach perfection. I attribute part of this to the choice in rums, the Appleton is strongly flavored while having a balanced richness that works really well there. If using the Goslings again I will use 2 oz Flor de Cana instead of any Meyers'. I'm just about ready to relegate that stuff to the kitchen uses, where it excels.

Now I'm willing to entertain the notion that the coarser crush of ice hindered proper dilution, so maybe proceed that way. the official solution here though, I think, will be to fill the glass with ice, pour it into a shaker tin, add all the premixed ingredients, and either shake briefly or pour back and forth between two tins if there's too much to fit in the shaker assembly. then pour into the hurricane glass and top with more crushed ice. More experimentation is obviously needed though I doubt I'll have the opportunity to do it before Monday. In the meantime I can tell you that the way I know 100% this recipe works is to make it in a half amount with a finer crush of ice and an appropriately smaller glass (pint glass should work fine). Of course at this point it no longer fits the "limit one" category.

What I really need are some absurdly large hurricane glasses, maybe like 30 oz...anyone know where they might be found?

[boredwiththesea]

Well, I've always been a great fan of the Widow's Kiss... described by Ted Haigh in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails as being, perhaps, "the most evocative drink ever." Now, in Doc's lays claim to his preferred recipe being as follows:

1.5 oz Calvados

.75 oz Yellow Chartreuse

.75 oz Benedictine

2 dashes of Angostura, shaken, strained up, garnished with cherry.

However, having somewhat provincial taste myself sometimes, and finding, in Philadelphia, a comparable abundance of cheap Laird's Bonded Applejack (as compared to lovely, but very frequently over-priced Calvados) I frequently find myself preferring it prepared as follows:

1.5 oz Laird's Bonded Applejack (100 pf)

.75 oz Green Chartreuse (110 pf)

.75 oz Benedictine (80 pf)

3-4 dashes of Angostura, shaken, strained up, garnished with cherry.

Which makes, in the end, for a drink with one of the highest the overall proofs I would dare to recommend, even after dilution, especially as there's nary a small cocktail glass to be found in the fair city of Philadelphia, and the best bartenders in town tend to bring up the pour while preserving the proportions.

Loving, as I do, Lemonhart's 151, I though one night that perhaps a bit of that flavor would make a fine addition to the cocktail. I can't honestly recall whether it did or it didn't: the hangover left me disinclined to repeat the experiment.

Cheers. N.

[Mike S.]

This is a shockingly irresponsible theme, and therefore warrants in response the most shockingly irresponsible drink masquerading as a respectable "cocktail" I know. One of the strongest recipes published, at least that I've seen, has to be the Savoy's Earthquake Cocktail (a.k.a., for some reason, the Bunny Hug):

1/3 gin

1/3 whisky (no real specification beyond that)

1/3 absinthe

Shake and strain. No garnish specified; I suppose the louche from the diluted absinthe provides its own visual impact, and really what after-the-fact addition could possibly compete with those ingredients?

Oi! That's a lot of booze, and on paper one cannot see where any sort of balance comes from -- if indeed any was ever intended to exist. Hard to tell, honestly, given Savoy's commentary: "So-called because if there should happen to be an earthquake on when you are drinking it, it won't matter. This is a cocktail whose potency is not to be taken too lightly, or, for that matter, too frequently". Uh, yeah -- copy that.

Is this just a drink purpose-made for inducing drunkenness as quickly and efficiently as possible? Or is there a more serious mixological goal at work? I suppose it's all in how you make it. For better or worse, here's how I tend to on the exceedingly rare occasions when I dare:

1.5 oz blended scotch (typically Johnnie Walker Black or Famous Grouse 12-year)

1.5 oz Cadenhead's Old Raj "Blue Label" gin

1.5 oz Jade Edouard absinthe

Stir until the absinthe has turned the whole mess pearly-opaque, strain into a frozen (not merely "chilled") cocktail glass. Garnish with a designated driver and/or an understanding spouse. Or at least a large ice cube.

For those keeping score at home, that's 1.5 oz each of 80, 110 and 144 proof spirits, respectively -- and nothing else apart from whatever small amount of water can force itself into the mix during construction. Since the pre-dilution concoction is 4.5 ounces of straight alcohol that must be well above 100 proof on average, my guess is that the finished product is probably the functional equivalent of drinking 5-6 ounces of 80-proof spirits neat.

So, what's the answer to the dichotomy posited above? I'm drinking one literally as I post this so I do feel qualified to say that it accomplishes the first objective (quick and efficient drunkenness) very well indeed; a few sips are all that's all needed for that. Personally I find that I rarely finish one, and won't tonight.

But perhaps it's not a dichotomy after all, because I do think there's something more going on here. Built right with the hightest quality booze available there is a certain balance to this drink, fragile though it may be. Despite the inordinately high-octane nature of the ingredients -- even after dilution -- most spirits and cocktails enthusiasts would be hard pressed to say that the drink "burns" like one would expect. To the contrary, it's surprisingly smooth as it beats you like a rented mule. Moreover, there seems to be something about the interaction between the scotch and the absinthe that polishes off the rougher edges of both, rather like noise-cancelling headphones in coach when the inevitable screaming infant is seated right next to you. What the hell the gin is going there, however, is anyone's guess. Filler? Not with Cadenhead's; amazingly its strength and saffron-tinged botanicals manage to punch right through and duke it out with the bitter anise of the absinthe as the dominant top note. Overall, the flavors work astonishingly well...at least as long as the thing is very, very cold.

In all events, this "limit one" is a 9.0 killer. It bears no resemblance whatever to either bunnies or hugs, and it's not to be taken lightly. Be careful out there.

Cheers,

Mike

Edit: Spelling and clarity.

Edited March 17, 2008 by Mike S. (log)

[eje]

I was chatting with a friend about cocktails I've been making lately and the Queen's Park Swizzle came up.

I've been making a kind of small version with a lot of lime.

She told me that it was a Trader Vic recipe. It used to be on the menu, and like the Zombie, had a one per customer limit. Apparently, it is still available as an off menu item, but the waiters will pointedly ask you if you are sure you want to order it. "Very, Very Strong Drink!" Anyway, I was kind of curious, as my version didn't seem particularly deadly, so I whipped out my 1948 edition of "Bartender's Guide...By Trader Vic" and we looked it up.

Queen's Park Swizzle

1/2 large lime

Mint Leaves

3 oz 86 Proof Demerara Rum

2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

1/2 oz simple syrup

Squeeze lime and drop shell with mint leaves into 14 oz glass; fill with shaved ice; add rest of ingredients and swizzle until glass frosts. Garnish with sprig of mint.

Well, that does sound pretty deadly!

Interestingly, by the 1972 "Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide, Revised," the recipe had changed slightly.

Queen's Park Swizzle

1/2 lime

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 dash rock candy syrup

1 ounce light Puerto Rican Rum

1 oz dark Jamaica Rum

1 ounce 151-proof Demerara Rum

Squeeze lime juice into a 14 ounce chimney glass filled with shaved ice; save shell. Add remaining ingredients. Swizzle until uniform. Add spent lime shell, fresh mint, and a swizzle stick or stirrer.

Looks about equally deadly, proof wise.

The slightly kinder, gentler version I've been making at home is:

1 oz lime

3/4 oz Depaz Cane Syrup

2 oz Ron Pampero Anniversario

Sprigs mint, more sprigs for garnish

Angostura Bitters

Add ingredients to 10 oz Chimney Glass. Press lightly. Fill with crushed ice and swizzle until the outside of the glass frosts. Spank a few more mint sprigs and add to glass as garnish. Serve with a straw.

This one has been quite popular with friends, but I'm going to have to track down the rums from the old versions to give them a try. I wonder if the Scarlet Ibis would be appropriate? The proof is about right.

Edited March 17, 2008 by eje (log)

[bostonapothecary]

Well, that does sound pretty deadly!

i'd use 86 proof ron barrilito three star...

looks like a good brunch drink to me...