MxMo XLI: Vodka Is Your Friend

[Chris Amirault]

Paul Clarke over at Cocktail Chronicles has been organizing a monthly online cocktail event he calls Mixology Mondays:

Mixology Monday is a monthly online cocktail party. Since launching in April 2006, Mixology Monday has attracted scores of participating bloggers and thousands of curious readers, all coming together on a monthly basis to share drink recipes and related information in a friendly online environment.

The process is quite simple: each month, a host, working with the moderator, selects a theme for the upcoming event, which is announced on various blogs and forums (including this one), and on or before the event date (a Monday — hence the name), participating bloggers join the party by posting a drink recipe or other post related to the theme. Each participant notifies the host that they’ve joined in, and soon after the event, the host posts a roundup, listing each participant.

This month's event is being hosted by Felicia's Speakeasy and the theme is Vodka is Your Friend.

Wait! Come back!

The theme of August 10th’s Mixology Monday is “Vodka is Your Friend.” The recent high profile bashings of vodka interspersed with a few weak “yeah, buts…” left me wondering, is vodka the axis of evil, our most dangerous enemy? While it may not be the life of the party, experts agree: Vodka’s obituary does not have to be written just yet.

One note: flavored vodka is permitted. (I'll be using gin. Joke! Joke!)

If you would like to participate, please post any vodka cocktail, borrowed or invented, this topic before Monday, August 10 at midnight. I will compile a list of cocktails posted and mail them to the organizer.

Now, off to the store to buy a bottle of Tito's Handmade.

[Chris Amirault]

The silence is deafening.

I got to work right away. Vodka begat Russia, of course, and I started thinking about flavors that work within that cuisine. Which lead me to beets, which lead me to borscht, which lead me to flips, which lead me to...

The Borscht Belt

3 oz vodka (Tito's)

3/4 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz simple syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters

1 small beet (Shaw's)

1 T egg, beaten

Muddle the beet with a fork in the vodka, lemon, simple, and bitters. Add the egg and dry shake until foamy. Add plenty of ice; shake; strain.

Blurry -- focused on the vodka, appropriately -- but still informative shot:

It's beautiful, even tasty.

[db_campbell]

Not trying to devolve this into a flip thread, but I've had the following on offer at my apartment for a few weeks now, with a Korean friend of mine in mind. He approved:

Masan Flip

1.5 oz persimmon-infused Soju

1 oz Vodka

0.75 oz Domaine de Canton

1 whole egg

Dry Shake. Add ice. Shake, serve up.

Standing at a mere 20% alcohol, the Soju needs an additional spirit to give the drink some life, but nothing that would obscure the subtle flavour of the persimmon-ginger combination; vodka seemed the most reasonable solution. The natural creaminess of the Soju and the richness of the egg are a perfect match.

[Alchemist]

I have to get in on this one.

NAVY SHEETS

2.0 oz Prairie vodka

.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice (fat?)

1.25 oz Lillet Blond

.75 oz Simple Syrup

.25 oz Aperol (skinny?)

3 dash Regan's #6

1 Blackberry

2 Raspberry

3 Blueberry

Top: Soda+Saint Germain

Glass: Collins

Ice: Cushed (22 oz. Glass?)

Garnish: Grapefruit pigtail(expressed above the cocltail) basket with a berry nestled in it. (then add the St. Germain)

Fax: Gently muddle fruit. Add liquid. Shake hard and fast. Strain (double if you are persnickity) and tops and garnish.

[thirtyoneknots]

I have to get in on this one. 

NAVY SHEETS

2.0 oz Prairie vodka

.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice (fat?)

1.25 oz Lillet Blond

.75 oz Simple Syrup

.25 oz Aperol (skinny?)

3 dash Regan's #6

1 Blackberry

2 Raspberry

3 Blueberry

Top: Soda+Saint Germain

Glass:    Collins

Ice:        Cushed (22 oz. Glass?)

Garnish:  Grapefruit pigtail(expressed above the cocltail) basket with a berry nestled in it. (then add the St. Germain)

Fax:  Gently muddle fruit.  Add liquid.  Shake hard and fast.  Strain (double if you are persnickity) and tops and garnish.

←

Is the St. Germaine just a float? Spoonful or something?

[Alchemist]

Yes the St. Germain is about .125 oz and added after the soda as a float. Sorry if that was not clear, I was-ahem-taste testing some Sazarac rye while typing.

Toby

[vice]

At a conference in Albuquerque, I happened in to the Artichoke Cafe downtown. They were offering something along these lines:

cucumber

chile-infused vodka

lime juice

agave syrup

muddle cucumber, add other ingredients

shake, strain over rocks into a collins glass with salt rim, straw

It was the perfect refresher given the NM summer heat. If I had to guess at proportions, I'd start at 3:2:1 vodka:lime:agave.

eta: while it was delicious, I couldn't help but thinking while I was drinking it that an infused blanco tequila certainly might have upped the ante.

Edited August 6, 2009 by vice (log)

[Troy Sidle]

Vimlet

2 oz Tito's Vodka

.75 oz fresh lime juice

.75 oz simple syrup

5 drops Fee's orange bitters

Shake. Strain. Serve up.

At a well-stocked bar, there are plenty of other drinks I'd choose from. But, I'm usually inside a dimly lit bar, bellied-up when I'm at a well-stocked bar. This is a late-morning, early afternoon drink. Those bars are often not open anyway.

Gin will not do in this case. A gimlet is all about the gin. I want this drink to be about the lime juice. Fresh lime juice. And it's not exactly a lime-ade. The frigorific mixture of alcohol, juice, sugar, water and ice is necessarily colder than the same without alcohol.

This is a brunch aperitif.

[KD1191]

Hoping we'll see the Gilded Cage make an appearance in this thread. Though I tend to prefer it with rum, I know the original vodka version has many admirers.

[Alchemist]

Vimlet

2 oz Tito's Vodka

.75 oz fresh lime juice

.75 oz simple syrup

5 drops Fee's orange bitters

Shake. Strain. Serve up.

At a well-stocked bar, there are plenty of other drinks I'd choose from. But, I'm usually inside a dimly lit bar, bellied-up when I'm at a well-stocked bar. This is a late-morning, early afternoon drink. Those bars are often not open anyway.

Gin will not do in this case. A gimlet is all about the gin. I want this drink to be about the lime juice. Fresh lime juice. And it's not exactly a lime-ade. The frigorific mixture of alcohol, juice, sugar, water and ice is necessarily colder than the same without alcohol.

This is a brunch aperitif.

←

Frigorific...Nice!!!

Edited August 6, 2009 by Alchemist (log)

[Troy Sidle]

Hoping we'll see the Gilded Cage make an appearance in this thread.  Though I tend to prefer it with rum, I know the original vodka version has many admirers.

←

The Gilded Cage is:

vodka

lemon

simple

honey

Regan's

egg white

Garnished with Peychaud's.

And yes, I too prefer it with a clear rum. However, some of the bartenders think it's actually a better drink with vodka. In this case, it's the way the cardamom in the bitters plays with the honey - and so they would argue the rum is an additional element that isn't needed.

Everyone's entitled to their opinions, even if they're wrong.

[Chris Amirault]

Ratios?

[thirtyoneknots]

I was-ahem-taste testing some Sazarac rye while typing.

Toby

←

Somebody has to do it.

[Troy Sidle]

Ratios?

←

2 oz. Tito's

.75 oz. lemon juice

.5 oz. simple

.5 oz. honey syrup

3 dash Regan's orange bitters

1 egg white

Glass: coup

Ice: none

Garnish: 5 drops Peychaud's bitters

Shake. Strain. Serve up.

Note: This is the unofficial version. For the official, see Kyle Davison at The Violet Hour.

[Chris Amirault]

Deadline tonight, 12m. Surely some summer slings and such with vodka this past weekend, yes?

[Chris Amirault]

I've been tinkering with some classic non-vodka drinks in the hopes of finding an interesting variation. The Vodka Sazerac: don't go there. The Vodka Old Fashioned: ditto.

However, the one drink that I most associate as working with only a single spirit (gin) actually seems to work well with vodka -- if you give it a tweak.

Pink Vodka

2 oz vodka (Tito's)

7 dashes Angostura

1/2 t yellow Chartreuse

Stir with cracked ice; strain; lemon twist.

Of course, it's just a playground for the Angostura and yellow Chartreuse. But it works, golly moses, it works.

[Alchemist]

My friend Josh snapped a couple of pics of the Navy Sheets. I wish I knew where that name comes from. I think that it is because after a few you are tight enough to bounce a quarter off of.

Cheers,

Toby

ETA: Second picture.

Edited August 10, 2009 by Alchemist (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

I'm a huge fan of Audrey Saunders' Smoking Martini, which is one of the best successes I've had pairing cocktails with food:

2 oz vodka

1/2 oz Laphroaig or ther Islay (I use Ardbeg 10 as often as not)

scant spoonful of Pernod or rinse of Absinthe

Stir with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with twist.

Great way to enjoy the intensity of the Islay malts. I use to pair this with the espresso-rubbed venison when we had that on our menu. Really good at worst, mindblowing at best.

We've also been doing this at work, in response to a managerial requirement that the cocktail menu have a vodka drink on it:

Strawberry Fix

Hull, slice, and muddle 1-2 strawberries in 1/2 oz of 1:1 simple in a double OF glass

Add:

1/2 oz St. Germaine

generous 3/4 oz lemon

scant 1.5 oz vodka (Titos is the house)

splash of soda to help it all mix

Fill with ice

few dashes of aged Balsamic on top (about 1/2 barspoon worth)

Kind of sweet but not bad and the interplay of flavors is neat. To be perfectly honest though I've always wanted to try this with a more floral Pisco but we have none at work and I've never bothered at home.

[Chris Amirault]

Thanks, everyone. I've posted over at Felicia's Speakeasy and will add the roundup link here.