Stomping Through the "Savoy" (2007–2008)

[eje]

Eje,

Have you figured out what it cost you to accumulate the ingredients to make all the drinks in the book? That's got to be some rack of bottles (some more esoteric than others--I imagine a fair number weren't that easy to find)!

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Honestly, I have no real idea.

I'm really pretty pathetic when it comes to keeping track of my personal finances, aside from being sure that the bills are paid and the credit card carries no balance, especially over a period of years.

I do, however, go through an awful lot of Gin and Vermouth!

[eje]

Monte Carlo Imperial Cocktail

1/2 Dry Gin. (1 oz Broker's Gin)

1/4 Lemon Juice. (1/2 oz Lemon Juice)

1/4 White Crème de Menthe. (1/2 oz Brizard White Creme de Menthe)

Shake well and strain into medium-size glass and fill up with Champagne (Louis Bouillot Cremant de Bourgogne Rose Perle d'Aurore).

Was explaining to the house guests the nature of the Savoy Stomp, and they were asking about what cocktails were coming up. The Creme de Menthe here certainly caught their attention. "Sounds Horrible!" "How many more cocktails do you have to make?" and similar.

Those of us who tried the Monte Carlo Imperial found it far less awful than you might imagine. Helps, I suppose, that the Brizard Creme de Menthe is not an awful liqueur. General response was, "If someone was offering it to me and nothing better, I wouldn't turn it down."

It is, nothing but a French 75 with Creme de Menthe as a sweetener instead of sugar.

The mint makes it a bit girly, but certainly nothing near the "pour down the sink" category. In fact, not at all far from the well regarded Old Cuban.

Edited November 6, 2008 by eje (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

The Monte Carlo Imperiale sounds like it has a truly delicious, and not just drinkable, formula waiting to be coaxed out of that ingredient combo. I just know there's got to be something delicious that can be made with Creme de Menthe besides Stingers.

[eje]

Montpelier Cocktail

1/3 French Vermouth. (3/4 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth)

2/3 Dry Gin. (1 1/2 oz Jackalope Gin)

Shake (I'd stir) well and strain into cocktail glass. Add a pickled pearl onion (or three).

I guess this is where the missing onion in the Gibson went!

Every Thursday at the Mixoloseum chat room we host an event called "Thursday Drink Night". A theme is picked and folks show up. Suggest a drink. Try other peoples' suggested drinks. Insult each others' Moms. That sort of thing. Because it starts on East Coast time, I'm usually at work at the beginning, out to dinner for the middle, and show up for the bitter end.

However, fun to take the odd second out from the end of my work day and chat with other drink obsessed folks.

This week the theme was "Gin" and they suggested you buy a new bottle to try and post the drink you made with it.

We have guests this week at home, so I wasn't going to be able to do that.

So, instead I tried to take both TDN and the Savoy Stomp out into the real world.

I stopped by Alembic Bar in the upper Haight on my way to dinner and asked the bartender there, Buffalo, to make me a 2-1 Gibson with Jackalope gin.

He obliged, and thus the blurry camera phone photo above.

Jackalope was only OK in the Montpelier. I'd say it is a bit lightly flavored to be used in a cocktail heavy in vermouth. For better or worse, I could barely tell there was gin in the drink.

Speaking of Alembic, they've started a blog: Alembic Bar. Check it out.

Edited November 7, 2008 by eje (log)

[eje]

Moonlight Cocktail

(6 People)

1 1/2 Glasses Grape-fruit Juice. (3/4 oz fresh Grapefruit Juice)

2 Glasses Gin. (1 oz Broker's Gin)

1/2 Glass Kirsch. (1/4 oz Clear Creek Kirsch)

2 Glasses White Wine. (1 oz Les Domains Tatins, 2007, Quincy/Domaine du Tremblay)

Add ice and shake thoroughly. Serve by placing in each glass a thin shaving of lemon peel.

A very dry cocktail.

I mentioned the ingredients to this cocktail to some drinky friends and they said, "That's a Boudreauing Wine-tini!" Ahem. Well, as we all know by now, there truly is very little new under the sun, whether it is the use of fresh herbs and spices in cocktails or wine.

It is actually a pleasant cocktail, more along the lines of a punch, almost, than what I usually think of as the typical cocktail flavor palette. And, yes, it is a very dry cocktail!

[Capn Jimbo]

Tobacco-infused rum certainly sounds fascinating, but be careful about extracting too much nicotine, which is very poisonous by itself. I remember reading several years ago that a can of snuff contains a lethal dose of nicotine if you extract it correctly. Apparently 1-3 drops of pure or nearly pure stuff will kill within 15 min.

So try it, cos it sounds really neat, but do be careful.

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The notion of infusing rum with tobacco is certainly attractive, esp. as rum and smoking cigars just seems to go together. Here's my analysis and it isn't pretty...

It is certainly true that alcohol - particularly in excess - can lead to erosion and cancers of the oral-esophogeal route. I see plenty of that in my practice. I've come to terms myself based on the data that alcohol - in moderation - is really quite a low risk.

The same is not true of tobacco in any form or by any route. All it takes is for the carcinogen to modify just one cell in your body. And some of us possess genes that make us very susceptible to even very limited exposure to carcinogens in tobacco.

A cigar contains more carcinogens than a pack of cigarettes. It is not simply an equivalent. And it is VERY important to note that via the route of smoking, most of these carcinogens are lost to the atmosphere and never enter the body. Without any data in front of me, I'll take what I consider my worst case smoking analysis, and assume that 10% of the available carcinogens are absorbed. I daresay the actual amount absorbed by smoking is much less than that.

Infusion is quite another matter.

Most if not all of the carcinogens will infuse into the rum and will accordingly be taken into the body. Based on my assumption this is more like a carton of cigarettes at the least, and very likely much more. Based on about 24 ounces per 750 ml bottle of rum, 10 packs of cigarettes per carton, and 20 cigarettes per pack: a two ounce drink would be at least the equivalent of smoking 16 cigarettes in 20 minutes!

I sincerely believe the real number is higher.

If you choose to infuse rum with tobacco, I believe you are taking some very real risks with not only heavy exposure to carcinogens, but possible nicotine poisoning.

[eje]

Moonraker Cocktail

(6 People)

Pour into the shaker 2 glasses of Brandy (3/4 oz Lustau Reserve Brandy), 2 of Quinquina (3/4 oz Lillet Rouge) and 2 of Peach Brandy (3/4 oz Massenez Creme de Peche). Add 3 dashes of Absinthe (drop or two of North Shore Sirene Absinthe), shake (I stirred) vigorously and serve.

Moonraker seems like such an evocative name, I have always wondered a bit what it referred to. The two main possibilities seem to be a certain type of sail or a reference to a British folk tale.

The Legend of the Moonrakers (link to swindonweb site)

A pair of Wiltshiremen, engaged in smuggling brandy, hide a barrel of the contraband from the excisemen in a nearby pond and when they return at some later time, in the dark, they are caught in the act of raking the barrel back to land. They immediately claim that they are trying to rake cheese - the reflection of the moon - from the pond and the excisemen, amused by the apparently simple-minded rustics, leave them to it.

Why on earth Ian Fleming would name a book about a plot to use a nuclear weapon to destroy London after this legend, I have no idea.

I was also puzzled by the use of the generic term "Quinquina" for an ingredient. Notes to friendly cocktail experts unfortunately yielded no results, leaving me to rely on my own google-rific conclusions. When examining the results of an image search for "Quinquina" almost all the products which come up seem to be dark or red colored. Dubonnet Rouge comes up quite frequently, but it seems there were a number of other Quinquinas available.

Some friends were cleaning their liquor cabinet and gave me a barely used bottle of Lillet Rouge. Thought it would be appropriate, given the results of my searches.

Used Peach Liqueur, as I don't really have anything else peachy in the house. Hard to say if this should be peach eau-de-vie, aged peach brandy, or peach liqueur.

With the peach liqueur, this is a pretty sweet cocktail. It is, however, pretty tasty. If you were casting about for after dinner options, you could certainly do a lot worse.

[eje]

Moonshine Cocktail

(6 People)

3 Glasses Gin. (1 1/2 oz Martin Miller's Gin)

2 Glasses French Vermouth. (1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)

1 Glass Maraschino. (1 barspoon Luxardo Maraschino)

Before shaking add a drop of Absinthe Bitters (Gin and Wormwood). (Add an Olive.)

OK, I cheated slightly on the Maraschino amount. It should have been 1/2 oz, not a barspoon. Just seemed like it would be a bit much, and frankly, 1 teaspoon was plenty.

A fine, but not outstanding cocktail.

[slkinsey]

There is an interesting and delicious cocktail that's very similar: 2 oz gin, 1 oz vermouth bianco, 1 tsp maraschino and a few dashes of bitters.

[eje]

There is an interesting and delicious cocktail that's very similar:  2 oz gin, 1 oz vermouth bianco, 1 tsp maraschino and a few dashes of bitters.

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I'll have to try that.

The Moonshine is also quite similar to the certifiably delicious Savoy "Imperial Cocktail". 1/2 Dry Gin, 1/2 Dry Vermouth, 1 dash Maraschino, Angostura bitters. Stir, strain, olive.

[eje]

Morning Cocktail

2 Dashes Curacao. (2/3 tsp Bols Dry Orange Curacao)

2 Dashes Maraschino. (2/3 tsp Luxardo Maraschino)

2 Dashes Orange Bitters. (2 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters)

2 Dashes Absinthe. (1/2 tsp Sirene Absinthe Verte)

1/2 Brandy. (1 oz Lustau Reserve Brandy)

1/2 French Vermouth. (1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)

Shake (well, if you really want to shake, shake. Recommend stirring, myself.) well and strain into cocktail glass. Add a (Mmmm... Luxardo) cherry and squeeze lemon peel on top.

This recipe is verbatim from Harry McElhone's "Barflies and Cocktails" (and more likely "Harry's ABCs"). McElhone credits the recipe to "Harry Johnson of New Orleans". And indeed, it is to be found in the 1900 edition of Harry Johnson's "Bartenders' Manual" (Handily published by Mud Puddle Books: "Bartender's Manual".)

The only difference between Mr. McElhone's and Mr. Johnson's recipes is that Mr. McElhone calls for the Orange Bitters and Mr. Johnson calls for "3 or 4 dashes of bitters (Boker's Genuine Only)". Well, times change, and Boker's Bitters probably weren't available in London or Paris.

The recipe is a bit twiddly, with all the dashes of this and that.

In addition, I'm growing dissatisfied with the Lustau Brandy. It just doesn't have much presence in a drink or much length or depth on its own.

Despite that, I found the Morning Cocktail genuinely enjoyable. I was really surprised how dominant the citrus flavors of the cocktail were. There's some sort of interesting interaction going on between the Dry Vermouth, Curacao, and Lemon Twist.

Edited November 24, 2008 by eje (log)

[eje]

One of the really spiffy things about writing this pesky Savoy topic is that occasionally people you've met send you really cool stuff.

The other day I got an email from Stephan Berg, one of the proprietors of The Bitter Truth asking for my address. Having met him at Tales of the cocktail, he didn't seem particularly menacing. So I figured it would be safe to send him my contact info.

The Bitter Truth Guys, Alexander Hauke and Stephan Berg, had recently released a Celery Seed Bitters and a reproduction of Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters. I suppose I had an idle hope that they might send me some of those.

Instead they sent a brand new product, which they have created to honor the 75th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition.

They bitters are quite complex. The initial flavors and scents are clove which give way to a front of mouth bitter flavor. Secondary flavors which come forward after that initial bitter burst are similar to root beer. I don't get much, if any citrus. Instead other flavors similar to culinary herbs and more bitterness linger in the aftertaste.

If you should desire to purchase these bitters, you can either mail order them from The Bitter Truth in Germany or, well, I've heard a rumor that a certain beleaguered retailer in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, and self proclaimed "Bitter Bitch", has secured a few bottles.

Morning Glory Cocktail

3 Dashes Gomme Syrup. (1 tsp. rich simple syrup)

2 Dashes Curacao. (2/3 tsp. Bols Dry Orange Curacao)

2 Dashes Bitters. (2 dashes Bitter Truth Repeal Bitters)

1 Dash Absinthe. (1 dash North Shore Sirene Absinthe)

1 Liqueur Glass Brandy. (1 1/2 oz Lustau Reserve Brandy)

1 Liqueur Glass Whisky. (1 1/2 oz Anchor 2006 Hotaling's Whiskey)

1 Piece Lemon Peel, twisted to express the oil.

Two Small Pieces of Ice.

Stir thoroughly and remove the ice. Fill the glass with seltzer water or plain soda, and stir with a teaspoon having a little sugar in it.

Well if you've got old-school bitters, handily, here's an old school drink.

As we have seen, much of the Cocktail's development was intimately connected to the search for a better hangover cure...When confronted by the "Cold grey light of dawn", the toper recognized it as "the great necessity of the age" the he should at once take some sort of "anti-fogmatic"..."eye-opener"..."bracer"..."corpse reviver" or "morning glory".

Quoting here from David Wondrich's introduction to the Morning Glory Cocktail in his book, "Imbibe!"

According to Wondrich, the Morning Glory Cocktail first appears in print in the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas' Book and is pretty much verbatim as above.

The "remove the ice idea" is a bit silly. Perhaps sensible when ice was at more of a premium than it is today. I recommend, as does Mr. Wondrich, that you simply follow a procedure similar to a Sazerac. Chill a medium size serving glass with ice and water. Stir your cocktail in ice in a mixing glass or tin. Dump the ice from the chilled serving glass. Strain your cocktail into the chilled glass. Top up with soda.

While I was getting all old-school, I figured I might as well use Anchor Distilling's Hotaling's Whiskey in this cocktail. Seemed like it would combine well with brandy.

And indeed. Uh, wow. After a couple sips, it felt like my scalp was floating a few feet above the top of my head.

No idea what might happen, if you follow Mr. Wondrich's other piece of advice and listen to that, "anarchic little voice in your head that suggests substituting champagne for the selzer."

And, oh yeah, speaking of cool things, it looks like the cool people at Alembic Bar may be re-launching their "Savoy Nights" some time next month. Still a little squooshy, with details to follow, but if yer gonna be in the San Francisco area on Sunday the 14th of December, put it on the calendar.

Edited November 25, 2008 by eje (log)

[eje]

Moulin Rouge Cocktail

3 Dashes Grenadine. (1 barspoon homemade grenadine)

1/2 Apricot Brandy. (1 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot)

1/4 Orange Gin. (1/2 oz Orange Juice. Wait a sec! Oh, goddamn it!)

1/4 Lemon Juice. (1/2 oz Lemon Juice)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Here I was getting all in a bother about how weird the next cocktail looks, and I totally screwed the pooch on this one.

Orange Gin, not Orange Juice.

I was wondering why this cocktail had no booze!

In any case, as made, this isn't awful. In fact it's kind of tasty, in a kiddie cocktail kind of way. Heck, double the size or maybe serve it over rocks, and it would be a pretty awesome breakfast drink.

Sigh, I guess this will be a "do over" later tonight.

[slkinsey]

How are you going to make the orange gin? I've occasionally tried to fake that up by microplaning an orange's worth of zest into several ounces of gin for a brief infusion.

[mkayahara]

Doesn't Beefeater produce an orange gin? (Not that it's necessarily any good...)

[thirtyoneknots]

Doesn't Beefeater produce an orange gin? (Not that it's necessarily any good...)

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I haven't seen one from Beefeaters, but Seagram's makes one, listed for $11.54 from Spec's. Sounds weird.

[mkayahara]

Let me rephrase that: Beefeater does (or did) produce an orange gin.

It's listed in the LCBO catalogue, though it's also listed as discontinued and there's only one bottle in stock in the province. Quebec's liquor board has it in stock at CAD$21 here.

Edit: Of course, I don't think they'll ship out of province, so I'm not sure that helps Erik at all.

Edited November 26, 2008 by mkayahara (log)

[eje]

How are you going to make the orange gin?  I've occasionally tried to fake that up by microplaning an orange's worth of zest into several ounces of gin for a brief infusion.

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Yeah, that's exactly what I will do.

I've heard there are some brands of around, but I don't see much point in searching them out for a couple cocktails.

Prolly, the quick orange infusion is superior, anyway.

[eje]

Moulin Rouge Cocktail

3 Dashes Grenadine. (1 barspoon homemade grenadine)

1/2 Apricot Brandy. (1 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot)

1/4 Orange Gin. (1/2 oz Orange Gin*)

1/4 Lemon Juice. (1/2 oz Lemon Juice)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

This is pretty good. I think I preferred it to the orange juice version. It's a bit drier.

It's sweet but not as super sweet as you expect with that much liqueur. That may be because both the R&W Apricot and my grenadine are not as sweet as some versions of same.

I find my ideal for sours is somewhere around the very difficult to write in fractions 1/2 oz Lemon, 3/4 oz liqueur.

*1/3 bottle of No. 209 Gin infused for a couple hours with 1 tbsp crushed Juniper Berries, 1 Whole Clove, 2 crushed Green Cardamom Pods, and the microplaned peel of 1 orange.

[eje]

Mountain Cocktail

The White of 1 Egg.

1/6 Lemon Juice. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Lemon Juice)

1/6 French vermouth. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)

1/6 Italian Vermouth. (1/2 of 3/4 oz Punt e Mes)

1/2 Canadian Club Whisky. (Generous 1 oz Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey)

(Dry shake ingredients with spring or blender ball for a half minute or so. Add ice and...) Shake well and strain into medium-size glass.

In "Barflies and Cocktails", Harry McElhone has a slightly different take on the Mountain Cocktail: 1 white of a fresh egg; 1/6 Lemon Syrup; 1/6 French Vermouth; 1/3 Rye Whisky; 3 dashes of orange bitters.

McElhone also notes that the recipe is "from Hoffman House, New York."

I guess it is part of Craddock's weird compulsion to make "perfect" cocktails that leads him to use sweet and dry vermouth in the Mountain. Or maybe he found the cocktail too tart with only dry vermouth and nothing to balance against the lemon juice?

Anyway, it is a very strange cocktail.

The first flavors are all whiskey, the second flavors are the lemon juice, then in the finish the sweet vermouth and whiskey seemed to combine into flavors similar to coffee.

I didn't exactly like it, but I kept going back, tasting it, and puzzling over the flavors.

[eje]

The Mule’s Hind Leg

1/5 Gin. (1/2 oz North Shore Distiller's No. 11)

1/5 Benedictine. (scant 1/2 oz Benedictine)

1/5 Applejack. (1/2 oz Clear Creek 2 year Apple Brandy)

1/5 Maple Syrup. (scant 1/2 oz Maple Syrup)

1/5 Apricot Brandy. (1/2 oz Zwack Barack Palinka)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Another lovely prohibition era libation from the oeuvre of Judge Jr.

The only possible way I could see drinking this was to use apricot eau-de-vie instead of apricot liqueur. Even then, this is pretty much a waste of perfectly good alcohol.

Reduce the Benedictine and the Maple Syrup to a bar spoon or so. Add some bitters.

There might be a drink worth salvaging here.

[eje]

Napoleon Cocktail

1 Dash Fernet Branca. (1/3 tsp. Fernet Branca)

1 Dash Curacao. (1/3 tsp. Bols Dry Orange Curacao)

1 Dash Dubonnet. (1/3 tsp. Vergano Lulli Americano)

1 Glass Dry Gin. (2 oz Beefeater Gin)

Shake (I stirred) well and strain into cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon peel on top.

As we've noted, while there were a number of civilized fifty-fifty martini type drinks on the menu before and after prohibition, there was also no shortage of, "Hey! That's just booze in that glass!" drinks either.

If I were you, I'd go a bit long on those dashes. As measured above, this tasted pretty much like a big, cold glass of gin.

[eje]

The Nevada Cocktail

1 Hooker of Bacardi Rum. (1 1/2 oz Montecristo White)

The Juice of 1/2 Grapefruit. (Shoot, should have measured.)

The Juice of 1 Lime. (Juice 1/2 lemon)

Powdered Sugar. (Scant teaspoon caster sugar)

1 Dash Bitters. (1 dash Angostura)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

This is another one from Judge Jr.'s prohibition era tome, "Here's How!"

Actually probably the best drink of any from that book so far. Really highlights the floral flavors of the rum, grapefruit, and bitters.

About all I'd say is it's a bit too large. Divided in two, this would be a good appetizer cocktail. Bittersweet and tart. This large and it gets a bit acid-ey on the stomach by the end.

Edited December 5, 2008 by eje (log)

[Chris Amirault]

I think that the Nevada is a great base from which to experiment. There's lots of room for interesting stuff in there: dark rums, other bitters, different syrups (demerara, e.g.).

[eje]

Couple months ago I was out at Alembic with some friends. Chatting with Daniel Hyatt about this and that. I wasn't sure if they were still doing their Savoy Cocktail Book nights, so I asked about it.

He said they hadn't for a while, but then suggested perhaps that I get involved somehow and we could relaunch them. That it might somehow be good for both the bar and for my interests.

Of course I said, "uh yeah!" I felt like asking him, "What is this, Make a Wish Foundation Night?" I would totally love to be involved.

But being raised in the Midwest, I have been trained to expect the worst. That he wouldn't call back or was just pulling my leg.

We got together again, talked some more, examined our schedules, and thought perhaps the 14th of December might work.

Well, OK then....

Unless some freak storm destroys all of the Upper Haight in the next couple days, it appears Sunday, December 14th, 2008 will see the triumphant return of the Savoy Cocktail Book night at Alembic Bar.

That day, starting at about 3 PM, should you choose to stop by Alembic, instead of choosing from their normal assortment of wonderful libations, you will instead be able to choose from the length and breadth of the Savoy Cocktail Book.

You want a Bosom Caresser, we'll make it. You want a Damn-The-Weather, we'll make it. You want a Hoop La! we'll make it. Or well, do our best. I'm not sure of the exact fine print.

And, yeah, apparently a certain middle aged cocktail enthusiast will be involved in some manner or another. At the very least, I'm bringing the Orgeat.

So all this week, I've been practicing making Savoy Cocktails using a few speed pourer topped bottles filled with water.

But the other night I got to a cocktail I've been looking forward to for years and just couldn't resist.

The Nose-Dive Cocktail

Take one hooker of Gin (Beefeater's), place in it an olive (Picholine Olive), then deposit the glass carefully in the bottom of an ordinary tumbler. Fill the said tumbler with Water, Ginger Ale, or What Have You (Fever Tree Bitter Lemon), until almost to the top of the small glass, then down the whole thing quickly. That is, everything but the small glass. Note: This Cocktail is very among pilots on American Flying Fields.

In his prohibition era tome, "Here's How!" Judge Jr. notes this was, “Contributed by “Billy” from Wheeler field, Hawaii. This is the aviator’s favorite—let’s go.”

Not sure where you're thinking of flying to, but if your tank's low and you're near the Upper Haight, San Francisco, CA, USA, Sunday, December 14th, be sure to stop by Alembic. We'll have just about all you'll need to refuel and get you prepped to weather the holiday turbulence.