It's Friday, it's after 5:00 and I think

[Jake]

Pimms on the deck.

[Libationgoddess]

Damn it, Sam....you were in and I missed you?? I took a week off, and am now only working Thur-Fri-Sat's. Please ring me and let me know when you're coming in.... I would love to meet you!

I'm so glad you like the Earl Grey. Bizarre drink, but it works really well if made properly. It's a great afternoon drink (with tea sandwiches!)

Janet, yes, the egg is there to mildly tame the tannins in the earl grey....not completely, but to a necessary degree. The drink is okay without it, but the egg white really completes it. It helps to amalgamate all the flavors.

I got the idea for the egg white from an old tea book which said that at the turn of the century, the British were substituting eggs for milk. So there we have all the essential components for tea service: tea, sugar, lemon, egg....and then, the best part...the gin! I have had the pleasure of being invited to work with the barstaff at the Ritz London on several occasions, and created this drink in homage of their tea service (and the UK's overall passion for gin and tea).

The garnish should actually be a lemon twist, and if you want to go the extra mile, combine sugar & finely grated lemon zest for the rim.

Let me know how it worked out for you. Hope you enjoyed!

Audrey

[slkinsey]

Damn it, Sam....you were in and I missed you??  I took a week off, and am now only working Thur-Fri-Sat's.  Please ring me and let me know when you're coming in.... I would love to meet you!

I'll probably be there on Friday.

Let me know how it worked out for you.  Hope you enjoyed!

For us, it worked great. Very easy to do, although I might have infused the Earl Grey just a little longer than the specified 2 hours to get the same taste I had at Bemelman's. This, I'm sure, is just a factor of the brand of Earl Grey tea (I used a loose tea I got at Fairway). Still, it's a simple drink to make and it really works -- especially for summer.

[Varmint]

I used tea-infused rum to make a Southern style "Sweet Tea Shooter" for my pig pickin' last year. I think there's a ton of potential using tea infusions. I actually infused for a couple of days, though (in a mason jar, of course! ).

[everichon]

Nothing like a Campari with a bit of grapefruit juice and a splash of soda. Bitter and very refreshing.

[slkinsey]

I used tea-infused rum to make a Southern style "Sweet Tea Shooter" for my pig pickin' last year.  I think there's a ton of potential using tea infusions.  I actually infused for a couple of days, though (in a mason jar, of course! ).

That must have been really strongly tea-flavored, no? Or was it fairly heavily diluted?

I was amazed at how strongly the Earl Grey tea infused the Tanqueray in only 2 hours. Then again, the Earl Grey MarTEAni is not particularly diluted.

You're right that there are a lot of possibilities. I'm trying to think of a way to use a lapsang souchong tea infusion in a drink. Lapsang souchong is a souchong tea which has been withered over pine or cedar fires, pan-fried, rolled and oxidised before being fully dried in bamboo baskets over burning pine. It's quite smokey in flavor.

Edited to fix: 2 hour infusion, not 20 (d'oh!).

Edited July 13, 2004 by slkinsey (log)

[Libationgoddess]

Sam, that was a typo, right? 2 hours; not 20?

We've got Harney's tea at the hotel, so I only go 2 hours.

Occasionally my guys lose track of time when they make

the infusion, and when that happens, I find it tastes too intense;

Even by just an hour. The tannins become overly prevalent

at that point.

The T-Salon has a wonderful Mandarin Earl Grey which I think

would be delightful as well. I'll keep you posted.

Audrey

[trillium]

When they're in season, you might try experimenting with bergamot oranges, which are the original flavoring agent for earl grey tea. Besides their lovely peels, the juice is nice and tart, since they're a sour orange. They make great cocktails.

regards,

trillium

[lesfen]

Sigh... is it Friday yet?

Well, when it is, I'm going to "ruin" some perfectly good brandy by pouring it over ice and adding some Diet Cherry Coke. Made by accident during the mean times and it just kind of stuck with me.

[slkinsey]

Sam, that was a typo, right? 2 hours; not 20?

Er... yes, it was a typo. Fixed above.

20 hours... mmmm, "Cup O' Tannin"

[Libationgoddess]

Hi Trillium,

The bergamots that I've read about are citrons from Italy; not oranges.

Are you talking about the same thing?

I have searched high and low for these, and unfortunately, for whatever reason,

can't find them here in New York. Do you know of a source???

Thank god, Sam....I got a little nervous there for a minute

Audrey

[trillium]

Hi Trillium,

The bergamots that I've read about are citrons from Italy; not oranges. 

Are you talking about the same thing?

I have searched high and low for these, and unfortunately, for whatever reason,

can't find them here in New York.  Do you know of a source???

Thank god, Sam....I got a little nervous there for a minute 

Audrey

We're talking about the same thing, but I don't think they're citrons (if by citron you mean mostly pith and peel). They're a member of the sour orange family (Citrus aurantium ssp. bergamia), which is why I find them so fabulous in cocktails. Not only do you get that wonderful zest, but the juice rocks.

Here's a picture of what they look like, along with some bergamot propaganda. The ones I bought last year were grown in California, and they were sold at my local and very wonderful grocery store. I'm sure they weren't as specially fragrant as the ones from Calabria, but they were pretty damn wonderful. I know that GreenLeaf, a wholesale produce co. in San Francisco was selling them last year. Here's an article that popped up in the SF Chron, maybe it will help you hunt them down in NY.

My two favorite cocktails I made with these guys...I need to name them. The first is more nutty and herbal, while the second is just a riff on a "Bitter". Both are great.

1.5 oz light rum

1.5 oz sour bergamot orange juice

0.75 oz homemade grenadine

0.5 oz French creme de cacao (you want something not too sweet)

Shake over ice, pour into chilled glasses and garnish with a bergamot peel twist. The fragrance and layers of complexity with this drink were amazing. Even if you don't have bergamot sour oranges, I recommend playing around with the pom and cacao together, they really complement each other. If you don't like tart cocktails, you'd want to cut down on the sour orange juice.

1 ounce gin

1/2 ounce green Chartreuse

3/4 ounce bergamot juice

1 dash Herbsaint, absinthe or Pernod

Shake over ice, pour into chilled glasses and garnish with a bergamot peel twist.

regards,

trillium

[bacchant036]

have a bottle of syrup de antilles in the kitchen

the stuff i have is made at the clement rum distillery in martinique

in london amathus supply it, i guess that anyone who supplies clement in the US should have the syrup?

its not just sugar, the thing that makes it so great with rum is all the spices they flavour it with, cinnamon, vanilla and cloves. all of which complement rum beautifully.

very good as the sweetner in a daiquiri with a big punchy rum, in fact pretty awesome in place of sugar in just about any rum based drink.

if you wanted to make your own i'd just blend vanilla, cinnamon and gomme syrups and throw in a couple of cloves (one might be enough), monin would probably be better than da vinci as i find the da vinci syrups a little thin.

and as for friday

mines a bacardi 8 daiquiri

[JAZ]

1 ounce gin

1/2 ounce green Chartreuse

3/4 ounce bergamot juice

1 dash Herbsaint, absinthe or Pernod

Shake over ice, pour into chilled glasses and garnish with a bergamot peel twist.

regards,

trillium

Well, it's not friday, and it's not five o'clock, but I'm off work and have my first two days in a row off in a month or so, so that counts, right?

Trillium, you probably remember my mentioning my earlier abortive attempt to find sour oranges, so I have to admit I didn't use them. But serendipitously, I was skimming over Diana Kennedy's newest book and happened upon her suggestion for a replacement in Mexican cooking, which is a combination of Meyer lemon, lime and regular orange juice.

Well, lo and behold, I have all those on hand, plus the other ingredients, so here I am drinking your fabulous drink, with my weird sour-orange-juice substitute. It's very good this way, but one of these days I'll find sour oranges and make it the way it was intended.

It's a sort of cross between a Corpse Reviver II (gin, lemon juice, triple sec, with a splash of a pastis) and my own After School Special (gin, Lillet, Meyer lemon juice, and orange bitters), but the Chartreuse is a brilliant addition. To me, it will always be a "Friday After Five," even though I'm drinking it on a Wednesday (no, make that a very early Thursday morning).

[trillium]

1 ounce gin

1/2 ounce green Chartreuse

3/4 ounce bergamot juice

1 dash Herbsaint, absinthe or Pernod

Shake over ice, pour into chilled glasses and garnish with a bergamot peel twist.

regards,

trillium

Well, it's not friday, and it's not five o'clock, but I'm off work and have my first two days in a row off in a month or so, so that counts, right?

Trillium, you probably remember my mentioning my earlier abortive attempt to find sour oranges, so I have to admit I didn't use them. But serendipitously, I was skimming over Diana Kennedy's newest book and happened upon her suggestion for a replacement in Mexican cooking, which is a combination of Meyer lemon, lime and regular orange juice.

Well, lo and behold, I have all those on hand, plus the other ingredients, so here I am drinking your fabulous drink, with my weird sour-orange-juice substitute. It's very good this way, but one of these days I'll find sour oranges and make it the way it was intended.

It's a sort of cross between a Corpse Reviver II (gin, lemon juice, triple sec, with a splash of a pastis) and my own After School Special (gin, Lillet, Meyer lemon juice, and orange bitters), but the Chartreuse is a brilliant addition. To me, it will always be a "Friday After Five," even though I'm drinking it on a Wednesday (no, make that a very early Thursday morning).

I like that name a lot. I'm not so good at naming drinks, so I do feel some sympathy for all those misguided people naming their cocktails xtinis. Let's make it official. I hereby declare the above drink to be a Friday After Five. It even sounds as swank as drinking the drink makes me feel.

Now, could you please get to work on that other drink (hee hee)? I flirted with the idea of naming it something that referenced Calabria, but in fact it's closer to all those Trader Vic rum drinks so I couldn't decide. It would probably work with your sour orange juice substitute too, but I don't know of any grenadines that are as dry and tart as the homemade kind.

regards,

trillium

[Ed Hamilton]

have a bottle of syrup de antilles in the kitchen

the stuff i have is made at the clement rum distillery in martinique

in london amathus supply it, i guess that anyone who supplies clement in the US should have the syrup?

its not just sugar, the thing that makes it so great with rum is all the spices they flavour it with, cinnamon, vanilla and cloves. all of which complement rum beautifully.

very good as the sweetner in a daiquiri with a big punchy rum, in fact pretty awesome in place of sugar in just about any rum based drink.

if you wanted to make your own i'd just blend vanilla, cinnamon and gomme syrups and throw in a couple of cloves (one might be enough), monin would probably be better than da vinci as i find the da vinci syrups a little thin.

There are a number of syrups sold in Martinique and some are flavored but the most popular is simply sugar cane juice boiled until it won't ferment in the bottle.

Most of the sirops sold at the distilleries are actually bottled by other manufacturers, since sugar syrup production is not part of the rhum distillation process. I'm still looking for a sugar cane syrup sold in the US, otherwise I'm going to have to start importing it and I have enough to do sailing around in search of the finest rhums.

[beans]

I'm still looking for a sugar cane syrup sold in the US, otherwise I'm going to have to start importing it and I have enough to do sailing around in search of the finest rhums.

Ed,

Both Williams Sonoma and Starbucks sell Sugar Shots which is labelled to be sugar cane syrup. See more info, up thread here.

[phaelon56]

You can also buy it direct from Sugar-Shots

wholesale by the case

[Libationgoddess]

Yes, Trillium, those are the very same bergamots. Most of the reading sources I've explored describe them as a member of the citron family as

opposed to orange, but poTAto, poThaTo, toMAto, toMahto.. who cares as long as we're on the same page here.

I have not seen the fruit here in New York. It appears that over the years, West Coast kids always got the good stuff first---meyer lemons, blood oranges, kalamansi, etc....no fair! I always make it a point to scan the specialty marts here in search of it, but it is just not accessible at this point.

When I created the Earl Grey MarTEAni, I also wanted to work with the actual fruit in conjunction with the tea, but to no avail. I purchased a bottle of pure essence, but that didn't work either.

Thanks for the link to that article; it gives me hope. And to follow up, I will go down to my kitchen in a couple of minutes, and see if they are available from any of our specialty purveyors. I'll let you know what transpires; I'd be absolutely tickled-pink to see a few in tomorrow morning's delivery.

Audrey

[trillium]

I have not seen the fruit here in New York. It appears that over the years, West Coast kids always got the good stuff first---meyer lemons, blood oranges, kalamansi, etc....no fair! I always make it a point to scan the specialty marts here in search of it, but it is just not accessible at this point.

When I created the Earl Grey MarTEAni, I also wanted to work with the actual fruit in conjunction with the tea, but to no avail. I purchased a bottle of pure essence, but that didn't work either.

Thanks for the link to that article; it gives me hope. And to follow up, I will go down to my kitchen in a couple of minutes, and see if they are available from any of our specialty purveyors. I'll let you know what transpires; I'd be absolutely tickled-pink to see a few in tomorrow morning's delivery.

Audrey

If you can't get them right now, don't give up hope. They're not really in season, and I can't find them either. Dec-Jan is more the season for them to show up in stores, even though citrus bear the whole year round. I promise to give you the heads up when I start seeing them again and I'll bet the buyer for my grocery store could even tell me where he gets them from. I'm looking forward to trying your Earl Grey MarTEAni with some when I get more. Right now all I have is the marmalade I made with them and the peels candied in syrup. Maybe I could try adding some the syrup to the drink....

I hear you on the West coast vs. East bit... I asked the Whole Foods produce buyer in Chicago to carry Meyer lemons for 5 years before they finally got them. I had completely taken them for granted when I lived on the west coast.

regards,

trillium

[slkinsey]

I have not seen the fruit here in New York.  It appears that over the years, West Coast kids always got the good stuff first---meyer lemons, blood oranges, kalamansi, etc....no fair!

Check with the guys at Fairway. They usually have all these things in season.

Now, could you please get to work on that other drink (hee hee)? I flirted with the idea of naming it something that referenced Calabria. . .

With the grenadine, is the color sort of rosy? How about a "Calabrian Sunset?" Or, perhaps, "Tramonto Calabrese?" Especially if you layered in the grenadine.

[trillium]

I have not seen the fruit here in New York.  It appears that over the years, West Coast kids always got the good stuff first---meyer lemons, blood oranges, kalamansi, etc....no fair!

Check with the guys at Fairway. They usually have all these things in season.

Now, could you please get to work on that other drink (hee hee)? I flirted with the idea of naming it something that referenced Calabria. . .

With the grenadine, is the color sort of rosy? How about a "Calabrian Sunset?" Or, perhaps, "Tramonto Calabrese?" Especially if you layered in the grenadine.

Ok, it's not that I don't like it exactly, it's just that sunset makes me think sunrise and that in a drink makes me think of the Eagles, and like the Dude in the Big Lebowski, "I hate the fucking Eagles". Sooo there you have it....

Don't be mad.

regards,

trillium

[lesfen]

God help me, I'm drinking Keystone Light.

Nightmare of a day day... not a bottle in sight. Oh look, a Keystone Light.

[ned]

Junipero and tonics with a splash of elderflower syrup and just a small amount of tonic, grated lime zest and a squeeze of lime juice.

[Liz Johnson]

No, it's not Friday and yes, it's only 3 p.m. But out-of-town friends are coming and I want to welcome them politely. In about an hour, I will serve them this no-named drink.

I had this Passionfruit cocktail at Cafe Atlantico in June and it took me this long to get the porportions right. It takes a bit of patience but it's worth the wait:

Infuse a bottle of Barcardi O (or any orange rum) with a huge ginger root, cut up (no need to peel) and 4-6 jalapenos. (I suppose you could also infuse regular rum with orange, ginger and jalapenos. The restaurant uses only the orange rum — no infusions.)

Make a simple syrup (1:1) with ginger and jalapeno. (It's really not overkill; it's the only way to get the taste just right.) I do 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 a regular size root and 2 peppers, cut up WITH THE SEEDS. Bring to a boil, shut off and let infuse for 30 mins or so.

I usually make this drink in pitchers, so the cup of simple syrup; 1 cup of passionfruit juice and 1 1/2 cups of the rum. This is all a gestimate, so feel free to fudge. Stir.

Pour some of the pitcher into a shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a slice of jalapeno.