Cocktails for blizzards, and frigid days

[Alchemist]

Autumn has morphed into her nastier sister Winter, so we need find ways to bolster our courage, and keep out spirits bright till Spring is skylarking amongst us.

OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS #2

1 oz. Rittenhouse 100

1 oz. Michtners Straight rye

.75 oz. Vya sweet vermouth

.25 oz. Punt Y Mes

.50 oz. Noilly dry vermouth

3 dash peychaud bitters

stir, strain into a cocktail glass. Flame an orange twist, and DO NOT drop into glass.

[Alchemist]

Here is the first Our Lady of the Snows that I couldn't remember yesterday.

2 Oz. Rittenhouse

.75 Oz. Monte Negro

.75 Oz. Vya Dry Vermouth

3 dash Peychaud

Barspoon of Punt Y Mes

[slkinsey]

Cool stuff!

Other than the obvious (warm drinks) what do we think makes for a cold weather, winter cocktail that's different from an Autumn cocktail?

[eje]

2 Oz. Rittenhouse

Is Wild Turkey 101 an acceptable substitute for the Rittenhouse?

Or would you recommend something else? My rye options are pretty limited. Aside from the Wild Turkey, I can find Old Overholt, Jim Beam, Michter's, and the rather expensive Anchor and Black Maple ryes.

[lostmyshape]

hmm... and what's the philosophy of mixing 2 different ryes? just adding complexity? is the michtner's also 100proof? (i know it's darn expensive. oh, and can you beleive that PA liquor stores no longer carry noilly pras? the only vermouth i can get here is martini&rossi and stock... ugh.)

for some reason i associate egg drinks with winter... so i've recently done flips: brandy, rye, and boston flips... although in the boston i substituted port for the madeira, because i had it in the house. maybe the grated nutmeg makes me think of the holidays, thus a winter drink (as opposed to fall).

plus my wife gets disgusted when i break a raw egg into my drink, so that's a bonus no matter what time of year.

[Genny]

Sam, I see winter drinks as those that warm you to your toes and make you feel all cozy inside. For that I would drink a "white russian in coffee" I don't know if it has a more appropriate name:

1 cup of coffee with cream and sugar, spike with 1 part kahlua and 1 part vodka.

Just a note: This is a fantastic nightcap, at the bar of the ski lodge or at home in front of the fire. I had an occasion where we closed down the bar but the attendant was nice enough to make a whole pot of this for me and put it in a thermos to enjoy at my leisure. I was toasty-toasty! The only problem was when I went to retire, I couldn't keep my eyes open or my body still! I would definitely be sure to specify DECAF if you are sensitive to it and drinking this before beddy-bye.

[KatieLoeb]

(. . . oh, and can you beleive that PA liquor stores no longer carry noilly pras?  the only vermouth i can get here is martini&rossi and stock... ugh.)

The Noilly Prat is available in PA, but only at the Specialty stores. Seems there's one on McKnight Road and one on Perry Highway in Pittsburgh. Don't know how far that is from you.

You might find this link to the PLCB Product Search page useful in the future. I have it bookmarked of course.

[Alchemist]

hmm... and what's the philosophy of mixing 2 different ryes?  just adding complexity?

I like mixing ryes, rums, and gins. Charles H. Baker was a fan of mixing up the rums, adding a little dark rum on top of a fizz gives the cocktail such good a nose. In making Martinis, I like mixing the Junipero with something soft and complex like Mercury. The gins complement eachother and make for a bombastic martini. Same with the ryes in a Manhattan. Then throw a little Stroughten and Peychaud bitters instead of Angostura, wow.

[lostmyshape]

The Noilly Prat is available in PA, but only at the Specialty stores.  Seems there's one on McKnight Road and one on Perry Highway in Pittsburgh.  Don't know how far that is from you.

Thanks for the tip, Katie! i thought that was the case, but i asked at my local store and they said that it was discontinued in the state... kindof annoys me. most state liquor store employees know very little about liquor or the state sales system. ugh. now if i only could get luxardo in this corner of the state... think i'll have to special order that.

i'm really gonna have to start trying to mix gins for martinis. that sounds great!

[KatieLoeb]

It might be that they meant it was "discontinued" as in not being carried as a regular listed product in their store anymore. "Listed" products are warehoused by the Commonwealth of PA. It is THEIR inventory. Any item that is listed is supposed to be in every single PLCB store in the state. "Specialty" and Special Liquor Order (SLO) products are warehoused by the purveyors that represent that product. It's the purveyor's inventory. If they work in a "regular" store, then all they see are the listed items. If the product gets "de-listed" from the "regular" stores and is only being carried in the "Specialty" stores then for all intents and purposes, it IS discontinued in their world. Either the Specialty store has to order it individually ("Specialty" items) or the consumer has to order through the PLCB (SLO) and it comes from the purveyor with the PLCB acting as middleman. Make sense?

It's always best to check the Product Search link. You should be able to find the Luxado that way too.

[lostmyshape]

this whole state store thing is too complicated and annoying. already checked for the luxardo... none within 100 miles. they said that they can special order it, though. i might have to buy a whole case, but that's not the end of the world.

oh, and sorry to all for highjacking this thread to chat about the lameness of buying liquor in PA.

back on topic... just a nice glass of port and a warm fire works as well. sometimes simple is best.

[phlip]

pity to lostmyshape i grew up in pittsburgh but there is always the sazerac or properly made old fashion or just plain brown on the rocks. flips are good as mentioned. and manhattans have a reputation all variations for a reason. where in pa are you im curios.

[lostmyshape]

pity to lostmyshape i grew up in pittsburgh but there is always the sazerac or properly made old fashion or just plain brown on the rocks. flips are good as mentioned. and manhattans have a reputation all variations for a reason.  where in pa are you im curios.

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good ole pittsburgh. i love the city, but it can be disappointing sometimes. just visited manhatten and now i feel a little lost back home.

i can't get enough of the sazerac... almost finished with a bottle of old overholt drinking mostly sazeracs.

[eje]

Then throw a little Stroughten and Peychaud bitters instead of Angostura, wow.

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Is Stroughten (I suspect you may have meant Stoughton) bitters something you have collected? Or do you have a recipe you're willing to share.

I found a couple classic recipes for Stoughton bitters online, and they usually contained at least one ingredient I'm not familiar with or all that keen to experiment with (Colombo, Virginia Snakeroot...) because I'm fairly sure they are somewhat poisonous.

[Alchemist]

Then throw a little Stroughten and Peychaud bitters instead of Angostura, wow.

←

Is Stroughten (I suspect you may have meant Stoughton) bitters something you have collected? Or do you have a recipe you're willing to share.

I found a couple classic recipes for Stoughton bitters online, and they usually contained at least one ingredient I'm not familiar with or all that keen to experiment with (Colombo, Virginia Snakeroot...) because I'm fairly sure they are somewhat poisonous.

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They are made in Brooklyn, by drunken slovenly elves. I will see if I can get the drunkest, most slovenly to share secret.

[Splificator]

They are made in Brooklyn, by drunken slovenly elves.  I will see if I can get the drunkest, most slovenly to share secret.

As his, uh, manager, I can state that the Brooklyn version of Stoughton bitters is executed thus:

Macerate one-half ounce each of gentian root, orange peel, quassia bark, chamomile flowers (all available from www.cedarvale.net) and calumba root (available from www.baldwins.co.uk) in twenty five ounces of brandy and fifteen ounces of Everclear or equivalent. After five weeks, stir in an ounce by weight of burnt sugar, strain it and bottle it.

This recipe, he informs me in his slurred version of the lilting elven tongue, is adapted from the one found in the 1914 Wehman Brothers' Bartenders' Guide, which is in turn lifted from other, earlier guides. He also tells me that the other old recipe, the one with Virginia snakeroot, is more common, but since snakeroot can cause various internal organs to shut down not even the elves will hazard it.

Richard Stoughton patented his Stoughton's Elixir in London in 1712; it was evidently the second patent medicine on record. It was a popular import here in the colonies, and after the Revolution it was widely counterfeited until it became a generic apothecary's recipe; as such, it was the first cocktail bitters. Supposedly, Stoughton's original formula had 22 ingredients, while none of the imitations has more than 5 or 6. Perhaps a search of the British patent office's records would provide an original formula, but that's beyond the competency of our tipsy little elves.

[fatdeko]

Dave:

On the subject of gentian--powdered or root?

myers

[Splificator]

On the subject of gentian--powdered or root?

Root, baby, root!

[eje]

RE: Virginia Snakeroot (getting off topic from "cocktails for blizzards...")

Many members of the same genus as Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria) have long histories as folk medicines. I'm fond of their shockingly bizarre flowers and grow a native California species in my backyard.

Here's a good page from eflora, with the ups and downs of it. I won't stake my life on it; but, probably in the concentrations in a bitters, it's no more poisonous than the alcohol. Though, I'm not sure I would make a Pink Gin with the snakeroot version of Stougton's.

[jsolomon]

I always liked the "Jaeger Slushie"

Fill 1 snow cone with freshly fallen snow.

Drizzle Jaegermeister over the top.

Enjoy.

[M.X.Hassett]

The Blizzard Fizz: Wait for your ice machine to break. Go outside and find the snow that has melted and refrozen into thick chunks of ice use these in your shaker. Shake the drink just hard enough to incorporate the egg white [+yolk=flip] you can realy "hear" the ice tell you when it is done, as some would say. Then take a few handfulls of loose snow and press it down until you have a few dense golf balls of ice, use these as you would cubes in the glass. I have used Rittenhouse and Lairds bonded (the Wild.T. Rye was just ok) anything highproof will work to counter the over dilution due to low density of the compressed snow. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Edit: It's Late

Edited December 20, 2005 by M.X.Hassett (log)

[elfin]

We drink Brandy Alexanders-made with dark chocolate ice cream, brandy, creme de cacao and chocolate syrup blended and topped with fresh grated nutmeg. It is the nutmeg that makes it holiday-ish.