Blood and Sand Cocktail

On paper, the Blood and Sand Cocktail sounds wrong... Scotch whisky, cherry brandy, orange juice, sweet vermouth? Scotch in any mixed drink is an unusual concept. And the range of scotch - from fireside-smoky to heather-and-honey to seaside salt-wind and ocean spray - makes the outcome of this drink unpredictable yet always surprising. This is what makes the Blood and Sand so intriguing, and so worthy of experimentation in ratios and ingredients. Plus, this drink is appropriate any season (and any time of day). Just add a bit more orange juice in the morning.

Blood and Sand (with kirsch)

I have made a few of these in my time, usually with just stuff I have in the liquor cabinet or fridge. That means whatever blended whisky is on hand for guests (usually J&B or Johnny Walker); sweet vermouth (any will do); orange juice (fresh is best but if all you have is a carton in the fridge, that's fine too); and cherry brandy. Who has cherry brandy lying around? Well, many people have a bottle of kirschwasser on hand for cooking, and I have used kirsch in this drink and I have enjoyed it. It makes a cocktail with a light, "sand" color (since kirsch is colorless) and a slightly woody flavor mingling with the tart sweetness of the orange juice and the smokiness of the scotch.

Recently, however, I have thought more about the "cherry brandy" element. An article in the always-informative Imbibe Magazine piqued my interest in Cherry Heering, describing it as a "ruby-red liqueur made by soaking lightly crushed Danish cherries and a blend of spices in neutral grain spirits, then cask-maturing the mixture for up to five years, adding sugar during the aging process." The article goes on to clarify that Heering is not to be confused with kirschwasser or Maraschino liqueur. Cherry Heering is suggested for adding depth to classic libations such as the Singapore Sling or the Blood and Sand.

So I went out and looked for Cherry Heering, and managed to find it quite easily at one of my local liquor stores. The Blood and Sand using Heering is more robust, deeper-hued (a little blood mixed with the sand), and I would say has more mouth-filling depth of flavor. The Heering on its own is a deep red, and is richly flavored - tart but not sweet.

The recipe I follow for the Blood and Sand is from Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology. It is simple: equal parts. It suggests that any part could be increased or decreased for variations on sweetness or smokiness. Over time I have tried different whiskies in this cocktail, from J&B blended whisky to single malts. For my taste, a milder malt, with some smoke but not too much, is best good in this drink. When I used a very peaty Islay single malt, it was a bit too smoky (though not unpleasant). I preferred a heathery highland malt, which added just the right smokiness and layers of honey to the drink.

Blood and Sand (with Cherry Heering)

Blood and Sand Cocktail

• 3/4 oz blended scotch whisky (or single malt)
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth (any works, but try using Carpano Antica Formula or Vya, if you can find them; both add their own nuances to this drink)
• 3/4 oz fresh orange juice (if you find blood orange, that would be appropriate)
• 3/4 oz Cherry Heering (kirschwasser works too, but is quite different in flavor)

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel if you so choose. 


Bottoms up!

Pegu Club Cocktail, 2 p.m. Easter Sunday

Pegu Club Cocktail

This morning I warned my wife that we would be trying a Pegu Club Cocktail in the afternoon, followed by a Leatherneck Cocktail in the evening. The first would be to celebrate the first real day of spring... I mean the first day without rain or rawness, the first day of spring in Boston to reach the 70s in temperature. The second would be our inaugural attempt at the concoction of whiskey, lime, and blue curacao that is called the "Leatherneck," and which is the most unreal blue color. But more on that drink here.

So, this morning we arose early and opened all the windows in our flat, before heading out for a walk in Arnold Arboretum, where the spring blossoms were exploding in clouds of white and pink, and the air was redolent with that hint of citrus and perfume that those first blooms possess... A scent one can only fall short of explaining, for how can words, in their relative permanence, capture the weightlessness of that exotic fragrance? It was warm outside, for the first time of the year, and residents of the neighborhood were out en masse, as were the more adventurous tourists.

We walked for a few hours through the Arboretum and absorbed the warm, pine- and blossom-scented air. I took in some sun, trying vainly to restore the fading color earned during a recent vacation in Hawaii (more on that later, when relating the magic of a true Mai Tai). And then we returned home, and I made my second-ever Pegu Club Cocktail.

The Pegu Club of Rangoon was located in the far reaches of Burma (Myanmar today) during the era of British colonialism. I am not sure if it still exists. Sequestered in their sweltering outpost, the British colonists took refuge in their club, and enjoyed their gins and tonic or "Pink Gins" (gin and Angostura bitters). Luckily for them, the Pegu Club devised the cocktail which ended up taking its name.

It is refreshing and lovely to look at, with the herbal nature of gin, the tart note of citrus, and the sweet hint of orange. The beauty of the Pegu Club is that you can change the nuance of the flavor with variations in the amount of bitters you use. I haven't really broken from the recipe (which is taken from Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology), but I have adjusted the use of bitters, and in doing so, have had a few distinctly unique experiences with the Pegu Club.

I used Rogue Spirit's Spruce Gin (from Oregon), but it is probably made more frequently with Bombay or Tanqueray (or any of the London dry gins); you could try it with Hendrick's, or your favorite dry gin, for various nuances. Perhaps somebody has tried it with genever or other styled gins. It would be an interesting experiment.

Pegu Club Cocktail

2 oz gin
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
1 oz Cointreau
2 generous dashes of Angostura bitters
2 modest dashes of Regan's orange bitters*

Shake it hard with ice. Strain it into a chilled cocktail glass. Gaze at the beautiful color. Clink glasses. Savor the flavor. I don't use a garnish but you could use a lime wheel or lime peel. "They" say grapefruit peel might be nice with this too. I'd say it is fine without any of those.

Bottoms up...

*Ah, the bitters. This is the element of any cocktail which truly makes all the difference. How many dashes? Which brand? I enjoy using Regan's orange bitters in this, two small dashes. It is a more bitter orange flavor than Fee Brothers orange bitters, in my humble opinion. I'd like to try it with Angostura orange bitters too. By the way, the Angostura bitters in this drink provide it's marvelous hue. A sunset color, sort of. Vary your Angostura and see what happens. I use two generous dashes in my version.