The Tiki-Ti Five-0 Cocktail (and farewell to summer's glories)

When you reside in the northeast, summer is a privilege, enjoyed (if you're in luck) for three or four months out of the year. When September arrives, psychologically it means the summer is about over - even if you have hot weather through the month. With the descent of September - and the accompanying throngs of college students that infest Boston for the school year - we realize that the privileges of summer will gradually be withdrawn. And following the magnificence of autumn in New England (really the best season we have), the cold, hard reality of winter arrives with steely skies and stray snowflakes. After that, hibernation.

Alas, though September is here, and Labor Day weekend is drawing to a close, the weather is still hot and muggy. Perfect for perhaps the final tropical cocktail of this summer. Let's bid the season farewell with the tangy flavors of lime and Chinese five-spice, rum, and orange. Let's send it off with the Tiki-Ti Five-0.

This laboriously named cocktail is courtesy of the ever-entertaining Imbibe Magazine, and the concoction's creator, "tiki scholar" Jeff "Beachbum" Berry. His recipe is in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the Los Angeles watering hole Tiki-Ti, hence the Five-0. It's very good. It requires a little advance work, in the area of "Five-0 syrup."

To make Five-0 syrup, mix one cup of clover honey with one cup of water and one tablespoon of Chinese five-spice powder. I found this powder easily at Whole Foods in Boston. I am sure it is readily available at your local market, in the spice aisle. You can also find the recipe here.

Without further ado, the last tropical drink of summer:

The Tiki-Ti Five-0

2 oz aged rum (I use Smith & Cross, which is quite distinctive... you could also use the more readily accessible Cruzan aged rum)
1/4 oz ginger liqueur (G.E. Massenez Crème de Gingembre, Stirrings, or, in a pinch though it might be too sweet, Domaine de Canton French Ginger Liqueur)
1 oz Five-0 syrup
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz fresh orange juice

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake furiously.  Pour contents, including ice, into a highball  or collins glass. Add more ice if necessary.

Garnish with an orange wedge (and a piece of candied ginger, if you are so disposed). As you can tell from the picture, I used lime. So obviously it's a free for all. Bottoms up!

And, as a closing note, while summer may be on the wane, we are about to enter one of the most fruitful and decadent cocktail seasons ever: autumn. Coastal New England is the best place to be in October and November. Following that truth, this blog will encompass whiskey cocktails, a range of satisfying Manhattans, and other deeply pleasing autumnal drinks. So do not despair, my friends, and remain in hope: the weather may change but the cocktails will still satiate your yearnings.

Let's clink glasses to the future... To hell with bad weather.

Hello, Hurricane Irene

Image courtesy of Reuters.

Today, Massachusetts is expecting the arrival of "greatly weakened" Hurricane Irene - most likely reduced to a tropical storm by the time it reaches us. Nonetheless, today there is no public transportation. Torrential, sideways rain. Violent wind. Since I have no desire to leave the house and possibly get my head staved in by a falling tree, I have decided that the approach of Irene warrants a couple of recipes appropriate for the day. Just for shits and giggles.

That means, of course, the Dark 'n' Stormy and the Hurricane.

The Dark 'n' Stormy was created in Bermuda sometime after WWI, and its recipe is actually protected by trademark. According to Jonathan Miles's article in the New York Times, "The Right Stuff (By Law)," a Dark 'n' Stormy has to be made with Gosling's Black Seal Rum. That's right. Current Gosling's owner E. Malcolm Gosling Jr. cautions that “People will try one with some other rum, and then say, what’s the big deal with this drink?”

That said, it is best with Gosling's rum, due to the rum's unique characteristics and dark hue. When I visited Bermuda, briefly in 2009, I had the opportunity (many, actually) to try these "on location." Though Gosling's was the only rum ever used, and Barritt's tended to be the ginger beer of choice, the actual ratios must have varied wildly because the cocktails would range from potent, strongly flavored concoctions to weak, watered-down affairs in cheap, plastic cups (see image below).

This sticks to the original ingredients, but with a slightly higher ration of rum than the Gosling's trademark "Dark 'n' Stormy®" calls for. I have been known to add a dash or two of Angostura Bitters to this drink, to pleasing effect. Don't sue me though.

The Dark & Stormy Cocktail

• 2 oz Gosling's Black Seal Rum 
• Gosling’s Stormy Ginger Beer or Barritt’s ginger beer (both from Bermuda); or, any ginger beer with a snap. 
• Lime wedge (I use about a quarter of a lime) 

Take your lime wedge and squeeze into a highball glass filled with ice. Add the rum, top-off with the ginger beer, and stir gently.

Okay, on to The Hurricane. Allegedly created in the 1940s by New Orleans tavern owner Pat O'Brien. Now, way down yonder in New Orleans, tourists drink these like water, in giant, 32-ounce to-go cups. "To go." Only in New Orleans. Of course, it is guaranteed that aforementioned tourists get soused and obnoxious and then do embarrassing things on Bourbon Street. I had a Hurricane in New Orleans. It was like Kool-Aid. It came in a giant cup. I refrained from having a second.

That said, I don't actually make this drink, so I can't recommend it or steer you away. It is here today because it is called the Hurricane. It is sweet. It has many ingredients. This particular recipe is taken from Dale DeGroff's fine book, Craft of the Cocktail. DeGroff enlightens us that:

According to Brian Rea, there were two versions. The first was a drink of the early twentieth century that contained Cognac, absinthe, and Polish vodka. The rum-juice combination appears to have surfaced at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, at the Hurricane Bar. I suspect that Rea is right - neither the drink nor Pat O'Brien's appear in the 1937 Famous Drinks of New Orleans, by Stanley Clisby Arthur.

The Hurricane

1 oz dark rum
1 oz light rum
1/2 oz Galliano
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
2 oz passion fruit nectar, or in a pinch, passion fruit syrup
2 oz fresh orange juice
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz simple syrup
Dash Angostura Bitters
Fresh tropical fruit for garnish

Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a hurricane glass filled with ice. Add the garnish. Bottoms up! If Hurricane Irene doesn't blow us away, a couple of these sure will. 

The Northern Lights Cocktail

Yesterday, it rained a long time. It was a dark, heavy rain for most of the day. Occasionally a shard of sunlight would appear through the clouds, and the rain would sparkle and the trees became emerald. But mostly, it was a grim sort of day for the end of summer.

Here is how I spent it:

• I stayed home from work and lay in bed through the morning listening to the rain fall;
• ate frittata made by my lovely wife, mid-morning;
• watched a couple of movies that seemed like good rainy day flicks - decent films, but not so good that they would prohibit the simultaneous reading of magazines;
• snacked on potato chips and caramelized-onion dip;
• welcomed the cats to laze about with us on the couch, where they sacked out;
• prepared, at leisure, to venture out in the deluge to visit our dear, longstanding friend Bob White, who ever so kindly treated us to a very nice meal at Eastern Standard in honor of my birthday;
• returned home well-fed and drunk enough (1) to think that another bourbon on the rocks was a good idea, and (2) to select the dwindling (and now gone) Pappy van Winkle 20-year old Family Reserve;
• and, in the middle of all that, mixed a delicious cocktail called the Northern Lights.

The Northern Lights is a truly spectacular concoction, one which requires rare ingredients and a willingness to mix good scotch in a drink. Questions about using scotch in a mixed drink? Sure, it seems wrong, but can be oh-so-right. Take for example, the Blood and Sand, described here back in April of this year.

This beauty is balanced and versatile, unusual and tantalizing. It's name implies so much about the drink's flavors and hue. It is well suited to summer drinking, winter drinking, autumn drinking, and spring drinking. It is just fine on a summer day that is dark as a November evening, a day both humid and cool, with monsoon-like rains. This drink is like smelling an autumn wood fire, while lying prostrate in a meadow of wildflowers.

I first had this cocktail at an amazing restaurant in Cambridge, called Craigie on Main. It is from the mind of a master mixologist named Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli. This is a world-class restaurant with prohibitively high prices; an "occasion" restaurant. The food is incredible. Locally sourced, unusual, fearless. And this drink... complex flavors of smoke and evergreen, citrus and sunshine. It was floral and tart and mysterious. It was the flavor of alpine woods and sun showers.

It took me a good long while to accrue one of the vital ingredients - Clear Creek Douglas Fir Eau de Vie, a green spirit from an Oregon distillery, described as "an infusion of the springtime buds of Douglas fir picked by hand into clear brandy which is then re-distilled and re-infused with more buds" - but it is absolutely necessary in this drink. Without this eau de vie, you lose the woodsy notes that complement the scotch and citrus so well. You must also have St. Germain. There is really nothing one can substitute.

As for the scotch - the original recipe calls for Grant & Sons... I have never seen this, so I use whatever is at hand. That has included: J&B, Johnny Walker Black, and a 12-year-old Caol Ila single malt from Islay (probably the smokiest I have tasted). In fact, this drink is worth trying with different scotches, blended or single malt. The personality of the whisky can dictate the smokiness or fruitiness of the cocktail. Be careful with the smokier Islays - they can overpower the gentler flavors of elderflower and fir.

Now, after that lengthy preamble, here is how you make this smashing concoction:

Northern Lights Cocktail
Recipe for two

3 oz scotch (calls for Grant & Sons, but use anything decent that you have around)
1 1/2 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
1/2 oz Clear Creek Douglas Fir Eau de Vie (find it here)
1 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz fresh-squeezed orange juice
1/2 oz Demerara syrup (or, try rosemary-infused syrup)
4 dashes of Angostura Bitters (the Craigie on Main website actually calls for Bittermen's Tiki Bitters, which I have not had the opportunity to try)

Shake with vigor all the ingredients with ice, until very cold. Strain into two cocktail glasses, and garnish with a lemon twist. Bottoms up!

The Whiskey Sour

Cape Cod + Whiskey Sour = Paradise

The perfect cocktail to top off a day at the beach.

Whiskey Sour
Adjust ratios of whiskey to sour mix to taste.

• 2 parts bourbon or rye whiskey
• 1 part homemade sour mix (recipe here)

Shake with ice. Shake it like hell until the ice is shattered and the shaker is too cold for your hands. Strain into an Old-Fashioned glass, and garnish with a maraschino cherry and a slice of orange. Or strain it over rocks, if you prefer it that way.

Be sure to check out the "Back Forty," a variation on the whiskey sour with a maple syrup-based sour mix, and the "Elmwood Sour," made with rosemary simple syrup and creme de cassis.

Bottoms up.

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 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!