Four I'm Under My Host

The Basil Gimlet is a crowd-pleaser while also being a innovative enough to please an aficionado. The occasion was my dad’s 80th birthday celebration earlier this month. The party was held at my brother’s new house in very east Mesa, Arizona (or, as I like to joke, west Albuquerque). It obviously had to please my father. That would be easy. His drink is the classic vodka gimlet. Vodka and Rose’s Lime Juice on the rocks with a wedge of fresh lime.

But it also had to please and impress the crowd. That would be a challenge because of the varied tastes–from Shannon’s sophisticated palette, to my mom’s “just a half a glass of wine please” moderation, to my sister-in-law’s “frozen margaritas are the best” attitude (just kidding Pam…you can make fun of me in the comments below!). I also knew there were those who exclusively drink gin. And those who exclusively drink vodka. And I, personally, find Rose’s Lime Juice repellent. So what to do?

Rather than inventing something entirely new I decided to experiment with something that appears on a variety of cocktail menus, the Basil Gimlet, as follows….

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I’m so darn glad he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach the highest ground

What better inspiration for a new cocktail than the Stevie Wonder classic? The genesis of my latest creation was a commission from my friends Ann & Shawn to design a signature drink for a school fundraiser party they were throwing at their house. They had a rock cover band playing the gig, so the only requirements were that the drink be called The Higher Ground and that it should be easily made and served in large quantities to a party of 40+ guests. Oh, and of course the unspoken standard that it had to be really good so that everyone would imbibe heavily and have a great time.

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Just a quick note, to myself as much as anyone else, that Four I’m Under My Host, has been “commissioned” to create a couple of cocktails.

First, Shannon’s colleague and accomplished playwright Philip Gotanda has asked us to create a cocktail to go with his play I Dream of Chang and Eng. The play, which is still in development, centers around the lives (or should I say life?) of the famous Siamese Twins. Shannon and I were privileged enough to see a staged reading at A.C.T. recently, and know that both Cognac and Absinthe are referred to during the play. With the Thai element also in play, we have a wide range of pretty interesting possibilities.

Second, my friend and (just barely) former colleague Clay Fenlason from Sakai/Georgia Tech recently tweeted, perhaps jokingly, that I should make a cocktail for the core of Sakai 3 project, which is code named Nakamura.  The project uses Apache Sling at its core so he suggested a name: the Nakamura Sling. Obviously the Singapore Sling comes to mind as a starting place.

No progress to report on either of these yet. Your suggestions are welcome!

And so the long journey comes once again to an end. What I speak of, of course, is the journey from the inspiration for a new cocktail, through the many twists, turns, and iterations of experimentation, up the steep hill of choosing a name, and finally to that welcome destination where the recipe crystallizes into something more than the sum of its parts, the synergy of a truly great drink. In this case the vision was for a well-balanced cocktail based on vodka, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, and pear juice, and the beginning of the journey was documented in my earlier post entitled (aptly enough) Ginger Pear Cocktail. But that was only the starting point, like a small, preliminary sketch for a monumental painting. That first session set me off on a quest over many weeks to fuse the flavors of ginger and pear with the vodka base, but then to build upon that foundation a drink with exotic Asian flavors that would be nuanced but assertive, refreshing but not cloying, and that in the end would transport the drinker to another place entirely.

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Rob, Shannon and I have recently been enjoying a classic cocktail called The Last Word. You can find lots of cocktail experts raving about it, from Scott Beattie in his Artisanal Cocktails book to the Cocktail Chronicles blog. And Rob recently had one at Bourbon & Branch. It even merits a Wikipedia entry, although most of you have probably never enjoyed one. It is dead-simple to make, assuming you have the ingredients on hand:

• 1 part gin
• 1 part Luxardo (maraschino liquer)
• 1 part green Chartreuse
• 1 part lime juice

Served up, of course. I love the elegant simplicity of the equal proportions of each ingredient. It is a difficult combination to pull off, although the Negroni is a classic with the same elegance and Rob’s original Absinthe Triolet also achieves perfect balance.

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The other day our wives were both out of town (one in Puerto Rico and the other in the Philippines). Instead of hunkering down while they were away, Rob enterprisingly convinced a friend of ours to watch the kids one night. We rang Kang and Mark to join us and headed out for a night of cocktail “research” in the city (that means San Francisco for those who aren’t from these parts).

Wexler's Interior

We started with dinner a Wexler’s, a relatively new place in the financial district that serves up inventive interpretations of Southern food, often infused with smoke (and featured in today’s New York Times!). We of course had a round of cocktail’s there (I had a regular Manhattan) which were a great start to the evening.  The food  at Wexler’s is fantastic, the service is excellent and Matt Wexler himself is a gracious and helpful host. In fact, when Rob made the reservation via OpenTable, Matt remembered that Rob’s wife Joyce has some dietary restrictions and actually contacted Rob to see if he should start thinking about a special menu for Joyce. Now that’s service.

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Michael & Shannon were kind enough to invite me over for dinner the other night, and only requested that I bring a cocktail. Given the delicious meal that I knew they’d be serving me, I wanted the drink to be a good one. Lately I’ve been wanting to make something with Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Canton is a tricky ingredient because the ginger flavor is so intense that its spiciness is almost peppery. In order to balance it, I did some Internet research and found a number of cocktail recipes that paired Canton with pear juice. This seemed like a good fit, as pear seems like a subtle and not too sweet buffer for the ginger. For the base spirit I chose vodka, as I didn’t want to complicate the already intense mix of flavors, and a splash of lime to round things out on the citrus front.

On the second iteration, I came up with what I feel is a very nicely balanced and tasty drink:

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So I (Michael) was in Denver for a big conference last week and went to a bar called the Double Daughter with some colleagues. While the overall vibe was fine, the cocktail list was an abomination. Really. The single worst cocktail list I have ever seen. Anywhere. Ever.  I actually swiped a menu so I could blog about it.

Below are some selections to prove the point. Suffice it to say that I didn’t bother asking for proportions because who would want to make these things, much less drink them?

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I recently visited Australia for the first time. And, of course, one of my missions was to explore the cocktail scene and try to find an authentic local cocktail. My first top was in Bathurst, the oldest inland settlement (European settlement, that is). Bathurst is a small town (less than 40k people) best known for auto racing.

Alas, no luck on the cocktails in Bathurst. When I asked folks where one would get an authentic Australian cocktail, the answer was simple: Anywhere! The authentic Australian cocktail is beer! This is not the answer I was hoping for. I’m at fault because I didn’t do my homework. There is actually a local craft distillery, called Stone Pine, very near where I was staying. But I didn’t discover this until it was too late to plan a visit! I’m disappointed in myself.

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Last week my colleagues from Sakai were in town and, of course, I had to make them a few cocktails. In particular, I wanted to make something that would be easy to serve up at the BBQ that Oliver Heyer hosted on Saturday afternoon. Being a cocktail fan himself, I knew Oliver would have the utensils and appropriate glassware so I didn’t need to worry about those items. But I wanted to talk to people, not spend the whole time being a bartender.

It was also unseasonably cold and had even rained earlier in the day, so I thought about “winter” spirits like whiskey or brandy, and settled on a variation of a variation of an old favorite, the Sidecar. The classic sidecar is 3 parts brandy, 1 part triple sec and 1 part lemon juice, served up. I’ve recently tried Scott Beattie’s Mendo Sidecar variation which substitutes Cointreau and Luxardo for the triple sec and reduces the brandy by 1 part.

Here’s what I shook up last Saturday:

• 2 1/2 parts Brandy
• 2/3 part Citronage (I like this better than triple sec and it is less costly than Cointreau)
• 1/3 part Luxardo
• 1 part freshly squeezed lemon juice

I premixed this in a pitcher and shook up 2 cocktails at once for the guests, garnished with an orange twist. Forgive me for the 2/3 part and 1/3 part (seeming) complexity. You can think of it as a total of 1 part sweet liqueur and simply use a mixture of Citronage and Luxardo. Experiment a bit with the mixture, although I find that Luxardo can be overpowering.

As it happens, I was also smoking some salmon for the party and it gave me an idea for the next time I make this. I wonder if putting the orange in the smoker briefly (30 minutes?) might add a nice touch to this drink? It would essentially be the equivalent of a dash of bitters. A future experiment…..