Category Archives: Cocktails

Pear Sidecar: 2 oz. pear brandy, 1 oz. Cointreau, 1 oz. fresh lemon juice, 1 1/4 oz. simple syrup and a dash of salt.

The Bartletts won’t be out until July, but FLD just released a pear brandy that will make drinks for all seasons. 

The sidecar above was created with the help of my friend Gene.  I had originally made a sidecar with Calvados, thinking the apple/pear combo would be tasty, but it was much too heavy for a spring drink. 

This pear brandy reminds me of just-baked cobbler, so for my next drink, I went to Tuaca (vanilla) and Velvet Falernum (clove and almond).

Pear Falernum? Pear Cobbler?

2 oz. pear brandy
1 oz. Tuaca
1 oz. Velvet Falernum
1/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
dash of salt

Combine all ingredients over ice and shake.  Strain into chilled highball glass with fresh ice and top with ginger ale and a cherry.

The ginger ale adds the necessary spice to round out the sweet pear and vanilla notes.  The cherry looks cool in the bottom of the glass and also corresponds to the cobbler theme.  Easy to make and even easier to drink.

I’m thrilled for this beautiful weather, but this pear brandy will provide fall/winter solace when mixed with quince, spiced rum, walnut liqueur, Oloroso Sherry and chocolate (not all at the same time, of course).  A smoky or salty rim would be a nice touch, too – think prosciutto or Parma ham.

A San Francisco bartender by the name of Ernest P. Rawling wrote the following about a fizz in his 1914 Rawling’s Book of Mixed Drinks:

“…the next in favor is surely the Fizz – the long drink par excellence.  At any time or in any place where the tongue and throat are dry; when the spirits are jaded and body is weary; after a long automobile trip on hot and dusty roads; it is then that the Gin Fizz comes like a cooling breeze from the sea, bringing new life and the zest and joy of living.”

We’re using vodka, we’re serving it up and we’ve added an egg white, but after sampling it, you’ll find the zest and joy of living, too.

Some old fizz recipes call for powdered sugar. We call that superfine today. One barspoon is all you'll need for this recipe.

Wildberry Fizz
2 oz. Vintner’s Wildberry Vodka
1.5 oz. St. Germain
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 egg white (this is the equivalent of 1 oz.)
pinch of salt
barspoon of superfine sugar
1 oz. seltzer water

Combine all ingredients except seltzer over ice and shake vigorously.  Add the seltzer, shake some more and strain into a chilled martini glass.

The egg white, seltzer and shaking-it-like-you-mean-it contribute to the beautiful froth on top.

This cocktail is fruity, tart, floral and light as air.  Some folks are sensitive about raw eggs in drinks, but I’ll let the NYT tell you what happened at the Pegu Club a few months ago. 

Guess we’ll be listing a raw egg warning on our cocktail menu at L’Ecole.  I’ve tasted the pasteurized egg whites in cocktails side by side with non-pasteurized egg whites and there’s a noticeable difference.

I can’t say it’s the most appealing name and I’ve tended to avoid cocktails with milk ever since my parents casually mentioned they’ve gotten “into trouble” after consuming White Russians.  On the other hand, the nutmeg reminded me of a Painkiller from the Soggy Dollar Bar and I’ve had New Orleans on my mind recently after seeing the first few episodes of Treme.  I like how the bartender gets a little breathless after shaking his drink.

The Brandy Milk Punch

1 ½ ounces brandy
1 ounce simple syrup
½ bar spoon high quality vanilla extract
A couple ounces of Half-and-half
Cubed ice
Grated nutmeg

Pour brandy, simple syrup, vanilla extract and half-and-half into a pint glass. Add ice to a shaker and shake the concoction until well mixed and frothy. Add cubed ice to a rocks glass and, using a strainer, pour the mixture into it. Top with a bit of grated nutmeg.

Rye, Aperol and vermouth; happy together

I was a guinea pig for my friend Leo last night at EMP, as he tested some of his spring cocktail ideas.  Today, I re-created my favorite; it’s a take on an Old Pal and Leo is thinking of calling it Old Gal.

The original is:

1 oz. whisk(e)y – I’ve seen recipes using bourbon, blended and rye

1 oz. vermouth – Some recipes call for either dry or sweet

1 oz. Campari – one substitution I’ve seen here is grenadine

Leo mentioned that he had used rye, Aperol and equal parts dry and sweet vermouths.  Here is what I did today:

1 oz. McKenzie rye

1 oz. Aperol

1/2 oz. Dolin Blanc (slightly sweet)

1/2 oz. Dolin Dry

I combined all ingredients over ice, stirred and strained into a rocks glass.  Leo served his with a large ice cube and an orange peel garnish, which I think is the way to go.  I could see orange or rhubarb bitters in this drink, to play off the prominent notes in the Aperol.  Candied rhubarb could also be a pretty, spring-appropriate garnish.

To see where else I’ve spread the Aperol love, click here, here or here.  This drink might also remind you of a Boulevardier.  Cheers to warm weather and cold drinks!

This bright, sunny day has me thirsty for a refreshing cocktail. 

Ted Haigh has come to the rescue yet again.  You may recognize this as an Aviation; we’ve subbed grapefruit for lemon.

1 3/4 oz. gin (I used Seneca Drums), 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur (I used Finger Lakes Distilling Cherry Liqueur), 1/4 oz. grapefruit juice (I used ruby red). Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into chilled glass. Garnish with mint.

The cherry liqueur I used was quite tart, which prompted me to substitute the sweeter ruby red grapefruit juice.  The mint garnish is a touch of genius, playing off the herbaceousness of the gin and cutting through the sweet-tart combination of cherry and grapefruit. 

I couldn’t find much on the history of this drink, though “Seventh Heaven” is the name for all sorts of other interesting things like a revolving restaurant in the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, a frequent flier program for Air Jamaica and a Dutch romantic comedy.

New Orleans has an incredible cocktail culture, dating back to the 1800s. 

It’s home to two booze-themed museums: The Museum of the American Cocktail and The Absinthe Museum of America, it’s the birthplace of Peychaud’s bitters, it boasts multiple signature cocktails like the Sazerac and the Ramos Gin Fizz and it hosts “the most spirited event of the summer”, the annual Tales of the Cocktail.

I was therefore quite surprised by the following.

I couldn't bring myself to sample one.

These "hand grenades" were all over town. The bright green is not from the cup, but rather it's the actual color of the drink. When I inquired about the drink, all the bartender would say was it's "melon-flavored" and the recipe is a secret (then he proceeded to fill the cup from a soda gun). The best part of this drink was the plastic grenade garnish.

Fortunately, the evening was saved when we made our way to Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar.  Built in the 1720s and named after a hero in The Battle of New Orleans, it boasts the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States.  We had Planter’s Punch.  The first printed reference to this drink was in the New York Times in 1908.

PLANTER’S PUNCH

This recipe I give to thee,
Dear brother in the heat.
Take two of sour (lime let it be)
To one and a half of sweet,
Of Old Jamaica pour three strong,
And add four parts of weak.
Then mix and drink. I do no wrong —
I know whereof I speak.

I’ve seen little agreement across recipes: some suggest Jamaican rum, others list a combination of light and dark rum, some suggest almond syrup, while others use superfine sugar and the citrus ranges from lemon to lime to orange.  I think the one I had contained pineapple juice.

Here’s Dave Wondrich’s recipe that appeared in Esquire.

3 ounces dark rum
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce grenadine
1/4 teaspoon superfine sugar

Stir the above over ice and pour into a well-iced collins (highball) glass.  Garnish options: citrus of your choice, pineapple, cherry.

A survey reported that 95% of all first-time tourists to New Orleans go to Pat O’Brien’s.  I did, too.

Founded in 1933, this bar is home to the Hurricane cocktail.  Potent, sweet and oddly popular, the mixes are available for purchase all over town.

O'Brien, with the help of a liquor salesman, came up with the drink to use up an abundance of rum. During WWII, spirits like whisky were in short supply and bar owners and restaurateurs would be forced to buy rum (which was plentiful) in order to get their whisky.

Between examing the ingredients and sampling a cocktail, I still had to look up the recipe upon my return home.

Hurricane sans mix:
– 2 oz light rum
– 2 oz dark rum
– 2 oz passion fruit juice
– 1 oz orange juice
– 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
– 1 tbsp simple syrup
– 1 tbsp grenadine
– Garnish: orange slice and cherry

Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a hurricane glass (shaped after a hurricane lamp). Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.

Please note the 4 oz. of alcohol in this drink.  You’ll be a “ragin’ cajun” in no time.  Do you think the Scorpions have been to Pat O’Briens?