Category Archives: Spirits

Last night at Holiday Cocktails with Nils and Dave a curious bottle was passed around the room filled with what Dave dubbed “insti-age”. 

brown insti-age with clear (!) Laird's in the background

For a previous event, Dave had put some bourbon in his rotary evaporator in order to separate out the alcohol and and non-volatile compounds from the oak flavors – in essence, creating wood-less bourbon.  This was a pretty unique spirit, as by law bourbon must be aged in new, charred barrels.  He proceeded to make a wood-less bourbon and clarified apple juice cocktail that was completely clear and packed quite a punch. 

The bourbon separating trick was repeated with Laird’s, which explains why the bottle in the picture above is clear (it was also 130 proof – who needs that added water?).   At Dave’s suggestion, the class played around with adding the insti-age to the “unoaked” Laird’s to see how the flavor changed.

adding insti-age to my cup of Laird's

After 10-15 drops, my Laird’s tasted like Scotch.  Sounds odd at first, but makes complete sense because the volatile oak compounds are absent from the insti-age, therefore mirroring the used barrels in Scotch whisky production.

In order to determine which cocktail would kick off tonight’s 1st annual whisky dinner with the Brandy Library, we had a contest.  John Isom is the winner with the Velvet Devil.

devil ingredients: Peychauds, Velvet Falernum, Brandy Library's Speyside Scotch, Angostura and Benedictine.

Combine 2 oz. scotch, 3/4 oz. Velvet Falernum (more on this in a moment), 1 dash Angostura and 2 dashes Peychauds and stir over ice.

large ice cubes+long bar spoon=good results.

Strain the above into an up glass and slowly pour 1.5 oz. Benedictine down the side.

The Benedictine creates a dazzling visual effect as it's poured into the glass. It collects at the bottom, so the cocktail changes flavor as you consume it, getting a touch sweeter at the end.

In addition to being tasty and easy to make, this cocktail looks like fall in a glass – the ambers, yellows and auburns of the changing (or mostly changed/gone at this point) leaves.

So purty that no garnish is necessary.

We’ve had several bottles of John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum kicking around and I’m thrilled that John came up with this drink (look for it on the L’Ecole list soon). 

This Falernum (fah-LEARN-um) hails from Barbados and clocks in at only 11% alcohol.  It’s a a sugar cane base with a little Barbados rum, some lime juice and some spices/flavorings, most likely including allspice, clove, vanilla, almond and/or ginger.  Taylor is said to have invented it in 1890.  It’s thick yet transluscent and sweet yet tart and spicy.  Normally, it pops up in tropical or tiki drinks, like the Mai Tai, but I think we’ve stumbled upon a good cool weather alternative.

Finger Lakes Distilling is about to release their newest product – rye – and this past weekend we got to help in the fun.

writing tasting notes. hammer is optional.

working the bottling machine.

reminiscent of a dairy farm, don't you think?

the labels are the trickiest part.

applying the necker.

sealing the capsule. not your average blow-drier.

finished in sherry barrels, this rye is smooth for such a young whiskey with notes of orange peel, cardamom and butterscotch.

the signature 20 ml bottle, dubbed the "portion of well-being"

I couldn’t believe my luck when I noticed the Underberg behind the bar at the hotel in Mühlheim. We heard stories from multiple winemakers in Germany about “wild porks” running through the vineyards and I had just finished a braised leg of one with a side of sauerkraut that contained potatoes, cheese and more pork.

this much food calls for a digestive

I discovered Underberg 4 or 5 years ago and would purchase it regularly from Amazon. Sadly, they stopped carrying it and it fell off my radar. The company was founded in 1846 and the founder’s grandson developed the “portion-sized” bottle in the 1940s. The family, now on their 5th generation, safeguards the secret recipe which contains over 40 aromatic herbs.

I think of it as a less-sweet and tastier version of Fernet-Branca. It’s perfectly balanced and will make you feel like maybe you weren’t such a pig at dinner.

The bartender at the hotel also shared a cool party trick with me regarding the bottles. He claimed that the Underberg bottle was carefully shaped so that only Underberg would pour successfully from it. I was skeptical, so after stocking up at the Frankfurt airport, I tested his theory upon my return home. Sure enough, I drank the Underberg, re-filled the bottle with water, turned it upside down over the sink and not a drop escaped.

Midway through our trip, we rolled through a town called Puigcerdà (pooh-chair-DAH) in the Pyrenees in northern Spain.  For dinner, we tried Restaurante Asiàtico – yup, Chinese food.  Why?  2 reasons – it’s fun to see how the cuisine compares in different countries and we needed a brief respite from tapas.  Fear not – the menu still had items with fun titles like “crispy noodles with three deliciousness”, but the real kicker came at the end of the meal.

The server brought 2 bottles of booze and 4 shot glasses to our table.  I didn’t see this happening at the other tables, so I thought she may have been trying to make up for the fact that right when we sat down she dropped the encyclopedic menu on my water glass, scattering shards of glass everywhere.  Thinking back on it now, however, it seems she may have been having a chuckle at the expense of some turisticos, because while one bottle was plum wine, the other was this:

Not one dead lizard, but two

These lizards were wide-eyed, scaly and decomposed, but for the sake of this blog, I forced myself to take a sip.  It could have been the power of suggestion, but it tasted faintly of how formaldehyde smells.  The worst part was that it didn’t taste nearly strong enough.  I was expecting a full-on throat-burner, but no such luck.  It should also be noted that the 2 shot glasses she gave to the ladies at the table had pictures of men at the bottom and when full of liquid, these men became naked.

sure beats a lousy t-shirt

My niece traveled around Europe this summer and all I got was…a thoughtful gift of limoncello. 

Most of this Italian lemon liqueur is produced in Southern Italy, but my gift was produced at the Cavalin Distillery, in the heart of the Veneto region.  The Sorrento lemon is often used, but the varieties vary by region. 

The ingredients are pretty simple – lemon rinds, alcohol, water and sugar.  It tends to be bright yellow, bordering on fluorescent.  No lemon juice is used, so it’s fairly sweet.  I came across a recipe to make it at home from Giada De Laurentiis, but the process she recommends won’t extract a lot of flavor from the rinds.  Most vodkas on the market are around 80 proof and you really need to start with alcohol in the 90s to extract all the oils.   Yes, I realize vodka is easier to come by than moonshine, but your choice of base alcohol will impact the final flavor of your product. 

I recently met Lisa Averbuch, founder of Loft Organic Liqueurs.  She liked limoncello so much, she started a whole line of liqueurs made in the same way.  She produces fun flavors like Spicy Ginger Cello, Lavender Cello and Lemongrass Cello.  She purchases her alcohol at a very high proof and through the addition of various flavoring ingredients, gets all of her liqueurs down to 25% abv. 

Her products, just like limoncello, can be used as an aperitif, as a digestive or as a fun mixer in cocktails.