The Jerry Thomas Project: Whiskey Smash, Brandy Smash, and the Gin Smash

For those of you who haven’t read my entire blog, I am currently in the process of recreating all of Jerry Thomas’s cocktails from his 1887 book, Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide Receipts for Mixing All Kinds of Punch, Egg Nog, etc. Thomas is the grandfather of American Mixology and lived pre-prohibition, pre ice machine, pre car but was able to travel the world and make a career out of mixing drinks.

GOMME SYRUP
Finally, some progress. First, the gomme syrup is done.
(Gomme syrup is a syrup very similar to simple syrup that's used as a sweetener. But instead of just using sugar and water to make the syrup, you add a little gum arabic. Gum arabic is a very complicated fusion of long and short chain sugars and is used on the back of postage stamps or on envelopes to make them seal. Anyhow, you can make a very decadent simple syrup by reducing the amount of water to sugar as gum arabic is a stabilizer and it will help prevent the mixture from crystalizing.)
I took 2 ounces of gum arabic and let it sit in 2 ounces of water overnight. The next day is was rather putrid looking with black floaties in a yellowish viscous sap. It distinctly reminded me of a time I had a bottle of Knob Creek that fruit flies infiltrated and turned it into a devilish solution of grey bourbon with thousands of dark mites. So I wasn’t real apt to turn this gum arabic solution into something I planned on drinking.
But I’m not afraid of something that looks like thousands of drowned fruit fly babies, so I added three cups of sugar and one cup of water and brought it to a boil. It foamed up intensely with thick yellow bubbles. I ran it through a chinois (which is a very very fine mesh colander) but there were still odd little bits floating in it so I ran it through some cheesecloth. The texture was very silky and the flavor was slightly chalky. The flavor reminded me of necco candy buttons (the little tiny rainbow dots of sugar that come on rolls of paper). I haven’t mixed it with anything yet, so I will be interested to see if I like it or not. On first impression, I wasn’t a fan of the chalky flavor but I am fascinated by the texture.

BRANDY SMASH, WHISKEY SMASH, AND GIN SMASH
So I made three cocktails: the brandy smash, the whiskey smash, and the gin smash. The whiskey smash in particular has made a bit of a resurgence and my beloved work mate Jonathan Hardy has taken to making a whiskey smash sazarac that he prides himself on (and a bit unfortunately has created a bit of a following for as the drink takes about 15 minutes to make). Nonetheless, he allows the mint to steep in bourbon (usually Jefferson’s) for 10 minutes. He then smashes about two handfuls of ice between linen with a hammer and dries off the excess water. He then rinses the glass with absinthe, adds the bourbon, adds the “dehydrated” ice, a splash of angostura bitters, and a splash of peychaud’s bitters. It’s rather tasty, just very time consuming.

Unlike Hardy’s version, Thomas doesn’t say how long to leave the mint in the spirit. He also doesn’t use any bitters, but rather a teaspoon of white sugar. I had Hardy smash ice for me and “dehydrate” it. Although the moment the ice hits room-temperature booze, it immediately begins to melt so I don’t know if it makes a difference or not. Nonetheless, it does look rather sleek and frosty before you put it in the glass. I found that the sugar didn’t really dissolve, it just sat at the bottom of the glass. The brandy was our favorite, it was better balanced and the mint really flattered the drink. Our least favorite was the gin, which surprised me as it seems that mint and sugar would make gin taste amazing. But it really didn’t make the biggest difference. I used Ransom gin, which is a pre-prohibition style of gin that uses malted barley as the base wort, is distilled in alembic pot stills, and then finished in Pinot Noir barrels (which makes it slightly pink). It is divinely delicious and every time you taste it, something new will pop out at you: mint, lavender, coriander, lemon, hops, cardamom, and juniper to name a few. But I think because it has so many layers, the mint dousing didn’t drastically modify its character.

Nonetheless, I recommend to anyone to put some mint leaves and let them soak for 10 to 15 minutes in 2 ounces of any type of spirit. You will be surprised by how much mint flavor imparts in such a short amount of time.

Brandy Smash

1 teaspoon of white sugar
2 tablespoons of water
3 - 4 sprigs of mint
2 ounces of brandy

Let the mint sit in the brandy for 10 minutes with the sugar and water. Add shaved ice and enjoy.

Hot toddy - what kind of booze should I put in it?

So after I put up the hot toddy post I got a lot of questions about if you can use brandy, or rum, or bourbon in a hot toddy. You can use whatever you have in the house. I’ve made hot toddies with lemon vodka and lemon ginger tea. Quite honestly, if your balance of honey to lemon is good, this is a drink you can’t really mess up. If you don’t care that much for the taste of alcohol, go with brandy. It will coat the throat and be easy on the palate. If you like a more robust hot toddy, then by all means use a good strong whiskey or even throw in a little blended scotch.

Never fail you hot toddy

2 ounces of honey
2 ounces of lemon juice (use fresh if you have it but if not the little plastic lemon will do in a pinch)
2 ounces of alcohol (traditionally brandy (which is what cognac is), whiskey, or rum) but you can also use flavored vodkas, tequila, whatever you have lying around
4 ounces of hot water

Put the ingredients together in a coffee cup and stir with a spoon (as easy as that!)

The hot toddy is one of the easiest drinks to put a spin on. Drop your favorite tea bag in it and add some more depth and dimension to your winter warmer.

Jerry Thomas Project

Two major obstacles will be tackled this week. Gum arabic is soaking in water as I write this so gomme syrup shall be ready this week and the boker's bitters appear to be done.

More to come.

Work, Work, and more Work!

Now that an exhaustive two weeks are over I can devote my free time back to the Jerry Thomas Project (there the Broker's bitters have currently been brewing for two weeks and should be ready very very soon). I also got a bag of gum arabic - so I can make some true gomme syrup. I overhauled the cocktail list for fall - still want to do a couple of tweaks such as add a deconstruced hot toddy but for the most part I feel this is the best cocktail list I've done yet (although I always feel that way when I put the new one out). I wasn't going to do a pumpkin martini as I felt it was a bit cliche this time of year, but I got so many requests that I relented and man am I glad I did. It came out absolutely delicious and really tastes just like a pumpkin pie.

Bend Blacksmith Cocktail List November 2009

Vulcan (The Blacksmith God) 8
This drink takes the Blacksmith Idea of New Ranch Cuisine and Spins it into a Cocktail - Maple-Infused Vodka, Ancho Chile, With a Hint of Lime and Epazote
Absinthe - it’s legal after 90 years
Le Tourment Vert - French Absinthe with rich sweet botanicals 12
Kübler- from the Swiss Alps with floral and herbal aromatics 14
Lucid – French with grassy notes with a slight numbing sensation 14
Please try a half pour of each for 18
Guava Mojito 7
Guava Rum, Guava Purée, Fresh Mint, Fresh Lime, and Soda Water
Cucumber Mojito 7
Cucumber Purée, Fresh Mint, Fresh Lime, and Soda Water
El Scorcho 8
Habañero-Infused Vodka, Pineapple, Ginger Syrup, Lime, & Siracha with an Jalapeño Foam- This drink is ÜBER HOT!
Cured Mary 9
Bacon-Infused Vodka, Housemade Bloody, with a Bacon Bit Rim
Hick Coke 7
Hickory-Infused Bourbon and Smoked Coke
Save the Pacific Lamprey – He Needs Your Love Too!! 10
Hypnotic, Citros Vodka, Pineapple, and Fresh-Squeezed Citrus
Sum Yung Gi (Red Curry) 8
Coconut Rum, Mazama Pepper Vodka, Fresh Lime, and Ginger Syrup
Tamarind Margarita 8
Tequila, Tamarind, Orange Liqueur, and Fresh Squeezed Lime
Gin & Q's Tonic 7
Gin with Handcrafted Tonic Water Containing Rich Citrus and Botanicals
Floral Fusion 8
Hibiscus-Infused Vodka, Crème de Violet, & Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit
Zwack Attack Sidecar 8
Zwack Herbal Liqueur, Orange Liqueur, with Fresh Lemon and Lime
Hot Pink 10
X-Rated Liqueur, Mazama Pepper Vodka, and Fresh Lemon and Lime
Sour Patch 8
Lemon Vodka, St. Germain, and Fresh Citrus with a Super Sour Rim
Bubble Trouble 8
Lime Bubblegum Vodka with Lime Cordial & Apple Schnapps Shaken Frothy
Manhattan Flight 9
Three Baby Manhattans w/ Dolin Rouge and 3 Types of Housemade Bitters
Butterscotch Manhattan 8
A healthy pour of bourbon with our housemade butterscotch
Hard Dog Fizz 8
Gin, Juniper Cream, Orange Juice, Egg Whites, and Fresh Lime
Snik Khers Martini 9
Super Decadent Chocolate Martini w/ a Caramel Peanut Chocolate Rim
Pumpkin Partiality 8
An Absolutely Delicious Pumpkin Cocktail that Rivals Your Mama’s Thanksgiving Pie
Chai Tini 9
Voyant Chai Liqueur, Vanilla Cream, & Cinnamon Syrup

And then for Happy Hour I've been doing a lot of classic cocktails - a fun way to bring some of them back into fashion.

Fizzy Lizzy
Blueberry vodka, blueberry mint purée, fresh squeezed lime, and soda water
Gin Jin
Gin, juniper mint syrup, and fresh lime
Brandy Bop
Brandy with Peychaud’s bitters, ginger syrup, & lemon
Bloody Mary
From-scratch bloody mary with Keea's famous pickle
Grapefruit Go Go
Vodka, orange liqueur, grapefruit juice, & fresh lime
Rum Runner
Dark rum with banana and blackberry liqueurs, oj, and pineapple
Whisky Daisy
Bourbon, orgeat syrup (made from almonds) and fresh lemon
Peach Perfect
Vodka, peach puree, mint syrup, and fresh lime
Bubble Gum Lemondrop
Bubblegum-infused vodka, fresh-squeezed lemon & simple syrup
Agave Bliss
Tequila, grapefruit juice, fresh-squeezed lime
Sloe Gin Fizz
Sloe gin, gin, fresh-squeezed lemon, and soda water
Singapore Sling
Cherry brandy, gin, Angostura bitters, and fresh lime
Cherry Yum Yum
Vanilla vodka, fresh lemon, and cherry juice

The Jerry Thomas Project Measurements

I dusted off David Wondrich’s Imbibe today, as I know he has quite a bit to say about making pre-prohibition cocktails. Most importantly found was the table of measurements - which is quite handy but takes away from the notion that Thomas was mixing drinks with wine glasses of absinthe - when in fact a wine glass is only two ounces.

1 wineglass = 2 ounces
1 jigger = 1.5 ounces
1 pony = 1 ounce
1 tablespoon = .5 ounce
1 teaspoon = .3 ounce or .5 ounce (interesting as there are 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon)

And last but not least, I am not sure if Thomas was using a U.S. pint (16 ounces) or an imperial pint (20 ounces) or if he was using a U.S. quart (32 ounces) or an imperial quart (40 ounces. It appears that the British redefined their measurements in the early 19th century as a response to the commercial alcoholic beverage industry; the Americans did not follow suit, thus the discrepancies. But this means that our measurements have stayed the same since early American immigration and as Thomas was mixing here in the States - my guess is that he used American measurements (although I can’t see where it says for sure).

The Jerry Thomas Project The Saratoga Cocktail

For those of you who haven’t read my entire blog, I am currently in the process of recreating all of Jerry Thomas’s cocktails from his 1887 book, Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide Reciepts for Mixing All Kinds of Punch, Egg Nog, etc. Thomas is the grandfather of American Mixology and lived pre-prohibition, pre ice machine, pre car but was able to travel the world and make a career out of mixing drinks.

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Things are looking up for the Boker’s bitters as the last of the ingredients arrived this week and I will start the infusion process tomorrow evening. I figure that they should be done by the first week of November and for the meantime I will plug away at the cocktails that don’t contain Boker’s bitters (although I’m thinking that the vast majority appear to be comprised of what I hope to be a little jewel of an ingredient).

So today I made the Saratoga Cocktail and the Whiskey Daisy. The Saratoga Cocktail is named after Saratoga Springs, New York which was a primer resort at the time of Jerry Thomas. Due to an abundance of sparkling warm water that came out of the ground, a huge tourist business was built with hotels and restaurants lining the streets. In addition to the spa seekers, gamblers ventured to Saratoga for their grandiose racetrack and casinos.

The Saratoga Cocktail contains Angostura bitters, brandy, whiskey, and vermouth. All in equal parts, except for the bitters, which of course is only a couple of dashes. The drink was good, very similar to a Manhattan but much sweeter (due to the brandy). I also wasn’t quite sure which vermouth to use, but I decided on sweet vermouth as it is just not my nature to put whiskey with white vermouth - although I guess I should try it.

The Whiskey Daisy is mixed by using 3 dashes gum syrup (I used plain simple syrup - I still have not found the time to make real gum syrup), 2 dashes orgeat syrup, lemon juice, and bourbon. All the ingredients are mixed together and then topped off with Soda water or Apollinaris water (which I came to find is bottled in Germany and was once owned by the Nazis but now is owned by Coca Cola - I feel like there could be more to that story). As no one in my quaint village sells Apollinaris water (every place I called had me repeat what I was seeking at least three times and Whole Foods put me on hold for approximately 11 minutes transferring me from one belabored miserable hourly employee to the next until they determined that it was not in their current inventory) I just used soda water from the gun. When I first made this drink, the lemon was a little overpowering and I felt that it needed to be balanced with more syrup. I added some orgeat syrup (as I love it) and I found this to be one of my favorite Jerry Thomas cocktails. It was tangy and delightful on the pallet with a zing of lemon and roundness from the almond syrup. The soda water gave it a little sparkle. Perhaps I’ll put the revised Whiskey Daisy on the happy hour cocktail menu.

Here’s my recipe for orgeat syrup

2 cups blanched almonds
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 orange
1 teaspoon almond extract

Bring the almonds, water, sugar and one cut orange to a boil - take off the heat and let sit overnight.
Squeeze the orange of any fruit juice it might still have and add one teaspoon almond extract after the syrup has cooled. Strain the almonds and orange remnants out of the syrup.
How do you say orgeat? Or shaaht

And then another common question I hear: what are bitters?
Bitters are an alcoholic beverage that contains herbs and botanicals, at least one of which has to have a bittering component. Originally bitters were marketed as medicines (and today most bitters you find are in the digestive section of your local health food store) but they are mostly used for cocktail flavoring. They have a very intense flavor that is typically not very desirable on their own. Every bar has angostura bitters, so next time you are out - ask to sample a little with some soda water. Angostura bitters are a great thing to keep around the house also as they are great for tummy aches (put a couple drops in some soda water and within a half hour any misery you were facing will typically be gone) and hiccups, douse a lemon or lime segment in Angostura bitters and eat all the fruit. Most people hate how this tastes, but I promise, it will cure your hiccups.

Feel Good

Been on vacation lately and thought you were feeling so much better from much needed rest and relaxation? Or it could just be the case you spent a week downing blended drinks where there’s heap of anti-depressants in the drinking water. Why cities are afraid to post results of what’s mingling in their municipal water supply is a real shame. Especially since forty percent of bottled water comes from municipal sources and they could use these findings for a whole new genre of marketing. Wouldn’t it be great to choose your water according to your needs and desires? Feeling a little run down, choose water from a source that has high levels of anti-biotics in it. Thought about slicing your wrists yesterday, don’t worry the lower Mississippi’s got some water for you packed full of Prozac and Zoloft. Sport teams looking for a leg up, they can have their training camps where trenabolic and other anabolic steroids reign supreme in the drinking water.

The entire art of mixology could change as you certainly can’t add pharmaceuticals to people’s drinks, but you can add water. Local distilleries could advertise where they got their water from, forget about Grey Goose’s H2O that’s naturally filtered over champagne limestone. Get excited about Estra Vodka distilled with water from the world’s highest concentration of Ortho Tri-cyclen. No need for the morning after pill when Estra and tonic is your drink of choice. The older gentleman can feel good about having two when his vodka martini is made from Viagravodka, distilled with pure Florida tap water. You can’t feel bad about having another French fry with your vodka cranberry made with HDL vodka distilled from the finest quality drinking water with the highest parts per million Lipitor of anywhere in the world! It’s true, pills and booze don’t mix - but pill infused water, well that’s a whole different story.

Life’s Good

6 ounces of Viagravodka

Shaken and served up

The Hot Toddy

As the nights cool off and you start thinking about putting the air conditioning unit away and just turning the furnace on for a couple of minutes, it might be time to make a warm nip. Nothing is as heart warming as the classic hot toddy. It has a perfect balance of lemon, honey, and bourbon that calms the nerves, warms the belly, and soothes the throat.

The hot toddy is an old drink whose history is left largely unknown. It was most likely created in the 1700’s in Scotland to make the taste of smoky peaty scotch more palatable to women. No one knows who created this drink or who named it. Some believe that since there was a lot of trade with Great Britain and India at this time that the name might have come from an Indian beverage named toddy, which is created from fermenting palm tree sap. Others believe that the name came from Allan Ramsay’s 1721 poem, The Morning Interview, in which Ramsay refers to the water used for a tea party as coming from Todian Spring (which was also called Tod’s well). As Todian Spring is the water supply for Edinburgh and as hot water is one of the most important ingredients in a hot toddy, it’s possible this is where our beloved warm libation acquired its name.

The hot toddy is one of the most loosely defined cocktails having only to contain a spirit, a sweetener, and a warm base. Toddies can be made from tea, coffee, apple cider, sugar, syrup, brandy, bourbon, or rum. But the most traditional toddies are made from honey, lemon, hot water, and bourbon.

When making a hot toddy you should use quality ingredients as there is no place to bury a cheap or flawed ingredient in this drink. When choosing what honey to use, ensure that you are selecting a high-quality honey with a low water content. Honey that has a water content of 19% or higher will tend to ferment and lose its freshness. One simple way deciding which honey has less water is to take two jars of honey, turn them upside-down, and watch the bubbles rise. The honey with more bubbles that rise faster has more water, and that is not the honey you want.

Ensure that you use fresh lemon as pasteurized lemon juice has a bitter aftertaste and does not have a well-rounded fruity flavor. To buy a super juicy lemon, there are some little tricks: first smell it, you want the lemon to have a strong lemony scent. Next, give the lemon a slight squeeze. If it feels firm, it contains juice. If it feels soft or has an airy, it is most likely a dry lemon. To get the maximum amount of juice from your lemon, put the lemon down on a hard surface, press on it, roll it around before you cut it open for squeezing.

Last but not least, make sure that you use a quality bourbon, rum, or brandy in your hot toddy. Bourbon has a stronger flavor than rum or brandy and when you use it in a toddy it is going to stand out. This is an excellent choice for someone who likes to taste the alcohol in his drink or someone who likes that warm feeling as a good spirit titillates the throat. Rum is a great choice if you like your cocktails a little sweeter, as rum is made from sugar cane and has a sweeter profile than most other spirits. Brandy (or cognac) makes for an extremely well balanced hot toddy.

To make a traditional hot toddy:
Cut a lemon into eighths.
Take half of the lemon and muddle it into a coffee cup
Add two ounces of high-quality honey
Add two ounces of your choice of spirit
Add four ounces hot water
Stir until all of the ingredients are well blended.

Go sit out on a cool evening and enjoy the beginning of fall.

The Jerry Thomas Project The Fancy Vermouth Cocktail

Boker’s bitters might lead to a huge delay in the Thomas Experiment, as it appears that almost every drink has at least a drop of this mystical tincture. I have the sneaking suspicion that Jerry Thomas would be fascinated by how easily I retrieve ice, typically I only have to yell, “¡Tao, tráeme hielo!” (Although I’ve got to hand it Tao, who is más duro que burro, that I rarely ask for ice as he is a mad man when it comes to washing glasses and getting ice.) Anyhow, I can only imagine Thomas’s fascination with a machine that just spits out little ice cubes day and night - no chipping, no shaving, no hammering from a block that was brought from across town. And in return, I would be fascinated by how easily he could get Boker’s bitters.

Today’s creation was the Fancy Vermouth Cocktail (fancy indeed!) which had a slightly metallic sweetness and an undisputed disruption of any pleasantries as its ingredients didn’t blend or flatter one another.
Fortunately, I had the time to make another of Thomas’s cocktails, the Absinthe Cocktail (Once again, may I applaud Thomas in his creativity in naming his creations). Which is comprised almost entirely of absinthe (which I love) and as the 2 dashes of anisette and the 1 dash of angostura bitters did very little to sway the taste of the absinthe, I found this drink absolutely alluring. The bitters did give the absinthe a bit of a black peppery note.

I’ve decided to peak ahead and see what I might need to order to make this dream of making all of Thomas’s drinks a reality. Quite honestly, I work at a very well stocked bar and I didn’t think that making all of these drinks would be that difficult at all. In fact, I thought it might not be challenging enough to even bother, but I thought it would be educational nonetheless. Well, it’s proven to be much more difficult that I originally assumed, as many ingredients are difficult to come by and there is no way I could do this without the advent of the internet. It’s made me think a lot about a many who never saw a car, but I can’t make his drinks without a high-speed Internet connection and a FEDEX man.

Just a couple of items that popped out at me:
Capillaire, which is a syrup made from maidenhair fern (whoops forgot to plant that last spring!). Like most syrup ingredients in the 19th century, it was used for medicinal purposes in this case being heart problems and hair loss. Supposedly it tastes wretched. I have no clue where I am going to get this, as I see no one selling it on-line.
Catawba Wine which is wine made by Native Americans. Unfortunately, once most of the tribes opened casinos - Native American viticulture went down the tubes. Supposedly, you might be able to buy Catawba wine in Ohio - so maybe I’ll stumble across some while I’m in Western Pennsylvania next week!?!?
Isinglass which is sourced from fish’s air bladders. Isinglass has been replaced with gelatin for most recipes, but it is still used in clarifying beer in brewing - so it appears isinglass will not be so hard to find.

The Jerry Thomas Project The Coffee Cocktail (The Thomas Tawny)

So today I made the coffee cocktail. A quick note on Thomas’s cocktail names - he may have been a real showman with diamond buttons and flame-throwing antics, however his ability to name his creations has much to be desired. Thomas even says, “The name of this drink is a misnomer, as coffee and bitters are not to be found among its ingredients, but it looks like coffee when it has been properly concocted, and hence probably its name.”
Well if it supposed to look like coffee when it is properly concocted, I can tell you right now that I didn’t make it right. The drink gets powdered white sugar, 1 fresh egg, 1 large wine-glass or port wine, 1 pony of brandy, and 3 lumps of ice. I really wasn’t that keen to put the entire egg in the drink and I thought maybe just to put the white in, but I wanted to follow Thomas’s recipes so in spite of my uneasiness about dropping what is baby chick embryo food, I decided to just close my eyes and just dump it in without further ado. I didn’t have powdered sugar, so I put some sugar in the robot coupe to make a very fine powdered sugar. After shaking I topped with some grated nutmeg.
My drink came out a very pleasant dulled violet color, a color I don’t see often when mixing drinks. Most likely because I don’t use port wine for anything, although a couple of years ago I did a Manhattan with port - but there wasn’t enough in the drink to turn it Spartan purple.
The egg made the drink extremely frothy and gave the libation a viscous quality. I think if I made it again, I would just stick with the white and omit the yolk. Otherwise, the drink was quite tasty with nice dark currant and toffee notes (I used Taylor Fladgate 20 year). I couldn’t taste the nutmeg that well, I would be tempted to make a nutmeg syrup and omit the sugar and nutmeg and impart the flavors that way. I think the nutmeg might shine a little more and add some depth to the cocktail.
Anyhow, one worth trying.
Here is my updated recipe of the Coffee Cocktail to which I am also renaming

The Thomas Tawny
1 teaspoon nutmeg syrup
4 ounces tawny port
1 ounce brandy
1 egg white

Shake vigorously to incorporate the ingredients together and strain into a cocktail glass. Preferably one that has some character.

Nutmeg Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 teaspoons ground nutmeg
Bring to a boil while stirring, take off the heat and let cool

The Jerry Thomas Project The Champagne Cocktail

So today I ran into a huge stumbling block when trying to make the Whiskey Cocktail. I don’t have Boker’s bitters and since the cocktail is just whiskey, gum syrup, and Boker’s bitters I’ve decided that I need to try a lot harder to make a batch of Boker’s bitters before I make this cocktail. The next four cocktails utilize Boker’s bitters - so they are going on the backburner until I get some made.

O.k. so seriously, why can’t you buy Boker’s bitters? They seem to be Thomas’s favorite bitters. David Wondrich, who has written extensively on pre-prohibition mixology, says that they were the leading cocktail bitters for much of the nineteenth century but just like the horse and carriage they are now only found in Amish barns (the Rumspringa kids drink them for fun) or on the shelf of super geeky mixologists. Making Boker’s bitters has proven harder than anything should be in this day of Internet love. Catechu was holding me up, thank god I don’t have to call places and ask for it - as I don’t even have a clue how that word is pronounced. I finally figured out that catechu comes from the betel nut - so that is what I am going to use to make Boker’s bitters. I found the best price for betel nuts on a site that also sold ten different book titles on pagan spirituality, so it will be interesting to see the junk mail I get from these mailing lists. Everything has been ordered, so hopefully I can start the bitters early next week and they will be ready by the middle of October.

Instead I made the Champagne Cocktail, which is still a cocktail that I get orders for on occasion. Not as often as ten years ago, but every once in awhile I’ll have a woman order one. My most current patron who orders them always tells me how to make it, which always makes me want to roll my eyes and glare at her for a good fifteen seconds but no one would find me charming then, now would they? So instead, I smile reassuringly as she tells me about the sugar cube.

Thomas uses a lump of sugar, I just used a cube. We’ve made sugar “cubes” in the restaurant before and I really should have take the time to make such a lump - but I didn’t want to wait a day to make a sugar lump so I just vied for the simplicity of the store-bought cube. Or I could be trying to make it a lot harder for no reason because it could also just be old vernacular for a cube, as the Brits say lump when they really mean a cube. Anyhow, I don’t think the flavor would change - just the lump would dissolve faster and you probably would get more bubbles as the lump might have more surface area. Thomas says that a quart bottle of wine will make six cocktails, so each cocktail is a little more than five ounces. This one was simple and I already knew it was delicious. In my decadent younger days my friends and I would drink Pez Clicquot Cocktails, using pez candy as the sugar lump and foregoing the bitters.
(If only wine still came in quart bottles!)

As for gum syrup, I am going to make a batch using gum arabic - as I would really like to know the flavor difference between that and simple syrup.

Concerning ice, Thomas calls for putting a small lump of ice in his champagne cocktail. Which I wouldn’t typically do, but I did for this drink. It occurred to me that Thomas’s ice most likely came in huge blocks and he either had to chip it or shave it away. Wondrich confirmed my believe and clarified that the debate over ice was just as hot in 1887 as it is today, Thomas argued shaved ice should be used in drinks where there was no water added and lump ice should be used when using egg, milk, wine, and vermouth (but the ice should be removed before you served the drink - although he doesn’t say to remove the ice in the champagne cocktail recipe). Today we argue if you should use commonplace restaurant ice, freeze your own ice and chip it, create ice balls one at a time with a $200 machine from Japan, or purchase a Kold-Draft ice machine (which makes the densest coldest commercial ice available). It makes you wonder what ice is going to be like in another 130 years.

The Jerry Thomas Project The Improved Brandy Cocktail

Today I made the Improved Brandy Cocktail which I don’t think was improved upon at all. Unlike the Brandy Cocktail that was rich and satisfying with beautiful vanilla undertones and a sweet cherry nose this drink bordered on medicinal. I made the drink three times, first using Lucid Absinthe – a French absinthe (the first on the U.S. market). I like mixing with it because it has a strong anise flavor and my favorite absinthe we carry, the Kübler; I like to save for sipping. The drink was a little rough with the Lucid, so I tried making it with Kübler – which changed the drink ever so slightly (I was hoping to get a bit of the creamy mouth feel you find in the Kübler) but I would like it with a bit more anise flavor so I would definitely add more. The finish created bumps on the tongue like peppermint. I would also squeeze more lemon oil in the drink than he recommended, as I would like the citrus to stand out a little more. I made the drink again, the third time using bourbon which was much more delicious, bordering on the flavor profile of a sazerac.

I’ve decided that it might be helpful to have Mr. Thomas’s recipes in ounces for those who want to make them at home. (Maybe a bit of a translation after more than one hundred years).

5 ounces of brandy
1 dash of Kübler absinthe
2 dashes of Maraschino Liqueur
3 dashes of simple syrup (I might leave this out)
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 large piece of lemon rind (squeeze to expel the oil into the drink)

Shake and strain into a martini glass
Squeeze the lemon oil into the cocktail after you’ve strained

The Jerry Thomas Project The Brandy Cocktail

Oh Julie and Julia, taking the blogosphere to a whole new level. I was quite sure that you couldn’t turn a child’s action figure into a feature film but the colossal hit Transformers proved why I am still standing behind a bar and not working for a big studio in L.A. So I certainly could never have guessed that you could turn a blog about epicurean cooking into what is one of this summer’s most talked about movies. But it inspired me to make all of Jerry Thomas’s cocktails and put it on my blog. Jerry Thomas isn’t a name you hear often, even in the upper echelon mixology world. It’s too bad most of us don’t know more about him as he is considered the father of American mixology and published the first cocktail recipe book, Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide. Not only was he a master at mixing drinks, he also had a show of flare with flashy clothing and some juggling tricks.

So for the next couple of months, I will make all of Jerry Thomas’s cocktails from the book Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide that was published in 1887. These cocktail recipes are all pre-prohibition and were certainly created long before the spirits market started spiraling into what after spending two days at a liquor convention will convince you has gotten completely out of control. There were certainly no TY KU’s (which is a spirit distilled from sake and yuzu that comes in a glowing green bottle) or vodkas with caffeine and guarana. I have to wonder with the plethora of vodkas on the market, who is thinking that they can out-market Absolut or Grey Goose. The people not buying one of the five major labels who decide to buy a small batch spirit are unfortunately few and already there are hundreds of choices. Not that I want to discourage the small batch distilleries, but I feel a bit overwhelmed by one spirit after another that has very similar flavor profile and slightly more or less attractive packaging.

I’ve decided to make the drinks in order of the book. The first drink is a Brandy Cocktail. Obviously, Thomas didn’t have the menagerie of glassware we are accustomed to today either. He specifies either a large, medium, or bar glass. He also doesn’t use ounces, just the measurement of wine glass.

The first drink is a Brandy Cocktail which calls for a small bar glass. As he later specifies to shake and strain it into a cocktail glass (what many call a martini glass), that is the glass I went with. He calls for 3 to 4 dashes of gum syrup, which he doesn’t give a recipe for, but I used simple syrup which we make using equal parts sugar to water. He then calls for 2 dashes of bitters (Boker’s or Angostura) and as I don’t have Boker’s bitters – I used Angostura. I have desperately tried to make Boker’s bitters but unfortunately, I have not found anywhere that sells catechu or tincture of cochineal (although it sounds like this might have only been used for color and I don’t know if it affected the taste of the bitters or not but as the recipe calls for such a large quantity I do believe that it must affect the flavor),.

Thomas calls for a wine glass of brandy, which we use Riedel stemware at my bar (a 30 ounce glass) so I decided to not use an entire wine glass. I was a bit afraid to add the 1 or 2 dashes of Curacao, as I only have blue and I thought it might turn the drink some nasty color. But the few dashes did very little to the hue and actually added some depth to the amber color of the brandy.

The drink was a lot tastier than I thought it would be. I assumed that it would be a bit too sweet with the simple syrup and the Curacao, but it was more like a brandy Manhattan with nice vanilla undertones.

Nice job Mr. Thomas.

Here’s a recipe for Boker’s bitters. Send me a sample if you find all of the ingredients to make them. (you might want to decrease this recipe - or else you are going to have six lifetimes of Boker’s bitters)

4 liters of whiskey
3 ounces of quassia
3 ounces of catechu
3 ounces of calamus
2 ounces of cardamom
40 ounces of tincture of cochineal
5 ounces of burnt sugar
24 liters of water

The Hot Toddy

As the nights cool off and you start thinking about putting the air conditioning unit away and just turning the furnace on for a couple of minutes, it might be time to make a warm nip. Nothing is as heart warming as the classic hot toddy. It has a perfect balance of lemon, honey, and bourbon that calms the nerves, warms the belly, and soothes the throat.

The hot toddy is an old drink whose history is left largely unknown. It was most likely created in the 1700’s in Scotland to make the taste of smoky peaty scotch more palatable to women. No one knows who created this drink or who named it. Some believe that since there was a lot of trade with Great Britain and India at this time that the name might have come from an Indian beverage named toddy, which is created from fermenting palm tree sap. Others believe that the name came from Allan Ramsay’s 1721 poem, The Morning Interview, in which Ramsay refers to the water used for a tea party as coming from Todian Spring (which was also called Tod’s well). As Todian Spring is the water supply for Edinburgh and as hot water is one of the most important ingredients in a hot toddy, it’s possible this is where our beloved warm libation acquired its name.

The hot toddy is one of the most loosely defined cocktails having only to contain a spirit, a sweetener, and a warm base. Toddies can be made from tea, coffee, apple cider, sugar, syrup, brandy, bourbon, or rum. But the most traditional toddies are made from honey, lemon, hot water, and bourbon.

When making a hot toddy you should use quality ingredients as there is no place to bury a cheap or flawed ingredient in this drink. When choosing what honey to use, ensure that you are selecting a high-quality honey with a low water content. Honey that has a water content of 19% or higher will tend to ferment and lose its freshness. One simple way deciding which honey has less water is to take two jars of honey, turn them upside-down, and watch the bubbles rise. The honey with more bubbles that rise faster has more water, and that is not the honey you want.

Ensure that you use fresh lemon as pasteurized lemon juice has a bitter aftertaste and does not have a well-rounded fruity flavor. To buy a super juicy lemon, there are some little tricks: first smell it, you want the lemon to have a strong lemony scent. Next, give the lemon a slight squeeze. If it feels firm, it contains juice. If it feels soft or has an airy, it is most likely a dry lemon. To get the maximum amount of juice from your lemon, put the lemon down on a hard surface, press on it, roll it around before you cut it open for squeezing.

Last but not least, make sure that you use a quality bourbon, rum, or brandy in your hot toddy. Bourbon has a stronger flavor than rum or brandy and when you use it in a toddy it is going to stand out. This is an excellent choice for someone who likes to taste the alcohol in his drink or someone who likes that warm feeling as a good spirit titillates the throat. Rum is a great choice if you like your cocktails a little sweeter, as rum is made from sugar cane and has a sweeter profile than most other spirits. Brandy (or cognac) makes for an extremely well balanced hot toddy.

To make a traditional hot toddy:
Cut a lemon into eighths.
Take half of the lemon and muddle it into a coffee cup
Add two ounces of high-quality honey
Add two ounces of your choice of spirit
Add four ounces hot water
Stir until all of the ingredients are well blended.

Go sit out on a cool evening and enjoy the beginning of fall.

Berry-ly friends

There is no doubt that I have never felt as much pressure to do anything as I’ve felt about joining facebook. Relentlessly my friends bargained offering me favors and treats to join but it was only after three days of water boarding that I finally surrendered. Of course, once you are part of this cult you feel the innate need to get others to join. Thought we were going to have a great debate about health care - I’d turn it into why you should join facebook. Thought it would be fun to play a board game, I’d spend the whole time telling you why it was better to play virtually on facebook.

The sad thing is, I didn’t have a relationship with my “friends” on facebook, I had a compulsive affair with facebook itself. I didn’t suddenly reconnect with the snob that carved bitch in my 8th grade locker but it didn’t stop me from spending 40 minutes looking at photos of her five kids and mullet-head boyfriend. Instead of actually reading books, now I was spending hours making lists about books I’d like to read. Instead of having a beer with a real live friend now I was sending my friends jpegs of cocktails. And what an easy addiction to have, can’t smoke cigarettes in public anymore - but you can have facebook at home, at work, and on your phone (in fact I can’t figure out how to remove the factory installed ap from my blackberry!)

And like any addict should, I quit. And it wasn’t easy - I cried, I shook, and I screamed with dry heaves and cold sweats. But I got through it and now I’ve been over 60 days clean. But I won’t lie to you as every day is a challenge. I am tempted by baby photos and people’s vacation videos but I know that I have to stay away as once an addict, always an addict.

Berry-ly friends
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce mint syrup
1 ounce strawberry puree
4 ounces sparkling wine

Bested Again!

The beloved “Best Of” issue -- everyone in the restaurant industry awaits it with a hungry appetite, unbeknownst what will be betrothed upon them. The rumors flare, the questions gnaw - who is going to get what this year? And then for one week, a year’s worth of dedication and voters’ fickleness is presented in grandeur, and it’s the talk of the town for days until something more interesting comes into play - like if they are ever going to dredge Mirror Pond or if they are going to finish resurfacing the parkway.
And once again, if the event ever rose where someone needed to know who the second best bartender in Bend is - well that’s when I would blow off my fingernails, polish them on my shoulder, and proudly rejoice that I was the person they were seeking. Because, you might not know this, but for the life of me I cannot win that category. Cocktail show, cocktail classes, cocktail column, Las Vegas cocktail contest, radio promo, none of this is enough in today’s highly competitive popularity contest. I’m not quite sure what this Will Pack guy has going on but I suspect that it has something to do with the Russian Mafia and a pack of Eastern European hookers casting illegal votes. Some might call me a sore loser or even a conspiricist, but I feel like there’s been a lot more ladies in town named Ivanka and this would certainly explain it. Nonetheless, I would like to congratulate Will Pack on his win. And give myself a little pat on the back for the best cocktail list category where Blacksmith took first and 28 took runner up, both my babies and since they are the only children I have - I don’t mind showing them off. So thank you Bend for all of your votes - and to the Russian Mafia, isn’t there some business to tend to over in Hood River?

The best of
1 oz Mint Syrup
1 oz Fresh Lime
5 oz Champagne
Cherries for garnish

Le Jungle Cat

Most children by the age of ten can recite a chilling version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow or another outlandish ghost tale. At summer camp they sit around late at night terrifying one another by raising the anti each story. But the child that terrorizes like no other is always the child of an Oregon bartender. No other child has experienced the true-life horrors of the creature many simply refer to as Olcc. Stories of their pappies disappearing in the middle of the night because daddy’s server permit was at home instead of tattooed on his upper right shoulder and tales of mommy turning into an evil mummy because she told someone over the telephone that her place had happy hour on Fridays.
Most can’t believe these crazed stories. But others claim these tales are true, and some claim they must be true because they’ve heard about these rules and regulations and they’ve heard that if you break them - be petrified as you have no clue what is about to happen.
There are people who have seen this creature and they say they would never cross his path. They claim the creature once took a bartender mid-shift in deceit and then stuffed him into a black bag and threw him down a well. The bartender had no retaliation not knowing left from right or up from down so he soon relented and spent the rest of his days as a lifeless pithed bag of bones estranged from his family and loved ones.
Then there are others who have dared to knowingly cross the creature, defied his antics clueless that they were walking into an eternal trap of terror. The creature has no mercy. He thinks of the bartender as his toy, a plaything, and will torture him like a jungle cat plays with its prey until all that exists is a corpse with only a few shallow breaths. The only reason he doesn’t seal the deal is because something got caught in the trap and the writhing of fresh meat turned his attention from his floundering prey. But maybe, if we are lucky, good will defeat evil this ghost story season and this creature will be put to an end once and for all.

Jungle cat
2 ounces of Le Tourment absinthe
Drink enough so you either see a scary creature or that the scary creature doesn’t scare you anymore.

El Mojito

The mojito is one of the oldest cocktails that we know the history of. It is believed that predecessor to the mojito was created in the mid-16th century by Richard Drake, an English pirate, who made a good living robbing trade ships going to and from the Caribbean. To improve his spirits and good health he drank one tonic a day containing a wretched form of crudely processed rum named aquardiente, sugar, lime, and mint. Richard named the drink el draque in honor of what the Spanish called his captain Sir Francis Drake, as Drake’s men were sure to find humor in the fact that Sir Francis was a hero to the English but considered a national threat to the Spaniards. Ironically, around 1650, Spanish rum took the market by storm as it was easier to drink and soon the draque became the mojito with the simple adjustment of using Spanish rum instead of aquardiente.

The first recorded recipes of the mojito come from a 1931 Bar Manual from one of Havana’s more popular clubs Sloppy Joes. As this was long before the Cuban trade embargo and Key West is only 90 miles from Cuba, it didn’t take long for this tasty drink to appear in the States. It might have been the heavy trafficking of rum during prohibition when the drink arrived in the States, or it could have been the quell of American celebrities like Ernest Hemingway, Bridge Bardo, and Nat King Cole who frequented Cuban night clubs and brought the drink home with them. But for sure the mojito was available in the States in 1933 as Sloppy Joe’s opened a second location in Key West that year (which is still open today). The drink’s popularity ensured that it was soon available in all the cosmopolitan areas, and it became the predecessor to one of America’s most famous cocktails the mint julep. Quite unbelievably, the first recorded mint julep recipe from 1937 does not call for bourbon, but rather rum.

The mojito saw a decline in popularity for most of the century until there was a revitalized trend in Latino cooking in the 1990’s. This increased exposure to the cocktail has brought it back to the utmost of popularity.

Making a mojito is easy. When preparing a mojito take half of a lime cut into wedges, and eight mint leaves and put them in a pint glass. Gently mash these ingredients with a muddler. The mint leaves should be bruised to release the essential oils - do not shred them. Then add two ounces of rum and two teaspoons sugar. Shake these ingredients with some ice and pour into a tall collins glass - not straining your ingredients. Top with soda water. The mojito is perfect for summer, as almost everyone has some fresh mint in their garden and it is light and refreshing.

The Sham Woops

There is never a void in cable television. You will find that be there ruinous fire, torrential flood, cataclysmic volcano, or category-five hurricane that you will still have access to 24-hour programming. Most of it tends to be awful as we have all watched at least an episode of something embarrassing, demoralizing, and contemptible like The Swan where they found Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeon to turn 300-pound losers into cougar-ready material for Real Wives of Orange County. Or My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé where a schoolteacher agreed to marry a rude, loathsome, and slobby hippopotamus for a cash prize. Unfortunately, what I’ve just described is wretched and is aired at prime time - so you can only imagine what I watch when I finally have time to ignite the boob tube at 4 a.m. I flip between infomercials with Tattoo selling personal massagers, discount telephone psychics, and Suzanne Sommers doing kegel exercises with what appears to be pool noodle. I flip through hundreds of channels in determination of finding something somewhat satisfying and urch I hate to admit it, but I always stop at the sham wow guy.
He’s got two commercials, the sham wow and the slap chop. He’s so upbeat and amusing with a musical cadence to his regaling pitch. He makes cutting up tuna fish with a pickle look as fun as being at Studio 54 with table service Patron and your own personal dj. He never fails to delight when he beams and announces, “You’ll love my nuts,” as he chop chop chops peanuts into ice cream topping. So I was shocked when I heard today that earlier this year he was arrested on a felony charge for beating up a prostitute because she had bit down on his tongue and wouldn’t let go. Talk about embarrassing things you would rather not admit to in the middle of the night.

The Sham Woops
1.5 oz fresh squeezed lime
1.5 oz simple syrup
1.5 oz blue curaçao
1.5 oz vodka
Pour all the ingredients into a Sham Wow and squeeze into a martini glass

Be Better

I along with many have experienced the worst of the worst this allergy season. One day I was frolicking about allowing the sun to make my golden tresses blonder, my pale skin bronzier, and my deranged spirit lighter. And then, mysteriously I couldn’t breathe with a nasty case of bronchitis and a headache that felt like a dentist had jabbed a syringe of Novocain below my right ear. There was no doubt that a little hit of Advil Cold & Sinus would allow me to smile while telling people about the soup de jour.
As I sniffled my way through the pill aisle at Freddies, my beloved tablet wasn’t there. They were just out I assumed, so I immediately ordered online to find they couldn’t be shipped to Oregon. Yes that’s right, thanks to this state’s abundance of meth producers my only chance of not blowing snot bubbles while setting down someone’s tenderloin was blown.
It’s one of those times that made me feel old, as in my college days ephedrine was on every gas station counter, the bright blue and red Mini Thin label screaming out to me - eat me I’m so much fun with a margarita. Or eat twelve of me and you could write two term papers, take a ten-mile run, and scrub all your floors with a toothbrush and still feel fresh, with the exception of my heart beating 132 beats per minute.
Unfortunately, I have found Claritin and Zyrtec to be of little help and my mother has insisted that sending me a box will ensure her a spot in federal prison for drug trafficking so I have no choice but to hunt down a meth lab to get two measly allergy pills. As my lovely but overprotective mother forewarns me constantly - alcohol and pills don’t mix, so may I offer you this mocktini perfect for allergy season.

The Be Better Bloody
3 oz tomato juice
1.5 oz Worchester
.5 oz lemon juice
a pinch celery salt
1 oz olive brine
1 teaspoon horseradish and a couple shakes of Tabasco