My Brother the Brewer

My bro works in Scotland for a little outfit called BrewDog. Well as I might have mentioned, he came home for a week and brought lots of goodies. Specifically some stuff I can't find stateside.

One of the items he brought me was a bottle of Żubrówka Vodka, a bison grass infused vodka from Poland. If you are at all familiar with the history of vodka. It originated in Poland/Russia, from potatoes. Well before distilling was truly perfected, you'd have some pretty strong, crude vodka, with lots of congeners and fusel oils. So in order to mask these negative aspects people added pepper, lime leaves, and even bison grass. This spirit is meant to be a nostalgic homage to the original.

At 80 proof this rye based vodka has a nice light sweetness to it, I notice subtle hints of Vanilla, and a light citrus. I don't usually enjoy working with vodka as much but I often make an exception for this one. In the realm of all the flavoured vodkas this one stands alone at the top.

Cocktail of the Week #7 & #8

So your patience reaps double the reward this week. Things are starting to warm up here. I wanted some refreshing drinks to share this time around. So first I have a drink I constructed while challenging myself not to use anything lemon-lime, but still make a great well-balanced tasting tequila cocktail.

The Bartlett Tequila Daisy

1 1/4 oz. Cazadores Blanco Tequila
1/4 oz. golden raspberry simple syrup
3 Tsp. bartlett pear
1 oz. grapefruit juice
1 dash peach bitters
2 oz. soda

In a shaker glass muddle pear with simple syrup. Add liquor, juice, bitters, and ice. Shake and strain into highball filled with ice. Fill with soda. Garnish with a pear slice if desired.


The word margarita comes from the word spanish word "marguerite" meaning Daisy in English. A daisy is a cocktail with sugar, a citrus juice, and a raspberry syrup or grenadine. In this case I used some golden raspberries from a bush I've been growing in a simple syrup.

And next we have a buck. A buck is any drink, typically served in a highball with lime juice added.

The Crimson Tarragon Buck

6 Blackberries
2 sprigs of fresh Terragon
2 oz. soda water
1 1/2 oz. Hendricks or Millers Gin
Squeeze of lime

Mix blackberries, Terragon and soda in a shaker. Muddle. Add gin, strain over ice, and squeeze lime into highball. Garnish with a blackberry wrapped In a Terragon leaf.

Happy Drinking!

Drinks Anyone!?

I found this in USA today, while I was on hiatus. Enjoy!

I am back...

Yes, I've been a negligent blogger...
Yes, I have a few excuses...
Yes, quite a few of those reasons are mixology/alcohol related!

Well lets start off with the progress of my bitters. It's been over a week since I started infusing some bitters in individual jars. And because I chose do use everclear for this endeavor, I feel the process time is much faster. I first took the opportunity to taste my bitter base of licorice root, gentian, and wormwood. A nice deep green. Experimenting with ways to filter these. I decided to try a two-step process. A super-fine mesh filter then I took Jamie Boudreau's Pūr filter idea. The first step removed all the large particles in the mixture. And then filtering through the filter takes some of the edge off of the alcohol, allowing you to taste the bitters, as well as clarifying the tincture.

I'm going to wait a few more days for some of the other items to infuse more.

When Life Gives You Seville Oranges... Make Bitters!

So I had the day off today, so I went to the store and picked up some NGS (Neutral Grain Spirit). Because I'm making some bitters!

As I had mentioned the other week, I picked up some spices and herbs while up in Chicago. I pulled some mason jars out of the basement, and picked out a few ingredients I want to work with first. So I chose cardamom, star anise, ceylon cinnamon, rhubarb root, Seville oranges (what Campari is made of!), cloves, and ginger.

A few years back, Master Mixologist, Jamie Boudreau suggested to build each ingredient in your bitters in separate containers for control purposes(http://spiritsandcocktails.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/how-to-make-bitters/). So I did that with all my ingredients. But I chose to make a bitter base jar with wormwood, licorice root and gentian root. This will be the basis of my bitter formulas for the first round of experimentation.

They say as a general rule, you should let certain items sit depending on their strength, obviously take into consideration the proof of the liquor you're using. The higher the proof, the faster the extraction process.

3-4 days: Intense flavors such as vanilla beans, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, limes, mint, garlic, tarragon, basil, oregano, dill, thyme and peppers

1 week: Moderate flavors such as cantaloupes, strawberries, peaches, mangoes, pitted cherries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

2 weeks: Mild flavors such as pineapple, ginger and lemon grass

If you're looking for some good online resources with ideas for bitters, check out Jamie's Blog I mentioned earlier, and also the bartenders at Anvil in Houston (http://drinkdogma.com/how-to-make-your-own-bitters-for-cocktails/).

Happy Infusing!

Bitter and Opinionated?

While I was in Chicago last weekend, I made it a priority to procure some herbs, spices, and roots to create some bitters. Any suggestions what I should try first?

Cocktail of the Week #6

This cocktail doesn't need much of an introduction. Its only my background photo of my blog...The GINger Orange Crusta. Cheers!

2 oz. Martin Millers Reformed Gin
1/2 oz. ginger infused simple syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters
3/4 oz. fresh orange juice
1 tsp. fresh ginger root
3/4 oz. Tuaca
1 orange slice

Muddle orange slice, ginger and simple syrup in shaker glass. Add Tuaca, gin, OJ and ice. Stir. Strain into old fashioned glass with raw sugar rim. Garnish with candied ginger and orange slice.