Renaissance de l'Orange

A friend of mine posted a very good cocktail on Facebook the other day, using coffee liqueur as a substitute for the sweet vermouth in a Manhattan. Sadly, her drink called for juices that I don't have, like orange juice. (It's a strange life). What I do have, is Pyrat, a rum that is quite orange forward. So I thought I'd do something to try and re-create Kat's drink. Here's the Renaissance de l'Orange:

1.5 oz Pyrat rum (you could maybe do a white rum with Cointreau? I haven't tried it that way, so I promise nothing)
.5 oz Nocino liqueur
.5 oz Creme de Cacao
.5 oz Coffee liqueur (I used St. George, but do as you will).
I finished it with lemon bitters. Mole or habenero bitters could be good too. Cheers!

Fall-ing for Hemmingway

Now that I finally have some homemade Orgeat, I figured I should use it in a cocktail. There are lots of options. I wanted to save the traditional Mai Tai for when my wife was around, and for some reason, a lot of the other recipes I have laying around call for obscene amount of Angostura bitters. But the Plate recently posted a recipe that called for a reasonable amount of Angostura bitters. I still don't have any, but I'm more willing to substitute when an ingredient isn't a full ounce.

The first thing I noticed about this drink is how sweet it is. It's very good, and the lime juice helps balance it out, but between the rum and the orgeat, it's really sweet. After the sweetness, the main flavor I get is the allspice dram. I think I can take some nuts between the sweetness and the allspice, but that could just be my imagination. If I make this again, I'll probably up the lime juice to an ounce, or perhaps add more bitters. Recipe after the jump.

El Raja Key pt. 2

I wanted to try the El Raja Key again, this time with the edits I talked about here. Last time, the flavors didn't blend well, and it was too tart. This time, I replaced the grapefruit bitters with Peychaud's, used orange juice instead of muddled kumquats, and topped it off with soda water. How'd I do?

Much better. The tartness is much more subdued, more of a underlying note to the raspberry flavor. Not only that, but the raspberry flavor is more subtle, allowing everything to come together. I think the orange juice/kumquats helps the citrus to be more of a layered effect, and not simply a lemon-lime, but I'm not sure how much the ginger really adds. Perhaps I should try a variant and use Domaine de Canton instead of the simple syrup and see how that works. This isn't really a winter drink, but it'd be great for the patio in the summer warmth. Recipe after the jump.

El Raja Key

The other day, I was browsing Yelp reviews of restaurants in Astoria looking for some place to have lunch. (We ended up at the Sparrow Tavern. It was very good.) I happened across a restaurant, Central Lounge, which offered something called a Gummy Bear Martini. It involved triple sec, sour mix, and other gross things. But the concept seemed interesting, so I thought I'd fool around with it.

The El Raja Key is undoubtedly much tarter than the original version. This is balanced out by quite a lot of sweetness from the Chambord and the rum, but it ended up being tarter than I wanted. Additionally, the flavors didn't marry as well as I'd normally like. The main flavors are raspberry and orange, but you tend to taste them separately. It reminded me of something, but I'm not sure what. Possibly Superman ice cream. Not the best drink I've ever made, but not bad, and I think it'll be good with a bit of work. Recipe after the jump.

Scorpion

Juice of half a lime (1/2 oz lemon juice)
1.5 oz orange juice
.25 oz triple sec (Cointreau. For the love of all that is holy, please don't use generic triple sec.)
.75 oz brandy (Remy Martin VSOP)
.75 oz white rum (Flor de Cana)
1 oz dark rum (Kraken)

I could have sworn I had lime juice when I decided to make this drink. Ah well. I'm probably less hesitant than I should be to throw in lemon juice instead of lime juice. They're not really the same thing. But the drink turned out okay after all, with a surprising amount of complexity. Sure, it would be better with lime juice. And maybe I put in too much Cointreau. But it's quite smooth, with the sweetness of the liquors balancing well with the tartness of the juices. I added some peach bitters, which worked well, though they definitely tip things towards the sweet end of the spectrum.

Note: This drink, and most of the drinks that come from recipes on this blog, is from American Bar, by Charles Schumann.