EMBURY COCKTAILS

Friday Night Cocktails: Spiced Orange Daiquiri

 

Sampled this one the other night when Santa Teresa's man in New York Jim Wrigley pulled a guest spot at Mother's Ruin, the bar that's a new contender for NY's off-duty bartender hangout. It was the night after Repeal Day with its many events and there was some heavy post-holiday energy afoot. Team members from Brooklyn Gin, Bols Genever, Sailor Jerry made appearances as well as bartenders from Lonsdale, Kenmare & Highlands, Greg Seider from The Summit Bar and a host of consulting gigs, plus cocktail lenswoman Jenny Adams whose presence always signals serious good times.

 The first drink Wrigley poured was the most memorable, a simple daiquiri splitting the rum between the Orange Clement and Blanco STs, set off by a balanced medley of holiday spices from his Spice Syrup. There's always potential to overdue the cloves/allspice/nutmeg part of the flavor spectrum in cocktails this time of year and go over the edge into cloying, thick and  almost offensive to the tongue, but this one gets it just right and keeps it subtle.

SPICED ORANGE DAIQUIRI

1 oz Santa Tersa Claro

1 oz Santa Teresa Rhum Orange

1 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 oz Spicy Syrup (equal parts runny honey, simple and water--infused with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise and allspice.)

Shake and strain into a chilled coupe, orange twist garnish.

Friday Night Cocktails: Stone Cold Carter

The name of this summery drink comes from Mariah Balanciega, a contestant on last season's Ru Paul's Drag Race. Balanciega is a veteran of the Southern drag balls, where shade and facial expressions achieve an operatic complexity and importance. "Stone Cold Carter" refers to a look of almost aggressively disinterestedness, yet while still giving serious face. It's the blank stare of a queen who's stuck listening to you but who is not in any way actually paying you the slightest mind. My roommate Jason Schell and I immediately added "Stone Cold Carter" to our ever-growing list of Great Names For A Cocktail, and when he came up with this  drink, an ostensibly sweet but in the end quite tart and spicy number,  I thought it seemed a suitable match. Schell's handwritten recipe is below, but in short the drink is simply good square ice with a layer of homemade spiced cranberry syrup drizzled over it, then topped with fresh squeezed orange juice and a good deal of vodka. The spiced cranberry syrup is a creation of author and chef Will Burgess, and the Allspice and Cloves in there certainly give it a certain shady quality that fits the drink's drag inspired name. Because of the ample pectin in cranberries and how they combine with the sugar and the citrus the syrup becomes very think, allowing it to rest on the bottom of the glass, so that the cocktail gradually becomes more tart and more dense as you drink it.  While this wouldn't make a great punch because of the separation, one could easily line up 6 of these and bang them out at a party or barbecue, and fast. All while only pretending to listen to your guests.  J.R.

 

SPICED CRANBERRY SYRUP

 

 

1 Lb. Fresh Cranberries

1 Lb. Sugar (white)

2 Lbs. Water (a.k.a. 1 quart)

4 pods Black Cardomom

8-10 Cloves

Small handful Allspice.

Combine ingredients in a large saucepan, achieve a steady boil for five minutes, strain and allow to cool. 

--Will Burgess

 

Summer Punches, Volume 1: The Desmond

On the eve of the release of the new Beefeater Market Share, we thought we'd revisit Eryn Reece's recipe employing Beefeater 24 and an array of fresh citrus.

THE DESMOND PUNCH

11 oz. fresh lime juice
11 oz. fresh orange juice
11 oz. pineapple syrup
1 oz. Angostura Bitters
750 ml. Beefeater 24 Gin
Stir over ice, serve.

 

Discretion Is The Better Part Of Street Drinking & FIDI Iced Tea

A friend and I stepped into line outside the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in Chelsea recently and found ourselves standing next to the two fellows above who were drinking out of plain white paper cups with the requisite adult sippy lips, the kind one gets on a Starbuck's coffee.  Instinct told me it wasn't coffee in these cups however, and as we chatted with our neighbors the conversation further aroused my suspicion. The gentlemen were waiting to see bracingly dark comic Anthony Jeselnik, whose jokes run to the extremely black: "Someone asked if I would watch their houseplant while they were out of town and I'm like, I can't even keep a baby alive".  While Joren Hodel (L) engaged in some sort of lively text exchange Jason Lewis (R) ran more of Jeselnick's jokes for us. The gentlemen were friendly, witty and charming, and a bit irreverent and cool and even ribald, all without laying it on too thick. That's one of the most optimum states that drinking can escort you to, and if they were aided in their journey by something a little Irished up in those cups, it was working.

Lewis would later provide the recipe for the impressively well R & D'ed cocktail that they, in fact, were drinking. The "FIDI Iced Tea" turned out to be swell but what was most interesting at that moment were these stealth cocktail containers. Hodel pulled himself away from what I'm pretty sure was  lively sexting session and declaimed his master strategy with the cups. He'd ordered them in bulk from Whole Latte Love, 1,000 Commercial Solo Single Poly Paper Hot Cups at a cost of $56 cups and Commercial Travel Lids to match at about $50. For their swinging ventures out at night Hodel had learned to double up the cups to avoid seepage or condensation, and added an ingenious touch to thwart giveaway moisture--a layer of paper towel between to two cups. True commitment to the bit.

Well done. And later, in response to a query as to what exactly was in those cups Lewis texted back: FIDI Punch. Our drink (which we christened as the FIDI Iced Tea and took a month to perfect) is a combination of 3 shots vodka (after trying 20+ vodkas the only that work are Svedka, Grey Goose, Wodka, and the little known dirt cheap Ruskova) canada dry (do not go with Schweppes) lemon lime club soda, and a few squirts of lime juice from the plastic limes in the produce section (Grateful Harvest is best if you can find it).  Is not this sort or erudition and strategizing to make life more elegant and harmonious the very definition of being a true modern gentleman? So keep drinking on the streets: just keep it discrete.

Happy Birthday Eau de Vie, & Some Experimentations from Philip Gandevia

Here at Embury our affection for Sydney's Eau de Vie is well documented, both here and in The New York Times. (The really smashing Sydney-centric cocktail blog Everyday Drinking confirms our high opinion of the team's  mad skills in a series of posts here.) On the eve of the stellar bar's one-year anniversary soon-to-be lead barman Philip Gandevia sent along "several experimentations" that employ our Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters. We were inpired to finally bottle the bitters to share with Team Eau de Vie, and their very name alludes to a trans-hempispherical bitters exchange with this bar on the other side of the world. So we're incredly pleased to see them put to such high level use by Gandevia.


SMOKEY 'Ol SEOUL LOVE

50ml Reposado (Ocho works well, DJ just fine)
12.5 Grenadine (the good stuff... Pomegranate juice and all 15 kills it in sweetness, but 10ml is not quite enough)
3 dashes Peychauds (the drink's gotta be pink)
Liberal with Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters
10ml (or so - barspoons a bit shy, but dont let it dominate) smokey single malt goodness (or something illegal...)

Stir with love. Garnish with a lemon twist - but discard and donate to some lacklusture gin drink. Add a cherry if you feel it needs it, but the drinks pretty enough as is.

THE CONTENDER

50ml Tanqueray (or solid London Dry)
3 Fresh strawberries
20ml Lemon
20ml Apple juice (go cloudy if possible)
2 Chunks mandarin
Srig of rosemarry (no stem just leaves)
Dash egg white
15ml honey water (organic)
Tspn corriander seed

Crush then shakey shakey (Can infuse strawberrys in gin ala tequila por mi amante) and Brooklyn Hempispherical Strawberry Bitters to top.

THAI LADY BOY MEETS THE SCOTTISH GENT

45ml Reposado
30ml Aperol
20ml Cinzano Rosso
2 Thai Basil leaves
Brooklyn Hemispherical Rhubarb Bitters (go nuts)
Smokey rinse.

Stir, orange twist

WAITING ON THE WORLD

50ml Finlandia Grapefruit
25ml Lemon juice
20ml Honey
Egg white
Brooklyn Hemispherical Meyer Lemon Bitters on top....


Eau de Vie

Everyday Drinking

Brooklyn Hemipsherical Bitters

 

Key West Literary Seminar Cocktails 2011: Avocado Jalapeno Margarita

 
This one sprang from the fecund mind of Mark Buettler, but I revamped and refined a bit for the purposes of serving 300 at a pop, rather than just one. I made some other aethetic shifts as well. Where Mark added a dash of kosher salt to the top of the drink, I went with Murray River Pink Flake Salt, which brings a certain exotic flavor that's hard to describe--this Australian salt tastes like, well, this salt. I purchased mine at The Filling Station in New York's Chelsea Market, an excellent resource for salts and olive oils.  Mark's technique (see his video where he walks you through the process) involves muddling and straining; I opted to get the infusion of avocado and jalapeno going by throwing it all in a big blender and hitting "puree", then straining out the remaining bits of fruit. Very important to remove the seeds and the pith, or white stuff, in the jalapeno, leaving you with only the flavor and the suggestion, the evocation of heat, rather than the fire itself. And where Mark went with Anejo, I opted for  the more supple, almost honey-kissed Don Julio Reposado, for a softer, sweeter experience.

AVOCADO JALAPENO MARGARITA

8 Parts avocado & jalapeno infused Don Julio Reposado Tequila

(-) 4 Parts Lime Juice (to taste)

1 1/2 Part Dark Agave Nectar

1 1/2 Part Grand Marnier

Shake, Strain into a double rocks glass add fresh ice

Garnish with a lime wheel dropped into the glass. and
Finish with a healthy pinch of Murray River Pink Flake Salt on top.

AVO-JALA TEQUILA

The Avo-Jala Tequila is simply avocado & jalapeno infused and strained tequila. Use not-too ripe avocado, taking care to cut out any brown spots, cut up slices. Puree, let sit for a couple hours. For the Seminar I opted for a less spicy approach and removed seeds altogether, and let the peppers macerate for only a short while. To make hotter, leave seeds in and let the potion sit for 12-24 hours before straining. 
   

Team Embury at the Audubon House in Key West. Far right is Patrick Symmes who was recounting his unsusessful attempt to make whiskey. Courage, Symmes! Don't give up! Trial and error is the name of this game.

Key West Literary Seminar 2011: The Hungry Muse & The Debut of The Airstream Gimlet

Things have been a little quiet online here at Embury in the past couple weeks, but in the real world we've been busy mixing up cocktails for the many, many parties that occur during the Key West Literary Seminar. The theme this year, "The Hungry Muse: An Exploration of Food in Literature", meant the crowd was extra food savvy, and we took a cue from the kitchen for our cocktails. Kumquats, Meyers, agave & fresh-squeezed citrus dominated our creations . For the sort of crowning--or at least most flashy--moment of our ten-day journey of cocktailing we went to the rosemary section of the garden, pulling together a bristlingly fresh vodka gimlet with rosemary-infused simple syrup, and serving to 300 guests from the inside of at giant 1986 Airstream.

Brother Josh and his wife Bonnie had driven their Airstream down to Key West from Maine and when I saw it for the first time the idea of serving cocktails from it for one of the KWLS events popped into my head, fully formed. Josh and Bonnie were game, and thus we all embarked on a hairbrained scheme that was so crazy it might just--and in fact did-work. Batching massive amounts of a new invention, a Kettel One Rosemary Gimlet was the first step, but prepping the Airstream and scheming on how to best execute this. We decided to pop up outside the San Carlos, the auditorium where the Seminar takes place after Adam Gopnik's Keynote Address, and serve drinks from the trailer's kitchen window to guests as they exited the building. This required a test run prior to the evening's events to see if the 34 foot trailer would even fit in the loading zone outside the building. It did, and quite neatly thanks to Josh's really astonishingly good parallel parking skills. So we proceeded with the plan, crossing our fingers that our permit-free and doubtless quite, quite illegal endeavor would not land us in jail. When we pulled up a time hinged to when we though Gopnik's talk would end, we found half a dozen scooters parked in our spot--not assigning a team to guard it was a mistake. (It was a loading zone and they shouldn't have been there, but still--a glaring oversight in our cocktail heist). But after hauling them out of the way Josh got 'er nestled up against the curb and we set to fixing up 300 gimlets. And we served all of them, and got away without attracting attention from the cops. Somehow.

Moments before the storm. Airstream co-pilot Bonnie with Lauren Kincheloe, and Airstream Gimlets on the ready.

So this was the site awaiting Seminar guests as they exited Gopnik's talk (notes on that here).

AIRSTREAM GIMLET

1 1/2 Part Kettel One Vodka
3/4 Part Lime
3/4 Part Rosemary syrup

Combine ingredients on ice, shake well, pour over fresh ice. Garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary. If serving in large quantities simply batch all the elements together and shake each drink to order, pouring over fresh ice. And as always with big batches, mix it on the sour side to begin, and gradually bring up the sweet until it's right.

ROSEMARY SYRUP
Separate the leaves from the stem of the rosemary. Start a good sugar syrup--equal parts water and sugar--anything from Sugar In The Raw, Turbanado or Demarara works nicely. Heat slowly, adding lots of rosemary and bringing the mixture to a low boil, keeping it there for about five minutes, stopping before the rosemary turns brown. Let the syrup cool in the pot to achieve maximum extraction. Strain before using.

Somehow I scored Lauren Kincheloe as my partner-in-crime (literally). Lauren cut her teeth bartending at Employees Only and helms the bar at Bar Marmont when she's not breaking various laws in the service of gonzo cocktailing. She came up with a couple original cocktails over the course of the events--we'll be running those recipe here this week.

It was a pretty impressive mob scene on the sidewalk for about ten or fifteen minutes. Guerilla cocktailing--wave of the future.

Full recipes from all the parties will be posted here this week. For more on the Seminar itself check out Bone Island Book Blog for some fine crib notes on the panel discussions and readings from the week..  We'll also be featuring the recipe for tapenade crostini (for 300) from Lisa Esposito, who served out of another window of the Airstream.

 

Friday Night Cocktails: Baby Basil Queenette

This cocktail comes from Embury Director of Photography Chad Mumm (all his videos here). Chad and his fiance Ashley live in the East Village and their kitchen has a narrow window that looks out at the opposite building about 4 feet away. But sunllight does come through the window for a couple hours every day, and Ashley has a a fine little herb garden working. The star of the garden is the robust baby basil queenette (l) with small leaves of delicate flavor, far less pronounced than the larger varietal. On a recent night Chad threw some of the baby basil into a mixing glass with Plymouth and Campari. Just a few rosemary leaves muddled in added an interesting earthy element, and Fee Bros' glycerin-based grapefruit bitters supplied just the touch of something sugary that anchored the whole thing, and the grapefruit nose completes the story. A tea strainer (a must for the home bar!) separates the floating bits of ice and leaves and leaves you with a chilled pink drink, ascerbic and herby but with an overlay of welcome sweetness. This all reminded me of how key it is to have fresh herbs in your home--even in small pots, soaking up sun on cold winter days safely behind glass. A beautiful secret weapon for impromoptu cocktailing and experimentation. J.R.

BABY BASIL QUEENETTE

2 oz. Plymouth gin
1 oz. Campari
1/2 oz lemon

In a mixing glass muddle a few sprigs of rosemary, top with ice and add liquid elements, tearing up some baby basil to the top. Shake well, and strain with a tea strainer into a coupe. Add a dass or two of Fee Bros. Grapefruit Bitters and serve.

Photos: Chad Mumm

Sangritas, Verdita & The Evil Michelada.

Check out a fine assortment of variations on Sangritas and Micheladas at Inside F & B, including our pet passion, the Verdita. F & B Editor Francine Cohen managed to refine a very general, feel-your-way recipe for the mint, cilantro, jalapeno and pineapple riff on the sangrita into the first really coherent proper recipe version--many thanks on that. Naren Young's recipe for the Evil Michelada at Locanda Verde looks wickedly good, and somehow made me think of Kids In The Hall's Simon & Hecubus and their gleeful evil antics; Watch after the jump. (The above photo is actually of Charles Steadman's also-tasty sounding Dragón Rojo which is served at Echo Palm Beach and is mentioned in the same article. We're thinking the Evil Michelada looks very much like it, however.)

EVIL MICHELADA

1/2 oz. Tequila
1/2 oz. Mezcal
1/2 tsp. Chipotle puree
Juice of 1/2 lime

Pour over ice, add beer and stir well
Served in a glass rimmed with smoked paprika/salt mixed together.

Naren Young, Locanda Verde

Photo: Charles Steadman

Vintage Reserve: Absolut Lemon Drop, 2010

In a first in our "Vintage Reserve" series we're featuring a contemporary ad--but one that channels the feel of 196os Playboys, Dusty Springfield, Sharon Tate, Qualudes and the forgotten pleasures of yellow shag carpet so flawlessly that it merits inclusion.