drinks

Friday Happy Hour: Chin Up Cocktail

Brian

If you don’t know David Lebovitz, now is the time to check him out. He’s a Chez Panisse alumni and his accolades are numerous and impressive (for example: Named Top Five Pastry Chefs in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Chronicle).

He’s written a number of cookbooks, and though his credentials are intimidating, his recipes and style of cooking are not. In his words:

“I use basic, honest ingredients; fresh fruit, good quality chocolate, real vanilla, and pure butter. I don’t believe that baking (or cooking) should be out of reach to people and strive to share recipes that are do-able for a majority of cooks and home bakers.”

In 2006 he packed up and moved to Paris, where he’s been doing his thing and writing yet another cookbook called My Paris Kitchen. As fellow Americans abroad, his observations on life and food are not only insightful, but often witty and hilarious.

Anyway, his blog is also really impressive, and though being a pastry chef, he clearly loves cocktails too, and I was pumped to find this recipe for a Chin Up.

We’re building a distillery here in Barcelona and have been playing with barrel aging our gins, so when I read this recipe, I simply had to try it 🙂

Cheers!

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Friday Happy Hour: Chin Up Cocktail via David Lebovitz

Ingredients

  • 2 slices of cucumber
  • Tiny pinch of kosher or sea salt
  • 60 ml (2 oz) Corpen Barrel Aged gin
  • 15 ml (1/2 oz) Cynar
  • 15 ml (1/2 oz) dry white vermouth (we used Murcarols)

Instructions

  1. Muddle one slice of cucumber with the salt in a mixing glass.
  2. Add the gin, Cynar and vermouth, and fill the mixing glass full of ice. Stir until cold.
  3. Strain into a chilled stemmed cocktail glass and float a VERY thin slice of cucumber slice on top (too thick and it will sink).
  4. Drink and enjoy!
https://www.travelingtotaste.com/2017/07/14/friday-happy-hour-chin-up-cocktail/

Friday Happy Hour: Shrub Bramble – I guess that makes it a “Schramble?”

Brian


We’ve gone off the deep end with shrubs. I’ve talked about this once already, and now we’ve got about six in the refrigerator, with many more on the way. They really are lovely with just ice and sparkling water, but it’s Friday, and we’d like a little something that’s appropriate for happy hour.

So here we present you with a Shrub Bramble, which lends itself to being called a “Shramble” if you like silly names. This recipe replaces the lemon juice that is normally in a Bramble with a lemon shrub. The shrub we used is mostly lemon with bit of lime and uses white wine vinegar, which is subtle and allows the citrus to shine though. Like any shrub in a cocktail, this lemon adds a depth and complexity to one of the main flavors.

The Bramble has a whole history that goes along with it, that I won’t do justice if I attempt to recount. If you want more info, check out the explanation from the guys at Gin Foundry and Dillford’s Guide. We started with the Dillford’s recipe and adjusted to our taste.

With that said, drink up!

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Friday Happy Hour: Shrub Bramble- I guess that makes it a “Schramble?”

Ingredients

  • - 60ml (2 oz) Corpen Gin
  • - 20-30ml (1 oz) Lemon Shrub (use your judgment based on how strong/bitter your shrub is)
  • - 15ml (1/2 oz) Simple Syrup
  • - 15ml (1/2 oz) Crème de Mûre or Crème de Cassis

Instructions

  1. Add gin, lemon shrub and simple syrup to a shaker full of ice.
  2. Shake until cold
  3. Fill old fashioned glass with crushed ice
  4. Pour contents of shaker over ice
  5. Retop with crushed ice and drizzle with crème de mûre or crème de cassis
  6. Garnish with a lemon wedge, blackberry and/or mint sprig.

Notes

- Every shrub is a little different, feel free to tone up and the shrub and tone down the simple syrup for more bitterness.

https://www.travelingtotaste.com/2017/05/26/friday-happy-hour-shrub-bramble-i-guess-that-makes-it-a-schramble/

Friday Happy Hour: Pomegranate Shrub Vodka Soda

Brian

It’s official. I’m in love with shrubs.

What is a shrub, you ask? Well, there are certainly others who can explain it better than I can, but the basics are this: fruit + sugar + vinegar. Sounds strange, yes, but the roots of this drink go all the way back to the Romans who used it as a way to preserve fresh fruit. It’s a really interesting combination of sweet and sour, and even if you are skeptical, worth a try.

Anyway, a friend made some pomegranate shrub and gave us a small bottle when we were in New Orleans in December. We hadn’t really done much with it until recently when the weather started getting nice.

Shrubs can be used to make both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, which makes them pretty versatile in application, and there are TONS of recipes online about how to make them (our friend referenced this one).  Most of these recipes say they are “fantastic additions to cocktails” but don’t really go into the details about what cocktails, what proportions or anything really.

So we started with the most basic recipe. The pomegranate shrub we have is delicious when added to sparkling water, so why hide that amazing flavor with something fancy? This a a simple vodka soda with shrub added. Vodka is the definition of neutral, so try ANY flavor shrub with this recipe.

Cheers!

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Friday Happy Hour: Pomegranate Shrub Vodka Soda

Ingredients

  • - 45 ml (1.5 oz) Pomegranate shrub
  • - 60 ml (2 oz) Vodka
  • - Squeeze of lime
  • - Slice of lime for garnish

Instructions

  1. Fill a highball glass with ice
  2. Squeeze lime into glass
  3. Add vodka and shrub
  4. Stir
  5. Garnish with lime wheel and enjoy!
  6. (wasn't that easy?)
https://www.travelingtotaste.com/2017/04/28/friday-happy-hour-pomegranate-shrub-vodka-soda/

Friday Happy Hour: Bijou Cocktail

Brian

A couple of weeks ago we went on a green Chartreuse kick, and did some experimenting with a variety of cocktails. One that stood out was the Bijou (“jewel” in French), which combines gin, green Chartreuse, sweet vermouth and a dash of orange bitters.

I’ll credit this Esquire article for our original inspiration, and pointing us to the original, very old recipe by Harry Johnson, first documented in the late 1800s. (Here’s a link to digital version of  Harry Johnson’s 1882 New and Improved (Illustrated) Bartender’s Manual and a Guide for Hotels and Restaurants. This recipe is on page 129).

The original recipe has equal parts of the principal ingredients, but most modern versions have tweaked the ratios. A couple of days later we played with these ratios ourselves and definitely preferred ours more gin-heavy and dialed-back on the Chartreuse. The one we settled on was closer to this version from Imbibe Magazine.

Chartreuse is a lovely and complex liqueur that touts 130 different plants and flowers. In laymen’s terms, this means it will likely overpower an herbal/flowery gin. We used one of our Corpen gins that is more earthy to complement, rather that compete with, the herby flavor of the Chartreuse.

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Friday Happy Hour: Bijou Cocktail

Ingredients

  • 45 ml (1½ oz) Corpen gin
  • 22 ml (¾ oz) green Chartreuse
  • 30 ml (1 oz) sweet vermouth (white)
  • 2-3 dashes orange bitters
  • Lemon peel

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass.
  2. Strain into a chilled martini glass.
  3. Squeeze lemon peel express the oils and discard.
  4. Garnish with a cherry.
  5. Enjoy!
https://www.travelingtotaste.com/2017/03/17/friday-happy-hour-bijou-cocktail/