Nectarini

I decided to make myself an early afternoon cocktail, just because I can. And it turns out I made one that was actually good. Naturally, the photo turned out bad, but here it is anyway.

I had a nectarine that I was going to eat, but then I figured, why not drink it instead? I muddled it up as best I could (it was juicy but didn't produce a whole lot of juice so much as mush), added the juice of half a lime, an ounce and a half or so of gin, and a splash of simple syrup.

The drink is fantastic. Not cloying and sweet, but not too juice+boozy either. Do try this at home.

Unfortunately now I'm out of nectarines and I'm not in the mood for a leftover-Indian-foodtini so I guess I'll get back to work.

Ramost

I recently completed an article for Out Magazine in which I was naming new brunch cocktails that are in vogue or at least should be. When I was pondering what to include, the Ramos Gin Fizz sort of popped onto my radar.

In the next two weeks, the drink came up in conversation randomly or at the mention of brunch six different times. Everywhere I looked I'd see it, sort of like when you learn a new word then start hearing that word all the time used by strangers on the bus. So I decided it needed to be included.

When looking for a recipe for the drink to include, I researched newly-released cocktail books to quote from (this is called a "news hook" in the magazine world). The one that popped out is Southern Cocktails by Denise Gee. But her recipe is definitely not standard. She calls for a full ounce of orange flower water in the drink, whereas most other recipes call for two or three drops. She also only uses lemon juice, as opposed to both lemon and lime. She serves the drink over ice, which some people do but most I've seen don't.

So in the end I went with Dale DeGroff's version from The Craft of the Cocktail. But then in the final version of the story the drink and recipe got cut out! All that work for nothing. Except inspiration- I'm going out brunching at The Alembic this weekend just to get one.

Sample Styles

The New York Times today has a piece on gin tasting, which is unique in that they sampled the gins in martinis rather than straight.

I've always thought that this was a problem with a lot of comparison tastings of spirits- nobody drinks gin or cachaca or pisco or a lot of other spirits on their own. I think the juniper-forward gins that work great in martinis taste far too powerful on their own. As they point out in the Times article, some gins, mostly the newer expressions, though complex and bright and delicious, just don't mix well with vermouth. They singled out 209 Gin and G'Vine as examples that they didn't feel were right in martini form. I completely agree with G'Vine, which is a flower bomb that's really tasty but needs to be tempered with tonic water.

I've also done a vodka sampling at room temperature. Yes, you can taste more nuance at room temperature, and coldness hides impurities, but name a single vodka drink served at room temperature. If the cheap yucky stuff tastes just as good as the expensive fancy stuff when it's served in a cocktail, what does it matter how good it tastes warm?

Anyway, I'm glad to see that someone did a taste test in a real-world environment. Here's to more of that.

Cocktailing with Cameron Bogue, Part Two

So anyway, Cameron Bogue, Smirnoff Cocktail Consultant and I went out drinking in San Francisco. He had a map of all the places he wanted to visit but we didn't get all that far because we stayed too long at every place we did visit.

Slanted Door- We were lucky enough to visit SD on a night when bar manager Erik Adkins was working, as he loves to talk shop and mix up a lot of drinks. (Both times when I spent more than 20 minutes talking with Erik I had more than six drinks in front of me, which seems normal to me but customers started making comments...) We tried a rhum agricole punch topped with grated nutmeg that was just great. I had a Casino, which is an Aviation with added orange bitters. These bitters were the homemade ones that I wrote about in the Chronicle, finally put to good use. They were also experimenting with homemade ginger beer, as Erik went off the menu and whipped us up so many more drinks. Eventually we had to flee as we had dinner reservations.

Absinthe- Absinthe also has a Casino cocktail on their menu, so it turns out that I'm right about the Aviation being the new Negroni. We had a few other drinks with dinner there that were tasty, and I don't remember what they were but they were all terrific.

Bourbon & Branch- It turns out that Cameron knows Todd Smith, and had considered working at B&B when it was going to open. That would have been stupendous. Anyway, we had several drinks and all were tasty. They've been brining their own olives for a while now, but recently made a brine with smoked salt and I think scotch. The smoky olives were fantastic, though I think they could find a better vehicle for them than a gin martini. In other news, Todd says that they're bringing back the Rouge No. 10 when strawberries are in season. Hooray!

Rye- Normally Rye never dissapoints, but the execution of the cocktails we had there this time was off so we went back to B&B for a nightcap that I really didn't need but thought was a good idea at the time.

The next day I was horribly, miserably, shamefully hungover. But I had a text message from Cameron before I'd crawled out of bed as they were headed to LA around 8AM. Yep, the guy is a pro.

Boo No. 10

*updated*

On Sunday I went to Bourbon & Branch with some friends. This was the first time I've been there since they shortened the cocktail menu- though it's still pretty darn long.

I had been talking up the Rouge No. 10- the drink of black pepper-infused gin with muddled strawberries- to my companions, only to find it's no longer on the menu. Bummer!

4/18/07
Guess what I found! Marco posted the recipe for the Rouge No 10. on eGullet! Hooray!

Rouge no. 10
1 3/4 oz. black pepper gin
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
2-3 small strawberries (or 1 giant one)
1/2 oz. Pastis
Muddle 2-3 strawberries with simple syrup. Add gin and lime juice and shake vigorously. Rinse chilled cocktail glass with Pastis. Double strain cocktail into prepared glass. Garnish with a strawberry and fresh ground pepper.

(Infuse a bottle of Plymouth with a handful of black peppercorns for no more than 24 hours.)

I stole this recipe from Todd Smith of Bourbon & Branch.
After I added the Pastis he stole it back.
--------------------
Marcovaldo Dionysos

Let's make this official

The Aviation is the new Negroni.

There, I said it. I am an expert so now it's official.

Negroni
1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Campari

Aviation
gin
lemon juice
maraschino liqueur
(Proportions different everywhere you get it.)

Cocktails at Perbacco

Several weeks ago I went for cocktails at the new restaurant Perbacco in downtown SF. The after-work bar scene needs no advertisement from me, as it gets packed nightly around happy hour.

I was meeting a representative from the PR agency for the restaurant, so between the two of us I was able to try four cocktails. They were all pretty tasty.

The Rosemarino is made with vodka, lemon, rosemary simple syrup, apple brandy, and has a big sprig of rosemary in it. It starts off subtle but as the sprig of rosemary infuses into the drink it gets stronger. I'm not a huge rosemary fan so I would have picked out the garnish halfway through like I do with olives.

The Dieci is right up with alley, made with Campari, gin, and grapefruit juice. It's like a negroni with even-more bitter grapefruit swapped in for sweet vermouth. Hell, yeah.

I never used to like grapefruit juice after a bad experience with grapefruit and Southern Comfort in high school (funny how I never gave up the whiskey) but I've had a few drinks lately that use it and I've loved them so I think it's time to stop worrying and love the juice.

We also had a Pearlini, which is a modified Bellini (champagne and peach) instead made with prosecco, pear brandy, fresh pear, and cinnamon. It was really great, and didn't remind me of a fluffy champagne cocktail at all.

The last drink I had (I don't see its name on the menu I have at home) was made with a ton of pomegranate and tasted almost like a thick winter spiced drink. The bartender said it was named after his grandmother. Awww, shucks.

Anyway, this is a bar to add to the list of downtown spots with good cocktail programs, or your other list of restaurants to drink in.

Will today be the best drinking day ever?

My agenda today:

Lunch: Meet the distiller of Plymouth Gin for lunch at Slanted Door

Afternoon: Christmas Ale taste-off with Fritz Maytag and gang at Anchor Brewery

Evening: The Chronicle's Food & Wine holiday party at Michael Bauer's house

I have a feeling this is going to be a good day.

Bitters

Yesterday I went to the 209 Gin distillery on Pier 50 in San Francisco. They invited local bartenders to a make-your-own bitters day a few weeks ago, where they could pick herbs and spices to mix with alcohol and let soak for a couple of weeks. They could follow ancient recipes found in old cocktail books or on the web, or try to invent new ones. Yesterday they went to pick up the finished jar of bitters, strain it out, dilute it with water, add sugar, and bottle it. I heard about the event, so I went to watch.

I met head distiller Arne Hillesland, who gave me a great tour of the facility. They only distill on demand, so unfortunately weren't doing it that day. It's approximately a three-day process because they leave the juniper and other herbs to soak in the gin overnight before they fire up the heater to distill on the next.

I could go into detail about the day, but I'm going to write an article about it so you'll read it in the Chronicle later.

In the meantime, click here to check out my photoset on Flickr from the day.