The Derby

Tarus Bourbon, Brandy/Vermouth/Wine, Liqueurs, Stars - 3

In honor of American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown, I decided to make The Derby:

  • 1.00 ounce bourbon
  • 0.50 ounce sweet vermouth
  • 0.50 ounce orange curaçao
  • 0.75 ounce fresh lime juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a mint leaf.

Growing up I didn’t think winning the Triple Crown of horse racing was a big deal. In the span of six years, from 1973 to 1978, three horses did it.

And then it ended until American Pharoah won this past weekend.

While the Mint Julep is specifically associated with The Kentucky Derby, in general cocktails and horse racing seem to go together. This recipe was one of three with the same name from the 1947 Bartender’s Guide by Trader Vic.

I didn’t have fresh mint, so I garnished it with a lime as in the picture in the book. This is a nice drink, not too sweet but not too sour, although I probably would have backed off on the lime juice just a tad. Unfortunately, nothing about this cocktail really stood out, either.

Rating: 3/5 (this is easily a 3.5 but when comparing it to others 4’s on this list, it doesn’t make the cut).

Notes: I used Four Roses small batch bourbon, Senior Curaçao and Carpano Antica sweet vermouth.

The Lion’s Tail

Tarus Bourbon, Liqueurs, Stars - 5

In order to try Allspice Dram, I decided to make The Lion’s Tail:

  • 2.00 ounces bourbon
  • 0.75 ounce Allspice Dram (or less, to taste)
  • 0.50 ounce fresh lime juice
  • 0.50 tablespoon simple syrup (or less, to taste)
  • 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a 5-ounce cocktail glass.

Let me state for the record that I am not a cocktail expert. I am simply on a journey of exploration and discovery led by people like Dr. Cocktail (Ted Haigh), David Wondrich and Jason Wilson. I love being exposed to new flavors and combinations found in classic cocktails, and this was the first time I had ever heard of Allspice Dram.

Allspice Dram (sometimes called Pimento Dram) is a cordial made from the berries of a Caribbean plant. I had only been exposed to allspice as a powered spice used in cooking, so once I was able to score a bottle at Binny’s during a recent trip to Chicago, I was eager to try it.

I decided to taste it plain first, and it has a wonderful bouquet. The first sensation I got was one of warmth followed by a slight peppery burn, but it was more in the nature of cinnamon than habanero. Since I was going to pair this with a nice bourbon, I backed off just a little bit from the full three-quarter ounce since I didn’t want it to be overpowering, and it turned out perfect.

I loved this drink. In part it was because the flavors were so unusual, but everything just seemed to come together.

Rating: 5/5

Notes: The Allspice Dram is St. Elizabeth’s, and it was bottled in direct response to the first edition of Dr. Cocktail’s book. The bourbon was Angel’s Envy.

The Georgia Mint Julep

Tarus Brandy/Vermouth/Wine, Stars - 4

In honor of the Kentucky Derby, I decided to make The Georgia Mint Julep:

  • fresh mint leaves
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • A dash of water
  • 2 ounces cognac (or other brandy)
  • 1 ounce real peach brandy

Muddle several fresh mint leaves with sugar and a dash of water in a silver julep cup (A double-rocks glass works fine, too). Add the cognac, peach brandy and crushed ice to fill. Stir! Stir! Stir! Insert several more fresh mint leaves between the cup and the mixture, sticking out and pointing heavenward.

Considering that last Saturday vats of Mint Juleps were consumed, you might be asking how this can be considered a forgotten cocktail. There are a couple of reasons. First, they were probably made with bourbon and not cognac, and second, true aged peach brandy is damn hard to find. This recipe is based on one of the earliest accounts of the Mint Julep, from British Captain Frederick Marryat’s 1840 book Second Series of A Diary in America which describes the “real mint julep” thusly:

There are many varieties [of Mint Julep], such as those composed of Claret, Madiera, &c.; but the ingredients of the real mint-julep are as follows. I learnt how to make them, and succeeded pretty well. Put into a tumbler about a dozen sprigs of the tender shoots of mint, upon them put a spoonful of white sugar, and equal proportions of peach and common brandy, so as to fill it up one-third, or perhaps a little less. Then take rasped or pounded ice, and fill up the tumbler. Epicures rub the lips of the tumbler with a piece of fresh pine-apple, and the tumbler itself is very often incrusted outside with stalactites of ice. As the ice melts, you drink.

Dr. Cocktail devotes six pages to this drink. While I haven’t counted, I’m pretty certain that is the most for any recipe in the book. You may also note that the recipe above departs from the one by the good Captain in proportions. This is because modern peach brandy liqueur is actually grape brandy, peach flavor and sweetening.

However, if you can find real aged peached brandy, you can mix 1.5 ounces evenly with the cognac. He also recommends substituting two bar spoons of simple syrup for the white sugar.

In the book he touts Penoboscot Bay Distillery as the place for real peach brandy, but it has closed. I managed to find a bottle of Kuchan Oak Aged Peach Brandy in California and had it shipped to me, so that is the recipe I made. I am hoping the gang at the local Fair Game Beverage Company is able to step up and fill the void (they make a good apple brandy) but a late frost impacted this year’s peach crop so we may have to wait.

My original hope for the picture was to have a lot more ice on the silver cup, but I’m afraid by the time I got everything set up it had faded somewhat. My initial taste was a little too sharp and strong, but as the ice melted slightly the drink mellowed a lot and I really enjoyed it. I want to play with this one a little more and maybe even try a bourbon version, but for now I’m glad the Georgia Mint Julep is no longer forgotten.

Rating: 4/5

Notes: Since Captain Marryat wrote his book in 1840, I decided to go with Pierre Ferrand 1840 Original Formula Cognac in this drink, which I was able to obtain on a recent trip to Chicago. It is designed for mixing and is supposed to be in the style of pre-phylloxera vintages without the price. I liked it and it is affordable.

The Jupiter Cocktail

Tarus Brandy/Vermouth/Wine, Gin, Liqueurs, Stars - 4

Ever feel like a martini but want something different? Try the Jupiter Cocktail:

  • 1.50 ounces gin
  • 0.75 ounce dry vermouth
  • 1 teaspoon Parfait Amour
  • 1 teaspoon orange juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass.

Okay, to be honest, I made this cocktail because I wanted to say “neener, neener – I have Parfait Amour and you don’t”.

(grin)

A couple of the drinks in the book call for it, and on a recent trip to DC I was able to buy some. In the US it is available from Marie Brizard, and it is a curaçao-based liqueur with other floral flavors.

Often used as a dainty cordial aimed at women, Dr. Cocktail admonishes us to use the Parfait Amour (which means “perfect love”) in the exact proportions listed above. While I always strive to measure these drinks properly (I don’t know what they are supposed to taste like in most cases so I want to recreate what the author intended as closely as possible), this time I made doubly sure to measure accurately.

With it’s two parts gin to one part dry vermouth, the base for this cocktail is obviously a martini. In the version I made, the Parfait Amour didn’t change the color of the drink much as all, but its impact was in the taste: it was one of the smoothest martinis I’ve ever experienced. Seriously, I smiled involuntarily when the usual aftertaste just wasn’t there. Instead it finished as smooth as it started.

Rating: 4/5

Notes: The Parfait Amour was from Marie Brizard. I used Broker’s Dry Gin and Dolin vermouth.

Don the Beachcomber’s Zombie

Tarus Rum, Stars - 4

The Walking Dead may have ended for the season, but the Zombie “lives” on:

  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 1 ounce gold Puerto Rican rum
  • 1 ounce 151-proof Demerara rum (from Guyana)
  • 1 ounce white Puerto Rican rum
  • 1 ounce unsweetened pineapple juice
  • 1 ounce fresh lime juice
  • 1 ounce passion fruit syrup
  • 1 dash Angostura Bitters

Dissolve the brown sugar in the lemon juice. Combine it with everything else in a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake well, and pour all into a collins glass. Garnish with a mint sprig.

While considered a forgotten cocktail, the Zombie was well known to my misspent youth. At places that served tiki-style drinks, it was often advertised with warnings such as “One is too many! Limit Two!” which just encouraged you to try it.

From my research, Zombies are strong rum drinks combined with fruit juice. The juice disguises the fact that this cocktail has a high alcohol content. It was invented by Donn Beach of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Los Angeles. The book claims that this is his original recipe.

I like tiki drinks and had been wanting to try this for some time, but I needed to find the 151-proof Demerara rum. I was finally able to get some at Ace Beverage during my last trip to DC. The classics call for Lemon Hart 151, but apparently it has been discontinued and I can’t seem to find it anywhere (the website says copyright 2013). According to this Reddit thread, the Hamilton is a valid replacement.

It’s a fun drink to make, and as you shake it you can actually feel it “foaming” up. I’m not sure if it is the pineapple juice or the sugar, but you get a real nice head on the drink which makes it perfect for a straw. I liked the taste, but I felt it could be just a little bit sweeter. The next time I make this I’ll use the passion fruit syrup I have instead of the less sweet nectar, but at the moment I still have a preference for Donn’s Fogcutter.

Rating: 4/5

Notes: Probably the most well known rum brand is Bacardi, which is from Puerto Rico, so I used that for the white. I didn’t have a Puerto Rican gold rum so I decided to use my contraband aged Havana Club. The Demerara rum is by Hamilton. I used the passion fruit nectar I bought for The Avenue and the metal straw was purchased from Amazon.

The Income Tax Cocktail

Tarus Brandy/Vermouth/Wine, Gin, Stars - 4

In honor of April 15th, The Income Tax Cocktail:

  • 1.50 ounces gin
  • 0.75 ounce dry vermouth
  • 0.75 ounce sweet vermouth
  • Juice of 1/4 orange (squeezed right in the shaker)
  • 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.

The Income Tax cocktail is also known as the “Bronx with Bitters”. Every borough in New York City, except Stanton Island, has a cocktail named after it. The most famous, the Manhattan, is popular even today so it can’t be considered “forgotten”. I quite liked the Brooklyn and so I was looking forward to trying this one (the Queens Cocktail isn’t in the book but it looks like the Bronx with pineapple juice instead of orange juice).

The key to this drink is to make sure to use fresh orange juice. I always try to use fresh squeezed juices in my drinks, and I happened to have several small but really juicy and sweet navel oranges on hand.

This one was wonderful. Due to a trip out of town we got our taxes done a few days early, but I did have to drive four hours in heavy rain today so I was looking forward to relaxing with a cocktail when I got home. This did nicely. I might have even preferred a straight up Bronx as I thought the bitters were a little distracting in this drink, but only slightly and as a very mild aftertaste, so if you don’t have bitters on hand you are probably all right to experiment without them.

Rating: 4/5

Notes: I used Bombay London Dry gin, Dolin dry vermouth and Carpano Antica sweet vermouth.

Twelve Mile Limit

Tarus Brandy/Vermouth/Wine, Rum, Rye, Stars - 3

Another cocktail with an interesting name, the Twelve Mile Limit:

  • 1.0 ounce white rum (Appleton White Jamaican recommended)
  • 0.5 ounce rye whiskey
  • 0.5 ounce brandy (Hennessy VS recommended)
  • 0.5 ounce grenadine
  • 0.5 ounce lemon juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

I chose this drink specifically in an attempt to fill out sections of the index that looked a little bare.

A lot of vintage cocktails came out of the Prohibition era in the United States where the production of alcoholic beverages was forbidden. Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with a portion of the citizenry.

To quote David Wondrich in his book Imbibe!:

In the nineteenth century there were really two Americas; two kinds of Americans. There were the ones to whom the freedom upon which the country was founded meant something like, “If I work hard, avoid temptation and play by the rules, I will be unmolested in my enjoyment of the fruits of my labors,” and the ones to whom it meant “Nobody can tell me what to do.”

I work in the field of open source software, and I think that is one reason I am drawn to the history of vintage cocktails. Open source was a response, in part, to proprietary software companies telling us what to do.

Now, back to the Twelve Mile Limit. At the time of prohibition, the United States claimed a three mile territorial limit over the water around the country (as far as a cannon could fire). Since Prohibition was a regulation, it was possible to go out more than three miles and be outside its reach. When the discussion arose to move that limit to twelve miles, this cocktail was created in response (similar to how the term scofflaw was created to demean drinkers who instead embraced it).

It’s a nice cocktail, but I didn’t have any of the recommended rum (I do have an Appleton gold rum) so I used the old stand by Bacardi. The drink is slightly sweet, due to the grenadine, and I enjoyed it, but I probably would enjoy it more with the perfect match of the right spirit brands.

Rating: 3/5 – a strong 3, more like a 3.5, that has the possibility of being a 4.

Notes: As mentioned, I used Barcardi white (a Puerto Rican rum) along with the recommended Hennessy. I chose a Redemption Rye and my usual, authentic Stirrings grenadine.

The Brooklyn Cocktail

Tarus Liqueurs, Rye, Stars - 4

After a rather long day, it was nice to come home to The Brooklyn Cocktail:

  • 2.00 ounces rye or bourbon
  • 0.75 ounce dry vermouth
  • 2 teaspoons Amer Picon
  • 2 teaspoons maraschino liqueur

Stir in a mixing glass with ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry

There are times when I want a particular type of cocktail. I don’t know if there is a word for it, but these are drinks made up just of spirits (with perhaps a dash or two of bitters) and might be considered “manly” drinks: your Manhattans and your martinis.

As I was preparing this drink, it dawned on me that it is very similar to one of my all time favorites: Life is Beautiful. Although the portions are different, substitute cherry brandy for the maraschino liqueur, sweet vermouth for dry, and Montenegro Amaro for the Amer Picon and you have drinks that, while not the same, could be siblings. This made me very eager to taste it.

Plus, it gave me an excuse to use some of my hard won Amer Picon. Made from a recipe from Jamie Boudreau, it took me several months to prepare and it worked well in this cocktail.

The ingredients come together well and I thoroughly enjoyed this beverage. It is ever so slightly more bitter than the Life is Beautiful but it is still a balanced cocktail, and it had the desired effect of relaxing me after a stressful work day.

Rating: 4/5

Notes: I used small batch Bulleit Rye, called for in my namesake Tarus the Bull, which worked out nicely. The vermouth was Dolin and the maraschino liqueur was Luxardo.

The Aviation

Tarus Gin, Liqueurs, Stars - 3, Stars - 4, Stars - 5

One of the first vintage cocktails I ever made was The Aviation:

  • 2.50 ounces gin
  • 0.75 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 2 or 3 dashes maraschino liqueur

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist

I first heard about the Aviation last year while watching The Blacklist, an NBC television show. In one episode, Raymond Reddington takes agent Elizabeth Keen to Montreal where he orders an Aviation cocktail for her. The drink they present was a dark blue color, and he remarked “It’s from the ’20s, tastes like spring, doesn’t it?”

I had never heard of the Aviation before, so I looked it up online. Most of the pictures showed it with a pale blue color, like the sky, and that was one of the reasons for its name. Not sure where NBC got their dark blue color. The color comes from a liqueur called crème de violette, and the recommended brand to use was Creme Yvette. The standard recipe was more like:

  • 2.00 ounces gin
  • 0.75 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 0.50 ounce maraschino liqueur
  • 0.25 ounce Crème de violette or Crème Yvette

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist

I was a little disappointed that the Aviation recipe in Dr. Cocktail’s book omitted the crème de violette. I really like the blue color, but as I am determined to make every recipe per his instructions I was willing to make one without it. But I wanted to find some real crème de violette so I could compare the two.

Of course, crème de violette or Crème Yvette is impossible to find in North Carolina, but on a recent trip to Washington DC I went to Ace Beverage and they had a dusty bottle for sale, so now I was good to go.

The first thing I noticed was that the Crème Yvette added more of a reddish pink hue to the drink than I was expecting. If I was basing any judgment on the color, I would have to conclude that Crème Yvette didn’t really add anything to the presentation.

But I base my reviews mainly on taste, and I found the second recipe much more to my liking. Let’s get serious, gin and lemon go together like salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly and chocolate and raspberry. It’s hard to go wrong. But there really wasn’t enough of the maraschino liqueur for my palate to taste anything outstanding about the drink. In the second recipe, the increased cherry liqueur and the Crème Yvette add a new dimension to the cocktail, and I liked it much better. It was a little sweeter with more floral overtones.

But I mentioned that I had made this cocktail before I ever started this blog, so what recipe did I use? I used the second one, but instead of crème de violette I used violet syrup.

When I was researching crème de violette, I got a hit on Amazon for Monin Violet Syrup, so I bought some. Not only does it add the requisite blue color, the added sweetness makes the drink more appealing to a wider audience (i.e. my wife). At a quarter ounce, it’s not enough to overpower the drink (the lemon juice makes sure of that) and I found this variation to be my favorite. So if you are thinking of having an Aviation and are waiting on the crème de violette, give the violet syrup a shot and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Note that the Death and Co. book also favors the second recipe, although they add a bit of simple syrup as a sweetener.

Rating: 3/5 without crème de violette, 4/5 with Crème Yvette and 5/5 with violet syrup.

Notes: I’ve developed an attachment to Broker’s Gin, so that’s what I used, but I literally smacked my forehead when I remembered the big bottle of Bombay Sapphire I have. I think it would add even more to the blue color, and the floral notes would complement the violet.

Vowel Cocktail

Tarus Liqueurs, Scotch, Stars - 3

Presenting one of the odder drinks in the book, the Vowel Cocktail:

  • 1.0 ounce Scotch
  • 1.0 ounce sweet vermouth
  • 0.5 ounce orange juice (preferably fresh squeezed)
  • 0.5 ounce kümmel (Gilka)
  • 1 or 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass.

Okay, this is an odd one. Scotch cocktails are unusual (although the Blood and Sand is one of my favorites) and I’d never heard of kümmel before, but as I am determined to make all of the cocktails in the book, I put it on the shopping list.

I got the Gilka kümmel from Cask in San Francisco (you can’t find it in North Carolina) so now I have a great big bottle of it (grin). As an avid user of the Linux computer operating system, which has a penguin as its mascot, I was immediately fond of the brand, which features a penguin in a Kaiser helmet and a monocle.

I also recently got a copy of the Death and Co. cocktail book and noticed that they have their versions of many of the cocktails that Dr. Cocktail lists, so I plan to cross reference them as this experiment continues, but it appears the Vowel Cocktail is so obscure that even they don’t list it.

I did some research on kümmel cocktails and found The Remington which sounds a lot like The Vowel, just with more whiskey, so it seems like I’ll need to revisit the spirit in the future.

As for the Vowel Cocktail, I didn’t really care for it at first. I found the caraway liqueur bitter versus more of the licorice taste that I was expecting. Since I wasn’t too keen on it, after a few sips I did some other things and when I came back to it I found that the slight warm up made the drink much better. This is one you probably want to short shake.

Rating: 3/5 (more like a strong 2 but since I’m not doing partial scores it squeaks out a 3).

Notes: My go-to Scotch for cocktails is The Famous Grouse, a nice blend. I used Carpano Antica for the vermouth.