The Fogcutter (Trader Vic’s)

Having just received my Fee Brothers Orgeat Syrup I decided to try The Fogcutter again, using the recipe from Trader Vic’s:

• 2.0 ounces light Puerto Rican rum
• 0.5 ounce gin
• 1.0 ounce brandy
• 1.0 ounce orange juice
• 2.0 ounces lemon juice
• 0.5 ounce orgeat syrup
• 0.5 ounce sherry

Shake with cube ice, strain into a glass, and fill with crushed ice.

First off, this is a huge cocktail. Most of the cocktails I’ve been making have around one and a half to two ounces of spirit. This has close to four. I had to change the glass I was planning to serve this in to leave room for ice.

The Fogcutter

Dr. Cocktail lists only a single vintage recipe that uses sour mix, and since I had some on hand I decided to try The Fogcutter:

• 1.0 ounce white rum
• 0.5 ounce gin
• 0.5 ounce brandy
• 0.5 ounce Sour Mix
• Two dashes simple syrup

Combine with ice and blend. Pour into goblet. Add a float of cherry-flavored brandy on top.

This drink had a lot of firsts for me. It was my first cocktail to feature rum. It was the first cocktail to be blended. It as also my first cocktail in the “tiki” tradition made famous by Trader Vic’s.

Palm Beach Special

In our house we almost always have a grapefruit. It’s odd, because while we eat grapefruit we don’t do so very often, and since we always have one sometimes it hangs around past its prime. Thus we refer to it as the “sacrificial” grapefruit.

Due to this new hobby, I tend to have a lot of fresh citrus on hand and I recently bought a new grapefruit to sacrifice. However this time it was to the cocktail gods. Of the four recipes on the list that use grapefruit juice, the one I was most in the mood for was the Palm Beach Special:

The Rose

I counted four cocktails in the list that call for raspberry syrup as an ingredient. In the Resource Guide section of the book, Dr. Cocktail recommends using [Smucker’s Red Raspberry Syrup][1]. Mine finally arrived so I present The Rose:

• 2 ounces dry French vermouth
• 1 ounce kirschwasser
• 1 teaspoon raspberry syrup

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

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Sherry Baby

In Chatham County, NC, where I live, we don’t have many options for cocktails. However, the always excellent Oak Leaf restaurant is usually a good place to go (especially on Tuesdays when cocktails are half price). They recently got a new bartender (more aptly “cocktail chef”) named Justin Peregoy who takes cocktails seriously, and he was kind enough to share his recipe for Sherry Baby:

• 1.50 ounces Redemption Rye
• 0.50 ounce Lustau Amontillado Sherry
• 0.25 ounce orange simple syrup
• 2-3 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters

Combine the ingredients in a bar glass, top with ice and stir until the glass is completely chilled top to bottom. Strain into a long stemmed glass and garnish with an orange twist.

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The Scofflaw

Look, gin is nice. I like gin, and gin makes a great base for many a cocktail. But I was getting a little tired of it so I went in search of a non-gin based drink. I found The Scofflaw:

• 1.50 ounces rye
• 1.00 ounce dry vermouth
• 0.75 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 0.75 ounce real pomegranate grenadine

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

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The Jack Rose Cocktail

When you have a bar in your living room, you end up collecting bottles of spirits. Some are gifts, some are random purchases and some end up there when people move and don’t want to ship the bottles, etc.

Thus I have no idea how a bottle of Captain Apple Jack ended up in my collection, but I figured I’d use it in the Jack Rose Cocktail:

• 1.5 ounces applejack
• Juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon – about one ounce)
• 2 or more dashes of real pomegranate grenadine

Shake well in an iced cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lime or lemon wedge

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