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.

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 Straits Sling

Andrea works in a larger city than where we live and they have an ABC store that stocks a greater variety of things. Last night she brought home a bottle of Bénédictine (which I would have to order locally) and so I decided to make a cocktail that featured it: The Straits Sling.

• 2.0 ounces gin
• 0.5 ounce kirschwasser
• 0.5 ounce Bénédictine
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 dashes orange bitters
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• soda water

Shake everything but the soda water in an iced cocktail shaker. Strain into a sour glass or champagne flute. Fill with soda water. Garnish with a cheery, an orange wheel, a lemon twist … go crazy

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Park Avenue Cocktail

In my previous post I was lamenting the fact that I had returned from a trip and while I wanted to try a new cocktail, I was out of fresh fruit which limited my choices.

The next morning I was eating breakfast, which for me usually consists of fruit. As I was finishing off a container of pineapple that I had sliced, Andrea pointed and said, “hey, didn’t you need pineapple juice for your cocktail?”

The Boulevardier

Of the 87 or so recipes in the book, I’ve seen a handful of them in the wild. This is one of them.

According to the text, the cocktail was the signature drink of Erskine Gwynne who was an “expatriate writer, socialite and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt”. Gwynne edited a magazine called The Paris Boulevardier, hence the name.

• 1.5 ounce bourbon
• 1 ounce Campari
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth

Stir long and well with ice in a mixing glass and then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

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