Logan’s Rum
Stir with ice then strain into coupe.
Picked up the loganberry liqueur (have I ever had a loganberry?) and paired it with some rum. It definitely needed some bitter from the amaro and the mole bitters. The absinthe added a nice bright anise bite.
Loganberry. Rum. The name was a given.
Rum Plum Tugger
Stir with ice and strain into coupe.
I’ve had the damsom plum for a while (very similar to sloe gin) and wanted to find something for it. Gin is what I usually reach for, so tried rum in this case. The Eclipse is a nice base, but I wanted more bite and grabbed the overproof Plantation. The vanilla deepened the sweet tartness of the plum, and the bitter amaro was necessary for balance. The tartness of the liqueur meant no citrus was needed in addition.
The name came from my daughter almost immediately when I mentioned the ingredients, and I thank her for it. And there’s no doing anything about it.
Won’t Bejeweled Again
Stir with ice and strain into glass.
Here’s a modified Bijou with aged gin and fir brandy added. I swapped the orange bitters to Abbot’s, and that was it.
The name is a bad pun on a Who song, and also a play on the meaning of Bijou, which is a small and elegant jewel or trinket. You better you better you bet.
Yozakura
Stir with ice and strain into glass.
Cerasum is a sweeter amaro that features cherries and cherry blossoms. It’s pleasant to sip without the harsh bitterness often found in other amaros. I wanted to use this for a lower ABV drink, so to a healthy base of Cerasum I added Sakura gin, a NY based gin that also uses cherry blossoms. To balance these two I grabbed elderflower, keeping to the floral theme.
The name comes from a Japanese tradition of nighttime viewing of illuminated cherry blossoms. The printing in the photograph is one I picked up in Tokyo years ago that just enraptured me. The drink is a nice complement to that feeling.
The Fig Apple
Stir with ice and strain into coupe. Express orange peel over drink, then discard. Garnish with an apple slice.
I’m going through my stores and trying to work through some bottles I’ve had for a while but not really used. Enter the fig arrak and blackberry liqueur. I started with rye but as the name came to me I switched the base to apple. Ideally it would be NY based, but I had NJ on hand. Fuggedaboutit.
Pukana Lā
Shake with ice and strain into coupe.
I don’t have too much to comment on this one. It likely started with passion fruit and bloomed from there. I love the passion fruit in combination with Green Chartreuse, so likely was exploring its yellow counterpart.
The name translates to “sunset” in Hawaiian. Not really a Hawaiian cocktail, but definitely made me think of a tropical sunset, both in taste and in where I’d like to be sipping it.
Plum Stoker’s Chocula
Shake with ice and strain over crushed ice. Top with healthy dashes of Peychaud’s.
First, I apologize for the name. It came to me right away and then I couldn’t get rid of it. And yes, it’s awful.
The drink, however, is not. I used a couple of plum liquors I got in Romania. I tempered the sweet with the bitter chocolate and lemon. But then needed to round out the plum with the cinnamon and honey.
But the name. Deserves a stake through the heart, it does.
50 Shades of Orange
Shake with ice and strain into glass.
I’ve used the Boudin saffron gin in the past, but if I’m honest it’s not my favorite, so this last time I finished a bottle I decided I didn’t need to invest in another. However, I was still playing with this cocktail, so infused my own — Corsair with a few threads of saffron overnight — and quite liked the results.
The mix? Not sure. The almond (taste) of the noyaux with orange made sense, and I think I had the salted honey syrup made from another cocktail (honey, water, pinch of salt, reduced). Definitely needed the acid from the lemon. And saffron and cardamom? Sure.
Because of the saffron the drink has a beautiful orange hue. It’s one hue, but I liked the name anyway.
Chizzlemere Icebreaker
Shake first three ingredients with ice, then strain over glass with ice (highball with cubes is fine). Top with 3 ounces of tonic, the a star anise for garnish.
This is the last of my Gentleman’s Guide cocktails, named for the resort town with the ice skating where the D’Ysquith junior fell through to his untimely death. Simple in ingredients, being a G&T enhanced with Chartreuse and lemon. Nice and cold. Just watch the ice.
Hold the Pickle
Shake with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with cornichons.
Yeah, this is a weird one, but deceptively subtle and tasty. As I was playing, I found I was using a number of ingredients you might leverage in making dill pickles, minus the vinegar that’s the most present flavoring. So the combination here was merely just messing around to balance a drink based on dill.
The name is because the result is decidedly NOT like a dill pickle. Does the name confuse or reinforce the lack of pickle? Not sure, but adding the cornichons is intentionally misleading. At the very least, though, if you were expecting pickle from the name you get it in the garnish. Now drink with relish. (Sorry not sorry)
