npr:
It was my ambition to create cocktails for all three Crawley sisters (because original cocktails for the whole cast, while admirable, might be a bit daunting). First up is Sybil, the youngest, and my (and maybe your) personal favorite. Sybil is so easy to like…she’s sweet without being saccharine, headstrong, and a bit stubborn. For her, I created a cocktail with delicate, rarefied flavors (St. Germain and champagne) that’s grounded with something a bit more everyman (London dry gin). The end product is sweet, lovely, and stronger than you’d expect.
Lady Sybil
makes 1 cocktail
1 oz gin
3/4 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
brut champagne, chilledCombine the gin and St. Germain over ice. Shake and strain into a flute. Top with champagne. (via Downton Abbey Cocktails: Sybil | The Kitchn)
Related on the Kitchn:
• Downtown Abbey Cocktails: Edith
• Downtown Abbey Cocktails: Mary
What does it take to get a decent old-fashioned in this town?
After asking himself that question too many times, the cocktail autodidact Martin Doudoroff decided to do something about it. The result is Old Fashioned 101, a bare bones Web site in which he spells out in painstaking detail how to build what many historians and mixologists regard as the grandaddy of American mixed drinks.
– A New Site for the Old-Fashioned - NYTimes.comIf you are a mindful bartender, you are in the business of making people happier when they leave your bar than they were when they came in. If a bartender makes 10 people happier on a Tuesday night, that is a fine thing.
–-bartender Gary Regan, from
I’ll Have the Enlightenment, Please, and Make That a Double - NYTimes.com
Perhaps Minneapolis never quite got over the Prohibition era of the 1930s. How else to explain the popularity of its iconic cocktail, The Bootleg? The city’s signature drink - heard of by few outside of Minnesota - is a relatively homely one, a fizzy, sweet-and-sour concoction akin to a Tom Collins goosed with mint.
– The Spirited Traveler: Bootlegging in Minneapolis - Yahoo! NewsSculaccione
For each cocktail:
2 ounces Blanco tequila
1½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh grapefruit juice
1 tablespoon Campari
Dash of Angostura bitters
1 tablespoon simple syrup
Lime wheel, for garnish
To make each cocktail, combine the tequila, lime juice, grapefruit juice, Campari, bitters and simple syrup in a shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously. Fill an old-fashioned glass with ice, strain the cocktail into the glass, and garnish with a lime wheel.
Note: My variation is to add some blood orange juice too. It’s great with Mexican food.
– Mozza cocktail: Sculaccione - latimes.comTHIS COCKTAIL, named after a quote by Falstaff in “Henry IV,” was created by Phoebe Esmon at Farmers’ Cabinet. It calls for genever, a Dutch-style gin (look for Bols); Calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy in France; and Benedictine liqueur. Oloroso is a sweet style of sherry.
A Two-Fold Operation
2 ounces genever, preferably Bols
3/4 ounce Calvados or apple brandy
1/2 ounce Benedictine
1/2 ounce Oloroso sherry
2 dashes Angostura bitters
In a mixing glass filled halfway with ice, add all ingredients. Stir vigorously, then strain into cocktail glass.
– Two for the at-home mixologists - Philly.comA good year for a drink
I have a half-hearted (OK, maybe more like half-assed) resolution to write more here in 2012. Like my mom is fond of saying, “We’ll see.”
I did enjoy a good many cocktails in 2011, in a good many places, with some wonderful people (Mrs. CG and CG Jr. sit at the top of that list.) Here’s some of the best of my experiences:
- Cocktail culture hasn’t hit Beijing like it has a lot of other big cities. Still, Mrs. CG and I were able to find several good places to enjoy a drink while visiting CG Jr. at the start of the year. The best of them was probably Mao Mao Chong, a cozy, hipsterish hutong joint. They do a lot of their own infusions for a creative cocktail menu. And they ended up employing CG Jr. later in the year.
- We revisited a couple of favorites while traveling this year - The Matchbox in Chicago and The Pegu Club in Manhattan. Both lived up to my memories.
- We discovered several recommendable places in Minneapolis-St. Paul (my hometown). The new Psycho Suzi’s is great when you’re in a tiki bar mood. The Prairie Ale House retains much of the strib mall steakhouse vibe from its previous tenants, which masks a bar that takes its cocktails seriously. Ask the bartender for a surprise when they’re not too busy and you’re in for a treat.
- My favorite new bar is a place in Minneapolis’s gentrifying Warehouse District, the Marvel Bar. Head bartender Pip Hanson takes his concoctions so seriously (“They’re like my children,” he told me when I asked for a favorite) that I’d be tempted to laugh at his dedication if it weren’t for the fact that his crew made the best, most interesting cocktails I had all year.
- Mrs. CG and I discovered rum this year. Of course, we’d had rum-based drinks before, but we never really sought them out or made them ourselves. In fact, for the past few years we’ve been giving away a crate of bottles bequeathed to us after the death of my father-in-law’s best friend. The two of them had accumulated the stash after discovering some fantastic rum drink on a long-ago vacation. They spent years trying to find just the right rum and other ingredients, but never recreated it to their satisfaction. I never understood their obsession until a few years ago, and of course now I understand it all too well. Mrs. CG and I weren’t driven by any single rum drink, but we spent a lot of weekend evenings sampling various rums in a variety of cocktails. I have a new appreciation.
- The one rum drink I did try to recreate was the Old Cuban served in the bar at La Belle Vie. So, imagine my joy when head bartender Johnny Michaels compiled Northstar Cocktails, a bar guide featuring not just his recipes, but those from all the best bartenders in the Twin Cities. I gave it to Mrs. CG for Christmas and we’ve just started making our way through the recipes. They have been outstanding.
I hope your 2011 was as good as mine, and your 2012 even better.
-CG
The Harry Caray
Ice
2 ounces aquavit
1 teaspoon pickle juice, preferably sweet-and-sour
3 dashes celery bitters
Lemon peel twist or pickle slice, for garnish
Fill a mixing glass halfway with ice. Add the aquavit, pickle juice and bitters. Stir vigorously, then strain into a chilled cocktail (martini) glass. Garnish with the twist of lemon peel or pickle slice.
– Properly Sauced: The Harry Caray Cocktail: ChicagoistThe CG Philosophy:
There's much more to a good drink than booze. There's the room, the bartender, the music, your companions. Along with the cherry or the twist, they complete the drink. They should be savored, not swallowed in a single gulp.
