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INGREDIENTS:
2 oz (60 mL) Bulleit bourbon
¾ oz (22 mL) date syrup (see note)
Dash Fee Brothers black walnut bitters
Dash Angostura bitters
Sash Regan’s Orange bitters
1½ oz (45 mL) fino sherry
¾ oz (22 mL) grapefruit juice
¾ oz (22 mL) peach tea syrup (see note)
¾ oz (22 mL) lemon juice
2 dashes Bittered Sling Cherry Bitters
Ginger beer
In this increasingly fast-paced, disposable society, quality products that are crafted to last are a reassuring reminder of how things can improve with age. It could be a single malt whisky maturing for a couple of decades, a carefully cellared Bordeaux, or that go-to pair of jeans or bag that never lets you down.
The holiday season cries out for festive bubbles, for brunch-time mimosas and kir royales, for corks flying at midnight, for French 75s and Champagne cocktails just about any time.
But of all the bubbly concoctions, there is no more festive fizz than a grand Champagne punch.
2 cups (500 mL) brandy
16 dashes Angostura bitters
½ to ¾ cup (125 to 180 mL) oleo saccharum (see method below)
2 bottles sparkling wine such as cava or Champagne
Well, you get the picture. Wondering what to get the cocktail aficionado on your holiday list? Start right here.
Barstools are for boasting. And when you’re alone, they’re for wool-gathering, your privacy on public display. Random thoughts assail you — unless you’re just there to watch the game, which is fine but for the purposes of this column let’s assume no high-def.
I’m at a bar now, in fact, just me and no TV, making notes on napkins the way you do. This is not unusual. Over the last 18 months I’ve warmed my share of seats, and I’ve written about some of the highlights in these pages, usually from notes on the backs of napkins very like this one. Those 18 months happen to have included a fair amount of travel, and so the cocktails I’ve described have often gone down in other cities, in bars very like this one.
Fa-la-la-la! It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas at The Cascade Room, where the holiday cocktails are merrily flowing.
The Giffard Menthe-Pastille, which is similar to a white crème de menthe, is available at Legacy Liquor and other select private retailers.
• 1 oz (30 mL) cachaça
• 1 oz (30 mL) Giffard Menthe-Pastille
• 2 oz (60 mL) heavy cream
• 1 egg white
• 2 oz (60 mL) soda water or as needed
• ¼ bar spoon (2 mL) crushed candy canes
It takes about three seconds for a shot of ice-cold aquavit to pass your lips and slide down your throat, leaving its distinctive hit of caraway and liquorice tingling on your tongue and introducing a pleasing warmth into your belly. The Swedish Shot, as it is known — raise your glass, lock eyes with your fellow toasters and drink up — is swift and satisfying.