Author Archives: dh

Albannach Renaissance

This is another cocktail based on Scotch single malt whisky. Scotch blended whisky isn’t classic cocktail component because of many reasons. Single malt whisky has much more reasons not to be widely used in cocktails. It remains as exotic tool for innovative bartenders and mixologists, something like bitters. I’ve learnt about  Albannach Renaissance at Gin, Not Vodka. The cocktail based on combination of peaty Scotch whisky and Italian aperitif Aperol. As I understand, the  title for the cocktail has been taken from the name of the restaurant where the author Vytautas Jurkus works. At first I was in a hurry and flippantly substituted Campari for Aperol and Bowmore Legend for Ardbeg Renaissance. I don’t think that my first Albannach Renaissance cocktail was good. But it was the thing which I remembered as something special and exotic.

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Talisker Single Malt Scotch 10-years-old Whisky

Well-known Talisker distillery is located at the island of Skye in the north part of Inner Hebrides. Now it’s  owned by Diageo and is a part of Diageo’s «Classic Malts» series.

10 years old single malt whisky is most affordable Talisker bottling and, at the same time, most peated whisky produced at Talisker distillery. It can’t match against Islay heavy peated whisky but definitely has sharp peat notes in the taste.

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Rain Forest Martini

After New Year I felt I need a break in my long season of whisky and gin consumption. For me, the best way to forget about single malts or gin-based cocktails is to create new and unusual cocktail using exotic components.

This time I’ve took Van Gogh Açai-Blueberry Vodka for my next exercise.

When I bought this spirit, I’ve visited Van Gogh Vodka website and get disappointed with it. Recipe I saw there were too dull and trite. So since that time I started to make my own cocktails with Van Gogh Açai-Blueberry Vodka.

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The Remaining Balance

Here is the document I started almost a year ago. That became something like a ritual. When buying new single malt whisky, I eventually ended up using the whisky in this magnificent cocktail.

Now I told myself to stop and to write this post. I’m continuing with buying and drinking Scotch whisky but  I need to comprehend all my emotions and experience. And for me, the best way to do it is to write about it.

All that started when I was browsing Imbibe website. I’ve took many ideas from there, and The Remaining Balance cocktail recipe by Jason Littrell was one of them.

Imagine a mixture of Grand Marnier, two single malt whiskies, amaro and two bitters. Sophisticated bizarre mix? Not for me! My love to Scotch whisky and experimenter ‘s itch gave me no chances to leave the cocktail unnoticed.

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Blinker

It was last spring when I’ve learned this beautiful cocktail called Blinker.

I like both whiskey and grapefruit juice, and it was very interesting for me to mix them together with grenadine. Immediately I’ve made it with an ordinary bourbon, and later I made sure that Blinker could be great drink for me.

Google told me that Paul Clark already wrote about Blinker. He insists that Blinker is one of the cocktails resurrected by Ted Haigh.

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Borden Chase

I’m continuing with my Scotch whisky experiments. Now I’m about to learn Borden Chase, one more cocktail based on wonderful combination of Italian vermouth and Scotch whisky.

This cocktail should be called Rob Roy variation but if it were not for pastis. With pastis and orange bitters, this cocktail turns to something unique. Yes, there are Rob Roy Holiday Style and Bobby Burns with lightly anise-flavoured Drambuie and Benedictine, respectively. And there is almost identical Robert Burns Cocktail. But at first I’ve known it as Borden Chase at David Wondrich’s Esquire drinks database.

Both Drambuie and Benedictine work perfectly with whisky so I thought that pastis’ strong anise note could be nice addition to Scotch whisky flavour.

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S.I.P.#2: Sidecar

We’re continuing our Russian online cocktail party. The 26th of November  is the date of the second event, and Sidecar is the theme for it.

Sidecar, a cocktail legend. Its roots are in the beginning of last century. I have no intention to seek for stories about the men who invented Sidecar. I’m going to learn how vintage recipe will work now and find my own perfect recipe.

I have had my first Sidecar experience when I was newbie in cocktail culture (I mean «more newbie than now»). I’ve red a nice article about Sidecar then took equal parts of awful Russian brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice and eventually got teeth-damaging acid liquid  impossible for drinking.

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MxMo LII: Forgotten Cocktails – Cameo Kirby

Forgotten Cocktails, that’s the topic for November 2010 Mixology Monday event hosted by Dennis at his Rock & Rye blog.

The topic is not easy as it seems at first time. Here in Russia cocktails are not forgotten, they’re unknown.

I’ve remembered one cocktail  I saw earlier at «Approved Cocktails, authorized by UK bartenders guild» by Harry Craddock. Cameo Kirby, it looks like another Martini-like cocktail, and then I’ve tried it but can’t find anything about it in Internet except one more Google-book  «Gourmet’s Guide to New Orleans» by Natalie Vivian Scott and Caroline Merrick Jones.

The title Cameo Kirby is known thanks to old movie released in 1923. Who knows, maybe the cocktail was named after that criminal drama.

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Commodore

Recently  I’ve remembered about one nice cocktail I had found at Esquire drinks database when  searching for classic cocktails with bourbon. It’s called Commodore, and I can’t resist to its promising combination of crème de cacao and bourbon.

Craddock wrote about another Commodore version with rye whiskey, lime, sugar and orange bitter. Version I made is more sweeter. David Wondrich’s story refers it to Waldorf-Astoria bar book.

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