Item: Brandy » Cognac

Сhicago Cocktail

A little classic this time – Chicago Cocktail. Impressed with French 75 and Ritz Cocktail, I was in mood for emptying another bottle of prosecco. The matter depended only on recipe, and I’ve founded it in The Savoy Cocktail Book.

Who invented the cocktail and why he called it Chicago as the cocktail consists of brandy, curaçao, bitters and sparkling wine. Harry Craddock did not mention so who knows…

Anyway, Chicago Cocktail won my sympathy from the very first time when I’ve tried it. True classic, it was simple and delicious – what else do you want to get from a cocktail?

read more

Ritz Cocktail

Ritz, Cointreau, Cognac, maraschino – от этих слов согреется сердце коктейльного энтузиаста, это синонимы коктейльной роскоши, основы коктейльной традиции.

Ritz Cocktail was invented by Dale Degroff, and this fact is the only thing I knew about it when I enjoyed the cocktail for the first time. That was enough to awake my interest. A list of the cocktail’s ingredients looked so luxurious, it was pure temptation. Since that time I have no intention to look for more information about Ritz Cocktail. It’s one of my favourite cocktails with sparkling wine and that’s all I need to know about it.

The recipe appears like having some resemblances to Sidecar cocktail. Also Ritz Cocktail has similar noble and fine taste as well as Sidecar. I have no idea whether there is accidental likeness or not but definitely that’s an advantage in my opinion.

read more

Old Fashioned. The story continues

For me, Old Fashioned cocktail is a pure inspiration. I love it made in traditional way with bourbon and also I love to tweak a bit the cocktail’s classic recipe.

My first post is dedicated to normal Old Fashioned. Current one is about all Old Fashioned variations I love so much.

In my work I applied two basic methods: a) to change a spirit and b) to replace (partially) syrup with a liqueur. Additionally I was trying to combine various bitters and extracts.

Another method  is to mix two or more brown spirits. In my opinion that’s a tricky way and today I feel I’m not ready to go in for these experiments. Now I just adopt another bloggers’ practices, and my latest effort was theSpeakista’s cocktail called Final Five. That’s not Old Fashioned but I dare suppose it a cocktail in Old Fashioned style. In any case, I’ve made two cocktail in similar manner and wrote about it below.

read more

Boukman Daiquiri

It’s so far from summer, and I don’t dream of it. That’s just a thing I promised myself to do some day. This cocktail looked so beautiful therefore I can’t resist the temptation. Not long ago I’ve made a batch of cinnamon syrup and redeemed the promise to taste Boukman Daiquiri.

I’ve found the cocktail recipe at the Imbibe. Created by Alex Day from the Philadelphia’s The Franklin Bar, this modern Daiquiri variation has two key components which made a difference in the cocktail flavour. The first is the cinnamon syrup I wrote above, and the second is Cognac.

read more

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.

read more

Bananas Foster Cocktail

This cocktail is adapted from Bananas Foster Cocktail created by Shawn from Rejiggered. According to his words, he made it as liquid version of Bananas Foster dessert he enjoyed at one New Orleans restaurant.

For me, it was just one more cocktail experience in which I had a training how to properly use cream in cocktails. Honestly I was skeptical about this cocktail because usually I prefer bitter and strong drinks. But I was wrong and eventually ended up in love with sweet creamy cocktails.

read more

Honeysuckle Cocktails

In our garden we have some honeysuckle shrubs. That plant is very important in the beginning of the June when it usually starts to fruit, first of all shrubs. Blue and sour berries are similar to bilberry in taste and appearance but honeysuckle berries are sourer though .

This summer our honeysuckle had time to fruit before heavy heat burnt down all plants and shrubs and forced trees to drop their fruits.

I’ve managed to gather a lot of honeysuckle berries and enjoyed it in daiquiri. Later I’ve thought that I would make some new cocktails and started to experiment on it.

read more