Item: Whisk(e)y » Bourbon whiskey

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.

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S.I.P.#4: Old Fashioned

Old Fashioned cocktail is the topic for the fourth round of our online imbibers party called S.I.P.

For me, this drink is an essence of cocktail culture. An icon. Or a symbol.

I prefer gin-based cocktails but when I have no idea what to drink tonight usually my choice is not Dry Martini but Old Fashioned. I love his strong character and his dry and sweet flavour. I love to make Old Fashioned, this simple procedure calms emotions and creates special atmosphere.

Old Fashioned is an immortal classics and an inspiration for creative boozing.

And that’s enough. Stop talking, take a bottle of whiskey and bring yourself down to make the cocktail.

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S.I.P.#3: Manhattan

Our third S.I.P. event is dedicated to another cocktail icon called Manhattan as well as its numerous variations made with other whiskey (whisky) and vermouths (or aperitifs and maybe amari).

For me, Manhattan is a counterpoise for Dry Martini. Warm, sweet and spicy side of cocktails against dry and bitter world of clear and cold gin flavoured with drops of vermouth. Brown spirits versus crystal clear alcohol, Alpha and Omega of cocktail world.

I’m not interested in stories about Manhattan. I just enjoy it when I get tired of other cocktails – classic of modern, it doesn’t matter. Manhattan is the special mood, the atmosphere of calm and confidence.

The never-ending experiment with whiskey and vermouth pairing. The search for the best additions – bitters or liqueurs. Much attention to details, technique improvement. Careful sipping, enjoying aroma, appearance and taste. It’s a more than cocktail, almost a lifestyle.

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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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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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Porteño

One day I’ve red a little story about a cocktail made by Murray Stenson, bartender at Zig Zag Café, Seattle, USA. That article has been written by well-known mixology expert Gary Regan for his San Francisco Chronicle column. It was very warm-hearted text among other things.

I was intrigued with such complex ingredients combination – whiskey and equal parts of cherry brandy, lime and Fernet Branca.

That cocktail is called Porteño. As far as I know it means Argentinean who lives in Buenos Aires. Another interesting fact is that Argentineans are mad about Fernet. While all world drinks Coca-Cola with rum, they drink Fernando – Coca-Cola mixed with Fernet.

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The Forty-Five

There are a lot of alcohol combinations which now became classic. These combinations are so good that you’re always reverting to it and think that you do need any others.

Whiskey (and whisky too) with sweet vermouth create such combination, a wonderful duet, an exceptional base for further experiments. Well-known Manhattan (with bourbon or rye) or Rob Roy and Bobby Burns Cocktail (with scotch), it all are just three great cocktails among dozens of other good ones in which whiskey mixes with sweet vermouth.

The Forty-Five recipe has been found at Drambuie American promo-website. Another place where the cocktail was mentioned is The Intoxicologist blog. The article about cocktails based on Drambuie liqueur is awesome as well as most of other posts there.

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Bourbon Sours

For some time bourbons became my favourite strong alcohol I’m used to utilize in cocktails.

I think the perfect companion for bourbon is fresh orange juice possibly with lime juice or syrups to bring sweetness and sourness to the balance. I’ve knew it from my own experience but later I’ve got that this combination is well-known so I’ve ended my attempts to find a perfect recipe and started to search for the known mixologists’ cocktails.

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Old Virginia Kentucky Straight Bourbon

For a long time I was going to tell about a couple of premium bourbons I love very much. But it turned out otherwise, and now I write about one little known bourbon which is always within easy reach of my hand. It’s called Old Virginia Kentucky Straight Bourbon, and I’m used to choosing it when I make cocktails with bourbon.

I can’t find enough information concerning this whiskey. It’s known that Old Virginia brand is owned by French company Le Martiniquaise which also owns several little known whisky, vodka and gin brands. It seems like these ones as well as Old Virginia Bourbon are distributed mainly in France.

In Russia these brands are available through French retailer Auchan. And Auchan hypermarket was the place where I’ve bought a bottle of Old Virginia Kentucky Straight Bourbon aged for six years.

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MxMo XLVIII: Pain in the Ass – The Bunny Hug

This is my debut in MixMo events, and I’m happy to know that this one is the fourth anniversary Mixology Monday event.

The theme is not pleasant as I would like it to be but I instantly thought of one drink which make me very disappointed. It’s called The Bunny Hug, and I’ve knew about it in Slakethirst blog.

Funny coincidence: I was inspired by the Slakethirst post which was for the very first Mixology Monday event dedicated to pastis.

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