Olga Cocktail

04.10.2010

My wife is definitely not an imbiber, nevertheless she always supports me in my daily efforts of mixing, shaking, stirring, tasting, macerating, blending, buying and drinking, drinking, drinking. That’s why I’m always ready to do something when she asks me to «pour her something tasty». Usually a dram of Laphroiag 10 yo or fresh grapefruit juice with Campari are enough but sometimes she wants something special.

So one day she asked me to mix scotch with apple juice. You think that’s so simple. I thought too, and I was wrong.

The Transfiguration Day

19.08.2010

That was inspired by Cheri Loughlin’s article about Drambuie. Some cocktails mentioned there imprinted themselves in my mind. One of them, The Forty-Five, was earlier on my blog, adapted and tried with various whiskies.

Created by Jamie Stephenson, Drambuie global ambassador, Renaissance is another cocktail with Drambuie I like very much. And for me, it was another target to adaptation and changing.

My experiments with Renaissance were very productive so eventually the recipe has been heavily changed, and I decided to rename it to The Transfiguration Day because…

Because the taste of the new drink reminded me of our patrimonial tradition to celebrate together old Russian Orthodox feast called Yablochny Spas, or The Transfiguration Day.

Maybe it was too conceitedly but my remembrances were too lively. I could’n resist that temptation.

Red Apple

19.05.2010

My recent posts were about whisky, bourbon and gin. As is known, all these ones aren’t native to Russia. So now I’m about to revert to ingredients which are widespread and favorite in Russia. I’m talking about vodka and apple juice.

Not long ago I’ve been given three bottles of homemade apple juice. It was pressed, then sterilized and bottled immediately without adding sugar. It was in autumn, and now after six months in dark cellar the juice became clear.

Tasted, it has no differences with freshly pressed apple juice and seems slightly more concentrated.