Fortunately, Martin Cate’s menu encompasses more than just Exotic drinks. In fact, it is nearly a cross section of Rum Cocktails from the beginning of their history to the present day.

For example, the other day I rather enjoyed the Black Prince, which could only be described as a rum version of the NY “brown, bitter, and stirred”.

According to the Smuggler’s Cove menu it is, “A dark and complex concoction consisting of aged Guatemalan rum, Punt e Mes, Averna, and orange bitters. Created by Phil Ward at Death & Co. in NYC, this is an excellent showcase of rum’s versatility.”

In fact I enjoyed it so much, I decided to try to replicate it at home!

I don’t know the exact recipe, and also don’t have Punt e Mes in the house at the moment, but found this version of the drink quite enjoyable.

1 1/2 oz Zacapa 23
3/4 oz Carpano Antica
1/2 oz Averna
1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters, 1 dash Fee’s Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Hm, while I liked the Punt e Mes version at Smuggler’s Cove a lot, I think I may like it a bit more with Carpano Antica, as it is not quite so sweet. Gonna have to give it a try again when I get Punt e Mes back in the house.

If anyone knows the exact recipe, drop me a note or comment.

–Edit–

Thanks to Matt Browner Hamlin for the proper Black Prince, straight from Phil Ward:

2 oz dark aged rum
0.75 oz Punt e Mes
0.5 oz Averna
Dash orange bitters

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

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Post tags: Averna, Cocktails, Italian Vermouth, Orange Bitters, Rum

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Greg Boehm tells me the cocktail does not appear in any edition of Patrick Gavin Duffy’s “Official Mixer’s Manual” previous to the Beard enlarged and revised version (my edition is from 1956).

Greg also reminded me that I had missed a silent “Comedy Romance” named “None But the Brave” from 1928.  There are also two short films in imdb.com from 1912 and 1913 named “None but the Brave Deserve the Fair”.

So, as JCB suggests in his comment, we may never know exactly why this drink got named after this commonplace.

“The novels you mention are referring to verses gtom John Dryden’s St Cecelia’s Day Ode:
“None but the brave deserve the fair.” That is late 17th Century but the way it is used in the poem makes one think it was a commonplace saying even then. At any rate, the name of this one isn’t going to give you any clue as to when it became popular.”

I have to say, I still think it is odd that a drink with “Jamaica Ginger” shows up first in the Beard edited version of Duffy’s book.

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Post tags: Cocktail Geekery

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The use of Jamaica Ginger makes it seem like a prohibition era drink to me.

A google book search turns up that a book titled “None but the brave” was published in 1902, written by Joseph Hamblen Sears.

“An exciting tale of adventure and a charming story of love turning upon the attempt to capture Benedict Arnold after he has betrayed his country and escaped to the enemy, then in possession of New York City. It opens with the rescue of the heroine by means of a forced marriage and after many exciting episodes closes with a voluntary repetition of the ceremony.  In the working out of the plot, social life in New York under the British contrasts vividly with the horrors endured by American prisoners in the old Sugar House Prison.”

Oddly, according to the title page, the book is, “Copyright, 1901, by Frank A. Munsey, as ‘In the Shadow of War.’”  I wonder if that is the same Frank A. Munsey who is often cited as publishing the first pulp magazine, “The Argosy”?

In 1926, Arthur Schnitzler‘s “Lietenant Gustl” was originally published in English as “None But the Brave”.  According to the ABE Books Summary:

Originally translated as None But the Brave in 1926, Lieutenant Gustl is one of the great Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler’s most acclaimed novels. Written entirely in the form of an interior monologue, the novel recounts the moment-to-moment experiences of a swaggering Austrian military man. In a cloakroom after a concert, Gustl gets into an argument with a baker who, reacting to Gustl’s rudeness, grabs his sword and orders him to have a little patience. Convinced he has been completely dishonored, Gustl ponders suicide and wanders through Vienna wishing for the baker’s death. When he learns that the baker has, in fact, died that evening from a stroke, he immediately returns to his aggressive and hateful nature, and relishes a duel he had entered into days before. A tour-de-force of modernist point-of-view, Lieutenant Gustl is highly critical of Austria’s militarism, and resulted in anti-Semitic attacks on Schnitzler when it was first published in 1901. But Schnitzler’s influence was enormous; James Joyce is said to have been influenced by this book in the writing of Ulysses.

Actually, that second book sounds kind of cool!

© erik for Underhill-Lounge, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cocktail Geekery

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Parisian Blonde Cocktail.

1/3 Sweet Cream. (3/4 oz Sweet Cream)
1/3 Curacao. (3/4 oz Cartron Curacao Triple Sec)
1/3 Jamaica Rum. (3/4 oz Appleton Extra)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.  (Well, no.  Using a Milk Frother, whip cream until slightly thickened.  Stir rum and curacao with ice to chill.  Strain into cocktail glass.  Carefully pour lightly thickened cream over the back of a spoon to float on top.  Garnish with finely grated cinnamon.)

As in the Panama Cocktail, again deploying the Clover Club method of agitating the cream separately from the other ingredients, then spooning on top.  Done that way, this is an enjoyable after dinner cocktail, along the lines of a Brandy Alexander.

Found the Cartron Curacao at a liquor store in Napa.  May be my new favorite orange liqueur.  Nice complex intense orange flavor, good proof level, and very little harshness or burn.

The interesting part, here, is that the name of the product uses both “Curacao” and “Triple Sec”, hearkening back to the origins of orange liqueurs.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

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Post tags: Cocktails, Cream, Curacao, Jamaica Rum

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Parisian Cocktail.

1/2 French Vermouth. (1 oz Noilly Original Dry)
1/3 Crème de Cassis. (3/4 oz Brizard Creme de Cassis)
1/3 Gin. (3/4 oz Beefeater Gin)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Nothing particularly earth shattering here in another Cocktail likely sourced from the 1929 edition of Harry’s McElhone’s “Harry’s ABC of Cocktails”. How enjoyable this cocktail is to you will likely wholly depend on how interesting you find your bottling of Creme de Cassis.

However, the Parisian is definitely a cocktail with “good bones”. For an up cocktail, you might just adjust the proportions slightly and come up with something outstanding.

I do sometimes wonder if some of the cocktails, like the Parisian, lost their soda in translation. Or if they were adaptions of French drinks for American Bars.

Building something like Cassis, gin, and vermouth in a glass and then topping it up with soda just seems so very French.

Not to mention, build it over crushed ice and you’re a dash of lemon juice away from something like Dick Bradsell’s famous Bramble.

This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.

© erik for Underhill-Lounge, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cocktails, Creme de Cassis, French Vermouth, Gin

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Sea Fizz

1 1/2 oz Absinthe
Juice 1/2 lemon
1 egg white
1 tsp caster sugar (or 1 tsp 2-1 simple syrup)

Shake ingredients for 10 seconds in a cocktail shaker without ice. Add large ice and shake well. Strain into glass and top up with soda water.

There are few drinks with a lot of Absinthe that I truly like.  This is one of them.

The Sea Fizz is not in the “Savoy Cocktail Book,” but appears without the egg white in later editions of Patrick Duffy’s “Official Mixer’s Manual” as the “Seapea Fizz”.

Apparently, it was created by Frank Meier, at the time of the Gambon bar and later of the Ritz in Paris, for Cole Porter (C.P., thus “Seapea”) some time around 1933.

If you use Pernod, Ricard, or another sweetened anise liqueur, reduce, or eliminate, the sugar.

Basically an Absinthe sour, this is a delicious and dangerously refreshing beverage.

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Post tags: Absinthe, Cocktails, Egg White, Lemon Juice, Sugar

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Robin Wood

2 oz Auchentoshan 10 Year
1/2 oz Madeira
1/2 oz Aperol
1 tsp Grand Marnier
3 drops Orange bitters

Stir with ice to chill, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist and raisins.
Created by Humberto Marques for Oloroso bar in Edinburgh.

Scotch cocktails, aside from the Rob Roy, Blood and Sand, Bobby Burns, and Affinity are pretty rare, but this one sounded right up my alley, so…

2 oz Highland Park 12
1/2 oz Justino’s Rainwater Madeira
1/2 oz Aperol
1 tsp. Grand Marnier
3 drops Angostura Orange Bitters

Stir, strain, Meyer Lemon Zest, Port Plumped Cherry.

I don’t have a bottle of Auchentoshan, which is a Lowland Scotch, and am not entirely sure that substituting Highland Park, which is an Orkney Scotch, is a great choice. But I’m not about to run out and buy another bottle of Single Malt Scotch just to experiment with this cocktail.

They didn’t say what sort of Madeira to use, but the Justino’s Rainwater Madeira seemed appealing.

Aperol is an Italian bitter aperitif (or Amaro) similar to Campari. It’s a bit sweeter, milder, and more orangey than Campari. Some people describe it as a “gateway” Amaro.

Along with Cointreau, Grand Marnier is one of the grand old French Orange liqueurs. Because the orange perfume is blended with Cognac, it is often thought to be a more elegant spirit than the sharp, single noted orange of Cointreau. To my mind, they both have their places in the mixologists arsenal. Some suggest that Grand Marnier is the best choice when confronted with the term “Curacao”, especially in 19th Century cocktail recipes.

The Angostura Orange Bitters are only recently available in the US, and are a very fine choice.

I had meyer lemons around the house for something I was making for dinner, so they seemed like an interesting choice for the zest. Indeed, their piney funk combined intriguingly with the peaty flavors of the Highland Park Scotch.

I was making a Port and Cherry sauce for some duck breasts. I had combined about a dozen dried bing cherries with a cup of Sandeman Founder’s Reserve Port, a half cup of Cherry Heering, a half cup of Lustau Brandy, and a quarter cup of sugar. Reduced it by half. The sauce and cherries were hanging out on the stove waiting for the duck to be done. The cherries turned out to be pretty darn delicious, so in one went instead of the raisins. They were actually tasty enough, I might have to use them as house cherries going forward!

Also picked up these nice Fostoria glasses on our recent trip to Arizona. I’d really liked this pattern when Neyah brought out some similar glasses making Savoy Cocktails at NOPA, so I was particularly pleased to run across a few stems at an Antique store in Scottsdale.

This is a very nice cocktail! I think a slightly milder scotch combined with a more assertive Madeira might kick it up just a notch, but I liked it just fine as it is.

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Post tags: Aperol, Cocktails, Grand Marnier, Madeira, Orange Bitters, Scotch

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Park Slope:1 1/2 oz Rye Whiskey, 3/4 oz Punt e Mes, 3/4 oz Apricot Brandy. Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Cherry.
Northern Spy:1 1/2 oz Apple Brandy, 1 oz Apple Juice, 1/2 oz Lemon Juice, 1/4 oz Apricot Brandy. Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Last Word:3/4 oz Dry Gin, 3/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur, 3/4 oz Green Chartreuse, 3/4 oz Lime Juice. Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.
Final Ward:3/4 oz Rye Whiskey, 3/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur, 3/4 oz Green Chartreuse, 3/4 oz Lemon Juice. Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Gin-Gin Mule:3/4 oz Lime Juice, 1 oz Simple Syrup, 6 Sprigs Mint, 1 1/2 oz Dry Gin. Lightly Muddle Mint in Syrup and Lime Juice. Add Gin and ice. Shake and strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Fill with ginger beer.

The only change I made from the canonical recipes for these cocktails, was to go a bit light on the Simple in the Gin-Gin Mule. I was using Rich Simple in it, so 1 oz seemed a bit much. Oh and don’t tell Audrey, but aside from being Rich Simple, it was a Rosemary Flower Simple Syrup that I used in the Gin Gin Mule. So maybe it should be a “Gin Pine Mule” or something?

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Post tags: Cocktails

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Underhill Punsch–Tales Version

2 750ml Bottles of El Dorado 5 Year Demarara Rum
1 750ml Bottle Batavia Arrack van Oosten.
8 lemons, sliced thin and seeded.
750ml Water.
8 teaspoons Yunnan Fancy China Black Tea.
2 crushed cardamom pods.
4 cups Washed Raw Sugar.

This makes a bit more than 3 litres.

Put sliced lemon in a resealable non-reactive container(s). Pour Rum and Batavia Arrack over lemons. Cover and steep for 6 hours.

Heat water and steep tea and cardamom in it for the usual 6 minutes. Pour through cheesecloth to remove tea leaves and cardamom pods.

Dissolve sugar in hot tea and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate.

After 6 hours, pour rum off of sliced citrus, without squeezing fruit.

Combine tea syrup and flavored rum. Filter and bottle in a clean sealable container(s). Age at least overnight and enjoy where Swedish Punch is called for.

—

A more traditional version of Swedish Punsch than the previous Underhill Punsch II.

(By the way, that El Dorado 5 is a really tasty rum for the price!)

We’ll be serving this during the Tales of the Cocktail panel I’ve somehow snuck on with the following esteemed gentlemen: Jamie Bourdreau(!), Paul Clarke(!), and John Deragon(!). Huh, that is odd, B, C, D, and E? Were they just going alphabetically? I’m not entirely sure what exact cocktails the other gentleman are making, but I’ve heard rumors of a new version of Jamie’s Amer Picon replica, some whispering from John about Bacon Fat Washed Bourbon, and Paul seems to be infusing enough Tequila por Mi Amante to make nearly the whole remaining population of New Orleans a drink.

Hope to see you there!

Making Your Own Cocktail Ingredients

© erik for Underhill-Lounge, 2008. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Batavia Arrack, Cocktails, Rum, Swedish Punch, Tea

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A quick read through Jeff Berry’s Intoxica and Grog Log, revealed only a glancing reference to the “Queen’s Park Swizzle” as a drink which might have been served in the Carribean in the 50s. Worried that I might have to make a Bahama Mama, I asked a couple people what cocktails might have been likely served during that era in the Bahamas. Martin Cate of Forbidden Island suggested the “Goombay Smash” and Ted Haigh agreed the Goombay Smash or a Planter’s Punch might be a good choice. Both Mr. Cate and the Doctor dismissed the Queen’s Park Swizzle as far too strongly tasting of liquor, to appeal to young midwestern tourists.

The Goombay Smash is a specialty of Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar in the Bahamas. While the exact formulation of the Goombay Smash remains a secret of that establishment, Mr. Cate suggested the following from the UK sauceguide publication.

Goombay Smash

1.5 oz Pusser’s Navy Rum
.75 oz coconut rum (Cruzan)
3 oz pineapple juice
.25 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz Cointreau
.25 oz simple syrup
(dash drinkboy house bitters)

Shake and pour over (crushed) rocks.

Fine and tasty it is. My only embellishment was to add a generous dash of homemade drinkboy house bitters, whose ginger-spice kick I thought would nicely complement the tropical flavors. For an extra touch of exotica, I garnished it with a couple sprigs of lemon balm and a cup and saucer vine flower.

While I don’t know if the Goombay is truly that “exotic”, it certainly is quaffable. Just the sort of thing that goes down easy during the afternoon on a hot Carribean island. And the Pusser’s certainly packs enough of a punch to make you regret having one too many.

Dad, this one’s for you.

© erik for Underhill-Lounge, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cocktails, Coconut Rum, Cointreau, Dad, LIme, Pineapple, Rum

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