Original

— No. 149 —

Baku

Baku is a cock­tail bar­tender Reed Cahill cre­at­ed for Wet City’s open­ing cock­tail menu. This cock­tail was inspired by Japan­ese high­balls. They tend to focus on get­ting as much com­plex­i­ty and depth of fla­vor from a short list of ingre­di­ents as pos­si­ble. We want­ed a breezy sum­mer rye drink that would be acces­si­ble to non-rye drinkers as well. The earth­i­ness of the macadamia orgeat plays off the rye well, while the cream soda gives it its soft, smooth tex­ture.  The 18–21 …

— No. 145 —

The Sparrow

This recipe is a twist on a clas­sic cock­tail known as The Old Pal. If you’re not famil­iar with it, you might be famil­iar with its sib­ling — the Boule­vardier — which has over­shad­owed it in pop­u­lar­i­ty for years. Both drinks are 1920’s cre­ations by Har­ry MacEl­hone — cock­tail pio­neer and founder of the infa­mous Har­ry’s New York Bar in Paris. Har­ry attrib­uted the Old Pal to a writer known as William “Spar­row” Robert­son, who called any­one he talked to his “old pal.” Turns out Spar­row Robert­son has …

— No. 144 —

The Bearcat

This cock­tail is a fiery lit­tle num­ber so it seemed fit­ting to call her “The Bearcat” — a 1920’s slang term for a feisty, hot-blood­­ed gal. The Bearcat has quick­ly become a favorite com­pan­ion dur­ing the sum­mer thun­der­storms, and I’m already look­ing for­ward to bring­ing her back out in the autumn and win­ter months. The veg­e­tal attrib­ut­es of Cynar, matched with the sweet heat of the Ancho Reyes Chili Liqueur, come togeth­er here for a unique and entic­ing fla­vor pro­file. The mez­cal rinse draws you …

— No. 138 —

Les Paul

When the leaves start to fall I get a crav­ing for Cynar. It’s hard to explain, but Cynar has a veg­e­tal, har­vest-like attribute that calls to me. So I made a sim­ple recipe that’s a twist on the clas­sic Man­hat­tan recipe. I serve my fair share of Man­hat­tans and it’s nice to change it up for my guests every once in awhile. This cock­tail fits the bill. Get a bot­tle of Cynar and give it a shot. You won’t be dis­ap­point­ed. …

— No. 135 —

City Paper Cocktail

The Bal­ti­more City Paper con­tact­ed me about cre­at­ing a sum­mer cock­tail to fea­ture in their next issue. Click here for the arti­cle. They want­ed to inspire read­ers to get cre­ative and mix up sum­mer cock­tails that take full advan­tage of the sea­son’s plen­ti­ful herbs. I chose to fea­ture Thai basil and bol­ster its anise tones with the anise fla­vors in Gal­liano and Pey­chaud’s Bit­ters. Since we’re in the mid­dle of a hot sum­mer, I kept the recipe light and refresh­ing using …

— No. 134 —

The Fencer

The Lucien Gaudin is a clas­sic but obscure cock­tail that cel­e­brates the well dec­o­rat­ed French ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry fencer of the same name. You may notice it shares sim­i­lar­i­ties with the Negroni. Both fea­ture gin and Cam­pari. The Lucien Gaudin how­ev­er has the dis­tinct pres­ence of orange, both from the fla­vor with the Coin­treau and in aro­ma of the orange peel gar­nish. The Lucien Gaudin is a dry, crisp clas­sic that is light on its feet. Lucian Gaudin 1 oz …

— No. 130 —

Signs of Spring

This cock­tail is named for its inclu­sion of elder­ber­ry, long thought to her­ald the begin­ning of spring. All the Year Round: A Nature Read­er by Frances Lucia Strong and Martha Allen Lane (1896) is a book designed to inter­est young school chil­dren in nature and includes the pas­sage: “How warm the sun­shine is!” exclaimed a lit­tle bud on an elder­ber­ry twig. “Yes,” answered her twin sis­ter, “I believe spring has come at last. How glad I am!” And how glad …

— No. 125 —

Absente Video

Are the in-laws com­ing over to your place for a lit­tle hol­i­day get togeth­er? The North Star is the per­fect way to turn an awk­ward hol­i­day par­ty around, loos­en­ing every­one up and get­ting the vibe a bit more fes­tive. The North Star is a cock­tail I came up with for Cril­lon Importer’s prod­uct Absente, Absinthe Refined. As you may already be aware absinthe and cream go togeth­er nice­ly. The kirschwass­er adds a cher­ry note to this cock­tail and of course …

— No. 124 —

El Comediante

Kitchen Kon­fi­dence recent­ly post­ed a won­der­ful arti­cle fea­tur­ing my cock­tail El Come­di­ante. Kitchen Kon­fi­dence comes high­ly rec­om­mend­ed. It’s an excel­lent source of inspi­ra­tion. This cock­tail is a recipe I cre­at­ed for the Nicaraguan restau­rant La Fin­ca y El Mar. I recent­ly went down to their beau­ti­ful restau­rant and trained their bar staff and cre­at­ed their cock­tail menu. El Come­di­ante has been one of their most pop­u­lar cock­tails to date. Recipe 2 oz red bell pep­per infused rum 1/2 oz gin­ger syrup …

— No. 123 —

Hidden Charms

This cock­tail is named after one of my favorite Howl­in’ Wolf songs Hid­den Charms. It’s the Nux Wal­nut Liqueur, how­ev­er, that’s the hid­den charm in this recipe. It’s hard not to fall in love with the com­bi­na­tion of wal­nut and whisky. I usu­al­ly enjoy this smokey lit­tle trea­sure dur­ing the cold­er months, but don’t let that stop you from sip­ping one when sum­mer comes back around. Recipe 1 3/4 oz blend­ed scotch whisky 1/2 oz Carpano Anti­ca Sweet Ver­mouth 1/2 oz …