Green Room Cocktail

Green Room Cocktail

1/3 Brandy. (3/4 oz Cerbois VSOP Armangac)
2/3 French Vermouth. (1 1/2 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)
2 Dashes Curacao. (2/3 barspoon Senior Curacao of Curacao)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass. (Orange Twist.)

This Cocktail, a great favourite with mummers, is an excellent ” pick-me-up.”

The “Green Room” is the room actors hang out in when not on stage. Of course, not uncommon for a fortifying nip to be taken before one heads out on stage.

I had thought the term “Green Room” was to do with television. I was interested to discover that that the term’s first recorded use* was in 1701!

“Mummer” is not just the name of one of my favorite XTC album, it also is a term used to refer to actors. That term goes back even further than “Green Room,” having it’s origins, according to dictionary.com, with the traveling troupes of actors in the 1400s.

A pleasant enough cocktail. Certainly cried out for some bitters and a twist.

*From Word Origins.org:

Green Room

I do know London pretty well, and the Side-box, Sir, and behind the Scenes; ay, and the Green-Room, and all the Girls and Women Actresses there.

From Colley Cibber’s 1701 play, “Love Makes A Man”.

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.

Green Dragon Cocktail

Green Dragon Cocktail

1/8 Lemon Juice. (1/4 oz Lemon Juice)
1/8 Kummel. (1/4 oz Gilka Kummel)
1/4 Green Mint. (1/2 oz Brizard Creme de Menthe)
1/2 Dry Gin. (1 oz Beefeater’s Gin)
4 Dashes Peach Bitters. (Fee’s Peach Bitters)

Shake (stir, shake, what’s it matter?) well and strain into cocktail glass.

I still haven’t taken the plunge and purchased “Green Mint,” so I guess this is a “Silver Dragon”.

In any case, talk about wacky. I mean, it’s not an unbalanced or undrinkable cocktail. Just really weird.

The Mint and Peach are the dominant elements here with everything else hanging in the background.

I didn’t throw it away. I just can’t imagine any possible circumstances where I would make it again.

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.

Greenbriar Cocktail

Greenbriar Cocktail.

1 Dash Peach Bitters. (Fee’s Peach Bitters)
1/3 French vermouth. (3/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)
2/3 Sherry. (Bodega Dios Baco Fino Sherry)
1 Sprig Fresh Mint.

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass. (Garnish with Mint tip.)

Pretty weird, and the peach bitters and mint make it seem awfully girly, but not unpleasant. Somehow, I could imagine the Greenbriar going well with Middle Eastern food. Especially Feta Cheese and maybe Baba Ghanoush. Not sure exactly why.

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.

Great Secret Cocktail

Great Secret Cocktail

1 Dash Angostura Bitters.
1/3 Kina Lillet. (3/4 oz Cocchi Americano)
2/3 Dry Gin. (1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Squeeze orange peel on top.

Very tasty!

Pretty close to a Vesper, eh?

I suppose if you were stuck with using Tanqueray or Gordon’s it might make sense to cut the gin with a bit of vodka.

But if you’re using Plymouth, I see no reason.

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.

Grapefruit Cocktail (Variation)

Grapefruit Cocktail (variation)
(6 People)

The following Cocktail although apparently harmless, is sometimes liable to be snappy. It is a variation of the Grapefruit Cocktail:- Take three and a half glasses of Gin (1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin) and the juice of 1 1/2 good-sized Grapefruit (1 1/2 oz freshly squeezed white grapefruit juice). Sugar to taste (1 tsp caster sugar), plenty of ice. Shake and serve.

This is another good simple cocktail, but I used too much sugar. A half teaspoon (or less) would have been plenty.

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.

Grapefruit Cocktail

Grapefruit Cocktail

(6 People)
The Juice of 1 1/2 Lemons. (Juice 1/2 lemon, almost an ounce)
2 Small Spoonsful Grapefruit Jelly. (1 barspoon Duerr’s Grapefruit Marmalade)
4 Glasses Gin. (2 oz Tanqueray)

(Stir Jelly or Marmalade in lemon juice and booze to combine.)  Add Ice and shake. (Squeeze Grapefruit peel on top.) One may in this Cocktail replace the grapefruit jelly by any other Fruit Jelly of distinctive taste.

This is a simple cocktail, but really quite tasty!

I had to go a bit long on the Marmalade to cut the sourness of the lemon juice.  As a technical note, it does help a lot to stir the jelly in the non-chilled portion of the drink before adding the ice.  If you don’t do that it won’t combine with the other ingredients, just stay in lumps.

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.

Grape Vine Cocktail

The Grape Vine Cocktail

1/4 Grape Juice. (1/2 oz Twin Hill Ranch Grape Juice)
1/4 Lemon Juice. (1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice)
1/2 Gin. (1 oz Tanqueray Gin)
1 Dash Grenadine. (1/3 tsp. Fee’s American Beauty Grenadine)

Shake well and strain into cocktail glass.

Wow, what a shock going from the Grand Slam to the Grape Vine! This is quite a tart cocktail! I found the Grape Vine very enjoyable, to be honest, with a lovely color.

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.

Artisanal Cocktails

I recently received a copy of Scott Beattie’s beautiful new book, “Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus” in the mail.

I believe this had something to do with the tender mercies of the Mixoloseum crowd.

I’ve been interested in Mr. Beattie’s cocktails for some time now.

He has taken the seasonal, fresh bar to new extremes.  Experimenting with techniques and ingredients that others don’t even dream of.

As someone who has been known to include homemade granita and scented geranium leaves in cocktails (see the Rosey Fizz), I find his experiments and cocktail creations intellectually fascinating.

While he doesn’t quite take things to the extremes of some of the East Coast Mixologists, there is a lot here of interest.

However, that is also a problem, when we’re talking about whether it is likely that any of these cocktails will get made.

I have a relatively well stocked bar at home.  Well enough, anyway, to make just about any cocktail called for in the “Savoy Cocktail Book”.

Looking through Mr. Beattie’s book, I am having a real problem finding a cocktail I could make without taking a trip to Le Sanctuaire, the farmers’ market, whole foods, the liquor store, and then spending a couple hours in the kitchen doing prep.

Now, as someone who has called for homemade granita in an original cocktail, there’s definitely a bit of, “Hello Kettle, meet Pot,” going on.  And, sure, I’m willing to allow a certain amount of envy or jealousy on my part.

But to dig a bit deeper, the real problem I have with Mr. Beattie’s cocktails is that they almost always seem to put other ingredients and flavors before those flavors provided by the spirits.

My favorite cocktails are the Manhattan, Sazerac, Old-Fashioned, Martini and variations thereupon.  They are all about the character of the spirit in the drink.

The alcohol in most of the original cocktails in “Artisanal Cocktails” is provided by flavored vodkas or lightly flavored rums.  And then whatever slight character these spirits might express are often covered up with a host of mixers, fruit juices, herbs, and spiced syrups.

It’s almost like there’s a distrust of using a spirit with too much character or having too much of the spirit’s flavor expressed in the drink.

Even the Manhattan in the book, the “Frankfort Manhattan”, is made using Bourbon infused with Vanilla and Citrus Peel!

I mean, if you wanted to make your own vermouth and mess with it by enhancing the vanilla and citrus character, that would be cool. Then use your custom Vermouth in Manhattan. I would be totally down with that.  But why on earth would you want to infuse perfectly good Bourbon with Vanilla Beans and Citrus Zest? What do you do with the rest of the bottle?

I guess that makes me profoundly ambivalent.

There is a lot of interest in “Artisanal Cocktails”.  It is a well written and beautifully photographed book.  There’s a lot to think about in the recipes, ingredients, and techniques.  Mr. Beattie is pushing the limits of what we think a mixed drink can or cannot be.  And having sampled some of the drinks, I can say they are delicious.

But to channel my middle-aged curmudgeon, I’m just not sure if they are “cocktails” or if they are fruit and herb beverages which just happen to have a shot of vodka in them.

Additional Reading:

Raising the Bar: Scott Beattie of Healdsburg’s Cyrus restaurant turns cocktail creation into an extreme sport

Grand Slam Cocktail

Grand Slam Cocktail

1/4 French Vermouth. (1/2 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth)
1/4 Italian Vermouth. (1/2 oz Vya Sweet Vermouth)
1/2 Swedish Punch. (1 oz Swedish Punch, eas recipe)

Shake (stir, please) well and strain into cocktail glass.

Unless you enjoy drinking lollipops, this is not for you…

The flavor is certainly interesting enough, but it is just too sweet.

Some bitters perhaps? Or maybe use Punt e Mes instead of regular sweet vermouth?

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.

Grand Royal Clover Club

New toy:

I was reading somewhere that athletes and folks who drink vitamin supplements have something they call “blender balls” they put in their drinks so they can keep the particles in suspension as they are exercising. Someone mentioned using them in a cocktail shaker. A visit to a local vitamin and supplement emporium yielded results.

Grand Royal Clover Club Cocktail

The Juice of 1/2 Lemon. (about 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice)
1 Tablespoonful Grenadine. (1 Tablespoon homemade Grenadine)
1 Egg. (1 egg white)
1 glass Dry Gin. (2 oz Tanqueray)

(Dry shake drink ingredients with blender ball or spring for 10 seconds or so. Remove your implement of choice. Add big ice and…) Shake well and strain into medium size glass.

Hard to say if this if the blender ball results in an improvement. Good texture and pretty decent head, for a home bartender.

But, damn it, as I was writing this up, I noticed this recipe calls for a whole egg, not an egg white! It’s just so weird, as I have looked at this recipe for over a week, thinking it was odd that it was no different from the other Clover Club recipes in the book. I thought there should be something different about it, being “Grand Royal” and all.

Fortunately, I was meeting a friend at Alembic for drinks. The always wonderful Alembic bartenders were willing to make a random Savoy recipe on a non-Savoy night. Actually, they seemed a bit excited to get to make a whole egg cocktail.

Anyway, yep, that’s tasty. The yolk gives it a delicious extra richness and texture.

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.