The Night of 7 Mini Manhattan Cocktails

There has been less and less scotch at Columbus Scotch Night. Scotch whisky's availability and pricing have been going opposite directions in the US, and the Ohio market favors American whiskey. We also like to push the occasional Armagnac or Cognac night, and those always sell out.

Working together, my friends Mr. NO and Secret Agent Man curated a Rye Blind night last Monday. Seven half-ounce drops of different American ryes, labelled A through G, were poured for the group. Six were between $20 and $35, and a seventh originally sold for nearly $200. No one, other than Mr. NO, knew which was which. Interestingly, one of those whiskies turned out to be the favorite for 70% of the group.

I didn't take part in the tasting, and I wasn't much help in my edutainment role, because I was exhausted from the day. Also, as I've referenced in previous posts, my alcohol tolerance isn't what it used to be. So I took the samples home.

What to do with those seven samples? Manhattan Night for me! Seven mini Manhattan cocktails with identical recipes would be matched side by side. Part of me hoped that they would not all be awesome so I could spill a few out and not have a bad evening. Also I didn't want to be tempted to buy seven bottles of rye.

The recipe was simple: 2:1 ratio of rye to Carpano Antica, two dashes of Angostura bitters, two drops of Luxardo cherry syrup. These were the tools:

As a wiser, balder man than I once said, in the future: Engage.

The Manhattans

Manhattan from Rye A - Stellar balance of peppery spice, fruit and sugar. Would buy!

Rating: ★★★★ (out of five)

Manhattan from Rye B - Flat. Bland, yet harsh. It tastes plastic-bottle-whiskey cheap.

Rating: ★½

Manhattan from Rye C - Some really good heft to it. Spice leads the way. Probably the best finish.

Rating: ★★★½

Manhattan from Rye D - Well, it's different than the rest. Nuts, metal, flowers, a cherry lollipop too. Weird overall.

Rating: ★★½

Manhattan from Rye E - Clean, but light. Lowest ABV of the bunch? A little bit of spice and a slight vegetal note.

Rating: ★★½

Manhattan from Rye F - Also a bit strange as it has a strong cologne note. Balance is otherwise decent enough.

Rating: ★★½

Manhattan from Rye G - Easy drinking, right-down-the-middle balance. This would be a great Manhattan rye for a restaurant or bar.

Rating: ★★★

Okay. Ready for the reveal?

. . . . .

. . . . .

Ranked Reveal! With Notes!

#1 - Rye A - ★★★★ - Elijah Craig Rye, 47%abv, $33 in Ohio.

Yes! My bottle of this stuff has already been consumed, but I saved a sample so I owe the world a post about it. 

#2 - Rye C - ★★★½ - Kentucky Owl 11 year old ye, batch 1, 55.3%abv, was $189

This was the clear winner during the event, when people sipped their ryes neatly. I can confirm its bottle smelled good. Also, I'm somewhat relieved that it didn't place first during my tasting because its secondary market price is brutal.

#3 - Rye G - ★★★ - Rittenhouse BIB, 50%abv, $27

Thank goodness Ritt BIB still works. My last couple of bottles were subpar, but that was a half decade ago. As I said in my notes, this would be a great Manhattan rye for a restaurant or bar.

#4 - Rye D - ★★½ - Wild Turkey 101 Rye, 50.5%abv, $25

I expected this to rate higher as it's always been a go-to for my cabinet. Not sure what caused the odd notes.

#5 - Rye F - ★★½ - Old Forester Rye, 50%abv, $23

Another one I'd expected to rate higher, as I've been championing it since I first tried it. There's an unopened bottle in my cabinet. It'll be the next rye I open.

#6 - Rye E - ★★½ - Sazerac Rye, 45%abv, $30

I've never been the biggest fan of baby Saz. It works but doesn't thrill, especially for actual Sazerac cocktails. And I sorta guessed the ABV situation correctly.

#7 - Rye B - ★½ - George Dickel Rye, 45%abv, $22

The most filtered of the bunch, Dickel stood out from the group, and not in a good way, or even an acceptable way. I was probably generous in my rating. It was like I'd made my cocktail with Kessler or Fleischman's Preferred. Mr. NO said, "That Dickel is just garbage."

Final Thoughts, in list form

• This was a sticky mess. That's how you get ants.
• I dumped half of D, F, E and B, partially for safety (D, F, E), partially for bleh (B).
• Dickel Fail
• I'm looking forward to my next bottle of Elijah Craig rye, and will give Rittenhouse another chance.
• WT101 and Old Forester require further study.
• Congrats to everyone who picked up a bottle of Kentucky Owl rye, batch 1, when it first came out. I hope you drank it!
• Thank you to Mr. NO and Secret Agent Man for curating this tasting!

The "I'm Very Sorry" sample and the resulting cocktail

Within a recent parcel from the gentleman who runs the My Annoying Opinions website, I found a mystery sample labelled, "I'm Very Sorry".

I accept his apology and now I'm going drink the bottle's contents. As a disclaimer, I'm pretty danged certain I know what this "whiskey" is thanks to a hint Mr. Opinions provided. More on that product in a moment.

All that follows was typed live (with some edits)......

NEAT NOTES:

Nose - Allspice, cardamom, ginger beer, a hint of yellow nectarine and LOTS of fresh cilantro. It's starting to go Full Hippie with notes of holy basil, ashwagandha and a dash of manure.

Palate - Um......It is strongly flavored. This is going to stain my glass and my taste buds. Okay, so there be lots of holy basil, cassia, pepper, mustard seed and tree bark here. Fresh ginger, lots of bitterness, hints of cocoa, white rum and juniper. It's like some sort of zany gin.

Finish - Bitter (wormwoodish?). Cilantro, holy basil, fresh ginger and white JM Rhum by turns.

This unique, fragrant, but not entirely palatable creation is most likely Masala Chai Flavored Whiskey from St. Paul's Studio Distilling. Per the official site, "The Masala Chai Whiskey begins with a rye malt whiskey base to which we add a curated mix of Assam tea and whole spices. The blend is distilled and then aged in oak barrels."

As much as I enjoy rye and Assam and whole spices, I don't understand why they all had to meet this way. I never thought anything could fully obliterate rye notes, but alas this collection of "whole spices" have done so. The bitterness reads like extremely over-steeped black tea, so perhaps that's where the Assam lives.

There's something very entertaining about the nose's herbal bundle. And there must be some gin cocktail that this could electrify. But I'm electing to create a whiskey-based cocktail. In honor of the caucasians who leaned on masala chai for their product, I shall also take part in some cultural appropriation for the cocktail's name. I present...

NAMASTE AWAY

a bazaar Old-Fashioned

The Ingredients:

1.5 oz of Masala Chai Flavored Whiskey

2 tsp of Demerara simple syrup

3 dashes of Angostura orange bitters

5 dashes of Strongwater Golden cocktail bitters

¼ of an orange peel

Ice cubes

The Process:

Muddle the peel, syrup and bitterses together at the bottom of a hefty tumbler. Stir in the flavored whiskey. Give it 5-10 minutes to mingle, then add plenty of ice cubes.

The Why:

I adore Strongwater's Golden bitters and thought its generous aromatics would mingle well with those of the whiskey. There's a good batch of Demerara syrup in my fridge, and it ups the cocktail's imperialist core. Finally, just in case the above doesn't work, I'm orange-ing the shit out of this.

The Results:

Jeezus Franciscan Cripes this is terrible. Every element was a mistake. The herbs and spices overwhelm everything (even the orange-ing!) more, and now it's so awfully cloying that I just powered down the quarter-naked orange just to introduce something else to my mouth. The "whiskey" was better neat.

I'm very sorry about this cocktail. Happy Sunday!

Availability - around the Twin Cities and the official online store
Pricing - $24.99 for a 375mL
Rating - 66 (maybe? I don't know.)

Cocktail Recipe: Ginza in June

I've never liked whisky cocktails. No cocktail improved the drinking experience that the whisky itself offered. Sweet vermouth was one of the main culprits. Just two drops of sweet vermouth in a cocktail ruined everything. Its cloying nauseating flavor spread through the drink like a drop of ink a glass of water. (That's a metaphor I promise to overuse.) Then, one day last winter, I discovered a solution: Don't Use Cheap Sweet Vermouth.

I mean, the real solution was Carpano Antica Formula and Luxardo cherries. Since then, I've been drinking a lot of Manhattans. During some stretches, I'm drinking Manhattans more often than single malts. I finally found a use for American whiskey! 😬

Then, in October, as I was opening my current bottle of Nikka Whisky from the Barrel (NWFTB, not NKOTB), I had an idea. What if I created something along the lines of a Manhattan or Rob Roy with my beloved NWFTB? I'd go easy on the Carpano Antica in order to highlight the quality of the whisky.

And it worked on the first try. The Carpano Antica merged with the whisky, pushing the grain aside and moving the malt to the fore. Plenty of spice, not too much sweetness.

* * * * *

Because this drink is utterly bourgeois with its expensive Italian vermouth and cherries, and it includes the whisky I travelled with during both of my Japan trips, I chose to name it after the bougie-est corner of Tokyo I explored this year.

With its Rodeo Drive-inspired lineup of Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Dior, Fendi and on and on and on, Ginza is the epitome of rāga, one of the three forms of suffering (or poisons or fires) in Mahayana Buddhism, stemming from the desire for wealth and the ownership of physical, sensory things.

The gorgeous weather on June 14th made that corner of Chuo feel even more posh. So, inspired by the sugary romance of "Danke Schoen" ("I recall Central Park in Fall"), I named my cocktail, Ginza in June.

* * * * *

And now, the recipe.

Ingredients:

1.5 fluid ounces (or 45mL) of Nikka Whisky from the Barrel

0.5 fluid ounces (or 15mL) of Carpano Antica Formula

2 generous dashes of Angostura bitters

2 drops of marasca syrup (from the Luxardo jar)

1 Luxardo Maraschino cherry

Instructions:

1. Fill a tall mixing glass with ice cubes (not crushed ice).

2. Pour the first four ingredients over the ice in the mixing glass.

3. Stir clockwise 24 times. (Lucky number hachi multiplied by my lucky number san)

4. Plop the cherry into the most faux-proletariat glass you own.

5. Strain the cocktail into your prole drinking glass.

And:

— Feel free to up the whisky content to 60mL, but make sure the whisky-to-vermouth ratio remains 3-to-1. Also remember that NWFTB is 51.4%abv. So be cautious.

— For more zip add more bitters.

— I don't recommend adding more than 2 drops of the syrup because it will take over the drink.

— Feel free to apply less sweet vermouth. I don't recommend adding more if you want the whisky to fly high.

— If you don't have NWFTB on hand (and who does, really) I recommend high quality blended malts that have little or no peat. Compass Box (speaking of bougie) Spice Tree may do the trick.

Kanpai, my lambs.

RECIPE: The Hot Honey B.T. (as in Bourbon Toddy or Buffalo Trace)

Yes, this is heresy.  I'm posting a BOURBON recipe on Robbie Burns Eve.

But I do enjoy this beverage.  It's a Hot Honey BT (Bourbon Toddy or Buffalo Trace or something sexual, whatever you prefer).  It's a variation on the Hot Whiskey I love so.

Its origin can be found in a passing comment Forrest Cokely (of Hi Time fame!) made when we were chatting about booze.  I mentioned I like to use Powers and brown sugar in my hot whiskey.  Forrest said that he's used honey when making a hot toddy with Scotch whisky.  That sounded like a good idea to me.  Later that week, I was sipping some Buffalo Trace Bourbon when I really caught its honey note.  The symbolic light bulb switched on.  It's not Scotch, but it is Buffalo Trace.  The night was cold (for Southern California)...  Perhaps I should apply honey to BT to hot water...

Yes, I know I'm not the first to do so.  But here it is.

THIS

PLUS THIS

THE HOT HONEY B.T.

Official Ingredients:

Glass or Large Mug (approx 12-16oz.)
__Boiled Water (at least 2 glasses worth)
__1/4 of a lemon (peel and all, seeds removed)
__4 whole cloves
__1 tablespoon of Honey
__2 oz. of Buffalo Trace Bourbon.

Official Instructions:

1. First, boil the water.
2. Second, pour some of the hot water into the mug or glass and swirl it around, carefully!  Spill it out.  You now have one hot mug.
3. Add the honey to the mug or glass, then add the whiskey on top.  Give it an extensive stir in order to make sure that the honey dissolves a little bit in the whiskey.
4. Stick the cloves into the lemon wedge.  The white pith is the best spot, but if you poke them into the fruit itself, I won't tell anyone
5. Slip the lemon slice into the mug or glass and into the whiskey and honey mixture.
6. Fill the mug with hot water.
7. Give it several stirs to make sure the honey has fully dissolved.  Then give it a minute or two to cool down.  This will let the flavors mingle.  Give it one more stir before indulging.
8. Sip slowly.

Some unofficial notes:

When I first made this, I accidentally (seriously, accidentally) poured 3 ounces of bourbon into the mug.  Holy moley.  I was half asleep before I finished the drink.  So, at your own discretion, you may up the booze.

I've been using Trader Joe's Mesquite Honey.  Works like a charm.  Also, a tablespoon of honey can be a bit on the sweet side for some palates.  I wouldn't use more than that, but anything less than 2 teaspoons may not even make a ripple in the tipple.

Please let me know if you have any variations you prefer!

Anti-Gravity Cocktail

Three Saturdays ago, Kristen and I spent an entire day applying two coats of paint to our hallways, living room, and dining room.  This past Sunday, Kristen spent the whole day painting the kitchen.  Same color, two coats.

Paint: Valspar
Color: Gravity

Gravity is a light gray with calm blue tones that sneak out when met with sunlight.  It was a lot of hard work, especially for Kristen.  So I thought I'd mix her up a new cocktail.

I started with the Gin-Basil Smash recipe for inspiration.
For one drink: Muddle one bunch of fresh basil with a quartered half-lemon and 2/3 oz. of simple syrup.  Then add 2 shots of Hendricks Gin.  Shake with ice and serve on the rocks.

That one is okay, but it was a bit on the sweet side for us.  We like to taste our Hendricks, not bury it under sugar.  So, the following was the result:

Anti-Gravity Cocktail
For two drinks, muddle at least two bunches of fresh basil (err on the side of more) with a whole quartered lemon and 1/2 shot of simple syrup.  Add two shots of Hendricks Gin, shake until the shaker is too cold to hold.  Serve on the rocks with a fresh basil garnish.

It's very refreshing and strong enough to alleviate the labors of the day.  Thus the Anti-Gravity Cocktail.

Here's a quick video I made of it.  Enjoy!

Testing booze recipes...

Happy Memorial Day Evening!

Testing a Whisky-based Barbecue Sauce tonight.  After that, a new Gin cocktail of our design.  I'm documenting these.  Any successes will be reported.  Any failures will also be reported.

Wish me luck?

(Source)