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Archives for July 2016

Lavender Lychee Collins

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I’ve been eyeing lychees at my local natural food store for weeks waiting for the right time to pick some up and play around. I have to admit the idea of using lychees in cocktails makes me do an eye roll. I spent some time years ago working in an establishment with a Pan-Asian inspired food and bar program. The sight of a large can with preserved and over sugary fruits pouring out of it and being muddled into martinis gives me chills, and not the good kind. I rarely have come across them fresh, which is why I was so excited and intrigued to use them in a drink.

The lychee has a rough, red, leathery skin, and on the inside is a white creamy, almost grape-like fruit. It’s a tropical fruit that originated in China, and is known for its sweet and fragrant flavor. If you can get your hands on some (they’re in season from May till June or July) I think you will be surprised and delighted by the taste and texture of the fruit. They also contain and impressive array of vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.

I thought the aroma of the lychee paired best with the botanicals and citrus notes of Gin, along with the beautifully fragrant and complexity of lavender. My Lavender Lychee Collins is easy to make at home, and is a refreshing boozy take on a lemonade, which means you can keep the booze out as well for your friends that are not imbibing, just double up on your citrus and sweetener.

Lavender Lychee Collins

2 oz. Gin
3/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
3/4 oz. Lavender Simple Syrup
Soda
6 Peeled & Pitted Lychees
Lavender Sprig

In your tin add your lemon juice, lavender syrup, and 4 peeled & pitted lychees, give it a light muddle. Add your Gin, I chose a London Dry like Beefeater, add ice, shake, and strain into a highball glass over ice. Top with soda and garnish your cocktail with remaining lychees and a lavender sprig.

Lavender Simple Syrup (1:1)

  • Combine water, sugar, and lavender blossoms in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let syrup steep, about 30 minutes.
  • Pour syrup into a sterilized glass jar or bottle through a mesh strainer to remove blossoms; let cool.

Summer Sandia Cocktail

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All photos courtesy of Mady Popelka for Women & Whiskies. Glassware by Easy Tiger Co.

All photos courtesy of Mady Popelka for Women & Whiskies. Glassware by Easy Tiger Co.

This Sunday is National Pina Colada Day, and what better way to celebrate with some Rum, pineapple juice, and coconut cream.

It has been the official drink of Puerto Rico since 1978 but its origins are much older. The modern Pina Colada depends on coconut cream being used as an ingredient, which doesnt appear until 1948 when Don Ramon Lopez Irizarry creates the well-known Coco Lopez product. This is where, like most cocktails, the trail gets a little bit muddy. The Pina Colada has had its share of claimants and accounts of similar drinks that date back to the 17th century.

The first actual written instance of Pina Colada attached to a cocktail dates back to 1922 in Travel Magazine. It descibes a drink with fresh pineapple juice, lime, sugar, ice, and Bacardi Rum. This is what we now like to call a Pineapple Daiquiri, which I enjoy on my shifts at Dutch Kills quite frequently.

A few bartenders have quarreled over the rights to the drink:

  • The Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where long-serving bartender, Ramón “Monchito” Marrero Perez claims to have created the drink on August 16, 1954, utilizing the recently released Coco López cream of coconut.
  • Ricardo García, another bartender at the Caribe, who claims to have come up with the recipe as a work-around during the coconut cutters’ union strike of 1954. It sucks when a co-worker trys to take credit for your drink, doesnt it?
  • Ramón Portas Mingot’s 1963 story stating that he came up with the drink while working at the Barrachina Restaurant in Old San Juan.

I want to thank all of them, as we may never know, just like the Mai Tai battle of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic (I vote for Don). Let’s celebrate the history of this drink in all of its frosty, fruity, deliciousness glory with a variation of our own. I’m celebraing with my cocktail the Summer Sandia which I created for Women & Whiskies. I know what you’re thinking, a whiskey colada? I’m here to change your mind with this American Whiskey spin on the classic Pina Colada.

All photos courtesy of Mady Popelka for Women & Whiskies. Glassware by Easy Tiger Co.

All photos courtesy of Mady Popelka for Women & Whiskies. Glassware by Easy Tiger Co.

Summer Sandia

1 ½ oz. Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon
½ oz. Absinthe
1 ½ oz. Pineapple Juice
1 ½ oz. Coconut Cream (equal parts coconut cream and coconut milk)
7 watermelon cubes
Fresh Mint
Crushed Ice

Add pineapple juice to your mixing tin with 5 watermelon cubes and a handful of mint leaves, and muddle. Add the rest of your ingredients, dry shake, and strain into your serving vessel. Add crushed ice and garnish with watermelon and a mint sprig.

All photos courtesy of Mady Popelka for Women & Whiskies. Glassware by Easy Tiger Co.

All photos courtesy of Mady Popelka for Women & Whiskies. Glassware by Easy Tiger Co.

Drinking American: Lairds Applejack and the Liberty State Park Swizzle

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Photo by Matt Taylor-Gross

Photo by Matt Taylor-Gross

There is no better way to celebrate your Fourth of July weekend than by drinking and mixing with American Spirits. One of my favorites has always been Lairds Applejack.

The Lairds have been producing Apple Brandy in Monmouth County, New Jersey for almost 300 years, passing down their recipe from generation to generation. They are the oldest commercial and family owned distillery in the country holding license number 1. In fact, historical records show that in 1760 or before, General George Washington wrote to the Laird family requesting their recipe for producing Applejack, which the Laird family supplied. George Washington is the only other known person besides the Laird family to have the recipe. Abraham Lincoln also served Applejack in his New Salem, Illinois tavern. It doesn’t get more American than that.

Photo courtesy of Laird & Co.

Photo courtesy of Laird & Co.

Apple Brandy fell out of popularity somewhere in the mid century, only being a favorite of old timers sipping on it at their local watering holes. This all changed with the craft cocktail boom of the early 2000s which ushered in a renaissance of enjoying classic cocktails like the Jack Rose again. Suddenly a rather obscure spirit became a cocktail bar staple with a cult following. Nowadays you’re lucky to get your hands on a bottle of it, as bars all across the country struggle to keep it in stock. Laird & Company has been the sole producer of this spirit category since the end of prohibition with only recently some small craft distilleries releasing their own version of apple brandy.

Photo from Liquor.com

Photo from Liquor.com

In 2013 I was lucky enough to visit the distillery, which you can read all about here in my article that was featured in Edible Magazine. I have always placed this spirit on all the menus I have put together because of its importance, as well as included it on the menus of establishments I have worked at over the years. In 2011 my recipe for the Hamilton Park Swizzle was in the Summer of Tiki issue of Imbibe Magazine. It was also on the menu at Lani Kai, a now shuddered modern tropical bar owned by Julie Reiner in the Soho section of Manhattan.

Since then it has always been my project to create variations on the Queens Park Swizzle cocktail and name them after parks in Jersey City, NJ where I am from and still reside. I have also created the Van Vorst Park, the Lincoln Park, and now in honor of the holiday weekend that is upon us I have put together the Liberty State Park Swizzle. For those of us that will be spending the fourth there watching the fireworks in the shadows of the Statue of Liberty herself, this is what you should be drinking.

I used Lairds newest product, Jersey Lightning, a clear, un-aged apple distillate. It is boldly flavored with super crisp and fresh apple notes, a moonshine-esque liquid that’s a wonderful candidate for mixing in drinks. It’s also 100 proof. You were warned.

Liberty State Park Swizzle

1 1/2 oz. Lairds Jersey Lightning
3/4 oz. Lemon Juice
1/2 oz. Honey Syrup
1/4 oz. Ginger Syrup
1/2 oz. Float of Campari
Handful of mint and blueberries

In your serving vessel put your handful of mint and blueberries. In your mixing tin add all your ingredients except the Campari, dry shake, and pour a splash in your serving vessel. Muddle the mint and blueberries, add ice, and pour the remainder of your cocktail into the glass, float Campari. Garnish with a lavish bouquet of mint, blueberries, and dusting of powdered sugar. I love powdered sugar!