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August 2008 - Rinsing the Glass & New versions of a couple of cocktails
I’m not a bartender…I’m a consumer. So when I read a blog post about rinsing a glass with Laphroaig before adding a drink, I had to find out what the heck they were talking about, especially since Laphroig 10 yo is in my Top 10 whiskies.
In our house the only rinsing that gets done is in the dishwasher!
So, here’s what I found out…….
Step 1 – How do you do it?
A video to show you how. This is from a great website called Chow – a web site about food and drink.
Video of how to rinse:
http://www.chow.com/stories/10926
Step 2 – The Ingredients
Many of these drinks use different bitters. Here in BC we can only get Angostura Bitters. Here’s a link to a great article in the Vancouver Sun about a place in Seattle that has lots of bitters to choose from …...
Step 3 - Let's Make some Drinks!
This version uses Laphroaig as a rinse, along with peach bitters
2 oz Rittenhouse
Rye
¾ oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
½ oz Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth
2 dash Peychaud’s Bitters
Rinse Laphroig
1 dash Peach Bitters
Glass: Coupe
Garnish: Lemon Pigtail Twist
Rinse Coupe with Laphroig and Peach Bitters. Flick off extra liquid (as shown in
the video link). Stir other ingredients, and strain into glass.
Not Dipsophilia tested
This version also uses Laphroaig as a rinse
2.0 oz Bulleit
Bourbon
1 oz Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth
.5 oz Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth
11 drops Peychaud’s Bitters
Rinse of
Laphroig
Glass: Coupe
Garnish: 5 drops Pine Liqueur
Small Lemon Peel, light oil.
Ice: None
Stir. Strain. Serve up.
Sounds like a lot of bitters to me...not Dipsophilia tested.
Step 4: What’s a Sazerac?
I came across a few references to Sazarac, so here it is…uses an absinthe rinse….. this is from Chow web site:
The Sazerac is a cocktail originally made with rye; its unique flavor comes from the addition of Peychaud’s Bitters and the Herbsaint. “She has a weakness for Sazerac Slings; give her even the fruit and she swings.” So go the lyrics to Stephen Sondheim’s “Have I Got a Girl for You,” from his 1970 Broadway hit Company. The Sazerac was en vogue during that era of experimentation with exotic cocktails, but now it is rarely found outside the city of its birth, New Orleans.
Creole apothecary Antoine Peychaud, who moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the French Quarter in the early 1800s, is credited with the earliest version of this drink. He mixed aromatic bitters from an old family recipe with brandy, water, and sugar for his ailing clients. What precisely ailed them is not known, but enough people suffered from the affliction that the concoction became the basis for what some historians claim to be the first true cocktail. While this is open to dispute, few will argue that the Sazerac is New Orleans’s preeminent contribution to mixology. By the 1850s, the drink was served at the Sazerac Coffee House, which took its name from the Sazerac-de-Forget et Fils brandy imported by the establishment’s owner, John B. Schiller. The bar changed hands, and new owner Thomas Handy updated the recipe by substituting American whiskey and adding a splash of absinthe for color—if not color-blindness. When absinthe was banned, Herbsaint, a New Orleans version of the licorice-tasting pastis, was... read more
The Sazerac is a cocktail originally made with rye; its unique flavor comes from the addition of Peychaud’s Bitters and the Herbsaint. “She has a weakness for Sazerac Slings; give her even the fruit and she swings.” So go the lyrics to Stephen Sondheim’s “Have I Got a Girl for You,” from his 1970 Broadway hit Company. The Sazerac was en vogue during that era of experimentation with exotic cocktails, but now it is rarely found outside the city of its birth, New Orleans.
Creole apothecary Antoine Peychaud, who moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and set up shop in the French Quarter in the early 1800s, is credited with the earliest version of this drink. He mixed aromatic bitters from an old family recipe with brandy, water, and sugar for his ailing clients. What precisely ailed them is not known, but enough people suffered from the affliction that the concoction became the basis for what some historians claim to be the first true cocktail. While this is open to dispute, few will argue that the Sazerac is New Orleans’s preeminent contribution to mixology. By the 1850s, the drink was served at the Sazerac Coffee House, which took its name from the Sazerac-de-Forget et Fils brandy imported by the establishment’s owner, John B. Schiller. The bar changed hands, and new owner Thomas Handy updated the recipe by substituting American whiskey and adding a splash of absinthe for color—if not color-blindness. When absinthe was banned, Herbsaint, a New Orleans version of the licorice-tasting pastis, was introduced in its stead.
Both Peychaud’s Bitters and Herbsaint are extremely difficult to come by outside Louisiana, sadly putting the cocktail on the endangered species list for the rest of the world. You can substitute ingredients, but that would be like exchanging a pair of high heels for fluffy bedroom slippers.
Sazerac aficionado Chuck Taggart admonishes those who substitute bourbon for rye. He cites legendary New Orleans bartender Stanley Clisby Arthur, who used to mix Sazeracs, as his defense. In Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Mix ’Em, Arthur insists: “While Bourbon may do for a julep it just won’t do for a real Sazerac.” If by chance you run out of rye—because there is no excuse not to have it except penury—substitute bourbon, but Cognac or brandy is preferable to emulate the original recipe.
Sazerac Recipe:
- 1 sugar cube
- 1 1/2 ounces rye or American whiskey
- 2 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters
- Dash of angostura bitters
- Dash of absinthe (can substitute Herbsaint, Pernod, or Ricard)
- Twist of lemon peel
- Fill an Old Fashioned glass with ice. Put the sugar cube in a second Old Fashioned glass with just enough water to moisten it; then crush the cube.
- Add the rye, the two bitters, and a few cubes of ice, and stir. Discard the ice from the first glass, and pour in the absinthe.
- Turn the glass to coat the sides with the absinthe; then pour out the excess. Strain the rye mixture into the absinthe-coated glass. Twist and squeeze a lemon peel over the glass. Rub the rim of the glass with the peel, discarding
Another twist on an old recipe, using (you guessed it) Laphroig instead of absinthe!
Cooper's Union
2 ounces Red
Breast
.5 ounce St Germain
2 dash Orange bitters
Stir and serve
Sazerac style employing a Laphroiag rinse instead of absinthe
Garnish with Lemon twist not dropped in
Enjoy!
Jackie