A friend passed along a simple recipe composed of four ingredients last week. I shook a couple over the weekend and found another keeper for my cocktails shortlist.

The drink is The Final Word, based on gin and incorporating a new ingredient for me, green Chartreuse. I’m no stranger to gin cocktails; it’s become my favorite base spirit. It helps that gin goes with darn near everything, but it’s also refreshing on the palate, making it the base of many warm-weather pleasers.

A sip of green Chartreuse puts me in the mind of absinthe, not only for its vivid color but also for its complexity of flavor.

 This liqueur is made by aging over a hundred herbs, plants, and flowers in neutral spirit, then bottled at a sturdy 110-proof. Where absinthe is light on the palate, Chartreuse is heavy, but not cloyingly so.

According to its Wikipedia entry, Chartreuse is one of the few liqueurs that continue aging in the bottle, which is good because I’ll probably have this one around for a while.

The recipe is simple: equal parts London Dry gin—a juniper-forward spirit works best—plus green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and fresh lime juice. Shake with large cubes and double-strain into a chilled glass. Double-straining removes small ice shards from the finished cocktail. A chilled glass, well, that looks pretty and keeps your drink as cold as possible for as long as possible.

I recommend The Final Word to anyone who enjoys gin-based cocktails, herbal concoctions, and anise.

#cocktails #ginDrinks #theFinalWord

A quote I thought too good to let pass:

Cocktails with dinner is uncouth. Before dinner, or after dinner. Draining the last of a pre-meal drink, sure. But a purposeful cocktail with dinner is for the unwashed.

The quoted shall go nameless to protect the wise.

#cocktails #dining

Old Manhattan (click to enlarge)

We had guests at Andrew’s Bar and Kelly’s Kitchen and Rest this week. My sister, Pam, and her family paid us a visit from Illinois. As part of our hospitality, I laid in an assortment of local craft beer and opened the bar for cocktail experimentation. We ended up with a new drink.

What seems like a long time ago Kelly and I visited Smith Bowman’s Fredericksburg distillery, where John J. Bowman bourbon is made, with my mom during one of her last trips to Virginia. The tour revealed a true small batch, handmade whiskey process at work not far from our home. The bourbon was good, but not, on my palate, great.

Fast forward to 2017, when John J. Bowman was named “Best Whiskey in the World” by Whisky Magazine. Hmm. I filed that away at the back of my ‘try again’ list and moved on.

Feeling mildly disconcerted today, and hearing from a pal that a favorite rye whiskey selection was newly available at the Warrenton ABC, I stopped by to see what was on the shelf. Our favorite rye had been wiped out in less than a day. That’s not nearly as surprising as the ABC’s failure to make Rittenhouse Rye regular inventory stock, but whatever. I pulled that ‘try again’ out of my noggin and wandered back into the whiskeys. A bottle of John J. followed me home.

I’m utterly stunned. The first scent and flavor on my tongue is fruit, followed by a mild oakiness. The liquor is mellow and completely devoid of harshness, a sweet elixir despite its 100-proof strength and unblended, single barrel nature. What a lovely bourbon.

Though Bowman doesn’t divulge their bourbon’s pedigree, rumor claims that it comes from a double-distillation of their parent company Sazerac’s Buffalo Trace mash bill #1. If so, that makes it a close relative to Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace, two well-decorated bourbons.

The liquor is distilled once more in Virginia and laid up in American oak for nine to ten years. Despite their similar beginnings, Buffalo Trace and John J. Bowman are distinct in their finish. Must be the Virginia air.

Pappy, someday. Until then, Bowman has made the big time.

#JohnJBowman #bourbon #BuffaloTrace #whiskey

Our friends Shannon and Jeffrey Sapp throw a holiday party every year at around this time. A highlight of this shindig is the holiday mix-off, in which a handful of would-be mixologists compete with original recipe cocktails, served in mini tasting cups. We’re headed to the party tonight, but in advance of it I’ll let this year’s cat out of the bag. Herewith, my entry for the 2017 Mix-off.

What could be more comforting on a cold winter’s night, particularly after a day’s festivities are complete, than a craft cocktail? The spicy seduction of fine rye whiskey, the warm embrace of chile liqueur, and the sweet kiss of dark cherry liqueur combined with a hint of chocolate bitters produce the sublime concoction I’ve christened ‘Silent Night.’ It will warm you from tongue to toes, and it’s my Christmas gift to each of you.

To wit:

• 2 parts Rittenhouse rye whiskey
• ¼ part Ancho Reyes ancho chile liqueur
• ½ part Cherry Heering dark cherry liqueur
• 2 dashes Bittermens chocolate mole bitters 

Stir over ice until very cold, serve in a chilled coupe with dark cherry garnish. Makes one three-ounce drink.

#cocktails #silentNight #holidayMixOff #sappfest

Wayne Curtis – imbibe:

The glass became a case study in what happens if something stays too long in the limelight. By the 1990s, the glass had eclipsed the drink—everything in a Martini glass began to call itself a Martini, no matter the color or content. Some of these were potable; many were not.

The Martini glass became the guest that wouldn’t leave. Its size continued to grow, as if overfed on Spanish olives, until the glass became obese. The 12-ounce versions were preternaturally top-heavy and unstable even when parked, easily toppled by a boisterous laugh or an errant knee. A full Martini glass on a small table is Chekov’s gun waiting to be fired in the third act.

Oversized glassware is a great way to warm a perfectly chilled cocktail to undrinkability, but that’s not the only downside to the eponymous v-shaped cocktail glass. Curtis tells the iconic glass’s backstory, along with his opinion on its place in a contemporary backbar. I found myself nodding agreement throughout.

As I read elsewhere, all a well-equipped cocktail bar needs are Collins glasses, rocks glasses, and the elegant coupe.

#cocktails #glassware #Martini #oversized #Collins #rocks #coupe

Alex Delany – Bon Appetit:

Now I see crushed ice for what it is: Crushed ice is a rapidly melting mountain of bullshit.

Alex has apparently been covertly listening while I fret over the quality of ice from our soon-to-be new refrigerator. His is an amusing, short read on why crushed ice is good only for swizzles and your dentist.

When it comes to shitty ice, just say no.

#cocktails #ice #crushed #watery #excessive #dilution

So we went here today. Solace Brewing of Dulles (Sterling), Virginia is a young buck of a craft brewer located under the departure end of Dulles International’s runway 30, with a large service space, a long bar, and a gorgeous brewhouse. They’re open but three weeks, yet sport six beers, with three more on short order.

Neal and I spent a few hours here sampling their beers, shootin’ the shit, and generally enjoying each other’s company. Our pal Alex and his family happened in mid-flight, proving great minds think alike. After sitting amid a pile of Labrador puppies, it’s one of my life’s true pleasures.

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These folks present a simple, straightforward proposition: beer, t-shirts, glasses, and communal space. The beer spans styles from witbier to blonde ale to a pair of IPAs, with a tasty brown ale thrown in for good measure. They’ll drain three brite tanks in the coming two weeks to put up a third IPA, a stout, and a double IPA. Their brewers are working it.

Here’s a couple shots of their brewhouse.

The blue thing is a heat exchanger. It cools the boiled wort from around 200 degrees to something that won’t kill the yeast. Brewers make sugar water. Yeast makes beer.

Notice not only a three-vessel brewing system, but duplication amid their tanking. They can effectively malt two-at-a-time, boil a kettle and keep hot liquor at the ready for sparging all at once.

All of their finished beer is packaged off to kegs, and the taps are served from a cold room just off the side of the retail space.

Of note, their cold room keeps the beer at a lovely cellar temperature. If you’re ordering an IPA, drink it now. The ambient air temperature is wind-chilled by two of these Big Ass Fans, and will warm your beer to stinky-feet aroma right quick if you wait.

 There’s room for another four brite tanks behind these guys.

If you’re in the Sterling, Virginia area and looking for a beer, this young brewery is worth a stop. Say “hey” to Holly behind the bar, and enjoy a Beach Bod blonde ale while you’re there.

#beer #solace #brewing #sterling #dulles #virginia