Thank you…

As regular readers of this blog may have noticed I have been away from my desk, so to speak, since mid-April. But envy me not as I have not been whiling away the days on a tropical beach somewhere, sipping daiquiris and turning lobster red, rather I’ve made a joyous and exciting work move and have now jumped to the other side of the mahogany in a supplier based role, preaching the good word of an exciting portfolio of spirit brands to a thirsty Australian consumer.

On a recent weekend away it took someone close to me to remind me to honour my readers with an update and account of my absence, and also to offer somewhat of a temporary farewell as given my new role there are responsibilities I now honour to my new employer. Back when I started this blog in mid 2009 it started out as a true labour of love, an avenue to share my mumblings with all you would listen. As it continued this love grew to an obsession, and immediately I realised that such writings appealed to many like me out there in the drinks readership world.

Might I say it’s been a pleasure bringing my thoughts, observations and experiences of the bar and drinks world to the table, and I continue to be amazed by the creatvity and committment of the many bartenders around the world who call their bar home.

For Drink Doctrine for the moment a final call has been made and last drinks are in, this round’s on me…

DD

A suggestion of wormwood

Recently myself and my fellow barkeeps were invited to join Australian Bartender’s “Cocktail Experiment” for their March issue, focusing on the sometimes tricky but definitely pleasureable absinthe (or absinth if you’re Czech). See here to learn what we came up with and also see the last ever pics taken from our beloved Club Bar, which closed its doors for the last time on the 27th March… RIP Club Bar, you will be missed.

DD

Hibiscus, aka Roselle, aka Rosella aka Florida Cranberry…

My first ever post on this site back in ’09 featured a recipe for a Flip cocktail, as anyone who knows me well enough will know this style of cocktail is my vice, if there’s one a menu I’ll go for it every time. The recipe in question in fact featured a hibiscus conserve that I received from a supplier in Malaysia, and they have just updated their site with this said recipe getting a look in amongst some other interesting ideas on how to utilise hibiscus in drinks. Pop over to their site to learn more about Roselle Farms and also here’s a link directly to my Hibiscus Flip recipe.

In Australia we know hibiscus as the name suggests, or the otherwise popular rosella. Depending on the variety and where it has been grown though throughout the world it can take on a number of pseudo names. You can liken the flavour to a tart plum perhaps, the colour is of a deep raspberry, almost blood-like. Its cultivation does best in tropical conditions, and so can grow practically anywhere in the world where this climate exists. Cultivation in Malaysia has been around in earnest since the 1990s, and since then has burgeoned into a fully fledged industry.

It’s been around forever in this country and seems to suffer from fleets of interest from bartenders, popular one day and back of mind the next. The juices and cordials, tinctures and flowers have infinite uses for drinks, they’re worthy of a little more attention me thinks.

DD

The Japanese Cocktail

Remembering all that is good about Japan during these most horrible of times for the country, perhaps a drink of salute to the hard work of the many rescue teams there at the moment hoping for a miracle or two to raise the hopes of many a now lesser-off Japanese. I once visited Japan back in ’08 and the six days I spent there only teases me with a want to return at the earliest opportunity. A country so bursting with culture and custom, spend three or four days in just Tokyo alone and you’ll hardly scratch the surface.

Of course amid bartending circles it’s become known as a country with such disciplined techniques, they border on obsessive. From Japan the global craze towards ice, in all its forms began and we owe much to them for the increased distribution and popularity of an array of favoured bartending tools including ice saws, whisky moulds, plastic knives and barspoons with a fork on the end which curiously no one really knows what to do with.

Of course as many would know both whisky and cognac are big in Japan, their ability to produce fantastic single malts in the ilk of reputable Scottish Highlands brands is truly a gift to whisky drinkers, and as I’ve said in posts previous it’s a strange irony that not even they know how good they are, with hardened Japanese imbibers still favouring Scotland’s finest over their domestic product. But today is not about whisky it is about cognac, and the wonderfully simple but elegant Japanese Cocktail.

The Japanese Cocktail is one of the pioneering drinks coming out of the pages of Jerry Thomas’ 1862 Bartenders Guide (or How to Mix Drinks), and famously is remembered for none of its three or four (depending on who you ask) ingredients being actually Japanese. Again its origin is a bit of a mystery also. The basic belief is that it was created in honour of an 1860 visit by Japanese dignitaries to the US, apparently this had been the first or one of the first mission visits from that country. Cocktail historian David Wondrich muses that “Professor Thomas had one of the most popular bars in New York, when they were there” so I guess it’s not unfathomable that this story may hold some truth.

The recipe anyhow:
60ml cognac (VS or above)
15ml orgeat syrup
2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters
15ml fresh lime juice (optional)
Stir/strain with rock ice in a large beaker or mixing vessel, dispense to chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with twist of lemon, expressing the oils well over the drink

I’ve tried this drink with/without the lime juice and it works equally well, just depends on your individual taste, if you prefer something drier omit the lime. If you are adding the lime though I recommend a small shake, just to ensure a proper even mix. The real crucial ingredient here though is the orgeat, get your mitts on the best one you can, if it’s Monin only then that works just fine.

Mystery labelling revealed

Short recent video explaining the mystery of the oversized Angostura Bitters bottle label, something that has perplexed many a bartender and general consumer over the decades as to why so?… In this story it is told that it was the result of a failed competition entry by two young brothers, one mistake which perhaps turned out to be their best one!

enjoy

Sangrita simplified…

An older video but one which segways nicely from my post last week on ‘Keeping it Simple’… here drinks wizard Angus Winchester presents the basic sangrita recipe (tomato, oj, lime, pomegranate and spices) open of course to all limits of reinterpretation and reinvention. A concept so embed these days that the very art of the ritual has become part of Diageo’s World Class competition, prompting creative results.
Love his line “also known as what’s this here sauce!” when referring to his generous lashings of worcestershire sauce… thanks Angus.

DD.

Keeping it simple…

There’s a lot to be said in keeping it simple in your approach to cocktails, and although it may be an overused term these days, in drinks circles it still has prominence. Too often when presented with the
six-ingredient rule in competitions you will largely see bartenders using this full quota, when sometimes it’s obvious one or two of them could have been omitted, without much being taken away from the final drink. It’s a temptation we can’t resist if it’s offered, perhaps it’s human psyche, but we just throw everything at it.

Either way, when I am presented with a drink that balances only three to four ingredients well I am often more impressed by this than one that boasts a shopping list. Of course throughout history there are many examples where a minimal of ingredients has proved a winning tale, with the three M’s – Martini, Margarita and Manhattan – not having more than ten ingredients between them all (that’s including ice as an ingredient).

To illustrate this simplicity I recalled back to a drink I had in 2009 in Macau, in fact the location was the Venetian casino and hotel, a behemoth of a place where an affable beverage manager Alessandro Boneschi that day presented me with a curious tequila drink, served up, with a generous zest of yellow grapefruit to liven it up. He never divulged the exact recipe to me that day, just mentioning the three ingredients in question as he prepared up on the bar. My tastebuds told me though that it would have been something along the lines of 3 parts reposado tequila, 1 part honey water and 1/2 part caramel syrup, shaken and garnished with grapefruit zest.

It was a wonderfully balanced drink that most appropiately enhanced and exagerrated the already exisiting flavour notes of the base tequila (in this case I think he used Gran Centenario, but Herradura or Don Julio reposados would have worked equally well). Those wonderful caramel and vanilla notes coming through that you only get with a longer barrel ageing, and said complimenting citrus zest adding some freshness and pleasant acidity to the sweetness otherwise dominant.

I’m not sure of a name for this cocktail and Alessandro never mentioned one, but the lack of one has not stopped me remembering…

…here’s to simplicity!

Spirit Safe

Scrimmaging through some old photos recently and as I always do I get stuck on my Scotland distillery trip back in 2009, and what caught my eye was the spirits safe pics I took, albeit no photographic masterpieces but all the same more taken for future reference. Those who’ve been to a distillery before will know that the spirits safe is often seen as the master control room of the distillery. Where once they were a serious measure taken by customs and excise officials to deter crafty distillers from avoiding paying duty on their hooch, although they still in part perform this function they are also more a feature point now on any official distillery tour. They are the centrepiece of any still room, all shiny, clean and polished, looking like a bank vault with windows…

Spirit Safe at Royal Brackla

So for those who don’t know the spirits safe basically acts as a control mechanism for Scottish customs and excise officials to block any shady distillery manager from trying to siphon off fresh new make spirit from the stills, to essentially avoid paying tax on what is legally alcohol but not actually whisky yet having seen no ageing. Their function is primarily for the stillman to be able to control and regulate the run off the spirit condenser, directing the feints and foreshots running off the still and keeping the heart which will be kept to become whisky in the future.

The idea of spirits safes came about in 1823 when laws governing the sale of whiskies were reviewed, ultimately allowing a level playing field on which both highland and lowland distilleries could compete. Even until as late as 1983 only a customs and excise official held the keys to the giant, shiny brass padlocks that often you’ll see adorning these spirits safes. Nowadays these customs guys still have a key but so too do the distillery managers, times have changed and trust maybe bettered.

Callum, Deanston distillery manager and I in 2009

During my trip there the most memorable spirit safes I spotted were at Glenmorangie, Aberlour, Deanston and Royal Brackla, also the one at Diageo’s Cameronbridge plant in Fife was a technological wonder but differing from the others in that it was hosting gin, not soon to be whisky!

*If anyone has any other great pics of spirit safes from wherever, post them on the DD facebook wall (see right)

Drinks by the Dram

Master of Malt is an online whisky business whom recently broke beyond their retail surrounds in south-east England to offer a wonderful selection of not only whisky, but also other fine spirits to the online liquor buying community (yep with the current uproar here in Oz concerning online GST you should be quick!). They also offer a teasing ‘try before you buy’ service for most of their range, where basically you can purchase a 30ml sample of a selected product and test its viability before brandishing the wallet for a larger purchase. Great idea really, and one which I took them up on with these two lovely arrivals from two of my favourite malt houses…

Arran's 12yr old (Single Cask) & Ardbeg's Corryvreckan

I’ve provided a couple of lines on my thoughts on these two little devils below, plus links back to the Master of Malt’s own reviews, hope you like:

Arran 12yr old – Single Cask

Arran distillery has only been around for 15yrs or so and this is one of their single cask editions. Can’t knock Jim Murray’s review of it, it’s bang on… lots of citrus and grass at the front, with a semi-sweet finish and mouth-filling palate, which lingers well and succeeds in somewhat hiding the 54.7%abv beneath. A very promising 12yr expression from one of Scotland’s younger, but increasingly admired distilleries.

Ardbeg Corryvreckan

With a name that’s bloody hard to say, it’s a good thing it’s very easy to drink. Corryvreckan is the name of a famous whirlpool north of Islay, where Ardbeg’s own website claims “only the bravest souls dare to venture”. Venture they have here with a return to a stronger medicinal edge, a far cry from the softer, perhaps creamier Airigh Nam Beist. Corryvreckan comes in at cask strength, 57.1%abv, and smacks you across the face with hints of burnt coffee, pepper, and the signature saltiness and smoke of this much-famed Islay survivor…. more please.

Click over to the Master of Malt’s own website for more malt teasers and ask them about their Drinks by the Dram offerings, good things always come in small packages.

Slainte

ilegal mezcal… arriving in Australia

Exciting news in the world of agave spirits hit my inbox earlier this month, with news that Ilegal Mezcal – the great artisanal spirit and bartender’s favourite – will be arriving to Australian shores early in March. Sa’pere Drinks, the importer responsible based out of Melbourne is adding another great addition to their already established staples Citadelle gin, Ferand Cognac and Plantation rum. President of Sa’pere, Brendan Kennedy, says “we have chosen Ilegal because of the heavy demand in cocktail bars for a premium mezcal and because many of Australia’s top mixologists have been specifically requesting this mezcal. Mezcal is one of the few real artisanal spirits, it is entirely handcrafted and takes years to produce, it is an art.”

Of course mezcal is the big brother of tequila in the spirits world, as although similarly produced in Mexico it is born from an alternative strain of agave plant, and generally expels a much more involved flavour with hints of smoke, tobacco and sweet pepper. The main producing region for mezcal in Mexico is Oaxaca, the southern state which lies close to the border of Guatemala.

Ilegal Mezcal curiously got its name when business partners Stephen Myers (originally from Sydney) and John Rexer opened a small speak-easy named Café No Se in Antigua, Guatemala in 2004. The name “Ilegal” arose from Myer’s and Rexer’s numerous expeditions from Mexico to Guatemala “creatively” bringing uncertified mezcal across the border to supply their patrons.

Myers will be out here in March hosting trade tastings and the like to interested bartenders, watch this space for more details on the sessions. Myers talks with great enthusiasm about returning to Australia to showcase a spirit he describes as not a product but a culture, a journey and a different way of looking at things, he goes on “if you’ve tried it, you know what I mean.” Ilegal will be available in three variants – joven (unaged), reposado (slightly aged) and anejo (aged).

In the meantime they have a great website to wet your agave appetite, do check it out ilegalmezcal.com