Margarita

I keep tweaking the proportions to try to hit the perfect balance of citrus, sweet, and booze. Work in progress, but here's my current preference:

Margarita

1.5 oz tequila
1 oz lime juice
0.5 oz orange liqueur 

0.5 oz simple syrup

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass with new ice.

Not massively different to my 2010 recipe, but incrementally better, I think.

For a spicy version, slice up a couple of jalapenos and add them to a large jar of tequila for a day or two before straining the infused booze and following the recipe above.

Paper Plane

The Paper Plane, created in Chicago in 2008, has been described as a modern classic, and I won't argue. It's like a whiskey sour with more going on. The proper recipe asks for equal parts of four ingredients: bourbon (I recommend choosing something 100 proof or higher), Amaro Nonino* (an Italian bittersweet liqueur), Aperol, and lemon juice. I prefer it a touch less bitter and citrussy so my amended version dials down the Aperol and lemon.

Paper Plane

0.75 oz bourbon

0.75 oz Amaro Nonino

0.5 oz Aperol

0.5 oz lemon juice

Shake ingredients furiously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

*Amaro Nonino is made from herbs, spices, fruit, berries and roots enriched with a grape distillate, and aged more than 12 months in casks.

Fino Martini

 

A new twist on the gin martini involves ditching the dry vermouth and replacing it with fino sherry, giving the drink a savory, almondy, almost saline character. I found the following recipe in an issue of Bon Appétit.

Fino Martini

2 oz gin (Plymouth works great)

0.75 oz fino sherry

Dash of orange bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with olives.

Summer Nights

Following my recent adventures with Jack Daniels, I tried out their recipe for what is effectively a whiskey sour and decided it was worth sharing. I didn't have any of their Tennessee Honey flavored whiskey to hand (and never will) so upped the amount of Old No. 7, which worked just fine.

Summer Nights

1.5 oz Jack Daniels Old No. 7
0.5 oz orange liqueur
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

I took the further liberty of adding a few dashes of Fee Brothers Fee Foam for texture and aesthetics.

Jack Daniels

Forget all you know about Jack Daniels, whose basic Old No. 7 is the biggest selling American whiskey. In recent years, the Tennessee distillery has released a range of new expressions experimenting with different proofs, barrel selection, and ageing. At a Whiskey Squade meetup we tasted the No. 7 alongside five other offerings, and everyone left impressed. All the whiskies use the same mashbill: 80% corn, 12% barley, and 8% rye, which highlighted the different impacts of the other variables.

In drinking order we tasted:

Old No. 7
Aged for at least 4 years. 40% ABV/80 proof.

Gentleman Jack
Aged for at least 4 years. 40% ABV/80 proof.
Undergoes a second charcoal mellowing - after whiskey is matured in barrel and before bottling.

Bonded
Aged for at least 4 years. 50% ABV/100 proof.
According to the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, Bonded whiskies must be distilled from a single distillery in a single distillation season, aged in a federally bonded warehouse for at least 4 years and bottled at 100 proof.

Single Barrel Select
Aged for at least 4 years. 47% ABV/94 proof.
Specific barrels selected for darker color and bold oak character.

12 Year-Old (Batch 1, March 2023)
Aged for 12 years (duh). 53.5% ABV/107 proof.

Single Barrel, Barrel Proof
Aged for at least 4 years. 64.7% ABV/129.4 proof.
JD's first cask strength whiskey. Aged at top of warehouse. Minimal filtration. No water added.

The winners were the 12-year-old (rare, pricey, but really good), and the single barrel bottlings (both the select and barrel proof versions). I liked the Bonded too. Aside from the 12-year-old, all of these are pretty affordable and widely available, at least in Austin. Good work, Jack.

Fun JD facts:
-The distillery was established in 1866.
-It's located in a 'dry' county, which means the only alcohol you're permitted to buy in the area is a single commemorative bottling direct from the distillery.
-The sour mash method that's mentioned on the bottle is used by pretty much every whiskey producer in the US, and just means that some of the by-products of previous batches (wet solids) are mixed into the next mash to help achieve a more consistent fermentation (like a sourdough starter, perhaps).
-JD calls its spirit Tennessee whiskey rather than bourbon. What's the difference? JD is technically a bourbon as well, but to call itself a Tennessee whiskey the spirit needs to go through a charcoal filtering (a.k.a. Lincoln County) process, which according to JD makes things mellower.

Paloma

Given a bottle of tequila and a few minutes, I would normally gravitate towards making a Margarita or a Mexican Martini. Palomas, in my admittedly curbed experience, have always tasted to me like a classic spirit + mixer combo, a thin, weak long drink. Then I found a recipe that switches out the more commonly used grapefruit soda with fresh grapefruit juice. In Texas, the grapefruits are massive, abundant, and sweet, at least compared with the eye-wateringly astringent varieties you find in the UK. The resulting drink provides a fuller flavor and a thicker mouthfeel. It's a great balance between a short, boozy punch, and a longer, spritzier refresher. Consider it the utimate medium drink.

Paloma

2 oz blanco tequila
2 oz fresh grapefruit juice plus wedge for garnish
2 oz sparkling water
0.5 oz lime juice
0.25 oz agave nectar
Pinch of coarse sea salt*

Add the tequila, (strained) grapefruit juice, lime juice, agave nectar and salt to a shaker. Shake with ice. Add sparkling water. Strain into a tumber with fresh ice. Add grapefruit wedge for garnish.

*The recipe calls for a salted rim, but I prefer to throw a pinch of salt into the shaker to mainline the salinity.

See also: the Frozen Paloma, for those with access to a frozen margarita machine.

Beer Poking

 

Bierstacheln, which means beer spike or beer sting, is a German tradition that involves inserting a poker heated to about 600 degrees celsius (!) into a dark beer for a few seconds. This not only warms the beer but apparently creates a spontaneous maillard reaction that caramelizes unfermented sugar, changing the flavor and creating a frothy head. The process was invented by blacksmiths to keep their beer warm in winter when it was too cold to drink.

For their seventh birthday, Austin's Lazarus Brewing offered up a range of their St Pete's oak aged imperial stouts for poking. I tried the version called Mexican Hot Chocolate with Wartryx Hot Peppers (10% ABV) and it tasted amazing, gently warmed with a toasty marshmallow aroma and flavor. I sometimes struggle with beers that strong but the poking made it very drinkable.

Strawberry Margarita

 

I had some fresh strawberries that needed drinking and found this recipe on Reddit. I reduced the sweetness a little and added a couple of basil leaves, since everyone knows the combination of strawberry and basil is the quickest shortcut to instant sophistication.

Strawberry Margarita

2 oz blanco tequila
0.5 oz Aperol
1 oz lime juice
0.25 oz agave nectar
Pinch of kosher salt
3 dashes of Fee Brothers Fee Foam (optional)
3 strawberries - one for garnish
2 basil leaves

Muddle two of the strawberries (thoroughly) and basil in a shaker. Add the rest of the ingredients, and ice. Shake hard and strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube (or serve up in a martini or Nick and Nora glass). Garnish with a strawberry.

The additions of Aperol, salt and basil make this drink more interesting than a mere fruity marg.