Dusty Backbar?
I've mentioned in the past I have a collector's mentality. I like to collect things. There generally isn't anything wrong with that, but it is an aspect of my personality I try to keep in check. Aside from cocktails, one of my favorite hobbies is board gaming. I fell into that hobby pretty much by accident in the late 1990s, and now my board game collection requires so much shelf space that IKEA sends me Christmas cards. Recently, I've begun to realize I may be hitting a tipping point, where amassing more stuff for that hobby will require either (a) a bigger house, or (b) some judicious pruning. If something new comes in, something old needs to go. That sort of thing.
I'm also realizing it's possible reach a tipping point with cocktails. Most people just don't have bars big enough to house endless bottles of alcohol, and I'm no exception. Also, it just isn't realistic to have every type of alcohol on hand at all times--even for a large, commercial bar.
In one of my earlier posts, I recommended MixologyTech's "PDT" iOS app, which is a great, handheld database of 400 cocktail recipes from the Please Don't Tell speakeasy in New York City. The app has some really cool features that play havoc with my need to collect all things. In addition to an inventory feature to track the contents of your home bar, it also matches your inventory to the included recipes and tells you (1) how many cocktails you can currently make, (2) how many cocktails you could make if you purchased just one or two more ingredients, and (3) what bottle you should buy next to have the greatest impact on (1) and (2). Super helpful and, for a person like me, also super evil. Having apps like these is like having a little, boozed-up devil sitting on my shoulder, whispering into my ear.
"You really need to buy a bottle of Gürztraminer. Otherwise, you will never know what the 'Idle Hands' cocktail tastes like."
"You can only make 97 of the 400 cocktails I could show you. If you buy a bottle of Fernet-Branca, you could make a smooth 100."
"100 is only 25% of my known cocktails."
"..."
"Oh. And you need more board games..."
One would think it is insanity to buy a new bottle of liquor for just one cocktail, but I have done it. Multiple times. I recently visited a liquor store with a friend, and I walked out with a bottle of Cynar (an Italian digestif I wanted to use in an "Heirloom" cocktail, though I am still trying to source a bottle of Aftel Anise Hyssop Essence). He mocked me a bit and suggested I was the only person to buy a bottle of Cynar from that store in years, which may have been accurate (it was a pretty dusty bottle). But, I just smiled back and assured him this bottle was important. And maybe it will be, someday. For now, it sits unopened at the back of my bar, getting dustier.
This kind of behavior has resulted in a liquor cabinet I am proud of, but also a growing number of bottles accumulating a similar amount of dust. They will last, so that's not a problem, but I still feel the need to occasionally seek out new cocktails to give the MVPs of my bar a little break and shine some light on the less-celebrated players. That is the genesis of this week's cocktail:
The Drink: South Slope
Ingredients Used:
- Plymouth Gin - 0.75 oz
- Aperol - 0.75 oz
- Lillet Blanc - 0.75 oz
- Pierre Ferrand Ancient Formula Orange Curaçao - 0.5 oz
- Lemon Juice - 0.5 oz
This cocktail, conceived by Michael Madrusan (founder of PDT and Milk and Honey in New York) while living in Brooklyn, looked like a great way to explore two little-used ingredients in my bar--Aperol and Lillet Blanc.
Of the two, Lillet Blanc gets a lot more use in my house. But "a lot more use" than Aperol is still not very much use. A fortified wine similar to vermouth but much sweeter and with more pronounced flavor, it is an ingredient in one of my favorite cocktails: the "Corpse Reviver No. 2." If you've heard of Lillet, you're probably a James Bond fan. In the book Casino Royale, he ordered a modified martini that contained gin, vodka, and Lillet, and the resulting cocktail (dubbed a "Vesper" after his lover, Vesper Lynd) experienced a surge in popularity after the film version of Casino Royale was released in 2006. Like vermouth, Lillet is available in both white (blanc) and red (rouge) varieties, and this week's cocktail uses the white version.
Any time I'm able to use Lillet in a cocktail, I am happy to do so. I like what it brings to cocktails, but I'm even more motivated by the fact that it expires much more quickly than distilled spirits. It is fortified, but it is still wine, and it needs to be used relatively quickly after opening. Without a doubt, sherries and wines are the most annoying bottles to try to keep stocked in a home bar.
 |
| This is a group of bottles that just screams "TASTY." |
Nonetheless, I picked up a bottle of Aperol quite some time ago for a particular cocktail, and I hadn't used it since, so I was very happy to use it in something new.
The Prep:
No real trick to mixing this one. Simply pour each of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker, add ice, then shake it up. Alternatively, given the very small amount of lemon juice, I don't think anyone would blink if you preferred to stir your South Slope instead of shaking it. I don't recall if I've mentioned it before, but the accepted rule of thumb is that clear drinks should be stirred, and opaque drinks (especially those with fruit juices) should be shaken. Stirring mainly keeps the mixture from getting frothy, which is less desired in clear cocktails.
Let's be honest, though. No one really cares that much, probably, unless your cocktail is one that absolutely needs shaking (something with egg white or lots of fruit juice, for example). Even James Bond is out there shaking the crap out of clear martinis, though we should acknowledge that, if you actually have a license to kill people, bartenders probably don't give you any lip when you offend their sensibilities.
After a good shaking, pour the contents into a chilled coupe and garnish with a lemon twist.
 |
| A little bit bubbly on top, because it is shaken, not stirred. <cue theme song> |
First off, I just have to say I love the color of this cocktail. With summer on the way, the bright orange screams warm weather and begs you to find out what it tastes like.
For fun, compare to one of my failed cocktails from February, the "Purple" Rain:
 |
| Hideous. |
As for taste, the South Slope is a great little drink. With substantial amounts of citrus in the ingredient list (including Aperol, which is flavored with orange peels), it is probably no surprise that the primary takeaway from this drink is its orange flavor. I used Plymouth Gin because it is a great, dry gin with orange notes right up front, and it married very will with the curaçao, lemon, and bitter Aperol. Behind the blossoming orange, the juniper from the gin adds just the right amount of floral to the mix, and the finish is pretty nice.
If I had one complaint, it would be that the curaçao was a little too heavy. With all of the orange going on, I wanted the gin to be a little more pronounced. I will be tempted to reduce the curaçao to a 1/4 oz next time, though that would probably also require the Aperol to be reduced to keep its bitterness in check. Ultimately, I'm just nitpicking here. I liked the drink, and it was the first cocktail my wife enjoyed that involved a bitter aperitif.
By the way, I am introducing a rating scale with this blog post. I tend to enjoy most of the cocktails I try, so I think it may be difficult for readers to tell which cocktails really knock my socks off. It's pretty clear when I don't like something, but I fear the good-to-great cocktails may just get lost in a jumble if I don't have an at-a-glance rating system. While such ratings may be of limited utility in many ways, I think they capture the intangibles I am not likely to touch on in the text.
That said, I give the South Slope a solid...
Rating:
 |
| 3.5 out of 5 |
I did like it! The color of that purple rain looks even worse compared to the other drink :)
ReplyDelete