Dissecting a Cocktail

DISSECTING A COCKTAIL

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Scotch + Apple

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

Every now and then, I’ll come across a cocktail from an influencer on Instagram that intrigues me. A few months ago ex-bartender Chris Leavitt posted a reel for a drink he’d tasted at the annual New Orleans cocktail festival, Tales of the Cocktail. “My memory served me that it was just two ingredients: blended Scotch and fresh apple juice,” wrote Leavitt. “However, the results online provided the addition of lime juice (I assume for a boost of acid) and some Drambuie (a honey/Scotch liqueur). I don’t regularly have Drambuie, so I opted for honey syrup to achieve the sweetness it provided.”

The only time I’ve worked with fresh apple juice is when I carbonated Reverie Cocktail’s version of an appletini. It turned out so well that I knew right away I wanted to try this with whiskey. I’m happy to report that the Scotch + apple is crushable: The fresh apple juice and malt/smoke from the Scotch are a great pairing. What’s fun about this cocktail is that you can play around with the specs and still have a great drink. I swapped out the Scotch and replaced it with a split base of rye and applejack (switching the lime juice with lemon, too) and loved it as much as the original.

Note that this drink will not work if you’re using store-bought juices. The apple and lime juices need to be freshly squeezed. When juicing your own apples — or if you stop by a store that can do it for you — make sure to add a little bit of ascorbic acid (you can break apart a vitamin C capsule and use the powder inside) to the juice immediately after it’s pressed to keep it from browning. 

Specifications

1 1/2 ounce blended Scotch (Monkey Shoulder is great)

1/2 ounce honey syrup*

1/2 ounce lime juice

Top with fresh-pressed apple juice (Leavitt used Granny Smith apples in his reel)

*Honey syrup: Combine 3 parts local honey with 1 part hot water. Stir until evenly mixed. Let cool and store in glass bottle. Refrigerate. Lasts for at least one month.

Execution

Combine lime, honey syrup and Scotch into a highball glass with ice. Stir to incorporate. Top with freshly pressed apple juice. Garnish with an apple slice.

Dissecting a Cocktail

DISSECTING A COCKTAIL

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The Classic Martini

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

Let’s start the year off right with the world’s most sophisticated cocktail, the martini. Although the exact origin is unknown, the movie character James Bond comes to mind whenever this drink is mentioned. Even though the classic “shaken, not stirred” quote is not the way to prepare this cocktail, there is still something very charming about seeing a man dressed to the nines ordering it. To quote bartender and owner John Clark-Ginnetti, “Why is Bond drinking a martini? He needs to be civilized. He’s a mass murderer; he’s an assassin. So how do you take this horrible person and temper him into somebody who’s doing it for the honor of the sovereignty?”

There are a few problems these days when it comes to ordering the martini. For starters, ever since the martini craze of the 2000s, it’s probably inevitable that any liquid in a V-shaped glass will be called “a martini.” It’s not.

Another issue is that most bartenders aren’t making the cocktail correctly. A year ago, I went into a self-proclaimed “craft cocktail bar” only to watch my bartender shake the hell out of the martini I ordered. This cocktail needs to look delicate — you wouldn’t violently shake your bottle of cabernet franc before drinking it, so don’t do it to the vermouth either. And, speaking of vermouth, it has to be refrigerated, or it will spoil.

Consistency is key: A bartender from Thursday night using 3 ounces of Tanqueray to 1/2 ounce of vermouth and another bartender on Saturday mixing a 50:50 ratio reflects a lack of any house specs. What would I recommend? I’ve always used Plymouth gin — it’s soft, slightly citrusy and not juniper-forward. Juniper is the ingredient in gin that technically makes it “gin,” but it’s also the ingredient that turns people off. For the vermouth, I like Dolin Dry, a very fresh and light fortified wine.

The key to a great martini — besides the proper ingredients — is for it to be piercingly cold. Make sure to fill the mixing vessel with plenty of ice, all the way to the top, and stir until it gets as cold as possible. The proper dilution of water is a must when stirring your drink. Some like to freeze their gin (I do) to get a head start on the chilling process.

Lastly, I’ve always preferred a lemon twist to olives in my martini. Smelling the oils of the lemon as you bring your chilled martini glass to your nose lets you know that you’re about to enjoy one of the best cocktails in the world.

Specifications

2 ounces Plymouth gin

1 ounce Dolin Dry vermouth

Execution

Combine gin and vermouth in a chilled mixing glass. Pack with as much ice as possible and stir until the glass is frosted, while allowing proper dilution. Strain into a chilled martini glass. These days, I prefer using a Nick & Nora glass. Take the peel of a lemon, expressing its oils over the cocktail and placing the peel in the glass.

Dissecting a Cocktail

DISSECTING A COCKTAIL

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Saturday Night Wrist Punch

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

Before the cocktail was created, punch was the globally popular, mixed distilled spirits drink. We can thank the British sailors who manned vessels for the East India Company for spreading the news. I first learned about punch from cocktail historian David Wondrich’s book, Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flaming Bowl. The recipes and techniques in it helped me find the proper balance between spirit, sugar, citrus, water and spice — the makeup of punch. Given the inevitable barrage of holiday parties, you can really shine as a host by offering a punch with a beautiful balance between sweet and sour. With some advanced preparation, your guests can simply help themselves from the party bowl. Years back, I took an old recipe — Major Bird’s Brandy Punch, from 1708 — and put my own spin on it.

Specifications

Oleo-saccharum*

16 ounces water

8 ounces fresh lemon juice

3 cups pineapple-infused cognac (I recommend Pierre-Ferrand 1840)**

1 cup pineapple-infused Jamaican rum  (I strongly recommend Smith & Cross)**

4 ounces Aperol

1/2 pineapple diced into 1-inch by 1-inch cubes

Lemon wheels

Nutmeg

Bundt pan or large ice molds

Execution

Ice: fill small bundt pan with water and freeze overnight.

*Oleo-saccharum: Peel the skin of four lemons, placing them in a bowl and adding 1 cup of sugar (by weight). Muddle the sugar into the peels, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit overnight in the fridge.

**Pineapple-infused spirits: Dice 1 pineapple and add to medium-sized glass container. Add 3 cups of cognac and 1 cup of rum to the  container; seal tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (24 hours is ideal).

Punch: Place oleo-saccharum in a punch bowl. Add lemon juice and stir until sugar completely dissolves. Add 1 cup (8 ounces) of water, stir, and remove lemon peels from bowl. Fine strain infused spirits into punch bowl. Add remaining cup of water. Stir. Take a large ice mold and place in punch bowl. Add lemon wheels and pineapple pieces for garnish. Shave fresh nutmeg either into punch bowl or per serving.

(Note: The ice and infusions need to be made a night in advance.)

Dissecting A Cocktail

DISSECTING A COCKTAIL

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The Art of Choke

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

In 2009 bartenders Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak released a very small cocktail book titled Rogue Cocktails. The book has a short list of drinks from a few different bartenders and almost all of the recipes are head-scratchers. Four years after its release, a friend lent me the book and I made sure to copy every recipe down in my personal cocktail pamphlet.

The drinks didn’t all make sense on paper but were intriguing nonetheless. Certain cocktails needed “5 swaths of lemon peel” or three different types of amaro with “15 drops of 50/50 bitters.” Long before the days of using Instagram to find strange and envelope-pushing drinks, Rogue Cocktails was the place to look.

One of my favorites is the “art of choke,” by bartender Kyle Davidson at the legendary Chicago bar, The Violet Hour. The combination of rum, Cynar and green Chartreuse caught my eye. That and the fact that I had never seen a recipe for a cocktail with juice that was stirred. “You can do that?” I thought. I recently listened to a podcast where Davidson explains how he created the cocktail while on a bartender swap with the New York City bar, Death & Co.

“The real estate in New York is different than Chicago, and the folks at D&C were doing serious volume. The service bar would get so overwhelmed that even the best bartenders would have to pass tickets over,” he said. “Stephen Cole, who is the best service bartender I’ve ever worked next to, can handle anything, but even he had to pass me a ‘dealer’s choice’ ticket of a rum and bitter. The first iteration was 2 (ounces) of white rum, 1 (ounce) of Cynar, with a green Chartreuse rinse and a mint leaf on top. And I thought, ‘Hey, there might be something here.’” Davidson quickly wrote the specs down in his own little pamphlet and continued serving drinks. He admits that he doesn’t remember how he arrived at the final specs but does remember being a little nervous about adding fresh juice to a stirred drink. As they say in Rogue, the final result proves, “There is no right way to make a cocktail, but there are many wrong ways.”

SPECIFICATIONS

1 ounce white rum

1 ounce Cynar

1/8 ounce lime juice

1/8 ounce demerara syrup (2:1)

Heavy 1/4 ounce green Chartreuse

Fresh mint sprigs

EXECUTION

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with 2 sprigs of mint. Muddle and steep for 30 seconds. Fill with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube. Garnish with mint sprig.

Dissecting a Cocktail

DISSECTING A COCKTAIL

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Big Trouble in Oaxaca

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

Amanda Schuster’s Signature Cocktails is a beautiful cocktail recipe book that pays homage to older cocktails, as well as those that will be soon. I’ve been in the process of mentally preparing myself for a brick and mortar bar of my own, and every now and then I come across a drink that I visualize serving in my fantasy lounge. “Big Trouble in Oaxaca” is one of them, courtesy of Schuster’s book.

The name of the drink pays homage to the ’80s movie Big Trouble in Little China. It’s essentially a riff on a margarita, and what first got my attention is how it glowed on the page. Bright and fluorescent, its hue reminds me of when I’ve had one too many B vitamins . . . if you know, you know. Created in 2018 at the restaurant Drink Kong by bartender Livio Morena, this cocktail seems to fit the bar’s trademark ’70s and ’80s nostalgic theme. The neon color comes courtesy of Midori melon liqueur (which was first popular in the late 1970s) and was used “because in 2018 it just seemed so dated and weird that it might be the perfect way to attract attention to the bar, and also show love for Japanese culture,” says Morena.

Personally, I can see this drink catching the eye of anyone in a dimly lit cocktail lounge. The fact that it tastes amazing only solidifies the odds of me serving this one night as a drink special. Hypothetically, of course.

SPECIFICATIONS

1 1/2 ounces tequila blanco

3/4 ounce pineapple liqueur

1/2 ounce Midori liqueur

1/2 ounce green ancho chili liqueur

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/2 ounce sugar

EXECUTION

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake hard for 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled rocks glass over a large cube. No garnish. 

Dissecting a Cocktail

DISSECTING A COCKTAIL

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The Green Beret

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

Almost a decade ago, I began piddling around with a cocktail to honor my father. He served 20 years in the Army as a Special Forces medic. I knew before creating the drink that I wanted to call it The Green Beret. My next thought was that it seemed appropriate to include green chartreuse in the mix. And whiskey had to be the base. That was a given, since it’s my dad’s favorite spirit. I decided to create a spin on the Boulevardier using equal parts TOPO’s (a Chapel Hill distillery that is sadly no longer with us) Eight Oak Whiskey, cacao nib-infused Campari, and sweet vermouth, rinsing the inside of the rocks glass with the chartreuse. Even though the drink was a hit on our cocktail menu, I wasn’t completely happy with it — the chartreuse wasn’t adding anything to the cocktail.

So, I decided to revisit The Green Beret. This go-round, I switched a few things up. First, the whiskey. Rittenhouse Rye is a go-to when I need a whiskey with a backbone, but one that will still let other flavors come through. Next was the chocolate. Instead of infusing cacao into Campari, I opted for Angostura’s Cocoa Bitters, which wasn’t available when I originally created the drink. I fat-washed the Angostura with brown butter. This gives the bitters a creamy texture and adds nuttiness to the chocolate. Lastly, I took organic espresso beans — about one barspoon — and added them to my glass vessel when stirring all of the ingredients. That allows the oils from the espresso beans to make an appearance in the drink. I’m happy to report that The Green Beret earned its promotion.

SPECIFICATIONS

1 1/4 ounces Rittenhouse Rye

1 ounce Campari

1 ounce Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth

4 dashes brown butter-washed Angostura Cocoa Bitters*

1 bar spoon organic espresso (or coffee) beans

2 dashes saline

Garnish: orange peel

*Brown butter-washed bitters: You can do this to regular Angostora bitters, too. Pour a 4-ounce bottle of bitters into a small glass container. Place 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a pan, bringing to a simmer. Continue to cook the butter until it turns brown. As soon as it does, take it immediately off the heat and pour it into the glass container. Give the bitters/butter mixture a quick stir and let cool. Once cool, seal the container and place it in the freezer. Let it sit overnight. The next day you will notice the butter has solidified. Use a knife to break a hole in the butter and strain the bitters out through a cheesecloth or coffee filter (using a coffee filter will take much longer). Pour butter-washed bitters back into its original bottle.

EXECUTION

Combine all ingredients into a chilled mixing vessel, add ice and stir until your gut tells you that it’s cold enough and properly diluted. Strain into a chilled rocks glass over ice. Express oils from an orange peel over the cocktail and place into drink.

Dissecting a Cocktail

Dissecting a Cocktail

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Chartreuse Swizzle

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

In 2003, San Francisco bartender Marcovaldo Dionysos entered his city’s cocktail competition for the fifth year in a row, pining for top honors. The contest was sponsored by the French herbal liqueur Green Chartreuse. According to cocktail historian Robert Simonson, Dionysos considered sitting out the year’s competition. “I didn’t have any great ideas,” Dionysos remembers. “I decided to make something fun and went in a tropical direction.” His idea nabbed first place that year and has since popped up in cocktail bars across the country and the world, becoming a modern classic.

Dionysos’ cocktail, the “Chartreuse Swizzle,” combined the herbal liqueur with pineapple and lime juices, Velvet Falernum (a low-ABV rum liqueur made with almonds, cloves and lime) and mint. Commonly made with rum, “swizzles” can be potent. They’re usually mixed with fruit juices and a sweetener, built and mixed in the drinking glass with a swizzle stick. Originally, these pronged sticks came from trees native to Bermuda, but the garden-variety lookalikes are made of metal, plastic or wood. One of my first introductions to Green Chartreuse was Dionysos’ Swizzle. For such a high proof (and pricy) spirit, it’s a little shocking how popular it became. What’s not surprising is how the four ingredients complement each other for a perfect tiki-themed sipper.

Specifications

1 1/2 ounces Green Chartreuse

1 ounce fresh pineapple juice

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce Velvet Falernum

Garnish: mint sprigs

Execution

Combine all ingredients into a Collins glass and add pebble (or crushed) ice. Insert a swizzle stick or barspoon into the mixture, rubbing your hands together to “swizzle” the stick until frost appears outside the glass. Add more ice and garnish with mint.  PS

Tony Cross owns and operates Reverie Cocktails, a cocktail delivery service that delivers kegged cocktails for businesses to pour on tap — but once a bartender, always a bartender.

Dissecting a Cocktail

Dissecting a Cocktail

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Feel Good Hit of the Summer

Story and Photograph by Tony Cross

I started a small series on Reverie Cocktail’s Instagram page that I call “Vibe & Imbibe.” In each clip I pull out one of my vinyl records, give it a spin and create a cocktail from scratch. Some drinks were classics, while others were my own creation. In one episode I whipped up one of tiki legend Jeff Berry’s cocktails, the “Pago Pago.” The cocktail has a Puerto Rican rum base, with a touch of crème de cacao, Green Chartreuse, lime and pineapple. I first heard of the drink scrolling through Instagram (oddly enough), where Leandro DiMonriva (The Educated Barfly) made one. It looked so good that I did my own video of it. After shooting it, I decided to tinker with the measurements. I split the rum base with two Jamaican rums and made every ingredient equal parts. In the Pago Pago created, I used Queens of the Stone Age’s “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” from their second album Rated R as the background music. The song title stuck as the name of my new sleight of hand.

 

Specifications

1/2 ounce Smith & Cross

1/2 ounce Appleton Estate

1/2 ounce Green Chartreuse

1/2 ounce Tempus Fugit crème de cacao

1/2 ounce lime juice

3-5 chunks of fresh pineapple

 

Directions

Muddle pineapple chunks in a shaking vessel. Add remaining ingredients and ice cubes. Shake hard for 10-15 seconds and double strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. No garnish.  PS

 

Tony Cross owns and operates Reverie Cocktails, a cocktail delivery service that delivers kegged cocktails for businesses to pour on tap — but once a bartender, always a bartender.