In the Spirit

Punch and Bottles

Sipping solutions for the holidays

By Tony Cross

The year is winding down, but not before you’re inundated with commercials, songs, television shows, parades, parties and all things holiday. Overwhelmed much? Hopefully I can take a little pressure off by suggesting that just-right bottle of booze for someone you deem worthy or, if you happen to be playing host, some advice on how to make a killer punch. While most of these spirits and liqueurs might be unfamiliar to you (and the recipient), all of them are damn tasty — and under $30. I’ve sampled them more often than I care to admit, but all in the spirit of looking out for you, dear reader.

BOTTLES

Elijah Craig Single Barrel Bourbon, $29

I prefer rye over bourbon whiskey, but there are always exceptions. This is one of them. I like this bourbon neat, but there’s nothing wrong with whipping up an old fashioned with it either. Most of the spirits I order online are from Astor Wines and Spirits at astorwines.com. One great thing about this website is they go in depth on their “staff picks” and give you a rundown on why they think a spirit is worthy of your dollar. Here’s what they had to say about this delicious bourbon: “Sipping it neat allows the beautiful bouquet to release notes of bananas Foster, coconut, vanilla, and brown sugar. The palate reveals sweet grains, caramel, vanilla, baking spices, and a hint of citrus to keep it fresh. It’s just as delicious on the rocks. And because the price won’t break the bank, it’s a guilt-free whiskey for cocktails. This is my go-to bourbon for everything! Give it a try, it will quickly become yours, too.”

 

Giffard Caribbean Pineapple Liqueur, $29

I first fell in love with Giffard’s pineapple liqueur a few years back, but now I have a slight obsession with it. Try it on its own before mixing it — you’ll taste what I mean. Stupid good. Add this to margaritas, or any sour. Have it with sparkling water for a nice low ABV treat (the Caribbean Pineapple has a low 20 percent alcohol by volume). Or, put a dash in your next stir-fry dish. OK, I got that idea from Astor. Order it online because our ABC stores consider it a special order and you’d be required to buy more than one.

 

Plantation 5 Yr. Barbados Rum, $29

Rum, in my humble opinion, is underrated. The Plantation 5 Yr. is a great entry-level rum for someone who isn’t familiar with good rum. It’s excellent neat, on the rocks, or in a cocktail. I think some fans of bourbon would get a kick out of going half-and-half with the 5 Yr. in their next old fashioned. Plantation has lots of great rums — some much higher in price — which is why this makes a fun gift for the uninitiated.

 

SIPS

Fulton Club Punch

This punch is out of The Aviary: Holiday Cocktails. I’m a sucker for punch, especially around the holidays. A little elbow grease before your guests arrive, then coast into being the host. You can find these spirits at, you guessed it, Astor Wines and Spirits. This recipe serves 8-10 people, so double the specs if necessary.

 

Ingredients

3 medium-sized navel oranges

240 grams sugar

1 large, ripe pineapple

1 bottle chardonnay

45 grams Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac

44 grams Rhine Hall Cherry Brandy

26 grams Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

22 grams Smith & Cross Rum

Peel the oranges using a vegetable peeler, taking care to remove as little of the white pith as possible. Reserve the peeled fruit for juicing. In a small bowl, combine the orange peels and sugar. Muddle the mixture with a cocktail muddler or the end of a rolling pin. Allow to sit for 30 minutes, muddling and stirring periodically. Meanwhile, peel the pineapple, remove the core, and chop into small chunks. Add the pineapple chunks to the orange peel mixture, muddling and mixing to thoroughly incorporate. Allow to sit for at least another 30 minutes, muddling and stirring periodically.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining liquid ingredients, stirring to mix thoroughly. Pour this mixture over the pineapple mixture, stirring to dissolve sugar completely. Allow this to marinate for 10 minutes. Strain the mixture through a mesh strainer, pushing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids. Transfer to a glass bottle or other non-reactive airtight container and transfer to the refrigerator to chill thoroughly.

 

Raspberry Cardamom Ice Block
Ingredients

5 whole cardamom pods

500 grams water

350 grams fresh raspberries

158 grams sugar

Reserved peeled oranges (3 medium-sized navel oranges)

Place the cardamom pods onto a cutting board or countertop. Using a small saucepan, crush the pods lightly, then place them into the saucepan. Toast the cracked cardamom over medium heat until fragrant. Add the water, raspberries, and sugar and increase the heat to high. Bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice and set a smaller bowl inside it. Juice the oranges. Remove the raspberry mixture from the heat and add the orange juice, stirring to combine. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the bowl set over ice, discarding solids. Allow the mixture to chill completely, then transfer it to a cake pan, baking dish, large mixing bowl, or other large vessel that will fit in your freezer. Freeze until completely solid. Reserve.

 

To Assemble and Serve:

Chill 2 bottles of sparkling white wine. Place the block of raspberry cardamom ice into a punch bowl or other large serving vessel. Pour the punch base down the side of the bowl. Aadd the bottles of sparkling wine, taking care to pour slowly. Gently stir the mixture to incorporate thoroughly. Ladle into individual glasses and serve immediately.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Flavor Savors

Infused syrups for myriad libations

By Tony Cross

The holidays are upon us. I know, I’m rolling my eyes, too. Time flies, and whether you’re ready or not, ’tis the season. The struggle is real, and so it begins.

These next two months can be an excuse for having a few more drinks than we normally would (you know who you are), so why not have some fun with it? If you’re playing host to family and friends, or just relaxing at home after being dragged to holiday get-togethers, here are a few syrups you can have ready in your fridge. They mix well with a variety of cocktails (shaken and stirred), and pair quite nicely with non-alcoholic beverages, too.

The syrups aren’t hard to make. The key is using fresh ingredients — sourcing them locally and being organic helps as well — and measuring your specs. Once you have these ready to go, you can interchange them in an arsenal of drinks. Included with each syrup is a cocktail that incorporates the former. Feel free to interchange some of these syrups with different spirits.

 

Syrup:  Ginger and Honey

1 part fresh ginger juice

1 part honey

Combine both ingredients into a blender and turn on high until honey is completely incorporated. I highly recommend sourcing local honey, and organic ginger. A quick note on juicing ginger: If you don’t have a juicer at home, stop by your local health food store or juice shop. Chances are you can buy the ginger there and have it juiced on the spot. Either way, make sure your juice sits in the fridge for a couple of hours before straining it. Ginger juice is very fibrous and you want as much of that fiber as possible to settle at the bottom of your container before using. This is called “racking.” Some might think that organic ginger is a bridge too far but I’ve been working with cold-pressed ginger juice for over five years now and I can attest, organic ginger tastes and looks better. Try it and see. Syrup holds for 2 weeks.

Cocktail:  Penicillin

2 ounces blended Scotch

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

3/4 ounce ginger-honey syrup

1/4 ounce Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Candied ginger

In a shaking vessel, combine blended Scotch, lemon juice and ginger-honey syrup. Add ice and shake until vessel is ice cold. Double strain into a rocks glass over ice. Float your 1/4 ounce of Islay Scotch over the cocktail. Garnish with candied ginger. You can also use this syrup with gin and tequila sours.

Syrup:  Brown Sugar/Cinnamon

10 grams cinnamon sticks

1 part brown sugar

1 part cane sugar

1 part water

1 ounce Everclear grain alcohol 151 proof (optional)

Place cinnamon in a blender and blend quickly for 10 seconds. In a small pot, combine brown and cane sugars with water. Place heat on medium and stir until sugar has completely dissolved. Place the syrup in the blender with the cinnamon, and blend once again for another 10 seconds. Let the syrup cool in a container, and then strain out the solids. Refrigerate until ready to use. Syrup holds for one month — or many months if Everclear is used.

Cocktail:  Old Fashioned

2 ounces bourbon

1/4 ounce cinnamon syrup

3 dashes Angostura bitters

Orange peel

Cinnamon stick

In a stirring vessel, combine bourbon, syrup and bitters. Add ice and stir until your cocktail is both cold and water is diluted. Strain into a rocks glass over ice. Express oils from orange peel over your cocktail, dropping peel into the drink with cinnamon stick. You can use this syrup in rum and tequila old fashioneds. It also works well with tequila sours.

Syrup:  Vanilla   (Makes 2 cups)

1 1/4 cups water

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1/4 vanilla bean

In a small saucepan, combine the water, sugar and vanilla bean and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth into an airtight 1-pint glass container. Seal the container and store in the refrigerator for up to one month. This syrup goes well with whiskey sours and vodka sours (add muddled strawberries for the latter).

Non-Alcoholic Cocktail:  Haikara Mugicha

3 ounces charcoal-roasted barley and lapsang souchong tea (recipe below)

1/2 ounce vanilla syrup

3 dashes Angostura bitters

Orange twist

Build the drink in a double rocks glass by adding the tea, syrup and bitters over hand-carved ice. Stir well until chilled. Garnish with an orange twist.

Charcoal-Roasted Barley and  Lapsang Souchong Tea

4 cups water

1/4 cup charcoal-roasted mugicha (or barley tea)

1 1/2 teaspoons loose lapsang souchong tea leaves

Fill a 1-quart container with the water, add the teas, and let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes. Strain through a coffee filter into an airtight 1-quart glass container. Seal the container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This recipe is courtesy of famed Japanese bartender, Masahiro Urushido’s book, The Japanese Art of the Cocktail. Your ice does not have to be hand-carved unless you feel obliged.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Batch-a-Zombie

Cocktail prep for Halloween

By Tony Cross

Rum is the nectar of the gods, right, so what makes more sense in October than having a little fun with a Zombie? Without further ado, let me present the batched, milk-punch-clarified Zombie cocktail that you can bottle and drink whenever you want. Talk about the living dead.

I follow a few fine bartenders on Instagram and one, whose handle is thirstywhale, put up a quick little TikTok about scaling up the Zombie, and then clarifying the whole thing. As soon as the video ended, I was on it.

First, let’s address the whole milk thing. Adding milk to drinks is nothing new. In fact, milk was added to punch before people were shaking up cocktails. As Dave Arnold explains, “Milk punches are known for their soft, round flavors. That softness isn’t caused just by the presence of milk but by the removal of phenolic compounds from the spirit via the casein-rich curds.” In English, clarifying a batched drink with milk makes the drink soft and smooth, without tampering with the ABV. Batching cocktails ahead of time is plenty of work, but just imagine pulling a bottle of clarified Zombies from your cabinet on Halloween night and pouring it over ice for the parents while their ghosts and goblins dig into the candy bowl. Look at you, all cool and stuff.

Clarified Zombie (batched)

3 cups Jamaican rum

3 cups Gold Puerto Rican rum

2 cups 151 demerara rum

1 cup Falernum

1 1/2  cups lime juice

2/3 cups grapefruit juice

1/3 cup cinnamon syrup

2 3/4 ounces grenadine

3/4 ounce absinthe

1/2 ounce Angostura Bitters

3 cups whole milk

This recipe yields roughly four 750ml bottles of cocktails. You can definitely cut this in half, or by three-quarters, but . . . if you’re going to buy the bottles of spirits for this recipe, you might as well go all out. In fact, any extra would make a great gift for a birthday or the holidays. Once completed, this cocktail will hold for many, many years.

Here are the liquors I used:

Jamaican: Appleton Estate 8 Year

Puerto Rican: Bacardi Gold

151: Lemon Hart & Son Rhum

You don’t have to use these, but make sure the rums come from the respective origins. You can order these online and have them shipped to you in a week. I highly, highly recommend this option. You’ll need to get the Falernum there anyway, and there’s no substitute for that. What is Falernum, you ask? It’s like a syrup/liqueur that is flavored with lime, almond and clove. It’s an essential in many Tiki drinks.

Notes on Execution

Juice: please squeeze it yourself. Do not, I repeat, do not buy these in a bottle. Also, make sure that the juice is squeezed just prior to batching. Strain it, too, will ya?

Cinnamon syrup: take 10 grams of cinnamon sticks and blend them for 10 seconds. In a small pot, make a 2:1 simple syrup with 1 cup of white sugar to 1/2 cup water. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Place the syrup in the blender with cinnamon, and blend one last time for another 10 seconds. Let the syrup cool in a container, and then strain out the solids. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

Grenadine: there are two options. You can buy this, but not at the grocery store. Contrary to belief, grenadine is not made from cherries, it’s made from pomegranate juice. Small Hand Foods makes a great one, if you’re looking online. You can also make this at home. Just take equal parts POM pomegranate juice with demerara sugar and stir it in a pot over medium heat until dissolved. Presto!

Absinthe: I have a nice bottle here at the house, but if you don’t, almost every ABC in North Carolina has one. If you’d rather order online, may I suggest the Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe Superieure?

Showtime: In a large Cambro, start with your smallest ingredients first — Angostura Bitters, absinthe, all the way up to 3 cups of rum. Give it a quick stir. Add the 3 cups of milk last. You’re halfway there. Cover your container and walk away. Let it sit for 2-4 hours. When the time has passed, take a medium to large strainer, and line the inside of it with paper towels (one ply thick). Make sure that you slowly pour the cocktail into your strainer. It will take a little while to filter through, so you’ll have to pour and wait, repeating the process. If you pour too quickly, the curdled cocktail will rip through your paper towel. When all is filtered, filter again. This time, take a coffee filter to catch every last bit of curd. Once this is done, just bottle and keep in a cool, dark place. This cocktail will hold forever in the bottle. Pour 2-3 ounces over ice. Garnish with grated, fresh nutmeg. And be careful — these drinks are potent. More than a couple, and you’ll be walking like a . . . well, you know.   PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Hidden Gems

Knock the dust off these old bottles

Story and Photograph By Tony Cross

A few weeks ago, I was gifted a few bottles from a friend who was cleaning out her bar. She told me she had some spirits collecting dust on her shelf and wanted to know if I’d take them off her hands. I quickly obliged even before I knew what the bottles were. The small box I picked up contained almost full bottles of Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, Green Chartreuse (another liqueur), and Fair Game Beverage Company’s “No’Lasses.” Part of me felt like I was taking candy from a baby. Here’s why.

 

“No’Lasses” Sorghum Rum

Sure, my love of rum is showing, but when I got home with this bottle, I flipped it around and saw that it was from the very first batch — No. 001 — produced by the distillery in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Chris Jude, the creator, and former distiller for Fair Game (currently the head distiller at High Wire Distilling Co. in Charleston, South Carolina) is a friend of mine, so I took a picture of the back label and sent it his way with the caption “Looky, Looky.” He messaged me immediately, “Where did you get that?” He explained that “batch 1 was probably the best because it was made with all syrup. It’s funny to think of how many orphaned bottles may be out in the world.” Years back, I was lucky enough to whip up a few drinks when Fair Game had its private release party, and a few years later when Chris added his Amber Rum and his limited-edition Carolina Agricole Rum to Fair Game’s repertoire. Rest assured, even if you can’t find a bottle from batch 1 of No’Lasses, all are delicious.

 

Sorghum Smash

2 ounces Fair Game No’Lasses

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon cane sugar

2 cubes pineapple

1 small peeled and diced piece of ginger

Muddle sugar, pineapple, and ginger in a shaking vessel. Add sorghum rum, lime juice and ice. Shake hard for 10 seconds and dump all ingredients into a rocks glass.

 

Green Chartreuse

I was shocked to be gifted a free bottle of one of my favorite liqueurs of all time. This retails for around $60 — another reason I was taken aback. This liqueur is great on its own as a nightcap, but even better when added to gin cocktails.

The whopping 55 percent ABV will give you lucid dreams if imbibed in said nightcap. If you’re unfamiliar with this Chartreuse (there is also a yellow Chartreuse — lower in ABV, with a completely different flavor profile), read the back label. Though it might sound like malarky, the story is true. “Chartreuse is made only by Carthusian Monks of La Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble, France. Chartreuse today is still made from 130 alpine herbs according to an ancient 1605 formula. The secret method of preparation is shared by three Carthusian brothers and is protected buy vows of silence.” Flavors of menthol, a touch of anise and spice stick out to me, but this is really a spirit you’ll need to sample for yourself, there’s so much going on. Try this in a gin sour and notice how just a little bit of Chartreuse goes a long way.

 

Goodnight Ladies

(Actually, call it whatever you want.)

1 1/2 ounce Sutler’s Spirit Co. gin (any new style of gin will work here, e.g., Durham Distillery or Hendrick’s)

1/4 ounce green Chartreuse

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup (2:1)

Combine all ingredients in a shaking tin with ice. Shake hard until tin is ice cold, then double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with lemon wheel.

 

Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

In keeping with the original recipe from 1821, this liqueur is made with real marasca cherries. Harvested every summer, the cherries are put “in alcoholic infusion in larch-wood vats together with some leaves and branches of the same trees for up to three years. Only the heart of the distillate is then allowed to mature in ash-wood vats. The last process consists in transforming the distillate in liqueur by adding a simple syrup of water and sugar lowering the ABV.” (www.luxardo.it) This is a dry liqueur with a touch of spice. When I first started bartending, I saw many recipes using this liqueur. I was expecting a sweet, cherry liqueur. Boy, was I wrong. Like the Chartreuse, a little bit goes a long way. You may notice this bottle the next time you’re at your favorite cocktail bar — there’s no mistaking the tall, green bottle that’s wrapped in straw with a red cap. There are lots of cocktails that call for Luxardo but I’ll share one of my favs, the Last Word, which also uses green Chartreuse.

 

The Last Word

3/4 ounce gin

3/4 ounce green Chartreuse

3/4 ounce Luxardo Maraschino liqueur

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaking tin with ice. Shake hard for 10 seconds, then double strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Mai Tai

Just another reason to drink rum

By Tony Cross

I’ve got way too many bottles of rum in my closet. Yes, my liquor “cabinet” is a closet — judge if you must. All that rum got me thinking about the drinks I’ll be whipping up this summer, and that got me thinking about the classic Mai Tai. (A mind is a terrible thing to waste.)

Jeff “Beachbum” Berry explains in his book Beachbum Berry Remixed — A Gallery of Tiki Drinks how the origin of the Mai Tai cocktail has been debated over time: “The Mai Tai war has raged for over half a century, and it ain’t over yet,” Berry writes. “Bandleader Harry Owens claimed he introduced the Mai Tai to the world in 1954. Trader Vic claimed he invented the Mai Tai in 1944, and in 1970 won a court case to prove it. That verdict aside, Donn Beach’s widow, Phoebe Beach, insists that Donn invented the Mai Tai in 1933.”

Berry goes on to explain the battle that Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic) pursued and won in court. He also explains Phoebe Beach’s claims, but ultimately settles on Trader Vic being the first to put it on his menu. Berry says that although Donn Beach may have created it, there’s no proof of the Mai Tai popping up on any menu in the 1930s.

So, what’s in a Mai Tai, anyway? There are several recipes below, but the main ingredients are the same: Jamaican and Martinique rums, lime juice (and wedge), orange curaçao, mint and orgeat. The last ingredient, orgeat (pronounced “or-zha”), is a syrup made from almonds. It’s great in a ton of tiki drinks and is also a key ingredient in the classic Japanese Cocktail.

 

Mai Tai

(Trader Vic recipe)

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce orange curaçao

1/4 ounce orgeat

1/4 ounce sugar syrup

1 ounce dark Jamaican rum

1 ounce amber Martinique rum

Shake well with plenty of crushed ice. Pour unstrained into a double old-fashioned glass. Sink your spent lime shell into the drink. Garnish with a mint sprig.

 

Mai Tai

(From Shannon Mustipher’s book
Tiki — Modern Tropical Cocktails)

2 ounces aged rum

1/2 ounce rhum agricole blanc 100 proof

1/2 ounce orange curaçao

1/2 ounce orgeat

1/2 ounce lime juice, lime shell reserved

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with cubed ice. Shake and dump into a double rocks glass. Garnish with a mint sprig and the reserved lime shell.

 

Mai Tai

(From Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails)

1 lime wedge

1 ounce El Dorado 15-year rum

1 ounce Appleton Estate V/X rum

1/4 ounce La Favorite Rhum Agricole Blanc

1/2 ounce Rhum Clément Créole Shrubb

3/4 ounce orgeat

1 dash Angostura bitters

Squeeze a lime wedge into a shaker and drop it in. Add the remaining ingredients and short shake with 3 ice cubes. Strain into a snifter filled with crushed ice. Garnish with the mint bouquet and serve with a straw.

There will always be variations on the classics. In the Trader Vic recipe, there’s only 1/4 ounce of orgeat (adding another 1/4 of simple syrup), yet the Death & Co Mai Tai uses 3/4 of an ounce. The use of different rums (even though they are still from Jamaica and Martinique) make for subtle changes on the palate as well.

Last, but not least, the orgeat. Here is Death & Co’s recipe, but feel free to look online or at other great cocktail books and try another. With D&C, your finished product will keep for one month refrigerated.

 

Orgeat 

12 ounces toasted almond milk (see below)

16 ounces superfine sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac (substitute
if necessary)

2 1/2 teaspoons Lazzarone Amaretto (substitute if necessary)

1/4 teaspoon rose water

In a saucepan, combine the almond milk and sugar. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally and without bringing to a boil, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the Cognac, amaretto, and rose water. Store in the refrigerator.

 

Toasted Almond Milk

1 cup blanched sliced almonds

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons warm water

In a large, dry saucepan, toast the almonds over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Transfer to a blender and add the water. Pulse until the almonds are finely chopped, then blend for 2 minutes. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve (a nut milk bag will do the job and save you a lot of mess).   PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Rum, Anyone?

Three styles to pique your curiosity

By Tony Cross

I love rum. On its own; stirred in Ti’ Punch; shaken ice-cold in a daiquiri; in a box; with a fox.

I love rum. This probably comes as no surprise. Whenever I get a chance to splurge, I’ll order more than a few bottles online — usually brands that I already know. Over the past two years I’ve been on a Clairin kick. You remember Clairin, don’t you? It’s the sugar cane spirit from Haiti that’s high in proof and lovely on the palate. Well, I still have plenty of that left over from last year, so this go-round I decided to grab a few bottles I’m familiar with, and a few that I’m not. Here are two old favorites, and one that’s made just west of an island I grew up on.

Plantation 13 Year Jamaican Rum 2005

I’ve had the Plantation Distillery rums before and, as soon as my most recent order arrived, I grabbed a bottle and made a daiquiri. I thought I had picked their signature blend (which retails at $24.95). My daiquiri was so damn good, I immediately made another. I was floored by how tasty it was. Turns out I had dipped into the 13 year ($64.99) instead. Honest mistake: The packaging is kind of similar, but I should’ve spotted the difference. Not to worry, it was one of the best daiquiris I’ve ever had. It’s great on its own, too. Aged for 12 years in bourbon barrels in Jamaica, it’s then shipped to France to mature for another year in small cognac barrels. It’s dry on the front palate, but then hits you with fruit and a touch of funk on the back end. I noticed that the longer it sat in my glass, the easier it was to pick up notes of banana, vanilla and whatever else I can’t remember. It was delicious.

Cor Cor Okinawan Rum Red Label

I was shocked to see rum from Okinawa available online. I grew up there as a lad and have nothing but fond memories. This was also a staff pick from the website I frequent, so clearly it was a no-brainer to give it a shot. This rum is different. On the nose: dirty vodka martini. Swear to God. On my first sniff, I was like, “Whoa, that smells briny!” The sniffs that followed (I hope I never have to type that again) yielded, “Yeah, that’s a dirty martini.” Weird. On the palate it’s a little saline, light, slighty grassy. Okinawan grassy? I really don’t know. I think I need more time with this one. I’ll probably make a Ti’ Punch with it to see what a touch of sugar and acidity do to it.

El Dorado Special Reserve 21 Year Rum

This bottle was a splurge. It retails for around $100. I’ve had it a few times before and figured it was time to be a big boy and have my own bottle. Before I get into why this rum is so special, I’d like to touch on something I read from one of the website staff members who reviewed it. “While whiskey gets increasingly expensive and certain bottles become harder to find, rum’s vivid and decadent flavors are an easy jump to make for a bourbon or Scotch drinker.” Whiskey prices are ridiculous these days and, honestly, I find a lot of whiskies to be overrated relative to the cost. Maybe it’s because I live in North Carolina, but I sometimes find rum to be my little secret. I know so many people that love to chat “whiskey this, whiskey that,” but when I show them a good rum, their minds are blown. The few times I’ve enjoyed the El Dorado 21 year, it’s been as a nightcap after a lovely dinner. This is a long, slow sipper that’s meant to be enjoyed on its own. Caramel on the nose, with toffee and spices on the palate, and sweet smoke on the finish, this rum from Guyana is elegant. Consider this as a gift for a whiskey connoisseur, and you’re guaranteed to make them a rum fan. PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In The Spirit

Super Juice

It’s time to put on the cape

By Tony Cross

When I first started tinkering around with carbonating cocktails, I knew right off the bat I’d have an issue with juice. Juice flooded my thoughts with doubt; juice gave me night sweats. I knew that I couldn’t just juice lemons and limes and add them to a keg with other ingredients. The citrus would oxidize, separate, and go bad too quickly. Luckily, a book by the name of Liquid Intelligence came out, and I learned the importance of acids and clarifying juices. I fell in love with citrates. It was my saving grace and got me started down the right path in kegged-cocktail land.

For making drinks to serve at home, the issue with juice is waste and cost: If you’re having friends over for drinks, it’s easier to juice ahead of time, but that juice (especially citrus other than lemons) will start to oxidize after four hours; any leftover juice won’t taste the same the next day. Enter Nickel Morris and super juice: a new concept that will save you time and money.

Sometime last year, I saw the term “super juice” for the first time — probably on Instagram or Google (cocktails, workouts, models and music seem to be the main topics on my algorithm). I read an article at punch.com about a bartender named Nickel Morris who co-owns The Kentucky Corn Palace in Louisville, Kentucky. Then, I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and found a lengthy interview with him on the “Portland Cocktail Week” channel. Morris, it turns out, has been working on ways to better utilize food-grade acids and juice for the past decade.

He used to work for a business named Road Soda, where he ran a kegged cocktail program (sound familiar?) and learned to use oleo citrates for serving thousands of people at once, e.g., the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. You may have heard of oleo saccharum, which is oil-sugar made from citrus peels (lemon, for example) placed in a container and covered with sugar. After a few hours, the sugar draws out the oil from the peel. Using acids with the oleo saccharum mimics the flavors of juice when kegging a cocktail. Nickel’s aha moment was when he discovered how to make a longer lasting, sustainable juice, without having to use fancy equipment. He put acids on lemon peels in a container, placed it in the fridge and forgot about it. Three days later he found it.

“All of the acid had disappeared, and the peels were really thick. And I was like, ‘Huh, that is not what I thought was going to happen.’ So, I took out an immersion blender and a liter’s worth of water, and blended it up into a liter’s worth of oleo citrate, and that was the first batch. Because, as it turns out, and despite what we would tell ourselves, acid is a fantastic magnet and sponge for oil. It will rip it all right out.”

By using the oils of the citrus, you create a flavor profile that remains constant. The flavors from juices like lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit slowly begin to change as soon as they’re juiced. As Morris explains in the video, “There’s no way for lime juice not to oxidize. Lime juice is so sensitive, it’ll oxidize in a zero-atmospheric pressure vacuum. It will do it all on its own because it’s a breakdown of the structure of the skin.” And when this happens, it’s no longer suitable for a cocktail. Oleo-citrates are great because they mimic the taste of citrus juice.

When you make the oleo-citrate, you have a shelf-stable citrus juice substitute. Super juice involves adding the juice from the peeled citrus that you used to make the oleo-citrate into the citrate. Super juice is the finished product. In the lime example below, you’ll see that using the peels from eight limes (I yielded 100 grams of lime peels) will yield one liter of oleo-citrate. Adding the almost 8 ounces of juice from those limes into the citrate will be your super juice.

You can use this juice for a few weeks with no huge difference in taste. That’s over 1 liter of “juice” with only eight limes. This will help bartenders with cost, waste and time. It also helps home bartenders, but at a much smaller scale.

Below are a few different super juice recipes I like with lemons, limes and grapefruits. You will need to have the citrus on hand, as well as citric acid, malic acid and MSG (for the grapefruit). Don’t freak out about the MSG; it’s glutamic acid, and it’s found in grapefruit juice (there’s more glutamic acid in grapefruit than in any other citrus fruit). MSG is salt plus umami, basically. You can find citric acid in grocery stores, and home brewing shops. You can also find these online — I recommend Modernist Pantry.

Since you’ll be extracting oils from your citrus, make sure that it’s organic, and make sure (goes without saying?) that you wash it. Very important.

Lime Super Juice

For every 100g of lime peel add:

40g citric acid

30g malic acid

1.6 liters water

If you use 45g of peel:

45g x 0.4 = 18g citric acid

45g x 0.3 = 13.5g malic acid

45g x 16 = 720g/mL water

(Thank you to Glen and Friends Cooking on YouTube for the lime recipe.)

Lemon Super Juice

— weigh lemon peels on scale

— use the same amount of citric acid by weight (if you have 50g lemon peels, use 50g citric acid)

— multiply the weight of the lemon peels by 16.66 to determine the amount of water

Grapefruit Super Juice

— weigh grapefruit peels on scale

— multiply weight of grapefruit peels by 0.8 to get amount of citric acid

— multiply weight of grapefruit peels by 0.2 to get amount of malic acid

— multiply weight of grapefruit peels by 0.033 to get amount of MSG

— multiply weight of grapefruit peels by 16.66 to get amount of water

Regardless of the citrus used, combine all acids with peels in a container. Seal, shake to coat peels with acids, and let sit for 2-3 hours. You’ll notice a sludgy/oily substance fill the bottom of container. Add everything in the container to a blender and use the water to get out the rest of the oils into the blender. If you have an immersion blender, you can use it if you like. Blend water, oils, and peels. Strain through a nut-milk bag, or cheesecloth. Juice the peeled citrus, strain it, and add to oleo-citrate. Stir, and refrigerate. Lemon will last the longest before noticing any subtleties with the flavor profile. The juice will start to taste a bit metallic and bitter as the weeks go on, but all juices will be great for the first week. Make sure to taste before using/serving. PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Springing into Sours

Variations on sunny weather cocktails

By Tony Cross

I’m happy to report that spring is here. Finally. There are bartenders who might get more creative during the fall and winter months, and then there are hacks like me who get giddy as soon as the sun kisses my skin. I’m all about some warm weather. And what better way to start out this spring season than whipping up different sours? There are other styles of drinks I enjoy this time of the year, but for now, it’s all about the sours.

So, what is a sour, you ask? Simply put, it’s citrus, sweetener and spirit, combined into a drink. The daiquiri (rum plus lime juice plus sugar), probably my favorite drink ever, is a sour. Jennings Cox may have been the first to do it, mixing rum, lime juice and sugar, right before the 20th century, in Cuba — and for that, I’m eternally grateful. There are many other drinks with basically the same formula, and all are sours. But what about drinks that have sour mix in them?

Like it or not — and I don’t — there are many restaurants and bars today that use sour mix, and I’m not speaking just of corporate-run restaurants where it’s pretty much out of the bartender’s control. Even some independent bars and restaurants use the high-fructose-corn-syrup-mess-of-an-excuse-for-a-mix as an ingredient.

Bartender and author Derek Brown says it best in his book Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World: “One of the things that helped bars like T.G.I. Fridays crank out cocktails for the masses was the use of sour mix. Powdered beverages then were not viewed with the total scorn we have for them today. In the 1970s, instant powdered beverages had taken a foothold all over the cultural landscape. The turn toward the worst versions (of sour mix) was ultimately done because they were cheap to make, cheap to buy, and saved a lot of time behind the bar. Later on, opposition to sour mix would become a red flag that craft bartenders hoisted in their war against bad tasting, chemical-laden cocktails. But this ingredient that would sour the craft rose to absolute dominance while the Bay City Rollers blared from the speakers and the bottom of their pants widened. One more reason to blame the ’70s.” Indeed.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with prebatching ingredients before a busy night behind the bar (especially if you are alone with absolutely no one to help), or if you’re having to dish out a few hundred cocktails within an hour at a big event. If you’re making each cocktail to order, or making drinks at home, add each ingredient at a time, and if you couldn’t tell from Mr. Brown’s excerpt, ixnay the sour mix. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here are a few sour recipes to complement your future suntan.

Marmalade Sour

This is an oldie but goodie from bartender Jamie Boudreau, owner of the whiskey and bitters emporium Canon in Seattle. What I like about his cocktail is how you can experiment with the ingredients. If you don’t have cachaça on hand, try another rum, possibly an Agricole. Or try a gin! The same goes with the flavor of marmalade. I think I had this on my bar menu years back. Hellaciously good.

2 ounces cachaça

2 tablespoons low-sugar orange or grapefruit marmalade

3/4 ounce lemon juice

1/4 ounce simple syrup (Boudreau recommends a 2-part sugar, 1-part water ratio)

2 dashes orange bitters

1 large egg white

Edible flower (optional garnish)

In a cocktail shaker, add ice and all ingredients (sans edible flower). Shake hard until shaker is ice cold and double-strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with flower.

You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Million Bucks

This is one of the first cocktails I put on my menu when I started getting into this whole drink thing. A twist on a whiskey sour, it’s my blatant rip-off of the Billionaire cocktail from New York’s Employees Only. At the time, I didn’t have access to the bourbon the recipe called for, so I substituted Four Roses. For the sake of convenience, I’m going to switch one detail in the specs. The original Billionaire recipe calls for absinthe bitters — and I did make that behind the bar — but a touch of absinthe will do.

2 ounces Four Roses bourbon

3/4 ounce lemon juice

1/2 ounce cranberry syrup* (do not exceed)

1/16 ounce absinthe

1 lemon wheel (garnish)

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake like hell until you feel satisfied. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with lemon wheel.

*Cranberry syrup: Mix 1/2 cup of unsweetened cranberry juice with 1 cup (by weight) cane sugar in a pot over medium heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and let cool before transferring to a container and refrigerating. Syrup holds for two weeks.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In The Spirit

Bringing It on Home

Creating a Reverie facsimile

By Tony Cross

I’ve learned a great deal since I started my business, Reverie Cocktails, over five years ago. Even so, I sometimes feel like I don’t know much — I’m constantly reminded of this every time a new drink or concept fails. Mind you, I’m not afraid of failing, it’s how I learn. And, every now and then, a drink clicks.

I’m often asked by friends and patrons how they can recreate our cocktails at home. While it’s true most of our drinks can’t be recreated exactly, it’s also true that some can come pretty darn close — and taste amazing. I’m going to suggest one of our signature drinks you can make at home, but before you get started, I would highly recommend purchasing an iSi soda syphon or iSi Nitro. These allow you to carbonate the cocktails quickly. There are a lot of companies that make soda chargers, but don’t get a knock-off. Cheap imitations can be extremely dangerous — they can explode when charging — so please grab an iSi. Co2 chargers are also available online. If you’re not in the market for a soda charger, you can use sparkling water instead.

One more thing: When we batch, we clarify our juices using different enzymes and a centrifuge. Clarifying at home isn’t absolutely necessary, but it will help your drink carbonate better, and the cocktail will come out sharp instead of foamy. To do this, you’ll need a product called Pectinex Ultra SP-L, and you can get it from modernistpantry.com.

Lino Blanco

This is a cocktail we put out last spring. It’s our spin on the White Linen, which was created by Rene Dominguez at the Shady Lady Saloon in Sacramento, California. It’s still on their menu the last time I checked. The original recipe calls for Hendrick’s Gin, St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup and muddled cucumbers. We substitute Durham Distillery’s Conniption Gin and their killer Cucumber Vodka. Actually, both are killer. Everything out of Durham Distillery is top-notch. This recipe makes two cocktails.

1 1/2 ounces Durham Distillery Conniption Gin

1 1/2 ounces Durham Distillery Cucumber Vodka

1 ounce St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur

1 1/2 ounces clarified lemon juice (regular lemon juice if clarifying is not an option)

1/2 ounce simple syrup (2 parts sugar: 1 part water.)

1 ounce filtered water

If you’re using a syphon: Add all ingredients to chilled iSi soda syphon or iSi whipper. Screw on the top of the syphon, add your Co2 charger, screw on —you’ll hear the gas release into the syphon — and shake hard for 10 seconds. Gently squeeze the handle, releasing all the gas from the syphon. Do not squeeze hard or liquid will come out of the spout. Once all the gas is released, unscrew the empty charger, add one more charger, screw it on and shake for another 10 seconds. Place your syphon in the freezer for 5 minutes. When the time is up, grab your syphon and slowly release the gas. When all the gas is out, slowly unscrew the top of your syphon. Gently pour over ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with a few slices of cucumber.

Clarified Lemon Juice

For every 8 ounces of lemon juice, stir in 1 gram of Pectinex. This isn’t a lot, so add the Pectinex one drop at a time until you reach 1 gram. Let the juice sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, and then filter it through a Chemex or coffee filter.

If you don’t have a syphon, that’s OK, but you’ll need sparkling water. Mountain Valley is my favorite. Delete the ounce of filtered water from the ingredients list above. It was there for the syphon recipe because water is an ingredient in cocktails, usually incorporated by shaking or stirring with ice.

To make the Lino Blanco without using a syphon, combine all the above ingredients (minus water) into a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake hard for 15 seconds or until the shaker is chilled. Add a healthy splash of sparkling water and strain into a Collins glass with ice. Again, garnish with a few slices of cucumber.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

In the Spirit

Just the Two of Us

Cocktails you don’t have to post on social media

By Tony Cross

This month is for the couples. Yes, love is in the air . . . or is it the sound of greeting card and chocolate companies rubbing their hands together, ready to rake in millions? Maybe it’s both.

Regardless, Valentine’s Day is one of, if not the busiest nights of the year if you’re in the restaurant business. I always recommend not going out the night of. Chances are, the establishment of your choosing will be slammed, the menu will be limited (and probably overpriced), service will be spotty, and you’ll feel rushed. Instead, go out the weekend before or after and, on Valentine’s Day, stay home and cook.

Making drinks together can be fun, especially if you keep it simple. Below are some suggestions for you two lovebirds to tackle. The first is very valentine-y. The rest are uncomplicated and varied — a little something for every romantic taste bud.

Bitter French

This is a cocktail from bartender Phil Ward. It’s a subtle spin on the classic French 75 cocktail. The addition of Campari gives this drink a slight bitter flavor, which tastes incredible. If I happen to have strawberries in my fridge, I’ll muddle one while whipping this up. It’s a nice compliment to an already great classic.

1 ounce Plymouth gin (It doesn’t have to be Plymouth, but know that this gin is soft and not very juniper-forward. You know, juniper . . . the reason people who hate gin, hate gin?)

1/4 ounce Campari

1/2 ounce lemon juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup

Dry Champagne or any dry sparkling wine

1 grapefruit twist

If you’re going to include a strawberry, muddle in a cocktail shaker. Shake all ingredients (minus grapefruit twist and Champagne) with ice, then double-strain into a Champagne flute or cocktail coupe. Top with Champagne. Express oils of grapefruit twist over cocktail and discard.

Sidecar

The original recipe from this classic only calls for three ingredients: cognac, orange liqueur and lemon juice. However, to me, adding just a touch of rich simple syrup gives this cocktail a better mouthfeel.

2 ounces cognac (Remy Martin works fine, but use Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac if you can get it)

3/4 ounce Cointreau

3/4 ounce lemon juice

1 barspoon rich simple syrup

Rich simple syrup: Combine two parts sugar to one part water in a pot and stir over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. Let cool and refrigerate. It keeps for up to a month.

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake hard for 10 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail coupe. No garnish.

Brandy (or Gin) Alexander

This is a classic dessert cocktail. If cognac isn’t your thing, substituting gin makes this drink worthwhile. May I recommend Sutler’s Spirit Co. out of Winston-Salem? When it comes to crème de cacao, please don’t use the cheap stuff. You can get Tempus Fugit’s online if it’s not available in your local ABC store. Trust me, the difference is well worth the time in ordering it. When using gin, I like to keep the recipe equal parts, but feel free to play around with the measurements.

Brandy

1 1/2 ounces cognac

1 ounce crème de cacao

1 ounce heavy cream

Nutmeg

Gin

1 ounce gin

1 ounce crème de cacao

1 ounce heavy cream

Nutmeg

Combine all ingredients (minus nutmeg) with ice and shake hard until chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Grate nutmeg over cocktail.

Dark ‘N’ Stormy

Easiest drink on the list. Grab a bottle of Gosling’s Dark Seal Rum, quality ginger beer, a few limes, and you’re good to go. If you want to try something different, Jeffrey Morgenthaler has a great little recipe using Chinese Five Spice. Google it.

2 ounces Gosling’s Dark Seal Rum

4 ounces ginger beer

Lime wedge

In a Collins glass, add rum, fill with ice and top with ginger beer. Squeeze lime wedge over drink before adding. Give a brief stir with a spoon and enjoy.

Cosmopolitan

Some of you may be rolling your eyes, but have you had a proper Cosmo? This drink is no joke and, if made correctly, it’s strong and delicious. There are many versions out there and this is mine. To any of you guys or gals who have already sworn off making this because of its pink hue, remember, it’s just a damn drink.

1 1/2 ounces citron vodka (If you’re like me, and only have a bottle of Belvedere in the fridge, that’s cool, too.)

3/4 ounce Cointreau (You may substitute Grand Marnier, but if so, scale back to 1/2 ounce — to me, it’s a bit rich.)

1 ounce cranberry juice (Ocean Spray is just fine.)

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

Lime wheel (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake hard until chilled. Double strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish that bad boy if you’d like.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender (well, ex-bartender) who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.