My Poor Liver Podcast's Family Therapy cocktail

Some people love spending holidays with their families. For others, there's Family Therapy.

This cocktail is wickedly strong--it contains nothing other than liquor. It's also really good, so be careful with it, since you might be tempted to down it pretty quickly. Or maybe that's the point.

The drink originated on My Poor Liver Podcast's Thanksgiving episode as their Cocktail of the Week. Neil and Eddie remarked that Family Therapy is basically an Old Fashioned that tastes like Thanksgiving given its mix of ginger, orange and cranberry. Sounds divine, doesn't it? I knew I had to try it.

The recipe below is a slight modification of Neil's original. He mixed 2 oz. of bourbon modified with 1/4 oz. each of ginger liqueur, orange liqueur and Cherry Heering, a distinctive Danish cherry liqueur. I thought I had Cherry Heering in my liquor cabinet, but I was wrong, so I needed to make a substitution. I considered Cherry Kijafa, a Danish fruit wine fortified with brandy, but I didn't like the flavor. I also had Kirschwasser, the cherry brandy best known as a fondue ingredient, but as a brandy, it wasn't sweet enough. I settled on maraschino liqueur, which has a wonderful cherry flavor and sweetness. Because it's a pretty strong flavor, I cut the amount in half to 3/4 tsp. (about 1/8 oz.) to avoid overpowering the other ingredients.

For the ginger liqueur, they used a local (to Portland, Ore.) ginger liqueur from New Deal Distillery, although they stated that the nationally distributed Domain de Canton ginger liqueur would work, I also wanted to use something local, so I turned to Bloomery Sweetshine ginger liqueur, which is made in West Virginia. This has a more intense ginger flavor than the Domaine de Canton, although this didn't stop me from doubling the amount of ginger liqueur, a personal preference. While this drink lack's Neil's nice simplicity of the 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 ounce measurements, it's still quite tasty.

All this month, the My Poor Liver guys are talking about the holidays, and I love how they really get into the holiday spirit on their show. They've already shared some wonderful seasonal drinks. Last week's show included a discussion on good hot buttered rum, and this week they got pretty merry with some awesome sounding champagne cocktails, a classic I've yet to try making. Check out their podcast here.

Family Therapy
Adapted from a recipe by My Poor Liver Podcast

2 oz. Buffalo Trace bourbon
1/2 oz. Bloomery Sweetshine ginger liqueur (may substitute Domain de Canton or other ginger liqueur)
1/4 oz. Cambier orange liqueur
3/4 tsp. Luxardo maraschino liqueur (the original recipe called for 1/4 oz. Cherry Heering)
3 dashes Fee Brothers cranberry bitters
Orange peel garnish

Combine bourbon, liqueurs and bitters in a rocks glass with ice. Stir until very cold and garnish with the orange peel.

Cocktail: Paper Plane

Go ahead M.I.A., take a sip of the Paper Plane.

Tuesday when I wrote about the Death & Co cocktail book, I included a recipe for the Naked and Famous, which the book describes as a cross between a Last Word and a Paper Plane. Curious about the Paper Plane, I looked it up.

As a refresher, the Last Word is a classic cocktail I wrote about a year ago. One of its great features is its equal proportions of four ingredients: 3/4 ounces each of gin, Green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lemon, which makes for a wonderfully tart and sweet drink. The Naked and Famous is similarly structured with 3/4 ounces each of Yellow Chartreuse, Aperol, lime and mezcal--so it's also got that tart/sweet thing but a bit savory too from the smoky mezcal.

So it's appropriate that the Paper Plane skews even darker with bourbon and Italian bitter-sweet amaro. The drink was created by Sam Ross for West Village bar Little Branch and is named after the 2007 hit song by M.I.A. If the name sounds familiar, you might have read my post about his Penicillin cocktail during my summer drinks week. Again, it's got that 3/4 ounces of four ingredients thing going on, in this case bourbon, Aperol, lemon and amaro. The recipe I found on Food & Wine calls for Nonino Quintessentia amaro. I used Amaro Montenegro instead, since that's what I had on hand. 

Paper Plane

Adapted from a recipe by Sam Ross

3/4 oz. bourbon

3/4 oz. Italian amaro (such as Nonino Quintessentia or Amaro Montenegro)

3/4 oz. Aperol

3/4 oz. lemon juice

Combine bourbon, amaro, Aperol and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and shake until very cold. Strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

Cocktail: Vanilla Margarita

One last drink this week. Here's a summer favorite with a winter twist: aged añejo tequila, dry curaçao (like triple sec but less sweet) and vanilla.

Vanilla Margarita

1 oz. Sauza Añejo Tequila
1 oz. Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
1/2 oz. Del Maguey Vida Mezcal
1 oz. Fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. vanilla syrup (see note below)

Combine tequila, curaçao, mezcal, lime juice and vanilla syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until cold. Strain into a rocks glass with ice. No garnish.

Note: to make vanilla syrup, bring 1 cup of water, 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 vanilla bean split down the middle (with seeds scraped into the pan) to boil in a medium saucepan. Turn off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Store in the refrigerator for 2 weeks (or longer if you add 1/2 oz. vodka to it. Leave the vanilla bean in the syrup for more vanilla flavor).

Testing the Arctic Chill Muddler with Winter Cocktails

Barware makers Arctic Chill contacted me about reviewing their cocktail muddler, giving me the perfect opportunity to discuss drinks with muddled ingredients while testing their muddler against the one I've been using. I took them up on the offer and they sent me a muddler to try.

So what is muddling? It's a technique for treating fresh fruit, vegetable and herb ingredients in cocktails to release their juices and oils, allowing the mixing of these "green" ingredients into a drink much faster than doing an infusion or making a syrup.

In The Bar Book, Jeffrey Morgenthaler gives a nice explanation of the two basic muddling techniques. For herbs, the process is gentle: pressing and folding the leaves to release their oils but not mashing them, since that can release chlorophyll, giving the drink an "off" flavor. Muddling pieces of fruit and vegetables involves a little more muscle, pressing down and twisting with the muddler to release juice and oils (like the oils in citrus peel).

Pictured above are the Arctic Chill muddler, along with three other common choices for muddling:

• Spoon. This is the scrappiest choice. It may work in a pinch, but it doesn't really work well. It's best suited for herbs, where you can press the herbs against the side of the glass using the back of the spoon. It's an awkward motion, since the spoon is rounded. Forget using this tool to muddle fruit or vegetables, as it just doesn't work well. You can't get good leverage muddling fruit against the side of the glass and the blunt edge of a spoon isn't ideal for doing this against the glass' bottom. I'd only try to muddle with a spoon if I didn't have another option.
• Barspoon. Some bar spoons have a mini muddler built into the end of the spoon. This type of muddler works well for muddling herbs, but not so great with fruits and vegetables, since the small head tends to push the fruit around the glass rather than mash it.
• Wooden muddler. This is the traditional choice for muddling either herbs or fruits and vegetables. The flat end is the "business" end of the muddler, which you can use to press herbs or mash larger chunks, and it works well for both purposes. 

These varnished wooden muddlers are common but problematic because over time their finish wears off, and guess where it goes...into your drink. Yuck. As you can see, mine has gotten a lot of use. To address this problem, cocktail experts recommend using either an unvarnished wooden muddler or something made of plastic, such as Cocktail Kingdom's Bad Ass Muddler, which sounds cool, but its $14 price tag is significantly higher than the $5 you can pay for a typical wooden one.

Enter the Arctic Chill cocktail muddler. It's listed at the same price as the Bad Ass Muddler, but can be found on Amazon for less (under $10 when I last checked). It has an attractive design, with a curved stainless steel body and a flared black plastic head. It's just over 8 inches long (slightly longer than my wooden muddler, which is exactly 8 inches) and weights 3 1/2 ounces--slightly heavier than my 2 1/2 oz. wooden muddler. Although most muddlers have a smooth head, this one is textured with a waffle pattern. I had some reservations as to how that would affect muddling, particularly with herbs, but wasn't willing to dismiss the muddler without putting it through a few tests. Here's how it stacked up against my wooden muddler in three tests. Read about the tests below, with recipes that follow.

Test one: Fruit

To test how the Arctic Chill performed in muddling fruit, I tested it against pear chunks and lemon slices in the Peary Christmas cocktail. I muddled the pear and lemon together with 10 strokes. Compared to the wooden muddler, the Arctic Chill did a much better job of extracting juice from my fruit. You can see in the photo that the juice line is about twice as far up the glass in the drink muddled with the Arctic Chill vs. the wooden muddler. The latter, having a smaller head, pushed the pear around the glass more than mashed it, so there were more larger unjuiced chunks remaining. Score one for Arctic Chill.

Test two: Herbs, fruit and berries

Here's where it gets interesting. For this winter take on the mojito, I muddled together three different ingredients: delicate mint, juicy lime and fresh cranberries, which are tougher than other berries and thus require more muscle to muddle. Given this larger and more varied mix of ingredients, they required more muddling, about 20 strokes, until I was satisfied. Again, the Arctic Chill did a better job of breaking down the fruit chunks and even managed to smash the cranberries well. I did, however, see a few broken pieces of mint in the drink, which was a concern. The drink tasted fine, but, as discussed, torn mint can be a problem in some drinks. However, I also noticed torn mint in the drink made with the wooden muddler, which makes me think it's possible that the mixture of ingredients, especially the cranberries, could have contributed to tearing the mint. A third test was in order.

Test three: Herbs only

For this final test, I used the Arctic Chill to muddle a handful of fresh mint leaves in a glass with a little simple syrup. Adding syrup when muddling herbs helps ensure the flavor ends up in your drink--otherwise the extracted oils tend to just coat your muddler. For this test, I used a more gentle muddling motion of just pressing down on the herbs, rather than the "press-and-twist" used in the previous tests. After about 10 to 12 pressings I could smell the mint, so I stopped, mixed in a little soda and tasted the results. They were really good: minty fresh and not bitter. And even better, while the leaves were nicely pressed, they weren't torn.

Results: I was pleased with the Arctic Chill and plan on using it from now on as my primary cocktail muddler. Immediate below are recipes for two cocktails I made from tests 1 and 2. And further below are recipes for other cocktails with muddled ingredients.

Peary Christmas

With thanks to Washington Post spirits columnist M. Carrie Allan for giving me an idea for this drink during a recent Free Range on Food chat.

Makes 2 drinks

1 bosc pear, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
3 lemon slices (1/4-inch thick), halved
1 oz. cinnamon syrup (see recipe below)
3 oz. rye whiskey
4 dashes angostura bitters
Ginger beer
Lemon wheels (garnish)

Add the pear pieces and lemon slices to a highball glass and muddle to juice the fruit. Add cinnamon syrup, whiskey and angostura bitters. Fill the glass with ice, then top with ginger beer. Stir or swizzle the drink to combine. Garnish with lemon wheel.

Winter Mojito

1 tbsp. fresh cranberries (8 to 10 berries)
2 tbsp. fresh spearmint leaves
1/2 lime, cut into quarters
1 1/2 oz. dark rum
1/2 oz. honey syrup (see below)
2 dashes Fee Brothers whiskey-barrel-aged bitters
Club soda
Mint sprig garnish

Add the cranberries, mint and lime quarters to a rocks glass and muddle to juice the fruit and release the mint's oils. Add rum and bitters and fill the glass with ice. Top the class with club soda and stir or swizzle the drink to combine. Garnish with mint sprig.

Note: To make honey syrup, stir together equal portions of hot (not boiling, just tap hot) water and honey. Allow to cool.

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A Tale of Two Manhattans

I've really gotten into Manhattans lately, and the classic cocktail is an ideal drink for winter, made with the ruddy warmth of rye whiskey and modified by the bitter-sweet flavors of sweet vermouth and bitters. At least that's how it works traditionally, as in the Manhattan I made during my cocktail bitters week last summer. The nice thing about a Manhattan is that its simple formula presents a lot of room for experimentation. In the Death & Co book I discussed yesterday, for example, there are 13 variations on the Manhattan, including drinks made with rum, pisco and even tequila.

Browsing through the PDT Cocktail Book looking for a good drink, I happened upon the two Manhattan variations on page 105: the Deshler, made with orange liqueur, and the Dewey D., made with sherry and Aperol. I couldn't decide which sounded better, so I made both. And liked both. The Dewey D. is the stronger of the two, since it has more whiskey and the sweetness of the cointreau mellows the Deshler more. But I love the use of Aperol, my favorite Italian aperitif, in a Manhattan.

Deshler
Adapted from a classic 1916 recipe by Hugo Enslin in the PDT Cocktail Book

1 1/2 oz. rye whiskey
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1/4 oz. Cointreau
2 dashes Peychaud's Bitters
Orange twist garnish

Combine whiskey, sweet vermouth, Cointreau and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass with ice. Stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with orange twist.

Dewey D.
Adapted from a recipe by Don Lee in the PDT Cocktail Book

2 oz. rye whiskey
3/4 oz. East India Sherry (lacking this, I substituted Amontillado Sherry)
1/2 oz. Aperol
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Orange twist garnish

Combine whiskey, sherry, Aperol and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass with ice. Stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with orange twist.

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails

Oversize cookbooks with beautiful design and photographs have become commonplace. It isn't unusual to run into a stack of them in the "new books" section of the bookstore. But I don't see that as frequently among books about cocktails, which have tended to be more standard size.

So its size was the first surprise when I received my copy of Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails. This isn't a book for the shelf, but rather one that demands to be set out on the coffee table--or more appropriately the bar if you have one. Many cocktail aficionados will recognize the name Death & Co, a well-known and respected cocktail lounge in Manhattan's East Village. There, they craft drinks that aren't just interesting, but get noticed, like the Oaxaca Old-Fashioned, a drink created at Death & Co that migrated to its offshoot Mayahuel, another notable East Village bar, one that specializes in cocktails made with tequila and mezcal.

Despite its beautiful design, it's a not a case of style over substance. Good cocktail recipes are the focus of the book, comprising its second half and organized by spirit (gin, rum, tequila and mezcal, whiskey, etc.--but not vodka, they explain in the introduction that Death & Co has traditionally taken a "hard stance" against it), technique (juleps, swizzles, etc.) and lastly a few sections on variations of well-known drinks like the Sazerac and the Manhattan. A few classics kick off this section before diving into the original drinks which are identified by the Death & Co. bartender who created them, including Alex Day, one of the book's three authors who is a co-owner of Death & Co. (along with co-author David Kaplan) and a former bartender there (publisher Nick Fauchald is the third author).

The original drinks show a lot of creativity. I love the Julius Orange, a nostalgic boozy take on the classic frothy mall drink. And the Naked and Famous is a lot a fun: a fabulously smoky marriage between the Last Word and Paper Plane cocktails.

The first half of the book has a lot of the typical introductory fare for a cocktail book, but it is very well done. They provide thoughtful discussions about stocking your bar with good gin, rum, tequila and mezcal, whiskey (or whisky) and brandy (again, no vodka, obviously) and modifiers, mixers, etc. They also have a nice section on good bar equipment (one of the few mistakes I caught in the book was the mixed-up labelling of the paddle and Yarai style mixing glasses). There are also nice stories about a typical day at Death & Co, how to taste and evaluate spirits and an introduction by Kaplan about the bar's beginning. They even, thankfully, state that cloudy ice works just as well as fussy clear ice at chilling your drink (I'm seeing more sanity on this point lately, hurray).

If there is a cocktail lover in your life, I definitely suggest you consider this book as a gift this holiday season. It's a wonderfully organized, beautifully presented work that stands on a foundation of great knowledge and creativity. Still not convinced? Make a few of these cocktails below that come from the book. Each one is different, original and delicious.

Cocktail: Oaxaca Old-Fashioned

Adapted from a recipe by Phil Ward for Death & Co.

1 1/2 oz. reposado tequila

1/2 oz. mezcal

1 tsp. agave nectar

2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters (Note: The Death & Co. book calls for Anogustura bitters, but I've seen the recipe made with the mole bitters, which I think are a nice touch and in-line with the Oaxacan theme. According to Serious Eats, the bar used mole bitters but published the recipe in the New York Times in 2007 with Angostura bitters, since the former wasn't widely available at the time.)

Flamed orange twist

Combine tequila, mezcal, agave nectar and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a flamed orange twist (see instructions in this post for flaming an orange twist).

Cocktail: Julius Orange
Adapted from a recipe by Brad Farran for Death & Co.

2 oz. Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao
1/2 oz. rum (the original recipe calls for Cruzan single-barrel rum; I used Mount Gay Extra Old Rum)
1 tsp. vanilla syrup (see note below)
1/2 oz. heavy cream
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 dash orange bitters
Freshly grated nutmeg

Combine ingredients in a shaker with three ice cubes and do a "short shake" (i.e. don't shake it very much--just enough to combine the ingredients). Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a few grates of fresh nutmeg and serve with a straw.

Note: To make vanilla syrup, split a vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Scrape the seeds into a saucepan and drop the split pod into the saucepan too. Add 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 4 minutes. Allow to cool, strain out the vanilla pod and seeds (or leave in to infuse more flavor) and store in a container in the refrigerator.

Cocktail: Naked and Famous
Adapted from a recipe by Jaoquín Simó for Death & Co.

3/4 oz. mezcal
3/4 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz. Aperol
3/4 oz. Lime juice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until cold. Strain into a coupe glass. No Garnish.

Wooden Ship
Adapted from a recipe by Thomas Waugh for Death & Co.

1 oz. gin
1 oz. genever
1/2 oz. Grand Marnier
1/2 tsp. simple syrup
1 dash Fee Brothers whiskey barrel-aged bitters
Lemon twist garnish

Combine gin, genever, Grand Marnier, simple syrup and bitters in a cocktail mixing glass. Add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with lemon twist.

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Winter/Holiday Drinks Week

It's the time of year to be festive, to welcome your friends, coworkers and family, preferably with drink in hand. While it's sadly true that alcohol can't really warm your body (unless perhaps you're drinker a winter warmer), it can warm your spirits, which is often just as useful when it's cold outside.

All this week I'll be sharing recipes for drinks perfect the cold winter months and the holidays. There will be a warm winter drink (today's Spicy Aztec Hot Chocolate with Mezcal), muddled cocktails, a look at the new cocktail book, Death & Co and an assortment of other drinks that just fit this time of year, like the Vanilla Margarita. Expect lots of ginger, spice and whiskey, definitely lots of whiskey (including variations on the Manhattan, Family Therapy and Paper Plane). Please check back everyday, and I promise you'll find something new.

To get you in the mood for this week's new recipes, here are some great winter cocktails I've previously featured:

Spanish Coffee: I ran this drink in the summer, even though it's a warm drink, because it was part of my coverage of Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler's book, The Bar Book.

Apple Brandy Cocktails: three drinks, including the Norwegian Wood with aquavit, the Widow's Kiss with bitter herbal liqueurs and the warm honey-mustard Scotchem.

The Rye in January: Rye whiskey, ginger-cinnamon flavor of Becherovka liqueur, Cynar, absinthe and grapefruit.

Honey-Nut Old Fashioned: peanut-infused rye whiskey, honey syrup, Angostura bitters.

A Walk in The Woods: A woodsy blend of smoked whiskey, walnut liqueur, homemade rosemary-juniper syrup and grapefruit juice.

A Rye Smile: A bitter-sweet concoction of rye whiskey, Cynar, homemade rosemary-brown sugar syrup and grapefruit.

The Lincoln: Honoring the 14th president (and the Steven Spielberg film) with smoked whiskey, maple and Peychaud's Bitters.

Dallas Drinks: The Julie: bourbon, ginger liqueur, sweet vermouth, bacon-peppercorn bitters.

Dallas Drinks: The Jock: bourbon, Benedictine liqueur, sweet vermouth, smoky Islay Scotch, Angostura bitters.

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Spicy Aztec Hot Chocolate with Mezcal

Looking for an interesting winter warmer, I came across this Spicy Aztec Hot Chocolate on Serious Eats. The drink warms you up on multiple fronts, being both hot and spicy with chile flavors.

The original recipe called for using a dried ancho chile pepper. Instead, I used Bittermens' Xocolatl Mole Bitters and Hellfire Habanero Shrub. Mole bitters seemed like a natural fit for a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired cocktail, since mole contains both chocolate and chiles. And the habanero adds a nice fiery kick. Using bitters also allows you to adjust the heat to your liking.

Spicy Aztec Hot Chocolate with Mezcal
Adapted from Spicy Aztec Hot Chocolate with Chili, Cinnamon, and Mezcal by J. Kenji López-Alt for Serious Eats

Makes 2 drinks

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp. sugar
Small pinch of salt
1 cup whole milk
1 cinnamon stick
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips
8 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
6 dashes Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub (or more as desired)
4 oz. mezcal
Whipped cream
Ancho chili powder

1. Combine cocoa powder, sugar, salt, milk, cinnamon stick, chocolate chips and bitters in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is hot. Stir in the mezcal and cook for another minute or two until the mixture is hot. (Alternatively, Combine the first eight ingredients--through the bitters--in a microwave safe container and heat at 50 percent power in 1 minute increments, stirring between heatings, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is hot. Then add the mezcal and heat for 1 more minute on 50 percent power). Remove the cinnamon stick.

2. Blend the mixture with an immersion blender until frothy (or transfer to a blender and blend until frothy).

3. Divide the mixture between two glasses. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of ancho chili powder.

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