Brands of celery bitters include The Bitter Truth, Scrappy's, and Fees. It's the hottest flavor in bitters since grapefruit.
In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I briefly introduce the trend and list a recipe for the Garden & Tonic, a G&T spin-off created by Wayne Collins and Naren Young.
Here's a cocktail I came up with for Thursday Drink Night at the Mixoloseum. The sponsor was Beefeater Summer Edition Gin, and I never know what to mix with Castries peanut liqueur. It turns out that just the two of them are kind of fun together. The Peychaud's bitters adds a bit of flavor and does wonders for the color.
Pinky Nutscadero
by Camper English
2 ounces Beefeater Summer Gin
1 ounce Castries peanut liqueur
4 dashes Peychaud's bitters
Shake all ingredients with ice and serve up.
I had an advance look at the cocktail menu for Prospect, the new San Francisco restaurant from Boulevard folks that opens on June 29. The beverage program was designed by Brooke Arthur, the long time bar manager of Range in the Mission.
(Brooke Arthur, stirring in her unconventional style.)
The menu is below, but keep scrolling for my taste-through of the drinks.
Prospect Cocktail Menu (Subject to Change)
Catcher in the Rye
wild turkey rye, amontillado sherry, amer, grand marnier,
abbots bitters 10.5
The Whaler
appleton reserve, champagne, honey, mint, lime, egg white 11.
Stallion, dominic venegas
beefeater, orange curacao, barolo chinato, bitters 11.
Candace
42 below, white wine, cantaloupe, vanilla, lime 10.5
Mr. White
pueblo viejo blanco, st. germain, strawberry-mint shrub, lime 10.5
Vicious Circle
wild turkey rye, zirbenz, drambuie, pineapple gum, lemon 10.5
Bitter Guiseppe, stephen cole
cynar, punt e mes, orange bitters, lemon 10.
Prospector, thomas waugh
famous grouse, madeira, benedictine, bitters, burnt orange 10.5
Classy Lassy, micheal la freniere
hendricks, orange blossom water, egg whites, lime, tonic, bitters 11.
Central City
dolin dry vermouth, fino sherry, pickled cherry juice, orange peel 10.
Kingston Crusta, charles baker variation
smith and cross, maraschino, ginger beer, lime, angostura bitters 11.
Roxanna
siete leguas blanco, aperol, cassis, blackberry, lime 11.
And Now for a Tasting
I like this menu a lot- there's a nice balance between lower-alcohol drinks (Central City, Bitter Guiseppe), girlie drinks (Candace, The Whaler, Classy Lassy), and macho drinks (Catcher in the Rye, Stallion, Prospector). It also reads well- there are a lot of friendly fruit flavors like strawberry and cherry juice balanced with challenging spirits like Zirbenz and Amer.
But how do they taste? Luckily I can answer that. I had a mini drink-through of the menu.
(The Central City)
The Central City (dolin dry vermouth, fino sherry, pickled cherry juice, orange peel) is as light as can be, acting as both a refresher and an aperitif. The pickled cherry juice Arthur made a year ago using the Chez Panisse Fruit
(Mr. White)
The Mr. White (pueblo viejo blanco, st. germain, strawberry-mint shrub, lime) is named for bartender Neyah White of NOPA (who will be leaving the post at the end of June), as the strawberry-mint shrub is apparently his grandmother's recipe. The strawberry and tequila combination nearly always works well, and in shrub form (yes folks, that's two vinegar drinks on a menu!) it's even better than usual.
(Candace.)
The Candace is one for the ladies- vodka, white wine, cantaloupe, vanilla syrup, and lime juice. It's not overly sweet, but the vanilla gives it a false sweetness that might make you think so. It also has a bit of Orange Julius flavor to it that I always like despite myself.
The drink is named for the whaling ship Candace found buried for 150 years at the site of the restaurant when it was being built in 2006. Read the story of the ship's discovery here.
(Vicious Circle.)
The Vicious Circle (wild turkey rye, zirbenz, drambuie, pineapple gum, lemon) is a riff on the Algonquin Cocktail. My mouth is always a little confused by drinks that combine lemon or pineapple juice and dark spirits (I expect gin but get rye) but I like the results. Many of the drinks on this menu are food-friendly, and this one is in that camp- it's interesting but not so strongly flavored that it's trying to compete with dinner.
(Roxanna.)
The Roxanna (siete leguas blanco, aperol, cassis, blackberry, lime) will probably be the star drink of this menu. Arthur smartly chose a dry, spicy blanco tequila that brings out the wonderful fruit-pepper flavor combination that works so well in cocktails (anyone remember the Rouge No. 10?), with Aperol acting as a bridge between them. Arthur chose to serve this drink on the rocks, but it is dense enough in flavor to be served up and juicy/strong enough that it would make a hell of a shot.
(Catcher in the Rye.)
I've consumed a million Manhattan spin-off drinks made with port, amaros, and other vermouth substitutes, and I'm glad to report that the Catcher in the Rye (wild turkey rye, amontillado sherry, amer, grand marnier, abbots bitters) isn't one of them. Instead it's another drink that would be great with a meal- the nuttiness of the sherry comes through and the Torani Amer and Abbot's bitters (made by John Deragon) combination dries out the finish in a lovely way. Another food-friendly drink here.
At first sip the Bitter Guiseppe (cynar, punt e mes, orange bitters, lemon, created by Stephen Cole of Chicago) comes off a bit syrupy, but then the delightfully dry and bitter finish- that's six dashes of Regan's Orange Bitters in there- lets you know that this is a digestif drink after all.
(Kingston Crusta.)
Arthur said the Kingston Crusta (smith and cross, maraschino, ginger beer, lime, angostura bitters) was the drink she was most worried about. (You can see her biting her nails after serving it to me in the picture above.) It's a really unique combination of bold flavors- an ultra-funky rum, maraschino liqueur, and though it doesn't say it on the menu, it comes with a chili salt-sugar rim. It is a little crazy, and I like it.
In Summary
So that's what I did on Monday afternoon. Mmmm, Mondays.
Overall, the menu is solid so I'm just going to suggest that you try every drink on it: There are only twelve so you should be able to get through the menu in three or four visits. They all read well but I was surprised at which drinks I ended up liking the most. (Roxanna, Central City, Catcher in the Rye, Mr. White for me.)
Then again, I only had eight of the twelve drinks so far. I could find new favorites still.
Prospect is located at 300 Spear Street, San Francisco. It opens June 29, 2010, at 4PM.
Here's my new story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 30.
Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails
by Camper English
The craze for organic, shade-grown, micro-roasted slow-drip coffee has percolated into the cocktail world. Bartenders are improving classic coffee drinks, finding ways to harness the beans' bitter, aromatic qualities rather than just the caffeine kick. Most cold coffee cocktails served in the past 20 or so years have been variations of the vodka espresso (better known as the espresso martini) credited to British bartender Dick Bradsell and made with vodka, espresso and Kahlua and Tia Maria coffee liqueurs. Nopa bar manager Neyah White updated this drink about three years ago, creating the Blue Bottle martini with Blue Bottle espresso, vodka and Araku coffee liqueur. It was, and is, "a ridiculously big seller," White says. Coffee liqueur got a good bit more serious with the April release of Firelit Spirits Coffee Liqueur, made with coffee from Oakland's Blue Bottle coffee roasters and brandy from distiller Dave Smith of St. George Spirits in Alameda.
Mike Kepka / The Chronicle
Reza Esmaili at Smuggler's Cove makes a Rear Admiral's Swizzle with Firelit coffee liqueur.
Fernet-Branca is not the only fernet in the world. I hadn't tried any others but recently I received a bottle of R. Jelinek Fernet. The bottle says, "Product of the Czech Republic. This digestive beverage was created during the period of the Hapsburg dynasty in the latter part of the 19th century in the region of central Europe near the famous health spa town of Luhacovice, Czech Republic."
The nose of it is clove-prune-mint (not in a bad way). In the mouth, the clove part dominates, with mint and raisin in the background. It's got a bitter finish but not a minty one. Meh.
Oh hai. I've been writing a lot of stuff lately on this new fangled thing called the internet.
I did a few things for Tasting Table, like this piece on bartenders swapping out whisky in drinks for mezcal and this other one on where to get a good cocktail during the day in San Francisco.
For the national edition of Tasting Table I wrote about where you can buy a whole barrel of booze. There are a whole lot more places to buy a whole barrel listed at this Liquor.com article that came out a few days earlier. I didn't write that one (great minds drink alike), but I did write this other one on bitters for the same site a while back.
For CitySearch I wrote about single-spirit specialty bars, which is supposed to also include this review of Smuggler's Cove but doesn't, because the internet is full of bugs.
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