While Sylvan and I were at Tales of the Cocktail last year, we were lucky enough to have Chris Stanley, recently of New York’s Clover Club, make drinks for us at the Mixo House.  Of all the liquors and bar fixings at our disposal–and believe me, the amount was epic–the one ingredient that seemed to pique Chris’ interest more than any of the other ones was our sherry collection.  He said he used sherry all the time in his drinks and people love them.  After tasting his cocktails, I see why.   I like to have a little glass of it before dinner, but Chris opened my eyes to how versatile it is, drunk straight or mixed in a cocktail.  I realized that I don’t know squat about sherry as a cocktail ingredient, but would like to learn more. And I found I wasn’t alone.  Several of our friends had a hankering for a sherry tasting, so we got a group of people together who each brought a bottle or three. We also collected a number of cocktail recipes containing sherry to experiment with. Much like a wine tasting, we started with the driest finos and progressed to the sweeter amontillados, olorosos and the the dessert stylings of Pedro Ximénez. Here are my (uneducated and increasingly tipsy) notes from that fun evening.

FINOS

Alvear’s Fino—Very light in color, almost greenish. Strong aroma. Dry at first, slightly sour, with an almost salty finish. We agreed it would make a good addition to a dirty martini.

Lustau Light Fino—Light yellowy green in color. Weak aroma. Light on the palate, with a slightly lemony finish.

Williams & Humbert Dry Sack Medium—Brownish color, smells of brown sugar. Sweet, smooth, almost maple-like taste. This one really seems to be in a genre of its own since it didn’t seem to resemble the other finos. In fact, we moved it over to the amontillado table after tasting it.

AMONTILLADOS

Alvear’s Amontillado—Light brown in color. Complex aroma that is woody, citrusy and I thought almost fishy. The flavor was bright, balanced and sweet but not too sweet.

Sandeman Character Amontillado—Brown in color. Citrusy bouquet. Sweet at first, then woody and bitter. Though it has a fairly light finish, it was slightly astringent.

Hartley & Gibsons Amontillado—Dark brown in color. Alcohol fumes hit you before the sweet fragrance. This one has 19% alcohol. Sweet and strong flavored. Hints of orange and musty basement. Complex.

Valdespino Contrabandista—Cool label! Brown in color. Musty aroma. Hard to pin down this one. Bright yet woody, astringent yet slightly sweet with citrus flavors.

OLOROSO/CREAM

Alvear’s Cream Montilla—Orangish brown in color. Round and sugary, lightly orange in flavor.

El Maestro Sierra Oloroso—Dark brown with lots of body. Woody aroma. Taste was sharp and spicy, almost like witch hazel. Our least favorite sherry of the evening.

El Candado Pedro Ximénez A.R. Valedespino—Dark brown. Smells of raisins and molasses. Sweet and saturated flavor. Tastes of fruitcake and very raisiny.  Popular with everyone, especially near the end of the evening.  A good replacement for a glass of port after dinner.

Barbadillo Pedro Ximénez—Warm dark brown color. Sweet but weaker in flavor and more drinkable than El Candado. Light raisin and caramel flavors.

Sandeman Armada High Cream Oloroso—Pretty, walnut color. Velvety smell? (Okay, I was a little drunk by this time.) Balanced sweetness with a bright finish.

The surprise winners of the evening were all the Alvear’s sherries.  They are affordable, complex and tasty.  After the tasting of the sherries and the cocktails, most of us came away feeling more confident using sherry in cocktails, while also knowing what style we like to drink straight. The following cocktail was quite popular that night, and it introduced us to White Port as yet another new ingredient that we love in cocktails. Just when you think you know everything about everything in the liquor world, there’s always something more to learn.

The Robert Frost Cocktail – by Derek Brown

• ¾ oz Bourbon
• ¾ oz Amontillado Sherry (dry)
• ¾ oz White Port
• ½ oz Simple Syrup
• Dash of Orange Bitters

Combine ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and add thinly sliced orange and lemon wheels.

As part of a series of Beefeater product features over at the Mixoloseum, last Thursday’s Drink Night (TDN) theme was Beefeater gin. As usual at the Mixoloseum Bar, many original drinks were created, submitted and enjoyed. The next online event will feature Beefeater 24, a new luxury gin and its introduction to the American market. This new product is differentiated from their original one by the additions of Japanese sencha and Chinese green teas, as well as grapefruit peels.

Dan Warner, brand ambassador for Beefeater gin, joined in the fun. He shared with us some fascinating facts about Beefeater, like the fact that there are only 6 employees at their sole plant in London producing 2.4 million cases a year. Beefeater is the only major distiller left producing London Dry gin in the city of London. He also dropped tidbits like the Negroni being a favorite of Desmond Payne, Beefeater’s celebrated Master Distiller. Dan even hinted that he might return on the TDN discussing Beefeater 24 on 4/30.

The Gin

I’ve always been pleased with Beefeater as a mixing gin, but in order to taste the individual components, I tasted it neat and then slightly diluted with water. The first smell on opening a bottle yielded the sharp aroma of juniper and citrus. Upon sipping the undiluted spirit, I tasted the rounded soft spiciness of the coriander. The mouth feel was rich and even a bit oily. The mid palate had a bit of a pleasant woody flavor, probably from the licorice and angelica root. The finish was bitter but not lingering. Overall the impression was very crisp and clean.

They don’t call this London Dry Gin for nothing. Beefeater is proud of their 24 hour maceration claiming that the “long steeping time gives a gentler extraction, but builds complexity, and fixes the aroma in the spirit more solidly.” The resulting bold and clean flavor makes it a great mixing gin. I love the sharp citrus tang of Beefeater relative to other gins. When you mix a drink with Beefeater, you know that you’ve put gin in there! Sometimes you want the gin to be the star, like in a gin and tonic, a Martinez, or a Clover Club. Orange drinks like a Bronx or Monkey Gland really benefit from a bold gin like this; otherwise the drink can get a little soft on you. But other times you want your gin to play more of a  supportive role. For a drink like a Suffering Bastard, I recommend a mellower, more rounded gin.

Just recently at the market, I happened to come across fresh bergamot fruit, and having been waiting over a year and a half  since reading about the following recipe at Married with Dinner, I snapped up the last one and made the following:

Friday After Five – Married with Dinner

• 1 ounce gin
• 1/2 ounce green Chartreuse
• 3/4 ounce bergamot juice
• 1 dash Herbsaint, absinthe or Pernod

Shake over ice, and pour into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a bergamot twist, if desired.

I have to say that this was my first experience with a real bergamot and I was totally impressed. As soon as my peeler bit into the peel, the pleasantly sharp odor of fine Earl Grey tea sprang into the air and surrounded me. I peeled the whole thing and set the peels out to dry for later use. This bergamot was quite tart, so I ended up adding a dash more Chartreuse to sweeten it a bit. The Friday After Five was still pretty tart, but the aromas of the bergamot peel worked well with the aromatics of the gin and the herbal sweetness of the Chartreuse. I was reminded of Audrey Sander’s MarTEAni, made with Earl Grey tea infused gin. So much so that I was inspired to invent the:

Trans-Europa

• 1 1/2 oz gin
• 1/4 oz Earl Grey infused gin (Tanqueray – 4 tbsp loose tea to a bottle for 2 hours)
• 3/4 oz bitter Seville orange juice
• 1/4 oz green Chartreuse
• 1/4 simple syrup (or more as needed)

Shake, strain and serve up with a bitter orange twist.

I’m a big fan of Beefeater gin because of its bold, high quality taste coupled with its affordable price point. I have been stocking Beefeater as my house gin for some time now because sometimes you just need a gin with some oomph when mixing. Personally, I’m really excited about the American release of Beefeater 24. I hope you can come on down to the Beefeater 24 TDN we are having on 4/30.

This week, I got the chance to take a vacation in Hawaii and lucky for you (or maybe not), a laptop joined our trip at the last minute. So here is my quick and extremely subjective impression of drinking here on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Drinking in Hawaii

Bars in Hawaii are pretty similar to mainland bars, except maybe for the gorgeous sea views and general lack of walls. I get the impression that locals primarily drink beer. While a lot of rum is on sale in the local stores, I think most of that gets poured into Coke. Visitors appear to want one or more of the following: whatever they have at home, something luxurious to celebrate being in Hawaii, and/or something tropical. And by tropical, I mean rum and fruit. Of the ‘burgeoning cocktail culture’, there were no traces to be found. But then again, the Big Island is not where I would look if I was serious about finding it. The big city- Honolulu, on Oahu- would be much more likely to reflect mainland trends.

Don the Beachcomber

Before leaving home, I checked with my tiki sources (OK, TraderTiki and critiki) and turned up nothing of tiki interest to visit on the Big Island. So imagine my heart-warming surprise (and dread) when finding a listing in a guide book for Don the Beachcomber’s Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Kona Resort! Having honeymooned at the Royal Kona some years ago, I knew where this was, and also knew that any bar would be better than what had been there. Rum and sour mix Mai Tai, anyone? Donn Beach himself was clearly not involved in this new endeavor, having died in 1989. We had to see and drink for ourselves.

We got there before sunset and snagged two house Mai Tais, which turned out to be pretty decent. The “Don’s Original Mai Tai” was made with Bacardi 8 rum, orgeat, curacao, mystery fruit juice and a float of Whaler’s dark rum. The menu claimed the fruit included lime, but it tasted primarily of pineapple. They repeatedly claim on their logo and advertising that Donn Beach invented the original Mai Tai. I thought that the controversy over who invented the Mai Tai had been settled in Trader Vic’s favor, but it lives on, at least on the internet and here.

We flagged down a manager and asked for the story. Turns outs that a bunch of resort manager types had been walking around their Lahaina property and passed one of the old, boarded-up Don the Beachcomber restaurants. They decided to revive the legend and bought the rights to use the name. They redecorated the existing bar and restaurant at the Royal Kona Resort, which both have gorgeous wide open surfside views of the sunset over Kailua Bay. For you tiki-philes, yes, they have gone ahead with full tiki décor. There are Hawaiian style tiki heads placed around the bar, a trio of floor-to-ceiling concrete tiki idols in the center of the main grill room there, and a plethora of tiki torches lighting up the surf around the lanai. I apologize for the lack of photos; my digital camera is one casualty of this trip.

Moving through the menu, we tried the Don’s Plantation Mai Tai and the Tiki Tai. The Plantation had orgeat, apricot brandy, a potent blend of dark and light rums (Bacardi white, Whaler’s Dark, and two other unidentified rums) and fresh squeezed lime juice. (Hand squeezed from the garnish wedges for some reason). The Tiki Tai was very similar to the Original, but used a big dollop of very fine shaved ice. The rest of the menu features about 6 Mai Tais, as well as Navy Grog and a Scorpion. After that it veers into such crowd-pleasers as a Chocolate Martini and a Ginger Mango Martini. The fact that happy hour prices coincide with a glorious Hawaiian sunset makes these forgivable. And Don the Beachcomber has a much better Mai Tai than I expected to find on this Big Island vacation.