Drinkin' Again

The Harpoon*

The Harpoon has become a favorite cocktail around our house. Of course we modified it, substituting gin for vodka:

1½ oz gin
½ oz orange liqueur
¼ oz lime juice
enough cranberry juice to color

Mix and shake over ice.  Pour into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a slice of lime.
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*Originally blogged by EBL, here.

The Harpoon is related to the Maggie, but less limey. Also, the Maggie looks different, lacking the socialist red hue.

Time For Cocktails: The Astoria

2 oz Gin
1 oz dry Vermouth*
2 dashes Orange Bitters
Shake over ice and strain into chilled martini glass
Garnish with lemon twist or olives.

This cocktail was allegedly invented at the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, located on 5th Ave, where the Empire State Building is now. The original Astoria hotel was built by John Jacob Astor IV, who went down with the Titanic. Astor was the wealthiest man aboard Titanic, but he was supposed to have been one-upped by J. Pierpont Morgan, who cancelled at the last minute. White Star Line Managing director J. Bruce Ismay took J. P. Morgan's luxury suite of cabins for the maiden voyage.

Astor was accompanied on Titanic by his very pregnant bride, Madeleine, who survived the sinking and gave birth to a son, John Jacob VI, four months later. Both wife and son's lives had sad endings.
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*Some mixers transpose the amounts of gin and vermouth.

Time For Cocktails: The Vesper

"A dry martini," [Bond] said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet." 

"Oui, monsieur."

"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet.* Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

"Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

"Gosh, that's certainly a drink," said Leiter.

Bond laughed. 'When I'm...er...concentrating,' he explained, "I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name."

—Ian Fleming, Casino Royale (1953)

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*Kina Lillet used to contain quinine, a muscle relaxant. Kinda like how Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine, and 7-Up contained lithium citrate.

Time For Cocktails: Darcy's Dirty Titotini

I asked Darcy for her "Titotini" recipe:

"Oh, gosh....it's just ice cold Tito's and olive juice to taste! Jalapeno stuffed olives. I'll check quantities tonight!"

More please.

Time For Cocktails: Conversations With Henry

Me: Remember that time you took me to the faculty club?

Henry: Yeah?

Me: What were you drinking? I didn't really like cocktails then.

Henry: Martini. Extra dry

Me: Gin or vodka?

Henry: That's like asking me: English or Western?

Me: I'll never forget when you said 'look, over there! -- that's Milton Friedman!'

Time For Cocktails: La Dura Vita, That's Amaro!

Trooper York puked all over my last cocktail comment thread, complaining that the Aviation sounded too sweet. Such a bitter blogfather. I should go clean up the mess, but perhaps I'll just walk away this time.

So here's a little something I found more up his alley. It's recipe based around a Sicilian liqueur called Averna Amaro. The recipe I'm using can be found here. I'm going to try it out.

La Dura Vita:

1-1/2 oz. gin
1 oz. Campari
1/2 oz. Averna amaro

Build and garnish with lemon twist. This one can be enjoyed at room temperature or slightly chilled. The Italians slug a shot of the stuff right out of the bottle after a heavy meal to aid in digestion.

Blogfather obviously has a bias against drinks which would suggest La Dolce Vita. I hope he can hold his liquor this time because this one's an after-dinner drink.

Time For Cocktails: The Aviation



100 Years of Naval Aviation-San Diego (2/9/11)*

OK, this one is a real favorite of ours.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz Crème de Violette or Crème Yvette liqueur

Double the amounts if you're making for two, or if you're thirsty.

Mix ingredients in a shaker with plenty of ice. Shake and strain, pouring into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a bright red maraschino cherry.

Notes:

Crème Yvette and Crème de Violette are both intensely flavored violet liqueurs. They are easy to overdo in this drink so go lightly with them. They're both pretty pricey too but a bottle lasts a long long time.

Althouse commenter Palladian gave a nice discourse about both Crème Yvette and Crème de Violette the other night over here. The liqueur gives this cocktail that gorgeous cerulean color, like somewhere in the middle of the sky in my photo above.
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*That photo of a flying V of V's of 25 jet aircraft was taken from the flight deck of the USS Midway during the Centennial celebration of 100 years of Naval Aviation in San Diego.

Time For Cocktails: The Maggie

I hung the crown molding!

I'm starting a new series here which will present my favorite cocktail recipes. I would appreciate any suggestions for improvements or derivatives thereof.

The "Maggie" is a drink my wife invented but which I named. Essentially, it's a margarita but is made with gin instead of tequila. The cocktail should be a perfect accompaniment for this weekend's nuptial festivities.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Cointreau*
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice (that's about a half a lime)

Double the amounts if you're making for two, or if you're thirsty.

Combine and shake with ice. Pour into a chilled martini glass.

Notes

*Margaritas are sometimes made with triple sec which you can also use.  Both are essentially an orange flavored liqueur. Limes should be freshly squeezed using an old fashioned juicer to get every drop. We strain it through a wire mesh to catch the pulp, but you can skip that step.