Amy Elliott Cocktails

05/30/2011

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04/28/2011

Today we're paying homage to a real simple classic. The classic Champagne C**ktail.

You'll find the first recipe for the Champagne cocktail in "The Bar-Tenders Guide" written by Jerry Thomas in 1862.

Champagne C**ktail - Jerry Thomas

1 sugar cube
1 or 2 dashes of bitters
1 lemon peel
Champagne (or Prosecco-lets be honest $$$)

A dash of Brandy was later added to the recipe and has become an integral component.

04/22/2011

The American Beauty C**ktail

This drink is pretty unknown. The name is connected with a popular rose of the early 1900s. It originally appeared in Harry Craddock's first edition of the Savoy C**ktail Book. Harry's version is quite sweet. Mr. DeGroff so kindly revised this recipe to make it more balanced in his book The Essential C**ktail.

American Beauty (Savoy-oldschool)

15 ml brandy
15 ml vermouth dry
15 ml fresh orange juice
15 ml grenadine
1 dash creme de menthe white
30 ml Port wine
Shake all ingredients except port with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass and top with port wine.

American Beauty (DeGroff-modern)

20 ml brandy
20 ml vermouth dry
20 ml fresh orange juice
2 dashes grenadine
2 dashes simple syrup
1 dash of creme de menthe green
15 ml ruby port
Shake all ingredients in a ice-filled shaker. Strain into cocktail glass and float the port on top. Garnish with rose petal.

04/14/2011

The Jack Rose C**ktail AKA JR.

Today's cocktail, like most old cocktails, has a cloudy origin. One theory has the drink being named after infamous gambler/underworld figure Jacob Rosenzweig, AKA Bald Jack Rose-JR. After an unfortunate battle with typhoid at the tender age of four, JR was left hairless and with the perfect nickname for a successful underworld career. NYPD Lt. Charles Becker and his "Gambling Squad" was in charge of breaking up illicit gambling dens, unless they could afford his price. Rose was a businessman. His gambling operation pulled in around $10,000/month which today would be around $2 million a year. Now to make a long story a little longer, a bookie named Rosenthal couldn't keep up with Lt. Becker's escalating cash requirements. So, after one of his beatings, he decided to go to the papers and give a detailed accounting of Lt. Becker's shakedown scams. Lt. Becker then goes on to kill Rosenthal. The killing gets traced back to JR, so he cuts a deal with the prosecutors and testifies against Becker and his cronies. During JR's time on trial, a restauranteur named Joseph P. Rose (no known relation) created the cocktail named "Jack Rose" to honour JR. The other theory (boring) is that the Jack Rose cocktail was named after a turn-of-the-century flower the Jacquemot Rose. If created perfectly the cocktail is apparently the exact shade of the flower. I think the incredibly long first theory is better and a little more exciting. What do you think?

Jack Rose
2 oz apple brandy (preferably applejack)
½ oz fresh lemon juice
¼ to ½ oz grenadine (to taste)
Shake with ice and strain into a stemmed cocktail glass. Lemon twist.

04/07/2011

The Southside C**ktail

Yet another great cocktail that debuted during prohibition. The Southside however, has some shady gang-oriented roots, growing up in Chi-town. To say the Saltis-McErlane gang didn't have the "best" product was an understatement, the stuff was h***h. They had to mask the imperfections, which they did well, with the help of sugar, citrus and mint. Essentially they created a gin daiquiri with mint. Frankie McErlane was definitely not as smooth as Al Capone, but needless to say he was still ahead of his time. He was the first to use a Tommy Gun and it opened everybody's eyes to the power of the submachine gun. (a little off topic but interesting none the less)

The Southside

2oz gin
1oz lime juice5oz simple syrup
8 mint leaves(unmuddled)

Shake ingredients over ice. Fine strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a mint sprig.

03/31/2011

Today's cocktail is the Moscow Mule. AKA -MM

The Moscow Mule is quite old. It was invented in 1941 by John G. Martin. J***y M worked for G.F Heublein Brothers Inc. which was a big time spirit and food distributor. Three years prior in 1938, Heublein acquired all the rights to Smirnoff Vodka. They were marketing it as "White Whiskey". The way the MM was marketed early on helped shift people from gin to vodka, and it threw fuel on the fire of the vodka craze in America in the 1950s.

New York Herald Tribune:
The mule was born in Manhattan but "stalled" on the West Coast for the duration. The birthplace of "Little Moscow" was in New York's Chatham Hotel. That was back in 1941 when the first carload of Jack Morgan's C**k 'n' Bull ginger beer was railing over the plains to give New Yorkers a happy surprise... Three friends were in the Chatham bar, one John A. Morgan, known as Jack, president of C**k 'n' Bull Products and owner of the Hollywood C**k 'n' Bull Restaurant; one was John G. Martin, president of G.F. Heublein Brothers Inc. of Hartford, Conn., and the third was Rudolph Kunett, president of the Pierre Smirnoff, Heublein's vodka division. As Jack Morgan tells it, "We three were quaffing a slug, nibbling an hors d'oeuvre and shoving toward inventive genius". Martin and Kunett had their minds on their vodka and wondered what would happen if a two-ounce shot joined with Morgan's ginger beer and the squeeze of a lime. Ice was ordered, limes procured, mugs ushered in and the concoction put together. Cups were raised, the men counted five and down went the first taste. It was good. It lifted the spirit to adventure. Four or five later the mixture was christened the Moscow Mule...

Moscow Mule

1 part vodka
1 part lime
3 parts ginger beer

Mix everything together and serve on the rocks. Typically served in a copper mug but lets be honest any serving vessel will do. Garnish with lime wheel and you can use a mint sprig if you're feeling frisky.

03/29/2011

This is a great poem.

"If, as they say, God spanked this town
For being much too frisky,
Why did he burn his churches down
And save Hotaling's Whiskey ?"

— Poem about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire, in which the city's largest whiskey distillery was left unscathed.

03/27/2011

03/23/2011

Today we have the Hot Toddy.

The Hot Toddy is old. Thought to be created sometime in the 1700s in Scotland, they say it made the taste of smoky peaty scotch more palatable to women. Some believe the Hot Toddy got it's name was from Allan Ramsay's 1721 poem, The Morning Interview. Ramsay mentions getting water from the water supply for Edinburgh called the Todian spring for the tea parties. The recipe itself is quite loosely defined. It requires a spirit, a sweetener and a warm base. One of the most common toddies is honey, lemon, hot water and brandy. Not only is it tasty but back in the day it was thought to have medicinal value. Good luck getting a Hot Toddy prescription though...



To make a traditional hot toddy:
Cut a lemon into eighths.
Take half of the lemon and muddle it into a coffee cup
Add two ounces of high-quality honey
Add two ounces of your choice of spirit
Add four ounces hot water
Stir until all of the ingredients are well blended.

*for a little extra depth add
-cinnamon stick
-clove
-star anise

03/17/2011

Today's cocktail is called the Blenheim C**ktail. AKA 4 score and 10.

The Blenheim cocktail was created by Joe Gilmore. Joe was the longest running head barmen (55-76) at the Savoy Hotel's American Bar. He created the Blenheim C**ktail in honour of Sir Winston Churchill's nineteenth birthday (1964). In his prime, Mr. Churchill would consume massive amounts of brandy and champagne, he had good taste. He was said to have consumed the majority of his liquor during meals, which may have accounted for his ability to remain relitively sober and in "business mode". Although he was considered a patriot, he refused to go along with King George V’s personal avoidance of alcohol (trying to set an example for the troops), declaring the idea to be “absurd”, and we agree!

Blenheim C**ktail
•3 parts brandy
•2 parts Yellow Chartreuse
•1 part Lillet
•1 part orange juice
•1 part Dubonnet

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

03/09/2011

Today it's the Martinez. AKA "One of the first"

The Martinez has a hazy origin. Some say it was created by "Professor" Jerry Thomas himelf sometime around 1862. Apparently a gold miner was the recipient of this creation one fine day at Jerry T's bar in San Francisco while he was on his way to the town of Martinez. Another interesting fact is that they say the popular Martini (that we all know and love) stemmed from this Martinez. Like everything in life, evolvolution is present here, and they figure that the ratios and ingredients from the Martinez simply morphed into those of the much simpler Martini. Either way, both have become something special.

Original Martinez

1 dash of orange bitters
2 dashes of maraschino
1 oz of Old Tom gin
2 oz Italian sweet vermouth

Pour ingredients into a mixing glass with lots of ice. Shake, fine strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

03/05/2011

Today we have the Brandy Crusta. AKA "the Missing Link"

The Brandy Crusta was created by Joseph Santini sometime around 1850. Drinks like the Margarita, the Side Car, and the ever popular Cosmopolitan need to bow down and respect their forefather, the Crusta. Prior to Santini's crusta, a "cocktail" typically consisted of sugar, water, bitters and some type of spirit. Santini changed up the typical formula by adding an acid, a sweet spirit, and a weak spirit. Oh and the "Crusta" part comes from the crust of sugar rimmed on the glass!

Brandy Crusta (Jerry's Version 1887)
2 oz brandy
1 bar-spoon sugar syrup
1 bar-spoon lemon juice
½ bar-spoon Cointreau
2 dashes aromatic bitters

Brandy Crusta (Savoy Version 1930)
1 ½ oz 1 ½ oz brandy
½ oz / ½ oz Cointreau
1 ½ bar-spoons lemon juice
1 bar-spoon Maraschino
1 dash aromatic bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine strain in to a sugar-rimmed wine glass. Garnish with a large strip of lemon peel looped around the top of the glass. Try to get the lemon to stay in place and act as a second rim.

"A Crusta is a particular little breed of drink which seems to require two things to make it legitimate: a frosted wine glass and the entire peel of a lemon or orange fitted into the glass."
— From Trader Vic’ Bartender’s Guide, by Victor Jules Bergeron (1947)