Tag: seltzer

The Southside Fizz

MxM: MintThis one from Lucius Beebe’s Stork Club Bar Book of 1946. He includes it in the “Morning at the Stork Club” chapter, but there’s no reason to restrict its service to the hours before noon. The Southside Fizz is really just a pleasant, minty lemonade — unless you’re employing a particularly potent gin, it goes almost unnoticed — suitable whenever a refreshing long drink is indicated.

1 1/2 oz. Gin
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 sprigs mint
1 tsp. sugar

Shake well, strain into a highball glass and fill with seltzer.
Decorate with a sprig of mint, and a cherry if you’re feeling saucy.
—

The quantity of mint should be adjusted depending on the potency of your particular strain of leaf. Two may well be too little. Flakes of leaf will be broken off by the ice when shaking … for the clearest drink, and one which won’t leave unsightly vegetable matter clinging to your guests’ teeth, you may wish to strain through a mesh sieve.

The Pie Slinger

Here’s a random Sunday afternoon concoction. Not so different from an Applejack Sling, it turns out, but richer and more tannic. Almost tea-like.

2 oz. Laird’s applejack
1 oz. Meyer lemon juice
3/4 oz. Tuaca
3/4 oz. pimento dram
2 dashes Fee’s Old Fashioned Bitters

Shake well with cracked ice, strain into highball glass of crushed ice, top with a few squirts of seltzer
—

I’ve had some homemade pimento dram on hand for several months now, but haven’t really put it to much complicated use. It’s delicious just splashed into a rocks glass filled with ice and the brown spirit of your choice, which is how I’ve been been working my way through it to date. Do yourself a favor and make some, if you haven’t already… you can’t buy the stuff in the States these days, and it’s a unique addition anytime you’re in the mood for some tropical spice. There’s a boatload of sugar in it as well, which allows pimento dram to serve as a grenadine or simple syrup would, while delivering its allspice punch.

At any rate, a sunny(ish) April afternoon begged for a long(ish) drink of some sort. I was thinking of a Brandy Presbyterian — one of Dad’s favorites — when the unlabeled bottle of pimento dram caught my eye and begged to be included. As someone who’s baked more than his share of apple pies, this was a drink I couldn’t help but concoct. There are countless recipes said to approximate the flavor of hot apple pie — this one’s more like a nice slab of cold apple pie straight from the icebox: fruity, sour, tannic and spicy. It’s a very quaffable cooler.

Give Me Seltzer

podcast iconToday’s thirst-slaking podcast of note is Give Me Seltzer [iTunes], from Brooklynite Barry Joseph, The Effervescent Jew.

Barry’s mad for seltzer in a way that I think only New Yorkers can be, and is in the process of penning its definitive history. The podcasts don’t reveal much about the forthcoming book’s contents, but he’s managed to produce nine entertaining seltzer-centric episodes to date — largely man-on-the-street interviews — in a This American Life mode. So far there’s been no real mention of seltzer in cocktails, sadly — Barry’s favorite seltzer-based beverage is an Egg Cream from Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop — but I’m sure he’ll get around to it some day. After all, the seltzer bottle is one of the most iconic and evocative pieces of bar equipment there is, on par with the martini glass and cobbler shaker. Better yet, it has shiny moving parts and valves and O-rings and CO2 cylinders and whatnot. I myself have ten eleven of the things (looks like I just won another in an eBay auction), for the sheer love of their form.

If you check out the Give Me Seltzer podcasts, do yourself a favor and start with episode #1 … they build on each other, and the most recent won’t be nearly as interesting if you’ve not heard what’s gone before.

Lapsang Souchong Vodka

Saturday, 4:56 PM: I’ve just dropped a teabag of Lapsang Souchong (from Numi Teas) into in a mason jar with 1 cup of Monopolwa vodka. I’m giving it 24 hours to become delicious. Watch this space.

Saturday, 10:56 PM: 6 hours later, the vodka is darkly colored and smoky smelling. (It’s also rather vodka-smelling, unfortunately … pity the tea doesn’t mask that.) The vodka’s at room temperature, which doesn’t make for easy drinking, but it definitely has a nice, solid Lapsang Souchongy flavor. I’m not sure how much longer I want to leave the tea in … if left much longer the tannins may start coming to the fore.

Saturday, 11:50 PM: Since Lapsang Souchong is often drunk with milk and sugar, this seemed a reasonable test:

1 1/2 oz. Lapsang Souchong infused vodka (~7 hour infusion)
1/2 oz. half and half
1 egg white
1 tsp. powdered sugar

shaken with ice and strained
—

Rather good, if I do say so myself, though a bit on the creamy side. I didn’t make a fizz of it since I wanted the vodka at full strength, but the briefest shot from a seltzer bottle would probably serve this drink well. Very much like a cup of tea it was, albeit due to ratios it had more the mouthfeel of Bailey’s.

I’ll let the remainder continue to steep overnight, but so far I’m satisfied that a 6 hour infusion is sufficient to make a very nice smoked tea vodka.

Sunday, 1:30 PM: 20 hours, and I’m not sure that there’s been an appreciable change since last night. Mixed the test cocktail above, sans egg white, and it was again just fine. As prepared, with cream and sugar, seemed very like something made with creme de cacao, albeit smokier and more complex. Not that I use creme de cacao very often, but appropriately sweetened (and potentially diluted), the Lapsang Souchong infusion could easily replace it to significant advantage.