The Old Man

It’s been a while since I posted and I thought it was high time I did.  As this weekend is World Gin Day and, is a week before, Father’s Day; it seemed right to create a cocktail using gin and call it The Old Man.  So I did.

I might also subtitle this one A Tale of Two Gins because it requires two very different gins to get the effect.  [Writing that reminds me that earlier in the year, around the time the latest 007 movie was released, there was an excellent article entitled How to Make The Perfect Martini published in the Guardian.  I enjoyed the article, but, as a frequent martini drinker and all round gin-fan, I was stunned by the Dog that Didn’t Bark* in this particular article: at no point does the author discuss which gin - and as gin is by far the majority ingredient in any proper martini that seemed like quite an omission to me.]

Anyway, back to The Old Man:

• 50ml Audemus Pink Pepper Gin
• 50ml Pinksters Gin
• 2ml Chase Elderflower Liqueur 
• A sprig of fresh elderflowers to garnish

Shake over ice, pour into a frozen cocktail glass and garnish with the fresh elderflower - pink in this case to go with the theme - it comes from the purple leaved cultivar but the ordinary kind will give you the same lovely musky aroma over the drink.

Drink, enjoy and remember your Dad.

_____________________________
* A reference to the scene in the Sherlock Holmes story Silver Blase by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in which this exchange takes place:

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."

Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

In this context, used to indicate something important for its absence.

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Vanilla: the universal ingredient

Prosecco upgraded with Vanilla Cognac
Pell Wall style

Vanilla is one of the most useful ingredients in cooking, cocktails and perfumery.  Its story is quite well known, so I’m only going to touch on some of the less well-known aspects here.  My main purpose is to give details of a fine drink and a tincture that are easy to make at home.

So, first up, the drink: once upon a time, when I had more money and less sense I conducted a research project into the Champagne Cocktail - a hedonist’s research project rather than an academic one - I tried variations on the Champagne cocktail in every bar I could find that served one to try out the differences.  Much was learned and more was drunk ... including me from time to time.

Vanilla Cognac

Filtering the cognac
(while drinking coffee)

One of the things I discovered was a variation called the Vanilla Classic - sadly now both the bar where I found it and the key ingredient are gone.  That ingredient was Navan - a fantastic vanilla Cognac made by the same people who produce Grand Marnier.

So why am I telling you about a drink you can’t buy? Well, it inspired me to have a go at my own and I’d like to share the process with you:

Take one bottle of good (XO ideally) supermarket cognac and put in two pods of Ugandan Vanilla - leave it where you'll remember to shake it now and then for about four months.  Take out the pods, filter the cognac but reserve the pods (you’ll see why in a bit).

Almost done

Your Cognac should now be a beautiful mahogany colour and filled with complex vanilla flavours as well as all the richness of the fine brandy itself.  You can drink it just as it is, add sugar to make something that more closely resembles Navan but I think it works fantastically used to upgrade a glass of Prosecco - which has enough sweetness of its own to sustain the extra alcohol - drink and enjoy!

Vanilla Tincture

Don’t waste the beans after you’ve
made the vanilla cognac

Now back to those pods: it seems a shame to let them go to waste and one of the lesser-known facts about vanilla is that in perfumery the absolute (see this post for a definition of absolutes and other extracts) is normally used but it isn’t easy to work with, so for the small-scale perfumer a tincture is an alternative.

Here’s my technique for a tincture that’s a bit out of the ordinary:

Let the pods from your cognac-making dry out then chop them up, along with another fresh pod or two, weigh them all together and put the whole lot into nine times the weight of perfumers alcohol (so as to create a 10% Tincture), adding a shot or two of the cognac to the blend (I used about 50g).  Just as with the cognac, wait for at least four months shaking whenever you think of it but at least every few days.

Result: vanilla cognac you can drink plus a vanilla tincture that you can use in perfume making at about 7 times the quantity you would the pure absolute.  The cognac in the tincture gives it an extra complexity and also encourages more flavour out of the pods due to the water content - unlike many materials vanilla tinctures better in a lower strength alcohol 

Resist the temptation to drink the tincture though ...

Blood & Soil: a cocktail

And now for something completely different:

It’s an experiment I've been meaning to do for a while: a martini-style drink using a cocktail beetroot as garnish.  I wanted the liquid to be essentially clear, so that as you drink it, you could see the colour bleeding out of the beetroot.  At the same time the ingredients have to work with the earthy, sweet quality of the garnish, so that they fit together as a whole.

Here’s what I came up with:

Blood and Soil
A Cocktail for the Adventurous

First prepare the glass with half a very small baby beetroot, speared on a cocktail stick and placed so that the cut edge rests against the glass (for the sake of the photograph I used a glass at room temperature, but otherwise I’d prefer a frozen glass). It’s important that the beetroot hasn’t been marinated in loads of vinegar: either plain cooked or with minimal dressing - here I’ve used Waitrose lime zest infused baby beetroot.

To a shaker with 4 cubes of ice add:

• 2 shots of Chase Smoked Vodka
• 2 shots of Ophir gin
• 1/4 bar spoon of Yellow Chartreuse

Shake until thoroughly chilled, pour very gently into the glass and serve.

The picture here was taken about a minute after the pour and as you can see the root is already producing layers and swirls of colour.  By the time the cocktail was half consumed it was a uniform dark pink, at which point I ate the garnish: the whole thing worked very well and would make a great party talking point.

The smoked vodka compliments the spicy Ophir gin perfectly to give an earthy, almost savoury drink, while the small touch of Chartreuse is enough to add a herbal complexity and take the edge off the dryness: a good match with the sweetness of the beetroot.

The Walking Dead

Just for fun, in honour of Hallowe’en I’m presenting a recipe for a variation of my Goth Martini, especially designed to bring a little horror into your evening celebrations (and will certainly horrify any tee-totalers in the party):

To make this one you need:

• Half a shot of Hapsburg Black Absinthe - if you’re feeling brave you could put a full shot in but as this stuff is 79% alcohol proceed with caution!
• 1 shot of Eristoff Black (a sweetish vodka based spirit flavoured with black berries)
• 4 shots of Blavod Vodka (unflavoured and actually a very dark green in colour on it’s own)

Shake over ice until a frost forms (Zombies are dead cold after all).  The combination makes a deep-black colour and is strong enough to wake the dead.

If you wanted you could add a black olive as a garnish, but personally I think it works better without.

Naturally the most sophisticated amongst you will want to drink this while wearing Artemis, the absinthe based fragrance from Pell Wall ;-)

Cheers!

Hereford Martini

In honour of World Gin Day 2012 I’ve decided to publish the recipe (formula if you are a perfume person) for a rather wonderful variation of the classic Martini.  Here for your delectation is The Hereford

The Hereford Martini

To make The Hereford you will need:

• One quarter of a Lime
• Four Measures of Williams Elegant Gin
• Half Measure of Chase Elderflower Liqueur
• One teaspoonful of Green Chartreuse
• Plenty of Ice
• One frozen Martini glass
• Either a shaker or stirring glass

The key to this is the very fine Williams Elegant Gin - it’s 48% alcohol so I think you can afford to shake this martini, even if you normally prefer yours stirred (and therefore a little stronger) and I think the mix benefits from the extra air that will put in.  Martini people have strong views on shaking or stirring though, so do whichever you prefer.

Either way, start by adding the Elderflower (Chase is the same Herefordshire company who make Williams Gin, hence this is a Hereford . . .) to the ice.  Then a teaspoonful of Green Chartreuse (55% alc so you are not diluting the gin, but don’t add too much or it will be too sweet).

Finally pour in the four measures of Williams Gin and stir or shake.

Split the lime quarter in half and squeeze one half into the mix and re-shake, position the other half on your frozen Martini glass as a garnish and pour your drink.

Naturally, in ideal circumstances, you should drink this while wearing Gin & Lime by Pell Wall Perfumes, but only a select few will be lucky enough to have both the finest Gin and the perfect fragrance to go with it!