Fifteen: Mystère

Once upon a time, Cognac was the drink of choice for the higher orders of society and the undisputed leader among spirits, but that was before phylloxera decimated French wine production allowing whiskies and rums to come to prominence, and before the British government started to promote gin over imports from a country it frequently warred with. Cognac has heritage and tradition in spades which adds to the aura of luxury around the category, but it can also make the spirit seem fussy and impenetrable. Which is shame, because that previous dominance is based on the quality of the product rather than mere terroir or aging.

So, I made a conscious choice to make something with a Cognac base which isn't something I do that often. Vermouth seemed like a no-brainer, wine-based modifier with a grape-based spirit. Keeping the complementary theme, I used some Mandarine Napoleon - a brandy-based liqueur not unlike Grand Marnier, only Belgian and more mandarine-y.

Mystère

30ml Courvoisier VS
30ml Mandarine Napoleon
15ml Dubonnet Rouge
1 lemon zest

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled brandy glass.

Fourteen: Scotch Fusion

We're going to try something a bit new this week: a brief trip into a confused mind.

The thought goes something like this: we know that the action of shaking with ice affects the liquid in the shaker in a couple of noticeable ways:

• it chills the contents, courtesy of the ice
• it adds dilution to the contents, again thanks to the ice
• the motion thoroughly mixes the liquids within
• it aerates the contents by trapping small bubbles of air within the mixture

The first three effects are also observed with stirred and built drinks, but the fourth is unique to shaken drinks. The first three effects can also be observed in warmed or hot cocktails through the addition of boiling water - a Blue Blazer, for example. Continuing the original thought, would it be possible to create a hot cocktail that is aerated by shaking?

Unfortunately, while ice has the handy properties of reducing temperature while also adding solid matter to aid the physical motion of shaking, there isn't an easy alternative for increasing temperature while adding solid matter. Hot coals, possibly, but I didn't have any handy and there's a possibility of the final drink tasting all carbony. At any rate, I decided to try the same recipe twice - one cold, one hot. Just to see if it's possible.

Cold

25ml Johnnie Walker Black Label
25ml Drambuie
25ml espresso
5ml sugar syrup

Shake with ice and fine-strain into a chilled brandy glass. No garnish.

*** 

The cold version turned out much as expected - a rounded, Scotch twist on an Espresso Martini. For the hot version, I opted to add 40ml of boiling water to add the dilution that would normally come from the ice, and popped the spring from a Hawthorne strainer into the tin as well.

Hot

25ml Johnnie Walker Black Label
25ml Drambuie
25ml espresso
5ml sugar syrup
40ml boiling water

Dry-shake with the spring from a Hawthorne strainer, and strain into a warmed brandy glass. No garnish.

*** 

The hot version turned out, well, weird. It looked the same as the cold one, but the crema formed by shaking the espresso quickly disappeared. The other notable difference was the temperature - it came out of the shaker more towards lukewarm and didn't retain what heat it had for long either. The dissipation of the crema can - I think - be attributed to the difference in temperature (colder temperatures encourage molecules to stay closer together, if my memory of high school chemistry serves) but I think there are steps I could take to preserve a higher temperature - perhaps using a vacuum flask rather than a regular Boston shaker and heating the ingredients beforehand.

There's something here, maybe. Maybe not; but even at a slightly disappointing temperature, the hot version had both striking similarities and dramatic differences to its cold brother. Returning finally to the thought that started this whole diversion, can you create a hot cocktail that is aerated by shaking?

Almost.

Thirteen: Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici is remembered as a patron of the arts and as a key figure in the Renaissance. His contribution to the world of spirits isn't as well known. The story goes that a brandy-based liqueur was created in his honour. And that's about it. Sorry.

The Medici link makes for good copy in a press release, but the major development came in 1938 when two brothers-in-law started producing a version of that same liqueur in Livorno, Italy. These days it's called Tuaca and thanks to American soldiers encountering it during World War 2, it's gained international exposure.

That exposure spreads as far as Britain, where Tuaca has an interesting link with the town of Brighton. In Brighton, Tuaca's become a verb.

To go out in Brighton UK and drink a ridiculous amount of Tuaca, get extremely wasted on it and do crazy things you normally wouldn't and don't remember (usually of a sexual nature!) Tuaca-ed, The Urban Dictionary

What's even more remarkable about Brighton's taste for Tuaca is that it's more or less entirely the work of just two people - Sammy Berry and Poul Jensen.

Poul said: "In 1998 the only place you could get Tuaca was in the St James Tavern. Within a year it was in about 30 pubs. Now you can buy it in 95 per cent of bars, pubs and clubs.

"Local off-licences called us up because people kept coming in and asking for it. They would turn on their heel when they found it wasn't there."

It's an amazing story. Since 2006, Tuaca has been sold and distributed in the UK by Bacardi Brown-Forman, who took on Sammy and Poul as brand ambassadors for it, and recently gained one of the greatest accolades available to spirits and liqueurs - its own Thursday Drinks Night at the Mixoloseum.

Medici

45ml Tuaca
15ml Crème de Mûre
15ml Punt E Mes
Lemon zest
Orange zest

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist.

Twelve: Kitchen Special No. 1

Being honest, I'm pretty cocktailed out at the moment. We're just put the finishing touches to a new drinks menu at work - featuring some of the drinks I've posted here - and I've been making the most of not thinking about combinations of spirits and liqueurs. That said, there are still times when I do want something a little more exciting than a beer or spirit/mixer. The problem here is that I'm genuinely awful at keeping my kitchen stocked. I'd save a pile of money if I actually planned meals rather than getting takeaways or eating at work. So, using whatever I had lying around the kitchen...

Kitchen Special No. 1

45ml Amsterdamsche Oude Genever
15ml Punt E Mes
15ml Elderflower Cordial
1 dash egg white

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon zest if you've remembered to go shopping this week.

Eleven: Spring Orchard

We've just finished putting together a new cocktail program for the Paris bar at work and everytime we take on this kind of exercise, there's a point when someone says "we need x cocktails with this spirit in them," because we're only ever going to have y drinks ready, and y is always a number less than x. But, that thing they say about necessity? It's true. This drink also ended up being a chance to use Galliano. It's one of the those bottles that seems to be on almost every backbar without seeing a lot of use, and it's one that always prompts curiosity whenever I pick it up. The overriding flavour is vanilla, but there are also hints of anise and citrus which makes it an interesting alternative to vanilla-flavoured vodkas.

Spring Orchard

1/8th green apple (muddled)
25ml vodka
12.5ml Galliano
25ml red grape juice
12.5ml lime juice
1 barspoon elderflower cordial

Muddle apple in the base of a shaker. Add the liquids and shake. Fine-strain into a chilled champagne flute and garnish with an apple slice on the rim.