If there’s one thing I hate about living in the Pacific Northwest, it’s the stretch of time from late October until late June, when the sun makes only the most occasional of appearances. I typically pack on an extra 10-15 pounds during those rainy months, party due to over-consumption of wintertime drinks like dark beer, egg nog, hot-buttered-anything and wassail. I wanted a drink for the winter that I could add to my cocktail menu that was more like the light, café-style cocktails I typically gravitate to during the summer.
Jerry Thomas prescribed a drink called “sangaree” that, to the best of our knowledge was a colonial adaptation of the Spanish “sangria”. The recipe, which calls for anywhere from 1½ to 4 ounces of port, Madeira, gin or brandy dolled up with sugar and dusted with nutmeg in a glass sounded less than exciting to me, but the challenge of updating this old chestnut sounded like a fun January task.
We began with ruby and tawny ports but found both way too sweet. White port got us much closer to our target, but it wasn’t until a healthy dose of dry vermouth was applied that we knew we were on to something. To provide additional depth and hint at the drink’s colonial origins we sweetened with a maple-nutmeg syrup and finished the whole thing off with a teaspoon of allspice liqueur and orange oil.
The Dry Vermouth Sangaree
3 oz dry vermouth
½ oz maple-nutmeg syrup*
1 tsp St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1 large strip orange peel
Shake everything – yes, even the orange peel – with ice until well-chilled and strain into a cold cocktail glass. Garnish with a fresh strip of orange peel.
*To make maple-nutmeg syrup, combine 8 ounces each of Grade B maple syrup and water, and 1 tbsp freshly-grated nutmeg. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Let cool, strain out solids, bottle and chill.
My problem with homemade tonic water has always been a flavor profile that was too esoteric for the general audience. This recipe takes some of the positive qualities people have come to understand from commercial tonic water and updated them with fresh ingredients.
One question I'm often asked is "Do you have any drink-related book recommendations?" Well, funny you should ask, I've compiled a list of the ten books every professional bartender or home mixologist should own. I keep every one of these close at hand and have read most of them several times. I suggest you do the same.
The problem with living in Oregon is the absence of little wooden shacks by the sea that sell cases of fresh ginger beer stacked on back porches. But with some readily-available ingredients, a recipe I've been revising for several years - and a few free minutes - I can easily transport myself to a little fishing boat on the ocean as I sip a Dark and Stormy made with fresh, house-made ginger beer.
It's always mojito season somewhere, so this advice is timely in your area about half the year. Wether you're making them or simply enjoying them, this advice will help you look like a pro in no time at all.
The flavors of the Richmond Gimlet are imbued with sunshine. Fresh mint mingling with the herbaceousness of gin and the tartness of lime have made this drink a Eugene classic for many years now.
You'll get a lot of snarky advice on this site about how to make a proper drink, but if you ever need to know what not to do, this is the video for you.
Not to be confused with the Spanish wine-and-fruit-based alcoholic beverage sangria, sangrita (meaning "little blood") is a traditional accompaniment to a tequila served completo; a non-alcoholic sipper that cleanses the palate between fiery doses of agave.
The world of booze can be mystifying to people that don't work in bars or around alcohol all the time. I hear a lot of assumptions about the industry I'm in that are - much like 90% of what you hear in bars - completely false. Here are a few you've probably heard yourself.
The debate rages on: Should we try to look cool and crack open the Boston shaker or be tidy professionals and use the Hawthorne strainer the way God intended? Be sure to leave your two cents in the comments section.
The traditional garnish for a Pisco Sour is a couple of drops of bitters in the foam, but I've never been particularly impressed with the way these few paltry drops of bitters sat in their little egg-white mattress and didn't play along with the rest of the drink. I envisioned a Pisco Sour with a uniformly-distributed bitters-scorched foam: slightly crisp as the fire burnt the sugars, and slightly warm as the foam insulated the rest of the frosty cocktail from the heat. A pisco creme brulée in a glass!
I get so many visitors looking for tips on how to write a bartending resume that I thought I should finally post a tutorial on how to write your own. Click the headline to read more.
I always love showing up to a party with a gallon jug of pre-mixed margaritas, so I've decided to share my recipe. This margarita recipe is the perfect blend of strong, sweet, and sour. But be warned: this recipe packs a serious punch.
There isn't much I can say about this video that hasn't been said already. If you've read anything I've written about cocktails, you'll understand why this video symbolizes everything wrong with the state of bartending in America today. Watch and learn, but be warned: this one isn't for the feint of heart.
My name is Jeff Morgenthaler and I'm the head bartender at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.
I've been tending bar since 1996 and writing about it since 2004. Mixing drinks has become something of a passion for me in recent years, and I strive to elevate the experience of having a drink from something mundane to something more culinary.
The writing I do here is intended as a work in progress. My recipes are like my opinions: they are constantly being revised and refined as I work them through my mind and my fingers. Comments and participation are encouraged, so please don't feel the need to tread lightly here.
There’s a reason why this isn’t called “Complicated Syrup”. If you can boil water, you’re on your way to making drinks like a pro.
Anyway, here’s how we do it, so you can make these drinks at home.
1 pound (2 cups) granulated cane sugar
2 cups boiling waterStir together until clear. Let cool and pour into a clean bottle with a pour spout.
That’s it! Have fun.
I absolutely hate it when someone sends me a box full of sex toys in the mail. Sure, it might sound like fun to some of you (you know who you are), but receiving a big box of free sex is much more trouble than it’s worth. Believe me. So I get a [...]
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21 Sep 2007 at 2:55 pm 1. Pat Teel
omg… These are the bomb!
21 Sep 2007 at 3:50 pm 2. Jeffrey
Gee, Pat, thanks! I’ve never seen someone get so enthusiastic over simple syrup, but your excitement is certainly a boost for the old ego.
25 Apr 2008 at 1:26 pm 3. Heather m
What’s the best way to store simple syrup?
28 Apr 2008 at 8:56 am 4. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Keep your simple syrup in the fridge, Heather.
If you’re not planning on using it for non-alcoholic drinks intended for children, you can add a tiny splash of vodka to keep it from spoiling.
08 May 2008 at 9:52 am 5. Hunter
Jeff,
I’m going to make non-alcoholic versions of drinks and stumbled upon your simple syrup recipe above. You mention storage in the fridge of the simple syrup but not how long you can store a batch. I don’t plan on making gallons of it obviously but curious as to a rule of thumb…
12 May 2008 at 6:53 am 6. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Hunter
I’m not exactly sure how long simple syrup will stick around, it doesn’t last long at my work. At home, I make very small batches that I know will be gone in less than a week.
My guess would be that you won’t want to keep it around for much longer than a week.
Jeffrey
25 Jul 2008 at 7:12 pm 7. kaby
thanks – i love your advice -and can’t wait to start mixing drinks – especially the Mojito – kaby
24 Dec 2008 at 5:08 pm 8. zeph
Actually, simple syrup seems likely to last indefinitely in the fridge. Concentrated sugars will kill most “bugs”. Jams and jellies were invented as ways to preserve fruit in sugar.
31 Dec 2008 at 7:42 am 9. Pa C
The info for storage for simple super was very helpful. What’s your opinion on flavoring it? perhaps with lemon?
31 Dec 2008 at 7:46 am 10. Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Zeph – Yeah, you’re wrong on this one. Whip up a batch and leave it in your fridge until you see black spots on the surface and you’ll see what I mean.
Pa C – No, use lemon to flavor your drinks, not your simple. If you’re hell-bent on making a flavored simple syrup, use herbs, roots, spices, things like that. Think vanilla bean, think lavender, think cinnamon.
31 Jan 2009 at 9:36 am 11. Anj
I really love my mojitos with a super-spearmint kick, and sometimes I have trouble finding really potent leaves at the stores around here in the winter. So when I make my batch of simple syrup for winter mojitos (I know, I’m weird.) I throw in a few sprigs of spearmint after I turn off the heat and let it cool. After cooling, I strain it and follow the recipe as usual. Yum!
04 Apr 2009 at 12:14 am 12. Coby
Here’s an idea for those worried about storing their simple syrup. Mix 1 part syrup to 3 parts water and use it to re-fill your hummingbird feeder. Way cheaper than store bought but the birds don’t seem to mind. Obviously if you used vodka as a preservative, this isn’t for you. Great site, every recipe I’ve tried is a keeper!
04 Apr 2009 at 7:21 pm 13. eric in mpls
can other types of sugars be used as a substitute, ie. unrefined cane sugar, or maybe other non-fructose type sugars? thanks!
13 Apr 2009 at 10:57 am 14. Pat Teel
Hey Jeff… I was referring to the R. Gimlet, not simple syrup. Guess I don’t know my way around your site yet. Good luck in Ptown. I’m in the process of moving up here as well.
08 Jul 2009 at 10:51 pm 15. Matt
Hello. What exactly is granulated cane sugar? Is it widely available?
Cheers.
13 Jul 2009 at 9:20 am 16. neyshan
Hi Matt,
Its also known as white sugar. You can get it just about anywhere.
13 Jul 2009 at 10:54 pm 17. Jazzy
Thank you for this, I plan on utilizing it the next time I get into a bind.
15 Aug 2009 at 11:01 am 18. Mark
Re sugar, preserving, and storage:
I think this is a case of both Jeff and Zeph being “right”:
Here’s the deal: if you put sugar in boiling water and let it go for a while, you –will– sterilize it. If you put it in a –sterilized– (not just clean, but kill the little critters) bottle, there won’t be any little critters in there and it should last for quite some time.
You might introduce a few microbes by opening and pouring, but I think the kicker is putting it into a sterilized bottle. Jams and jellies definitely go into sterilized containers. Either use a glass container and boil it or, perhaps, use some homebrew sanitizers.
Best,
Mark