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.
About Me
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.
I’ve been playing with making my own bitters lately. I love bitters and have a small collection of them in my liquor cabinet, from Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters, to Fee Brothers’ Mint Bitters. After reading this article online about making grapefruit bitters, I decided to try it, with my own variations.
We’ve been using these at work, in everything from Pegus and Negronis to Manhattans, and in our new favorite, the Santa Carla. Give it a shot and tell me what you think.
1 fifth grain alcohol
3 grapefruits, peeled with a channel knife
1 lemon, peeled with a channel knife
1 tbsp. powdered gentian root
1 tbsp. minced ginger
1 tbsp. dried mint
1 tbsp whole cloves
Steep this mixture overnight, and add:
4 oz grapefruit juice
4 oz water
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. almond extract
¼ tsp. coconut extract
Strain the whole mixture through cheesecloth or coffee filters until clear. In a large sauté pan, melt 6 oz (by volume) cane sugar until lightly caramelized. Add 6 oz water and stir until syrup is smooth and clear. Add to alcohol mixture (away from the heat!) and bottle.
Comments
4 Responses to “Grapefruit Bitters”
20 May 2007 at 1:10 pm 1. your little sister
hey baby where’s my bottle?!
22 Nov 2008 at 1:06 pm 2. tatsu
Hi, I was hoping to get your opinion on an idea I’ve got.
Do you think it would be possible to make bitters by creating everclear infusions of key ingredients and then mixing them in small quantities to make it easier/faster to taste test what the outcome will be like? I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to experiment that doesn’t take years and leave me with gallons of bitters that I decide I don’t care for. Also, I have a difficult time determining what the impact of adding certain ingredients will be.
Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thanks!
17 Dec 2009 at 10:01 pm 3. Hunter
Not knowing what a channel knife was I went and read your article on the subject. But now that I know I’m left with additional questions…
After I peel the grapefruits/lemon, am I supposed to put just the fruit in? Just the twists? Both? Is it really important to use the channel knife, or can I just peel them with my hands and chop the peels up? If the fruit is going in, am I supposed to slice and/or crush them? Or should they be steeped whole?
20 Dec 2009 at 5:21 pm 4. Hunter
Hmm. Now I have another, unrelated question. I have gentian root extract rather than powder. Anybody know how much of that would be equivalent to 1/4 tbs powdered?
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20 May 2007 at 1:10 pm 1. your little sister
hey baby where’s my bottle?!
22 Nov 2008 at 1:06 pm 2. tatsu
Hi, I was hoping to get your opinion on an idea I’ve got.
Do you think it would be possible to make bitters by creating everclear infusions of key ingredients and then mixing them in small quantities to make it easier/faster to taste test what the outcome will be like? I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to experiment that doesn’t take years and leave me with gallons of bitters that I decide I don’t care for. Also, I have a difficult time determining what the impact of adding certain ingredients will be.
Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thanks!
17 Dec 2009 at 10:01 pm 3. Hunter
Not knowing what a channel knife was I went and read your article on the subject. But now that I know I’m left with additional questions…
After I peel the grapefruits/lemon, am I supposed to put just the fruit in? Just the twists? Both? Is it really important to use the channel knife, or can I just peel them with my hands and chop the peels up? If the fruit is going in, am I supposed to slice and/or crush them? Or should they be steeped whole?
20 Dec 2009 at 5:21 pm 4. Hunter
Hmm. Now I have another, unrelated question. I have gentian root extract rather than powder. Anybody know how much of that would be equivalent to 1/4 tbs powdered?