Bangkok Special
Bangkok Special
2 oz. 10 Cane Rum
3/4 oz. ginger beer
1/2 tsp honey
2 sprigs of mint
2 drops Sriracha
Combine all ingredients and shake. Serve on the rocks, garnished with more mint.
Niagara Wine
Niagara Wine
1 1/2 oz. Hennessy Cognac
1/4 oz. Luxardo maraschino
1 tsp Welch’s white grape/peach juice
1 dash Scrappy’s cardamom bitters
Stir. Serve chilled but neat.
A response to the Welch’s white grape/peach juice ingredient challenge, and a reminder that a very little bit of fruit juice is all you need in a cocktail. Substituting straight peach or white grape juice, or something similar, like white cranberry juice, should work just as well.
One more thing this drink reminds us is that Scrappy’s cardamom bitters go with everything. (Find them here: http://scrappysbitters.com/cardamon/)
Outre-Mer
Outre-Mer
6 parts Rhum Barbancourt
1 part Kassatly Ajyal tamarind syrup
1/2 part Grand Marnier
Stir briskly to keep the syrup from settling. Serve neat.
My neighbor got his hands on some tamarind syrup, and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. “Here, Cocktail Guy,” he said, “You figure it out.” Thus was born the tamarind ingredient challenge, and consequently the Outre-Mer.
I christened it after the French name for their lingering colonial outposts (the name means, “Overseas”), because the ingredients are French, Haitian, and Lebanese. Other dark rums will also work, but there’s a rich smokiness to the Barbancourt that makes the whole combination taste more exotic.
An addition I came up with later was a single dash of Scrappy’s cardamom bitters (available here: http://scrappysbitters.com/cardamon/), which I’ve found to blend nicely with any individual spirit and more liqueurs than you’d think. This is a perfect milieu for them.