Posts Tagged Cocktails

It’s not necessary to clog a glass of brandy with egg nog to enjoy a festive cocktail. Many seasonal recipes lean toward the hot and heavy (buttered rum, anyone?), but something zesty and light can make a much better drink for pairing with rich party food. Oddly enough, the beautiful Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary provides some help.

Perhaps best known in America as the location of the Grandhotel Pupp, where Queen Latifah stayed in the film Last Holiday, Karlovy Vary is the home of Becherovka, a 76-proof spirit brewed with, of course, a secret blend of herbs and spices. According to the Becherovka website, only two people in the world know the formula. Presumably they travel on different airplanes.

This rather bitter liquor might be placed in the same category as vile Jägermeister, but I find Becherovka much more complex and palatable. Although many consume Becherovka neat or on the rocks, I enjoy it most in a “Beton,” which translates as “concrete” in Czech. The name actually comes from the ingredients, Becherovka and tonic.

Like a gin and tonic, a Becherovka and tonic features aromatic herbal and floral notes as well as a touch of bracing bitterness. But the Beton goes further, with strong flavors of clove, pine and even some cinnamon. A gin and tonic is unquestionably a summer cocktail, but a Beton is Christmas in a glass. The recipe is simple:

Beton

1 Part Becherovka

1-1.5 Parts Tonic

Gently mix the above in a highball glass with a large cube of ice or two. If you’re feeling fancy, garnish with a lime slice or a sprig of rosemary. If the ratio above proves too boozy for you, you can adjust it to your taste, of course.

I usually purchase my tonic at Whole Foods, which sells a corn syrup-free version in inexpensive six packs. But for this post, I stopped at In Fine Spirits to pick up some “craft” tonics. After all, a cocktail this simple calls for quality ingredients.

Both Fever Tree and Fentimans are wildly expensive at about $2.50 per bottle, but you can eke two cocktails out of the Fever Tree and three out of  the Fentimans. In our taste test, both tonics did well, with relatively small bubbles and aromatic herbal/floral notes. Alone, the Fever Tree tasted more austere, with a slightly more medicinal aftertaste and a flavor that made me think of little white flowers. The Fentimans tasted a bit sweeter, and instead of white flowers there was a hint of Lemon Pledge.

Mixed with the Becherovka, the Fever Tree version hit me with a lusty blast of clove,  juniper and cinnamon. It was a Christmas party in my mouth. The Fentimans Beton still felt very Christmasy, but it tasted somehow rounder and deeper — more like an intimate gift exchange by the fireplace.

Either tonic makes a beautiful Beton, but if you prefer Canada Dry or Schweppes, go for it. You’ll have a uniquely delicious cocktail in any case.

Find It: If your favorite liquor store doesn’t carry Becherovka, Binny’s offers it for $23 per bottle.

If you conduct even the briefest of Internet searches, you will discover all sorts of blogs, newspapers and magazines recommending wines for Thanksgiving. I’ve seen articles recommending Beaujolais (ideally Cru) and rosé Cava, for example, both of which sound lovely and not nearly alcoholic enough for a major family holiday. I decided it was time to dust off my mixologist cap.

A pumpkin or pumpkin pie martini sounded too much like dessert, and neither turkey, gravy, stuffing, nor green bean casserole offered a flavor profile I wanted to recreate in a drink. That left cranberry sauce.

Since I’d never worked with 100% unadulterated cranberry juice, as distinct from the cranberry juice cocktail used in Cosmopolitans and Cape Cods, it seemed like a fun challenge to use it as my inspiration.

Because 100% cranberry juice tastes extremely tart, it requires some sweeter ingredients for balance. I tried mixing two parts bourbon and one part cranberry, but the bourbon couldn’t begin to balance out the cranberry on its own. Simple syrup seemed like a cop-out; why not just use cranberry juice cocktail?

Then I remembered when an old roommate of mine decided to make cranberry sauce for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Wanting to be sure to cook enough for the ten of us, he filled an entire stockpot with the stuff! Fortunately it tasted delicious, with orange zest adding an extra layer of sweetness and flavor. Fresh-squeezed orange juice could be just the thing for this cocktail — juicy and sweet, but not too sweet.

But even with two parts bourbon, one part cranberry and one part fresh-squeezed Valencia orange juice, the cocktail didn’t sing. The flavors were all too high; I needed some low notes to feel satisfied. Some Angostura Bitters did the trick. Four dashes, and the cocktail tasted well-rounded at last.

I had a quick look around to see if anyone else had stumbled upon this concoction. Cocktail chronicler Eric Felten came close when he described the Bardstown Sling, a drink of bourbon, triple sec, cranberry juice cocktail and lime, which is essentially a Cosmopolitan with bourbon instead of vodka. The blog Cold Glass gets even closer, substituting 100% cranberry juice and Cointreau for Felten’s cranberry juice cocktail and triple sec.

But since my cocktail indeed seems to break new ground by using bitters and fresh-squeezed orange juice, I will offer up a name: The Thanksgiving Helper. Here’s the recipe:

Thanksgiving Helper

–2 Parts Bourbon

–1 Part 100% Cranberry Juice

–1 Part Fresh-Squeezed Orange Juice

–4 Dashes of Angostura Bitters (or other standard bitters)

To get the proportions right, squeeze half an orange first and use the amount of juice you recover as the measure of one part. The juice of half a small orange should be about right for one cocktail. Combine all the ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into a martini glass, and if you must, garnish with an orange slice or a few fresh cranberries.

Don’t be fooled by the beautiful deep pink color of this cocktail. It’s quite strong and tart, but the dash of bitters keeps its feet on the ground.