Port Morris Distillery: Pitorro

Port Morris Distillery:
PITORRO
So what is Pitorro.  It is a word in Spanish that is associated with a sugar cane distilled beverage particular to Puero Rico.  So, "Puerto Rican Moonshine" is more or less a good way to put it.  And where can you get the best Puerto Rican Moonshine?  In NYC of course.  More specifically at that Port Morris Distillery in The Bronx, NY, which is a short walk from the 6 train.  Yes, you tourists out there, it's safe to go to.  The gentle rocking of the Metro North and Amtrak trains that bring you back to your suburbia and your wonder bread, create a harmonic zone which is perfect for rattling the best of the flavors out of the ingredients and barrels for an amazing flavor experience.





Go here.



The Port Morris Distillery makes 3 main varieties of their Pitorro.

#1:  Shine.  A clear version which is rip roarin' ready to go almost straight out of the still.   But don't think you're going to get a paint-stripping moonshine that tastes like Cachaça, because you won't.  You will get a soft fragrant blank canvas of a liquor, all  thanks to their proprietary blend of cane, apples, and honey, along with corn in their mash. While delicious on its own, it's begging to take a few creative things into it as an infusion.  The sky is the limit when it comes to what you can add. 
#2: Anjeho.  Aged Pitorro.  They let their Shine sit in some serious oak until it picks up an oaked quality which intermingles with its unique taste.  Best had neat, but there are a few recipes it can work well in, as you shall see.

#3: Coquito.  This is the Pitorro as it is expected.  Infused with traditional spices and fruit.  It is traditional and popular around right the hell now (the x-mas holidays).  You WASP mofos will probably call it too "fruity" and dump a load of some weirdo bitters in there or try to mix it with some un-aged corn whiskey, but before you do that (and as a cracker myself I think something like that might not be so bad), just give it a real try by itself with good foods before you do that

And now, Port Morris Pitorro:














We met some of the family.  They are amazing and they really care about what their product come out tasting like.  When that's happening, you know you are in for some good stuff.





The Port Morris Pitorro Shine is one of the greatest blank canvases to work with in terms of infusion.  It was literally invented for such a purpose.  Port Morris Distillery encourages you to try your own creations with their Pitorro Shine.  Try some out, and show them off.






The Añejo is almost more of a reposado, but people always only think of Tequila when those terms are used, but they really are general words which mean "aged" and "rested" respectively.  In our opinion, this aged Pitorro is really good and can more than stand its ground against a Green Label.




Click here to learn more about Coquito.
































So, how did some non-preservative cherries last us this long?  Well, it wasn't just our fridge that did it, but rather 3 oz of Spirytus Staropolski (the 98% ABV vodka).  That kept it from going bad you better believe it.  You can also freeze them, but don't use a glass container.









So we shall see what those infusions will bring.  But, in the mean time, we will be checking out some great cocktail recipes, like the Salma Hayek.

See you tomorrow.

BLACK DIRT APPLEJACK: Spy vs Spy

PINKY MIXOLOGY APPLEJACK-OFF 2014

BLACK DIRT APPLEJACK

Spy vs Spy.

The Northern Spy is a well known cocktail made with applejack.  We decided to take it on a ride that you won't forget, making 2 versions which are slightly complementary but which also are a bit contrary to each-other as well.

Let's start off with our version of the "Northern Spy" : 







Rather than use brandy made from certain fruits (which costs like... $55 a bottle, seriously we're not laying down that kinda scratch just to make one drink for you people) we decided to make our own infusions. Infusions, by the way, are often more flavorful than distilled spirits because they are made from a neutral spirit that uses its power to suck the flavors out of (whatever you use) into an tincture of nummie liquid kick-ass.








Black Dirt Applejack may be one tough cookie, but that doesn't mean it lacks distinctiveness or depth.   Bottled in bond and aged bourbon style for 6 years, the warm notes of American Whiskey ride on top of explosive hints of apple to create a taste as smooth and good looking as a Cadillac El Dorado.


The "Northern Spy" traditionally has lemon juice in it, but we opted to leave it out, because it just seemed unnecessary.  The taste of the Doc's Draft Cider is fine enough without it and so that was that.
 








Yes we've done this before.   Remember that dried fruits will suck up a bunch of liquid and so you should shake them occasionally to make sure that all the awesome flavor doesn't get locked up in the fleshy fruit bits.









Since they are related, we thought it would be awesome to use Doc's Draft Cider with Black Dirt Applejack rather than some sparkling wine.  It really came out nice and the light carbonation and sweet tones complimented the apricot very well.


Next:

The Turkish Spy Cocktail.










This is the first infusion we have ever made with figs.  Figs seem to want to be friends with booze.  They are sweet, and it takes almost no time for their flavor to start coming out in an infusion like this. 





If you don't want to get your fingers wet, you can use chopsticks to munch on these little beauties.  By the way, we picked these figs up at Sahadi's Importing, where they are available year-round.





There is no reason you actually can't have this as a hot toddy style drink, but we kept it cold here in order to maintain an association with the "Northern Spy" cocktail.  If we warmed it up, it would be so far from that, it would need an entirely new name and we're bad at naming things at the moment for some reason.

Pictured above is just some regular black tea (Indian Darjeeling), brewed the normal way with a bit of sugar added and then cooled down.  You can probably buy some pre-made stuff from the store and it would be just as good.  We were actually going to add lemon to this one, but we just straight up forgot to.  It came out pretty nice anyway. 












So here's what we did:

"New England Spy" :
2 shots Applejack
1 shot apricot infusion 
Top off with Doc's Draft Cider.
Garnish with dried apricot

"Turkish Spy"
2 shots Applejack
1 shot fig infusion
Top off with black tea (sweetened with optional lemon).
Garnish with a fig.  ...Or not, we don't care.


See you soon.

Sangria

The Summer Staple Sangria. That ever so popular warm-weather brunch juice is all to often an adulterated jug wine sold at $7 a pop for a 6 ounce glass already full of 2 ounces of ice. We now shall show you how to pull this off properly and have it ready for the next time you bring home some pre-licked hepatitis Taco Bell.









Sangria really is a racket.  Places take wine which has sat out for too long, add some crap to it and then sell it at $7 for a 6 ounce glass that already has 2 ounces of ice in it.  This bullcrap ends now!



There are too many red wines to name that will totally work for this.  From Hungarian Bull's Blood to California Mass-Market.  The Sangiovese you see here was picked at a price of $5 (well 2 for $10) from Best Buy Wine and Spirits in Brooklyn.








You don't need to slice the apple as thin as the other stuff.  But core it so that the seeds don't come loose and float around in there.



You can obviously add more or less depending on how you like it. 










This is a really important step.  While the restaurant stuff is maybe an hour old and adulterated with grenadine or Hawaiian Punch (seriously I've seen this happen), this will be the real deal, and the one thing you can't do is try to hurry it up.












Seriously, the fruit has given up all it's gonna give, and ice cubes will just splash into your glass and send little drops out to stain your shirt.  Just avoid them.




What you see here is Strawberry Jarritos, Doc's Draft Cider (much better than the overly sweet candy sticky JK Scrumpy yuckieness from Michigan), Risata Moscato d'Asti, and plain seltzer.




Sit back relax and enjoy.  Stick it in a fruit punch bottle and no one is gonna give you shit for drinking this in the park.



Next Time:
We take a trip to King's County Distillery .








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Bacon Bourbon: Bloody Derby and the Old Fashioned

BACON!  BACON!   MOTHERFUCKING BACON!

Yes friends, we have jumped on the burgeoning bacon bandwagon boisterously bringing you; Bacon Bourbon, and two cocktail creations that it brings to life: The Bloody Derby and the Old Fashioned.

Of course, we will be putting our own little twists on these, and you are more than equally welcome to try your own variations of these as you attempt to recreate suck awesomeness.

If you've been with us since the beginning (and who are we kidding, no one reads this thing anyway so we know you haven't), you may want to welcome back our original host, as seen in our Margarita episode.











Ok that Zechs Merquise joke is gonna be lost on almost everyone unless you were an anime otaku in the 1990's, but there's this famous image of that character with his shirt off and yada yada yada that's a bottle of Wild Turkey next to him there.  In 1980's and 1990's Japan, a fine Kentucky Bourbon was like a pair of Levi's Jeans behind the Iron Curtain... almost unattainable.  So that's why that's a thing.

Why infuse bourbon?  Well we've already done infusions with vodka, and vodka will work in this method just fine... but how many things can you really infuse bourbon with?  Not really a whole lot (we don't think anyone want's to find out what kiwi bourbon tastes like), so when the opportunity arose, we went for it.





Meat has been procured at Los Paisanos in Brooklyn NY. 










This bacon fat can be saved to help season cast iron pans or lube up griddles for flapjacks.










Bacon Bourbon can end up a bit cloudy but that's ok.  Bacon Bourbon is supposed to be.



The Bloody Derby is a great version of the Bloody Mary, which can be given a bit of a BBQ flavor either from scratch or by adding a bit of BBQ sauce.





What we mean by that, is that the "bloody _____"  Cocktail (be it Bloody Mary, Bloody Caesar, Bloody Derby, Bloody... nose ...who knows) is usually a blank canvas made of tomato juice, a distilled spirit, and a whole bunch of other things that are up to your own tastes.  Traditionally, these usually fall with the peppery spicy type of things, but hey, if you like garlic puree and some sugar-added mayonnaise, then... go for it.   Let us know how that turns out.




Here are some pointers:
If you don't feel like filling a blender with cherry tomatoes, filtering it out, and then simmering it on the stove, try to use low-salt tomato juice if you buy some from the store.  This is because many of the other additives have salt in them, and there is a potential to end up with too much salt in the thing.

BBQ version.  In a 12 oz glass:
-7oz tomato/vegetable juice (optional: add to blender with 5 cloves of boiled garlic).
-2 to 3 oz of bacon bourbon
-1 tablespoon of Worcestershire
-2 teaspoons cider vinegar
-3 dashes of liquid smoke
-1 tablespoon of sweet chili sauce (not pictured)
-hot sauce to taste (sriracha is recommended)
-ground pepper to taste

Shake over ice and strain back into the same glass.  If you want a sweeter version, cut the hot sauce and add some simple syrup made from brown sugar.





Check out our original Bloody Mary here.  Also check out our BBQ sauce recipe, which you can make and add to this as a shortcut.




And now a New Old Fashioned.  We swing for the fences to recreate that rural-diner feeling of sitting around Sunday morning having pancakes and bacon. But now it has the added bonus of being able to get hammered, so you can tune out your Aunt Mildred when she starts to go on and on about how things are terrible now because there's a secret Kenyan Socialist Communist Muslim in the White House and only Glen Beck can save us.






You know us... that 1.5 oz turned into 3 a little later.




"Grade B" does not mean it's less quality than Grade A, but rather that the color is darker due to the sugars involved.  Just about every producer ends up making both because those sugars are in every tree.  To find high quality, try to find a producer that owns their own farm and produces only from their own trees and doesn't blend anything.  Kind of the same "Single Estate" rule for wine, rum, and coffee. 








Things like soda water, 7up, ginger ale are all standard.  A nice dry hard cider can really bring this drink alive thought.  We recommend Doc's Draft if you feel so inclined.




This is an awesome cocktail, but these days it's more of a fashion accessory than something that people actually appreciate.  We can't fight the masses on this one, so here's your stupid garnish.













Enjoy kids!

Next up, prepare for entertaining, with the original formula of Cape Fear Punch.