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.

TOM'S FOOLERY APPLEJACK: Tom's Toddy

PINKY MIXOLOGY 2014 APPLEJACK-OFF

Tom's Foolery Applejack day 3:

Tom's Toddy

The Toddy is popping up all over cocktail culture these days, and if you're still in the deep freeze (or if you just feel cold), we bring you an applejack variation we call Tom's Toddy, as it's made with Tom's Foolery Applejack.











That's basically just under 2 shots of Applejack and a shot glass full of raw sugar.



You know exactly the tea we're talking about.








While simple, this gives you the chance to taste the great quality of Tom's Foolery Applejack in a warm way (something tells us that no matter how awesome it is, we wouldn't want to have 130 degree Applejack just by itself.)  Of course, the amount of sugar is subject to your own tastes, and we noticed that a shot glass full puts it a bit far on the sweet side for us.  You can also add bitteres to this as well, and it's pretty good that way.
Garnish outtake:


Now not to say this underwhelmed us, but the Hot Old Fashioned (Hold-Fashioned...?) was so amazing, that if we ever to a warm drink with applejack, we think that one will always be our #1 choice.


And

Hot Lemon ほっとレモン

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a recent home-made version of something commercial.  This was recently inspired by how awesome we are to people in need of such things (it's totally a real thing that really happened for real).  So now we share this knowledge with you, on the internetsez in case you find yourself with a sniffle.

Hot Lemon ( ほっとレモン ) is a popular beverage sold throughout Japan in convenience stores and vending machines (yes they have vending machines that serve hot beverages in cans and such).  This elixir of vitamin C is popular during the cold months as it touts the ability to fend off the biological onslaught of wintery cold time sickness.  Well, we thought we could improve it and show people living in places that aren't Japan how to have plenty of this at the ready.   

Having leftover lemons from last episode (Sriracha Lemonade), we double up on the little yellow fruit, but we're sure this also works with limes or even oranges.   Make sure to use organic, since it's legal to use some nasty food dyes in fruit (in the US at least) and this is going to use lots of zest.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the first hot beverage of the winter:  Hot Lemon.




You will need:
4 large lemons (or maybe 6 little ones)
1 cup of sugar (doesn't matter what kind)
500ml of hot water or tea (this amount varies depending on how much juice the lemons will produce)
2 tsp of salt
Garlic (optional)
Ginger (optional)
Hard liquor of your choice (optional)

Equipment used:
Vegetable peeler.
Blender (not the hand-held type).
Citrus Juicer.
Knife and cutting board.
Mesh strainer (a Chinois works well)
Mason Jar. (800ml or 32 oz).





You know, we didn't notice until half way through that she's got some crap on her jacket.  We're not sure what that is, but one day we'll get some special effects studio to totally photoshop it out of there.












See list above.



Again, we warn you to use organic, since peels can have things like FD&C Red no. 2 in them.  Seriously, that stuff gives you cancer, and the government says it's A-OK to use it on the outside of food, but not the inside.   You can look that up.




At this point also add between one and two teaspoons of salt.   This helps your body hold on to water and boosts the flavor considerably.




Here we have some Laird's Applejack.  That's an Anime Boston shot glass from 2005 (we think).  Applejack is (at the most basic) a whiskey distilled from fermented apple cider.  There are not a great many producers out there and we are looking into getting something going to highlight how awesome it is to use in place of Scotch or Bourbon in many a cocktail.  We don't feel ready to recommend one label over another to people just yet, but we're working on it.




If garlic sounds too funky for you (and it totally is for many people) you can use fresh ginger instead.  Garlic does help in a few areas though, and freezing it before hand helps to soften it up, but be careful because garlic that's been frozen can straight up turn green if you're not careful.  We're serious.




We have filled it to almost 875ml.  Some of that is displacement from the solid components and we got it back up to 800ml by adding more water.




A mesh strainer is good to use here, since a coffee filter would be kind of overkill and probably take too long. 

What is in the jar here is a bit strong, so we say go with a 1 to 1 ratio of this lemon awesomeness and some other hot liquid like hot water, tea, or ...we guess you could use coffee, or mulled wine, or tomato soup but all of that sounds kinda bad.





Brought to you in honor of the 2013 New York Comic Con and one unfortunate exhibitor who had to muddle his way through hosting a panel with a nasty cold all by his lonesome.  This stuff does keep well in the fridge, but vitamin C is notorious for breaking down quickly, so it's best to have it sooner rather than later.

Next up:

Coffee Liquors

-

Hot Rum drinks

Hot Buttered Rum, Rum Toddy, and Koffie Van Brunt.

As the cold weather descends and some horrible bitch named Sandy knocks the lights out, we bring you three and a half hot rum-based drinks to warm even the coldest of sea drenched East Coasters.  I'm sure everyone's in a drinking mood, so let's get this road on the show.

First: Hot Buttered Rum

Since your perishables might be going bad with no power in the house, time to use up the butter.






If you do this right, it ends up with a smell slightly reminiscent of cookie dough.  It's really nice.







Black rum is not the same as spiced rum, although Goslings does make a Black and a Spiced rum.  They also make a super-aged rum, but like a 15 year old Scotch, you'd never mix it w/ anything.  Just like a dark rum kneecaps a daiquiri or a piña colada, light rum here makes this hit sour notes.



Seriously, anything other than real unsalted butter, and this is gonna be nasty.  Make your own butter if you have to.





Dark brown is better than light brown, but as long as you don't use that rediculatarded "brounulated" or "sugar in the raw" crap, you're fine. (They have their uses but not here).



The only reason that fake vanilla exists is because there are prohibitionist fucktards out there who think a magical man in the sky will torture them forever after they die if they consume alcohol.  Since this is going into a boozy drink anyway, there's no point.

1/8th of a tsp of vanilla per drink is a decent amount.  It is very potent stuff.

The Spice Must Flow.  For the uninitiated:
Nutmeg: a little goes a long way.
Cinnamon: not as strong as nutmeg, but repels water, so watch out.
Cloves: They smell like Christmas
Allspice Berries: A lot stronger than the pre-ground allspice you'd find out there.

The amounts shown are not the final amounts used.  And they were ground with one of these. 










When you are making this drink, you want the butter+spice mixture to be as close to room temp. as possible.  If you are making a bunch of this mix in advance, let them warm up naturally (no microwave action) before you make this drink.  Otherwise it will be exactly like throwing an ice cube into it and it will cool down before you can touch the handle.








Seriously, it gets in the way, we've added cinnamon already, and it's done only for looks.  Now you obviously have to do it if you're trying to impress someone. We haven't done it, so guess where you rank in the scheme of things.

Second: the Rum Toddy.

We ended up not even using all that ginger, but most of it.



We're going to put these pieces into a bottle, so they just have to be small enough to fit through the opening.






The nutmeg is ground because it has to be, but try to find the coarsest grind setting you have available and use that, because we'll be straining everything out.  All the other spices you can leave whole.



STRAIN THE SPICED RUM as you pour it out, or you are gonna have some nasty surprises.






Seriously, I couldn't believe it, but there are people out there who think honey is like... animal abuse or some shit.



It's fine to keep a whole bunch of this warm if you're serving it punchbowl style.  Just remember that after a few hours you'll be losing some serious alcohol content as it evaporates at a quicker rate than water.

And now for something completely different: Koffie Van Brunt (sort of)

This seemed interesting, and since it uses dark rum and we've got plenty left, let's try it out.



While coming off as gargantuanly pretentious, this drink served at Fort Defiance café-bar on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook Brooklyn sounds good.  And since that place is probably still under water thanks to Sandy, you're gonna have to make one yourself if you want to try it any time soon.

We take a few minor liberties with the official recipe, and we also offer a variant of Koffie Van Brunt with an Italian inspiration rather than Dutch, but all in all ...shut up and drink it.






Though if you use Red Stag, it's not the same drink any more.  It's cherry flavored Irish Coffee for hillbillies.




What you see here is a Primula PES-6404 stove-top coffee maker, often erroneously referred to as espresso. While the machine does require an espresso grind to function 100% properly (other grinds will also produce drinkable coffee), the machine is quite incapable of generating the necessary pressure of 130.5 PSI as required by The Italian Espresso National Institute (yes that's a thing) and the Specialty Coffee Association of America (yeah that's a thing too) in order to be classified as Espresso.  




You don't want to make whipped cream here.  Don't add sugar or use an electric mixer.  Just agitate it a bit until it just gets a tiny bit richer than when you started.



Even the best cherry liqueur can be described as "Robitussin-like" by the underdeveloped pallets of your friends, so it's best to have an alternative available.



In addition to Amaretto, the hazelnut Frangelico, dark chocolate Godiva, or coffee friendly Kahlua, work well here.  You can even spice it up with some Aftershock.




The dusting here does include coco and cayenne chili powder, and is inspired by the Jacques Torres "Wicked Hot Chocolate" mix.

And seriously, don't nuke booze. 





We might have taken a few nips on the side during production...










So a word of warning kids, drink too much of this stuff at once and before you know it you are in the navy with no pants. 

Thanks for tuning in viewers!

Come back on December 1st for Gingerbread Cocktails.

-