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Posts Tagged ‘fresh lime juice’

Cocktail Wars

Posted in Weekly Dig, tagged Cocktail Wars, dry gin, Fresh basil, fresh lime juice, Galliano L’autentico, John S. Pomeroy, La Parola Ultima, maraschino liqueur, Omnibibulous.com on April 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

by Pink Lady

Who doesn’t love a good head-to-head battle, especially when it comes to cocktails? This spring the Woodward at Ames will resurrect Cocktail Wars, one of our favorite industry events, back again after a long, cold winter’s break.

Cocktail Wars is an Iron Chef-style bartending competition that will take place every Sunday from now until May 15. Two of Boston’s best mixologists will go head-to-head to create the best cocktail using a series of secret ingredients (typically a spirit, a fruit, an herb, or a vegetable) in the allotted time. The creations will then be judged by some of Boston’s biggest industry experts (which on one magical upcoming Sunday will include a LUPEC lady).

Thirty-two bartenders from Boston’s different neighborhoods will compete during this seven-week tournament for an amazing grand prize: a weekend in New York including roundtrip airfare, swanky hotel accommodations at one of the Morgan’s Hotel Group properties and some cold, hard cash. The stakes are high for these bar stars. For the rest of us, the event means a killer party featuring snacks, a DJ and inexpensive cocktails with some of our favorite beverage industry folks.

Next up on the docket: Asher Karnes – KO Prime (Beacon Hill)
Domingo Barreras – Market at W Hotel (Theatre District)
Chris Majka – The Citizen (Worchester)
Mark Vandeusen – Tico (Back Bay)

Loryn Taplin – Coppa (South End)
Eric Smith – Mezcal Cantina (Worchester)
Jon Parsons – Sam’s at Louis Boston (Waterfront)
Don Wahl – Deuxave (Back Bay)

And mix up one of these, created by New York’s John Pomeroy when the US Bartender’s Guild of New York went head-to-head with Boston as you wait with baited breath.

LA PAROLA ULTIMA
by John S. Pomeroy, Jr.
Omnibibulous.com

1 oz dry gin
1 oz Galliano L’Autentico
1 oz Maraschino liqueur
1 oz fresh lime juice
Fresh basil

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed lime disc.

[Cocktail Wars. Sundays at Woodward at Ames. 1 Court St., Boston. 617.979.8200. 5:30pm/21+/free. woodwardatames.com]

CIN-CIN!

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What We’re Drinking: La Paloma*

Posted in Travel, Weekly Dig, tagged fresh lime juice, grapefruit soda, La Capilla, La Paloma, Mexico, reposado tequila, salt rim, Tequila on November 17, 2010| 2 Comments »

*Recent ruminations from LUPEC Boston, as recently published in the Weekly Dig.

by Pink Lady

As local temperatures begin to take a nosedive most of us New Englanders hunker down with hot cocktails and curmudgeonly grumblings. A recent trip to Mexico to learn about tequila gave this LUPEC lady a respite from the oncoming bitterness, introducing me the joys of a simple, refreshing cocktail called La Paloma. If you find yourself sick of sipping Hot Toddies and Perfect Manhattans in the coming weeks we suggest you change it up with a La Paloma.

The drink was invented in the tiny town of Tequila in Jalisco, which sleepily charms with cobblestone streets and distilleries nestled between unassuming houses and shops without signs. The cocktail was created at La Capilla, the oldest bar in town, by Don Javier Delgado Corona, grandson of the bar’s original owner. It’s essentially a tequila highball made with fresh lime, Squirt or whatever grapefruit soda you prefer (or fresh grapefruit and soda if you wanna get all fancy), served with a salted rim. It’s simple, refreshing, and far more popular locally than a Margarita.

Don Javier held forth at a corner table as our group of boisterous bartending gringos blew up La Capilla on a hot Tuesday afternoon in November. At one end of the bar a mustachioed barman cut fresh avocados and squeezed lime into a wooden bowl, prepping fresh, chunky guacamole. At another, a kid no older than 17 and a middle school aged barback poured drinks, squeezing fresh lime into highballs for our Palomas and Batangas and shot after shot of tequila. A roving band arrived shortly and our group of motley gringos were up and dancing in no time.

As anyone who’s visited Tequila knows all that distillery touring and taco eating will make you thirsty. The dancing and Palomas in turn made us hungry for more tacos. It’s a vicious, delicious cycle, and one we highly recommend to cure your pre-Thanksgiving November blues. If time and money can’t afford you a trip to Jalisco, recreate the experience at home with one of these.

LA PALOMA

2 oz reposado tequila (Fortaleza if you can get your hands on a bottle!)

.5 oz fresh lime juice

Grapefruit soda (Squirt, Jarrito’s, or fresh grapefruit juice & soda water)

Salt

Combine tequila and lime juice in a highball or Collins glass rimmed with salt. Add ice and top with grapefruit soda.

Cin-cin!

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Science of Taste*

Posted in Events, Weekly Dig, tagged fresh lime juice, Michelada, Pacifico, soy sauce, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce on October 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

*Recent ruminations from LUPEC Boston, as originally published in the Weekly Dig.

by Pink Lady

As regular readers of our column know, LUPEC ladies tend to defy general stereotypes about what women “should” drink. Flirtini? Umm…thanks, but we’d rather have a Sazerac. Girly drinks to us aren’t necessarily sticky sweet pink concoctions, and strong and stirred cocktails should not be reserved just for manly men. But putting the gender-bendy stuff aside, is there actual rhyme or reason to why we taste what we taste?

Yes, actually, there is and that’s exactly what we’ll be exploring next week at a Science of Taste Through Cocktails seminar at Eastern Standard. LUPEC has united a team of nerdy cocktail types with their scientific counterparts to explore taste through our favorite medium: alcoholic beverages. And it’s all for a good cause – proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit local non-profit Science Club for Girls.

The seminar will explore the scientific aspects of taste and flavor through cocktails. We’ll explore the five facets of taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami) through five unique cocktails cultivated by five Boston bartenders, featuring Nicole Lebedevitch from Eastern Standard, Augusto Lino from Upstairs on the Square, Carrie Cole from Craigie on Main, Joy Richard from the Franklin/the Citizen, and Emily Stanley from Bols (formerly of Green Street, Trina’s Starlite Lounge, and Deep Ellum). Don Katz, a Professor specializing in Chemosensation from Brandeis, will speak about the science of taste and flavor, and Graham Wright, a former chemist and general Boston bon vivant, will team up with the bartenders to explain how these concepts are applied in the glass.

The Science of Taste is a consumer event and all proceeds from the evening will benefit Science Club for Girls, a MA-based non-profit that provides free hands-on enrichment in science and engineering to over 800 children in the Boston area, many of whom are from underrepresented groups and may be the first in their families to attend college. We couldn’t imagine a more appropriate cause.

Tickets are $55 and will include a welcome punch, five sample cocktails, and light snacks. Space is extremely limited. If you’re dying to figure out exactly what umami is, nab your tickets now.

In the interim, you raise a salty cocktail at home, a variation of which which we’ll serve at the seminar.

MICHELADA

Presented by Emily Stanley of Bols, formerly of Green Street, Trina’s Starlite Lounge, and Deep Ellum

In a chilled pint glass with a salted rim add:
1 bottle of Pacifico
.75 oz fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
4 dashes Tabasco sauce

Stir and imbibe with pleasure as your cares melt away.

Cin-cin!

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Botanically Speaking*

Posted in Weekly Dig, tagged angostura bitters, fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, Gin, Orange Bitters, orange curaçao, Pegu Club on June 23, 2010| 2 Comments »

*Recent ruminations from LUPEC Boston, originally published in the Weekly Dig.

by Pink Lady

It’s easy to walk into a bar and order a call brand of gin with your martini or tonic, but how familiar are you with the gins you order and why you like them? If you’ve only ever tried the brand your dad liked, LUPEC implores you to branch out this summer.

There is art to all distillation, but when it comes to gin in particular, everything about the flavor of the end product depends on the distiller’s choice of botanicals and how they’re infused. In a sense, gin is the original flavored vodka. All gin begins as neutral spirit (typically distilled from cereal grains) which most producers purchase (though it’s usually distilled to their specifications and desired standards). The gin is then flavored by the master distiller using whatever botanicals his heart desires along with gin’s signature flavor, juniper berries.

To ensure that their product stands out in the marketplace, distillers go to great lengths to develop botanical blends that make their gins different from the rest. Common botanicals include all manner of citrus peels, coriander seed, Angelica root, cardamom, licorice, orris root powder, bitter almonds and much, much more. Once the list is finalized, the distiller must develop the gin recipe by testing it in many small batches until the perfect balance is achieved.

Another factor that directly impacts flavor is how the distiller gets those botanical essences into his high-proof neutral spirit. In one method, the botanical blend steeps with the spirit for a length of time before water’s added and the spirit is redistilled. Other distillers toss the botanical mixture into the still with the spirit and begin redistilling immediately. They may also opt to impart flavor by hanging the botanicals in a wire basket through which the spirit passes during the distillation process, picking up their essence.

With all of this in mind, we suggest you revisit your favorite gin brands and taste them side by side. There’s much more to these brands than just packaging, and we think you’ll be fascinated by the difference a brand makes. After you’ve tasted them on their own, try them in cocktails—a martini, a Pink Gin or a Pegu Club, perhaps—to see which gin is best for which occasion.

PEGU CLUB

1.75 oz gin

0.75 oz orange curaçao

0.5 oz fresh lime juice

dash angostura bitters

dash orange bitters

Shake in iced cocktail shaker; strain into a vintage cocktail glass.

CIN-CIN!

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What We’re Drinking: Ramos Gin Fizz*

Posted in Weekly Dig, tagged egg white, fresh lemon juice, fresh lime juice, Gin, heavy cream, New Orleans, New Orleans Fizz, orange flower water, simple syrup, Tales of the Cocktail on June 9, 2010| 2 Comments »

*LUPEC ruminations, as previously published in the Weekly Dig.

Imagine 35 pairs of arms working in tandem to produce a cocktail just for you. If you were in New Orleans for Mardi Gras circa 1915, The Stag saloon would have offered this surreal experience. There, Henry Ramos mixed up his special New Orleans fizzes, believed to be the best in the world.

Ramos invented the drink at his Imperial Cabinet saloon in 1888, when New Orleans was becoming a hot tourist destination, beloved for its quaint, historic saloons. Ramos profited greatly from this boom, as tourists thronged his establishment for a taste of his famous house fizzes. Six bartenders were employed per shift at the Imperial Cabinet, each with his own dedicated “shaker boy,” “a young black man whose sole job was to receive the fully charged shaker from the bartender and shake the bejeezus out of it,” writes David Wondrich in IMBIBE!.

Why all the shaking? This particular fizz recipe calls for egg white and cream, two ingredients that are famously difficult to emulsify. “Shake and shake and shake until there is not a bubble left, but the drink is smooth and snowy white and of the consistency of good rich milk,” Ramos said. If preparing a Ramos Gin Fizz, you’d best bring your guns to the show.

By Mardi Gras in 1915, Ramos had conceived a new format for emulsifying: 35 shakermen would shake the drink until their arms were tired, then pass it on down the line.

There is one place where you can still see great displays of mixological showmanship: Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. This five-day celebration of the history and artistry of drink-making is just around the corner. LUPEC Boston will be there. Days filled with nerdy cocktail seminars taught by the most talented folks in the beverage industry, nights filled with boozing at New Orleans’ famous bars and a chance to sample a Ramos Gin Fizz in its hometown—we wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Think about joining us as you shake your own fizz long and hard.

RAMOS FIZZ

Adapted from The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks by Dale DeGroff

1.5 oz gin

0.5 oz fresh lemon juice

0.5 oz fresh lime juice

1.5-2 oz simple syrup, to taste

2 oz heavy cream

0.75 oz egg white

2 drops orange-flower water

club soda

Combine the gin, juices, syrup, cream, egg white and orange-flower water in a mixing glass with ice, and shake long and hard to emulsify the egg. Strain into a highball glass without ice. Top with soda but no garnish.

CIN-CIN!

TALES OF THE COCKTAIL IS JULY 21st-25th IN NEW ORLEANS. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT TALESOFTHECOCKTAIL.COM.

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The Badass New Cocktail List at Clio

Posted in Weekly Dig, tagged Beija cachaça, fresh lime juice, Oloroso Sherry, Orgeat, Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot on April 21, 2010| 7 Comments »

Recent thoughts from LUPEC Boston, in case you missed ’em in this week’s Dig.

by Pink Lady + Contessa

We extolled the virtues of Clio/Uni‘s secret/awesome cocktail program a few weeks ago in our hotel bar roundup. Little did we know that barman Todd Maul was developing a brand new cocktail menu, unveiled earlier this month. Weighing in with 80-plus libations, the ambitious menu rivals any other craft cocktail bastion’s and evokes the legendary “long list” at one of our other favorite watering holes, Green Street. How long will it take us to drink our way through this menu? Don’t tempt us.

The slim but potent, elegantly designed volume is cinched with a gold silk cord. Drinks run the gamut, from aperitifs ($9) to drinks for two ($25) to tiki drinks & daiquiris ($13), and feature a blend of pre-Prohibition and modern classics. Gin gets its own section, as does whiskey & cognac, with several pages of “other stuff” sandwiched between and “the stuff that didn’t fit anywhere else” on the last page (these will all run you $13). Old-school spirits ads are sprinkled throughout, like in our cherished vintage cocktail books; the effect as you leaf through it is more akin to reading a retro recipe pamphlet than selecting a beverage at a Back Bay bar.

On a recent outing, LUPEC emeritus Contessa was delighted to find drinks built around a house-made orange gin created with Seville oranges and Old Tom as base. She liked the Flying Dutchman, which mixes orange gin with orange juice, lemon and bitters, and pairs perfectly with rock shrimp and fish tacos. (Fish tacos at Clio? Who knew? And yes, they’re spectacular.) Maul assures us that many of these beverages (like the trendy tiki drinks) were designed with Uni’s raw seafood offerings in mind.

For a drink you won’t have to duck into the Clio bar to sample, we suggest an original that debuted on the new list, the Southern Beaches. Maul considers cachaça an under-utilized spirit, often relegated to caipirinhas and … well, that’s it. He puts it to work in a classic tiki formula here.

But seriously: How long do you think it will take us to drink our way through the list?

SOUTHERN BEACHES

1.5 oz Beija cachaça
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.25 oz Oloroso sherry
0.25 oz Orgeat
0.25 oz Rothman & Winter Orchard Apricot liqueur

Shake ingredients with ice; strain over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange slice, a lime twist and ground allspice.

CIN-CIN!

FOR MORE GREAT COCKTAIL RECIPES, VISIT LUPECBOSTON.COM.

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What We’re Drinking: A Toast to Lady Day!

Posted in Broads, Weekly Dig, tagged Billie Holliday, Cointreau, Creme de Violette, fresh lime juice, Gary Regan, Gin, Jacqui Parker, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, Lyric Stage Company, The Moonlight Cocktail on April 17, 2010| 1 Comment »

*Recent ruminations from LUPEC Boston in case you missed ’em in this week’s Dig.

by Pink Gin

Billie Holiday is remembered as one of history’s greatest jazz singers. Her haunting voice had a limited range (barely an octave), but she sang with a unique, laid-back style that was inspired by mellow legends like Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. Holiday passed before our time, but luckily, the Lyric Stage Company’s latest production, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, featuring Jacqui Parker as Billie Holiday, gives us a glimpse into Holiday’s live performance and backstage drama.

Holiday’s life reflects the highs and lows of the Jazz Era. After a difficult childhood in Baltimore, she moved to New York City and sang for tips in Harlem nightclubs. She went on to perform regularly in New York, tour with Artie Shaw’s white band and make a number of recordings. A tough broad who would drink, swear and win big at dice (how cool is that?!), she would also walk out on anyone who tried to control her. But the hard life and, oh yeah, some heroin abuse, took its toll; she died at the age of 44.

The story of Holiday’s life (and its sad brevity) is just one example of what inspires LUPEC Boston to work with women’s charities. Our “cocktails for a cause” events help bring the Boston community together while raising awareness about the challenges many women face in realizing their full potential.

One of the recordings (which featured Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson) that launched Holiday’s career was “What a Little Moonlight Can Do.” We therefore raise a glass of this Gary Regan interpretation of the Aviation.

THE MOONLIGHT COCKTAIL

1 1/2 oz gin

1/2 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz crème de violette

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute.

SEE LADY DAY AT THE LYRIC STAGE COMPANY [140 CLARENDON ST., BOSTON. 617.585.5678. LYRICSTAGE.COM] THROUGH APRIL 24TH, AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT COCKTAILS FOR A CAUSE AT LUPECBOSTON.COM.

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What We’re Drinking: The Mai Tai*

Posted in Events, Fundraiser, Tiki, Weekly Dig, tagged Don the Beachcomber, Donn Beach, Ernest Beaumont-Gantt, fresh lime juice, Jamaican rum, LUPEC Boston's Tiki Bash, Mai Tai, orange curaçao, Orgeat, Trader Vic, Victor Bergeron on October 16, 2009| 7 Comments »

*LUPEC Boston’s latest ruminations, in case you missed ‘em in this week’s Dig.

by Pink Lady

Ever tried a Zombie or a Suffering Bastard, or any drink served in a scorpion bowl or skull mug? With out-there names and kitschy vessels, tiki drinks are apt to inspire a giggle among cocktail neophytes. In their original incarnation, these were balanced, palatable drinks built upon rum, fresh juices and flavorful syrups—legitimate cocktails that would make modern bar snobs swoon.

The tiki craze has roots that reach all the way back to Prohibition, when thirsty Americans took to the Caribbean seas (where rum flowed freely) for rum cruises. They developed a taste for exotic island cocktails, meaning the market was ripe by the time Ernest Beaumont-Gantt opened his “Don the Beachcomber” bar in Hollywood in 1934, just after repeal. Victor Bergeron soon followed suit, revamping his Oakland eatery into “Trader Vic’s,” complete with South Seas décor. Post-World War II, the tiki phenomenon blossomed into a true craze that lasted well into the 1950s.

If Ernest Beaumont-Gantt, aka “Don the Beachcomber” and Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron were the emperors of American tiki, a cornerstone of their empire was the mai tai—a drink they both take credit for inventing. Trader Vic alleges he innovated the drink as a simple way to make use of a bottle of 17-year-old J. Wray Nephew rum from Jamaica in 1944. He served it to Ham and Carrie Guild, two friends visiting from Tahiti, and after one sip, Carrie pronounced it: “Mai tai—roa aé,” Tahitian for, “Out of this world—the best.” And the mai tai was born.

Don Beach’s last wife, Phoebe, purports to have written proof Don invented the drink, in the form of a letter from a journalist describing a 1972 incident where Victor confesses that Don was the drink’s true progenitor. Some say both accounts are false, and the drink originated somewhere in Tahiti. Debate rages on, even after the movement and its founders are long gone.

When properly made, a mai tai is a revelatory cocktail; it’s no wonder Americans clamored for this delightful beverage and its tiki cousins for decades. Start your own tiki craze at home with one of these as you get in the mood for the LUPEC fall fundraiser this November: It will be a tiki bash of epic proportions.

MAI TAI

2 oz aged Jamaican rum

0.75 oz fresh lime juice

0.75 oz orange curaçao

1 tsp orgeat syrup

Shake well with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wheel, a mint sprig and, if possible, an exotic orchid

CIN-CIN!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE LUPEC TIKI BASH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH! CHECK BACK SOON FOR DETAILS!

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The Bachelorette Party

Posted in Travel, Weekly Dig, tagged Bachelorette Party, fresh lime juice, grapefruit juice, Hemingway Daiquiri, maraschino liqueur, PDX, Seattle, Teardrop Lounge, white rum on August 10, 2009| 2 Comments »

by Pink Lady

Along with several other LUPEC ladies, I spent 5 days in July pickling myself at the Tales of the Cocktail festival in New Orleans. Instead of heading home after so much debauchery, I continued my trip over to the Left Coast where my high school bestie’s wedding was scheduled for the following weekend. For future reference, I would NOT recommend tacking another whole week of boozy travel on to the week after Tales, unless you have a liver the size of Texas. That said, my travels introduced me to a whole new world of Left Coast libations of which I was thrilled to partake. The adventure included a night of bar-hopping in Seattle to check out the Zig Zag Cafe and meet living legend, Murray Stenson, followed by several drinks at the ultra-sleek cocktail venue Vessel, Tini Biggs for a visit with blogger/bartender Jamie Boudreau, and last call at Sun Liquor. (Special thanks to my lovely tour guides, Rocky and Kevin.)

After a one-evening break (which involved sipping rose instead of cocktails), I headed to Portland, Oregon, where I was shepherded from train station to nail salon to dinner in a whirlwind of bachelorette party madness. I’m typically wary of bachelorette parties – penis straws and screaming girls wearing identical tee-shirts and over-sexualized pieces of flair are just not my thing. I circumvented silliness this time by planning the party myself.

Perhaps against his better judgment, PDX bartender Dave Shenaut invited me to bring the ladies to the Teardrop Lounge. The venue is a classy place, not one I’d typically bring a gaggle of drunk, screaming girls into, but Dave insisted it would be the best place to take our group. He arranged for there to be pitchers of cocktails waiting for us on the table they’d reserved, allowing me to introduce the group to the deliciousness that is the Hemingway Daiquiri. Each pitcher was cooled with meticulously carved special ice: one held two perfectly round balls, the other contained the obligatory phallus. As we imbibed, they played the bride’s all-time favorite movie on the screens above the bar, Dirty Dancing. Around 11:30, just as the busy evening crescendoed, the lounge-y background music suddenly stopped, supplanted for a few glorious minutes by this song/scene from Dirty Dancing. The ladies – and some other awesome bar guests – sang along.

To outside observers, especially jaded restaurant industry vets like myself, the drunk, screaming bachelorette party can seem insufferable…until all of a sudden you’re inside the lady explosion. Then it can be fun. Thanks to Dave and our good friends at the Teardrop Lounge, I think it’s safe to say: the bride had the time of her life.

HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI

1.25 oz white rum

.25 oz maraschino liqueur

.5 oz fresh grapefruit

.75 oz simple syrup

.75 oz fresh lime juice

Shake with ice; strain into a chilled vintage cocktail glass.

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