Veneziano Sprizzzissimo - ready made for Italian memories

When Negroni cocktails show up on tap at bars, are ready-made cocktails then the next big trend in drinks? Sure you could make cocktails yourself, but for busy professionals coming home from a 10-hour work day, maybe all you want to do is crack a bottle of gin and tonic already perfectly mixed and chilled.

Veneziano Sprizzzissimo (was Sprizzissimo with only 2 zs already taken?) is just such a ready-made drink. Spritz is the official cocktail of Venice and enjoyed in much of northern Italy. There are some different variations of this drink, but typically it's simply Prosecco mixed with a bitter liqueur like Aperol or sometimes Campari.

Sprizzzissimo is exactly that - an Italian cocktail of Prosecco mixed with a bitter liqueur, though there's no mention of Aperol or Campari on the bottle, so it's probably some Aperol-like spirit. This cocktail is an excellent summer aperitif served nicely chilled from the refrigerator. It's fairly dry, with notes of orange and spice in the finish, and lots of bubbles to lighten up any evening. A real plus is that it's quite low in alcohol - only 6.5%. That's a good thing because this bottle will only last a few nights before the bubbles fade. The distributor recommends serving it on ice, but I didn't find it necessary.

So you can fly to Venice to enjoy this cocktail, or pick up a bottle (found at Central Market in Shoreline) for $15 and enjoy a taste of Venice at home.

Limoncello roundup 2: Bellini and Alberti

Before I review these limoncellos, I want to bid a fond farewell to Danny Devito's Limoncello which has gone defunct. In my opinion, Danny Devito's was by far the best of the commercially produced limoncellos (see my reviews comparing it to Black Heron and Finamoré). It's quite sad to see it disappear. RIP Danny Devito's Limoncello.

So now the search is on for a comparable replacement. Spoiler alert: neither of these are it. Both of these limoncellos are supposedly naturally colored since it doesn't mention any FD&C yellow on the label, though they both seem a bit more yellow than natural. Both are 30% alcohol. Both are from Italy. Unfortunately it's in the flavor that they fall short.

Albertini has a distinct soapy flavor to it, as if they purchased some lemon essence from a liquid detergent company. It's really only good for using in cocktail recipes. You should be able to sip a limoncello, so this bottle is not worth getting, in my opinion.

The Bellini is definitely better. The lemon flavor is pretty good, though there's a slight bitter edge to it and it finishes with a hint of soap in the finish as well. But overall, it's an okay limoncello at a pretty good price (about $17.00). 

Both limoncellos are available at Total Wine in Bellevue and online.  

Nuvo Lemon Sorbet - Your BFF liqueur

Only the hippest people drink Nuvo. From Jamie Foxx to Kris Humphries, Nuvo is promoted by the beautiful and popular. Nuvo clearly considers itself the Kim Kardashian of liqueurs, describing itself as a "lifestyle choice for trendy individuals." Nuvo was specifically created and marketed to appeal to women as a luxury brand, which meant that it needed to be fruitier, lighter and sweeter than say a bourbon or straight vodka.Nuvo came out initially with a passion-infused liqueur, then in 2011 released their Lemon Sorbet liqueur

All of this emphasis on being hip makes you wonder if this Lemon Sorbet liqueur is as superficial as a Paris Hilton, but surprisingly, this liqueur is really good. Dangerously tasty, in fact. It's made with French white wine and sparkling wine, a little vodka and lemon and other flavors. Its claim to uniqueness is that it has a little carbonation in it that adds a bit of sparkle to the liqueur.  The lemon and wine flavors provide a nice counterbalance to the initial sweetness, and there's a real feeling of sophistication in this spirit. It's only too easy to keep sipping the Lemon Sorbet, which is why my bottle only lasted a few weeks. It's just as well since the carbonation does fade a bit over time, though even after about 3 weeks you could still notice it tickling the tongue ever so slightly.

Lemon Sorbet is an ideal summer-time sipping liqueur. There are no cocktail recipes of note for it, but really, there's no need. Pop this liqueur into your refrigerator and enjoy on a hot day. In Washington, you can find it at Wine World and Spirits and Total Wine.

Galliano - Italian liqueur that needs a reset

Galliano has a lovely history and appealing flavor, but in some ways it's been trapped as an ingredient in the once popular 1950s/60s cocktail - the Harvey Wallbanger. While this simplistic cocktail (orange juice mixed with vodka with a little Galliano floated on top) was fine for that era, it's a cocktail that hasn't aged well and is seldom found on any drink list in today's creative cocktail milieu. Galliano is likewise seldom found as an ingredient in cocktail recipes, which is a shame.

Galliano was created in 1896 in Italy, though currently it's produced in France, and it's named after an Italian war hero. It's made up of about 30 herbs and spices, and it has a sweet mild anise flavor with spice in the finish. It's quite tasty as a sipper, but it's good that it comes in a 375 ml bottle since it could take a while to finish it. I've only found one good recipe that uses Galliano (from Food & Wine Cocktails, 2010) and my adaption of it is below.

Mistral
1 1/2 oz lemon vodka
1/2 oz Lillet (or Dubonnet blanc)
1/2 oz Galliano
1/2 oz limoncello
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
1 orange twist

Muddle the orange twist, then shake everything with ice.

Sortilège - take a liqueur to breakfast

For all of you who have suffered drinking Canadian whiskys like Crown Royal, here's finally a product that makes good use of those whiskys. La Maison Des Futailles in Montreal came up with the brilliant idea of adding maple syrup to Canadian whisky, thereby creating a liqueur that is quite delightful and throughly Canadian. There's a hint of whisky in the nose, but when you take a sip, you're transported to an interesting intersection of nostalgia for pancakes doused with dark, flavorful grade B maple syrup and the more adult world of whisky. Actually, it tends more toward the breakfasty side of things since Sortilège is fairly sweet and the whisky notes quite mild.

The origin of this liqueur remains somewhat of a mystery because the La Maison Des Futailles makes little mention of it on their website (aside from selling it along with a number of wines). Supposedly the idea of combining whisky and maple syrup has been around in Canada for hundreds of years, though La Maison refined the process to provide a good mix of both products. The alcohol level is a manageable 30%, and this product is most flavorful when drunk at room temperature. There aren't many cocktail recipes for this liqueur (beside the ubiquitous adding it to coffee), but then this spirit is really for sipping. This product isn't cheap (around $25 for a 375ML bottle) but enjoyable enough to be worth the price. Since Washington state is in the midst of privatization of liquor stores, Sortilège is only available at a couple of Western Washington stores. I image though that it will pop up more frequently once the private liquor stores get going.

Bitter Truth Pimento Dram - allspice liqueur

Those not familiar with this liqueur may find the name somewhat misleading, at least initially. Pimento dram? The first thing that came to my mind was the red pepper plug traditionally stuffed into olives, and not being a big olive fan, I passed over this liqueur a number of times until I looked closely at the label and noticed that it was an allspice liqueur made in Germany. Turns out that pimento is the traditional name of the allspice berry in the West Indies where this liqueur originated.

The taste of this liqueur is quite spicy, with some molasses notes to help offsite the strong allspice flavor (which, as per the name, tastes a bit like a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves or "all spices"). Allspice liqueur aficionados have been making this spirit on their own for quite a while since the essential ingredients are fairly straight-forward: crushed allspice berries infused with rum and sugar. Bitter Truth's version is quite nice, though I would say that it's better as a cocktail ingredient than for sipping. Bitter Truth (a German company that specializes in creating bitters) has a few cocktails on their website, but none of them looked particularly compelling. The cocktail below by Ted Haigh (published in Imbibe magazine) strikes me as more interesting.

Lion's Tail
2 oz bourbon
1/2 oz Pimento Dram
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Pimento Dram is available at a few Seattle-centric liquor stores, though since the Washington liquor stores will be closing end of May, you may need to wait until the new private stores are opened to find it.

Campari - an Italian classic

Campari is not a lesser known liqueur. It's available all over the world in over 190 countries from Azerbaijan (definitely a lesser known country!) to Yemen. There's even a Campari iPhone app where you can mix a drink and have a beautiful woman tell you if you were up to her standards.

But curiously, Campari still seems to be somewhat of an outsider in American tastes. As master mixologist Dale DeGroff describes it in "The Essential Cocktail," Americans tend to make the classic "ick" face when trying a drink that features a bitter aperitif such as Campari "whose flavors differs so strongly from the sweet soda-pop flavors on which we're raised." With the cocktail renaissance America has experienced in the last 10 years, there's also been a resurgence of interest in traditional spirits like Campari, and Campari is truly a must-have cocktail staple in any bar - home or retail. But its bitter flavor will surely prevent it from ever becoming the darling of the vodka and soda crowd.

Bitter, in fact, is even inscribed in beautiful calligraphy on the label, in case you were in any doubt of the flavor of Campari. Campari was developed by Gaspare Campari in 1862 in Milan. It's made up of 86 ingredients, but only the president of the company knows the full list of ingredients. At one time it was colored by carmine dye which is derived from crushed cochineal insects, though I suspect they no longer use it since FDA regulations require it to be listed on a label.

So how bitter is Campari? Well, it is an acquired taste, but it's not as bitter as Zwack, for instance because it's an aperitif and not a medicinal bitter. In fact, it's often drunk in Italy with just soda water or lemonade (and even comes in a premixed bottles called CampariSoda). It has a distinct bitter orange flavor, with notes of rhubarb and quinine.

There are any number of classic and new cocktail recipes that use Campari. I've included the quintessential Negroni, which is a great cocktail to order if you're ever in an unknown bar and are unsure of the quality of their drinks. I've also included a recipe just created for the 10th anniversary of the Tales of the Cocktail festival in New Orleans.

Negroni (adapted from The Essential Cocktail)

1 oz Campari
1 oz Italian sweet vermouth
1 oz gin

Combine and shake or stir. Garnish with orange peel if desire

A Telling Tale (created by Chris Hannah and found in Imbibe Magazine, May/June 2012)
2 oz bourbon
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz grenadine
7 mint leaves
1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
2 oz sparking wine
Combine all ingredients except the sparking wine and shake with ice cubes. Strain into an ice-filled wine glass and top with sparking wine. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Campari can easily be found throughout Washington state.

Dimmi - Italian romance in a bottle

There certainly seems to be some overheated rhetoric around Dimmi. Reading the reviews feels at times like you're reading a trashy novel. Lots of comments like "lightweight, velvety textured body" or "soft gentle entry" or "speaks softly in liquid Italian, with the fashionable elegance of a Milanese and the country charm of a Piemontese." Phew. Dimmi must be a real bodice ripper of a drink.

I'll take a more of a "just the facts" approach made famous by Jack Webb in Dragnet. Dimmi is an Italian (Milan) spirit that was developed in 2005 and is based on an old vermouth recipe that includes ingredients such as bitter orange, ginseng, rhubarb and a bit of grappa. It's also infused with apricot and peach blossoms. Taste-wise, it starts off with flavors of vanilla, watermelon and some spiciness and finishes on a lingering floral and apricot note. It's quite nice, not too sweet or too dry, and can make a nice sipping liqueur.

One cocktail recipe I find intriguing is the Culture Club (adapted from Post Prohibition)

2 oz Dimmi,
1 oz Pisco
1/2 oz Lillet
Couple dashes orange bitters
Shake (or stir) with ice and serve

An odd note about Dimmi is that its website seems to have gone dark. I hope this isn't an indication of its future. In any case, there are still a number of places to get it around Seattle.

Incidentally, the bottle isn't empty - the liqueur is just clear.

VeeV Acai Spirit - interesting concept but not an interesting taste

There's a lot going for this spirit. It's made from acai, a Brazilian berry that has 57% more antioxidants than pomegranate (though I do wonder if any of those antioxidants actually survive the distillation process). It's part of an eco-friendly company that's carbon neutral. They even donate a $1 for every bottle sold to the acai farmers. Plus it was rated one of the top 500 fastest growing U.S. companies in 2011 (number 242 if you want to be exact), with over 2 million in sales. It makes you really want to rave about this liqueur.

Unfortunately, even though I really wanted to like this liqueur, it's just not very interesting. It's like the fact of this "exotic" spirit being distilled in Idaho - it all sounds very exciting but in the end you find yourself on a dusty, nondescript road in the middle of nowhere. Honestly, VeeV (note the extra cool capital letter at the end of the word) tastes like a somewhat sweet vodka with some mild cherry notes in the finish. It's fairly bland and as an ingredient would certainly get buried in any cocktail, providing little in terms of taste. The VeeV website provides some cocktail recipes, but I can't image any of them being very distinctive. So if you're going to buy this bottle, buy it for the antioxidants (taking it on faith that they would actually help you), buy it because you want to help the farmers in Brazil, or buy it because you're from Idaho and know that this is about as good as you're going to get in terms of Idahoan spirits. Just don't expect it to be very exciting.

VeeV can be found at liquor stores across Washington.

Soft Tail Grappa - from the ridiculous to the sublime (or at least pretty good)

The Soft Tail distillery must have thought that their product was golden because it was like breaking into Fort Knox to get into this bottle. It has not one, but two coats of plastic wax over the cork, and it took about five minutes of hacking away with a knife before I was finally able to uncork it (see photo).

Luckily, the product is pretty decent. Grappa is made from grape pomace which is the pulp left over after grapes have been squeezed to make wine. One has to admire the ingenuity of those early European winemakers who wasted nothing in their efforts to make more alcohol. Soft Tail is distilled using traditional Portuguese copper stills in Woodinville, WA from sangiovese pomace. Grappa can often be quite harsh, but this is fairly smooth with some nice fruitiness to it. It also won a silver medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2010. The nude with her backside turned to you on the label (presumably alluding to the Soft Tail name) tilts things back to the ridiculous again, but the quality of the product helps to overcome these idiosyncrasies. 

Soft Tail Sangiovese Grappa is available at only a few Seattle stores.

Danziger Goldwasser - there's gold in them thar spirits

There's a lot of gold leaf in Danziger Goldwasser. In fact, with gold prices over $1700 an ounce, one is almost tempted to filter the gold out to see how much it's worth. But a quick look at edible gold leaf prices tells you that you're better off drinking it rather than trying to get rich off of it.

Original Danziger Goldwasser was created in 1598 (listed eleven times on the bottle so you don't miss it) in the German town of Danzig (present day Gdansk in Poland). It was supposedly a favorite drink of royals everywhere, including the Sun King - Louis XIV. While the exact recipe is secret, it has around 20 ingredients including herbs and spices such as cardamom, coriander, juniper, cinnamon, lavender, cloves, anise, peppermint and thyme. It's surprisingly smooth for an 80 proof alcohol with a good balance of sweet and spicy and a mild finish accented by notes of licorice, lavender and cloves.

While the taste of Goldwasser is quite nice, it's the gold flakes that make this spirit so appealing. There's something fascinating about shaking the bottle and watching the gold sink delicately back to the bottom. It feels quite luxurious actually. Gold was added to this spirit in 1598 because 16th century doctors believed that gold had metaphysical and healing powers. To quote Paracelsus, a 16th century scientist/alchemist "[gold] serves to fortify and cleanse [the human heart] from all impurities." I can't vouch for the healing properties of gold (outside of its wallet healing capabilities) but it's harmless to drink.

About the only Goldwasser cocktail recipe I've come across that was remotely interesting is called the Golden Fleece.

Golden Fleece
1 oz Goldwasser
1 1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse
Shake with ice and strain into a glass.

Danzinger Goldwasser is about as rare as gold in Washington since there are only a few bottles available at the 4th Ave store in Seattle.

Bärenjäger - like drinking liquid honey

Time for some more umlauts, though with Bärenjäger Honey Liqueur, they're at least real since this German liqueur has been around since the 15th century. The story is that Bärenjäger (translated as bear hunter) was based on a mead-like moonshine that hunters used to lure bears. Bärenjäger's label captures that idea with the poor bear falling into a trap laid by the hunter hiding behind the figurative bee hive. Don't do it bear - run away!

Ah well. So much for 15th century values. Honestly, Bärenjäger isn't worth falling into a trap for, though it's not a bad liqueur. It's very sweet, and tastes like liquid honey with a very slight spicy finish that belies that 35% alcohol of this liqueur. The recipe is supposed to be secret, but many Germans make their own honey liqueur, so most likely the ingredients are similar to home recipes which contain cloves, vanilla, good quality honey and vodka. It has a wonderfully whimsical bottle design with a beehive for a cap and woven straw wraparound. Even their website is cleverly done with buzzing bees providing menu options (though there isn't much content - maybe they spent all their marketing money on the bees?).

Bärenjäger is often drunk neat, though Teucke & Koenig ( Bärenjäger producers) recommend you drink it cold. They've also been trying to entice bartenders to use it more in innovative drinks by sponsoring competitions. I actually had a really good barrel aged cocktail at Tavern Law recently which featured Bärenjäger. Here's one recipe that I've tasted which, while not up to the Tavern Law standard, is still pretty good.

Bee Hive

• 1 oz Bärenjäger
• 1 oz whiskey (rye works nicely)
• 1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice

Shake together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Bärenjäger is widely available in Washington state.

Plymouth Sloe Gin - finally some high quality sloe gin

Ahh, the halcyon days of college when a roommate decided to get fancy and make a Singapore Sling cocktail. His recipe included sloe gin, powdered sugar, 7-Up and other stuff which I can't recall. It was bright red and tasted like high-octane Kool-aid with a bit of a nasty finish (especially if you drank too much of it!).

That was my only encounter with sloe gin until recently when I came across Plymouth Sloe Gin. Plymouth's regular gin is quite tasty, so I took a chance and brought this bottle to see if sloe gin had improved over the years. And indeed it has. This sloe gin is nothing like the cheap, excessively sweet, cough syrup stuff that is usually found on the bottom shelves of liquor stores. Plymouth uses a recipe from 1883 which infuses the sloe berry (a type of bitter plum) with their Plymouth gin, some sugar and water. The result is a tart yet sweet drink with a hint of almond in the finish. In Britain, sloe gin is often drunk in small glasses during winter months, a bit like port.

As for that Singapore Sling cocktail? Turns out that using sloe gin is a somewhat rarer variant of the drink. Most Slings use cherry brandy. But here are a couple of recipes which do a better job of featuring sloe gin (by which I mean the good quality stuff like Plymouth).

Gin Lane (adapted from 2008 Food and Wine Cocktails)
2 lemon wedges
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
1 oz gin
1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1/2 oz Cointreau

Muddle lemon wedges with bitters. Add the rest of the ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a martini glass.

Here's another recipe which I'd like to try just because it has a great name. It was popular in London in the 1990s.

Wibble
1 ounce gin
1 ounce Plymouth Sloe Gin
½ ounce crème de cassis
1 ounce fresh grapefruit juice
½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice.
Shake with ice and strain into a glass.

Plymouth Sloe Gin is found in a number of Seattle liquor stores.

Pür Geist Bierbrand and Pür Likör Spice- a German liqueur invasion

Pür Spirits wants you to be drinking German, and they're going all out in their marketing efforts to convert you. Starting with their name, Pür follows in the footsteps of Mötley Crüe (which first recognized the coolness of completely unnecessary umlauts) and added their own umlaut to the German word for pure to garner that extra bit of hipness. Next came a Facebook page and fancy website. They then hit the cocktail and award circuit (winning some medals in the 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition) while also trying to get into all the right kind of magazines.

Luckily, Pür spirits are at least quite interesting, making their marketing manuevering feel more earnest than strident. All of the Pür spirits come in thin, very stylish bottles that make them stand out. The Pür Geist Bierbrand and  Pür Likör Spice are two of the more recent releases of the 6 varieties they produce. The Bierbrand is especially unusual, being distilled from Märzen beer, a lager that is aged in a chestnut cask. It's quite light and delicate, with a nice malty, even fruity flavor with a hint of yeast in the finish. Pür likens it to Scotch, though it's much more mellow.

Pür Likör Spice is a blood orange liqueur that smells of cloves and cinnamon. It tastes a lot like a very good mulled wine with plenty of spice and a smooth orangey finish. It's only 25% alcohol as compared to 42% for the Bierbrand.

Both alcohols are quite good just sipping by themselves, though Pür has done an excellent job of compiling cocktail recipes that are customized for their spirits. I've included two that I thought looked especially tasty (and have linked to the cocktail listings)

The Purity of her Principles by A.J. Rathbun, author of 'Good Spirits'

• 1½ oz Pür Geist Bierbrand
• 1 oz Benedictine
• ½ oz freshly squeezed orange juice
• dash of Regan's orange bitters

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice cubes. Add all of the ingredients. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Modern Negroni by Pete Gowdy, Bottle Cap, San Francisco

• 1 ½ oz Plymouth Gin
• 1 oz Pür Likör Spice
• 1 oz Dolin sweet vermouth

Stir or shake with ice and serve up.

Both products are mainly found in the Seattle area.

Local holiday spirits: Mud Puddle Chocolate and Holiday Spiced Liqueur

Both of these spirits come from distilleries on Portland's distillery row, a destination well worth visiting if you ever find yourself in Oregon. All of the 5 distilleries offer tastings of their wares which range from gin and rum to various liqueurs. Deco Distilling makes rum, infused and otherwise, and I thought the Holiday Spiced Liqueur was the best of the bunch. It has much of the same flavor characteristics of mulled wine (though in this case it's mulled rum), with cinnamon, cloves, allspice and other typical mulling spices. Sugar is also added to provide a slightly sweet base. It's a lovely sipping liqueur that evokes an evening of sitting by a Christmas tree watching a fire in the fireplace. It's only available at the distillery for a limited time, though I image that it'll show up annually if it sells well.

Somewhat more sophisticated is Mud Puddle Chocolate from New Deal Distillery. This distillery likes experimenting with creating a wide variety of alcohols from infused vodkas to gin to various liqueurs (many of which don't seem to be listed on their website). The Mud Puddle Chocolate is a heady blast of bitter chocolate that fans of dark chocolate will love. New Deal created Mud Puddle by infusing their own distilled vodka with cocoa beans. No sugar is added, so it's not sweet at all, but the flavor is incredible. This isn't strictly a holiday spirit since it's available all year, but it fits in well with the season. It's available at a number of Western Washington liquor stores.

Pear brandy - Clear Creek (Oregon brandy) versus F. Meyer (from France)

A fruit brandy is often also called an eau-de-vie (literally water of life). In the old days it might also have been called schnapps, but certain American liquor companies appropriated the name for their sugary spirit concoctions designed more for loosening inhibitions rather than good flavor (think root beer schapps).

In any case, a fruit brandy is simply a clear alcohol distilled from fermented fruit. You can make fruit brandy from virtually any fruit, though pear is probably one of the more popular fruit brandies since the pear's high sugar content makes it easier to distill a good tasting alcohol. Real fruit brandies haven't really caught on in America because they're quite strong and don't have any sugar added, which is why most good brandies come from Europe.

Clear Creek is the exception to that rule since they're the preeminent distiller of fruit brandies in the U.S. Located in Portland, Oregon, Clear Creek has been distilling brandies according to European traditions for over 26 years. They make a wide variety of spirits, though pear brandy is one of their more popular brands. They make the "how-do-they-do that?" pear in the bottle brandy as well, though in my mind the pear takes up valuable space that could be better filled with more brandy. In any case, they've won numerous awards for their various spirits.

F. Meyer has been distilling since 1956 and is one of the most highly honored distilleries in France. So how do the Clear Creek and the F. Meyer compare to each other? Both use Bartlett pears, so both have similar flavor characteristics. They both have a wonderful pear smell, with the Clear Creek having a stronger, sweeter smell that evokes the taste of the best pear you've ever eaten. The F. Meyer brandy has a slightly sweeter taste to it, but a bit more of fiery finish since it's slightly higher in alcohol (45% as compared to Clear Creek's 40%). Both are fairly mild, though those who haven't tried a fruit brandy before might still find the taste fairly alcoholic. It's an acquired taste that's definitely worth acquiring!

In the end, they're both excellent examples of good quality pear brandy. I'd probably lean toward the Clear Creek since it's local and cheaper, but if you can't get the Clear Creek, you can't go wrong with the F. Meyer eau-de-vie. Quality brandies like this should probably be drunk neat rather than mixed. Try a glass after dinner sometime. It makes for a wonderful adult dessert.

Both brandies are only found at a few stores in Seattle.

Snap - like drinking a spicy gingersnap

Snap isn't the first liqueur to use cookies as its inspiration - Lazzaroni Amaretto is a delicious amaretto infused with macaroons - but it is probably one of the first that features many of the ingredients of a cookie, as if you were baking up a batch of alcohol instead of cookies. In this case, Snap is baking up gingersnaps, and its ingredients list reads like a cookbook recipe: blackstrap molasses, cloves, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, rooibos tea and vanilla.

Snap was inspired by the German lebkuchen, so its more spicy than sweet. It has an aroma of cloves and vanilla, is fairly dry, and finishes with a bite, just like a good gingersnap. I think it's probably better as a cocktail ingredient than a sipper on its own. It was developed by the multimedia design firm Art in the Age, released last year in Pennsylvania and has now expanded its reach to Washington. You can view a well-done video on the Snap site about how and why Snap was created.

Imbibe magazine recently wrote an article about Snap which included a few cocktail recipes (not listed online). Here's one that looks quite promising.

Three-Hour Tour

1 oz gin

1/2 oz Calvados

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1/2 oz Snap

1 dash simple syrup.

Shake with ice and serve

Snap also comes with a small booklet with recipes. I really liked the taste and simplicity of the Snap Happy cocktail

1 1/2 oz Snap

1 1/2 oz bourbon

Shake with ice and serve.

Snap is found mostly in Seattle, though with the new Washington State law that disbands the state liquor stores, it may be harder to find in the coming months until retail outlets and/or grocery stores decide if they'll carry it.

Alto del Carmen Pisco Reservado - Chilean brandy

Pisco is grape brandy that's made in either Chile or Peru. Interestingly, while both countries have been making pisco for over a century, the style produced by each country varies quite a bit ranging from color (Peruvian pisco is clear, Chilean yellowish) to the types of grapes used. There's some national pride wrapped around each country's pisco, so it's probably not a good idea to order a Peruvian pisco in a Chilean bar or vice versa.

The Alto del Carmen is Chilean and is classified as a reserve pisco, which means that it tends to be more alcoholic (40%) and stronger in taste than regular pisco which doesn't have a particularly strong flavor. The Muscat grape is predominantly used, providing notes of perfume and spicy fruit. It tends to be sweeter than traditional brandies.

The most common cocktail made from pisco is the Pisco Sour, a classic cocktail that's been around since pre-prohibition days. I've included a Pisco Sour recipe from "Bottoms Up," a wonderfully saucy book by Ted Saucier that was published in 1951 and contains hundreds of cocktail recipes along with pinup girls and poetry. Since I'm not a fan of egg whites in my drink, I've also included a more modern recipe from the 2006 Food & Wine cocktail book.

"Bottoms Up" artwork sample

Pisco Sour from "Bottoms Up"
1 1/2 oz pisco
Juice 1/2 lemon (about 3/4 oz)
1 tsp sugar (though I would substitute 1 oz simple syrup rather than use sugar)
1 egg white
Shake well with ice.


Vermouth Sin Nombre from Food & Wine 2006
1/2 lime, quartered
1 1/4 orange wheels (1/4 is used for garnish)
3/4 oz simple syrup (in a small jar, shake half sugar and half water until sugar is dissolved)
2 oz pisco
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz fresh orange juice
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the lime with 1 orange wheel and the simple syrup.  Shake the rest of the ingredients with ice and strain into a crushed ice-filled glass.

Alto del Carmen pisco can be found state-wide.

Liquore Strega - inspirational for lovers and witches

While Strega is Italian for "witch," this Italian liqueur was initially marketed as a love potion back in the 1860s when it was first conceived. Supposedly, when two people drink Strega together, they are united forever. So forget the roses for that special someone - go for a bottle of Strega instead. Of course, the united forever part of the equation also has its hazards, so choose carefully with whom you share this liqueur.

For those of you not interested in drinking this as a love potion, you'll find that it's a quite pleasant sipping liqueur. It's made from about 70 different herbs and spices including cinnamon, orris root, juniper, and mint. Saffron is used to color it a light yellow. It's soft and smooth, with a nice complexity to its sweet and bitter disposition. It's meant to be drunk as a digestif over ice or simply by itself. Plus it comes in a lovely bottle with wonderfully old-fashioned labels.

There aren't a lot of cocktails that use Strega, but I did comes across this one from the 2010 Manhattan Cocktail Classic that looks like it's worth trying.

Love Potion #44
(created by Paul Zablocki)
2 oz. Rittenhouse rye
1 oz. Carpano Antica vermouth (I suspect it would work fine with Punt e Mes vermouth too, which is cheaper than Antica)
1/2 oz. Strega
Shake or stir with ice

Strega is available at a decent number of Western Washington liquor stores.

Cynar - artichoke liqueur

Cynar is proof that almost anything can be used to make alcohol. Someone must have tried eating an artichoke and thought that it would be way better as a drink. Of course, that could be true of a lot of things.

Cynar is essentially a light-weight amaro (only 16.5% alcohol) that has been infused with the essence of artichokes along with 13 other botanical ingredients. It starts off sweet and ends with a bitter herbal note. It's made in Italy and is traditionally drunk neat or with soda water.

I find it a tad bitter for drinking straight. A number of cocktail aficionados have begun using it in cocktails, though I think it's definitely a second or third tier staple because there aren't really a lot of recipes for it. If you buy a bottle, be sure to keep it in the refrigerator to preserve it since it's so low alcohol and you'll probably be storing it for a long time. It is, of course, fun to serve this to guests as a novelty item and watch them furrow their brows at the thought of drinking artichoke liqueur.

Here's a quite pleasant cocktail recipe adapted from the book Food and Wine Cocktails 2006 which has a nice twist of bitter and sweet, with the emphasis on bitter.

Amer Mousseux

1 oz Cynar

1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz fresh orange juice

3 oz chilled Champagne

Shake the first 3 ingredients with ice, pour into a glass or flute and top with the champage. If you're feeling fancy, add an orange twist.

Cynar is available at a decent number of stores state-wide, though only in the 1 liter size.

Counter Gin, Batch 206 - trying to create a new style

Here's another Washington gin that's just come out,  though it's distilled in Portland, Oregon rather than in Washington. They're attempting to redesign the typical English dry gin and move away from juniper to other botanical flavors such as verbena, tarragon, lavender, cucumber and orange peel (the other ingredients in the gin). The "counter" in the title stands for them being counter to other gins, which is why, I guess, they have superimposed an image of a corsett on a Victorian gentleman on their label. That could make for an interesting marketing campaign: Counter Gin - the cross-dresser of gins.

Unfortunately, sometimes when you actively try to work against an established style, you're reminded more of what's missing rather than feeling like you're trying something new. Counter Gin tastes at first like a somewhat bland gin that needs more juniper. Subsequent tastings (and reading what the disillery's intentions were for creating this gin) helped me appreciate this gin a little more, but usually I just ended up with a hankering after a Broker's or other English gin.

Counter Gin is available at select liquor stores in the greater Seattle area, while Broker's Gin (a current favorite) is available state-wide.

Update: I just tried a cocktail at a local restaurant which used Counter Gin in a version of a Negroni which featured Aperol and amaro rather than vermouth and Campari. Unfortunately, Counter Gin was too mild and got lost in the mix. I tried the same recipe at home with Broker's (1 ounce of each spirit) and found the cocktail much improved, with the juniper in Broker's adding some additional complexity to the drink. Counter Gin is probably best in drinks that don't feature strong ingredients or as simply a sipping gin.

Limoncello roundup - Averna, Pallini and more

The sunny skies outside tell me it's still limoncello drinking weather, so I thought I'd do one more post about limoncello to help you buy the right bottle. Since Danny DeVito's (the best limoncello in my opinion) isn't available in Washington State, I thought it worth a quick evaluation of the rest.

First, one more tasting review. I recently purchased a bottle of the Averna Limoni di Sicilia, thinking that since Averna is a decent label, they'd make good limoncello. I was sadly mistaken. It smells like Crystal Lemonade Light and has a strange citrus taste that doesn't have any of the snap of good limoncello.

So with that final taste test out the way, my list of limoncellos generally available in Washington state are, in order of quality, as follows:

1. Finamoré (see my previous review)
2. Pallini  - while artificially colored, this is still a nice, medium-bodied limoncello with low alcohol (26%). Imbibe magazine recently reviewed a number of limoncellos, and gave Pallini 3 1/2 stars (out of 5), describing it as a "well-balance limoncello that fares well as a digestif or in cocktails." The Imbibe limoncello reviews are unfortunately not online, otherwise I'd link to them.
3. Gioia Luisa Lemoncello and Caravella - Neither are particularly exciting. Imbibe reviews Caravella as needing more depth and balance and gives it only 2 1/2 stars. The Gioia is probably a better bet.
4. Black Heron (see my previous review - it's not worth getting)

There are a few other bottles of limoncello available at miscellaneous stores which may be of better quality. So for instance, the Luxardo and Russo limoncello are both quite good, but are only available at 4 or 5 stores. I particularly liked the Russo since it's not artificially colored and has a nice balance of sweet and tart flavors.

Bols Advocaat - egg liqueur that's hard to like

So I like eggs. I like eggs over easy, scrambled eggs, eggs on toast, hard boiled eggs, egg salad, eggnog, and even eggs on pizza. But advocaat (egg liqueur) is one of the few liqueurs that I simply don't like. I can't even find a single cocktail recipe to make it palatable.

A number of countries make egg liqueur. Bols from Holland is one of the more venerable institutions producing advocaat, but you can find other examples of egg liqueur in Washington State such as Santa Clara Rompope liqueur from Mexico.

Bols Advocaat is made with fresh egg yolks, sugar and alcohol (the exact recipe being a closely guarded secret), and is low in alcohol at only 15%. It's artificially colored and looks a lot like eggnog. It's even thick like eggnog. Unfortunately, it tastes like a fermented omelet.

From the moment I opened this bottle, I knew that I'd need to find a cocktail recipe that would mask its taste because there was no way I could stomach drinking it neat. So I tried a classic recipe of advocaat, cherry liqueur and orange juice, but found it tasted like smearing cherry jam on a fermented omelet with orange juice splashed on to muddle everything up. In desperation I tried other recipes, even making up my own, but nothing worked.

So now the bottle sits on my shelf, virtually the only alcohol I've tried that I found simply undrinkable. Obviously there are a number of people out there who like advocaat since the liquor stores wouldn't carry it if it didn't sell. I'd be happy to give away my bottle to a good home, but fear that it'll eventually end up down the drain instead. If you're into fermented omelets, you can find Bols Advocaat at close to a dozen western Washington liquor store locations.

Briottet Crème de Cassis - classic French blackcurrant liqueur

Crème de cassis is a quintessential French liqueur which was developed in the early 1800s. Most of it's produced in Burgundy, with Dijon being the epicenter of high quality cassis production. Cassis is produced by macerating blackcurrant berries in alcohol and then adding sugar which seems relatively straightforward until you've tasted good and poor quality cassis and recognize that the devil is the details (type of berry used, how it's processed, etc.). Colored a beautiful deep purple-red, cassis has an intensely sweet taste with a lovely tartness to the finish.

Avoid buying the cheap cassis and go for a quality producer like Edmond Briottet or Guyot. The bottle can last a long time, so you may as well be sipping the good stuff rather than choking down cough-syrupy alcohol. Crème de cassis is only 20% alcohol, so it's imperative to refrigerate it once opened to preserve it. While some say it's only good for 3 to 5 months once opened, I've kept a bottle in the fridge for a year or more with little noticeable difference in the taste.

Besides sipping and pretending you're Hercule Poirot, Crème de cassis is also great for getting rid of that cheap bottle of champagne someone left at your last New Year's Eve party. The two most famous cocktails that are made with Crème de cassis are Kir and Kir Royale, both essentially the same recipe except that Kir uses white wine and Kir Royale uses champagne.

Kir or Kir Royale

1/2 oz Crème de Cassis

Wine or champagne to fill a typical wine glass. Adjust amount of wine as necessary depending on if you want it sweeter or dryer.

It's best to use a dry white wine with high acidity. A Frenchman once said to me that Kir must be made with Aligoté,  but since it's hard to find that type of wine in Washington, a crisp, dry wine works fine. For champagne, any dry or Brut champagne will do.

The Briottet Crème de Cassis is mostly found at the better Seattle liquor stores (4th Ave, University Village, Queen Anne).

Pernod - anise liqueur and poor quality absinthe substitute

Pernod is a pastis (French, licorice-flavored aperitif) that managed to survive the decades-long ban on absinthe because it removed thujone from its recipe. Absinthe was banned in the U.S. in 1912 because it was thought that it caused hallucinations and physical impairment, though research has now concluded that factors such as high alcohol content, poor-quality alcohol, over indulgence and other factors were probably much more to blame than thujone. Consequently in 2007, absinthe became legal in the U.S. again, albeit with a strictly controlled limit on thujone in the alcohol. This has lead to a huge proliferation of absinthe labels available in the U.S. as well as much interest among distilleries in creating American absinthe.

So where does this leave Pernod? It still seems to be quite popular, and in Washington state, it's available at most liquor stores. I'm just not sure why though since Pernod is really a poor substitute for many better anise liqueur products. It is artificially colored green rather than colored by its ingredients as are most good quality pastis. It has no complexity whatsoever, having simply a bitter licorice flavor that's not enjoyable, even when water is added (the typical way to drink a pastis). The only thing I can figure out is that tradition and a relatively cheap price keeps people buying it.

So I've been slowly trying to get rid of my bottle of Pernod by making an occasional Sazerac (a New Orleans cocktail) which calls for a splash of a pastis. At this rate, my bottle should be good for another decade or two.

This Sazerac recipe is adapted from Dale DeGroof in his classic "The Craft of the Cocktail," and it deviates from the traditional New Orleans recipe by adding Cognac. I find it adds some nice complexity.

Sazerac
Splash of Pernod (or if you were a smarter buyer, Ricard, Herbsaint or an absinthe)
1 oz VS Cognac
1 oz rye whiskey
1/2 oz simple syrup (you can quickly make simple syrup by filling a small jar with half water, half sugar and shaking vigorously)
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Swirl the Pernod in a glass and discard. Shake the remaining ingredients with ice and pour into the glass you used to swirl the Pernod.

Solerno - intriguing Sicilian blood orange liqueur

The first thing you notice about this liqueur is the amazing bottle. Supposedly inspired by Murano glass artists, it features a wonderfully graceful neck reminiscent of Renaissance style glass bottles. The bottom looks like an old fashioned citrus juicer, and the red color gradient evokes the color of the blood orange, though the liqueur itself is clear.

So is the liqueur worthy of this artistic bottle? Absolutely. Solerno was created by the same distiller who created Hendrick's Gin, and some of the same quirkiness is evident in the way this liqueur is made. Using only local Sicilian produce, Solerno is distilled three times using copper alembic stills. The first distillation is of the blood orange meat, the second of the orange zest and the third of Sicilian lemons. The resulting liqueur has a strong and complex orange and citrus flavor that is nicely balanced between bitter and sweet. It's not quite as bitter as Campari, but it's certainly less sweet than a Triple Sec.

Another fun fact about Solerno is that it doesn't have its own website. What! No photo montages of impossibly beautiful men and women drinking Solerno, looking like they just stepped off a yacht after a short Mediterranean cruise? It seems quite anachronistic in this day and age, but curiously refreshing as well.

There aren't a lot of cocktail recipes for this liqueur yet, but here's one developed by Jacqueline Patterson, brand ambassador for Solerno. This recipe interestingly uses Solerno as the base alcohol (which makes sense since she's trying to get you to drink a lot of it so she can sell you more) though I can also imagine Solerno being used as more of an accent. This cocktail is quite good, though fair warning - it's definitely on the bitter side.

Sicilian Cooler

2 oz Solerno

3/4 oz Campari

3/4 oz lemon juice

2-3 oz soda water

Shake Solerno, Campari and lemon juice with ice, pour into an ice-filled glass and add the soda water, stirring to incorporate.

This liqueur is hard to find in Washington. I picked up a bottle at the 4th Ave South store (2960 4th Ave S - (206) 587-5687), though the WA State liquor website doesn't show any currently available, so you may need to call.

Xanté - Swedish pear liqueur brought to you by the Swedish bikini team

Xanté is all about sex appeal and marketing. It starts with their tag line and description of Xanté as "unimaginable pleasure." It continues with their advertising on the bottle itself, with the back of the label describing the liqueur as a ménage a trois of  results between cognac, French oak, "penetration of pear," and a tender mating process (maybe they actually meant a ménage a quatre since they mention four elements?). Even many of the names of Xanté cocktails listed on the pamphlet that comes with the bottle and their website are double entendres or come-ons: All In, Lady in Bed, XTC, Wild Honey, etc.

It's all a bit over the top and eye-roll inducing. Perhaps it's necessary to get you over the hump of trying to lay down 40 some big ones to buy a bottle (hmm, this double entendre stuff is contagious).

So how does it taste? Well, unimaginable pleasure is hard to live up to. It's certainly quite nice, with a strong flavor of pears married with cognac and vanilla notes on the finish. I wouldn't consider this an essential purchase.

There aren't a lot of cocktail recipes that look particularly inspiring at the Xanté site, though if I were to try one, it would be the Bigger Ben:

• 2 part(s) Xantè
• 2 part(s) Cointreau
• 2 part(s) Lemon Juice
• Fresh Ginger

Muddle fresh ginger. Shake and double strain into a well-chilled glass.

Xanté is available at a decent number of Washington liquor stores, mostly on the west side of the mountains. It seems highly appropriate that it's available at the Grand Mound liquor store in Rochester, WA.

Limoncello: Finamoré vs. Danny DeVito

Though it's only been a short time since my last review of limoncello, the arrival of summer plus the fact that my previous limoncello post is one of my most visited reviews means that it's time to review another limoncello since people are probably trying to figure out which limoncello to buy. Summer means limoncello!

Finamoré is a relative newcomer to the liqueur world, arriving commercially in Seattle in 2008. It's a local liqueur made good since it was developed by Seattle University grads who obviously were studying more than English literature during their spare time. Seattle University did a story about them somewhat humorously called "Alumni serve up a buffet of tasty and palatable foods and spirits." I suspect I wouldn't be invited back to a friend's house if I used the word palatable to describe dinner. Hopefully the writer was referring to some of the other alumni profiled in the article.

As a I mentioned in my previous limoncello post, Danny DeVito Limoncello is my gold standard of limoncello because of its perfect combination of natural color, amount of alcohol and flavor. So how does Finamoré stack up to Danny?  Pretty well actually. Finamoré is a high quality limoncello made in Italy, so it doesn't have any artificial color or preservatives. At 35%, it has a higher alcohol content than Danny DeVito (32%), which you can taste since it has a slightly hot finish. Finamoré definitely has a lot of lemon flavor, though it tends to be less sweet than Danny DeVito. Finamoré could benefit from an ice cube to help mellow out the alcohol and slight bitterness.

So overall, Finamoré isn't a bad choice if you can't get your hands on Danny DeVito Limoncello. Finamoré is widely available in Washington State, though it's only available in Washington, Oregon and California. As always, Danny DeVito Limoncello is available in Idaho and other fine states. If anyone is heading to Boise anytime soon, could you bring me back a bottle or two . . .? 

St. Germain - elderflower liqueur and cocktail staple

St. Germain provides a template on how to successfully introduce a new liqueur. Pick an ingredient that hasn't been used much before. Design a mythology around it (this from the marketing pamphlet hung on the bottle - "In the foothills of the Alps, but for a few fleeting spring days, this man will gather wild blossoms for your cocktail."). Put the liqueur in a stylish, somewhat retro bottle. Win a prestigious award (best of show in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2007). Soon bartenders get excited about it, and voila - a modern classic.

St. Germain certainly is a useful ingredient to have in your bar, but you may find like I did that a bottle lasts a long time. Why? Because it's really not a sipping liqueur, as compared to what is, in my opinion, a more versatile liqueur such as amaro. St. Germain is quite sweet and floral, with notes of muscat grape, melon, and lemon. It's really best as an ingredient in a cocktail, and even then you often don't need a lot of it. I bought 2 bottles 3 years ago, and I'm just now getting to the bottom 1/3 of the first bottle.

Here's a really nice cocktail recipe adapted from Food & Wine Cocktails, 2008.

Long Live the Queen
1 3/4 ounces gin
1/2 ounce St. Germain
1/4 ounce Simple Syrup (you can make simple syrup by shaking together 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar until all the sugar dissolves)
2 dashes of peach bitters
4 mint leaves

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice and serve.

St. Germain is widely distributed in Washington State.

Fair Goji Liqueur - the next big thing?

The first time I tasted this, I thought, "This is the next big thing in liqueurs." The goji berry grows in Asia (this liqueur comes from the Himalayans) and is purported to have enormous heath benefits because of its high antioxidant and vitamin content. WebMD lists an impressive number of these benefits including preventing cancer and heart disease, protecting vision, lowering cholesterol, slowing aging, boosting brain health, protecting against Alzheimer's, increasing mental well-being, promoting happiness, improving athletic performance and making the blind to see and the lame to walk. Okay, the last two I added, but this list of benefits is truly of biblical proportions. Plus it's fair trade certified and handcrafted in France. How could this not be huge?

So I eagerly sought out another taster to verify my view that this liqueur is going to be the biggest thing since Justin Bieber. She took one sip and announced that it tasted like cough syrup. So there you go - one person's super liqueur is another person's cough syrup.

I actually like the taste of this liqueur. It's not too sweet, has lots of berry flavors, especially cherry and some strawberry. And yes, it does have some cough syrup characteristics, but really only in a good way.

I haven't tried any cocktails using this liqueur, though you can find a number of recipes at this annoyingly Flash-addled site. The availability of Fair Goji is quite limited in Seattle since it's only available at 3 Seattle stores (4th Ave, University Village and Crown Hill) and 1 Everett store. It costs about $27 for a 375 ML bottle. Drinking the next big thing isn't cheap.

Washington whiskey tasting

I recently participated in a blind tasting of 4 Scotches and 4 Washington whiskeys with over twenty other reviewers. The Washington whiskeys we tried were Bainbridge Battle Point, Samish Bay, Dry Fly, and Headlong White Dog. You're probably thinking that it's unfair to be comparing newbie whiskeys with Scotch producers that have been around for decades, and for the most part the Washington whiskeys did present themselves as poorer second cousins (and in one case an illegitimate child). But the Dry Fly Wheat Whiskey showed surprisingly well. It wasn't a favorite of the peat-loving Scotch aficionados in the crowd, but a number of the reviewers liked its smooth and mellow flavor with a hint of toffee sweetness in the finish. Dry Fly is presenting itself as a early contender for best Washington distillery with its quality products.

And the worst Washington whiskey in this tasting? Samish Bay with its strong flavor of pears (?!) and muddled finish. It had reviewers scrambling for another taste of the winner of this particular tasting to clear their palates. The winner was, of course, the Highland Park 25-Year Single Malt Scotch. Pricey, but pure ambrosia.

The Dry Fly Wheat Whiskey can be found state-wide on a temporary basis while the Highland Park is found mostly in the Seattle area.

Zwack - really bitter Hungarian liqueur

Zwack is a surprisingly bitter drink developed as an herbal medicinal for the Habsburg emperor in 1790. First-time sippers usually find themselves being Zwacked - a five step process.

1. Shock - at how bitter it is
2. Disbelief  - that anyone would actually drink Zwack
3. Pain - as the liquid makes its way past your protesting taste buds
4. Acceptance - that it really wasn't that bad, and that if you were faced with jumping off a cliff and drinking Zwack, you'd probably pick Zwack, unless it was a really small cliff
5. Sneakiness - as you scheme how to have your friends try it so you can watch them get Zwacked as well.

Okay, so it's probably not as bad as all that since generations of Hungarians have survived drinking it. It has over 40 herbs in it, and it's even aged for six months in oak barrels to get that fully rounded bitterness. It's usually drunk as a digestif, probably as a punishment for having eaten too much and as a warning not to overindulge next time. I like sipping it every once in a while if I'm feeling listless - like a boxer using smelling salts.

You can actually find it at a fair number of stores, mostly in Seattle but also in Yelm and Vancouver. Must be a lot of Hungarians in Washington.

Best Washington liquor stores and how to locate a liqueur

As you may have noticed from the previous postings, Seattle is often the only place to find some of the lesser known liqueurs. Once you cross the mountains to Eastern Washington, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything beyond the standard fare except occasionally in Spokane or Walla Walla.

The best liquor store in Washington state is the 4th Ave South store (2960 4th Ave S - (206) 587-5687). It has the largest inventory because many of the fancy cocktail bars in downtown Seattle buy their alcohol there. It's just a few blocks south east of the Starbucks headquarters. While you're there, you can also visit the best wine store in Washington - Esquin Wine Merchants. They have a great selection of local, European and other wines, and their prices are the best in town.

Other good Seattle liquor stores include the Crown Hill store (7740 15th Ave NW - best grappa selection in town), the University Village store (great new store that's not exactly in the Village, but at 5105 25th Ave NE) and the Queen Anne store (515 1ST Ave N - the last place to have carried Danny DeVito Limoncello until I bought out their remaining stock). You can search for a liquor store location at http://liq.wa.gov/stores/find-store.

So how to find that elusive bottle you're looking for? Go to the Washington State Liquor Board's product search. Be aware though that the product numbers aren't particularly accurate, so call the store if it's only showing 1 or 2 bottles in stock.

Licor 43 - tasty Spanish liqueur

Licor 43 is one fine sipping liqueur. In fact, I've had guests literally licking out the inside of a shot glass when I've served this as a dessert drink. With most spirits, that would say more about my guests than the liquor, but with Licor 43, it really is that good.

The name sounds somewhat odd until you realize that it simply means that it's a liquor with 43 ingredients in it. There's also a mysterious legend associated with it which involves Romans, Carthage, invasions, and a secret formula passed on from generation to generation. There's probably a tie to the Da Vinci Code conspiracy in there too if you dig deep enough.

The first thing one notices when tasting Licor 43 is its wonderfully rich vanilla flavor. That's followed by citrus and spice with some cognac notes in the finish which help balance its mellow sweetness.

Licor 43 is featured in a lot of dessert cocktails (see the flashy Licor 43 site for some ideas). I find I enjoy it most sipping it neat. You can find it at a variety of Washington liquor stores state-wide, though it's much more prevalent on the western side of the mountains.

Limoncello - Black Heron vs. Danny DeVito

Limoncello (or lemon liqueur) is the alcoholic version of the nectar of the gods. Typically made of only 4 ingredients - lemons, a base alcohol, sugar and water - it is Italian sunshine captured in a bottle. A bit melodramatic you say? Afraid to keep reading in case I start reciting bad poetry about the raptures of limoncello? I'll skip the poetry, but it truly is a marvelous liqueur, meant to be sipped cold (from the freezer) on the deck on a warm summer day.

Despite only having so few ingredients, limoncellos vary widely in how they taste and their quality. My gold standard is Danny DeVito's Limoncello. Produced in Sorrento, Italy, it has the perfect balance of sweetness versus tartness, the right percentage of alcohol, and it's all natural with no artificial ingredients or colors. It was unfortunately only available in Washington for a few years, so you'll have to special order it to get it.

Now there's a limoncello made in Washington by Black Heron Spirits located in West Richland. They call it Lemoncello Lemon Liquer [sic], which made me wonder if they were worried that consumers wouldn't know that limoncello is made from lemons and if they forgot to do a spell check. I was still intrigued enough to buy a bottle.

The first thing I noticed is that this lemon liqueur is artificially colored, which is too bad since limoncello should be a naturally pale golden color from the lemons rather than the color of a fluorescent yellow highlighter from FD&C yellow #5. The next problem is that this lemon liqueur, at 74 proof, has the highest alcohol percentage of any limoncello I've seen. This makes it less of a sipper than traditional limoncellos.

But the real issue is that Black Heron's Lemoncello doesn't really taste much of lemons. It tastes a bit like a flavored, slightly sweetened vodka, with some vague herbal notes which are hard to place. If you concentrate, you may be able to find some citrus notes in the finish and nose.

So I'll continue to sip from my rapidly diminishing stock of Danny DeVito's Limoncello and try Black Heron's in some limoncello cocktails to see if works better that way.

If you find yourself with a limoncello that isn't a great sipper, here's a good cocktail recipe from Food & Wine Cocktails 2005.

Pink Panther
1 oz limoncello
1 oz lemon vodka

1/2 oz fresh red grapefruit juice

1/2 oz cranberry juice.

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a lemon twist if desired.

And for you really adventurous types, you can make limoncello yourself using the Fine Cooking magazine's recipe.  I've tried it a few times, and while it tends to be quite alcoholic, it's still very good.

The Black Heron Lemoncello is available in a number of western Washington stores, and Danny DeVito's Limoncello is available in Idaho and many other fine states.