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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dry Fly Washington Gin

Now here's a liquor that's actually distilled in Washington State. Not only that, but Dry Fly was one of the primary instigators to changing the distillery laws in Washington in 2008, helping launch a tidal wave of new liquors. Well, it's not quite a tidal wave yet, but there are dozens of distilleries in line to get the new craft distillery licenses, so we should be seeing many more products in the next few years. Most of the new ventures so far have focused on fairly traditional liquors such as gin, vodka, whiskey, with a few outliers making grappa and absinthe. The craft distillery license is inexpensive and allows distilleries to have tastings and sell their product from their tasting rooms, though it does require that any spirit have 51% of its ingredients come from Washington. 

So how does this pioneering alcohol taste? Certainly different than most traditional gins. While Dry Fly uses juniper, there are also dried Washington apples, mint and hops added to the mix. The juniper is primarily evident in the nose and then fades into a complementary flavor when tasting. There are also notes of coriander and other spices, making for a complex and interesting gin. It is quite good for sipping, and would probably make an excellent dry martini as well as other gin-based cocktails. Here's a classic martini recipe adapted from The Martini Book.

Martini

6 parts gin

1 part dry vermouth

Olive or pickled asparagus as garnish

Dry Fly is found everywhere in Washington, even in the tiny town of Tekoa with its 800 inhabitants amid the wheat fields of eastern Washington.

Chambord Flavored Vodka - drink pink

Consider this spirit a ready made Chambord vodka martini. Chambord has combined their venerable black raspberry liqueur with a French vodka, their first venture into developing new spirits. Is this a marketing ploy to prop up sagging sales? Yup. Is this product aimed at getting more women drinkers? How could it not be with the marketing slogan "Pink your Drink?" Couldn't you make this at home by simply combining Chambord with your favorite vodka? Probably.

But with all of that, I have to say that this product is quite good. Chambord has achieved an excellent balance of vodka and Chambord, so that you taste the smoothness of the vodka while also getting some delicate flavors of black raspberry, vanilla and even cotton candy. It's quite light, yet flavorful. The bottle comes with some really basic cocktail recipe ideas whose main intent seems to be to dilute the flavor as much as possible (e.g. simply mix it with lots of club soda or ginger ale). Ignore the recipes because  want you really want to do is put this bottle in the freezer and pull it out for an instant Chambord vodka martini. Great on a hot day or on a day when you wish it would stop raining. It's available at Washington state liquor stores state-wide, the Liquor Control Board's effort, I guess, to pink everyone's drink.

By the way, the bottle in the picture looks clouded because it just came out of the freezer.

Agavero: Tequila Liqueur

Agavero is a blend of tequilas flavored with Damiana flower essence. Damiana is supposed to be an aphrodisiac (see Wikipedia's article on it), which, I presume, is meant to add to the allure of this spirit. It tastes fairly strongly of tequila while at the same time being quite sweet. It can make a fine dessert drink (if you don't mind the taste of tequila), and some blogs indicate that it can make an interesting margarita if you substitute it for the triple sec. I haven't seen a lot of other cocktail recipes that use this liqueur.

It's currently found at liquor stores across the state. And in case you're wondering about the shape and blue color of the bottle, it's supposed to reflect the look of an agave plant.

Domaine de Canton French Ginger Liqueur

This cognac-based liqueur has won an impressive number of awards and high ratings, including the double gold medal (best of show) at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It has a strong ginger flavor, with the bite of a not too sweet gingersnap. It's a tasty sipper all by itself, and it has the extra benefit of being a good digestif since ginger is well known for its ability to aid digestion. I've tried it at various times after a heavy meal, and it certainly does seem to help. The bamboo-shaped bottle is quite distinctive as well.

Here's an excellent cocktail recipe adapted from the 2010 Food & Wine Cocktails book. Since the Canton Ginger liqueur is fairly strong, it's here used as an accent rather than a main ingredient.

Thamyris

2 oz gin

1/2 oz Cynar

1/4 oz Domaine de Canton French Ginger liqueur

1/4 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur

Shake it all together with ice and garnish with a orange twist if desired.

The Domaine de Canton is currently available at select liquor stores across the state, though only on a temporary one-time basis.

Aperol

The previous posts have focused on liqueurs which are typically only found in Seattle. Aperol, on the other hand, is a liqueur which has successfully traversed the Washington state liquor approval process and so can be found in liquor stores from Yelm to Yakima.

Aperol is an Italian liqueur which was developed in the early 1900s in Padua. It tastes a bit like Campari-lite, meaning that it has some similar bitter orange notes but is less assertive. It is remarkably low in alcohol for a liqueur - only 11%. Ingredients include rhubarb, cinchona, gentian, bitter oranges, and herbs.

There aren't a huge amount of cocktails that include Aperol, but one classic Italian cocktail made with Aperol is called Spritz. It's a wonderful  drink to be enjoyed while sitting at a Venetian cafe next to a canal on a warm evening (or at least pretending that you're sitting at said cafe).

Spritz
2 oz prosecco (chilled)

1 oz Aperol

Sparking mineral water (chilled) to top

Fill a champagne flute with Aperol. Add prosecco and top with a splash of mineral water. Garnish with a lemon or orange slice and serve.