A Mountain of Crushed Ice

Aged Cachaça – Leblon Reserva Especial

Last week i wrote about the Cedilla – and excellent acai liqueur from the house of Leblon and now it´s time to present their new aged cachaça as well - Maison Leblon Reserva Especial - a special limited aged cachaça that were recently introduced in Brazil.

Leblon Cachaça recently won the best cachaça and double gold award at the 2012 San Francisco Global Spirits Competition with their Leblon cachaça and the new Reserva Especial.

Cachaça i think has a more earthy taste compared to the more “grassy” rhum agricole – and both are deliscious – i really enjoy mixing with them. The aged cachaça is more mellow than the white unaged and Leblon Reserva is aged in new Limousin French oak for two years and then blended by Gilles Merlet. Like Leblon, it is single batch distilled in alambique potstills.

It has a complex smooth taste with notes of honey, sugarcane and something woody/nutty with a slight and pleasant “buttery” aftertaste. The nose is sweet and reminds me of sugar, earth and dulce de leche.

It´s a great cachaça.

I must say that the bottle is strikingly elegant with a thin slender shape and engraved handwriting on the glass. Looks very promising!

The bottle contains 375 ml and is 42% ABV.

I found this interesting drink to try:

São Conrado created by Canvas bar team, Brisbane

1.5 oz Leblon Cachaça
.75 oz fresh lemon juice
1.0 oz fresh pineapple juice
1.0 oz spiced pineapple syrup
.25 oz dark rum to float
Mint sprig to garnish

In a Cocktail shaker, combine all ingredients except the rum and mint with ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a large rocks glass fill with cubed ice, then add a ‘cap’ of crushed ice. Float dark rum on the surface of the drink, and garnish with a mint sprig.

As for spiced pineapple syrup – it`s not stated in the recipe what spices used in the syrup but since cinnamon goes well with pineapple i added some cinnamon to the batch.

So you make a simple syrup (1.1 water plus sugar) and add a few pineapple chunks, 2 crushed (ceylon) cinnamon sticks and boil up lightly and then set to cool for a couple hours for flavors to marry.

This cocktail was nice and a bit on the sour side, quite complex too – aged cachaça meets spiced pineapple syrup!

I never drink just one cocktail so after the São Conrado i made a drink i call Leblon Beach:

Leblon Beach

2 oz Leblon Reserva
0.75 oz fresh lime juice
5-6 pineapple chunks
0.25 oz sugarcane syrup
0.25 oz liquid honey

Muddle pineapple chunks and honey, add the rest of ingredients and shake ith ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe and garnish with a raw-sugar rim, pineapple slice and cherry – or if you want it to look like it does in the picture – a dried pineapple slice and cherry.

And that is very simple to make, i just sliced out a piece of the pineapple very very thin and placed it in the oven at 225 F ( 110 C) to dry for about 15-20 min or until the edges became partly browned.

This cocktail was very nice and refreshing due to the earthiness of the cachaça and the freshness of lime and pineapple. Come the summer and i`m gonna get me some decent fresh cherries again – and it´s not like i can just out and buy me a jar of Luxardo here…!

If i like this cachaça? yes i do…….

Maison Leblon Reserva Especial is currently available only in Brazil, and will be introduced shortly in limited editions to select markets outside of Brazil.

So keep an eye out for it…

Cedilla – Açai Liqueur from the House of Leblon

Here comes Brazil!

I just got my hands on Leblon`s new açai liqueur…

Açai is a new macerated fruit liqueur made by Maison Leblon and is made from Zambazon açai berries from the Amazon region in Brazil. Straight from the rainforest, exotic and purple – yeah…this really speaks to me.

I “sort of” knew what açai berriers were ( i have heard about them in the context of heatlh) but i didn`t really know what they were and as usual when i get a sample of something new i start doing my reserach – so what exactly is açai berries?

The word açai – means “the berry that cries” – they are glossy blue and purple berries from Brazil contaning LOADS of antioxidants. The berries are the fruits of a palm tree that grows slowly under the humid and shady rainforest canopy in South and Central America and take 4-5 years before producing fruit.

The berry has a rich flavor similar to cherry with a hint of chocolate. The liqueur Cedilla is made with handpicked Zambazon açai berries and Zambazon means that they are certified organic & fair trade.

The berries are macerated and blended with the highest quality alambique Cachaça from the Maison Leblon in Patos de Minas, Brazil. And what you get is a rich fruity flavor with complex chocolate, spice, and berry notes. It`s bottled at ABV 25%.

Sounds good? well, it does to me….I was actually quite curious about the flavor of this product and disappointed i was not – instead i was rather surprised. It´s really yummy – fruity, complex, distinct and very much reminding of a finer ruby port.

There´s great ways to use it too, it goes down nicely neat of course but my main interest is to use it in mixed drinks.

Usually a good rule of thumb when it comes to local products is that they most often goes best together with other products from the same area or climate. So i went and searched for Brazilian recipes to either use as is or tweak a little bit to create something new.

But you also need to step outside the boundaries sometimes how else shall you discover something different and exciting? and to me – of course you can use this in tiki drinks too – you can use it in everything – despite that not being very Brazilian…but believe me i`m gonna try that too.

But the first drink that comes to mind when thinking about Brazil just has to be the caipirinha and mixed with cachaça, sugar and lime how can it be anything but glorious?

Açai Caipirinha

2 oz Leblon Cachaça
1 oz Cedilla
½ oz sugarcane syrup or 1-2 tsp fine sugar
6 lime wedges cut in quarters (1 large lime)

Muddle the limes and fine sugar or sugarcane syrup in a mixing glass. Add Cedilla and Leblon Cachaça. Fill with ice, shake well and pour all into a rocks glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Very tasty!

And here´s another recipe i found over at Leblon:

Salvador Sling

2 oz Leblon Cachaça
1 oz Cedilla
½ oz fresh lime juice
½ oz ginger liqueur (i used Domaine de Canton)
2 oz pineapple juice
Dash of angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in shaker and shake vigorously with ice. Strain into a highball or other glass filled with cracked ice, and garnish with a pineapple slice.

Oh this is yummy…this cocktail has a quite mature taste, it´s semi-sweet and there`s lots of “port” flavor in it from the Cedilla but also somehow the ginger flavor marries into it and makes the impression stronger.

An interesting variety would be to muddle fresh ginger into this instead of the liqueur.

This is a sip and savor kinda cocktail.

And now it´s time for a tiki drink as well and since Cedilla has a taste of a light ruby port i think it would be interesting to make a twist of Martin Cate´s “Dead Reckoning” and switch the tawny port for Cedilla and the rum for aged cachaca and a high proof dark rum with attitude like Smith and Cross. And finally switch the angostura bitters for one – just one dash of Mozart chocolate bitters….

Brazilian Dead Reckoning

1 oz fresh lemon juice

1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice

0.5 oz Navan vanilla liqueur

0.5 oz Cedilla

0.5 oz sugarcane syrup

1 oz Leblon Reserva aged cachaca

1 oz Smith & Cross Jamaican rum

1 dash chocolate bitters (Mozart)

1 oz soda water

Well well well…..this was a DRINK!! very strong, very spicy…with that hint of chocolate…just the way i like it! when the ice dilutes it just a little bit it becomes perfect!

I have to say that Cedilla acai liqueur is a very good liqueur indeed…and you can do a lot with it – it fits in most styles of cocktails – go get it!

I don´t know where it´s sold right now outside of Brazil or if it even is but you may contact Leblon to find out.

I really like the Cedilla! it´s tasty, versatile, exotic and warm!

On a sidenote – the word Cedilla is from the Old Spanish name for the letter, ceda (zeta) A cedilla - also known as cedilha or cédille, is a hook ( ¸ ) added under certain letters as a accent mark to modify their pronunciation. In this case it becomes a “soft” c.

Pictures of acai berries at the plantation are courtesy the House of Leblon.

A Tequila Julep for may the 5th

Here´s for cheering twice! both the Derby Day and Cinco de Mayo happens to be on may 5th this year.

Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican heritage to commemorate the French army’s defeat at the hands of the Mexicans at Puebla by the end of the 1900s. And with that goes cheering with tequila. The Derby Day is as we know – a day of never ending mint juleps – and since both are on the same day this year- why not try a new thing and make a tequila julep?

In any case i have been thinking about that ice cold julep for a while…but i have never meade one with tequila. That feels quite refreshing – and i have already posted other juleps here – see links at the bottom) so tequila julep it is this time!

Now one thing with the julep – it´s a boozy drink but with all the crushed or shaved ice it dilutes fast and so therefore you better try to use a spirit with a little bit of a higher proof to keep that kick in the flavor. At the same time the dilution is necessary to make the drink palatable and refreshing – and that´s the whole point with the julep – it´s supposed to be a refreshener in the summer heat.

And thank God i have a Lewis bag…and maybe i should thank the Tales too bec that`s from where i got it last year. With it i made some fairly finely crushed ice by first crushing it in my ice-crusher (hand cranked variety…) and then i scooped it all into the bag and did beat the hell outta it and the result was a quite finely powdered ice – perfect!

Unfortunatley i would have needed more since i made 2 drinks so i had to top it up with normal crushed ice because at that point i wasn´t in for hammering more. And when i mention hammering…i hope one day to find a real big wooden mallet, like this one. Right now i`m using a huge wooden mortar and it works alright but a huge wooden mallet would be even better and they are cool too..

So here`s the recipe:

0.5 oz sugarcane syrup in a glass or julep cup

Add mint (6-8 leaves) and muddle very lightly, only lightly bruising them to get the oil out – not too hard because then you will release bitter stuff.

Fill up half with finely crushed ice and add your tequila of choice – i took 2 oz of a tequila reposado.

Now stir, add more ice and stir again until the glass is well frosted and heap plenty of ice on top! Garnish with a nice sprig of mint – and don´t forget to slap it to release the fragrance in the air.

And then….sip and dream…

With tequila the julep was alright but i think it´s much better with a strong bourbon – but as this is a special occasion i enjoy my tequila julep!

Cheers!

Here´s links to earlier mint julep posts:

New Orleans Cocktails pt 4 – Mint Julep

Chocolate and Vanilla Juleps

Guest Post – Hemmingway’s Rum Punch

In 1996 Terry Drummey opened Hemmingway’s beachfront restaurant at the Sands resort at Grace Bay, on Providenciales, at that time a little-known island floating in the Caribbean beyond Cuba and the Bahamas. More than a decade later, as the Turks and Caicos has attracted more and more visitors, Hemminway’s has become the heart of Grace Bay, recently voted one of the top beaches in the world.

Hemmingway’s certainly has an astounding view of Grace Bay’s white sand beaches and turquoise waters, and it’s the perfect place to drink that quintessential Caribbean cocktail, rum punch.

There are no distilleries producing rum in the Turks and Caicos Islands and there don’t appear to be any plans to produce rum here in the future either; there’s not much soil on most of the islands, so sugar cane (necessary for local rum production) has never been grown commercially.

However, the Turks and Caicos are located not far from the Bahamas, which has its own rum culture, and the interconnected societies of the two island chains means rum is popular in Turks and Caicos. Bambara is the local rum, and it’s made with blends imported into the Turks and Caicos.

Hemmingway’s rum punch features a lot of Bambara. Here’s the recipe:

1 oz Bambarra coconut rum
1 oz Bambarra dark rum
3oz orange juice
3oz pineapple juice
1 oz grenadine
Float with Myers dark rum
Cherry/pineapple garnish

What’s the connection to Ernest Hemmingway? Not much, except for the Caribbean locale, and the Caribbean ingrendients. It’s a perfect way to get refreshed after a day out in the sun. Sip it, and imagine you’re watching the sunset on Providenciales.

Nevin Thompson frequently writes about the Caribbean for Sands at Grace Bay, a resort in the Turks and Caicos.

Resurrecting Old Posts – Vanilla and Trinidad Especial

As a fun idea i thought i should dig up a few old posts that has been “buried” since the beginning of this blog. So i start with the very first post i made – the start of this blog – that was back in 2008 posted june 29th – and will tell yall that i`m a vanilla freak.

Here is also my take on the cocktail that won the Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge in 2008 and was created by Valentino Bolognese, which gives me a chance to dig up another post from that time.

There is another famous cocktail too – the Trinidad Sour which is a variation on the Trinidad Especial and was created by Giuseppe Gonzalez and that one is a VERY nice cocktail and contains 1.5 oz of Angostura Bitters.

Since then i have learnt so much about cocktails and spirits, it´s fun to dig up old posts like this one.

Here is my post from 2008 :

Vanilla and a Very Special Cocktail

WELCOME TO MY WORLD!

In this blog i`m going to write about my drink (and occasionally some food) experimenting, rums and other spirits and liqueurs. Its going to involve quite a bit of Tikidrinks. But also the making of syrups, bitters and infusions…and whatever else i may come up with.

I do this for fun and i hope you`ll have fun too!

I LOVE VANILLA…

Its something special about Vanilla..maybe its the warm sensual fragrance and flavor of this beautiful exotic tropical climbing orchid…or the beauty of the flowers which only opens for a few hours in the morning. Maybe its the rich fragrant and oily darkness of the cured beans which at first are green. Vanilla flowers once a year in a period of about two months.

I love Vanilla and i always have my favorite beans at home which are the Tahitian beans, from vanilla tahitensis. They are fatter, more “oily” and somewhat shorter than other beans and have a very special floral aroma and flavor.

I`ve made my jar of Vanilla sugar with these beans since many years back. I mix 1 pack each of Tate&Lyles – or Billingtons dark and light Muscovado sugars with 3-4 Tahitian beans which i split on the length and scrape out all those lovely tiny black seeds which i mix with the sugars.

The longer they stay in the sugar the more flavor the sugar takes on from the beans. When the sugar is finished i just add some more and it goes on and on..

I also make my Vanilla syrups using 1:1 ratio sugar and water and add a couple of split beans to the pan, let it simmer and then cool before i discard the beans (rinsing them and moving them to the sugar jar that is) and bottle my syrup.

A friend to me did mention that the Trinidad Especial Cocktail, made by Valentino Bolognese who also won the European Angostura Cocktail Competition 2008 with this unusual cocktail, which indeed is a very special cocktail, using no less than 30 ml of Angostura bitters, is nice poured over Vanilla ice cream…

Such a brilliant idea is one i cannot resist trying out. So i made both the cocktail and then the Vanilla ice cream with some of the cocktail poured over it..and indeed this cocktail tastes good! It wasn`t that bitter as i first expected but rather aromatic and spicy with a heavy dose of clove. On the ice cream it was a real treat!

TRINIDAD ESPECIAL

10 ml. Pisco Mistral
20 ml. fresh lime juice
30 ml. barley syrup
30 ml Angostura Aromatic Bitters.
Shake hard and long, and strain in a Martini glass.

 All rights reserved

A cocktail and a dessert in one, i remember this was a real treat. Do you like vanilla and what do you do with it?

SWIZZLES part 5 – Full Proof Mai Kai Swizzle

It`s time to add another swizzle to this blog and i just recently stumbled on a post over at the Atomic Grog blog about the Mai Kai Swizzle and it got me thirsty… and since i had never made that swizzle i tried it – and i find it tasty.

Unfortunately i don´t have the same rum as the recipe called for so i might have missed that thing which makes it stand out a bit. That said it doesn´t mean you can`t make it nice with other rums and that´s the beauty of rums – you can create so much variation.

Just one thing…i prefer strong drinks over weak and this one is weak or mild so allow me to pimp it up a little…

The post says it needs that golden rum from Appleton but since i don´t have it i decided to use Appleton Extra – one of my favorite rums…because i have many – and let the drink get a healthy dose of two overproof or strong rums.

I really like overproof rum – when used right it takes a cocktail or tiki drink to the next level, not just in strength but also flavor and we know that stronger proof concentrates flavors better. But one needs to be careful though, it´s so easy to have one drink too much..

I luckily have a few overproof and full proof rums to chose from at various strengths -

Coruba overproof (75%), Lemon Hart 151(75.5 %), Pusser´s overproof (70%), Plantation dark overproof (73%) Smith and Cross ( 57%) Tiki Lover`s Dark (57%) and JWray overproof (63%) and in this drink i used the Plantation dark overproof because it´s flavor profile fitted the other rum best i figured.

What i call “full-proof” are those that are between 50 – 60% ABV. I don´t know if that`s what they are officially called but to me it sounds appropriate…

The swizzling technique is another thing to mention but instead of writing the same things again i point you readers to this excellent post. It´s fun to swizzle and it gets even better if you have one of those original swizzle sticks from the swizzle stick tree - (Quararibea turbinata) which grows in the Caribbean and whose branches grows in a forked star shaped fashion thus producing perfect swizzle sticks! – called bois lele on Martinique.

Bois lele.The thicker one is from Guyana and the other is from Martinique.

You can get the original swizzle sticks here.

So now i got the ingredients, the shaker and glass, the ice and the swizzle stick or bar spoon, let´s get started!

FULL PROOF MAI KAI SWIZZLE

1.5 oz fresh-squeezed orange juice
0.5 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
0.5 oz mango juice
0.5 oz rich sugarcane syrup - (2 parts sugar to 1 part water, heated and cooled)
0.25 oz orgeat (almond) syrup
1/8 oz falernum
1 oz Appleton Extra Jamaican rum
1 oz Smith and Cross jamaican rum
Float 0.5 oz Plantation overproof rum on top of the drink

Swizzle in cocktail shaker with 1 cup crushed ice. Pour into a stemmed cocktail glass and fill up with more crushed ice if needed and garnish with a mango slice – or like i did here with my fruit carving knife – a palm frond out of the mango fruit.

The combination of mango juice, orgeat and falernum is a bit special and very tasty, very tropical. Since i don´t have Appleton Special Gold rum i can`t compare this stronger version with the original, all i can say is that it´s tasty and rummy.

The other swizzles in the swizzle series on this blog are these:

1 – Swizzles part one - Queenspark Swizzle and Creole Swizzle

2 - Chartreuse Swizzle with caramelized demerara sugar

3 - 151 swizzle

4 - Swordfighter swizzle

Keep swizzling!

Easter Sour with colored egg ice balls

Easter is around the corner…so let´s toast with a sour that is chilled with colored egg ice balls…

I tried Camper´s fabulous ice egg experiment or how to make colored egg ice balls – yeah i still wanna be a kid sometimes! and booze bloggers are always into some nerdy stuff or another.

It´s very easy to make these ice egg balls, you just fill small balloons with colored water and freeze. You need to hang them up in the freezer to get the round shape. Also it´s a good idea to rinse the balloons first before you fill them with the colored water.

I used purple, gold, green, yellow, blue and red food colors for this, the colors are in powder form and i used about a half tsp per balloon.

Then when you take them out – after 2-3 hrs – rinse them again quickly in cold water before you use them so you get rid of any balloon-powder if there´s any. And nope – it doesn´t change the flavor of the drink either.

If you drink way too slow the only thing that can happen is that the color will change the drinks color, it didn´t happen to me so i´m not sure but i guess it does.

For the Easter i wanted a sour so i made a twist of the Eastern Sour and switched bourbon for rum, lemon for lime, and added a little bit of orange, honey and St Germain plus an egg white and called it Easter Sour and served it in a tall glass so i could put 4 colored ice eggs in it.

EASTER SOUR

0.5 oz fresh grapefruit juice

0.5 oz fresh orange juice

0.75 oz fresh lime juice

0.5 oz st Germain

1 oz white rum (use a good one, like Banks 5 Island for example)

1 oz rhum agricole vieux ( i used Clemènt VSOP)

0.25 oz liquid honey mixed with 0.25 oz sugarcane syrup

1 egg white

Shake the hell outta all this so that the egg white emulsifies well and serve in a tall glass filled with colored ice eggs and garnish with 2 pineapple leaves and orange slice.

The drink turned out nice enough with some fresh sour notes and the rhum agricole did also shine through with it´s grassy notes. Maybe a green Chartreuse would be better than St Germain as accent flavor to stand up against the rhum agricole but i need to try that.

In any case, this is a refreshing drink.

Happy Easter!

Bring on the spring and summer with a Strawberry Hurricane!

To me there`s nothing that tells me more that the spring and summer is on the way than fresh strawberries. Granted there´s some time left until the summer is here and the strawberries i see in the shops are imported but just seeing them is at least a promise…

The other day i saw a picture of a strawberry Hurricane over at a blog i really like – Suck The Heads – and when i saw that picture i immediately wanted to have one.

And that´s why i`m making it now, i decided to mix up my own version. To most people the Hurricane cocktail is the same as the red ones you get at Pat O’Brien’s but that´s not the whole truth. The original Hurricane is quite a different beast…

It contains fresh fruit juices and not that mixer in a bag – you can read all about here and here – that said, the “tourist-version” sure serves it´s purpose still and Pat O’Brien’s is a cool place but the real one is what i`m going for and in this post i wanna change it up a bit by adding one large muddled strawberry to the party plus some of one of my favorite rums, Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced.

The Hurricane is wonderful cocktail in the spring and summer and it´s huge! which in a way can be a “dilemma” because if you don´t want it to become too diluted and watery too fast you need to not drink to slow but at the same time if you drink fast you get drunk too quick…

To prevent quick dilution it´s a good idea to use fresh and very cold ice, shake it quick and enjoy!

STRAWBERRY HURRICANE

1 oz light rum (use a good quality rum)

1 oz dark rum (use a good quality rum )

0.5 oz Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced Rum

1 oz fresh orange juice

1 oz fresh lime juice

1/4 cup passion fruit juice, or 1 tablespoon passion fruit syrup – homemade or B.G Reynold´s.

0.5 oz simple syrup

1 teaspoon grenadine – i use homemade or B.G Reynold`s hibiscus grenadine which i find superior to any other grenadine

1 really large ripe strawberry or 2-3 small ones

1 small tsp golden fine sugar

Muddle the strawberry with sugar in a shaker, add the rest of ingredients and shake with ice and double strain into a hurricane glass half filled with crushed ice. Add more crushed ice to fill and garnish with speared strawberry slices and pineapple leaf tops.

Now…enjoy!

Perique Liqueur de Tabac – A Taste of France and Louisiana

With a taste of France and Louisiana…here is a lovely liqueur made from fermented perique tobacco from St. James Parish, Louisiana, Eau de vie and a hint of sweet sugarcane.

I was lucky to receive a sample earlier and now is the right time to review this interesting product, it´s funny how after a certain time of booze blogging you develop a feel as to when the right time to post a certain post or review is just right. And now perique is in the air…

Louisiana perique happens to be the rarest and strongest tobacco in the world – with aromas and spiciness provided by the unique terroir of the mighty Mississippi River. The perique tobacco liqueur is 31% abv (62 proof) and made for Jade Liqueurs by Distillerie Combier in France.

The perique tobacco liqueur is distilled since 2006 by Ted Breaux but since not much perique tobacco exists as of today, this purely artisanal liqueur is available only in limited quantity – where to buy is written at the bottom of this post – and there´s also plans to distribute in the US.

PERIQUE TOBACCO (Wiki)

When the Acadians made their way into Louisiana in 1719`s, the choctaw and chickasaw tribes were cultivating a variety of tobacco with a distinctive, strong and fruity aroma and flavor. A farmer named Pierre Chenet is credited with first turning this local tobacco into what is now known as perique in 1824 through the technique of pressure-fermentation. And since then the cultivating tradition has been continued for centuries.

The tobacco plants are pruned to exactly 12 leaves through their early growth. In late June, when the leaves are a dark, rich green and the plants are 24-30 inches tall, the whole plant is harvested in the late evening and hung to dry in a sideless curing barn.

Once the leaves have partially dried the leaves are moistened with water and stemmed by hand. The leaves are then rolled into “torquettes” of approximately 1 pound and packed into hickory whiskey barrels. The tobacco is kept under pressure using oak blocks and massive screw jacks, forcing nearly all the air out of the still-moist leaves.

Approximately once a month the pressure is released, and each of the torquettes is worked by hand to permit a little air back into the tobacco. After a year of this treatment, the perique is ready for consumption, although it may be kept fresh under pressure for many years. Extended exposure to air degrades the particular character of perique. The finished tobacco is dark brown, nearly black, very moist with a fruity, slightly vinegary aroma.

Most Louisiana perique has been cultivated by farmer Percy Martin in Grande Pointe, Louisiana. For reasons unknown, the particular flavor and character of Louisiana perique can only be acquired on a small triangle of Saint James Parish, less than 3 by 10 miles.

Although at its peak Saint James Parish was producing around 20 tons of perique a year, output is now merely a few barrelsful. Most of the perique used in pipe tobacco is not perique at all, but green river burley that is processed in the same manner as perique. Although the process produces a strong, spicy tobacco, it is a far different product from the genuine perique grown on Percy Martin’s and the Poche family’s farms.

So the world”s supply of perique tobacco – all 12 acres of it…is farmed only 50 miles from downtown New Orleans and planted and harvested all by hand..no wonder this is a very exquisite liqueur. Moreover it`s the only tobacco crop in the US to be fermented in whiskey barrels – an unusual way for tobacco to be processed – but no fermentation is no perique.

From what i read nobody knows exactly why perique only grows in St James parish but there is three factors that makes perique distinct from all other tobacco – the soil of st James, the perique seed and the fermentation process which sweetens the tobacco by soaking it in its own sap.

Some says St James parish sits on top of a mineral deposit that apparently gives the tobacco it´s distinct, spicy and robust flavor but nobody knows for sure – this is one of the world`s mystery crops.

The perique liqueur is golden amber in color and the nose is that of fine tobacco, light and delicate yet masculine with warm woody notes – it´s light but certainly not weak. The flavor is the same but more intense and with some fire – yet very smooth, it´s like a fine cognac spiced with tobacco and leather sweetend with sugarcane – but still more on the dry side than sweet and perique liqueur is of course free from nicotine.

I find it very pleasant and so interesting! and even though the tobacco adds a leathery masculine touch it`s balanced by a light and feminine sweetness without being too sweet – it´s rather on the dry side – and the tobacco flavor is not overpowering in any way but still clearly present.

It makes an interesting drink-mixer but can also be sipped neat like a fine cognac. Also for those who doesn`t smoke (like me) but still enjoys the aroma of a good cigar or pipe this liqueur will allow you to do just that without any of the harmful elements you find in a cigarette.

Final thoughts – this stuff is just lovely! it goes well with not only cognac but also dark rum, whisk(e)y and tequila reposado or anejo.

I`m gonna make three very nice cocktails with it, the Louisiana Sour and the Smoky Sidecar plus a twist i made of the Louisiana Sour adding rum and curacao bitters to the party.. The Louisiana Sour was created by Amanda Humphrey at Paramount in London and the Smokey Sidecar was made by the Cocktail Lovers.

LOUISIANA SOUR

0.75 oz Perique Tobacco Liqueur

0.75 oz Pierre Ferrand Cognac Ambre

0.75 oz Fresh lemon juice

0.5 oz Sugarcane syrup

2 dashes Chocolate bitters

2 dashes orange bitters

Squeeze of egg white

Dry shake with no ice (or use a hand-mixer) for a few sec and then shake hard with ice and strain into a rocks glass and garnish with orange and lemon wheel, top with cherry.

Oh how refreshing! and the tobacco liqueur together with chocolate and orange bitters is sooo goood….this drink is a serious treat and so good i decided to make another but with st Nicholas Abbey 12 yo rum and curacao bitters – i think it was even better! – heaven in a glass…i made three of them.

LOUISIANA RUM SOUR

0.75 oz Perique Tobacco Liqueur

0.75 oz dark rum – i used St Nicholas Abbey 12 yo

0.75 oz fresh lime juice

0.5 oz sugarcane syrup (Petit canne)

2 dashes chocolate bitters (Mozart)

2 dashes Curacao bitters (Master of Malt) or use orange bitters

Squeeze of egg white

Proceed as with the Louisiana Sour.

SMOKEY SIDECAR

1.5 oz Merlet Cognac

0.75 oz Merlet Triple Sec

1 oz Perique Tobacco Liqueur

0.5 oz fresh lemon juice

Garnish: orange peel

Shake all ingredients together over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Spritz the orange peel over the drink before dropping into the glass.

This one surprised me…if the other drinks were refreshing in a fruity complex way this drink is much more masculine, a bit leather, a bit strong and very tasty! all three drinks are awesome, i hope you can try them!

More to come with Perique in a while.

Enjoy!

Jade Perique Liqueur de Tabac : Buy Online – The Whisky Exchange
www.thewhiskyexchange.com

CHEERS TO ST PATRICK`S DAY!

Time to move in an Irish direction…it`s soon St Patrick`s Day (or St Paddy`s Day) and i`m gonna add a splash of Irish whiskey and dress up my cocktails in green.

For those who doesn`t know St Patrick´s day is a cultural and religious holiday in Ireland and also widely celebrated as a public holiday with parades etc in places such as England, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand, among others.

The colour associated with Saint Patrick was actually originally blue, but over the years it has changed to be green – and green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick’s Day as early as the 17th century.

On this blog i`m gonna cheer with a green cocktail and an irish toast:

May you have all the happiness
and luck that life can hold—
And at the end of all your rainbows
may you find a pot of gold.

IRISH SUISSESSE

1.5 oz lightly peated irish whiskey

0.5 oz absinthe

1 egg white

0.5 oz heavy cream

0.5 oz milk

0.25 oz orgeat

0.25 oz green curacao

freshly grated nutmeg

Lime slice, cherry and shamrock for garnish

Mix in blender with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail coupe, garnish with lime slice, cherry and a shamrock.

Lightly dust with grated nutmeg on top

Happy St Paddy`s Day!

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