Of special note to cocktail fans is the “Cupid’s Not Stupid” cocktail competition on Friday featuring Rachel Sergi, Gina Chersevani, Ben Wiley, Youssef, and Dennis Burns, along with Dan Searing signing his new book (which I recommend!) The Punch Bowl.

Check out a hint of what Rachel will be doing in this video clip:

International Wine and Food Festival Comes to DC: MyFoxDC.com

It isn’t a secret that autumn is my favorite season. I love the cold air and early evenings. There is nothing better than curling up on the couch under a warm blanket on a cold day watching hockey, football, or hell, even reading a cocktail tome.

But another reason I love the fall is that it is my favorite cocktail season. Tiki drinks and refreshing gin cocktails are replaced with whisk(e)ies and bitter amaros. Pineapple and coconut are replaced with apple and cherry. Limes are supplanted by lemons as the citrus of majority in my fridge.

I mention apples and cherries in particular because I love playing with those flavors this time of year. I love mixing with calvados, Applejack, or maybe some Leopold Brothers apple whiskey or apple liqueur. Bringing some cherry to the party may come from Cherry Herring, maraschino, kirschwasser, or my latest toy, Maurin Quina.

Another thing I love to mix with is apple cider. We had an apple press growing up and every fall made our own fresh-pressed apple cider. It was fantastic! Unfortunately you can only find pasteurized cider for sale nowadays. But if you own a juicer, you can make your own! Lately I’ve been boiling apple cider down into a thick concentrated syrup. Amazingly, along with the concentrated appleness, it develops an amazing tartness. This really comes in handy it you don’t want to add lemon, but need that acidity to balance out your cocktail. To make it, simply boil down apple cider until it has reduced by 75%.

I decided I wanted to play with the cider syrup and thought it would play very nicely with scotch. So I pulled out my new bottle of Great King Street blended scotch from Compass Box and set to work. This is what I came up with:

Orchard Bonfire
1.5 oz blended Scotch
.5 oz cider syrup
.25 oz honey syrup (2 parts honey & 1 part water)
1 barspoon pimento dram
1 dash Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Shake & double strain into a cocktail glass rinsed with a smokey scotch. (I used Peat Monster.) Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

What do you like to drink when fall arrives? Leave a comment and let us know!

Cheers!

PS. Scofflaw’s Den celebrated it’s fourth birthday earlier this month. We thank all of our readers for sticking with us and we plan on providing a lot more content and recipes for you to enjoy for at least another four years. -Marshall

Wow – June. It’s been a while since a post. I know I’ve been busy as heck, and Tales is coming up, so let’s get right to it.

Mokomandy

I saw in Imbibe magazine a restaurant out near where I worked called “Mokomandy” – MOdern KOrean by MANDY.  A coworker of mine who is getting really into cocktails recommended we go out there and check it out. Given that it’s a restaurant with what appears to be a promising cocktail program and does a combination of Korean and Cajun food?

HELL YEAH!

Unfortunately, however, I’d have to drive, which means I’d have to be quite careful about how much I drink. My office is almost 30 miles away from my apartment, and there tends to be tons of cops about. I’m very, very careful about any sort of alcohol + driving, so I made it a point ahead of time to limit myself and drink lots of water.

The bar at Mokomandy

The restaurant is very modern – which also means it can be loud. Fortunately for us it was pretty empty when we arrived there. We met the bartender, Kahrii, who was a really great, friendly guy, and struck up a conversation with him and one of the chefs.

I started with a Fuji Apple – Apfelkorn, Tuaca, Laird’s 7 1/2 year old apple brandy, and lemon juice. I’m a huge fan of Apfelkorn – heck, almost of any kind of apple alcohol – and a fan of Tuaca too. This drink was quite nice and I had to restrain myself from just knocking it back.

I switched up next to A New Twist on a Classic – Plymouth gin, Aperol, Fusion Rouge Verjus, and Fee’s Rhubarb Bitters. I ordered it because of the Fusion Rouge Verjus; that’s an alcohol-free drinkable vinegar. Weird, wacky stuff (he says in his best Johnny Carson voice) but I had to try it. It was definitely an interesting Negroni variation.

(The Negroni, of course, is probably my favorite cocktail currently and has been for a while. Even better, I love experimenting with variations of it. And now I want one. Damnation!)

I finished the night with a Sazerac variant: Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye, coffee syrup, orange and aromatic bitters, Lucid rinse. This was good, but I would’ve liked to try it with a different rye. Had I not had to drive, I might have done just that (and had the restaurant not gotten VERY LOUD at that point in the evening). Mokomandy is proud of their neighbor Catoctin Creek distillery, and features all of their products. I’m a fan of the gin and the rye spirit, but the Roundstone Rye, to me, has the funkiness of “too young” whiskey that hasn’t had a chance to mellow out. It needs more time, or like the Mosby’s Spirit (the rye spirit), less time. Only aging a whiskey a very short time is to its detriment, I feel, most of the time.

As for food, I had fresh cracklin’s (oh my goodness they were good), spicy kimchi (not as spicy as I expected), fried kale chips (I wouldn’t have ordered these on my own but they were surprisingly good), foie gras dumplings (only order if you share them, they’re very rich and good if you have one, not as good if you eat all 3 right in a row), and a braised wild boar bowl with kimchi, rice, and all kinds of other stuff, including an egg on top, that was just KILLER and WAY TOO MUCH food.

So yeah – even if you’re out in BFE of what’s on the outskirts of northern Virginia – i.e., Loudoun – you can find some amazing food and drink at Mokomandy. It’s off Algonkian Parkway in Sterling.

Jack Rose

I’d missed my first chance to hit Jack Rose by being out of town, so last Friday night I decided to wander down there and check out the rooftop bar.

I got there right about 8 o’clock and saw a number of folks I knew around – and then got invited to join in the Alaskan Brewing Company beer pairing dinner! Geoff Larson, the owner and brewer, was there talking about the history of his brewery and of brewing in Alaska, and the beers were paired with delicious food, mostly salmon, from Alaska.

It was only near the end that I found out you can’t get Alaskan Brewing Company beer in DC! OH CRAP!

After the dinner I wandered over to the bar to hang out. After trying a “Hey, Sailor” from JP (the drink whose name I refused to yell across the bar), I switched up and tried a wee dram of the “Jack Rose” labeled Willett – 18 year old barrel strength bourbon which was AMAZING. (Yes, I drank it straight. That’s how I roll, baby. No water or ice for me.)

From there, I mostly stuck with beer and a shot of Bulleit rye, but the rooftop is a killer space at Jack Rose. I only got to peek at the downstairs but I can’t wait to get back when the joint is fully open!

Always have a palate rinser when tasting - Miller Lite

A while ago, I responded to an offer to try Crown Royal Black. It’s a new variation of Crown Royal, it lists on the back about being aged in charred oak and blended to a higher proof than regular Crown Royal – 90 proof rather than the usual 80.

A lot of cocktail folks, myself included, tend to decry Canadian whisky. (AUGH NO “E” MY SPELLCHECKER WILL HATE ME.) In fact, just today Robert Simonson wrote an article in the New York Times about how the industry is trying to redeem itself of the reputation as “the vodka of whiskey”. (If you’ve used up your free clicks on the Times site, you can read a version of it on his site.)

For me, though, I also have my family, and certain members of my family are big Crown Royal fans. I thought I should give it a shot – after all, I did doctor up a Crown & Coke recipe for my brother’s wedding. (You can find that in my previous MxMo post here.)

My plan was set: I would introduce the Crown Royal Black to my brother and my dad, and then I’d make I’d a drink with it commemorating the Steelers Super Bowl win. That was a plan doomed to failure if I’d remembered how the Steelers would probably play.

Sigh. At least I’m not a Redskins fan.

So I hesitated but I consider this a good thing because of the NYT article – and I did introduce it to them.

My first impression of it compared to “regular” Crown Royal was that, yes, this is more whisk(e)y-ish. It’s hotter, but it’s got more of a depth of flavor to it than regular CR which just comes off as sweet to me. My dad, tasting it straight, responded immediately with “Yum!”

In a Crown & Coke – well, you can’t tell the different, I’m afraid.

I poked around with some ideas for a drink. None of them really gelled, I’m afraid – perhaps mostly because I was trying to think of something with Strega or yellow Chartreuse to be “black and gold”. You can use the CR Black much more like you could American whiskeys because unlike the basic Crown Royal, it doesn’t immediately disappear in a cocktail, it can actually stand out.

It’s not the most subtle of spirits, but to be honest, it’s a step in the right direction for Canadian whiskys. (Whiskies? Gah. That looks worse.) At $2 a bottle more, I think it’s definitely worth the extra couple of bucks (come on, in Virginia if I remember correctly you’re talking about $24.95 or $26.95 – get the extra taste and proof), but what I’d be most curious about is how Diageo and Crown Royal push this. Can they make a Canadian whisky that balances sweet and spicy, and make it at a good price point?

Hmmm. I have a sudden urge to make an orange juice drink with this. (Runs into kitchen). Want an experiment?

Experimental Crown Royal Black Cocktail:
2 oz Crown Royal Black
2 oz orange juice
3-4 dashes orange bitters
Shake, pour straight into a high ball glass.

Thoughts? Does it deserve a name? Will Gabe make fun of me for using OJ?

Sorry. I love that movie (The Rock, if you have to ask). We used to watch it twice a night in college – once on a copy with crappy video and good sound, and once with a copy that had good video and crappy sound. Typically put away a block of Kroger’s brand pepper jack cheese and a bag of tortilla chips along with a couple of 40s while doing it.

No, I do not wonder why I am fat.

When DJ Hawaiian Shirt aka MEESTER CHREES posted this topic my first thought was to whine. After all, I did not go home with the prom queen.

To be honest, I don’t even remember who the prom queen was. Though, by careful scientific calculation, I’m sure that whomever she was, she’d want to hook up with me now, definitely, unless she’s married, in which case she’d just be thinking about in the back of her head.

(waits for someone from high school to read this blog post and either direly insult me or post pictures of how dorky I am was back then)

(waits for Marshall to say something so he can break out Photoshop and have some real fun)

Anyways, I realized I did have a drink that was popular. It’s not that I don’t think I make good drinks (SHUT THE HELL UP REST OF THE COCKTAIL BLOGGER COMMUNITY) it’s just that I don’t typically sit around and tweak them until they’re perfect.

THAT’S MY EXCUSE AND I’M STICKING TO IT.

But some of them have been popular.

I don't know KP is hosting it but hey.

Back a few years ago (2, to be precise) I decided to come up with drinks named after a bunch of folks working up to Tales of the Cocktail 2009.

Oh, to be young and stupid in those days!

One of the drinks I did I named after local bartender Derek Brown. To call him just a “bartender” is to call Tiger Woods just a “golfer” or “trashy girl aficionado” or to call [POLITICIAN RANT DELETED].

Those motherfu[DELETED] how much I [DELETED].

Sorry.

Basically, this was an easy drink to come up with: Dolin Blanc is delicious. At the time – and I don’t think he still is, but I could be wrong, and don’t have time to double-check so as to give this post the delicious patina of last-minute-panic that DJ Hawaiian Shirt evidently just drinks in from my posts – he was a brand rep for Domaine de Canton.

Thus, the Derek:

The Derek
3-4 leaves of mint
1/2 ounce Domaine de Canton
3 ounces Dolin Blanc
1 dash orange bitters (Regans #6)
Lightly muddle the mint and Domaine de Canton in an old-fashioned glass.  Add the vermouth, bitters, and ice.  Stir gently to mix.  Garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.

(The post I originally put this in explains why it has so much better a picture than I’d normally give a drink.)

The really cool thing about this drink is how easily it’s modified; just sub out the Domaine, really. Try The Bitter Truth E***X***R, for instance, or Berechovka – two of the drinks I’ve had recently – or even better, try Hum. Replace the Dolin Blanc with Caparno.

Okay, there’s one of my best drinks. People really seemed to like it.

But this is SCOFFLAW’S DEN! We don’t just kowtow to MxMo with one drink! NEIN! NYET! NO! We do multiple drinks!

So, I give you, by far, and without pictures, the two most popular drinks I’ve ever come up with. In some synchronicity, these are also named after people I know. In fact, it’s my brother and my sister-in-law.

Back in the hectic, lawless, far-flung days of 2009 I lived with my brother and his fiancée. As they approached the sacred rites that would bond them as one, forever destined to take care of two flagrantly obnoxious cats, and one condo surrounded by some pusillanimous (and some recherché, I admit) neighbors, I suggested I’d make up drinks named for each of them. They liked the idea and I disseminated some test drinks which, soon enough, got narrowed down to these. The fact that their cakes would be soaked in Grand Marnier gave me the appropriate animus.

The Matt
2 ounces Crown Royal
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
2-3 dashes Regan’s #6 orange bitters
Top with Coca-cola
Build in a low ball glass. Stir.

A lot of my family likes Crown & Coke and so I built from there. What’s scary about this drink is how easily it goes down, as the GM just makes it … well, damn easy to drink. Even if you replace the Crown with rum (as one guest did at the reception) or the Coke with diet (as many guests did).

The Cathy
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier
1/2 ounce vodka
Top with sparkling wine/champagne
Garnish with a long twist of orange peel
Build in a champagne flute

Like the other drink, I also wanted to make sure these were easy to make for the bartenders. When I tested this for the first time I was actually asked (surprisingly to me) to make it stronger, thus the vodka.

Warning note: Five of these might mean you nap somewhere you’d rather not do so.

So that’s it for this MxMo. Thanks to DJ Hawaiian Shirt for hosting, and Paul for organizing. Cheers!