Happy Hate Week Friday everyone! There is slow and steady progress in unpacking. Mostly the method has been “where the fuck is X?” and we go searching through various boxes in order to find said missing item. I took that same approach this week and made it a mission to find my cocktail books.
I found them on Wednesday! Well, most of them I forgot I brought some to the Cape when we spent Christmas down there and decided to leave them until after we moved…
Either way, I have my library back, and I’m ready to mix up a Skipper, from the Waldorf Astoria Bar Book:
Skipper
2 oz. G’Vine Floraison Gin
.5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
.25 oz. Fresh lemon juice
.25 oz. Fresh orange juice
.25 oz. Grenadine
1 dash Orange Bitters
add all ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry
The main aroma I notice right off the bat is the maraschino liqueur. That sticks out the most, which isn’t exactly a surprise. That is a powerful liqueur, both in flavor intensity and smell. A couple more nosings and I start to detect a couple more scents: mainly the orange juce, and maybe hint of lemon mixed in there as well.
The first sip starts out very smooth. It is well balanced, but then it gives way to a slightly sour/bitter finish. The latter flavor profile I assume comes from the 1-2 punch of lemon and orange juice, not to mention the orange bitters.
The gin is interesting as a base. I can’t exactly taste it right off the bat, but it is buried in the flavors. I can detect a hint of the juniper and other telltale gin flavors underneath the maraschino and the juices. One thing of note. As mentioned above, the recipe calls for Floraison gin, which is a mild flavored gin from France. Much different than the London Dry I used here. However, I don’t think the London Dry affects the drink negatively. Sure the Floraison might be a touch milder and give the drink a softer mouth feel, but this is by no means undrinkable. I don’t think it detracts much at all.
I do like how the acids in the lemon and orange juice really hold back the over sweet flavor of the grenadine. That is a powerful ingredient that could easily take over and ruin the flavor balance here, but its is wonderfully held in check by those two flavors.
This is a solid early evening/pre dinner drinker. I would definitely try it again with the proper gin to see what kind of effect that has on the overall flavor. But go ahead and make it with London dry too.
(Banner image found here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvOPucs7dC0
At some point in my life I thought that Grand Funk Railroad and Foghat were the same band. That’s why I’m posting “Slow Ride”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9197uAIj7_E&ab_channel=Foghat-Topic
In the 11th grade, I took the lyrics to that Grand Funk song, transcribed them, renamed it “Captain Bligh’s Lament,” and turned it in as a poem that I wrote in English class. Got a B. Did the same thing in the same class with the Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil. Can’t remember what I named it. B+. I am not a poetry person, so I had to steal.
I’m smiling for real, reading this. A literature class in my last year of high school required us to write ten poems over the course of the year. Two of the poems I wrote riffed on a couple of John Prine tunes-both of them made it into the yearbook. Here’s one-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhA01J0Zsg&ab_channel=JohnPrine
Interesting how two of us poetry cheaters ended up at DFO.
It’s one of those sites that gets better and better the longer you stay with it.
In Montreal I lived on Rue Grand Trunk, near the former Grand Trunk Railway tracks (now CN). The railroad went from Montreal west across Canada to Detroit and across Michigan, and also to Chicago. It’s corporate headquarters was in London. Actually, all the major American railroads of the 19th century were heavily financed by investment money from the British Empire.
The band took its name from a railroad bridge in Michigan.
I think they kinda referenced that connection on the cover of their debut album (I have owned my copy of this record for a half-century now; I am depressingly old).
Foghat was the first concert I attended in the US. Also the first time after trying for a year to get high from pot. Black Oak Arkansas and Ruby Starr & Grey Ghost were the supporting acts. Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, some time in 1975. Fool for the City and the Live album were some of my favorite 8-tracks.
“The Skipper” sounds like a drink that Eli Manning would have after finding out that he got a B+ in Geography and would consume on his way home to tell Olivia, who promised him a new bike if his grades from last quarter improved.
I need some Luxardo.
I have blown through mine so much quicker than expected. So versatile.
Also, I’m running a super bowl squares pool that needs filling
$10/square if anyone is interested
where does Hippo send teh PayPal?
nvm, I see it now. TWO BOYCOTT SQUARES FOAR HIPPO
“Boy cot? That’s what I call where my ‘very special friends’ get to stay when I have sleepovers.”
-L. Graham
Got it!
This reminds me of my latest Crazy Hippo Idea – a re-make of Gilligan’s Island with an all-Black cast. This is the kind of thing (along with baseball lineups) that I daydream of in the shower.
I’d watch the hell out of that show:
Who keeps grenadine in the house?
Who doesn’t?
/hangs head in shame
Next you’re going to tell me that you only have one kind of bitters, like some kind of barbarian!
I only have orange and angostura. But I do have a book on how to make my own. Gonna have to give that a shot
I have those two plus Peychaud’s and (for some reason) rhubarb. In truth, I don’t really use them much. But I’m a big believer in “if it doesn’t go bad, might as well have a big selection,” so at some point I’ll probably pick up celery and chocolate.
Even barbarians have at least three types.
I have so many bitters. Angostura, cherry, peychauds, grapefruit, cardamom, chocolate.
We just got the same kind of stemless martini glasses! Mainly because I broke all the other ones.
This is a great cocktail for citrus season, as it happens to be here in SoCal. Would switching to 1 part gin / 1 part vodka help “soften” a London dry gin into something more appropriate for this recipe?
It actually might. It would keep the strength and mute the botanicals. I might have to try that later
We’ve been in this place for almost 12 years. There are still boxes in the basement, unopened, from when we moved into our previous FUCKING HOUSE, in the basement that I’m not allowed to throw out.
So by those standards, you have time.
Black Maryanne will have BACK, yo!