Tag Archives: bourbon cocktails

Drink of the Week: Hashtag Boom (redux)

Posted on January 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

I first wrote about this cocktail two years ago after it won a Beam Global competition at Vine Arts. Its creator, Matt LaRocque, formerly of Taste, moved over to Charcut and brought this drink with him. In the intervening years he’s played with the recipe a bit and I got to sample the updated Hashtag Boom at an event at Charcut last night.

LaRocque has switched bourbons to Bulleit, added a half ounce of New Deal Ginger liqueur and traded Fentiman’s for Grizzly Paw ginger beer. Most significantly, the drink is now served in a tall glass instead of a short one and tastes longer on the ginger beer and less spirit-forward on the bourbon. I could taste the bourbon, it just wasn’t all-powerful. The gastrique adds a nice spicy, sightly vinegar-y taste that’s subtle but still noticeable. Best of all, the drink was delicious paired with Charcut’s famous charcuterie (love the mortadella!).

This strong and spicy cocktail complements Charcut's charcuterie.

The Hashtag Boom, a strong, long and spicy cocktail, complements Charcut’s delicious charcuterie.

The evening was hosted by Maui tourism folks, so we talked a lot about the island, food and cocktail culture, and one of its upcoming food and wine festivals, Ka’anapali Fresh. I easily pictured myself on a lanai drinking a Hashtag Boom, which happens to be the exact colour of a Hawaiian sunset.

This warming, ginger-imbued winter sip is the colour of a Hawaiian sunset.

This warming, ginger-imbued winter sip is the colour of a Hawaiian sunset.

Hashtag Boom

  • 1.5 oz Bulleit bourbon
  • .5 oz New Deal Ginger
  • 1 oz red pepper gastrique
  • 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 2 dashes peach bitters
  • Top Grizzly Paw ginger beer
  • Garnish: lemon twist

Method: Shake all ingredients except ginger beer with ice. Strain into a tall glass over fresh ice.

— Recipe courtesy Charcut

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Drink of the Week: Amaretto Sour

Posted on November 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

A change in the weather calls for a change in cocktails, from tall to short, and from light to dark. My gig as a judge at the Luxardo Maraschino cocktail competition earlier this week at Raw Bar by Duncan Ly provided me with the inspiration for just such a drink: an Amaretto Sour.

Smooth, sweet and Amaretto Sour.

Smooth, sweet and Amaretto Sour.

As I’ve mentioned ad nauseum, I really love sours, so I was excited to see that all of Luxardo’s liqueurs were in play for the competition, including amaretto. Some say amaretto is so 1980s, but I say, wait a minute! It really helps to mix it with something beyond Coke; for example, bourbon, lemon juice and an egg white.

Isn't that a cool bottle?

Isn’t that a cool bottle?

In fact, One of my favourite cocktails from the competition was a twist on a sour, using amaretto and maraschino liqueur, by Tony Migliarese from Cilantro. I didn’t manage to get his recipe, but I did come home with a bottle of amaretto. Then, I turned to The Google and found this great recipe online.

Amaretto Sour

  • 1.5 oz Luxardo Amaretto
  • .75 oz bourbon (I used Knob Creek)
  • 1 oz fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp “English” simple syrup (2 parts sugar, 1 part water)
  • .5 oz egg white, beaten
  • Garnish: lemon twist and brandied cherries

Method: Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and dry shake. Add ice and shake again to chill. Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lemon twist and brandied cherries.

— Recipe comes courtesy of Portland mixologist Jeffrey Morgenthaler, as contributed to Liquor.com.

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Drink of the Week: Cowboy’s Breakfast

Posted on July 4, 2014 | Leave a comment

One thing I love about the Calgary Stampede is that it’s okay to have booze for breakfast. Not every morning, mind you. But guaranteed, there will be at least one break of day during yyc’s annual rodeo drunk-fest where a little hair of the dog will be just what the doctor ordered.

In anticipation of this yearly event, Bar C on 17th Ave. S.W. has come up with an appropriately breakfasty (and naturally, very boozy) cocktail called the Cowboy’s Breakfast, available daily through July 13.

“The cocktail was inspired by the essentials for any good Stampede breakfast – bacon, eggs, maple syrup and bourbon,” says Andrea Espinoza, bartender at Bar C. “Synonymous with cowboys, rodeos and the old west, bourbon was my starting point for creating this cocktail.”

The Cowboy's Breakfast is a Stampede cocktail available at Bar C through July 13, 2014.

The Cowboy’s Breakfast is a Stampede cocktail available at Bar C through July 13.

The Cowboy’s Breakfast features Buffalo Trace bourbon, Cazadores tequila, egg whites, bacon-infused maple syrup, cherry bark bitters and liquid smoke (evidently you can buy this, for that campfire taste) shaken together dry to emulsify the egg white, and then shaken with ice. The cocktail is garnished with candied bacon.

I love how smooth and silky this drink is, and how it warms up an empty belly with bourbon and the sweet notes of maple, cinnamon and bacon. Its only downside is that, coupled with the bacon garnish, you may just order a second and third cocktail and skip breakfast altogether. Giddy up!

Cowboy’s Breakfast

  • 1.5 oz Buffalo Trace bourbon
  • .5 oz Cazadores tequila
  • .5 oz bacon-infused maple syrup
  • 1 egg white
  • 3 shakes Cherry Bark bitters
  • 2 shakes liquid smoke
  • Garnish with strip of candied bacon

Method: Combine all ingredients except garnish in a shaker and dry shake. Add ice and shake again. Fine strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass and garnish with a strip of candied bacon.

— Recipe courtesy Bar C

 

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