While foraging for Irish whiskey cocktails for St. Patrick’s Day, I got an emil from GreggO this morning about this drink, created by our pal Jackson Cannon at Boston’s Eastern Standard. This looks fantastic, and I’ll bet it’d be super deadly with Irish brown bread.

Bushmills in the Afternoon
Adapted from Jackson Cannon, Eastern Standard, Boston)

1/2 slice (about 3/4-inch thick) of artisanal wheat bread or Irish brown bread.
2 ounces Bushmills Irish whiskey.
1 egg.
1/2 ounce honey syrup (1 part honey dissolved in 1 part warm water).
1/2 ounce fresh orange juice.
Dash of Regans’ Orange Bitters No. 6 (or other orange bitters).
Freshly grated cinnamon, for garnish.

In a mixing glass, muddle the bread with the whiskey for 1 minute, then pass the mixture through a tea strainer into a cocktail shaker, pressing on the bread to extract all of the whiskey (you should get about 1-1/2 ounces). Add the egg, honey syrup, orange juice and bitters and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Fill the shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds to 1 minute longer, until the drink is frothy and well-chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a small pinch of freshly grated cinnamon.

Oh Jaysis … this was really, really feckin’ good. 🙂

While foraging for Irish whiskey cocktails for St. Patrick’s Day, I came across this one I had forgotten about, an original by Dave Wondrich, appearing in his book Killer Cocktails:

Weeski

2 ounces Irish whiskey.
1 ounce Lillet blanc.
1 teaspoon Cointreau.
2 dashes orange bitters.

Stir and strain, lemon twist.

This follows Dave’s formula for creating new cocktails from the various contents of your bar. It doesn’t always work, but it works most of the time, sometimes really well.

The basic recipe template is:

2 ounces base spirit (whiskey, rum, tequila, gin, genever, brandy, whatever), 1 ounce aromatized wine (vermouth, port, sherry, quinquina, Lillet, Dubonnet, etc.), 1 teaspoon/barspoon liqueur, and 1-2 dashes bitters. Start digging in your liquor cabinet and give it a try sometime.

Yeah, I know I haven’t posted since Mardi Gras. Yeah, I know I’m a lazy bastard. God Emperor of Procrastination. Now, let’s move on and have a drink.

Wes was just grabbing bottles and letting ideas burble forth in his head the other night, and came up with this really delicious drink inspirted by the Perfect Martini. I couldn’t find anything in CocktailDB with this particular combination of ingredients, so in the amazingly unlikely case that nobody’s thought of it, we need to try to get him to name it. He’s thinking of it, and I’ll update with a picture tonight. In the meantime …

[Hours pass by.]

Okay, I think the drink has been officially named now. I suggested this one, which is only fair, since Wesly came up with the brilliant name for what was to become my Réveillon Cocktail, when I was just about to give it a really, really stupid name.

“Anodyne” means something that relieves or eliminates pain, and it was particularly appropriate as he came up with the drink while suffering a bout of pretty nasty neck and shoulder pain. (He was being persnickety, after a bit of googling revealed that a “true” anodyne is only applied externally; I said, “It’s a great name, so hush,” or something like that.) It’s also the name of Uncle Tupelo’s final album, and they’re one of my favorite bands of all time, so we get an extra level of oomph in the name.

Try to avoid substituting. Use Lillet and Punt E Mes, and don’t swap out the gin for something less intense. The cocktail works best with the specified ingredients, and they’re common enough.

The Anodyne Cocktail
(by Wesly Moore, Los Angeles, 2009)

2 ounces Beefeater gin.
1 ounce Lillet blanc.
1/2 ounce Punt e Mes.
3 dashes Regans’ Orange Bitters No. 6.
Orange peel.

Combine ingredients with ice. Stir for 30 seconds and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Flame the orange peel over the drink, and garnish with the orange peel.

This is really, really tasty.