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Assam Vodka & The Peach Ice Tea

By Randy Winters December 3, 2012

Assam Vodka - What You'll Need

I made up some Assam Vodka a few months ago for the first time and since then it has become one of my favourite items in my home bar. It can just be used to make so many delicious things that I find I can’t be without.

Assam Vodka

1 700mL Bottle Vodka (Something neutral, doesn’t need to be flash).

4 tsp loose leaf Assam Tea (You can use 4 tea bags, I did as I don’t have any loose leaf at the moment).

A large glass jar (If you don’t have a clean jar lying around, you can use the original bottle as I do, however you’ll want to take around 50ml of vodka out to make room for the tea).

Some form of filter.

Method

Place tea and Vodka into your jar and agitate.

Agitate twice daily for 48 hours.

Filter using your preferred method (Cheese cloth, Tea Sieve, Aeropress, whatever other method you like).

If you’ve tried Assam tea you probably have a real good idea of what this will taste like. I can honestly say I wouldn’t be drinking it straight though, the tea will be quite bitter if you have nothing to water it down with. That being said there’s probably some nut out there who’d love it (I mean hey, people drink underberg don’t they? ).

Time to try this baby in a cocktail, we’ll go for the most obvious, I’m sure you all realise how easily you can modify this recipe to get the type of cold tea drink you enjoy.

Peach Ice Tea

30mL Assam Vodka

60mL Peach Schnapps

30mL 1:1 Simple Syrup

Combine ingredients and some ice to a shaker and shake well. Build on a few pieces of ice in a Highball and top with soda water. Stir and serve.

Or if you want it a little neater:

Peach Ice Tea: Neat

30mL Assam Vodka

30mL Peach Schnapps

Combine ingredients and some ice a mixing glass and stir well. Strain into an old fashioned glass with a few pieces of ice and serve.

Bottles o' Stuff, Cocktails, Infusion

Cold Warmth

By Randy Winters November 25, 2012

Cold Warmth

I bought a bottle of Maraska Orahovac Green Walnut Liqueur a few days back to give a try. I find it a little sweet by itself but it has a wealth of depth that I think could be great in a variety of cocktails. Off the cuff I came up with this:

Cold Warmth

30mL Green Walnut Liqueur (Maraska Orahovac)

15mL Apricot Brandy (Futyulos Kecskemeti)

1 dash Tigerballs Bitters No. 1 (you can substitute with orange bitters).

Combine ingredients with 3 pieces of ice and shake well. Strain and serve in a Old Fashioned glass with 2 cubes of ice.

The Cold Warmth is thick, sweet, syrupy, chilly, with a hint of a burn going down.

Cocktails

Boronia Marsala All’Uovo & The Summer Marsala

By Randy Winters November 24, 2012

Boronia Marsala All'Uovo

I recently had a glass of Boronia Marsala All’Uovo and really enjoyed it. Marsala All’Uovo is a fortified Marsala that has had egg yolks added to make a full bodied, sweet, desert wine. At $9.50 (AUD) a bottle its something I’ll probably keep in stock from now on.

Marsala, which is now a popular wine all over Italy, is a complex mixture of special herbs, white wine, grape juice concentrate and brandy. just about a hundred years after the Woodhouses drew attention to its virtues, a Milanese distiller named Moroni discovered that by adding egg yolk beaten up in strong spirit, the wine could be both enriched and softened without any egg taste coming through. He called his mixture Marsala all’Uovo. Now (once again, almost a hundred years later) Wynns are making Marsala all’Uovo at Yenda in the approved Italian manner and it is as popular here as in Italy.

Marsala all’Uovo is a dessert wine, rich in flavour but not over sweet, and forms the basis of the Italian confection zabaglione. In yet another association with Italy, Wynns have given their Marsala the name of the scented Western Australian wildflower boronia which itself was named after an Italian botanist, Francesco Borone.
- http://www.nicks.com.au/index.aspx?link_id=76.860

Hmmmmm, lets try to knock down this sweetness a bit and try to make this a little more ‘Summer’:

Summer Marsala

30mL Marsala All’Uovo (Boronia)

30mL Drambuie

15mL Burnt Sugar Syrup

Add ingredients along with a few pieces of ice and shake well. Build a large tankard with crushed ice up to half way, pour in cocktail and top with more crushed ice.

Note: Although I’m referring to Boronia as Marsala All’Uovo it technically isn’t. Like many other fantastic drinks, if it doesn’t come from the right area you can’t call it what it is…

Bottles o' Stuff, Cocktails

Oh Henry!

By Randy Winters November 19, 2012

Oh Henry!

From the Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock comes the ‘Oh Henry!’. I’ve seen this one around before, and reviews tend to range from “love it!”, “too sweet” or just plain “yuck”. I personally fall on the side of love it and don’t find it too sweet at all (substituting Ginger Beer for the Ginger Ale might do that though).

Oh Henry!

30mL Whiskey (Canadian Club)

30mL Benedictine

30mL Ginger Ale (Schweppes Dry Ginger Ale)

Add ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir well and strain into a Martini glass.

Cocktails

Burnt Honey

By Randy Winters November 18, 2012

Burnt Honey

I’ve been playing around with a whole bunch of different sugar syrups lately and finally decided to try Burnt Sugar Syrup via Craft Cocktails At Home. Kevin describes the syrup as being “dark, bitter, complex, and it doesn’t take any sh*t” which I have to agree with wholeheartedly. So far it’s been pretty handy as a way to add a bit of a twist on some of the classics but while playing around I sort of stumbled onto the idea for the “Burnt Honey” and found myself pouring one after the other all night.

Burnt Honey

30mL Drambuie

30mL Honey Liqueur

15mL Burnt Sugar Syrup

Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into an old fashioned glass with 2 cubes of ice.

Note: This may look quite sweet, however the Burnt Sugar Syrup adds a fair bitterness that balances the drink quite well.

Cocktails

Rhubarb Liqueur & The F5

By Randy Winters November 17, 2012

Around about the same time I tried making my own bitters I started a Rhubarb Liqueur infusion. This is something that you need to do a fair bit in the future as it takes a month to fully infuse. For anyone who loves Rhubarb though it’s definitely worth the wait, especially in summer

Ingredients for Rhubarb Liqueur

Rhubarb Liqueur

Ingredients:

3 sticks Rhubarb – Chopped in smallish cubes

Zest of 1/2 a Lemon with no pith

1 dash of Lemon Juice

1/2 cup Caster Sugar

700mL Vodka (I used Stolichnaya Red)

Method:

Combine ingredients and shake vigorously until sugar thoroughly combined. Agitate daily and filter after 4 weeks. Bottle and enjoy.

Rhubarb Liqueur: Infusing

Rhubarb Liqueur: The End Result

The result is a sweet ruby red liqueur with a fair bit of kick left in it. Lets try that with a drink!

The F5

30mL Rhubarb Liqueur

30mL Calvados

15mL 1:1 Simple Syrup

2 dashes of Tigerballs Bitters No. 1 (can be substituted with 1 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters and 1 dash Orange Bitters)

Combine ingredients with 3 pieces of ice and shake well. Strain and serve in a small tumbler with 3 pieces of ice.

Note: alcohol content for this Rhubard Liqueur is roughly 28% or 56 proof.

Bottles o' Stuff, Cocktails, Infusion

Tigerballs Homemade Bitters No. 1 & The Old Angry Tiger

By Randy Winters November 16, 2012

It’s hard to get bitters in Australia. Really hard. Aside from Angostura Aromatic Bitters there’s really nothing you can buy in the retail space. Buying something in the wholesale space like Peychaud’s or Orange Bitters will require a lot of tracking down along with a minimum purchase of a case for each bottle you want. After a furious hunting session I resigned myself to the idea that I’d never be able to find what I wanted (Note: I did eventually find a place to buy what I need, more on that in another post). So, with a semi-aggressive harrumph I set out to make my own.

Arming myself with the book: Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas along with Drink Dogma’s: How to make your own bitters and Spirits and Cocktails’: How to make bitters I came up with the below recipe:

Ingredients for Homemade Bitters

Bittering Agents

4 tsp Wormwood

Fruit Notes:

Orange Zest (3 Oranges) – Make sure you remove all pith

Lemon Zest (1 Lemon) – Make sure you remove all pith

Dash of Lemon Juice

Rhubarb (A little if you have it spare)

Complex:

4 tsp Dried Ginger Chips

6 pieces Dried Galangal

8 Allspice Balls

4 Whole Star Anise

6 Cardamom Pods

6 Cloves

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 Vanilla Pod

2 tsp Fenugreek Leaves

2 tsp Thyme

2 tsp T2 Blue Mountain Tea

Spirits:

700 mL Wild Turkey 101 (Bourbon)

700 mL Wild Turkey Rye 101 (Rye Whiskey)

500 mL Spirytus (Polish Vodka)

Liqueurs:

Barenjager

Method:

Using the idea from Spirits and Cocktails’: How to make bitters I decided to split some of the flavour components up to ensure they infused in the way I wanted. I’ll list below the break up of all the ingredients along with the infusion times.

250mL Spirytus, Thyme, T2 Blue Mountain Tea. Agitate daily, filter after 1 week.

250mL Spirytus, Dried Ginger Chips, Dried Galangal. Agitate daily, filter after 3 weeks.

350mL Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Wormwood. Agitate daily, filter after 1 week.

350mL Wild Turkey 101, Allspice Balls, Star Anise, Cardamom Pods, Cloves, Cinnamon Sticks, Fenugreek Leaves. Agitate daily, filter after 3 weeks.

350mL Wild Turkey 101, 350mL Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Orange Zest, Lemon Zest, Rhubarb, Dash of Lemon Juice, Vanilla Pod. Agitate daily, Filter after 4 weeks.

I filtered all these through an Aeropress coffee filter, however you can use whatever method you’ve decided upon (there are many filtration articles available if you look on google). Combine all filtered mixes for the final result and add in some Barenjager to taste for a bit of a honey note. Bottle, label, store, and enjoy!

Tigerballs Bitters No. 1

I have dubbed this ‘Tigerballs Bitters No. 1′ after Anansi’s hilarious motivational speech from American Gods (don’t ask me why, I’m kinda random and it seemed like a good idea at the time). On tasting, it turned out to have a zesty citrus note on the nose, a solid bitter tone on the attack, a complex of flavours that hint but rarely reveal in the mid palate and the citrus and bitter come back for the finish.

Time to try it with a drink, methinks.

Old Angry Tiger

60mL Mount Gay Eclipse Rum

15mL 1:1 Simple Syrup (30mL if you’re a sweet tooth)

2 Dashes Tigerballs Bitters No.1 (This could be substituted with 1 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters and 1 dash Orange Bitters if you don’t want to make Tigerballs)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake well and strain into an old fashioned glass with two cubes of ice. Garnish with a lemon peel.

Note: alcohol content for Tigerballs Bitters No. 1 is 59% or 118 proof.

Cocktails, Infusion

T2 Blue Mountain Gin & The BM G&T

By Randy Winters October 30, 2012

Infusing T2 Blue Mountain Gin

A few months ago, inspired by tasting an Earl Grey Martini at Brisbane’s Canvas Club and some gentle prodding from a friend I decided to try my hand at infusion.

T2 Blue Mountain

What I decided upon was a T2 Blue Mountain Gin. T2’s Blue Mountain is quite similar to a french earl grey with lovely floral tones and a sweet fruity taste. T2’s description is below:

“One of the all-time classic black teas. Up front vanilla gives way to defined ripe fruitiness that lingers on a delicate sweet finish. Velvety smooth and with a scenic outlook, this provides a burst of flavour for an afternoon break or a sweet treat.”

The result is a very nice smooth gin with light tea, floral and fruit flavours.

What You'll Need

BM Gin

1 700ml Bottle Gin (I would use pretty much any London Dry, even low-end brands can taste great in an infusion).

4 tsp T2 Blue Mountain (You can really use any tea here, make sure you actually like it though).

A large glass jar (If you don’t have a clean jar lying around, you can use the original bottle as I do, however you’ll want to take around 50ml of gin out to make room for the tea).

Some form of filter (explained below).

Method:

Place tea and gin into your large glass jar and agitate.

Agitate twice daily for 48 hours.

Filter your gin from the tea leaves. The first time I tried this I just used a standard tea sieve and it was quite clean. These days I just run it through an Aeropress with a steel filter.

There are plenty of uses for this infusion which I’ll probably go into over the life of this blog, however maybe it’s best to point out the obvious here:

BM Gin & Tonic

45ml BM Gin

Build on two cubes of ice. Add BM Gin, top with Tonic Water and garnish with a wedge of lime. Squeeze a lime peel onto floating ice and serve.

Bottles o' Stuff, Cocktails, Infusion

Limoncello

By Randy Winters October 17, 2012

Villa Massa Limoncello

I’ve had a bottle of Villa Massa Limoncello for a few weeks now and finally decided to put it to good use. Previously I only tried this cooled with ice instead of keeping it in the freezer. I have to say it is much more interesting this way as the melting ice doesn’t dilute the drink and remove that slight burst of bitter lemon peel at the end. It’s sweet and smooth at first and you almost think it’s too sweet until that slight bitterness at the end hits you with mild surprise. Unfortunately I don’t have a proper Limoncello glass so I settled for an aperitif glass instead, I also didn’t cool the glass as was recommended. Maybe I’ll have to do another taste test with a cooled Limoncello glass next time. Can’t wait.

Bottles o' Stuff

Metaxa 5 & St. Germain

By Randy Winters October 16, 2012

Metaxa 5 & St Germain

A short while ago someone I know recommended I try St. Germain, an elderflower liqueur made in France. The wiki page describes it as having a heady lychee aroma, with grapefruit and other citrus undertones. Turns out it’s an excellent liqueur and is delicious diluted with soda water – though rather subtle -, however I personally find it a little too sweet to drink by itself. A quick search online took me to a post from someone mixing it with Metaxa – described as a blend of brandy, spices, and wine – along with a few other things. Below is my simplified version, the result is a sweet, syrupy, bitter drink with a little kick going down.

Metaxa 5 & St. Germain

30mL Metaxa 5

30mL St. Germain

Combiner ingredients with 3 cubes of ice and stir. Strain into an old-fashioned glass with 2 cubes of ice and serve.

Cocktails

- Randy Winters: Hi dankea, It absolutely works with normal tea bags, however I have found a much more limited use for...
- dankea: Do you think it’ll work with normal tea bags?
- dankea: I’ve had this one with Alberta Premium (Rye Whiskey), Benedictine and Canada Dry (Ginger Ale)....
- th: yeah i’ve used it for coffee a very versatile contraption.
- Randy Winters: Have you tried using one for coffee yet? I bought it specifically for filtering, still haven’t...

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