Affichage des articles dont le libellé est bitter. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est bitter. Afficher tous les articles

mardi 28 décembre 2010

Long Cold Dark... kinda

The Punisher MAX series by Garth Ennis is my favourite run on the char and one of the best in comics at all. My minor nitpick is that Ennis version of Frank Castle is rather "dry" cocktail-wise. So this run can't provide much stuff for the drinks and comics analysis (a thing that blog tries to do when its author doesn't muse on Daredevil pictures). But sometimes, things can start from a minor item, very remotely linked to cocktails, if related at all.
Le Punisher MAX par Garth Ennis est à ce jour ma version préférée du personnage et un des meilleurs runs que j'ai pu lire ces dernières années. Un reproche, toutefois : le Punisher par Ennis n'est pas un grand buveur, ce qui fournit peu de matière pour la comixologie (ce à quoi ce blog est sensé s'atteler lorsque son auteur ne se contente pas de poster des dessins de Daredevil). Mais parfois, il suffit d'un petit quelque chose pour fournir un lien.

The second to last arc of Ennis on the series was titled "Long Cold Dark" and for a while, I felt it might also be a good cocktail name. The story in a nutshell : Frank versus returning big bad foe Barracuda with Frank's newfound daughter in the middle. An extremely violent tale but one filled with touching glances at the Punisher's remains of humanity. Hence my quest to create a cocktail recipe matching this story's greatness.
L'avant dernier story-arc d'Ennis sur la série MAX s'intitule "Long Cold Dark" et ce titre m'a toujours semblé être un potentiel nom de cocktail. Résumé du récit : Frank Castle est confronté au retour du terrible Barracuda avec dans la balance la vie de sa toute petite fille dont il découvre l'existence. Une histoire très violente mais émaillée de moments touchants, effleurant les restes d'humanité du Punisher.

As I said, Garth Ennis writes Frank Castle mostly as a non-drinker, so if Frank had to drink something called "Long Cold Dark", it might only be a huge pot of cold coffee. But let's expand suspension of disbelief and explore potential drinks. First it seems quite obvious a cocktail with this name should be a long drink, cold (like most of the cocktails) and dark. That last one is the true limiting factor. I might have gone with a rum and coke but that would have been too much of a cheat. But then, I stumbled across some cans of Ginger Beer in an asian shop (Ginger Beer is not very easy to find in France)

Frank is tough enough to drink cold coffee
Le café froid ne fait pas peur au Punisher

Le Punisher d'Ennis étant non-buveur, s'il fallait coller à l'esprit du run pour trouver une boisson nommé 'Long Cold Dark", on se retrouverait sans doute avec un grand verre de café froid.
Aussi, messieurs les puristes, il faudra pour la suite de l'article intensifier votre suspension d'incrédulité.
Le breuvage idoine se devrait d'être un long drink, froid et... de couleur sombre. Ce dernier point étant le plus problématique.
Un rhum-coca pour faire l'affaire mais ça serait quand même un peu de l'arnaque.
Et puis je suis tombé sur des canettes de bière au gingembre dans une épicerie asiatique (je n'en avais jusqu'alors jamais acheté).

Then I tried to tinkered the "Dark and Stormy", based on dark rum, ginger beer and lime juice. I thought replacing the rum with bourbon and adding bitters might result in something interesting... well, not really. The drink was not very dark nor tasty. Adding some cold coffee was the last step before pouring the glass down the drain.
J'ai alors essayé une variante du Dark and Stormy, cocktail à base de rhum, bière de gingembre et jus de citron vert. J'ai remplacé le rhum par du bourbon, ajouté un peu de bitters pour un résultat bof, bof. Pas très sombre et goût pas terrible. L'ajout de café froid à la mixture fut la dernière étape avant le vidage dans l'évier.

I had to find another idea. I considered an Irish Coffee with a skull motif traced on the cream atop the glass but it's supposed to be a cold drink and never tried to draw anything on cream. Plus, cream is white, it wouldn't quite match with the cocktail's name anymore !
Je devais trouver une autre idée. Je songeais à une variante d'un Irish Coffe avec une tête de mort dessinée sur la crème. Mais je recherchais un cocktail froid et le dessin sur crème, je le sentais moyen. De plus, celle-ci étant blanche, cela ne correspondait pas à la "noirceur" recherchée.

I then gave up aiming at a dark black final color and went with this :
J'ai finalement renoncé à une couleur trop sombre et suis parti là-dessus :
1 1/2 oz of Appleton Estate Extra Rum / 4,5 cl de rhum Appleton Extra 12 ans d'âge
1 oz of sweet vermouth /3 cl de vermouth doux
1 oz oz of lime juice /3 cl de jus de citron vert
1/2 oz of Grand Marnier / 1,5 cl de Grand Marnier
a dash of bitters (angostura, Peychaud or else, your choice) / quelques traits de bitters
Stirr in long tall glass, add ice cubes, fill with ginger beer.
Mélanger dans un grand verre, ajouter des glaçons compléter avec la bière de gingembre.

Well, not so dark
Pas si sombre, ce cocktail

Well, it turned out not great but drinkable. If your ever try it, pre-chill the glass and use a score of cubes so you won't add to much ginger beer. It would overwhelm the other ingredients.
Le résultat, sans être génial, était buvable. Si jamais vous essayez d'en faire un, rafraichissez le verre par avance et remplissez bien le verre de glaçons pour ne pas avoir à rajouter trop de bière de gingembre, elle risquerait de dominer le goût des autres ingrédients.

I had to sneak a DD in my 100th post
Une apparition de DD dans ce 100ème post

As it's my 100th post, I wanted to give a nod to my wife and my daughter. Thanks to them, my life is very far from being long, cold, dark.
Pour ce 100ème post, je voulais aussi saluer ma petite famille, sans qui ma vie serait peut-être trop "Long, Cold, Dark".

My wife & my daughter / Ma femme et ma fille

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails
Catégorie : Blogging_Comics

lundi 9 août 2010

Custom Bitters

Real life doesn't leave me much time to blog, but I shouldn't get bitter, should I ? Instead, let's get some bitters !
Je n'ai guère le temps d'updater ce blog mais j'essaye de ne pas trop en concevoir d'amertume... quoique.

A strong hint of cocktail-geekery is a large collection of bitters. When you know you mostly use bitters in dashes only, what's the point to stock plenty of bottles? Why not sticking to Angostura only ? Well, it would be like cooking with only one spice. Bitters are the spice of the cocktail.
Un indice du syndrome cocktailien aigü est la collection de bitters. Quand on sait qu'ils ne s'utilisent que par traits, à quoi bon les accumuler ? Ne pourrait-on se limiter qu'à l'Angostura ? Oui, si on pense pouvoir cuisiner avec une seule épice. Ouais, voilà le truc, les bitters sont des épices à cocktail.

Let's hear what Doctor JP has to say about them : "Bitters, they are the totally necessary optional ingredient in cocktails. You might not notice what they bring precisely but you'll surely notice their absence. Bitters are ninjas flavoring elements for your drinks."

Doctor JP is even quoted on bottles... but which ones ?

Ecoutons les paroles du bon Docteur JP :
"Les bitters, ce sont les ingrédients optionnels totalement obligatoires du cocktail. Il est difficile de pointer ce qu'ils apportent mais leur absence se fait durement ressentir. Les bitters assurent un assaisonnement ninja pour vos boissons."

Earlier this year, I went beyond the psychogical number of ten bitters stocked in my bar. So the next step was to make my own. For my first try, I used liqueur de gentiane, cardamom, cranberries and others spirits to get a mixture that's been sitting in my cabinet for a few months now. It was waiting for its own label, that I only finished today.
Ces derniers mois, j'ai dépassé la limite psychologique des dix bitters dans mon bar. L'étape suivante était de faire ma propre recette. Pour mon premier essai, j'ai pris de la liqueur de gentiane, de la cardamome, des cranberries et divers autre spritueux pour composer un mélange qui patientait dans une armoire depuis quelques mois en attente de son étiquette, achevée aujourd'hui.
So here they are : the Red Bitters! Et voilà le Red Bitters !

As my batch was made without precise measurements,
my bitters are really "without peer"

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails

jeudi 28 août 2008

Dakota North

My last attempt to create a comic-book-related-cocktail was the Elektra.

Weeks ago, I tried to do something about Dakota North, a supporting character of the Daredevil series.

Yeah, she's having a coffee on the pic, not a cocktail, but with a mental effort, you could imagine she's holding a boston shaker tin.
Why the smoke, then ?
You're no true believer.


I decided the "key" ingredient would be Maple Syrup.
Because it evokes Canada.
And what's North of Dakota ?
You get it.
Yeah, very tiny link, I know, but comixology is not that easy...

So, what else did I use to mix with Maple Syrup ? See below :


3 cl of gin
1,5 cl of Benedictine
1,5 cl of Maraschino
1,5 cl of Maple Syrup
a dash of aromatic bitter
Shake well and serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

This drink is sweet and strong, like the character it was inspired of...

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails
Catégorie : Blogging_Comics

Le Vieux Carré

Lately, this blog's been lacking cocktails recipes...

The Vieux Carré has been everywhere on cocktail blogs this summer, because of Tales of the Cocktail, the event taking place in New Orleans...

I tried it a few weeks ago... I had to gather a bunch of ingredients (I used Darcy O'Neil's recipe).

Well, it's a kind of Sazerac with a twist. Not bad, but not a favorite.

In fact, the good Old Fashioned remains simple but suits me better.


Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails

samedi 5 juillet 2008

The Maple Leaf and the A La Donna

Well, it's been a while...

I've made a trip to the Cognac region last week and I bought a few bottles.

Yesterday, being back at home, I tried two recipes : the Maple leaf for myself and the A La Donna for my soon-to-be wife.
I wanted to taste the Remy Martin 1738, a cognac designed for the american market (mellow and sweet).
The A La Donna was picked-up because it's using grapefruit juice.

My Maple Leaf :
- 5 cl of brandy, Remy Martin 1738 (the original recipe calls for Bourbon)
- 1,5 cl of maple syrup
- 1,5 cl of lemon juice
- a dash of orange bitter
Shake and serve in an old-fashioned glass.

Lately, I've also bought large old-fashioned glasses that fit my boston shaker, so I can shake drinks and serve directly (yeah, I'm a lazy boy).

Mrs Red Shaker's A La Donna :
- 4,5 cl of white rhum
- 4 cl of orange juice
- 4,5 cl of grapefruit juice
- a dash of aromatic bitter
Shake and serve in an old-fashioned glass.

Switching for brandy in the Maple Leaf might not have been a good idea... or maybe it's the orange bitter, anyway, my cocktail was so-so.
The A La Donna was better, a refreshing drink but a tad too light-weight for my taste.



So, once more, my GF's cocktail was better than mine...



Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails

samedi 7 juin 2008

Elektra Lives Again !

A few weeks ago, I had imagined the "Greek Ninja" cocktail, a variation of the Japanese Cocktail.
At the time, I didn't have Metaxa (a greek brandy) on hand so I couldn't try and taste my recipe...

Since, I've tracked and found Metaxa at a french liquor store on the Net.
Sincerely, when sipped neat, the stuff doesn't taste great (I would choose a good Cognac or Armagnac over Metaxa any day). The Muscat taste is here but it is not improved at all by the strenght of the brandy and it has a strange, burned after-taste.
Worse, when mixed in the Japanese Cocktail, it's not getting any better. With the 6/2 ratio of the recipe the drink is unbalanced when using a brandy like Metaxa.
So what ? Should I have to give up on my Elektra cocktail idea ?

No way ! A comixologist should never give up !
So I tried to alter the recipe to get a better taste :
3 cl of Metaxa brandy
3 cl of cherry brandy (hey, it's a brandy, after all, and it's red like Elektra's costume)
1,5 cl of lemon juice
1, 5 cl of orgeat syrup
a dash of aromatic bitters
Shake with ice and fine strain on a cocktail glass.
Garnish : cherry on rim.

It's definitively an improvement but maybe too fruity, due to the 3/3/1,5/1,5 ratio.
The Metaxa almost disappears under the cherry brandy (well, it might explain why it tastes better...) and the lemon juice adds some freshness.
Next time, I might try it with a 4/2/2/1 ratio (yeah, I'm that dedicated to the cause of Comixology!)

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails
Catégorie : Blogging_Comics

jeudi 1 mai 2008

The Jab and the Mardi Gras

Quand je me prépare un cocktail, j'en propose aussi un à ma chère et tendre.
Le problème, c'est que j'aime les breuvages plutôt costauds et qu'elle préfère des choses plus "light". En plus, selon les recettes envisagées, j'essaye d'optimiser les ingrédients (pour ne pas avoir une demie canette de Seven up ou un demi citron qui trainent...).
Hier, cet exercice de style m'a conduit à préparer, pour elle, un Jab (recette customisée) et pour moi, un Mardi Gras (recette inscrite sur une bouteille de The Bitter Truth Lemon).
Ironie du sort, son cocktail s'est révélé meilleur que le mien !


Le Mardi Gras :
Alors déjà, j'ai eu un gros doute car la recette sur la bouteille différait de la recette proposée sur le site web de The Bitter Truth...
5 cl de Bourbon
1 cl d'Apricot Brandy (le site web mentionne de l'Absinth Dry, ce qui est totalement différent)
2 traits de Lemon Bitter
Préparer au verre à mélange et servir on the rocks dans un petit tumbler.
Décorer avec un zeste d'orange.
Le résultat était beaucoup moins sympa qu'un bon vieux Old Fashioned.
La recette avec l'Absinth Dry serait-elle meilleure ?



Le Jab :
1,5 cl de jus de citron vert
1,5 cl de sirop de sucre de canne
1,5 cl de sirop d'orgeat
4 cl de rhum
8 cl de jus d'orange
Frapper au shaker et servir sur glace dans un petit tumbler.
Décorer d'un demi citron vert avec une cerise.
Un cocktail très agréable et léger en alcool.





But why is it called a "Jab" ?
Well, it's a kinda "Weak Punch" !
Sorry.

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails

samedi 26 avril 2008

Cocktail R&D : the Hell's Kitchen and the Elektra

Having blogged about the "Old Hornhead", I should also mention another attempt at cocktails-that kinda-relate-to-comics : the Hell's Kitchen (check the link to see my post on a Daredevil message board).
The Hell's Kitchen is simply a variation of the Manhattan.
Well, I also feel this one can be perfected and maybe using a ratio of 1/1 (3cl of Irish Whiskey and 3cl of vermouth) I could make it without rye or bourbon...
This week, I have received 3 bottles of "The Bitter Truth" bitters (aromatic, orange and lemon). I've only tried their aromatic on a manhattan and it was top-notch (though I simply made that one with Rittenhouse 80 proof) :


Looking for another Daredevil-inspired cocktail, I thought about DD's first love : Elektra. Well, a lot could be said about her but there are at least two things I could mention : she's greek, and she's a ninja.
Looking for a greek spirit, I discovered there's a greek brandy : Metaxa, that can be used for mixing.
And for the Ninja stuff ? That's a bit harder (Ninjas are very secret about their booze).
Anyway, exploring cocktail blogs, I came accross the Japanese Cocktail, that uses brandy, orgeat syrup and aromatic bitter.

So the recipe of the Elektra (aka The Greek Ninja) could be something like this :
6 cl of Metaxa Brandy
1,5 cl of orgeat syrup
2 dashes of aromatic bitters
Stir in ice-filled mixing glass than serve in a cocktail glass.
Garnish with a lemon twist.

Unfortunately, Metaxa is hard to get in France so I haven't tried this recipe yet.
But me and my GF did try the Japanese Cocktail (I added some Peychaud, too) :

I used two different brandies : a no-name brandy and Remy Martin VSOP Cognac.
In this case, the cocktail made with the pricey cognac is definitely better than the one mixed with the cheap brandy (considering the huge amount of brandy used in that recipe, it's not really a surprise). How will it taste with Metaxa ? We shall wait a bit to know the answer.

Well, that's all for now on Cocktail R&D...

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails
Catégorie : Blogging_Comics

lundi 21 avril 2008

The Old Hornhead

Well, this one will be my first post in english...

Defining myself as a "comixologist", I had to post something about comics in this blog.
And about cocktails too.

Recently, one of my new favourites has been ... the Old Fashioned.
I won't go into details about that recipe because it's already been covered the encyclopedic way elsewhere.
There aren't many ingredients that go into that cocktail but I think the two keys are the choice of the whiskey (you have to pick a good bourbon or rye for this one) and the patience you'll put into preparing the drink.

Wait a minute... what about comics ?
Well, my all-time favorite comic-book character is Daredevil.
Over the years, I've penciled tons of pics of him but lately, with my new flame for cocktails, I haven't done much drawing and I felt "my hero" needed a cocktail hommage.

So, I'm bringing you... the Old Hornhead (one of DD's nickname) !

5 cl of Bourbon (I used Wild Turkey Rare Breed)
0,5 cl of simple syrup
0,5 cl of grenadine syrup (to provide the needed RED color)
2 dashes of Orange Bitter (yeah, I switched from aromatic bitter to orange bitter, call me an heretic if you want)

Pour syrups and bitter in a rocks glass. Stir with ice.
Add half the bourbon and more ice. Stir again.
Add the rest of the bourbon. Stir (again and again).
Express a large zest of orange over the glass.
Flame the zest and use it as a garnish with two maraschino cherries.
Serve with two RED straws (those are DD's billy clubs).

And there you have it ! The Old Hornhead !


I think I have to perfect this recipe but the Rare Breed is more than 100 proof so I can't make two attempts in a row.


Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails
Catégorie : Blogging_Comics

dimanche 20 avril 2008

Give me (Black) Feather

Le Black Feather est un cocktail inventé par Robert Hess, mixologiste reconnu et respecté.

J'ai voulu l'essayer ce dimanche après-midi, en réduisant un peu les doses mais en respectant les proportions :

4 cl de Cognac
2 cl de Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1 cl de Cointreau
1 trait d'Angostura Aromatic Bitter
Préparer au verre à mélange
Servir dans un verre à cocktail (si possible préalablement rafraîchi)


Alors en fait... j'ai pas trouvé ça top...
Le cognac utilisé n'était peut-être pas bien terrible et mon dry vermouth a peut-être mal vieilli (j'ai appris depuis qu'il valait mieux le conserver au frais).
Tant pis, on ne peut pas gagner à tous les coups.

Catégorie : Blogging_Cocktails