Bee’s Knees Cocktail | Guest Post from Sarah of Reviews for No One

September 29, 2015September 29, 2015 Dani Malloy3 Comments

When you’re someone who enjoys a good cocktail, it’s nice having like-minded cocktail-loving friends. Who else can you geek out with about things like the best sweet vermouth for Manhattans or how to serve a delicious punch without ~~killing~~ severely intoxicating your guests? Sarah—who writes a great book-review blog over at Reviews for No One—is one of those friends. When she posted a delicious-looking gin cocktail on Instagram a few weeks ago, I immediately thought GIMME, and then figured it’d be a great candidate for the blog. She gamely agreed to write a guest post, and here we are. Take it away, Sarah!

It’s almost October, but in the Midwest that means we’re feeling the last wispy breezes of summer. So on a recent 80-degree day, I took it as a sign that it was time to make my favorite gin drink one last time before it’s full-blown sweater weather: the Bee’s Knees.

Technically, it’s not specifically a summer drink. It’s yet another classic Prohibition-era cocktail that went from the forgotten drink of flappers to working its way into almost every Logan Square (read: hipster) bar opening these days. It also happens to be one of the easiest drinks to whip up at home. But gin in general just screams SUMMER to me and with the punch of citrus in this drink, it has porch sippin’ written all over it.

I favor simple, straightforward cocktails—the fewer ingredients the better. And the Bee’s Knees is just that. It pairs the bright, botanical notes of gin with the tartness of lemon juice plus a little honey for sweetness. That’s it. Just three ingredients, two of which are probably already in your kitchen right now.

That means all you really need to worry about is what kind of gin to use.

My sister got me this sweet little three-pack of St. George gins for Christmas and I have had a fantastic time playing with them! St. George’s comes in Terroir, Botanivore, and Dry Rye. The Terroir is that classic juniper-forward flavor, while the Dry Rye is spicy and oaky (hot tip: sub it in for your whiskey in your next Manhattan—it’s fantastic!). But the perfectly balanced Botanivore won out in the end.

I followed the Washington Post recipe exactly. Some recipes call for equal amounts of lemon juice and honey syrup, but I found that to be too tart. So, per the Post‘s recipe, I used:

2 oz. gin
¾ oz. honey syrup
½ oz. lemon juice

Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice, and then shake vigorously for 20 seconds or until the drink is chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and voilà!

“But,” you might say, “where do I get honey syrup?” Easy! It’s just like simple syrup—equal parts water and sugar—only you swap the sugar for honey. However, there’s no need to make some giant pot of the stuff just so you can stuff it in the fridge and forget about it.

Instead, pour about 1 tablespoon each of honey and water into a small bowl. Microwave for 10–15 seconds, and stir until thoroughly combined. Then you can pop the bowl with your single-serving sized bit of honey syrup straight into the freezer while you gather your ingredients and juice your lemon. A couple of minutes cools it off enough to stop it from affecting the flavor and temperature of the rest of your ingredients.

Aaaaand my mouth is watering. Thanks for sharing, Sarah!

Author and photography: Sarah Gorr

On the Bar Cart: Volume 1

January 28, 2015 Dani Malloy4 Comments

bar cart

Since I’m always curious about what other people are drinking at home, I thought it might be fun to start a periodic series to show you what’s on my bar cart at the moment.

Here’s the current lineup:

Gin

Ransom Old Tom gin

Letherbee gin

Whiskey

Rowan’s Creek bourbon

James Oliver rye

Old Weller Antique bourbon

Rum

Cruzan light rum

Kraken black spiced rum

Liqueurs

Luxardo maraschino

Rothman & Winter créme de violette

Cointreau

Etc.

Leblon cachaça

Letherbee bësk (and a ltd. edition empty Letherbee malört bottle)*

Bitters

Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters

Fee Brothers orange bitters

Bittercube wild cherry bark, Madagascar vanilla, and cocoa bitters

Angostura aromatic bitters

Not pictured (because we ran out of room, or it’s in the fridge or freezer): Luxardo bitter, Lillet blanc, Dolin red vermouth, Du Bouchett’s peach brandy (used in a NYE punch), Jameson, New Amsterdam gin, and some Death’s Door vodka that a couple of friends left at our apartment.

* If you live in or around Chicago, you’ve heard of malört: the bitter, herbal, grapefruity, liquor with a hairspray-like back-of-the-throat feel. Jeppson’s makes the original (from an old Swedish recipe, apparently), but Letherbee Distillers decided to take a stab at their own recipe, which turned out decidedly more palatable than Jeppson’s. In early 2014, Letherbee was forced to change the name of their malört after Jeppson’s won their bid to trademark the term. You can read more about that here. It’s more of a novelty drink than anything else at this point, unless you talk to the old Eastern European man who once told my boyfriend “Is good for stomach,” a tip neither of us will ever forget.

I love using my Grandma Loe’s old vanity table as a bar, but I’m wondering if it’s just too small to hold my growing collection.

I recently bought a Raskög cart from Ikea, and I’m kind of embarrassed about how much I love this inanimate object. I originally bought it for bathroom storage (it’s doing a great job holding my toilet paper, extra towels, and face-wax strips), but now I’m thinking it could make a really great bar cart. Especially since it’s got castors. What do you think? Stick with the antique, or give the Raskög a chance?

And, what’s on your bar cart at the moment? Anything you’re saving up for? Let me know in the comments!

Classic Cocktails: the Aviation

August 21, 2014July 3, 2016 Dani MalloyLeave a comment

From left: Kitchen Riffs, PopSugar, iFanboy, Hungry Again, Liquor.com, Food52

Let’s talk about Aviations. Ever had one? The first time I came across the classic drink was at a work happy hour. My cocktail-loving friend ordered one, and it was beautiful—a pale sky blue so light it looked almost white. The second one? Not so much. It was a violet that bordered on radioactive. At the time, I was amazed that the two cocktails could go by the same name, let alone taste remotely alike.

Crème de Violette is the ingredient that gives the the cocktail its blueish-purple hue, but it turns out that the liqueur isn’t necessarily required to make an Aviation. In fact, Harry Craddock omitted it when he published a version of the Aviation in the now-famous Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). Leave it out if you like, but I like my Aviations a little floral. And purply.

If you order an the drink out at a cocktail bar, there’s no telling whether it’ll be ghost white or Barney purple (hence the wide spectrum of hues above), unless you know the proportions that your bartender is using. After making a few of my own Aviations, it became clear that a little bit of Crème de Violette goes a long way. Sure, the sweet floral liqueur has a prominent flavor, but it’s the super saturated color that can turn a drink from pale blue to dark violet with just an extra eighth of an ounce.

aviation cocktail recipe with luxardo, gin, and creme de violette

I finally settled on a recipe I like, thanks in part to this video found on Gothamist, which instructs you to “wash the glass” with a dash of violet liqueur. That’s in contrast to most recipes, which call for all of the components to be shaken together.

The building instructions from the Gothamist video and a slightly adapted version of the recipe from Aviation American Gin make for, in my opinion, a pretty tasty version of the Aviation. (Plus, it doesn’t look nuclear.)

Aviation

Adapted from Aviation American Gin

1 teaspoon Crème de Violette
1.5 oz. dry gin
3/4 oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur

Add the Crème de Violette and swirl to coat the glass. In an ice-filled shaker, add the gin, lemon juice, and maraschino liqueur. Shake until chilled, and pour the contents into the glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry or a lemon twist, whichever you prefer. I omitted the simple syrup that the original recipe calls for—the Luxardo maraschino is plenty sweet.

wpid-2014-08-20-13.58.18.jpg.jpeg

Cheers, and good luck! Because if you end up making this cocktail, it’s probably all you will crave for the next several months.

Phony ‘Groni with Luxardo Bitter

May 20, 2014 Dani Malloy1 Comment

Faux Negroni? Doppelgröni? Call this frankensteined cocktail whatever you like, except a “Negroni.” Apparently, one without Campari just isn’t a Negroni—the bitter aperitif is essential to the drink.

I first learned of Campari at about 16, when I was reading the Gossip Girl YA book series well before Blake Lively ruined it for me on TV. In the books, these Upper East Side high school WASPs drank Campari on the rocks. Naturally, I assumed the drink was some sort of sweet, fruity concoction, probably because all I’d tasted at the time was Watermelon Pucker and Malibu Coconut Rum.

Negroni recipe with Luxardo Bitter

Eventually I learned that Campari is a bitter liqueur, but I was still surprised by its intense taste the first time I had a Negroni. It took me a couple tries to warm up to the flavor of the drink, but now I crave ’em. Unfortunately I don’t have any Campari in my bar yet, so when I saw Luxardo Bitter on sale at Binny’s Beverage Depot, I snagged it up. (Apparently $9.99 is an insanely low price.) I’d heard it was a good introduction to bitter aperitifs, and god knows I can’t pass up a 50% sale on booze.

Here’s the recipe for the slightly controversial drink. Admittedly, it isn’t quite as punchy as a standard Negroni, but it still tasted great and quenched my craving for a bitter pre-dinner cocktail.

Phony ‘Groni

1.5 oz. dry gin
1.5 oz. Luxardo Bitter
1.5 oz. sweet vermouth (I used Dolin)
Splash of soda (optional)
Slice of orange peel for garnish

Fill a lowball glass with ice. Pour the gin, Luxardo Bitter, and sweet vermouth into the glass and gently stir to mix. I added a splash of soda, but that part’s up to you. Add a slice of orange peel for garnish.

Enjoy! Have you used Luxardo Bitter before?

Classic Cocktails: The Greyhound

March 29, 2014March 29, 2014 Dani Malloy1 Comment

It’s grapefruit season! Wahoo! “But isn’t it always grapefruit season?” The short answer is yes. The long answer is boring. Anywho, I had a couple of big, juicy Texas red grapefruits on my hands and decided to have one for a healthy snack and the other for a healthy cocktail. I’m a big fan of simple cocktails with a twist, so I went for a Greyhound made with Boodles gin and a splash of Luxardo Maraschino, my newfound libation obsession. It’s a light, refreshing drink that’ll help you shake these never-ending-winter blues.

Greyhound

2 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
1.5 oz. gin
0.5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino

Pour all the ingredients over ice and shake until chilled. I served mine in a stemless martini glass (because I was feeling fancy) and garnished with a section of fresh grapefruit. Happy citrus drinking!

Sewing & Cocktails

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Tag: gin