SLOSHED! » calvados

Pumpkin Cider

Marleigh — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:35:03 +0000

If you are, like me, a gardener, you already know about the family Cucurbitaceae. Commonly known as curcurbits, they encompass a wide variety of edible plant life including cucumbers, melons, gourds and squash. Of course squash is just the larger grouping for our friend the pumpkin, which grows plentifully in North America and is one of the most popular crops in the U.S.—many varieties of heirloom squash even trace their roots back to the colonies.

The Halloween jack-o-lantern originated here in the late nineteenth century, with the attendant folklore that the glowering faces distracted evil spirits lurking to harm wayward travelers (revelers?) during the early-coming autumn nights. Whether or not they deter devilish imps, pumpkins are closely tied to fall because, as a warm weather vegetable, they ripen around the turn of the season and are thus a natural emblem of harvest. As a bonus, they are very tasty. (...) Continue reading Pumpkin Cider

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Mixology Monday XXIII: Brandy

Marleigh — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:00:03 +0000

Welcome! I’m very excited to be the host of this month’s MxMo, which features one of my favorite wintertime spirits. When Paul asked me to host I was excited but I hadn’t settled on a theme. Should I choose a spirit? If so, something obscure like pimento dram or arrack? Something brand new and sexy, like absinthe? Should I make everyone mix drinks using only four ingredients? Come up with a (hopefully) clever theme? Make everyone use beer in their drinks? Make everyone use Jack Daniels?

In the end, I decided that using JD would just be ornery, and that simplicity is the better part of creativity. And, really, the grape helped me make up my mind—it is a pretty amazing fruit. Aside from the varieties that we grow to eat, there are three katrillion more that are used in viticulture, a discipline which has been in practice since roughly 300BCE, just about the time that writing was invented and humanity was organizing into city-states. Just last year researchers finished mapping the genome of the pinot noir grape, which has an astonishing 30,000 genes in its DNA (for comparison, your DNA contains between 20,000 and 25,000).

It will take years to sort out what all this new information means for viticulture, but in the meantime we have thousands of years of history growing, fermenting, distilling and aging our friend the grape. And that doesn’t even take into account the apples, cherries, plums, pears or any other fruits that yield the liquor(s) we know as brandy.

So bring on the brandy—and pisco, eau de vie, calvados, kirschwasser, cognac, armagnac, or grappa—for Mixology Monday XXIII!

(...) Continue reading Mixology Monday XXIII: Brandy

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Post tags: apple, brandy, calvados, cocktail, eau de vie, MxMo, pear, pisco

Golden Dawn

Marleigh — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:17:16 +0000

There are, conservatively, about eighteen thousand available variations on the cocktail known as the Golden Dawn. With bitters, without bitters. With Cointreau, without Cointreau. With calvados, without calvados. You get the idea.

From what I have gathered, it originated sometime during the 1920s, though Chuck Taggart traces its creation to London in the 1930s. I, unfortunately, do not have the sort of offline resources at my disposal that would allow me to do proper research into this, but I can discuss, in detail, the part of this drink that has always drawn me: the name.

Very much like the Tequila Sunrise, this drink mimics the gorgeous sunburst tones that make dawn and dusk such beautiful events and, thusly, is a natural namesake. I, however, always think of that great occult institution The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Founded by members of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians, The Golden Dawn is the forefather of all twentieth century occultism (which has as many variations as the cocktail), laying the foundation for Wicca, Thelema and, thereby, the Church of Satan. Based on a hodge-podge of occult history, The Golden Dawn combined mystical elements of faiths from around the world, reviving practices from the Middle Ages via grimoires and the writings of famous magicians and alchemists like Eliphas Lévi. Like the Masons before them, The Golden Dawn drew the best and brightest minds of the time, counting amongst the membership persons like Gustav Meyrink, Arthur Machen, William Butler Yeats and, of course, Aleister Crowley.

All of which has nothing to do with the drink, except that it’s what I think about whenever I sip one.

(...) Continue reading Golden Dawn

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Post tags: brandy, calvados, cocktail, gin, liqueurs

Kicker

nerdling — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 21:34:55 +0000

A penalty shoot-out is the worst way to loose a soccer game. Mano-a-mano with the goalie sounds like a great idea, but PKs are a stressful, unfair way to end two hours of evenly matched football. Especially when your team’s captain, widely regarded as the finest footballer of his generation, does something idiotic in the second period of overtime—like, say, losing his temper and heatbutting a player from the opposing team—and gets himself ejected ten minutes before the last game of his professional career rolls into a shoot-out.

Zizou, did you really come out of retirement only to be red-carded in the 110th minute?

Needless to say, I wanted to make a Kick in the Pants to celebrate that particularly stupid piece of work, but alas, it involves the defunct Forbidden Fruit. Second place goes to the Kicker Cocktail—just like the second place finish secured by France. (...) Continue reading Kicker

Content © 2006 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brandy, calvados, cocktail, liqueurs, rum

The Setup

nerdling — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 02:10:59 +0000

[Ed. note: A revised, updated version of this post circa 2009 can be found here.]

A few weeks ago, I received a request from an interested reader, asking for my thoughts on liquor in the home bar. Specifically, what and how should one choose what to buy? And, equally important, how do you keep the cost reasonable?

Well, dear readers, I hate to shatter my image of infallibility, but I am certainly not an expert. I am, however, absurdly opinionated and rarely resist the opportunity to run my mouth, so below you will find my recommendations for setting up a workable home bar.

Quibble if you must, but at least buy me a drink first, eh? (...) Continue reading The Setup

Content © 2006 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brandy, calvados, gin, liqueurs, rum, tequila, vodka, whisk(e)y

Castro

nerdling — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 08:00:01 +0000

Any drink named after a dictator is a good place to start. Rum drinks are generally accompanied by fruit juices, so the ingredients in the Castro weren’t surprising.

During the process of mixing this drink I realized that I just don’t like Bacardi. I know legions of sorority girls swear by it, but the quality of the rum is no better than the dreadful Sauza I keep for bad margaritas. Once the bottles in my cabinet dry up, it’s time for some better quality rum. (...) Continue reading Castro

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Post tags: brandy, calvados, cocktail, liqueurs, rum

Star

nerdling — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:00:01 +0000

My boyfriend was entranced by the sound of calvados, an apple brandy, so we picked some up and decided to give it a go with the Star.

Upon further reflection (after the fact), I should have considered that this might not have been the best choice for an experiement, as the gin and grapefruit juice mixed with apple brandy could go very wrong.

Nevertheless, I ran with it. (...) Continue reading Star

Content © 2005 Marleigh Riggins Miller / Daniel Miller / SLOSHED!. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brandy, calvados, cocktail, gin, liqueurs