Hey everyone,
Glad you could make it! Let me start by saying this was a hard month. We got a ton of snow and saw the lowest temps I've seen in a good long while. That makes it tough with a dog, and earlier this month, we added a SECOND dog to the mix. Now there are two standard poodles, Jet and Laila, roaming the house.
I'm still not sure if we are crazy for the furry addition or not. Doing the puppy thing again after finally getting Jet into our groove has been challenging, but it's made us pivot and strategize more on our cocktail hours and cooking—lots of batching and one-pan meals!
I am honestly glad this month is over. Spring is around the corner, which means Baseball, long evenings, grilling, and NO SNOW! Just one more gray month to get through, and we will be there. I can almost smell the charcoal!
As always, thanks for reading, and a huge thank you to the paid subscribers. Our numbers keep going up, so thanks to all of you that share these emails with your friends, family, and other cocktail drinkers.
Enough jibber-jabber, let's get to the good stuff!
The CD Review
Drinks From February
So like I mentioned, I had to make cocktail hour faster. That means prepping and batching a few things ahead of time. Now, I am not a huge fan of freezer martinis, but I mixed up the recipe that Bobby Heugel submitted to Punch this month with a tiny tweak, and it has been a chilly lifesaver in the freezer.
Bobby is a known Martini drinker and Houston-based bar owner, and I have been lucky enough to enjoy his take on my favorite classic at the boisterous Anvil Bar & Refuge and the tucked-away Tongue-Cut Sparrow.
In his recipe, he mixes both Tanqueray Ten and classic Tanqueray, but I only use the latter. I also tweaked the measurements, not for taste but more for easy (faster) measuring. You'll need to keep this in the freezer for a few hours or overnight. You can also stick it in a snowbank outside if the temperature outside is colder than your freezer. See video below.
Freezer Tini
In a liter bottle
500 ml Tanqueray*
200 ml Noilly Prat
250 ml Filtered Water
Keep in the freezer overnight
Pour into a chilled cocktail glass
Lemon Peel
*Use any gin you like but make sure to go with something over 40% ABV, or you could get a Tini Slushy. Tanqueray is imported at 47.3% ABV in the States.
If you tuck it in the snow outside, make sure you mark where it is so you can find it. That reminds me of the Martini Tree:
I also batched up some Negroni, and by that, I mean I eyeballed the three ingredients, gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, into an empty screwcap wine bottle. That makes for a fast cocktail hour. A few years ago, I used to keep Negronis ready to go in a decanter, but I never got to try any. You should ask my wife if they were any good.
Another fun drink I stumbled across on a blog that I've been following for years written by A. J. Rathbun, Spiked Punch. He found a recipe for the 6 O'Clock Cocktail in a pamphlet published by The Taylor Wine Company in 1958 called Come For Cocktails, and it is delicious and low ABV.
The 6 O'Clock Cocktail
In a chilled and iced mixing glass:
30 ml Dry Vermouth
30 ml Sweet Vermouth
30 ml Sherry*
Stir/Strain-Chilled Coupe/Lemon Peel
*Use any Sherry you like. Going with a Fino makes the drink a little more bracing and much drier. A Manzanilla or Amontillado (my preference) seems to create the best balance, and something like a Pedro Ximénez makes this more of an after-dinner drink.
This drink also batches well but make sure you keep it in the fridge because it is mostly vermouth. I have enjoyed using this mix in place of my usual vermouth in gin and whisky cocktails. Say 60 ml gin or whiskey to 30 ml 6 O'Clock mixture, stirred and strained or served over ice, and you are in business! Cocktail in a cocktail.
I recommend batching that 6 C'Clock mix to save time if you stir up some Manhattan and Martini variations. If you were to build them from scratch, they would look like this:
Staten Island Sherry
In a chilled and iced mixing glass:
60 ml Rye Whiskey
10 ml Dry Vermouth
10 ml Sweet Vermouth
10 ml Amontillado Sherry
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Stir/Strain-Chilled Coupe/Lemon Peel
Whitehall Terminal
In a chilled and iced mixing glass:
60 ml Gin
10 ml Dry Vermouth
10 ml Sweet Vermouth
10 ml Amontillado Sherry
1 Dash Orange Bitters
Stir/Strain-Chilled Coupe/Lemon Peel
For more cocktails, check out The Cocktail Doodle Cocktails Google doc.
The Nightcap Show
ON HIATUS 🌛
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Current Reading
I didn't add any new cocktail books to my shelf this month, but I have, of course, been re-reading Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis for the deep dive G.P. series I've been doing each week. Make sure you tune in tomorrow for the second to last in the series. Tomorrow is one you won't want to miss:
G.P. 9:
He who truly believes he has a hangover has no hangover.
I also plan to do another book deep dive series, but I am still picking the book. You'll know when I do!
There have been some great articles from this month that I enjoyed reading. I will bold my favorites down in the "In Other (Booze) News" section.
Aside from boozy books, I've had my nose in After Dark by Haruki Murakami for a few chapters each night before going to sleep. I am also starting One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson, a gift from Bar Seat Benefactor Julie Dunbar.
What books have you read recently? Any new cocktail books I should be checking out?
Let me know by simply replying to this email!
New Products
Stone Neverending Haze IPA
Cutwater Tequila Añejo
Buffalo Trace releasing 20-year-old Double Eagle Very Rare Bourbon
Puncher’s Chance Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Topo Chico releases Twist of Tangerine
Dogfish Head Hazy-O!
To raise service industry funds, New Riff Distilling is releasing a 15-Year bourbon
Yuengling Raging Eagle Mango Beer
Angry Orchard Peach Mango, Strawberry Hard Ciders
Ballast Point announces new packaging release
Constellation Brands rolls out Funky Buddha hard seltzer
Nude Beverages expands with Nude Hard Iced Tea
Noilly Prat and the New Original Dry
Tanqueray adds alcohol-free spirit option in Spain, UK
Hockey Hall of Famer brings whiskey love to life with Belfour Spirits
GREY GOOSE expands portfolio with botanical-infused line
Kentucky Senator Spirits releases first bourbon
In Other (Booze) News
The Satisfying Burn Of Whisky Investing
Europe Eyes Up Ingredient Labeling for Wine
Uber to acquire Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock, cash
Why Are All My Hangover Cures Now Adding Alcohol?
Anheuser-Busch invests $1bn in US facilities
Stella Artois loses ‘import’ status Anheuser-Busch moves production to U.S.
Changyu to open a wine theme park in Shanghai
Wine sales spike at convenience stores
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Focus on ‘Going Into Grocery’
Old Chapter Oak named the American Brand Innovator of the Year by Whisky Magazine
British Gin: Petition Started For A Gin And Tonic Emoji
Industry slams ‘wholly inaccurate’ Covid-19 bar report
Cost of Lockdowns -- The Case of New York Distillers
Nestlé sells Nestlé Waters North America for $4.3bn
World’s Oldest ‘Industrial-Scale’ Brewery Found in Egypt
John Gotti's Personal Wine Collection Is Up for Sale at a NYC Wine Shop
French Critics Rate Organic and Biodynamic Wines 6-12 Points Higher in Scores Compared to Conventional or Sustainable Wines, Wine Economists Find
Crowd sourced W.L. Weller C.Y.P.B. takes Best Kentucky Bourbon, is category winner at American World Whiskies Awards
UK being ‘flooded’ with fake YellowTail wines
No and low alcohol drinks projected to increase 31% by 2024
An Underwater Wine Aging Experiment Is Showing “Stunning” Results
The ‘traditional method’, and how it has enabled Champagne to shed the complication of vintage variation
Finis!
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Have a great month!
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