The Boulevardier

Tags

Boulevardier, Campari, Cocktail, Drink, Manhattan, Vermouth

Welcome to finals countdown. I can’t believe I’m almost a fourth of the way done with graduate and law school. It seems like only yesterday I was writing my application, frantically freaking, and praying for an acceptance letter. Two semesters (almost) down, only six to go. Recently I’ve been feeling more and more like this is the profession that I was destined for. I feel supported by my classmates and professors. My intellectual curiosity remains unsatiated. Legal librarianship is not for everyone, but the profession is certainly for me.

On that note, I drink more often during finals that I do any other time of the year. It is not uncommon for me to have a single drink every night during finals, which is not what I do during the rest of the year. It’s a weird thing about finals. I think it’s because my brain turns to mush while I’m studying. So, I thought I would try a Boulevardier. It’s a variation on a Manhattan, and if you’ve followed my blog since the beginning, you know how I love my Manhattans in all incarnations.

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth

Add all ingredients to a shaker over ice. Pour into a martini glass.

Evaluation

So, unsurprisingly, I am addicted to Imbibe‘s website. Imbibe is Vogue for cocktails. It’s a Bible for the liquor world. Imbibe’s website often challenges me to extend my tastes. When I found the recipe for the Boulevardier on Imbibe’s website I was super excited.

As I have mentioned before, Campari is an incredibly difficult liqueur for me to use to make drinks. I feel the same way about Campari that straight men feel about women. It’s frustrating, complicated, and obnoxious. When you strike out, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. However, when it works, like in a Campari Cosmopolitan, it is a beautiful thing to behold. The Boulevardier is a strike out drink.

It’s too bad, too, because it held so much promise. It was a variation on a Manhattan. It was herbal and had bourbon and vermouth. It was not afraid of a strong flavor profile. The drink looks beautiful, as well. Ultimately, the drink fell flat.

Imbibe has a good history of the drink. It’s very clearly a 1920s drink. It’s very clearly European. It’s just too much. There’s too much going on in the drink. The drink with all of its promise is like buying tickets to a heavyweight championship boxing match and watching a brawl of all competitors to the title. It can be fun, but you miss the beauty of the punches and the simplicity of a stand-up fight. It’s just too much. I won’t drink it again, and, as sometimes I am wont to do, I wanted to warn you away. However, if you want to try it, here’s how much it costs:

Cost:

The cost to purchase:

Campari: $35 for a 750 mL bottle

Sweet Vermouth: $8 for a 750 mL bottle

Bourbon (I’m currently drinking Jim Bean): $15 for a 750 mL bottle

Total Cost: $58 if you have no ingredients.

Cost per drink:

Campari: $1.40

Sweet Vermouth: $0.32

Jim Bean Bourbon: $0.90

Total Cost per Drink: $2.62

Personally, I can think of a better way to spend $2.62. There’s a $2.00 movie theater around the corner from my current apartment, or a $1.00 sushi restaurant around the corner from my new apartment. But, that’s the cost and the recipe if you want to see how our tastes match up.

Until next time, happy and safe drinking.

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Another Skill Post

Tags

Cranberry juice, Manhattan, Vermouth

Sorry for the delays and lack of posts recently. I have a few notes, but I haven’t gotten around to writing them. I don’t know if I wrote this, but I did get into law school, so I’m prepping to start a joint JD/MLS at North Carolina Central University in the Fall. I’ll be earning two terminal degrees at the same time. WHAT’S UP?! I’m excited. Until then, let me tell you about of the best things about living in the Southeast during the Summer: Beaches! I g0t back from Myrtle Beach last Wednesday. I was so burned I couldn’t walk for almost 48 hours, and in about an hour and a half, I’ll be headed to Wilmington, NC for this coming weekend.

It’s good to be a gay North Carolinian (Thanks, Paul, Bill, and Arthur!)

Now, when I go to the Beach, I can’t very well talk my bar with me. 1) we would need a car for the liquor alone, and 2) it’s ridiculous to take 70 bottles of alcohol for a 3-day trip. So I premix my booze.

When I went to the beach with Paul last weekend, I made Raleigh Iced Tea and the Sicily. As I’m going to the beach with Arthur this weekend, something a little stronger is in order. I made a batch of Manhattans and Cosmopolitans. When I make these to take with me, I used empty alcohol bottles. This is great because it helps reduce waste and consumption. It’s also much cheaper than purchasing something to cart all over the Carolinas. If you want to, you can recycle it at your port of call, rather than bringing it back.

So, as this post is about skills, let’s talk about making pre-mixed drinks for travel by car. (I only take a carry-on when I fly, so I can’t help you with airplanes.)

A couple of things:

1) a 750 mL bottle holds about 25 ounces. This is great because many drinks are proportioned in ratios of 3 or 5. With the batch of Manhattans I made, using the Manhattan, Again post, it’s 1.5 ounces whiskey, 0.5 ounces sweet vermouth, and 0.5 cherry juice, for a total of 2.5 ounces. Multiple that by 10, and you have 15 ounces whiskey, 5 ounces sweet vermouth, and 5 ounces of cherry juice. 25 ounces, 10 cocktails pre-made. You can then pour the drink over ice, and you have a Manhattan with minimal work at the beach or you can refrigerate it and drink it up.

2) Martinis are great because you got a lot more bang for your buck when traveling in terms of space. You also don’t have to worry about topping with a mixer like club soda or ginger ale, etc. If you do decide that you want to do something like that, like a Sloe Gin Fizz, premix everything except the club soda in a bottle. Then, when you are ready to drink add the club soda to the liquor at the beach.

3) When making drinks to travel, start with the cheapest ingredient and add by price, ascending.(This is good general advice for all cocktails.) The following is a true story from the afternoon, an inspiration for this post, and might be a little gross. I haven’t been in my bar for a while because I’ve been gardening, prepping for law school, and taking Atlantic excursions. I had a big party about a month ago and forgot to put open juice in the fridge. I poured 8 oz of vodka in first and then went to add the cranberry juice. As you can imagine, the cranberry juice got a little funky. When I poured it into the measuring cup, I saw a green solid mass floating in the cocktail. I was confused and went to look at it. It looked a little weird, so I looked at the cranberry juice. The juice had molded. Awesome. I then had to dump a third of a bottle of vodka. As a general rule, I don’t like to chance giving myself food poisoning. (Don’t worry, Arthur, I switched measuring cups as well.)

Anyway, I’m almost ready to head to the ocean for the weekend. So, learn from my mistakes, and, as always, happy and safe drinking.

Manhattan Perfect?

Tags

Cocktail, Manhattan, Manhattan Kansas, martini, Martini & Rossi, Raleigh North Carolina, Vermouth

A Manhattan is my favorite cocktail for a lot of reasons. I have an odd feeling that over the course of the life of my blog, I’ll probably write about Manhattans a lot. It’s one of the most versatile cocktails. There are 5 optional ingredients and 2 required ones.

Manhattan is a motif in my life. I grew up in Manhattan, KS. I went to college in Manhattan, KS. A Manhattan is one of my favorite drinks. It was the first drink that I made for me to my taste perfection. It is one of the drinks that I was known for in Manhattan, KS and has become a signature cocktail in Raleigh. A Manhattan Perfect is my idea of Manhattan’s Perfection.

I realized last week when my fraternity brother Bert tagged me in a post to donate to the “Team Dockins Delta Lambda Phi Beta Mu team fundraiser for AIDSWalk in Kansas City.” I’ve written about Jason before, he was my fraternity brother who killed himself about 3 years ago. After Jason committed suicide, Beta Mu became home. It became one of the places in my life where “. . .when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” After being in Raleigh for about a year and half, I’ve realized that I know longer think of Manhattan and Beta Mu as my current home. I had this thought where if I was going to donate my money and time to a HIV/AIDS organization, I would donate to Crape Myrtle.

Raleigh has become home.

But, with some many things in life, how do you move from who you are to who you want to become? When I first moved here, I knew what I was going to do. Get a job, support Michael through nursing school, and eventually I would earn my Masters and my law degree. I had a game plan. I became a “Good on Paper” person. I had a job, a degree, a husband, and a bank account with savings in it. I let work consume me. After working 60 hours a week, all I wanted to do was stay home. I settled for fast food and bad gin and tonics, because I was someone. I was “Good on Paper,” I didn’t have to worry about being good in life. Like so many people eventually realize, boy, was I wrong.

So, now I’m learning to make Raleigh home. To find those people and places that when I go there, they have to take me in. How, do I recreate what I had in Manhattan here? And nostalgia doesn’t help. It makes you long for things that don’t exist and never did. But how do you make a Raleigh Perfect look like a Manhattan Perfect?

Manhattan Perfect

2 oz Jameson whiskey

1 oz Martini and Rossi Dry Vermouth

1 oz Martini and Rossi Sweet Vermouth

3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Pour all ingredients in a shaker over ice. Stir the cocktail. Strain into a martini shaker.

Evaluation:

I have to say this, before anything else. Do NOT garnish with a Maraschino cherry. The cherries sold in grocery stores are disgusting and poison.

This drink is not for the faint of heart. You have to like vermouth. Many people do not. As Michael says, most people don’t like vermouth the first twenty times they have it. Americans  have a taste for sweet and fruit instead of bitter and herbal. I’m always really unusual in that I use Irish whiskey and not a Rye like Jim Bean or Wild Turkey. Different types of whiskeys are made different ways and such can have very different flavors.

Cost:

Cost per drink:

$25 for a 750 mL bottle of Jameson

$8 for a 750 mL bottle of Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth

$8 for a 750 mL bottle of Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth

$6 for a 5 oz bottle of Angostura Bitters

Total cost: $47 for everything

Cost per drink:

$2 for Jameson Whiskey

$0.32 for Dry Vermouth

$0.32 for Sweet Vermouth

$0.01 for the bitters

Total cost per glass: $2.65

 

As always happy and safe drinking.