Turns out that nobody knows more about crafting the perfect cannabis cocktail than our good friend Warren Bobrow, author of the finest craft cocktail books, including the “Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics”. Bobrow has spent years experimenting with various drinks, tinctures and modifiers that give a little more buzz than your average alcoholic concoction.
Read the rest at; http://theruggedmale.com/cocktails-and-dreams/
Usually when I pour myself a drink, I’m not thinking about the medicinal properties of my cocktail. That is, until I read Warren Bobrow’s new book, Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today. In it, OKRA Magazine’s esteemed whiskey expert goes back to his family roots and gives us a fascinating new book exploring the healing powers of our favorite cocktails.
It is full of beautiful photos of delicious looking drinks, split into categories of the ailments that might plague you – weather that’s too cold or too hot, stomach troubles, hangovers, general pain, relaxants and mood enhancers. Having sectioned up the problems, Warren then offers an overview of the solutions one can find in the cocktail world. It seems like almost everything has a medical use, including bitters, herbs, teas, herbal liqueurs, fruits, vegetables, and seltzer. Many of the ingredients appear to be capable of handling many different afflictions, which speaks to the long history of apothecary research and development and the powers of the natural world.
Throughout the book there are fun little disclaimers, like “watch out for frostbite if you get too cozy with this drink!” and “as the Scottish proverb goes, ‘Whisky may not cure the common cold, but it fails more agreeably than most things’” which lighten the mood a bit and remind us that these are, in the end, drinks. Bobrow stays true to his mission and focuses on a wide variety of drinks that are chock full of healing prowess. In some rare cases, that means he includes a few ingredients that might be hard to acquire, like Centerba, or Krupnikas, but most products are easy to get.
There is a good mix of familiar, easier cocktails and more complicated, work intensive drinks. The majority of the recipes stick to the basics, keeping the ingredients simple and the techniques limited to stirring or shaking. A few, like the Rhubarb and Strawberry Swizzle, require several steps, from making a compote, to blending and swizzling until you finally get to enjoy the drink. Being a book for the more under the weather folks, it make sense to stick on the side of go-to drinks that are easy to concoct when you’re in the throes of a flu, while offering a few more experimental beverages you could create when the weather outside really is frightful and you don’t have anything else to do. It’s really lovely to see so many familiar drinks, like the Sazerac, and find out that not only do they taste good, but they settle your stomach with its characteristic combination of bitters and absinthe. Remember these descriptions and tips and you’ll have great tidbits to drop at your next cocktail party!
Sometimes the recipes and the descriptions of all of the various benefits you’re serving yourself appear a bit repetitive. Each recipe has it’s own explanation above it, and since there are plenty of similar ingredients you get a lot of this information over and over. If you’re just flipping through to the appropriate recipe or section, however, that shouldn’t be much of a nuisance.
My favorite drinks all seem to come in the hot weather and painkilling sections, mostly because they feature a lot of citrus, rum, and gin and seem a little more in line with my taste than the (quite powerful sounding) Scotch enhanced lamb stew. Maybe now that it is getting really cold I’ll change my mind. Bobrow himself seems to have really enjoyed getting all this information into one place. His family history with the pharmaceutical business brings a very personal note to the book, indicating that the early force fed tonics built up his immune system as well as his avid interest in the greater power of cocktails. I, for one, will be glad to have this book on hand the next time my head starts to ache or my bones get chilled.
The Hartley Dodge. This photo is from Apothecary Cocktails.
The Hartley Dodge Cocktail (Bobrow’s Aspirin)
Place the peach slices in a Boston shaker, and muddle them. Add the bourbon and vermouth, and continue to muddle so that the flavors are well combined. Add the bitters and a handful of ice cubes, and stir well. Strain into a Collins glass over a large chunk of ice (larger pieces of ice are less likely to dilute the drink). Garnish with an extra slice or two of fresh peach. It’s an analgesic that can’t help but take the edge off what ails you.
If there is any liquor that makes me salivate, it would have to be Rhum Agricole. Perhaps it’s the freshness of the core ingredient, the sugar cane itself. The juicy-fruit quality of the mouthfeel, the creamy texture… the way it rolls around my mouth- for example… very intriguing. There is life in Rhum Agricole, just like there is life on Martinique. It’s vibrant and exciting. Just imagine, not so long ago, in 1902- the town of Saint-Pierre and 30,000 residents ceased to exist because the local volcano decided that day was going to be the day that it just exploded! You can almost feel this tension (terroir) of volcanic ash in the sugar cane that grows up the sides of the massive Mount Pelée.
Rhum Agricole is different in a few basic ways from the booze cruise rum that most Americans have to contend with when ordering their rum based drinks. Without belaboring what is rum and what is not rum, let’s just assume for a moment that the difference between Agricole and Industrial is probably going to be the base spirit. Industrial to me means sugar- molasses. Whereas Agricole is fresh, agricultural, free-run juice. You know, the good stuff. I am constantly explaining that dark rum doesn’t necessarily mean old (it actually gets lighter as it ages, fooling most consumers who think their dark rum is old rum) and Agricole is pure because of its AOC. The AOC or appellation d’origine contrôlée means that the Rhum (in this case spelled with an h) is pure according to laws of the French Government. That is, without drilling down too far, good enough for my belly, and it should be good enough for yours too.
So, I beg your attention, if only for a quick glance while deciding which rabbit hole you are going down at this very moment, so my time is short indeed!
Neisson L’Esprit Blanc Rhum Agricole speaks to me in the quality of the ingredients, plus rolling in at 70% abv or 140 Proof, this is not a Rhum for the meek. You will certainly control your own fate when making ‘ponch’ with this magical elixir, truly wrought out of what was blown to smithereens in 1902.
I’ve taken some oranges and limes and roasted them in the toaster oven, sliced in half, sprinkled with Demerara Sugar and light Balsamic vinegar. Roasted at 350 for an hour, set to cool and then sliced into quarters. The following is a take on the Ti-Punch (or ponch) as you can dream about and try by ordering your exceptional Neisson Rhum from DrinkupNY today!
Jean Baptiste Philémon Lemaire Punch
(Governor of Martinique in 1902)
Ingredients:
Quarters of your oven roasted limes and oranges
2 oz. Neisson L’Esprit
1 oz. Cane Sugar Syrup (preferably the stuff from Martinique, although you can make a dark simple with 1 cup of Demerara Sugar to one cup of boiling water, simmer and then let this cool, very slowly until quite dark, you can add a bit of vodka to the sugar syrup and it will last nearly indefinitely (pro-tip)
½ oz. White Balsamic Vinegar – for digestion of course!
Preparation:
Mash your oven roasted limes and oranges (the skins have all the oils in them!)
Add a portion of cane sugar simple
Add some white balsamic
Add some Neisson L’Esprit
Add a handful of ice
Continue until content
http://blog.drinkupny.com/2017/06/jean-baptiste-philemon-lemaire-punch.html?m=1
Whiskey is one of my favorite things. I’ll go to lengths to describe the way it makes me feel and especially the way it performs in craft cocktails. What? Whiskey cocktails? Don’t look away; it’s perfectly acceptable to mix cocktails with whiskey. By the way, if you’ve enjoyed a whiskey smash or a mint julep, you’ve had a whiskey cocktail. And if you’ve treated your glass of whiskey to a splash of soda or a muddle of fruit, that is a cocktail too.
Boil tea. Add the liquors. Sweeten with raw honey to taste. Add the bitters. Serve
Another little taste of deliciousness is the “Late Summer Fizz.” It includes Pimm’s Cup. Now you know what to do with this cucumber-scented slice of heaven.
To a Boston Shaker filled ¾ with ice: Add the liquors and the apple cider. Add the dram. Cap and shake hard for 15 seconds. Pour over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Splash club soda. Dot with lemon bitters. Sprinkle sea salt over the top. Serve.
Muddle the roasted peaches and oranges with Thai basil very lightly, just to release the aromatics adding a bit of bourbon along the way, muddle some more and add more bourbon (I used Barrell Bourbon Batch 11). Strain the mixture into a rocks glass without ice or if you want, with one large cube of ice and a bit of the muddling mixture. Garnish with a sprig of Thai basil.
How can you go through summer without a take on the Moscow Mule, but with whiskey instead of vodka? This one takes a bit of a different tack. It involves making a very quick Shrub — no, not a shrubbery, but a little concoction that adds a bit of apple cider vinegar to the usual ginger beer. Kind of a ginger snap in your mouth!
To a cocktail mixing glass: Fill ¾ with ice. Add the whiskey. Add the ginger beer. Add the apple cider vinegar. Stir well to chill but not dilute. Pour into 2 coupe glasses. Dot with bitters and serve.
The last cocktail is also from my book The Craft Cocktail Compendium. It is simply named “Bill Monroe’s Country Cooler,” paying homage to the master mandolin player himself.
Add all the liquid ingredients to a cocktail mixing vessel filled ¾ with ice. Stir well to chill. Strain into ball jars. Dot with bitters. Slap the mint against your palm and garnish. Serve and quickly prepare more! They go down quick!
Read more at https://thefreshtoast.com/culture/5-delicious-whiskey-cocktails-you-can-easily-make-at-home/amp/
One of Ardent’s latest customers and biggest fans, Warren Bobrow, also known as the “Cocktail Whisperer,” has been experimenting with cannabis tinctures and infusions for decades, and is one of the first to publish an elegant book on the subject detailing his recipes. We asked Warren to tell us about it and share one of his craft cocktail recipes to help cool you off this summer!“Before I discovered the NOVA Decarboxylation device, I was literally throwing money down the drain. Decarbing cannabis is not usually an easy task. There are dozens of methods shown on the web to decarb and none of them are perfect. If you are using your toaster oven or your regular oven to decarb, stop right now, you’re wasting hard-earned money! I wish I knew about the NOVA when I was writing my book; Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, & Tonics. Perhaps the recipes would have turned out more uniformly?! I believe so, having tested the Ardent several dozen times and in many different applications.To fully convert the Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, heat must be used at a specific measure, for a specific period of time. If you mess up the heating part, this leads to wasted money, time and healing! Decarbing with the NOVA makes life easy. Everything you need to do is plug and play. Open up the top of the handsome device. Add cannabis to the metal container inside, replace the silicone lid, then place the hard-plastic top on and press start. That’s it! No dialing in temperatures and hoping that the thermostat on your toaster or regular oven is correct. This product makes it easy, and perfect.THC-Infused Vietnamese Ice Coffee is one of the easiest craft cocktail recipes that I make, and it has no alcohol in it. That’s not to say you can’t add a portion of rum to the mix; please use less of it because of the cannabis.
*Use code “ACTIVATE” for $30 off a decarboxylator at www.ardentcannabis.com and make your own cannabis cocktails (or anything else you could possibly imagine!) Choose expedited shipping at checkout and receive it in time for Father’s Day!
I love cocktail parties. Especially ones that give me the opportunity to take my guest’s palates to another level. This little cocktail party served notice that great mixed drinks don’t have Fireball or Tito’s in them. Far from. They take great parts and incredible craft spirits and bring these liquid driven adventures truly to a higher place.
I was given a bottle of Martinique Blue Cane Rhum Agricole recently and I couldn’t think of a nicer way to serve it than with Royal Rose- Simple Syrup of Cardamom and Clove and a bit of seltzer water.
Just over on Mt. Pelee’
Ingredients:
Prep:
To a cocktail mixing glass filled ¾ with ice
The second cocktail took a simple drink known as the gin and tonic and quite literally, raised the bar with thirty different types of gin. The crowd favorite? A little gin in a gorgeous bottle from Scotland named Caorunn. For some reason (well known to those of us who love artisanal gin) the Caorunn has a richer texture and ‘ginny’ character that worked so well with the multitude of tonic waters that I brought with me. Amongst the gins were The Botanist, SW4, No.3., Martin Miller’s Pot Still, Hat Trick, FEW, Nolet, Beefeater, and many others.
Not Just Another Gin and Tonic
Ingredients:
Prep:
I’m sure that the third drink is where you want to get going- and that would mean immediately!
The Soda and Cocktail Syrup named Fruitations is where this drink really takes off. I used the brilliant Tangerine syrup and combined it with Mezcal and then finished it off with a Cane Sugar Ginger Beer from Australia named Bundaberg. Brilliant stuff. A wedge of fresh lime and lemon bitters sent this drink further than it has ever been prior. Trust me.
Just up Near Mexico City
Ingredients:
Prep:
The next drink was my own take on the classic Old Fashioned, and it departs from the classic in one very determined way. I chose to roast several different kinds of oranges in a bath of both Balsamic vinegar and Demerara sugar until caramelized and bubby- about 2.5 hours at 350 degrees covered. The final ½ hour is uncovered to add a bit of darkness to the softly cooked fruits. I then roasted some Luxardo cherries until warmed through and quite soft- about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Set to cool so you won’t break your expensive crystal with sizzling hot fruit, pricy whiskey and ice!
Not your typical Old Fashioned
Ingredients:
Prep:
The final drink was the easiest to duplicate because once you are able to buy a good quality Absinthe, you’ll be more than ½ way there. Any of the fine Absinthes made by Jade would work beautifully, as would the Lucid line. There is one thing that I must stress. The lack of color is far preferable to the ones with color added. It’s just my preference.
Just a Normal Louche
Ingredients:
Prep:
Release the chilled water from your Absinthe fountain slowly and gently into 2 oz. of Absinthe, sip and repeat until sated
Feed a cold and starve a fever, the old saying goes. It’s true: If you’re feeling under the weather, it’s even more important to eat regularly and healthfully. Nutritious meals can play a huge part in boosting the immune system. That’s where this steaming bowl of classic, steel-cut oatmeal comes in. Spiked with a generous serving of whisky-soaked dried fruit, A Scotsman’s Flourish comes at the final stage of this breakfast of champions—you’ll top your bowl with an extra ounce or two of Scotch for good measure. It just goes to show that you can eat your breakfast and drink it too! And there’s no need to waste any Scotch: Pour the whiskey left over from steeping the dried fruit over another cup of dried cherries in a sterilized container. Refrigerate these gorgeous home-cured cherries for garnishing your Manhattans, or serve them over vanilla gelato for dessert.
Bowl of steel-cut oatmeal, served piping hot
¼ cup (38 g) dried cherries
¼ cup (32 g) dried apricots
2 ounces (60 ml) blended Scotch whisky
½ cup (15 ml) spring water
To taste: Raw Honey Simple Syrup
Cook your steel-cut oatmeal for about 45 minutes according to package directions. While it’s cooking, add the dried cherries and dried apricots to a glass bowl. Cover with the blended whisky and the water. Let the fruits reconstitute for as long as it takes to cook your oatmeal. Toward the end of cooking, spoon the whisky-softened fruits into the oatmeal, and stir well. Serve in preheated ceramic bowls. Pour the remaining whisky over the top of the oatmeal. Sweeten to taste with Raw Honey Simple Syrup. Then, dig in and enjoy your healing breakfast! For an added kick, serve with a David Balfour Cocktail: It’ll prove a cool, refreshing contrast to your steaming hot, whisky-laden oatmeal.
Grab your bow tie and a rocks glass, because we’re talking all about one of the most classic—and classy—spirits. Whether you like bourbon, scotch or rye, whiskey’s diverse and complex taste will be your new go-to drink for parties, gatherings, or evenings in your study with a roaring fire. Whiskey can be an intimidating drink to the uninitiated. Most folks may not be able to drink it straight. We’ve got you covered. The Cocktail Whisperer, Warren Bobrow, author of Apothecary Cocktails (Fair Winds Press), incorporates some of the best whiskeys into hand-crafted cocktails that bring out the subtle notes and flavors of any good bourbon or scotch. Whiskey Cocktails features 75 traditional, newly-created, and original recipes for whiskey-based cocktails. This wonderfully crafted book also features drink recipes from noted whiskey experts and bartenders.
https://www.quartoknows.com/blog/quartocooks/2014/06/11/dad-food-scotsmans-flouris/
Craft cocktails have made incredible leaps and bounds over the past dozen or so years. Nothing is more in evidence than the augmentations, such as bitters, shrubs, syrups, tonics, cola, and even flowers — each variety and flavor designed specifically for the craft cocktail bar.
Visit your neighborhood mixology bar; they are popping up all over like microbrew bars did about ten years ago. You can tell a mixology bar by a couple of things. Look over at the bar. Should you see little medicine droppers on tiny bottles lined up in a row, you’re probably in the right place. Look further, do you see liquors on the shelf that you don’t recognize? Getting warmer, you are. What about that over there? It looks like they refrigerate their Vermouth (if they don’t, throw it out!). And the ice, wow, such large cubes and crystal clear.
(OK, please don’t get hung up on clear ice, not everyone gets ice and are ice-nerds, but I digress.)
Read More: https://thefreshtoast.com/culture/sweet-and-savory-3-original-craft-cocktails-to-make-with-bitters/
Nearly everyone has been to their local garden store and ogled over the varieties of fresh herbs that you can grow on your windowsill garden. Who knew there were so many different kinds of basil? And how about all that mint? Are there enough days of growing season left for every different kind of mint, pared with all those incredible bourbons on your groaning shelves? Well, worry not. I’m going to make a few suggestions of which herbs you should be growing in your mixology garden and some simple ways to use them.
Read More at: https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabis/slap-happy-5-great-ways-to-use-fresh-herbs-in-your-craft-cocktails/amp
Photo by cookbookman17
Photo by fancycrave1 via Pixabay
I thought this was going to be a low key sort of afternoon, then other things happened, one of which brought me to this place of calm, and “highly” introspective buzziness. The change of the seasons offers a change in the flavors that I seek at the cocktail bar and eventually into my glass. I’ve been way down the road of helpful bartenders (generally they are not mixologists, that’s something different) attempting to make, ether successfully or not (well-meaning) suggestions as to seasonality. These might be delightful drinks, such as a Mint Julep in the ice and cold of January, or a lip smacking and body buzzing Sazerac in the blazing sun of the summer. You can have these drinks — and right you should! — but for utter seasonality in these early spring weeks, I seek the depth and sophistication that honest and raw ingredients can bring to the cocktail glass.
