May 6-Red Hook

There have been a huge influx of Manhattan variations named after NY City neighbourhoods recently. We are featuring one with us today with the Red Hook. This cocktail is widely considered a modern classic by many bartenders even in the massive sea of Manhattan variations. This is possibly in the conversation for the best among these contenders. I’m almost sad that this is one of the only NY City named Manhattan variations we will talk about this summer, I’m really sad we can’t talk about the Little Italy or the Greenpoint. What surprises me even more though is that this cocktail is a new entry, meaning it wasn’t included in last year’s list and that’s a shame considering how good this cocktail is.

Now let’s talk about the cocktail, It is a boozier cocktail registering a 1.7 standard drinks on Difford’s Guide’s calculation. In order to give some perspective to a non-professional bartender, that is equal to almost 2 whole 5 oz glasses of wine. It is for this I must please ask everyone reading to drink this coocktail in moderation. I must say that this will be hard for some due to how good this cocktail is. The combination of the warming rye with the drying maraschino and the bittersweet Punt e Mes is an addicting flavour combo.

Now the history, the cocktail was made by Vincenzo Errico at Milk and Honey somewhere between 2003 and 2005. He is also famous for the cocktail called the Enzoni which uses grapes, not a common ingredient for cocktails even now. But back to the Red Hook this cocktail was, as I said, made at Milk and Honey, the legendary bar created by Sasha Petraske in NYC that was famous for its incredible bartending lineup including Mr. Errico himself as well as Tobey Maloney, Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy. This bar was also responsible for some of the greatest modern classics like the Penicillan, the Paper Plane and the Gold Rush.

Full judging here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1okIWZ7SblIZ5tpNisM0M53h6sDqB0NZKloLG361OTHw/edit?tab=t.0 . Good Night and Happy Drinking.

May 5-Tequila Almond Old Fashioned

So it’s cinco de Mayo and I did'n’t realize that until I got up this morning. So instead of redoing my entire schedule I decided to do a tequila version of today’s cocktail that was under the Variations section under the cocktail. That seems Cinco De Mayo enough right? The Almond Old Fashioned is a classic Old Fashioned with some Amaretto cut in. The tequila version supplants the bourbon and simple syrup for Tequila and Agave Syrup.

This cocktail was created by MArk Prat at the Bar Maze in London, and that’s all that I could find on it from Difford’s Guide. I’m sorry this is a short post but there isn’t much to this cocktail. The interesting thing about this cocktail is that my mom cringed at the smell but loved the taste. Good thing scent isn’t a category in the score sheet. Also my aunt enjoyed it despite being an Amaretto hater. Full judge sheet here : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HGwHfGO0kF9jU6NKA4ccZphMtt-L9XVIyK3Gn_mNDc8/edit?tab=t.0 .

May 4-Trinidad Sour

The Trinidad Sour is one of my favourite cocktails I have learned in my bartending career. The main reason I say this is because it takes the conventional rules of cocktail making and says “Screw you I’m doing my own thing.” The main reason I say this is for the main spirit used. I’ll give you a guess as to what that is…… you are incorrect, because this cocktail uses 1 1/2 oz Angostura Bitters as the main spirit. Yes it also includes rye but the cocktail only uses half the amount of bitters with 3/4 oz of rye. If you did guess bitters, congratulations, have a cookie.

Cookie break over? Great let’s talk about the cocktail more. This drink gets its name from the fact that Angostura Bitters are from Trinidad and Tobago. Aside from that it is a classic sour with lemon juice and a syrup type. Traditionally this cocktail uses orgeat, but I’m allergic to nuts so I was unable to try the original specs, but everyone I had try this said it was absolutely delicious. If you are allergic to nuts like me, I would use simple syrup. You can’t really just omit an ingredient for a cocktail taht you don’t like or can’t eat, you will mess with the balance, I would always say to find a substitute.

Now the history, The cocktail was made at one of the most famous bars in recent memory, The Clover Club by Julie Reiner. The bartender responsible for this is Guiseppe Gonzalez in 2009. The drink was based off the Trinidad Especial by Valentino Bolognese which is a similar cocktail in that it uses Bitters as the main spirit but supplants the Rye for pisco and the lemon is replaced with lime. This cocktail has gone on to inspire many new cocktails including trhe Angostura Colada by Zac Overman at the Sunken Harbour Club which is run by one of my favourite modern bartenders Garrett Richard.

I’m really happy that this cocktail was in the top 100 since it can seem intimidating to some since it has an unorthodox formula featuring a technical non-potable ingredient as the star. Full judging can be found here : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kRWv5nm1UP8VR9KpRP3jAOSss4hh5AqEZcBFEPYq5vs/edit?tab=t.0 and the cocktail can be found here https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/3328/trinidad-sour . Happy Drinking and good night.

May 3-Left Bank Martini

We have a cocktail today by the main man of Difford’s Guide himself, Simon DIfford. Today we are talking about the Left Bank Martini. With the name Left Bank Martini, France nerds can probably tell it has a wine component. This is because the term “Left Bank typically refers to a small region below the Gironde Estuary in the Bordeaux region of France. Even more so this cocktail references the Saint-Germain-des-Pres, a district on the left bank of the River Siene in France, don’t you love it when a name has layers like onions and ogres?

Let’s get into the actual cocktail itself. which cann be found here https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/2464/left-bank-martini . To make this a more appetizing ccocktail I recommend using a Sauvignon Blanc over a Chardonnay. The reason behind this is to use a less rich wine to balance the richness of the St. Germain elderflower liqueur but if you love Chardonnay and have a taste for a richer cocktail, then go for it as it will still be amazing. Another note is on the St. Germain, if you cannot find the exact bottle, I find St. Elder to be a fantastic substitute. If you do end up using St. Elder I would use Chardonnay as it is not as rich as St. Germain. But like other cocktails this one is best enjoyed how you like it so I encourage you to play around with different wines to find your perfect specs.

I also don;t use too expensive of a wine for this cocktail and there are 2 reasons for this. The first is as a functioning adult I need to budget my liquor bill with rent and food. The other is I find it a waste of great wine, will it be decadent and amazing, yes but not to the level that I would pay for a $100 bottle of wine for this cocktail, give me the cheap stuff and I’ll make it work. Even boxed wine will shine in this cocktail, but I can understand more if you have an aversion to that stuff from some college experiences I seem to hear from friends of mine where they abused it. It always seems to be boxed wine and jaeger that give the most reviled reaction becauce of college.

I would say the ingredient that shines most in this cocktail is the gin. This is because the botanicals of the gin play really well with most white wines and the St. Germain. And the lime twist just pushes that to the limit in the best possible way. It is for this reason I would say use your favourite gin. If you don’t know I am here to help in the comments. If you are just starting with gin I would use Beefeater. If you liuke a sharper flavour to the gin, I would use Citadelle which is my go-to bottle. Other than this use thew best quality and your favourtie flavour. When my dad visited California recently he brouyght me a bottle of gin back called Junipero which also works great in this cocktail, but obviously as it is in the name it has a Junipery flavour.

So what should you take from this? Experiment with different bottles and find what works for you. This cocktail is the best example of one you coulkd do this with we have seen so far. As al;ways the full scorecards can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18nn2xibkdyBpOWbblU5K33qi_wluFNc4wXnF6PZhvXI/edit?tab=t.0 .So I leave you here, Happy Drinking!!!

May 2-The Sour Apple Martini

The world has a lot of martini variations known as altern’atinis but the Appletini is one of the most popular behind only the Espresso Martini. When I went to bartending school this was one of the first I learned and it has stuck to me all this time. Unfortunately I was unable to find Sour Apple Puckers that were worth the time of day, so I made my own. All you need is 225 ml apple juice, 2 g malic acid, 3.2 g citric acid and 25 g sugar. You just combine them in a saucepan over heat unttil dissolved and boom, a great apple cordial. Also I recommend Martinelli’s apple juice is you don’t have a juicer to make it fresh.

Now let’s talk the history, it started when bar owner Loren “Lola” Dunsworth wanted a new cocktail featuring Ketel One Vodka and Sour Apple Puckers. She gave this challenge to bartender Adam Karston on July 4th 1996 and he gave what I would consider a poor effort even for the mid 90s cocktail culture. He only mixed equal parts Vodka and Apple Puckers with a splash of Sour Mix. At least thew sour mix was homemade otherwise I would say definitively that this was the least deserving cocktail to go mainstream. I still don’t think it is far from that distinction.

As you probably guessed this is not my favourite cocktail, even my least favourite cocktail, The Bloody Mary, is incredibly creative and unique, this one is just a less sour green apple warhead made alcoholic, but if thats what you want it’s better to just soak actual warheads in vodka. But hey if this cocktail is your thing I’m not here to say you are wrong, I’m just sharing my benign opinion that will change nothing in the world. Obviously this cocktail has an audience somewhere or it wouldn’t be #100 on the top list.

One more thing, I am using an adapted recipe for this cocktail because I had to use a homemade cordial. I will link the original one here https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/1797/appletini-sour-apple-martini but if you want my specs with this homemade cordial let me know in the comments. Hopefully this is the only time I have to do this this summer. As I did before my Judge’s Rating is availible here if you want the full details https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Twx2HgIwwWwxacF7KhZQq5Jbr9_P08QGMSvA9LBIxQo/edit?tab=t.0 .

Thank you and have a good night.

May 1-The Californian Margarita

The Californian Margarita was created by Andrew Gelb, who created this cocktail in the comments section for the margarita page on Difford’s Guide. The website named this cocktail after him as he was a self proclaimed “Long Time Californian”. He has 3 main cocktail recipes on his porfile which is linked here https://www.diffordsguide.com/profile/jWq20E.

This coktail was judged by my parents to start off this summer and they agreed on a collective 72 score with my father scoring it 71 and my mother a 73. You can find the entire score sheet here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o8hURe3519XPkjS2EsXTKcnu6O44kdc_syPNbWWiOck/edit?usp=sharing. The most impressive thing about this cocktail is that my father (a known agave hater) went in for a second sip, that’s how good this is for anyone.