Sooooo nice...

Well here I am sitting in a little corner of a lounge in the Generator Hostel in Barcelona. I gotta tell ya, this place is more like a hotel than a hostel, and the bar downstairs puts most Canadian bars to shame! But I have to tell you about one of the most refreshing drinks you could ever wish for on a hot Barcelona's summer  day, the Aperol Spritz. This is a drink I've had before, but as it is such a European tradition I felt it deserved a spot in my lil' blog.

1-Take a large wine glass or goblet as some people would call it and fill it with large ice cubes. No crushed ice here, there wouldn't be much fizz left! 

2-Fill glass just over 1/2 full with a decent quality Cava, a sparkling wine from the Catalunya region of Spain. I suppose you could use a champagne or prosecco  here, but the one I'm drinking right now is pretty darn good so I'm stickin with that! 

3-Pour a healthy two-ounce measure of Aperol into the mix. Aperol is an Italian aperitif that resembles a lighter fruitier version of Campari if you've ever had it. The guy behind the bar here just popped open the bottle and sloshed it straight in. 

4-Slide a couple of orange wedges down the inside of the glass, top with soda, garnish with a wheel of orange. 

At four euros a pop, you can be sure I'm gonna have another one of these.

Ciao!

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Okay, I officially had a cocktail!!

So I had to do a bit of research to even find a decent place in Paris to have a good cocktail. Funny, considering Paris was one of the cocktail centres for the whole prohibition-era world! Bartenders in the twenties, unable to continue their craft in their native country, flocked to places like London and Paris, but all of those places are long gone. The two surviving cocktail bars from the "Golden Era" are Harry's New York Bar, and the Hemingway Bar, located in the Ritz Hotel. The Ritz is currently undergoing a three-year complete overhaul, so that was out of the question. I did get a drink at Harry's, and it was pretty good and the bartender was good to talk to, but I think they're still stuck in their Bloody Mary ways.

However, I did a bit of research and came across this little place called the Experimental Cocktail Club, started in 2007 by a fella. Experimental was so successful that within a could years they opened two more bars in Paris. I looked for one of them called Prescription Cocktail Club, but couldn't find it. I have a suspicion that it was there, just unmarked. When I went to Experimental the next day the only marking was a small plaque on the side of the doorway, and when I entered I was met by a big fella who opened a black curtain into a tiny maybe 40-seater club with a DJ mixing beats on top of an old upright piano. 

But as for the drinks, unbelievable! These guys are masters of their craft, and they could balance the flavours on a pinhead! After ordering one of the menu, I asked the guy to make me something up, as long as it had spice and egg whites. I don't have the exact mesurements as the bar was a little busy to ask, but this is what was in it:

2 chunks of celery muddled in the bottom

1 egg white

cayenne pepper infused yellow chartreuse

Rittenhouse 100 proof rye

dash of celery bitters

dash of jamacian jerk bitters (I think)

and that was the most amazing thing I've tasted on this trip yet!

If you feel brave, play around with those flavour profiles and let me know what you come up with!

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Not a cocktail, a beer.

So I know this one isn't a cocktail, but I had to post it just cuz its the coolest and weirdest beer I've tasted! Its called Leffe Ruby and tastes like fruit, beer, and roses. I'm not usually a fan of sweetened beer, but I'd have another of these!

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First Post!

So here's my first post. Ironically, I haven't even tried this cocktail, but the picture of it in the in-flight magazine of my pan-Atlantic voyage just looked so good I had to post it and hope someone can make it and tell me how it is!

Brown-Buttered Maple Old Fashioned
2oz Brown Butter Bourbon (Recipe Below)
1/4oz maple syrup
1 dash Xocolatl Mole bitters (I'm using Aztec Chocolate Bitters from Fee Brothers, available at Gourmet Warehouse, Modern Bartender, or Legacy Liquor Store, all in Vancouver unfortunately.)

-Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker (normally you would add the bitters and sugar in the glass and muddle, but because we're dealing with maple syrup you'll need the extra friction I would think.)
-Strain into an Old Fashioned glass over a two-inch cube or sphere.
-No garnish in recipe, but possibly a cinnamon stick would be a nifty addition?

Brown Buttered Bourbon
Simmer one pound of butter in a saucepan on high until the edges brown. Then, pour butter and 750ml of bourbon of your choice (Bulliet has a spicy flavour that might work well with the chocolate bitters) into a stainless steel container and freeze for 24 hours. Discard butter (that has hopefully formed a sort of hard crust on top of the bourbon) and filter the bourbon back into it's original bottle through a cheesecloth, coffee filter, or fine strainer.

Good luck and let me know how it is!

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