Starting a new job and spraining my right wrist pretty badly on pretty much the same day has not been good for the blog – sorry about that! As we head into spring, I’m going to focus on plants and herbs – some strange ingredients that are going to make for great deep dives. But, before I start that, I want to recap the last few weeks quickly.
Seattle Cocktail Week – Drinks Out
This was the first year for SCW, and it was a lot of fun. A lot of the best bars in the city had special cocktails on the menu and, essentially, had all-day happy hour pricing on those. Here’s a quick rundown of the best drinks I had and where.
Corvus & Co
This bar is pretty much across the street and one of my favorites on the Hill. On the left is the Lupus Dei, which is very similar to a Brooklyn. The rye and liqueur play perfectly together, while the amaro and absinthe rinse add interesting herbal complexity. On the right is the Roadrunner, a spicy, smoky, take on a stiff margarita that is one of my favorite drinks on their menu.
Dark Bar
Dark Bar is a metal bar attached to a pizza slice shop that doesn’t make much sense but makes great drinks. I had the Don’t Panic, which was one of the best applications of Chambord I’ve ever encountered. The addition of the foaming bitters give an extremely smooth texture to this spicy-sweet play on a Manhattan.
Gold Bar
Gold Bar used to be pretty much in the middle of nowhere and was the only place to drink near my office for quite a while. Now there’s a lot more happening in the area, but Gold Bar is still a standout. The bergamot gimlet here is one of the most refreshing drinks that still packs a punch you can order at any bar in the city.
Seattle Cocktail Week – Cocktail District
The culmination of Cocktail Week was Cocktail District, essentially a trade show down on the water (on a luckily-gorgeous day) with hundreds of bottles to taste. I learned a lot and had a great time – definitely looking forward to the event expanding next year!
Agave
Bozal and Vago are both excellent Mezcal producers, and I was very happy to get to try some of their newer bottles. The corn-finished Vago was incredible, and Bozal has some options with very little smoke that are great introductions to the spirit. Both brand reps were also extremely helpful in not only understanding the spirit, but understanding Oaxaca. They convinced me to put it on our travel list ASAP…
Whiskey
I hadn’t had Teeling before, but I had read good things and was excited to try it. All 3 expressions were excellent, especially the single-grain (corn). Not really Irish Whiskey, but excellent whiskey from Ireland that I used a lot the following weekend. Other standouts were Pendleton (Canadian whiskey via Oregon) which has an interesting spice to it and Larceny, which is an excellent, widely-available wheated bourbon that’s reminiscent of the ever-popular Weller.
Gin
Washington is great for gin, and the consistent standouts are alwasy Dry Fly (the oldest distillery in the state) and Oola (which is in our neighborhood). Particularly of note was Kirby Kallas-Lewis, owner/distiller at Oola, shaking up fresh cocktails for attendees. He was one of very few people making fresh drinks, and the only actual distiller I noticed there. The man is a legend.
Rum
Two aged Venezuelan rums really stood out to me, and I hope they continue to be able to operate and import without any issues given the issues in their home country. Both of these make an incredible old fashioned, and they each had unique complexity that I rarely encounter in the category. Also of note were the aged Cachacas from Novo – they’re at a good price point if you’re looking for something a little different than Bacardi.
Random
Some other interesting things I tasted were Kuma, the world’s only liqueur made with turmeric root, American brandys and bitters based on that base, and some upstart French brandy that’s an awful lot like a good Cognac without the price tag.
St. Patrick’s Day Drinks
The real key to my SPD cocktails was Black Sauce, a recipe I picked up from the Teelings rep at Cocktail District. It’s 1 part brown sugar, 1 part Guinness, and 1 part St. Germain with a few cinnamon sticks and cloves thrown it. Put it all in a pan, turn on the heat, let it reduce by half, and then throw it in the fridge. Use it like you use any heavy syrup!
I had a blast playing around with Guinness as an ingredient a few different ways with these drinks, and it was a great way to start understanding Teelings Small Batch as a whiskey to build drinks around. Looking forward to using more of these techniques in future recipes!