Winter Aperitif / Rudolph the Reindeer

WINTER APERITIF / 

RUDOLPH THE REINDEER

Recipe given by a guest

Winter is still here to embrace yourselves! This cocktail's recipe was introduced to me by a guest, who made it during the Christmas season. Even with Xmas gone (and no "name" for it), I liked the recipe and decided to make it as well! Mainly available in Finland (?) due to one of its main ingredients:

• 2 cl gin
• 2 cl cointreau
• 2 cl mulled wine extract
• tonic water (quality)
• wintery spices/herbs to garnish

Stir the first three ingredients with ice, strain into an OF - glass, top it off with tonic water and garnish. Add a straw and you're ready to go!

This cocktail is sweet. Using a longer stir with ice is highly recommendable before pouring it into the glass. Spiciness, orang-y flavors and with a good bitter-ish aftertaste I really enjoyed this cocktail. The best part being, for the winter season it fits like a glove.

Beton

BETON

Some Czech national pride in a glass, I present you with the Beton! Using a rather rare ingredient called Becherovka from the Czech Republic, this is a feisty one! Especially if you prepare some of the garnishes in advance:

• 5 cl Becherovka
• 10 cl tonic water (quality)

Build in a large-ish goblet ~70% filled with ice. As for the garnish, the "official" mentions a squeeze of a lemon wedge and lemon altogether, but I wanted to take this one a bit further. A clove-studded orange peel and two thin slices of fresh ginger.

I liked this one. The foremost sweetness combined with the spicy/fresh aftertaste, nice, very nice indeed! Since Becherovka is not the most common alcohol found in stores/bars...keep an eye for it. You'd be surprised (+ it works magic in e.g. a hot chocolate)

Tonic water tasting, s'il vous plaît!

TONIC WATER TASTING, S'IL VOUS PLAÎT!

An arrangement of tonic waters

It's time for another (heartwarming) tasting! I admit, conducting events like these are my sweet spots. I love the idea of taking a group of x and sampling them with friends and along the way find those little things that matter. Be it cognac, vodka, rum, bourbon or whatever, today I took quite a different approach.

Everyone knows the famous Gin & Tonic. But in the last years (if not decade) the amount of different styles of gins and tonics has skyrocketed. People want more. People want different. For many, the good o' "London dry + the only tonic available + lemon slice" does not suffice anymore. A good example is the rise of Hendrick's Gin with not only a cucumber twist but a "high-tier" tonic. Another one, I've noticed how Gin Mare (a Spanish gin) has bubbled up to the surface and as far as I'm concerned, trying to be the next big thing in the G&T business. Not to mention a mediterranean tonic on the side. This is the present day, my dear readers!

So what better way do I have but to sample some of these exclusive tonics with a few more common on the side with two of my friends? Exactly. My tonic set was built from seven different tonics, two of which from the same manufacturer but different in style. These tonics were:

1. Aqua Monaco tonic (in German) - German  (n/a/100ml)
2. Aqua Monaco Extra Dry (in German) - German (21kcal/100ml)
3. Fever Tree Indian tonic - British (38kcal/100ml)
4. Hartwall tonic - Finnish (38kcal/100ml)
5. Fentiman's tonic - British (34kcal/100ml)
6. Schweppes Indian tonic (in Finnish) - Danish (made in Finland under a license) (37kcal/100ml)
7. Rainbow tonic (in Finnish) - Estonian (36kcal/100ml)

The reason why I put the "kcal/100ml" in the end is for a reason; tonic water has sugar in it and not just a little but quite a lot of what would think. Surprisingly, most of these had a distinctive smell of Sprite! The citrus aroma combined with sugars was just like that soft drink. Of course taste-wise the quinine made it completely different.

#2 was the driest of them all and it showed. You had that bitter palate and with less carbon dioxide it was for the "more adult taste", if you please. Its companion, #1, was like bitter sprite but its mouthfeel was better.

I must say though that #3 was a big disappointment! I would've thought that a brand like Fever Tree could produce a top-tier tonic but no, it was quite bland in the end! For me it was quite a shocker. Especially when you look at a price for one bottle (at least in Finland), one could say it's an outrage. Aroma-wise, #5 was truly exceptional! No wonder, since they used juniper/kaffir lime leaves in the production. One could smell the difference. Bubble-wise, this tonic was almost flat.

#4 and #6 made solid results. Sure, they're not hipster tonics hand-crafted in micro breweries but neither are they noticeably bad. They're tonics that have a lot of potential; they're not unique and suit just about everyone. #7 on the other hand, just didn't quite cut it into the big boys' league. Mediocre at best, a tonic good for big(ger) party where you don't want to pay ridiculously for just a 200ml bottle if making more than one G&T...

In the end it was quite fun trying new products and albeit we didn't try (all of) these with gin, just learning and understanding that there are different tonics out there and it is not just a marketing trick that gins make interesting combinations depending on the tonic used. Quite the tasting!

Gin & Tonic (GT)

GIN & TONIC

2012

2016

Gin, ahoy! I present thee with a cocktail I have made short shrift of for many years. But I recognize the beauty of this drink now. I shall make haste and construe the formula of this savoury cocktail:

• 4 cl Gin (I used Bombay Sapphire)
• tonic water
• a wedge of lime

Supply a high ball glass with plenty of ice, add up the gin followed by a topping off with tonic water. Slice up a wedge of lime and do squeeze the juices of into the drink and use the rind to sweep on the rim of the glass. Finally, drop the wedge onto the drink and enjoy.

 

Surprised as thou might, I have used a proportion of 1:2. Not only did I manage to capture all of the exquisite and aromatic flavours of the Bombay Sapphire but created a marvellous symbiosis with the tonic water. Not forgetting the sweetness of the lime juice, this cocktail has reached new heights in my personal favourites list.

I shall go hunt some foxes now. 

"Tally Ho gents! And off after that fox!"

2016, editor's note

I've come a long way since my 2012 G&T. Not only have multiple producers brought their own gins for us to enjoy (there are seriously so many available at the moment), the sheer amount of different tonics has skyrocketed. As you can clearly see from the two pictures above, I would make my G&T now a tad different. But only a tad.

• 5 cl gin
• a small amount of tonic
• garnish, what is recommended for the gin in question

Using a small tumbler will make your G&T better since the relative proportion of tonic-water is less meaning the botanical flavors of the gin come out better. Thus I would and will recommend ordering a G&T "short" if you can! Taste the difference!