Wild Hibiscus Fizz

I love fizzes.  I am completely obsessed with fizzes.  When I saw that the "official cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail 2011" contest was to create a signature Ramos Gin Fizz I knew I had to enter.  I've been saying for a couple of years now that I really believed over the next few summers hibiscus would become a dominant flavor in drinks, and I've absolutely been seeing a lot more of it recently.  I've also been looking for a great excuse to use the Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup product, and this really seemed to fit the bill!  I even have a photo of this one, though if I serve it on my menu this summer I'm going to serve it in our 12oz wine glasses, so it will look a bit different.  The contest required only that you use the original formula as your base, and that you use at least one of the sponsor products (I used two--the Fee Brothers flower water, and the New Amsterdam gin).  Some of the sponsor products included things like ginger ales, lemonades, etc., and you could use those in variations of the classic, but I really wanted to stay fairly true to the original.

Wild Hibiscus Fizz
Method:  Shake and strain
Glassware:  12oz wine glass or 12oz Collins glass
Garnish:  Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup flower "stem"


Ingredients:
1 egg white (dry shaken)

1.5oz New Amsterdam gin
.5oz Fresh lemon juice
.5 oz Fresh lime juice
1.5oz Simple syrup
.25oz Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup syrup
8 drops Fee Brothers Hibiscus Water
2oz Heavy cream


Instructions:
Separate egg white from yolk and dry-shake egg white.  Add remaining ingredients and shake (...and shake...and shake...and shake some more) VERY well with ice (the old wive's tale around fizzes is that you're supposed to shake them for 15 minutes.  Look up the history of the Ramos Gin Fizz...it's quite a lot of fun).  Strain into glass and top with soda water.  Garnish.

Garnish:
 Take a flower from your Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup, a fruit pick, and two large-ish mint leaves.  Poke the fruit pick through the back of the flower and then through the mint leaves to create the look of a flower stem.  Settle the garnish on top of the drink.

The Beertail Craze

ETA: For those of you who found this entry after reading my Southern Magic recipe, I apologize in advance for the background re-tell.  You can skip the first paragraph if you already know the story behind my intro to beer cocktails...ha

 My first experience with cocktails featuring beer was at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this past summer.  There were a couple of guys in one of the tasting rooms mixing up a concoction using ROOT liqueur, egg white, and Sierra Nevada (I can't find the recipe.  I may have it in my TotC paperwork somewhere, but it's not in my TotC 2010 recipe book).  I loved the idea so much that when I was starting work on the drink menu for smoQ, I knew that I definitely wanted a "beertail" or two on my list.  The first idea I had also used a brown ale (though the local-to-Cincinnati Mt. Carmel Nut Brown, and with Frangelico as the liqueur), but I instead ended up creating what I named the Southern Magic (involving Maker's Mark, apricot brandy, and Magic Hat #9).  

Today I'm going to write about the new one since it features one of my new favorite liquors to mix--dark rum, and since I just finalized the recipe a couple of days ago I wanted to share.  You can ask me about the Southern Magic when you come in to visit ;-)  

Now...this is a perfect example of how terrible I can be with naming things.  This took me two months and enlisting the help of my serving staff one evening.  I wanted something that evoked the tropical of the Jamaican dark rum, but something that was also a nod to the local beer used in the recipe.  One of my servers nailed it on the head when he said, "You could call it the Staycation."  THAT'S IT!  The Jamaican Staycation it became...and is now how it resides on the summer menu.

Jamaican Staycation
Glass:  Brandy snifter
Method:  Shake, then Box and Strain
Garnish:  No garnish

Combine in mixing glass and shake with ice:
.75 oz  Appleton Estate Reserve dark rum
.25 oz  Frangelico hazelnut liqueur
.25 oz  Simple syrup

Add:
4 oz  Mt. Carmel Nut Brown Ale

Box* ingredients and strain into a brandy snifter.   

*I can't seem to find a good example of "how to box a drink" online, though it's a fairly common method of mixing, so the easiest way to explain is this:  Pour the liquid and ice back and forth between the mixing glass and the shaker a few times to thoroughly combine the ingredients. 

Wine and margarita...together?

I've been seeing a lot about beer cocktails around the internet lately, and I was going to post about the one currently on our menu next, but a lovely group of ladies who enjoyed this drink absolutely insisted last night that this be my next entry...so here you are!  The Southern Magic will just have to wait a little while longer.

We had a gentleman and his wife sit at a table last night, and the gentleman asked his server if we could make a margarita using jalapenos.  We have jalapenos, so...of course!  I went over to say hi and get a little more info before I started mixing.  He told me about a margarita he had in New York that used fresh jalapeno and Sauvignon Blanc, and wondered if I could bring those flavors in (P.S.  If you happen to know the margarita and the place he was channeling in NYC, I'd love to hear!).  My favorite part was that our Sauvignon Blanc is a Fume Blanc, so I got to bring in a touch of the smokiness that our restaurant centers around.  I got his tequila preference, and went from there.  I liked the result so much that I plan on fiddling with it a little bit (primarily the glass rimming--I just used our house-smoked hickory salt last night) and using this on our summer menu.

Don Diablo

Glass:  Collins/Highball

Method: Muddle/Shake and Strain

Garnish: Hickory smoked salt rim, lime and orange slice

Muddle:

3 slices fresh jalapeno (seeds and all)

.75 oz Agave nectar

Tiny dash simple syrup (seriously...like only a few heavy drops)

Add to mixing glass:

1.25 oz  Don Julio Reposado

.5 oz   Cointreau

.5 oz  Dry Creek Fume Blanc

2 oz   Fresh lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a salted Collins glass over ice.  You could do this one up in a large martini glass, too (which is the version I'll end up putting on our menu).  Again, I was going with his preferences when I made this.