In the Pink

Portrait of Lady with a Hat - original watercolor by The Cocktail Artist
We are still working on recipes using the array of ingredients that we were introduced to at the Virginia Spirits Festival in September. This is where we discovered a very unique version of aquavit. We've used Linie Aquavit in several of our cocktails (the Basil Gimlet and the Split Rock Cocktail), and we certainly think that  Virginia's James River Distillery Oster Vit would be an excellent choice for those cocktails. James River Distillery uses oyster shells in the steeping process of their aquavit - hence the name “Oster Vit”. This might sound like a bit of a gimmick, but the end result is a terrific herbal (caraway and fennel) clear spirit with a crisp mineral taste. We tried it as a substitute for vodka in our District Martini recipe with excellent results. We're planning to continue to experiment with Oster Vit in place of gin or vodka in some traditional recipes. It has a terrific fragrance and is pleasant to sip neat.

We decided to use this new discovery in a version of an old cocktail. Our "In the Pink" cocktail is a spin on one of those (nearly forgotten) pre-prohibition cocktails - The Pink Lady. This cocktail was briefly revived in the 1950s, but the Lady must have acquired a bad reputation and just faded away. It could have been its name that wasn’t doing much to help with the cocktail's popularity. In a 2004 book, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, author Ted Haigh renamed the drink “The Secret Cocktail”  - unfortunately it still does seem to be quite a secret to most people.

 The Pink Lady contained gin and applejack (see this post in The Spruce to get the original recipe). Egg white gave the cocktail a pale pink color and fluffy white top - which created the allusion of something delicate - although (given the alcohol content) this was no drink for a lightweight. For our "In the Pink" version we eliminated the egg white and substituted Oster Vit for the gin. We also added a bit of blanc vermouth - making it a bit more like a martini. 

 In the final version of our cocktail, we used Catoctin Creek Distillery’s excellent Quarter Branch Apple Brandy and True Syrup’s Authentic Grenadine. The crisp flavor the Catoctin Creek Brandy is perfect in this cocktail, but we know it’s hard to find, so you can substitute Laird’s Applejack or Bonded Apple Brandy here - but, DON’T even think of using that sticky-sweet bright pink grenadine in this (or really in any other) recipe. If you can’t get True Grenadine, go ahead and make your own by simmering equal parts pomegranate juice and cane sugar (with a couple of strips of orange and lemon peel thrown in). We also made the cocktail using Linie Aquavit and it's quite good, but the Oster Vit really is the perfect fit for this recipe.

 The artwork in this post was done by The Cocktail Artist a number of years ago. Actually, he can't quite remember the subject model for the painting, but she is wearing pink. We decided she was a good depiction of a modern pink lady, and the flowers in her hat inspired us to garnish our drink with a lemon twist and a pink blossom. This lady, like our cocktail, knows her history but doesn't come across as fragile or demure.

The phrase “in the pink” goes back centuries and was used to mean “in good health” or to signify that someone is in peak condition. It also later came to mean “mildly intoxicated” - how perfect! We’ll drink to your good heath and after a couple of these we’ll certainly be “in the pink”! 

 Cheers!

The "In the Pink" cocktail and its ingredients 

In the Pink

2 ounces James River Distillery Oster Vit (or Linie Aquavit)
3/4 ounce Catoctin Creek Apple Brandy (or Laird’s Applejack)
1/2 ounce Dolin Blanc Vermouth 
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 ounce True Syrups Grenadine (or homemade Grenadine)

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice cubes. Shake well and strain into a cocktail coup. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Portrait of Lady with a Hat - original watercolor by The Cocktail Artist

Popular posts from this blog

Cherry Capital Old Fashioned

Image
Cherry Capital Old Fashioned - original watercolor painting by The Cocktail Artist If you've read some of our previous posts (such as the Up North Raspberry and Rye or the Grand Mariner Cocktail) you know that we're fans of the bourbon and rye produced by The Traverse City Whiskey Co . Traverse City, Michigan is known as the "Cherry Capital" for being the area with the largest production of tart cherries in the United States. In Traverse City, you will find wonderful freshwater beaches, lots of summer tourists, and (of course) cherries! You can attend the Cherry Festival in July, go to the Cherryland Mall, and fly into Cherry Capital airport. So the folks at Traverse City Whiskey (naturally) produce an American Cherry Edition of their bourbon. Here in the Nation's Capital we were lucky enough to find this cherry bourbon at our local liquor store. It's a nice bourbon for sipping neat, but during #OldFashionedOctober we also tried it in an Old Fashioned and
Read more

Lemon Bergamot Gimlet

Image
In case you don’t know us personally, or haven’t read the bio on our blog , you may not realize the “The Cocktail Artist” is really a partnership between two architects (who also happen to be married to each other). One of us comes up with the recipes, does the photography, and writes the blog posts – the other one creates all of the original artwork and offers opinions on the cocktail recipes. Being architects, we sometimes let our design-sense get the better of us – meaning we have been known to purchase a bottle of booze because we like the design of the bottle.  Occasionally this backfires, but rest assured (with some creative mixology or a bit of barrel-aging) we have always been able to make use of the contents of those impulse-buy bottles. Right now, two of the most attractive bottles in our liquor cabinet contain Italian spirits – Malfy Gin Con Limone and Italicus . Italy has always been a design trendsetter, so it’s not surprising that these bottles stand out (they ev
Read more

Amalfi Martini

Image
Darn! Why didn’t we buy those airline tickets to Italy when they were cheap? It would be so nice to be lounging in a beautiful Italian seaside town right now.  The Amalfi region, on Italy's west coast, is known for it's production of lemon liqueur and fine writing and art paper - sounds like the perfect place for us! Oh well, maybe it would be better to be there during the off season. Italy is probably packed with American tourists right now. Let's  just pull out the watercolor paints and the cocktail shaker and bring a bit of la dolce vita  to our patio. Our Amalfi Martini (naturally) features limoncello. It's a fairly low-alcohol liqueur, so we boost the proof of this cocktail by adding our vodka of choice - District Made Vodka by One Eight Distilling. If you are using a vodka that doesn't have much flavor on it's own (which, honestly, is most vodka) you may want to add a couple dashes of citrus bitters to this recipe. This just wouldn't be an Ita
Read more

The Last Call

Image
This post is a week late, but this blog is our hobby (not our real job) so we’re not going to worry about it. Anyhow, we came up with this drink for Mardi Gras as the “last call” before the beginning of Lent – a time when some of us stop drinking for 40 days (we’ll let you know how that works out). The name “Last Call” also references the classic “Last Word” cocktail. The Last Word is really a perfect cocktail. It’s equal parts of four ingredients (gin, Green Chartreuse, Maraschino Liqueur, and lime) and a superb balance of tart, herbal, and sweet. It’s one of our fallback cocktails – one that we mix up when we can’t make up our mind about what we want to drink.  Another classic that we regularly enjoy is the Aviation Cocktail. The Aviation is another gin cocktail and is one of the few that uses Crème de Violette – a sweet, floral liqueur that is typically a deep purple hue. It takes mixing quite a few Aviations to go through a bottle of Crème de Violette, so it’s probably
Read more

Douglas Fir Martini

Image
This was one of our very early blog posts. Now that the holiday season is here it seems like a good time to revisit it. Our cocktail recipe remains unchanged, but we wanted to add some information about the ingredients and include a bit more artwork. This martini, with it’s pine forest aroma, is our antidote to holiday stress. Mix up a couple of these to help you through your decorating, gift-wrapping, etc… Doesn’t enjoying a cocktail while you relax in front of the fireplace sound much nicer than struggling to get the Christmas tree in the stand? Along with The Cocktail  Artist's watercolors maybe we can give you the feeling you're walking through a pine forest instead of stressing out over some holiday preparations. At the heart of this cocktail is Clear Creek Distillery’s Douglas Fir Brandy . We discovered this unusual liqueur in our local liquor store a couple of years ago and just couldn’t resist giving it a try. Clear Creek calls it “a tree in a bottle”. It's m
Read more