The Cocktail Artist

According to the calendar it’s fall, but here in the Mid-Atlantic we are still experiencing summer weather. We’re ready for fall, and we got a taste of it before we left Northern Michigan a few weeks ago – the weather was crisp, leaves on the maple trees were starting to turn, and there were some delicious apples available in the farm markets. While we were in Michigan we created a delicious autumn-inspired cocktail using local ingredients. Now that we are back home in Washington, DC we wanted to replicate the drink, but we failed to bring home the honeycrisp apple syrup that we had picked up at a farm market. Fortunately, we were able to capture the taste by making our own apple cider simple syrup by simmering fresh apple cider with brown sugar and a dash of mulling spice (we had a jar of Williams-Sonoma mulling spice in the cabinet and it was just what we needed). By simmering the syrup to reduce its volume, you are left with an intense apple flavor. The brown sugar adds just eno...

We love a good brandy, and if you have read some of our other blog posts you have probably noticed that the mixologist member of this partnership is quite partial to apple brandy in particular. Does apple brandy (or applejack, or Calvados) taste like apples? Well, yes in the way that wine tastes like grapes. You get the essence of the fruit in apple brandy, but the fermentation, distillation, and aging results in liquor that’s 80 proof (or more) and tastes more like whiskey than apple juice. We enjoy sipping apple brandy neat, but it’s also a part of several of our favorite cocktails including our Presidents’ Day Cocktail and Shenandoah Cyd Car. Laird & Company is America’s oldest commercial distillery and today the Laird family is still producing Applejack and Apple Brandy – as they have been for nearly 300 years. For most of those years they have pretty much had the apple brandy market to themselves (for good reason - they produce a really solid product), but recently cr...

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...

We recently attended an event, held by the Virginia Distillers Association,  where  we were able to try all kinds of spirits produced in the Old Dominion. Virginia has a number of distillers making very good bourbon and rye (which we have previously  featured  in our Peach Cobbler Bourbon Slush  and  Chesapeake Bay   cocktail recipes ).  It’s also home to founding father George Washington’s Distillery - located on his Mount Vernon estate. The  Mount Vernon Distillery  produces a small amount of rye and brandy using very traditional methods. They offer a great tour tour (from April to October) where we learned that, following the revolutionary war, George Washington was one of the largest producers of whiskey in America.  So, how does it happen that the main ingredient in this Virginia-inspired cocktail is a product of New Jersery ( Laird’s Applejack ) ?  Well, as it turns out Laird’s Applejack not only has a conn...

Thanks to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln we get a long weekend in February - and another excuse to create some art and a cocktail.  The art was easy. Since we live here in the Nation's Capital the Cocktail Artist has done plenty of sketches and paintings of presidential monuments (like the Lincoln Memorial posing with our drink). The cocktail took a little trial and error, but we came up with something that has quickly become one of our "house cocktails". This drink splits the base spirit between Kentucky bourbon (from the birth state of Lincoln) and Laird's Applejack (the spirit that George Washington introduced to the Virginia Colony). According to the Laird Company : "Robert Laird was a Revolutionary War Soldier serving under George Washington, and the Laird family supplied the troops with Applejack. Historical records show that, prior to 1760, George Washington wrote to the Laird family requesting their recipe for producing Applejack, which the Laird...