So why all this on a drinks blog. Well no real linkage other than the awesomeness of the amazing feat produced by these cyclists in what appears to be the cleanest TdF in many years. Wiggins has ridden over 84 hours so far to win which is just astonishing. I’d love to see some of the massively overpaid Premiership footballers have a go at that!

So a drink is in order to celebrate. To say ‘Chapeau’ to Brad. To celebrate the highlight of a summer of sport. I can’t see what the Olympics can produce to top this.

To the ingredients.

These cyclists are amongst the toughest sportsmen in the world. They are properly nails. So as a base we are going to go with rye whiskey. A proper tough hard drinking liquor. But given the location for the race we will soften it with a little cognac. The roundness of the brandy smoothing the raw pepper edge of the rye. A combination often used in a sazerac.

Following a loose Manhattan style the obvious ingredient which must be added given the winner’s colour in the race is that other lovely French ingredient Yellow Chartreuse.

And given the sweetness of the victory we will keep our Manhattan style firmly on the sweet side with a dash of Sipsmith’s Summer Cup for something new and quintessentially British with its hints of cucumber and Earl Grey tea.

Finally for a second English twist a few dashes of Dandelion & Burdock bitters from Dr Adam Elmegirab.

Stir over ice, strain, raise and say ‘Chapeau’. Follow with a sparkling beer from the Gruut brewery in Ghent where the man was born. Well done Bradley, you made us proud.

Chapeau Cocktail

40ml Thomas H Handy sazerac rye whiskey
20ml Courvoisier VS Cognac
15ml Yellow Chartreuse
10ml Sipsmith’s Summer Cup
Generous dash of Dr Adam Elmegirab’s Dandelion & Burdock bitters

Stir over ice, strain and garnish with a lemon twist for that flash of yellow.

I have been living and bartending in China for 3 1/2 years now. Over the course of that time I have tried to taste a few Chinese baijius from a professional perspective (as well as from a social one over dinner!) and write some tasting notes as well as some background on the production of baijiu itself.

I’ve also tried creating a few baijiu cocktails (see here and here), which led Diageo to very kindly send me a couple of bottles of their Shuijingfang (水井坊/Swellfun) Wellbay (52% abv) brand to try out in a few more drinks (more about the Shujingfang distillery and Shanghai White vodka can be found on this blog here, and the brand’s homepage is here).

Approaching this in a somewhat logical manner, I decided to start by making a series of classic (or modern classic) cocktails, replacing the standard spirit with baijiu in order to get an idea of what worked and what didn’t before going off-track a little more. This post is the result of a few of those experiments. More to follow in due course after further experimentation…

For all of these drinks, the other ingredients remained true to standard recipes, I just swapped out the base spirit to see what worked. I played around with the ratios a little to balance differing sweetnesses and to draw out other flavours, but by and large, the ratios remained much the same too. Minimum was 20ml Shuijingfang per drink – these were supposed to work with the flavours of the baijiu, not obliterate it, but the spirit is 52% abv, so equally didn’t want to go too heavy on the alcohol.

First up, what else but a twist on the Blood & Sand:

Blood & Sand (Blood & Water / 血水 / XueShui)

20ml Shuijingfang
30ml cherry brandy (Luxardo)
25ml fresh orange juice
25ml sweet vermouth (Martini) 

Third up was a Chinese version of Audrey Saunders’s modern classic Earl Grey Martini – a cocktail that seems very popular amongst Chinese customers at the moment.

So I didn’t go in for anything specific but just wandered around picking things up off shelves and ended up with a carrier bag containing a newly delivered bottle of Rittenhouse rye 100, because, well, I just love, love, love rye. And then two bottles of things I have long wanted to sample but haven’t had the opportunity to purchase before; Cynar, the artichoke leaf Italian bitter amaro (is it right technically to call it an amaro?), and a bottle of yellow chartreuse, because I love green chartreuse (Gregor de Gruyther’s fantastic Nuclear Daiquiris anyone?).

Then I had wanted to buy some of Dr Adam Elmegirab’s bitters. Last Friday, when dropping in at The Hide to introduce some colleagues to Aperol (long story – rare confluence of my day job in equity research and my passion for booze, with my firm’s positive view on the company Campari being based on growth prospects of sales of Aperol in Germany in particular as bitters loving Germans return from basting themselves on Italian beaches while swigging Aperol Spritzes and buy the stuff back home to bring back those holiday memories), I tried his Spanish, Aphrodite and Dandelion & Burdock bitters which were all fantastic punches of flavour. Sadly however he is currently in the process of supplying them, ie the cheque is in the post, and so they didn’t have any. But they do have a large rack of other bitters to try so I came away with two bottles from Bittermen’s: Celery Shrub and Hopped Grapefruit.

As I left I joked I might just have a cocktail in a bag so tonight I thought why not? Or PLFN as my wife might say (Pourquoi Le F*ck Not – often in response to the offer of a cocktail – three children can be trying at times).

It would be a kind of Manhattan clearly and as I tried the Cynar and yellow chartreuse I loved the aromatics of both and given the intense sweetness of the latter (mellower than its more abrasive green sibling) and the dryness of the former felt there could be a decent balance to be created. Perfect you might say…

So I knocked it up and by Jove I think it might actually work. A lot of complexity of flavour and I deliberately kept the additives to small volume vs the rye so as not to overwhelm.

50ml Rittenhouse Rye 100 proof
10ml Cynar
10ml Yellow Chartreuse
4 drops Bittermen’s Celery Shrub bitters
4 drops Bittermen’s Hopped Grapefruit bitters

Stir over ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a bourbon/cherry herring/grenadine infused cherry.

A baijiu ‘enthusiast’ by the name of Derek Sandhaus recently paid me a visit with a bottle of Erguotou (二锅头) and a challenge – make him a tasty drink.

Given he’d been drinking neat baijiu with a senior representative of the brand all day, I’m not sure his palate was at its finest, but he seemed to like the results.

I’m terrible at naming drinks (I tend to use generic classifiers like ‘flip’, ‘sour’ or ‘fizz’ with the ingredients attached), but Mr Sandhaus – a writer after all – came up with the Yellow Emperor.

50ml Erguotou 56(%abv!)
Half a fresh passion fruit
20ml fresh lemon juice
15ml cherry brandy
10ml simple syrup (adjust according to acidity of passion fruit)

Shake all the ingredients hard over ice, fine strain into a chilled coupette glass and serve with a smile (and a big shot of Erguotou on the side…)

For Derek’s account of the evening, please see:
300 Shots at Greatness
(which includes all his other fascinating baijiu experiences!)

;

Given the recent bartender-driven popularity of Fernet & Coke, I thought I’d play around with a twist. Fernet and Cola Flip was the result.

30ml Luxardo Fernet
25ml Tanqueray Gin
25ml reduced cola syrup*
25ml lemon juice
1 egg

Double shaken (preferably with block ice to limit the dilution) and fine strain into a coupette.

I garnished with a little freshly-ground coffee for the nose and bitterness.

* reduced cola syrup is exactly that – cola reduced to about 50% volume over a low heat, with sugar added at the end to bring it to approximately simple-syrup brix.

Part of Diageo’s portfolio, it is produced in Chengdu at the ShuiJingFang distillery, more famous as one of China’s oldest Baijiu distilleries (China’s National Cultural Relics Bureau has certified it as China’s First Baijiu Distillery, dating back to 1408).

Price-point is reasonably high, sitting amongst other premium vodkas such as Belvedere and Grey Goose, but still a long way short of ShuiJingFang’s baijiu. Diageo explain this cost in terms of the production technique, being based on the SJF baijiu fermentation, but with additional distillations and filtrations.

It’s a pretty elaborate process, which gives the complex (and pungent) flavours of baijiu, but clearly the additional steps strip out a lot of the baijiu characteristics, leaving a reasonably neutral vodka. Having said that, it’s still pretty distinctive when tasted against other vodkas.

The process starts with a dry pit fermentation of five grains. This is key to ShuiJingFang’s production, with the pits claiming to benefit from the same soil that made the brand famous over 600 years ago – a very complex fermentation with lots of strains of yeast and bacteria at work (resulting in the very flavoursome spirit).

This is then pot-distilled, as with ShuiJingFang. Some of this spirit is then mixed with grain neutral spirit and re-distilled in a copper pot still. The heart of this is again mixed with grain neutral spirit and redistilled yet again in a copper pot still. Finally it is charcoal-filtered and diluted to bottling strength (40% abv) with pure water.

Presentation

Shanghai White comes boxed, with nods to the elaborate baijiu packages – a metal clasp on the side and a mixture of textured card and material.

The bottle itself is tall with the metal and material repeated on the cap. Most of the glass is frosted, except for a revealing slit up one side – designed to resemble the flash of leg given off from the side of the traditional Chinese qipao 旗袍. In the base of the bottle is a hexagonal punt, with each face depicting a different image from 1930s Shanghai (the ShuiJingFang bottle has a similar base, depicting production of the spirit).

A branch of cherry blossom completes the design (visible from the outside and from the inside through the clear panel).

It’s a pretty nice package in my opinion, particularly when illuminated on a back bar.

Taste

For anyone familiar with baijiu, this does have a very slight hint, but in a good way (!). It’s slightly sweet on the nose and a little fruity on the start of the palate. It has a very smooth mouthfeel (almost oily, like some European wheat vodkas), with a slightly peppery (and long) finish.

Price means it’s designed to be drunk neat (possibly with bottle serves in mind), but I think it also makes an excellent vodka martini (I’d go very dry with a citrus twist or a dash of bitters rather than brine or olives). As with any vodka though, much more than that and you’re losing the subtlety.

Marketing

I always like to read the marketing materials for vodka, so thought I’d include it verbatim from the side of the box:

Shanghai White is being included in Diageo’s World Class competition (or at least the China part of it) this year – something I am helping to judge, so I hope to see some Chinese bartenders experimenting with it and playing up the baijiu link.

(disclosure – I do some work with Diageo, but haven’t been asked to write this, and all comment is purely my own).

20ml Oude Genever
20ml Jensen old Tom gin
20ml Nardini Rabararo rhubarb amaro
20ml Noilly Prat dry vermouth
2 barspoons grand marnier
2 barspoons star anise infused vodka/wray and nephew over proof rum
Generous dash homemade orange bitters
Stir and strain. Serve with an orange twist.

So now to blend. First thing is that there has clearly been rather a lot of oxidation in the raw beetroot infusion which is now a distinctly rusty coloured deep red. By contrast the roasted beetroot infusion is still a clear purple red. In future I think I would just go with roasted which also has a rounder more complex flavour.

First blend

50ml raw beetroot infusion
25ml roasted beetroot infusion
15ml quinine sulphate tablet infusion
10ml cardamom, mustard seed and fennel seed infusion
10ml clove, cinnamon, vanilla, coriander seed and fennel seed infusion

That much of the roast beetroot is enough to make the finished bitters a great colour. The spice infusions give a predominantly clove and cardamom back flavour with the beetroot coming through enough to be clear but not too overpowering with the bitter canvas of the quinine.

A success!

11th February 2012:

A check in to see how things are progressing.

The cardamom jar has changed to a grassy yellow-green colour. Very strong smell of cardamom. On the palate the cardamom dominates with an undercurrent of anise from the fennel seeds. Nothing too detectable from the mustard seeds. A touch of warmth perhaps?

The two beetroot jars are clearly different colours. The photo below doesn’t do justice to the difference, but the right hand glass is a clear purple-y red and is the roasted beetroot. The one on the left has more of a rusty colour. Definitely less purple. Both smell clearly of beetroot. On the palate both have a strong beetroot flavour. But as might be expected the roast beetroot is sweeter and earthier.

I added a little of the cardamom to each. Both worked well. Can see these working in different ways with different drinks. The raw might work better in a martini. The roast I want to try in a manhattan or an old fashioned. I have a feeling also that they will both pair well with tequila. If you have ever had beetroot cake (works similarly to carrot cake) I’m intrigued to see how the roast one could work in my Ocho Mole Alexander…

However I think both need another week to further develop. I am though going to take out the cardamom pods to let the fennel and mustard come out a little more.

5th February 2012:

Bitters are the magic ingredients of the cocktail world and the last ten years has seen a massive explosion in the variety available. Long gone are the days when Angostura was your only option unless you were lucky enough to find some orange or peychauds somewhere. People like @adamsbitters have been coming up with fantastic flavours like dandelion & burdock or recreating lost classics like bokers.

I have started to venture into some bitters making, having made orange bitters and more recently mulberry bitters with a combination of oven dried mulberries, fresh mulberries, star anise, amchoor, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, vanilla and cinnamon bittered by a sly short cut with crushed quinine sulphate tablets infused into a vodka/rum combination. These were infused separately and then combined to make the final bitters.

Well today I made a vegetable soup. The garden is covered in snow and the veg drawer of the fridge needed a clear out so somebwarmingbsoup was thrown together. However lurking in the bottom of the veg drawer were two fresh beetroot. My mind is wired in such a way that my first thought was to make beetroot bitters. Obviously. Now I have no idea how this will turn out. Something tells me the earthy vegetal notes might work with gin and vermouth. The colour definitely will.

So one beetroot went straight to the grater while the other went into an oven at 200c for 35 minutes to roast and accentuate the earthy character.

These went into separate jam jars with some vodka kept for these occasions. I think the star anise may work (and I have plenty left from the mulberry), but I thought cardamom might also work nicely so in a separate jar went some crushed cardamom pods, a few fennel seeds and some black mustard seeds for good measure. Now they just need time. I will report back.

Tomas part-owns Ocho tequila which is made by Carlos Camarena, master-distiller at La Alteña distillery in Jalisco, Mexico. La Alteña was opened in 1937 by Don Felipe, grandfather to Carlos, and himself the scion of a tequila making family stretching back into the 1800s. The family’s original distillery had been destroyed during the 1910-1929 Mexican revolution and after a period as an agave grower Don Felipe was able to establish a new distillery which today distills the family’s El Tesoro and Tapatio tequilas as well as Ocho for Tomas.

Ocho is a ‘single estate’ tequila with each year’s production being made with the agave from a single named ranch. The production process each year is a constant so the variations in flavour between each year are based on fluctuations in the weather but also differences between each ranch. Variations in the soil, topography of the land etc impact the flavour of the agave. Tomas is experimenting with Terroir in tequila. The production process that Tomas has specified maximises the agave characteristics of the tequila allowing these differences to shine through.

As well as owning Ocho, Tomas has been a bar owner for 35 years. He started out in Amsterdam (although he comes originally from LA) and now owns three bars in London (Cafe Pacifico, La Perla Covent Garden, La Perla Charlotte St where the tasting took place), one in Paris and a share of a bar in Sydney. However in addition to owning a tequila and owning places that sell tequila, Tomas was appointed by the Mexican government to be their official ambassador for tequila to Europe. That is some job title.

So anyway we were treated to some fabulous envangalising, knowledge and passion on tequila and a tasting of the 2011 Ocho blanco and reposado. We also were given a taste of something new that Tomas has been working on which was very lovely indeed.

So later in the conversation Mark made a comment. That there was no drink containing rum that wasn’t better with tequila instead.

The above preamble is all relevant. Tonight we went old skool. I made a Brandy Alexander for V and got to thinking (a la Mark’s comment) how tequila might substitute particularly given how well tequila and chocolate go together. A few years back in fact we served a great sipping tequila with chunks of chocolate at The Hide. And then there is the classic Mexican mole marrying chilli and chocolate together. And so the Ocho Mole Alexander was born. It tastes fantastic.

50ml single estate Ocho tequila anejo
25ml brown creme de cacao
12.5ml double (heavy for the Americans) cream
12.5ml milk
A dusting of chilli powder to taste.

Shake hard with ice and fine strain. Dust with cocoa powder.

Postscript. The Ocho used was the 2007 anejo from rancho El Vergel (the orchard).

Not my greatest creation, and not a patch on a Picon bière from a French street-side café (using a can of Yanjing didn’t help), but not bad all the same.

Cheers (and apologies to the French and Italians for combining their national drinking heritages!)
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