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  Ardent Spirits, is the website for Gary and Mardee Regan. These two truly ardent spirits are recognized cocktail connoisseurs, spirit experts, authors, as well as bartending and restaurant consultants. Through this site you can find out more about who they are, what they are doing now, and what amazing things they have planned for the future. |
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Ardent Spirits is a free e-mail newsletter for anyone and everyone with an interest in cocktails, bars, bartenders, distilled spirits, and beverage-related topics. If you were forwarded this letter from somebody else, then to become a subscriber, just click here to sign up. |
Volume 9, Issue 20, December 13, 2007
by Gary Regan and Mardee Haidin Regan
© 2007 Reganomics, Inc.
This cheap date that involves lunch at 21, a trip to France to visit the Bénédictine distillery, and TAMI Who is TAMI? Well you might ask . . .
We started out at the '21' Club in New York (this is the entrance to their secret cellar dining room). Over lunch Gary created a new cocktail containing B & B, and let's just say that it didn't work very well. Gary was perplexed.
From 21 to Fecamp, France, where Gary and these two very cool chicks, journalists
Deborah Grossman and Sally King, visited the Palais Bénédictine.
The Pot Stills at the Bénédictine Distillery doffed their hats to us before we left for . . .
a nifty Art Gallery in Paris followed by dinner at . . .
By this time Gary had reformulated the drink he screwed up at 21, and the cocktail, TAMI, was born on October 18, 2007, at Maxim's, Paris. Here's the recipe:
TAMI
1/2 ounce B & B (or Benedictine), to rinse the glass
2 1/2 ounces cognac
1 ounce Noilly Prat sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
Rinse a chilled cocktail glass with B & B, and
discard the excess. Stir the remaining ingredients over ice and strain
into the prepared glass.
The Palais Bénédictine in Fecamp, France, represents
Tradition and Modernity,
Art, and Industry.
TAMI was named for these four features after the initials were rearranged a
little.
After taking in a show at Moulin Rouge
We ended up at the Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris. It's a tres cool joint.
Thanks to the good folk at the Palais Benedictine, Deussen Global Communications--yes, the same guys who took Jonathan to London escorted Gary to France. They tell us that Gary was far better behaved than Jonathan was, too. And a BIG THANKS to the gang at the Experimental Cocktail Club for making us feel so damned welcome. The trip was a blast.
Tired of Margarita? It's time to meet Rosita
November 16, 2007
Rosita is a beautiful cocktail that was introduced to me by a fellow cocktail geek a couple of years ago. At the time, we were playing around with the versatility of Tequila, trying to come up with drinks that strayed from the margarita path.
Some of yous guys might know LeNell Smothers, the Brooklynite from Alabama lady. We sure as hell do. Well the little lady, if we may be so bold, who owns LeNell's Wine & Spirit Boutique on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, gets up to all sorts of stuff as she struts her stuff around the globe, and she sends out a monthly e-mail letter, complete with cocktail recipes, telling us everything she's been up to. Well, probably not everything . . .
In this issue we bring you one of the cocktails she featured recently, and a link to a page where you can read all about her Date With the Deldo (and see more recipes). Intrigued? You should be.
The recipe here, taken from LeNell's newsletter,
comes from Del Pedro, bartender at
Alexandra, 455 Hudson Street, New York.
BERMUDA RUM SWIZZLE
er...well, at the Swizzle Inn in Bermuda they only
sell these by the pitcher ...little cute glass pitchers maybe, but still the
idea is you're gonna sit all afternoon (yes, daytime drinking...the only
respectable kind of drinking if you ask me) and drink the stuff in bulk
...(Swizzle Inn/Swagger Out is their slogan, if that gives you a clue)..but
here's a single serving recipe, which is a little different than the original,
but is faithful to it...
in a 11 or 12 oz hi-ball glass squeeze two wedges of
lime and one lemon wedge 2 dashes of Angustora bitters (or some boutiquey brand
I've never heard of, if it makes you feel better)
fill glass with ice (yeah, just plain old ice)
1 oz gold rum
1 oz of
Gosling's Black Seal rum
3/4 oz of Falernum (preferably Gosling's) (one
legend has it that when some Imperialist Brit asked a Caribbean women, who was
cooking up a batch of Falernum, what the ingredients were she responded,"Ya hafa
lern em"...hence the name...not likely to be true, but a great story)
1oz pineapple juice
1oz oj
splash grapefruit juice (I do like bitterness don't
I?)
drop a couple of cubes on top to combat that hated
"settling" of the ice problem and...
You'll notice I didn't make the drink in a shaker,
shake it and then pour it over ice...why not?...cuz it's called a swizzle and
therefore the drink should be made in the glass and "swizzled" with, yup you
guessed it, a swizzle stick...(Dale D has the most amazing ones I've ever
seen...long black leather (I think...call him up and get him to show you
one...and tell him he promised me one I never got) ones with little leather
prongs on the end...more like a swizzle cat-o-nine-tails...you twirl the ends in
your palms to mix the drink...awesome!)...
LeNell's Ltd: a Wine and Spirit Boutique
416 Van Brunt Street Brooklyn, New York 11231
toll free 1 877 NO SNOBS
phone 718 360 0838
fax 718 874 2733
Back at Tales of the Cocktail, Robert had the chance to sit down with the incomparable, god of tiki, Jeff Berry. Jeff has embarked on a journey to educate the world about true tiki culture and more specifically, tiki, or as he likes to call them, faux tropical, drinks. They could be the most culinary of them all, and they're coming back!
This is a fairly old cocktail which is just now being rediscovered. Dating back to the 1920's this was the house cocktail at the "Pegu Club" in Rangoon. I often use this drink to help people who claim they don't like gin realize that there really isn't anything to be afraid of.
insert text here in medium (14 pt) Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif font
This section is beginning to look suspiciously like it's Herb Silverman's column. He's like the darned Energizer Bunny! We could resist this quote, though. It sort of reflects our attitude. Thanks, Herb.
“I must have one at 11
'Tis a duty which must be done
If I don’t have one at 11
I must have 11 at one.
John Henry Smithies, pilot
officer, RAF 1944
The following copy has been culled from a press release from the guys at Compass Box, but before we hand you over to them we want you to know that Gary sampled their new Flaming Heart Malt Scotch Whisky at Malt Advocate's New York WhiskyFest in November. He declared it to be "a kick-ass dram." Well done, Compass Box guys. You done it again. Here's comes the nitty gritty:
Award-Winning Scotch Whisky Innovators, Compass Box, Announce
New, Specially
Aged, Limited Release Malt Whisky for the U.S.
The first bottling of “Flaming Heart” was released in
Europe in 2006 to international critical acclaim, helping Compass Box garner
their unprecedented fourth “Innovator of the Year” award from Whisky Magazine.
Named after a song by the young cult guitar player M.
Ward, “Flaming Heart” is like no other Scotch malt whisky available. This
is due to its combination of traditional peat-smoke flavours, (derived from
using single malts made from peat-smoked barley) with rich, sweet flavours that
come from aging the whisky in casks made of new French oak, a technique Compass
Box has pioneered in the Scotch whisky industry.
“Flaming Heart” is a made only from single malt
Scotch whiskies, aged up to 16 years. Its flavor profile is unique within
the world of malt Scotch whisky: it delivers a very big, full palate of
flavour, including peaty and smoky notes combined with fruity, malty and vanilla
notes, accented by a clove-like character.
The whisky is bottled at 48.9% alcohol in the Compass
Box Limited Release dark glass bottle and dark copper labels. Like all
Compass Box Limited Release whiskies, it is batch-dated so collectors and
enthusiasts can identify subsequent bottling. The suggested retail price
is $85 per bottle.
For More on Compass Box Whiskies click HERE
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