New Years Eve cocktails

KathyP, What kind of cherries does one go for? There are some "cocktail cherries" on the supermarket shelf or I also have the option of fresh cherries.

But I am going to draw the line firmly at any (further) extra ingredients ( ), so City Sidecar and Frangelico is out.

The Manhattan was road tested yesterday (2 measures Makers Mark, 1/2 measure Martini Rosso vermouth) and seemed a bit fierce - certainly cannot see it appealing readily to any of the "little old ladies" of my acquaintance! Are these the correct quantities to be using? I subsequently realised that I had given it a good old shake, whereas it should be stirred?

The Manhattan can have a much different character depending on the selected components. You can probably use a little more M&R vermouth than you could with Noilly or Vya which are a bit bolder. But Carpano is my favorite choice when I have it. Many recipes have it as 2 parts spirits to 1 part vermouth.

Also would depend on the spirit you use. Bourbon is a bit sweeter than the the traditional rye. For me it is not truly a Manhattan without the bitters and I like a nice orange bitters. But angostura works well as do others depending on your mood. I typically prefer a good long stir of 20 seconds or more rather than shaking it.

I also like a luxardo cherry if I can get it or perhaps even better a nice homemade brandied cherry. The neon red grocery store cherry will do in a pinch I suppose!

Of course there are more variations on a Manhattan than there are people on the island so you can experiment to find what you and your guests like.

Gary Regan has a nice article on Manhattans here.

One of my favorites is the "perfect" Manhattan:

2 ounces of bourbon or rye (I always prefer a nice spicy rye)

½ ounce sweet vermouth (preferably Carpano Antica)

½ ounce dry vermouth (Dolin or NP both are nice)

2 dashes of Regan orange bitters

Luxardo cherry for garnish.

Stir the liquid ingredients with ice for at least 20 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the cherry.

Enjoy!

Yes, I know that doesn't help you much with your New Year's Eve plans.

Generally, the cocktail cherries will do if one is to soak them in bourbon, but fresh cherries sounds interesting. Like the Manhattan, why not road test each.

Fresh cherries will not work at this late date for NY Eve, IMHO. They need at least a month to mellow in the booze. I do a batch or two in vodka every year when cherries are in full season, around June, and to me, they're not palatable until Novemember or December. You won't get any cherry taste, just a full-on hit of raw alcohol. Haven't tried macerating the red-dyed sweetened cherries in booze, though. They may have enough sweetness and other processing in them to work in a short time.

I ended up going with the "cocktail cherries" - they are such a lurid colour that I need to check what they taste like first!

So, the shortlist is now two separate cocktails. One shaken, one stirred!

Sidecar

Manhattan ( though I think I need to adjust the proportions from the Classic)

I was sorely tempted by sbumgarners' Bramble, but my Creme de Cassis is open and is at least two years old!

Folks, last chance to throw to a spanner in the works!

In addition to the punch and the obligatory champagne/sparkling wine I am planning to do a few options for champagne cocktails. Besides the classic sugar cube/angostura recipe I will probably have a Kir Royale option of sorts (I plan to use Chambord or possibly Creme Yvette).

I was thinking of adding the venerable French 75 to the menu. Anybody have any opinions on the gin to be used? I have typically used Plymouth which I borrowed from Robert Hess on his small screen show. But I was thinking some of the other more "botanical" gins might be a good option as well. Bluecoat and Citadelle are both in the cabinet (along with a dozen or so others) and I thought perhaps one of them would work well. Tanqueray Rangpur has been hiding in the back as well and this might be a good opportunity to make use of it.

Anybody have any thoughts on the best type of gin for this drink?

In addition to gin I also have St. Germain that I can add to the recipe. I thought it might make another easy option to create a bit of variety.

Other relatively easy variations on a champagne drink I can add to the menu?

I make my French 75 at the restaurant with Bombay gin, fresh lemon juice and a splash of St. Germaine topped with sparkling wine. Lemon twist for garnish. It's easy and delicious. Plymouth mixes well in most any cocktail, but for this application I like a slightly more junipery option. It needs to stand up to the acidity in the bubbly and the lemon juice.

I make my French 75 at the restaurant with Bombay gin, fresh lemon juice and a splash of St. Germaine topped with sparkling wine. Lemon twist for garnish. It's easy and delicious. Plymouth mixes well in most any cocktail, but for this application I like a slightly more junipery option. It needs to stand up to the acidity in the bubbly and the lemon juice.

Without having to buy another bottle of gin I guess that would mean regular Tanqueray for me. It is probably the most juniper of the bunch milling about in my liquor cabinet. A quick inventory of the liquor cabinet, not counting the genevers, finds that in addition to the previously noted Plymouth, Bluecoat, Citadelle and Tanq Rangpur I have these options. Most of these were purchased because they offered a bit of something unusual:

Aviation

Cadenhead’s Old Raj, 110 proof

Citadelle Reserve 2010

Hayman’s Old Tom

Hendrick’s

Leopold Brothers

Magellan

Ransom Old Tom

Rusty Blade Single Barrel

St. George Dry Rye

And of course the Tanqueray "house" gin which is probably the most cost effective junipery option. So Tanq it is!

I make my French 75 at the restaurant with Bombay gin, fresh lemon juice and a splash of St. Germaine topped with sparkling wine. Lemon twist for garnish. It's easy and delicious. Plymouth mixes well in most any cocktail, but for this application I like a slightly more junipery option. It needs to stand up to the acidity in the bubbly and the lemon juice.

Without having to buy another bottle of gin I guess that would mean regular Tanqueray for me. It is probably the most juniper of the bunch milling about in my liquor cabinet. A quick inventory of the liquor cabinet, not counting the genevers, finds that in addition to the previously noted Plymouth, Bluecoat, Citadelle and Tanq Rangpur I have these options. Most of these were purchased because they offered a bit of something unusual:

Aviation

Cadenhead’s Old Raj, 110 proof

Citadelle Reserve 2010

Hayman’s Old Tom

Hendrick’s

Leopold Brothers

Magellan

Ransom Old Tom

Rusty Blade Single Barrel

St. George Dry Rye

And of course the Tanqueray "house" gin which is probably the most cost effective junipery option. So Tanq it is!

Try adding a bit of the St. George Dry Rye along with the Tanqueray (maybe a 25/75 mix). I thought it was an excellent twist, particularly for anyone who might usually prefer theirs with Cognac.

I make my French 75 at the restaurant with Bombay gin, fresh lemon juice and a splash of St. Germaine topped with sparkling wine. Lemon twist for garnish. It's easy and delicious. Plymouth mixes well in most any cocktail, but for this application I like a slightly more junipery option. It needs to stand up to the acidity in the bubbly and the lemon juice.

Without having to buy another bottle of gin I guess that would mean regular Tanqueray for me. It is probably the most juniper of the bunch milling about in my liquor cabinet. A quick inventory of the liquor cabinet, not counting the genevers, finds that in addition to the previously noted Plymouth, Bluecoat, Citadelle and Tanq Rangpur I have these options. Most of these were purchased because they offered a bit of something unusual:

Aviation

Cadenhead’s Old Raj, 110 proof

Citadelle Reserve 2010

Hayman’s Old Tom

Hendrick’s

Leopold Brothers

Magellan

Ransom Old Tom

Rusty Blade Single Barrel

St. George Dry Rye

And of course the Tanqueray "house" gin which is probably the most cost effective junipery option. So Tanq it is!

Try adding a bit of the St. George Dry Rye along with the Tanqueray (maybe a 25/75 mix). I thought it was an excellent twist, particularly for anyone who might usually prefer theirs with Cognac.

If it doesn't get too hectic I will give your suggestion a try. Sounds interesting.

I was also considering trying the Boomsma or Bols genever or maybe Genevieve instead of gin and/or perhaps the Ransom Old Tom for a drink that has a different flavor profile. I would think when the French 75 first came along after WWI that some bartenders might still be using a genever instead of a London dry gin.

I make my French 75 at the restaurant with Bombay gin, fresh lemon juice and a splash of St. Germaine topped with sparkling wine. Lemon twist for garnish. It's easy and delicious. Plymouth mixes well in most any cocktail, but for this application I like a slightly more junipery option. It needs to stand up to the acidity in the bubbly and the lemon juice.

Do you still call it a French 75 with the St. Germaine added to it?

I make my French 75 at the restaurant with Bombay gin, fresh lemon juice and a splash of St. Germaine topped with sparkling wine. Lemon twist for garnish. It's easy and delicious. Plymouth mixes well in most any cocktail, but for this application I like a slightly more junipery option. It needs to stand up to the acidity in the bubbly and the lemon juice.

Do you still call it a French 75 with the St. Germaine added to it?

Yes, we do. It's really just a tiny splash, maybe a barspoon worth at most. St. Germaine is like MSG. It adds "deliciousness". In this case it adds just a hint of sweetness and floral in the background of all the other stronger flavors.

I think I have the tentative drink menu for our open house set! Might not end up making all of these. The Soyer au Champagne is still a bit of a question mark in my mind but I have wanted to give it a try since I got Doc Cocktails book. Decided to throw the Snowshoe in for a little change of pace. And I could still be persauded to add something else that sounds intriguing...

Tanstaafl New Year’s Eve Open House Drink Menu

Champagne Cocktail

• Sugar cube

• Angostura bitters (or Peychaud’s bitters)

• Dry Champagne/sparkling wine

• Lemon twist, for garnish

French 75

• 2 ounces Tanqueray gin (or 1.5 Tanqueray/0.5 St George Dry Rye gin)

• 1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• Champagne/sparkling wine

• garnish: long thin lemon spiral and cocktail cherry

Shake gin, lemon juice, and sugar in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne. Stir gently, garnish with a long, thin lemon spiral and a cocktail cherry.

French 75 (St. Germaine variation)

• 2 ounces Tanqueray gin

• 1 barspoon (2.5ml) St. Germaine

• 1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• Champagne/sparkling wine

• garnish: long thin lemon spiral and cocktail cherry

Shake gin, St. Germaine, lemon juice, and sugar in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne. Stir gently, garnish with a long, thin lemon spiral and a cocktail cherry.

French 75 (cognac variation)

• 2 ounces cognac

• 1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• Champagne/sparkling wine

• garnish: long thin lemon spiral and cocktail cherry

Shake cognac, lemon juice, and sugar in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a champagne flute. Top with champagne. Stir gently, garnish with a long, thin lemon spiral and a cocktail cherry.

Kir Royale

(multiple variations)

Classic – Dry Champagne/sparkling wine with 10-20 ml Crème de Cassis as desired

Additional options: Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb, Marie Brizard Apry, Green or Yellow Chartreuse, Benedictine, Crème de Violette, Crème Yvette, Chambord, St. Germaine, Canton (and whatever else I can find hiding in the back of the liquor cabinet!)

Negroni Sbagliato

• 1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth

• 1 1/2 ounces Campari (or Aperol)

• 1 1/2 ounces Prosecco

Serve up: Add vermouth and Campari to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir to combine and chill. Strain into champagne flute. Top with prosecco and stir again.

Seelbach Cocktail

• 1 ounce bourbon

• 1/2 ounce Cointreau

• 7 dashes (4.5ml) Angostura bitters

• 7 dashes (4.5ml) Peychaud’s bitters

• 5 ounces chilled dry Champagne

Pour everything except the Champagne into a Champagne flute and stir. Top with Champagne, give everything a light stir, and garnish with an orange twist

Soyer au Champagne

• 2 Tbsp vanilla ice cream

• 2 dashes (1/4 tsp) brandy

• 2 dashes (1/4 tsp) curaçao

• 2 dashes (1/4 tsp) Luxardo maraschino liqueur

• 2 oz champagne or sparkling wine (demi-sec)

• garnish: slice of orange, cherry

Scoop the ice cream into a tumbler or cocktail glass. Add the brandy, curaçao, and maraschino liqueur. Top with the sparkling wine, garnish and serve.

Snowshoe

• 1½ oz bourbon

• 1½ oz peppermint schnapps (Rumpleminze)

• Cracked ice

New Year’s Eve Punch (Fish House Punch)

Nice menu!! I hope everyone is staying over and not driving anywhere after all that...

Depending on the size of your champagne flutes there might be a problem fitting all that liquid into the glasses. Most flutes hold anywhere from 5-6 oz. so there might be a bit less bubbly than you've calculated in your Seelbach, for example. If that's the recipe proportions you've found, you might have to scale back proportionately if you test the glasses with water and I am correct. Of course if you have large flutes, my point is moot.

Try and find some dry apricot or dry peach eau de vie for the Fish House Punch, lest it become too sweet....

Thanks! We have had more than a few unplanned overnight campers after a party concluded so that won't be anything new. Many guest are in the neighborhood so driving won't be an issue for them. Walking may still be a problem though...

Good idea to test the flutes. Was only planning on about 2 ounces of champagne for the French 75 variations but the Seelbach is pretty big. For early arrivers they will get glass flutes but that won't last long and the rest will have to make do with the plastic ones which as I recall are pretty big. Is it a bad sign that I already have lots of plastic flutes and don't even need to buy more???

I was planning on using the Kuchan Peach brandy in the punch which seems pretty dry. But it only calls for 4 ounces which seems a bit like whizzing in the ocean against the gallon and a half or so of other stuff! In fact I was thinking I might need to cut the recipe in half, at least to start with as that is a lot of punch.

Caster/Superfine suger also proved to be a pain in the butt to find and damned expensive when I finally did! Who knew?

You can make your own superfine sugar by buzzing regular granulated through the food processor if you wish. Or make simple syrup. It will increase the liquid volume a bit, but the sweetening power at 1:1 is almost the same. And of course you're taste testing before serving this to guests, yes? So it will be fine regardless...

You can make your own superfine sugar by buzzing regular granulated through the food processor if you wish. Or make simple syrup. It will increase the liquid volume a bit, but the sweetening power at 1:1 is almost the same. And of course you're taste testing before serving this to guests, yes? So it will be fine regardless...

Yes, I had read that you could do that with a food processor although it seemed like it would be a bit messy! Perhaps not. In any case I hadn't realized it was such a difficult thing to find in the general run of the mill grocery store. I will have to look around a bit to see if that is the case with all area grocery stores. Finally found small 1 pound packets at Whole Foods but they were definitely spendy!

And yes, the punch will get extensive taste testing!

Do you still call it a French 75 with the St. Germaine added to it?

Yes, we do. It's really just a tiny splash, maybe a barspoon worth at most.

Since the French 77 seems to routinely have 1/2 oz of St. Germain, perhaps your version should be a French 75.667?

The cocktail menu that's currently in place was crafted prior to my hiring. I like your idea, but since I didn't name it, I'm not comfortable RE-naming it. I didn't know about the French 77 though, so that was enlightening.

New menu will soon feature more of the house made Katie-esque bar mixers, cordials, etc., so many of the classics will still be available, but simply be off-menu...

I ended up going with Sidecar and also made Manhattan for those that fancied it. Happy folks, good party!

Happy New Year and thanks to all for the suggestions and ideas.

Glad to hear the party went well!

I did end up making the Fish House Punch (which I gave the bland name of New Year's Punch) for our party along with a Crème de Vie (Cuban egg nog) from a recipe provided by a Cuban friend.

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

6 egg yolks

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup white rum (4yo Flor de Caña white - I may have inadvertently over poured this particular ingredient...)

No one had to worry about driving home drunk after having the egg nog because if the salmonella didn't get you then the ensuing heart attack probably would. But it was damned tasty!

Somehow I seemed to have lost all the pictures I took that evening other than one I took of the punch at the start of the evening. Not quite sure how that happened and yes, I do remember the whole evening!

I left the punch unadorned as instructed by Splificator in his Esquire article other than an ice ring. Next to it you can see the egg nog and the menu of Champagne cocktails behind it. The Raspberry Bellini (a late addition to the menu) proved popular and I made a Seelbach cocktail for myself which I thoroughly enjoyed. Well worth having any time as far as I am concerned!

Seelbach Cocktail

• 1 ounce bourbon (Knob Creek 100 proof)

• 1/2 ounce Cointreau

• 7 dashes (4.5ml) Angostura bitters

• 7 dashes (4.5ml) Peychaud’s bitters

• 5 ounces chilled dry Champagne

Pour everything except the Champagne into a Champagne flute and stir. Top with Champagne, give everything a light stir, and garnish with an orange twist

Raspberry Bellini

• 1 spoonful raspberry sorbet, softened

• 1/2 ounce citrus vodka

• 4 ounces prosecco

• 1 to 2 raspberries, for garnish

Combine the sorbet with the vodka in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously. Add the prosecco and stir. Strain into a chilled champagne flute and garnish with floating raspberries

Alas it was not a very adventurous crowd and I had no takers for the Negroni Sbagliato, Soyer au Champagne or Snowshoe so I will have to save those for another time. I certainly have plenty of leftover champagne so I might have to have another party soon just to use it up.

Perhaps when we return from our adventure to Buenos Aires and Antarctica we will have a good excuse for another gathering!