Cameron’s Kick Cocktail for Spirits column on Irish Whiskey

for the Washington Post

The Washington Post

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Refine your St. Patrick’s Day cocktail recipes with Irish whiskey - The Washington Post

A story about “Paddy Drinks: Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails,” the new book from the team at the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in New York, with 2 recipes.

A good Irish pub, no matter where on earth it’s situated, is a thing of beauty. My favorite time to visit is late afternoon, with an Irish coffee sipped in a snug wooden nook that gets dimmer and more comfortable as you linger. All the better if it’s nasty outside, the wet weather highlighting the coziness and sense of slowed time that exist in the best of these spaces.

I love them. And here in the United States, on St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll be doing my damnedest not to enter one.

American Irish pubs become different beasts on the holiday heralding the holy snake-charmer of the Emerald Isle, and the relaxation of covid restrictions may make this year’s celebrations particularly boisterous. While it’s nice to see other humans again, my post-quarantine brain is not yet up for the onslaught of Beverages That Ought Not Be Green, in the hands of shamrock- and leprechaun-festooned people, all pounding drinks and faking brogues and occasionally expelling excess Guinness from their mouth-holes.

I’m a good chunk Irish myself, but celebrating anything — whether a saint, a heritage or the return of the lower halves of people’s faces — with bad drinks in large quantities just doesn’t appeal. My head is still spinning from a pitch I got this month, one that declared St. Patrick’s Day is “not just an excuse to drink, it is an excuse to drink A LOT!” before suggesting a drink made of tequila and matcha — neither of which, for y’all keeping score at home, is Irish. (Of course, for the record, neither was St. Patrick.)

We’ve all had Irish coffee we hated. But when made well, it’s a beautiful thing.

I’ll be toasting at home with “<a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B08NWT1KQ3&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_J6K54S53G46644TX3GF1&tag=thewaspos09-20" target=_blank>Paddy Drinks: The World of Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails</a>,” the new book from the team at the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in New York. If you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting, the Dead Rabbit is a top-notch Irish bar on the first floor, with an outstanding craft cocktail parlor hidden above. And the bar’s latest book is the antithesis of the sloppy green boozing that dominates this time of year. Instead, it’s loaded with whiskey drinks that are elegant, precise, often complex, and keyed to the unique qualities of the particular spirits used to make them — drinks that could show dyed-green-lager drinkers the Erin of their ways.

The name of the book is a bit tongue-in-cheeky, as Dead Rabbit founders Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry explain in their preface. Some years back, Muldoon and McGarry stopped in at Death &amp; Co., another well-known craft cocktail bar in New York, to check out the menu from its new head bartender. They were surprised to find a specific section dedicated to Irish whiskey drinks.

Precision Point Cocktail for Spirits column on Irish Whiskey

In New York, the two Irishmen had felt somewhat alone in their appreciation of Irish whiskey, whose reputation hadn’t yet rebounded. So they were delighted to encounter the “extraordinarily well-considered and well-executed cocktails” centered on some of Ireland’s best bottles. They were less delighted by the name of that menu section: “Paddy Drinks.” “Paddy” is an old slang term for Irish people, sometimes used affectionately, but often pejoratively. And Muldoon and McGarry feared the term “was reflective of an attitude that saw no real quality or refinement within the drinks.”

But clearly, drinks this good weren’t meant to be easily dismissed.

The bartender who had put that menu together, Jillian Vose, had gone through her own realization about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/03/12/irish-whiskey-cocktails-st-patricks-day/" target=_blank>Irish whiskey</a>. When she took over as head bartender at Death &amp; Co., she’d been seeing a number of new Irish whiskeys available, but was encountering some resistance to using and stocking them.

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This was in the “We don’t like vodka” era, Vose notes: “You have to admit, especially in New York, people were snobs about certain spirits. That was the case with Irish whiskey. It’s just the way it was.”

Based on some of those attitudes in her mentors, she had assumed that the category must not be good. But as she tasted more of them, especially long-standing brands that had stood the test of time, and learned to trust her palate and judgments, she realized that some of the bottles — and the drinks that could be made with them — were too good not to talk about.

Muldoon and McGarry ended up getting to know Vose (who is half Irish) and eventually hired her as head bartender at the Dead Rabbit. All three are co-authors (with Conor Kelly) of “Paddy Drinks.” The title, Muldoon and McGarry write, was their way of getting even for those earlier attitudes about Irish whiskey, “reclaiming Paddy Drinks as a category that deserves — no, demands — respect on its own merits. The whiskey we know is gloriously subtle and distinctive, offering a vast panorama of flavors and aromas.”

Take the Precision Pilot, for example, where Vose was shooting for a light <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/negroni/16041/" target=_blank>Negroni </a>variation. She opted for Tullamore Dew, a blended whiskey, because she thought it “wouldn’t have too much tannin or too much spice that would be too dominant. It has a lot more fruity notes,” she says. “But the pot still and single malt in the blend also give it the body to support the other ingredients.”

The Dead Rabbit’s upgrade of a classic called Cameron’s Kick is another example of putting the right whiskey in place. Redbreast 12, a rich pot-still whiskey, has the heft to stand up to the peaty Islay Scotch whisky it shares the glass with, and its time in sherry casks makes the bar’s addition of oloroso (not part of the 1920s-era recipe) an inspired touch.

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The book is loaded not only with drink recipes, but also with explanations for the production processes that make various types of Irish whiskey what they are, and flavor profiles that provide budding mixologists thoughtful tips for pairing and mixing.

Thanks to a foreword by drinks historian <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/11/04/oxford-companion-spirits-cocktails/" target=_blank>David Wondrich</a>, there’s also a glimpse into the history of the Irish pub in America and the way that Irish immigrants have shaped how America drinks. Wondrich notes that German immigrants were quicker to pick up on American fancy cocktail culture, noting that by the late 19th century, “a large proportion of America’s most celebrated mixologists were first- or second-generation German immigrants.”

But he argues that some of the Irish bartenders who ended up behind the bar at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, a highly influential spot, had a hand in shaping American cocktail traditions by exercising a restraint needed to weed out some of the more baroque drinks of the era.

“In thus trimming back some of the more exuberant branches of the cocktail’s family tree, [these Irish American bartenders] might have made it less ornamental,” Wondrich writes, “but they also made it stronger and better adapted to last through the rough winter that, as far as the great American tradition of the bar was concerned, began in 1920 and only ended with the cocktail renaissance of the twenty-first century.”

“The whole idea of the Dead Rabbit was to bring the Irish pub to the 21st century, but also pay homage to the true pubs of Ireland,” Vose says. Here, there’s not a green beer in sight.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/camerons-kick-cocktail/18200/" target=_blank>Scale and get nutritional information and a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.</a>

A 1920s-era cocktail upgraded with bitters and nutty oloroso sherry, this concoction by Jack McGarry and Greg Buda of the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in New York City balances rich Irish pot-still whiskey against a peaty single malt (the bar uses Redbreast 12 and Bowmore 12, respectively).

Where to Buy: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/orgeat-syrup/10711/" target=_blank>Orgeat</a> is available at some liquor stores and online. The bar recommends the orgeat from <a href="http://orgeatworks.com/" target=_blank>orgeatworks.com</a>. We used one from Small Hand Foods.

Ice (cubes for shaking, one large shard for serving)

3/4 ounce <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/orgeat-syrup/10711/" target=_blank>orgeat</a>

1 ounce peated single-malt Scotch whisky, such as Bowmore 12

1 ounce Irish pot-still whiskey, such as Redbreast 12

Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

Place a chunk of ice in a large cocktail coupe and transfer to the freezer to chill.

Fill a shaker with ice, then add the bitters, lemon juice, orgeat, sherry, Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey and shake hard. Double-strain into the chilled glass, grate a little nutmeg over the top, and serve.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/precision-point-cocktail/18201/" target=_blank>Scale and get nutritional information and a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.</a>

Here’s a bright and bittersweet Irish whiskey drink from Jillian Vose, head bartender at the Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in New York City. The bitter Campari and aromatic grapefruit play off each other. The bar uses Tullamore Dew, a blend of pot-still, malt and grain whiskies.

Ice cubes for stirring, one large cube or sphere for the drink

1/2 ounce grapefruit liqueur, such as Combier Liqueur de Pamplemousse Rose

1 ounce blended Irish whiskey (such as Tullamore Dew Original)

Strip of grapefruit peel, for squeezing

Add a large ice cube or sphere to an Old Fashioned glass and set aside.

Fill a mixing glass with ice, then add the bitters, grapefruit liqueur, Campari, Lillet Rose and whiskey and stir to chill and dilute. Strain into the glass, then twist the strip of the grapefruit peel over the surface of the drink to express the aromatic oils. Discard the peel and serve.

Recipes adapted from “<a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B08NWT1KQ3&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_J6K54S53G46644TX3GF1&tag=thewaspos09-20&reshareId=RWMQHSYPXE3810R8JTW8&reshareChannel=system" target=_blank>Paddy Drinks: Modern Irish Whiskey Cocktails</a>” by Jillian Vose, Jack McGarry, Sean Muldoon and Conor Kelly (Harvest, 2022).

Recipes tested by M. Carrie Allan.

Carrie Allan is a writer and editor who lives in Hyattsville, Md. Her Spirits column appears regularly.

M. Carrie Allan

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Refine your St. Patrick’s Day cocktail recipes with Irish whiskey

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St. Patrick’s Day cocktails with Irish whiskey mean that neon green beer is out of luck

Winter Warmer Sorrel Cocktail for the Spirits column in Voraciously.

for The Washington Post

A hot buttered sorrel cocktail recipe makes a cozy Valentine - The Washington Post

In the past few months, a number of outlets seemed to experience some sort of floral mind-meld. Whole Foods named hibiscus one of the anticipated food trends of 2022 — “Hibiscus is happening” — and then Forbes and Food &amp; Wine reported on Whole Foods’ announcement, and then Martha Stewart’s site said you’re going to see hibiscus everywhere this year, and now, heck, you’re reading a hibiscus story in The Washington Post. If you’re wondering if the hibiscus lobby has drastically increased its spending this year, all I can say is ask questions quietly: Big Petal is listening.

Many are playing catch-up on hibiscus as a flavor, but you’ve probably seen the flowers in bloom. They’re absolute eye candy, the kind of bud that does it for the ’Gram — great pops of frilly color, their protuberant, pollen-gilded anthers sticking out like … well, exactly what they are. Few flowers are as saucily determined to show off their reproductive organs to passersby; if they were people, they’d get charged with indecent exposure.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/winter-warmer-sorrel-cocktail/18169/">Scale this recipe and get a printer-friendly, desktop version here.</a>

Once their petaled smoke show is over, though, some species of hibiscus have more to offer. At the base of the blossom are the bright red calyxes of the flower, which can be infused into a delicious drink. The hibiscus species sabdariffa is one of the most widely used — it has a bracingly tart, bright flavor (one of its many nicknames is Florida cranberry) and adds a deep crimson color to whatever it’s cooked with.

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If you’re a regular at taquerias, you’ll have seen hibiscus in Mexican agua frescas, called flor de jamaica. In Thailand, it’s sweetened and garnished with mint for nam krajeab; in West Africa, it’s bissap; in Egypt, carcade; and around the islands of the Caribbean, it’s prepared with a range of spices and travels under the names sorrel or roselle.

I’m undoubtedly leaving out a culinary tradition somewhere, but hopefully conveying what a whole lot of people around the world figured out a long time ago: Hibiscus is deliscus.

It’s sorrel that I’ve been most interested in recently. That’s partially because of Sorel, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/08/06/sorel-liquor-relaunch-caribbean/">a new liqueur that echoes the flavors of the traditional concoction</a>, but also because my Christmas was brightened when my friend Joanne — my longtime cubicle neighbor at work, who migrated from Trinidad when she was 18 — dropped off a jar of her homemade version.

Her sorrel appeared just after stupid omicron had made clear it was going to stomp all over the holidays, when we and so many others were busy doing the responsible thing, canceling plans with friends and family. We knew it was the right thing to do for everyone’s physical health, but my mental health was making a real stink about it. When Joanne’s jar of sorrel appeared on our doorstep, it felt like a little beam of sustenance. I put it on a windowsill where the sun could shine through it, where it cast a crimson light into the dining room.

Versions of sorrel are served all around the Caribbean islands, says Jackie Summers, founder of Sorel (say sor-EL to distinguish his liqueur from the homemade brew). It arrived there via West Africa, where the use of hibiscus as a curative and ceremonial drink goes back hundreds of years. “Then the transatlantic trade starts, and bodies and spices are moved along the bottom of the boats to the Caribbean, where they are traded,” he says. “But the knowledge of what the plant can do is traveling with the people who know how to use it. So it ends up in the Caribbean, where it literally takes root.”

Every island does sorrel slightly differently, says Summers, based on what spices went through their ports of trade. “For example, if you were in Jamaica, they had a high rate of Chinese immigrant workers, so you had ginger and allspice and cardamom, and rum. Because everything in Jamaica is rum. In Trinidad and Tobago, you had a great influx of East Indian laborers, so you would get their spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, clove. But not as much alcohol, the Trinidadians aren’t big drinkers. My grandparents came from Barbados, so rum in everything.”

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Summers notes that one of many challenges he faced while developing a commercial version of sorrel was that no one has an “official” recipe for it. All the recipes were passed on orally, a fact rooted in the harsh realities faced by its creators: Recipes “weren’t written down because it was illegal for the people making these recipes to read.”

Previously, I’d encountered hibiscus calyxes only in their dried state, but Joanne told me that’s part of why sorrel is so specific to Christmastime in Trinidad. “You would be shamed for using the dried stuff, but the fresh stuff is really only available at Christmas,” she says. The fresh botanicals result in a much brighter red tea than you get from the wine-dark dried versions I’ve played with. The fresh calyxes are crimson, succulent tapered chonks with frills, like the heads of tiny dragons.

Right before the holidays in Trinidad, “school would let out, we would clean the house top to bottom, and a day or two before Christmas was when all the cooking would begin. We’d get two tote bags of fresh sorrel flowers at the market, and there’s a little seed that has to be cut out, so we’d sit around with small sharp knives and cut the seed out to prepare it for boiling,” because the seed causes some bitterness, she says.

People add a medley of spices, and while some add booze to it later, sorrel is generally prepared in a nonalcoholic form. “It’s a drink that you serve and want to have on hand to serve to anyone who stops by,” she says. And people do stop by — that’s the reason for the thorough house cleaning, as everyone wanders by unannounced to celebrate the holidays. This annual tradition, Joanne says, makes everyone become an empty bottle and jar hoarder over the course of the year, to have enough containers ready for holiday sorrel.

Portraits of Jackie Summers, founder of Sorel Liquer at Clover Club 

For The Washington Post

Sorel liqueur, Summers says, is the first-ever shelf-stable version of the drink, and the final version is the one he arrived at after hundreds of trial runs wrestling with one of the other challenges of hibiscus: “It’s so acidic, so tart, that most people end up burying it in sugar, and then it’s syrupy and cloying and not fun,” he says. “But I was able to pull the sugar level way, way back by combining it with other botanicals. All of the flavors in it want to be the dominant flavor. Ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon — they all want to be the top dog. But I was able to find a level where instead of competing, they play, they dance and they complement each other.”

Cocktailers will want to snag a bottle of Sorel, which drinks well solo and mixes with multiple base liquors. And I wouldn’t wait till next Christmas to try making your own sorrel. It’s usually in the 70s at Christmas in the Caribbean, where sorrel’s typically served over ice. But I’ve aimed here for a mash-up modeled after hot buttered rum.

With or without alcohol, your Valentine’s Day may benefit from some warmth and heat (among the many qualities hibiscus was appreciated for, Summers points out, was that it was considered an aphrodisiac). Boozy or un-, this bright spicy sip is one you’ll be happy to be bundled up with, as we wait for the winter cold and covid to relent, to open the doors and welcome people in.

Want to save this recipe? Click the bookmark icon below the serving size at the top of this page, then go to <a href="https://helpcenter.washingtonpost.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026975592-Saving-stories-to-My-Reading-List?itid=lk_inline_manual_22">My Reading List in your washingtonpost.com user profile</a>.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/winter-warmer-sorrel-cocktail/18169/" target=_blank>Scale this recipe and get a printer-friendly, desktop version here.</a>

Make Ahead: You can make both the sorrel and the compound butter in advance. Refrigerate until service, then reheat the sorrel on the stovetop.

Storage Notes: Sorrel can be refrigerated for up to 1 week and spiced butter for up to 2 weeks.

Where to Buy: Sorel can be found at liquor stores or online, such as on <a href="http://reservebar.com/" target=_blank>ReserveBar.com</a>. Dried hibiscus flowers can be found at African and Latin American markets and online. Ginger juice is available at well-stocked supermarkets, health food stores and online.

1 stick (4 ounces) salted butter, at room temperature

Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

2 cups (3 ounces) dried hibiscus flowers

1 cup (8 1/2 ounces) turbinado sugar

1/2 to 1 cup ginger juice, to taste

1/2 ounce Sorel liqueur (optional)

Make the spiced butter: In a small bowl, stir together the butter, vanilla, orange zest, allspice, cinnamon and cloves until well combined. Transfer to a small container with a lid and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Make the sorrel: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the water, hibiscus flowers, turbinado sugar and ginger juice and bring to a boil, stirring regularly. Boil for about 1 minute, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and let the mixture simmer gently until the flavors infuse for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Let the mixture cool slightly, then strain out and discard the solids. Return the liquid to the saucepan and keep over low heat until ready to serve.

Make the drink: Ladle 1 cup of the hot sorrel into a teacup or mug. Add the rum and liqueur, if using, and top with about 1 tablespoon of the spiced butter. Serve hot, with a spoon for stirring.

Per serving (1 cup sorrel and 1 tablespoon spiced butter)

M. Carrie Allan

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