If you’re looking to take your mixology game to the next level, let me introduce you to a game-changer: Lemon Thyme Simple Syrup. This delightful concoction adds a burst of flavor to your favorite drinks and takes the spotlight when paired with elderflower liqueurs like St. Germain, vodka, and even gins with the right botanical mix.
Flavor Profile of Lemon Thyme Simple Syrup
This syrup is a versatile and easy-to-make syrup that combines the citrusy goodness of lemons with the earthy and aromatic essence of thyme. It’s a match made in cocktail heaven! The syrup strikes a perfect balance between sweetness and herbal notes, creating a unique flavor profile.
Perfect Pairings
Elderflower Elegance:
St. Germain, the elderflower liqueur, dances harmoniously with the lemon thyme syrup. The sweet and floral notes of St. Germain are beautifully complemented by the citrusy kick from the lemon, while the thyme adds a subtle herbal twist. Try it in a classic Elderflower Collins or an innovative Lemon Thyme Spritz for a refreshing and sophisticated sip.
Vodka Vibes:
The syrup effortlessly enhances the neutral canvas of vodka, creating a vibrant and flavorful cocktail. Whether you’re into a Lemon Thyme Martini or a zesty Vodka Lemonade, this syrup adds a refreshing twist that will leave your taste buds wanting more.
Gin and Botanical Bliss:
While lemon thyme simple syrup may seem like an unconventional choice for gin, it’s a match made in botanical heaven. Opt for a gin with a diverse botanical mix to complement the herbal notes of thyme. The result? A delightful concoction that brings out the best in both the gin and the syrup. Try it in a Lemon Thyme Gin Fizz.
The syrup’s versatility makes it a perfect companion for elderflower liqueurs, vodka, and gin with the right botanical blend. Experiment, get creative, and impress your guests with the refreshing and unique flavors of lemon thyme-infused cocktails.
A delightful twist on the classic Mint Julep, our Apple Julep harmoniously combines the crispness of the apple with the sweet undertones of mint. Jiggers n’ Drams has perfected this cocktail, ensuring a premium experience with every meticulously crafted sip.
Apple Julep – A Cocktail with Class
A perfectly crafted apple julep is designed to be your all-day companion, making it the go-to choice for batching. Perhaps that’s the secret behind the enduring popularity of mint juleps and their variations at horse racing events. There’s always been a special connection between cocktails and horse racing. Some drinks are even crafted to commemorate iconic races and legendary horses. Just imagine, hundreds of gallons of julep are sold each year at Churchill Downs, adding to the festive spirit of the races.
Recommended Spirits
Bourbon, bourbon, and more bourbon! When you’re pondering which bourbon plays the lead role in your Apple Julep, the classic choice is none other than Woodford Reserve – the same one that adds magic to mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby. Renowned for its deep and intricate flavor profile coupled with a velvety smoothness, it elevates a julep to something truly upscale. If you’re in the mood to explore alternatives, consider the likes of Maker’s Mark, Redemption Bourbon, Elijah Craig, or the ever-reliable Four Roses Single Barrel.
The Dos And Don’ts
Getting that perfect mint flavor is all about the essential oils. When you’re after that pure mint aroma, give those leaves a gentle bruise without going full-on crush mode. This helps release the oils from those cool modified trichomes, which are the ‘tiny hairs’ on the leaf’s surface. The key here is to avoid bringing chlorophyll into the mix because that’s the culprit behind turning your mint all bitter. For the ultimate mint-growing success, go for Spearmint. Check out varieties like Mojito Mint or Kentucky Colonel for some top-notch flavors.
Infuse bourbon with apples in iSi whipper - 2 oz. bourbon, 1 slice of red apple, chopped, 1 stick of cinnamon crushed all put into iSi whipper and charged.
Cocktail
Place mint leaves, demerara syrup, and apple in a mixing glass; gently press down but do not muddle - less is more.
Add bourbon infusion, sour, and then ice. Roll the drink to combine the ingredients.
Place crushed ice into a double rocks glass.
Double strain mixture into glass and top with club soda. Add additional ice as needed.
Gently slap a few mint sprigs in your hands and rub the outside of the top of the glass with the mint.
Place the mint in the glass, and complete the garnish with an apple wheel. Place tall wide straw into the drink.
Our great family trip to Prague in the summer of 2008 introduced us to the bold tastes of authentic Czech cuisine. Coming from Slovakia — a country once merged with Czechia as Czechoslovakia, with both nations sharing a mutual history — we found plenty of flavors commingled in our cuisines. No matter how close a recipe is to its roots, it always tastes incomparably better prepared in its country of origin. This article provides ingredient substitutions to the original beer cheese recipe.
Only Czech folks prepare beer cheese so delicious — blame the local ingredients! In the United States, however, shopping for this recipe represents a challenge. The key ingredient, the quark, remains difficult to find in rural grocery stores. Therefore, we came up with a substitute for our recipe consisting of a blend of ricotta and large curd cottage cheese. These ingredients closely replicate the quark’s taste and consistency. If luck helps you find quark in your dairy section, feel free to skip step two in our recipe. Contrary to quark, ricotta and cottage cheese have a noticeably higher content of water, thus there’s a need for straining to achieve the right consistency. On the other hand, straining the quark is unnecessary, its consistency doesn’t offer too much moisture.
Prior to moving to the beer cheese recipe; please note, beer cheese is a fermented unpasteurized dairy product. If fermented products make you search for the closest restroom, this cheese spread might not be your best choice. If your stomach is not so sensitive, feel free to proceed.
As the magic factor in fermentation, beer cheese requires a consistent temperature of 61 to 66 F for five days. Higher temperatures accelerate maturing of beer cheese which could even lead to spoiling. Temperatures below 60 F slightly slow down the fermentation, and the cheese would need more time to mature. Please, remember to cover it or close it with a lid – it’s important. A closable jar is your best friend.
After its maturing time, beer cheese features a pungent smell similar to but less intense than Limburger cheese. Beer cheese takes on colors varying from beige to orange, as it matures, the colors darken.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine ricotta and cottage cheese. Add one cup of beer. Let sit for 20 minutes in the fridge.
Using a mesh strainer and a spoon, strain the cheese mixture, so the solid cheese remains. Save the strained milk and cheese liquid for a Beer Mac & Cheese recipe.
Mix the spices into the beer cheese. Put the mixture in the glass jar, and close it tightly. Let the cheese ferment for three days - put it in a dark place at room temperature.
After three days, the beer cheese gained the desired tanginess. Serve it on a slice of toasted and buttered sour bread, with mustard, and sliced red onion on top.
While not quite on the Mount Rushmore of cocktails, the versatile French 75 featuring gin and bubbles courtesy of Champagne certainly belongs on a very short list of the all-time great cocktails. With an herbal nose and refreshing nature, the French 75 remains an excellent option for both a sophisticated New Year’s Eve soiree and a summer patio party. Our tasters all concurred in observing that this drink with its elegance and grace “slides down fairly easy.”
French 75 History
The present construction of the French 75 developed over the 1920s with its routes in the 19th century. An 1885 article about the Parker House hotel in Boston states that as far back as 1867 Charles Dickens when visiting Boston entertained the literary elite of the town in his room by serving Tom gin and champagne cups. A champagne Cup consists of champagne, sugar, citrus, and ice so by adding gin, one arrives at something close to a French 75. At the time, a champagne cup was in fact a popular cocktail and it was not uncommon to add gin.
Moving forward to World War I, in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris, barman Harry MacElhone once again combined these ingredients and the concoction was said to have a kick like being shelled with the powerful 75mm field gun. The 1922 edition of MacElhone’s Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails offered a version consisting of Calvados, gin, grenadine, and absinthe. MacElhone, however, never claimed the drink as his own, attributing it to Macgarry of Buck’s Club in London as its home. That same year, Robert Vermeir’s Cocktails: How to Mix Them, offers a recipe with the addition of lemon juice while curiously crediting MacElhone with the invention of the drink.
By 1927, today’s formulation took its form and attached the French 75 name in the bootlegger friendly Here’s How!, by Judge Jr. at the height of Prohibition. If one marks this point as the codification of the recipe, it would give the French 75 the distinction of being the only classic cocktail born in America during Prohibition. This recipe resurfaced in 1930 as the French 75 in The Savoy Cocktail Book, and with its reach across the Atlantic, began to popularize the drink. Finding its way to the infamous Stork Club in New York, the drink quickly became iconic.
Of note, later cocktail books like David A. Embury’s The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks swapped gin for cognac. Some bars still offer a cognac version of the French 75. Most notably, amongst these establishments is the venerable Arnaud’s, located in the heart of the French Quarter in Louisiana. Further, some purists claim with some validity that the drink should, in fact, be made with cognac. With that note, the International Bartenders Association classifies the drink as a contemporary classic using gin.
Odds are, no one really “invented” the French 75, rather it became associated with a French field gun that became an icon of World War I victory, giving it a certain prestige at the right time. Supporting this theory, the novelist Alec Waugh touted the French 75 as “the most powerful drink in the world.” With the 75mm Howitzer known for accuracy and speed and the French 75 having such a kick, the two became inextricably associated.
French 75 Variations
Due to the long evolving nature of the French 75’s recipe, few could fairly accuse someone of bastardizing the original recipe by using contemporary variations. With that in mind, let us take a look at some fun ways to vary the French 75.
Swap Champagne for Prosecco
Many people opt to swap the Champagne for Prosecco, if you take that route, use a bit less lemon juice. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind when altering the French 75 is Champagne needs less simple syrup whereas Prosecco needs less lemon juice. Follow this rule and you will find the full texture of the fizz remains in the drink.
Gin Variations For French 75
We used Hendrick’s gin in our French 75 recipe. While Hendrick’s gin certainly possesses plenty of juniper, its floral notes provide a nice base for this cocktail’s construction. Finally, its surprising amount of citrus provides a nice bridge to the lemon juice used in a French 75.
Other classic gin options include Tanqueray and Plymouth gin, which also offer big juniper cores that allow a nice balance in the recipe. Other floral gins, particularly those with big lavender notes are preferred by a significant number of people and often result in some truly spectacular versions of the French 75.
Simple Syrup Infusions
Infusing simple syrup with herbs and other flavors provides one of the most fun ways to customize a French 75. Infusing your simple syrup adds depth to the drink without competing with the main flavors coming from your gin and citrus.
Experiment With Bitters
Bitters represent a great way to experiment and customize the French 75 by making subtle modifications to the drink’s aromas, color, and taste. Look to the botanicals used in various gins like angelica root, orris root, licorice root, cassia bark, orange peel, grapefruit peels, and dried herbs like coriander and anise to find bitters that play with your chosen gin. In essence, find your favorite flavor note in your preferred gin and amp it up by marrying it with the right bitters.
During our tasting, we experimented with Peychaud’s bitters which feature a predominant anise aroma with a subtle mint background. We also tasted grapefruit bitters in a different batch. The group slightly preferred the Peychads, noting that the champagne came through a bit more than with the grapefruit bitters and the drink tasted a bit sweeter, which would likely remain true with any other fruit-based bitters. Finally, the Peychauds dramatically changed the color of the drink to a subtle pink (the drink on the left in the photograph), which most of our group found quite striking.
Garnish Variations
A lemon peel and its variations remain the most common garnish for the French 75. Rosemary sprigs are a great addition, especially if you happen upon a bottle of Martin Miller’s Summerful Rosemary & Arctic Thyme Gin. On that note, some people jazz the garnish up with thyme and lavender. Others finish the drink with a cocktail cherry pierced with a toothpick and wrapped in a long, thin lemon spiral. It is also not unheard of to see a cucumber garnish, especially with gins featuring cucumber notes. Our final takeaway when it comes to the garnish for a French 75 is to keep it simple, but elegant.
Glassware
A simple Google search indicates that a Champagne flute is the appropriate glass for a French 75. However, it is common to see the French 75 served in Nick and Nora, highball, Collins, and coupe glasses as well. There is validity in the statement that a Champagne flute is the wrong glass. According to the recipe in Harry MacElhone’s Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails, a French 75 should be served in a highball glass. While the highball and Collins glass are often used interchangeably, purists argue that the taller Collins glass is the proper glass to serve a French 75 in. Pointing to the connection between a Collins glass and the shell of a 75-millimeter–both are tubular though the glass is smaller, this camp also notes that when reading the earliest recipes for a French 75, most of them mention serving it in a Collins glass over ice. In fact, there is no mention of Champagne flutes, coupes, or other cocktail glasses in the early literature.
As far as size goes, bigger isn’t necessarily better as most people and establishments now serve the French 75 up. Without ice, a larger drink is less likely to hold a proper temperature as at some point the crushed ice dropped out of favor in the French 75. With this evolving preference of serving the drink up rather than over some form of ice, it seems logic would move the French 75 into a smaller glass. Further, a twelve or sixteen-ounce serving of a French 75 will have you gone faster than a toupee in a hurricane.
With that in mind, and our desire to experiment with a variety of versions, we opted to serve the French 75 in a 5-ounce Nick and Nora glass, which leaves room for approximately 2.5 ounces of Champagne and presents quite nicely. For those preferring different glasses, take note of your glasses’ capacity and adjust the recipe accordingly.
Summary: Impressions and Other Takeaways
Using this recipe, most people find the drink in balance. A few of our female tasters preferred a slightly sweeter version. If that is you, there are two options. First, find sweeter champagne. Doux, with more than 50 grams of sugar per liter is the sweetest designation of all Champagnes but is difficult to find, especially in the North American market. Your more likely option is using a demi-sec Champagne, which features 32-50 grams of sugar per liter.
The second option, which we consider a better idea is to simply add 1/4 oz. more of simple syrup. Our rationale is one, it is far more convenient to modify the drink with simple syrup, especially if you are pouring for a crowd; two, with the amount of wine used in the recipe it is far more difficult to adjust sweetness; and third, it is simply easier to find Champagnes that run on the dry side. For example, Brut, a French word meaning dry, raw, and unrefined remains the most common Champagne in the world and features a very low sugar content.
Enjoy and let us know where your French 75 journey takes you in the comments section below.
French 75
French 75 cocktail recipe, history, and variations of this favorite champagne and gin cocktail.
Away with the greasy restaurant scallops! Prepare yourself and your guests a spectacular course using only a few simple ingredients. Our recipe showcases lusciously soft but never lardy scallops – sweet and juicy from inside coated in fresh peppery heaven.
Store-bought lemon pepper seasonings share one thing in common: whether they come from a fancy organic manufacturer or with a store-branded label, they most likely offer an artificial aftertaste due to unavoidable preserving agents. Keeping the goal of showing off your cooking skills in mind, a homecooked lemon pepper sauce infused with the sweet juices of scallops is your best bet.
Use a mesh strainer to drain scallops. Sprinkle them with pepper and a little bit of salt.
Halve the lemon. Add one half of lemon vesicle side down and two tablespoons of unsalted butter to the frying pan to melt. This way the butter gains some of the lemon's fragrant notes.
After the butter melted, add the olive oil. Grab the top of the lemon with your fingers and use the fruit to mix olive oil and butter. When small bubbles appear as shown in the photo, the lemon oil and butter mixture is ready for the scallops.
Carefully add scallops one by one to the pan.
This is the moment when the lemon really steps into the game. With tongs, squeeze out the lemon juice onto scallops. Return the fruit to the pan and add thyme sprigs to the sauce. Don't forget to pour lemon pepper sauce over scallops multiple times during cooking, this makes a world of difference!
Remember, saute the scallops for three to four minutes from the bottom, then turn them to saute the other side. The bottom of the scallops should be browned when flipped.
Reminiscent of childhood memories, luxury, sweetness and sensuality, chocolate is more than just a food – it is therapy.
Chocolate Ganache
Although it sounds sophisticated for baking beginners, the chocolate ganache is an elementary filling or icing. Consisting only of chopped chocolate, heavy whipping cream, and additives of baker’s choice, this luscious chocolate concoction has its secured presence in the world’s best restaurants and cruise ships’ chef’s tables. Common flavor enhancers are extracts (vanilla, almond, mint, etc.), liquors, syrups, various kinds of nuts and fruits. For the elegant shiny appearance, a tablespoon or two of unsalted butter or corn syrup make wonders.
Wait for a second… We just hinted at using chocolate ganache as filling or icing. Yes! All that matters are the weight ratio of chocolate and cream, and your intentions. You can make the icing leaning towards liquid consistency, or make a thick easy spreadable cake icing. Cake fillings are usually lighter texture, while into the milk chocolate ganache tart and truffle fillings you could easily carve a statue – they hold their shape.
For our milk chocolate ganache filling we refer to the table below:
Type of chocolate
Ratio to cream
Example
Dark Chocolate 75%
2:1
10 oz. chocolate to 5 oz. heavy cream
Milk Chocolate 55%
2.5:1
10 oz. chocolate to 4 oz. heavy cream
White Chocolate
3:1
10 oz. chocolate to 3.33 oz. heavy cream
The ratios above are to make a more cream-solid chocolate ganache that holds its shape and doesn’t form a tip when sampled with a dessert fork. Remember, the larger the milk content in chocolate, the less heavy whipping cream you need. According to this table, we should use less cream than is in our recipe; our goal was to create a thinner chocolate ganache reminding the thickness of the caramel in the Snickers candy bar, but way less sticky. To achieve this, we used the ratio of 1:2 even though making the ganache from milk chocolate. Considering the final texture of the milk chocolate ganache, we opted out majorly for Hershey’s milk chocolate (the whole 9.3 oz. six-pack) that is soft and moldable, Lindt 4.4 oz. milk chocolate, and Cadbury Dairy Milk 3.8 oz. chocolate bar. Understandingly, more than a few chocolate squares mystically disappeared during the ganache-making process.
Tips & Tricks
We want your milk chocolate ganache tart master class to go smoothly, so we will give you some useful tips.
Confusing as it sounds, readers often misunderstand the term XY sheets of graham crackers. One graham cracker sheet embodies four smaller rectangles. Easy!
We all made the mistake of crumbling the chocolate by putting it into a ZipLoc bag and smashing it with a meat mallet. However the process is very therapeutic, chocolate has a certain fat content and a melting point. By hitting it with a mallet you increase the energy of molecules on the chocolate’s surface, which creates heat. The surface starts sweating and your chocolate bits start to stick to the ZipLoc bag, and eventually by further friction you create holes and tears on the bag. You will end up with pieces of plastic bag in your chocolate bits, that after adding the hot cream beautifully melt into your ganache. Yum! Please, chop the chocolate with a knife on a cutting board, no matter how long it takes.
Finally, the steam bath! I can’t count how many times I burned the chocolate by heating it up in the microwave. The best way how to melt chocolate is to do it in a steam bath. You need a bowl and pot. Fill the pot with water, let the water boil. Hover the bowl with chocolate above the steam and work it with a spatula. Do not let the bowl touch the hot water or your chocolate will burn!
Milk Chocolate Ganache Tart Recipe
Tart with tempting filling makes a matchless sweet treat.
Food processor (if you don't have one, you can crush the graham crackers in a ZipLock bag with a meat mallet)
8" round cake pan with removable bottom
Silicone spatula
Medium - size mixing bowl
Small mixing bowl
Small pot or saucepan
A whisk
A pastry mat
Ingredients
The Crust
10sheetsof graham crackers, each sheet has four rectangles
5tbspmelted unsalted butter
¼cupmuscovado sugar
Milk Chocolate Ganache Filling
15.6ozmilk chocolate, chopped into smaller pieces
7.8ozheavy whipping cream
1tbspunsalted butter
White Chocolate Decoration
1cupwhite chocolate chips
3tbspmilk chocolate chips
Instructions
Tart Crust
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Grease the 8'' cake pan with unsalted butter evenly, all sides and the bottom.
In a food processor, blend 10 sheets of honey graham crackers, ¼ cup of muscovado sugar, and five tablespoons of melted unsalted butter. After blending, the mixture should be somewhat sticky.
Dab the graham cracker blend on the bottom of the cake pan. If you want to, you can add some crust onto the removable sides of the pan as well.
Bake in the oven for nine minutes. Let the pan cool down on the rack first, and then you can transfer it to the fridge for further cooling.
Milk Chocolate Ganache Filling
Chop 15.6 oz. of milk chocolate into small pieces. Transfer the chocolate bits into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
In a small saucepan or a pot, warm up 7.8 oz. of heavy whipping cream to 185°F. If you don't have a kitchen thermometer, test the temperature with a spoon. The cream should be very hot but not boiling. Prevent the cream from forming a top skin with stirring.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate bits, add a tablespoon of unsalted butter, and work it with a whisk to form a smooth chocolate ganache.
When the ganache is ready, pour it slowly into the cake pan to avoid bubbles of air. Then, with a silicone spatula, scrape the sides of the bowl.
Cool in the fridge for two hours, then move the tart to the freezer for another two hours.
White Chocolate Decoration
Grease about a 6-7" circle in the center of a pastry mat.
Melt the white chocolate chips in a small bowl above a steam bath. If you don't know what the steam bath is, please read the recipe notes.
Pour the melted white chocolate on the pastry mat, forming an even circle. While the white chocolate is cooling, melt additional milk chocolate chips.
When the white chocolate circle is stiff enough (about 10 minutes in a cool room), you can create milk chocolate lines on top of it and sprinkle it with crushed graham crackers. Let cool.
Warm a long knife above steam or use a hot cloth to do it. Cut the chocolate circle with the warm knife into desired pieces, and place them onto the chocolate tart.
The lime coconut scallops make a fine starter for your dinner date night. Simple yet taste-dominant ingredients like lime juice, balsamic reduction, and cayenne pepper tamed by creamy coconut flavor form an appetizing small plate dinner course. While the meal is quite easy to prepare, you can count on scoring the “Wow. You’re a great cook!” type of compliment.
In Jiggers n’ Drams’ kitchen, we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. A small plate starter with a crunchy finish following a soft bite and a light tropical punch. When it comes to exotic ingredients, lime and coconut are the staples. So we decided to use them as a base for the sauce. Challenge consisted of finding the right taste enhancers. After plenty of tries, adding balsamic reduction or glaze changed this meal to a different experience.
At last, we had to consider what kind of protein complemented the dominant flavors. Buttery scallops offered the softness that tied all the ingredients together.
cream of coconut, the amount depends on the size of the plate
balsamic reduction, the amount depends on the size of the plate
4wide outer leavesof romaine lettuce
4lime wheels
3tbsppecans, halves
Instructions
Plate decorating
Starting with the plate decoration is essential. Grab two small plates and create circles with the balsamic glaze and the Creme of Coconut. Then, with a toothpick, draw lines into circles.
Cut romaine lettuce leaves in half. Keep the wide upper halves. Place two lettuce halves on the first half of the plate, and top them with two lime wheels.
In a pan, lightly saute the pecan halves to release the flavor, chop them roughly, and set them aside.
The sauce
In a saucepan, heat the unsweetened coconut milk.
Add one tablespoon of lime juice and one teaspoon of lime sea salt.
Add ¼ of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and stir. Cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Scallops
First, season the scallops with salt and pepper. Heat the pan to medium-high temperature. Melt the unsalted butter, and place scallops on the pan. Flip them when brown from the bottom, about four minutes on each side. Move the scallops from the pan onto the center of the plate, drizzle with the coconut lime sauce, and decorate with chopped pecans.
While most of us think of mulled wine and Christmas in the same thought, this traditional drink, also known as spiced wine, remains popular throughout the winter. Usually made with a variety of mulling spices and red wine, the drink leaves a pleasant scent that evokes memories of holidays past.
Mulling Spices
We refer to the spice mixture used in the drink recipe as mulling spices. Most grocery stores offer prepackaged mulling spice mixes or create your own mixture. The combination of spices varies but generally consists of allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Some mixtures also include cardamon, peppercorn, and star anise. Prepacked mixes generally contain dried fruits ranging from apples to orange rind, to raisins.
To consider a drink mulled, one must prepare it with these spices by heating the drink with the spices and then straining it. The most common examples of mulled drinks, of course, include wine to make mulled wine or hippocras and apple cider to make wassail. Many brewers often utilize mulling spices in the brewing process to make spiced beer.
Serve mulled drinks hot or warm, but realize most prefer to serve them hot, and consequently, most consume these drinks in the fall and winter. Christmas markets across Europe regularly feature mulled wine. While in the past vendors sold the hot liquid in plastic cups, in recent years vendors increasingly offer the purchase in more eco-friendly ceramic mugs.
Alcohol Content
While many great non-alcoholic mulled drinks exist, our focus today remains on mulled wine in particular. Alcohol by volume in mulled wine varies greatly, as a result, one simply cannot define the drink’s ABV uniformly. Factors to consider include how much alcohol the base wine contains and the alcohol content of any liquor or liqueur you choose to add. Many factors affect a wine’s alcohol content including the climate where the grapes grow, the style of wine, and the wine’s quality level.
Generally, a standard five-ounce serving of wine contains between 11-13% ABV. Further, as a rule, red wine possesses a higher ABV than whites. For example, most Moscatos fall between five to seven percent ABV and most pinot grigios contain 12-13%. Crossing over to the reds, most Pinot noir and bordeauxs contain between 13-14% ABV, with Malbec wines ranging from 13.5-15% and some Californian zinfandels and Australian shiraz wines going as high as 16-18%. The takeaway, wines feature a range of ABVs. Understanding this, we advise checking the wine’s ABV and adjusting your liquor/liqueur content accordingly.
Spirits to Try in Mulled Wine
While our recipe calls for cognac, all brandy styles work in mulled wine. Both apricot and cherry brandy make subtle, but welcome additions to recipes. Bourbons, both darker and spiced rums, and ryes commonly appear in mulled wine concoctions. If your mulling blend features orange, try adding orange flavor liqueurs like Cointreau or Grand Marnier that provide more depth to the finished product. Further, experiment with some of the amazing, but lesser-known curacaos like Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao that bring amazing nuances to so many cocktails. Sloe gin also provides a great way to marry the berry flavors of the wine to the mulling spices.
With so many options, just keep in mind to avoid spirits that contrast or compete with your mulling spices. Additionally, avoid adding too much of a sweeter liquor or liqueur as the finished product easily becomes too sweet. To summarize, remain aware of your alcohol content, choose complementary liquors and liqueurs, and keep the drink in balance.
Presentation
With most mulled wine consumption occurring around the holidays, a fancy garnish seems like a necessity. Sugared rims make an excellent contrast to the darker mulled wine, but also consider garnishes that include flavors from your mulling spices. For example, cinnamon sticks really jazz up a serving of mulled wine. Our recipe features a sugared rim with an orange wedge that contributed to a warm night of conversation around the fireplace, with guests sinking right into their seats.
Let us know how you did in the comments, we would love to hear about your mulling spice combinations, preferred wines, liquor-liqueur combinations, and of course your special garnish.
The most popular variation of the Spritz Veneziano remains the Aperol Spritz. Our Aperol Spritz consists of two parts Prosecco, two parts Aperol, and two parts soda water served over ice in a large wine glass. Aperol itself consists of a variety of ingredients, including cinchona, gentian, and rhubarb. Its manufacturer, the Campari Group, describes it as “the perfect aperitif,” with a “unique bittersweet taste and bright orange color” deriving from an original secret recipe. Aperol’s formulation dates to 1919 when Luigi and Silvio Barbieri of the Barbieri company first produced the liqueur in Padua, a city located in northern Italy. The product languished for decades before finally becoming successful after World War II.
Aperol features a distinctive bright orange color, contributing to visually appealing cocktails. Served neat, the lightly alcoholic aperitif (11 ABV generally, however, Aperol sold in Germany features an ABV of 15 to skirt German regulations regarding container deposits) offers a zesty orange nose with complex herbal scents along with a touch of vanilla. A smooth texture with long-lasting orange and wood notes makes the pleasantly bitter Aperol a great ingredient in a spritz.
Aperol Spritz History
A dramatic upswing of Aperol consumption, fueled by enthusiastic Aperol Spritz imbibing, occurred in Italy following the Campari brand’s 2003 acquisition of Aperol. The Campari firm’s deft and well-coordinated marketing campaign a decade and a half later brought the Aperol Spritz into the consciousness of the United States market. Fueled by Instagram users, the pretty cocktail became the summer of 2018’s most viral drink trend. In short order, the drink arrived on the menus of hip restaurants and cocktail lounges across the country.
Less than a year later, the Aperol Spritz jumped the shark with the New York Times publishing Rebekah Peppler’s article, “The Aperol Spritz Is Not a Good Drink.” Peppler notes, “the popular, Instagram-friendly aperitif drinks like a Capri Sun after soccer practice on a hot day.” Noting this as “not in a good way,” Peppler lamented the “branded, jumbo wine glasses,” along with the paring of low-quality Prosecco and outsized orange slices resulted in an overly sugary aperitif. Many bartenders agree with Peppler’s critique that overly sweet Prosecco reduces the drink’s quality. We plan to explain in this post that this view while possessing elements of truth, fails to paint the entire picture.
Although viral cocktails come and go, the Aperol Spritz remains popular. With a low alcohol content, an interesting mix of sweetness and bitterness, and featuring a crisp and refreshing nature, a well-made Aperol Spritz provides an excellent summer cocktail option. After millions of Aperol Spritz Instagram posts, cocktail snobs might consider you 2000-and-late for posting yours, but we say go ahead with the knowledge that your version of the Aperol Spritz stands among the best.
Aperol Spritz Variations
An Aperol Spritz, by definition, must contain Aperol; however, a quick search reveals recipes that show widely varying proportions. We present a recipe with equal proportions because we like the drink that way. It also presents the easiest path for customizing the drink. For those just getting started with the Aperol Spritz, using equal proportions initially speeds the process of adjusting the drink to your tastes. If you simply want to skip ahead, another popular presentation consists of three parts Prosecco, two parts Aperol, and one part soda water, those proportions remain as the most common definition of a spritz. The International Bartenders Association calls for 90 ml of Prosecco, 60 ml of Aperol, and a splash of soda water. Obviously, ratios vary widely, so it’s best to experiment to determine your preference.
Does the Type of Prosecco Matter?
As noted above, many people pejoratively use the words “cheap Prosecco,” somehow making the leap that all sweet Prosecco equals cheap. This represents a partly true simplification, to say the least. Generally speaking, mass-produced Prosecco works best in Extra Dry, those pointing to the end cocktail being too sweet, arrive at the cheap argument from this point, by equating mass-production to cheap. A bit of extra sugar does improve the taste of many of these Proseccos and without it, a sharpness or lack of taste would ruin the end Prosecco product and ergo your Aperol Spritz. The position says better, drier Proseccos, featuring less sugar often come from superior wineries, with prime locations, top-quality grapes, and excellent processes that result in an end product that does not need additional sugar to cover up imperfections. We acknowledge the validity of this portion of the argument.
However, Prosecco comes in varying degrees of sweetness vs. dryness, and also in varying degrees of effervescence (bubbliness)–in a variety of price points. If you belong to the camp that believes an overly sweet Prosecco damns the drink, look to sparkling wine classifications, which indicate the sweetness of sparkling wine. The dryest (less sweet) Proseccos range from Brut to Extra Brut to Brut Nature, these classifications provide a great starting point for those finding their Aperol Spritz too sweet. For reference, we provide the sparkling wine classifications:
Brut Nature, 0-3 grams/liter of residual sugar, the driest of Prosecco or any sparkling wine. Also known as Brut Zero, Ultra Brut, Pas Dosé, or Dosage Zéro, expect a bone dry taste.
Extra Brut, 0-6 grams/liter of residual sugar, very dry taste.
Brut, 0-12 grams/liter of residual sugar, dry taste.
Extra Dry, 12-17 grams/liter of residual sugar, medium dry to taste with hints of sweetness. Also known as Extra Sec and Extra Seco.
Dry, 17-32 grams/liter of residual sugar, with a medium-sweet taste.
Demi-Sec, 32-50 grams/liter of residual sugar, the sweetest Prosecco, but not commonly available.
Dolce, 50+ grams/liter of residual sugar, the sweetest of all sparkling wines, however, no Prosecco exists in this classification.
Extra Dry remains the dominant style of Prosecco available, with the amount of Brut increasing. Armed with a better understanding of Prosecco, we can begin to unpack this cheap-overly sweet Aperol Spritz argument. “Overly Sweet,” simply means the drinker finds the drink out of balance. In this case, the drink’s lack of balance falls to the sweetness side, and “cheap Prosecco” becomes the fall guy. However, as much as we love to dissect and analyze various ingredients, simply blaming the sweetness solely on Prosecco ignores the drink’s other ingredients. Further, many retailers only carry Extra Dry Prosecco, leaving us to look to other options for reducing the drink’s sweetness.
The ratio of Aperol used in the recipe impacts the end cocktail’s perceived sweetness far more than the type of Prosecco one uses. As professional and home-based bartenders we must keep in mind that while our ingredients play an important part in our end product, the ratios in which we use them often play an even bigger part. For example, with a food recipe, we often say, this “is too salty or this is too sweet.” We don’t then look to adjust by swapping out for a different salt or sugar, we simply adjust the ratios in the recipe. The Aperol Spritz should be no different.
With all of that said, certainly, you can use different sweetness levels of Prosecco to dial in your preferences, just figure out your preferred ratios first. With balance always subjective, it’s easy to see why ratios vary across sources. So, to answer the original question of if the style of Prosecco matters? We believe it does, but much less than the overall ratio of the ingredients.
Presentation
The most common presentation of the Aperol Spritz remains in a large wine glass over ice cubes. Many bartenders and consumers accurately point out that over dilution ruins the drink. Admittedly, our testers quickly consumed their Aperol Spritz eagerly waiting for another. However for those who wish to consume the drink slowly, present the drink over a single large cube. This drastically cuts down on unwanted dilution and provides a much longer amount of time to enjoy the best expression of the drink.
We did test a range of bitters in the Aperol Spritz, ultimately finding a consensus that the addition of grapefruit bitters added a subtle and distinctively welcome variation on the base recipe. Orange and lemon bitters represent other paths to explore.
Garnish
Most images show the Aperol Spritz garnished with an entire orange slice or with an oversized orange wedge. To step up your garnish game, get creative with your oranges. For example, simply adding a second orange wedge makes for a nice garnish out of the norm. Other garnishes include lemon peels, green olives, mint, and even vanilla beans.
Please let us know how and why you customized your drink in the comments.
Step up your holiday cookie tray with vanilla rolls, a fragile cookie that melts in the mouth. The cookie remains dryer when fresh, so plan on baking up to five to seven days before serving for best results. With an interesting texture and a sweet vanilla flavor with hints of walnuts, vanilla rolls make a great companion to other cookies. As they reach for another, this traditional Slovak cookie always leaves people “asking what is this?” While some people prefer to make vanilla sugar from scratch, Dr. Oetker offers a great off the shelf product that works great in this recipe and as a topping over other pastries and fruit.
Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Use the nut grinder to grind the walnuts into a mush.
In a mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, powdered sugar, walnut mush, and all-purpose flour using a hand mixer. One by one, add the egg yolks to the mixture.
Form a ball from the dough, wrap it with the cling foil, and let rest in the fridge for two hours. While waiting, mix together the powdered and vanilla sugar in a 1:1 ratio.
After two hours, pull out the dough from the fridge. Use a soup spoon to cut pieces from the dough. On a mat or cutting board, form about three-inch-long rolls. The dough is very fragile and will fall apart from time to time, so this step requires a bit of patience.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Forming U-shapes, lay rolls onto baking sheets.
Bake the vanilla rolls for ten minutes. Pour the vanilla and powdered sugar blend onto a small plate, and cover the vanilla rolls with this mixture while they are still warm. Note that the rolls break very easily.
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