Belmont Cocktail

A recent cocktail book acquisition was the Mr. Boston Platinum Edition, at a Borders Outlet. It has the virtues and flaws of any Mr. Boston book; this is of course the classic mixed drinks bible, of which everyone owns a copy. It is hardly without flaw - the drinks appear with no commentary, in a strange mixture of old and new, good, bad and indifferent, with rather variable sizes. The book has evolved over many years; I had a copy for many years from the 70s.

I have lately been tempted to choose a book and march through it, making each cocktail in alphabetical order and blogging about it, complete with pictures. Some other bloggers do that - one is using the classic Savoy Cocktail Book for this purpose, and his blog is fun to read. I don't have that book yet, but I've made a couple of cocktails from his descriptions. But there are some practicalities to be mindful of. What about drinks for which one does not have ingredients? Do I skip them or substitute, or plan way ahead? The Savoy blogger obviously is able to afford some rather impressive brands, some of which I've never even heard of, much less seen on shelves in Michigan; and he lives in California, where he can readily obtain such items. Here in the People's Republic of Michigan, where our bureaucratic masters carefully control every bottle that enters the state and set its minimum price, this is an ongoing problem. Not ambitious cocktail lovers, our bureaucratic masters.

Ordering ingredients from out of state has multiple problems: expense in shipping; California distributors, who often have the widest varieties of items, won't ship to Michigan; and it's illegal to do it to begin with. (Almost certainly it's unconstitutional for the state to ban the practice after Granholm v. Heald, but I'm pretty sure the state will continue to attempt to ban private shipments until someone can afford to fight them to the Supreme Court for liquor as was done with wine. That would not be me.) So there are no easy options.

I was contemplating trying all the gin cocktails in Mr. Boston, but the ingredient problem was immediate: the second cocktail, the Adam and Eve, requires "Citrus-flavored brandy". I've never heard of such a thing, and certainly never seen it on the shelves. Can they possibly mean a brandy-based triple sec? It seems unlikely. And the fourth cocktail, the Alaska, calls for yellow Chartreuse. Chartreuse is alarmingly expensive, and Michigan doesn't seem to permit the stocking of less expensive 375 ml. bottles of the stuff. I have a precious fifth of green Chartreuse, and it seems to me that I've seen versions of the Alaska that call for green, so that might be solvable.

It's funny - I have a fairly well-stocked bar now, collected over a good many years and augmented by three separate inheritances or donations. I get the odd "You have Pernod?!" reaction from friends from time to time. But there are still a fair number of ingredients that present problems. I have other hobbies and am far from wealthy; I can't just buy anything that crops up in a recipe I'd idly like to try. (Thankfully, except for staples like gin and brandy and bourbon and scotch, the stuff doesn't get used too awfully fast.) And there are some things, like kola tonic or Amer Picon, for example, that are clearly going to be projects, not casual acquisitions. If I had those two items, I believe I would have made every recipe in the indispensible Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by now. I think I've done everything else that's actually practical.

At any rate, I put off that project for now and instead just picked a gin cocktail from that chapter: the Belmont. Alas, it's fairly awful. You would guess lightly sweet and creamy from the ingredients, but no. The gin overpowers the drink. Not a good idea. I'll finish drinking it - I'm eyeing it uneasily as I write this, the cream separating from the gin as if unwilling to associate with it. But this would not be one to repeat. Bourbon or scotch on the rocks would have been quicker, easier, more satisfying and with less clean-up. On the other hand, one does not discover new and exciting alchemical concoctions when one sticks to pouring whisky over ice...

2 oz. gin [Gordons]
1 tsp. raspberry syrup
3/4 oz. light cream

Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. (p. 55)

UPDATE: To illustrate what I meant about my disadvantageous position in Michigan regarding ingredients, look at this latest post from the Savoy blogger. The drink is simple enough: absinthe, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth and gin. But notice the ingredients. I couldn't buy a single one of them in Michigan. I could make this drink myself, with ease (and I think I may try it tomorrow night). But I couldn't use the brands he mentions with the best will in the world. Now, I don't mean to whine - there are other interesting brands here. It just annoys me to have limited options.