After Hours Mixologist

Pumpkin Syrup

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Fall is the time of year for a Rumpkin, the spiced pumpkin-flavored martini recreated here in 2017. This season, I’ve updated the syrup recipe and was even happier with the results.

You start, as in the original recipe with a 1:1 brown sugar simple syrup.

Worth Its Weight

A quick word about measurements. A 1:1 ratio means you use as much of one ingredient as you do the other. The sugar measurements really can’t be done accurately by volume (i.e., with a measuring cup). Sugar comes in different granulated sizes. Crystals of brown sugar vary in size but have more air between them than, say, dashes of powdered sugar. The only way to know how much you’re using is to weigh it on a digital scale. If you don’t have a scale, or can’t be bothered to use one, you can use measuring cups, of course. But the results really aren’t the same.

This year I weighed out 250 grams of brown sugar. I then chose an equal amount of water, 250 milliliters. Water is special. At room temperature, water’s weight in grams equals its volume in milliliters. You can weigh out 250g of water, but you can also just use a measuring cup with ml markings.

Dissolve the sugar and water over medium heat. Swish the pan around to be sure the sugar granules are fully dissolved. It won’t take long, a few minutes.

Just the Pumpkin, Hold the Pie

Into the pan whisk in a 17-ounce can of organic pumpkin purée. This is a modification from the earlier recipe, which used an organic pumpkin pie mix that came already spiced with traditional autumnal flavors. Pumpkin pie mix also has sugar in it, which seemed another reason to avoid it as we’re already mixing it into a sugar solution.

Now raise the heat, bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer until the mixture concentrates to a syrup that coats the back of a spoon. This step takes about 30 minutes.

Since organic pumpkin purée is a clean canvas, you’re now left to improve it however you like. A simple choice is a pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice mixture. Trader Joe’s is a fine powder of cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom. These, and not real pumpkin, are truly what we think of when we say something is “pumpkin-spiced.”

I’ve used the pumpkin pie spice mixture with great results. About a half teaspoon turned the sweet but bland pumpkin syrup into a pumpkin-spiced triumph. Alternately, you can experiment with your own flavor combinations, increasing the amount of, say, the warming ginger or introducing black pepper, granulated orange peel, or ground allspice, for starters.

No matter what you do, though, be sure your spices are fresh. Particularly the ground ones lose their pungency quickly over time. If it has been hanging around your pantry for a year or more it’s worth your effort to toss it out for a newer package.

Once the syrup is cool, mix in a tablespoon of vodka to help preserve it and then store it in the refrigerator.

Santa’s Little Helper

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The seasons pass quickly. No sooner were we enjoying all things pumpkin than it’s time to move on to more festive tastes.

To flavor a holiday-themed cocktail you can, of course, buy Gingerbread flavored syrup or even a liqueur, but what’s the fun in that? Instead, I set out to create a gingerbread flavor that would be worthy of a new cocktail. I wanted to create something that would be seasonal, but not cloyingly sweet.

When we think of gingerbread we tend to think of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and perhaps allspice. Spice cakes with these ingredients have a role in the history of gingerbread making, particular in France (pain d’epices) and in Italy (panforte, which also includes dried nuts and fruits).

Today, however, the main flavoring components of gingerbread are ginger and molasses, the latter being introduced around the mid-seventeenth century as an alternative to what was initially honey and then later, sugar.

Unlike the pumpkin syrup of my last recipe, the liquid base for this one is beer, so it’s less applicable as an ice cream topping and not at all useful in a mocktail. Beer (and particularly the stout used here) is, however, a good choice for providing the necessary liquidity with some hearty additional flavors and a bit of a bitter bite. Any stout will do, but I prefer Guinness. Also, be sure to have a fresh bottle of powdered ginger for this recipe. Spices lose their potency quickly. A good idea is to write the date you opened a spice right on the jar. If it’s older than 90 days (or you can’t remember when you opened it), it’s time for a new one.

For the syrup: In a small but deep saucepan warm ¾ cup (175 ml) of stout over medium heat to boiling. Remove from heat and add ½ teaspoon of baking soda (alternately, you could start with stout that’s been left out to go flat). The baking soda will make the mixture foam up, hence the need for a deep enough pan to avoid a spillover. When the foaming has subsided, add ¾ cup of brown sugar, ¼ cup of granulated sugar, ⅔ cup (160 ml) of molasses, 1½ teaspoons of ground ginger, and a few twists of freshly, finely ground black pepper to the mixture. Whisk to combine then simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool then refrigerate it in a clean glass jar, ideally one that you rinsed with boiling water beforehand.

It’s Rum Again

Like the Rumpkin, the spirit for this cocktail is rum. It just makes sense to pair the molasses in our gingerbread syrup with rum, which oftentimes starts as molasses, too. As I’ve noted previously, rum is a remarkably popular spirit with a long history in American life. During the time of the War for Independence, nascent America was home to several hundred rum distilleries (60 of them just in Boston) converting more than seven million gallons of molasses into rum each year.1

But history aside, there’s just something warm and festive about rum. It brings a spiciness you just don’t get with some other spirits.

For this drink you’ll want a dark rum, like the Puerto Rican Don Q Gran Anejo Rum that I used in the Rumpkin. This time I turned to Kirk & Sweeney’s 18-year-old rum from the Dominican Republic, a beautifully spicy alternative.

To add body and some foaminess to the finished drink I added a fresh egg white to the recipe, so you’ll need to do a vigorous “dry shake” (without the ice) before you shake a second time with ice. All the information about working with raw eggs (and some warnings, too) are included with the Rumpkin recipe, so be sure to brush up there if you have any concerns.

I like to dot the froth at the top of the glass with a few drops of chocolate bitters. My favorite are the Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Cocktail Bitters.

Recipe

¾ oz (25 ml) gingerbread syrup
2¼ oz (70 ml) rum
1 egg white
Drops of chocolate bitters (optional)

In a cocktail shaker, combine syrup, rum, and egg white and shake vigorously for 15 seconds.

Add plenty of ice to the shaker, close it and shake vigorously again for 15 seconds.

Pour into chilled martini glass and garnish with some drops of chocolate biters.

Note: You can optionally strain the contents through a fine sieve to ensure that no unincorporated egg white slips into the glass.

Image Credits: Robert DelRossi.

Rumpkin Cocktail

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It’s a time of year for all things pumpkin, so why not a cocktail, too?

We had a delicious “rumpkin” at Willow Room in Chicago and with a little help from their bartender, I have come up with a close facsimile.

“Rumpkin” is a mashup of rum and pumpkin. The former is the easy part, the latter required some syrup making.

Pumpkin Syrup

When it comes to getting a pumpkin syrup you have three options ranging from the ridiculously simple to the experimental.

At the easy, hardly adventurous end of the spectrum is to simply buy one. Syrup makers Torani or Monin seem like reasonable places to start, though I can’t vouch for either.

The middle ground, which I chose, was to concoct a brown sugar simple syrup then fortify it with actual pumpkin. Here, you have two choices: canned or boxed pumpkin pie mix, which already includes a nice blend of autumnal species (but also sugar), or unadulterated pumpkin purée, into which you will need to add your own spice blend to get the pumpkin flavor you and your guests will expect.

By disposition, I’m naturally inclined to a “build your own” approach, but in this case I decided against the plain pumpkin purée route. As I see it, there is just too much to consider when trying to strike the right balance between allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and stronger spice flavors like clove. Sure, if I were making a pie, I’d use the plain purée so I could control how much sugar winds up in the end product, but since we’re making a sweet syrup anyhow, the added sugar in the pumpkin pie mix didn’t concern me. I went with Farmer’s Market Foods, Organic Canned Pumpkin Pie Mix, which consists of pumpkin purée, cane sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and allspice.

For the syrup: Make a 1:1 brown sugar simple syrup by combining 12 ounces of filtered water with 12 ounces of brown sugar. Apply enough heat for the sugar to dissolve, then add a quarter cup of the pumpkin pie purée. Whisk to combine and simmer for 18 to 30 minutes or until the syrup coats the back of a spoon. Allow the syrup to cool then refrigerate it in a clean glass jar, ideally one that you rinsed with boiling water beforehand. If you plan to keep it longer than a couple weeks, consider adding a tablespoon of vodka to the cooled mixture to help preserve it longer.

Choosing A Rum

Derived from sugarcane and carrying with it a long history, rum is the top-selling spirit in the world. Even during America’s colonial period, rum produced in New England and New York from molasses of the West Indies was the most popular distilled beverage in the land. Historically, rum played an ignominious role in the triangle trade of those days.

Uniquely for spirits, rum is available in both clear (fermented in stainless steel tanks) and dark varieties (aged in oak barrels). For the rumpkin you’ll want the dark version and for mine I stuck with Willow Room’s choice, Don Q Gran Anejo Rum from Puerto Rico. It’s from there that the vast majority of rums consumed in the US originate (most with a Bacardi label on the bottle). Gran Anejo, which is produced by the Serrallés family, is an aged blend of rums that is definitely worth trying on its own or on the rocks.

Egg White Foam

For the drink’s foamy top you will need an egg white and a technique called dry shaking, in which the ingredients are first mixed without ice before they are shaken with ice. If you don’t do this, the egg white will curdle into an unappetizing glob.

If you’re unfamiliar with using egg in cocktails, don’t be intimidated. Egg whites have long been used in classic cocktails like the Whiskey Sour, Pisco Sour, and Ramos Gin Fizz. The egg whites add a delicious creaminess and foaminess to the drink.

Use the freshest egg white you can find. Though it’s likely how you first learned to do it, it’s best not to use the egg shell as a tool for separating the yolk from the whites. A safer option is to crack the egg into a slotted spoon, allowing the egg white to drip off, or crack the egg into a bowl and fish the yolk out with a teaspoon.

Finally, it’s essential that you roughly shake the cocktail, as directed below, for the full 30 seconds so that the egg is fully incorporated into the drink.

Bear in mind that there are safety considerations with using raw eggs, and the alcohol in your cocktail won’t ward off those risks. The outstanding web site Serious Eats has all the details. Bottom line, if you’re concerned about consuming or serving raw eggs, skip this part of the recipe.

Recipe

1 oz (30 ml) pumpkin syrup
2 oz (60 ml) rum
1 egg white
Dash of cinnamon (optional)

In a cocktail shaker, combine syrup, rum, and egg white and shake vigorously for 15 seconds.

Add plenty of ice to the shaker, close it and shake vigorously again for 15 seconds.

Pour into chilled coupe glass and garnish with a dash of ground cinnamon.

Note: You can optionally strain the contents through a fine sieve to ensure that no unincorporated egg white slips into the glass.

Indian Old Fashioned

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This drink was inspired by a version I had at Rasa, an Indian restaurant in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. It combines some of my favorite flavors into a warming cocktail that I think is great for this time of year when there’s a chill in the air.

Like any classic cocktail as the word was defined first in print in 1806,1 there is something sweet (in this case, I made an Indian-spiced syrup), some bitters (Angostura makes sense for this drink), and spirits (I prefer rye, the original Old Fashioned spirit,2 though bourbon would work too).

The interesting ingredient, of course, is the spiced syrup. I made it by toasting, grinding and steeping two tablespoons of garam masala in an 1:1 solution of 12 ounces sugar and 12 ounces filtered water. I kept the mixture simmering for about 15 minutes, after which it needs to be filtered. Bear in mind that since you’re creating a syrup, as water evaporates, what’s left in the pan gets sweeter. This is different than simple syrup in which water and sugar are combined just long enough for the sugar to dissolve.

To filter the syrup I turned to my handy chinois, which let not a hint of the ground spices through its fine mesh. No chinois? No worries. Just run the mixture through a paper coffee filter. The syrup should be a beautiful light amber color, the combination of the infused spice essence and a slight caramelization of the sugars in the pan.

Allow the syrup to cool to room temperature then keep it refrigerated in a clean glass jar, ideally one that you rinsed with boiling water beforehand. Since syrups can mold, I added a tablespoon of vodka into the mixture after it had cooled. Generally, syrups like this should last for about a month.

Getting to know Garam Masala

No wonder I think of this cocktail as “warming!” Garam masala, a ubiquitous spice mixture found in so much Indian cuisine, literally translates as “warm spice mix.”

Though good cooks no doubt compose their own, I found a handy prepackaged version of garam masala with whole coriander, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, cloves, cardamom and bay leaves at an Indian grocery store. Subsequently, I found this same mixture is conveniently available from Amazon. Indian cooks call the mixture khada masala when it’s whole like this, grinding it is what makes it garam masala.

Whole spices taste better when you toast them first to draw out natural oils. Before you grind them, roll the spices around in a small pan over medium heat for about three minutes, making sure they don’t burn. From there, I grind them coarsely in a coffee grinder that I’ve set aside just for spices.

Syrups like this that simmer longer than it takes simply to dissolve the sugar can be sweet, so adjust the ratios to your satisfaction. The recipe that follows is how I make mine, including a dash of cayenne pepper, which gives a very nice, fiery kick after each sip.

Recipe

2 oz (60 ml) rye or bourbon
2 tablespoons (30 ml) spiced syrup
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a rocks glass until cold. Spritz fresh lemon zest (or orange if using bourbon) over the top and garnish with it.

Think of me as an enthusiast

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Let’s get this out of the way up front. I’m not a professional bartender, or even an unprofessional one. I’m more what you’d call a cocktail enthusiast. Someone who enjoys a good drink (and good food), and even more so when I know a little bit about them. To me, food and drink taste better when I know how they’re made. Toss in some details about their background, or how they have featured in our cultural history, and I’m totally hooked.

That’s what this site is about. Exploring cocktails, the stories behind them, and the tools and techniques to make them properly.

Along the way I hope to explore how best to pair food and drink, pass along tips for entertaining, and discuss some of the trendiest new places to enjoy cocktail culture, which has experienced a true renaissance in this decade.

It’s best not to drink alone. I’m happy to have the company. Welcome aboard.