MxMo Rum: The Scarlet Ibis & Death

I've been gearing up for this Mixology Monday post since I first tasted (the better part of a bottle,) and then smuggled home from New York last week, The Scarlet Ibis blended rum of Trinidad. The first thoughtful sip is pictured at right. The latter sips were not so carefully tasted, as I recall.

The Scarlet Ibis is subtle but hot, releasing light floral and caramel notes throughout the finish. It makes a great cocktail rum because of its versatile flavor and generous proof. It's imported by Eric Seed, (all-around great guy and my bar's personal portal between Boise and the outside world of fine spirits,) especially for Death & Co., my favorite dimly lit watering hole with heavy wooden doors in New York's East Village.

That being said, I'm not the most rum-oriented cocktail guy (I know, I know... sacrilege!) It's not that I don't like rum and its application in drinks, but is probably best explained by my general aversion to tiki culture, (just hang me already,) and the fact that the company I work for used to own a tiki bar, (in, cough, IDAHO, USA!) and I'm a little scarred from the labor of digging up old rum drinks only to sell margaritas and vodka tonics to college students with bad manners. After writing a few drink menus that nobody understood, and training a few staffs that simply did not care, we took a bow to the Idaho context, and tapped out of the tiki game all together. Although all rum is not tiki, I have a little PTSD related to this experience. And when I realized I was loosing my MxMo cherry to a rum post, I swear I heard Victor Burgeon himself snicker at me from the great Trader's in the sky, amused by the irony, watching me flounder.

The Scarlet Ibis is a delicately sophisticated rum. It is, in my mind, beautiful respite from the tacky tiki nightmare that surrounds a culture, (and a style of dress for that matter,) that I simply do not understand. The rum is like everything I love about D&C; the classy and demure dark humor of the place, its beautifully gothic and morgue-like sensibility, the subtle air of something old. I made the punch below in a bowl that is so drastically ugly when set against the soft, alabaster punch pots I remember at Death that I refused to photograph it. It's melodramatic, I know, but that's how I feel about Death & Co...

Since anybody who's anybody has already had The Scarlet Ibis and the subsequent hangover, I decided to enlist the help of David Kaplan, co-owner of the nightlife establishment, and he directed me to Philip Ward who, from what I understand, is basically to Death & Co. what Mickey Mouse was to all those brooms in Fantasia.

The Gustad Noble Punch
In large pitcher disolve 12 demurara sugar cubes in 3 oz soda (Muddling is usually neccesary,) Stir in:
3 oz Lemon
1.5 oz Pimento Dram
6 oz Scarlet Ibis
4.5 oz fresh pressed Fuji apple juice
6 dash Peychaud's Bitters
Add ice and stir until chilled Pour into punch bowl over large piece of ice
Add 4.5 oz club soda
Garnish with slices of apple

Get Drunk!

Barring a few minor modifications, (my own dram and tart, granny smith apples,) I made this recipe for a group of friends in celebration of, well... The new Mixology Monday logo?... and am now feeling lucky that I wrote the majority of this post beforehand. Since the supply of Ibis is so effing limited, I would suggest dropping by D&C and ordering a bowl of this tart, spicy punch from Philip or whomever happens to be issuing libations at the time. On David's recommendation, I've also tried it in a Mai Tai. If you can rip yourself from the grip of Appleton's to try a Trinidadian variation, it's lovely. And, if you can get your hands on your own bottle of Ibis, do it before it's gone...

The Cure...

I'm sure I don't need to tell any of who live in Boise about our recent media event, but for the sake of any out-of-state readers, I'll give you a little background on the Penicillin...

Last Winter, a server of ours went to Nicaragua to surf and unwind for three months. After having returned and worked for three weeks, she fell terribly ill. Two days later, Central District Health called and informed me that she had hep A. To make a long story-- which I am still living-- very short, the media got a hold of it and made news of a fluke. The news media in Idaho can be likened to a flatulent old dog dressed in drag; bored and stinky with bad hair and makeup. Sooooo, with morale at an all-time low, the Penicillin is helping us have a some fun with our bad press. Its medicinal flavor is sure to scare the hysteria from any hypochondriac-- of which, we have learned, there are many in our little city. We're entering the Penicillin in the May Martini Mixoff, and its less-than-universal flavor profile leads me to believe it may win the competition the day that I'm seen wearing a pair of beige dockers... which, of course, is never.

Penicillin
1/4 oz Fernet Branca
1/4 oz Brown Sugar Cordial*
2 oz Bourbon (We use MM for the competition)
1 dash of Angostura Bitters
Stir gently and garnish with a smacked mint leaf.

*Make a very thick simple syrup out of brown sugar and add 1 ounce of Lemon Hart 151 for every cup of sugar used.

The Penicillin is bitter and aromatic with an almost syrupy finish. Placing the mint leaf on your palm and giving it a good smack before placing it on the drink's surface creates an herbal aroma that is surreal and compliments the flavor of the Fernet quite well. The smacked mint leaf is a favorite garnish of ours-- thanks, Audrey.

The flavor of bourbon breaks down rather quickly when poured over ice and stirred. If you're using room temperature bourbon, don't go nuts with the stirring. You want this drink to be strong and hot so you can skip the vaccination. If you have big ice, stir with that. It will chill the drink without watering it down too much.

Oh, and for those of you wondering... there has not been a single case of hep associated with Red Feather. It's amazing what a small town will do on a slow news day...

May Martini Mixoff

Boise's 5th Annual May Martini Mixoff is soon underway. For those of you living out of the area, the Mixoff is a cocktail competition sponsored by Future Brands of Idaho. Bartenders from the downtown area invent drinks in specified categories using sponsor products, and present their drinks to a panel of judges 3 bars at a time, every Thursday in May. There's a final party to announce the winners around the first weekend in June.

The organizers and a few chirping advisers have broken the competition up into three categories this year: Savory, Dessert, and Classic Martini. There's some flexibility with the Classic category as vodka is allowed to compete (puhtooey) and the use of vermouth is optional, as it seems. It should also be noted that this is a promotional, sponsor-oriented event. While I tend to make it way more culinary and serious than it is, the point is to have fun and raise money for a charity in honor of our late downtown friend, Lisa Villano.

Here's how I define each category, and how Red Feather and Bittercreek bartenders are being instructed to compete:

Savory
If you might enhance the flavor of a drink with salt and pepper, it's probably savory. Drinks in this category should have strong herbal, spice, or salty tones. The use of cream, coffee, chocolate, nut, or fruit cordials or liqueurs is discouraged. Simple syrup should be limited to use in fresh citrus juice or be infused with herb or botanical extract. The finish should range from menthol (hot not sweet), grassy, spicey, aromatic, bitter or umami.

Dessert
This drink should contain cream, egg, chocolate, sweet spice, nut or coffee cordial, vanilla, or caramel or caramelized fruit syrup. It should be considered post-prandial in flavor and not digestif, although both are usually considered appropriate for dessert. The finish should be sugary, milky, or syrupy.

Classic
For our bars in this competition, the Classic guidelines are quite simple. Gin and aperitif wine in a ratio of no less than 1 part aperitif wine to 6 parts gin. Bitters are optional.

Oddly enough, the most commonly asked question seems to be Where does the Cosmo fit? or Where does the Lemon Drop fit?... Repuesta? They fit in a different competition. The criteria is wonderfully designed to eliminate drinks of such an obvious and plaaaaaayed model. (It's a good model, just played-out as all hell.)

I hope we see some new trends this year, like the use of housemade cordials and garnish, and local, seasonally appropriate ingredients. As we develop our drinks for Red Feather and Bittercreek, I'll post the recipes here. Until then, pick up tickets for Martini Mixoff 2008 at the:

Kick-Off Party on April 29th at 5:30 pm in the Mode Building, 8th Street at Idaho, Downtown.

Tickets are $50 and will buy you one cocktail at each of the nine participating bars (expiring June 30th,) a drink at the Kick-Off Party, and entry to the final party in June and a drink there as well. Ticket-holders are encouraged to have a liver examination sometime in July. You may also purchase tickets at all of the competing bars starting this Friday, April 25th.

50 miles

Has anyone every heard that eating local honey helps control seasonal allergies? This is a huuuuuge debate in my office lately, since I think it's hogwash, but I'm interested to know about the scientific backing, if there's actually any out there...


The point, though, is not seasonal allergies. Since mine are terrible this time of the year, the subject was at the front of my head... like, literally... when I told a bar patron last month that her cocktail, (made with vodka, rose cordial, sour apple juice, and honey,) was composed of ingredients sourced within a 50-mile radius. After I shot down her local honey shtick, we had a talk about locality that went basically like this:

"If you guys are all into fancy drinks, why don't you guys have raspberries or strawberries or anything? I like berries."

"Well, they're not quite in season yet. Not it this part of the West, anyway."

"You can get them at Win-Co."

"I know."

(awkward silence, which I really enjoy sometimes.)

"So you don't have anything on the menu that you can't get from like the Co-Op or something?"

"The goal is to feature things on the menu from our area that are in season because we're trying to develop a true Idaho-style of cocktail making, and because it's better for our city's economy."

Barring limitations with local liquor and citrus fruit, it is completely possible in Boise to work with ingredients that are mostly local. What happens when we do this is very multifaceted. We create a style of cuisine and drink that is truly regional, and we save fuel and money by working with purveyors that are close. Building relationships in a direct-source system is easier, too. Most suppliers will even agree to bringing products in reusable containers that can be taken and then refilled, thus reducing waste and saving money and resources.

The idea is not new. Cloverleaf Creamery in Idaho is now delivering milk to restaurants and grocery stores in reusable glass bottles, just like it happened before giant commercial dairies took over most of the cows and land. In feudal France, communities would trade and source all of their food within a day's walk. Everything that the home produced and was used in some way. (As an aside, I've always thought it strange that chefs trained in French techniques in modern-day America will put a pot of sauce on a natural gas burner and let it go for 12 hours as if they were cooking in a kettle over a fire of burning refuse, as in the origins of French cooking.)

As we build local community awareness of food systems through sustainability education, farmer's markets, and grocery co-ops, we should be watching the bar to follow suit. I am obviously not perfect at this; there are still plenty of components in my menus that could be traded out for something closer or omitted based on seasonality altogether... everything is a journey, and in a world obsessed with globalization, the jouney to a local food economy is a long one. Check out Farmer's Markets USA for information about a market in your area and to learn about community-based food systems.