Odd Craft Liqueurs

It’s no secret that I have a penchant for odd liqueurs and craft cocktails. I’ve been publishing my experiments with cocktails since I recipe tested Butter and Scotch in the first month of the Newfield Street Kitchen blog. And I’ve been writing about my travels to distilleries - both local and distant - ever since I started these adventures last May. One of the best side effects of my experiments and expeditions is that I’ve inspired friends and family to do the same. I love hearing about all the interesting drinks that they have tried, all the fascinating places that they have visited, and all the awesome people who they have met. And it’s such an honor to receive a bottle from their visit!!!

Recently, Little Z sent me two bottles of infused vodka from an adventure in Hawaii. There were actually four bottles - two of each flavor, one for me, one for her. After staring at those bottles for a week, I remembered that I had received two interesting bottles as gifts last year. Last August, I had planned extensive experiments with those bottles, but they never came to fruition. So I pulled those to bottles from their hiding spaces, and decided to integrate them into my experiments.

Sapling Maple Liqueur from Saxton River Distillery, Vermont

One of my favorite relatives frequently reads this blog, so she knows all about my fondness for craft cocktails and odd liqueurs. She emails me short cocktail related articles and recipes, as well as texts me photos of her concoctions. So when she and her husband ran into a maple liqueur during a trip north, she instantly thought of me. She graciously bought me a bottle, and surprised me with it at my goddaughter’s christening last June.

Although all seven drink recipes listed on the Saxton River Distillery website looked interesting (in a good way), I decided to exercise some moderation and go with something easy: The Vermont and Stormy. It’s basically a riff on the Bermudian national drink, in which the Goslings Black Seal is replaced by the Sapling Maple Liqueur.

Naturally, before I mixed the liqueur into a drink, I wanted to try it straight up. So I poured a little sample into my measuring shot glass and drank it in two sips. It smelled fairly alcoholic, with fainter notes of maple. Based on that, I expected my sample to taste strongly of the alcohol with a maple aftertaste. Not quite…. The maple taste and silky feel were strongly up front, with the alcohol burn to follow. The maple taste was clear and bold, but oddly reminiscent of pecan as well. I suspected that this would be very good mixed with something that masked the alcoholic finish.

With that, I exhumed a bottle of Barritt’s Diet Ginger Beer from the vegetable drawer in my refrigerator. (It’s actually more of a bottle drawer than a vegetable drawer; it contains a few bottles of beer, a few bottles of ginger beer, and no vegetables.). Mixing the Vermont and Stormy was as easy as mixing a Dark and Stormy: fill a glass with ice, add ginger beer, float a delicious brown liquor on top. Except the Sapling Maple Liqueur was so thick that it wouldn’t float on top, so the finished drink didn’t have the classic look of a dark thunder cloud on top of a clear sky. It just looked like a cloudy sky.

Much to my delight, the Vermont and Stormy was absolutely delicious. As I had hoped, the alcoholic finish of the maple liqueur was completely absorbed into the ginger beer. And that made digging in the drawer for the bottle of ginger beer worth all the while. I was half tempted to use one of the cans of diet ginger ale that I kept handy; however, that brand didn’t really have a distinct ginger taste. So I don’t think it would have made a stellar Vermont and Stormy. Besides I really enjoyed finishing the bottle of diet ginger ale after I finished my drink. (I could have mixed a second, but that might have been too much for one night.)

Overall, I really liked how the maple liqueur blended with the ginger beer, which made me really curious how some of the other recipes on the webpage might work out. But better judgement prevailed, and I decided to save those experiments for another time.

Hapa Hibiscus Vodka from Island Distillers, Hawaii

Little Z said that she thought of me when she found the distillery in Hawaii for three reasons: I love specialty craft liquors, I could teach her what to do with her bottles, I had a stable street address that FedEx could ship to. The stable street address was not a problem at all; even though the Fedex delivery happened when I wasn’t home. Little Z sent me a screen shot of the missed delivery notice during the day so that I could pick up the package at the Walgreens on my way home. (Who knew that FedEx could colocate with Walgreens?)

I absolutely love the flavor of hibiscus. My love affair started about two decades ago when I had a grant to teach English at a university in Slovakia for the summer. Part of the teaching deal was that I had to spend one afternoon with each student to develop their fluency in a one-on-one setting. Two of the younger ladies in the class were best friends, so they wanted to do their afternoons together. I saw no problem with the idea because they were both fairly strong students. On our first outing together, they excitedly invited me to join them for tea at a tea house. When the menu came, the ladies excited pointed out that each tea had its curative properties listed next to it. And they highly recommended the “ibišetcovy chai” because it was good for neurotics like me. I had to laugh! But I ordered the tea anyway, and was blown away by how delicious it was. Unfortunately, between the three of us and our dictionaries, we couldn’t figure out the English language translation. Fortunately, my sister had a similar experience with a bright red tea in Germany, and loved it so much that she brought home a metal container of it for my parents. Eventually, she had heard me tell the story of the tea for neurotics, and suggested that I try the tea from Germany. It was the same thing! And the German labelling of “hibiskus” was much easier to decipher into English. From there, I discovered the Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger herbal tea, which I’ve been somewhat addicted to ever since.

Unfortunately, the Island Distillers website didn’t have any recipes for their flavored vodkas - just their flagship spirits. So I was left to my own devices to figure something out. At first, I thought I could invent something using both the hibiscus vodka and the tequila barrel aged rose liqueur that I recently picked up from the local distillery, because both are quite floral flavors. But then I realized that the hibiscus vodka probably would not bring out the uniqueness of the barrel aging. Which was fine because I also had half a bottle of their traditional rose liqueur. So my next thought was to look through their recipes page in order to find a vodka and rose recipe in which I could substitute the hibiscus vodka. But I never got there because I found a baby bottle of prosecco in my refrigerator. And that reminded me that the French Lavender variation of the French 75 cocktail that I had made for my mother and sister went over very well at one of our family holidays. So my thought was to substitute the hibiscus vodka for the floral gin in that recipe. But then I gave it some thought, and figured that I could also substitute the rose liqueur for the lavender liqueur in the recipe as well.

Before I even attempted any kind of cocktail, I felt like I had to try the hibiscus vodka straight. The small sample that I poured smelled fabulous, exactly like a high quality hibiscus tea. However, the taste was reminiscent of pure grain alcohol, which was odd because the base vodka is distilled from sugar cane. That should have made it more like a cachaça than a vodka. But I haven’t had cachaça in forever, so it may actually taste exactly like grain alcohol. I don’t have a bottle in the house because I don’t necessarily know what to do with it aside from making caipirinhas. Therefore, I haven’t really seen the need to buy one.

In the end, the drink I decided to mix was based on the Hartford Flavor Company recipe for a French Lavender. I did exactly as I had planned: I substituted the hibiscus vodka for the gin, substituted the rose liqueur for the lavender liqueur, maintained the lemon juice measurement, and maintained the precise prosecco measurement. The drink was so good!! It smelled like hibiscus and rose, tasted like hibiscus and rose, with no harsh alcohol after taste. The floral tastes probably would have been a little more prominent had I lengthened the drink with an in determinate amount of seltzer water instead of the prescribed amount of prosecco - but then that would have needed a different glass - and maybe some ice and a straw.

Overall, I enjoyed the hibiscus and rose combination. And it got me thinking about what other liqueurs I could mix with it. For example, at the St. Valentine’s Day mixology class earlier this year, I learned a drink recipe that contained cranberry liqueur, lime liqueur, vodka, and ginger ale. I could easily swap out both the cranberry liqueur and the vodka in the recipe for the hibiscus vodka. Although, I would probably use the same measurement as for the vodka, rather than combine the two measurements. Alas, these are more experiments for another day…

Hapa Chile Pepper Vodka from Island Distillers, Hawaii

When I heard from Little Z that she was sending me a bottle of chile pepper vodka, my immediate thought was to mix it into a Bloody Mary. Shortly after I picked up a bottle of horseradish vodka at Dirty Water Distillery last November, I tried mixing that into a Bloody Mary. It was excellent! But I hadn’t been really feeling tomato juice on my days off - and I wasn’t going to break the norm and drink a Bloody Mary at a meal other than breakfast.

At some point, a shock of inspiration struck. For some reason, I had a random thought about taking the chocolate peppermint martini that I serve at my Winter Solstice parties in the direction of Mexican chocolate. That would basically require omitting the peppermint schnapps and the Vandemints liqueur and substituting the chile pepper vodka for the plain unflavored vodka.

Since I wasn’t confident in the sanity of my inspiration, I floated my idea past Little Z, Autie, and my sister. Autie thought the idea was somewhere in between genius and gross, depending on the strength of the flavor of the chile pepper vodka. I assured her that I would taste the vodka first, and then adjust the drink recipe as appropriate. My sister, however, thought the idea was pure genius. She recommended adding a splash of cinnamon liqueur to round out the Mexican flavor of the drink. I don’t have any cinnamon liqueur (I find it kind of gross) but I proposed making a strong cinnamon simple syrup to add the cinnamon flavor and a little sweetness. My sister was cool with that idea.

When asked what else I could do with my chile pepper vodka, Autie recommended the combination of chile and strawberry. I wasn’t sure about that, but I suddenly had a craving for making a smoothie from orchard fresh strawberries, a little yogurt, and a little pineapple juice. While pondering the possibilities of Autie’s suggestion, I remembered that my flavor matrix book had a section for capsicum, which included the chile pepper. The “Best Pairings” paragraph highlighted stone fruit, aromatic spices, citrus, mint, wine, cheese, sour cream, and yogurt. Pumpkin, peach, dill, cinnamon, and rhubarb were listed in the “Surprise Pairings” paragraph. But, on the “flavor wheel,” cocoa rated very high - almost as high as the flavors in the “Best Pairing” paragraph. So, I decided to go with my original idea of a Mexican Chocolate Martini.

The first step in making the drink was to make the cinnamon syrup. Traditionally, simple syrup is one part white sugar to one part water (a rich simple syrup uses more sugar to the one part of water). Because I didn’t want to end up with a jar of cinnamon syrup in my refrigerator, I decided to just make a small batch. I put one-quarter cup white sugar, one-quarter cup water, and three sticks of cinnamon into my smallest saucepan. After bringing the mixture to a boil, I turned off the heat, covered the pot with a bowl, and let the cinnamon sticks steep until the syrup cooled, which turned out to be overnight.

The next step in making the drink was to taste the chile pepper vodka. I’ll admit, I was a little frightened to do this because I’ve had my fair share of accidental encounters with raw chile peppers of varying strengths in my kitchen. Most of those encounters were not very enjoyable. Since the cinnamon syrup was already made, and I didn’t want to lose it in my refrigerator menagerie of small jars and other experiments, I decided to bite the bullet. I poured the tiniest of samples and then employed some “booze yoga” (which I had completely forgotten about until Little Z reminded me) to taste the sample. It definitely had a distinct smoky chile flavor, which was closer to chipotle than to fresh jalapeño. Absolutely not something I could drink on the rocks or even with tonic, but it seemed like it would be really good mixed with other strong flavors.

Now that I had a sense of how strongly the vodka was flavored, I could adapt the chocolate peppermint martini recipe. The conversion from cups to ounces caused me no worries; the trick was balancing all the different flavors. The original recipe had peppermint schnapps, plain vodka, Melitti chocolate liqueur, and Vandemints chocolate mint liqueur. The heart of the drink was the plain vodka and the Melitti chocolate liqueur in a 1:2 ratio. Since the chile pepper vodka had such a strong taste to it, I decided that the vodka component of the drink should be 1/2 ounce chile pepper vodka and 1/2 ounce plain vodka. I had thought about omitting the plain vodka, but I figured I needed its volume to tamp down the chile flavor. Then I added 2 ounces of Melitti chocolate and 1/2 ounce of my cinnamon syrup. All the ingredients were measured into a mixing glass with three ice cubes, so I stirred vigorously until the ice cubes were level with the liquid, which seemed to me to be the appropriate amount of dilution. The final step was to strain it into a martini glass for consumption.

The drink was fabulous. It was definitely a well-balanced chocolate martini, with background notes of chile pepper and cinnamon. I would have no qualms about making this again for myself or even as a pre-batched cocktail for a dinner party. I was pleased that I had made such a strongly flavored cinnamon syrup because it held its own in the drink. I’m not sure if it would be as balanced if I had used a chocolate liqueur other than Melitti; that specific brand has a definite thickness to it that I haven’t found in other brands. Fortunately, as long as the company still makes their liqueur, my small local liqueur store will special order it for me.

Apple Pie Liqueur from Dry County Distillery, Washington State

One of my favorite Chiefs also frequently reads this blog, so she thought of me when visiting a distillery local to her. When we met up in Texas last July, she graciously presented me with a bottle of the liquor that she liked best, which was an apple pie liqueur.

I have made my own apple pie moonshine when a friend invited me to participate in her friend’s Battle Apple Iron Chef Party a few years ago. The recipe I used was from one of Dad’s coworkers, and was a huge hit. Unfortunately, it didn’t win the battle because someone else brought an apple pie moonshine with a fancier presentation and a better backstory. The recipe I used was a mixture of apple juice, apple cider, grain alcohol and spices, which was pretty much meant to be drunk straight. According to the Dry County Distillery website, they also make their products to be enjoyed neat or over ice. Therefore, they offer four or five serving suggestions for each liqueur on their products page, and a very limited selection of recipes on their recipe page.

Unfortunately, because so much time had passed since I originally researched the apple pie moonshine, the distillery’s web page went down so I couldn’t check back on the recipes. But a good friend of mine in Washington state (remember Toshka?) did some web research for me, and found a pin on Pinterest that led to a recipe for an Apple Pie Moonshine Cocktail at the Little Epicurean. And all I needed was apple juice and lemon juice, because I had already made a cinnamon syrup for my chile pepper vodka adventure.

Like the other specialty liqueurs, I tried a small sample of the apple pie liqueur before mixing it. And this time I remembered to employ my “booze yoga”! The liqueur distinctly tasted of sweet cinnamon apples, with a bit of an alcoholic burn behind it. I can definitely see why the distillers so strongly recommended drinking it on the rocks rather than mixed.

Naturally, I made a few changes to the Little Epicurean recipe. Since I already had a cinnamon syrup made, I used that. Mine had a much stronger flavor than I would have gotten by following their recipe; they called for two cinnamon sticks to one cup white sugar and one cup water, with a maximum steeping time of 30 minutes. I debated cutting the cinnamon syrup back from one ounce to one-half ounce, but I like cinnamon so I decided not to alter the amount in the recipe. However, since I was being lazy, I built the drink in a rocks glass, stirred to combine, then added three cubes of ice after stirring. That meant that my drink probably wasn’t as diluted as it would have been if I followed the recipe. But I was okay with that if it meant not having to clean another glass.

I was quite surprised by how good the cocktail was. There was no alcoholic aftertaste to it at all. And the cinnamon taste wasn’t overpowering. Fortunately, I was eating lunch (a Caprese sandwich using my community supported agriculture tomatoes) at the time, or else I can almost guarantee that I would have drank this too fast. (I was hot and sweaty from being outside). I also kept the bag of Terra Chips on my desk as I worked my way through the cocktail, just in case.


Bonus! Wild Moon Lavender Liqueur and Empress 1908 Gin

Hartford Flavor Company has a gimmick whereby if you find a bottle of their liqueur out in the wild with a dot underneath the number on the neck of the bottle, you can bring that bottle back to the distillery to redeem for a free bottle of any flavor. As luck would have it, when I was checking out at my small local liquor store in November, I noticed that the lavender liqueur bottle that they had on display was one of the specially marked ones. So I bought it, poured the liqueur into a flip top glass soda bottle, and brought the empty bottle back to the distillery for a free bottle of lavender liqueur. I earmarked this new bottle for Little Z (along with a bottle of tequila barrel aged rose liqueur) for when she comes to my house to pick up her bottles from the Island Distillers.

While I was looking for the recipe for the French Lavender on the Hartford Flavor Company website, the first recipe I discovered was for a Lavender Empress. I just happened to have recently acquired a bottle of Empress 1908 gin from my small local liquor store, which I was really surprised to find on the shelf. Some time last summer, during a trip to Hawaii, my sister texted me a photo of a gorgeous purple/pink drink made with a color-changing butterfly pea extract. Shortly afterward, I ordered a similarly lovely cocktail at my local bar. Between taking advantage of the knowledge of my friendly bartenders and doing some research online, I discovered that both our drinks used Empress 1908 gin. So I special ordered a bottle at my small local liquor store as a gift for my sister, which she was delighted to receive when I saw her in New York City in September.

I was quite intrigued by the concept of the Lavender Empress cocktail, which required mixing my Empress 1908 gin with lavender liqueur and lemonade over ice. (It wasn’t until later that I discovered the recipe also required 1/2 ounce lemon juice). Since my weekend travel plans had canceled, I bought some lemonade while grocery shopping with the intent of mixing the drink to accompany my lunch.

After making another Caprese sandwich with fresh tomato and basil from my community supported agriculture share, I set about making the Lavender Empress. Since I was working from a screenshot that I had sent my sister and my aunt for their opinions, I didn’t see any instructions. So I just did what was logical. I added all the ice in my freezer (which was three cubes) to a juice glass, then I poured a generous one ounce of lavender liqueur into the glass. I stirred in a generous two ounces of premade lemonade and then floated one and one half ounces of Empress 1908 gin on top. I admired how pretty it looked for a second, then stirred the drink to thoroughly mix in the gin.

The drink was amazing. The lavender was present but subtle, not the soapy taste that my sister had feared. (Then again, cilantro doesn’t taste like soap to me, so I might not have that gene.). The gin and lemonade would have worked well on its own, but the lavender was a lovely accent. The recipe gives the option of lemon soda instead of lemonade, so I’m definitely picking up some limonata during my next grocery store jaunt. I think it would be very good with a little more fizz, although it would probably need the lemon juice to amp up the lemon flavor.

The Verdict

I am just so tickled that my friends (and relatives) think of me when they travel to the odd craft distilleries in the United States, and that they are willing to get involved in my cocktail experiments by advising me via long distance text messages.

All of my experiments with my odd craft liqueurs were winners, even though the chile pepper vodka stretched my creativity. I would be willing to serve all of them to friends (and relatives) at one of my dinner parties, which is a step above than being willing to mix them for myself. I’m not done experimenting with a few of them, but I’ll hold off on that until I have more consolidated at home time to sleep late after experimenting!