During the heatwave last summer, I drew forth lots of good suggestions for summer drinks. With the holidays looming, who knows some good winter drinks? My favorite is an Old Fashioned; here is my complete recipe:
In about an 8-oz squat glass, lightly smoosh a slice each of orange and lemon (get the juice out, but don’t mangle the rind) with about a tablespoon of sugar syrup (sugar dissolves badly in alcohol, especially cold alcohol) (variation: real maple syrup) half an ounce of Triple Sec/Cointreau/Grand Marnier, and a couple of generous dashes of Angostura Bitters. FIll the glass with crushed ice, and add liquor (see below), a splat of club soda, and a Maraschino cherry. Stir (this drink is an exception to the rule about shaking drinks with fruit and stirring others).
This is good with almost any brown liquor, including smoky (Scotch, Irish), or not (bourbon, rye) and if you use rum, you get a completely different drink, still excellent; sort of a cold-zone rum punch. “A drink” calls for three ounces of liquor; if you’re careful about who’s driving, etc., you can add more. It’s probably not comme-il-faut but nice to fish out the fruit when you’re done and eat it.
others (assume we know about hot buttered rum, Glögg, and Irish Coffee)?
Author: Michael O'Hare
Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, Michael O'Hare was raised in New York City and trained at Harvard as an architect and structural engineer. Diverted from an honest career designing buildings by the offer of a job in which he could think about anything he wanted to and spend his time with very smart and curious young people, he fell among economists and such like, and continues to benefit from their generosity with on-the-job social science training.
He has followed the process and principles of design into "nonphysical environments" such as production processes in organizations, regulation, and information management and published a variety of research in environmental policy, government policy towards the arts, and management, with special interests in energy, facility siting, information and perceptions in public choice and work environments, and policy design. His current research is focused on transportation biofuels and their effects on global land use, food security, and international trade; regulatory policy in the face of scientific uncertainty; and, after a three-decade hiatus, on NIMBY conflicts afflicting high speed rail right-of-way and nuclear waste disposal sites. He is also a regular writer on pedagogy, especially teaching in professional education, and co-edited the "Curriculum and Case Notes" section of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.
Between faculty appointments at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, he was director of policy analysis at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. He has had visiting appointments at Università Bocconi in Milan and the National University of Singapore and teaches regularly in the Goldman School's executive (mid-career) programs.
At GSPP, O'Hare has taught a studio course in Program and Policy Design, Arts and Cultural Policy, Public Management, the pedagogy course for graduate student instructors, Quantitative Methods, Environmental Policy, and the introduction to public policy for its undergraduate minor, which he supervises. Generally, he considers himself the school's resident expert in any subject in which there is no such thing as real expertise (a recent project concerned the governance and design of California county fairs), but is secure in the distinction of being the only faculty member with a metal lathe in his basement and a 4×5 Ebony view camera. At the moment, he would rather be making something with his hands than writing this blurb.
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I'll try the Old Fashioned with Myers's rum.
Myers's rum and tonic with a slice of lime is great for island holidays.
I'll speak up for the Rusty Nail: 2 parts scotch (blended, please) and 1 part Drambuie. Lemon twist optional. Serve over ice in an old-fashioned glass.
My personal favourite is called "Holly's Hope" - in a mug, mix equal proportions of Bailey's Irish Creme, Kahlua, Peppermint Schnaaps and Southern Comfort, and then fill the rest of the way with coffee. It's generally recommended to use 1/2 shot each of the liquors, but you can adjust it to taste. Just be sure to leave some room for the coffee 🙂
1/8 tsp ginger, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg in the bottom of a glass. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, add honey to taste, and a shot of whiskey. Fill the rest with hot cider.
Chimaya Cocktail
3 parts reposito tequila
4 parts apple cider
1 part fresh lime juice
1 part creme de cassis
salt on rim of glass optional
Sazarac:
- 1 teaspoon of simple syrup
- 3-4 dashes Peychaud's bitters
- 3 ounces rye whiskey
- 1/4 teaspoon Pernod
- lemon peel
Pack an Old Fashioned glass with ice. In another glass add sugar, whiskey and bitters. Add a few cubes of ice and stir to chill. Discard the ice from the first glass and pour in the Pernod. Coat the inside of the entire glass, then pour out the excess. Strain the whiskey into the Pernod coated glass. Twist the lemon peel over the drink, then rub the peel over the rim of the glass. Discard the twist.
Equal parts warmed amontillado sherry and good bourbon. Top with dash of cinnamon or nutmeg if you want.
Rum, straight up. Hot mixed drinks have never appealed to me. Something about the low boiling point of ethanol, I think.
Mark, I like your Old Fashioned recipe. A bartender in a town I visited, whose Old Fashioned I complemented, said his secret was to add a splash of Marschino cherry juice.
I'm going to print this section and work my way through the very interesting drinks offered up!
Hot syllabub; this is basically a hot eggnog. It's a bit of a hassle to make, but very worth it.
For 2 servings, beat an egg over almost-boiling water, with about 2 tablespoons of sugar, until thick and foamy. (Easiest way to do this is put the water in a saucepan and put a flat stainless-steel bowl on top of the saucepan.) Add 1 1/2 cups of steaming-hot milk (I usually microwave it) SLOWLY, while beating (at this point, you basically have a thin pudding with lots of foam.) Pour into big mugs. Add a long shot (2-3 ounces) of any brown liquor; both golden rum and dark rum are good choices, but brandy or bourbon are also good. Top with grated nutmeg. If you do it right, it is thick and rich, like eggnog, with a thick head of foam.
And for vin chaud/gluewein, the best wine is the really cheap Carlo Rossi "burgundy." Just heat, and add a slug of triple sec, a spoonful of sugar, and a couple cloves and a cinnamon stick, for a very good quick gluewein.
If you're like me, you're very lazy, so for simplicity's sake, the ideal winter warmer is a glass of 2/3 warm apple cider, 1/3 bottom-to-medium-shelf Scotch.
Tang, instant ice tea mix, hot water and a shot of Southern Comfort in proportions to taste.