Not quite a Dum Dum

As many of you know I'm not monogamous with beer; Oh no, I enjoy cider, whisky and all kinds of other beverages too. Recently I have been enjoying rum (though I can't claim to be able to afford to buy many bottles!). 

A couple of months ago I was contacted by someone representing Diageo (booo, hiss I hear you cry). Given some of the company's previous antics you've a right to be sceptical: but I decided to give them a chance. Naomi was looking for coverage of Diageo's spirits portfolio as presented on their new website The Bar. More on that later, but the upshot was a chance to try some new (to me) booze and why pass that up?

I decided I'd take up Diageo's offer of reimbursing me for the required spirits to make a few cocktails and Guatemalan Rum Ron Zacapa caught my eye. I'd previously enjoyed this in a Dum Dum at love and death inc but had been put off by the bottle pricetag, a little over my usual budget at £45. I availed of Diageo's offer and also picked up a bottle of grand marnier for £13 whilst on offer in Tesco. That's £58 of free booze maths fans. All other ingredients came from my own store cupboard and whilst under no obligations to writethis post I thought I'd share the results with you, mainly as I like saying "look wot i dun"! Ron Zacapa is an excellent rum and is actually really easy to enjoy neat (I actually bought the bottle in duty free on the way out to China and shared it with Daisy, my in laws and my parents and well received by all (despite mum insisting on mixing coke with hers...). Its warming, smooth, deep earthy spiciness, rich high cocoa chocolate, fruity coffee and caramel make for an excellent evening drink which would equally work well in a fruit based cocktail.

After procrastinating for thebest part of two months since I returned I thought this weekend would be a good time to try out some cocktails. To get warmed up i mixed up a simple concoction using the gran marnier, some cranberry and blueberry juice and lime. Perhaps a little sweet but it lined the stomache for some of the boozier numbers that were to come later. Adding in an extra quarter of a lime did the trick and was enjoyed by Daisy whilst I tried out a different libation.

 

	Grand Cran 25ml Grand Marnier 25mlCranberry Juice 7ml lime juice

The next was Kiss Above the Clouds created by a Chinese bartender Cross Yu working in MUSE,Shanghai.Video
 Picking up on those coffee notes it uses coffee liquer and chocolate bitters alongside fruity rosso vermouth and a dash of whisky (he used johnny walker gold, i had none so substituted peat chimney). It was a decent drop, though perhaps lacked something to make it really sing. Use of cinnamon was inspired however as it plays well to the spice in the rum.

	Kiss Above The Clouds 60ml Ron Zacapa 5ml whisky 20ml Sweet Vermouth 5ml Coffee Liqueur 2 dahes Chocolate Bitters Cinnamon Stick

After a day off I returned to try out a different creation, this one by a Spaniard David Rios who works in the Jigger Bar, Bilbao. Turns out he won World Class Bartender of the Year last year in a Diageo competition; so this should be one to look forward to! Again using coffee liqueur but also orgeat, an almond based syrup, with a cream float. Named Aroma for his two children's names which is kinda cute.
I was pretty pleased that i didn't create some kind of curdled mess and it was an excellent rich drink too. Although a tiny component the mint leaf pulled thelot together which highlights the importance of a proper garnish on a cocktail. Nb a bit of confusion on the website which suggest the coffee beans be shaken with the cocktail but watching the video will set you straight. Also chose to go for regular cream rather than coconut cream.

	Aroma 50ml Ron Zacapa 10ml Coffee Liqueur 10ml orgeat 17.5ml cream coffee beans mint

Finally I decided to have a go at recreating that dum dum cocktail I tried over a year ago which started my rum discovery journey in the first place.Luckily Love&Death Inc are fairly open with their ingredients (if not proportions) in their bar menu (did I  mention its presented in the form of a comic montage?!) I didn't fancy forking out for a bottle of clement creole shrub just yet so substituted grand marnier with a few dashes of  peychauds bitters. Chilli tincture seems like a faff for just myself; so that was substituted with a small amount of chopped red chili. It was pretty close to hoe I remember the bar version being, though perhaps required another 10ml of rum to really bring out those deep fruity notes. Maybe someone from the bar will see this and kindly let me know the real proportions?!

	Steve's Dum Dum 50ml Ron Zacapa 23 25ml Dubonnet Rouge 1sp Amaro Averna 1tsp Grand Marnier 2 Dashes Peychaud's 1/8 tsp chopped red chili

So i had a bit of fun mixing up some cocktails and there's certainly a few worth looking at on their website. Its pretty easy to navigate with a decent search function that lets you search by ingredient or by spirit (but cocktaildb will still be my go to) and of course serves to highlight Diageo's own alcohol range. The majority of the cocktails on the website are of your standard spirit+mixer±citrus ilk but there are certainly some that s more original creations, along with short YouTube clips on how to make them presented by their creators. The site could stand to lose the majority of the standard mixes and highlight the likes of these which are the more interesting ones. What it really showed me though was the breadth of Diageo's spirits portfolio...seems they're not just about the black stuff and single malts after all.

Many thanks to the team at Diageo for getting in touch and arranging for reimbursement, I have the best part of a litre of rum to consume how i see fit, which will slot in nicely beside the Brugal and Appleton 12 y/o in my growing collection. More Diageo based frollicks coming soon as we attend a beer and food pairing meal at St James Gate this weekend as partof the European BeerBloggers Conference...stay tuned folks!

First forrays into cocktails with POM

As I mentioned a while back, Daisy enjoys a cocktail every now and again and this has led to me enjoying them too. Taking my usual make interests into obsessive pursuits path I bought a pile of equipment and boozes as well as books to start experimenting at home. So when a PR rep from POM asked me if I'd like to try out some of their new cocktail recipes with some free juice I thought sure, why not.

POM is fairly pricey at ~£3.50 for a litre, but that's in line with other high end juices, and if you've ever tried to juice a pomegranate you'll know you need a lot of them for any useful amount of juice. Its 100% juice with no additives; so better than those diluted sugary juice drinks out there.

Without teaching people to suck eggs, a common cocktail ingredient Grenadine (Pomegranate syrup) can actually be made from pomegranate juice. It tastes better than most store bought stuff because it turns out those are often made of other red fruits, often raspberry! The syrup can be made as a simple 1:1 (by weight) mixture. The POM site recommends heating, but it'll dissolve at room temperature if you're patient.

I flicked through the recipes on www.pomcocktails.co.uk and decided to try one using just the juice and another cocktail utilising POM grenadine syrup.

POM island iced tea is a riff on the boozy long island iced tea. The spicy fruit flavours of pomegranate working well with both the herbal cola and the rich molasses flavours in dark rum.

I used Smirnoff vanilla vodka as it works well with coke, Hendricks Gin as its what I had to hand, Cointreau (which is basically a branded triple sec) and an own brand dark rum.

POM island iced tea

Very easy to follow the directions and no specialist equipment required. It makes a change to the regular iced tea which can sometimes be overly carbonated and cloying. There's also a mango version, but I couldn't get that variety of juice in Northern Ireland!

Purple Lady

The other recipe I decided to try was the Purple Lady. I must have been feeling brave as I usually avoid cocktails with egg white in! If you're worried about it there's no issue as long as you are using fresh eggs and shake well! As for the yolk, you can make a richer omelette/ scrambled egg or push the boat out and make crème brulee whilst you're in a making stuff and doing things mood.

A word of warning, the recipe doesn't go into as much detail as the video, which is well worth a watch if you're not sure about what order to use the ingredients in and mentions the all important "dry shake" which the written instructions omit. Beware the difference in measures between the video and the website, I followed the website but either should work, just don't mix and match!

I've also been given some extra coupons for a competition. So if one of you lucky readers fancies trying proper pomegranate juice and have a bash at home made grenadine or any of the other  recipes on the website, leave a comment below with why you should get the vouchers and what you would use the POM for and I'll pick my favourite on July 15th. There's also a competition on the webpage to win a home cocktail set.

Thanks to Esther at Escapade PR for sending the coupons and choosing my blog to help put the word out about POM.

Jura turns 50

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jura distillery,  this week being the Fèis Ile whisky celebrations. Today sees the distillery open day, with plenty of tutored tasting sessions, live music and other goodies. I managed to get in on the action from here in Northern Ireland by signing up to a tweet tasting with the Whisky Wire(thanks for the tip off Pete (drinks)!)

There have been distilleries on Jura for almost 200 years, but the current incarnation of Jura distillery dates back to 1963 when architect William Delme-Evans designed the "unusually large" stills that give the whisky its light character.

I'm fairly familiar with Jura, having visited them on my Islay tour last year. Five whiskys this time

 Turas Mara is a new addition to their core range but available only at certain travel retail outfits
. Fittingly the translation is "long journey" and it has been aged in bourbon casks from the USA alongside others from Spain, France and Portugal (I'd assume sherry, brandy and port, but could be wrong). As confirmed by Steve its Spanish sherry butts, French oak barriques & Portuguese port pipes. It's also named for a poem written by former Duirach* Jessie Scott, with her own departure point marked by a plaque on the beach.

At 42% its pretty close to the usual dilution mark of 40% and an attractive mid-golden-blonde colour. On the nose its spicy and boozy with caramel sweetness and some fruity port (?) notes. Its quite sweet with blackcurrant, toffee and a long rich finish.

Adding in some water brought out orange peel plus an earthy spicy quality, cardamom perhaps bringing to mind an imperial wit beer on the nose. The whisky warmth increases in taste and some woody, slightly oxidised cardboard notes appear, that I'm not all that keen on.

With the remainder of the sample I mixed a micro-rob roy, 10ml of vermouth rosso and a generous dash of angostura bitters, stirred over ice. That's a nice way to have it.

Well worth a look in but drink it undiluted!

From jurainfo.com

Another new addition to the range is the 30 year old, bottled at 44% ABV. This spent the latter three years of its ageing process in Gonzalez Byass Olorosso Butts. Named Camas an Staca for the largest of 8 standing stones on the island, this whisky is just a fraction of the age of the stones (estimated at 3000years).

An attractive burnished gold this fella. Nose redolent of a walk in a damp woodland, with some butterscotch notes, quite hot and boozy up front but a lovely woody spiciness and some vanillins and weirdly baked ham after that initial alcohol has subsided.

A splash of water really rounds out the mouthfeel and releases a cloud of peaches and cream to the flavour. The reminds on a sweet shop/ nail bar with sticky pear drops and a hint of nail varnish alongside vanilla and juicy stewed fruits. Its a fantastic drop of whisky, but one I'm unlikely to try again due to its £350 price tag!

From Edinburghwhiskyblog.com

The 1977 vintage is named Juar, Gaelic for Yew Tree symbolising immortality and rebirth. The whisky comes from three bourbon barrels finished for a year in a ruby port pipe. 498 bottles @ 46%ABV were released for this one. It pours fairly pale gold with black pepper and burnt paper on the nose on swirling there's some almond and floral notes. A really interesting burst of fruit in the mouth at first, sweet raspberries and peaches, followed by plenty of alcohol warmth, finishing with some golden syrup and meaty umami notes.
Adding water reduces the fruit and brings out the porridgey nose of a whisky mash accompanied by Christmas cake spices. To taste its a different beast, the fieriness has been tamed revealing a hidden sweet core, well rounded and enjoyable.

From abbeywhisky.com

Delme-Evans was the famed architect that resurrected the distillery in 1963, and a cask strength whisky was released in his honour. A 1988 distillation cask number 1796 was re-racked into olorosso sherry before being released as 586 bottles. It sold out quickly, but a few bottles were retained for tasting and that's what we're privileged to try here.

Another mid-gold pour here with a rich savoury umami nose balanced by undercurrents of geraniums. Its sweet and warming with washed rind cheese, sherry flavours, oak and furniture polish. Adding water to it brings cherry stones, lots of alcohol, spent grains, and sawdust to the nose. Rich parmesan, sea salt and iodine flavours. Still fairly strong to taste and the sherry is right up making itself known. Certainly a sipper but you're rewarded by a long sweet heather honey finish with some green apple notes.

Final whisky to write about is the oldest, soon to be the new 40 year old bottling but currently 39 3/4 years old. As its not being released until 2014, there are no bottle pictures yet! Its a hefty 51.4% matured in sherry and finished in amoroso sherry for a year.
This is a gorgeous dark ruby gold with rummy molasses, strong solvent, weet-a-bix and a big boozy punch here. Very high alcohol with long legs, evaporates off the tongue, strong alcohol, marmite umami, fairly mouth puckering astringency, tannins and plenty of sherry character, a bit of a challenge. No hiding that sherry influence at all here.
With water its still fairly alcoholic but theres smokey campfire, some peaty phenols and tangerine pith. The flavour is completely subdued, but allows it to evolve instead of being overwhelmed by alcohol. Its a seaside barbecue seaspray and smoke. Takes some getting used to but ultimately rewarding.

A completely varied bunch showing how age and different finishes can really change the character of  whisky. For me the Juar was the most enjoyable, though the Delme Evans certainly challenged my perceptions of whisky!
 

Thanks a lot to Steve Rush at @TheWhiskyWire for organising this tasting, its been great fun and tasty too of course. Thanks to Jura @Jura_Whisky for the samples, I hope to visit you guys again soon as my Duirach's own is running low!

*Duirach: a resident of Jura. You can sign up to become an honourary Duirach on Jura distillery website, entitling you to a free dram and reduced ferry fare.

 

Serendipity

It shouldn't surprise my readers to find out that beer isn't the only alcoholic beverage that I enjoy. In fact, even the not so eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the link to all of my whisky posts above ^. I've also enjoyed cider from a  young age, but a drink class I've been getting into more recently is cocktails. 

It probably stems from my trip to the Maven in Leeds as recommended by Neil Eating Isn't Cheating where I enjoyed a very nice rum short drink. fast forward a year and I now have a well stocked cocktail cabinet at home and a couple of interesting old cocktail books to peruse for inspiration (more on those in a later post). It helps that my wife also enjoys trying cocktails; so I have a guinea pig for my creations!

From Love & Death Inc website

But I digress. Today's post is about a specific cocktail bar, Love & Death Inc to be precise. Its Ann Street location in Belfast (perched atop the fab Little Wing pizzeria) puts it within  stones throw of trendy shopping area Victoria Square and the more touristy area of Laganside.

To enter is to be transported back in time to American speakeasies of the 1920s. Oh no, I hear you dry, taht's been done to death already: well maybe so; but no-one does it quite like Love and Death Inc. Up the stairs from street level and you reach the bar area. All manner of bric a brac are suspended from the ceiling, including a full sized bike! Its always buzzing on evenings I've been in with a mixed soundtrack of easy listening and rock n' roll, though later on a DJ is often in attendance. There's also a nightclub upstairs, which I'm yet to investigate.

A view of the bar

 

From Love & Death Inc website

Staff are friendly and efficient, making cocktails with skill in front of your eyes. A number of them have entered competitions and performed well; not bad considering the bar is pretty new. The bar itself is an A-Z of alcohol with almost every liquer and spirit imaginable crammed into its many nooks and crevices, with a decent range of bitters and purees across the front. There's also food available, but I'm yet to sample this as both of my visits to date have been after dinner.

Dum dum (right) and (i think) Paradise Lost
with the comic book menu

One thing I particularly like is the menu (PDF), a collage of old comic strips, with speech replaced by cocktail descriptions. Average price for a cocktail is around £6 which is very decent considering the quality involved. I did splash out £12for a "dum dum" because it sounded intriguing with chili and orange alongside aged Guatemalan rum and sicilian digestif. That's it in the photo to the left. I thought about recreating it at home, but the rum is £100 a bottle so maybe not!

On my recent visit I stuck to rum creations. "Origins" features Appleton 8 and ginger and "To Have and Have Not" is an exposition in grapefruit featuring ruby grapefruit juice and grapefruit bitters alongside mint and rum. Both tasty and so appealing that I neglected to take a photo...

One thing that caught my eye this time around however wasn't a cocktail, but a half finished beer on my table. Still in its dark brown bottle with hand-written sticky label I'd discovered a new Northern Ireland brew! Turns out I'd managed to time my visit to co-inside with the release of the new house brews. I picked up the last couple of bottles, which I'll review on a later post.

So next time you're in Belfast, pay Love & Death Inc a visit, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Love & Death Inc

10a Ann Street, Belfast, BT1 4EF (map)

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