Monthly Archives: January 2007

Spirited Cuisine: Drambuie, “the drink that satisfies”

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Bonnie Prince Charles recommends Drambuie

This is the third installment in the Spirited Cuisine series from Sri Bala (Shaman) and me. Each week or so I select a liquor or spirit, and Sri creates a dessert recipe incorporating it. Find Sri’s posts at his blog and mine here within the Lush Life category.

Last fall on BBC America, I started to see an ad featuring a young man running across the rooftops of some foggy city, intercut with apparently the same man sporting much longer hair and wearing a kilt, dashing across the Scottish highlands. Eventually the kilted man throws a scroll, the rooftop man catches it and pockets it, and the rooftop man lands at a rooftop bar, calmly joins the party, and orders a drink that turns out to be Drambuie and soda. (Currently you can see the ad in the Advertising section of the official Drambuie website. Purportedly the rooftops are those of Edinburgh. )

I didn’t like the ad — I still don’t. Why is the guy jumping across rooftops? Why does he stop at the bar — where did his pursuers go? What does it have to do with the guy from hundreds of years ago throwing a piece of paper? What’s on the paper? But the ad did get me thinking about Drambuie, which I’d never tried. I hadn’t known it was from Scotland, and I’d certainly not thought of drinking it with soda. Maybe it would be interesting….

Sure enough, one evening at a happy hour I found myself ordering Drambuie and soda, and I really enjoyed it. Sweet but not syrupy, kind of like a leaner whiskey and cola, or an exotic alternative to rum and Coke.

And so we see that an ad doesn’t have to be likeable to be effective.

As it happens, Drambuie has a tough hill to climb to get attention. It’s made from Scotch whisky, but the average Scotch drinker is repelled by the thought of polluting Scotch with honey and herbs. Meanwhile, those who like sweet cocktails shake their heads at the idea of drinking anything that involves smokey Scotch.

All of which is too bad for a storied liquor. Drambuie was created over 250 years ago for Charles Edward Stuart — Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Rebel Prince — by his apothecary, as a way to fortify the prince and his top clansmen in battle. (That’s Charles in the advertisement — quite a snappy dresser, eh?) As to how the liqueur got from the Prince’s kitchens to bars around the world:

In 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart fled to the isle of Skye. There, he was given sanctuary by Captain John Mackinnon. After staying with the Captain, the prince rewarded him with this prized drink recipe. The Mackinnon family has been producing the drink since. (Wikipedia)

The name Drambuie comes from the Scottish Gaelic phrase "am dram buidheach," "the drink that satisfies." The recipe is secret (naturally), but is known to involve Scotch whisky and honey, plus possibly saffron, nutmeg, and other spices believed to be healthful at the time.

The most common ways to drink Drambuie are on the rocks and in a Rusty Nail — a simple but classic cocktail, 1 part Scotch whisky and 1 part Drambuie, stirred and served over ice. The makers of Drambuie have thought up lots of other ways to drink more of their product, all of which you can find buried within the foot-dragging Flash of the Drambuie website.

And if that’s not enough to convince you to pick up a bottle for your liquor cabinet, Sri has concocted a simple and yummy dessert that makes the most of Drambuie’s spicy seduction. Please hop over to his site and enjoy A Toast to Drambuie.

And as for next time: Our featured spirit will be brandy — the oldest spirit, and a great way to warm oneself on a chilly winter’s day.

Coffee update

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The days were always sunny in the Land of the Mighty GrinderI’m drinking 100% Colombian from 8 O’Clock Coffee again today. (See previous posts for background.) Have had about 2.5 cups, which amounts to about 20 oz as I use 8 oz Irish coffee mugs for my daily brew. No headache so far.

The coffee tastes much the same as yesterday: It’s nothing to write home about (although apparently it’s noteworthy enough for me to describe to my faithful blog readers in excruciating detail). I think I will relegate the rest of the bag to emergency backup status, meaning it will languish in my freezer until the next time I run out of coffee unexpectedly and need to bring in the reserves.

The question is: What do I buy next? The 8 O’Clock Original Roast, which Jeff described in the comments yesterday as nothing special but which still costs less than $5 per pound? Or some Starbucks roast that I’ll enjoy but hate myself for enjoying? I can’t get any Peet’s beans by tomorrow, so choices must be made.

Tune in tomorrow for the thrilling answer!

1 o’clock coffee

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An update on the previous post: After three cups of coffee and despite having had lunch, my ears are ringing and I’ve got a squeezing headache.

Does 8 O’Clock Coffee carry more than the average dose of caffeine? The beans look less roasted than those I typically use, and less roasting typically leaves more caffeine in the bean.

My brother Anthony is about to have some of this new coffee — we’ll see how it affects him.

Developing….

UPDATE: After two sips, Anthony has declared the 8 O’Clock Coffee “bad” and “tastes like Folger’s.” He may not be able to drink enough to determine its caffeine content.

8 O’Clock Coffee

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Beans, glorious beansI drink a goodly amount of coffee — between half a pot and a full pot a day. I don’t get headaches if I miss a day, and I can drink a double espresso at night and still fall asleep. It’s a reassuring constant in my otherwise topsy-turvy days.

I’m particular about coffee, prefering to drink only what I’ve made myself or what my brother has made (now that I’ve brow-beaten him into making it exactly the way I make it). Of the critical elements of good coffee — fresh, well roasted beans; filtered water; correct grind; correct ratio of beans to water; not cooking the coffee after it’s made; and on and on — the one that causes me the most trouble is the beans.

My favorite beans come from Peets Coffee & Tea. I came to depend on them when I lived in San Francisco, and since then have gone to lengths to keep myself in supply, including starting a coffee club in grad school to share expenses. Peet’s has a program called “Peetniks” for people who place recurring orders, so I know I’m not alone in this.

But shipping costs raise the price of a pound of Sierra Dorada Blend from $11.95 to $15.95 (plus tax), and if ever I add up what I’ve spent on coffee at the end of a year even I start to feel I’m being extravagent. My usual substitute is a Starbucks blend, which I buy at the grocery store. I resent buying it though, in much the same way I resent having to install Microsoft Office on my lovely Mac. It does what I need it to do, but it makes me feels like I’ve given in to The Man.

Last night at Giant Eagle, on my way down the coffee aisle, I spotted racks of 8 O’Clock Coffee. I remember my mom buying 8 O’Clock Coffee at the A&P when I was a child, grinding it right there at the store. What an awesome smell fresh ground coffee has! (Fun trivia: My grandfather’s family ran an A&P grocery store back when it was called Atlantic & Pacific.) And I seem to recall that Consumer Reports rated the brand highly among grocery store coffees. According to the label it’s “America’s best selling whole bean coffee.” And the price? Merely $4.47, about a third of what a pound of Starbucks would cost.

So into my basket the 8 O’Clock 100% Columbian went. I’m drinking it now. It’s kind of sweet, kind of nutty, but on the edge of bland. Fine in a pinch but not something I’ll look forward to every morning. I may have chosen the wrong roast: the website indicates that Original Roast is more full-bodied, and the Dark Roast is a “dark, Seattle roast.” So the experiment will continue.

Bonus: If you’d like to experiment too, here’s a coupon for $2 off 8 O’Clock Coffee.

Dessert in a glass

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The original Pierrot by Francisco Tamagno

This is the second installment in the Spirited Cuisine series from Sri Bala (Shaman) and me. Each week or so I select a liquor or spirit, and Sri creates a dessert recipe incorporating it. Find Sri’s posts at his blog and mine here within the Lush Life category.

In the summer of 1997, I traveled through Europe with friends and we stayed a few days in Verona. We were sitting at a table outside a restaurant, just finished dinner, and it was a beautiful night for sitting outside. I didn’t want dessert — too full — but I did want something as a finale to the meal, maybe something sweet. So I ordered Cointreau on ice, and it was perfect: like dessert in a glass, so lovely with the warm night air and the conversation and the people walking by.

It’s a really French drink, from the heavily-vowelled name to the square and awkward bottle to the tangy sweet taste. The longtime mascot of Cointreau was a strikingly French clown named Pierrot, featured in both the ads you see here. The original Pierrot (top image) was created by the Italian poster designer Francisco Tamagno. The face, including the lorgnon, is a caricature of company founder Edouard Cointreau.

The stylized Pierrot, by Jean Mercier

Over time, artwork for the company’s ads was taken over by Cointreau’s grandson, Jean Mercier. He simplified and stylized Pierrot, and his version is the one with which more people associate Cointreau. Pierrot appeared in a variety of posters and ads through the years (bottom image).

Edouard Cointreau was a master marketer. To distinguish his liqueur from imitators he used a memorable square, amber glass bottle, and company trucks and booths were shaped to match. He also trademarked his brand name early on, and is credited with creating the first film commercial to be shown in cinemas. Some ads featured cross-marketing with TWA and other companies.

Cointreau is pricey compared with other triple sec options, but it’s tasty and smooth enough to be worth the cost. And it’s a versatile liqueur. The Cointreau website features a long list of cocktail recipes, including the Cosmopolitan, the Margarita, the Kamikaze, a very interesting thing called a Little Devil, and (my favorite) the classic Sidecar.

The site also has yummy-looking food recipes, but Sri has made all the desserts there obsolete with his creation: the Cointreau Dream. Like my Cointreau on ice it too is dessert in a glass, but it’s a whole other world of delight. Go see, and set your mouth watering.

Info sources: Cointreau website (international version and USA version) and CeruttiMiller.com. Artwork from and eBay.

Drawing after midnight

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Potato masher
Originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey.

Boy, it’s hard fitting everything into a day. Websites to design, computers to fix, emails to answer, bills to pay, cocktails to drink … it just keeps coming. And in the end, it’s you, Faithful Blog Reader, who gets the short straw.

Did I tell you how November ended, with NaNoWriMo and DrawMo and conferences to attend and plays to see and turkey to eat and all? A little, but not the final summary.

Well, the conferences and plays and turkey won out over NaNoWriMo. I wrote just 7,000 or so words of my novel, nowhere near the goal. That was sad.

Drawing went better. I made 30 drawings in 30 days. I had to cram two a day at the end, but that was within the rules. I didn’t do a great job of blogging at DrawMo!, but you can see most of my sketches and everyone else’s in the DrawMo Flickr pool.

The plays were great — Man Is Man, and A Picasso. Maybe a couple more. Seems so long ago, eh? So last year.

But I bring it up because DrawMo didn’t really end. Some of us are continuing in a slightly different format: Instead of making a drawing a day (on average), one makes at least one drawing a month. To give a little structure, there’s a theme for each month. The first theme is "housewares, kitchen things, or appliances." Here you see my contribution. I explained a bit about it over at the DrawMo blog, but in short the key thing is the shadow. It’s straight where the potato masher is not straight. This is the kind of thing one might not ordinarily see, but which drawing causes one to see. It is why I like drawing.

If you’re interested, you can join in on DrawMo any time. There are just a few days left for the kitchen implement assignment — it ends January 14. You can do it! (My drawing took 10 minutes tops … you probably guessed that from looking at it.) To join, visit the DrawMo blog and send a note to India. She’ll hook you up.

Spirited cuisine: Frangelico

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Hazelnut MartiniSri Bala has come up with a delightful adventure that combines cooking and drinking, photography and blogging. Each week, I’ll suggest a liqueur or alcoholic beverage, and Sri will create a dish that uses it as an ingredient. He’ll be blogging about the food part over at his fine blog, with photographs and recipes and other wonderfulness, and I’ll expand upon the boozy parts here.

For this week, I selected Frangelico, an Italian liquor. It comes in a distinctive bottle, shaped like a monk with an actual bit of rope tied around the waist. The flavor is primarily hazelnut, but you can also taste cocoa, vanilla, a bit of oak, and other spices.

Oh, and sugar — it’s sweet as all get-out, in the style of liqueurs like Amaretto and Framboise.

Typically one drinks it after dinner, on the rocks or in coffee, or as part of a cocktail like a Nutty Irishman. Frangelico is excellent mixed with a shot of espresso, and can be layered in a pretty pousse-cafe with coffee or espresso and whipped cream.

And you can mix a bit with vanilla vodka for a hazelnut Martini (pictured here — note that I need to improve my photo skills if I hope to keep up with Sri in this adventure). Lovely in chilly weather.

Frangelico doesn’t show up in recipes as often as amaretto does, which is a shame. It’s delicious, and of course the bottle is a hoot. So it was my clear choice for the first week of this intoxicating culinary adventure.

And now, without further ado, I invite you to hop over to Sri’s place and check out Drunken Rice Noodles — “rice noodles chilled in Frangelico and soy milk, with hints of vanilla and cardamom.” Mmm!