Yet another cognac cocktail...

Excerpt:

The Pierre Ferrand 1840 Grande Champagne, conceived by Alexandre Gabriel and bar guru David Wondrich, is blended to hearken back to the 1800s style of cognac, a Three Star that is more rustic, more earthy and more attuned to mixability than savoring in snifters (although that’s certainly possible as well). It’s also released at 45% alcohol by volume, rather than a more standard 40%.

Webster blends the Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac with George Dickel Rye whiskey, Dolin Génépy des Alpes (an herbal/floral liqueur reminiscent of Chartreuse), Cocchi di Turino sweet vermouth, and Regan’s #6 orange bitters and serves it up in a coupe glass. Since each ingredient contains alcohol in varying amounts, this is a heady drink, but the interplay of fruit, light sweetness, bitterness, spice and herbs, mingling with the brandy and whiskey, gives a complexity and resonance that engages all the senses.

Full article: http://www.examiner.com/article/captivating-cocktails-8-at-the-expatriate-bar-portland

Keep 'em coming.

Some British friends of mine introduced me to a cocktail that is known in the UK as "brandy and American". It's brandy, ginger ale or ginger beer, and a dash of bitters. One could make it with Cognac, although I usually use cheap French brandy.

-Paul W.

Some British friends of mine introduced me to a cocktail that is known in the UK as "brandy and American". It's brandy, ginger ale or ginger beer, and a dash of bitters. One could make it with Cognac, although I usually use cheap French brandy.

-Paul W.

Sure you could use cheap French brandy. That kind of drink is fairly standard in Euro pubs and cafes. The American portion of it prolly refers to the penchant for Americans liking sweet things. Can be very refreshing.

Thing is, the drink changes, and changes appreciably, depending on whether you use ginger ale, or ginger beer, and it changes greatly if you use cheap American brandy, cheap French (or other country) brandy, cheap cognac, or good cognac. And of course, the type of bitters used would have a big effect as well.

With cheap brandy/cheap cognac you're getting low quality grape brandy, very little complexity from actual wood maturation, and usually heaps of added sugar and "oak/tannin tea" to add dark color and flavor. Cheap French brandy requires no more than six months in barrel; cognac requires a minimum of two years. Good cognac is more like 5--10 years on average.

Actually, good cognac and ginger makes a great drink. Use good cognac and fresh ginger and fresh pressed lemon juice and you've got an awesome sipper.

Hoke,

My Brit friends said that the "American" part was referring to the ginger ale.

Agree with you on brandy plus fresh ginger. For long-term storage, I keep ginger in the refrigerator in a jar of high-proof (100+) vodka. It keeps its fresh flavor almost indefinitely that way. And the ginger-flavored vodka can be used in lots of ways to add ginger flavor to other things. Unfortunately, ginger's Thai relative galangal doesn't keep well this way--galangal goes all woody if you store it like this. Next batch of galangal I buy, I'm going to try freezing it instead.

-Paul W.

Hmmm. Funny, as much as I like galangal in curries and such, I never considered it as a cocktail ingredient. Might have to rethink that. If you like ginger, check out the "Two gin cocktails" thread. Good recipe for a gin cocktail that is very ginger spicy.

I've never used the galangal-infused vodka in a cocktail. I just tried using high-octane vodka as a preservative for galangal since it works so well for ginger. But it doesn't pan out, due to galangal's tendency to get tough and woody as it ages. Even if it's preserved in alcohol. So I'll try freezing it next time and see how that goes.

Now that you've mentioned, it, though, it might be interesting to see how the galangal-infused vodka works out in some cocktail mixtures.

-Paul W.