Mercy Missiles Cocktail Hour

Readers, as you may have suspected, it has taken us a good solid week (and a half) to get over the bitter taste of defeat in the wake of the Phillies' commanding sweep of our beloved Cincinnati Reds in the NL pennant race. R.I.P., 2010 season: you were as surprising as you were exciting. Se la vie.

It's fitting, then, that I now bring you the next installment in our ongoing series of thematic cocktail recipe fun. This offering was served up last night for our viewing of the season 4 finale of Mad Men, a show which has given us a consistently good excuse to mix up some exotic drinks. Upon review of our liquor cabinet, I decided we should delve back into the instincts-defying world of scotch-inspired cocktails--both because of our recent success with the surprisingly good Blood and Sand we mixed up last week, and because we still had more than half a bottle of scotch laying around.

A little research brought an excitingly-named candidate to the top of our list: the Piper at the Gates of Dawn(!). Like the Blood and Sand, the first sip is kind of strange--but the Kahlua takes hold pretty quickly and the cream smooths everyone's rough edges while the maraschino liqueur--which, oddly enough, I had on hand--lends a warm, syrupy dimension to the back end. It's pretty nice, if a little heavy. You wouldn't really want more than one or two--definitely a cold weather drink. Here's the details:

Piper at the Gates of Dawn

• 1&1/2 oz scotch
• 1 oz Kahlua
• 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur
• 1/2 oz cream

Add all ingredients except the cream to a shaker filled with ice, shake until cold, then strain into an old fashioned glass over ice. Slowly pour the cream into the drink over the back of a spoon, so it floats on top.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released in 1967, so we can make this drink thematic by imagining the events in this season of Mad Men (along with the great clothes and swingin' mod-ness of the glass-and-art deco SCDP offices)--all of which takes place in 1965--as leading up to the sound and insanity of the Floyd album. This year we see the series kicking into the 60's ideal, & as one of my favorite tv blogs points out: what we generally think of as the American 1960's didn't really come about until there was a Kennedy in the ground and Beatles on the tarmac. So, you know, if you really need your cocktail to speak to you about your favorite tv show and its corresponding cultural environment via its own (probably arbitrary) moniker, then I guess you can think about it that way. Me? Yeah, I like things to be appropriately related to my beverages in that way, and this little recipe is pretty tasty to boot.

The Kahlua surrounds the icy scotch underground.

Ouch

Wow, that was heart-rending. The Phillies' Roy "Doc" Halladay (yeah, yeah, awesome name, I know) threw only the second post-season perfect game in baseball history last night--he's the first to do it in the National League--the Yankee's Don Larsen is the other guy, way back in 1965. Okay, yeah, great--but ouch, did it have to be against my Reds? In the very first game of the series? Pretty darn deflating, you guys.

If you need me today I'll be at my local candle merchant, stocking up on extra voodoo for the JB shrine...

Sunday Cocktail Hour with Mercy Missiles

Readers, we've been into watching Mad Men this t.v. season. We're always looking for good excuses to mix up a little something, and the swingin' art deco aesthetics & general doom-n-gloom feel of the show are good reasons to "tie one on," as they say. This clearly calls for some ritualistic cocktail drinking, and a new favorite teevee story show means we're in the market for a new thematic concoction. So, since there's been a trend of scotch imbibing here at HQ lately--which has never really been our poison of choice, but has been growing on us--I decided to give the Blood and Sand a try.

My pal Andy over at South Twelfth has been promoting the B&S for quite some time, so I credit him with my awareness of it. It's pretty much the only scotch-related mixed drink I've ever heard of (although a quick web search suggests many more), Andy has certainly advocated it, and I actually had nearly all the ingredients on-hand. So after a quick cherry brandy-procuring field trip I decided to do a (wet) dry run before tonight's episode airs.

Here's the recipe I used for the first trial:

• 1&1/2 oz blended scotch whiskey
• 1/3 oz orange juice
• 1/3 oz cherry brandy
• 1/3 oz sweet vermouth
• orange peel for garnish

I combined all ingredients (except the peel) with ice in a shaker (well, I used a sports bottle b/c my shaker is in the shop), I shook gently to combine, then strained into two brandy glasses & added the orange peel.

Verdict? The first sip was...strange. I wasn't expecting the scotch taste to be as prominent as it was (although the recipe I used specified twice the amount of scotch as the other ingredients so it didn't get overpowered by all the sweet stuff going on...), but after the 3rd or 4th sip I totally got it. There's a nice compromise between peaty and sweet, and the more I drank (as with so many cocktails) the more I enjoyed. It's not my favorite by any means--I'm still, foremost, a bourbon woman--but it mitigates a lot of what I didn't like about scotch in the first place.

It has the added impact of being unexpected (scotch? in a mixed drink??), and it's certainly better than it has to be. Going by my experience the name should be "Sand and Blood" (based on what you taste first), but I guess that's just quibbling--besides, that would ruin the reference to the Valentino movie. Altogether, I call this a win, and so will be sipping one (or three) during tonight's episode. Cheers!