A Bitter Spirit

Day 18: On Christmas Day

The carol for today's cocktail is a contemporary song by the group Father Tiger called On Christmas Day. It's a little funky, a little modern and has an electronic dance music (EDM) groove. And you can download it for FREE!

So here's the deal. We (here "we" means Drew) thought of doing something cool to highlight the EDM nature of On Christmas Day. Maybe some tonic water and a black light? Maybe some coloured frozen ice cubes to represent motes of neon lights in a club? Or maybe Drew had delusions of grandeur (it is, after all, Day 18). Anyhow, we landed on something simpler. Like just using a more "hip" base spirit such as pisco. So here it is…

On Christmas Day Cocktail
1 1/2 oz mulberry tea infused pisco
1/2 oz creme yvette
3/4 oz maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz lemon juice
brandied cherry (for garnish)
coupe glass

Place all of the ingredients but the cherry into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Strain into coupe glass and garnish with a cherry (or two).

Cocktail Notes
Drew loves pisco. In fact, 2011 was the year of the pisco sour for him and he's not looked back since. Kate had not had pisco until this cocktail but her exact words after trying some were,"Why are we not drinking more pisco?" So if you haven't had it, TRY IT!

This cocktail is actually a variation of the Pillow Talk. Drew liked the idea of tea-infused pisco. We tried three types of tea infusions: dragon pearl, earl grey and mulberry leaf. Pisco, or at least the pisco we used, really accentuates floral flavours. Who knew? Not us. The dragon pearl had WAY too much of a jasmine overtone and actually did taste like your grandmother's Avon order. The earl grey was rather pleasant (and ended up being a nice infused pisco sour later). The mulberry highlighted the violet notes in the Creme Yvette without being too floral.

Listen Along

December 18, 2014
Day 17: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Today's cocktail inspiration is the carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. The text of the carol is based on a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, Christmas Bells, published in 1865. The poem's narrator opines that the hate in the world mocks the song of peace carried by Christmas bells. But ultimately, the bells triumph and the narrator finds a renewed hope for peace throughout the world. Perfect for our "Spirit of the Season" theme week.

When creating most of our cocktails, we start with a specific ingredient that the carol text inspires or we research a traditional drink from the country of origin. This particular cocktail, however, was inspired by a very specific version of the carol sung by The Civil Wars. It is breathy, warm, and a little sultry (a different kind of Spirit of the Season – wink, wink). To us, the cocktail that best represents these qualities is a sidecar. To make it extra sexy, we used B & B instead of regular brandy and infused it with figs. We also infused the Cointreau with some thyme and made a cardamom syrup to round out the flavours.

I Hear the Bells on Christmas Day Cocktail
2 oz fig infused B & B (Benedictine and Brandy)
1 oz thyme infused Cointreau
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz cardamom syrup
coupe glass

Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake until cold. Strain into a chilled glass.

Cocktail Notes
To make the fig infusion, chop up four dried figs and add to 1 cup of B & B and let it sit for at least 3 days.

To make the thyme infusion, add the leaves from about 6 sprigs of fresh thyme to 1/4 cup of Cointreau. Steep the thyme in the Cointreau for at least 4 hours or longer depending on desired strength.

The cardamom simple syrup is a 1:1 syrup with about 1 Tbsp of green, gently cracked cardamom pods in it.

Listen Along

We couldn't find a version of the Civil Wars doing this live, so you'll have to settle for this rip from the holiday CD. So many other great videos on their site – sad they broke up.

December 17, 2014
Day 16: Here We Come a’Wassailing

Today's carol is the sing along favourite, Here We Come a'Wassailing. Composed in the mid 1800s, the carol tells of the tradition of wassailing where people go from door to door to wish their neighbors good health. Tradition has it that bands of beggars and orphans would sing and dance in the snowy streets for their wealthier neighbors if they would share a bit of food, the warmth of their hearth or a bit of their wassail bowl.

Ok, we admit that we choose this carol because it would be fairly easy to come up with a drink recipe. Wassail typically involves some form of mulled apple cider with just enough alcohol in it to warm the carolers' fingers and toes. We added a little fat to the cider as well (mmm .. buttery) and concocted a hot buttered cider with enough booze both to warm the carolers and convince the listeners to shell out a few pence.

Here We Come a'Wassailing Cocktail
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
6 kumquats, sliced length ways
1/2 orange, sliced
1/4 cup Grand Marnier
1/2 cup Calvados
2 cups apple juice

Add butter, brown sugar, fruit and cinnamon stick to a large heavy pot. Warm over medium heat until the butter and sugar melt together and the fruit becomes fragrant. Turn the heat to low and simmer until the fruit is tender. Combine the liquids into a pourable container. Slowly add to the pot and stir to emmulsify. Once combined, simmer on low for about 30 minutes. Strain and serve.

Cocktail Notes
Damn, this is good. Like seriously good. We used this hot buttered cider recipe as a starting point and then added the kumquats (because we had them and thought it would add another flavour to the cider) and the Grand Marnier (because everything is better with Grand Marnier).

Listen Along

December 16, 2014
Day 15: Good King Wenceslas

The carol for today's cocktail is Good King Wenceslas. The lyrics tell the story of the 10th century Duke of Bohemia, Saint Wenceslas I. Legend has it that he rose at night from his bed to bestow alms on widows, orphans, prisoners and others afflicted with various difficulties.

While the lyrics were written by an Englishman (John Mason Neale), the tune is based on an old Finnish spring carol, Tempus adest floridum ("The time is near for flowering"). Consequently, we wanted the cocktail to reflect Finnish culture in some way. There is a traditional liqueur made in Finland using cloudberries (called bakeapple or knotberry in other countries) so we decided to use that as the cornerstone of the cocktail.

Unfortunately, the Finnish liqueur is nearly impossible to get in North America. Luckily for us, a Quebec company makes its own version of a cloudberry liqueur using cloudberries (there called bakeapple) from Newfoundland. Even more lucky for us, Kate has a contact in Quebec who generously shipped a bottle to us (because BC Liquor stores don't stock it – what up with that, BC Liquor?!). So thank you very much, Michelle Sullivan! We couldn't have done this without you.

We want to keep as much of the cloudberry flavour in the drink as possible, so we riffed on a French 75.

Good King Wenceslas Cocktail
1 oz gin (we used Hendricks)
1 oz cloudberry liqueur
1/2 oz peppercorn simple syrup
champagne, prosecco or other sparkling wine
Bittered Sling Denman Bitters
champagne flute

Place the gin, cloudberry liqueur, simple syrup and bitters into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until chilled. Fill the flute half way with champagne. Strain the contents of the shaker into the flute.

Cocktail Notes
We used Hendricks gin because we thought the floral nature of the gin would pair well with the cloudberry. The peppercorn syrup (mostly pink with some black thrown in) added a nice spiciness.

We tried two different bitters in this cocktail, Dillion's DSB & Bittered Sling Denman. Both worked well but the Denman enhanced the cloudberry the best.

Listen Along

December 15, 2014
Day 14: O Tannenbaum

Well, we're into Day 14 of this year's cocktail Advent calendar. We've completed our celebration of Mary and have moved into our Week 3 theme: Spirit of the Season. This is nice and vague and covers anything from Christmas greetings to holiday activities. So we're starting off with the most iconic Spirit of the Season carol we could think of: O Tannenbaum.

The melody for O Tannenbaum (German for "O Christmas Tree") is a 16th century folk song. In the mid-1800's, the modern lyrics first appeared as a tragic love song but were then transformed into the carol we know when composer Ernst Anschütz added a few verses about the faithfulness of the evergreen. Christmas trees were also becoming more popular at this time, so the carol ultimately lost its melancholy origins and became a song of holiday celebration.

The O Tannenbaum Cocktail
2 parts vodka (we used Odd Society's East Van Vodka)
1/2 part Douglas Fir liqueur (we used Clear Creek Distillery's)
1/2 part rose hip syrup
1/4 of a large Asian pear, muddled
3 dashes lemon bitters
ice
cocktail glass

Muddle chopped pear in cocktail shaker. Add vodka, fir liqueur, rose hip syrup, and bitters. Shake over ice. Double strain into cocktail glass.

Cocktail Notes
We have to admit, we lucked out a bit this year. A lot of the holiday drinks we are seeing are using fir infusions or fir liqueurs. We've been planning these drinks since October, so we like to think we're ahead of the curve when Kate said back around Canadian Thanksgiving "Must. Have. Douglas Fir Liqueur." We're SO "on trend".

For this drink, we initially considered a nice botanical gin, but then we tried the East Van Vodka from Odd Society and realized it would be a great fit. The East Van Vodka isn't tasteless, but lightly fragrant, reminding us of a high-quality sake. It enhances the fir and the rose hip flavours.

Listen Along

Sometimes, you want some festive German family from the mid-eighties singing you a Christmas carol. You're welcome.

December 14, 2014
Day 13: The Cherry Tree Carol
Our cocktail inspiration for today is The Cherry Tree Carol, a Child ballad based on an apocryphal story about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. While traveling through a cherry orchard, Mary asks Joseph to pick a cherry for her. He refuses saying "get your baby daddy to pick your cherries" (we paraphrase). The in utero Baby Jesus hears his mother's request and bends a cherry tree branch down so she can reach some damn cherries.

We started with a pretty straightforward idea – something cherry. But we didn't want to do just a simple cherry sour or similar. Kate got a butane torch for her birthday last month. This cocktail was calling out for some kind of fire or smoke. Let's burn some cherry wood!

The Cherry Tree Carol Cocktail
2 oz bourbon (we used Trace – so smooth)
1 oz cherry-infused Benedictine
1 dropper Apothecary Spirit Fire Bitters
Orange rind
Cherry wood chips
Cocktail glass
- Combine bourbon, Benedictine and bitters in shaker.
- Light a pile of cherry wood chips on fire.
- Blow out fire when it starts to smoke.
- Invert cocktail glass over smoke and capture in the glass.
- Add ice to shaker and shake to chill.
- Strain into smoke filled cocktail glass.
- Take a slice of orange peel, express the oil over the cocktail glass and light on fire.
- Note: this cocktail is a little easier to assemble if you have two people.
Cocktail Notes
To infuse the Benedictine, we added about 1/4 cup dried cherries into about 1/2 cup Benedictine and let it infuse overnight.

We also made a cherry infusion with Suze (same ratio). It was tasty, but not as good as the Benedictine.

Our cocktail is a variation of one created by the good folks at Apothecary Bitters – the Gedi Prime. They use a cherry-infused vermouth and then infuse the booze with the smoke, rather than fill the glass. We like the smoke-filled glass because of the effect when you serve it. And surprisingly, the smoke stays in the glass longer than you would expect. We refrigerated the cocktail for a few hours before drinking it, and the smoke could definitely still be tasted in the glass.

Listen Along
December 13, 2014
Day 12: The Seven Joys of Mary
The carol for today's cocktail is The Seven Joys of Mary. Ever since Mary has been venerated in the church, the significant events in her life are portrayed in art, literature or devotional material as collections: Seven Joys, Seven Sorrows, Five Joyful Mysteries, etc. Mary was a very busy lady. This song, celebrating seven joyful events in her life, is one of many "counting songs" that have found the way into our Christmas traditions – the most famous being the Twelve Days of Christmas.

One thing about Mary, even when it's supposed to be her "Seven Joys", it isn't. Because one of her joys is seeing her son crucified. Sure .. you could argue that if you look at the OUTCOME of that (from a theological perspective) it should be a joy. But c'mon, we're pretty sure she wasn't hanging out at Golgotha dancing a jig. She probably still needed a drink. And a stiff one at that.

So we created a good, strong "sipping" drink for Mary. Something to drink while you're PONDERING YOUR LIFE .. joys, sorrows, or what have you.

Seven Joys of Mary Cocktail
2 oz bourbon (we used Maker's Mark)
1 oz Gifford's Crème de Myrtilles (blueberry liqueur)
1/2 oz Art in the Age's Snap liqueur
3 drops Bittered Sling Elderberry bitters
Rocks glass

Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over ice.

Cocktail Notes
This was originally going to be a variant of a Last Word (equal parts gin, lime, green Chartreuse and maraschino liqueur). We considered kumquat and yuzu juice substitutions. Even golden berry juice. None of them worked for us. Also, Drew felt we were relying on the Chartreuse a little too much this holiday season. So we went in a completely different direction. No more juice – just a smart, sophisticated drink for a smart, sophisticated lady.

We started with bourbon as the base since it is a classic sipping liquor. The blueberry liqueur added a slight sweetness (without relying on a simple syrup) and a dash of symbolism since Mary is generally portrayed in blue. The Snap adds the perfect finish, a touch of spiciness and warmth as well as a throwback to the region where Mary grew up.

In addition to testing Bittered Sling Elderberry bitters, we tried three others:
- Apothecary Bitters Eldergrowth: Makes it sweeter
- Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters: Has potential. Loses some of the berry taste.
- Fee Brothers Whiskey Bitters: Flattens out the cocktail
Listen Along

I love Great Big Sea's version of this. So kicky! There is a bit of an intro at the beginning; the singing starts around 50 seconds in.
December 12, 2014
Day 11: Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming
The song inspiration for today's cocktail is the German carol, Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming. The text dates from around the late 16th century and was originally a carol about Mary, comparing her to the mystical rose of Sharon. There is also a source that states the true origin of the hymn is an apocryphal story of a monk in Trier, Germany who found a rose blooming on Christmas eve. He picked it and placed it before a statue of the Virgin Mary – which also explains the Christmas connection. But then the Protestants got ahold of the carol and made it all about Jesus. We're taking back the original meaning and inspiration in our boozy celebration of Mary!

Given the title of the song, we wanted rose to be one of the dominant flavours in the cocktail but also didn't want it to taste like grandmother's Avon order (are we dating ourselves?). To avoid a perfumey pitfall, we created a very straight-forward gin sour that uses oleo saccharum, a popular ingredient in 19th century cocktails. Oleo saccharum (or "sugar oil") is a mixture of sugar and essential oils; the most common version is derived from lemon rind, but can be created from other ingredients. For this drink, we extracted the essence from the rose petals to create a rose oleo saccharum.

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming Cocktail
2 oz gin, preferably Hendricks
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz rose oleo saccharum
1 oz egg white
3 drops Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
Cocktail glass

Pour all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker and dry shake for approximately 30 seconds. Then add ice to the shaker and shake until cocktail is chilled. Double stain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a rose petal.

Cocktail Notes
The cocktail is a straightforward gin sour. We used Hendicks gin because it is infused with Bulgarian Rosa Damascena.

Originally, we intended this cocktail to be a variation on a Ramos Fizz with rose and pink peppercorn syrup. But the flavours weren't jiving well, so we pulled back and went with something fairly simple to highlight the rose. We added the rhubarb bitters to help enhance the citrus and berry notes of the rose oleo saccharum.

We generally followed the instructions from London Eats in making the rose oleo saccharum. It took about 36 hours to make ours; we used the following procedure:

Rose Oleo Saccharum
8 edible roses
1/2 cup Castor or Superfine sugar
1. Pull the petals off of the roses and wash them, removing any that are damaged. Lightly dry.
2. Divide the petals and sugar between two resealable plastic bags. Seal the bags, squeezing as much of the air out of the bag as possible. Gently massage the sugar into the petals.
3. Leave petals in the bags for approximately 36 hours, massaging them into the sugar to facillitate their wilting and breaking down. After about 18 hours if no liquid has begun to form, add about a tablespoon of water to each bag and massage the petals more frequently.
4. After 36 hours, there should be a thick red liquid forming in the bottom of the bag. Cut a corner off the bottom of bag and strain the liquid through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Squeeze the petals to extract the remaining syrup. If the syrup looks cloudy, add a couple of drops of lemon juice. The syrup should be very sweet and have a complex flavour of roses. It will also be quite vegetal on the nose. This sorts itself out once the syrup is used in a cocktail.
Listen along

This guy playing Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming on harmonica rocks our world!
December 11, 2014
Day 10: Gabriel’s Message

The carol inspiration for today's cocktail is Gabriel's Message. Popularized by Sting in the 1980s (YES! The 1980s), Gabriel's Message (aka The angel Gabriel from heaven came) is a traditional carol from the Basque region of Europe. The carol recounts the biblical Annunciation and quotes Mary's Magnificat from the Book of Luke.

To translate this carol into a cocktail, we researched drinks from the Basque region. Basque immigrants to California were known for making a drink called Picon Punch which used a bittersweet French aperitif Amer Picon. It became so popular in the Basque communities of the American West that it was shipped back to Europe where it also achieved a high level of popularity.

Amer Picon is no longer available in North America and its substitute is reputed to be a poor copy of the original. Knowing that the predominant flavour of Amer Picon was bitter orange, we combined two Italian bitters, Campari and Aperol, to try and recreate the idea of Picon. We kept the additions of grenadine, club soda and brandy as noted in the original recipes.

Gabriel's Message Cocktail
2 oz Aperol
1 oz Campari
1 oz Brandy
1 barspoon high quality grenadine (we used Jack Rudy Small Batch Grenadine)
Club soda
Collins Glass

Pour the Aperol, Campari and grenadine into a cocktail shaker to mix. Fill a collins glass with ice and pour in the mixture from the shaker. Fill glass with club soda. Float the brandy on top of the club soda.

Cocktail Notes
We obviously don't know what Amer Picon tastes like, but we were pleased with the bitter orange taste of this cocktail. The grenadine and brandy add just enough sweetness and the club soda makes it feel more like a punch than a cocktail.

We tried adding some Dubonnet to the mix but resulting drink tasted too "grapey" (it's a word) for us. We also tested three types of bitters but none of them contributed to how we envisioned the drink.

If you can, find a good quality grenadine or even make your own. In this day and age, Rose's ain't cutting it anymore.

Listen Along

This is the old school performance from 1987 that made us fall in love with this carol. Sure, there are a lot more cleaner and more modern videos of this carol, but you can't beat this original. Or Sting's original hair. Oh, my!

December 10, 2014
Day 9: Breath of Heaven
Today's cocktail inspiration comes from the contemporary song, Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song). Christian country singer Amy Grant first heard a version of the song when the composer, Chris Eaton, was a member of her touring band. Pregnant at the time, Grant thought the music and the chorus fit perfectly with the idea of a frightened young girl who was told she was going to bear the Messiah. She reworked the verses and turned the song into one with a Christmas message.

Breath of Heaven brought to mind something light and airy with a bright flavour. We started with a riff on the Twentieth Century cocktail which is a combination of gin, lemon and touch of chocolate; we used Godiva White Chocolate and added egg white to create a lighter texture. As noted below, we eventually changed out the lemon for orange and added a bit of sasparallia flavour to create a unique and fresh-tasting drink.

Breath of Heaven Cocktail
1 oz gin (we used Beefeaters)
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz Godiva White Chocolate liqueur
1 oz egg white
1 bar spoon of rootbeer liqueur (we used Art in the Age's Root)
1 dropper Apothecary Bitters Eldergrowth Bitters
Coupe glass
Orange zest for garnish

Pour all ingredients into a shaker. Dry shake for approximately 30 seconds. Add ice and shake until chilled. Double strain into a coupe glass.

Cocktail Notes
This cocktail underwent several trials (and some tribulations .. like Mary). We started with the lemon juice and Lillet Blanc (ala the Twentieth Century cocktail) but found that they didn't mix well with the Godiva. Eventually, we switched out the lemon for orange and went with a liqueur (Cointreau) instead of using any fruit juice.

The Root adds some caramel and sarsaparilla notes to the cocktail that reduce the sweetness and round out the flavour. Adding more than a barspoon causes the Root to overpower the cocktail. The cocktail is not necessarily meant as a dessert drink since it isn't that sweet. But it does have a unique creamsicle taste with a little bit of rusticness from the Root.

We tried three different types of bitters, all from Apothecary Bitters.
- General Ambrose: Brings out more of the Root spiciness.
- The Darkness: Keeps the Root but decreases the orange.
- Eldergrowth: Keeps the orange and brings out the sarsaparilla finish.
Listen Along
December 8, 2014

► Necessary Cookies Standard

Necessary cookies enable essential site features like secure log-ins and consent preference adjustments. They do not store personal data.

None

► Functional Cookies Remark

Functional cookies support features like content sharing on social media, collecting feedback, and enabling third-party tools.

None

► Analytical Cookies Remark

Analytical cookies track visitor interactions, providing insights on metrics like visitor count, bounce rate, and traffic sources.

None

► Advertisement Cookies Remark

Advertisement cookies deliver personalized ads based on your previous visits and analyze the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

None