The Nicean What?

Your humble host very much enjoyed the Edgar Allen Poe we looked at toward the beginning of the month, with its classical references dense with meaning. Implication and reference are crucial to the poetic mindset, because it allows a lot to be said with a few carefully assembled words. It does, however, require some knowing in order to make any sense of it, when they are literary or historical references.

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Another Perfect Storm?

I am informed, reliably as it happens, that last week’s recipe is not the only one that goes by Perfect Storm. In fact, there are at least a few! The only other one I’ve found that sounds tempting, though, is this variation on the delicious Dark and Stormy. In fact, I’m off to make one, now.

This is one of those items best stirred in a mixing glass and poured over ice.

The Perfect Storm (cider) 
· old fashioned, ice, vanilla sugar-rimmed
2 dark rum (pref. Gosling’s Black)
1½ apple cider
1 ginger beer
– ½ vanilla bean (opt.)

Spring’s Anthem

Omar  Khayyam may have been speaking metaphorically in this little quatrain. If you sit or walk in the Garden, though, full of birds and flowers and fresh breezes, it is exactly how it feels.


Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of spring
Your winter garment of repentance fling.
The bird of time has but a little way
To flutter – and the bird is on the wing.

 

(Omar  Khayyam)

The Perfect Storm

Last week’s Grand Marnier shot put me in mind of the other ways to enjoy that venerable liqueur. Its sweetness and mouthfeel are important to consider when using it, and it shouldn’t be used as a triple sec stand-in unless those changes are wanted. It is its own creature with its own personality.

Today’s cocktail looks to be a variation on the Dark and Stormy, with refinements afterward. I’m quite honestly unsure about how the drink came to be, but I’m glad it did:  it’s the perfect thing for a warm spring day.

The Perfect Storm 
· highball, ice
juice of ¼ lime, in 2 wedges
1½ Grand Marnier
3 ginger beer
3 dashes Angostura bitters
orange peel strip
Stir lime and Grand Marnier, leaving spent wedges in glass. Fill ice. Build ginger beer and bitters. Twist orange over drink, rub rim, and drop into drink.

Be sure to use a spicy (that is, ginger-heavy) ginger beer.