A couple of months ago I posted my recipe for a smoky take on the classic Boulevardier cocktail. I made that with Bowmore 12 in place of the regulation bourbon and as I made it for our Oscar party I named it the Boulevardier of Broken Dreams. It was quite nice but I’ve been playing with some variations since then, fueled by the fact that my bottle of Bowmore 12 got emptied that night. Most of these variations have involved tinkering with the proportions of the components. I’ve found that more heavily peated malts don’t work quite as well (or at least I haven’t managed to figure out the proportions). Then I hit on the idea of bottle “aging” a regular Boulevardier in a recently emptied peated whisky bottle. This, I am happy to say, has been quite a success—though continued experimentation is, of course, necessary. Continue reading
Category Archives: Whisky Cocktails
Boulevardier of Broken Dreams
We’re hosting an Oscars viewing party tonight and I’m making my version of Kit Anderson’s famous Bad Attitude chili. The recipe calls for some bourbon and as I didn’t have any at hand that I was willing to pour into a vat of chili I went out yesterday and came back with a liter bottle of Old Grand-Dad 80 Proof. Naturally, my thoughts turned to cocktails to be served with the chili and from there to the classic Boulevardier, which is basically a Negroni with bourbon/rye in place of the gin (though it apparently predates the more well-known Negroni). I’m still going to serve that but what I have here is a twist that I thought I’d improvised but which renowned killjoy, Jordan Devereaux told me on Twitter is something he was served at a bar in New York: basically, a Boulevardier with Bowmore 12 in place of bourbon/rye. Just because someone was already serving it doesn’t mean I didn’t invent it: just ask Christopher Columbus. I’m calling mine the Boulevardier of Broken Dreams. Continue reading
Whisky Cocktails
I’ve had a very mild cold for a couple of days now. It’s not really knocked out my nose or tastebuds but I’m not drinking anything I like very much or taking notes for reviews until it’s gone. Instead, I’ve been drinking other things and little bits of whiskies I’ve recently been a little disappointed in. In this latter category fall the Ballechin 5 (Marsala)–to be reviewed soon–and the new(ish) Ardbeg “Ardbog”–to be reviewed in a month or two. Neither are bad–and I like the Ardbog more than the Ballechin–but neither seemed like they’d be wasted on me under current conditions either. Oddly enough, I liked them both a fair bit more last night. The dry, farmy peat of the Ballechin seemed to be tamped down and the Ardbog just tasted rounder (this may also be due to the bottle having been open for a few months now). I’ll be interested to try them again once this cold is done (hopefully in a day or two) and see what I make of them again. Continue reading
My Annoying Opinions 