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To Your Health, Happiness, and Prosperity – National Anisette Day

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Anise flowers

Such a lovely bunch of flowers…

Anise has a long and flavorful history. It is mentioned in the Bible as a lesson not to be stingy to the Lord. It marched with Caesar as a treat for his troops, possibly one of the first candies developed. The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all used it to help digestive ailments, from upset stomachs to bad breath to indigestion. The Romans went so far as to bake it into mustaceum cake, where it was used with other herbs to aid in digestion. It was used for medicinal purposes as well as in cooking to add stronger flavors, or balance out sweetness. As time continued, more and more uses were found for this aromatic and powerfully flavored herb, from cosmetics to liquor. On July 2, we look to its use in liquors as we celebrate National Anisette Day.

Anisette is a generic name used for a liqueur that is primarily flavored with the herb anise, giving the drink a black licorice flavor. Sugary syrup is added to tone down the flavor ever so slightly. Anise grows mainly in the Middle East, Turkey, and Greece, but has spread through the world. Many of those countries also have created their own distinct anisette variations: in Greece it is known as ouzo, in Turkey it is called raki, in Syria, Egypt, and Israel it is known as arak. It is believed that Marie Brizzard, the popular French liqueur company, started to make anisette in 1755 with their other flavored options, helping to spread the popularity of the flavor through Europe. The Spanish fell in love with what they call Anis del Mono (“the monkey’s anisette”), the French created pastis and another infamous liqueur, absinthe. The Italians developed both white and black sambuca. All of them have their own variations of sweetness from the sugar added to the base spirit.

Milky white Yeni Raki

You can find this example of louched anisette at Pasha Grill in The Greene.

The flavor of licorice is a strong one, and anisette is rarely found without something mixed in it. The popular mix of choice for anisette in its many forms is water, whether you are looking at an elegant absinthe fountain or just pouring equal amounts of water and reki in a glass to create Lion’s Milk. One reason is the water dilutes the flavor, making it less intense and easier to drink. The other is to create and effect call louching, where the latent oils that are in the anise refuse to bond with the water mixture, giving the beverage a cloudy look. This is rarely done with sambuca (thought it would work), but the Italians came up with a unique solution to help cut the flavor of the anisette. They serve it with three coffee beans floating on top of it, calling it sambuca con la mosca, sambuca with a fly. The three beans represent health, happiness, and prosperity. You can do it with more or less, but it is considered bad luck to do it with an even number. After you drink the sambuca, you can chew on the beans to enhance the rich anise flavor.

Looking for it in this area can be difficult. Some of the more craft cocktail oriented places like Salar and Rue Dumaine may have absinthe or sambuca as aperitifs or digestifs to have during your meal, or for use in cocktails like a sazerac, Café de Paris, or typhoon. If you are looking to try an excellent louched drink, look to Pasha Grill for Yeni Raki, one of my favorites. Absinthe, sambuca, and ouzo are also common to find in liquor stores like Arrow Wine if you are feeling adventurous and want to bring some home for your own personal trials in cocktails.

From candy to medicine to cocktails, anise has proven to be a versatile and coveted plant. Its flavor profile, similar to a sweeter black licorice, is something people either love or hate. It blends well with other flavors in cooking as well as in adult beverages, helping to tone down bitter flavors and enhance sweeter ones. Over the Fourth of July weekend, with all of the family and friends you are going to be seeing, you have an opportunity to gather around a glass of something unique after a good meal and toast to each other’s heath, happiness, and prosperity.

 

Seven Years in Mexico – The Kahlua Story

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Kahlua Bottles

Ready and waiting for National Kahlua Day.

What were you doing in 2006? It was not an incredibly memorable year overall, but some major events happened. It started off with the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Italy had a big year that year, also beating France in the World Cup 5-3. The St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Heat, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Carolina Hurricanes all took the championships in their respective sports. The Oscar that year went to Crash and the Grammy for Album of the Year was U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The population of the United States hit 300 million in population that year as well. It was not all fun and games that year, though. Poor Pluto lost its planetary status that year, and Western Union sent its last telegram. YouTube played its last video independently that year, as it was bought by Google. James Brown, Steve Irwin, Don Knotts, Lou Rawls, and Coretta Scott King all passed away that year as well. But to end it on a good note, gas prices were only $2.59 on average for the whole year.

Why do events that happened seven years ago matter in a column that is about cocktails and liquor? Seven years ago some coffee beans and sugar cane, growing side by side, began a journey that would lead them to become a bottle of coffee liqueur better known of Kahlua. The coffee plant is what takes the longest time to grow, taking up to seven years for the Arabica coffee plant to reach maturity and produce coffee cherries. After the coffee is harvested, the beans are removed from the cherry and dried for at least six months before roasting, to get the proper flavor. While the coffee is being prepared, the neighboring sugar cane (which matures much faster) is being crushed so the juice can be collected and fermented; similar to how rum is created.  When coffee is roasted and the sugar cane juice is fermented, the two are blended together with some caramel and vanilla flavors to create the second most distinct liquor to come out of Mexico.

The company celebrated its Mexican heritage all through its growth. The flirting began in Veracruz, in the south of Mexico on the Gulf. In 1930 the Alvarez brothers offered their premium coffee to a local man experimenting with making spirits. Things became serious in 1936, when the spirit was created and started to be sold. Its popularity blossomed  over the next few decades, the final marriage of all the ingredients coming to fruition in 1962 before taking off in the United States through the mid 1960’s.The explosive growth in North America spawned multiple pretenders to the throne including lower quality versions like  Kapali, Kamora, Copa De Oro, and deKuyper’s Crème de Café. Some well known coffee brands, like Starbucks and illy, also tried to get into the coffee liqueur game. Patron makes their XO Café, which is a blend of tequila and coffee. It is made in the same manner as Kahlua, but the tequila changes the flavor profile a bit. As many imitators as there are, there ain’t nothing like the real thing.

Espresso Martinis

Rich and delicious, espresso martinis are a nice after dinner cocktail.

Kahlua (meaning “House of the Acolhua people” in Nahuatl) has maintained its 20% ABV and slight caffeine content (about 1/10th of what a cup of coffee has) throughout its history. It has branched out into new flavors as the years have passed. They offer the original coffee flavor, as well as a more intense (and higher proof) Especial. On top of the Especial, they also have a 35% ABV Midnight, the strongest liqueur they have in their line. Staying close to the coffee flavor theme, they also offer Mocha, adding a hint of chocolate to the coffee, and a special holiday Peppermint Mocha. To round out their flavor offerings they have Hazelnut, French Vanilla, and Cinnamon Spice. Kahlua, and all of its many flavors, are sipped nicely on the rocks. So nicely, in fact, that one of the first mainstream cocktails made with Kahlua was the Black Russian, using two parts of vodka with the Kahlua over ice. A simple addition of cream or milk will make a White Russian, made famous in The Big Lebowski. It is also a key ingredient in any version of the Espresso Martini. It is prominently featured in shots like the Baby Guinness and B-52. Of course, it also goes very well in a nice cup of coffee.

February 27th is National Kahlua Day, and the coffee that was planted in 2006 is now sitting in bottles, waiting to be enjoyed. There are plenty of cocktails you can try with this sweet coffee liqueur, or just enjoy it on the rocks. As an Ohioan you get an added benefit: Kahlua can be sold on our great state at 21.5%, slightly higher than the rest of the world. Just another thing to celebrate today! Cheers!

Sipping your Chocolate

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Cocoa_seeds_by_lolayValentine’s Day is a day of hearts, flowers, wines, romance, and boxes and boxes of chocolates. Chocolates are among the most popular gifts to give on Valentine’s Day, making local favorites like Esther Price, Winans and Signature Confections very happy.  We like our chocolates as truffles, bars, bons bons, dips, and any number of creative ways. The people that discovered chocolate, the early Mayans and Aztecs, would be completely baffled by how we use chocolate. Xocolatl, or “bitter water” in Nahuatl (Aztec), was fermented and drank, usually by the upper classes. They would also thicken up the drink on occasion with corn and chilies, turning it into porridge. The Spanish were the first to add milk and sugar to it to sweeten it and turn it into the chocolate that we know and love. They were still drinking it until the 17th century, when the chocolate candy craze hit Paris. For a thousand years, chocolate was a beverage. And in this modern era of craft beers, flavored spirits, and experimentation, you can make it a drink for your Valentine’s Day celebration.

WINE

Pairing wine and chocolate is something that people have built whole festivals around. Godiva has even wisely added a page to their website to help you start off, and give you tips on what to look for when you pair it yourself. Putting the two together into one drink is something that is fairly new to the drinking scene. ChocoVine came out of the gate strong in 2009 with high ratings, and it has maintained them since. The people I know that have tried it have had nothing but good things to say about this blend of red wine (they use Cabernet grapes) and Dutch chocolate. In the same category is ChocolatRouge, another blend of chocolate and red wine, this time using California red wines. These are fairly inexpensive bottles, and their richness great to use as a dessert or treat. Their websites also suggest you can use them in cocktails.

messagepart-5BEER

The craft beer movement has encouraged experimentation with a full range of flavors, from savory to sweet, fruity to earthy. The chocolate end of the spectrum is full with delicious porters and stouts, using the already deep flavor of a well-roasted malt to enhance the chocolate added to the brew. The first one, and still one of the better ones, is Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. Southern Tier makes and utterly delightful stout, Choklat, that is a must taste for the chocolate lover. Stouts are a great winter warmer, which has the Brooklyn Brewing company bringing out their Black Chocolate Stout at this time of year. One of the richer chocolate beers is Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout, which has a very strong and smooth chocolate taste. In 2001 Rouge Ales released their Chocolate Stout around Valentine’s Day and have not looked back. They followed up this award winning beer with a Double Chocolate Stout, which ramped up the chocolate flavor to satisfy the sweetest tooth.  This is a very small sampling of some amazing chocolate beers in the area.

LIQUOR

For a very long time, if you wanted to add chocolate to a cocktail, you were reaching for the crème de cacao. It comes in two varieties, white and dark, and is base liquor infused with chocolate, sometimes a hint of vanilla. It is not something that is the star of the show in a cocktail, more of a supporting actor to the other flavor that is going on. It was not until the explosion of the craft cocktail movement that the options for how to add that chocolate flavor grew.

Godiva Chocolate Liqueur is the most popular of the new wave of chocolate liqueurs. Creamy and thick, it is more reminiscent of Irish cream and holds a great deal of flavor. It comes in White Chocolate and Original Chocolate, depending on what you are in messagepart-8the mood for. One (very appropriate) cocktail you can make with the liqueur:

Aphrodisiac

2 oz. vodka (chocolate, if you prefer)
1 oz. espresso
1 oz. Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1 oz. coffee liqueur

Chill a martini glass. Pour all of the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice, and shake it until it is foamy. Strain the ingredients into the chilled cocktail glass. You can add chocolate syrup inside of the glass as a decorative element, or rim the glass with cocoa powder.

While you are looking for good chocolate liquor to use, you may want to take a look in the vodka aisle. Since Absolut kicked off the messagepart-9flavored vodka party in 1986, there has been an explosion of flavored vodka. That explosion had not fully made it to chocolate, as there are very few pure chocolate vodkas on the market. Pinnacle has a Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Whip Cream flavors, but they are not true chocolate. For true chocolate, you have three options. If you are someone who is very particular about your vodka and the environment it comes from, 360 offers a Double Chocolate flavor. Three Olives makes some innovative flavors, but kept it simple and sweet for their chocolate vodka. Three Olives will also be the one that is easiest to find. It is a great brand. Van Gogh, while their Rich Dark Chocolate vodka has some great flavors and a darker color, it is harder to find in the stores. It is also the most expensive of the three.  That chocolate martini you are making will benefit from any of these fine vodka selections, and either kick off or end the night in fine fashion.

messagepart-7Boxes of sweets are not the only way to being chocolate into the holiday. Beer, wine and cocktail lovers can also drink in some chocolaty goodness to celebrate being with a loved one. Belmont Party Supply can help you select a few beers to enjoy the evening with, and Arrow Wine has the full selection of chocolate infused liquors mentioned. They also have Piece of Cake’s Chocolate Cake liqueur, and chocolate infused whip cream for a garnish to your drinks.  If you are looking to try chocolate in the way the ancient Mayans and Aztecs enjoyed it, Dogfish Head has it taken care of. Using flavors taken from samples discovered in 1200 year old pottery, Theobroma has a unique chocolate and chili flavor to it. It is very difficult to find, but if you can, it is a treat. There are plenty of great Valentine’s Day festivities for you to enjoy in the Dayton area, and a wide variety of ways to get your chocolate fix at any of them. Enjoy the day…and your chocolate!