After getting some decadent breakfast food for tomorrow morning from The Home Bakery in Rochester, we also stopped at Red Wagon - a liquor, beer and wine store. It's been almost 10 years since I've set foot there and after today I'm not really sure why we haven't visited the place sooner. Their offering is quite impressive and, much to our surprise and absolute delight, we found out that they're selling Carpano Antica! If that's meaningless to you, let me first tell you a little story...
Once upon a time in Belgium, there was a person who liked vermouth. Only he didn't know that it was called vermouth and he used part of the company's name to describe it: Martini. Fast forward a few decades and change the location to Michigan and this much wiser person suddenly remembered his love for this drink. He soon realized that a real martini bears no resemblance to vermouth.
Back in 2014 we find ourselves in Chicago and on a whim decided to try a glass of Carpano Antico. It was pretty much like falling in love all over again. While I do like the Martini Rosso and Dolin brands, there's really no comparison between those and Carpano aside from them being sweet vermouth. We did buy a couple bottles in a store in Grand Rapids, but couldn't find it anywhere here in our area. Until today that is!
Once upon a time in Belgium, there was a person who liked vermouth. Only he didn't know that it was called vermouth and he used part of the company's name to describe it: Martini. Fast forward a few decades and change the location to Michigan and this much wiser person suddenly remembered his love for this drink. He soon realized that a real martini bears no resemblance to vermouth.
Back in 2014 we find ourselves in Chicago and on a whim decided to try a glass of Carpano Antico. It was pretty much like falling in love all over again. While I do like the Martini Rosso and Dolin brands, there's really no comparison between those and Carpano aside from them being sweet vermouth. We did buy a couple bottles in a store in Grand Rapids, but couldn't find it anywhere here in our area. Until today that is!
While we didn't buy any Carpano today, we did come home with a nice treasure chest of things to try! The majority are small sample bottles, which will allow us to test it (pure or in cocktails). This way it's a bit cheaper if we don't like something (most of those full sized bottles sell at $30+).
Cassis
Made from black currants, this liqueur has been harder to find in the US thanks to a very long ban on growing black currants. The plants are a jumping point for blister rust, a lethal disease of white pine. This was discovered early in the 20th century resulting in a ban since 1911. While overturned in several states, this means that black currant liqueurs have to be imported. A lot of these contain artificial additives, but we finally found one that's basically a black currant extraction.
Cynar
First of all, it's pronounced Chee-nar. Now that we got the linguistics part out of the way, how do you feel about a drink made from artichokes? Cynar is an Italian bitter liqueur made from 13 herbs and plants, with artichoke (Cynara scolymus - and now you know where the name comes from) being the main component. Let's also be very clear that it tastes nothing like artichokes, but is reminiscent of Campari, albeit slightly less bitter. We're currently splitting 2 "cocktails": one is 1.5 oz of Cynar and 4 oz of soda, while the other drink is a 1:3 ratio of Cynar and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Dry Curaçao
This is a liqueur flavored with the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao (I bet you never would have guessed that part). It reminds me of Triple Sec, but in an upscale version. While this is often sold as a blue liqueur, the color is only a food colorant and we purchased a bottle without it.
Absenthe
If you're not familiar with Absinthe or la fée verte (green fairy), it's the spirit (not a liqueur as it's not bottled with any sugar) that was banned for more than a hundred years because it drove people crazy or at least, that's what was claimed. Absinthe contains wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and one of it's components is thujone, a substance which in large quantities can lead to epileptic-like convulsions. The key word here though is large. The amounts in absinthe are all regulated and even in the olden days it was highly unlikely that it led to the described psychedelic effects. Most of that is attributable to the high alcohol content. I'm more intrigued to know whether I'll like it at all because of the anise flavor. We'll get some sugar cubes tomorrow and I'll report back!
Tequila
We've already established that we like silver tequila (100% agave), but we wanted to try aged tequila. We bought 2 small bottles of Añejo, which is 100% agave tequila that's been aged in small oak barrels between 1 and 3 years. I'm not sure I could sip these pure, which is the same problem I'm having with bourbon and whiskey. Maybe I'm not too overly keen on the tannins?
Golden rum
We're quite finicky when it comes to rum as well. We realized today that so far we don't seem to like Jamaican rums. The golden rum from Barbados was quite tasty, but Nicki seems to prefer our dark rum from Bermuda. My jury's still out there as to which one I like more.
Drambuie
This was quite interesting and tasty. A mix of scotch whisky, honey, herbs and spices it reminded me of Chartreuse, but slightly less herbal and perhaps a tad sweeter (I'm sure the honey has something to do with that).
Disaronno
I loved the scent of this almond liqueur, but as soon as I had a sip I had a flashback to taking cough syrup. It's simply too sweet, but might be good in cocktails. We'll probably make our own almond extracted liqueur, because this one also contained caramel coloring (why do they keep adding this???).
Overall, there were some very nice flavors and our liqueur and spirits cabinet has expanded once again! Tomorrow it'll be time to strain the Chinese rice wine. I'll be sure to let you know how that tastes!
Cassis
Made from black currants, this liqueur has been harder to find in the US thanks to a very long ban on growing black currants. The plants are a jumping point for blister rust, a lethal disease of white pine. This was discovered early in the 20th century resulting in a ban since 1911. While overturned in several states, this means that black currant liqueurs have to be imported. A lot of these contain artificial additives, but we finally found one that's basically a black currant extraction.
Cynar
First of all, it's pronounced Chee-nar. Now that we got the linguistics part out of the way, how do you feel about a drink made from artichokes? Cynar is an Italian bitter liqueur made from 13 herbs and plants, with artichoke (Cynara scolymus - and now you know where the name comes from) being the main component. Let's also be very clear that it tastes nothing like artichokes, but is reminiscent of Campari, albeit slightly less bitter. We're currently splitting 2 "cocktails": one is 1.5 oz of Cynar and 4 oz of soda, while the other drink is a 1:3 ratio of Cynar and freshly squeezed orange juice.
Dry Curaçao
This is a liqueur flavored with the dried peel of the laraha citrus fruit, grown on the island of Curaçao (I bet you never would have guessed that part). It reminds me of Triple Sec, but in an upscale version. While this is often sold as a blue liqueur, the color is only a food colorant and we purchased a bottle without it.
Absenthe
If you're not familiar with Absinthe or la fée verte (green fairy), it's the spirit (not a liqueur as it's not bottled with any sugar) that was banned for more than a hundred years because it drove people crazy or at least, that's what was claimed. Absinthe contains wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and one of it's components is thujone, a substance which in large quantities can lead to epileptic-like convulsions. The key word here though is large. The amounts in absinthe are all regulated and even in the olden days it was highly unlikely that it led to the described psychedelic effects. Most of that is attributable to the high alcohol content. I'm more intrigued to know whether I'll like it at all because of the anise flavor. We'll get some sugar cubes tomorrow and I'll report back!
Tequila
We've already established that we like silver tequila (100% agave), but we wanted to try aged tequila. We bought 2 small bottles of Añejo, which is 100% agave tequila that's been aged in small oak barrels between 1 and 3 years. I'm not sure I could sip these pure, which is the same problem I'm having with bourbon and whiskey. Maybe I'm not too overly keen on the tannins?
Golden rum
We're quite finicky when it comes to rum as well. We realized today that so far we don't seem to like Jamaican rums. The golden rum from Barbados was quite tasty, but Nicki seems to prefer our dark rum from Bermuda. My jury's still out there as to which one I like more.
Drambuie
This was quite interesting and tasty. A mix of scotch whisky, honey, herbs and spices it reminded me of Chartreuse, but slightly less herbal and perhaps a tad sweeter (I'm sure the honey has something to do with that).
Disaronno
I loved the scent of this almond liqueur, but as soon as I had a sip I had a flashback to taking cough syrup. It's simply too sweet, but might be good in cocktails. We'll probably make our own almond extracted liqueur, because this one also contained caramel coloring (why do they keep adding this???).
Overall, there were some very nice flavors and our liqueur and spirits cabinet has expanded once again! Tomorrow it'll be time to strain the Chinese rice wine. I'll be sure to let you know how that tastes!