Category: Drink

For a variety of complicated, therapy-inducing reasons, we spent Christmas in 1974 with my mother’s twin sister and her family in southern California. I was 10 years old and my cousins were all teenagers, so everything that they did filled me with wonder and awe.

Like, when my cousin’s boyfriend showed me how to use my new magenta gas-powered airplane — not a remote-controlled one, but one of the ones that was controlled by nylon strings connected to the fuselage. He got the engine started and I watched in wide-eyed amazement as he got it airborne, circled it around us twice, then plowed it, nose first, into a parking lot. Clearly, the guy knew what he was doing, so I dutifully packed up all the pieces, brought them back home with me, and checked in on them dutifully every month or so for years.

Or when another cousin elbowed me firmly in the stomach and I found that I couldn’t breathe.

“It’s OK,” he said to me, “you’ve just got the wind knocked out of you.” His use of the passive voice terrified me, because it implied that this was something that just happened randomly – that you could be walking around, living your life, and suddenly discovering that you couldn’t breathe. My uncle confirmed that yes, I had indeed just had the wind knocked out of me, and that I’d be fine. After 25 minutes or so (OK, it was probably more like 15 seconds) I discovered that I could take tiny breaths, then slightly bigger ones, and could finally look a little less like a blobfish in a Shaun Cassidy haircut, gasping on a pier.

But for me, the best memory of the holidays that year was New Year’s Eve.

The adults all dressed up and went out to some unimaginably sophisticated grown-up party, leaving me in the care of the teenagers. My youngest cousin, who must have been around 16, watched old movies on TV with me all night; then, at midnight, we went outside and honked the car horn to ring in the new year. Afterward we came in and ate buttered noodles.

It was far and away the best New Year’s Eve of my life.

Grown-up New Year’s Eves have been less magical.

Take Champagne, for example. I realize that I have the taste buds of a rhinoceros, but cheap and moderately priced Champagne can best be summed up in a quote from Fozzie Bear in 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper: “You know, if you put enough sugar in this stuff, it tastes just like ginger ale!”

So, here’s the thing: I get it. New Year’s is largely an adult holiday, where adults gather with other adults and celebrate how adult they are, talking about adult things — dental plans and conspiracy theories, mostly — and drink the most adulty drink they can think of, Champagne. But unless you are a supermodel or a guy with a yacht, most of us never really develop a taste for the stuff.

Is there an alternative?

Yes. Yes, there is.

The Manhattan

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces rye or bourbon. This week I’m using Bulleit Rye. (I’ve recently discovered that I like rye. Who knew?)
• 1½ ounces sweet vermouth — the red kind
• 10 drops cardamom bitters
• 10 drops orange bitters
• 1 cocktail cherry, the fanciest you can find. I like Luxardo.

Add all ingredients to ice in a mixing glass. Stir gently. This is one of those martini-like situations, where you probably wouldn’t like the result if you shook it in a cocktail shaker. This will have a cleaner, more vibrant flavor if it isn’t aerated.

Pour into a rocks glass. Sip gently. A Manhattan is not a drink that lends itself to drinking quickly. You’ll want to — actually, who am I to say what you want? You will probably be happier with your Manhattan experience if you drink it a little at a time, trying to identify the different elements that you can taste.

Grown-up/shmown-up; the best part is finishing this drink and eating the cherry. Don’t let anyone try to tell you different.

So, are there drinks out there that are more adult? Probably. At this moment, there’s almost certainly some guy working his way through a bottle of scotch, while the bar owner says, “Hey Mr. A-Bailey, why you so a-sad? Go a-home to you wife, huh?” Or maybe that’s It’s a Wonderful Life; at this time of year it’s hard to tell the difference between melodrama and real life.

Anyway, there are probably other drinks as adult as a properly constructed Manhattan, but very few that are as enjoyable. It is sweet, but not too sweet — that’s what the bitters are there for — and boozy enough to let you know it means business. There is a mixture of flavors that will distract from any boring adult conversation you find yourself in.

Keep your chin up; we’ve got this.

Featured photo: The Manhattan. Photo by John Fladd

Sweet wines for holiday giving and drinking

The holiday season provides us with the opportunity to exchange gifts with those who mean so much to us. Therefore, this time of year with feasting on savory and sweets alike, why not select that bottle to pair with fruit, or cheese, or with a sweet dessert? Past the bottles of chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, past the bottles of pinot grigio there lie countless options available to us. Pick out a bright sparkling sweet wine, or a “fizzy” red wine. Try a wine normally reserved for cooking or try a truly luxurious sauternes from Bordeaux. Whatever your choice, you will be rewarded with a wonderfully new experience.

Our first wine is a classic. Martini & Rossi Asti Sparkling Wine (originally priced at $14.99, and reduced to $9.95 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets) is a label familiar to many. A couple of decades ago we were pummeled with TV ads for Asti Spumante. In late 1993 Asti Spumante was promoted to the top-level DOCG classification, at which point the “spumante” was officially dropped, resulting in the same great and inexpensive wine with a much shorter name. This wine comes from the Piedmont region of Italy and is made from the moscato bianco grape. It is produced by cold fermentation under pressure and is created to be enjoyed immediately. This is a slightly sweet, bubbly wine with notes of peach with some herbs that transform on the palate to pear and tropical pineapple notes. As a very approachable wine that is low in alcohol, it appeals to those who are just being introduced to wine.

Our second wine is another classic. Roscato Provincia Di Pavia Rosso Dolce (originally priced at $12.99, and reduced to $8.95 at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets) is a delicately sweet and gently fizzy red wine from the northern Italian region of Lombardy. Made from three grape varieties — croatine, teroldego and lagrein — this is a slightly sweet wine that can also be paired to entrees such as classic tomato-based Italian dishes. However, this chameleon of a wine can also be paired to cheeses or just sipped when slightly chilled. It has notes of raspberries and cherries.

Our third wine is frequently thought of as reserved for cooking. Colombo Sweet Marsala Wine ($10.99, and available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets) is a hidden wonder. Marsala is a Sicilian wine, fortified, with a spectrum of sweetness, conditioned on the preferences of the region and winemaker. Marsala grew in popularity at the time when the British were becoming invested monetarily and in taste in fortified wines such as sherry and port. While its popularity has waned over the last century, it can be savored in front of the fireplace with its dark amber color, and hints of dates and apricots. It is full, warm and satisfying to the palate, a wonderful wine to be sipped after dinner.

Our fourth and fifth wines are luxurious sauternes. The 2016 Michel Lynch Prestige Sauternes ($19.99 for a 375 ml bottle, and available at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets) is liquid silk in a small bottle. Also available in New Hampshire is another sweet sauternes – Château Guiraud Sauternes 1er Cru Classé (originally priced at $27.99, and reduced to $24.99 for a 375 ml bottle at the New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlets). Why are two sauternes noted in this column? The answer is simple: The state stores do not inventory a wide selection of these cherished rare wines. These aromatic wines are produced from semillon grapes that are botrytized. When conditions are just right, nature can hold a usually nasty fungus in such check that something special happens. Instead of destroying a crop, the fungus creates grapes with incredibly concentrated flavor that can make some of the world’s sweetest, most precious wines. Botrytis cinerea is more affectionately known as “noble rot.” It’s the same kind of rot that spoils strawberries and soft fruit with greyish fuzz. So what makes this mold noble? A fine balance of moisture, sunlight and temperature. Ripe, healthy grapes must still be on the vine as fall begins, when misty mornings provide the moisture that the fungus needs to thrive. The fungus pierces the grape’s skin to feast on its juice, but after a few hours, sunshine and otherwise dry conditions follow to evaporate the moisture and stop the fungus in its tracks.

Try these alternatives to the all-too-familiar wines. The experience will be rewarding.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

’Tis the season for holiday beers

I used to be obsessed with holiday brews. As in, there wasn’t enough holiday beer in the world to satisfy me.

There was just something about the slightly sweet, slightly spicy style that drew me in and helped me to appreciate the holiday season. Let’s be honest, we’d all like to be in a good mood for the holidays and the right beer can help. Why not have a beer that tastes like Christmas in a glass?

I’m calling it a style but I’m not sure you’ll find “holiday brew” listed in the dictionary of beer styles. To me, these are beers that can run across styles and to categorize them would be to ask yourself, “does this beer put me in the holiday spirit?” If you answer yes to a particular brew, then, bingo.

These are beers that tend to feature a hearty malt character amplified with cinnamon, brown sugar, peppermint, vanilla and nutmeg — and, I don’t know, maybe chocolate. You’ll find holiday beers that are wheat beers, amber lagers, stouts, porters, sours, brown ales, bocks and dunkels, and there is probably some brewer right now trying to offer patrons a holiday IPA.

I wasn’t alone in my obsession. To this day, one of my college buddies receives an annual shipment of Harpoon Winter Warmer from his mother on his doorstep in California.

Then again, holiday beers aren’t for everyone. I can never forget the look of utter disgust — classic bitter beer face — on an acquaintance’s face as he tried to get through a sip of some holiday beer, wondering aloud, “What is that?” (The “that” in holiday beers is always nutmeg.)

I’m not as obsessed with holiday beers as I used to be, probably in part because there’s just so much incredible craft beer available that it’s hard to be too focused on one style, regardless of the season. Plus, more and more craft brewers are cranking out delicious, decadent stouts boasting huge flavors of chocolate, coffee and vanilla that aren’t necessarily holiday brews but are awfully hard to ignore at this time of year.

For a while it at least seemed like craft brewers weren’t really exploring holiday beers in earnest. That might not be reality, but it seems to me the style has received much more attention from brewers in recent years. That’s good news.

Here are four New Hampshire-brewed holiday beers to enjoy right now.

Footy Pajamas Belgian Style Holiday Ale by Henniker Brewing Co. (Henniker)

Dark fruit, spices and brown sugar: you can sip this 8.7 percent ABV brew slowly by the fire and let the beer and the flames warm you right up.

Monks Vice Belgian Quad by Loaded Question Brewing Co. (Portsmouth)

This isn’t brewed specifically for the holidays as far as I know, but with big flavors of complex caramel up front, it seems perfectly suited to this time of year. The brewery says the finish is “reminiscent of crème brulée from black strap molasses.” This is another slow sipper you can savor with friends and family.

Smuttlabs Peppermint Porter by Smuttynose Brewing Co. (Hampton)

This is basically a glass full of peppermint patties.

The Great AK; Dunkles Bock with Gingerbread by Northwoods Brewing Co. (Northwood)

I haven’t tried this one but it is now on my list for the holidays. Tabbed as the brewery’s “ode to the Master Woodsman of the World,” the beer is brewed with gingerbread and actual gingerbread men, resulting in “aromas of dates, plums, toffee and cinnamon.” Frankly, it sounds delicious.

What’s in My Fridge
Samuel Adams Holiday White Ale by Boston Beer Co. (Boston) Probably 15 to 20 years ago, if a beer was described as “citrusy and hazy,” this is what you’d expect. Nowadays, someone says citrusy and hazy, and approximately 1,000 percent of the time that person is talking about an IPA. This is a delightful brew; flavored with holiday spices and orange peel, it has a smooth, festive flavor with borderline nonexistent bitterness you can enjoy all winter long. Cheers.

Featured photo: Footy Pajamas by Henniker Brewing Company. Courtesy photo.

Celebrate with some sparkling wine

As the song goes, it is “the most wonderful time of the year!” as we partake of seemingly endless gatherings, indulging in calorie-laden savories and sweets to bring on those well-intended New Year’s resolutions.

What is the perfect beverage to go with all sorts of food? Bubbles, or more specifically, my favorite — Champagne! There are other sparkling wines, cava from Spain, prosecco from Italy, but Champagne has a well-deserved cache. And thanks to Champagne houses like Mumm, Taittinger, and Moët et Chandon, we can savor sparkling blends made in America in Méthode Traditionnelle manner, that is by double fermentation, at a fraction of the price we pay for imported Champagne. So, when you buy a bottle of Mummthat is produced in Napa, California, the label cannot contain language referring to “Methode Champenoise” as it does on the imported bottle. However, the production is the same.

Champagne can be paired to appetizers, including caviar and moderately spicy Asian food. It is excellent with chicken, seafood (especially oysters or lobster), eggs, hollandaise sauce, foie gras, gravlax and smoked salmon. It is among the most versatile of wines, whether it is brut (dry), demi-sec (sweet) or doux (sweetest). It can be blanc de blanc, made with 100 percent chardonnay grapes, or blanc de noirs, made with 100 percent pinot noir grapes. When preparing carpaccio, very rare beef, ham, prosciutto or rare lamb, a rosé, made with pinot noir and/or pinot meunier grapes, is a tasting adventure not to be missed.

Our first wine is Champagne Pommery Brut Royal, regularly priced at $44.99, on sale at $36.99, at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets. Located in Reims, wool trader Alexandre Pommery’s widow, Louise, inaugurated the Champagne house in the mid-19th century. Per the website, she initiated the idea of storing wines in temperature-controlled caves carved from the chalk deposits of the region. An innovator, she created the first brut Champagne in 1874 — a dry version of the wine when Champagnes were largely much sweeter than they are today. A blend of grapes from 40 selected villages in the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims and other areas in the Champagne region, this wine is produced from 35 percent chardonnay, 35 percent pinot noir and 30 percent pinot meunier. Its color is pale gold, with an abundance of tiny bubbles. Its nose is of yellow to green apple, some citrus and vanilla. Its taste is very “fruit-forward” with notes of apple, with a very soft creamy long finish. As a dry wine, it pairs well with appetizers, creamy dishes, seafood and shellfish.

Our second wine is Domaine Carneros Brut, by Taittinger,regularly priced at $29.99, on sale at $25.95, at the New Hampshire Wine & Liquor Outlets. Domaine Carneros was established in 1987 when Claude Taittinger selected a 138-acre parcel in the heart of Carneros, California, to grow and produce a sparkling wine made in the Méthode Traditionelle manner. The winery, pictured on the label, is modeled after the grand châteaux of France. All the wines produced at the winery hail from the Carneros appellation, with 100 percent of the fruit coming from the six estate vineyards of the chateau, now comprising 400 acres.

A blend of 53 percent pinot noir, 44 percent chardonnay and 3 percent pinot gris, this sparkler is aged nearly four years in the bottle. Fruity and balanced in acidity, it offers rich notes of pear, green apple and melon that contrast against notes of praline and toasted almonds.

This holiday season, celebrate with a wine that can traverse all your culinary delights, from appetizers to desserts. Explore this bubbling creation of that Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon. Legend has it that upon his discovery, he was quoted as saying, “Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!” Indeed, he was! And so can you!

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

So you’re finally a full-blown grown-up. Congratulations.

One of the things that comes with that is learning how to give good, thoughtful presents to other full-blown grown-ups. For a lot of us, that leads in one of two directions: gift cards, or something homemade. Gift cards: on the plus side, they’re easy; the minus, they’re expensive and clearly lacking in effort. Something homemade: on the plus side, it’s thoughtful and offers a chance to show off; the minus, there is no chance you’ll be able to learn to knit in the next week.

Here are some suggestions for easy, cocktail-centric, homemade gifts that will hint that you might have hidden depths:

Infused alcohols

This is where the gift-giving process gets budget-friendly. If you are flavoring alcohol with strong flavors, you don’t want to use expensive booze; any subtleties in the base liquor will be covered up. You probably don’t want to use the absolute cheapest stuff, though, because you might find some off flavors in your final product. I try to steer toward a respectable bottom-shelf vodka or white rum — Mr. Boston, for instance.

Method: The great thing about infusing alcohol is that, at its simplest level — which, let’s face it, is about all you can handle at this point in the year — it is pretty much foolproof. You add a flavorful ingredient to a clear spirit, shake it, then store it in a warm, dark place for a few days, shaking it twice per day. I use the laundry room. Strain and bottle it when it tastes right to you.

Ideas:

• Chocolate Vodka — ½ cup/60 grams cocoa nibs to a 750 ml bottle of vodka. Shake and age for four days.

• Graham Cracker Vodka — Blend 1 sleeve of graham crackers with three cups/710 ml of vodka. Shake and age for seven days.

(These two would make a great matched gift set for making s’mores martinis)

• Jalapeño Rum — 4 spicy jalapeños to one liter of white rum. Shake and age for four days, then taste each day until it is flavorful and spicy enough for your Auntie’s taste.

• Banana Rum — Muddle a very ripe banana, the type you find next to the cash register at a convenience store, with two cups/475 ml white rum. Shake and age for a week.

• Cardamom Vodka — ½ ounce/14 grams lightly crushed cardamom pods to 1½ cups/350 ml vodka. Shake and age for 12 hours. This is delicious but potent. Give in very small bottles with instructions to use judiciously.

•Basil/Fresno Vodka — 3 chopped Fresno chilies (~50 grams) and 20 grams of hand-torn basil leaves to 1¼ cups/300 ml vodka. Shake and age for four days. (Excellent for bloody marys.)

Fruit syrups

Method: Heat equal amounts of frozen fruit and white sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Use frozen fruit, because the freezing process produces jagged ice crystals that poke holes in the cell walls of the fruit and help this process along. As the fruit thaws, it will weep juice — far more than you are expecting. (You might want to help the process along with a potato masher.) Bring to a boil. Let the mixture boil for another 10 to 20 seconds to make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let everything steep for another half an hour. Strain and bottle. (You might want to put the leftover fruit glop as jam on an English muffin.)

Surprisingly good syrup fruits:

• Cherries, cranberries, rhubarb, cucumbers (yes, really), wild blueberries, honeydew melon, raspberries, strawberries.

Infused syrups

Method: Make a simple syrup (equal parts water and white sugar), and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add an aromatic ingredient, cover and steep for 30 minutes. Strain and bottle.

“Wait — Can I Put This On Pancakes?” (Yeah, probably.)

Dried hibiscus blossoms, dried jasmine blossoms, dried butterfly sweet pea blossoms (this is a deep blue color, which turns a fantastic shade of violet when combined with citrus juice), whole garam masala, cracked nutmeg, broken cinnamon sticks (steep overnight), lightly crushed coffee beans (steep for a couple of hours).

Also, not for nothin’, but this is the time of year when it’s easy to get down on yourself. Your anxiety will tell you that nobody loves you, your depression will add that you deserve it, and your guilt will tell you that you should be doing much more for other people than you are. My advice to you — and bear in mind that I have the emotional depth of a parking lot puddle — is that you might not be the best judge of your own worth.

You are special and magical and bring joy to people who will never tell you about it, but would miss you like oxygen if you weren’t around. (And if you need help remembering this, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.) The fact that you are thinking about what you can give to others is a good hint that you do have hidden depths.

Featured photo: Cocktail-centric, homemade gifts. Photo by John Fladd.

It’s a magical combination

I go into most weekends with high expectations for my own productivity.

Generally speaking, though, my expectations rarely prove to be anything other than unrealistic. I have visions of yard work, cooking elaborate meals, tackling some long overdue painting, cleaning out the garage and any number of other chores and tasks.

Aside from the fact that my kids have dizzying weekend schedules sending my wife and me criss-crossing town for the bulk of the day, I am also just one person.

By 3:30 p.m. or so most Saturdays or Sundays, I find myself in a familiar spot: tired, maybe a little frustrated and probably stressed — and probably having made minimal progress on my to-do list. A cup of coffee would pick me up but maybe amplify my stress. A beer might nudge me toward completely giving up on my productive goals.

Perhaps I could combine the two? Well, you know, a coffee stout isn’t going to provide a caffeine boost but a slow-sipping brew featuring big notes of roasted coffee and dark chocolate might be just what the doctor ordered for easing frustration, while still allowing some modicum of productivity. Or maybe I just have a never-ending ability to find ways to justify having a beer?

I’ve written about coffee stouts and porters before and I’ll write about them again. These beers are like a coffee drinker’s dream: smooth, creamy brews boasting rich flavors of decadent coffee. And, might I add, it’s the perfect time of year to explore darker beers. Picture yourself spending the day Christmas shopping and running holiday-related errands, and then turning to a deliciously smooth coffee-flavored brew as you shake off the edginess from navigating holiday crowds.

In the age of buying local, brewers are more and more turning to local coffee roasters to flavor their coffee brews as well, which is a great touch resulting in unique, flavorful beers. And you can feel good about supporting your local economy.

Thankfully, craft brewers have fully embraced this style. Here are five coffee stouts and porters from the region to help you get through this busy and hopefully somewhat productive month.

Java Roots by Granite Roots Brewing (Troy)

This is just a coffee and chocolate bomb in a smooth, silky package. Granite Roots sources its coffee beans for this brew from Barrington Coffee Roasting Co., which is based in western Massachusetts. A perfect iteration of the coffee stout.

Gunner’s Daughter with Coffee by Mast Landing Brewing Co. (Westbrook, Maine)

The original Gunner’s Daughter boasts huge notes of peanut butter, chocolate and coffee and the “with Coffee” version — you guessed it — features an even bigger coffee presence. Decadent doesn’t seem to cover this beer. This is dessert in a glass.

Gepetto by Schilling Beer Co. (Littleton)

The brewery makes the late addition of whole-bean coffee in this brew, which results in a slightly sweet brew that features not only coffee but also sweet chocolate and marshmallow. It’s kind of like drinking a glass of coffee milk, which my mother reminded me was my favorite childhood drink.

Velvet Moon by Mighty Squirrel Brewing Brewing Co. (Waltham, Mass.)

This brew is especially smooth and creamy and relies on a blend of Honduran, Nicaraguan and Ethiopian beans from Atomic Coffee Roasters for its unique, amplified coffee flavor. This one hits you with waves of coffee.

Coffee Cake Porter by 603 Brewery (Londonderry)

While this has plenty of rich coffee flavor, this brew goes beyond that with coffee flavors complemented by notes of vanilla, cinnamon and a little smokiness. This is perfect for the holiday season.

What’s in My Fridge
Samuel Adams Old Fezziwig by Boston Beer Co. (Boston)
This is such a nostalgic choice for me, as I have many memories of enjoying this brew during holiday get-togethers. What I like about this brew is that it does have a little holiday sweetness and spice, but it’s not overpowering. This is quite drinkable, while still feeling like you’ve captured the holiday season in a glass. Cheers!

Featured photo: Coffee and beer together as one. Courtesy photo.