Nose: this is softer than many gins, with floral notes including lime blossom, rosemary, a bit of juniper, thyme, cardamom, lemon peel and a touch of lemon grass. There’s only light alcohol on the nose.

Taste: It has a silky smooth texture that is grainy and malty and almost honey sweet, with warming cardamom and coriander, and some cinnamon. Like most gins it has traces of citrus, and a little juniper, but much less than more typical (i.e., non-Old Tom) gins. Quite unlike those other gins, Hayman’s Old Tom has noticeable fruit flavors, such as banana, mango, and pear.

Finish: The spices linger, as do the pear, mango, and banana. Citrus, especially lime, and rosemary and juniper grow in spiciness and then fade as the overall taste turns more toward honey, malt, and salt.

This is a unique gin these days, and allows a fantastic departure from the use, and abuse, of London Dry gin in classic pre-Prohibition cocktail recipes. Try it in a Martinez, or a Tom Collins, or really most anything from the Savoy Cocktail Book or earlier, to see how those cocktails may have tasted back in the day.

Hayman’s Old Tom Gin, (Hayman Distillers, London, England) 80 proof $26

Nose: Moderately strong juniper, lemon peel and pith, grassy, with some floral/perfume components, probably from the oris root. It has notable alcohol in the nose, not quite enough to call harsh, but strong.

Taste: Rather strong juniper, quite mineral laden, with lime peel and a lesser amount of lemon peel, some coriander, and lots of cardamom. It’s slightly bitter, and also has a slight traces of cinnamon, and weirdly enough, fresh blackberries. I’m not sure what grains are used in the mash, but it is a warm spirit, suggesting rye, but with hints of barley and buckwheat.

Finish: Lingering, medicinal, with fairly heavy juniper, cardamom, and black pepper notes lasting quite a while.

A perfectly reasonable, albeit very juniper forward gin. This would make a fine tonic, but I’d think an over-pungent martini. I’d use in drinks with some additional citrus, especially grapefruit, to complement, and balance out, the juniper-heavy nature. I’ve got a cocktail idea which I think also features this gin well, and will post, once it’s refined enough to be ready to come out of the lab.

TuB Gin, (Peach Street Distillers, Palisade, CO) 80 proof $30

On Saturday and Sunday, April 28-29, 2012, on the sky bridge level of the World Trade Center in Portland, the Oregon Distillers Guild will hold TOAST 2012, the largest public tasting of craft spirits in North America, featuring more than 50 local, national, and international artisan producers, pouring over 100 different spirits. TOAST allows small distillers to showcase their handcrafted spirits, while providing an opportunity for the public to experience the diversity and quality of craft spirits from Oregon and beyond. From Absinthe to Whiskey, virtually every spirit category will be represented.

An exciting new addition to this year’s event will be The Bottle Shop. For the first time in Oregon, bottles of select spirits will be available for sale on site, allowing attendees to purchase bottles of some of their favorite spirits sampled at TOAST.

A cornerstone of the event will be The Mix Lounge, featuring the Oregon Bartenders Guild mixing and pouring samples of cocktails using many of the local spirits at TOAST. This will allow show attendees to meet some of Oregon’s best bartenders, and experience how some of the spirits being tasted at TOAST can be used to create unique artisan cocktails. As the bartenders mix their drinks, they will be discussing how and why they use the techniques they do, making this an opportunity for the public to learn about the art and skill involved in mixing cocktails. Complementary collectible recipe cards will be available for each cocktail.

TOAST is open from 3–8 p.m. on both April 28th and 29th. Admission at the door is $49 each day, and includes spirit and cocktail samples. $40 advanced tickets can be pre-purchased online, and two-day passes are just $75. Purchase tickets here. A souvenir ODG logo tasting glass and light buffet are included with admission. Complementary drink recipe cards are available at participating distiller’s tables. The Distillery Merchandise and Home Bar Gift Shop will offer great prices on drink condiments and home bar accessories.

The second annual TOAST is sponsored and presented by The Oregonian, KINK FM, KXL FM News, and the Oregon Distillers Guild. Weekend stays at Hotel Fifty and the Downtown Marriott Hotel area available at a special rate of $119 a night plus tax. Contact the hotels for reservations.

This event is restricted to adults 21 and over with valid ID.

Here’s an original Boozenik cocktail recipe mixing together spirits from a couple categories often overlooked in the U.S., but which are very popular in South America, and rapidly growing in popularity world-wide: cachaça and pisco. I named this one “Around Cape Horn”, imagining the sea voyage from Brazil to Peru to collect the ingredients.

Around Cape Horn

Shake sharply with ice.
Double-strain into cocktail glass.
Garnish with a slender lime wheel (optional)

For those who prefer agave to cane sugar, a light agave syrup works well as a substitute for the simple syrup.

We have also served a variant at parties we’ve held, called “Shipwrecked on Cape Horn” which is served on the rocks, preferably with a sugar cane stir stick suggesting shipwreck debris.

Nose: light alcohol, green apple, white grape juice, flowering lime, sweet, tinge of sour, touch of mango, dry Riesling wine, dolmades.

Taste: Has a definite initial bite, but it’s not especially warm, after the bite. A trace of bitter, but fairly well balanced between sweet and sour, lots of minerals and salts, some honey, dried orange peel, plantain, bitter lime, grape skin, dried currant, date, touch of mango, and green tea.

Finish: Black pepper, orange pith, strong minerals, continuing saltiness, working toward earthy and vegetal, strong black tea, bit of darkly toasted bread, grape skin and continuing sour apple, and grape leaf.

Piscología Pisco Achlado has some strong flavors and would do well in cocktails with other strong ingredients. It also makes a very nice pisco sour.

Piscología Pisco Achlado (Made in Ica, Peru, imported by Topa Spirits, San Diego, CA) $35

Ingredients from which we could each choose included anise, cardamom, clove, coriander, gentian, ginger, Kaffir limes, kassia, Meyer lemons, orange peel, witch hazel, wormwood, and about another 10 or so. For the class the botanicals were infused in Everclear, but other solvents can be used, most often rum or whiskey, or even glycerin, like the Fee Brothers do.

We proceeded around the room, adding ingredients drop by drop until our concoctions were done to our liking. Mine ended up earthy and spicy. Ms. Boozenik’s was more citrus-ginger and lighter. Mine for whiskey. Hers for gin.

An interesting note: For experimenting in this class, of course, the ingredients were infused separately. But despite the difficulty of dealing with ingredients that infuse at different rates, most manufacturers macerate or infuse their ingredients together instead of separately. They just have to balance the amounts of ingredients to make sure that they get the results they desire.

The Meadow hosts classes of this sort in both Portland and New York. It’s well worth looking at their class list.

On Saturday and Sunday, April 28-29, 2012, on the sky bridge level of the World Trade Center in Portland, the Oregon Distillers Guild will hold TOAST 2012, the largest public tasting of craft spirits in North America, featuring more than 50 local, national, and international artisan producers, pouring over 100 different spirits. TOAST allows small distillers to showcase their handcrafted spirits, while providing an opportunity for the public to experience the diversity and quality of craft spirits from Oregon and beyond. From Absinthe to Whiskey, virtually every spirit category will be represented.

An exciting new addition to this year’s event will be The Bottle Shop. For the first time in Oregon, bottles of select spirits will be available for sale on site, allowing attendees to purchase bottles of some of their favorite spirits sampled at TOAST.

A cornerstone of the event will be The Mix Lounge, featuring the Oregon Bartenders Guild mixing and pouring samples of cocktails using many of the local spirits at TOAST. This will allow show attendees to meet some of Oregon’s best bartenders, and experience how some of the spirits being tasted at TOAST can be used to create unique artisan cocktails. As the bartenders mix their drinks, they will be discussing how and why they use the techniques they do, making this an opportunity for the public to learn about the art and skill involved in mixing cocktails. Complementary collectible recipe cards will be available for each cocktail.

TOAST is open from 3–8 p.m. on both April 28th and 29th. Admission at the door is $49 each day, and includes spirit and cocktail samples. $40 advanced tickets can be pre-purchased online, and two-day passes are just $75. Purchase tickets here. A souvenir ODG logo tasting glass and light buffet are included with admission. Complementary drink recipe cards are available at participating distiller’s tables. The Distillery Merchandise and Home Bar Gift Shop will offer great prices on drink condiments and home bar accessories.

The second annual TOAST is sponsored and presented by The Oregonian, KINK FM, KXL FM News, and the Oregon Distillers Guild. Weekend stays at Hotel Fifty and the Downtown Marriott Hotel area available at a special rate of $119 a night plus tax. Contact the hotels for reservations.

This event is restricted to adults 21 and over with valid ID.

For more information, and a promo code for discounted tickets, see TOAST.

Cocktail Camp PDX, Portland’s most drinkable day camp, is back for a third year of spirits tastings, cocktail classes and other cocktail geekery. We’re happy to again be a sponsor of this fun day of education and social gathering.

If you enjoy finely crafted cocktails, or just want to learn more about what goes into them, then this is your event.

Schedule (as of 26 March):

10:30 am   Meet & Greet and Morning Social Hour:   Morning social hour with complimentary low-alcohol cocktails. Come have a morning refresher and meet some of your fellow cocktail enthusiasts before the day gets started. Bar host and menu to be announced.

11:00 am   The Art of Tasting:   House Spirits distiller Colin Howard and Tony Devencenzi from San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch will teach you proper techniques for tasting spirits, which will help you refine your preferences, plan better pairings, and create your own fantastic cocktails.

12:15 pm   Scotch: It’s easier than you think:   Scotch doesn’t have to be intimidating. Whiskey expert Stuart Ramsay and Kask’s Tommy Klus will discuss the varieties of Scotch, the effect region has on their flavors, and why learning about it is not as hard as you might think.

1:15 pm   Luchtime Social Hour:   Break for lunch and socializing, while sampling complimentary cocktails featuring a new, yet-to-be-released rum by New Deal Distillery.

2:30 pm   The Perfect Host:   Last year you learned that yes, you can entertain. Now put that knowledge to use. Cocktail consultant Morgan Schick will teach you the skills of cocktail party menu planning and how to accommodate your guests on any budget.

3:30 pm   Afternoon Social Hour:   Final cocktail and punch social hour. Bar host and menu to be announced.

4:00 pm   Introduction to Aperitifs:   Aperitifs aren’t just for pre-dinner happy hour. Neil Kopplin, creator of Imbue Vermouth, and Patrick Taylor will discuss their history, use, and the variety, and get ideas on how and why to incorporate them into your home bar.

Tickets and more info can be found at Cocktail Camp PDX

This cocktail, which seems similar in some ways to a Negroni is attributed to Harry McElhone, founder of Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. But unlike the Negroni made with gin, this whiskey-forward recipe is uncommon, at least in its original form. I have had many cocktails where the description is “like a …” or “a variation on …” a Boulevardier, using rum or even tequila! But those phrases are just shorthand for a cocktail recipe with a 2:1:1 proportion of strong to bitter to weak. But in its original form the Boulevardier is a fine cocktail, deserving of wider enjoyment.

Boulevardier
1 ½ oz. bourbon (we used Burnside Bourbon)
¾ oz. Campari
¾ oz. sweet vermouth (we used Dolin Rouge)

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass.
Stir ingredients gently with ice.
Strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish with a lemon twist.

The original recipe gives the proportions of 2:1:1 as we use here, but keeping to a 1 ounce measure akin to a Negroni makes for a pretty formidable amount of spirit in the glass, hence our choice of 1 ½, ¾, ¾, which will help the drinker stay a suave boulevardier, rather than ending face down on the boulevard.

Glacier Potato Vodka is a hand-crafted, column-distilled potato vodka from Rigby, Idaho. Unlike some other high-altitude Western spirits, and odd, given the name, this vodka is made with well water, not snow (or glacier) melt, so there is definite character of the geology imparted on the finished product.

Nose: noticeable alcohol, but not hot, somewhat nutty, with some chalk and cement scents. Overall slightly sweet and a touch earthy. Since it’s a potato vodka, obviously the typical grainy or bready notes are absent.

Taste: Initial taste is quite sweet which suggests that this may be rounded. Somewhat viscous. There’s some very light apple and pear, black pepper, and like the nose some slightly chalky notes. It has a bit of a bitter bite, like some Russian vodkas.

Finish: Warm, with a clear mineral character, clay, salty and oddly somewhat metallic. Sweetness lingers, but while it’s not “hot” with alcohol, there’s a bit of harshness to the aftertaste.

Those searching for a smooth, zero personality vodka would be best served looking elsewhere. This one has a lot of mineral character which may work well in some cocktails, but I’d suggest a touch of care, and perhaps a touch of vermouth, rather than tonic or juices.

One additional note: Given that it is made from potatoes, those with gluten intolerance can drink it with no worries. Although, to be fair, according to Celiac.Com (http://www.celiac.com/articles/21886/1/Distilled-Spirits-Grain-Alcohols-and-Vinegar-Are-they-Gluten-Free/Page1.html) vodkas distilled from grain generally should be safe, as well.

Glacier Potato Vodka (Teton Glacier Distillers, Rigby, ID) 80 proof $21