so what’s this CD I’ve been given?

by the modern serf

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Black Water

by the modern serf

I first had this drink on my first visit to my former neighborhood bar, Deep Ellum. I was immediately intrigued by this drink at the top of their cocktail list and featuring Moxie, a soda that made me gag the last time i drank it. He had tried pairing Moxie with nearly every other spirit, but rye whiskey was the only one that could tame it. The recipe, as best as I can approximate:

Build in highball glass:
1.5 oz rye whiskey (I use Old Overholt)
.5 oz lemon
fill with ice
top with Moxie
garnish with spent lemon wedge

Depending on my mood or to whom I’m serving it, I may add up to an ounce of simple syrup; Moxie has very little sweetness on its own, so you’ll probably want to do that if you’re expecting Jack ‘n’ Coke -like sweetness.

The reason for Moxie’s weird taste, and its unexpectedly good pairing with whiskey, is Gentian. Gentian is a component in a lot of bitters and aperitifs; one could reasonably approximate Moxie by adding a good portion of Angostura bitters to root beer. While this makes for an unappealing soft drink on its own, the whiskey and citrus help tone it down and make a well-balanced drink.

Also, according to wikipedia:
Moxie has also grown in popularity in recent years in regions of southern Maine and Connecticut due to its mixability with certain spirits. Notable Moxie mixed drinks include the “Welfare Mom”, which consists of equal parts Diet Moxie and Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy; the “County Girl”, a drink made up of one part bourbon whiskey and two parts Moxie on the rocks, with an optional lime garnish; the “Ninja,” a triple shot consisting of one part Moxie, one part vodka, and one part orange juice; the “Mad Mailman”, a mixture of Moxie and Jägermeister; and “The Vijay”, which consists of one part Moxie and one part blended American Whiskey. Many people, even those who do not like the soda on its own, find it refreshing when mixed with whiskey.

I have yet to try any of those recipes. Alas, I have used up all of the Moxie I bought nearly a year ago making drinks at this party, so I won’t be trying them anytime soon. However, if any of you out there in blogland want to take the plunge, I’d love to hear from you.

lost classics: Haircut 100-Pelican West

by the modern serf

Haircut 100 was formed in 1980 by singer and songwriter NIck Heyward. After a number of lineup changes, they were signed by Arista and put out their debut album Pelican West. Four hit singles later, Heyward quit to pursue an unsuccessful solo career, and the rest of the band continued with even less success without him, releasing the now long out-of-print Paint and Paint and disbanding shortly thereafter.

Four cheesy-ass videos for near-perfect pop songs:
Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)
The debut single.
Love Plus One
The big transatlantic hit.
Fantastic Day
This song has an awesomely cheesy video too, but for whatever reason the suits pulled it from the Youtube (but left the others up.)
Nobody’s Fool
The last single before it all fell apart.

And the rest of the album? Pretty heavy on the filler, to be honest. Heyward apparently used all his lyrics on these four songs, because the rest of the record is largely instrumental. Musically, its all pretty heavy on the chuka-chuka funk guitars and brass hooks of the first two singles. There’s nothing really bad on the record, but Favourite Shirts is Lemon Firebrigade is Baked Bean is Marine Boy and so forth. A lot of reviews say that the album is front-loaded, but its really more that your ears become desensitized to it by track 6.

I can’t really fault their consistency, though. They had their one thing and for a few short years they shined and polished it until they had a few 3 minute blocks of perfection. No band since then, bar perhaps Vampire Weekend, has come close to perfecting the sound of rich twentysomethings on exotic vacations.

Captain Kidd Cup

by the modern serf

How does it taste? Yummy, but not much like gin, which was probably a problem. When I first made it, I used my own allspice infusion (see a future article on using sous-vide techniques to do a months work in an hour without blowing your house up) which was pretty mild. The St. Elizabeth allspice dram was quite a bit tastier, but also a lot stronger. (It was also much more expensive at $28 for a 375ml bottle, versus about $8 for the ingredients to make that much.) I didn’t adjust the recipe accordingly and that probably resulted in a one dimensional drink.

Other notes: according to the Boston Globe, I am now a freelance bartender! All the other contestants were actual professionals; I was the only chump fumbling around with the tools. I was first to mix, so i wasted a bit of time just getting my shit together, getting the brand new bottles open, knocking over glasses, and other various embarrassments. I fumbled during my limerick presentation, too, but I recovered without too much shame.

Oh, and that limerick?

There once was a pirate named Kidd;
a-pillage and plunder he did;
he buried his treasure
and drank to his pleasure
but lost where the treasure was hid.

Definite lack of dick jokes, but (in my opinion) the best of the night.

What is this crap?

by the modern serf

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