Winter Wassail

It’s cocktail time at St. Elmo

Written by Neil Charles / Photographed by Dave Pluimer

As winter approaches, something strange happens to our taste buds. Flavors that during the summer months we found so readily enjoyable – the floral berry notes of a refreshingly crisp rosé, for instance, or the tangy bitterness of a gin and tonic – no longer seem to offer the same appeal and can even taste quite flat and boring. This is true even if we live indoors at precisely the same temperature year-round; our body just seems to sense when the seasons are getting ready to turn and adjust accordingly.

Even if your favorite summer tincture has lost some of its luster, however, there is no need to despair. Gin can be repurposed into any number of festive, if not especially warming, drinks; rosé, on the other hand, is probably best returned to the cellar until next spring in favor of fuller-bodied whites and reds.

It is at this time that whiskies, brandies and dark rums start to feature more regularly on the menu. As to adjunct ingredients, the colder months offer plenty of opportunities to explore relatively obscure spirits with a more herbal or spicy character, as well as any number of sweet and sticky liqueurs that evoke holiday fruits, nuts and baked goods. Smoked cocktails that can be either improvised or prepared with a specialty smoker have also become popular in recent years. Much as we may love the summer months, for many of us the real fun starts as the leaves begin to turn and we head indoors and get down to the serious business of mixing cocktails. For this festive roundup of wintry beverages, we asked Candace Anastasio, beverage manager of St. Elmo Steak House, to share some of her favorite recipes.

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St. Elmo Bourbon Chocolate Martini

• 2 oz. St. Elmo Cherry Vanilla Bourbon

• .5 oz. Trader Vic’s white chocolate liqueur

• .5 oz. Marie Brizard chocolate royale

• Top with house-made whipped cream and Luxardo cherry

Reminiscent of chocolate pudding in a glass, only with the added bonus of St. Elmo’s powerful Cherry Vanilla Bourbon that begins life as a traditional three-year old straight bourbon and is subsequently infused with natural dark cherry and vanilla beans. Unlike many flavored whiskies that are bottled at 60 proof and taste dilute when mixed or served over ice, St. Elmo’s version packs a generous 44 percent alcohol, producing a robust spirit that blends perfectly in cocktails and works nicely on the rocks without losing any of its punch. Versatile and seductively easy to drink, this flamboyant spirit makes for a wonderful aperitif with a splash of cola and excels in any number of timehonored cocktails, such as this one.

Blackberry Basil Spritz

• 2 oz. Roku gin

• 1 oz. blackberry puree

• 1 oz. fresh lemon juice

• Top with sparkling water

• Garnish with lemon and basil

St. Elmo Old Fashioned Toddy

• 2 oz. St. Elmo bottled Old Fashioned

• 1 oz. honey

• .5 oz. lemon

• Top with hot water

• Garnish with a candied orange

You don’t have to be feeling sick or under the weather to enjoy a toddy. Another drink, like grog, with its roots in ancient medicine, the toddy combines citrus, sweetness and warmth that tastes every bit as good as it is therapeutic. This winter warmer almost demands to be enjoyed in front of a log fire.

Near and Dear

• 2 oz. Uncle Nearest 1884 bourbon

• 2 oz. peach nectar

• 1 oz. house-made ginger syrup

• .5 oz. fresh lemon juice

• Garnish with lemon expression

Created to honor the memory of former slave and master distiller Nathan “Nearest” Green, Uncle Nearest is a rich and smooth Tennessee whiskey that lends itself perfectly to this spicy southerninspired cocktail. There is something very evocative about the combination of peach, ginger and spice that puts us in mind of roaring fires and fall fare.

Spiced Cranberry

• 1.25 oz. Sailor Jerry spiced rum

• .75 oz. St. George Spiced Pear liqueur

• .5 oz. fresh lime juice

• 1 oz. cranberry juice

• Garnish with lime wheel

Cranberries evoke Thanksgiving and leftover turkey sandwiches. Although not particularly versatile, this unique fruit, with its tart and refreshing character, is almost equally popular in its juice form as it is as a sauce. Acid is the key to this lively concoction, propelling the spice, while the sweetness of the pear provides balance. If you can find it, Foursquare spiced rum provides a richer and more complex alternative.

Espresso Martini

• 2 oz. El Tesoro Reposado tequila

• 1 shot espresso

• .5 oz. Nocello walnut liqueur

• .5 oz. Kahlua

• .5 oz. Marie Brizard chocolate royale

• Garnish with 3 espresso beans

St. Elmo Old Fashioned Sour

• 2 oz. St. Elmo bottled Old Fashioned

• .5 oz. fresh lime juice

• .5 oz. fresh lemon juice

• 1 oz. simple syrup

• 3 dashes Fee Foam

• Garnish with orange expression and Luxardo cherry

This novel cocktail incorporates a clever bit of mixology to combine two classics in one glass. What we now know as the old fashioned first made an appearance at the turn of the nineteenth century in New York. Originally composed of whiskey, a sugar cube, water and bitters, it passed through innumerable variations during the first half of that century, but became popular again in its (almost) present form as an antidote to increasingly arcane multi-ingredient cocktails. History has repeated itself over the decades, during which time the old fashioned had remained a robust reminder of times gone by. The whiskey sour, for its part, was officially identified back in the seminal 1862 book The Bartender’s Guide: How to Mix Drinks by Jerry Thomas. The British Navy had been consuming a similar libation for centuries, however: grog, which combined either whisky, or more commonly, rum, with lime juice as a preventative measure against scurvy. Earlier this year, St. Elmo introduced their bottled old fashioned to the retail market, eliminating the need to spend precious time on attempting to make the perfect version at home.

Vesper

• 1.5 oz. Wheatley vodka

• 1.5 oz. Bombay Sapphire gin

• .5 oz. Dolin white vermouth

• Garnish with lemon expression

Sazerac

• 2 oz. Rare Saint rye whiskey

• 3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

• .5 oz. simple syrup

• 8th Day absinthe-rinsed

• Garnish with lemon expression

A New Orleans classic; Peychaud’s Bitters is one of the keys here; it is lighter and sweeter than other styles of bitters. The wonderful aroma of the absinthe-rinsed glass against the rye produces a classic nose, taste, finish and balance. Originally concocted at the Sazerac Coffee House with Cognac and bitters from New Orleans apothecary Antoine Pechaud, the Sazerac made its first appearance sometime in the 1860s. When Phylloxera destroyed most of France’s grapevines, the cognac supply dried up, and the Café’s new proprietor, Thomas Handy, switched to American rye. When absinthe was banned in the U.S., a local product, Herbsaint (made without the dreaded wormwood) was substituted for absinthe. Now that the latter spirit is again legal, we can once more enjoy an approximation of the original.