Week 40 in The Year Of Drinking Adventurously. Supposed to be Spanish Cider.
I am stymied at the fact that I couldn’t find this week’s potent potable. I tried the Fascist liquor store, I tried the beer distributor and I tried the Hateful Wegman’s. Not a whiff. Plenty of the other ciders around, which I could’ve tried but seeing as next week is cider part two, I decided to save the local/domestic offerings for then. Which leaves me high and dry. Pun intended.
I’m drinking a gimlet as I write this. Hendricks Gin, fresh squeezed lime juice and sugar cubes over ice. I’m staring at the sea. The sun is setting over my shoulders and I’m feeling mellow and relaxed. The hues of the sky are lavender and pale tangerine. There’s so much horizon in front of me that I can see the curve of the Earth. (Maybe not but let’s go with it anyway). Bottom line? Not much writing going on right now. Maybe the burning brain is finally reduced to coals. I hope I find some fuel to stoke the fire…
Week 37 in the Year of Drinking Adventurously. Cachaca.
Back to the adventure! I succeeded in finding this week’s spirit (although not any one of the brands recommended in our guide) and sampling the classic cachaca cocktail – the caipirinha, which is cachaca, lime juice and simple syrup poured over ice. (Just like a gimlet, only with cachaca. And I love gimlets.) I hope Lula had the chance to try this!
Since cachaca is distilled from sugar cane, it is often called Brazillian rum. However, while rum is distilled from molasses, the dark syrupy product of sugar, cachaca is distilled from the pure juice of the sugar cane plant. In addition, cachaca predates rum by about 100 years. And since its origins are somewhere in the 1530’s, it also means it’s the first spirit of the Americas (as in New World America… I am not going to assume the native populations didn’t produce something distilled or fermented, I really don’t know. That, however, is a subject for another day.)
As with many things old, there is a legend associated with the ‘discovery’ of cachaca, but it’s not a nice one… From our guide:
The legend associated with it—the part that falls squarely in the myth column—relates to its unexpected discovery. When the early colonials were processing sugar cane by boiling it, the steam would condense back to water on the roof. It would drip off the ceiling and sting the badly scarred backs of slaves. It supposedly got its nickname, “pinga,” that way. It was the “ping, ping” from the ceiling; probably not a legend on which makers of cachaça (or the slangish “pinga,” if you prefer) really would want to hang their hats. Slavery’s not something that a brand would proudly market as its heritage.
Not cool….
So my cocktail as seen in the photo above was good… Honestly I’d have to sample it side by side with a rum for comparison, but I enjoyed my drink. As I was pressed for time, I did not try it neat, which I am generally want to do.
Anyway, cachaca being from Brazil, it reminded me of the samba – the dance originating from that country which in turn reminded me of the song… Avalon.
But when the samba takes you out of nowhere… Enjoy some sexy Roxy Music…
Week 36 in The Year of Drinking Adventurously. Malört. And what is it? You guessed it, FAIL!
I had hopes for this week but alas, my search for malört locally was fruitless. Perhaps one of my Chicago friends would be able to comment on their impression of malört. (Boy, spell check really hates that word…) Or perhaps Lula had the chance to try it on her recent trip to Chicago. There’s little chance of finding it outside the region on The Malört Map.
Jeppson’s Malört MapThe thing that intrigued me about it is that, like absinthe, it is also a wormwood derived spirit. Malört is actaully the Swedish word for wormwood. Now you know I love my absinthe, so you can imagine my disappointment.
Once again, I was left wondering what to write about this week. I could have just regurgitated our guide’s description and explanation of the spirit, but you are certainly capable of reading all about it yourselves, in the book you have now purchased, right?
So let’s take a slight deviation from the booze path and talk about something else. Cake. But not just any cake… Guinness Chocolate Cake. Oh yessssss……
Guinness is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James’s Gate, Dublin. Its signature burnt flavor is derived from roasted, unmalted barley and its thick creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide when poured. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect flavor and texture for a decadent dessert? Here’s the recipe:
Cake:
1 ¼ cup Guinness stout
¹⁄³ cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
1 ²⁄³ cups flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, shaved or chopped
Glaze:
¾ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons sugar
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions:
In a sauce pan, bring Guinness and molasses to a simmer, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
Preheat oven to 350º
Cream together butter and brown sugar
Add eggs one at a time until fully blended
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt
In a mixer, alternate adding flour mixture and Guinness/molasses mixture the creamed sugar and butter, beginning and ending with flour
Stir in chopped chocolate
Grease bundt pan then dust with cocoa
Pour in batter and bake 45-50 minutes
Cool completely before removing from pan
To make glaze: bring cream to a boil, then remove from heat
Add sugar and whisk
Add chocolate and let stand 1 minute
Whisk until melted and smooth
Let cool 5 minutes before glazing cake
Eat while wearing stretchy pants. Or no pants at all, completely up to you. Trust me, this cake is amazing!
Disclaimer: that is not my photo, I’ve never taken a photo of the cake, but I swear that is what it looks like. This photo is from a website called ‘No Empty Chairs’
Meg Sorick, Author/Artist 