MxMO – 19th Century
This month Mixology Monday is hosted by Dinah over at Bibulous, with a theme that is close to my heart – 19th century cocktails. Such drinks are no stranger to Oh Gosh!, with cocktails like the Martinez, Martini, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Widow’s Kiss, Sazerac, Sherry Cobbler and countless others already covered. This left me no choice than to hit the vintage cocktail books and see what I could drag out from the mists of time.
Recent efforts from several sources mean classic cocktail books are more accessible than ever before, so I was spoilt for choice when it came to where to find my drink for tonight. However, I wanted to make something using my newly acquired bottle of Laird’s Applejack, a purchase I stupidly forgot to make whilst over in the States but thankfully corrected with thanks to Gabriel and the postal services of the US and UK.
The Modern Bartenders’ Guide turned up a few possibilities, but I eventually settled on a drink from The Flowing Bowl by “The Only William” Schmidt. The Delicious Sour has a very presumptive name, and its recipe looked a little far towards the sweet side, but Keith’s positive review pushed me in to giving it a try anyway…
The Delicious Sour
- 2 shots / 60 ml / 2 oz applejack
- 2 shots / 60 ml / 2 oz créme de pêche
- 1 shot / 30 ml / 1 oz lime juice
- 1 bar-spoon sugar
- 1 egg white
- Shake all ingredients hard with ice. Strain in to a tall glass and top-off with soda water. Garnish with an apple wheel
The first thing that hits you when you take a sip of The Delicious Sour is the fruitiness. The applejack combined with the créme de pêche creates quite an intense, sweet mixture of apples and peaches on the initial taste. However, this cocktail has plenty of depth and behind that there is a lot more going on. I was using créme de pêche de vigne, which gives off a slightly more aromatic flavour which combined with the brandy tones of the applejack gave a nice complex backing to the initial fruit.
The lime offsets the sweetness well and the overall drink is surprisingly balanced, though that sweet/sour pucker that makes a sour a sour is still there. Combined with the lovely texture the egg provides this drink really is, well, delicious. If you’re lacking créme de pêche an apricot liqueur like Giffard Abricot du Roussillon also works quite nicely in the drink, as do a few dashes of Fee Brothers peach bitters. However, be careful not to overdo the bitters – they’re not exactly the most bitter of bitters so more than a few drops can start to push the sweetness a bit too far.
Posted in Applejack, Créme de Pêche, Lime, Mixology Monday, Peach Bitters, Recipes
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September 16th, 2008 at 5:47 am
hell yeah, jay!!!!! the delicious sour, a favorite of the chef’s down at Union, one of the top restaurants in seattle. and you know how picky chef’s can be….
September 16th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
jay,
have you tried it with laird’s bonded applejack? deadly and the perfect autumn delicacy. brizard apry also makes a tasty addition.
cheers!
blair
September 17th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Jay,
Lovely shot. You’re really upping the bar when it comes to photography.
Totally agree with Blair about Laird’s bonded and apry.
September 17th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Hallo
Nice cocktail, but I’m not sure which créme de pêche I should use.
Which one do you use?
September 17th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Thanks Rick! I was indeed using Laird’s BIB, nice stuff. I didn’t try it with Brizard Apry, but I did try it with Giffard Abricot du Roussillon which worked very nicely.
hannibal-007 – I was using Edmond Briottet Créme de Pêche de Vigne. Any of the peach liqueurs from another decent distiller like Marie Brizard, Giffard or Gabriel Boudier should also work well.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Hello
Thans for your answer.
I tried this recipe three month ago and I used De Kupyer Peach Tree. I think it is a good liqueur, but I’m not sure whether it is the right kind of liqueur (perhaps brandy based or other one).
I’m not sure because it tasted very sweet and peach was very dominated. Like peach juice with alcohol.
Next time I use not so much of it, I hope it would be better.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:41 am
[...] tried a whisky sour with an egg white, or perhaps more importantly, William Schmidt’s delicious sour, you should do [...]
October 15th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
[...] Whiskey Sours are always a little declasse, if you ask me, unless they’re jazzed up into a Delicious or Dizzy or What-Have-You [...]