Pineau Experiment No. 6 was perhaps the best of the bunch. . .

The next step was to try mixing some drinks of my own using Pineau des Charentes.

Pineau turned out to slightly awkward stuff to mix with, probably on account of it having such a mild taste. My natural inclination was try substituting pineau in recipes that traditionally call for other aperitif wines (i.e. following well worn patterns like Manhattans and Martinis). This approach did not work well.

While I did not come up with anything truly exceptional, several experiments yielded one or two promising results.

Not following any particular plan, I tried the following.

Experiment #1

2 oz bourbon (Bulleit)

1 oz pineau

½ oz suze

1 tsp lemon added afterwards.

This was not a success. First, there was way too much bourbon. Second, I do not think bourbon and pineau are a good match. A spicier bourbon might be an improvement, but rye would be better still, and definitely in a smaller quantity. Calvados might also be interesting. Again a teaspoon of lemon juice proved an easy way of brightening it up a little. The Suze added a little interest but also did not really fit.

Experiment #2

1 ½ oz pineau

1 ½ oz pisco

½ oz lemon juice

¼ oz Cynar

I figured I would try something using pisco, loosely based on the rhum agricole Pompadour, with the addition of ¼ oz of Cynar to give a bitter and complex finish. While I enjoyed this it did not compare with the Pompadour. The Cynar could be toned down and still do its thing. A teaspoon may be adequate.

Experiment #3

2 oz Pineau des Charentes

1 oz pisco (or calvados)

1 oz fresh pineapple juice

2 dashes peach bitters

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

On first taste this seemed almost too smooth and refreshing – like one of those vodka cocktails. I was not sure it worked. Despite an interesting list of ingredients it tasted boring. I made it again using Calvados instead of pisco, hoping for a better result. The Calvados version did not really work either.

Experiment #4

1 oz pineau

1 oz Cruzan Estate Light Rum

1 drop (not dash) Angostura

½ tsp Kummel

This was good, making a very smooth rum drink that reminded me a little of the El Presidente on account of its soft profile fringed with herbal flavors. It needs to be reworked, but is a decent start. This one deserves repeating.

Experiment #5

1 oz pineau

1 oz rye (Pikesville)

1 drop angostura

2 drops peychauds

This drink pretty much built on my experiences from Experiment #1. It is tasty enough but perhaps a bit mild and uninteresting. A bigger, spicier rye might have helped it.

Experiment #6

2 oz pineau

1 oz dry apricot brandy (i.e. a eau de vie, not a liqueur)

½ oz lemon juice

1 tsp creme de framboise

Tasty. . . The honey taste in the pineau plays nicely with the apricots. The lemon juice and eau de vie keep things dry. The creme de framboise adds some sugar to round things out, plus an extra layer of fruit flavor that contributes to an overall impression of fruity complexity.

Experiment #7

2 oz pisco

1 oz Pineau des Charentes

Dash of Orange Bitters

This was pleasant but unexciting.

I was probably expecting better results from messing around with Pineau. The first drink I tried with the stuff, the Pompadour, set the bar quite high. None of my own efforts came close.

Still, I think experiments #4 and #6 have potential. Experiment #6 was quite good, and Experiment #4 hints at a whole world of possibilities using pineau with rum and small doses of liqueurs or bitters. In general, Pineau seems to work well in drinks that are light on the spirits. Small touches of liqueurs also work nicely.

I would like to do more experimenting using Pineau and rums. There seems to be lots of potential there. It might also be interesting to mix Pineau with aromatized aperitif wines, something I did not try.

So that is it. While my experiments were not completely successful I think I showed there are promising possibilities for using Pineau in cocktails. Pineau des Charentes might not be as versatile as vermouth but it is still underrated as a cocktail ingredient. Used in the right way Pineau can make good drinks.

1 oz brandy (Prince Arignac Armagnac V.S.)

1 oz kummel (Wolfschmidt)

½ oz Fernet Branca

5 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This would make a nice alternative to a liqueur after a meal. Or you could drink it any time you want a complex, contemplative, and rather medicinal drink. The Fernet Branca comes over heaviest, but the kummel makes its presence felt and the brandy provides the perfect mild but rich base for it all, with the bitters giving some extra complexity. Kummel mixes interestingly with strong herbal flavors, and it is a nice match for brandy too. Drinking this is like tasting a new herbal liqueur with a caraway base. I’d definitely drink this again. Mind you I tend to like this sort of thing.

There are a few different recipes around for this one. I didn’t go with the recipe on the side of the Peach Bitters bottle because it called for sour mix. Who wants to use sour mix when you could be using fresh juice? Instead I got one from CocktailDB.

1 ½ oz gin (Tanqueray)

½ oz crème de menthe (Marie Brizard)

½ oz kummel (Wolfschmidt)

½ oz lemon juice

4 dashes peach bitters (Fees – it’s a light tasting product, so I used several big shakes that probably added up to about a teaspoon).

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The verdict? Lets start with the appearance. A green drink is always a bit of fun. When I about six years old I remember thinking green drinks in small glasses looked very grown up and exotic. I had a lot to learn. Mind you, even at a young age my taste in green drinks was impeccable. My first experience with a green drink would have been aged around 2 years old (probably even younger) when I somehow disposed of a bottle of green Chartreuse. My parents allegedly found me asleep with the empty bottle. The feat still impresses me. Probably I didn’t really drink the stuff. Maybe I tipped it down a drain or something. Tipping away perfectly good Chartreuse seems uncharacteristic of me though, while having drunk a bottle of Chartreuse as a baby could possibly explain a few things. Anyway the Green Dragon gets points for being green. Cool.

On to the taste. . . There is a surprisingly strong aroma of peaches from the bitters. I was surprised that aroma came through the mint so clearly. On actually tasting, the main impression, as with so many crème de menthe drinks, is of toothpaste. In this case the toothpaste sensation is heightened by the lemon juice. Now just so everyone is clear exactly what I mean here, I am not talking about the simple mint taste possessed by toothpaste in its natural, freshly squeezed, state. Rather I mean the slightly mixed up mint flavor you get halfway through brushing, after the toothpaste has got a chance to get to know whatever it is supposed to be cleaning off your teeth. That description doesn’t sound promising, but fortunately it is not the full story. Some interest is provided by a big caraway aftertaste, plus a hint of fruit from the bitters. The gin is there too, but doesn’t jump out at you like the other ingredients. It all makes for an unusual experience. Incidentally, in the dust up between creme de menthe and kummel it is the creme de menthe that cleans up. The Kummel is more an undercurrent.  Perhaps it makes you wonder if somebody switched your regular toothpaste for some exotic Eastern European brand with a caraway flavor.

Why this drink is on the side of the peach bitters bottle I really have no idea. Who imagined this drink was going to help sell peach bitters? The name is cool enough. Plus I suppose the oddness of the thing demonstrates that peach bitters are highly versatile. Having drunk this you will realize that peach bitters have a myriad of uses, not all of which are advisable. The mere fact that the peach bitters shine through such a bizarre concoction is in itself also something of a recommendation I guess. But who is this thing supposed to appeal to? I am pretty open minded when it comes to drinks and I just don’t get it. It is simply odd. I think I’d rather have a simple Gin Stinger (i.e. gin and creme de menthe). Or maybe even a Gin Stinger with a dash of kummel? Come to think of it that idea just may be a worthy variation on the gin stinger theme. Once again could it be the lemon juice that is messing the drink up for me?

1 oz Italian vermouth (Martini)

½ – ¾ oz Irish whiskey (Jamesons)

½ oz lemon juice

¼ oz Kummel (Wolfschmit)

1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Regarding the quantity of whiskey, the Savoy suggests ½ oz while Ted Haigh’s CocktailDB suggests ¾ oz. I went with the latter suggestion. You can never have too much whiskey.

This is a very odd drink. It smells mostly of vermouth. The taste is an interesting mix of caraway and vermouth. There is something worthwhile happening in that combination. The whiskey is a little lost but I guess it helps give the drink backbone. The lemon juice is the part that doesn’t quite work for me. Maybe this drink would be better if it wasn’t a sour? Personally I find the sour aftertaste too much of a contrast to the herbal-caraway flavor. It’s an interesting drink and might work for a few people. I am not one of them though, despite usually enjoying herbal tastes.

If you want a caraway and herb flavored sour this is just the thing.

1 oz dry gin (Tanqueray)

1 oz dry vermouth

2 dashes kummel (I initially used ½ a teaspoon then upped it to 1 teaspoon)

Not in the recipe but I squeezed an orange twist over it.

Surprisingly the kummel was no more than a faint background note at ½ a teaspoon. I found a full teaspoon more to my taste. This one tastes pretty much like what you’d expect.  A pleasant martini variation.

Given that kummel originates from Holland it might be interesting to try making something like this using genever rather than standard dry gin.

Update: I later tried this using Bokma Genever, 2 tsp kummel, and a squeeze of lemon peel. It was very tasty, and perhaps better integrated than the original (hard to say though since I did not compare side to side). The milder character of the genever blends nicely with everything else.

Recipe for a Kingston Cocktail

1 ½ oz Jamaican Rum (Appletons Estate)

½ oz Kummel (Wolfschmidt)

½ oz orange juice

1 dash pimento dram (I used a little over half a teaspoon of my homemade stuff – just to make sure it didn’t get lost)

Harry Craddock reckons that the mixture of Kummel and Pimento Dram is what makes the drink special. There just may be something in it. I was surprised by how strongly the allspice came through. Obviously the Kummel dominates, but the pimento dram contributes a clear spicy undercurrent that mixes nicely with the rum and caraway.

CockailDB lists several variations of this drink, which also appears as a Lupe Velez, a Mexicano, and a Surprised Cocktail. There are slight differences among them but the principle remains the same. The Lupe Velez and Mexicano use light rum instead of Jamaican rum, with the former increasing the pimento dram to ¼ oz while the latter keeps the pimento dram at just a dash but ups the kummel and orange juice. The Surprised Cocktail is identical to the Kingston. I wouldn’t mind trying the Lupe Velez sometime, just to see what the extra pimento dram does.

The Kingston must have been popular at some stage to pick up some many different names and variations. Good stuff fora drink using such a counter intuitive combination of ingredients.

I saw some kummel the other week. I had only drunk kummel once before (in the since disappeared Berlin restaurant on Mt Eden Rd. in Auckland) but its herbal caraway taste left a strong impression. Since getting into aquavit, also traditionally flavored with caraway, over Christmas I had been wanting to give kummel another try. So I bought a bottle with vague plans of finding an aquavit and kummel drink to use it in.

Before finding my aquavit and kummel drink though I happened upon a copy of Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. It’s a great book and I was pleased to see it contains a couple of drinks that I had found in Ted Haigh’s online cocktail database and enjoyed but never seen written up (e.g. the Blackthorn and the Park Avenue). I will try out some more of the other recipes later, but decided to start with this kummel drink.

The Vowel Cocktail

1 oz scotch

1 oz sweet vermouth

½ oz orange juice

1 ½ oz kummel

1-2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This is an excellent drink with just the kind of taste I was imagining in a kummel cocktail. Unusually for a drink with an ounce each of scotch and vermouth, neither of these powerful tastes comes through particularly strong. Instead the kummel dominates with its heavy caraway scent. I wouldn’t call it one dimensional though. There is still a good balance, with the caraway doing interesting things as it mixes with the smoky scotch and herbal vermouth. It is slightly on the sweet side, but the strong flavors make this not too much of a problem.

Tasting this makes me think kummel would mix interestingly with Genever (though perhaps in smaller quantities). Genever-based Old Fashioneds or Manhattans could be an interesting model for experimentation, perhaps using the anise flavors of Peychaud’s bitters.