The Vieux Carré Mardi Gras Show
And the Hurricane Revisited with The Army of Drunks
OK, so we didn’t get the show up until after Mardi Gras! Did you ever consider we got it up way early for next year’s Mardi Gras? Did you? Huh??
In any event, welcome to our Mardi Gras show, where we revisit the old Mardi Gras classic cocktail known as the Hurricane, and take a deep dive on “The New Orleans Manhattan,” the Vieux Carré cocktail. (Pronounce that VOO-CARee, like you’re old-timey Creole, not fancy-pants French.) We also give a little history of Fat Tuesday, talk about that whole beads-for-boobs thing, and let you in on New Orleans’ official “How to Get Arrested at Mardi Gras” list. So pay attention!
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THE VIEUX CARRÉ
(accidentally served with an orange twist
instead of a lemon one, and we’re sorry)
This New Orleans take on a Manhattan variant has a semi-storied history in the French Quarter, with cognac stepping in to take a little weight of the rye’s shoulder’s. The Benedictine also gives it some nice herbal grace notes, like a lone violinist in a second-line jazz street parade. (That metaphor sucks, but you get the idea.)
Mixma$ter Therm dialed back the vermouth from the original recipe to make what we think is a damn nice little boozy brouhaha.
- 1 oz Rye
- 1 oz conganc (or VSOP brandy if you have to substitute)
- 1/2 oz sweet vermouth
- 1 teaspoon Benedictine
- 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain into a rocks glass with ice, or into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry, lemon twist, or both. (And yeah, that’s an orange peel in that photo. We can only say we’re sorry.)
And now we revisit…
THE HURRICANE
The Hurricane is an odd beast, one of those cocktails where the recipe varies depending on which bar you’re in, or what corner of the internet you’re searching. We’ve covered this one before with a pretty standard formulation, but this time we decided we’d pull the recipe from Rebecca & Martin Cate’s tiki bible Smuggler’s Cove. We were shocked that for the first time ever, a recipe Smuggler’s Cove didn’t taste like something we’d call “definitive.” Therm tweaked it a bit, and the results were rather pleasing, indeed.
Here’s the official Army of Drunks Hurricane:
- 2 oz dark rum (or 1.5 oz dark rum, 1/2 oz dark overproof rum)
- 1/2 oz orange juice
- 1/2 oz lemon juice
- 1 1/4 oz passion fruit syrup (which yes, you can actually buy online)
Shake the rums, passion fruit syrup, and juice with ice, then pour over ice in a traditional “hurricane glass” (though a highball glass will work, too.) Garnish with an orange wheel and a cherry.* Ideally you should use crushed ice, but no one will arrest you if you don’t. You can also batch mix this in a blender if you’re having a party.
*Tropical and Tiki drinks are the few instances where using a maraschino cherry won’t get you kicked out of the Army of Drunks with a dishonorable discharge.
LINKS
Um… Was I supposed to link something in here? Damn. In my drunken fervor I probably forgot to write it down. Please drop us an angry message if we’re missing something.
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