What Erik created with my loosely defined request knocked my socks off, and he graciously provided the recipe, handwritten on a coaster, sans name. While incorporating all my ideas (sherry, Ancho Reyes for the spice, Islay scotch for the smoke), Erik saw what I was missing – a base flavor to bring together the flavors I’d requested. I had an “Of course!” moment when he mentioned that an apple brandy (Laird’s Bottled in Bond) was his starting point. In Erik’s creation, no one flavor dominates, and the apple, sherry, pepper spice, and smoke flavors harmonize well together.
Naming drinks is always the hard part, and Erik left that to me. Thinking about the ingredients–Spanish sherry, smoky scotch, Mexican pepper (from the Ancho Reyes) and robust apple–it seemed to me like something Ernest Hemingway would drink – robust and manly! (If I do say so myself…) All are bold flavors, strongly associated with their respective countries. Hemingway was born in the US, and traveled in Spain and Mexico, but I couldn’t find a solid reference to him traveling to Scotland. I like to think that if he’d visited, he’d have gone to Islay, home of smoky scotch, which is part of the Hebrides isles, and when he arrived at the bar, he’d have had something like this:
Hemingway in the Hebrides
- 1.5 oz Laird’s Apple Brandy (100 proof, bottled in bond)
- 0.75 oz Ancho Reyes
- 0.75 oz Lustau East India Sherry (sub sweet Oloroso or PX sherry in a pinch)
- 0.5 Laphroaig (sub other smoky Islay scotch)
- 1 dash Angostura Bitters
Bar coaster with recipe from Erik Hakkinen, Zig Zag Cafe, Seattle |
- 1 oz Laird’s Apple Brandy
- 0.5 oz Ancho Reyes
- 0.75 oz Lustau East India Sherry (sub sweet Oloroso, or PX sherry in a pinch)
- 0.75 Laphroaig (sub other smoky Islay scotch)
- 1 dash Angostura bitters