Perched at the bar with my favorite bartender [ I never let my other favorites let on to one another], Stephanie takes me aside and tells me 3 “men of the cloth” come to the bar Friday night, a Greek Orthodox priest, accompanied by an Irish Catholic priest and a Reformed Rabbi. Stephanie laments they each ordered an unusual drink. The drinks are – a Masticha on the rocks, a Black and Tan, and rounding out this eclectic order, a Jack Rose. What’s a girl to do!
Any mixologist knows that one of the key knowledge factors she or he must learn is how to recognize the key ingredient and what to substitute when you don’t have a bottle of Masticha. The excellent bartender she is, Stephanie knows to use Ouzo or Pernod as a substitute for the Masticha, dark beer in place of Guinness for the second, and Calvados for the apple brandy ingredient in the Jack Rose cocktail.
Like the two DC bar hoppers, written about some years ago in the Washington Post, in search of an authentic Jack Rose, a good mixologist needs to know not only the ingredients but what to substitute when you lack the ingredient specified in the recipe. Along with this blog and the internet, you should be able to determine what you can substitute.
Jack Rose Cocktail - Written of by Hemingway
1 ½ oz. applejack (apple brandy)
3/4 oz. fresh lime or lemon juice
1/4 oz. grenadine (not the cloying red grenadine – make your own shaking 1 cup of POM juice with 1 cup of sugar, 2 dashes of orange flavored water or bitter, and to preserve, add an ounce of 100 proof vodka.)
Garnish with slice of apple and cherry.
[1] Beads are the new fashion accessory, having recently walked Bourbon Street ; and of course we are near Fat Tuesday and Lent. Vive le “Vieux Carre´”.
