There are distinct smells to seasons, and in New York, this is not limited to the floral dawn of spring.  Here, at least, the smells are decisive heralds, for once they come, they and their season do not leave until complete.

Winter’s is perhaps my favorite of these, and as of yesterday afternoon, it seems Fall has drawn to an early close.  You can never be sure what precisely produces it – it is the amalgam of all things grey: woolen clothing, the smoke of roasted nuts, the exhaust of overtaxed cars. Appropriately, it arrived a few hours after the victory parade for the Fall Classic.

Given these circumstances, and that relocating to the South is at its most uncertain today, necessity mothered me with:

Winter Tea

3.5 oz Rye
2 oz Simple Syrup
1 oz Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Grenadine
Lemon Bitters

Bring Rye, Simple Syrup, and Grenadine to a boil, pour into mug, add vermouth cold, add bitters.

The drink can obviously be overly sugary, so add water and time to the boil according to taste.  In the alternative, a weaker but still enjoyable concoction can be had by mixing this with hot tea. I used green tea (shamefully from a bag) in a 3:2 tea to “Tea” ratio.  The trick is to boil the alcohol while waiting for the tea to steep.  Pour the hot alcohol, then the cold alcohol, then the tea.

Be careful with high proof drinks and fire.

This entry was posted on ‍‍כ״א חשון ה׳ תש״ע - Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 15:03 and is filed under C2H5OH, incidental, poesy, product, ruminations, wetware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.