Mixology Mondays: Brandy
Jan. 12th, 2008 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, Lis discovered that The Cocktail Chronicles holds a blog roundup called "Mixology Mondays", in which various bartending bloggers write about some topic, and then someone links to them all so that people can get a wide range of opinions on the topic.
This month's topic is "Brandy".
Now, when I think of brandy, all I can do is flash back to a Purim several years back. That, for anyone who is NOT Jewish, is a Jewish holiday which involves drinking. For me, that year, it involved slivovitz. And to me, brandy means slivovitz.
After that particular Purim, I was unable to drink the stuff for, oh, perhaps another three or four years. I rather overdid it.
So, what IS slivovitz? It's a plum brandy made in the former Yugoslavia -- Serbia, Croatia, and related areas. It's occasionally made other places, too, by people who came from there. Because slivovitz is basically moonshine made from plums instead of corn. It IS, generally, aged, which makes it much, much smoother. Unaged, it's about as smooth as maybe a wood rasp. But I only drink the good stuff, which is as smooth as 100 grit sandpaper.
I drink the Navip slivovitz from Serbia. It's the one I grew up on -- it's actually, most of the time, the only one that any of the local liquor stores have. The bottle looks like this:
, although that bottle is usually inside a cardboard box. The picture of the cardboard box that I found is too large for me to really want to put it in here, but it's yellow.
It's the one that, although I'm not entirely certain, I think I drank half a bottle of on that fateful Purim.
Funny story, really. Driving home -- BEING DRIVEN home, I mean -- Lis was driving, I ended up getting violently sick out the car window. I wasn't entirely certain, but I thought I might have lost my glasses because I couldn't see anything clearly. Then I remembered that I hadn't been seeing anything clearly before, so I got less worried. Then it occurred to me to touch my face and see if I was still wearing my glasses. I couldn't feel them, but then, I couldn't feel my fingers either, so that wasn't really conclusive. I then asked Lis if I was wearing my glasses, or if they'd fallen off as we were driving and I was puking out the window, but she didn't really seem to understand what I was saying.
In the morning, we DID find my glasses somewhere in the car, so I hadn't lost them, actually.
I suppose I should mention here that slivovitz is 100 proof: 50% alcohol. It burns rather nicely (which means that Lis has suggested that, once I figure this stuff out, I could develop a slivovitz version of the Blue Blazer).
So: let's do some tasting notes!
The Navip slivovitz looks clear and clean, with a lemon/straw color, looking a lot like a young Chardonnay. Upon being swirled, it develops thin legs and tears.
On the nose, it, like all overproof brandies, smells strongly enough of alcohol to overpower other nuances, so I added a little water to open it up. This is purely for tasting purposes -- I normally drink it neat.
Even so, even opened up, it smells simply like slivovitz. Nothing else smells like it, it smells like nothing else. I can only describe the nose as "dark fruit/earthy". But when I describe a wine as "dark fruit" and "earthy", I mean that I detect two notes, one of dark fruit, and one of earth. In this case, though, it is a single note which smells like dark fruit/earth. I mean, given that it's MADE from plums -- and its pot-distilled, which leaves most of the essence of the things from which it was distilled -- you'd expect dark stonefruit notes, because that's what it is. But the smell itself has changed.
There's something that is reminiscent of old books. But, again, with the fruit overtones.
On the palette, it presents some definite sweetness, perhaps a demi-sec level. And perhaps, just a bit of tart, as well. If I was drinking this full-strength, I'd never notice the tartness, because the alcohol burn would just overpower it, but I think it's there.
As far as the taste goes, the palette is where the plum characteristics come through. While the earthier notes influence the nose, they are not present to the taste.
But besides the plum, I think I detect a bit of vanilla, probably coming from the eight years the brandy was aged in wood.
There's a pretty good depth of taste to this brandy, something I never really noticed before, since I tend to simply slam shots of the stuff, in order to impress babes. (For what it's worth, this "impressing babes with slamming slivovitz" thing has worked exactly zero times in my life.)
In my research for this writing (specifically, Googling to see how to spell "slivovitz"), I discovered the Radosevish's U.S. Slivovitz Festival, a yearly slivovitz competition apparently started by three brothers who wanted to see if they could scam slivovitz distillers into giving them free bottles.
This month's topic is "Brandy".
Now, when I think of brandy, all I can do is flash back to a Purim several years back. That, for anyone who is NOT Jewish, is a Jewish holiday which involves drinking. For me, that year, it involved slivovitz. And to me, brandy means slivovitz.
After that particular Purim, I was unable to drink the stuff for, oh, perhaps another three or four years. I rather overdid it.
So, what IS slivovitz? It's a plum brandy made in the former Yugoslavia -- Serbia, Croatia, and related areas. It's occasionally made other places, too, by people who came from there. Because slivovitz is basically moonshine made from plums instead of corn. It IS, generally, aged, which makes it much, much smoother. Unaged, it's about as smooth as maybe a wood rasp. But I only drink the good stuff, which is as smooth as 100 grit sandpaper.
I drink the Navip slivovitz from Serbia. It's the one I grew up on -- it's actually, most of the time, the only one that any of the local liquor stores have. The bottle looks like this:
, although that bottle is usually inside a cardboard box. The picture of the cardboard box that I found is too large for me to really want to put it in here, but it's yellow.It's the one that, although I'm not entirely certain, I think I drank half a bottle of on that fateful Purim.
Funny story, really. Driving home -- BEING DRIVEN home, I mean -- Lis was driving, I ended up getting violently sick out the car window. I wasn't entirely certain, but I thought I might have lost my glasses because I couldn't see anything clearly. Then I remembered that I hadn't been seeing anything clearly before, so I got less worried. Then it occurred to me to touch my face and see if I was still wearing my glasses. I couldn't feel them, but then, I couldn't feel my fingers either, so that wasn't really conclusive. I then asked Lis if I was wearing my glasses, or if they'd fallen off as we were driving and I was puking out the window, but she didn't really seem to understand what I was saying.
In the morning, we DID find my glasses somewhere in the car, so I hadn't lost them, actually.
I suppose I should mention here that slivovitz is 100 proof: 50% alcohol. It burns rather nicely (which means that Lis has suggested that, once I figure this stuff out, I could develop a slivovitz version of the Blue Blazer).
So: let's do some tasting notes!
The Navip slivovitz looks clear and clean, with a lemon/straw color, looking a lot like a young Chardonnay. Upon being swirled, it develops thin legs and tears.
On the nose, it, like all overproof brandies, smells strongly enough of alcohol to overpower other nuances, so I added a little water to open it up. This is purely for tasting purposes -- I normally drink it neat.
Even so, even opened up, it smells simply like slivovitz. Nothing else smells like it, it smells like nothing else. I can only describe the nose as "dark fruit/earthy". But when I describe a wine as "dark fruit" and "earthy", I mean that I detect two notes, one of dark fruit, and one of earth. In this case, though, it is a single note which smells like dark fruit/earth. I mean, given that it's MADE from plums -- and its pot-distilled, which leaves most of the essence of the things from which it was distilled -- you'd expect dark stonefruit notes, because that's what it is. But the smell itself has changed.
There's something that is reminiscent of old books. But, again, with the fruit overtones.
On the palette, it presents some definite sweetness, perhaps a demi-sec level. And perhaps, just a bit of tart, as well. If I was drinking this full-strength, I'd never notice the tartness, because the alcohol burn would just overpower it, but I think it's there.
As far as the taste goes, the palette is where the plum characteristics come through. While the earthier notes influence the nose, they are not present to the taste.
But besides the plum, I think I detect a bit of vanilla, probably coming from the eight years the brandy was aged in wood.
There's a pretty good depth of taste to this brandy, something I never really noticed before, since I tend to simply slam shots of the stuff, in order to impress babes. (For what it's worth, this "impressing babes with slamming slivovitz" thing has worked exactly zero times in my life.)
In my research for this writing (specifically, Googling to see how to spell "slivovitz"), I discovered the Radosevish's U.S. Slivovitz Festival, a yearly slivovitz competition apparently started by three brothers who wanted to see if they could scam slivovitz distillers into giving them free bottles.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 08:35 pm (UTC)ahem.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 09:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 10:04 pm (UTC)So would I ... and on drinking it straight, too.
Palate, unless you're painting with it.
Sounds like goo-o-ood stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-16 05:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-17 01:46 am (UTC)"Palette" and "palate" sound the same, but the first one is a painter's tool (or, more generally, an array of colors) and the second one is the roof of your mouth.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 10:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 10:34 pm (UTC)And yet you do keep doing it, don't you...?
I love slivovitz with a love that's true (also to cook with: there is a plum sauce that goes majestically with duck, that depends on a slug of sliv) - but if you say brandy to me, I say are we talking armagnac?
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-12 11:14 pm (UTC)I still have 40-ish year old bottle with about a mouthful of slivovitz your dad gave you when we lived together, and that you left behind because you were afraid Boopsie might mistake it for something she could actually ingest safely. I, too, fear to ingest this stuff, so the bottle is still under my kitchen sink. It's next to the Draino, in hopes that osmosis will improve the bouquet of one or the other. My $3 bottle of mescal is also near the Draino for the same reason.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-13 04:38 am (UTC)(The Draino, of course, is in a distant third place.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-13 03:38 am (UTC)No, it just makes the babes less scared to try it. Then it makes them approaching unconsciousness.
(What? No, that happened to someone else)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-13 09:31 am (UTC)As to the not being able to drink it for years, I had 6 months unable to look beer in the face after a weekend at Cropredy, hot sun, and Wadworths 6X in the bar tent.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-14 10:36 am (UTC)About 30 years ago, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-14 09:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-14 09:38 pm (UTC)So: let's do some tasting notes!
Date: 2008-01-14 03:51 pm (UTC)LUZZATO FAMILY CHAROSET RECIPE (Venetian Charoset)
Makes 4 cups
INGREDIENTS:
1-1/2 cups chestnut paste
10 oz. dates, chopped
12 oz. figs, chopped
2 Tbl. poppy seeds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup pine nuts
grated rind of 1 orange
1/2 cup white raisins
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup Slivotitz (plum brandy)
honey to bind
DIRECTIONS: Combine all ingredients, gradually adding just enough brandy and honey to make the mixture bind.
wondering about grammar...
Date: 2008-01-14 04:44 pm (UTC)You write: "if I was drinking this full-strength, I'd never notice the tartness..." which grated on my 50-something ears. I was taught about the subjunctive mood in elementary school and thought that the proper phrase should be: "if I were drinking this full-strength...." Now, "if I were" sounds better to me, but I also know that you are a careful writer. So, I looked it up in the Guide to Grammar and Writing sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation. Here's what I found:
[begin quote]
The subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses that do the following: 1) express a wish; 2) begin with if and express a condition that does not exist (is contrary to fact); 3) begin with as if and as though when such clauses describe a speculation or condition contrary to fact; and 4) begin with that and express a demand, requirement, request, or suggestion.
*** She wishes her boyfriend were here.
*** If Juan were more aggressive, he'd be a better hockey player.
*** We would have passed if we had studied harder.
*** He acted as if he were guilty.
*** I requested that he be present at the hearing.
The subjunctive is not as important a mood in English as it is in other languages, like French and Spanish, which happen to be more subtle and discriminating in hypothetical, doubtful, or wishful expressions. Many situations which would require the subjunctive in other languages are satisfied by using one of several auxiliary verbs in English.
The New York Public Library's Writer's Guide to Style and Usage has this important note on the subjunctive: "The words if, as if, or as though do not always signal the subjunctive mood [my bold]. If the information in such a clause points out a condition that is or was probable or likely, the verb should be in the indicative mood. The indicative tells the reader that the information in the dependent clause could possibly be true" (155). Cited with permission.
The past tense of the subjunctive has the same forms as the indicative except (unfortunately) for the verb to be, which uses were regardless of the number of the subject.
*** If I were seven feet tall, I'd be a great basketball player.
*** He wishes he were a better student.
*** If you were rich, we wouldn't be in this mess.
*** If they were faster, we could have won that race.
[end quote]
So - I guess your use of "was" instead of "were" - even though it doesn't sound right to me - is correct. You are a "grammar geek" as well as a "bartender geek"! But I should have known that from the photo on your website profile page.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-14 09:24 pm (UTC)I did calculate later that, had I NOT thrown up, by blood alcohol content would have been "comatose/dead".
(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-15 05:04 am (UTC)Seriously: absinthe and slivovitz are the same proof. . .
Re: la Fée Verte
Date: 2008-01-15 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-01-15 03:26 am (UTC)