Hello and welcome to our first entry for Mixology Monday! The theme this month is (it’s not easy) Bein’ Green. So our minds immediately leapt to the Clear Creek Douglas Fir eau de vie. This is one of the more interesting liquors in our bar. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it’s a brandy infused with Doug Fir buds, re-distilled and then infused with more fir buds. It’s not for the faint of heart as it has very strong fir notes. Go figure. We here at Booze Nerds have always liked it, but it’s a bit difficult to mix with it. The fir flavor is very assertive. So we thought that we would accept the challenge of trying to make a cocktail with it and see what we could do with fresh eyes and palates. Without further ado, we give you the Rainier Sunset.

Rainier Sunset:

• 1 1/2 oz rye (preferably subtle like the Knob Creek)
• 1 1/2 oz Douglas Fir eau de vie
• 1/3 oz strong simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water)
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1 dash Bittermen’s Burlesque Bitters

The Foam:

• 2 egg whites
• 1 oz Douglas Fir eau de vie
• 1 oz lime juice
• 3/4 oz Aperol
• 3/4 Grand Marnier
• 1/4 oz strong simple syrup

We started out by mixing the Doug Fir eau de vie with a number of different ingredients -gin, lemon, and other things – in various combinations, but weren’t happy with the way they blended. Then we decided to try some rye. Christa felt that the whiskey richness and the spiciness of the rye would help counterbalance the astringency of the fir. We both felt that that was a nice combination and a good place to start. The lemon added a little too much acid, but we still felt citrus would be a welcome addition. So we decided to go with lime, which added some perfume-y notes from the rind as well. We added a small amount of simple syrup for some sweetness and mouth feel, and tasted again. Delicious, but we still felt it needed a bit more zing! So we added a dash of the Burlesque Bitters, which was just the thing. With the fir flavor we had going, we took Mt. Rainier as our inspiration and decided to add a nice cloud top for the drink in the form of a foam. We thought that an orange note would be a good complement to the flavors in the drink, and some more eau de vie plus the brandy notes in the Grand Marnier would amplify them. For an excellent video on making the foam, please see How to Make Foam for a Cocktail – Raising the Bar with Jamie Boudreau. Then we assembled the whole thing, discovered that it was delicious, and quickly consumed it. Yay! A success in our humble opinions.

Tasting notes:

Rich, full-bodied rye and brandy flavors with a punch of the lime at the start. Resinous notes of the fir on the mid-palate, followed by a touch of bitterness from the Aperol and dryness from the egg white on the finish.

For more info on (it’s not easy) Bein’ Green, head on over to the announcement and check out some of the other awesome entries.

Update:

The roundup. Lots of great entries! Well done everyone!