Sunday, April 3, 2011

vanilla brandy flip

2 oz Pliska Preslav 5 Year Bulgarian Brandy
1 oz Vanilla Syrup
2 dash Aromatic Bitters
1 Egg

Shake once without ice and once with. Strain into a rocks glass and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
For my second drink at Deep Ellum on Sunday, I decided to end the evening with the Vanilla Brandy Flip. Given the name, the drink seemed pretty straight forward, but the use of an aged Bulgarian brandy did surprise me. The pairing of brandy and vanilla is a classical one and harkens back to the 19th century (if not earlier) such as with Jerry Thomas' Vanilla Punch from 1862 and the Lalla Rookh. Like most traditional flips, the Vanilla Brandy Flip presented itself with a nutmeg aroma from the garnish. On the sip, caramel notes from the brandy's barrel aging paired splendidly with the egg's creamy richness. Moreover, the richness continued on the swallow with the brandy and vanilla notes. Overall, the drink was sweet and desserty but complex, especially with the bitters on the swallow that were later joined by nutmeg notes as the garnish integrated into the drink's flavor over time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any idea where to get bitters? Any time I look for them, the place either doesn't have them, or they only have orange bitters. Any thoughts?

frederic said...

If you're in Boston, the Boston Shaker store in Somerville is great. If not, they do mail order:
http://store.thebostonshaker.com/index.php?c=11

Also, Cocktail Kingdom has a great selection for mail order:
http://www.cocktailkingdom.com/catalog/bitters-syrups/bitters

Many supermarkets and liquor stores will have Angostura Bitters which are essential. The Kegworks website also has bitters for mail order.

Dagreb said...

Angela Darling, where are these magical places that have orange bitters? I can never find them.

Anonymous said...

Frederic- thanks so much for all of the mail order ideas!

Dagreb - Last time I think I checked about them, I was just in your average wine and spirits shop. For some reason, I'm also thinking someone told me they were able to get them through amazon too.

frederic said...

Amazon's bitters as well as most of them on eBay are through Kegworks (which you can access more directly as well as their other stock through the Kegworks' website).

helena said...

this is tremendous with reposado tequila

frederic said...

I could imagine it working for a lot of aged spirits. Including whiskey, rum, and apple brandy as well.