Boulevardier – The Orange Twist

Boulevardier cocktail is a concoction of whiskey, sweet vermouth, and campari & its creation is attributed to Erskine Gwynne,  who founded a monthly magazine in Paris called Boulevardier🥃
.
Here is the Orange twist to the Boulevardier. It is believed that a great cocktail incorporates spirits with sweet, sour, and bitter components to achieve a harmonious balance.

Well, with my whisky as the spirited base, sweet & tangy orange juice replacing the sweet vermouth, the herbs & fruit liqueur Campari, the hazelnut monin syrup for that nutty flavor &  the punky Alpino bitters to finish, it’s time to shake this one rather stir.
.
Ingredients

Single Malt Whisky – 45 ml @pauljohnwhisky
Campari – 15 ml @campariofficial
Orange juice – 25 ml (substitute to Sweet Vermouth)
Hazelnut Syrup – 5 ml @monin_europe
Bitters – a dash Alpino bitters
Orange peel

Preparation Method

Combine all, except Alpino bitters, in a boston shaker with ice & shake well. Strain it into a crystal stem & express orange peel. Add a dash of Alpino bitters. Garnish with orange rind
.
Whisky notes – 2 row barley vs 6 row barley. We all know 100% malted barley goes into making of a Single Malt Whisky & there is no other grain permitted under the regulations governing  production of Single Malt. Two general types of barley are 2 row  and 6 row. The 2 row barley has a lower protein content &  higher starch which helps in converting to sugar to fuel fermentation.  Barley with lower nitrogen is high in starch & has large grain size & good enzyme potential & ability to germinate. The 6 row barley has more protein that  fastens conversion to fermentable sugars. It has a higher carbohydrate. 6 row has higher enzyme which means it can convert adjunct starches, which lack or are deficient in enzymes, during mashing. Both types of barley have their own pros & cons🥃
.
@pauljohnwhisky are created from Indian 6-row barley sourced from across the vast lands of Rajasthan to the foothills of the Himalayas which are responsible to several of the whisky’s intrinsic characteristics🥃

Sour Mash
.
You must have heard the term ‘Sour Mash’ often either on the whiskey bottle label, uniquely the American whiskies, or in the course of discussion on making of whiskey🥃🥃
.
Sour mash has really nothing to do with being something sour. It’s  a process to reuse material from an older batch of previous run of mash to start the fermentation of a new batch🥃 Something, akin to the process of making of sourdough bread. A  whiskey made using this technique can be referred to as a sour mash whiskey. The purpose –  to control the growth of bacteria which could impact the whiskey’s taste and create a pH balance for the yeast by controlling acidity levels & the ultimate goal to have flavor consistency in between the batches. In the case of Tennessee Whiskies it is a legal requirement. Other terms that can be used in place of sour mash are spent grain, spent mash etc.🥃🥃🥃
.
Here is Dickel Tennessee Whisky
‘Sour mash”, 90% proof,  which is filtered through charcoal before being aged & thus not a Bourbon. With a Mash Bill of 84% Corn, 10% Rye, 6% Malted Barley, this dram has a caramel colour, to the nose – very appealing/ vanilla/citrus sweet apple/
on the palate – delightful spiciness/ evoking  cinnamon/fruity sweetness/ woody/ & has a smooth finish with lingering oak & dried fruits🥃🥃🥃🥃
.
It’s said as a child  Dickel grew up in Europe & considered Scotch the ultimate whisky & thus he adopted the Scottish spelling ‘whisky’  to his dram & skipped ‘e’ which is otherwise so common in American Whiskey
.
Cheers!