Save Our Spirits – Action Required
I have to write quickly. My laptop is dying. So please forgive the few errant typos, misspelling, and grammatical lapses. Hopefully tomorrow I can get to the Apple Store and buy a new power cord for my MacBook.
This is just one emergency.
The other involves our major local food blog, Table Hopping, written by the Albany Times Union’s Steve Barnes. Well, the Table Hopping blog is celebrating its fifth anniversary soon, and there is a cocktail contest. Readers submitted recipes, and four drinks are vying for the top spot.
However, the only bona fide cocktail is loosing. Well, it’s a distant second. But the voting doesn’t close until 5 p.m. on Thursday. The top two contenders will be able to slug it out in a taste-off. Still, there is a chance a lesser cocktail will move into the second place position, in the next 30 hours or so. And that is a chance I’m unwilling to take.
So I’m asking for your help. I don’t ask for much, and I don’t ask often. This should take less than a minute. All you have to do is click here and write a comment that says, “#1 Empire State of Mind.”
But I’ve found my readers really need to be convinced. So let me explain why this is important.
You may want to go back and look at the list of cocktails that are being voted on in this contest. Now remember these are the readers of the region’s top food blog. These are our foodies. These are the people who read a food columnist every day.
The cocktail that is in the lead, with a whopping 77 votes, is a self-appointed Appletini.
These are its ingredients:
1 ounce ginger infused/flavored vodka
2 ounces fresh mulled apple cider
1/2 ounce Cointreau orange liqueur
Splash of ginger ale
Cinnamon sugar for rim
Empire apple slice for garnish
There are some things that this drink does right. Ginger and apple are a great combination. Apples out here are really at the height of their season and the Empire’s in particular are excellent right now.
But there is where the good news stops. My strong opinions about cocktails is that they need to find some kind of balance. And this drink is crying out for acid to bring the sweetness into check. It’s mostly cider, with Cointreau, ginger ale, and a sugar rim. It’s sugar on top of sugar on top of sugar. There is a token amount of vodka. But I’m also nervous about a “ginger flavored” vodka since not all flavored booze is created equal. In fact most of it’s made in a lab and is quite awful.
The drink I’m endorsing is the Empire State of Mind.
Yes, it has enough fans to currently be in second place, but with only 27 votes, it does not have a very safe margin over the third place contender. And this is primarily why I need your help. For this drink to win in the end, it will need to taste better than its more popular sugary rival. But it may not get a chance without your support.
These are its ingredients:
.25 ounce Dark Amber Maple Syrup from Mountain Winds Farm (Albany County)
1.5 ounce Cornelius AppleJack from Harvest Spirits at Golden Harvest Farms (Rensellear County) (I used Bottle #95, Batch #2)
.5 ounce Baby Bourbon from Hudson Whisky from Tuthiltontown Spirits (Ulster County) (I used Bottle #785, Batch#17 from this year)
3 drops Old Fashion Aromatic Bitters from Fee Brothers (Monroe County)
3 drops West India Orange Bitters from Fee Brothers (Monroe County)
3 dried whole Jamaica allspice berries
1 stick cassia bark (often mistaken for and labeled as cinnamon)
It’s whiskey and maple, and you know I have a soft spot for that. But it’s not just about me. This is billed at being a riff of a Manhattan, although in all honesty it feels more like a take on the Old Fashioned. But dammit, this is actually a cocktail. It’s loaded with booze, with a few additional components to temper the spirit and season the drink.
This is a cocktail. And frankly it’s the only one in the running.
So again, I ask you this one favor. If you have yet to vote in this competition, regardless of where you may live, please click here and type in the comments, “#1 – Empire State of Mind.”
Thank you.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
I don’t see how anyone could pick that appletini with the creativity that went into the Empire State of Mind…[Hope it wins and I get to try one.]
Done and done.
With the fussiness of the description and how to make Empire State of Mind, I thought for sure you entered that drink into the contest.
Ditto this :)
I thought so too.
I read that post yesterday and was dying to try Empire State of Mind. In fact, I may try making it at home (if I knew where to find cassia bark!). It certainly blows the competition out of the water, those other drinks seemed far too sweet and generic. However, from a practical standpoint, is Empire State of Mind something that could successfully be incorporated into a bar menu with the 24 hour aging requirement?
I will say, your post has inspired me to at least go over and vote. We should be supporting this kind of creativity as opposed to the sickly sweet and uninspired competition.
Cassia bark = a cinnamon stick. Cinnamon sold in most stores is actually cassia, not true cinnamon.
I totally agree with everyone. #1 it is. The other drinks just sound like more of the typical.
Done!
I already voted for ESOM. Frankly, Daniel, I thought it was YOUR submission.
Just about all “cinnamon” in this country is actually cassia (thank you Alton Brown) so that shouldn’t be hard to find. Real cinnamon would be a bigger task. And once you’ve got the spices to the potency you want you could keep the mixed cocktail for months provided you put it in a light proof bottle. My friend used make flavored vodkas for Christmas gifts and that’s what he did. I would think it’s same concept. So it would actually make for less mixing night of for bartenders. Just pour out a measure, mix with ice and strain. I know there are bartenders in the city aging cocktails on wood, as well as making their own tonics and infusions, so serving them in a bar setting must be doable, even if it does risk robbing making a cocktail of some of its ceremony.
Professor it seems we’re all curious, did you enter?
Nice use the the needed question mark!! ;-)
First, let me say, you all ROCK!
I checked over at Table Hopping, and it looks like the tide is turning. But this isn’t time to get complacent. If you haven’t voted yet, please make sure to add your name to the cocktail that represents the best New York has to offer.
Second, to answer the direct question, this is not my recipe. And no, I did not enter the contest. Not because I didn’t have a drink in mind – I did – it’s just that I felt my creation was a very niche cocktail and I didn’t want to lose to an appletini.
Between you and me, the drink was the Five Year Blog Grog (made with five-year old rum). It worked well for the theme of the evening and even tipped its hat to Albany once being an important port city. But part of me also was uncomfortable watering down the Flor de Cana 5 Year Old Black Label Rum.
But I was also torn because I also wanted to make a drink that involved spirits from local distilleries. However I was having a difficult time working it into the theme of the event. Still, I’m glad that someone went that route, and I’m excited to help promote their effort.
I have no idea who this mystery woman is. But if it’s Sam from 677 Prime, I’ll just die.
Will you be sharing your recipe for the Five Year Blog Grog? I went to Nicaragua a few years ago and I still have an unopened bottle of that Flor de Cana Black Label Rum just sitting there waiting.
I will say any drink I’ve made with Flor de Cana here just doesn’t add up to how amazing it was drinking it there with fresh picked limes off the tree in the yard.
We appreciate the nod and the use of locally sourced ingredients for this cocktail. I think that we will be adding it to our website as a cocktail for the Applejack in the near future (assuming we get permission). I actually had the chance to talk to the maker of this cocktail, and if someone should win, it should definitely be her.
Golden Harvest is located in Columbia county, not Rensselaer county. As a proud native of Columbia county, I gotta represent it when I can. The drink certainly gets my vote.
Voted. :) Unfortunately, though, I can’t go to the party that evening … would love to try this cocktail!
Done! Empire sounds like a wonderful fall drink. I’m saving the recipe.
Is the party open to the public?
As the creator of the “self-appointed appletini” I’d like to say well played sir. Empire State of Mind is most certainly a deserving drink. It was clearly made by someone who cares and has a deep knowledge and understanding of how drinks are made.
I wish I to could make that claim, but alas, my knowledge of liquor is nil, and I’ve never tended bar a day in my life.
My aim was to use seasonal influences to create a drink that would appeal to many. It looks like the two drinks will be facing off at the party and I for one look forward to the challenge.
In fact, to expand upon my point, I think my drink submission is a perfect example of the mindset you are ranting about in your “pop culture” post. Here I am, a cocktail novice (and that’s probably being too generous) and what do I immediately gravitate to when creating a cocktail for a contest? Something sweet of course!
It really was the only way my mind was willing to go. Hmmm?!?!?!?!?
I created Empire State of Mind. Zack don’t worry too much, I’m also very much a novice as well. Professor thank you, I am so grateful for the support. And I hope you’ll be there tomorrow night. Zack, this is going to be fun. May the best drink win :)