I have my friend Rebecca to thank for a new drink to the repertoire: the Jasmine. It’s a surprising, but simple enough, combination of ingredients that a well-stocked basic bar would have:

Jasmine Cocktail

scant jigger gin
1/2 jigger lemon juice
a splash Cointreau
a splash Campari

She whipped up a batch Friday night, and for me it perfectly captured the late summer weather we’re having, with its sunny days and crisp nights. With plenty of citrus and just a hint of Campari, it reminded me a lot of the bitter-sour flavor of grapefruit juice. Like many great drinks, in any case, the balance meant that the ingredients added up to a whole greater than the parts. It’s now in my heavy rotation.

I should have sorted through all the Summer-Drink themed Carnival submissions before firing off my own post, so I would have seen that Jiggle the Handle already had a good bit on the Pimms Cup. Apologies for the duplication.

Some other entries…

Jeff at the Bottom Shelf sings the praises of Pyramid Hefeweizen.

Days that End in Y covers the mojito.

Martini Lounge profiles a few drinks, including a Cucumber martini and a highball that I’m eager to try, the Paloma.

Ken Goldstein, meanwhile, posted a review of a Johnny Walker event in SF.

Did I miss anyone? Let me know. Thanks to all those who participated at such short notice. Perhaps participants (and readers) will be interested in submitting to the New York Times summer drink recipe open call.

Next Carnival of Drinking to be hosted by Rick of Martini Lounge. The other Rick, I should note, has a call up for the next Mixology Monday, for this upcoming Monday. The theme: mint.

Mike of Days that End in Y has started a blog carnival devoted to drinks of all sorts, not just cocktails. I thought I’d take advantage of the holiday weekend to host one devoted to drinks that you like to serve at the barbecues, grill outs, picnics or what not that you’ll be attending this weekend, or in the summer months in general. Are you whipping out the tiki cocktails, do you have a new favorite summer beer, or are you strictly a planter’s punch person? Submissions at the Blog Carnival site are slated by midnight on Sunday, but if you let me know by Tuesday (in comments, or at bostoncocktails AT yahoo DOT com), I’ll post a roundup of your recipes, stories and posts here. Have a great and safe weekend.

This last weekend I headed over to dBar, a newish gay bar in Dorchester. I’d recommend it to those who haven’t gone – it has a nice neighborhood restaurant meets city lounge kind of feel. It’s nice to see owners putting thought into the design of a bar (even if that means leaving the woodwork from the former steakhouse), and hosts actually being friendly.

Drinks are big city prices, a pint five dollars and my not-terribly-high-shelf cocktail nine dollars. I can’t say I’m overly wowed with the bartending. Inexplicably the wheat beer had an orange wheel instead of a lemon wedge in it. And after having a frosty cold martini at DeLux,, my gimlet at dBar seemed downright tepid and uninspiring.

The thing worth noting is that like many these days, they squeezed fresh lime juice into my gimlet. I can’t say this is categorically wrong, but I’m convinced that the people who do it aren’t big gimlet fans. There’s something magical about the mutual bracing qualities of gin and Rose’s lime, and the real lime breaks the spell.

For what it’s worth, here’s one definitive statement, from Terry Malloy in Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye:

“They don’t know how to make them here,” he said. “What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.” (19)

I’m not a full traditionalist, and I find that a 4:1 ratio is much more suited to modern tastes than a 1:1 ratio. (You see a similar rebalancing in the stalwart martini.) Here’s how I make them:

Gimlet

2 jiggers dry gin
1/2 jigger Rose’s lime juice

Shake well in a cocktail shaker. If serving straight up, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with thin sliver of lime floating on to. If serving on the rocks, strain into a rocks glass with ice and garnish with lime wedge on rim.

Like martinis, gimlets really are best very cold. Can they be made with vodka? Sure, but I’m not clear what the point would be.

I’ve never been a huge fan of milk or cream-based drinks. A brandy alexander or a White Russian can be fine as an occasional dessert, but the idea one after the other when going out is never appealing.

But after seeing that this Mixology Monday - hosted by The Art of Drink - has the theme of coffee liqueur, the creamy dessert cocktail seemed an obvious route. I imagined something like a brandy alexander, only with the coffee liqueur added. Or, since I’ve been intrigued with the use of raw egg as an ingredient since trying the Pink Lady, I pictured an egg yolk emulsifying it.

Turns out Trader Vic’s guide lists just such a recipe, called the Carioca. I know nothing about the history, or how widely this was ever served. From what I’ve seen Carioca is a rum brand, so I’m not sure how it lent its name to this drink.

I’ve adjusted the proportions slightly

The Carioca

1 jigger brandy
1/2 jigger Kalhúa
1/2 jigger cream
1 egg yolk
dust with grated nutmeg, if desired

A lot of people will be put off the raw egg. Indeed, consumption does carry risk of illness. But I’m amazed at the numbers who will freak out at a true Caeser salad or homemade mayonnaise but eat raw cookie dough by the tubful. For the soundest mind, use the freshest eggs you can get, organic if you can.

Anyway, the egg provides a nice silky texture to the liquid ingredients – and with the cream adds a layer of richness. I ended up liking this better than the regular alexander, and it’s equally fine with aged rum instead of the brandy. Why try to force a martini to take on the taste of tiramisu when you can get back to the basics of rum, coffee, egg, and dairy instead?

Cross-town blogger Mike tried to find out as he enrolled in Boston Bartending School last week. Go read his experience. It sounds like he was pleased in balance.

I actually attended bartending school early in my graduate school days when I thought it might be a good part time means of employment. I ended up disappointed. Bartending in Boston is pretty much a closed shop, and, what’s more, most bartenders seem to come up from other avenues within the food and hospitality industry, not from bartending school. It makes sense, and I was naïve to think I’d waltz in from the street into a bartending job… still, I think a lot of people are similarly naïve and the bartending schools play on that, promising “job placement” and listings that amount to little more than catering gigs with their in-house service. Unlike a true professional school that limits the credentials, bartending school multiplies the number of people with them.

At best the schools serve as preparation for seasonal employment and nightclub bartending (though in Boston, that’s presumably a closed shop, too). With the exception of the martini, none of the drinks were presented with the idea that quality matters, or that some combinations of liquor are more fortuitous than others. We were taught sour mix margaritas (my bete noire). And lots of shooters. And we used only colored water, which makes sense economically, but frankly doesn’t give you a sense of how ingredients mix, much less taste.

The good things about bartending school, or at least my experience of it: learning how to free pour, and learning drink recipes beyond what one normally drinks. And I’m sure others had much more positive experiences and outcomes. And I’m aware that more intensive mixology programs have popped up. I’d be curious to see what they teach.

As a restaurant bar, Stella’s, on the edge of Blackstone Park in the South End, is in many ways ideal. There’s enough room in their front area to accommodate destination bar patrons, and on Tuesday night the mostly gay clientele filled the area. The bartenders are friendly, and the crowd has a real neighborhood camaraderie to it.

Some would praise the scene and the decor, but I found it too LA in spirit. Lots of off-white Corian surfaces and beige fabrics; heat lamps outdoors for those wanting to pretend we’re living in a warm climate; and half the bar patrons chatting away on their cell phones. Rather than have a full-stocked bar, the powers that be had put long glass shelves with underlighting to feature brand name bottles of vodka, whiskey, etc. It’s a mentality inherited from the 80s (let’s call it Absolutism) that prefers conspicuous consumption over quality; I find it affected and antithetical to fine drinking.

Given the limited stock of the bar, I went simple in my order and got a gimlet. The prices were reasonable for Boston ($7.50 for Bombay gin cocktail, $9.50 for top shelf). Unfortunately, the bartender made it with sour mix instead of strictly Rose’s lime. Bleh. To his credit he noticed a mint sprig floating in the drink and remade it, with a complimentary upgrade of liquor (what’s up with stray mint leaves these days?), but that didn’t save an unappetizing gimlet. The manhattans were better, but with too much of an unrounded bite, I’d put it in the OK rather than great category.

The affectations cut across other areas, too. Stella’s used a tub of crushed ice to chill the cocktails glasses, putting them top down in the ice until they needed one. Great idea, I thought, until I saw them pull glass after glass out, large bits of wet ice clinging to the inside of the glass and watering the cocktails down. The glasses didn’t even seem all that cold for all that fuss.

It seems that Stella’s has some atmosphere going for it, but is trying way too hard. Like the reviews that call the area SoWa, even though Stella’s is clearly north of Washington.

Stella’s is located at 1525 Washington St., in the South End.

Today I went to an Easter brunch, and the hosts were serving bellinis. It wasn’t the first time I had the drink – essentially a mimosa with fruit nectar, traditionally peach, instead of orange juice – but today it really hit the spot and seemed fitting for a spring brunch. It’s definitely a nice change of pace if mimosas seem too tired or predictable.

I’m never a fan of peach flavored stuff that’s not actually fresh peach – and I’m sure it’s just divine with fresh peach juice – but they were using a Goya peach nectar that was quite good and made an excellent drink. You can try other nectars, too… guava, apricot, pear, mango, or whatever you fancy. As always, avoid the misnamed extra-dry champagne, which is just too sweet.

Bellini

1/3 champagne flute filled with peach juice or peach nectar
2/3 flute topped with champagne or sparkling wine

I continue to be impressed and humbled by the other cocktail sites I stumble across.

• Darcy at The Art of Drink has a rundown of some sites; check out his post, too, on Drinks Bartenders Hate to Make.
• Rick’s Kaiser Penguin has been posting an incredible series on tiki drinks.
• Bar Mix-Master has been quiet lately but has great stuff in the archives.

Paul of Cocktail Chronicles surveys the growth of cocktail blogging and proposes a blog carnival, i.e. a day of posts devoted to a given topic. So he’s instituted Mixology Monday, the first one which will take place on April 24, on the topic of pastis, anise liqueur. As Darcy of TAoD explains,

“Mixology Monday”… is based on other weblog community projects like “Is My Blog Burning?” and “Wine Blogging Wednesday”. The basic idea is that anyone interested can write an article on the selected topic (this week it’s Pastis, i.e. anise flavour) and publish it to their blog. You don’t even need to have a cocktail related weblog, nor does the topic need to be about drinking the selected product. It can be about your bad experiences in college, your good experiences while travelling through France, or how you used it in a pudding recipe. After you’ve published your article, you email the topic host and they will publish a list of participants on their blog. Make sure you put a link in your post to the hosting weblog so people can jump in on any discussion.

He’s even concocted a terrific logo:

Mike, of Days that End in Y, has a general drinks-related blog carnival planned, which I’ll have more details on as I find out (or check out the initial post). I look forward to the vibrant online discussion on fine drinking.

It turns out that the cocktail blog idea is not as original as I originally thought. The bad news is that I’m not so creative. The good news is that there are a few excellent sites out there worth reading. These guys (and they are guys) know their stuff.

Seattle-based Cocktail Chronicles seems to have been up and running for a couple of years. Check out his post on “tiki” drinks, with a recipe for a Demerara Dry Float.

Kaiser Penguin has also been on a polynesiana kick, with his taste test of four different mai tai recipes.

Boston-based Days that End in Y is an amazingly thorough compendium on all news booze-related. See his list of how to save money stocking the bar, a topic on which I’ll try to add my thoughts soon.

DC Drinks has some good whiskey reviews, and a gripe about the international style in lager. Me, my gripe is about American (and Canadian) exceptionalism - we’re the only country that doesn’t make a decent lager.

I’ve added these sites to the blogroll, naturally. Feel free to send me other reading suggestions my way.