The Spirits #147: The Pumpkin Spice Old Fashioned
For tonight is Halloween
🍸 Visit the SPIRITS STORE. For the month of October you will find 10% off everything. That means today is your last chance! Simply follow the link and bung in the words RICHARD10 into the box when you check out 🍸
~ THE PUMPKIN SPICE OLD FASHIONED ~
50ml bourbon
5-10ml pumpkin spice syrup (see below)
Dash Angostura bitters
Mwahahaha. Measure the bourbon, syrup and bitters into an old fashioned glass. File up with ice and give it all a decent stir.
Pumpkin Spice Syrup
Add 300g golden caster sugar to a pan, along with 150ml water, four cinnamon sticks, one nutmeg, one teaspoon allspice berries, five cloves and a thumb of ginger.Bring the mixture the boil extremely slowly, stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved. Once it begins to boil, cover, remove from the heat and let it cool and infuse for a couple of hours. Strain into a spare vessel and it should keep for a week.
NOTES:
1) Pumpkin Spice doesn’t have to contain pumpkins. It’s a spice blend used for seasoning pumpkins and also bourbon.
2) The spices in the syrup are buskable but cinnamon should be dominant with ginger, allspice, clove and nutmeg in supporting roles. Other options includ star anise, coriander, cardamom and mace. You can use ground spices - and ground ginger in particular has its own special bakery warmth - but bear in mind, they will not dissolve properly so you may end up with little bits in your drink.
3) I’m sure I’ve sung the praises of cinnamon syrup as a cocktail ingredient before now. Think of this is cinnamon syrup+. You can use it in Milk Punches, Zombies, Gildas, etc, but also in place of sugar syrup in all your favourites. A Pumpkin Spice Daiquiri? Why not?! It’s great in child-friendly non-alcoholic contexts too: horchata (shaken up with milk) or in cocoa. You might even add it to coffee-based drinks such as lattes, flat whites, etc. Hmm. Could catch on. Have a word with the manager of your local coffee franchise.
🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🛒 Running low on booze? Visit the SPIRITS STORE.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
⚗️ My bottle recommendations are here.
📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here.
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.
🏥 And here is a list of trusted charities who are helping people in Gaza.
🍒 And here is my favourite poem about maraschino cherries.
More Spooky Cocktails, maybe.
PLAYLIST
My ORIGINAL (2020!) Halloween playlist, reverse engineered back into life. Just in case you were wondering whatever happened to your Transylvanian twist.
THIS PLAYLIST UPDATES AUTOMATICALLY EACH WEEK. The idea is, you download it and return to it each week in your Spotify. If there was an old song you’d like to hear again, you’ll find it RIGHT HERE in the ongoing archive of 2021 playlists.
WHAT I’VE BEEN WRITING
I said I was busy. Here’s one of the piece I’ve been working on, an investigation into Britain’s gambling epidemic, for which I spoke to a wide range of gambling victims as well as public health officials, campaigners and the former boss of Paddy Power who quite, utterly appalled at what the industry had become. I found myself feeling desperately sorry for the people I spoke to. “The most awful thing about it is that the person that you were is no longer,” said one women who describes herself as being groomed by one gambling company and then hounded by calls until she had gambled away her entire wealth. “Everything about you is completely decimated. You’re left with an empty shell. That’s what I feel happened to me.” I was left coldly furious at the way this worthless industry has been allowed to flourish. (The Telegraph)
On a lighter note, I wrote about ENGAGEMENT BAIT on Mark Zuckerberg’s terrible social network, Threads. (Standard)
I also interviewed Jacob Collier! Who I think is a fascinating musical mind and one of the most interesting artists around at the moment - which isn’t the same thing as saying I like his music. (Standard)
OTHER BOTTLES YOU MIGHT ENJOY
🐿️ Amaretto
🧡 Aperol
🍑 Apricot Brandy
🕊️ Bénédictine
❄️ Brancamenta
☕ Coffee Liqueur
🍌 Crème de Banane
🍫 Crème de Cacao
🫐 Crème de Cassis
🌷 Cynar
🌸Elderflower Liqueur
🏝️ Falernum
🦅 Fernet-Branca
🌿 Green Chartreuse
🐻 Kümmel
🍒 Maraschino
🌵 Mezcal
🦙 Pisco
🐂 Sherry
🌻 Suze
SHOPPING LIST: Light rum, lemon juice, sugar syrup, absinthe.
This syrup worked really nicely as a rum old fashioned with orange bitters
Come for the cocktails, stay for the high quality writing; fantastic and vital article on the gambling industry, thanks for sharing - I will too.