Fox Barrel Pear Cider

We haven’t reviewed hard cider in a few years so we grabbed a Fox Barrel from Viking Liquor up in Reedsburg. I was intrigued by the label since it declared that it was flavored similarly to a Belgian ale. Fermented by Belgian Wit yeast which is fed honey, Fox Barrel is also mixed with orange peel and coriander for complexity.

The pour is a pale yellow and noses a bit of yeast and a bit of honey, but mostly pear. I was expecting a sweet pear flavor, which I got upfront, but was surprised on the heavy tide of coriander on the finish. Honey is present throughout, although the finish almost makes Fox Barrel savory. The orange peel bitterness is lost; in fact, there isn’t much pf a trace of orange in it at all, which isn't a detriment since the lack of bitterness and acid allows for summer day-drinking last all day long without gut rot.

Now, it looks like Fox Barrel themselves are no longer. They have sold out to Crispin, so to try their version of this pear hard cider, you have to look for Lion Belge pear cider under the Crispin label.

As for a cocktail using this pear cider, try a shandy made with your favorite lager 1 to 1 with pear cider (known as a Snakebite). Or replace the pineapple juice with pear cider in a modified Pepper Pot. Recipe below.


Pepper Pot
Drinking Notes

5 ounces chilled pear hard cider
1 ounce amaretto
3-5 dashes Tabasco (or muddled Jalapeno)
splash freshly-squeezed lemon juice
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch curry powder

Pour all ingredients, except curry, into an iced highball glass. Stir gently. Top with curry if desired.

Dock Sway

We happened to be listening to Otis Redding and were thirsty for something summery, so we worked up a fun little number our friends in Madison (and near Madison) can pour. You will have to go to the oil and vinegar shop Vom Fass in the Shorewood Shopping Center just off University Avenue. Vom Fass sells speciality oils, vinegars, spices, and liquor, but we mostly go there for their vessels and corks of all sorts. You’ll have to find their liqueurs section (which won’t be hard, the store is not that big!). One of their better sellers is the Ginger Liqueur which is notable for its warming spice and its added gentle azure color. The cool thing about Vom Fass is that you can buy the liqueur in different sized vessels, so if you are not entirely sure if a particular liqueur is for you, then go with a small bottle. We think you’ll like the ginger though.

Otis was crooning about sittin’ on the dock of the bay, hence the need for something blue. We eschewed the idea of a totally blue curacao cocktail and made the main players a decadent trio of coconut, orange, and ginger with Vom Fass Ginger driving the color. We added a touch of sour with lemon and tamed the overall sweetness with Peychaud’s bitters (which if you do not have, grab a bottle at Old Sugar Distillery which is just down the road).

Dock Sway
Holly's Original

1 1/2 ounces coconut rum (We used Sugar Island)
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce Vom Fass ginger liqueur
1/4 ounce Maraschino
1/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 dash curaçao
1 dash Peychaud's bitters

Throw all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain. Enjoy Otis Redding.

Oklahoma City, Part 3

There is no doubt that we could have easily spent the rest of our night in Oklahoma City at Whiskey Chicks, but with more of the Bricktown neighborhood to explore, we made our farewells and walked back out into the summer heat.

Part of the construction of Bricktown included an artificial riverwalk called Bricktown Canal and a large amount of the Thursday night music drew us to that area. Unfortunately, since we were out on a weekday, many of the places were closing, though people were still having a good time canalside at last call at Jazmo’z Bourbon Street Cafe and Captain Norm’s Dockside Bar. Loudspeakers were blasting rounds of Billy Joel and Journey songs from the nearby Michael Murphy’s Dueling Pianos; we tried to get in, but they were going to charge us a late cover so we moved on.

A local blues band was just finishing up on a patio on the west end of the canal, so we headed over to see what they had left. The patio was attached to a nondescript dive bar, a bit tattered but clean, everything screamed that a shot-and-a-beer was what you’d get here. The bar used to be called The Biting Sow in its heyday (if it had one), but now it was called Mojo’s Blues Club for his nightly live blues. We took a seat at the bar and both ordered 7 and 7s. Our bartender, Jay, obliged.

As we cooled off with our second-to-last drinks of the night, a bar patron on my right struck up a conversation with bartender Jay, reminiscing about the last time he visited Mojo’s; the bored female half of a couple that had already been sitting at the bar prior to our arrival, decided to light an entire book of matches up for her own amusement. She dropped the flaming cardboard into an ashtray, which Jay promptly smothered with a second ashtray. She smiled craftily and said something to Jay who looked more and more like he wanted to go home for the night.

Instead, I extended his night. The rule for drinking creatively at a dive bar is to scan their top-shelf liquor for something you rarely have (or never have had) and think of a common mixer that can go one-to-one with it. So for my nightcap, I saw a dusty bottle of Old Overholt rye. I called Jay to mix me up and Old Overholt and 7. After procuring a second bottle of rye (since the dusty bottle was down to dregs), Jay poured up a sweet, spicy treat to end the night.

Drink: Old Overholt and 7

Establishment: Mojo’s Blues Club     

Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

First Connoisseur: Holly

1 part Old Overholt rye

1 part 7up
Fill a large mason jar with ice. Fill ½ of the jar with Overholt. Stir. Top with cold 7up. Give the drink a couple of gentle stirs. If you really need to, you can garnish with a cocktail cherry.