It is ridiculous how adorable the next round of Mr. Boston recipes are!
Dubbed Angel’s Kiss, Angel’s Tip and Angel’s Wing; this series of thimble sized cocktails 3/4 ounce cocktails are simply amazing.
During our journey to Southern California, we stopped in to say hi to my amazing Aunt Patty and her husband Jim in Long Beach. We always enjoy sharing our crazy new concoctions with Pat and Jim and this trip was no exception. We had a great time trying out all the liquor we scored in Costa Mesa earlier in the day in my aunt’s kitchen. Having recently reached remission from Breast Cancer, Ryan and I treasure anytime we get to spend with my aunt.
While in the kitchen sipping our new discoveries, Pat asked if we’d like to help her clear some cabinet space by taking some of her antique stemware home to use in this experiment. After admiring the collection of glasses she’d inherited from her aunt we found a nice assortment of glassware we did not yet have in our buffet at home including four tiny Pousse Café glasses.
Defined in the back of our 1935 copy of Mr. Boston’s as 3/4 to 1 ounce stemware, my aunt’s Pousse Café glasses have a lovely Art Deco pattern carved just below the mouth. Like the hollow-stemmed champagne flutes I found on Etsy, the Pousse Café glass is one I hadn’t seen before. It is so delicate one might imagine it to be a wine glass fit for a fairy.
The Angel series of cocktails are the most challenging to date. Mainly due to the size and quantity of each. All three tiny drinks call for 1 ounce of liquid which given the size of our glasses we adjusted the recipes from 1/4 of an ounce to 1 teaspoon of each element.
Part of the beauty of the Pousse Café glass is that the shape helps to show off the cocktails layers. Both the Angel’s Kiss and Angel’s Wing instruct to “pour ingredients carefully, so that they do not mix.” When the glass is the size of your thumb keeping a steady hand to slowly add each ingredient is a challenge to say the least.
Not knowing exactly which order to add the ingredients, Ryan and I decided to mix based on the order listed in the book. First we added the white Creme de Cacao, next went the Apricot Brandy. One of the rare liqueurs we needed from Hi-Time Cellars, Creme de Yvette gently sank down to the bottom of the glass and finally the cream crowned the top of the glass. In truth the cream cascaded down the side of the glass but the casualty was delicately wiped away before photo time 😉
The end result was a lovely banded drink that gradated from a rich burgundy color to opaque white. It was stunning and delicious. The only tricky thing was trying to sip the teeny tiny glass and fighting the urge to shoot it back. It would be a shame to down such perfection in one gulp!
Ryan looked too funny trying to delicately sip this tiny glass filled with cream, Apricot Brandy, Creme de Cacao, and Creme de Yvette. I had to take a photo! It mixed a little in transport 🙂
Today, the recipe for the Angel’s Kiss listed on Mr. Boston’s website has replaced Creme de Yvette with Sloe Gin. The switch is likely the result of the difficulty finding the Creme de Yvette but in my humble opinion the two are not to be created equally. Sloe Gin tends to be rather sweet and while the Creme de Yvette is also a sweet liqueur it isn’t as syrupy to my palette. I also find Sloe Gin to be more tart and taste almost like cherry cough syrup and I personally think the Angel’s Kiss would be too heavy using this liqueur choice. If you can get your hands on it, I’d suggest sticking with the original.
I had to laugh when I read the Angel’s Tip recipe. Not only does this dainty drink require the use of the Pousse Café glass but it says to “put a Cherry on top.” The idea sounds ridiculous as the glass mouth is roughly the diameter of the cherry itself! How on earth is one suppose to sip through a cherry?!?! Seeking advice I looked over the new recipe online which suggests to place the cherry atop the glass using a long skewer. This sounds a bit dangerous for sipping and one certainly couldn’t shoot such a drink.
Every masterpiece deserves a cherry on top!
Ryan made it work by skewering the black stemmed cherry at an angle and placing the stick down to the bottom of the glass. As suspected the tiny cup was overtaken by the bulbous fruit, but it looked so cute, like a little ice cream sundae!
After some consideration, we decided that actually these three mini-cocktails should probably be enjoyed as a shot. But we needed to build two so that we both had a chance to try them out. I decided to see whether or not my cherry would float on top of the cream. Of course it didn’t! Instead my beautiful cherry sank beneath the clouds of mixed cream and Creme de Cacao. Definitely not the proper presentation 🙁 The only advantage to mine cocktain was the ability to shoot my drink back cherry and all while Ryan needed to place his cherry into his mouth before shooting the Angel’s Tip back.
You can’t go wrong with Creme de Cacao and cream. The cherry on top added a special treat to what tastes a bit like vanilla ice cream. SOOOOO GOOD!
We found that the best way to prepare these tiny cocktail was by slowly dropping the ingredients over a bar spoon using a baby medicine dosing syringe.
Our final tiny drink was the Angel’s Wing which calls for 1/2 Connoisseur Creme de Cacao in addition to Apricot Nectar and “a little Sweet Cream on top.” Here is where knowing what color Connoisseur Creme de Cacao and Apricot Nectar were. I’d image that this drink was designed with colorful ingredients to show off each of the color bands. However we only had white Cream de Cacao, and a clear Apricot Brandy. We may remake the Angel’s Wing after picking up a bottle of dark Creme de Cacao as it will likely make for a better presentation. I’d hate to replace our delicious true Apricot Brandy with a flavored Apricot Brandy even though the food dye in the faux verse may be more attractive.
Suprisingly, there were actually bands between the two clear spirits but it was nearly impossible to get the right angle of the camera to show them off. The Creme de Cacao floated to the base the cream next and the Apricot must have been the least dense as it perched on top. Science is pretty amazing!