Drink 39: The Cotton Frog

The Name: The Cotton Frog                                                                                 

The Bar:  Bathtub Gin (132 9th Ave., NYC)

The Story Behind The Name: It's hard to believe that this blog is two years old. Two years ago, I happened to be at a bar with some good friends and, on a whim, ordered a drink with a weird name.

Now, two years and almost 40 drinks later, this has become a thing that I do.

I'm very lucky to have regular readers and many wonderful friends who have fueled my quest to irritate and/or intrigue every bartender I meet with my really weird request. And I would like to thank all of those bartenders who have indulged me and made me weird drinks--it has been heartening to know that my request is almost always greeted with enthusiasm (ALMOST always...) and I've had some really phenomenal and unusual drinks thanks to the many bartenders who have embraced this challenge. It's really been a blast.

And so, of course, I had to get a drink to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the blog. Last year, my friend Ryan and I grabbed a drink to celebrate, since he was present at this blog's creation. And this year, we made plans to meet again, and went to a phenomenal bar called Bathtub Gin. Now, all we needed was a custom name.

For the one-year anniversary, I ordered the Honey Milked From the Teats of Zeus in a blatant attempt to receive the most delicious drink I would ever taste in my life (and the bartender came pretty damn close). This year, I wanted to make it a little more personal. Most people are familiar with the tradition that, for wedding anniversaries, there are different types of gifts you customarily get due based on the number of years being celebrated. So, the one-year anniversary, you traditionally get a gift made of paper. After twenty five years, it's a gift made of silver. After fifty years, it's gold. I did some research and found out the customary two-year present is a gift made of cotton. I also found out that the sixth anniversary present is traditionally a gift of "candy or iron," which is super weird because those are two very different things. But, I figured that cotton would be a great word to include in the drink name. One, it would honor the fact that this blog is two years old. And, secondly, we were going to a bar that specializes in gin drinks. GIN drinks. Get it? Cotton gin? Like the cotton gin?! THE COTTON GIN?!?! Eh? Eh?!?!

That pun is great and you know it. Shut up.

But I needed more to this drink name. And I thought back to the very first What's That Drink cocktail--The Frog Hitler. And so I decided to order a cocktail called The Cotton Frog. This way, I could pay homage to the drink that started this all, and celebrate the two years of ordering weird drinks at once!

And, The Cotton Frog sounds much more appealing than The Cotton Hitler.

Ordering The Drink: Bathtub Gin is a wonderful speakeasy in New York. It's hidden in the wall of Stone Street Coffee in Chelsea, so you can have coffee during the day and then drinks at night. Once you go in, it's a really neat place, which fully embraces the speakeasy theme even more than other hidden bars I've been to. As we were going in, we were informed that there would be a surprise burlesque show that night. We were also told that, because of the burlesque show, we were absolutely not allowed to take any pictures or video. If we were seen using our cell phones, someone from the bar would confiscate it. That was enough for me to not take any pictures.

But if Ryan and I had been there on a non-burlesque night, I would have taken multiple pictures of the cool interior of this place. It has a lovely Victorian theme, and the centerpiece of the whole place is a giant copper bathtub in the middle of the room.

But, most importantly, the drinks were great. I first ordered a gin-based drink called The Sherry Cobbler, since gin is their specialty. But Ryan got a fantastic whiskey based drink and, even better, later got a a fascinating drink served hot that contained ale and sherry and all kinds of great things. It tasted like a fancy beer float crossed with eggnog crossed with a hot toddy. It was beautiful.

And it was really a pleasure watching the bartenders work. The bar was very crowded, even on a Tuesday night, so we didn't get to really study the bartenders, but it was clear that they were crafting these drinks with precision. We saw bartenders lighting orange peels on fire and measuring in fancy beakers and grating nutmeg with a flourish. It was great to watch.

And so I was very glad when the bartender agreed to my drink request for The Cotton Frog. Without hesitation he said, "Alright!" and set to work. In not too long, I got my drink.

The Drink:  

Since I had turned my phone off in fear of the bouncer's warning, I didn't get a picture of this drink, but it looked...for lack of a better word...fluffy. It was white and foamy and delicate. Almost graceful, if you can use such a word to describe a cocktail's appearance. I asked the bartender what was in it, and he began to rattle off the ingredients. But, as I've already mentioned, the bar was crowded, and the noise level was pretty high. When he finished, I said, "I missed all of that," and he jokingly said, "Well that's the only time I'm saying it!" He then repeated the list of ingredients...and I think I got all of them? I'll be honest, I might have missed something. But I'm about 90% sure this is the correct drink recipe. Which is pretty sure, but I still wanted to provide a disclaimer.

Gin

Lime juice

Cream

Egg

Green Chartreuse

 

Assessment of Drink: This was incredible. Really, absolutely delicious. I'm a sucker for cocktails that include lime in them. As one of the more vibrant of the citrus fruits, lime is perhaps the most consistent way to add a dash of acid to a drink, which makes the flavors of the drink bright and refreshing. Also, as acidity tends to do, it serves to highlight the flavors it interacts with, and that's always nice when it comes to cocktails. Especially when you have such a subtle flavor such as gin.

The lime was certainly the most assertive flavor, but not too overpowering. You could still taste the freshness of the cream and the subtle sweetness of the chartreuse. It was, in many ways, a dessert drink. But unlike most dessert drinks, it was not too sweet thanks to the lime.

The texture was also on point--the drink itself had a lot of foam which clung to the sides of the glass and which I licked clean in a most undignified manner. The drink itself, under all the foam, was velvety and buttery and lush, but still quite light and airy.

And, it should be noted, this is the type of drink that only a trained bartender can make. I certainly wouldn't be able to replicate it--especially considering the use of the egg, this drink showcased a lot of skill and know-how.

When I closed out my tab, the bartender asked how the drink was. I thought for a second and said "It was like drinking a key lime pie cloud." I'm pretty happy with that description. It's surprisingly accurate, I think, and it also sounds marketable. "Try The Cotton Frog today, it's like drinking a key lime pie cloud!" This is one of the select drinks I've gotten for this blog where it was good enough that I actually think it could be on the cocktail menu at the bar--if anyone from Bathtub Gin is reading this, consider The Cotton Frog for the next time you change your menu. All the cocktails I tried there were delicious, but I think The Cotton Frog was actually my favorite.

Does It Live Up To The Name: Yes it does! The Cotton Frog was, I think, a deceptively challenging name. It would be easy to show cotton. Even if you don't think of my groanworthy cotton-gin-pun, making a completely white drink would automatically make the word "cotton" make sense. And the word frog would also be easy to show--just make a green drink. But it's impossible to have both a green and a white drink.

The bartender at Bathtub Gin was able to find a way around this. He went with a white drink, but the fact that it had both lime and green chartreuse was enough, to me, to represent the idea of a green frog. So it worked very well. It was both a delicious drink, and an excellent fit for the name.

Bathtub Gin was a really wonderful place. Any bar that you have to enter by going through a hidden panel in a wall is automatically cool, and Bathtub Gin really goes all out with its atmosphere. Unfortunately, Ryan and I left shortly after the burlesque show begins. The bar was busy, and all of the tables where you can actually sit and relax were reserved (definitely try to make a reservation if you plan on going). The room was too crowded and I was too short to be able to see anything. Although I know that the pre-show act did something that involved fire because there was a sudden flash and everyone went "ooooh," and then the first act performed to a very cool cover of Besame Mucho.

But despite our early departure, Bathtub Gin was a rousing success, and the perfect place to celebrate two years of this blog. Many thanks to my readers these past two years--and I look forward to sharing more drinks and more stories with you all!