5 Cocktails To Make With ‘Frisco” Unoaked Brandy
It looks like brandy is officially becoming a thing again. Over the past few years, more and more brandy cocktails have started to make it onto bar menus, and now there’s even a new American brandy to try: Frisco.
I actually came across Frisco for the first time in my hometown of San Francisco (how appropriate) a few weeks ago. My first reaction: “WTF?”
Frisco is made using Muscat grapes that are grown in California and made through a partnership with Seven Stills, a distillery in San Francisco that makes a number of interesting whiskeys distilled from craft beer (my personal fave is one made from a chocolate stout).
The brandy was inspired by Pisco. Founder Charlie O’Connell fell in love with Pisco during a trip to South America almost 20 years ago. After a more recent trip to Chile and Peru, he decided to create a Pisco-Inspired spirit to the California area.
Frisco is unoaked brandy, and is described as O’Connell as “dangerously mixable” with a “delicately smooth taste with floral undertones and suggestions of tropical fruits.”
How dangerously mixable? The brand sent us over a few recipes for cocktails you can make with it. If you’ve never tried a brandy cocktail, these could be a good place to start.
Frísco French 75
Ingredients:
1 oz. Frísco
½ oz. Lemon Juice
4 oz. Prosecco
Lemon Twist for Garnish
Directions: Add Frísco and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a Champagne flute. Top with Prosecco and garnish with a twist of lemon.
Frísco Spiced Cider
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Frísco
4 oz. Hot Apple Cider
½ oz. Orange Juice
Dash of Cinnamon
Dash of Nutmeg
Cinnamon Stick for Garnish
Directions: Combine Frísco, steaming hot apple cider, orange juice, and spices into your favorite mug. Garnish with cinnamon stick.
Mission Fig
Ingredients:
1 oz. Frísco?
1 Teaspoon Fig Syrup
4 oz. Malbec Red Wine
Directions: To make fig syrup, add a tablespoon of fig preserves to ½ cup of sugar and ½ cup of water in a saucepan. Heat on stove until simmering and sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Combine all ingredients in a shaker, add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled coup glass.
Frísco Hot Toddy
Ingredients:?
2 oz. Frísco?
1 Teaspoon Honey?
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
4 oz. Hot Water
Directions: Combine ingredients in your favorite mug, stir until honey is dissolved, get cozy.
OJ Libre
Ingredients:
1 oz. Frísco
2 oz. Blood Orange Juice
3 oz. Champagne
Directions: Chill all ingredients. Pour the first two ingredients into a shaker filled with ice. Shake well. Pour into the Champagne flute, then top with a splash of Champagne.