What did you buy at the liquor store today?

[Mark Muller]

Tri,

That El Dorado White 6 is high on my list of things I'd love to acquire. Alas, here in Texas it seems like there are a half dozen distributors, none of which get the product out into distribution.

Thanks,

Zachary

What is the deal with El Dorado in Texas? I used to be able to find the 12 y.o. and the 15 y.o. in Austin, but I haven't seen them on the shelves in at least 6 months. I haven't asked anyone at the stores yet, as I have been distracted by being able to buy Lemon Hart...

[Tri2Cook]

It's funny; I've tried a variety of white rums, always hoping that one of them will provide me with a eureka moment, but so far, I keep coming back to Havana Club. And I'm thoroughly grateful that it's available here!

The Havana Club is my go-to when the rum will stand out in the mix but I also keep a big bottle of Appleton on hand for when it's playing more of a supporting role in tiki drinks and such. The Havana Club isn't available at my local store and requires an hour-each-way drive to replace so I'm a a bit stingy with it.

[Moto]

Visited Total Wines in Cherry Hill NJ and Ace Beverage in DC. Both stores have great selection. So far I've just had sips of the Smith and Cross (truly rocket fuel) and the Junipero, no cocktails yet

[Zachary]

Mark,

AFAIK, El Dorado has 3 distributors in the state: Favorite Brands in Houston/Austin/Dallas, Bill Reed Distributing in Abilene, and Great Western in Amarillo. Personally, I don't know that any of them really care about the brand - it's hard to find, and either seems to be discontinued when I do find it, or the shelf is just empty.

Where do you live? I think I might be able to point you to the right people if you're looking for something.

Thanks,

Zachary

[haresfur]

The Havana Club isn't available at my local store and requires an hour-each-way drive to replace so I'm a a bit stingy with it.

You could save yourself half a day by buying a case!

[Tri2Cook]

The Havana Club isn't available at my local store and requires an hour-each-way drive to replace so I'm a a bit stingy with it.

You could save yourself half a day by buying a case!

Tempting...

I have to drive an hour to get the blanco and reserva but I can get the 7 year at my local store. The LCBO is a strange creature at times.

[tanstaafl2]

Stopped by the H&F Bottle shop to get the recipe for "The Slapping Incident" that I had at Restaurant Eugene. For anyone interested it includes:

1.25 oz Rittenhouse BIB Rye

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz Fernet Branca

0.25 oz Faretti Biscotti Liqueur

0.25 oz Cocchi di Torino

0.5 oz Sorghum Syrup (1:1 ratio)

Cracked black pepper for garnish

Build in a Collins glass and stir. Top with tonic water and garnish with the cracked black pepper.

I could have sworn there was a pinch of sea salt as well but I am hoping to get confirmation of that.

While there I picked up a couple of things needed for the recipe and for another recipe that piqued my interest.

They didn't have the Faretti Biscotti Liqueur so I am waiting on that to arrive. In the interim I may try some Amaretto as an alternative.

In addition to the Sorghum syrup I got a small bottle of St. George Terroir gin and Alvear's PX 1927 Sherry in order to try "The Veil Remnant", also a creation of the bar at Restaurant Eugene. It includes the St. George Terroir gin, PX Sherry, Batavia Arrack and Bonal but I am hoping to get the recipe details soon.

Finally, I decided to add a new toy for the bar and picked up a soda siphon just for fun!

[Mark Muller]

Mark,

AFAIK, El Dorado has 3 distributors in the state: Favorite Brands in Houston/Austin/Dallas, Bill Reed Distributing in Abilene, and Great Western in Amarillo. Personally, I don't know that any of them really care about the brand - it's hard to find, and either seems to be discontinued when I do find it, or the shelf is just empty.

Where do you live? I think I might be able to point you to the right people if you're looking for something.

Thanks,

Zachary

To answer my own question, I asked about El Dorado this past weekend at Spec's in Austin (the central location). The person I spoke with poked about on their computer and found 2 locations in town still have some. Further looking on his part led him to state that the distributer that they were getting it from doesn't carry it anymore, but that a different distributor did, and that he was going to try and get some from said other distributor. He was eager to have it on the shelf, saying that it was a good seller.

I live in Austin, and am not desparate for El Dorado, but I like it enough that I will probably get a bottle the next time I see it on a shelf of a conveniently located store.

To keep with the thread, when I was at Specs I bought a bottle of Wild Turkey Bourbon, some Armagnac de Montal (VS, with sample bottles of the VSOP and XO in a nice box), and some St-Remy VSOP brandy. The St-Remy is far and away my favorite cheap brandy. In fact, I can't think of any other spirit in its price range (~$12 per 750ml bottle) that I even buy. I greatly prefer it to any cognac under $25/bottle I have tried.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mark Muller (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Canadians - eat your heart out! My haul from Ace Beverage in DC - thanks to Curls for taking me there. I also bought some Xocolati bitters and Falernum bitters. Customs was kind to me and allowed me across with all 4 bottles.

[Tri2Cook]

Very nice haul and I'm gonna go ahead and be jealous for now but a friend is going to Minneapolis next week and offered to try to find a few things for me. The only thing in your haul on my list is the Lemon Hart. I'm jealous of the Cocchi and the Batavia Arrack too but there are other things I want more right now. I have Ransom Old Tom gin, an Agricole, a good blanco mezcal and Smith & Cross rum on my list in addition to the Lemon Hart. There are 3 adults going and none plan to bring back booze of their own so I don't think there should be any trouble at the border even if he manages to find all 5.

[mkayahara]

I don't see a little red triangle on that Lemon Hart, Kerry... is it the 80-proof?

[Kerry Beal]

I don't see a little red triangle on that Lemon Hart, Kerry... is it the 80-proof?

Damn Matt - you had me worried there for a minute. It's 75.5% ETOH at 151 proof. Little triangle just doesn't show on the photo.

[mkayahara]

I don't see a little red triangle on that Lemon Hart, Kerry... is it the 80-proof?

Damn Matt - you had me worried there for a minute. It's 75.5% ETOH at 151 proof. Little triangle just doesn't show on the photo.

Must be in the other corner of the label, then.

[FrogPrincesse]

Canadians - eat your heart out! My haul from Ace Beverage in DC - thanks to Curls for taking me there. I also bought some Xocolati bitters and Falernum bitters. Customs was kind to me and allowed me across with all 4 bottles.

Very nice. All these are great products. The Cocchi is especially nice in a Corpse Reviver No. 2. The Lemon Hart 151 is an essential for tiki drinks of course. The Batavia Arrack is great for punch - the O'Doherty's Arrack Punch in David Wondrich's book is a great one. I have been using the Xocolatl bitters quite a bit as well. I am not too familiar with the falernum bitters (are these the ones from B.G. Reynolds/Cocktail Kingdom?) so I will be curious to see what you do with them.

[Tri2Cook]

I keep reading an awful lot of good things about that Cocchi and the Batavia Arrack is definitely a sweet score so it will be fun seeing what you do with them. I like the Xocolatl bitters, haven't tried the Falernum bitters so I'm looking forward to hearing about that as well. I'm really hoping my potential Lemon Hart acquisition works out though, that's the thing in your haul I'm most jealous of by far. I recently ordered a bunch of different tiki glasses and have been gathering the recipes like crazy. It's going to be a Hawaiian shirt and Thurston Howell straw-hat summer...

[KD1191]

Apparently we may be in the midst of, or headed towards a Wild Turkey 101 Rye shortage. Cowdery seems to think it may be non-existent or short lived, but I've had two different liquor store owners tell me that Wild Turkey currently has no rye mature enough to bottle and their distributors have none to ship. This may be overstating things, I don't know the truth, but while I am traveling for work I like to take advantage of visiting out of the way liquor stores to see what dusty gems I might find and stocking up on some WTR made for a good enough motivation. On this jaunt I also found an old bottle of Unicum and a tax-stamped bottle of Amer Picon (the store owner told me it had been on the shelf for 32 years and the only other person who had bought any was a chef at a French restaurant). All-in-all a rewarding search...maybe even more so once I follow up a lead on some VWFRR tomorrow.

[KD1191]

No luck on the VWFRR front...I'll have to drown my tears in this ~30 year old bottle of Green Chartreuse.

ETA: The price tag says $22.99...about 1/3 of the current going rate in many Chicago stores. Hooray for stores where the inventory isn't subject to inflation.

Edited March 30, 2012 by KD1191 (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Got all excited, the LCBO now has Creme Yvette available through it's direct sales program so I thought that was what I was buying... and then I slowed down enough to notice that it's selling for $89.00/bottle. No thanks.

[Kerry Beal]

Got all excited, the LCBO now has Creme Yvette available through it's direct sales program so I thought that was what I was buying... and then I slowed down enough to notice that it's selling for $89.00/bottle. No thanks.

Tell me more about this 'direct sales program'?

[tanstaafl2]

Apparently Uncle Pappy is back in town again. Who knew? But it seemed inconsiderate to turn down an invitation for another bottle of the 20 yo Bourbon. At least it means I can be a bit more generous in sharing the first bottle knowing I have a second safely tucked away for a rainy day.

Also got a message that the bottle of Faretti Biscotti liquour I was waiting on was back in stock. So it was off to the liquor store today for me.

First stop was H&F for the Faretti and to check on an order for some wine. And of course I can't resist looking around!

Then it was down to Tower on Piedmont to pick up Pappy and see what they might have that was new and/or interesting.

As usual I ended up with a lot more than I had intended...

At H&F I picked up the Faretti (a really nice heavy bottle as well! I think the bottle will be a keeper.) as well as a bottle of Nielson/Massey Rose water. I also got intrigued by a new bottle of "Dry" Curacao from Pierre Ferrand that was created in consultation with none other than Splificator his own self. Now who could pass that up I ask you? Besides, you can't have too many orange liqueurs can you?

H&F also mentioned they had heard the local distributor was dropping Prunier Pineau des Charentes. Say it ain't so! So I stopped by Tower next as they were my source for the Pineau. They weren't sure if that was the case but are checking for me. Just to be safe I picked up a couple of bottles for insurance. Better safe than sorry!

While puttering about in that section I also decided to get a bottle of Lillet since I was out and Cocchi Americano since I was almost out. Then I noticed the lone remaining bottle of Carpano was on sale. That seemed odd. So I added it to my basket and inquired. Seems they are planning to stop carrying it. I must say that came as a surprise. I registered my sense of alarm at such an odd decision but not sure that will make any difference.

Finally I wandered over to the main desk to pick up Uncle Pappy only to find they had just gotten in a few bottles of the Redbreast Cask Strength. I was already just a wee bit over budget but couldn't let that opportunity pass me by so in the basket it went.

A busy day indeed.

[Tri2Cook]

Got all excited, the LCBO now has Creme Yvette available through it's direct sales program so I thought that was what I was buying... and then I slowed down enough to notice that it's selling for $89.00/bottle. No thanks.

Tell me more about this 'direct sales program'?

If you go on the LCBO site, go to the product search page and type in Creme Yvette it has a link to a direct sales thing for ordering it. I found it by accident, I try to browse through the rum, gin, tequila and liqueur sections every week or two to see if there's anything new. I'm not sure if there's a dedicated page for the direct sales thing or not, I'm going to do a little more checking into that. I know they have the vintages online sales but it doesn't seem to be the same thing.

Edit: Just checked, actually it is the Vintages online sales program. I thought it was different because the Vintages online links usually send you to an order page and this one just gives numbers to call but, on second look, it's the same thing.

Edited April 1, 2012 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Canadians - eat your heart out! My haul from Ace Beverage in DC - thanks to Curls for taking me there. I also bought some Xocolati bitters and Falernum bitters. Customs was kind to me and allowed me across with all 4 bottles.

Okay Kerry, now I can officially concede the full extent of the jealousy you were due. My friend from work says he went to stores in Duluth and Minneapolis with my list for Lemon Hart 151, La Favorite Rhum Agricole blanc, Ransom Old Tom gin, a Del Maguey blanco mezcal, Smith & Cross rum, Batavia Arrack and Zirbenz Stone Pine liqueur. I told him to only grab 4 with that being the order of preference, he was unable to find any of it. I am depressed (no, not really)... and a bit surprised. He doesn't really know much about the stuff so I was hesitant to okay substitutions. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

[Kerry Beal]

Canadians - eat your heart out! My haul from Ace Beverage in DC - thanks to Curls for taking me there. I also bought some Xocolati bitters and Falernum bitters. Customs was kind to me and allowed me across with all 4 bottles.

Okay Kerry, now I can officially concede the full extent of the jealousy you were due. My friend from work says he went to stores in Duluth and Minneapolis with my list for Lemon Hart 151, La Favorite Rhum Agricole blanc, Ransom Old Tom gin, a Del Maguey blanco mezcal, Smith & Cross rum, Batavia Arrack and Zirbenz Stone Pine liqueur. I told him to only grab 4 with that being the order of preference, he was unable to find any of it. I am depressed (no, not really)... and a bit surprised. He doesn't really know much about the stuff so I was hesitant to okay substitutions. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

That totally sucks! You need to start ordering ahead and having the stuff delivered at his hotel.

[prasantrin]

Okay Kerry, now I can officially concede the full extent of the jealousy you were due. My friend from work says he went to stores in Duluth and Minneapolis with my list for Lemon Hart 151, La Favorite Rhum Agricole blanc, Ransom Old Tom gin, a Del Maguey blanco mezcal, Smith & Cross rum, Batavia Arrack and Zirbenz Stone Pine liqueur. I told him to only grab 4 with that being the order of preference, he was unable to find any of it. I am depressed (no, not really)... and a bit surprised. He doesn't really know much about the stuff so I was hesitant to okay substitutions. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

The latter two on your list show up online at Surdyk's, one of MSPs best-stocked liquor stores. It would not at all surprise me if the others were available in the store. Or were they out of stock?

[Tri2Cook]

I honestly don't know, I wasn't there. He said he couldn't find any of it so I took his word for it. He was doing me a favor so I didn't want to sound skeptical about his efforts. It's really not that big a deal, would have been nice though. Another friend is returning from Nova Scotia tomorrow, she was going to see if she could find a bottle of Cruzan Black Strap for me while there. Apparently the NS stores carry it. So there could be a nice surprise or another mild disappointment tomorrow.