Chris Amirault

I'm thinking you may just be right....

Licor 43 is a Spanish liqueur that's very heavy on the vanilla. There's a slight citrus element that you could get with a twist of orange and lemon peel. I think you could substitute in a quality vanilla simple (maybe with turbinado or demerara sugar, not too dark or refined) and it'd work. The key players are the rye and Dubonnet: sounds like a gaffe but it's not. At all.

How did you make the rosemary simple?

drinkboy Robert Hess's Rochester Cocktail is one righteous libation. I buy bottles of Dubonnet just so I can make 23 in a row. On different nights. 2 oz rye (Rittenhouse BIB) 1 oz Dubonnet rouge 1/2 oz Licor 43 1/4 oz absinthe (Kubler works nicely here) 2 dashes Angostura Stir; strain; coupe. Robert calls for a lemon twist but I think it's nicely aromatic without it as well.

Kevin, can you check the chart on juices and make sure it's what you intended? I was shocked to see the lime juice expiration times in particular.

Just bought the eBook for $4 at the link above. Will report back -- and thanks Kevin!

S'ok. Everything seemed to get lost in the Fernet.....

I bought Galliano because I finally found it in a 375 ml bottle that (a) can fit in my cabinet and (b) is only $20 and thus less likely to make me unhappy if I don't use it up for a couple of decades. Using Dolin blanc. Will report back.

Snooped around for a way to combine Dolin blanc with that Pierre Ferrand dry curacao and found this "Bijou cocktail variation" on cocktaildb.com. Made it with Broker's gin and the half-Regan's/half-Fee's orange bitters and bumping up the vermouth to 1 oz, it's just a bit too sweet, so I'd go with something along these lines next time: 1 1/2 oz London dry gin (Broker's, though Tanqueray or Beefeater would also work I think) 1 oz dry vermouth (Dolin) 1/2 oz curacao (Pierre Ferrand) dash Fee's orange bitters dash Regan's orange bitters Stir; strain; coupe; lemon twist.

Oh HungryC... would that we could buy roux at grocery stores up north....

When I'm taking the time to make a slow roux -- which doesn't happen very often -- I usually make 2-3x the amount I need, scoop out the extra a bit early into a pyrex measuring cup, and then save the cooled roux for later. (You grab the extra early because it's going to cool on its own, which means it keeps cooking longer than the roux to which you add your trinity, which cools the roux down.) Then you really have fast roux: open the jar and go get 'em.

Are people still finding Pearl River in their stores? I am having a hard time finding it locally for some reason. And, yes, you can take my searching for it as a recommendation.

The Old Monk is so wacky... just use a softer Jamaican like Appleton V/X or 12, or maybe the Cruzan Single Barrel?

This kills. Nemo Toddy 2 oz (or maybe more) Old Monk rum 1/2 oz (or maybe more) Smith & Cross rum 1/2 oz rich (2:1) Rancho Gordo piloncillo syrup 3/4 oz lime juice 3 dashes Bittermens xocolatl bitters 1" cube of ginger, grated on a microplane Add the liquid ingredients into a mug. Put the grated ginger into a fine strainer and pour boiling water over it. Stir. No garnish.

I don't think we should talk too much about our vitage Picon bottles... just sayin'...

I cannot keep deep-fried root chips -- taro, potato, carrot, yam, parsnip -- in the house for more than a few minutes after they're done if they've been tossed with a freshly made ras al hanout spice mixture.

Just ordered some Miyazaki hojicha and bancha from Yuuki-Cha. Will report back.

Watermelon and Campari.

A brave effort. I struggle to nail a drink with Meyer lemons, and Ransom is a tough nut too.

Especially things that don't keep and are not base spirits: that PX is amazing but you don't use 2 oz a pop....

Made a Good Things Come from the Beta book: 1 3/4 oz Redbreast 1/2 oz PX sherry 1/2 Fernet Branca 1/4 yellow Chartreuse The recipe asked for a dash of Scrappy's lavender bitters, which I sadly do not have on hand. I dashed in our friend Adam's Aphrodite bitters instead, and, by gum, that works just fine. A splendid entry in the brown-n-stirred canon, and, thanks to Aphrodite, a pun on the drink's name as well.

You are most welcome -- thanks for describing it!

I want to credit Stephen with helping to shape my thoughts on this matter. I remember posting around here years ago and using the word "balance"; Stephen pointed out that some cocktails aren't, and shouldn't be, balanced. Rather, the question is emphasis, or structure, particularly across the experience of drinking (aroma; entry, midpalate, finish; cold -> warm; etc.). That is to say, all of these recipes may be entirely inaccurate in re VH's ratios -- and they may still work.

If Toby's around he can weigh in and correct the errors I'm about to make. Ahem: My first attempt would be aiming dry; I'd worry about that Creme de Peche taking over: 2 oz GD 1/2 or 3/4 oz lemon 1/4 oz CdP 1/4 oz Blis dash (rinse?) Herbsaint That's fascinating! I think I'd do two trial runs, an equal parts for the fun of it and then maybe... 1 1/2 oz tequila 1 oz vermouth 1/2 oz Campari 1/2 oz Aperol I'm kind of tempted to try this now but I have no NP vermouth...! This one is tricky: is the lime an accent or is this a sour? I'm guessing the former, sort of a tequila McArthur, which I'd make boozy: 2 oz tequila 1/2 oz Barbancourt scant 1/2 oz lime scant 1/2 oz marmalade syrup dash apple bitters

I think that, if you had a sense of the basic drink family, to use Gary Regan's taxonomy, you could probably get somewhere fairly close to proportions. If I saw "spirit, sugar, bitters" on a menu, for example, I'm thinking we're in the Old Fashioned ratio (2 oz, tsp, dash or two, roughly), and if I saw "spirit, sugar/liqueur, citrus," I'd go with my usual base ratio (2:1:1) and then fiddle around. What drinks on the Violet Hour menu are you interested in? Perhaps we can take a crack at one together.