Yajna Patni

I think you are right about the anise evergreendan, the amount may have been just right for many people, but i am kind of sensitive to anise flavours, and like them well in the background. The Washington flip was a perfect fall cocktail. I am going to work on getting a bottle of benedictine so I can make it at home.

I was at Green Street in Cambridge last night, and had an awesome washington flip, with applejack egg, nutmeg, and I can't remember what else. Also a La Lousiane (?) which was good, but a little heavy on anise taste for me.

On the Stone's Green Ginger. My mom used it to make the best icebox cake. mix the ginger wine with whipped cream and use it to sandwich gingersnaps, just like a regular ice box cake. The Stone's is so sweet it does not need extra sugar with the whipped cream. I have not tasted Canton so I cant compare.

This was my first drink, the sky pilot. It was made with Apple brandy, dark rum, and citrus and grenadine. I had said i wanted something with Apple brandy or apple jack, he asked did I want something boozy or citrusy and i said I don't care. I will definitely try and make this again. The taste of apple was very direct, with the rum weirdly adding a fall touch of brown sugar. This was my second drink. I asked the lady bartender for a Ramos gin fizz. I have read about them, and tried to make them myself, but it was never all that special. I realized as i watched her it is because although I can shake for a good while, she shook it for an amazing time. She was washing up with her other hand while she shook. The final product was amazing. My favorite cocktails are the ones where it is almost impossible to separate the individual ingredients, because they have all merged together inot a cohesive whole. And this did. It quite heavy on the Orange flower water, which was delicious and not overwhelming. The texture was amazing, like a milk shake. Some how she got the fluff to ride an inch over the top of the glass and put in a spoon straw thing that was pretty genius. I would definitely call this a girly drink, but not too sweet or gross or weirdly fruity. The right kind of girly drink. This was my last drink. I wanted something whiskey. thought about it and though sazerac! the bartender lady said the way she liked it best was the old fashioned style using cognac. Would I like that. I said absolutely. and holy moly it was good. I have steered away from sazeracs because i am not fond of aniseed and was afraid that the rinse would make a nasty liquorice mess of my whiskey, in this case cognac. Well it didn't. it merged into the whole into what was a really good and complex cocktail. People do go on about the pretentious level at Drink, my only complaint is I hate standing, and was not wearing shoes to stand in, but once i got a bar stool I was a very happy camper. I found the drinks really worth the tab. (and I am not wealthy, when i blow money on costy drinks, I want to walk away blown away, and i was. ) altogether a great evening.

Tonight I went to drink, which is in downtown Boston, they say the financial district but they lie. I had a airline pilot (?) which was apple brandy and was really good, a ramos gin fizz which was the ultimate girly drink, I felt like the best kind of flapper, and a really good sazerac made with cognac. I have pictures, but am far to tired/tipsy to post them right now.

I just got a little bottle, it was $5.99. It was in Davis Sq in Somerville, MA

I made a kind of ward 8, as suggested further back to see how i could make the rye and st Germaine work. I used the st Germaine instead of the grenadine in the recipe. So 1 1/2 oz of old overholt, 3/4 an ounce each of orange and lemon juice, and one tsp of grenadine. I subbed st germaine for the grenadine, but increased it to 1/4 ounce. I liked this a lot. I don't like grenadine, and the st Germaine did the sweetening, and added just a little bit. I might like it all more with 2 oz of the rye, but that might make it something 100% different. I thought this worked for rye and st Germaine.

I will.

yum! I have a big bag of them! i am going to try to eat them tomorrow. but if i do not get through the bag just eating them, i will start into the sours and margaritas. I love them. they are so tropical and delicious.

That is a very good idea. i need a book. I learned to cook mainly from Indian ladies who never follow a recipe, and there is so much i do not remember and cannot recreate.

So most of my introducing myself to cocktails is me following recipies. Tonight i winged it, and was not disappointed with the result, although I would not call it terribly complex. But i wanted something fall like with what i had in the house, that included a bunch of ginger beer that i had left over from a party. So i made half Lairds applejack, half ginger beer, reeds Jamacain, about a a third of a lemon squeezed, then the shell thrown in as a garnish, a drop of stones green ginger, and a big splash of angostura. it was not bad!

I have been drinking for the last month for my morning tea a mix of Darjeeling from Taylors of hampstead, and ceylon black tea from Ahmed tea. For me this is the perfect mix. Its a lot like the kind of traditional Indian mix of red label and green label. The red label being an ctc, and i think Assam, and the green label being Darjeeling. The red label gives body and color and the Darjeeling gives the mix flavor. I drink tea with milk, so I like a good amount of astringency. I have been looking for the mighty leaf Darjeeling that Andi recommends, but i cant seem to find it round here. There is better Darjeeling out there than the Taylor stuff, but they sell it at whole foods, and some one gave me a gift certificate so I have been going with it.

I had something called a Paris Manhattan that I found online. I was not a fan. It was 2oz of rye, and I used Rittenhouse, and 1oz of st Germaine, and half of white vermouth. It was far too sweet. It tasted like a drink at the kind of club where the girls have orange fake tans and short dresses with sequins. I think the rye did go kind of well with teh st Germaine, but I prefer a regular manhattan by about a million times.

you are all so nice! I never ever ask people over if I am tired.

Cherry festival in michigan.

because I seem to be spamming this board tonight: figured out the colony cocktail with the help of the wonderful lady at the Boston Shaker. Scrappys Grapefruit bitters, and rhubarb bitters and a little lime. I found some white grapefruit juice which helped. My drink tonight was a pegu club.

When i lived in London, years ago, on xmas day Chinatown was always open, and some of southall.

I think I am going to try later the grapefrut maraschino one, and add some grapefruit bitters. I liked the way the flavours worked, it just tasted a little flat.

And to report what I drank tonight, a bourbon crusta, and a colony cocktail. I was thinking of making the colony for a 1920s themed picnic i am throwing on Saturday, and was excited about it because i love grapefruit and gin. I got the bottle of Maraschino, and made it. and had a big meh reaction. I think it was because the grapefruit was sweet pink ones. I felt it needed a bit more bitter.

Aperol has become my recent drink of choice. Try as I might I can't quite get an appreciation for Campari. But the Aperol makes a lovely light Americano varition and the slightly more orange forward taste is quite appealing! Tried the Plymouth gin, Aperol and Lillet combo the other night but not as good. Then again my Lillet has been open a while. A real downside with those types of mixers since I am the only one experimenting most evenings. Collected a bunch of Aperol recipes from here and other places the other day and look forward to giving this recipe and the others I have collected a try. May substitute it for Compari in a Jasmine or Bitter Elder to see how it does. May bit a bit too much in the Jasmine with the Cointreau but we shall see. I do love campari, but I think I love aperol more. I have been drinking aperol spritz all summer, and some how until now I did not think of making anything else with it. It is a good idea to sub it for campari and see what happens. A friend of mine drinks campari and fanta, and that seems like the nasty version of an aperol spritz.

often the manufacturers web site has manuals you can download. Jealous BTW! pressure cookers are the best. My favorite recent find was a trader vic pacific Island cookbook with lots of tiki recipies.

You are not going to fully embrace the J Wray until, as you say, you "get your head around" rums. But once you do it it is funky wonderful stuff that will find its way into all sorts of cocktails. So any hint for the Jwray, or do I need to wait till the rum gods consider my erudition complete and benedict me with knowledge?

Today I had an aperol sour made with one part Aperol, one part st germain, and one part lime. I found a recipe online. It was a little sweet, but really tasty.

I have been making mai tais all summer. Yesterday i found in a thrift store a trader vic cookery book, with a section on drinks, also a section on kind of scary looking "Mexican" drinks. Rums are still too complicated for me to get my head round, but i just figured i would find ones I like and stick with it. I have appleton estate a barbancourt, and cruzan white. which blew my mind, having only tasted bacardi white before, and I have been sucking down daiquiris. Today I picked up a bottle of J wray over-proof. It is very firey, but quite tasty. Not sure what do do with it? is it just for Jamaican alcoholics? or for adding extra liquor to fruity drinks? or is there more to it.

Dear Jenni! I almost answered the question, and then thought, no, Jenni will do it and she will do a MUCH better job than I will. Also a big thumbs up for your rajma, which is almost how i make mine. I really really do not like the over onioned over spiced restaurant versions of most north Indian food.