jmfangio

I love it - I think it makes a great martini, and the botanical profile works really well in a Last Word.

Just found this on a Google search: http://www.golfsmith.com/products/240258?P...b302eda4a906d4# Looks like it'll do the trick.

Interesting. I recently tried a bottle of the lemongrass Dry Soda, and my first thought was how well it would go with gin. http://drysoda.com/

If you ever have an opportunity to get fresh yuzu, try that in place of the lime. Takes one of my favorite drinks to a whole new level.

Besides, it looks really cool once you've mastered the art of lighting a wooden match with your thumbnail, then squeezing the orange with the other hand. By the way, what's the recipe that you're doing this for? I'm partial to the 'Flame of Love' martini.

Without a doubt, one of my favorite cocktails. The first time I made one, I took a sip, and thought, hmmm...I'm not sure if I like this. But by the time I got to the bottom of the glass, I couldn't wait to make another. A few weeks ago I found some fresh yuzu at a Japanese market, and substituted that for the lime juice. All I can say is, wow! Took the drink to a whole other level.

I just picked up a bottle of Martin Miller's Reformed from BevMo yesterday - they were running a special on the 1.75 litre bottle for $27.99, so I thought I'd take a gamble based on the positive reviews I've seen and buy it instead of my usual go-to gin, Bombay Sapphire. So far I've only tried it in a martini, but I have to say that I like it a lot. Very fruity and floral - to my palate, the juniper is very far in the background, and the fruitier botanicals dominate. I can't wait to try it in an Aviation, Jasmine, or Corpse Reviver #2. Is this my new standard? No, but I like it enough to make sure that I keep it stocked in my bar.

My understanding is that it's 50/50 gin and sweet vermouth.

I wonder how the cherry vodka would pair with maraschino liqueur. So, perhaps, a cherry Aviation? This is either one of the best ideas I've ever had, or one of the worst. ← But I'm not sure I'd call it an Aviation seeing as how the gin flavor is crucial to that drink. That said, it would probably be quite tasty. Cherry and lemon is a good combo too. ← Agreed - I wouldn't call it an Aviation, either. If it works, you'd have to think up a clever new name. Another idea: a riff on the White Lady (which, of course, is simply a variation on the Sidecar). The cherry vodka, lemon juice, and Cointreau? Now I want to get some of the cherry vodka for myself and start experimenting...

I wonder how the cherry vodka would pair with maraschino liqueur. So, perhaps, a cherry Aviation? This is either one of the best ideas I've ever had, or one of the worst.

A Margarita requires a mariachi approach, a Manhattan requires a Classical approach, Pina Colada requires a Calypso approach, etc. ← Surely, everyone here has seen The Thin Man? As Nick Charles instructs three New York bartenders at the elegant Normandie Hotel bar how to make a proper Martini. "You see, the important thing is the rhythm. You always have rhythm in your shaking. With a Manhattan you shake to fox trot time. A Bronx to two-step time. A dry Martini you always shake to waltz time." I love that line, but with apologies to Nick Charles and James Bond, I still stir my martinis.

The Last Word. Cribbing from the Cocktail Chronicles blog: “This cocktail was introduced around here about thirty years ago by Frank Fogarty, who was very well known in vaudeville. He was called the ‘Dublin Minstrel,’ and was a very fine monologue artist.” So wrote Ted Saucier in 1951 when introducing this drink in Bottoms Up. Saucier credits the drink to the Detroit Athletic Club, and if the bartender’s recollection is correct, that would place the Last Word as a Prohibition-era cocktail. http://www.cocktailchronicles.com/2006/04/13/the-last-word/ I recommend picking up Straight Up or on the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail by William Grimes. You'll find lots of answers to your question there. By the way, the other night I made a Last Word with fresh yuzu juice in place of the lime, and, to put it in MySpace speak, OMFG! Made one of my favorite cocktails even better.

Katie - great minds think alike, or at least come up with the same silly puns. I made up a drink with the same name after I found some fresh kaffir limes at the Thai market. I just used a quarter of the kaffir lime (it's a very strong flavor), half a regular lime, lemongrass simple syrup, and since I thought it would be interesting to try all Asian ingredients, Awamori, a variety of sochu from Okinawa, distilled from long grain Thai rice. Very nice flavor. I have a picture, but I'm fairly new to this forum and still need to figure out how to attach pictures to a post. Next time I may add a little mint, and top it off with soda water. A Thaijito, perhaps?

Quoting from Luis Bunuel's autobiography, 'My Last Sigh' "To provoke, or sustain, a reverie in a bar, you have to drink English Gin, especially in the form of the dry martini. To be frank, given the primordial role played in my life by the dry martini, I think I really ought to give it at last a page. Like all cocktails, the martini, composed essentially of gin and a few drops of Noilly Prat, seems to have been an American invention. Connoisseurs who like their martinis very dry suggest simply allowing a ray of sunlight to shine through a bottle of Noilly Prat before it hits the bottle of gin. At a certain period in America it was said that the making of a dry martini should resemble the Immaculate Conception, for, as Saint Thomas Aquinas once noted, the generative power of the Holy Ghost pierced the Virgin's hymen "like a ray of sunlight through a window - leaving it unbroken." As for me - ingredients and methodolgy - I like Bombay Sapphire, Plymouth, and, lately, No. 209 gin, and Noilly Prat at a ratio of about 6:1. I always measure my gin (2 ounces), but just eyeball the vermouth. For variety, I'll add a dash of orange bitters, or just a drop of absinthe. You have to be careful with the absinthe - just a drop adds an interesting layer to the botanicals in the gin, but one drop too many and it's easy for it to overpower the drink. Glasses in the freezer first, and stir for exactly 30 seconds. And while it may seem like over kill to some, I like a single olive, and a lemon twist.

Have you thought about making your own grenadine? There are various recipes somewhere on this board, and if you do a Google search. The one I used was to take 16 oz of pomegranate juice (POM works fine), slowly reduce by half, add one cup sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves, cool, and add about a tablespoon of vodka as a preservative. It might be a nice sales point that you're using homemade ingredients in some of your drinks.

Hello all, Longtime lurker, inspired by this thread to finally join up as a member. I've been experimenting with vodka infusions for a couple of years now, most notably: habanero peppers (which I named the 'dim mak', after the legendary kung fu death touch) fresh wasabi (goes great with tuna tataki, and makes a killer bloody mary) earl grey tea (I like to top it off with sparkling lemonade, and call it the Drunken Palmer) and most recently, jasmine tea with lavender (amazing straight from the freezer - I haven't really experimented with it in cocktails yet). I just picked up some fresh kaffir limes from a Thai market in Hollywood, so that's next up. I'm also thinking of doing lemon with lavender, but I'm wondering if they'll have different infusion times, so I think I'll infuse the lemon first, then strain and add the lavender. Has anyone else worked with multiple ingredients, adding one after the other?

I've been playing around with vodka infusions, and recently made some with Earl Grey, and jasmine tea with a dash of dried lavender. With the Earl Grey, so far I've had it topped off with sparkling lemonade, and in a cocktail with lemon juice, and a dash of simple syrup. I just made the jasmine/lavender infusion the other day. So far all that I've done is sip it straight from the freezer, and it's amazing. The jasmine flavor explodes in your mouth, followed by a hint of the lavender as you swallow. I only made a little over a cup as a test run; now I need to make some more and start experimenting with cocktails.