donbert

Has anyone tried the Luxardo Apricot or know where it is sold? This looks promising given how good everything else they do is.

I don't know about the "cute shapes" but I use the large blue ikea ice trays for making the perfect size cubes for cocktails. To get them out of the tray you just slide a dull butter knife along the sides then push on the bottom to pop them out.

Among other things it means faux-hawks, emo, and spending your parent's money on a $5 can of pbr at a bar.

Perhaps there was condensation on the cup adding to the final weight after stirring? Using weight shouldn't make a difference since the only variable in your experiment is water. Thanks to the metric system we know that 1 gram of water = 1 cubic centimeter = 1 milliliter. You could just add the weight of the strainers into your calculation if you don't want to loose the liquid left on them from your final weights.

I think the weeniecello proved that nothing is too crazy as far as infusions go but it doesn't seem so practical given that you can get gin just about everywhere. Why not make bitters? Or you could make a bunch of tinctures of various herbs to try adding a drop to different cocktails like they have at Pegu. edit: whoops, pressed send before I reread your post and finished editing...

John I completely agree with you on the clouding issue but here are some other things you might want to consider: 1.) Any particular reason for shaking for 15 seconds vs stirring for 30 seconds? Do you think that both will have reached the same temperature at those time intervals? 2.) How about shards of ice in the shaken drink? You could use a fine mesh strainer to remove them and then see how much dilution they would add over time once they melt. 3.) Cracked ice for stirring I assume? Won't the size of the ice you use directly influence the amount of dilution since that would dictate the surface area? 4.) Would using a pre-chilled glass for stirring vs room temperature metal shakers make a noticable difference since the shakers/glass would also have to be brought into thermal equilibrium with the ice and alcohol? 5.) Also while you're experimenting let us know if you see a difference in viscosity and mouthfeel due to aeration.

About damn time for your first post Will... I hope you plan to keep posting now that you've broken the ice. Erik, we do indeed have the new bottles of Plymouth. Besides looking like a cheap Smirnoff knock off they're really difficult to handle. At home I've been refilling my old plymouth bottles. Birder53, besides the two that Will mentioned the 3rd most popular cocktail was the Jack Rose. It wasn't unfortunately a cocktail party but a rooftop birthday party in tribeca where we were making cocktails to one side. The people who came had no idea that there would be cocktails of any sort, so we did have to explain why we didn't have vodka and why we wouldn't make them a drink until we got more ice more often that I would have liked. But everyone who came asking for a vodka tonic left with a proper cocktail and we told those who were interested to go to Pegu so I think we were a success.

Last week a couple friends (who lurk but haven't posted here yet) and I were asked to make drinks for a friend's birthday party where there would be between 50 and a 100 people. We figured that this would be a good opportunity to introduce real cocktails to these folks and came up with the following plan. We first came up with a list of cocktails that we thought people would like: Aviation, Manhattan, Jack Rose and Caipirinha. Based on this list we would need the following ingredients: Gin Rye Applejack Cachaca Maraschino Sweet Vermouth Bitters Grenadine Lemon Juice Limes Superfine Sugar Then we considered what other drinks could be made with the addition of a few more ingredients: Green Chartreuse - Last Word, Final Ward, etc... Orange Juice - Ward 8 Aperol (easier than Campari for most people) - Negroni variations, Manhattan variations, Intro to Aperol, etc... Scotch - Rob Roy Peychauds and Herbsaint - Sazerac, Monkey Gland, etc.. Dry Vermouth - Martini, Perfect Manhattan, Affinity, etc.. From this we had a solid list to choose from for a printed menu and enough ingredients to go off the menu for the more adventurous. Here are some pictures of what we did: Barware Juicing Straining The makeshift bar Mise en place View from the roof (which we couldn't see at all from behind the bar) More and bigger pictures can be found here.

I've picked up the habit of using metal on metal boston shakers from Pegu but even those can crack.

Blender Pousse Cafe...

I missed Johnder by an hour but I can say for sure that there was no wheatgrass in the bathroom. Jim said that he knew of a couple places in the city that had wheatgrass for putting out cigarettes outside but never saw or heard anything about wheatgrass in Pegu bathrooms. (there was neither flora, fauna, nor H. du Bois in the ladies room when I checked it, for purely journalistic purposes to report back of course )

The two drinks Jim made with the Apry were very good, especially the champagne one which was drier and excentuated the apricot scent. But after that Cup'o'booze and the last 1/3rd of Johnder's Sea Fizz he refused to finish I don't really remember much else. Much experimenting needs to be done now that we have a bottle. If there are any ripe apricots at the farmers market though I may have to try making my own infusion just for comparison.

Plenty of people go to Las Vegas just to party. While I can't speak specifically for wealthy Chinese expats I know lots of people of all income brackets and races that go for an easy weekend getaway from SF and LA with no intention of gambling. Word. As a widely traveled Asian who also watches a lot of old movies I didn't know this was a a stereotype at all. I thought we were all just good at math and know how to play the piano. But we're really straying far off topic here. Does anyone know if Reichl has been to Chinatown Brasserie and what she thinks of it?

Erik, do you know if that's going to be separate from the Sazerac 18 yr that they put out previously?

That's the wholesale price from what I hear. On the shelf it'll probably run somewhere between $140-$160.

Hotaling's is already here in at LeNell's. Also LeNell is going to be doing a private bottling of a 23 year old barrel proof rye sometime this fall once the label gets approved by the proper authorities. Disclosure note: I don't work for LeNell but I wish I did.

My favorite shop is already carrying it.

A few more unsubstantiated theories and opinions from a second generation Korean-American that grew up in Los Angeles but now resides in NYC: 1.) Most of the Korean restaurants in the US were not started by someone with any formal training, a passion for the cuisine or a passion for cooking in general. They were started by enterprising first generation immigrates who saw a business opportunity in the growing Korean community. Making food is just a means to an end, that being money which leads to education for your children who you pressure to becoming a doctor or lawyer not to continue the "family" business. 2.) Historically in Korea cooking is considered manual labor and a low class occupation for the uneducated. While in the west cooking school at least held trade school status, it is only in the last generation that Korea has had any cooking schools at all. If you weren't smart enough to pass civil service exams (or more recently go to college) and you weren't part of the merchant or farming class you worked for someone else cleaning and cooking. 3.) In Korea most restaurants specialize in serving only one type of dish/sub-cuisine. In the US [hyperbole]every[/hyperbole] Korean restaurant tries to serve every kind of popular Korean dish. 10 kinds of grilled meats, 6 kinds of stews, 3 kinds of noodles, cooked fish, raw fish, etc... Though Korea is a very small peninsula the styles of cooking in various regions are very different. The kinds of Korean food found in the US are generic and meant to satisfy the lowest common denominator of tastes and ends up being mediocre.

I've been making mine with a 4:2:1 ratio using the Bonded with lemon and a 1:1 Pom to sugar grenadine. Never tried one with lime... yet.

JB Prince 36 E 31st St (between Madison and Park) New York, NY 10016 800.473.0577 They're open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Just take the elevator to the 11th floor. You can get check out their selection or make orders through their website too.

George T Stagg - Barrel proof goodness that will probably overpower your cigars. Also good in the form of a Stagg-erac if you have absinthe and peychaud's lying around.

Gerry's Spirits Shop is great. As for other interesting things to look for Plymouth has a Sloe Gin, Damson Liqueur, and Navy Strenght Gin that you can't get in the States.

I haven't had a chance to make any limoncello yet but the zest that's been soaking in grain alcohol for making bitters don't look appetizing at all. On the other hand though if you use zest to infuse simple syrup you can boil it in some of the syrup with more sugar to make candied zest. They're great for using in pastries or garnishing a granita.

I just picked up a cherry pitter to try doing something similar with cachaca. Any reason why you used unpierced/uncut cherries?

Definitely needs to be made with gin, more vermouth, no tobasco, and a thicker slice of bacon that had been crisped to render all the fat out. Might work better as a martinez, italian vermouth is much more savory.