pziemba

I picked up a bottle of Genevieve at a liquor store in west LA while visiting there from New York last week. I've been anticipating this for some time and haven't seen it yet on my recent trips to Astor or Warehouse (though I got to try some at PDT back in January). I haven't tasted any of the other Holland gins out there, as I've read that the only one available in America isn't that great, but I really like Genevieve so far. The gin botanicals are evident in the nose and especially the finish, but the sweetness of the base spirit brings a whole new dimension to it - a revelation for this gin lover who's only had dry gins until now. It seems to be great for drinking straight (strong, though), and a martini with a bit of noilly prat and a dash of fee's orange bitters was enjoyably different. I'm really looking forward to trying some of Imbibe!'s recipes with this. Does anyone know when this will be available in NYC stores?

I made the chow.com recipe for aged egg nog back in mid October, and aged it for about 4 weeks in the fridge before breaking it out for a thanksgiving dinner. The recipe calls for a tremendous amount of booze, even considering the gallon of liquid you end up with. An entire liter of bourbon and a cup or so each of rum and cognac. In this sense, it's a lot more like what I'd suppose is a traditional egg nog - a liquor drink that happens to be mixed with eggs & cream and sugar, rather than today's grocery store egg & cream and sugar drink that's optionally mixed with liquor. My advice, if you're using chow's recipe, is to absolutely employ the "optional" whipped-up egg whites and whipped cream folded in right before serving. If anything, this will increase the richness and dissuade people from having too much. Chow might say that end ABV is 21%, but I found that the aging masks the alcohol just enough so that you don't realize how much booze you're drinking. We had one guy at our party conk out after one glass! That said, it tastes amazing. Boozy, sure, but the flavors really meld together and create a taste I can't imagine getting without aging. I was never really concerned that it might spoil, and anyway you should be able to tell if something went wrong when you open the container to serve it.

I've had two great scotch cocktails recently, both at Pegu Club. Last night I was there and had the cocktail slkinsey mentioned - I believe it has equal parts scotch & bonded applejack, with a dash or two of Peychaud's bitters. It's called the 'Jersey Kilt'. Less recently, I was there with a friend, who asked for a good cocktail with scotch. They brought back their version of the Rob Roy, the "Fitz Roy", which I think is simply a Rob Roy made with a particular type of scotch - Compass Box Peat Monster. Very, very tasty!