mbanu

What I pay for in a premium quality rum is age and flavor, as these are the things besides advertising that add costs to a spirit, and the things that make them different than a cheap vodka substitute. A premium rum comes from a premium wash. Chnces are this means it wasn't made by leaving blackstrap out in the sun, but through controlled fermentation with a good yeast. A premium rum has a low distillation, barrelling, and bottling proof. If you've succeeded in getting a wash with a nice flavor, keeping these low will ensure the flavor will make it into the rum. Blending is fine, if it enhances the end rum. It shouldn't be quality rum stretched with "filler" rum. Aging is also a plus, once again, until it no longer increases the quality of the spirit. A 70-year-old rum may sound impressive, but it probably doesn't taste very good.

Egg cocktails are fun when one is feeling particularly old-fashioned. Here's one I enjoy on occasion, if you're looking to get rid of the rest of the carton. Not sure what it's called... 1.5 ounces brandy 1.5 ounces Grand Marnier 1 medium egg A few dashes of bitters Shake and strain, grate a little nutmeg on top and serve. *Edit: I've found these approximations helpful when using eggs in cocktails. 1 medium egg = 1.5 ounces (1 ounce egg white, 1/2 ounce egg yolk) 1 extra large egg = 2 ounces (1 1/4 ounces egg white, 3/4 ounce egg yolk)

This can be tricky sometimes. There are some drinks that are called Sours that aren't technically Sours, kind of like how the Singapore Sling is called a Sling while not technically being a true Sling. Here are some possible common principles for a proper Sour: * Sours are short drinks (ie of cocktail size and strength) * A sour is constructed around one or a combination of dry base spirits, such as bourbon, or rum & brandy. This base should be the main alcoholic component of the drink. A few dashes of Angostura or Pernod are also acceptable, as long as their keep their place as accents in the drink. * Sours contain a nonalcoholic souring agent (usually lemon or lime juice, but any sufficiently sour liquid will do), and a nonalcoholic sweetening agent (sky's the limit here, anything from plain sugar syrup to grenadine to orgeat to maple syrup). Barring that, a larger quantity of one nonalcoholic sweet & sour mixer can take the place of the individual sweet and sour ingredients (such as Rose's sweetened lime juice in the Gimlet) * A sour contains no liqueurs, unless used as an accent. Liqueur Sours which replace the nonalcoholic sweetening agent with a sweetened liqueur could be considered Sours, I suppose, but are rarely called such, and in my mind are a different category of drink. Here are some examples of Sours, if it helps in understanding the category. Whiskey Sour 2 ounces bourbon 1/2 ounce simple syrup 1/2 ounce lemon juice Shake and strain. Daiquiri 2 ounces rum 1/2 ounce simple syrup 1/2 ounce lime juice Shake and strain. Jack Rose 2 ounces applejack 1/2 ounce grenadine 1/2 ounce lemon juice Shake and strain. Gimlet 2 ounces gin 1 ounce Rose's sweetened lime juice Shake and strain. Substituting egg white or orange juice or some other mostly neutral filler for a portion of the souring agent or the sweetening agent to lighten their strength is a common use. Take the Gin & Sin, a Sour in which a portion of the lemon juice has been switched out for orange to make a less tart cocktail. Gin & Sin 2 ounces gin 1/2 ounce grenadine 1/4 ounce lemon juice 1/4 ounce orange juice Shake and strain. As long as the base principles are observed, you can really start getting complex. For instance, here is a Sour I pulled from CocktailDB known as a "Natural". (I adjusted the proportions slightly, but the recipe is essentially the same) Natural Cocktail 1 ounce rum 1 ounce brandy 1/4 ounce orgeat 1/4 ounce grenadine 1/2 ounce lemon juice Shake and strain. Although it has more ingredients, all the ingredients still fall into the main categories. The rum and brandy are the base spirit. The orgeat and grenadine combine to form the nonalcoholic sweetener, and the lemon juice takes the role of the nonalcoholic sourer.

...Monkey Glands, as gin is cheap, I have some homemade grenadine to work through, I never use that damn Pernod, and I seem to have come across a steady supply of free oranges. "Monkey Gland" 2 ounces gin 1/2 ounce orange juice 1/2 ounce grenadine Several dashes of Pernod Shake and strain.

With Cosmo drinkers it depends on the sort of Cosmo they prefer, the long drink version with a liberal dose of cranberry juice or the cocktail version which is basically a pink Kamikaze. If they prefer the long Cosmo, they might also enjoy Sex on the Beach (vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice, cranberry juice) because most of the primary flavors are the same and the alcohol content is similar. I am aware that many eGulleteers might consider this to be a step in the wrong direction, but it's in the same school of drinks. If they prefer the cocktail Cosmo, then the trick is simply finding what spirits they enjoy. I'd cycle them through other drinks in the school by simply omitting the cranberry juice and changing the spirit and citrus a tad. They might go for a Margarita, Sidecar, XYZ, etc. I would think vodka tonic drinkers might not be too hard to deal with, as they aren't afraid of bittersweet flavors. On a more obvious note, you might want to check their views on gin. If they don't prefer gin, that rules out the obvious G&T, but shouldn't necessarily cause problems. Vodka tonics with bitters are generally approved of I've found. Whether or not it is a step in the right direction, I'm not sure, but fruit-flavored vodkas tend to play well with tonic water. Are the people favorable towards stronger drinks? If so, one might want to see how they feel with the bittersweet aperitifs like Lillet and Campari.

I dunno, just something about carbonated liquor bugs me the wrong way. Seems too much like you'd just end up with that same rough flavor you get in improperly made bacardi 151 drinks.

What do they taste like? If you're looking for puree drinks, surely you can't go wrong with a Mimosa-style mix of puree and champagne. If it is a sweeter fruit, use drier champagne, and if a drier fruit, use sweeter champagne. Another option is making a cactus pear syrup.

Usually ends up about the same viscosity as pancake syrup whenever I make it... thin enough to swirl and pour instead of ooze, but thick enough to coat the sides of the bottle. Do you keep your syrup in the fridge? Cold can thicken syrup too much sometimes... If you're making a fruit syrup like grenadine, where the liquid is already sweet, a 1.5 to 1 ratio instead of 2 to 1 seems to work a bit better.

Depends on why there's a float. If it's there because the fellow didn't want to bother with two glasses for his shot and chaser, (Like with those champagne cocktails with liqueur floats) then a straw would defeat the purpose. But if the float is there for aroma, as part of a flaming garnish, and/or to help balance out the dillution one gets by nursing a drink, (like with overproof rum floats) then a straw is a good bet.

If you're looking for something a bit more exotic, but still relatively simple, here's a fun seasonal variation on the old whiskey sour. 2 ounces straight rye 1/2 ounce brown sugar syrup 1/2 ounce unsweetened cranberry juice Shake and strain, garnish as desired and enjoy. If you find it too dry, feel free to adjust the proportion of sugar syrup to cranberry juice. Make sure to use unsweetened straight juice, not sweetened cranberry juice cocktail.

Here's a nice fall warmer. 1 ounce rum 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier 1/2 ounce creme de cacao 1/2 ounce heavy cream 4 ounces hot coffee Combine in a glass, garnish as desired and drink.

Here's one. 1 ounce 151 proof rum 1 ounce pineapple juice 1/2 ounce orgeat 1/2 ounce lime juice A few dashes of bitters Build in a glass over ice. Swizzle. Add more ice if needed.

Vermouth (in theory anyhow) is a fortified wine. Perhaps my understanding is incorrect, but if the processes that a wine undergoes to transform it from an ordinary wine into a fortified wine (controlled oxidation, adding spirits, etc.) don't increase the wine's shelf life, what was the point in doing anything to it at all? It doesn't seem to be a problem with sherry, madiera, or even Lillet, so why should exceptions be made for vermouth?

See, to me these are all signs of a poor-quality vermouth. A good vermouth is not only a tasty vermouth, but a durable vermouth. Quick international shipping and constant refrigeration weren't constants back during vermouth's 19th century heyday, afterall. Good vermouth should be fortified to a proper strength, and the wine and botanicals should be processed in such a way that there is no danger from oxidation or contact with light. Hell, if I wanted a "delicate" vermouth, I'd buy a bottle of ordinary wine and stick the herbs in myself.

I've found 99 Oranges to work in a pinch.

Here's one I came up with. 2 ounces rum 1/2 ounce blueberry juice 1/2 ounce orgeat syrup A few dashes of bitters Shake and strain, garnish with mint.

It just didn't seem to be what was missing. But perhaps the licorice accents in Peychaud's would complement the vanilla. ← Brandy and Vanilla Brandy are a great combination. If licorice seems the way to go, perhaps a few dashes of Pernod?

Could be. Barton's been very accomidating when I've asked questions about their bourbons, hopefully they'll be just as helpful if I ask them about their gin. I've found that image can affect gin's flavor almost as much as vodka. I do my best to reserve judgement on "value priced" brands until I know something about their manufacturing process and have had them against "premium" brands in a blind tasting.

Fair enough. I've been trying a lot of gins "off the beaten path" lately. Most recently has been Barton gin, which really seems rather unusual. The aroma is difficult to place, and the flavor is very light on the juniper. I was wondering if anyone had any information on it? Tasting notes? Botanicals involved? Knew whether it was a gin head, compound, or maceration gin?

I was curious if anyone could recommend an active forum that specializes in gin. I found myself with some questions regarding certain specific gin brands in comparison to eachother and found that I hadn't any forums in my collection that seemed entirely appropriate. Can anyone recommend one? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hmm, retested that drink tonight, and I suspect that I may have been too far along in my drink testing when I came to that recipe. The Jagermeister isn't sweet enough to support lemon juice without help. Gin and Jager work togehter great, a lot like Brandy and Benedictine, but to turn it into a sour I'm gonna have to tinker with it some more. My next attempt will probably be 2 ounces gin, 1/2 ounce jager, 1/2 ounce simple syrup, and 1/2 ounce lemon juice.

How about a passion fruit Bellini?

My rule of thumbs are this: The higher the alcohol content, the colder it should be. The poorer the quality, the colder it should be. And conversely: The lower the alcohol content, the warmer it should be. The higher the quality, the warmer it should be.

I had trouble with my syrups getting moldy if I left them out of the fridge as well. Fortunately, with the help of a friend who makes a lot of candy, I got the lowdown on how to make it work without monkeying with everclear: First of all, most syrups should be made with a 2:1 sugar/liquid ratio. There's no difference in mixability between 2:1 and 1:1, and it increases the shelf life quite a bit. If 2:1 makes the grenadine too dense to do those nifty sunrise effects, you could probably get away with using 1.5:1, since the pomegranite juice has sugar in it already. My 1:1 grenadine sunrised flawlessly, but it also spontaneously fermented. Secondly, and this is important, heating your syrup to the right temperature. You don't want to turn it into caramel, but if you don't heat it enough during the syrup making process it molds later. You want to get it up to at least "pearl stage" (around 220-230F, if I remember correctly).

I've found that Jagermeister was really only tricky until I figured out what to do with it. Drinking it in shots tended to get old after a while, and most mixers made it too sweet. Jager & Soda was ok, but kind of boring, so I sort of gave up on it. Recently I've returned to tinkering with it and have had a bit more luck. I came up with a cocktail that's not half bad. I'm thinking of naming it an Andere. Andere Cocktail 1 ounce gin (I used Beefeater) 1 ounce Jagermeister 1 ounce lemon juice Shake and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a twist.