Alchemist

I have found using dried additives, the shelf life is much longer and the syrup is more intense because you aren't introducing extra H20 into your simple. I haven't tried it with mint, but I will be giving that a whirl soon. For fall I am planning on infusing some simple with dried apricots, some clove and nutmeg and then throwing in a bit of rye.

This was approx. Six cocktails, with a bunch of little tasters. The foam really streches the portions. I forget the term used for ice cream (overfill maybe) but it's air pumped into the product. Dairy Queen as 100% overfill. One pint magicly turns into two. Eggs a liability? Wash the outside, then drop them into booze. What bacteria will survive. It's risker to eat your eggs over easy at the local diner than to have a silver fizz at a good bar. We use only organic eggs, bought daily. Handled properly, the liabilty issue is moot.

Wasn't the QPS actually invented in Trinidad? ← As I under stand it it is the house cocktail of the Queens Park Hotel in Trinadad.

Yes naming it after a London park, due to the Gin. But come to think of it maybe name it after a New Orleans park because of the bitters. The QPS, is so named for the Angostura that crowns it.

Sure next time you're in town I'll buy you a drink @ Pegu. So I tried the fizz in a bottle. Fan-tas-TICK! It was light and fluffy, like the Cucumber foam on the Pimms Pony @ WD-50. It went a little like this... 12 Oz. Plymouth gin @ Oz. Plymouth Sloe gin 7.5 Oz lemon juice 7.5 oz. simple 3 egg whites Combinr all ingrediants in Container. Charge with CO2. Carfully spray into rocks glass full of ice. let settle, top with more frothy goodness. No garnish to distract from the cotton candy pinkness.

Very cool. How does one sighn up? Do we submit a recipie, or do we make them for the judges? Is it a blind tasting or not?

There is a Hyde Park Swizzle. A decendant of the QPS. Sub gin for rum, and simple syrup for demerara. We couldn't think of another park in London, so if anyone has a cool London park name I'm all for re-naming this drink.

I am the unfamous Alchemist.

If you like the sidecar, and are looking for some thing with a little more oomph, give the ( pardon my french) Champs Elyesse. A killer winter cocktail. 2 Oz. Cognac .75 Oz lemon juice .75 oz simple (You can go closer to .70) barspoon of green Chartruse 1 dash Bitters (I like the Peychaud, and since the name is french, because It mirrors the anise in the Chartruse, but I belive Angostura is classic) Serve like a Sidecar, no sugar, flame that orange twist and give a little Haleluya for thoes crazy Carthusian Monks

Brilliant!! I'd have never considered such a thing but it makes total sense. I'm always afraid to have those behind the bar because someone is always tempted to inhale the stuff out of the little canisters and keel over. (Note: I had friends when I was younger that used to suck the nitrous oxide out of the whipped cream cans at the supermarket and leave them all flat) The idea of having the soda canister makes a whole lot of things possible. There are so many tasty juices and nectars out there waiting to be zapped with a bit of effervescence. Sounds like I have some research ahead of me.... ← Yes the clinical experimentation that makes our insurance companies heartily dislike us. Charles H. Baker Jr. Yesterday I picked up some organic apple cider, charged it, and OH-MY-GOD... I was topping my applejack, calvados, rye, bourbon, poir, cocktails with it. It ROCKS, It doesn't dillute the cocktail any, it gives it a fresher ephervesence (When will we get spell check on this site?) and the bubbles are bubblier (yes thats a technical term). Plus it looks so cool. Some hints. Put the charger in the fridge an hour befor filling it. Make sure the liquid you're going to use is cold. Shake the cannister hard every time, and squeeze a little off into the sink before hitting your drink. I feel like a dork that I haven't taken advantage of this before. Duh! I have been fighting the Neferious Dillution for years. I'd brought my soda portions down to the little side of nothing, whittled down to a fine point. My Fizzes had gone from the kissing cousins of Sours to more like their fraternal twins. Well no more. Wait, epiphiny, what would happen if you put cold gin, and lemon, and simple syrup in the cannister, and charged the whole shabang? Maybe it smacks of pre-made cocktail, but everything would hit the ice cold, and sooo fizzylicious (another technical term) that the flavors would really pop. I know that water content is key in a martini, but how important is it in a collins? I can feel the insurance companies quaking in their wingtips.

Best cocktail city in the states? They have last call @1:30! I'd go loggerheads with any S.F bartender. How does one judge whom is the best? Is there a Milk and Honey in S.F.? Is there an Angel Share? A Flatiron? E.O.? Pegu? Little Branch? I'd like a list of the quintessential list of S.F bars.

PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THE MINT BITTERS. They turn the best cocktails into mouthwash. Yikes!

This is very good (I was inspired to make one with Tanqueray, Vya and Campari) but are you sure we can still call it a Negroni? Once we start going 4:2:1, it seems like we're getting very far away from the 1:1:1 original -- perhaps to the extent that it's a different cocktail altogether, despite being made with the same ingredients. Gary Regan apparently came to that conclusion with his 4:1:1 Negroni variant, which he calls a Valentino in his Joy of Mixology book. Your formula strikes me as closer to a tweaked Valentino than a tweaked Negroni. ← Philip Ward (of Flatiron, and Pegu) Just made me a Valintino but with Punt e Mes in lieu of sweet Vermouth. YUM, earthier, mo' bitter, but delictiably complex.

WOW, that sounds awsome, may i borrow the Belle & Pear idea and turn it into a fizz with egg white and sparkling pear nectar? Maybe a whisper of Vietnamese cinnimon. Winter Wonderland. ← Absolutely! Just let me know what you came up with in case I want to borrow it back. Have you tried the Belle de Brillet yet, or are you going out to try it now? I'm curious what others think of it. I think it's insanely delicious. I like your idea for the Fizz. Is there such a thing as sparkling pear nectar or will you add club soda? I just use the Goya canned pear nectar. Actually all of the Goya and Jumex juices are delicious and excellent for mixing. ← I have onr of thoes seltzer makers. I put pear nectar into it. Voila, sparkling pear soda.

Rye is the new Gin, and Gin was the new vodka. All kowtow to Rye, it's genteel dryness and sublime complexity make it a joy to work with. And we are now in the season of the brown liquors. Oh, joy!

WOW, that sounds awsome, may i borrow the Belle & Pear idea and turn it into a fizz with egg white and sparkling pear nectar? Maybe a whisper of Vietnamese cinnimon. Winter Wonderland.

Having spent quite a bit of time at Pegu I have never seen Septuple flips behind the bar. Occationaly things are dropped Behind every bar in the world. When dealing with wet, icy metal, and glass impliments (which circus folk don't have to contend with), in the chaotic, fast paced world of a cocktail lounge, sometimes things will succumb to the laws of gravity. And with the rubber mats on the floor nothing "clatters" when it hits the floor. I can assure you that this will not happen again, since most Pegu employees read this sight. The bartender is probably mortified that this small slip has been brought to the attention of his bosses. I'm sure he will be properly taken to task before his next shift. Thank you for helping to keep the gestalt intact. I'm sure that everyones experiance will be better now. I agree that "cocktailesque", flair bartending is an abomination. If you watch the movie you will see that it takes two guys three minutes to pour one drink. I have never seen that happen at Pegu. As I understand it any spins or flips are for the pourpose of getting any acess moisture out of the tins, so the cocktails will be as pristine as possible. I once saw a flamed twist fizzel and not ignite. To avoid future embarrassment, I say, no more showmanship. Let the bartenders of NYC, stop any flim-flam. Make the drinks, and present them to the customer. No more, no less. Wipe those tins out with a bar towel. Muddle, with intent and pourpose. Show no joy in your craft. If a bartender wants to be on stage let them do Shakespear. If a customer wants to be entertained, let them drink at TGI Fridays. At a serious bar Everything should be serious.

This little Cocktail is a blantent riff on the Queens Park Swizzle, or QPS, I thinks is different enough, that I can, with modestly down cast lash, call it my own. 1 Oz. Light Rum 1 Oz Aged Rum (I like Cuban Style Methuslem) .5 Oz Thick, rich demerara syrup .75 Oz. fresh lime 7 sprig of mint Bruise mint in Highball glass. With muddler massage inside of glass with essential oils from mint. add rum, lime and demerara. Let sit for a couple of minutes. the mint will start to infuse the rum. This is the time to crush the ice, and gather coasters, a must since you will soon be able to drive a Zamboni on the outside of your glass. Fill glass full of ice. Swizzle, (For a good teqnique go to Pegu Club.com and visit Ethos, there is a Ti punch being swizzled) top glass with more crushed ice. add three drops of angostura, A dropper bottle works best. Then one dash of Peychaud. Let sit one minute, Oh the will power this takes. Once glass has developed a good layer of ice, spank some mint above the glass, add two thin straws. Feel the ocean breeze in your hair. I would call this the Prince Parker Swizzle If I could get away with it.

I have found that is you hold a Quarter size twist of orange about two inches above your flame source for about 3 seconds, before releasing the essential oils across the cocktail, you get better flame. I'm not sure if this is due to warming the oil, or getting rid of any excess moisture, but it helps.

And Sam--that's a hell of a Tombstone! (I make mine with a mere 2 oz whiskey.) Wow, that is A Tombstone that would put hair on the chest of the grim reaper. I make my tomb stones with 2 Oz. and then (in professional lingo) Shake the &!%# out of it. I get a good amount of H2O content which I Find openes up the Rye, and the Temp is cold as the grave. There is a slang phrase in spanish bien muerta, meaning really really cold. Thats how I like the first third of my Tombstones.

You should try the "41 Jane Does" It's half calvados (or apple jack if that is your druthers), half Poir Williams, its dryer abd has an almost gritty texture that resembles biting into a fresh pear.

Last night i opened a fresh bottle of sweet vermouth Which had been kept in the fridge since it's purchase. I tasted it next to a bottle that had been opened a week earlier, and there is a difference. i can only describe it as pop or edge but a fresh bottle smells like fresh mushroom pizza, and herbs and old vermouth dosn't have the same depth.

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. ← In cocktails just like food fresh is better(unless you're talking Kim Chee) And a freshly opened bottle of vermouth tastes better than one that has been opened a month, and has been sitting on a hot back bar or on a shelf above your stove. Wine has a love hate relationship with oxygen.

I agree. But I think Liquor "43" is more versitile than Navan. I'v tried to make a Silver lining with Navan, and it just isn't as intense a vanilla (And no real honey flavor) punch as "43"

As I understand it the doorman is for controlling volume of people and not doing the velvet rope thing. They know that the labor intensity of the drinks is a bad match for three deep at the bar. And the vibe would be ruined be hordes of hooting patrons.