David Santucci

Bronx Cocktail The Juice of ¼ Orange (¾ oz. fresh-squeezed, strained) ¼ French Vermouth (¾ oz. Noilly Prat) ¼ Italian Vermouth (¾ oz. Cinzano Rosso) ½ Dry Gin (1½ oz. Citadelle) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (Stir, garnish with orange twist.) One can easily see why this drink was so popular. It tastes strongly of Vermouth, but the Orange Juice helps all the ingredients to blend, which they do nicely. I tried another version (David Embury's), with more Martini-like proportions: 6 parts gin to 1 part everything else. It was awful—there is a reason Sweet and Medium Martinis are not very popular. Stick to the classic proportions on this one and you will have a drink that all but the most Vermouth-averse will enjoy.

Okay, so I finally got everything together and started my batch, using the PerfumeKev recipe, with some modifications. I too thought the amount of cloves seemed insane, and, based on johnder's comments, I reduced the cloves and nutmeg. I also used a little more of some of the other ingredients, with no real system, just using what "seemed about right". In some cases the quantities are pretty small compared to the precision of my scale (1g), so it's hard to say how what I used compared to the recipe. I scaled the recipe down, using 2 cups of rye, rather than 8. The following are the amounts I used, as well as the deviation from the scaled-down recipe: 3 g. Star Anise, crushed (+140%) 2 drops Bay Rum extract (This one I had to fudge. Based on my Googling, the yield when extracting essential oils seems ot be on the order of .5 to 1%. Since I needed 5 g. of Bay Rum, that would work out to 25-50 mg. A drop being about 40 mg., I should have used one, but the second one slipped out, so about +100%) 10 g. Benzoin resin, powdered 10 g. Cardamom pods, cracked 30 g. cloves, whole (-74%) 2 big sticks (14 g.) Ceylon Cinnamon (It calls for 4 sticks, but these were big sticks, I estimated a typical Cinnamon stick was on the order of 3.5 g.) 2 g. dried Spearmint (+33%) 1 g. Lavender flowers (+33%) 5 g. dried Gentian bark (this was a little over 1 tsp., so about +50%) 1/3 c. (44 g.) chopped fresh Ginger (-11%) 2 g. ground Nutmeg (-42%) 2 g. Allspice berries, crushed 50 g. Tonka beans, cracked (-11%) 2 c. Wild Turkey 101 proof Rye What I can say is that all the spices together smelled just amazing. The mixture once in the jar smelled -- potent. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the Benzoin, which is a gray powder, gives the whole thing an unnattractive gray cast, so it ends up looking like very dirty water with stuff floating in it. I plan on filtering with as fine as a filter as it takes to get rid of that sickly color. Now all I have to do is wait-shake-wait, etc. My plan is to age in a jar with toasted American oak chips. Now I am waiting for more ingredients to arrive so I can get started on Dr. Cocktail's H & H's Aromatic Bitters recipe.

You should try it! I can't really comment on how Calvados-like it is, but I was under the impression that Calvados was significantly different from Applejack. The reason they call it "Apple Brandy" is that, by law, for something to be called Applejack it has to be a blend. For the same reason the Bonded is called Apple Brandy too. From lairdandcompany.com: "Laird's Old Apple Brandy is straight apple brandy, not blended with neutral spirits. It is the "original historic Applejack," aged for a minimum of 7½ years in our barrel ageing facility. A tasting of each barrel is made to separate the barrles that will be retained for our apple brandy. Only the finest barrels are selected for this exclusive product." To be fair, I did make the same drink using the Bonded diluted to 80 proof. I did play with the ratios, too, but the Bonded never produced as good a drink. Though I did not go as heavy on the sweet and sour as you recommend. I guess I prefer my drinks on the dry side -- I tend to mix them in the range of about 6:1 to 10:1 strong to sweet. And I find 2:1 sour to sweet, typically, to be too sour for my taste. I usually hover around 1.5:1.

Rather than just take slkinsey at his word, I decided to have a little taste test. This, I must say, was one of the most surprising taste tests I have ever done. My predictions going in were almost all wrong. Having a bottle of Laird's 7½ year-old Apple Brandy, and finding myself in Virginia, I decided to procure a 375mL bottle of Captain Applejack Bottled in Bond. For all of you up north, that's just Laird's Bonded with a different label on it. First, I would taste the two head-to-head, straight. VERDICT: Neither of these is likely to become a sippin' drink of choice for me. The Captain Applejack, both in nose and in flavor takes me right back to my college whiskey-drinking days. Yes, there is a strong apple note, but the stuff is harsh, reminding me of those 1.75 L bottles of Jack and Jim Beam of yore. To be fair (to Mr.'s Daniels and Beam), the nose is more harsh, more rubbing alcohol-like than either of those. The Lairds Old, by comparison, which has a much paler, straw color, comes off fine and mellow. The apple note is still there, but much more subdued, underneath the prevailing whiskey and wood character. The nose is still a bit harsh, though a pleasantly sweet apple note, and a woody one, make it much more pleasant. ADVANTAGE: Old Apple This seemed a little unfair, however, since the Old Apple is bottled at 80 proof and the Bonded at 100. So, I prepared a dilution: 4 parts Bonded to 1 part water. Suddenly, the difference in smoothness and refinement that had favored the Old Apple disappeared. The Bonded tasted just as fine and mellow, and with a more distinct apple flavor to boot. ADVANTAGE: Bonded Armed with this knowledge, I assumed the same would hold in the final, and most important, comparison: how the two compared when mixed in a cocktail. Naturally, I selected the Jack Rose. I made mine 3:4:24 homemade grenadine to fresh lemon juice to base, and garnished with a twist. I used both in their undiluted form. Suddenly, the tide was turned again. While the Old Apple blended seamlessly with the other ingredients, the rough character of the Bonded was ever-present. So, I tried the dilution. To no avail. There was simply no comparison -- the old apple simply mixed better. To this taster at least, it was the hands-down winner, and I strongly recommend it for mixology to any fans of the Laird's Bonded.

The annoying white bits are the result of impurities in the water -- in the form of dissolved solids and gasses. As the ice freezes, from the outside in, all these impurities are pushed to the middle -- hence the white centers. So, you can try to do one or both of two things: 1. Try to remove the impurities. This might help but will never be 100% effective. 2. Try to get the ice to form from the bottom to the top, forcing the impurities up, and then discard the water on the top (and the impurities with it) before it freezes. This is essentially what commercial ice makers do and should produce the desired result. However, it's going to require some kind of special equipment. For number 1, simply used the purest water possible (i.e., with the least dissolved solids) and then boil it for 10 minutes or so (to remove dissolved gasses). For number 2, buy a commercial ice maker. Or try to come up with some kind of MacGuyver solution. Perhaps an extrmely cold block of metal with the ice cube trays on top. Or maybe a heat source above the ice cube trays as they freeze. Either way, you will have to pour off the water on top before the cubes are completely frozen.

Hey johnder, how is it coming along? I am getting ready to give it a try. Is it too clove-ey? Did you use Bay Rum essential oil? If so, how much?

Ah, so many memorable Bloody Mary's (and bloody whatever-else's). Here are a few that stand out: At Agnes and Muriel's in Atlanta they have a 'Tangy Sake Bloody Mary' that is quite interesting. The secret ingredient -- pickle juice! They don't say it, but that's what it tasted like to me, and I was able to replicate it at home using the juice from a jar of bread and buttter pickles. Down in Baja somewhere, I stumbled across a bar that served a Red Eye variation with Dos Equis Amber, Clamato, lime juice, hot sauce and fresh clams. We called it Clamonade and drank it all the time (without the fresh clams). Up in Montreal everybody drinks Bloody Caesar's, the bars have Clamato in the gun and they tend to rim the glasses with sugar. I'm not a fan of this, BTW. Used to get damn fine Bloody Mary's at the Kensington Club in San Diego, where they garnished 'em with pickled green beans. Another all-time favorite was the Star Bar in downtown San Diego. They had the cheapest liquor in town (so cheap they charged a COVER on weekends). The prices were wrtiten on the bottles in marker. They also had the WORST bartenders in town. So, they put all the Mary ingredients on the bar and let you fix the godawful thing they served you. One of the best Bloody Mary's I ever had was also one of the most humble. This was in one of the one or two bars in Silver Gate, Montana, just outside of Yellowstone National Park. The bartender was an old timer and mixed it up with nothing more than well vodka, tomato juice (or V-8, not sure), Tabasco and RealLemon. Ever since, I am a minimalist when I make 'em at home. I tend to use fresh lemon juice, squeeze in a lime wedge and drop it in, but other than that, my formula is the same.

I've got two go-to Bourbons that I like to keep around at all times. One is Elmer T. Lee, which is my house Bourbon. I find it to be a really straightforward, finely-crafted Bourbon. No it is not as complex as the finest single-malt Scotch. But to my mind, that is not what Bourbon is about. For me, Elmer is a fine exemplar of the style. I prefer Blanton's, which I also find to be a straightforward, "Bourbon-ey" Bourbon, but since I can get it for $21 when it goes on sale, I tend to drink the Elmer. My second go-to Bourbon is Evan Williams Single Barrel. This one, which goes for about the same money, is much more complex. Basically, I like it in Manhattans. Prefer it to Rye. I think it has something of a Rye-like character, actually, which is why it is so good in a Manhattan. This is referring to the 1996 vintage, which is what they are selling right now around here. I heard once that rather than selecting barrels that were in the middle of the warehouse, which are traditionally considered the best due to smaller temperature fluctuations, lately they have been selecting barrels for EWSB from near the roof, where temperature fluctuations are the greatest. This could have something to do with its unique, complex flavors. One more thing, about heat. I feel like there is more to this than just the alcohol content of the spirit. To me, when drunk straight, Maker's Mark feels MUCH more hot (i.e., it burns) than does Elmer T. Lee, even though both are bottled at 90 proof. I don't know why this is, but it is certainly what it seems like to me. Anyone have any ideas about this?

Brandy Gump 1 Hooker of Brandy (1 3/4 oz Rémy Martin VS) The Juice of 1 Lemon (1/4 oz, strained) 2 Dashes Grenadine (1 tsp, homemade) Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. (Garnish with a twist of lemon.) This one was a long time coming. First there was the incident with using Middle Eastern Orange Flower Water in my homemade grenadine. Then I bought a bottle of Martell VS brandy, which was terrible. So, I got myself a decent mixing cognac, made a new batch of Grenadine (with just pomegranate juice and sugar), and got back on track. If a hooker is really a small shot, then this drink would end up with almost as much lemon juice as Brandy. I tried it like that, and, predictably, it was awful. So I made it just like I would a Jack Rose. As long as the ratio of Cognac to sweet and sour was high enough, this was a very nice cocktail, and one worth considering some night you are craving a Sidecar and want to shake things up a bit (but not too much).

I did a little comparison of two of the big brands' VS offerings. I'm pretty familiar with Courvoisier, so I picked up a little bottle of Rémy Martin and Hennessy VS's. Both were perfectly acceptable straight, with no clear winner. I found the Hennessy was a little richer in flavor, but the Rémy was just as good. Then I compared them in a Sidecar. Again, both were up to the task, and neither was way ahead of the other, but I did prefer the Rémy, especially when I upped the ratio of Cognac to lemon juice and curaçao. It's cleaner flavor seemed more suited to blending with the other flavors. Both, I would say are superior to Courvoisier VS for sipping.

I find Maker's Mark and Booker's both to be quite "hot" bourbons -- fiery in the mouth. Neither is among my favorites, though both are quite popular. For a really well-crafted bourbon, that shows the potential of the style -- I would recommend Blanton's. Sure, it costs more than many bourbons, but I think it is worth it, and it still costs less than pretty much every good single malt.

One that I would mention is Clear Creek Brandy from Oregon. It is $40 a bottle and really good. Also their Pinot Grigio Grappa is quite good. I visited the distillery a few years back. Many of their other products (including the other grappas) were not to my liking, but those two really stood out. I bought a bottle of each and enjoyed them to the last drop. For the cheap stuff, I recently finished off a bottle of Raynal VSOP, which set me back something like 12 bucks. It was just fine for mixing, as long as the drink was relatively sweet and didn't rely on the brandy too much. This is a sweet brandy -- not something to be served on its own to anyone whose company you would like to enjoy in the future. I replaced it with a bottle of Martell VS -- big mistake. The Martell costs twice as much (basically the same as Courvoisier and Rémy Martin), and is sweet like the Raynal and actually worse, to my taste, in cocktails. However I have seen it make some people's lists as good for mixing (which I why I bought it), so not everyone may agree with my assessment. Not too long ago I went through a bottle of the Germain-Robin Shareholders Reserve, which cost me about $50. I have to say, I was not particularly impressed. I didn't find it to be any better than Courvoisier VSOP, which is decent, but not great. Again, you will find a lot of praise from other people about Germain-Robin, but that was my experience Next time I get out of state I'm going to try and pick up a bottle of that Pierre Ferrand Ambre.

So is the Middle Eastern style just stronger, or do they have a different flavor? ← Picked up a bottle of the Monteux. Actually, the aroma and strength of the Middle Eastern and French are pretty much the same. Both smell like they could be used to good effect in some sort of fancy bath soap. The difference is simply that the Middle Eastern stuff has a strong, long-lasting aftertaste that TASTES like soap. I found the Monteux at my local supermarket and it was cheap (< $3).

Has anybody had a chance to compare Laird's Bonded and Laird's Old Apple Brandy? I have a bottle of the latter, which is bottled at 7½ years old and 80 proof vs. 4 years old and 100 proof. I can say it's been delicious in everything I've tried it in, but I haven't tried the bonded. The thing that attracted me to the Old Apple Brandy was the age. David Embury says "the principal reason that apple brandy has not gained greater favor with the drinking public is the fact that it is sold before it is well aged". He says 3 to 4 years is not enough and suggests a minimum of 6 to 8, which is right where the Laird's Old Apple lies. For the record, one cocktail that I've gone back to a number of times is the Pink Lady, following David Embury's recipe: 1 part Grenadine 2 parts Lemon Juice 2 parts Apple Brandy 6 parts Gin 1 Egg White to each two drinks Admittedly it's really a gin cocktail, but the Applejack adds a nice note. This is a damn tasty drink, and a crowd-pleaser too.

So is the Middle Eastern style just stronger, or do they have a different flavor?

Warning: All Orange Flower Water is not created equal! I followed this recipe, and, having read plenty of thirtyoneknots's posts, I have no doubts whatsoever about the recipe. However, when I made it the orange flower water dominated. The grenadine was quite lovely on its own with ice and water, but once let loose in a cocktail, especially when combined with lemon juice, it absolutely took over--in a bad way. So, if you're trying it for the first time, I would recommend addding a few drops to start. The bottle I have is from a Middle Eastern market, the brand is Cortas, made in Lebanon. I only had a little bit of pomegranite juice left, which I made into a syrup with nothing but sugar. And, yes, it is a BIG improvement over Rose's, which tastes fake, like Kool-Ade or something of the like. I plan to buy another bottle of pomegranite juice tomorrow and experiment with adding the vanilla, perhaps a drop or two of orange flower water, and am also thinking playing with orange zest and/or juice.

Yeah, really--I've got a lot of catching up to do. Maybe we could try to identify the 'Best of' cocktails, so we know which ones definately not to skip. Oh, and the Breast Caresser, by the way, would not be on the list.

Well I hate to disagree with Mr. Jones and Ouimet, but I found this one rather candy-like and one-dimensional. In collaboration with my roommate, we added lemon juice, for a bit of sour, and Bourbon, for a bit of oak, which led to a cocktail much more to our liking. For lack of a better name, we christened it the: Breast Caresser Cocktail 1 oz. Bourbon (Evan Williams Black Label) 3/4 oz. Brandy (Raynal VSOP) 2/3 oz. Curaçao (Luxardo Triple Sec) 1/2 oz. lemon juice 1/3 oz. Grenadine (Rose's) 1 egg yolk

I tried this one with slightly less lofty ingredients (ie, VS not XO cognac). The first time through I was too heavy-handed with the Absinthe and it tasted like medicine. The second time I was more ginger with the Absinthe and dialed up the Italian vermouth a dash or two -- this was much better. With a dash of Unicum bitters, it was downright delicious.

The recipe looks quite similar to the one in the Savoy Cocktail Book, which I tried the other night (pretty good, if you like anise; one of the few rye cocktails I have had where the rye was completely subdued by the other ingredients). Another curiosity: Dr. Cocktail's "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozlum Cocktail to the Zombie" is called "Vintage Cocktails and Spirits: From the Algonquin to the Zazerac" in the UK. Now I've never tried an Alamagoozlum OR a Zombie, but the Algonquin and Zazerac sound a lot more appealing to me.

I just realized I failed to respond to about half your questions about the rum tasting. What kinds of rums to serve: While some have argued for trying to find a breadth of different styles, I would actually advise the opposite. I would instead go for a bunch of aged "sippping rums" that are more-or-less in the same league and then focus on tasting the distinctions between them. Rums differ from each other a lot, so I think you will find them quite different anyway. Still, the closer they are in style the more you will be able to hone in on which flavors are making the difference between your favorites and the rest. This being said, I wouldnt worry about the order. What I would do is either put the bottles out covered in numbered paper bags, or put them in plain, numbered bottles. Then put out some glasses, a pitcher of water and a bucket so people can rinse out their glasses, and let your guests try things in whatever order suits their fancy. I would also try to encourage people to take notes and to avoid saying which ones they like/dislike until everyone has tried everything, then compare notes. As for how many rums to taste, I would say 5 to 10 is a reasonable number. And don't feel that you have to taste $50, 20-year-old rums. You could have an interesting tasting made up of rums in the $15, 5-year-old range. Cruzan Estate Diamond and Appleton V/X are both good, more affordably-priced choices.

Well, I think the folks further up in the forum did a good job listing a bunch of rums worth tasting. I don't like all of them, but then thats what tasting is for, right -- to find out what you like. As for the value of a "control" rum, well I don't really see it being necessary. However, if you have a rum you usually drink, of course it would be good to include it in the tasting -- you might as well find out how it stacks up. Most sipping rums are pretty full of flavor, so I dont think you have a lot of leeway in terms of serving food. Of course, what you eat will affect your overall impression, so you might as well go with something you might eat in the course of normal rum drinking in the future. If you're a purist, maybe just bread while you're focusing on tasting and something heartier later. If you want to go with a theme, you could go with a Caribbean meal: Picadillo, Moros y Cristianos, fried plantains, for examples. To add to others' lists, here are some of my favorites: Santa Teresa 1796 (the best I've ever tasted, though, sadly, I've never had the Zacapa) El Dorado 15 (an excellent rum from Guyana) Cruzan Single Barrel (the one I drink the most, as I can actually get it in NC) Barbacourt 5 Star (8 year old Haitian) Ron del Barrilito 3 Star (this is an astonishingly good rum from Puerto Rico, of all places) One more note: sipping rums are generally mellow, and sweeter than other liquors such as Scotch, so I think they are best appreciated straight -- no need for water or ice. Enjoy!

Is there a available-in-the-US substitue for Havana Club Blanco? Every time I go to Mexico, I pick up a couple bottles of Havana Club Blanco. It costs 8 bucks and it is the best I have tried for mojitos, daquiris and the like. Now, supposing I HAD to substitute (with something non-Cuban), what could I use that would be similar? I have never had the pleasure of trying the Flor de Caña, Brugal or Barcelo whites. I have tried Appleton's and thought, compared to the Havana at least, it tasted like rubbing alcohol.

I've been wanting to try this. How much piloncillo to how much water do you use?

Just for the record, I am a reposado man. My favorites are Herradura and El Tesoro. Personally, I dont find most a&ntildeejos to be particularly oakey. Fot the most part, they are only aged about 1 year or so. Now there are some brands that are oakier than others (1800) and some tequilas that are aged a lot longer (Reserva de la Familia), but for the most part the a&ntildeejo flavor is more of a smoothed-out, "softer", version of reposado. I prefer the fuller flavor of the reposado. A brandy snifter is very appropriate for tasting a tequila like Reserva de la Familia, which is a very complex spirit, with lots too discover, and very refined, so no need to worry about it being too harsh on the nose. I like drinking tequila out of the miniature snifters that are common in bars and restaurants in Guadalajara. They are not very easy to find here, though lately Herradura has been packaging them with bottles of reposado. And I don't recommend adding water while tasting tequila.