FrogPrincesse

Polite Provisions was just named Cocktail Bar of the Year by Imbibe Magazine. Congrats to Erick Castro and the rest of the team!

They have St. George too. I've been very happy with it, by itself or in cocktails. Give it a shot. After the Gastown, last night I tried another creation from Happiness Forgets, this one by Johan Ekelund. Absinthe as the base (the original recipe was created with Pernod, I substituted St. George), grapefruit juice (I used Oro Blanco instead of pink grapefruit), lime juice, simple syrup, mint, and egg white. Egg white emulsified by hand; I had pretty good luck this time (this was a very fresh egg). Dapper Man Sour (original recipe here, converted to oz in the Kindred database) The egg white tamed the absinthe quite a bit without covering its flavor. It reminded me of other cocktails marrying absinthe with egg white, for example the Swiss Mist in PDT, although that one has gin as the base and absinthe as an accent. It's a very nice way to enjoy absinthe. Oh, and that made me smile - "I don’t believe in fine straining but if that is how you (the reader) like it I have no objections." So I did not bother double straining.

That's because the recipe was converted from metric (1 3/8 oz ~ 40 mL).

Same here. I will be out of town from the 25th until Jan 9th.

Here is one from a couple of nights ago, Seizoen Bretta, an organic farmhouse ale made by Logsdon in Oregon. Very sour & dry, and similar to some (good) Breton apple ciders. Not what I was expecting. It would be great with crepes but I don't recommend it with roast chicken.

Gastown from Happiness Forgets in London (Geoff Robinson). It's mezcal with a touch of Cynar, Fernet, Angostura and Jerry Thomas' Own Decanter bitters, plus a little bit of maple syrup to sweeten up the deal. Quite rogue/beta cocktail-like and quite good actually. Smoke, orange, bitter, and savory.

Any purpose to this other than shock factor? I am trying to imagine the taste of toasted crickets and what that could bring to a cocktail... some people say they taste like sunflower seeds.

Just keep in mind that some of us are not on facebook...

From Mauritius. Very cool.

It looks delicious. Did you participate in the Pâté en Croûte Championship this year? I read that Anthony Bourdain (who was knighted to the brotherhood) and Daniel Boulud attended the event.

Will you be my mommy? That might be more of a commitment than I can handle at this time, but in any case, you are welcome to my stash if you are ever in San Diego.

Rafa posted something on Kindred yesterday about the Michigander, a creation by Jason Schiffer of 320 Main in Seal Beach, with apple brandy, Cynar, lemon juice, and honey syrup. On Cocktail virgin slut it says that it is reminiscent of another cocktail combining rosemary and Cynar, Rosemary's Baby from Rogue cocktails, so I decided to try that instead. It's not included in beta cocktails. First you have to light up a fire with fresh rosemary and Grand Marnier. It was fun and burned for a long while. I used 1/2 oz of Grand Marnier (instead of 3/4 oz) since someone had mentioned in the comments that the cocktail was a little sweet. It's actually not a good idea to do this in your mixing glass, because it was very hot by the time the flame had died off and I had to transfer the rosemary-infused Grand Marnier to another vessel for stirring. The other ingredients are applejack (I went with calvados), Cynar, orange and grapefruit bitters. The orange flavor of the Grand Marnier was not detectable. The rosemary flavor was subtle and completed the cocktail, which tasted like a caramel apple with a little bitterness. Rich but not too sweet.

This one was crazy good. The Crafty and Elusive Elk (Daniel Warrilow from Son of a Gun, one of my favorite restaurants in LA): tequila, mezcal, maraschino, falernum, lime juice, orange bitters. Very improbable combo but the ingredients just clicked together, and it was delicious.

Powering through the backlog. Here is the Eclipse Cocktail by Leo Robitsheck: añejo tequila, aperol, cherry liqueur, lemon juice, mezcal rinse. There is some orange flavor from the Aperol. To me it tastes a bit like a smoky and slightly bitter margarita.

Rafa's silence speaks volumes... Anyway, here is an Angostura Sour that I made the other night: Angostura bitters, lime juice, simple syrup, egg white; a variation on a Charles H. Baker's recipe. Egg white shaken by hand ("dry" first with the lime juice) which worked great this time. Aesthetically it's not the most-pleasing; the cocktail is very dark with a maroon color and the foam is colored as well. Flavor-wise, mostly cinnamon and lime. Bitter but less than you would imagine. Good digestif for an upset stomach.

Yeah, it tends to disappear fast. Plus it was only $39 for a 1.75 L bottle.

It's not replaced. Both are available now. Not in America, but in the only two stores that sold Noilly Prat in my area. Both places have moved exclusively to the Extra Dry.That's really too bad. It's good to have both options. The "new" extra dry is probably my favorite of the two for martinis. The dry is excellent on the rocks.Recent purchases: family size Buffalo Trace bourbon (restock), a couple of High West items that I am excited to try (Son of Bourye and Double Rye), a bottle of yellow Chartreuse that was missing in my collection, and Krogstad aquavit for a Norwegian themed party I've been invited to.

It's not replaced. Both are available now.

I make cavatelli dough in the KA. It is not very dense so it is not hard on the KA.

From the Rogue (now beta) Cocktails thread: I think it's time to revisit this Apricot Brandy thread so I am responding to Dan here. I currently have a bottle of the R&W but am not crazy about it. To me it tastes rather sweet and candy-like in cocktails. Re-reading this thread I realized that Marie Brizard had lowered Apry's proof some years ago, so maybe that's not the way to go if I am trying to "upgrade". Diffords reviewed various apricot liqueurs in April 2012 which included De Kuyper (4/5), Monin (4.5/5), Bols (4/5), Gabriel Boudier (5/5), Giffard (5/5), and De Kuyper XO (5+/5). The review, interestingly, did not include Marie Brizard's Apry. De Kuyper XO is not available in the US as far as I can tell, and seems quite expensive, so that is out. Giffard retails in the US for about $30. I am not sure about Boudier. Paul Clarke on Serious Eats wrote an article in 2011 where he discussed Marie Brizard, Giffard, and Rothman & Winter. According to him, "Any of these three do an excellent job in cocktails, though the Rothman & Winter is probably the most natural (and natural-tasting) of the bunch." Jason Wilson had a detailed article in the Washington Post in January 2011. The two that he seems to like the best are Marie Brizard and R&W. There is also a product by The Bitter Truth, although Jay noted on Oh Gosh! that it was not the best product for mixing purposes: I don't use apricot liqueur very often, but I was hoping I could change from R&W to something I like a little better. Boudier may be the way to go if I manage to track it down. Otherwise I am considering Giffard or Briottet (I have their peach liqueur and it's great). Lejay-Lagoute mentioned upthread sounds like a good option, but I don't think it's available in the US. I really wish I could try various brands before committing to a whole bottle.

Experimenting is perfectly fine and actually encouraged. I was objecting to the fact that he was not sharing his findings with us, that's all. I feel left out.

Rafa, Briottet peach liqueur is very good and tastes natural (official name is "crème de pêche de vigne") . It's nice in champagne cocktails and also in Fish House Punch. What do you use your peach liqueur for? (Are there a bunch of girly drinks that you make on regular basis and don't tell us about? I am concerned!)

If you like Negronis (I believe that you do), you owe it to yourself to try a White Negroni. Still plenty bitter, while being lighter in feel. Not a replacement for the "real thing" by any means, but a really great variation nonetheless. In the PDT Cocktail Book which has Wayne Collins' original recipe, they use 2 oz Plymouth gin so it's a bit less intense, which some people may prefer, and they serve it up.

The Affinity Cocktail looks very nice, Plantes Vertes. It looks like it's a favorite of Erik too. What type of scotch did you use? A couple of classics from this weekend. A mini Old Fashioned with Elijah Craig bourbon, simple syrup, and Angostura bitters. OK - I drank part of it and then remembered to take a photo. This was very good with a quick weekend lunch. A White Negroni with Sipmith London dry gin. I prefer mine with 1.5 oz gin, 1 oz Lillet, 0.75 oz Suze, on the rocks, with a lemon twist. With this gin the cocktail reaches perfection level. So much flavor.

I've been researching aquavit lately and came across an article that lists all the aquavits available in the US, with some tasting notes. Linie has the particularity of being aged for about four months in sherry barrels and is described as being very smooth. http://aquavitweek.com/aquavits-in-the-us/ How was the Occidental?