FrogPrincesse

As you can tell, we are all pretty clueless on this board without your input. I went for bold & direct last night with David A. Embury's Toronto. 2 oz Bulleit rye, 3/4 oz Fernet-Branca, 1/4 simple syrup. This is much heavier on the Fernet than what Chris posted upthread. Lemon peel because that's all I had, but would have preferred orange. On the first few sips, the Fernet is not as forward as I had imagined, but rather meshes well with the rye and augments its flavor instead of fighting with it. It's surprisingly tame, at least initially. As someone else wrote earlier, it is rather intriguing; as the flavor evolves you want to take another sip to find out where it is leading you. The Fernet does not become completely obvious until the end when it finally takes over. Nice cocktail.

You need to relax, man. Tiki is not just about the drinks, it's a state of mind.

Too bad that it didn't quite hit the spot for you. Maybe I just got lucky with my choice of ingredients, or our taste buds are just different.

Adam,Thanks for taking the time to share your thought process. I think that's really cool. I don't have access to the same rums otherwise I would try your version in a heartbeat. My experiments went in a different direction because I went with the Appleton 12 early on and it has plenty of depth. Then it was just a matter of pairing it with a compatible aged agricole. I tried a few and some were surprisingly too tame to add much interest to the drink. I really like it with La Favorite vieux rhum because it is still a bit rough around the edges like a white agricole, and complements the Appleton amazingly well. I recently bought a bottle of the Clement VSOP based on the recommendation from Rumdood and after trying it at Tiki Oasis. Also I had a chance to try his version of the Mai Tai at 320 Main a few times and it is quite good. (They use Clement VSOP + Appleton Reserve + Clement creole shrubb.) But I haven't had a chance to crack open the bottle of Clement yet.

Ça suffit pas, Princesse? C'est pas mal, Hassouni, but I was looking for Le Shrug. Thanks for your help though. Always good to revisit the classics.

Well, I guess if they were mine they would be tacky. I prefer plain crystal without decoration. Very untiki of me. Crystal? Definitely untiki.

Fine strainer - see Adam's profile picture. I use the julep strainer with my mixing glass (for stirred cocktails) and a Hawthorn for shaken drinks.

I am starting a kickstarter campaign asap.

Trifecta of spousal abhorrence: Mezcal, Spanish brandy, Fernet Branca. We're having it tonight.... Delivery of Cynar just arrived. Will the drink produce the same effect if using Vida Mezcal and PF cognac? (I know, I know... but I am completely maxed out with respect to my home bar inventory)

Plantes Vertes, That looks good. What is your rationale for altering the equal-parts ratios? (Are you just triyng to minimize your consumption of Chartreuse? That stuff is expensive.)

This is a bit puzzling. I could see how a coupe glass could be a little more forgiving than a same-capacity V-shaped glass if you are worried about being too close to the rim. But if your glass is 6 oz and your shaken cockail 4 oz, you should have plenty of room there.

No true cocktailian would neglect to try that masterpiece. Noted. Next time I see King Cocktail, I will make sure to ask him to make me one.

That does not sound too good. Do you double strain to get rid of the pulverized ice?

And I French shrug in your general direction... (sorry, could not find a good video - although I looked. Just imagine Amelie doing the above) But more seriously, I would love to hear how you came up with your rum combo & final recipe. Did you just get lucky or is it the result of endless experiments a la Rumdood ?

Hard to tell exactly what is going on without photos (I would like to see the ice post-shaking - does it shatter in very small pieces or is it more or less intact?)... or just call Ghost Hunters.

Wait. What? You're contributing cocktails that you haven't tried. We're watching you, bud. And apparently some of us trust him enough to try anything he enters into the database! (Ok, maybe not this one.)

You seem very sure of yourself... It also works great in a Sidecar. You are welcome but did you call my Mai Tai glasses tacky?! In any case, they are 14 oz glasses (available here if anyone's interested). As Kerry already responded, 11 1/2 glasses are probably going to be a bit small for a Mai Tai (but are perfect for an old-fashioned).

Hassouni, I was using 4 oz coupes in that photo, and found that it was the perfect size when total ingredients are about 3 oz before shaking. And I use freezer ice too (from a built-in ice maker). I am amazed that if you start with 3 oz you are able to get close to 6 oz after shaking. That's A LOT of dilution! I shake my cocktails for about 15 secs and the temperature is typically -7C or so when I pour (that IR thermometer gun that I bought from Kerry for chocolate-making comes in very handy!).

Outrigger- I like the name. Jeff Berry was the one who came up with it (see what Robert Hess wrote here). This weekend I tried the Pourring Ribbons version of the Sidecar and it is fabulous. Absolutely spot on. 2 oz Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac, 3/4 oz Pierre Ferrand dry curacao, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/2 tsp demerara syrup, dash orange bitters (I used a mix of Fee and Regan's). There is a video with Joaquin Simo (and Melissa Clark) if you follow the link, but strangely he does not use the orange bitters in it.

It's hard to tell exactly how much. Typical process consists of mixing the drink in a cocktail shaker with crushed ice (for two I am guessing about 20 oz crushed ice), dumping the contents (including the crushed ice) into two old-fashioned glasses, and then topping with a heap of crushed ice so that the ice is above the liquid and ideally above the rim of the glass as well (assuming your glass is not too large - 15 1/2 oz seems quite big). By the way there should be a mint garnish on this one.

I'm enjoying one of these while dinner cooks. Very nice balance. Let me put in another plug for Small Hand orgeat. I had been afraid 3/4 oz would be too much lemon, but just right. For the spirit I used Laird's 7 1/2 year old. I can't see why anyone would want to use applejack in this. My garnish is a cinnamon stick. Nice gesture, but in the big glass it looks a little lost. Very pleased with this recipe! I wanted to repost FrogPrincesse' pretty picture of it but the system wouldn't let me. If you liked this one, you could try the gin version too (Army & Navy). It's beautiful with a good orgeat and a juniper-forward gin.

A year later almost to the day and here I am on this thread again. For some reason, the slightly cooler temperatures put me in Fernet mood. Going through Fernet cocktails in the Kindred Cocktails database I found this crazy thing called a Summer Hemingway. It does have some of the components of a Hemingway Daiquiri with the grapefruit juice, lime juice, and maraschino liqueur. But then the base liquor is Plymouth gin instead of white rum, and there is a generous and somewhat intimidating 1/2 oz Fernet float on top. There were no reviews on Kindred but since the recipe was originally published in StarChefs.com I thought that it could not be completely horrible. Summer Hemingway by Jeremy Strawn, Mulberry Project, NYC. 1 1/2 oz Gin, Plymouth 1 1/2 oz Grapefruit juice 3/4 oz Lime juice 3/4 oz Simple syrup 1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur, Luxardo 1/2 oz Fernet Branca (as float) Shake all but fernet, strain into a double old fashioned, float fernet. -- Kindred Cocktails | Craft + Collect + Concoct + Categorize + Community Surprisingly it does retain the main flavor characteristics of a Hemingway Daiquiri. It is crisp and refreshing with a layer of complexity. The mint/eucalyptus notes of the Fernet give it a great finish. And as an added bonus they seem to do wonders for my seasonal allergies thanks to a noticeable decongesting effect. (Yes it is scientifically proven to work better than Claritin). I think that this easily goes into my list of favorite Fernet cocktails, together with the Hanky Panky and Don't Give up the Ship. Thanks Rafa for entering it into the Kindred Cocktails database where I was able to find it.

Made this a while back (with the ratios from the Zig Zag Cafe: 1.5 oz cognac, 1/2 oz green Chartreuse, 1/4 lemon juice, 1/8 simple syrup, 2 dashes Angostura bitters) and was not crazy about it. But yours looks much nicer than mine without the unappealing foam. What did you think? (and how did the party go?)

I think I am officially obsessed with The Bruery. The other day I skipped my daily cocktail ritual to open a bottle of Tart of Darkness, which is a sour ale combined with a stout and aged in oak barrels. It is very dark like a stout but tastes mostly like a wild ale, very tart and with some tart apple undertones. It's in the finish that the stout character really comes through with roasted coffee and smoke.

Pressure's on!