FrogPrincesse

Regarding the okolehao liqueur, my bottle does not taste sweet. You are right that there is a faint tropical/coconut flavor at first, but coconut rum does not come to mind. After this faint flavor, it packs a ton of punch & funk. It may be interesting to try it in an Eastern Sour instead of the bourbon. The stuff seems lethal though (and the Polynesian Paralysis well deserves its name! Better sit in a very comfortable chair before starting to sip on one). Maybe they have "refined" their formula over the years? My bottle was acquired at least a couple of years ago I believe.

Lucky you! I haven't had a chance to try it yet but other people had recommendations in the Tanqueray Malacca discussion here. Personally I would start with a martini or a pink gin.

Fully agree. I made myself a mini Prescription Julep last night and the combination of cognac and rye is great, smooth entry with a lot of spice from the rye, rich and delicious. I had something similar at the Varnish but now that I check my notes I see that it was actually a cognac + dark rum combo that they call a Thomas Mint Julep and that they top with powdered sugar. Also excellent.

Last night's cocktail for my husband was a Honeymoon Cocktail which is based on a recipe by Hugo Ensslin in Recipes for Mixed Drinks. In PDT they call for Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy which I used to have a bottle of, but decided in the end that I much preferred calvados. So I used calvados Pays d'Auge fine (aged for a minimum of 2 years) together with benedictine, curaçao, and lemon juice. Note that the version of the Honeymoon Cocktail in Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails calls for calvados. It felt quite strong with a lot of aromas and a touch of acidity from the lemon juice. A contemplative drink.

I like your system, it sounds like fun. You should join along and post your cocktail notes as you go!

I was trying to clean up my liquor cabinet last night and noticed this bottle of Bols genever with very little left in it. I decided to try the Mr. Manhattan Cocktail. No relation with a Manhattan; it's a gin sour with lemon and orange juice, plus muddled mint. I used a mandarin orange because I did not have oranges on hand, and simple syrup instead of lump sugar. Very refreshing (and too small).

If it's just a rinse, you could try some mezcal to get the smoke... that might work.

How about pomegranate for the acid? There are some examples in the EatYourBooks database (you can search by ingredients and it's a great source of inspiration!). See recipe here.

Believe it or not, these also happen to be two of my favorite things (and the mousse as well!)

Fabulous trip report, Kim! Thanks for sharing your notes and photos with us (plus now I won't feel so bad when I post my own reports - some will be very late as well if I ever get around to posting them!).

No, just the one that I mentioned already, the Polynesian Paralysis. Jeff Berry has a link for a drink with okolehao liqueur here (Brice Ginardi's Ohana Mai Tai which I haven't tried it but looks good at least on paper). Thanks for reminding me; Tiki Season is coming! (at least in San Diego).

Hey, don't diss the NY Post. It's got a good sports section. OK, sorry... not too much into sports and even less reading about them!

When my husband is not home, I always gravitate towards recipes containing amari for some reason... So last night it was the Montgomery Smith from PDT: cognac, Bénédictine, Fernet-Branca, lemon twist. Between the calming presence of cognac and Bénédictine, and the modest amount of Fernet (1/4 oz), this would make an excellent Introduction to Fernet for Fernet novices! The Fernet blends with the Benedictine and does not shine until the end, adding a kick to the drink. Very cool.

I just cannot take this article seriously. I don't read the New York Post but given the other types of headlines on the same page (Here is first one below the article: "Gwyneth Paltrow on her Oscar fashion disaster: 'I should have worn a bra' "), I could care less about what the author has to say. It's just too bad that people like Phil Ward got dragged into this.

It just consists of poaching the egg in plastic wrap. Works every time.

Thanks for the nice words Jane! I am glad you enjoyed reading this thread.

Still reminiscing about a quick trip to Lyon last month, last night I was in the mood for Salade Lyonnaise aka Hot bacon and egg salad (Frisée au lard et à l'oeuf). I used Benton's bacon which is a slight twist because bacon (lard in French) in not smoked unlike Benton's which is heavily smoked. The bacon is diced into lardons and cooked until slightly crispy. The rendered fat and bacon are poured over the frisée, which wilts and warms up the salad slightly. Then the salad is seasoned with plenty of black pepper and red wine vinegar. Poached egg on top (I used the Arzak technique). Devour with a slice of crusty bread.

Oh god. You should see the keyword searches that end up on photos of CR No.2 on my flickr stream already - we don't need to make this worse... :-) Do we have a thread on weird cocktail names yet? (the Monkey Gland would fit in nicely as well)

I use a 5 1/2 quart (round) or a slightly larger oval duch oven (doufeu - I think it's a 7 quart).

The chocolate-orange cake with bourbon caught my eye when I was looking for a chocolate dessert for a dinner party. Dark chocolate paired with orange zest and a generous amount of bourbon, what can go wrong... I was a litle nervous about burning the alcohol off a full cup of bourbon. I just used an old pot and hoped for the best. It took more than 10 minutes. The key was to resist the temptation of giggling the pot as it just resulted in a microspray of vaporized bourbon. Without pot giggling, things were quite uneventful. My pot did not look too great at the end though so I was just glad I had not used a nicer one! This dessert has no cream or milk. A syrup is made with the reduced bourbon, simple syrup and orange zest. I used what I thought was a cara cara orange for the zest, later realizing it was a pink grapefruit (!). But I thought that since grapefruit and bourbon work wonderfully well in one of my favorite cocktails the Brown Derby, everything should still be fine, and indeed it was. The chocolate (she insists on 70% so I used Valrhona guanaja) melted with the butter in a bain marie was mixed with the bourbon syrup, and then added to the eggs beaten in the stand mixer. Sliced it is dense and dark and reminded me of a marquise cake, which is essentially a dense chocolate terrine that is served cold. Unlike the marquise which is not cooked, this cake is cooked in a bain-marie, which did not seem to alter the texture very much. When sliced, it remained creamy and melted easily on the tongue. It was a good use of high-quality chocolate and bourbon. Using pink grapefruit zest ended up being fine (I compensated by grating madarin zest on top since I was out of oranges) but orange would be slightly brighter. This inspired me to make a Brown Derby cocktail with the appetizers so we started and ended the meal with bourbon and grapefruit.

To echo what Rafa just wrote - Not really. I noticed that a lot of local bars used it because it is a good product for a low price. If you like it you are in luck! For me it lacks depth so I would rather spend a little more.

Dolin blanc and Dolin dry are completely different. The blanc is much sweeter (130g/L similar to the red) compared to the dry (less than 30g/L). If anything it would be closer to a sweet vermouth than a dry, despite its color. See discussion of vermouth blanc here. You could use it to make a Manhattan (see here for Jason wilson's Manhattan Bianco) but it would definitely not be "dry". It has a rich/syrupy quality that the dry does not have.

Regarding rye, I too like Bulleit (It's very easy to find here - it's available at TJ's so I can grab a bottle whenever I do my grocery shopping. Also it's less than $20 a bottle) and Rittenhouse (about $25 but harder to find). Templeton is good but not so much when you consider that it sells for $35 or more. Old Overhold is ok but not as interesting (however it's the cheapest in the group at about $18). Willett is a great choice but it's even harder to find at least here and it retails for more than $40. Sazerac which I can find easily is also a good choice at about $27 a bottle. Wild Turkey 101 rye used to be highly recommended but nowadays only the less desirable lower proof (81) version is readily available. It looks like you will have to do some comparison shopping because prices seem to vary greatly based on location.

Yes at least that is one thing this cocktail has going for it! I know it's not traditional, but maybe a squeeze of lemon or lime would add structure and contrast? Along with the bright notes from a fat orange twist like Toby mentions in the thread you linked. It seems a shame to give up on a drink with a memorable name that looks like that. I haven't given up but there are so many cocktails and so little time :-) These all sound like good ideas.

Yes at least that is one thing this cocktail has going for it!