thirtyoneknots

As a tech geek, I find the concept for your apparatus impressive, as a bartender though I'm not so sure. Bartenders dont cost an establishment much money, at least around here they typically make a little more than a waiter but still no more than minimum wage, so I'm not so sure that a machine is cost-effective, especially given the limitations of it only being able to make 2 dozen drinks or so, and even then someone has to babysit it by refilling the syrups/liquors, whatever. So you've got someone tending the machine, who could probably be making the drinks instead. As far as the Mojito question goes, I don't think a place that needs a machine to make it's Cosmopolitans should or would be ashamed and not being able to offer Mojitos. A customer at a local Irish Pub-themed bar in town here once asked the bartender if they could make "a really good mojito". His reply (which I will not reproduce here to avoid offense) is one of my most cherished bartender lines of all time.

You are absolutely right about the importance of sugar in drinks, I was merely expressing a personal preference and not necessarily reflecting how I would make the drink for a customer. I like all kinds of cocktails from the sweet to the very dry, and certainly no offense was intended.

Seems like you would need to shake this one, to incorporate the mint, perhaps that's part of the problem. But yeah it could also be another issue of Vya not doing right.

I add grain alcohol to most of my syrups (typically made 2:1) except to my honey syrup (made 1:1) and it's been in the fridge for at least a year with no deterioration or foreign growth. Make sure to rinse the conatiners out well with hot water before filling and bring the syrups briefly to a boil to kill whatever might be in already.

...Southside Royale? ← If you do this don't forget to bump the simple about 1/2 oz for every 2-3 oz of Champers, as champagne dries cocktails out. Toby ← Southside Royale indeed, but you can leave the extra sugar out of mine, I like 'em dry.

Forget about soda in your southside, if you really want to drink something beautiful, put champagne instead.

I would say that for the most part you are muddling the same kinds of things (lime, mint) in most drinks calling for muddling so the different flavors, if any, being transferred are minimal. I'm not a huge fan of muddling, I do it only out of necessity, but my experience is that the pungency of the liquor is going to overwhelm any trace flavors that might be carried by a wooden muddler. As long as you rinse it off thoroughly after use it should be fine.

I'm told this first release is very limited and will mostly be sold through distributors to bars. A few retailers in New York and California will have it available, I believe starting some time next week. ← Oh great, that means Christmas 2009 til it gets to Texas. If it ever does (still waiting on Lemon Hart 151 and Carpano Antica).

It really does seem more like they were trying to make something tasty to drink alone vs. something that mixes friendly. Or at least they succeeded in only one of those areas (imo).

I had Plymouth Sloe Gin for the first time at Forbidden Island. At the time I realized how dissimilar my plum gin was from Sloe Gin. The thing that surprised me the most was how much sour character Sloe Gin has. ← Based on the way it's used in old recipes, I always imagined the real deal must be relatively dry, maybe not even sweet enough to qualify as a liqueur in the way we think of it. Would you agree with this?

I think Collins are generally shaken and served over ice, while Fizzes generally are shaken and served without ice. Collins are also pretty strictly defined as: Spirits, lemon, sugar, ice, soda. Fizzes can include a much larger canvas of ingredients. Eggs, cream, etc. The glasses they are served in should be different. I believe the group has some disagreement about whether a Highball is a specific drink or a class of drinks. To me, a Highball is built in a glass and includes: spirits, ice, soda or ginger ale. That's it. Others maintain Highballs are an entire class of drinks that includes any drink with any sort of carbonated beverage. ← I agree wholeheartedly that the name Highball originally described the drink listed here, but to say that a Gin & Tonic is not a highball is like saying that a Manhattan is not a cocktail, as it contains no sugar like the original definition. For me, calling something a highball is useful for distinguishing mixed drinks that are not cocktails (in the more modern usage). Is a Cosmopolitan a cocktail? I think most would agree that it is. Is a rum & coke? I would say that it is not, on the basis of lacking concentration of spirits. It is then, in my mind, a highball.

Doing some random browsing on Drinkboy the other day and came across a guy talking about a Jasmine variation he'd been playing with, the Bitter Elder: 1.5 gin (I used Plymouth) .75 St Germain .5 Campari .5 lemon shake/strain/up Tried this out at work today, boy that is a damn tasty drink. I enjoy Jasmines but I always felt they were lacking something, and easy to make too sweet. This I felt was a more complete tasting drink and while I probably wouldn't want more than one at a time it is definitely more to my liking. Four of my colleagues agreed, having one later in the evening. Here is the original post, many kudos to the creator of this drink.

The Vya is a case of diminishing returns for me, is it good? Yeah, it's good. Is it 3x better than Martini & Rossi? Not a chance. In fact even if they were the same price I'd still probably be buying the M&R. Now this is for the sweet, I found the dry to be even more disappointing; way too assertive to use in anything but a Martini. The Carpano Antica I would love to try but it doesn't seem to be distributed in the state, and its out of stock in every city I have a friend travelling in

I think the Indian Army has a Grenadier unit of some note that has been around since colonial times, could explain the ginger connection. ETA: 101st Grenadiers on Wikipedia

Right, to the best of my knowledge it is the only N. Rhone AOC that does not allow the blending of some white wine (though it is rare outside of Cote-Rotie). When decanting for sediment the standard procedure is to pour the wine off the deposit into a decanter, then rinse the bottle with (distilled?) water and funnel the wine back in to the bottle, right? Or I guess if I've got 5 people drinking off this I can just immidiately pour straight into their glasses from the decanter. Thanks again for the help. -Andy

There are only 3 bartenders where I work, and the one who has been there longest after me had his last night tonight, as he's graduating next month and moving to San Francisco. I went up there briefly to spell him for an hour while he and the dishwasher, who is also leaving and moving back to Guatemala, had dinner and wine on the restaraunt. I did manage to also sneak in one of my remaining bottles of Thomas Handy, and I had a glass of it with him. Good use for the stuff, I say.

Thank you for the excellent insight, I know that if I can trust anyone around here about Syrah, it's you! Is there any specific preparation of veal recommended by Clape? I would imagine a grilled chop would not be a bad choice though a bit expensive, would a roast work as well? As for tastes, the people involved are all "wine nerds" to some degree, I'm actually doing this for my boss/Sommelier at work who is getting married at the end of May. Everyone involved definitely has palates that appreciate funky Old World wines. I'm excited.

So I've got a question that I'm hoping the collective knowledge here can help me with. I'm a huge fan of Syrah, and the ones from the Northern Rhone in particular. I recently acquired 2 bottles of 1997 August Clape Cornas and would like to serve one at a dinner party next month. What I understand about Cornas is that it is a more traditional, Old School take on Syrah, one that typically needs more time to resolve than other appelations from the region. It seems to me that a 97 would be mature enough to enjoy, or even a tiny bit past it's prime given the vintage strength(?) What I do not know about Cornas, not actually having tasted one, is how does it differ from other N. Rhone appelations? Does it match with the same foods in the same ways? If not, what is an appropriate dish to serve with (lamb is always my first instinct for wines like this plus I like an excuse to have lamb). Does anyone have any specific serving suggestions re: decant time, etc? There will be 4-5 people drinking this after perhaps 2 other wines had as aperitifs maybe or maybe not with some small snacks. Thanks in advance from a longtime wine forum lurker

With the way Quinquinas behave with gin, I can only assume the 'Great Secret' is that there's actually liquor in this?

You sir, are a poet

A dash is a pretty imprecise unit of measurement anyway, sort of analagous to saying "to taste." It's all very dependent on your preferences and the ingredient being dashed (and what it's being used for in the drink). It's just sort of a matter of trial and error to figure out how many dashes of something to put in a given volume of cocktail.

Well your original example makes a 3.5 oz drink, so it's not that hard. To clarify, these types of ratios are how I remember things, and occasionally to discuss recipes with my colleagues. They are not necessarily for public consumption. Clearly a ratio isn't appropriate for every drink, I wouldn't talk about a Mai Tai, for example, in ratios, nor probably any drink with more than about 3 ingredients (exclusive of bitters and the like). I know that fractions and ratios are frustrating or don't make sense for some folks, but they do for me, and furthermore allow more flexibility in scaling recipes up or down. At home I rarely make a drink with more than about 2.5 oz going into the shaker. At work rarely one with less than 3 oz going in. Remembering recipes as ratios instead of amounts helps me rapidly scale them for different size glasses, or to make batches for large groups when entertaining.

In that case I would actually call it 3:1:1, it's a rare cocktail indeed where an extra 1/4 oz of base spirit is going to throw it off.

I have been guilty of the parts thing. It works well for me, but clearly not for everyone so I do try to avoid it.

I use teaspoon measures all the time in recipes (most barspoons hold about 1 tsp). The standard UK shot is 25 ml, or 5/6 oz, stemming from being it being 1/6 of an Imperial Gill (5 oz) if I'm not mistaken. British types will often give recipes in fractions of a "shot" with the idea that this will work no matter what your standard shot size is. Me, I like ounces, barspoons, and dashes in my recipes. If you want to use jiggers and ponies instead of ounces, a la The Gentleman's Companion I'm ok with that too, it sounds so old-fashioned.