thirtyoneknots

Tried a Weeper's Joy from Imbibe last night. Yowzah! That's some serious juice there my friends. Very intense. "Angel's tears" indeed, though I'd hate to know what they were crying about.

Assuming this is true, would that mean that bitters are functioning differently in cocktails with citrus? And why do bitter help flavors merge and draw out tastes sometimes in the way that salt does? I understand the chemical process with salt (actually, McGhee understands it and I can more or less follow), but I don't know what's happening with bitters. ← The salt thing is a useful analogy, but the mechanisms are not the same. It's simply (in my understanding) using it's intense, sharp, and concentrated flavor to obscure the rough edges of the liquor and add extra depth from the potent spice extracts.

Highly excellent. Anyone have handy a web source of Batavia Arrack though?

Thinking about this today and wondered, idly, if the folks at Liqueurs de France could be convinced to carry commercial Swedish Punsch, or if items like that are even available in the rest of Europe. They have, in the past, been such a great source for out of the way items like absinthe and creme de violette.

I'm not sure I can adequately explain the mechanisms at work here, but I feel like it has to do with the intense flavor of bitters which can help cover the rough edges in a cocktail or tame it's more potent additives, bringing it into balance without necessarily making the 'bitters' flavor pronounced. It's interesting to me to try a Cocktail that would normally contain them without, then gradually add some in, drop by drop, and watch what they do. The uses for bitters to balance are legion, but I think that their greatest and most common use is to balance against sweetness by adding a deep richness. Try a Japanese Cocktail (2 oz Cognac, 1/4-1/2 oz Orgeat, 2-3 dashes bitters, up with a twist) without the bitters: it's a sticky, cloying mess (not to mention no longer a true cock-tail). Dash in from the white-labelled bottle, and suddenly it's a magnificent, complex, rich drink; still with sweetness, but not cloying-- merely rich. Before it skates perilously close to a lot of the crap passing over bars there days (see: Chocolate Martini). Add the bitters and it's a marvel, and one of the best ways to close a huge meal I know. I have seen some scholarly evidence and have performed much of my own testing to show that bitter flavors, even when they are not necessarily percieved as such by the palate, stimulate the appetite by triggering the release of digestive juices. And so the Cocktail, by way of the bitters in them, found it's rightful place as America's Aperitif.

I got my ass kicked at work today (along with everyone else), the place doing over 3x as much sales as a typical Monday. In the glow of closing duties I got to discussing with one of the waiters a cocktail that he had tasted recently, sort of an off-the-cuff creation by one of my peers. I decided to give a go at it in more my own style, and I was actually pretty proud of the result. As chance would have it, it also happened to be a variation, depending on one looks at it, of either an Aviation (same formula, totally different ingredients), a Daiquiri (similar ingredients, diff preportions and sweeteners), or a Bistro Sidecar, itself a Sidecar variation (uses similar sweetning modifiers, with similar effect). No name yet, but perhaps a Santiago Special, after the fisherman in Old Man and the Sea. 2 oz Flor de Cana 7 yr 3/4 oz lime juice barspoon (~1 tsp) Grand Marnier barspoon (~1 tsp) Frangelico very short dash (2 drops or so) Angostura bitters Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass. I really enjoyed the way the flavors sort of meld into one another. The bitters were added to tame the frangelico a bit, which I liked, but the other party involved in the experiment I think probbaly preferred the nutty finish, so omit them if that's what you like. I enjoyed the integrated flavor combination that tasted like none of the individual ingredients. I tend to a rather heavy hand with the bitters, but this is one case where I think less is more.

Since first trying it out over a year and a half ago I've been a big fan of the Floradora, as I found it in Esquire Drinks. It goes something like this, with my preferences in parenthesis: 2 oz gin (Just about any old-school brand works well, from plymouth to boodles) 1/2 oz Lime (or a little more) 1/2 oz raspberry syrup (a bit less for me, but it could vary depending on your syrup) Build in tall glass over ice and top with good quality ginger ale (I like Boylans, made with cane sugar, or try a good spicy ginger beer). Now I'd played around with this some since then, even serving it briefly at work last summer with homemade ginger beer, which was awesome. In the meantime, a variation appears in Killer Cocktails, subbing Pisco for the gin, which is awesome as well, and benefits even more from drying the drink out further. But the real gem was tucked away at the end of Imbibe's excellent and entertaining essay (as if other types of essays appear in said book) on the Floradora: The Floradora, Imperial Style. It goes a little something like this: 1.5 oz Brandy (I tried it with the Pierre Ferrand Ambre) 2 barspoons raspberry syrup juice of half a lime build over ice in a tall glass and top with champagne (I made do with a modest Cava, which did no harm). Now that's quite a bit of variation, but boy is it a tasty drink. Definitely a nice change of pace in tall drinks.

Sorry didn't mean to say that the recipes you gave were especially dry, but I was under the impression that a dryer drink was the norm for that name. I wonder if an American traveling in the UK might have tried to order a 3rd Degree and instructed the puzzled bartender that it is simply a Martini(ez) with Absinthe, and hence. Speculation sure but it seems plausible enough. Of course that still doesn't help with the Fourth Degree, unless it were to take a 'Third Degree' to the next level by adding another ingredient (sweet vermouth).

I typically lump all drinks that unclude booze lengthened with nonalcholic mixer, be it vodka and cranberry, crown and coke, gin and tonic, or scotch and soda, together as highballs, lest I be forced to produce a new term for ones that include juice. ETA: One to try is a Cuba Libre; I like to get a relatively large pint glass, put in 2 oz of good dry white rum (not Bacardi), juice of a whole lime and maybe half the shell, and half of a 12 oz bottle of Mexican Coke, made with cane sugar, all over large ice cubes. One 12 oz bottle of coke is enough to make 2 of them this way. The resulting drink is no sweeter than a typical gin and tonic or tom collins, and the chemistry there is pure magic. It really displays the complexity of good ol' Coke.

Killer Cocktails states without further explanation that the 'Third Degree' cocktail was so named for it's excessive dryness, being 7:1 at a time when 1:1 was the norm. I think it's one drink where a very light touch with the absinthe really is needed. It seems to intensify the juniper aspects of the drink. As for the Fourth Degree, I have nothing but wild and uneducated (but stopping short of wildly uneducated) speculation.

YEEEEE-HAW!

That looks pretty spectacular. I've never seen sparkling Malbec (which sounds potentially really great) around here, but I think I might try to adapt that and give it a spin next week.

Again with Imbibe!. Tonight, cos I felt good again, I followed a few glasses of Viognier with an East India Cocktail: 2 oz Cognac (martell was called for in the original, saw no reason to change it--VS only tho) 1 tsp Pineapple Syrup (1883; great brand) 1 tsp Curacao (Grand Marnier) 2 dashes Maraschino (Luxardo) 3 dashes Bokers (3 dashes Peychaud's with 2-3 scant drops Angostura) Stirred long and thoroughly with lots of ice, strained into chilled coupe, garnished with twist. I think I like this better than the version from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, the main difference being the type of syrup (raspberry vs pineapple) and the quantity (significantly more in VSFC). This is, as the book says, mellow and rich, but not overpoweringly sweet, a very suitable digestif. Bravo again; I may be trying this out on a few regulars at work.

--moderator note: merged topic-- Apologies if you've touched on this before, but what did you think of your homemade arrack punch vs. commercial swedish punsch? Is it even close enough to bother with?

What kind of rum did you use? Feeling kind of good tonight, and I havent tried many new things in a while so I repeated the experiment with Junipero. Zing! That right there is some cocktail! I'd made the improved gin cocktail several times, but always with Peychaud's, and always on the rocks (not 100% sure where that came from). This is some seriously tasty stuff right here. ETA: The popular types of the day notwithstanding, I could see this treatment working best on some lighter to medium bodied good quality rums, anything from Flor de Cana white to even the 5 star Barbancourt. I may, in fact, make it my personal mission to find out what doesn't taste good in an Improved Cocktail.

Not to gush or anything, but I finally recieved a copy of this last week, and if he wasn't already, Mr. Wondrich is now my personal hero. Some of the most entertaining and informative writing on any subject I have ever read, and it doesn't hurt that the back half is interactive. The only bad part is how a book can cost hundred of dollars in new liquor purchases -- cask strength Scotch, Australian rum, and a better stand-in for Hollands is just the beginning of what I now require. I was wondering, sir, if you wouldn't mind clarifying one item for me though; I was looking over the Weeper's Joy today and I assume that "Vino Vermouth" would be sweet? It certainly looks like the drink wouldn't suffer from additional sugars with a whole ounce of absinthe there, but I did want to get some feedback before committing the high-octane (and high-dollar) stuff to the mixing glass. If you are reading the eGullet Cocktail Forums, and do not yet posess a copy of this book, you are wrong. -Andy

Improved Brandy Cocktail, from Imbibe! 2 oz Cognac (sorry, couldn't bear to use vsop on a wed. night -- Hardy VS) 1 tsp simple (2:1 dem.) 1/2 tsp Maraschino (luxardo) 2 dashes Angostura (very generous) 1 dash absinthe (Jade Edouard) Stirred and strained into chilled coupe, in which I think it looks pretty badass. This is a dangerous type of drink, and while for my personal taste I could have probably omitted the sugar entirely, I'm glad I honored the recipe. The additional sugar rounds off every hint of harshness in the liquor and gives it a disarming level of richness. I now have a new descriptive metaphor for flavor: "Sporty" I could also perhaps see a splash of Champagne being a 'woo-hoo' addition to this.

Preciso, as we say in Italian. All cocktail stuff or no cocktail stuff, either way is defensible, at least theoretically. But half? A deplorable lack of commitment. ← I am thoroughly shamed and will forthwith do what can be done to rectify this situation.

My friend, we have to sit down one of these days and have a serious talk about priorities. ← I assume this is because it's only the top half that's full.

I would imagine that the extra coldness of the fridge would help moderately. I don't think storing it in a wine cooler would be a bad idea, it's just that for me theres more interesting things to put in the wine fridge than vermouth

I regularly get strange looks from guest when they see the top half of my fridge -- full of various wines, be they vermouths, stickies, white wines that I may want to drink on a whim, cooking wines, etc, to say nothing of the numerous syrups and liqueurs that I keep refridgerated out of prudence. Knowing now what a family would mean to this collection, I must say I am now in no hurry to get married.

I make my syrups rich (2:1) and add grain alcohol to create about 3% alcohol in the syrup. I have had them sit in the warm kitchen for well over a year without anything odd growing in them. Grenadine, on the other hand, requires somewhat more care (or I should increase the sugar). As for the stability of pineapple flavor in syrup, I made some about a year ago (whenever it was that it was in Imbibe magazine) and 6-8 months later when I tossed it while moving it still had a mild, but distinct, pineapple flavor (I made too much of it). While homemade syrups are fun to mess with and have an undeniable charm to them, I'm not opposed to using a good commercial brand that will also have a much longer shelf life, so long as the investment involved isn't too great. I rave so much about the 1883 line y'all probably think I work for them (I wish I was getting paid for that) but I simply think they are the best brand of syrups around, pineapple included. Edit: spelling

I've still never had Carpano Antica (doesn't seem to be distributed in Texas), but if it's even close to as rich as Punt e Mes, you may do better to use something less intense. Good ol' M&R or Cinzano should do the trick.

Hangar1 Kaffir Lime vodka might be interesting there, too. I've always found that stuff challenging to mix with.

Despite Andy's warning to the contrary, I went with Erik's suggestion and made a 2:1:1 version, changed and upped the bitters (1 Regan's, 1 Fee's), but kept all other ingredients as he listed. I can see the possibilities of Boodle's here, but, boy, this is a remarkably great drink. ← As I mentioned upthread, I like Boodles in those and other rich drinks like Negronis. I should add here, that with a 2:1:1 ration I'm certain that your drink was delightful, but I dont think it's going to be quite like if you had made it equal parts. There's something about a lot of those rich equal parts drinks, Negroni included, that makes them taste different, often drastically different, when they are tweaked, even by as little as half an ounce in any direction. Yeah, it's a bit intense, but I'd recommend revisiting this, especially if you adore Chartreuse like I do.