thirtyoneknots

Wines often do have dormant periods in their aging, but that is during bottle aging, whereas this is barrel aging. Spirits, due to their high alcohol content do not evolve appreciably in the bottle, only through contact with wood (or lack thereof). Herbal liqueurs and the like are a different matter altogether, and anyone who has tried making liqueurs at home undoubtedly knows that time helps with integration of flavors, but only to a point (anything over a year is typically moot in my experience). Supposedly one of the reasons Chartreuse is so expensive has to do with the extensive resting needed for the complex flavors to integrate. In that way it is indeed like a wine. The question of being able to pick calvados out of a blind lineup is an interesting one. I wonder if a 10-15 year (or whatever the window is where it would lose its fruit character) one could be selected from a sample group blindly. Obviously this require much painful and ardorous study. -Andy

IMO they become less and less interesting with age. Several years of age to mellow out the rough edges and add a little color, etc. is good. But beyond a certain point, the apple brandy tastes less and less of apples and more and more of "generic aged spirit." A 15 year old apple brandy doesn't really taste of apples at all, and might as well be a grape brandy. ← I have read before that extended aging does interesting things to Calvados in that 2 years old tastes like apples, 10 year old tastes like barrels, but as it approaches 20 years (or perhaps a little longer) the fruit character comes back out. This alleged phenomenon has fascinated me since I first heard of it. Can anyone confirm or debunk this? -Andy

these sweet drinks are making me curious. sugar is a serious flavor enhancer but can so easily hit the cloying point of no return. i think i will make a standard 2:1 manhattan, measure its sugar content and then compare it to a 2:1:1 widow's kiss. who wants to put a bet down on what % more sweet in brix it is? it could be 15 to 20% sweeter... creole shrub is 36 brix. that is madness to me... sweet vermouth is 25... who knows where benedictine and yellow chartreuse fall in between... ← Of course the Widow's Kiss will be significantly sweeter than a Manhattan, just as TBA is sweeter than brut Champagne. You wouldn't want a Widow's Kiss before your meal (and I for one rarely want something like a Manhattan after one) just as one wouldn't have late harvest wine with their hors d'ouvres. For me, with drinking, context is everything. And while the WK will always be the sweeter drink, I would think the sweetness (to say nothing of the perceived sweetness of the two drinks has much to do with brands and bottlings used. No getting away from a drink that is 50% liqueur being sweet, but I typically find Bourbon Manhattans bordering on inappropriate for preprandial consumption whereas one with Rye is my preferred aperitif. To each his own. -Andy

I normally do 2 dashes Angostura and make the drink very small (2 oz total) and I find it scarcely sweeter than a de la Louisiane, both of which are perfect for after dinner. -Andy

What if you added two more dashes of grenadine and served this on the rocks? Looks like it might do a little better, being in the old-fashioned-esque category, though with the interesting twist of splitting the difference in booze. -Andy

My experience is that any store that carries the blended stuff can get the bonded, it's just a matter of wether they care enough. -Andy

I like to play around with cocktail and food pairing on occasion, though I find it significantly more challenging than pairing wine with food, though on the other hand there is a bit more flexibility (at least in theory). My best success to date was to pair the Sashimi trio (6 oz of Chef's selction of fish, all overnighted from Hawaii never more then 3 days since it was swimming) with the somewhat lamely-name 'Scottish Cool' (I'd come up with new drinks far more often if I didn't have to come up with names for them all): Lightly muddle 2 thin slices of fresh cucumber with 1 sugar cube and the juice of 1/2 a lemon. Add 2 oz Hendrick's gin (Plymouth also works well, or sub your favorite) and shake well with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Not a terribly creative drink, I'll admit, but the combo works. I was actually trying to make something else and the bar manager told me to stop at that point because he loved it and the other additions hadn't taken it in a positive direction yet. Oh well. I've also put our espresso rubbed venison entree with a Smoking Martini with some success. It works for some people, but not for everyone. I keep thinking there's some minor tweak I could make to the cocktail for it to pair better but I never seem to have time to really mess with it when I'm thinking about it. -Andy

Cooking up some fish and onion rings right now but thought I'd mess with the Vieux Carre formula a bit more. I woke up this morning with the sniffles and I constructed this by smell so I may revisit it later to see if it's as on as it seems to be now. At any rate, here's what I came up with: 1 tsp Apry 2 dashes Regans' 2 dashes Peychaud's 1 oz Lillet 1 oz Boodles 1 oz Flor de Cana Gold Built over large ice cubes. Garnished with twist of lemon, though orange would be good, too (though sweeter). Much more subtle than previous experiments with this formula, maybe even more so than the original. The normally-powerful presence of Apry is barely felt, somehow restrained by a list of what I would normally consider fairly subtle ingredients. I'd be very interested to try this is with the Cocchi Americano, which I still haven't had much luck locating. -Andy Edit to add: As this warms up and waters down it starts to taste slightly off. Don't know if it's me being stuffed up or the drink itself, but maybe it's not as great as I implied above.

Oh yeah, for what it's worth I think I've heard of a Martini garnished with a black olive called a Buckeye before. Not being a fan of olive garnishes I can't say wether this would be good, but whatever. -Andy

Beautiful.

For the sour, I'd definitely do a Sidecar, at the expense of the Pegu if necessary. If you want a really boozy highball that will introduce people very cordially to gin and get them silly, I might suggest a French 75 (inexpensive Cava such as Cristalino is very suitable for this, but in general avoid value-priced domestic sparklers for cocktail use). If you've squirreled away some orange bitters, you now have all the ingredients for a Pegu so you could branch out a bit if you have time. Having done things like this before, though, I have the following advice: be ready to be the host, even if you're not technically the host. If you are bartending for a crowd, do not expect to be able to follow the game in more than a cursory manner. A slightly different approach I might suggest is to sort of do a tasting menu where you say ok first we are having Sidecars, then Manhattans, then French 75s or whatever and whoever wants one can have one but you're not taking requests so much as leading them through a cocktail prix fixe. If you do this, keep the glasses relatively small so that the enthusiastic can finish off the straggler's drinks if desired without paying for it the next morning. Also allows you to do some degree of prep and/or premixing. Just a thought. -Andy

Definitely going to have to check out Readfield meats. I love a good meat market. So glad you had a good time at Veritas! If you get a chance you definitely ought to come on a Monday night to the (normally) weekly wine tasting -- 5-6 wines of a region, varietal, or style led by a certified sommelier for only $20. -Andy

Gin. Vermouth. ← Surely the fancier places could have expected to have some around year-round, and most of these recipes use citrus pretty judiciously as opposed to modern recipes that use a full ounce or more, or worse, top off the whole thing with sour mix, etc. But on the other hand, could the shortage of year-round citrus have contributed to the rise of garnishes like cherries and olives in drinks that (in my opinion) show better with a citrus twist? I've noticed that it normally doesn't even take a week for a grocery store lemon to dry out to the point where cutting a twist from it is pointless. -Andy

I am getting ready to perform that exact experiment over the next 3 months. I am, however, prepared to make more Cosmopolitans and Crown & Coke in the meantime -Andy Edit to add: While it would be true of all good cocktail bars, it can be more difficult for restaraunts to do the same thing, esp in towns that are smaller and/or not known for cocktails.

Where is this dry aging business going on? -Andy

On my night off I decide to revisit a few drinks I hadn't made in a while. The first and most notable was the Improved Gin Cocktail: 2 oz Junipero generous 1/2 tsp Luxardo Maraschino ~3 dashes rich Demerara syrup ~3 dashes Peychaud's 1 generous dash Jade Edouard Add 2 large lumps of ice and a twist of lemon peel. Oh my! Junipero may be my new favorite gin. -Andy

That was exactly what I was beginning to think. Futzing around with Google today and did a search for "numa-tea." It revealed a bit of contextual evidence that numa-tea is/was a soothing beverage known to a certain generation of Brits. Certainly fits in with what we're finding out here. Also, possibly a coincidence, but 'mate' is contained within 'numatea' so yeah not sure what to make of that. So if you infuse Dubonnet or something similar with yerba mate it will make a passable Hercules sub? Or maybe just start with good ol' M&R rosso for a more neutral slate. I may have to try this. Or I guess I could just send off for some -Andy

The lack of suggestion to dilute with water seems to be a strike against Hercules being an absinthe substitute, while the seperate line suggesting mixing with gin seems to lend some more credence to the idea of it being a quinquina. We need to figure out what this stuff is. I had a dream about it last night -Andy

The thing to do would be to determine exactly how much 1:1 (or 2:1) simple syrup has the same weight of sugar as a half teaspoon of superfine. Then have someone else make two Daiquiris (several Daiquiris would provide a more convincing result, but would be wasteful) and serve them to you. See if you can taste a difference between the two. ← 2:1 syrup of granulated sugars (but not brown sugar, etc) is pretty spot-on to sub for an equal amount of sugar by volume. If you really want it to be precise, measure 2 cups sugar and dissolve over low heat into 1 cup water. Pour the syrup into a measure that holds at least 2 cups and add water (and/or splash of neutral spirits) to make up the 2 cups. You start with 2 cups of sugar and are left with 2 cups of syrup, so it's a 1:1 substitution.

At home I almost always use a 2:1 syrup of either white or turbinado (depending on the drink) sugar in lieu of granulated or superfine sugar. I keep it in a Fee's dasher bottle and find that 1 dash is pretty dang close to 1/8 tsp, which makes measuring pretty straightforward. Though I use it at work, I've never really grown to like 1:1 syrup. 2:1 syrup is shelf stable, and can pretty much be subbed in for an equal amount of granulated sugar. I have made Daiquiris both ways and found no appreciable difference, so perhaps it is a dilution issue. -Andy Edit because periods aren't commas.

I agree wholeheartedly with cutting the sugar back to 1/2 tsp. The balance of this cocktail is so delecate; at 1 tsp of sugar the flavor of the drink is mostly about the lime, the combination of sour and sweet. Cut it down to 1/2 tsp and suddenly it is transformed into a show about the play between the rum and lime; a combination so sublime as to rival gin and vermouth. When a good quality white rum is used, the lime enhances it's characteristics and nuances, much in the way that lime does for the gin in a rickey. Of course in the absence of soda in a short drink, some sweetening helps to soften the drink, but in general it should be as dry as the drinker can tolerate. And when done correctly it is as dry, suave, and sophisticated as any mixture ever shaken or stirred. -Andy

According to the Google book search, they have back issues of The Strand at the Pasadena at the Pasadena public library. I have to head out that way for an errand sometime this week. No reason that I can't make a little detour... ← i'm sure boston public library would have it. their archives are incredible and i love an excuse to go up to the room where its at. (must take my camera next time) does the bottle cocktail idea seem too far off? are their any famous ones besides pimms? ← That's essentially what Punt e Mes is as well, let's not forget. And it also overlaps into the aperitif wine category as well. I doubt it's an appropriate substitute, but perhaps they are kindred spirits (hah).

I think the potential exists in Houston, and in fact I am vaguely aware of the presence of some places that are probably worth looking into, but though in all reaslity if any city in Texas can handle it would probably be Austin, so long as its situated somewhere remote from the 6th street scene. I really just wish my fellow Texans would get over thinking that Crown Royal is the end-all, be-all of whisk(e)y. Such a light-flavored dram to have such a reputation as a manly tipple. -Andy

Some time ago I tried the Culross as written up on The Gumbo Pages with my then-new Apry, which ups the lemon slightly (though it could have gone higher, for my taste). Tonight I decided to give it a go with the ol' Barack Palinka, using the following recipe: (for two small-ish drinks) scant 1/2 oz lemon juice (from half a dried out fruit) 1.5 oz Flor de Cana white 1.5 oz Lillet 1.5 oz Zwack Barack Palinka shake/strain/up So very fascinating of a drink. The play between the floral notes of the rum and that of the eau de vie is remarkable. Also unique in recipes where I have used the BP (admittedly not many) is that you can actually taste apricots, somewhat faintly, in the back of the mouth. The small amount of citrus perfectly balanced the slight sweetness from the Lillet. The only gripe I had was that as it started to warm it became somewhat harsh, so best to make this one small and drink it quickly, while you have no distractions. I am going to try to track down some of the Americano for when my Lillet is gone, but the drink is well worth making regardless. I would definitely classify this one as a wake-up call for the jaded palate. Just tasting the difference makes clear to me what is intended by 'apricot brandy' in this recipe, though if you up the lemon to equal parts, using apry makes a pleasant enough drink as well. Thanks, Erik! -Andy

I've been in a bit of a rut lately regarding what I have been drinking at home, cocktail-wise. I recently realised that the last time I bought a bottle of something I hadn't had before was probably in May. Tonight I think (hope) I may have snapped out of it with maybe the tastiest Martini I have ever had: 1.5 oz Junipero (first time to try it, picked up last week) .5 oz Noilly Prat dry 2 drops Hermes OB Stirred very well with cracked ice, strained into very well chilled glass, garnished with very fresh lemon twist. Very delicious, it's gonna be hard to go back to Tanqueray and Plymouth, my former Martini standbys. Edit to correct 98.6 proof spelling errors