thirtyoneknots

Oh yes, I forgot to add that if you can get them for a decent price, maybe buy in bulk -- your coworkers will want to buy them off you (and if you're anything like me, you'll misplace them frequently as well). -Andy

This is the style I prefer, the stepped lever makes pulling corks much easier (and faster, which is nice when you open upwards of two cases worth of wine on a moderately busy night). I've seen them for sale at liquor stores and wine shops around here, and a lot of the ones we use were given free by wine distributors. I don't know anything about the site in the link, but I think you may be able to find those cheaper on ebay or whatever (by searching for 'pulltaps') Hope this helps -Andy

Moderator Note: Merged from "Drinks" topic in response to this post: Millionaire from Cocktails of the Ritz Herein perhaps lies a clue to The Big Question regarding the intended size of the recipes from the Savoy (?)

You should definitely get both. On any given day, Esquire Drinks is my favorite drink book to use. It's fetching obscene prices for used copies right now on Amazon but if you find a good deal, grab it. And just to be safe you should probably get Killer Cocktails, too. -Andy

that is my kind of thing.... the season over here is slowly synchronizing with those flavors... ← Agreed, with a dash of bitters this looks like it would be positively wonderful.

It's rare enough for customers to remember the house specialties from the place they're actually at (present company excluded, of course), and it's really absurd when they try to describe something they had somewhere else: "Ummm...it's got vodka in it, and it was really sweet and fruity." Gimme a break. Although when the unwashed ask for fruity or easy drinking it's fun to slip them an Oriental or Corpse Reviver #2 to show them that whiskey and gin are not their enemies. -Andy

Wrong thread to continue this, probably, but I think only wine and beer are legal to order from out of state. Spirits, AFAIK, are not. I've never been able to get anyone, no matter where else they ship, to ship here. ← Very curious, I've had little or no problem ordering things from California. PM me if you'd like details on who I ordered from. -Andy

The thought of tankers of gin plying the shipping lanes is a highly enterntaining one for me, but I thought I'd add that I also find Gordon's to be pretty much the sweetest gin out there. I find Tanqueray relatively sweet/rich as well, but it's higher proof offsets this considerably. I don't really bother buying Gordon's anymore, as I've decided that the cost margin between 'just ok' gin and really excellent gin is so small as to make 'just ok' gin a waste of money. -Andy

Ordering spirits and wine from out of state is legal in Texas at any rate though, just a heads-up. I had no problem getting three bottles of absinthe and one of creme de violette from Liqueurs de France. -Andy

I also somewhat regretted buying Monin Lemon Syrup after tasting it. The best use for it I've found is to hit it with the soda siphon to make your own 7-up. Way better than the bought stuff. A little lime syrup in there is good too, for an even closer approximation, but put at least 2x more lemon syrup than lime. -Andy

Ah yes, glycerine it is, my mistake. I'm so used to griping about HFCS I wasn't thinking And yeah, I agree on all points re: Fee's. There was some discussion along those lines some time back on Drinkboy that made clear that Fee's were unlikely to change the OB recipe drastically at any rate, as it is supposedly the same one they've been making since the '50s, but I don't think it would hurt to maybe try an 'advanced' version of each bitter, sort of like they did with the OF bitters by aging them, and see what the response is like. I donno, it couldnt hurt.

I've been wanting to try that for quite a while now. Need to get me some Aquavit.

Agreed that peach bitters and bourbon are very nice together, maybe the best application for the ones made by Fee's anyway. Unfortunately, like all their products, they have the mouthfeel and aftertaste of HFCS which, esp with something like peach bitters where a relatively large amount is needed, can ruin a drink (to my taste anyway). I really like Fee's: They were a pioneer of sorts in vintage cocktail ingredients, and their customer service is terriffic. I just hope they will perhaps reconsider their use of HFCS in the near future lest their contributions be overshadowed by other products coming onto the market. I think the classic cocktail crowd in general is willing to pay a little bit extra for top quality. -Andy

Peach bitters, while rare, appear in a handful of classic cocktail recipes. Peach bitters at Cocktaildb -Andy

A dash of bitters can help alleviate perceived sweetness, a drop of Regan's may be just the thing to help this recipe come to within your palate's liking. I think perhaps reducing the amount of apricot liqueur to about a tsp or so may help as well (the flavor is so powerful on that). If using eau de vie, though, you'd probably want to keep the preportion at least the first time if you're trying to reign in sweetness. Of course acids would help too but this flavor combination looks too nice to adulterate it with citrus. Unfortunately in the midst of moving so I probably won't be able to experiment with this til the middle of the week at earliest. -Andy And yes, Esquire Drinks calls for quite a few drinks with barack palinka (relative to how common it is), and at least one with apricot liqueur (Paradise, iirc; my book is in a box somewhere). The stuff is fairly cheap (<$20) and a little goes a long way so it's worth a buy. Better than Parfait Amour at least :-P

Fruit eau de vie is sort of an interesting category for me. I work as a bartender at a sort of upscale (high quality and expensive food, wine, and cocktails; but no dress code) restaraunt in a medium-sized fairly conservative college town. When we opened back in January, the bar had on display bottles of Poire William and La Captive Calvados, both with captive fruit in the bottle. By April or March we had gone through 4 bottles of the pear and two or more of the calvados. Since then we have moved none. The bar manager is irritated by this and asks why we arent selling the stuff. Well, aside from these beverages being highly seasonal tipples in my mind, they are something that can only sell themselves -- once (well, not the calvados, except I don't think that particular one is very good). People see fruit, especially things like pears or whatever, and expect it to be sweet, and it's not at all. It also does not have the characteristic mellowness of wood-aged spirits, and the funk of straight-from-the-still liquor can be an acquired taste. Couple this with the fact that people try to drink poire william warm in a snifter, like brandy, and you get very few repeat calls for the product (fwiw, I prefer this one cold). The novelty of such products will sell themselves to customers, just like it sold itself to the management (they do make nice display pieces). Anyways, that, basically, sums up why I think fruit eau-de-vie is not a big seller in the US (also often expensive). Now in cocktails I think they are very interesting. At home I have a sweetened version of poire william (Brizard) as well as an imported kirsch (cant get the Trimbach ), barak palinka, Brizard Apry and a few others. The trick with apricot brandy in the old recipes is that you can rarely be sure wether thay are talking something like Apry or something like barak palinka. Indeed, this seems to have even confused contemporaries. The Hotel Nacional Special in Baker unambiguously calls for dry apricot brandy, 1 tsp, essentially an aromatic accent. However, all recipes or variations for this drink on cocktaildb.com indicate the use of liqueur, which then becomes the sweetening agent. This makes for a disgustingly sweet concoction and so then other recipes omit the pineapple juice and switch to slightly drier white rum. The drinks are now alltogether unrelated, essentially a slightly floral apricot daiquiri that is still most likely going to be too sweet, from the original pleasantly complex and more balanced version. What I like to do, especially in recipes like the Claridge, where the sweetness level allows, is to try it with both. Sometimes it then becomes obvious which was meant, and sometimes you find that they both have merits. It is fun though. -Andy PS: A couple of months ago at a Glenrothes tasting even I had an opportunity to taste some straight-from-the-still single malt scotch, at around 65-70% abv. If it had just been handed to me to identify I probably would have guessed kirsch. It's interesting how eau-de-vie of all kinds taste so similar. It seems that the barrel brings out their true personalities.

I believe you're thinking of Hangar One, as opposed to Ketel One.

Bostonapothecary's recent adventures with the Vieux Carre formula got me thinking about violet liqueur last night and I pondered it all day until trying the following today at work (rare items in question imported to the restaraunt in my pockets): 2 dashes Peychauds 2 dashes Jade Edouard tsp Creme de Violette 1 oz Plymouth Gin 1 oz Noilly Prat 1 oz Rum* Build on ice, garnish with twist. Quite a bit going on here, the powerful flavors are not for everyone. Only the bar manager and I liked it, but later another bartender was hanging around after a meeting and I made another one for him and he loved it as well. Its a lot like drinking a mouthful of flowers, and the color is quite nice as well. The primary formula here is a great groundwork for complex drinks that will evolve tremendously as the ice melts. It could use a little more tweaking, but I'd make it again. *Used Barbancourt 5 start the first time and Flor de Cana white the second time. It was fantastic both ways but the FdC is very floral and so blends a little better maybe. I'd also like to try it with some Pisco, a funkier white rum like 10 Cane, and/or a mild blanco tequila. -Andy

I get that a lot too...weird

Kind of surprised you didnt like that very much, it looks harmless enough if a bit insipid maybe (more or less a Bronx variation). I could see a dash of orange bitters helping it a bit.

I would venture to say a little better maybe, depending on the brands used. Rye and ginger beer is a time-honored combination. I could even see modifying the preportions a bit and using homemade ginger beer and serving this drink up. Sounds pretty tasty.

If you aren't careful this can sometimes lead to bitterness in the drink. I think it has to do with your mint and maybe even the time of year (in regads to how it has affected the mint).

I could see the strong flavors of lemon zest overpowering the relatively delicate flavor of cucumber here. I've never been much of a fan of muddling lemon wedges, originally because of the seeds, but also because the zest of a lemon is an extremely strong flavor that can be hard to control. If I want that flavor I'd rather muddle a swath of peel in the juice with a little sugar, a la Jerry Thomas' Crimean Cup. That way you could use a smaller piece and control it better. Limes, on the other hand, I routinely muddle in pieces, as I find the contribution of lime zest to be much milder than that of lemon. Also makes a nice show for customers when making Mojitos and Old Cubans.

I'm thinking that gin with some lime and cucumber would be my next move. Of course, I don't have Hendrick. Just some Tanquerray. Unless that's really going to be offensive, I'll give it a whirl tonight. I also like the idea of a gin sour with cucumber. Maybe even something like a Tom Collins with some muddled cucumber? That might work. ← I had actually originally tried to make it a tall drink, with champagne, then soda. It's not bad with soda, but the flavors aren't really intense enough for that kind of dilution. It's much better served up. Of course the addition of sparkling wine just clobbered everything.

Cucumber is pretty tasty muddled into a gin sour (not too much, mind you), esp if you use Hendrick's. I have several regulars who like to come in and have these with the Sashimi. The cucumber takes what would already be a light and pleasant enough drink and makes it fairly lethal, but also very food-friendly. A rinse of Sake does no harm for a change of pace. As far as other uses for Hendricks, I find that it works very well indeed mixed in wet-ish Martini fashion with sake in lieu of the vermouth. Very interesting indeed. The cucumber sour is also a great drink for those unfortunate people who don't know they like gin yet. -Andy