thirtyoneknots

No. But, on the bright side, when I ran into the estimable doctor at Pegu Club recently, I was able to give him shit about it in person. ← So out of curiosity, what did the Doctor have to say in his defense? That particular recipe has always puzzled me. Also, where has that guy gone to? He hasn't posted on this or any forum in months! What gives? I'm sad :-\ Hope he's writing another book or something. -Andy

I've got nothing against V glasses, but sipping a Manhattan from these wonderful coupettes is so Guilded Age :-P

Had not previously noticed this thread, but since it got bumped up I'll weigh in with my 2 cents. My favorite glasses for home use are a set of Nachtmann 24% crystal coupette-style glasses I picked up for $3/each (didn't know at the time how great a bargain that really was). They are tiny by modern standards, about 3 oz, but the shape means they can fully contain a 3 oz cocktail since it has a defined lip. I was recently able to replace dumb breakage losses from the same source, so now I actually have a set of 6 and one spare. Before I got those, my favorites were a pair of tiny standard V shaped glasses someone gave me to pay a debt once. They say Crown Royal or something on them and are also tiny. I really prefer what most people would consider to be an extremely small cocktail glass, which allows the drink to remain ice-cold, lets me try more than one thing in an evening and still be productive, and saves money on liquor, since it gets used up slower. I have a handful of larger glasses, but of the dozen cocktail glasses I have, 2/3 of them hold 3 oz or less. I actually became extremely fond of the coupette shape over the V shape, I like the traditional feel of it and it's a little harder to spill also. -Andy

Our hosts have already covered the important stuff, but there's also a bit about tea infusions (and other interesting concepts) in Audrey Saunders' article in Mixologist, volume one. The gist of it, as I recall, is to taste the infusion regularly to get the right strength and measure the time in hours, rather than the weeks or months you might normally let something infuse. If you haven't, try her Earl Grey 'Marteani', it's quite wonderful. -Andy

I set out to find a bartending job for some of the same reasons you are, and I found one, but not quite the way I thought I would. Kind of lucked into it, as it were, and since you already have a 9-5, it won't help you much anyway (I had to work as a waiter first). However, I did read this recently, and it sounds like fairly sound advice that may help, especially in the angle that you want to take with it. If I lived in a bigger city like Austin I would definitely be hitting up some of the higher end bars on slow nights and trying to chat up the bartenders, maybe find a place that can make a good Old-Fashioned and make small-talk with the barman about how hard it is to find that type of thing. Hopefully you can become a 'regular' and eventually insinuate into the conversation that you'd love to moonlight just one slow night a week, for kicks. May sound crazy, but I've had crazier things work. Unfortunately, high-end bars can be hard to come by in a college town, but at least Austin is big enough to have an identity outside of that (I live in College Station, and I can count on one hand the number of places in the whole county that use fresh juice). Hope this helps, and good luck! -Andy

Today I had reason to celebrate: as of this afternoon I am the newest (and second) bartender at Veritas Wine and Bistro, scheduled to open within two weeks! Soooooo...a Manhattan, of course. But no ordinary Manhattan: I recently acquired some Vya. I have to save the Baby Saz for when my roommate gets back (since he did buy it), but 2 parts of Wild Turkey 101 and one part Vya, 2 dashes Angostura, stirred, strained into my favorite cocktail glass and garnished with a heavy twist of lemon. Woooo. I must say that Vya has all but redefined every drink I have tried it in, esp ones with a strong vermouth flavor (biggest winner so far is the Americano made with it). -Andy

Conceptually not too far from a jello shot, really, so long as the flavor of the liquor is prominent (ie, no vodka)

I was under the impression that there were several, if not many, instances of the use of the word in print prior to 1806, but that the significance of it's appearance in The Balance was that it was defined. -Andy PS: Interesting that it is described here as an appetiser, when most scholars consider it to have been a morning drink or hangover remedy in it's earliest form.

Never mind Strawberries and basil, what about the combo of strawberries and gin?! Much as I love both of these...blech.

I made this for the first time a few weeks ago, I just kind of improvised as I went but it came out amazing: 2 oz Appleton 12 yr tsp-1/4 oz pimento dram 2 sugar cubes pour in heated mug and top with hot water, pat of butter on top (I guess, not quite sure what purpose it really served, just kind of made it oily to me). The aroma that fills the room when that hot water hits the allspice is amazing. Yum -Andy

I was thinking about this yesterday and then I realised that we do have a product available for those who like vodka with a little whiskey taste -- Canadian whiskey ;-) -Andy

Very fascinating, you never disappoint. So I guess maybe short of going to Russia for some moonshine this type is extinct, having evolved into grey goose and whatnot.

what do you consider the "tsar" style? ← Sorry, just the 19th century style described by Mr. Wondrich. Most of the vodka in my house is used to make my syrups shelf-stable, so my interest here is mostly academic. Just an idle curiosity, really.

Hm apparently my initial reply didn't go through, but I was going to ask along the same lines: Is there anything on the market today that could be considered close to the "Tsar" style of vodka?

The "poor grape harvest" was actually a continent-wide devastation of vineyards wrought by the accidentally introduced Phylloxera bug, which eat the roots of grapevines. The problem actually began in the 1860s when the insect was introduced to Europe and very nearly wiped out European wine (and hence brandy) production completely. Incidentally, this had several side effects, such as the switch to rye whiskey in cocktails of the period, most notably the Sazerac, and the rise in popularity of Absinthe in France, which had previously been a wine culture. In fact I have read that the hysteria and subsequent ban of absinthe was instigated and inflamed by the wine and brandy "lobby," who, even with the recovery of their industry, still weren't selling at pre-Phylloxera levels. People just loved that Absinthe. Supposedly European wines and brandies have never tasted the same after the epidemic. The problems were solved, or at least mitigated, by grafting European grape varieties onto American roots, which were naturally resistant to the bug. Some say that this changed the character of the grapes and thus of their byproducts, but I rather doubt I'd be able to tell the difference. Wikipedia on Phylloxera -Andy

sorry

If you're wanting to be THAT much of a purist, then omit the absinthe as well and just make a cognac old-fashioned with peychaud's bitters. But seriously, while a brandy Sazerac is a fine enough drink, it only becomes a classic with Rye. -Andy

I have read that 19th century vodka was much more as described here as oppsoed to the pure ethanol + water that we know today. It would not necessarily have been distilled to such a high proof and would have a lot in common with whiskey, except just filtered instead of barrel-aged. I believe Mr. Wondrich may have more to say about that, pretty sure he's where I heard of this. -Andy

While I think that historically it would be technically accurate to refer to virtually any distillation, especially one made from fruit, as eau-de-vie, the term as understood today almost always refers to unaged fruit distillation, and if it just came out of the still and into glass or metal containers, it should have no color. Of course, I could be wrong about that very last bit. -Andy

Cream liqueurs do not necessarily need refridgeration from what I know. Bailey's promotional material actually makes a point to note that the whiskey will preserve the freshness naturally and refridgeration is unnecessary. Two items though: I have heard of it going bad or clotting in the bottle (though the bottle may very well have been 20 years old) and also I have never seen any other brand make this claim. I always refridgerate it just for good measure and also because I like it cold, on the rare occasions that I drink the stuff. In fact just he other day I emptied my bottle of Carolans, probably about a year old, and it was still fine. Drank it over crushed ice for dessert one night. That said, I'd rather buy more Benedictine than replace the irish cream ;-) -Andy PS: Oh yeah, wine. I have heard that dry vermouth will oxidize alarmingly fast, and have actually opened brand-new vermouth bottles and had it pour light brown. I personally always refridgerate Vermouths and their ilk (Lillet, Dubonnet, etc). I also read recently that Fino sherry will benefit from refridgeration whereas other sherries do not need it. I don't know if this is true but I do it anyway.

As the original Martini recipe is understood to have used Italian vermouth, but now is universally accepted as dry, could it be that there was a trend in switching to dry vermouth in drinks that had originally used the sweeter style? Or possibly could something the other way around have happened, maybe as a result of the consensus that whisk(e)y goes better with sweet? Nothing to back this up of course, just idle musings. -Andy

← Hear, hear

This was also my impression

Yeah I actually said 96% in my initial post, I didn't mean literally 100% pure alcohol, but more of a metaphorical 100% of what is attainable. Should have been more specific.

It certainly looks like milk punch, but the recipe as printed shows none. I bet it would be good anyway. Tobacco-infused rum certainly sounds fascinating, but be careful about extracting too much nicotine, which is very poisonous by itself. I remember reading several years ago that a can of snuff contains a lethal dose of nicotine if you extract it correctly. Apparently 1-3 drops of pure or nearly pure stuff will kill within 15 min. So try it, cos it sounds really neat, but do be careful. -Andy