thirtyoneknots

All very interesting, I didn't know that one pass through a column still wouldn't make it 100% pure. I did know a bit about the adding in and such, in fact I seem to recall reading somewhere that if Grey Goose had another grain of sugar in it, it'd have to be classified as a liqueur, which would certainly explain a lot about it's popularity. As for me, I'll stick with the barrel-aged grains over filtered ones. -Andy Edit: Spacebar misfire

Having read through this entire thread I am somewhat baffled by the concept of distilling a vodka x number of times. What is being gained by that? My understanding of how a column still works is that you just keep the stuff in long enough to raise the proof to where you want it (I know it's a little more complicated than that, but my brain is tired). So basically if you leave some fermentation in long enough, it becomes everclear. Run it through your brita pitcher and water it down and it's Vodka (oversimplification again, but this time for fun). If what you have after the first distillation is 96% pure, and thats the practical limit for purity, then what are you getting out of distilling it again? And is that even accurate to say that you did it again, considering how a column still works? If I'm not mistaken you can add and remove from an operating still at your whim. Somewhere in here I was originally going to try to make an analogy to solera aging or something, but I got sort of lost. Hopefully someone can see the parallel I was trying to draw. Sorry for the incoherent question. Evidently it is bedtime. -Andy

Thanks so much We're certainly all proud of her, it's long overdue (and in her characteristic modesty, she didn't think she'd get it til the day it was announced). In re Sherry, I recently bought some Fino Sherry to try a Chaplin cocktail after finding a 50% off bottle of Ramazotti in a backwoods liquor store in Somerville, Texas, of all places (stopped in on a whim). I've been experimenting with it since then and it's quite interesting, almost like French Vermouth without the herbals. I'm not sure I quite love that stuff, there's something reminiscent of the funk that I don't enjoy in tequila/cachaca/maraschino happening in there, but I do like it, far more than any of those other items. The brand I got was Savory & James, about $13 and the only Fino I could find. Plus it has a cork stopper of the kind that I am for some reason a sucker for :-P As far as the Chaplin goes, pretty good drink, it almost tastes like a liquor of its own, not a mixture of other things. I think it would work better with a more powerful bourbon like Wild Turkey, vs the Weller 12 yr I used. -Andy

Ok I had a couple of hours to think about this and came back with a little different approach. I was trying to achieve something a lot more mellow that I was originally getting, but I think I've hit it now, so here's the semifinal version. I guess now it only needs Mom's approval ;-) Teacher of the Year: 1 oz Rye (101 proof) 3/4 oz Fino Sherry 1/4 oz Benedictine 2-3 dashes Peychauds Stir and strain into chilled glass rinsed with absinthe or pastis, garnish with twist. It now looks a lot like a variation on a Cocktail de la Louisiane, but the drier preportions and sherry make it distinct. -Andy Edit: Let's use correct capitalization and punctuation while honoring teachers, shall we?

My mother, currently in her 29th year of teaching 11th grade history, was recently named Teacher of the Year for her school. I decided to commemorate this event with a new cocktail, to serve her when my parents come in to visit this weekend. This is my best effort so far, and I think it's pretty good, but please feel free to add criticisms and advice. Teacher of the Year 1 oz Rye, for American History (101 proof for authority) 3/4 oz Lillet, for class (as a double entendre) 1/4 oz Fino Sherry, for both dryness and nuttiness (she's both) 2 dashes Peychaud's Bitters, for the inevitable result of decades of incompetent administrators Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass that has been rinsed with absinthe (pastis), for inspiration. Garnish with a stern look and a twist of lemon. Let me know what you think! -Andy

I should add that my roommate, who helped me a lot with the refinement of my (our) favorite recipe, told me I should do red and green jello shots for this MxMo. (It's cool guys, his favorite drink is an Old Fashioned...he's one of us) -Andy

Tonight my lovely girlfriend and I did a little catching up after a long period of separation during her vet school finals, and so I missed the deadlines to write about my Mixology Monday experiences. Priorities and all. I'm going to submit this anyway, cos hey whats the worst that could happen. This Saturday she will be receiving her undergraduate degree and so the two of us, along with all our parents, will be having a graduation/Christmas party to celebrate. Naturally, I was put in charge of the cocktails. I use very small glasses whenever possible, which allows everyone to try several different drinks without getting too inebriated. My favorite glasses are crystal, of a bowl/coupe shape, and hold about 3 oz. I got them for about $3 at a resale shop and I love them. Anyway, I settled on Sidecars (always a fan favorite) and Mr. Chuck Taggart's Réveillon Cocktail, which is mainly what I'm concerned with here (the third drink to be featured is still to be decided on, suggestions welcome). I first read about this drink early in 2006, and the concept of it sounded amazing. Apples, pears, and allspice, with just enough je nais se quois to keep it mysterious and intriguing. Only one problem: It calls for an allspice liqueur that hasn't been imported since the 80's, and can only be obtained from Jamaica. Well, a trip there is not in my immidiate future, but luckily a solution presented itself: The brilliant creator of this drink had also come up with a homebrew method for recreating this elusive liqueur (a favorite of Dr. Cocktail, no less). The recipe can be found here*. After much help from the online cocktail dork community and a mail order for 151 proof Demerara (not available in Texas for some reason) I finally created my own pimento dram. Eventually I also obtained the Calvados and Poire William, and one fateful night I mixed one up and took a sip. Interesting. Unfortunately, interesting is about as far as it went. It was still worth featuring at my party, but it fell far short of what I was expecting from such a magnificent list of ingredients. It just seemed as if there was so much unrealized potential hiding in there. But it soon became evident that the recipe was not necessarily at fault here. First item: Calvados. Calvados is wonderful stuff, and some of the things I have made with it are on my short list of favorites, but for some reason it didn't quite work here. (I should add that the bottling I have now, Christian Drouin, is not as good, imo, as the Caron that I had first. This is as far as my experience with the stuff goes, however.) I noticed after some digging that the original recipe apparently called for Laird's Bonded (why was it changed?) and so I tried it. NOW we're on to something. The robust, assertive, whiskey-like character of the bonded applejack shines here unlike any drink I've ever had it in. It provides a solid foundation for the rest of the flavors while still being thoroughly and appropriately appley. It also eliminates the slightly destracting musty character from the Calvados I was using. Awesome. Next item: I soon realised that the Marie Brizard Poire William that I had bought as an economy measure was not, in fact, an eau-de-vie as called for in the original recipe, but a sweetened liqueur. In the end I think that it mattered very little, aside from affecting the sweetness of the drink (probably not that bad considering the audience). I may soon get a chance to try it with a true eau-de-vie and will report back with my findings. Pimento Dram: Here is where I think the change of one ingredient made the biggest difference. Now the homemade stuff is quite nice, and very fun to experiment with, but after much pain and at great expense, I was able to mail order a bottle of the commercial product from Jamaica (pm me for details if you want). I really just wanted to be able to compare, and initially I was extremely surprised at how close the homemade had come to the real thing. However, after subbing the Wray & Nephew in for my homebrew I was floored at how much more subtle and smooth it was. The allspice takes a nice supporting role, as it would in a cake or whatever, instead of trying to be the destracting center of attention as with the homemade. See the note at the bottom for more thoughts on this. Vermouth: Cinzano sweet vemouth seems to be utterly unavailable in the college town where I live, and so until my next trip to Houston I can forget about anything better than M&R (which I quite like, so it's ok). However, the recipe recommends a high end vermouth like Carpano (I would imagine Vya being excellent as well), but since the vermouth is in such a small supporting role, I think I'm ok using M&R. Also, I have no choice. Bitters: The original recipe calls for, in rough order of desireability, Abbotts, Fee's OF Bitters, or Angostura. The tiny bottle of Abbott's I have is strictly off-limits, so I stick to the others. When I use Fee's OF Bitters, I like to throw in a dash of Angostura as well to compensate for the lack of complexity and bitterness in Fee's. I love what Fee's can bring to a drink, but I tend to use it as an accent to Angostura instead of on it's own. (Typically 1 dash of Ango and 2 dashes Fee's). In the end, the final ultimate personal recipe I came up with for this most festive of cocktails was thus: La Réveillon Cocktail 2 oz Lairds Bonded Apple Brandy (100 proof) 1/2 oz Marie Brizard Poire William Liqueur (sub eau-de-vie if possible) 1/2 oz Wray & Nephew Allspice liqueur (or homemade*) 1/4 oz Sweet vermouth 1 dash Angostura Bitters 2 dashes Fee's Old Fashioned Bitters Stir with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with a twist (makes 1.5-2 drinks in my tiny glasses). Yum. -Andy *Thoughts on Pimento Dram: Allspice liqueur is wonderful stuff, and once my homebrew is gone I will def. be making more (barring it being imported again). A few caveats, however. Good though the homebrew is, it doesn't quite work here in such a large amount. The assertiveness is destracting from the balance. I personally attribute this to the distinctive flavor of the 151 proof Demerara rum it is based on. If/when I make this again I will definitely be basing it off of still-rich but much less distinctive Jamaican rums (Dr. Cocktail has postulated a mix of Wray & Nephew Overproof and Meyers's---probably a good starting point). If you haven't made any of this yet but want to for Christmas...well, too late, it takes over a month. But if you want to make some for next year I would definitely recommend perhaps making a half batch and trying different variations on the base. This works even better for me personally since I can only obtain high proof Demerara at a considerable expense. I would be more willing to use Appleton Extra (12 yr) than to make it with Demerara again. That said, if you have already made some to this recipe, I would probably scale down the amount, perhaps swap the amounts of allspice and vermouth. I'm still working on balancing that out using the homemade. I will say I'm glad I have the homemade and I'd recommend it to anyone, since it's better than none at all, but if you have the patience and/or resources to get the real deal, by all means do it. The drink truly shines with it. -Andy

I think the Bunny Hug was some sort of raunchy dance, which may explain the decadence evident in the mixing. Maybe it'd be called a 'Bump & Grind' if invented today.

I can't match any of those descriptions above, but last night I had my first experience with hot buttered rum, which I may write about later (perhaps for MxMo) but at any rate it (and my laziness) inspired me to put about a jigger of pimento dram (homemade) in a cup and top with hot water. Yum.

Not being a tequila fan myself (it's the one of the very few liquors I don't care for) I can offer only limited assistance, but a couple that I know offhand are La Paloma, which is tequila, lime, a pinch of salt in a tall glass topped off with grapefruit soda, and if you're not opposed to folling around with infusions, this one has been a hit around my house: http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/amante.html And just in passing, my tequila prejudice is not a result of having horrible tequila or getting sick off of it :-P I really just never cared for it (I think it's the 'funk' in it, since I'm also not big on cachaca or Maraschino liqueur). -Andy

This evening it was an unusually cold 29F here in College Station, TX, so I made myself a fire in the fireplace and after 2 cups of Earl Grey I switched to something a little more warming and came up with the following (I prefer tiny cocktail glasses and make drinks accordingly, scale up for your preferred glass size) Old Fashioned: (I gave Mr. Wondrich's recipe a spin, winner hands-down) 1/2 tsp simple syrup (4 dashes 2:1) 3 dashes Angostura 2.5 oz Weller 12 yr bit of ice lemon twist That was delicious so I went for somethign similar in concept, the Improved Holland Gin Cocktail: 2 oz Dutch Gin (Boomsma is all I can find) 1 tsp Grand Marnier 1/2 tsp sugar syrup (4 dashes 2:1) 2-3 dashes Peychauds Build over rocks in glass, garnish with twist (Many versions advocate stir/strain/up but for some reason the first time I made this it was built on ricks and I stayed with that) Then I went for a Widow's Kiss: 1 oz Calvados (Christian Drouin) 1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse (apparently green was originally meant, its on my to try list) 1/2 oz Benedictine 2 dashes Angostura (perhaps more than normally called for but I have a bitters fetish so whatever) stir/strain/up garnish with a twist (and/or cherry if you prefer) wonderful and rich (and a bit on the sweet side), very nice to have by the fire, as per Dr. Cocktail's suggestion. This drink also warms exceptionally well. All in all a wonderful set of cocktails. After that I was rather hungry, not having eaten supper, so I made myself an egg and cheese sandwich. Perhaps a bit odd after all these lovely premium cocktails, but I enjoyed it immensely ;-) -Andy

That is very unfortunate for those of us restricted to mail ordering :-\

I can sort of see why that's what you're craving, but I've got bad news: I don't think the whole cup of tequila goes in the drink. Hope I didn't ruin it for you :-P -Andy

I thought I read somewhere that the laws defining Bourbon required it to be bottled at between 80 and 125 proof. Is this correct? If so, then how can this Stagg stuff have been bottled at 140 proof? -Andy

The Jasmine is another good one to combine multiple tastes in one drink, where you have sweet, sour, and bitter all at once. Incidentally it's also a great way to introduce someone to both gin and campari, since both of those things are vital components of the drink and yet the overall flavor is of something familiar (usually described as grapefruit juice) As far as salty flavors go, I don't think I would find them appealing in a cocktail, and the only drinks that typically have a salty element are the ones I don't care much for (though for other reasons). I always get my Martinis with a twist, and I don't care for tomato juice for the texture nor Margaritas since I'm not fond of Tequila. Cocktail Chronicles featured an interesting variation on the Martini that includes in it's ingredients a pinch of sea salt. I haven't tried it but it sounds interesting: http://www.cocktailchronicles.com/2005/07/31/not-half-bad/ Of course Cocktail Chonicles could make trash can punch sound interesting, at least to me. -Andy

A cake, perhaps? ← Heh, perhaps. Seems like I used one recently, and it reminded me why I don't really bother anymore. I just can't remember what drink it was in. It was probably more for a visual than aything else, that's about all they're good for to me. -Andy

Sweet garnish with sweet vermouth and dry/astringent garnish (twist) with dry vermouth seems to be rather conventional across the board, not just in Manhattans. As for me, I have no access to quality cocktail cherries and little inclination to make my own, so a twist goes in my 2:1 rye Manhattan, and I think it's a good addition. In my mind, a twist is an absolute must in a bourbon Manhattan, to control the sweetness. I guess thats why I prefer the twist in general to cherries. I'm not sure when the last time I actually used a cherry garnish was. -Andy

I agree that Vermouth was originally the star of the Manhattan, however, 2 points: 1) To paraphrase someone smarter than me, The origin of a thing and it's heyday are often different. Case in point: Margaritas. While I'm sure most here would agree that some ratio of 100% agave tequila, cointrea, and fresh lime juice makes the best Margarita, the typical Mexcian food patron would likely find these far too tart, and at least initially, would probably prefer their artificially flavored one made with well tequila coming out of the frozen drink machine. Unfortunate, but that's what a Margarita is to most people: tequila spiked limeade. And thats why they are so popular (in my mind, personally I don't care for tequila). 2) It is far easier to find superior whiskey than superior vermouth, so why not showcase the better-made of the two ingredients? Vya, King Eder, Carpano Antica Formula, none of these are available to me. While I have no problem using Cinzano or Martini & Rossi (or Noilly Prat), I'd much rather showcase the flavor of my $20 bottle of whiskey rather than my $4 bottle of vermouth. Though I'll have to give your 'backwards' version a try, for research of course -Andy

I think in part your preference for a ratio will depend on how you view a 'balanced' drink. Some woud say that the amount of vermouth used depends on the bottling of whiskey being used. My personal approach leans more toward using a consistent ratio and letting the personality of the spirit work within that ratio. To me this only works so long as the specific type of spirit were used, meaning I might use 2:1 for both Old Overholt and Wild Turkey Rye, but change to Wild Turkey Bourbon and I might use 3:1, change to Maker's Mark and it's still 3:1, but change to Famous Grouse and I might go 5:1. Also this only really applies to the use of 'aromatic' ingredients. Obviously balancing a sour-type drink is a different game than balancing a Manhattan. If all of this sounds rather confusing, well, maybe it is. -Andy

Wouldn't the appropriate Thanksgiving cocktail be based on gin? Plymouth, of course ;-) -Andy

Excellent advice all around, I have but one thing to add. Before getting involvedin online cocktail forums, I had horribly misinterpreted instructions (much more vague than those above) on how to do twist garnishes, and I could never quite tell what the fuss was about. I belive my very first question online was how to correctly use a twist garnish. A good way someone suggested to see if it was being done correctly was to have a lit candle nearby and to 'twist' the peel into the flame of the candle as if over a drink. If done correctly, you will definitely know it (very cool looking). Well, this is essentially how 'flaming' is done, except that you use a match, so it may be useful to practice over a candle to perfect your technique for expressing the oils from the peel, then move on to holding the match, which requires somewhat greater coordination. Hope this helps. Andy

http://www.martinirepublic.com/item/bar-advice-redux/ ^A highly entertaining and highly informative piece on setting up a home bar, written by Dr. Cocktail. Also, Cassis != Chambord, although cheap versions of Chambord can be found. -Andy

I will go with Manhattan, though made with Wild Turkey Rye over bourbon and garnished with a twist. To paraphrase Mr. Wondrich, sipping a Manhattan is like having a massage from the inside. -Andy

My understanding is that Cherry Marnier is more like Cherry Heering, ie sweet cherry liqueur, as opposed to [Luxardo] Maraschino which is a dry cherry liqueur also including pits, stems, leaves, etc. The two would not be interchangeable. -Andy

I have totally done this before, but with Regan's (the dasher cap came off in the screw-off one). I was making old-fashioneds, and interestingly enough it didn't taste bad at all with a half ounce or so of bitters in it. Just different.