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varicose veins

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  1. What I've got so far is that it should be served in a wine glass, use crushed/cracked ice and be topped up with a carbonated mixer? It is a pretty sweet form of cocktail, pretty commercial. I think that the name cooler has been added to many more drinks to add commercial value tho, so it may be difficult to track it down to its originl genre? But that Remsden Cooler does sound like it's on the right track.
  2. Hi guys, I'm trying to find some information on the 'Cooler' style of cocktail, and I'm not finding much solid information at the moment. Does anyone have any idea of its origins, perhaps how it has developed? The best Cooler they ever had etc? Much thanks guys!
  3. Gotta be a gibson for me! Making my way down to the pickled onion at the bottom of the glass is just too exciting! Or if I can't be bothered to make a cocktail, limoncello and soda is a good pick me up. xx
  4. Just got my copies of Dornenburg's books through the door this morning, they look pretty good. Thanks for the advice guys, I'm looking forward to geeking through them at the weekend! xx
  5. Hey guys, I realise this is quite an old topic so apologies if its becoming a tad tedious! I already own a number of cocktail books, but was wondering if anyone has anyone has any reccomendations for a book which has a good section on flavour pairings and flavour profiles (apart from Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking - legend!) Doesn't necessarily have to be mixology orientated. Cheers!
  6. If your worried about the colour I reckon a good way around it is to use a spectacular garnish. I recently won a vodka martini competition using a Japnese tea flower as a garnish. Numi do some really good ones, simply add the tea bud to boiling water and watch it open, I did this twice to remove most of the tea tannin flavours. Then shake off excess water, place the wet tea bud in a martini glass and place in the fridge. When you want to make the martini simply shake your drink and pour over the teabud. This works in a number of ways, it will add a little to the flavour without being too overpowering (might fit in nicely with someone previously mentioning Turkish tea and cardamom), the tea bud also acts a bit like an ice cube which will keep your martini colder for longer without further diluting it, and they look amazing. I used dragonlily which is a white tea yet a little sweet. These tea buds can be expensive so I would imagine this idea would mostly be used when your mixing to impress!! I want some of this stuff now! Cardamom cosmo sounds very interesting... xx
  7. I find that cardamom and fresh pear work really well in drinks, might be worth messing around with. I'm creating a new spring cocktail list for my bar and have been thinking about some cardamom drinks, I'll get back to you when I've something a bit more solid. To me cardamom is quite lemony, so was thinking of making a thyme syrup and trying a a cardamom and thyme collins using freshly squeezed oranges instead of the lemons? I'll report back with some solid recipes in a week or so.
  8. I take it, then, that you left the pits in your apricots, to no ill effect? ←
  9. I haven't tried making any of these at home but I am a big fan of Pallini's range, they do a peach-cello and a raspi-cello. I'd imagine it would be much more difficult at home but surely the presence of such good products means its worth a try. The melon version sounds fantastic! Good Luck! xx
  10. Oh dear, I'm doing a mixology competition later on in the week with a cigar foam, hadn't thought about the lil nasties... I have done a drink using liquid smoke before, but obviously as smoke can be highly toxic, I looked into it a bit and found that the toxic part of smoke (poly cyclic hydrocarbons) is not soluble in water. I was hoping this was so in the case of cigars also? I'd well believe the nicotine is soluble but are all the other toxins also? For anyone who's interested in my recipe, I have to make a mixed drink with Talisker (which I know a lot of people are not going to be happy with) so I decided to work on Heston Blumenthal's cigar and chocolate combination. The chocolate and truffle in my recipe adds a good depth to the Talisker, but the cocktail remains spicy and quite smoky due to the spiciness and bitterness of the foam. Here's my recipe... 12.5 mls truffle syrup 1 orange zest 25ml Talisker 12.5 ml Amaretto 12.5 ml good quality creme de cacao Shake and strain into a martini glass, top with a cigar and honey infused foam (Roast the cigar at a very low level heat, add to hot water and simmer for a few minutes. This can be very, very bitter so add a litle honey syrup to taste. Then add egg white and create foam). Any suggestions to improve this recipe and I'm all ears. Also wondering what other unusual ingredients people have worked with?
  11. Hmm, I'm not much of a scientist but anyhoo... Have you checked the martini at different times after its been made with water? eg after 2mins, 5mins etc? I'm thinking that it would perhaps settle over time? Alcohol molecules are fat soluble at one end and water soluble at the other which is why alcohols mix so easily with each other. Obviously this is affected by various flavour molecules in different types of alcohol, but the idea is the same. When you make a martini, bonds are formed with water molecules from the ice. My theory is that these bonds form slowly as they are only really forming at the surface of the ice. This gradual process ensures that the flavours are blended slowly and fully creating a robust drink with strong bonds throughout. However, were you to splash some cold water into the drink, the molecules would be rushing around each other trying to form bonds and the result would be a bit chaotic, with bonds being formed and broken very quickly. The bonds would not be spread evenly throughout the drink, so what you have an inconsistent drink which is constantly reacting. This is why I think the drink would settle over time were it to be kept cool so that temperature would no longer be a variable in the experiment. Also, if the water is cold and the alcohol is warm, they would be moving at different speeds and it would take a certain period of time for equilibrium to be reached. While this equilibrium is being reached I dont think the drink would be very robust; as the alcohol molecules are moving faster and are generally more volatile anyway they are going to be making and breaking more bonds than if the molecules are all moving at the same speed. I may be wrong, but I'm working from a theory I heard a while ago that shaking a drink too hard can sometimes separate the flavours, especially delicate flavours like whiskey (can anyone prove/disprove this?) So that got me thinking about the ways in which different types of agitation affects the outcome of the drink. Bartrainer - Fancy runnin into you here! Hope all is well!
  12. One thing that no bartending school cant teach you is to have confidence on the bar! True, this comes with time and experience and bartending courses give you the skills necessary for this to happen, but never let anyone intimidate you on your bar whether its another bartender or a customer. If you look confident, fewer people will question you. I'm just getting over a serious dose of bartender phobia myself! Another thing is to constantly surprise your customers, exceed their expectations. This could be a new bar trick, a new drink, a fancy crowd pleaser garnish or simply by going the extra mile in terms of customer service. Hope this helps - good luck!!
  13. I'm in agreement about the contributions so far, but I also think it depends on what sort of bar your working in/ trying to work in? There is a large range of drinks that could be deemed classic, you'll become familiar with them all and the techniques in time, but as you start out you should tailor your classic knowledge to where you work and then branch out. For example, if you work in a more commercial bar you're probably more likely to be asked for a Sex on the Beach (ick) than an Old Fashioned or Martini!
  14. Plain vodka is definetely on the sliding slope downwards - up with the gin! I'd also keep an eye on tequila, had a tequila espresso martini a while ago, the agave flavours worked amazingly with the coffee. Lots of people are citing the use of vodka as a cocktail lengthener? I'm not really a a fan of this, I dont really like the idea of putting alcohol into a drink just to get the effect of getting drunk (perhaps it adds an extra bite??) Cocktails are my thing, I love making them and I love drinking them. It would be nice to drink more than a few before its time to get a taxi home and fall asleep with my makeup all over the pillow! What do people think of the idea that cocktails could perhaps lower their alcohol content? I don't mean as standard, and obviously the customer would be charged accordingly, but I quite like the idea that people can drink more cocktails and experience more flavours, without getting hammered. I like the idea of people viewing cocktails as a taste experience, and not just a means of getting drunk. It would obviously make martinis and some others problematic, but for tall drinks, these could be served in shorter glasses with the level of mixer altered accordingly. Just an idea, not one I'm expecting to take off very soon!
  15. To this I completely agree. Perhaps my recipe is more like a smash, but my understanding of the smash is that it contains crushed ice? Perhaps I'm wrong again? I used cubed ice in my drink to allow the flavours to marry as it was mixed. The addition of mint is completely alien to the tradition of the old fashioned, but I think my palate would much rather see a few sprigs of the minty stuff in my old fashioned than a muddled cherry or pineapple. That seems to me like much more of an American thing. A vodka old fashioned using plain vodka just wouldn't float my boat either I'm afraid. As mentioned, the Belvedere flavours are really good, the pomeranzca does actually have a length on the palate unlike any other flavoured vodka that I've tried which is why I tried it using the old fashioned method.
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