bostonapothecary

"last laugh" .75 oz. lime juice .75 oz. cocchi aperitivo americano .75 oz. special edition green chartreuse sweetened with jaggery sugar .75 oz. seagram's gin the jaggery sugar here is part of a beautiful overtone rather than being obvious. the drink is an awesome accompaniment to an Acid Mother's Temple album side before work. (the special edition chartreuse can be re-colored green using chlorophyll die sold by health food stores)

whatever colors it probably contributes negligibly to the aroma. it is colored with chlorophyll, but i bet it is concentrated somehow and not just a simple infusion of one of the botanicals.

"civil disobedience" 1.5 oz. 1995 guyana rum finished in chateau y'quem barrels .75 oz. M&R sweet vermouth .75 oz. chartreuse "special edition"* *a special addition of chartreuse was created by removing green chartreuse's non-aromatic white sugar and replacing it with aromamatic jaggery sugar which smells of the loveliest of coconuts. the process revealed green chartreuse's sugar content to be approx 242 g/l. tasting the separated native sugar and water quotient also revealed an absence of bitterness implying that green chartreuse is only the product of distillates and not the product of infusions. to state that another way; chartreuse has no non volatile bitter principles. yet, we describe it as bitter. the illusion of bitterness comes solely from the aroma supporting my practice of classifying aromas in terms of gustation. a really lovely drink. extraordinary aromatic tonality. my supply of the guyana rum is tragically dwindling as i've finally hit my stride in creating great drinks for it...

Apry is significantly sweeter than the Orchard Apricot. Either up the lemon to equal parts, reduce the Apry to 1/2 oz, or cut it half and half with a dry apricot brandy, like Blume Marillen or Barack Palinka. Without messing with it myself I couldn't tell you which of those will give the best results. when looking at the options and averaging the potential sugar contents, that recipe looks to me like it was intended for a dry apricot brandy. if you cannot get blume marillen or palinka where you are, to keep the tradition alive, you can re-distill an apricot liqueur to concentrate the alcohol and aroma while removing the sugar. the sugars won't caramelize. those that have done it tell me it works well.

if i come across a bottle, i can calculate the sugar and maybe come up with a conversion to other standards like lillet or sweet vermouth. from a 1920 book on separation science... "punsch (schwedischer) 1.1030 26.3% 332.0" my brief look at the carlshamns flag punsch from a year and half ago: 1.082 gravity 26% alc. 293g/l sugar

1 oz. st. james ambre 1 oz. hispaniola mamajuana 1 oz. goya coconut cream "toasted" in the pressure cooker for 50 minutes 1 oz. lime juice this might be the most successful attempt so far at trying to use a pressure cooker to augment aroma for the sake of a cocktail. i put the whole unopened can in the pressure cooker taking a queue from what some do with sweetened condensed milk. the aroma really takes on a lovely quality reminiscent of so many desserts i've had featuring toasted coconut. if any one wants to try this out, i vouch for goya brand as the best coconut cream on the market. i thought of making a sweeter 3:2:1 style drink to emphasize the aroma, but then i opted into using a quotient of the lightly sweetened mamajuana to give a similar effect in an equal parts drink. cheap thrills.

fred, you should let me make you one.

Moderator note: The original Drinks! topic became too large for our servers to handle efficiently, so we've divided it up; the preceding part of this discussion is here: Drinks! (2011–2012)] "some wine connoisseurs disdain the muscat as plebian and of obvious flavor" - amerine, from the "technology of wine making". trying to prove them wrong... 2 oz. cesar pisco "italia" (my favorite) 1 oz. "madeirized" muscat grape "mistelle" cut to 400g/l ** 1 oz. lime juice egg white dash angostura bitters **the 800g/l mistelle was put in a canning jar and heated in a pressure cooker for one hour. the color browned significantly and the aroma took on a darker tonal effect. the results were nothing epic but defnitely delicious and might even benefit from a sweeter 3:2:1 to emphasize the aroma. i tried to madeirize-caramelize liqueurs in a similar fashion, but could not produce any significant results. i thought the alcohol in the liqueur might prevent the liqueur from super heating as high as the water outside of the jar. grape juice is high in fructose which caramelizes at lower temperatures than other sugars so that might have something to do with the results as well. …I make them just to express myself – things I feel and want to say – havent words for – Georgia O'Keeffe

I would love to, but I have no idea what you said. the whole point of the drink is to make something more attentional. that is why we mix things together. attentional control is a big aspect of modernism and the cocktail did it first. the old f. is the best example of the straight forward "super" version of a base spirit. the old f. is to bourbon what the venus of willendorf is to a natural woman. the addition of dry vermouth to gin in a martini creates the same kind of super version. super dryness! supernormal stimuli when you make it more attentional while being harmonic, the end result is helping the drinker to dispel anxiety, fight complacency, cement memories, and retrieve them...

I don't think I'd be alone here in saying I'm going to agree to disagree on that. We've had this discussion in this very thread time and again, no need to rehash it. But the idea that both of those drinks are equally entitled to the name "Old Fashioned" is by no means universally accepted. All power to those who like fruit paste in their whiskey, no offense to them intended. my old fashioned is the third style and no less antique; a carefully composed super stimulus version of bourbon designed to make it more attentional. a venus of willendorf if you will... and a refined version of the cruder first modern super stimulus; the "cocktail"... which inspired countless painters subversively teaching them the rhetoric of abstraction. debate that one.

belle de brillet is just a common pear liqueur dressed up with marketing. so many reputable bars put it on their menus under the cognac and eau de vie section. a strange phenomenon because it is definitely the odd man out with all that sugar. the ferrand guys make an awesome version sold under their matilde label. these are built under the same concept as a pommeau or pineau des charentes which is a distillate diluted by the origional fruit juice source, but they differ because there sugar contents are not in the same range. pineau des charentes should have well under 200 g/l of sugar but the pear versions are over 300g/l and are meant to constrast an equal volume of lemon or lime juice. the ferrand guys are really proud of the matilde product and have told me it is basically non profit because it is so expensive and difficult to make. pear eau de vies aren't cheap... in cape verde they make a product using a similar pattern called "punch" where their rum is cut and sweetened with fresh cane juice. i have one bottling from vale d'paul but have never really gotten into it. the aroma seems very ordinary to me.

according to the amphora soceity's website, the pda-1 disassembles and fits into a small handgun case. i've seen it mounted onto small pressure cookers. and the coolent source is allegedly a small hose connected to your kitchen faucet. i hear there are exquisite recipes that scale down as small as 500ml. they tell me you can construct the still, execute a small recipe, and deconstruct in as little time as a half hour.. supposedly there is even a book on the subject coming out soon called "advanced nano distilling basics" which explores the limits of how well quality beverage distillation can scale down.

these product categories are a lot of shooting in the dark. but they are very rewarding. i used to see the ferrand pineau des charentes around here but have never bought it. one thing about the category is that they can become too old and start to get frail and card board-y like many too old white wines. the floc de gascomes age really fast and some have a tiny hidden born on date. the last time i bought one it was too old and went down the drain. the aroma of bottlings that are not too old basically get summed up as either ordinary or extraordinary. i should point out that too old is not that common, so don't get paranoid when you select one. i'd just recommend avoiding floc de gascomes unless they let you return it if you think it is too old. randall grahm from bonny doon makes a california pommeau that is worth looking out for. aesthetically detached it was not as extraordinary as others i've had from normandie, but it is fun to explore what randall is coming up with. he was making peach brandy before anyone was even looking for it... the greatest book ever written on spirits is brandies and liqueurs of the world. i think i remember them covering this category well.

1 oz. sour orange juice 1 oz. green chartreuse 1 oz. d' oliveira's 10 year madeira demi doux 1 oz. hispaniola mamajuana another drink in the collage series. the madeira and sour orange juice combine to create a stunning overtone. all the sugar contents average out quite well against the acidity of the sour orange juice.

i made a "coffee" liqueur recently that was constructed solely from dark roasted rye (a coffee roast for beer brewing). the preliminary results were really good. grains are significantly cheaper than coffee which made me wonder if any of the liqueur companies, as snakey as they are, have gone this route. though the internet did not turn up any conclusive celiac allergies to coffee liqueurs.

buy your own still. i hear the amphora society pda-1 works well.

i didn't have lunch today and i just bought some madeira so i thought if i was going to have a drink before work i should probably make it a flip... 1 oz. d'oliveiras 10 year madeira (doux) .5 oz. pistachio milk syrup (400g/l) 1.5 oz. scarlet ibis rum egg a strange alluring aromatic overtone, appropriate sweetness, comforting richness. yet it could still be further optimized with a single malt. next time.

With that much syrup, I assume you're working with a medium or dry Madeira? i've never use many besides the rare wine co.'s "boston" bual and "new york" malmsey. i think they have about the same sugar content has port. and besides aroma, might only vary slightly in acidity. you need a sweet drink to emphasize the aroma, but it shouldn't feel much sweeter than something like a 2:1 manhattan. i was due for some madeira so i stopped into the liquor store at porter square next to the super market. they had two 10 year old "d' oliveiras" which is imported by grape moments whom specializes in portugeuse stuff. the two were a doux (sweet) and a demi doux for $27. the rare wine co's "boston bual" was either $40 or $50. there were no options for a dry madeira. the demi doux has a specific gravity of 1.021 while the doux had a specific gravity of 1.036. i'll do the math and convert it to g/l of sugar when i get a little more time, but suze which has %20 alc. has a gravity of 1.031 which translates to approx. 143g/l of sugar. specific gravity to g/l differing by .015 in gravity means they differ by about 44 g/l of sugar. i bet you could make a flip with either and be within most people's harmonic bounds. i did prefer the demi doux on its own.

With that much syrup, I assume you're working with a medium or dry Madeira? i've never use many besides the rare wine co.'s "boston" bual and "new york" malmsey. i think they have about the same sugar content has port. and besides aroma, might only vary slightly in acidity. you need a sweet drink to emphasize the aroma, but it shouldn't feel much sweeter than something like a 2:1 manhattan.

jaggery sour 1.5 oz. cachaca (diva for $12.99! this is not the normal bottom shelf stuff..) .75 oz. lime juice .75 oz. jaggery syrup (1:1) i am always in search of affordable aroma sources. jaggery sugar (or at least the one i ended up with) is high up on my list of new discoveries. the aroma is the best coconut expression i've ever come across. i think i enjoy it even more than coconut cream and it doesn't seem to have anything that gets "cooked" by the lime juice (coconut cream is admittedly slightly more intense). i think my new pina coladas are just going to be made with jaggery. i'll sweeten the pineapple syrup with the jaggery to 400g/l using the usual refractometer method. i can even preserve the jaggery in an alcoholic syrup like i do the single varietal honeys so it doesn't spoil on me. maybe even vaccuum seal it in a canning jar in between uses. making great cocktails with awesome aroma is starting to get really cheap. i could probably run a bar serving amazing cocktails for $5.99 and stay in business.

i've had a lot of fun putting only the yolks in espresso martinis and flips. i like to make the boston flip. boston flip: 1.5 oz. whiskey (usually a single malt) 1 oz. madeira .5 oz. simple syrup egg yolk (or even the whole egg) the golden slipper sounds similar to the finish on the knickebein. in the layers of the knickebein you are tormented by the warm whiskey then enjoy the chilled maraschino and are further relieved by the silky creaminess of the of the yolk. good times.

fish house punch for one .5 oz. lemon juice 1 oz. pineau des charentes (brillet) .5 oz. peach brandy (kuchan indian blood peach) 1 oz. guyana rum (1995 renegade finished in chateau y'quem barrels) 2 g. non aromatic white sugar this rendering of the punch was really good. i had to stir in the two grams of sugar after the fact because the drink was too dry which really suppressed the contributions of the peach brandy. with any other rum besides the renegade the sugar might not be necessary, but i think the renegades are acidified significantly. this is a new pattern for me. i think you could also substitute slivovitz or even a mosto verde pisco like the new porton and get an awesome drink.

"creamsicle" or maybe even "almond joy" a journey into the retro-sensual. .5 oz. sour orange juice .5 oz. algarvinha (epic almond liqueur of the al garve) .5 oz. almond cream (separated from almond milk in the 'fuge) 1.5 oz. st. james "ambre" the meeting of two almond expressions. strange glowing aromas. the chosen gustatory structure elevates the aromas perfectly.

that is an interesting looking paper. i have read one of the references in their bibliography before: "smelling sounds: olfactory-auditory sensory convergence in the olfactory tubercle" the "smelling sounds" paper explains how sounds sometimes change the threshold of perception of an aroma in animals. this would be useful to animals evading predators or trying to evaluate a threat level. in every multisensory system i've come across so far, one sense can either amplify another or distract from another. think salt the aroma enhancer or "too salty". using sound to augment flavor in a beautiful context is a challenge, but there are lots of other similar phenomenons like using texture to change the threshold of perception of an aroma. texture even changes the perception of alcohol. think of eating the pineapple in the stoli doli jar. when you start to investigate distractions in multisensory systems an order of operations of perception starts to become evident. this idea had led me to my "simplified gustation model" of constructing cocktails that are the easiest to smell. a useful book for investigating the science and language of attention is "sleights of mind: what the neuroscience of magic reveals about or everyday deceptions". some of this sensory science hasn't been targeting flavor specifically, but the interaction of the senses have so much in common that things can be reapplied.

1 oz. scarlet ibis trinidad rum 1 oz. mamajuana 4 g. non aromatic white sugar 1 oz. cashew cream (much thicker than heavy cream) this was kind of cool. the overall flavor was reminiscent of peanuts. i recently read about a "lactometer" which is a hydrometer with a scale that is specific to dairies. i'm wondering if i can find the specific gravity of my centrifuged nut milks and creams so i can create versions with intuitive to use fat contents. so far these nut products seem to be an endless source of amusement.