bostonapothecary

i made one last night with a death's door gin nip i had been saving from last years TOTC. 2 oz. death's door gin 1 oz. cointreau 1 oz. lime juice dash angostura i really need a lot of acidity and this was one of the best drinks i've had lately.

interesting clone recipe. why was the wine heated in the beginning if the sugar could just be stirred in? i think those orange products are about blending different types of peels to create a particular shade of orange-orientated fruit. green, sweet, & seville. finding something seductive can probably be made easier by tracking down an interesting moscat style wine rather than mastering the orange. producers probably have to change their tricks and rely more on the peels when they scale up immensely. they use ingenuity to make flavors found only in rare dessert wines affordable. for us its probably just cheaper to slightly augment the rare dessert wine. great wine picks to consider in a blend would be capanna's moscadello de montalcino which is epic moscat with far more orangey fruit character than the typical melon. another cool dessert wine that made me think of such a project is donnafugata's passito di panteleria. a small amount in the blend would be killer.

why does the syrup recipe have so much water in it? if most honeys are 80% sugar going 1:1 would put you in the range of many commercial liqueurs... to get an elegant menthe-fruit contrast i've had luck mixing equal parts strega and stock maraschino. its less severe than going the creme de menthe route. seagrams distillers reserve gin is pretty cool and has a high enough proof that you can mix 1.5 oz. with .5 oz. dry sherry to gain that rich barrel taste but with more acidity to give a little extra structure to those sweet liqueurs.

is being slightly "evangelistic" inherent to the craft of bartending? in general, the cocktail tries to elevate ingredients held sacred in various cultures by comparing and contrasting them to other components. its an environment where things are being desecrated and promoted left and right... its a boasting "try this" atmosphere which eventually has to alienate something. i don't mind making cosmos and apple martinis and when i do, i make sure my margins beat the normal stuff i'm passionate about producing... its a great subsidy and i couldn't do half the stuff i want without it. but as a bartender, you also need to provide an elbow rubbing atmosphere. you can get to a point where a majority of foodie regulars and patrons of the arts don't want to have apple martinis ordered over their shoulders... it detracts from the vibe. if something "cool" goes over someone's shoulder they might turn around and be more likely to mingle enhancing the atmosphere. cool is usually what ever the bar is promoting... of course very few places really deserve to focus so much on elbow rubbing. i've definitely never really gotten there... oh my the junk i still make...

that sounds so my style... i have everything but the looza... whole foods?

Correct. If you're hammering a nail, even if you hit it a thousand times, if you don't hit it with enough strength, it'll never be driven in. ← for creating "cocktail bitters", which are just essentially potent extracts and do not necessarily have a focus on being literally bitter, shouldn't the same guidelines as making extracts for vermouth apply such as a lower alcohol content than is being recommended? a lot of the vermouth literature describes different infusion times for different botanicals and different particle sizes because nearly every botanical seems to have a part you want extracted and a part you want to avoid. a few mid century wines & vines sources say you shouldn't use alcohol contents over 20-25% to avoid tannins and objectionable bitter components. 25% is much lower than any cocktail bitter guideline i've seen. of course it could be a completely different ball game because the intensities are so different. though most of the vermouth recipes even used the relatively lower strengths to produce the concentrates that they then diluted to huge degrees with wine stock. do the vermouth makers have any wisdom or is it just completely different?

i don't think the word balance should be used too readily for the interaction of sweet an sour accept maybe if it matches the mood of an individual at the moment they receive it... i would say that just plain "contrast" is a more important word. and there are all sorts of different directions these contrasts can go. the savoy exhibits a pretty big spread. not all of these contrasts are within the averages of most peoples tastes. one of my favorite sugar/acid ethic contrasts has become the sanru cocktail with dubbonets and a spoonful of cherry heering contrasted against dry sherry. its less pornographic than the chestier fuller figured contrasts of a 2:1:1 jack rose or a 2:1:1 margarita. outside of the moment its experienced, the sanru is not more balanced or less than the others. its just a different sense of direction. (a direction that is hard to get away with on a mainstream cocktail list) i'd say the difference between a sour made with plymouth or beafeater is a difference of either extract (there is more flavor dissolved in one than the other holding alcohol constant) or the contrasts of the botanicals is significantly different. more juniper and less coriander etc... related to contrast, direction and balance, there is a backlash in the wine world to over extracted wines. wines that sought to be "grand cru" or intense ended up inelegant and had so much dissolved flavor that potential nuances over lapped, becoming stuck, clunky and dense obscuring their sense of place. lots of people really like these wines and they might be the I.P.A of their genre but i cant always enjoy them (i love I.P.A.s). to me this sometimes happens with cocktails which is why i like leaner sweet vermouths than carpano antica in my manhattan which i feel turns my drink into australian shiraz when i wanted mature old school rioja. quite the difference in direction.

i don't like to think of cocktails as balanced. in the realm of acquired tastes things are direction driven. i would only throw the balance word around with most wines and certain beers. in the beer world, many people say that I.P.As are not balanced because they are so hoppy. But they are wildly popular so what are they? they apparently have something going for them that makes people want to drink them. i actually don't think we've developed sufficient language to discuss beverage properly. i see too many borrowed food words thrown around which usually have an association with comfort. cocktails for me are about a level of discomfort which for some reason makes me feel better. within a dis-balanced structure (massive alcohol, wreckless sugar and/or acid, abusive extract from all the cocktail bitters) there is some sort of inner peace and harmony of flavor contrast that one might look for. maybe its a metaphor for our lives and that is why we tolerate and seek out its slightly chaotic structure instead of the pinot gris.

i like that rotgut kind of stuff. i just load it up with cocktail bitters... i feel like expectations of light rums are too high. its not exactly blanco tequila. it should just be affordable and thats about it.

i wonder if the formula changed as U.S. demand went up. it went from obscurity to bacardi replacement for so many bars and households. global demand can kick an artisan's ass.

inspired by the charleston cocktail but lacking some ingredients... 1/6 del maguey chichicapa 1/6 kirschwasser (hiram walker... not terrible) 1/6 yellow chartreuse 1/6 sloe gin (plymouth) 1/6 sweet vermouth (boissiere) 1/6 manzanilla pasada (la cigarrera) the original drink seemed to be about three good combos so i substituted the best combos i had laying around... i prefer sweet vermouth & dry sherry to vermouth & vermouth because you get the same acidity but more rich whiskey like contrast. i substitute yellow chartreuse and sloe gin all the time in old recipes where i see the too comparative extra old school curacoa & maraschino duo. i've been trying really hard to find a home for the mezcal and the fruit eau de vie of the original charleston seemed like a great contrast to rival all the smokiness. at .5 oz. del maguey's chichicapa really spoke through the entire drink... all in all very memorable with a structure that, even with my tastes, i didn't find too sweet. i think the winner of the drink is the mezcal-kirschwasser combo... if i come across a lemon in my travels i will try the duo in a simple sour...

many good points. but to me even relative to the egullet chatter, the savoy book seems menthe happy. i don't own a bottle of creme de menthe and i don't know anyone that champions the flavor on their list. google does reveal quite a lot of menthe-mate tea products on the market. i wish culinary history was advanced enough to explain such pairings and how far they go back. i will say that i enjoy the tea and the two flavors in general are tasty in a cocktail. hopefully someday we will resolve this hercules issue.

Instead of being an Absinthe substitute, Hercules turned out to be a wine based aperitif one of whose ingredients was Yerba Mate! From Jeff: OK, a bitter wine based aperitif flavored with Yerba Mate. your missing the menthe... ← Based on what source, exactly? Christopher ← good point. i don't have a source but the savoy book is menthe happy and the classic mate pairing is with menthe... i just believe its the most probable explantion of what hercules would taste like...

Instead of being an Absinthe substitute, Hercules turned out to be a wine based aperitif one of whose ingredients was Yerba Mate! In addition, a London friend, Jeff Masson asked around about it. Turned out that a friend of his was acquainted with some of the ex-Savoy bartenders. While the most recent bartender didn’t recall Hercules, his predecessor at the bar did! From Jeff: OK, a bitter wine based aperitif flavored with Yerba Mate. Current try at reproduction: 1 bottle Navarro White Table Wine 1/4 cup Yerba Mate 1 tablespoon Gentian 1 clove Dried Peel from 1 Seville Orange 1/2 stick Ceylon Cinnamon 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup Havana Club 8 Year Rum Method: Combine all ingredients other than rum, bring to 140 degrees for 10 minutes. Strain off solids, cool, and add rum. Refrigerate. I purposely kept this simple, to try and get more of a feel for appropriate taste combinations with the Yerba Mate. Initial thoughts are that it has too much gentian to be drunk on it’s own for pleasure. But it’s close. Tasting other vermouth I have around, I find many seem to have more culinary herbs in the middle flavors than this. Might have to experiment with including some thyme, mint, or oregano next time. I’m also not sure if the color came from the wine or if it was colored, so skipped that for the time being. Since most vermouth is made on a white wine base, I would guess it was colored, perhaps with cochineal or similar. New Life Cocktail 1/4 Hercules. (1/2 oz “Hercules”) 1/4 Bacardi Rum. (1/2 oz Montecristo Rum) 1/2 Cointreau. (1 oz Cointreau) Shake (I stirred) well and strain into cocktail glass. That’s a lot of Cointreau, but every other recipe for the New Life I can find uses the same proportions, so I guess it isn’t a typo. While it is sweet, it is kind of tasty. However, drinking it, I was reminded of the unique flavors of Armazem Viera’s Esmeralda Cachaca. Remaking it with Cachaca instead of the Montecristo rum did make for a much more interesting cocktail. Interesting that these two South American flavors would compliment each other. ← your missing the menthe...

Really? A teaspoon of sugar weighs 4 grams. Many people seem to think that lemon juice and 1:1 simple syrup "balance" at more or less equal volumes. That would mean, more or less, 13 grams of sucrose to balance the 3/4 ounce of lemon juice in Dale's drink. This would all depend on the sourness of the lemon, of course, and the inherrent sweetness of the base spirit. All of which is to say that 4 grams of sugar with 3/4 ounce of fresh lemon juice in a 2 ounce base drink doesn't seem as though it would "balance." Rather, I would expect it to be "tart" to "very tart." Now, that might be pretty good (for example, I like a Daiquiri with a half-ounce of lime juice against somewhat less than a teaspoon of sugar) -- but I would expect it to be quite sour. More of a bracer than a sipper. Interesting. I actually think that we're seeing a trend in some NYC cocktailian circles towards a fairly austere "brown spirits stirred with bitter flavors" style that, while having great appeal to me personally and the cocktail geek crowd in general, perhaps doesn't have as broad an appeal. I'd be curious to know which cocktails you're thinking of. One thing to keep in mind is that, for example, some of Audrey's most famous cocktails (e.g., Tantris Sidecar) were developed perhaps as many as ten years ago or more, during an entirely different era of American mixology. Certainly this is true of just about all of Dale's iconic drinks. Two good points there. Obviously one needs to create and serve cocktails that the public will buy and enjoy, but at the same time being mindful of the fact that we'd like to evolve the public palate and also that sweetness shouldn't be a crutch. At the same time, I belive that a palate that is biased too far in the direction of sour or dry can also sacrifice complexity. For example, one isn't able to appreciate the suave smoothness of cognac in a Sidecar where the lemon juice still "bites" in the mouth or leaves behind that "raw" citrus aftereffect. Similarly, I feel that drinks which would like to use minute amounts of modifiers miss the whole point of the cocktail. (Not that you are advocating any of these things, I should hasten to point out.) ← when talking about the average of people's tastes i don't think people embrace enough the cocktail as an "acquired taste"... disbalanced and thats the point, direction driven, analogous to the velvet underground's song "heroin". its a screeching train wreck but for some reason its ok, good even. i see too much of the cocktail as this vanilla missionary position comfort thing when at least i think it should be an s&m slap me around kind of thing... when i make something for me personally i always try and keep the acquired taste perspective. i even try and bring it to my bar as much as possible. (how far i get i dont' know, i do make a lot of cosmos.) the tart cocktails are often ruthless relative to recipes i see elsewhere (none get returned). the sweet cocktail ethic maxes out at 2:1 manhattan sweet with very little exception. i even personally have a hard time with negronis because of the sweetness and try to promote the sbagliato because it has more acid structure. but of course if you ask for something i will make it to your specifications. i even love the idea of promoting the exotic ingredient... norwegian aquavit... a kinky one night stand with a girl that doesn't speak english... i love when i see people thinking to themselves "i don't know what it is but i'm sure i can metabolize it, sign me up". i love when i see someone drinking a dry tanqueray martini... the acquired taste of it my god! i cold barely enjoy it. i do not drink them but i love seeing dirty martinis. vodka or not. (i always make them 2:1) another serious acquired taste but with a noble structure. nearly bone dry but with an acid structure via the only way they know how... utopian/distopian and idealistic much like the sanru or so many savoy cocktails that people skip over. for some reason many people love to hate on the dirty's trendiness but it nothing to ever scoff at.

anyone know who sets up the volunteering for TOTC... last year i felt like i should have been working and would have been glad to volunteer... i don't want to drink frozen lime juice this year. who do people apprentice under with cointreau?

i just put something new on the menu after drinking a few... it got quite good reviews though some staff members didn't aquire the taste... bees knees 2 oz. gin (seagrams) 1 oz. honey liqueur* 1 oz. lemon juice *the honey is corsican single varietal "strawberry tree" honey. when from sardinia its called "miele de corbezzolo". supposedly its classicaly used to marinate fish but i can't remember the source i read that in. the honey is curiously bitter but reminds me of chile threads. the single varietal nature brings a serious uniquness to it and the descriptors most thrown around were chile or tobasco. most honeys are 60 brix so i cut them in half with cruzan to make an approximately 30 brix liqueur. this puts it in between cointreau and 1:1 simple syrup. the honey quickly dissolves into the rum and if you leave it over night you can rack off all the comb solids. i'd definitely take rum or vodka over hot water so as not to disturb the delicate flavors.

i want to put the new version on the list with the wines by the glass and see what happens.

i've seen photos of devices that look like nut crackers meant for cold draft sized ice but i've never seen a bar that used them... in theory they seem even faster and more practical than spoon whacking though it seems like hands still get involved as the best way to load the device. http://icetoolcollections.com/ ice tool collections presents a nice time line with great photos.

inverse margarita 2 oz. hand imported strangely good anejo tequila 1 oz. roses lime 1 oz. seville sour orange juice the sweet-tart balance here is really good. everything is familiar but different... i'm in love with this sour orange juice. bronx 2 oz. beafeater 1 oz. stock sweet vermouth 1 oz. sour orange juice awesome structure and flavor contrast...

a year ago on the cocktail list i had the "fitzcarraldo" which was a pisco sour that subbed pimms for a percentage of the sugar... the drink was well liked but few people understood the movie reference. opera in the peruvian jungle was the idea... people that new the movie didn't seem to know what pisco was or sometimes even pimms. times were different in the early 20th. humor and novelty worked differently. the late 20th/21rst century equivalent of the "marconi wireless" in being novel and amusing is probably the "red headed slut" shot etc... i blame it on tv.

1 oz. macallan cask strength 1 oz. linie aquavit 1 oz. sweet vermouth (cinzano) bar spoon melati di bosco spruce tree honey liqueur there are some really interesting flavor contrasts in this drink and i made it quite a few times. the spruce tree honey's brand of pininess is a fun contrast to the anise and sherried character of both the whiskey and aquavit. it may hit the menu with a more affordable whiskey... but bourbon, rye or blended scotch?

my "creole shrubb" recipe is working incredibly well for our bar. i made a large amount of "seville orange concentrate" (nearing a years worth) then i add it to 92 proof booze with 260 grams of sugar... its getting great reviews and i can mix up the base spirit as i see fit. i really want to deal with haus alpenz which i think makes the best available liqueurs but i cant' add another distributor so i'm going to make a nice apricot liqueur recipe. 100 proof base spirit infused with x grams of dried apricots, diluted with y grams of sugar (exactly same as brizard), diluted to z proof with whole foods apricot juice (factoring in its sugar). maybe i'll add some pits as they become pastry department scraps. recipe to follow... more affordable liqueurs means more affordable cocktails, means better dining culture...

i haven't had the pussers in years but i have a bottle of the goslings 151. delicious stuff if diluted appropriately. i think i'm going to use it on the cocktail menu with my new supply of kola nut tonic. ← Agreed, Goslings "115" is my favorite rum of the moment, along with St. James Amber. ← st. james amber is epic and ignored by too many bars though it does have annoying distribution here.

i haven't had the pussers in years but i have a bottle of the goslings 151. delicious stuff if diluted appropriately. i think i'm going to use it on the cocktail menu with my new supply of kola nut tonic.