bostonapothecary

1 oz trimbach framboise brandy 1 oz. seagrams distiller's reserve 1 oz. lemon juice spoonful of sugar dash angostura this drink was especially delicious and i think its the sugar and acid that really enliven the framboise creating awesome contrast to the potent choice of gin.

For a 750 ml bottle? Holy crap. I can get it at several places in Atlanta for $21. ← the only gin around here that you can get for under $20 now is gordons, seagram's and their distiller's reserve. i get liters of new amsterdam on special for $6 at the restaurant and its not too far away from plymouth. if i find anything else its really old stock at sleepy liquor stores. its crazy than you can get products like wellers bourbon cheaper than a gin.

Heh. Seriously, is there any spirit "generally regarded as first-rate by the cocktailian community" that you like? ← overholt rye. plymouth isn't a bad product. i can easily enjoy drinking it. my understanding is that style of gin is supposed to be botanically potent and what gets sold today is kinda delicate. when i want something a little more delicate i just cut another gin with a fruit eau de vie for a little contrast. i'm mainly unhappy with the price.

i went out for a drink tonight... i aspired to drink... 1 oz. lemonheart 151 1 oz. cynar 1 oz. cola dash regan's stirred... well. apparently no bars stock over proof rum or barely any over proof / barrel proof products... well how do you cram a lot of dry vermouth, sherry, or low proof stuff into a drink to get any contrast or intensity when you are forced to inherit someone else's water...? well anyhow i ended up with something delicious. 1.5 oz. batavia arrack .75 oz. lemon juice .5 oz. fernet branca .25 oz. or so... honey syrup entire egg. some random bitters. this drink was gorgeous. when faced with something like fernet in a sour context a yolk is a nice traditional accompaniment. i don't know if the bitters were something standard like regan's or somebody's homemade batch but the drink put forth a lot of nutmeg like spice and the richness and texture was ideal for my mood. so now i wonder if someone's random bitters were laced with nutmeg or did the cocktail magically emphasize a certain something from within...

we have Plymouth on the shelf here in north metro Atlanta, GA at $35.00/ltr and $26/fifth. I just checked the numbers and wholesale prices have risen two dollars a year for the past couple of years which is not terribly unreasonable. I have seen liters as low as $27.00 but that is very few and very far between and not very recently. ← i think i know a couple places in south boston that have really old bottles of it on the bottom shelf... i should probably go and buy them as gifts but to be honest i never really liked the stuff.

after a certain hour... i drink huge amounts of arrack sours. i like mine with egg whites when i can get them plus some bitters. apricot is a good flavor contrast but i usually like something sweet and random contrasted with an equal amount of lemon juice. if you drink enough of it, arrack becomes really comforting. i like its masochistic flavor appeal. but definitely only after a certain hour. i think i like the cape verdean rum so much because i really like arrack...

2 oz. trimbach framboise "grand reserve" spoonful of sugar 4 dashes angostura this is actually disgusting and tastes like bubble gum and it went down the drain after a couple sips and trying to save it with cynar (i wish i had a lemon). the nectarine aromatized brandy also tasted like bubblegum in similarly structured cocktails... apple and pear are the only fruit brandies that i've tasted so far that are divine in non sour drinks... (nectarine make a great sour) so the question i'm wondering about now is if peach brandy (un oaked) would be divine like pear or total bubble gum gross, naturally occurring artificial flavoring...?

culinary herb flavors is a perfect description of that vermouth! i haven't heard of any one using that stuff in quite a while... do you think it can taste good contrasted with genever?

hmm. i will try everything but his choice of whiskey... if it can't work with overholt its not worth drinking... besides that i'm totally intrigued...

i haven't had tequila in the house in quite a while so i was looking for an inaugural cocktail... 1 oz. herradura anejo 1 oz. pastrana single vineyard manzanilla pasada .75 oz. cynar spoonful of tarassaco honey liqueur why i needed to deviate from the equal parts recipe i don't know. i guess i just like finding a home for this strange honey... this was lovely. cynar is my favorite amaro.

i like this drink with some of the really exotic single varietal honeys... look for the rhododendrons and the dandelions from italy. if they are too solid i dissolve them without heat in vodka or cognac... genever and good honey is real serious...

In some ways both companies are making modern interpretations of classic gins. The area where Anchor departs most from a traditional Genever (probably pre-1800) is in their bill of botanicals. Most Genevers are far more subtly spiced than the Genevieve. Few depart much from juniper and a couple adjuncts. With the Junipero and Genevieve I always seem to get some other interesting dark anise type flavors. The reason I like mixing with both gins is that they combine so interestingly with things like Absinthe and bitters. The gin recipe for the Bols Genver is based on one of the company's recipes from around 1820 with few departures. It is a very traditional Dutch gin. They did mention using a couple botanicals that were not available to distillers in the early 19th Century. ← interesting. this is tricky stuff. i just wish the products were priced at a more accessible level. and i don't really like the idea of the subtly spiced. i need more contrast. i really do love the way the genevers react in drinks producing new nuances other gins weren't able to turn up...

It sounds like the fermented mash for the Genevieve is distilled once in a pot still with the same spices as they use to flavor their Junipero Gin. To me this doesn't quite make sense. I would think you would be more likely to distill the mash once to get the low wines. Then steep with spices and distill again. I will try to confirm this with them. In any case, to the best of my knowledge the distillate for Anchor's Genevieve is not blended with Grain Neutral Spirits. It is 100% grain distillate. Also, instead of using flavor essences, the spices go, "in the soup," to quote Fritz Maytag. It is bottled at around 47% ABV, a bit higher than the Bols Genever. While the Bols Genever is certainly more pleasant to drink straight, I have to admit I'm partial to the intensity of the Anchor Genevieve when mixing certain cocktails, especially the Improved Holland Gin Cocktail. ← seems like bols is retooling modern production processes to add the malty character while anchor is truely making something in an traditional style with artistic constraints...

the honey is single varietal from dandelions (tarassaco in italian). the bees are sent out in areas (roero) where only dandelions are in bloom. its the most potent honey i've ever come across. the texture is really waxy so i just scoop it out with a spoon into something with a wide mouth full of booze (cognac, vodka blend...) it dissolves pretty fast and the i just strain it through cloth to get the comb solids and pollen like stuff out... geneva style gin (or my malta goya version) really seems to magnify the earthy funk the honey has. kind of erotic.

i used to put small spoonfuls of seagram's distillers reserve in my espresso because the contrast of flavors was really great. i also like to pair lemon and coffee with mirto from myrtle berries... mirto is a sardinian specialty but they sell it all over the amalfi coast along side lemoncello... your flavor combination isn't too weird, its just kinda ethnic... i would first try and mix something like... 1 oz. piney gin... .5 oz. mirto 3 oz. coffee lemonaide

i want to finish this bottle of sherry so i thought i'd whip up a cocktail... after drinking alot of the single vineyard la gitana manzanilla i think i prefer the la cigarrera which as a bonus comes in smaller bottles. 1.5 oz. suntory yamazaki 12yr 1 oz. pastrana single vineyard aged manzanilla 1 oz. chamberyzette (replica) bar spoon honey liqueur (single varietal dandelion) dash peychaud's strong enough for my mood but a cask strength whiskey would be better, the dandelion honey adds a gamey something extra that you never really find in a drink. divine flavor contrast from the smokiness of the scotch and the fruit of the aromatized wine. if anyone can import dolin's chamberyzette and get decent distribution they will make alot of money...

malting is just the transformation of starch to something fermentable. I'm sorry, but this is incorrect. Malting has a very specific meaning, and yours is not it. Malting means the partial germination (to produce amylase enzymes) and drying (to stop the sprouting process) of grains. Converting starch to sugar is not the same as malting. For example, American six-row barley, when malted, has a very high amount of amylase enzymes. These are the enzymes that are produced as part of germination, and their job is to convert the starch in the seed's endosperm into sugars that the plant will use to sprout. This is why "malting" involves partial germination: to produce those enzymes. Anyway... American six-row barley malt has such a high amount of enzymes that it is enough to convert other starches into sugar beyond just those in the barley grain's endosperm. So, you can make a mash with American six-row barley and throw in some corn (Miller) or rice (Budweiser), and there will be enough enzymes from the barley to convert the starches in the corn or rice into fermentable sugars. This is not "malting" the corn or rice, this is "mashing" the unmalted corn or rice. If you germinate and dry the corn kernels, then you have "malted" corn. Pumpkin, being a gourd and not a grain, can not be malted. ← my understanding is that many things beyond the common grains used in spirits (corn, rye, barley, wheat) have enough diastatic enzymes to convert their starches to sugars. my experience only really comes from sweet potatoes. you don't have to germinate anything. you simply slowly bake them and you can turn 70+% of their starches to fermentable sugar. i assumed you could get some mileage out of a pumpkin but it doesn't look like there is any economy to their chemistry. pumpkins have no surplus of diastase and barely anything for your six row barley malt to bother with without making a mess of your masher.

malting is just the transformation of starch to something fermentable. i dont' really know anything about pumpkins but after reading up beer brewers say its not worth the effort to try and convert pumpkin starches to sugars... so it can be done but to negligable effect which is why the process you describe is used...

if this avante gard spirit is malted-fermented-distilled pumpkin i wonder how pumkin-y it still tastes... anyone have any tasting notes? i wish i could get my hands on a bottle...

i've been planning to make something like it with malted sweet potatoes and maybe some rye. fresh spirits of character are really cool. a smart cocktail like a simple old fashioned really takes their edge off... i'm looking to find some guidelines about how much hops to substitute for the juniper...

yesterday i worked an event for brown-forman and had some fun presenting a cocktail... my drink was supposed to be an adaptation of the bee's knees and use some fruit liqueur (chambord) for extra flavor contrast... the source of honey was the potent single varietal "tarassaco del roero" which is made from dandelion flowers and has an intense gamey character... the honey was dissolved in a blend of vodka and cognac then filtered through cloth to remove the comb solids. the aim was a 1:1 syrup. 2 oz. gin (seagram's distillers reserve) .5 oz. honey liqueur (tarassaco) .5 oz. fruit liqueur (chambord) 1 oz. lemon juice 2 dashes peychaud's this a tart and strong drink with fun flavor contrasts but became much more interesting and lively when later in the night i switched to a geneva style gin... for some random reason the malty character of the gin lifted the unique varietal character of the honey to the forefront in a significant way and the fun flavor contrasts were less muted... the warmth of the malt character even seemed to change the acid balance into something more elegant. by wine analogy things changed from pinot grigio to pinot gris...

i needed to kill some time before i kick off the day so i thought i'd mix a drink from some new acquisitions in gilroy style proportions... 1 oz. aged cape verdean rum 1 oz. patxaran (basque sloe berry, anise, vanilla, coffee liqueur) .5 oz. dry manzanilla pasada (aged and most cocktail centric sherry...) .5 oz. lemon juice 2 dashes regan's orange bitters strange character from the unique rum and long lived in the mouth from the liqueur with nice complex acidic structure... kind of silly and easily successful... patxaran can be approximated by adding 250 ml plymouth sloe gin to 750 ml pernod (my estimate), 3 coffee beans and a 1/3 of a vanilla bean. it makes me want to plant a sloe bush in my back yard... patxaran is also delicious with cold water...

i try to drink with the zeitgeist so i don't really stick with anything non classic long enough to nominate a cocktail of the decade but i will say that the only modern drink people consistently ask me for is the "old cuban"... around here in the summer the drink is probably responsible for the majority of sales of 8 year bacardi... aged spirit, bitters, nice acidity... bubbly sophistication. i never got bored drinking them...

for bars the usual suspects will carry the haymens. but as far as liquor stores go, brix with have it as soon as its available from my recent conversation with them... i usually go straight to brix for all my haus alpenz needs...

today i wanted something tart so i drank... 2 oz. JM reserve especial aguardente de santo antao 1 oz. lemon juice spoon of sugar dash of angostura delicious. my new favorite affordable rum. i wish i could have this drink in a bar for seven dollars... i'd have several... i think i want to make a mojito with it next... from my imagination what i want to drink is a genever style gin made from malted sweet potatoes... and a very delicate clovey, macey, kind of formula in addition to juniper, coriander, and orange peel... maybe i can have something ready by thanksgiving...