bostonapothecary

could grape juice refer to verjus? concord grapes scare me...

I forgot about Stock. I can get that here; can't get Cinzano (except by special order and then it's half a case or nothing). The Stock isn't expensive at all, but the only size offered is 1.5L! That's a lotta lotta vermouth. ← i finally found and picked up the bossiere sweet and dry vermouths but i have yet to open them up... i also just picked of a bottle of Cribari's sweet vermouth made in Canandaigua New York. i guess they are known for cooking marsala and jug wine style stuff. but their sweet vermouth is not horrible at all... a liter was $4. i can drink it for breakfast in my half sinner half saints...

i just saw an old bottle of mexican "citronge" orange liqueur in a liquor store... the label looked old and had no mention of patron. the bottom of the bottle formed in glass said something like "made in mexico city". so did "citronge" exist pre patron?

i found three bottles of the "cinzano reserva dry vermouth". it definitely showed some age but i enjoyed it with cheese... i snagged the last bottle of old campari from the same store... i haven't been into brix in the south end in a while but i wonder if they still have amer picon on the shelves.

even with clayton's i think those ratio's would be gross. i changed a bag of "on the gun" cola and there was a little syrup left so i gave it to the pastry chef to try and play with. well i was the only one that liked the resulting sorbet... i thought everyone liked cola? it must be a cultural thing... i mixed the syrup with equal parts lime juice and made a lemonaide out of it. bitter it up and i like it.

rumor has it they are picking up a boston bartender. look for him. he has a funny accent but makes a mean drink!

They have all the drinks on the menu memorized. These guys all know a lot more than 74 drinks from memory. Actually, it's easier than it sounds. All you have to do is think: "A 'Final Ward' is a 'Last Word' with rye and lemon" or "a 'Silver Lining' is a rye sour with Cuarenta y Tres as the sweet." ← i bet a big part of their success is that their staff is actually into it... if a team member creates a good drink off menu they want to know about it, and even maybe go try it themselves... there are lots of great bartenders out there that are not lucky enough to work with team members that are as enthusiastic about aspects of their job...

eastern standard's menu is large, but it seems to work quite well for them. they don't list ingredients so a dialogue is opened up and the staff talks about the drinks like someone would a wine of an obscure varietal... they make everything with some pretty exceptional consistency as well. just like a glass of wine... i wish my restaurant could attempt the same, but contrary to my staff being a bunch of communists they never embraced a love of standardization...

1.5 oz. seagram's distiller's reserve gin .5 oz. plymouth sloe gin decent barspoon of sugar 1 oz. dry vermouth as tart as lemon juice* .5 oz. cynar this drink was really fun. i think i can parse all the ingredients quite well. i'm still using the rest of a bottle of gallo dry that i added malic acid to (details are on my blog), but as soon as its gone i'm switching to stock or noilly prat for more character... the fruit character of the vermouth is definitely evident in the drink... the sloe gin is so powerful i can't imagine much more of it in a cocktail but i do like it so much i think i'm going to buy a backup bottle...

1.5 oz. st. james ambre .5 oz. yellow chartreuse .5 oz. plymouth sloe gin 1 oz. lemon juice dash angostura i wanted to test drive the new sloe gin but didn't find anything to satisfy my mood in the cocktaildb... this drink is about as tart as a classically made 2:1:1 margarita... the sloe gin brings really sinister color to the drink... using it anywhere would endanger a matador. diluted quite well it provides good and exotic scenery for some flavor contrast... i would easily drink this again...

i just picked up a bottle of plymouth sloe gin ($40) at charles street liquors on beacon hill... its pretty cool. the nose has a charming cough syrup kind of character. its is elegantly sweet but finishes almost dry like there is much more acidity than a liqueur like cointreau. the botanicals seem to add only subtle nuance and there is no piny juniper leaping out at you... all in all the product makes a sloe gin fizz among others seem really appealing....

i have a recipe somewhere from a book on soda making but i've always just really enjoyed malta goya and malta guiness...

i wonder if my palate is warped as well... i've started preferring vermouth to the whiskey and gin... its kind of like smoking cigarettes. at first it seems awful then it grows on you and becomes the dose of familiarity you want in a drink... unfortunately people need to invest in liking it.... i like the chamberyzette replica i've been playing with. as fruity as it is, its undeniably vermouthy. quite the gateway drug... last night i served what was basically a hennessey (my sponsor), strawberry vermouth sour to 300 people at the "taste of cambridge" and i didn't get a single person say it was ouside the average of their tastes... i got more complements than any other large event i've presented at. score a point for vermouth. 2 oz. hennessey 1 oz. chamberyzette (16% sugar by weight) 1 oz. lime juice .25 oz. simple syrup 2 dashes peychaud's bitters the replica recipe is on my blog if anyone is interested. its pretty easy to whip up and is another great way to preserve a good looking harvest. its a cheaper investment than "tequila por mi amante" and maybe almost as satisfying...

the John Wood does look very cool. its got quite alot of lemon juice so it looks like managable sweetness. is it worth buying a bottle of kummel to try? or would you recommend a common substitute to get the feel of the drinks structure?

its a interesting document but it doesn't describe any flavor acompaniments... i still vote for peppermint...

i have a feeling that old school lillet is just as boring and orangey as the new stuff... if you want elegant bitter and depth of flavor americanos are were its at... if my jean de lillet ever gets here i'm going to toss it in the wine cellar and bring it up in a few years... the idea of an "odd French dessert wine" sounds awsome... i just ordered three different americanos that i know nothing about on faith. one is a barolo chinato and the other is made with a moscato base... i will post some reviews if they ever get here... (last time they ended up back ordered) if you like bitter, nardini has some nice 21rst century alto cucina grappa based americanos...

its monday and i have the day off... and i've been scheming a bourbon cocktail... i had a couple fingers left in a bottle of 95 proof black maple hill and some cigarrerra manzanilla sherry that i've been really into... i looked through the savoy cocktail book for inspiration to combine the two and came across the "artists special cocktail". it seemed liek a good idea... so i assembled the drink using the black maple hill, cigarrerra sherry, lime juice because i had no lemons, and my own black berry shrub instead of the specified red currant syrup... if this drink called for a dry sherry like i used, these proportions are no fun with bourbon... the recipe has the makings for a dry and scrawny drink which really doesn't attract me... bourbon, which is full figured in flavor, needs some proportions that are more volumptuous if not even pornographic... the recipe is wise to split up the acids to make something more complex than say just lime juice, but it uses too much and i wouldn't even like it as an aperatief... i made it again as 2 oz. bourbon whiskey .5 oz. manzanilla sherry .5 oz. lime 1 oz. black berry shrub definitely fuller figured... the whiskey is much happier... more my style.

i think alcohol is probably as bad a pharmaceuticals and cigarettes... taxes and advertising have a serious effect on cost... it creates crazy and unnatural seeming price discrepancies... but i wonder exactly how significantly advertising is in killing the value of spirits for the consumer...

Hey! I didn't say anything about the Jean de Lillet! Dammit, why'd you say anything! Now Mayur's going to buy it all! ← MUHAHAHAHAHA! Actually, in all seriousness, I'm rather fond of what I've got infusing right now: A Moscato Giallo fortified to 17% with unaged brandy, sweetened to about 22 brix, and aromatized with fresh lemon and orange peel, bitter orange peel, quinine, cinnamon, cloves, and (after a conversation with donbert) apricot kernels. your project sounds interesting. is a written recipe around the corner?

Specifically, the "alpine herbs". Dolin Vermouth de Chambery is specifically made with what they call "alpine herbs". Other than some alpine species of wormwood, I've never been exactly clear on what is meant by "alpine herbs", but maybe that is where the flavor commonality between the two lies. ← thanks for blowing my secret source for vintage lillet... =) i just ordered a couple bottles and they claimed they could ship to boston... wonderful people over there at corti brothers... it seems like that grocery store-wine shop is the sole tiny importer... its really wonderful to see people creating a market for these small traditions...

It never occurred to me either, until I noticed flavor similarities to drinks made with Americano and when I made the Imperial Cocktail. Maybe they're using a grappa to fortify it and that's what I'm tasting? ← lillet has a website and does note the use of bitter, sweet and green oranges. and they also only disclose quinine... they also note 85% base wine and 15% "fruit liqueurs"... then get age it... from their website in the production outline they are apparently confident it ages and young fruit vintages should be blended with portions of older vintages that have developed more a candied fruit style and mature "bouquet"... they may not be bull shitting... the product could be a case of simple imputs, some aging, blending, and then complex outputs... i get almond out of some vermentinos but there are no almonds added... quinine is naturally cinnamony... to make a replica that is fun to drink you would need to cut corners and use complex inputs to generate quickly obtained complex outputs... add almonds to get lillet's natural almond character... you could also experiment with leaving a bottle directly in the sun for a week or two... creating some expedited aging by radiation and then blending it with the younger stuff and adding a little more quinine... it might do the trick... i keep finding italian liqueur recipes that advocate sun aging...

To the best of my knowledge, if you're going for maximum authenticity you'd use Armagnac for the fortifier and some presumably inexpensive White Bordeaux for the wine base, though I would imagine not an entirely dry one...maybe a Premieres Cotes du Bordeaux Blanc? I think Muscat Canelli would be too floral, you'd want something relatively neutral I think. ← sauternes and armagnac? i saw some haut charmes sauternes on sale. i should probably own a bottle of armagnac... i'll give it a try.

Yes, I am embarrassed to admit the Engel's drink is indeed called the "Knickebein", not the "Knickerbein". I'm almost as bad as Harry Craddock, with the typos! ← engel's drink is really cool... my brother comes to the restaurant and challenges me to make it while i'm really busy... everyone else wonders what the hell is going on...

i did something like that last year called "the apple of eden" i used manzanilla for the sherry and apple brandy instead of the tequila... 2:1:1 sherry and cynar are a great duo... i think i have the stuff to try the trident tonight...

i came across marco polo sour cherry only once at tropico in roxbury... i bought a liter for only 2$ and was really impressed... never saw it again. glad to know amazon stocks it. i'd pick it up in a heart beat if i came across it again... are the other flavors as good as the cherry?