bostonapothecary

calvados averna lemon juice i tried to order a calvados and averna sour. at a place that normally could handle such a request... he started adding simple syrup then he added lemon juice then he added about an ounce of calvados then he didn't know what averna was (which freaked me out because i worked with this bartender years ago at an italian restaurant) then he added 2 oz of averna or so... then i requested more lemon juice anyhow the amazing thing was that i ended up with more or less two oz of averna to 1 oz. or calvados yet the brandy really showed itself and the combo worked well... i think i'm gonna have to experiment making the drink myself... maybe even break out the verjus and aged balsamic...

a very similar drink was floating around boston throughout the fall called the "hanky panky"... i think its from the savoy cocktail book and the fernet measurement is just a couple dashes (1/4 oz.) delish

Katie, have you thought about getting the roasted pumpkin seeds they sell for snacks at the grocery store and rinsing the salt off (or even a brief blanching), crush lightly and use to infuse your vodka? Might work... HTH! ← i like the particular nuttiness of luxardo's abano amaro... if you have any around it might be worth trying... it goes really well with chocolate.

wow, those are some serious options... today i was going to convert my usque-baugh liqueur (interpretation) into an absinthe-esque liqueur by adding wormwood and seeing what came out... fitting in between the balance of the saffron, anise, and fruit is very important, i am trying to develop something for the person that doesn't especially like anise but is fearless in general... i need something to drizzle over my "half sinner / half saint"... something new to drink while i work...

i haven't spent too much time with absinthe because i'm not an anise fan. but what besides wormwood and the various anise flavors are the other common botanicals? and how much does the wormwood flavor stick out comparatively in the available brands? does limiting the thujone content limit the wormwood flavor? i've been putting lots of wormwood in my vermouths and have really grown to love the flavor. the last time i made a pastis (which i revisited today... delish!) i used every kind of anise flavor i could find but what is the most traditional varieties? i've heard of distilleries revisiting old absinthe recipes but have any recipes trickled down into the public domain to check out?

i use agave nectar for diabetics... it dissolves really fast in alcohol...

if i needed to get rid of some herbsaint i'd cook myself some mussels... or something else mediteranean inspired... and i'd drink the crispest beer i could find to which i'd add amer picon...

so i'm trying to create a cocktail to showcase dessert wine... i did a sauterne flip style drink a while ago with the addition of benedictine... (to approximate pairing dessert wine with a cigar) the dessert wine i used was apiane moscato reale. two oz. of dessert wine to a 3/4 oz. of benedictine with a whole egg... the results with the particular wine were stunning... results with other dessert wines didn't sync up so well... i can't get the particular wine anymore so i'm looking for more potential ideas to go with the wines i have... moscato d'asti, california noble rots... ice wine... budget sauternes... chateau y'quem... (dreaming) well it seems like trial and error to make a beautiful flip with serious longevity on the palate but i thought besides benedictine, luxardo's amaro abano might be beautiful... i tried it last night with equal parts sauternes, cachaca, and amaro abano and an egg... it tasted like some sort of dough... interesting but not divine. the cachaca was taking up space... i need 2oz. of dessert wine to 1/2 to 1 oz. of something else to get a beautiful pairing... an over the top single malt maybe? pimento dram anyone? anyone have any ideas or experience? need to reachieve the success of apiane / benedictine flip...

i make mine with wray and nephews overproof that i dilute to 100 proof or so with another rum then i infuse with allspice powder from crushing the whole berries for 10 days. i sugar to 36 brix with brown sugar. the idea was to get something with cointreau style sugar and alcohol... i'd like to find some sort of boutique source of the spice so i know i have quality and intensity... right now i only use the product from christina's spice shop in cambridge... anyone have a cool source?

thats a culture i'd do well in...

maybe you just have the wrong brandy... it might want armagnac... you gotta stage a fair fight... if you only had one brandy like an artistic constraint... i wouldn't really make the drink out of the book... subsidize the brandy... it leads to a different drink but the goal i'm sure was just some sort of massive liquid sophistication...

I've got mixed feelings there: I'm the NE manager for Loimer's importer, so anything that encourages more Loimer to be drank...hey, great! That said, there's a lot more body in a Loimer Riesling than I think one might want in vermouth, as well as some residual sugar (about 7 grams in the Kamptal). What about a nice muscadet? Great acidity, light body. Seems like an ideal vehicle... ← vya uses moscat... its a pretty cool grape. i don't have enough experience with it and should probably try more of them. presently i'm sipping some vya dry and his tastes rather similar to my first edition where i used a mineraly macabeo... isn't more body often an asset? especially when it take more than you think to dilute the wine fortifying it... using loimer would be like the barolo chinato of the dry category =) not decadent but advanced... i love the kamptal...

viognier is one of my favorite grapes. but i've always known it to be rich and low acid... i have some torrontes that needs a home that is similar but with more acid. it sort of has a cat pea like character on the nose. i'm wondering if dry vermouth should be thought of as a mild acid. fortified only to preserve it and minimally spiced only to correct any blandness. does it pair with gin because of its botanicals or because of its acidity?

i've seen other things "precipitate" as well and give off that "devil's water" effect... if it gelatinized you could probably double strain off particles and if it precipitated all would probably go through a very fine strainer.... otherwise the flavors of the cocktail seem really interesting. i've never used any prune syrup before.

so i took a stab at making dry vermouth... pretty good stuff. i used a beautiful wine and really nice stuff to fortify it... minerality was gorgeous but the botanicals i used to aromatize it ended up very much like cinnamon and clove... (i didn't add any clove or cinnamon) i'm not a huge expert on dry vermouth. i don't drink dry gin martini's. when i drink dry vermouth its usually as an acid to balance a spoonful or so of something sweet... what do people want in a dry vermouth?? higher quality wine definitely can make things interesting... any fruit character to use as a contrast to botanicals...? what theory is used to justify the beauty people see in vermouth over gin... compare / contrast ? i would love to preserve and aromatize one of loimer's reislings... it brings incredible acidity and strange concentrations of flavor... is that fair game or do you have to use a wine that is flawed and try to breath some life back into it?

You and the vast majority of Jamaican drinkers. Apparently it accounts for 90% of the rum sold in Jamaica*. Personally, I was kind of surprised Jamaican Rum wasn't called for in the Duppy Cocktail. Would make a lot more sense than Scotch. *Source, Appleton website. ← so with 90% of jamaica behind it the recipe is not likely to change... i knew the "duppy" by the name the "sunset gun" which i read on a blog and thoroughly enjoyed... i'd use a rum like appleton vx if i didn't use a whiskey... 'tis the season for that kind of a drink...

i drink it straight every now and then to the horror of my coworkers... delicious only on the right occasions...

i went to nine park for last call and saw they were rocking the classic "tom and jerry" batter... finally got one with fernet, hot milk, and the batter... wow. i'm no longer scared of the new england winter...

what about something with creme de cocao? i really liked my grapefruit bitters but had a hard time with intensity so i turned it into an "equatorial amaro" "the campari of the carribean!" my recipe needs a revision. i know i'm missing alot of details that could make it really cool. i want to mimic compari's sugar/alcohol model to make it pretty intuitive to use... maybe track down some cochineal as well... before you add as much sugar as campari it needs to be almost sickly bitter. so i think there would need to be something besides only citrus rind doing the bittering...

its kind of like the benedictine of the country side... rustic, simple, delicious... i'd use it where you would use benedictine... variously spirited sours make bottles of it disapear very quickly around here...

last night i made a classically spirited "tom and jerry" for an old italian women i know whom is known for thorough knowledge of esoteric italian specialties as well as just being an incredible chef... well she loved it. and told me she hadn't had something like it since she was 15 and her mother would make something incredibly similar but with fernet branca as the spirit... i think i'm gonna try some fernet tonight using the "tom and jerry system"... last night i got as far as mirto liqueur which was complex, warming, and with awsome texture...

To the best of my knowledge, because it isn't distilled post infusion, Creole Shrubb probably falls nicely into the category of ratafia, rather than curaçao liqueur. ← i got my origional "shrub" recipe from a hunting manuel. which tragicaly i can no longer find... i think i lost the origional "bb" because i wasn't paying close enough attention like happens with most things being translated through history... but the beauty of it all is that if i use it enough it becomes true because thats how the english language works... if my metaphor is not too much of a stretch to accept, every day i will become more correct until no one bothers me anymore... strictly enforcing a taxonomy is boring... its the 21rst century and too many traditions are dead and a preserve is a preserve and there are many options to do it of which not enough people do anything... and rely solely on what they can buy... drinks these days need a little more ingenuity and frivelous novelty, especially now that you have to behave in most of the bars that make good drinks... its hard to find satisfying escapism anywhere these days...

How is this a shrub? It doesn't seem to contain any vinegar. ← does creole shrub have vinegar? the defining characteristic is that it is preserved...

last night i made chambord tom and jerry batter for my girl friend... mixed with hot water and eniseli 16 year old georgia brandy. it went over very well... interesting shades of fruit and spice... i think i want to make a version with alpenz zirbenz stone pine liqueur...

San Francisco journalist (and eGullet member) Camper English had an article about local bars using Maple Syrup a while ago: Smells like 'tini syrup ← i used maple syrup liqueur (because i had three free bottles) with dry sherry and apple brandy 1:1:1 plus a dash or so of bitters... and in a sour with new england rum, maple liqueur, lemon juice 2:1:1 plus a spoonful of overproof lemon heart. all very drinkable and fitting of the season...