bostonapothecary

← yerba mate vermouth? sign me up... dry or bianco? and what other flavor notes was it likely to have? seville orange? Starting to sound like jamaican rootsman tonic health drinks... i drink it mainly for the "raw moon bush" and "nerve wisp" i like the sound of that wormwood and gin... i'd pour some of that over my mawby... or maybe the sweet potato fly...

Not sure about the difference between an infusion and a tincture. I guess I would say, tinctures are not usually sweetened and are usually single herbs, spices or flavors. Time depends on the ingredient. Walnuts are often left in alcohol for 2 months or more. Some herbs and flowers might be left only overnight. As far as I can tell, the biggest difference between rectified spirits and vodka, is simply the amount of dilution you need to perform in the final steps. I don't care for the flavor and burn of most rectified spirits available in the US, so prefer to use a half way decent vodka. Funny about the cherry and walnut liqueur! I thought I was being really inventive this year by adding some black cherries to one of my batches of green walnut liqueur. I just strained the solids out last week, and it does smell really good. How does your Dad make his? ← high proof spirits can denature delicate fruits and some delicate herbs... medical disinfecting alcohol is cut to a degree so that it does not denature skin cells.

I suppose it is also possible that there was more than one beverage called Hercules, as that ad on the cocktaildb does really appear to be for a Dutch Quinquina. Searching for Numa Tea and/or Numatea didn't reveal much. The word "Numa" appears in the name of a popular online video, really skewing google results. I think it means something like "world" in anglicized Indian. Appears to be a place name in anglicized Japanese. It also was a name of the legendary second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius. Instituted Vestal Virgins, etc. ← that hercules stuff gets cooler by the minute...

...bringing back a thread to keep things on track i need to spend more time with dubbonet rouge... when i worked the bar at the art museum we went through ton's of it... now i pour it less than once a month... probably in need of a revival... i wish i could participate in the revival of barolo chinato but alas you can't get that here... i'm really curious to its sugar content. i know the makers look for a minimalist embellishment to preserve some terrior... i think i want an aromatized wine that tastes like leather with notes of orange... or earthy and animalic to contrast tropical fruit flavors to carribeanesque drinks... do any classic bittered wines match those descriptions that i've overlooked?

The Cocchi Aperitivo Americano comes close to the "bitter" (kina) Lillet (I've done a side-by-side with a very well-preserved bottle), and I'd suggest that Noilly Prat Ambre is probably close to the Sauternes Lillet, although who knows? Vermouth herbals are tricky to judge. Anyone in the perfume industry who could lend a hand? ← Old Lillet is based on Sauternes?! ← maybe it was like barolo chinato? as far as quality wine contributing to the nuance... chateau haut charmes is affordable enough to try it with... just need some good seville oranges and quinine... simple inputs and complex outputs or is there any other ingredients?

if you make your own you don't get stuck with glucose sugars... are there any classic small batch recipes for raspberry syrups? if one was recreated we could calculate a classic brix and acidity.

arak tafia to your health ladies and gentlemen... can't wait to make some with the alpenz product... i think some haitians still call it tafia... nothing like cinnamon spiced clairin when you need some courage...

it is a ratafia... there are so many recipes. is the word ratafia ever used in the savoy? i like to use it these days... my pomegranite seed ratafia is the chronic... same sugar and alcohol content as cointreau. i've never seen it described in any books... i learned it from an old greek man... ratafia de noyeau peach or apricot kernals. ratafia a la violette from orris powder, 3oz. litmus 4oz.; rectified spirits 2 gallons.; digest for 10 days, straing and add white sugar 10 pounds dissolved in soft water. .... ratafia d'angelique angelica seeds and stocks, almonds, ratafia de brou de noix walnuts, with mace, cinnamon and cloves ratafia de coings quince juice, bitter almonds, cinnamon and coriander, mace, cloves, sugar ratafia de grenoble de teyssere cherries but flavored with noyeau use sugar or capillaire add syrup of the bay laurel and of galangal

yikes. i could never handle more than a dash of noyeau in a drink... i did incorporate the concept into a cocktail bitter with stone fruit pits, wild cherry bark, and an african flower or two... i think i need to find more uses for it... on a similar note of substitutes, etc. is the cocktaildb gonna update its creme de violette entry now that the alpenz rothman winter people are so widely available? at the moment the entry promotes Benoit Serres which i've never seen... i think i'm gonna try some armagnac with the alpenz creme de violette because the idea in the cocktaildb entry seems pretty tastey...

i was really into the ramazotti with bianco vermouth. tonight i made a variation with rye, elixir gambrinus, peychaud's and creme de violette... i know gambrinus is not an aromatized wine vermouth but it is made in the same way as vermouth (from reduced ribaso grape wine to taste like marasca cherries) and it gets depth from grappa and oak aging....

wow, never heard of it... will look out for it. i like me a good amaro. my collection has grown quite large. a life spent looking for perfect blossoms is not a wasted life.

← that is so cool... nothing like a newly laid egg.

← so what kind of bitter was it?

Personally, I prefer Drambuie. I've never tasted them side by side, but it seems to me that Drambuie is more complex and less sweet. ← i think they just put honey in whiskey and thats it... i keep finding the sexiest honeys made under rare circumstances. add truffle honey to grappa... or add fire weed honey from alaska to a spirit of the same equatorial region... never use drambuie again...

i hope this counts as something with fizz... i learned this from the very cool "art of the drink" while searching only for info on gingerale... Apollo’s Cup 1 oz Plymouth Gin 2/3 oz Sweet Vermouth (Red) 1/3 oz Dry Vermouth (White) 1/2 oz Cointreau 3 Dash Fee's Orange Bitters Top Ginger Ale this totally captures the mix your way to greatness ethic and comes out much tastier than a standard pimms and gingerale... highly recommended. pimm's was backordered earlier in the summer and i wish i knew this recipe. whole foods had some gingerale made with cane sugar instead of the high fructose... they have a cola as well... who exactly can i credit for this recipe when i mix it up?

develop your own recipe for vermouth... embellish your wine, cooking the alcohol out... refortify and sugar to 25 brix... i use wormwood, gentian, and orris the root of the iris... for my bitter components. then i try to synthesize a fruit body that projects forward into the future while at the same time reflects back into the past in regards to seasonality... add some more botanical details... algebra and a refractometer gets your sugar perfect... grappa seals the deal and adds more homeopathic angles... the monteray bay spice co is a great source for the hard to find peices. stock's "grappa julia" is an incredible product for making liqueurs. the roundness of the grape spirit unites aromatic elements which is why only grape spirits are used in perfumes...

i would simply call it bitter italian vermouth. my recipe for vermouth has a very similiar level of bitter that comes from the wormwood, and orris... i'd like to think it has more complexity in between but more people need to travel to boston and check it out. = ) i only have 5 more liters of rosso before i start making bianco vermouth for the winter.

it sounds cool in theory... but all sorts of flavors get punched up and often turn chocolaty... i wonder if bianco vermouth would work better...

http://www.vintagewines.biz/util/listgen.c...FTOKEN=65243175 vintage wines and spirits web site says they have four bottles in stock... good luck to anyone not stuck in massachuseets...

last night i drank a massenez poire william with dry vermouth. she did stir the drink but it was absolutely massive. i was scared at first but the drink was delicious and i was able to put it down... it did kind of end my evening because i was quickly on my way to drunk. i noticed well heeled ladies at the bar were drinking "very light" belvedere and sodas... so they could "drink all night". their highballs were not even large enough to put 2 oz. of booze whether it was requested or not... yet anything in a martini glass was massive...

i was checking out the 1939 locke-ober cocktail list and noticed while not being particularly large chose to list six different gingerales... pureoxia golden pureoxia pale canada dry clicquot pale dry clicquot golden clicquot sec there must be more to gingerale than i thought. and what the hell are we drinking now? i still see "canada dry" around but does it still have the same sugar content as 1939? clicquot pale dry sounds very sexy.

Hmmm... Well, not really. A well made liqueur or Eau de Vie can capture more of a fruit (and especially a spice or herb)'s essence than simple muddling. i've been making black berry liqueur for quite a while now. i think i can get better results than muddled fruit or any commercially available product. i make it once a year when the fruit is at its best (and most affordable) i use nothing artificial and the color of my result is much different than a commercial product. i control my own sugar content and peg it to sweet vermouth. i control my own fortifying spirit and can use something high quality. right now i infuse the fortifying spirit with a particular black tea from nepal and it doesn't oxidize because the antioxidants of the berries preserve it... i started doing it as a pairing for particular desserts. charlie trotter advised doing it because intense berry desserts can clobber dessert wines. so far it has gone over very well. in cocktails i've used it in the bramble and with gin diluted green chartreuse, brack berry shrub, and lime juice

the abrame was a great drink and i totally see the merits of the rum... will drink again...

again i'm abusing the thread because i plan to drink this first thing in the morning... as i was rambling around town tonight i thought of slivovitz and how cool it is... and how i found an imported supply of it at 25 dollars a liter... i promise to drink it as its listed but it just seems very sexy to me to kill the rum and go all slivovitz and to go apry over cointreau because apricots share an overlapping season with plums... Abrame from the cocktail database... Shake with ice and strain 1/8 Cointreau (1/2 oz, 1 cl, 1/8 gills) 1/8 Amer Picon (1/2 oz, 1 cl, 1/8 gills) 3/8 rum (1 1/4 oz, 3.5 cl, 5/16 gills) 3/8 slivovitz (1 1/4 oz, 3.5 cl, 5/16 gills)

i appreciate the article. it makes my drinking habits seem less crazy. i find demand on the other side of the counter exists for vermouths and amaros especially when you just give someone something to try and remove the financial risk of experimentaiton... on my side of the counter i can't get a single staff member into it. they pound redbulls.