bostonapothecary

well i have the day off so we are sitting around a drinking.... no surprise.... i ended up with a sample of old raj in a flask..... don't ask how.... so we had old raj and tonics.... it was awsome. i have never really bothered to drink a gin and tonic before. never really had the time. we moved on to the "garden of eden" cocktaildb said half half apricot brandy and half creme de violette. the proportions didn't seem very good so we went 2 oz. bonny doon. nectarine eau de vie. 1 oz. alpenz creme de violette. the drink seemed cool in theory but was boring. we added peychaud's bitters which made it actually drinkable but not anything too amazing..... i think it really needed dry vermouth. the creme de violette is kinda cool but needs to accent complex drinks. if it is too much of the center peice it brings a creepy flavor associated with artificial things.... though it was thoroughly awsome in an aviation a couple nights ago. 2 oz. beafeater 1 oz. lemonjuice 1/2 oz. creme de violette 1/2 oz. simple syrup

last night we made a cocktail a couple different ways and shared it among our tired weary selves.... "le bugne" (the name of hillside in the veneto) we wanted to reproduce some of the flavors of our favorite wines... 2 oz. bookers barrel proof. 1/2 oz. elisir gambrinus (marasca flavored liqueur) 1/2 oz. alpenz creme de violette 1/4 oz. espresso dash of reagans bitters. then we tried it again. 1/1/2 oz. bookers barrel proof. 3/4 oz. elisir gambrinus (marasca flavored liqueur) 3/4 oz. alpenz creme de violette 1/4 oz. espresso dash of reagans bitters. the first version was the more popular. it was stiff. slighly less sweet than a manhattan. the creme de violette is less sweet than sweet vermouth. gambrinus might be the same brix as sweet vermouth. the flavors all worked together. all agreed they would readily do it again.... i really wish that i had barrell proof rye. i've seen the mictchers 100proof. but is there anything stronger available? lately lemonheart 151 is my favorite stuff. an ounce powers a whole drink but it isn't as classy as whiskey....

i've had something like that but we used aged balsamic instead of pernod....

i was never into those cocktails.... lemon verbena always tasted like artificial flavor to me no matter how fresh and local it was.... i like simple imputs and complex outputs.... just like in wine.... though i have to say i really liked playing with the "huck yu" cocktail. i got rid of the nasty lemoncello and played with the proportions for quite a while.... that yuzu conentrate is really expensive yet very tastey.... such an amusing drink if you really want to get twisted.... in art there is kitsch and the avante garde.... i find both fun but personally end up persuing the avante garde whether there is a market for it or not....

the peach might be a cool addition to a champagne cocktail.... rub a sugar cube against the skin of a lemon to suck up alot of oil then blast it with the peach bitters and angostura.... fill it up with prosecco. my understanding is that the best prosecco's from conegliano valdabiedenne in the veneto have a peachy character to their fruit.... you can have fun putting it there yourself underneath the angostura.... i will taste its best drunk before 10 a.m. i wonder if the peach bitters are inspired by something classic or are just purely out of someone's head recently.

i think my maximum threshhold for sweetness is a 2:1 manhattan with a spoonful of something (benedictine) on top of it.... i would whether to go apry to eau de vie based on hitting those sugar levels. cointreau is sweeter than sweet vermouth. so at a 1/2 oz. in the claridge it eats up a whole lot of your sugar allowance. i think that alot of the eau de vie's taste really similar because their flavor is constructed mainly of essential oil which is only a small part of what defines flavor. acid and brix is also a big part. it is really hard to differentiate things when you omit the two other variables. i'm gonna try the claridge tonight with nectarine eau de vie and creole shrub. the savoy is coming in handy....stimulating some pretty cool discovery.

maybe dr. cocktail could clear up the availability of fruit eau de vie's. they might have been more economically viable then as opposed to now. i bet they would be more popular today if they weren't so expensive. inspired by recent cocktails posted from your savoy journey and trying to make a vieux carre blanc i just ran out and bought every fruit eau de vie bottling a big liquor store i know had. the manager said that most of the bottles had been sitting there for years and most had huge discounts on them. i paid grey goose money per ounce or less for every bottle. trimbach framboise g. e. massenez poire williams clear creek blue plum clear creek pomme (8 years in french oak casks) bonny doon nectarine this will be a fun evening off.

i would think you just need to lose the cointreau.... it is too compartive. you need a contrast. i look forward to trying that drink as soon as i get ahold of some of that apricot eau de vie.... hmm. you have the liqueur and alpenz also makes a non liqueur version. i wonder what the origional drink used?

i just picked up a bottle of picon.... i was wondering if anyone knew about how it was made.... are the flavors solely gentian, cinchona, and orange? is the spirit fortified wine or brandy with alot of water? i really wanted to save it for next years tour du france but was really tempted and opened it. hopefully it is not made of wine and will not oxidize....

is "vino cotto" another name for "sapa" which is a red wine reduction with sugar often used to enliven flavors like saffron in a dish....

wow. those are some serious ideas that will take me a week to drink through.... =) i love the equatorial exotacism.... that is my style lately.... hopefully no bartender is working too hard mixing anything like a vieux carre and most are consumed by bartenders or home mixologists working for themselves.... i am just a flavor addict always looking for the most interesting thing i can get my hands on....

wow, that seems like my kind of thing.... i need some of that violette liqueur. i really wanted to try "old raj" as the gin for my vieux carre blanc recipe. has anyone spent any time with it? something that is nice besides rum to really contrast the gin is a fruit eau di vie....

you can probably decimate the mint all you want.... as long as you run it through a cocktail sieve before you serve it.... i usually sieve them to keep my guests kissable.... the bar at la bodequita del medio was probably full of old cigar chewing old men that never had anyone to kiss.... sometimes i cut a round lime twist like for a "ti punch" and expel it into the cocktail.... i don't have to work tonight.... i think i'm gonna go have some cocktails....

last night started with a marconi wireless.... 2 oz. applejack 1 oz. my own sweet vermouth lemon twist was the nearest thing at hand.... no extra bitters.... it was midnight and had finally cooled off.... perfect imbibing weather.... sophistcated and long lived in the mouth with that forgotten summer flavor profile.... (stone fruits) then i escaped work and went to eastern standard. the kitchen was closed so i ordered a cocktail with a whole egg in it.... colleen bawn.... 1 oz. rye (rittenhouse 100 proof) next time i will try lemonheart 151 demerara.... 1 oz. yellow chartreuse 1 oz. benedictine one whole egg some add simple....but i'm sweet enough that is some serious medicine....cured my hunger and thirst....got me slighly buzzed i felt so much better.... = ) i learned the drink at the green street but they probably learned it from the cocktial chronicles....its my current default egg cocktail. they have those martini glasses modeled after the breasts of helen of troy.... i need to get some of those....

to make the drink economically viable i'd make a complex lemonade out off all that stuff.... i'd cook the strawberries to get them to expell the juice....cook it with the mint.... etc.... add your acid, sugar.... the only thing i'd keep super fresh is the cucumber.... probably a vigorous shake with mandolined cucumber.... or just add potent cucumber water from an atomizer to the drink.... flavor by any means necessary.... i'd probably also add eggwhites to my complex lemonade to make it extra sexy....

when you hit the lab just remember to leave all your superstitions and everything you inheritted behind.... cocktails face alot of inherrited technique some of which is useful and some of which is not.... always think.... what would herve this or ferran adria do?

Chrysanthemum Cocktail 3 Dashes Absinthe (Lucid Absinthe) 1/3 Benedictine (1 oz Benedictine) 2/3 French Vermouth (2 oz Noilly Prat Dry) i drank this both ways.... keeping the benedictine intact and subbing half for coffee liqueur.... a delicious highly regarded cocktail either way.... due for its renaissance.... it makes me wonder if the dry vermouth i'm dreaming up in my head would fit into this cocktail....

i like that homemade vatting idea. we have talked about it at our bar many times but our clientelle is too lame to make it worth our while....we were basically just blending rye, cognac, and appleton to make a house brown spirit taste really good and be really easy to pour....i wanted enough flavor depth to make jerry thomas proud.... i'm gonna try and duplicate that vermouth this weekend. if it works i will give out the recipe....

Per bostonapothecary's suggestion, I added dash of Kahlua as I got down to the end. His instincts are right on -- the resulting drink is a very different beast, but quite rewarding in its own right. The flavors work together well and the result is chocolatey-yummy. ←

that is now next on my list of things to drink.... mostly for the benedictine.... hmm. it might also be good if you sub half the benedictine portion for coffee liqueur.... i'm still hooked on that dry vermouth coffee liqueur combo....

"1.5 oz. scotch" are you going single malt or a blended scotch? last night i stopped into no. 9. and john made me a manhattan with the bottle of the handmade sweet vermouth that i gave him.... i think he used michter's rye 2:1 and added no extra bitters.... the drink was super complex, rich, and long lived in the mouth. the bitter from the gentian, wormwood and orris was very sexy. a delicious ass kicker.

no 9. park does the half sinner half saint..... half sweet half dry spoonful of absinthe....

you are so lucky to get the laird's bonded apple brandy.... i've never seen it in boston and its nearing the top of my list of things to try.... i've been making carribbean drinks lately with clayton's kola nut tonic but can't wait to get back on the vieux carre path.... i just made some killer wormwood sweet vermouth that i can't wait to mix up. so far i've just been drinking it with some of reagan's orange bitters and have been really into it.... for the vermouth i used wormwood, gentian, orris, and coffee to bitter. it hits about the level of punt y mes. to give a fruit body i used plums, apricots, and bing cherries. i took the sugar content to that of other sweet vermouths using a refractometer and the fortifying spirit was grappa. beautiful rolling flavors with a sexy bitter element.... i want to learn more about the philosophies of different vermouths and what peoples theories are of how they should integrate into a spirit....

so it doesn't block your olfactory senses of other smells?? i've never really had any to play with.... you can get the leaves easily enough but the petals are very expensive....

i always thought those odd fractional measurements should be ignored... i try to stick with classical ratios 1:1:1 2:1:1 + plus a spoonful ... dash dash and if your cognac is sweeter don't compensate but let the drink live like a wine.... i'm under the impression that wine makers like zind humbrecht let nature decide the sweetness of most of their reislings.... i think they look to control for alcohol level more than brix so that every year can express itself with different brix and acidity.... shouldn't every sidecar get the same ratio so that different cognacs can express themselves with differnt nuancing balances of brix and acidity....