bostonapothecary

alot of comparative depth but no contrast.... i would kick out the cognac and sub in a black tea barbados rum.... for subtle contrasting depth. only a couple cocktails based on subtle fruit comparision are cool.... like the jack rose. i don't know how pomegranite and cherry fall in the mouth when compared but i used to make a shot comparing blackberry shrub to a stiff ratafia of pomegranite seeds. i bridged the gap with some B&B i needed to get rid of so i could switch to straight benedictine....the fruits though very similar were very distant in the mouth seperated by a burst of cigar box.... i never liked the cherry flavor. i never play with cherry heering or maraschino. i'm trying to get my ratafia so good i can sub it in place of cherry but i'm not quite there.

all the cocktails i've been drinking in the past couple days have been derived from the vieux carre.... two liquors fighting it out.... a vermouth a spoonful of something.... two aromatic bitters (peychaud's requisite) some sort of citrus oil i usually go classic and only switch up the rye or cognac. at the beehive scott surprised me and tossed out the cognac and put in an anejo. i thought he tossed out the rye but i was wrong.... he had no peychauds.... (i guess i will bring them some). results delicous. at no.9 park i was curious about single malts so i had john toss out the rye and throw in some talisker, he also put in a spoonful of pastis. and surprised me with a couple drops of the now imfamous 21rst century abbots. my own curiosity brought this drink on..... the talisker clobbered the cognac which isn't optimal. what you really want is the liquors dead even. and changing their proportions breaks the rules.... if an ounce to an ounce doesn't work the combo doens't work. the pastis generated interesting results. at first i didn't really detenct it then it all the sudden came into focus in my mouth and kind of dominated the drink. you need to be careful with the peychauds in the same way too much and it will come into focus too easy. it must be a subliminal flavor.... i guess i need to scheme on what i can pit against talisker in the future.... (i do have some davidoff cigar orientated cognac that needs a use) john also thought dubonnet might be good next time instead of sweet vermouth. last night at work i tossed out the rye and threw in some macallan for some spice to up against some mason surreine cognac. i flamed some orange twists and the results were beautiful. i've had way to much fun with this.... if anyone else is into the vieux carre bring forth some good combos so i can imbibe.... never will i drink a simple manhattan or rob roy again....

i wonder if you could find a plum brandy and then you could take the stone fruit theme to the next level....

what are you guys doing to showcase these particular bitters? and are you characterizing them as very expressive or very integrated after the maturation? simply booze, vermouth, bitters?

i thought agua luca was pretty good. but the 51 is drinkable.... some of the rhum agricoles with a similar flavor profile are far more money. i've been making cocktails that make similar flavor comparisons to eating smokey bacon or barbeque with juicy wines like amador county zinfandels....

pretty interesting.... while working i gave up drinking different bitters and soda for vermouth and soda. it really grows on you. my favorites being rosso antico and punt Y mes. if anyone wants to straddle the line.... jamaican rootsman tonic is loaded with bitter roots and barks yet sorta vermouthy even though its not based on wine.... http://www.blackherbals.com/Rootsman_Roots.htm i mainly drink it for the raw moon bush

that sounds too sweet for my taste. i never really like a sweet drink that went beyond the sweetness of a manhatten. sweet vermouth is like 25brix i think?? beyond that with no acid you hit cloying.... i talked to a guy last night that distributes compass box single malts.... he told me that at death & co. (maybe or some NYC place...) they make a cocktail of compass box "peatmonster" and st. germain. 2 to 1/2 or 3/4 maybe?? and the contrast of dirth and earth and smoke against that tropical esque funk of the germain is supposedly pretty cool.... laphroaig might work as well. someone surprised me recently with laphroaig diluted with vodka then just enough honey syrup to make it about as sweet as a manhatten plus burnt orange oil. she was still toying with it but is right on track.... =)

start with overholt i found some weird african flowers that taste much different dissolved in alcohol than water....(much better) and then i add some vanilla beans to synthesize the oak aging and add body.... you add no sugar but get a dry vibrant infusion that is super easy to clarify. the color is beautiful. the nose is of intense cigar box. it is intense and really fun to drink on its own but expresses itself beautifully through other intense flavors when in a cocktail. i love it in a sour with the whiskey.... pimento dram.... lemon juice. i like anything that has cigar box character.... it contrasts fruit in such a sexy way. i used the same flowers again in an ethiopian coffee liqeuer. using yirgacheffe, madagascar vanilla beans and african turbinado. cheaper than kahlua/tia and i controlled the sugar content as well as all the other variables....

that looks good enough to convert the big labowsky.... i can't believe this Mixo Monday didn't go very far.... cream liqueurs are so frivelous easy to make....white tigers milk was a great drink for all those classic cocktail freaks out there.... skip the cream and synthesize creaminess with the yolk of an egg....creaminess is a concept and a system that can be created in many ways. leo engal's "kalidoor" yolk of an egg 1/2 oz. benedictine 1/2 oz. raspberry syrup shake and strain into a flute...top with champagne creamesque decadence.... i save most of the yolks from my ramos gin fizzes to make kalidoors.... the ramos.... creamy yet paradoxically tart....

at the restaurant we consume alot of clayton's kola nut tonic.... i've been told to cut down my drinking on the job and its challenging complexities fullfill my need for a drink without the booze. i also drink alot of "jamaican root tonic" for sexual potency. along the same lines is "irish moss", drank in milk or cream, which is very popular in jamaica as a male aphrodisiac. and since women seem to be in heat this spring, it might be useful for this mixomonday to help men keep up. i prepared an irish moss cream liqueur and served it with applejack to get a result akin to jerry thomas' "white tigers milk".... the drink is the "kingston snake charmer" kingston snake charmer 1oz. irish moss cream liqueur* 1/2oz. apry, creole shrub, blackberry shrub, whatever.... 2oz. applejack shake, strain, your mojo is ready. *2oz dried irish moss steeped in 6oz. hot milk with 1/4 cup of sugar, spoon of cocoa powder, 1/4 cup dried fruit. (strawberries) strain and blend in two egg yolks, wisk in 8 oz. of appleton's rum. bottle and it probably lasts a week. it was good, just like white tigers milk, i should probably try to perfect the irish moss cream liqueur recipe....

maillard fizz..... i started trying to make a chocolate liqueur like godiva.... it started out beautifully then gelified mysteriously after more than 24 hours of delicious liquidity.... this led me to accept chocolates limitations and try to accentuate certain properties. chcocolate can be like cream and if prepared right can be substituted for it. the drink uses a ramos gin fizz for a template and tries to achieve the same texture. initially i didn't want to use egg white or cream but it didn't quite work out and the egg white became necessary. i created a giardelli semi sweet chocolate emulsion with espresso that i had bloomed gelatin into.... i though this would crystalize and take in air bubbles like chantilly cream when super chilled in a shaker..... it sort of happened but was not thick and stable without the egg white. the drink is simply 2oz. chocolate emulsion* 2oz. african rye whiskey for a penetrating cigar box character 1 egg white shaken to death or whipped in a malt mixer the emulsion is 50/50 espresso with gelatin and semi sweet chocolate. super easy to make and lasts 24 hours. the flavors try to capture maillard reactions like browned meats and bread crusts with flavors of coffee and cocoa etc.... the texture of the drink is the most important part. it should be exactly like a ramos. subtle sweetness from the chocolate with a defining bitter.... rich but not over the top, sophistication from three flavor notes and unique texture.... integrated booze that sneaks up on you.... this took some preperation but was well received tonight....

i had heard of a peruvian specialty long ago of putting eggs in acid for two weeks then blending it all to make a sour with some pisco. the idea sounded delicious but then i forgot about it. i was reconnected with the idea after reading about the chemistry of hundred year old eggs from Herve This. The hundred year old egg does not just have to be alkaline and purchased in china town. you can use acid too. it is just about any PH reaction with an egg. hundred year old egg sour.... 2 oz. jungle brandy (pisco) 1 hundred year old egg shake with plenty of ice then tea strain. i made four eggs and this is just the first. the eggs are only five days old. the shell didn't totally dissolve but burst and stayed in more or less one piece in the shaker. i should have put more of the lemon juice in the shaker with it. i think i need to add more spices so they can diffuse through the membrane. i added black tea to the lemon juice but could not really taste it in the cocktail. the eggs definitely swelled up and absorbed the acid and sugar i added. next time i will do it scientifically testing the brix and ph of my lemon juice sour before i add my eggs then after to see what happened through diffusion and chemical reaction. for those that like eggs.... a delicious indigenous curiosity.

One way of looking at the Cock-tail, is as a bittered sling. Another way to look at the Cock-tail, is, as a dose of bitters whose flavors have been diluted with more alcohol, and whose bitterness have been tempered with sugar. Remember, Antoine Peychaud was a Pharmacist and most bitters sold in American at that time were tonic bitters (or supposedly medicinal.) I doubt Peychaud was the only Pharmacist who realized he could sell more of his patented bitters by sweetening and diluting them a la minute, for the customers in his store. ← i always thought that appreciation of bitters is in the evolution of man.... people that seek out sugar are like animals. animals look for sugar because it goes hand in hand with nutritional content. animals avoid bitter because it can sometimes be associated with poison. sometimes if your body has a deficiency as observed in animals with salt deficiencies repulsion to a taste changes so you can fill your deficiency. cocktails can be seen as nonessential. an evolved man's animal side does not govern his tastes and he can enjoy anything.... the cocktail apparently is civilization and is therefore the only thing seperating us from the animals.... since people drank more proper cocktails back in the days of the savoy that was obviously our peak.... i'm holding it down, but it looks like its downhill from here....

infuse your hips into a spirit. vodka or rum if you want to add lots of sugar... but if you don't want to add alot of sugar and want it really strong i'd use a very neutral pisco for its heaviness. your infusion might only take a night and a half. if you hips are bitter or have a quality that seems to come out first that you don't like you could blanch them lightly first to get it out then do a longer infusion in alcohol. a very delicate clove or subtle anise might be a good note to also put in there. maybe a little orange flower water? strain it all very well through cloth. if you have the time let it sit for a month so you can rack off whatever sediment sinks to the bottom. if you are ready for some trial and error you could use a clarifier like bentonite which uses your sediments polarity to attract the molecules and clarify your liquid. there are others with different polarities etc. then add sugar. think of another liquor as your benchmark. i often use sweet vermouth as my gauge. 25 brix. last step if you want a red color use a very tiny amount of hibiscus flower to color it all then strain it out. shaking it until you get your color will probably work.

I like Pimms and don't think of it as flawed at all. ThinkingBartender thinks it is objectionable, and easily replaced by something better that he could concoct given a little free time. I'm curious about what that might be. Any new member of the Pimms family of drinks would be welcome, so I'm interested in hearing about replacements and substitutions that work. ← so we need a dominant fruit note to replace the orange.... vermouth like character.... and an expressive fortifying liquor.... and a nice legend to sell it all.... i vote for a smokey cachaca, sour cherries for the fruit, and some sort of vermouth to sex it up.... i've been into smoked mozzarella, and double smoked bacon with amador county zins lately.... i've also been making this mojitoeque kind of thing with a cachaca, a wisper of creole shrub, lime blah blah blah...... sieve it all and tie the smokeness of the chachaca with the subtle orange with a nice flamed and burnt orange twist.... smoke and contrasting fruit is very sexy. does overproof cachaca exist?

Watching this space anxiously for you to one-up the Pimms recipe with something much better... It's getting to be summer lawn party time and a new option would be much fun. ← Any brilliant progress to report on the Pimms replacement yet? ← does pimms have any flaws? what do you crave that it doesn't have? or do you just want something homemade? we got a bunch of free pango rum that we didn't know what to do with. the flaw to us was the low alcohol and the too high sugar content....so we fixed it.... i just calculated how much overproof rum to add to nurse it back to health bringing the proof of to 80 and cutting the brix by dillution. our cocktails had lime juice but to add more life to the depressed fruit you could even add a little citric acid but be sure to let everything integrate....

when people ask me for mai tai's or the planters punches i've been making them "Bermuda rum swizzles".... i use a 22oz. duvel glass. 2oz. Bermuda rum.... splash of Ameretto splash of Creole Shrub 2oz. pineapple juice juice of a lime.... and half a lime shell fill the glass half full of ice then swizzle until a great froth developes due to the pineapple juice. people seem to marvel at the unusual aromatic froth and are pleased by the uncloying sweetness that the drink leans on.... i try to top with more ice after swizzling and would prefer orgeat or falernum to Amaretto. the whole thing probably needs a bitter but its for a simple audience....

while i work i drink pilsners with grapefruit juice. i get my flavor fix so i don't crave a cocktail and i don't get even buzzed because its mostly fruit juice.... i became enamored with the hop / grapefruit flavor contrast so i wanted to stiffen it for after work. to do so i dry hopped some rum.... the bitter principles were able to dissolve in the alcohol and were pretty interesting. it is very aromatic. i added a pinch of salt to supress the bitter and promote any sugar i would use.... the cocktail is.... flor de fuerza 1/1/2 oz. hopped rum.... 1/2 oz. creole shrub.... 3oz. grapefruit juice.... if i carbonate the grapefruit juice i might be where i want to be. or maybe an egg white? now i need to sober up so i can try again....

i want one of those....

re: Terroir I suggest you give a read to this recent NY Times essay from chef Daniel Patterson and Food Scientist Harold McGee: Talk Dirt to Me (link may require registration and/or payment). The short summary is, what many people perceive as "terroir" in wine has less to do with actual dirt and more to do with the craft and tradition of the winemaker. ← is a wine agronomical or oenological..... the oenological usually dominates. but the soil can speak. varietal expressions of cabernet in alexander valley vs. bolgheri italy.... yesterday i talked to a wine maker on the exact topic. i asked if he could differentiate his mount veeder zinfandel from amador county. he said that so much is covered up by style of the wine maker which confuses the terrior's expression. he said the difference was their mount veeder fruit has more acidity which definitely defines flavors and that is something a wine maker can't mess with too much.

i'm just naturally iconoclastic.... when you see a polarization of the classes you react. i see that too many people associate cocktails with the upper class and think therefore its not for them. it may seem different in a different city.... but i try to make my focus not about the perfect nuanced whiskey for a drink that some one else just might not get, but much more about acid/brix/bitter. so i try to throw out established bourgeois things and make stuff for the blue collar. cointreau may be perfect but from my strange seeming perspective there is negative cultural resonance....

Raison d'être is actually French. And yea, it means: "reason for being" or, by extension, the purpose of someone or something. Interesting use of "usquebaugh" you have there. I've always understood that it proceeded from the Scots Gaelic uisge beatha and Irish Gaelic uisce beatha, and later transformed into the word "whiskey/whisky" (depending on how one prefers to spell it). Yet, when I did some web searching, I found one reference in the 1913 Websters which gave a secondary meaning of "a liquor compounded of brandy, or other strong spirit, raisins, cinnamon and other spices." I'm not sure I'd call this "pastis" however, regardless of the infused anise flavors. ← french? thats what i get for never taking a language in high school.... i have a bunch of different recipes for usque baugh. regular the green version colored with spinach juice.... the version of some king. i think only one recipe i have doesn't have anise. and all that have anise have saffron. what i never understood is how those flavor combos ended up in northern europe?? it seems so mediterranean. but it is pretty tastey and can be made for <$15 i didn't use any chlorophyl or cochineal to color mine because the strawberries give it this beautiful red hue. i always had a thing against anise because if you drink too much of it your palate can get all desensitized.....it just clobbers everything. orange is sort of like that as well IMO. work time...

they are so expensive. i started drinking creole shrub.

when you talk about good and bad and overpriced spirits its kinda crazy how people can evalaute wines more or less for value and what deserves price but it sorta falls apart in spirits.... the snob affect takes over where expensive means good and boutique in wine is huge but means far far less in spirits. the market is driven by experimental consumers who shoot in the dark not understanding what they buy and then at times demanding the comfort of a label not a liquid when they are in an unfamiliar place like a random bar. the economics of it are weird. the whole thing is rather disgusting. what makes a canadian whiskey good and defines the varietal? what is the greatest thing it can aspire to? is there any terrior? wasn't it supposed to aspire to american rye? it never makes or breaks my drinks anyhow. i like boycotting things.... cointreau grand marnier canadian whiskey chambord vodka chilean pisco.... kahlua bailey's cherry flavored stuff was on the list but i'm slowly starting to admire it.... every extra bottle takes up a slot for beautiful bourbon, local rye, rum or something made by me.... i was out tonight and had one good drink at eastern standard and a couple bad ones elsewhere.... oh well, luckily i was in good company the whole time.

raison d'etre.... (reason for being... for those not hip to the latin. i know etre from crossword puzzles but apparently raison and reason are the same) this was in my notes from a long time ago and is in my glass right now.... inspired by the beer by dogfish head of course.... the usually horrible white wines of southern italy with some seriously outlying (yet not flawed) flavors.... and a dish on our menu.... (salmon dolmades....saffron rissotto....red wine sapa....mint pesto) 2oz. of something local to you, brown and dry.... rye maybe right now i only had flor de cana gold. it doesn't make or break or break the drink.... 1oz. rosso antico.... oh hell yeah. totally requisite brand. 1/4oz. or spoon full of Usque Baugh** 2 dashes of orange bitters.... hermes was on hand. **usque baugh is the king of pastis and there are many interpretations.... a dried fruit, anise, and saffron are the only requisites. so breath some life back into the cheapest blandest cognac you can find.... infuse it with a cup of mixed anise flavored things.... star anise etc. blah blah blah and some cut up licorice sticks. a week two at the most.... then add one pound of sugared raisinated fruit.... i use strawberries. to finish bloom nice pinch of saffron in two ounces of vodka (so you can see the color change) blend it into your roughly handle of cognac to taste.... i might have only used 1/1/2 ounces.... you can add sugar as many recipes call for but i am sweet enough and so are the strawberries. do not put in a martini glass.... this is only for roughneck philosophers and therefore needs a whiskey glass like a sazerac. if you garnish at all and i don't because i am too busy add a tiny cutting of the "devil in a bush" aka sweet fennel.... i guess fennel pollen would be ok too.... old proverbs say "sowing fennel is sowing sorrow" so sit and contemplate....