bostonapothecary

OMG, that is real serious.... decandent.... i want one.

wouldn't curacao have to be made on the island of curacao?? and therefore probably be made of rum.... i dont' even consider grand marnier artisinal anymore.... it just doesn't fit my cocktail aesthetic.... i never pour any of that stuff ever. orange flower water is some pretty good stuff. i should probably use more of it.... my personal goal is to become the largest account in the world for creole shrub : )

my latest champagne cocktail is the "creole love call" and is inspired by the duke ellington song of the title with adelaide hall on the vocals growling.... one teaspoon of creole shrub one teaspoon of pimento dram two dashes of peychauds top with a very sincere champagne.... to be honest i wanted everything super cold so i poured champagne and all over ice and then strained it into a flute i used a channel cutter to make a real serious garnish of lemon twist.... lining the flute with some frivelous extra flavor would not be against the spirit of the drink.... cheers!.....

when i see this list the first thing that come to mind is which of these products is still artisinally produced and not corrupted to be an economic bar pour. i.e. full of caramel and industrial extracts or produced in sincere traditional methods? do they still use sugar to alcohol ratios that really promote their unique flavors or is it an arbitrary mess? whether they really are natural or not because i have my usual strange opinionated notion they are not, i personally have stopped making drinks that incorporate orange.... i've been looking to so many other flavors.... i use so much of my pomegranite seed ratafia and other shrubs i make when fruit is in season.... its hard to trust anything flavored these days but i may also be paranoid.

omg.... i'm going to make falernum sorbet! i knew there was a use for that stuff.... of course i will pair it with some rum on the tasting menu.... any suggestions on the rum? if i carbonated the rum.... it would produce that effect that pairing moscato or cremants with sorbet gives.... stretch the finish forver.... hmm.... i just got some Kola nuts??? Kola nut and falernum? paired with ferran adria's fully carbonated mojito....

my favorite orange liqueur is clement's "creole shrub". the flavor is totally there and i admire it for its rustic sincerity.... everything else is bourgeois even if it is subtly different.... it is not really in any of the classic books because it was not widely available but is well worth a try.... they use very similar methods to make it as outlined by jerry thomas but with the greatest source of primary ingredients.... if clements's creole shrub wasn't so good i would just make my own from the same methods even if it is less economically viable.... i could adulterate it with all the clove or allspice i want... = ) cheers!

i use xanthum gum to make foams..... textures need to be more important to mixology but you need to use the "classical context" or it is lame.... the ramos gin fizz is an advanced emulsion and all about texture.... yet so few bartenders know how or why it works.... i've actually made it with alternatives to eggwhites and gotten similar textures but went back to the egg whites because my glasses came out cleaner in the dish washer.... some emulsifiers gel and make slime stick to your glasses.... i only use a foam in my version of the hurricane.... i thought the origional was fruit mud so i deconstructed it sorta and used the passsion fruit foam as a garnish.... to keep it from being gimmicky the foam needed to be highly aromatic and "whimsical".... meaning sit on top of the ice, have very large bubbles, taste good, and not fall.... the hardest part is mastering the bubbles and it becomes something almost cool but definitely better than the origional hurricane..... i do use powdered egg whites in all sorts of drinks because i can portion them better and then different gums as well to create viscosity and stabilize any froth.... with froth you need to be careful because you can't always emulsify acids and only sugar gets sucked up into your froth....the sugar also seems to come out sharper like going from white sugar sweet to sweet and low and can be disgusting..... my favorite thing to do is stir a bitter into the froth because it is divine with the texture.....

has anyone had the amonium chloride candy that is popular in sweden.....called salmiaki.... they powder it and infuse vodka wiht it....sorta like rock and rye but salty sweet.... i heard the drink was inspired by that episode of the simpsons with the flaming moe....

rehydration sounds like a pretty cool experiment.... i wish i knew more about the scientific effects of drying.... especially how it can remove bitter principles.... like to curacaos they dry the seville oranges in the sun.... i don't think the orange oil escapes but more some reason it is less bitter??? you can blanch them to the same effect.... maybe it only works with oranges because unklike most things the bitter principle escapes at a lower temperature than the essential oil? maybe someone can enlighten me.... i just got some orris root to master for a nice creme do violette..... i'm just hoping it won't be a bitter mess....

wow, must try that salt technique..... but anyhow heating any alcohol endangers evaporating all essential oils that contribute the flavor.....or the good flavor anyhow..... are the flavor results actually interesting enough to make it worth your while?

distillation has its merits and its draw backs..... with distillation there can be alot of "art" in what can be extracted as far as oils go and the ability stay away from alot of bitter. though distillation can leave alot behind. (good and bad) it was explained to me that infusion can be superior if you have great filtration technique....due to specific gravities alot of aromatic substances come to the forefront and you can get liqueurs that are much more perfumey.... though these oils can easily evaporate and you can see why their shelf life could decline.... cherry liqeueurs IMO are best in the style of a "ratafia" and I make a verion from the seeds of a compeletely different fruit that gives alot of the cherries a run for their money.... it is like wine, one or two things go in and alot comes out.... sometimes a different fruit than you started with.... just like amaretto.... i bet the peach in southern comfort comes from woodruffe root and not peach pits.... but another amazing cherryesque liqueur to check out is "elisir gambrinus" by the wine maker sergio Zanato..... he takes this weed grape called ribasso which makes horrible watery wine completely dominated by a one sided marasca cherry and reduces it slowly to concentrate it..... it is then sweetened by cane sugar and fortified with grappa.... it might spend a couple years in oak as well.... the price is totally reasonable and the sugar and alcohol content is perfect for cocktails..... at the restaurant we use alot of those wine and liqueur makers techniques..... i was inspired by zenato and make my own wine reduction like "sapa" for sangria and merry it with Cava..... i throw in some micro seasonal fruits. etc..... "kalimocho".... basque country sangria.... keeps it so fresh, economical, saves alot of bar space because i make it to order and don't poor it from a giant jug.... you can learn alot from those liqueur makers..... cheers!

i infuse lots of different flowers for different uses.... when i start with something new i practice with a small sample infusion (couple ounces). and taste it every hour or so. flowers just like any herbs have different capacity for bitter so you need to learn the properties of everything individually. a couple things i use one half hour with agitation gets perfect flavor extraction. one other has this fine line between beautiful and destruction by bitter...but its flavors also come out much different in water versus alcohol. it gets bitter much faster in water. different essential oils come out differently in different substances so you just need to try it and take notes.... i started using the most amazing flower which has no bitter component but tastes so much better infused in alcohol than water which people usually use it with....the alcohol just brings out so much more. but it also supports certain flavors on your tongue. it is just flat and unimpressive if you make it like a common tea.... cheers!

pretty interesting stuff.... i have so many bitters recipes but none with so many ingredients. this raises a couple questions.... is this what ellegedly went in the recipe due to some sort of chemical analysis? with alot of recipes like wine or whiskey there are few inputs but so many outputs.... but also for your results if one flavor sticks out too much there may be too much. if one flavor in a wine is too loud it gets blended down so its not onesided.... chefs create broths with many components but try to create one new flavor or feeling.... if you could identify too easily one of the spices it wasn't made right.... things to consider but keep up the good work. this is serious cocktail progress.

basically the knickebein is the greatest shot ever mixed..... but i'm highly opinionated.... so basically someone should learn its principles and integrate them with ferran adria's "fruit caviar" technique to substitute the egg yolk..... and get back to me..... shooters could be a little more fun with some advanced chemistry and futuristic food textures. i think i want a drink on the verge of cloying.... and then a ball of acid to pop on the finish! or the opposite.... classic drinks are getting boring.... the concepts can be fun as well as the history but many of the flavors don't appeal anymore. my new favorite thing by the way is the ramos gin fizz.... and something like it made a killer "shooter" at eastern standard's valentines day party.... i love cocktails frivelous hope through novelty that helped people recover from the world wars but now i need something more.... but i'm also drunk in the middle of the day so what do i know?.... cheers!

leo engels knickebein...... keep a mixture read made to hand, thoroughly combined, of the following, in the proportions given:-- one third each of curacoa, noyeau, and maraschino. when mixing a drink, fill a straw-stem port-wine glass two-thirds full of the above mixture, float the unbroken yolk of a new laid egg on the surface of the liquor, then build up a kind of pyramid with the whisked white of the same egg on the surface of the latter, dasha a few drops of angostura bitters, and drink as directed. directions for taking the knickebein registered 1. pass the glass under the nostrils and inhale the flavour.--pause 2. hold the glass perpendicularly, close under your mouth, open it wide, and suck the froth by drawing a deep breath-- pause again. 3. point the lips and take one-third of the liquid contents remaining in the glass without touching the yolk-- pause once more. 4. straighten the body, throw the head backward, swallow the contents remaining in the glass all at once, at the same time breaking the yolk in your mouth.

insightful observation on the oak aging.... i never really thought of it that way. i have been collecting barks and roots for a while. then i was gonna create simple bitters from each and try and learn their qualities so i could build on them. gentian is my favorite.

when recreating some of those old bitters recipes if they seem heavy on certain spices sometimes its because they used the percolation method to infuse and filter. it wasn't always just infuse in jar and then strain. but i don't think they ever used distillation because it does not come out as aromatic. but i also thought abbots were cask aged? a great bitter i've been expirimenting with is wild cherry bark... it makes a pretty funky aromatic cocktail bitter.... i use docter harter's recipe minus the sugar....

peruvian pisco sour with extra angostura stirred into it.... straight up so i can lick up all the froth.... coffee cocktail with two yolks.... i love raw egg....

Essence of Cognac. Take 1 ounce of oil of cognac. ½ gallon of spirits (95 per cent.). 1 gallon of spirits (70 per cent.). 2 ounces of strong ammonia. 1 pound of fine black tea. 2 pounds of prunes. i have a couple books entirely devoted to faking various spirits.... it can be fun and rewarding to play with.... i think alot of people adulterate their spirits with black tea.... especially some of those barrique aged grappas. there used to be a company back in the teens that sold all those oils. you could buy manongaheila oil to synthesize your own pennsylvania whiskey! the books are pretty cool. they have like thirty different very promising recipes for aromatic cocktail bitters.... i have a pretty good collection of most of the required barks but i have not really gotten into it....

cardamom makes you kissable.... so for valentines day we made a syrup with orange and cardamom....and served it with sparkling wine.... i used the rest of the syrup in a cocktail called the del sesto.... gin, cardamom-orange syrup, lemon juice, ginger beer..... better cocktails have been made but it was wonderfully frivelous and sold very well.... the name relates to a famous lush that likes to make out with random people when she is drunk.... you may enjoy trying your liqueur with similar flavors....

something that rivals flavor in a drink and maybe even the buzz too is the cultural depth of a drink.... i love studying classics and doing research so i can understand how the cultural depth aspect works and try to synthesize it.... people drink for different objectives and identify with so much more than mere flavor.... a way to add alot of value to my drinks is the back story that surrounds them. right now i'm making a classic blackberry shrub but with a twist.... the fortifying spirits are infused with a sturdy black tea cultivated by sherpas in a nepal during their off season for depth.... this leads to my second favorite part of researching classics and is in many of the flavor tricks that they teach.... the black tea technique was learned from retooling the punches of the bon vivants companion. using it in a newer more approachable modern context is so much fun! besides some classic drinks from research i started using the shrub dessert pairings. for berry desserts its the perfect foil when other dessert wines would be smothered under that intense flavor....but has enough depth and complexity to amuse the most intense wino.... serious wisdom and pedigree from jerry thomas and christian schultz.... depth and frivilous fun from the sherpas.... thanks for your inspiration.... its so much fun to discover how advanced and resourceful drinkers of the past could be....hopefully we are catching up!

Oh, I see! I've read somewhere that classic gomme was made at something like 9-1 sugar to water ratio. I was trying to figure out how on earth all that sugar wouldn't just spontaneously crystallize out of solution. But, I guess the gomme, would somehow prevent that crystallization, like adding some portion of corn syrup to candies? ← that 9 to 1 ratio is really interesting.... i am going to have to play with it.... i first read about maltodextrin in ancient issues of scientific american and then found that modern pastry chefs used it.... people put it in beer because it does not ferment and is mainly added to maintain the head on a beer.... not all beers have a nice head but too many people think they should.... i am really curious about this intense ratio...i'm sure you'd just use less witch might leave more room for alcohol.... i want to make a sazerac with the right texture and without a cloying sweetness.... another flavor chemistry tidbit... supposedly no particular sweetener is best. it all depends on the flavor you pair it with. in theory you want your sensation of sweetness to come after the initial flavor you want to promote. some flavors hit your tongue in wierd spots and therefore sucrose might not be the best choice... i've never been able to do anything with this concept but it always struck me as interesting.... with maltodextrin i tried to make "sipping" versions of a couple liqueurs. i made a version of my "kahawa jimbi m'wengo" which is a swahili coffee liqueur recipe with aged rum, madagascar vanilla beans, african turbinado, and yirgacheffe which is basically heirloom ethiopian coffee from the first source of coffee.... i wanted to make it less sweet so it would be about 70 proof or so but still have great mouth feel. it sorta worked. i just need smarter people to taste and critique it... cheers!

I don't see it on their web site, but I believe Kalustyan's sells gum arabic. There are also other places where you can buy it. So, no reason to make a fake gomme syrup. ← that gomme arabic is massively expensive and cost prohibitive to your syrups....thats probably why no one really uses the real stuff. maltodextrin is nearly identical on a molecular level and they started replacing arabic gomme with it at the turn of the century.... jerry thomas may not have had it but they did during prohibition. the beauty of it is that its nearly free.... dollar a pound vs. many dollars an ounce.... cheers!

to make things last longer no one really mentioned sterilizing your storage vessels but that might have been obvious....its amazing all the yeasts and moldy things that exist in the air.... a syrup that i've been using regularly is my fake arabic gomme syrup. finding a substitute for arabic gum was one of the biggest culinary related industrial quests of the late nineteenth century.... the solution....maltodextrin! if you so desire you can give your syrups body and sometimes a perceived sweetness without adding more sugar with the addition of the maltodextrin.... i thinks its like honey which is often perceived as sweet but if you use one of the those sugar measuring things it does not register very high....stevia is perceived as extremely sweet too. i use the syrup mostly everywhere but specifically in sazeracs where that lusteriousness makes them slide down your throat....texture and body without cloying sweetness....the trick to working with maltodextrin or even real arabic gum is to stir it dry with your sugar because otherwise the particles will clump up. i add half a cup to one liter of 1:1 simple syrup.... maltodextrin is virtually free at brewery supply shops.... i use agave nectar in a couple liqueurs i make but most notably my aphrodesiac anejo for thematic reasons and because alcohol absorbs it so fast.... a batch can be ready in days. also because it's percieved sweetness is higher than white sugar i need to use less keeping my alcohol content pretty high. it is hard to definitively figgure out, but should be noted in making exotic flavored syrups that essential oils come out at different temperatures, and dissolve differently in different substances....i.e. water or alcohol....if you boil something in a syrup at too high a temp you can so easily evaporate all the flavors you want keep.... a interesting note on shelf lifes.... flavor chemists calculate the time for example a mint chocolate will be on the shelf before its eaten. the mint is constantly breaking down....to get it right when it will be eaten a year later it might be unbarably minty when its too fresh....that probably doesn't help anyone....it never helped me but i always found it interesting creepy.... some syrups also for some reason do so much better as liqueurs. i haven't been able to explain it well.... allspice syrup is nothing like pimento dram....the alcohol is necessary to bind all those spicy flavors together my summer idea is to make an epic mint syrup with as many types of mint as i can get my hands on so it rolls across your tongue....i will make the most epic southside ever..... cheers! a question: i thought most all essential oils came out of a substance before the bitter compenents so how does blanching notoriously bitter things such as rinds remove the bitter but keep the essential oils? for curacaos they bleach the orange peels in the sun..... anyone got a scientific explanation or tips to control negative bitters?

i made a drink called the La Mojada (female conjugation of the wetness)....and its made with my "tequila por mi amante" which is an aphrodesiac flower infused anejo....creole shrub....juice of a lime.... the tequila has enough agave nectar in it to balance out the rest of the lime juice after the shrub..... the aphrodesiac flowers give the anejo a chamomile like quality over tropical fruit like notes in the particular anejo.... the placebo effect in people is very strong so the drink has a cult following but i've gotten bored with it and need to reinvent it.... those apple ideas are brilliant because they may pair well with the chamomile like qualities.... so what can you do with tequila and herbs? someone mentioned basil earlier... i wonder if i could get away with a grapefruit sour and a spoonful of creme de cocoa then hope for magic.....off to the lab....