bostonapothecary

That was a great read. I've peeked at your site a few times before but I think I need to do some serious digging into it. It leads me to another question though. When trying to recreate someone's drink strictly from an ingredient list, the creator's intent has to be an important part of the equation. If there's no way of knowing that intent, do you contemplate it (such as Chris did with the role of lime in the Chica) and then quit worrying about it and let preference steer you or do you bounce your thoughts off of possible intents (such as known ratios or drink categories) until something feels like a good fit? it is tough to come up with a succinct answer. i like trying things two ways such as with my examples of the Lincoln Country Revival. one way explores making it more of an acquired taste by being more acidic while the other way minimizes polarizing features and emphasizes aroma. i probably prefer tarter drinks myself but often when i make them with unique ingredients i end up thinking to myself that i really squandered the aroma. i have my bar program where i work which is super tiny; one vodka, one gin, one rum, one bourbon, lemon juice only. the cocktail list is set in stone because i know more than 20 people by name that must have their favorite of the eight drinks. all classic ratios or batched straight spirit stuff. we could easily take on a guest bartender because they'd get the list in a second. a very successful and restrained program yet we make an ungodly amount of drinks. anyhow, we also run a place two doors down which i have no influence over. when i'm working lunch at my spot i get summoned down there all the time to make drinks when the owner is waitressing (she likes to torture me and i think when i'm not around she just says for lunch they only serve beer and wine). when i get back i find the chefs have run my food and anyone who has sat themselves automatically knows i must be over at the pub doing something. the regulars always understand. it really runs like new orleans and not boston. i've never encountered anything like it. anyhow, the pub's cocktail list changes fairly often, they never have a sheet with the ratios and their ratios are whacky. all the time i just have to read the ingredients off the menu and make do. i never know if someone has had the drink before. i just do my best to squeeze everything into common harmonies and i get that phone call for a second round quite often.. i guess the story offers no real advice, but i do have to interpret other people's drinks constantly.

i gave a presentation a while ago which i turned into an article called The Manhattan: Prior Convictions and Ulterior Motives. it is about the different shapes a Manhattan can take and their specific objectives. the presentation had a comparative tasting of numerous different formulas. the ideas are definitely different from the norm, but i couldn't believe how well received everything was. it might provide insights into how these drinks can be shaped.

i make my drinks in fairly even ratios and really try to shoot for 3 oz. portions with a few exceptions. i would make this one of two ways: the first being tarter 1.5 oz george dickel .75 oz lemon juice .5 oz peach liqueur .25 oz maple syrup (800g/l undiluted syrup) dash herbsaint the second is less tart wich emphasizes aroma 1.5 oz george dickel .5 oz lemon juice .5 oz peach liqueur .5 oz maple syrup (syrup diluted to 400g/l. i usually do it 1:1 with spirit to also preserve the syrup) dash herbsaint i like how this creates the mid point between campari in aperol by averaging them. a very simple ratio allows that averaging idea to really express itself. next time i come across a bottle reposado i'll be sure to give it a try. 1 oz tequila 1 oz vermouth .5 oz Campari .5 oz Aperol this could be shaped so many ways. this recipe is like a 3:2:1 which emphasizes aroma. 1 oz tequila .5 oz Barbancourt 1 oz marmalade syrup (400g/l with an aroma that is not too concentrated) .5 oz lime dash apple bitters if i made it for me i'd stretch it out a little differently: 1.5 oz tequila .5 oz Barbancourt .5 oz marmalade syrup (400g/l with an aroma that is not too concentrated) .5 oz lime dash apple bitters

carbonated to 8.5g/l of dissolved CO2 with the champagne bottle manifold. 1.5 oz. tamarind ponche from santo antao .5 oz. 1995 guyana rum finished in chateau y'quem casks .5 oz. cynar .5 oz. lime juice shaken, doubled strained then further diluted to a final volume of 4.5 oz. before getting gassed. my brother described this as grapefruity but it is so tawny the descriptor is a bit of a stretch. the aroma is a focused beam light a light saber. there is probably too much aroma, but i really do adore all the gustatory proportions relative to the carbonation. i suspect a change in rum to something unaged and agricole might make it more elegant. maybe also a change to lemon juice. as it is, its one of those cocktails that comes across as a double I.P.A. i feel as though it does further validate the pattern where a liqueur that is well contrasted with its own acidity makes a gorgeous sparkling cocktail base. i'm trying to think of what high acid liqueurs are left to run through the pattern. maybe just madeira, though i haven't tried many fruit liqueurs from the new american producers. [Moderator note: This topic continues in Drinks! (2013 Part 1)]

"making monsters for my friends" carbonated to 8g/l of dissolved gas with the chamapgne bottle manifold carbonator 1.5 oz. averell damson gin .5 oz. lime juice .5 oz herbsaint .5 oz. campari shake, double strain then adjust dilution to final volume of 4.5 oz. before carbonating twist of lime peel to add highly attentional top notes. this beat the odds and then some. delicious. i was so pleased with the template i established with the bonny doon framboise that i thought i'd try to repeat it with another high acid, practically self contrasted liqueur. i remembered the wisdom of basque patxarian where they combined sloe gin and anise with great success and thought maybe that maybe it could be repeated. in a very sneaky move i thought i could alliterate and amplify herbsaint's wormwood aroma by adding campari which worked well though its admittedly subtle. before the lime peel top note is applied, the plebian and ordinary anise aroma that unfortunately is herbsaint is the most attentional feature. after the top note is applied, the anise aroma for the most part is thankfully overshadowed. the gratuitous amount of bubbles provides further distraction from the monster. this will be made again and again and again.

Tiger Lilly by Brynn Tattan of Back Bar aged 20 something days and carbonated to 7 g/l of dissolved CO2 1 oz. blanco tequila 1 oz. st. germain .75 oz. aperol .5 oz. lime juice .5 oz. grape fruit juice 1 oz. water i'm pretty sure all the measurements are correct but i wasn't the author of the drink. this was bottle nearly a month ago for a science of taste event at the hotel commonwealth. this fun cocktail was sort of a bonus at the end of the event where we primarily examined classics. to be honest i wasn't thrilled with it at the time and i think its creator was sort of on the fence about the ratios but we were out of time to adjust anything. i ended up with quite a few extra bottles in my fridge and figured my room mates would drink them. well they did slowly and raved about it but i never joined them. i drank the very last bottle and wow is it fantastic. some sort of elegant bitterness beyond that of the aperol has developed adding more contrast to what i saw as too sweet for my acquired tastes. the aromas also integrated where originally it was easy to parse the elderflower aroma of the st. germain but now there is just some sort of extraordinary shade of grapefruit. it is awesome to know that some of these drinks can age so gracefully. being able to keep carbonated cocktails around more than a day will really help the logistics of serving them. now i need to figure out the rules of thumb for aging citrus in a harmonic context.

i aspired to make something in the spirit of a cherry phosphate. carbonated to well over 8g/l! 1.5 oz. randall grahm's "pacific rim" framboise (from a very tired bottle) .5 oz. hercules rendering .5 oz. cascade mountain gin .5 oz. acid phosphate shaken double strained and diluted to 4.5 oz. this is really lovely. the framboise was very tired due to sitting around for a year and being mostly empty, but wow does its aroma greet you frontally upon sipping. nothing can keep those resilient fruity esters down! the hole drink is pacific in theme. i thought a restrained amount of menthe-mate-juniper aromas might add fun contrast to the extraordinary fruit expression of randall's heirloom raspberries. the framboise has enough acidity to be self contrasting and the acid phosphate add enough to contrast the aromatized wine, though i think it might be even more fun re-rendered as a framboise/lime-rickey. the champagne bottle manifold/carbonator allowed me to easily blow past the 7g/l barrier. i over shot it by quite a bit then ended up in the 8's in the glass due to some minor foaming.

final carbonation just under 7g/l faux cola 1.5 oz. m&r dry vermouth 1 oz. india's pride rum (a very heavy rum) .5 oz. coffee liqueur from the island of madeira .5 grams acid phosphate (i weighed it so the measure would be easier to repeat and augment) double strained and diluted to 4.5 oz. this attempt at a faux was fun. it was inspired by the a great cuban cocktail, the alta cucina, (whose name i ripped off for another drink) that paired aged rum, dry vermouth and coffee liqueur in a ratio that was quite dry and sophisticated. it was further inspired by a faux cola based on a spiced chocolate syrup and soda water that they were doing at erbaluce many years ago. it was the only soda they offered and a lot of fun. it certainly foamed a lot while pouring into the flute and according to the scale i must have lost 40% of the dissolved gas. i think in the future i'll either add more acid phosphate or a quotient of lime juice in place of some dry vermouth.

carbonated beyond 9 g/l with the manifold. 1 oz. lime juice 1 oz. madeira ponche (passion fruit based bottled punch from the island of madeira) 1 oz. ypioca cachaca shaken, double strained and diluted further to a final volume of 4.5 oz. this drink was an exercise in decanting the gassed up liquid into a smaller bottle and capping it. i hoped to over carbonate the liquid and try and figure out how much i lost in transfer which was simple decanting. the end vessel was a frozen 100ml sanbitter bottle. the 4.5 oz of liquid took on 1.5 grams of CO2 but 0.3 grams were lost in transfer so i ended up with only 1.2 grams. when you extrapolate i think that is 9.33 g/l which is plenty sparkling. i like this drink template. the ponche is a liqueur whose sweetness is well contrasted by its own acidity. it makes for quite the tart base which complements the bubbles well. the umami aromas of the rhum help keep the drink away from congealed connotations of sprite brand citrus sodas. all this need for extra acidity is making me think acid phosphate might be relevant.

final volume 4.5 oz. carbonated to 8g/l sparkle! sparkle! 1 oz. hop aromatized gin .5 oz. aperol .75 oz. lime juice (from a very yellow lime) shaken, double strained, then watered up to the final volume before hitting the carbonator. i think i'm really getting the hang of this. really wild forms of grapefruit are conjured from the colliding planes of aroma, bitterness, acidity, and carbonation. eventually i'd like to scale these up to magnums for a new perverted form of batching. i'm currently using 29mm bottle caps but i need to find some true champagne corks so i can bounce them off the ceiling when i pop the bottles. i thought empty magnums would be hard to get but i asked my reps if they had any store display magnums and they told me there was an unlimited supply. my boss insists that when we do buyouts every guest has a glass of sparkling something in their hands immediately. we've evolved to just doing gin-french 75s but i think the next one is going to be a total orgy of sparkling magnum bottle nonsense. i may even make a bunch of hibiscus sodas for the pregnant chicks and non drinkers.

final volume 4.5 oz. carbonated to more than 7g/l .75 oz. lime juice .75 oz. d'oliveira madeira "doux" 1.5 oz. ypioca cachaca dash peychaud's bitters i thought for this sparkling sour i'd go really tart. i went 2:1:1 and contrasted the lime with something sweet but not liqueur or syrup sweet. in probably twenty seconds the small volume of liquid took on quite a bit of dissolved gas. when i released the pressure it looked like i ended with 1.1 gram of dissolved gas in 4.5 oz. which is over 7g/l. quite the sparkle. it rang in at 3.5 grams before pressure release. well i love it. its dangerously seductive. there is a strange interaction of the acidity and the carbonation. i can't really say if it is easier to enjoy than a non carbonated version which would be extremely tart by the standards of what people mix up these days. the attentional tension between the agricole aroma and the acidity and carbonation is pretty extraordinary. the champagne bottle manifold i'm using to carbonate with never ceases to amaze me.

CO2 + H2O makes carbonic acid H2CO3. In actuality most of it remains as dissolved CO2 and the final pH will depend on what else is in there to buffer the pH. Might be interesting to try to measure the pH as soon as you open it at different amounts of CO2 added. ... Love my Ohaus triple-beam balance but I think I can only reach about 1.5 kg at that resolution. i think i might have stated that poorly. maybe i should say it backwards because it applies vice versa. in sparkling wines as acidity increases so to should carbonation to maintain harmony. true dissolved gas lowers PH but its haptic sensory contribution is far more salient. if all these facets of the synaesthetic flavor experience compete for our attention i think we encounter a phenomenon where when we make both acidity and carbonation equally attentional we can tolerate huge concentrations of both where as one of the same concentration in the absence of the other would most likely seem dissonant.

carbonated to 7 g/l .75 oz. lime juice .75 oz. campari .75 oz. brandymel limao .75 oz. mezcal shaken then strained into a 375 champagne bottle. lately i've been playing with my new champagne bottle manifold which is the first product of the plastic foundry i started. the manifold allows you to connect a gas supply to a champagne bottle via cornelius quick disconnects. you then use a kitchen scale to measure the carbonation you add to the bottle. to achieve my 7g/l goal i aimed to add 0.9 grams to my 4.5 oz. volume of cocktail. because the champagne bottle wasn't full and the head space can hold quite a lot of gas i almost immediately added 3.5 grams to the bottle (65spi). after 15 seconds of shaking and 5 more of settling i released the pressure. the scale only read 0.9 which was my goal. apparently 2.6 grams fit into the head space! i didn't really enjoy the drink as made and had to add another .5 oz of lime juice for it to feel harmonic. the pattern is starting to immerge that as carbonation increases so too does acidity. i think this rule governs the sparkling wines. champagne as opposed to prosecco, cava, and american sparklers has the most carbonation (12g/l) not because other can't get the gas in there but because they deserve it; they get the most acidity to justify it. somehow bitterness also has deeply rooted connections to carbonation. i don't really know how to articulate the relationship but i'm hoping that playing around with cocktails and this new precision tool will help reveal some insights. if anyone wants to join the party, the next time you carbonate with whatever tool you use, drag out your kitchen scale. carbonation can most usefully be thought of in terms of grams per liter as opposed to temperature and pressure. it makes it much less confusing. i happen to be using a killer ohaus scale that can do 4 kilos by a tenth of gram! i've been accurately weighing the gas i add to magnums!

i re-rendered this in equal parts: .5 oz. campari .5 oz. eau-de-vie of douglas fir .5 oz. cascade mountain gin .5 oz. canton ginger liqueur (from a half empty nip!) .5 oz .m&r dry vermouth the above recipe really called to me but i knew i had to change the structure of it to suit my hard won acquired tastes. equal parts seemed like it would do the trick. this is probably the coolest drink i've had in quite some time. there is a strange alliteration to the juniper, fir, and ginger. the bitterness of campari pulls it in another direction adding to sense of space it takes up. the sum of the sweet ingredients contrasted by the acidity of the dry vermouth seem to add up in a way that really flatters the aroma. i would go so far as to repurchase the very expensive ingredients it will take to remake the drink.

copenhagen inspired. 1 oz. barrel proof havana club 45% 1 oz. d'oliveira madeira doux .5 oz. gammel dansk bar spoonful brandymel "limao" this is perfectly drinkable and likable, but it isn't exactly thrilling. i was also sort of let down by the havana club on its own; drinkable but ordinary and not worth the suitcase space. there just isn't enough wild contrast or tension in this drink. no facet ends up particularly attentional or unbalanced and off kilter. if vitality lies in the asymmetrical, there is none of that here. i think my cocktail skills are atrophying.

copenhagen inspired 1 oz. thomas handy rye 66.2% 1 oz. very tired plymouth sloe gin .5 oz. gammel dansk dash peychaud's bitters my older brother and a few of our mutual friends are obsessed with a no. 9. cocktail called the copenhagen that features gammel dansk. the original uses fighting cock whiskey and haus alpenze apricot liqueur instead of sloe gin and i think can be attributed to ben sandroff. i think no. 9 acquired the gammel dansk when they bought up all of a close-out (another importer ahead of his time!). once no. 9 ran out, my brother would bring them bottles from over seas when he traveled abroad. i was lucky enough to also be gifted a bottle of the magic danish elixir. well this version is lovely, but i think the density of sloe gin overshadows delicious nuances more than a translucent apricot liqueur would.

1.5 oz. zapotan blanco tequila (a very cheap 100% agave) .5 oz. vida mezcal 1 oz. yesterday's lime juice 1 oz. brandymel "limao" most excellent. believe it or not brandymel "limao" is not some invention of mine. a traditional liqueur that is found barely anywhere apparently has a special lime addition. it is pretty cool and the price was right at $12.99 retail. i think in portugal brandymel is thought of as a winter drink so a lime version is an attempt to make it more summery. i did not detect any added acidity to the liqueur so i suspect all they do is add lime oil. i regard brandymel highly and believe it should be served everywhere. what other honey liqueur is fortified by an arbutus fruit moonshine made by old men?

back to the mosaics. 1 oz. lime juice 1 oz. jaggery aromatized chartreuse 1 oz. der lachs danzig goldwasser 1 oz. vinegar free tobasco aromatized gin i have lately been turned on to Owen Jones the Grammar of Ornament which as a spectacular set of propositions intended to guide architects but also applies quite well to those that compound drinks. "proposition 4. true beauty results from that repose which the mind feels when the eye, the intellect, and the affectations, are satisfied from the absence of any want." "proposition 9. as in every perfect work of architecture a true proportion will be found to reign between all the members which compose it, so throughout the decorative arts every assemblage of forms should be arranged on certain definite proportions; the whole and each particular member should be a multiple of some simple unit." "proposition 10. harmony of form consists in the proper balancing, and contrasting of, the straight, the inclined, and the curved."

i keep getting invited to taste new amaros that importers are bringing in hoping to be the next big thing. many of them seem really uninspired and full of missed opportunities. i suspect many amaros out there are shadows of their former selves because they are not maintaining their formulas and their sourcing has fallen apart after neglect. to illustrate how things fall apart, american vermouths, particularly Tribuno were regarded as the best in the world after world war II all the way into the 70's, but now we know the company is a distant shadow of itself. i suspect all the great amaros out there came to being when a group of super consultant flavor chemists took a liking to them and helped companies scale to global demand and create protocols to maintain consistency. some of these consultants, who also did business making artificial flavors for the pharmaceuticals industry, were interested in what all the possible "special effects" were that could be used in an amaro. federico fenaroli outlined some of them in his giant handbook of flavor ingredients. as someone who has always sought out the eclectic and esoteric in wine, (and been rewarded for doing so!) many of the newly imported and obscure amaros have been a big let down. i do look forward to acquiring a bottle of the Unicum Szilva. plum as opposed to orange aromatized amaros sounds really intriguing.

raymond newton cocktail from the savoy 1 oz. gin (cascade mountain gin) 1 oz. dry vermouth (m&r) 1 oz. hercules (rendering from may, 2008) here i changed up the proportions a little. the savoy listed it as 2:1:1, but i wanted to amp up the hercules. yesterday i was cleaning out some shelves of experiments and came across some bottles of hercules that were made more than four years ago. i planned on dumping them, but i thought i should taste them first. pretty darn tasty! for this rendering i even made the wine base myself. the botanicals were menthe, mate, yarrow flowers, and aniseed. i think the amount of botanicals i used per liter followed guidelines from Amerine's Technology of Winemaking. the origional had the alcohol ringing in at 24% and a sugar content of about 165 g/l. the aroma of the rendering has a solid core of gorgeous fruit akin to byrrh. then there are the contrasting aroma of menthe which is the most attentional followed by the foresty mate. the anise much be subliminal or overshadowed by the fruit aroma. aging must have really pulled it all together.

I can't lay my hands on any Azorean Passion Fruit Liqueur - would the same amount of passion fruit syrup suffice? i'd imagine it would work out nicely. the spoonful of liqueur looks to bump the sugar content into a certain direction and nudge aromatic tonality ever so slightly. what brand of marsala are you going to try?

1 oz. el dorado 75.5% "high strength rum" 1 oz. intorcia marsala "dry dessert wine" 1 oz. lime juice 10 g. non aromatic white sugar which is basically a nice sized bar spoon. .5 oz. roasted walnut oil small egg white this is a riff on Marvel Bar's Olivetto. since i've been in love with marsala and nocino i thought i'd give marsala and walnut oil a try. well worth it. quite lovely. i haven't seen anyone in boston use the oil/egg white technique developed by egullet's own Pip Hanson (kohai) but its really cool and really simple. kitchen's have all sorts of weird oils laying around so the delicious possibilities stack up quickly.

Used the Bruichladdich Port Charlotte An Turas Mor for the scotch and, subbing in Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth, I added an additional dash of Jerry Thomas bitters. Lovely: tx, Stephen. This. With your modifications, aside from the scotch (had some Glenfiddich on hand). Nice but I'm keen to revisit with a more strongly flavoured scotch. thanks for checking it out. i just made one last night and enjoyed subbing punt y mes for the vermouth. that drink came about almost six years ago when i was re-gifted some 16 year old walnut liqueur that our chef made when he was a teenager in the amalfi coast. back then, believe it or not, i had a giant supply of free scotch. there were cool promos to buy a bottle of hendrix and get a single malt for a penny (two distributors were featuring it! and somehow it last a few weeks) and i did a large tasting for a single malt portfolio and was gifted all the half empty bottles. i was also under budget so i was able to do a large exploration of single malt cocktails. what was free dictated what went into the drinks though i typically always enjoy more assertive styles than what i had available. i made the drink for the most interesting regular i've ever had. he was a great patron of the arts. i served it to Roman and he said: "i'd love to fossilize in this tar pit" and that became the name. i also used to make a lot of espresso martinis with walnut liqueur instead of coffee liqueur. late nights and good times. i'm getting old if that was really six years ago already. too much of what i did back then was too far ahead of its time; all the home made vermouths, and sodas, freeze concentrated syrups, and esoteric dessert wines. that place was in the middle of nowhere so not a lot of people came to check it out.

1 oz. russo nocino walnut liqueur 1 oz. intorcia marsala "dry dessert wine" 1 oz. wire works gin (a new boston distillery!) 2 dashes peychaud's bitters its the beginning of walnut drinking season. so this looked like a good place to start. the marsala-walnut combo seems to be working out quite well. i love the very lean and sophisticated dryness that gin contributes but i could see this easily re-rendered with whiskey, tequila, or mezcal. a unique feature of our bar at work is only using one brand of each spirit. we just went local with our one gin and switched to the wire works distillery and have really been enjoying it. having only one option really stresses communication and proper language selection. even though we are in what people think would be one of the most picky neighborhoods in the city it has been really easy and rewarding.

"passing the torch" 1 oz. pizoes aguardente de medronhos 1 oz. byrrh 1 oz. sap house meadery hopped blueberry maple mead float of del maguey mezcal "vida" the dark and seductive overtone produced by the combination of byrrh and the eccentric mead makes the two monstrous spirits, medronhos and mezcal, come across as less of an acquired taste.