bostonapothecary

1 oz. pizoes aguardente de medronhos 1 oz. d'oliveiras 10 year madeira "doux" 1 oz. intorcia marsala "dry dessert wine" barspoon of maracuja do ezequiel this is so gloriously weird while enjoying a common sense of harmony. if anybody needs some medronho background this spectacular really sums it up. i see medronho as the next mezcal.

1 oz. ransom old tom gin 1 oz. byrrh 1 oz. intorcia marsala "dry dessert wine" bar spoonful of maracuja do ezekial (azorean passion fruit liqueur!) extraordinary stuff. i will readily make this again. the drink is somewhat inspired by the sanru with byrrh taking place of dubonnet, dry marsala for dry sherry, and passion fruit liqueur for cherry heering. i almost grabbed sloe gin, but i didn't want to risk overshadowing the byrrh. i will have to award to points to byrrh in this round. even with a dry marsala handicap deliciousness was found.

i finally cracked open a bottle of byrrh i acquired a while ago. its kind of boring stuff. sort of like a less bitter version of vergano's americano. it is labeled as a "grand quinquina" and features a pleasant divergence from the aroma of quinine and the gustatory evidence of quinine (bitterness!). so it smells like quinine but it not as bitter as the aroma eludes it would be. this could be attributed to sourcing of gorgeously aromatic quinine or special effects trickery (separation of aroma from alkaloids by distillation). the sugar content rings in at about 175 g/l which is far lower than truly bitter things out there like campari, cynar, punt y mes, or vergano's americano. analytical measurements of byrrh from the 70's which compare it to dubonnet show that dubonnet was significantly higher in bitter alkaloids. so where exactly are they going for with this strange genre? i can only see this subtle style of aromatized wine being important if other more "natural" styles such as port wine were significantly more expensive and therefore less accessible to the masses. byrrh cocktail adapted from the Washington Post recipe finder 1.5 oz. byrrh .25 oz. kirschwasser (hiram walker) 1.25 oz. cognac (gaston de lagrange VS) this drink is cute, but it needs more points of tension to appeal to my manic 21st century self.

linie is great fun and is a staple of my very limited bar at work. i enjoy it in a simple bees kness variation. 1.5 oz. linie .75 oz. honey syrup (1:1 with water or vodka) .75 oz. lemon juice or in the völstead: 1 oz. high proof rye 1 oz. linie 1 oz. punt y mes spoonful spruce tree honey syrup (1:1 with vodka or water) or sub molasses syrup or something fun. cheers!

yesterday i acquired some dry marsala wine at formaggio kitchen. it is hard to find a marsala that isn't marketed mainly as cooking wine so i thought i'd give this bottle a go. .5 oz. el dorado 75.5% over proof rum .5 oz. intorcia marsala "dry dessert wine" .5 oz. wray & nephews berry hill pimento dram .5 oz. maurizio russo "nocino" walnut liqueur 1 oz. cynar 2 dashes peychaud's bitters the back of the marsala bottle suggested that it had a walnut-like color so i'd i thought i'd throw a some alliteration in the mix... this bottling of walnut liqueur is not my favorite, but i needs to be drank. this drink is lovely enough, but i think the pimento dram is slightly too attentional and should probably be changed to a 1/4 oz. and the walnut liqueur enlarged to make up the difference. there is a chill in the air and i'm really liking the walnut liqueur meets marsala idea. i should probably pick up a bottle of my favorite which is the haus alplenze. resurrecting the walnut oil sour might also be in order.

the inverted version was really boring. to get further into grand cru territory, the eau-de-verjus simply needs more aroma. the charm of an eau-de-gentiane is growing on me. i know they exist somewhere. i either need to acquire one or make one.

sour grapes 1.5 oz. cascade mountain gin 1 oz. eau-de-verjus .5 oz. cocchi aperativo americano a spectacular expression of dryness. extraordinary aromatic tonality. cascade mountain gin is some pretty heroic stuff and definitely becomes the greatest attention feature. it could only be cooler if the eau-de-verjus could be more competitive by having more aroma, but of course you could invert the ratios. i'm kind of wishing i had an eau-de-gentiane and could throw the jurancon into the mix with some old raj to uphold the proof.

cradle to the grave... 1 oz. eau-de-verjus* 1 oz. villa rosati grappa de moscato 1 oz. lime juice 8 g. non-aromatic white sugar *eau-de-verjus is a brandy whose aroma is derived from the bonny doon "verjus de cigare". it was offered to me numerous months ago and being a patron of the arts i snatched a bottle up instantly and then unfortunately life happened and it languished on a shelf. according to the label, this verjus was harvested in september 2010 which is several weeks in advance of their normal harvest making them not fully ripe; grenache grapes from the Lieff Vineyard in San Luis Obispo. this brandy was treated like styles of eau-de-vie whose aroma source does not have enough fermentable sugar to bother with. verjus from the very earliest harvest, before even the table wine harvest, forms the cradle and grappa naturally is the grave being from the pomace left over after table wine production. a smart ass would think vinegar would befit the grave, but they miss the terroir theme. up thread the "symphonie de novembre" expressed november, the verjus expresses early september, the grappa expresses something that is probably before november, but being linear and neat and tidy isn't really the point and nothing is even from the same country. our sense of time as linear is probably an illusion that is a byproduct of literacy; hyper-literacy. all in all this was lovely. a lot of moisture condensed on the glass, it must be very humid.

i've had a lot of fun with the idea. you just need ways of averaging the proofs up to normal. too often wine buyers say "i love it, but i don't know if anyone would buy it" and the idea really provides a secondary market for under represented styles of wine. another idea that i've used a lot with astounding success is our boutique a la minute sangria. a coworker just called on the phone to get the recipe. 2 oz. sparkling wine (prosecco or a sparkling rose) 2 oz. something inverse to the sparkling wine. the "symphonie de novembre" would be perfect with the huber sparkling rose we serve .5 oz. lemon juice .5 oz. honey "syrup" (we are using a 1:1 vodka fortified ames farm honey) .5 oz. liqueur (typically we use the matilde poire which is one of the very few liqueurs we stock) adorned with mint plumage, citrus peels (lemon, lime, orange), and raspberries today i took a break from working in the foundry to drink this: 1.5 oz. india's pride rum (this strange and amazing bottling is described way up thread if anyone is curious enough) 42.8% ABV .5 oz. domaine cauhape "symphonie de novembre" 14% ABV .5 oz. cynar .25 oz. algarvinha portugeuse almond liqueur .25 oz. wray & newphews berry hill pimento dram dash peychaud's bitters this reads like a sprawling mess and is a divergence from the neat proportions that characterize my usual attempts at poetry. i thought of some of the pairs as chunks divided only to add depth and complexity so in my head everything was neat and tidy. i am in love with it but a friend (a bartender) did not enjoy it and found the almond unnerving. i used to be disturbed by stone pit aromas, but then i slowly learned to enjoy them. algarvinha is definitely the most extraordinary expression of the pit aroma i've ever come across and my modified clear version (proprietary technique!) is a real treat with its dramatic divergence of color and aroma. the strange rum in relations to everything else conjurs some sort of characteristic reminiscent of mature carignano del sulcis. a few years back i was in love with the 1999 vintage of sella e mosca's "terre rare" and then i drank or sold all the city had and it was gone. this was like getting a whiff of a long lost lovers perfume in a crowd.

last night a long lost friend stopped in to the restaurant and gifted me a bottle of wine. "put it in cocktails". i had no idea what it was but you don't have to tell me twice. the wine turned out to be the 2009 domaine cauhape "symphonie de novembre" from the jurancon region of france (imported by the always awesome Arborway). it is a sweet style of white made from the small mansang varietal. i've heard of a lot of stuff, but have never heard of this. i really enjoyed the wine on its own. residual sugar but awesome acidity, all of which really emphasized some extraordinary aroma. for a cocktail i had just the right template to show it off with. .75 oz. domaine cauhape "symphonie de novembre" 14% ABV .75 oz. dorado "superior high strength rum" 75.5% ABV (notice how this and the above wine keep a nice average proof) .75 oz. lime juice .25 oz. campari 4 g. non aromatic white sugar dash peychaud's bitters the wine and lime combine to create a very focused and very beautiful olfactory overtone most commonly associated with wines like dry reisling. i think i may even find this expression more extraordinary than the mead variant i was making last week. so many geeky wine programs would like to serve this style of wine by the glass but unfortunately they are very difficult to make a market for. i've found that learning to wield the overproof rum is a useful way to generate interest in these wines, keep them in print, and keep them moving.

awesome. that's the one.

this has really turned out to be the mythic mead of inspiration .75 oz. sap house meadery, hopped blueberry 14.6 ABV "off dry" .75 oz. dorado "superior high strength rum" 75.5 AB .75 oz. lime juice .25 oz. campari 4 g. non aromatic white sugar dash peychaud's bitters this started out with averaging the mead into some over proof rum to create a alcohol-aroma unit... then i doused it with acidity... then i hesitated. aromatic liqueur or non-aromatic sweetener? less is more and white sugar won the day. apparently the mead has an incredible density of aroma which acidity really unlocks. this will be made again.

i think what you are experiencing is the little known phenomenon of delayed enzymatic bittering. i came across this notion when i developed the keg cocktail idea years back. one of the experiments i did was to store only lemon juice in an oxygen purged keg for a few days. even without oxygen the lemon juice developed many of the inharmonious characteristics we associate with citrus juice that is past its prime. a great paper was written on the subject that is called "in a jam and out of juice" and is a guide for biotechnology students. for some reason i cannot find a link to the free PDF. the paper is short and simple and explains most of the phenomenons in language intelligible to the non scientist. many bars that are using the keg cocktail technique are not being sensitive to this phenomenon. when i batch, i always add citrus at the last minute, and when i keg with citrus for events and such, when applicable i plan on running out and making the last rounds a la minute.

2 oz. cascade mountain gin 1 oz. sap house meadery, hopped blueberry 14.6 ABV "off dry" dash peychaud's bitters if only it were so simple. this drink did not work out very well. the mead lacks of the acidity of a dry vermouth or dry sherry so the result here comes across as flabby. in suspect that in the absence of a significant amount of sugar as alcohol content decreases acidity has to increase or the result will be flabby and unsatisfying.. tragic really, the aromas were wonderful, but if the structure isn't taut enough it all turns mushy...

i looked to the sanru, but as usual took liberties at every corner 1 oz. cascade mountain gin 1 oz. sap house meadery, hopped blueberry 14.6 ABV "off dry" 1 oz. punt y mes 2 dashes peychaud's bitters like the sanru few people would enjoy this drink, but i certainly did. the uniquely raw juniper expression in the cascade mountain gin is the perfect foil for the extraordinary olfactory-sweet overtone lead by the blueberry tinged mead.

its time to put the Sap House Meadery on the map. great stuff. 1.5 oz. overproof overholt 1 oz. sap house meadery, hopped blueberry 14.6 ABV "off dry" .25 oz. cynar .25 oz. maraschino liqueur what a great drink. this particular mead which is composed of blueberries, honey, and simcoe hops reminds me of a dry vermouth of strange tonality. it is labeled as off dry but seems to have a dryness and weight akin to the euro noilly prat dry vermouth. lovely stuff. use where you'd use dry vermouth or even dry sherry and success seems guaranteed. their distributor is berkshire which also hosts the BBC brewery and berkshire mountain distillers.

i have not seen the Savagnin de Montbourgeau before. what does it rhyme with aesthetically? a manzanilla like La Cigarrera?

i went out and acquired a bottle of punt e mes to drink along. i used don cesar's "italia" for the pisco and the montbourgeau macvin du jura. what a drink! i love the interplay between the two grape based elixirs. i've used that theme in the past with the "me and my grand father" which is basically a cognac & pisco sour. fernet might be the greatest attentional feature for most people, but if you can see past that, the view is beautiful.

I haven't actually had any commercial product but I think, yes. It is very sweet but the green walnut flavour is powerful. In some way's it is like pimento dram - sugar syrup with a punch. That being said, it isn't like a lot of cocktails call for it. Bonus points if you can figure out how to cook with it. Pork maybe? ETA: Oh, Nocino, maybe. The friend who made it is Polish so he didn't actually name it for me. i think nocino differs only from nocello (or nocillo) in that nocello comes from sorrento. lemoncello, orangecell, nocello... i highly regard walnut liqueur and think that the haus alpenze version is the best on the market. some others that i've had were too sweet and didn't embrace any bitterness or used an aromatic sugar source and were detrementally dominated by plebian caramel notes. if you go back years on this thread you'll a few drinks with it. two that come to mind are my "tar pit" and the "folio noce" from no. 9 park. five years ago i was gifted three bottles of handmade nocillo that was supposedly made back in 1991 in naples. it made for some good drinking. tar pit 1.5 oz. glenn fiddich 1 oz. carpano antica 1 oz. walnut liqueur 2 dashes peychaud's bitters folio noce (not sure if i remember this correctionly) 2 oz. apple brandy .5 oz. walnut liqueur .5 oz. simple syrup 2 dashes peychaud's bitters

step into the 19th century... half sinner half saint 1.5 oz. sweet vermouth 1.5 oz. dry vermouth float herbsaint garnish the hands of the imbiber with "lilac vegetal" hand sanitizer i could have stepped into the 19th century with a drink that represented the era better, but i've already drank enough and needed something lower in proof. lately i've been making aromatized hand sanitizers through various exotic and proprietary processes. the one used here is based on the pinaud fragrance, lilac vegetal. i don't wear cologne and using the santizers has made my hands feel as though they were not my own. drinking a drink with strange perfumed hands is like rubbing elbows at a bar with someone else or maybe some where else, but really its like "some when else". modern fragrances to me have too much individuality. i smell a modern fragrance and only one individual is conjured. simplified fragrances like lilac vegetal become successful stand-ins for broader and wider swaths of time; they become time machines. this drink took me to 19th century locke-ober of the 8th ward where i sat at the lunch counter in the men's cafe and indulged in electioneering potions.

i think the secret de montbourgeau is just another labeling for their macvin de jura which is produced like a pineau des charentes but definitely has different aromas; very grappa-like. i had some fun with a bottle of macvin a few months ago. pretty cool stuff. i finally acquired another bottle, but i've been putting off opening it.

I'm having one of those "I can't believe I didn't think of that" moments. Thanks. That tip went right into the Honey Syrup article on KC. its super easy and has allowed me to keep lots of different types around. i detailed the process in a blog post long ago. http://bostonapothecary.com/?p=159

i always make my honey syrups 1:1. i even use vodka instead of water to bring the alcohol content to the minimum of preservation. i end up using a lot of pricey boutique single varietal honeys and its nice to have them not spoil if they sit around for a while.

.75 oz. ransom old tom gin .75 oz. puysegur bas armagnac .75 oz. gran classico amaro .75 oz. sour orange juice dash peychaud's bitters the idea of old tom gin, armagnac, & orange sounded awesome, but i wanted to try it in a tart drink. refreshing. i need to further explore the old tom gin & armagnac duo. chris, have you tried the compass box "orangerie" yet?

1 oz. india's pride "premium indian rum" 1 oz. hiram walker kirschwasser 1 oz. cynar 1 oz. dominican sour orange juice 2 dashes peychaud's bitters this was delicious. the indian rum is some damn burly stuff. it is rather intense yet is composed of "matured cane juice spirit & high quality neutral alcohol". i wonder what the rum concentrate tastes like. it could be like the mythic jamaican rum concentrates of the 19th century that were designed merely as components of blends. the aroma even has an umami quality that could be a result of dunder. i am in love with sour oranges and still have yet to see a bar use them in any regular rotation. there are so many new things to put on shelves our there and i think the citruses are getting overlooked. if anyone loves their imbibers they'll put down the "combier" and pick up a sour orange.