Tri2Cook

Maybe not but when you make the statement "Obviously Apricot syrup belongs in sidecars" it's not surprising if someone points out that apricot syrup does not in fact "belong" in a Sidecar. That's not saying that it's not tasty or that you shouldn't put it in yours if you prefer it that way... but then the argument may arise that it's no longer a Sidecar. Anyway, in my non-expert opinion, the mango syrup could probably find a home in tiki-land stepping in for mango nectar with a little tweaking to compensate the extra sweetness and spiced peach sounds like a nice fit in something bourbon based. I have no idea about the plum-vanilla other than it sounds tasty.

I should probably be in the "maybe/hopefully" category with a little "not looking good right now" on the side... but I'm not giving up yet so don't bother changing it again just for that.

I watched the first episode. I watched about 10 minutes of the second episode. I'm not sure there's much they can do now to get me to want to try it again.

It's definitely in there. Still my personal favorite book on the subject. I'm sure there are internet sources to be found with a little digging but there's a recipe for milk chocolate sorbet in Frozen Desserts and a darker chocolate sorbet in the Fat Duck book. I think I remember there being one in one of the Plated Dessert (Art of, Neoclassic View, Modernist View) books but I haven't looked in those in years so I could be making that up.

With some citrus and a couple syrups (falernum, orgeat), you could do a pretty large number of drinks from tiki-land with that booze list. Especially if you'll have both light and dark from the Mt. Gay line. One or two of those on the menu with whatever else you decide to do may be an easier sell to a general audience.

I was initially very interested in this but it looks like it's never going to make the jump to Canada so I've pretty much written it off at this point.

Tart is good by me; I made a note of it because a lot of tiki cocktails are on the sweeter side. Yeah, I was thinking maybe it isn't so much that most recipes overstate the citrus as maybe lesliec just prefers a sweeter drink. Just from reading various discussions here on eGullet, the sweetness factor seems to be one of, if not the, top variables that polarizes people.

Speaking as a restaurant worker, not really... but I'm usually not considering whether or not I'd like to eat a restaurant worker.

That doesn't abbreviate well.

I get what you're saying, I'd just like to think (or at least hope) that at a certain level, the people responsible for the dinks and how they're served in a cocktail bar wouldn't do something if it takes away from the drink. Since there are no cocktail bars, good or bad, within about 5 hours of where I live, I don't know that to actually be the case... but I like thinking it's true.

Considering the source of the "a thing of beauty" description, I'm going to assume the lime wedge hurts it not at all.

With the disclaimer that I don't have that many different restaurants under my belt, I've yet to work in one where people actually yell "behind" or "hot" or any of that every time they move. Maybe in specific situations where it's obvious the other person isn't paying attention to what's going on around them but even those are usually followed with "wake up" (expletive enhancers omitted). I realize I'm not working in fine dining kitchens (they don't exist anywhere close to where I live) and I'm not suggesting it's not a safe approach... but it wouldn't be long where I work until the person yelling that stuff every time they moved around would be told to s.t.f.u. by somebody. So I guess my question is, is that really the commonly accepted practice outside of where I live?

I've never had a problem with it not breaking up during the shake so I just plop it in. Since I'm only making drinks at home and speed is not a concern, I pour most of my drinks through a fine strainer anyway... so the dregs aren't a problem either. The recipe in the recreating drinks thread calls for "orange marmalade syrup" so maybe making up a 2:1 marmalade to water (just guessing at the ratio) mixture, straining it and tossing it in the fridge is an option.

Maybe that'll encourage the LCBO to finally decide to bring it in. There are several things they only carry in the 375 ml version for some reason (green and yellow chartreuse for example).

Hopefully you weren't offended by my reply, that was definitely not the intent. I appreciated the input regarding specific recipes, I was just explaining what it is I'm trying to accomplish in the long term to be sure everybody who reads this understands that I want to hear their thoughts even if they know nothing about the specific drinks I mentioned. Those were only mentioned because they were what I was looking at when this question popped in my head. I wasn't brushing off your suggestion, which was an excellent suggestion, I just don't want the discussion to end because someone pops in with the exact recipes.

Good information for working with TVH-specific drinks. Thanks!

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?

Meh. it's my food. If I want to commission an artist to paint a portrait of it for me, what's the big deal?

That would be the intelligent way to approach it if the recipe is the only goal but I'm actually interested in the process of trying to figure it out. I can look at a list of ingredients for a food dish and feel pretty confident about putting it together, even without measures disclosed, and ending up in the general vicinity of what was intended. I was just curious if there's a way of approaching that with drinks, where often the smallest of changes make a big difference. Maybe it's a tough call to get the same drink without more information but it looks like there are ways to narrow it down to a few likely suspects if you have sufficient knowledge of the craft. Experience, and maybe even instinct, probably helps narrow it down even further. I'm guessing that Chris and Stephen are at least within a hair of the actual recipes and wouldn't be surprised at all if any of them turned out to be spot on. Seeing how they thought about it to get those results is exacty what I'm after. So, even if this thread dies (which I hope it doesn't), I've already learned from it.

Really interesting stuff. So many ways to approach these recipes. The scary part is, all of these approaches sound good. I think I'd be happy with any of them in my glass. I didn't think this was going to be an easy subject... I was correct.

I made a fresh batch of orgeat yesterday which immediately went to work in a Japanese that was followed by the Attorney Privilege FrogPrincesse posted above. I enjoyed both and now I'm curious about what will result if I split the difference and do a 1 oz brandy, 1 oz bourbon, 1/2 oz orgeat version. Gonna find out one evening soon!

That was quick! I really wasn't sure how to approach the Vato Loco. The best I could come up with was a tequila martini with a few drops of the Aperol and Campari standing in for orange bitters. I like where you went with it better. More importantly, I see how you were thinking about what was in them. That's the stuff I want to learn. I hope this discussion catches on enough to pick your brain some more and to see how others approach it.

Nope. We have a, until a couple months ago, privately-owned grocery store that was bought out by somebody (whichever chain carries the Compliments stuff) but it didn't have much effect on what they carry... the prices just went up. They haven't even changed the name so far. There are a couple other options about an hour away but neither carries the stuff I mentioned. It's not a big deal, I'm used to not being able to find things I want here.

The drinks below are what I was looking at but if there's another recipe you feel would serve better as a walkthrough on how you would approach it, that's fine. I'm more interested in the how than the specific recipe at this point. Lincoln County Revival - George Dickel, Lemon, Creme de Peche, Blis Maple Syrup, Herbsaint Vato Loco - Reposado Tequila, Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth, Campari, Aperol Chica Marmalade - Reposado Tequila, Lime, Barbancourt 5 Star, Orange Marmalade Syrup, Apple Bitters

A couple of drinks on the Violet Hour website that interest me got me thinking about this subject. With no chance of actually going there in the foreseeable future, recreating them is the only potential option but I'm not sure how to go about it. Is there a trick or thought process to figuring out drink recipes, or at least finding a good starting point to work from, from just the ingredients? My first thought is, without having tasted a drink, recreating it from an ingredient list would be a tall order unless you get a damn good description from someone who has. But I don't have anywhere close to the skills or experience that many here do. Disclaimer: This isn't a long-winded attempt to fish out the recipes I mentioned having interest in, I actually think this would be good information to have in general if people are willing to share their secrets, tips, ideas, derision, etc.