Tri2Cook

It's probably not a problem to Canadians in general, I'm probably just being a crab because it's happened to me a few times recently. I'll shoot them an email and see if there are any problems involved with shipping to Canada. I'm sure it's not a legal thing, Cocktail Kingdom ships bitters here, but maybe there's something related to the shipping company they use or something. Anyway, thanks. Didn't mean to shift my interest in this new bitters into a rant.

Thanks Chris. I'm not doubting they're good people and a quality business. I was already planning to order a bunch of glassware from them before I found these bitters there. I just get frustrated when I put together an order, go through the entire checkout process and then get the "for orders outside of the U.S. please call/email/etc.". It's not just this particular case (I'm looking your way Kegworks, l'epicerie and Le Sanctuaire), I'm crotchety like that any time it happens. I just feel businesses that say they ship to Canada should either set up their cart to allow for that or let me know up front that I need to call before I spend a bunch of time trying to order through the site.

After posting here, I did a google search (which I should have done first) and found them at the Boston Shaker. Their shopping cart doesn't seem to cooperate with orders going to Canada and I'm not the patient sort of shopper who likes to have to ask for permission to order things from a company so I'm keeping my eye on Cocktail Kingdom and I'll shoot you that email for the sales links. Thanks!

Any updates on the new bitters? Not impatient, just making sure I'm not overlooking them somewhere.

Me too... and that combined with the hot weather we've been having had me spending most of the past few weeks checking out tiki drinks but I think I need to park the hawiian shirts and tiki mugs soon and get back to exploring a wider range of drinks again.

I don't see any odd ingredients in that recipe. A custard ice cream with xanthan and gelatin as stabilizers.

No worries there. There are no cocktail bars, craft or crap, withing at least 5 hours of where I live so learning to do it myself at home is my only real option. If I had a quality local cocktail bar where I could pop in for a drink or two, my home bar would probably be of significantly less interest to me. I have this all or nothing thing that doesn't usually let me dabble lightly though. Once I decide to learn something, I tend to jump in with both feet.

I'm not sure I consider myself a beginner at this point, maybe amatuer would be a better word. I have a very well stocked bar within the limitations of where I live, a pretty clear idea of the concept of craft cocktails and no difficulty with things like making syrups and infusing spirits. What I'm looking to do is learn how to construct with confidence. I want to get from "it tastes pretty good to me" to "this is a good drink, people will enjoy it".

I'm a novice. Not as much a novice as I once was thanks to the people here at eGullet, but a novice nonetheless. Especially when trying to put together my own creations. I have ideas but getting them from the coconut to the glass trips me up more often than I like to admit. It's sort of a badge of shame for me because getting my food ideas to the plate is usually pretty easy. So get to work on that book Katie.

I couldn't resist. I tried to resist but failed. Curiosity got the best of me. I grabbed a bottle of the Highwood Distillery White Owl White Whisky that just made it's first appearance in my local store. Reportedly, from what I could dig up, a 60/40 blend of 8 - 10 year aged wheat and rye spirits that have been carbon filtered to remove all color. It is indeed as clear as vodka. That's as far as I've got with it, I just brought it home this afternoon, but I read some favorable sounding reviews (including this one) leading up to the purchase without finding much negative being said about it. Feels like a gimmick, hopefully it will indeed have some character. Worst case, I'll park it next to the Luksusowa and call it a lesson learned.

Thanks Matt! I knew I could count on this crowd. Zachary: I've been to that site numerous times but I guess I'm not too observant. I didn't realize there were tools for organizing available. I'll check it out. Thanks!

I grabbed a recipe for a drink but apparently I didn't get the name when I copied it into my "drinks to try" file (one of these days I need to organize my drink recipes better, the two files I have them in are growing much faster than I'm trying them and it's getting difficult to find things when I want to). Anybody recognize it and know what it's called? 1 1/2 oz bourbon 1/4 oz Green Chartreuse 1/4 oz absinthe 3/4 oz spiced honey syrup 1/2 oz lemon juice 2 dashes Angostura bitter

Flax seed is also sometimes used in chicken feed in an effort to boost omega 3 in eggs. Anyone who's spent much time with flax oil capsules can probably attest that those can sometimes lean heavily to the fishy side.

I tried a Division Bell a while back and enjoyed it but I don't have a really good mezcal available where I live so I'm sure I didn't get everything it's meant to be.

I did it without the soda (didn't have any on hand) and it is on the sweet side. Tasty and not offensively sweet for me (with the disclaimer that the reviews I've read say the Chase Distillery Elderflower I used is less sweet than the St. Germain so that could factor in) but definitely on the sweet side of the tracks.

Sounds interesting but I don't have or want an iPad so I'm out of luck.

I don't know the first thing about making bitters but it seems like it should be possible to create a ginger bump without adding sweetness or significant volume. The flavor from fresh ginger transfers really easily to other liquids even using cold process. When I want to infuse liquid with ginger for desserts, I always do it by putting fresh ginger in cold liquid and giving it an overnight in the fridge. I get a strong and pure ginger flavor that can actually be almost overpowering at times if I'm not careful. Of course the shelf life would be an issue with water or using pure ginger juice (although pressing fresh ginger through a garlic press gives some serious ginger flavor on the fly if convenience isn't an issue) but I'm wondering about simply infusing fresh ginger into a spirit base. Not an infusion that would be pleasant for drinking alone but a really powerful infusion that could be used in very small amounts to boost the flavor. Maybe using the isi cavitation technique to infuse a whole lot of ginger into a relatively small amount of booze that could be kept in a dropper bottle. The only thing I'm not sure of is flavor degradation but I don't see any reason why it would be any more of an issue that with the ginger liqueurs.

Gonna have to try that Coral Reef as well, I've been looking for ways to try out the Chase Distillery Elderflower I picked up when it became apparent that St. Germain wasn't going to happen anytime soon. I think I need to just go ahead and buy the book.

I'll have to check that one out Matt. I'm on a tiki kick anyway and gin is always a good thing.

I'm considering pre-ordering the PDT book. Anybody else curious about it?

I'm going to give those tweaks a try tonight (well, I'll still be using my toasted cinnamon syrup because that's what I have). I was already leaning towards wanting more lemon in it so that sounds good to me.

Tonight was the... Poison Dart 2 oz Bulleit bourbon 1/2 oz orgeat 1/2 oz lemon juice 1/4 oz cinnamon syrup 1/4 oz Cynar dash pimento dram dash orange bitters stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, orange twist. I'm still trying to decide if I was ok with it as is or if I wanted more citrus but I liked it in general.

Well, since I used to sometimes cook the noodles from a pack of ramen noodles, drain, scramble the seasoning packet into an egg or two, cook that into the hot noodles and call it dinner back in my college days, I'm not going to judge too harshly.

Don't have the book but I will definitely be trying this one.

I liked it well enough. Not enough that it's likely to become a regular but I'm not unhappy I tried it. I didn't find it offensively sweet but that's with the disclaimer that I've spent the past two weeks or so exploring various tiki drinks so the palate is skewed a bit to the sweeter side right now anyway.