notahumanissue

Been reading some Charles H. Baker Jr, Toby? Methinks, methinks...

I have Rothmann & Winter's Creme de Violette coming today or tomorrow. Can't wait. Bet their products are good. How's the Apricot Liqueur? ← Good. Personally, I like it better than Apry.

I totally disagree. Gaining a taste for something by way of effort isn't a bad thing. While it'd be nice if it were totally natural, many of us didn't grow up anywhere around, say, hard spirits, and getting over those college experiences -- shots of Jamesons, anyone? Bacardi? -- can be a major project. Am I happy I trained myself to like whiskey and rum? Hell, yes. Sometimes, in order for it to be fun, and to enjoy something the way others do without violent flashbacks to that terrible frat party your roomate took you to, treating booze like a science experiment can broaden some seriously delicious horizons. But come on, this is egullet -- preaching to the choir and all.... And the real point: Plymouth for my fizz, Beefeater for my negroni, and Junipero or Aviation any ol' way you like. Yum.

And from my understanding, Maraska was a postwar, communist era start up in what used to be Zara, bottled and labeled under the name Luxardo (which had moved its distillary to what solidified as northern Italy). Through a cross-Iron Curtain legal battle, the name was eventually changed to Maraska. I'd like to believe there's some cloak and dagger romance floating around in the story. Somewhere.

The violette cuts into the maraschino ratio as the drink's sweetening agent. I've most often seen it as 0.25 violette and 0.25 maraschino for an Aviation No. 1.

If done right, the Final Word should have been Rittenhouse in place of the gin and lemon juice in place of the lime juice. Its Phil Ward's variation, I think.

Wow, the techniques in those four segments are gonna keep me busy for a while. You might be my hero, sir. Just maybe....

I know you can find the R&W Apricot and Violette at Astor Wines. And LeNell's, of course...

...keeping in mind that the last time I was at East Side Company Bar, I had a horses neck that was nothing of the sort. no neck, just some lime wedges. but then again, it was never really intended as a haven for cocktail geekery, right?

I might also add, I recently had a cocktail with a Xanthan (or was it Lecithin?) foam, and while it looked good to start with, it got pretty ugly about the time you get half way through the cocktail. Weird lumps of undefined foam goo floating at various levels in the cocktail. Never really noticed this as much with an egg white foam. Well, at least egg white foams seem to look more "natural" to me. Egg whites are bad enough; but, I've also read that some of these other products can be a real pain to clean off your equipment. ← I think maybe whoever prepared the foam didn't dissolve the chemicals properly before "foaming," or used far too much of it -- excess creating those unpleasant clumps. Yuck. Did the foam have an overly bitter taste?

I actually played around with St-Germain-as-foam not long ago. Didn't have any chemicals on hand, so i just put some of the liqueur, egg white, and a bit of lemon juice (as the acid stabilizer) into a whipper. Pretty tasty, and a great textural addition to cocktails that have worked well the the St-Germain already.

Yeah, I pre-ordered a couple weeks ago from Amazon. I had no idea it was coming out until I was searching around for something else. Unless it's in serious pre-order (i'm thinking months), then the publisher has done a crap job of getting the word out.

Ha, fitting! Regarding prosecco: is there anything a little sparkling wine won't improve? Let's be honest here...

Happy to report that after nearly three months and a much needed move out of the East Village, my first batch is three days into fermentation.

Oh St-Germain, how lovely. Here's mine, obviously similar. I've had the following on my menu for the last few months with pretty good response: <b>The Volstead 18</b> 1 Fresh Strawberry, lightly muddled so as to break up the fruit 2 oz Bombay Dry Gin 0.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice 0.5 oz St-Germain Elderflower 2 Dashes Luxardo Maraschino Shaken, strained into a chilled cocktail glass, topped with prosecco (~1.5oz) It's one of those instances when gin really shows its versatility, effectively being bombarded by the other flavors but still adding something distinct through the mess. It's my "I like cosmos. Make me something" drink.

...you keep sending frantic emails to your brother who just moved to Germany, hassling him to send a package of Bitter Truth. He replies, "dude, I have a new job, i'm kinda busy, gimme some time," but that's not really good enough. He never loved you anyway, the bum. ...you leave the East Village and move to Red Hook, partially to save money, but mostly you're just lying to everyone -- you want to be within walking distance of LeNells. ...you only sign a year lease because, well, the store might be gone next summer. edit: public school education.

I just called my Empire rep. He seemed a little confused, almost insisting that it'd be impossible to get. He's gonna check for me, and I'll see if it's in my Empire shipment tomorrow. Oh joy!

ohboyohboyohboy! The website doesn't have them yet, but I'm gonna walk down the street and hassle the fine folks at LeNells to get me some. Are they more potable like the peach or do they have some spicey gusto?

Err, Fee Brothers Grapefruit? Huh?

I'm pretty sure every Keith McNally place has VEP -- I've seen it at Balthazar, Morandi, and Pastis, but can't really say about Schillers. They just leave it on a shelf.

Sorry to non-NYCers for this post, but curiousity made me do it. Did anyone go to LeNell's for the Chartreuse tasting last Saturday? Like many a young drink geek out there, I've become obsessed with Chartreuse cocktails hard and fast, but don't have the financial means to go beyond the standard yellow and green varieties -- nor an owner who's willing to foot the bill for a bottle of VEP I'll probably just pour down my or my guinea pigs' throats. Is it silly to even mix the higher-end Chartreuses, financially or for fear of a monk hunting you down? Anyone have any musings on the Elixer? I've had the VEP once (thank you Keith McNally for stocking it everywhere). Any good cocktail ideas come out of the tasting? I'm heading out to Red Hook tomorrow for apartment searching...might just need to stop by the shop and see if i can talk them into a taste.

I also see the Aviation as a really effective "gateway cocktail," in that it's inherent ingredient simplicity can show people maraschino's contributions to a drink. It's so easy to start from there and move someone on to a more complex, but similar in some respect, cocktail like the Last Word.

Also, it's entirely possible that you caught M&H on a night when they ran out of Luxardo. I know, it seems like a silly oversight, but they could have just grabbed a backup bottle of Stock and went with it... It is the kind of place that would try and own that mistake, pumping up the virtues of Stock when they really didn't have a choice. As someone who works in the same neighborhood, I've been stupid enough on a couple occasions to not order a bottle and gone running around to every bar/store around, only to find that the closest maraschino is at Astor -- not too helpful at 11:00pm when you go rummaging through the liqour room. AND i shot myself in the foot with a menu heavy on the stuff...lame. So, you know, it's possible...

fantastic, thank you very much!

No, I live in an early 20th century walkup with two units per floor and, well, pretty much NO internal ventilation to speak of -- a standard East Village building, I guess. The layout of my apartment distances me considerably from the surrounding tenants, but I really don't wanna be the kind of jerk who smells up the stairs every week. I have a ton of windows, most of which open up to Thompkins. I'm guessing everything would be fine -- i just remember my early attempts at homebrewing in *cough* my college dorm complex in california *cough* as not the most subtle smell in the world.