brinza

To me, this is roughly the equivalent of going to a 4 or 5 star restaurant and they serve you a TV dinner. Half of the enjoyment that I get from going to a craft cocktail bar is sitting at the bar and watching the mixologist perform his or her art. If I ordered an enticing concoction from the menu, and the bartender poured it out of a bottle or a dispenser, I would certainly not return to that establishment. Bottled cocktails are fine for the supermarket or liquor store for convenience when going to a casual party or picnic, but that's about it. But serving them in a bar? That's why cocktails went out of fashion in the first place, because bartenders didn't want to be bothered making cocktails, and kept taking shortcuts. Cocktails turned into "mixed drinks" with only two ingredients, one of which comes from a soda gun.

I just acquired a crock of Peket de Houyeu Genever via the PALCB's online ordering store. I would highly recommend it. It's very malty up front and has a decidedly but subtle juniper finish. It's "rested" in oak casks and has a nice straw hue. Made in Belgium. According to the manufacturer, "peket" is Walloon for genever. I will definitely be ordering more.

True, because before the Negroni, there was the Americano and the Milano-Torino. Swapping gin for the soda in the Americano, or adding gin to the Milano-Torino makes it a Negroni. I sometimes drink gin, Aperol, and Punt e Mes, but I don't call it a Negroni. By the same token, I would petition that the White Negroni be given a different name.

I wrestle with this all the time. I go out and think "I want something that I can't or rarely make at home." The problem is that as we learn to make more things at home or keep ingredients for more things, this subset steadily shrinks. I'm often of the mind that, "There are a lot of drinks that I love, and I only ever to seem to drink them at home, because I could never get them out before. Now in this New Enlightenment, I can get these when I'm out, so why don't I? Like the quote KD1191 posted, "Sometimes you just don't want to do the dishes!" sometimes I just want the experience of being in a comfortable, relaxing bar and enjoying one of my favorites that I didn't have to make myself. Another thing I do is order an easy drink that just requires an ingredient that I have been out of for while. For example, if I haven't had any Drambuie for a while, I'm ordering Rusty Nails with no hesitation.

I run into this occasionally. I also hate the ever-popular "Our twist on a . . ." theme, especially when the standard is a very good, but uncommon drink, such as a Corpse Reviver #2 or a Negroni (to be sure, those drinks are not thought of as uncommon around here, but they aren't as ubiquitous throughout restaurants as we would like to think). I always think, "Those are good drinks as they are, why do we need your twist on them? Just serve the classic item!"

Hey, don't knock it. I did come across a printed recipe once that was called simply "Jamaican Daiquiri" and was nothing more than what it sounds like. I did a "huh, never thought of doing that." So I made one. It was amazing. Hmmm, my wife just bought some limes yesterday, and I've got Myers and Appleton Reserve at home . . .

I sometimes add bitters to a Bobby Burns. Even though the Benedictine gives the drink all the spice it needs, I can't help but add at least a few drops of bitters. My wife has latched onto using TBT Celery Bitters in her Bloody Marys. A purist might say that if a drink doesn't have bitters in it, it isn't a cocktail. In fact, in the Old Waldorf Cocktail Book, under the Cocktails section, there is one drink wherein the first "ingredient" is No Bitters, thereby suggesting that it's the exception that proves the rule.

Cocchi is certainly wonderful stuff. I tend to sub it for Lillet (such as in a Vesper) when I'm out of Lillet, but I don't think I've tried in place of vermouth in the ways suggested. Using it in a Scofflaw sounds very intriguing, though.

Once when I had a bottle of gin in the freezer, I took it out to make a Martini, and I suddenly thought, "Hey, the gin is cold, the vermouth is cold. No need to stir with ice--all I have to do is measure them out and pour them right into the glass, right?" WRONG.

The first genever I ever tried was Boomsma Oude. While I expected it to be different than gin, my initial reaction was "this tastes more like Irish Whiskey than gin." Then a few years later I read about David Wondrich's formula for replicating genever using 10 parts Irish Whiskey to 8 parts Plymouth gin and a small amount of sugar.

If you can get M&R Rosato, that might make a decent sub for Lillet Rosé.

I once mixed Drambuie and Ramazzotti. It was way better than it has any right to be.

This had me laughing. I was just drinking Quarter Cask a few nights ago. It is somewhat more restrained, but I do so love the hospital-on-fire.

Gin and bitters (Pink gin) Campari and vermouth (Milano-Torino)

I agree with the others who suggested the Tradicional. It is a decent product, and if he doesn't have a lot of money to spend, he'll be getting something that's not only the brand he likes, but might be a bottle he often eyes on the shelf, but in the end reaches for the less expensive item. If he just drinks the stuff straight, then a reposado or anejo might be a real treat. Then there are people like my friend's father who loved tawny port. Any cheap stuff would do. One Christmas my friend bought his father a rather expensive bottle of vintage port. When he caught him pouring it into his iced tea, that ended that.

If you had told him just how much rum was in that Mai Tai, he might have changed his tune. Or, you could have served him a Carbonated Piston Slinger. Even the name is manly.

That's great. How about Suntory Whisky with Sake; call it a Tokyo.

I'll have to try that. There can never be too many excuses to try another Negroni.

You would love this cocktail book: Tequila Mockingbird. BTW, on the subject of pineapple juice, I use Trader Joe's small cans. They come in packs of four and are not from concentrate. It's about as fresh-tasting as a canned juice can be.

On a whim, I decided to throw caution to the wind (the three sheets notwithstanding), and shake my negroni. I always build my Negroni in the glass. I think I've stirred it on one or two occasions, but I wanted to see what shaking it would do. The color was completely different. I should have taken a photo, but it's easy enough for anyone to replicate. The taste was actually a little different due to the aeration and immediate dilution. It was still good and very refreshing, though. I didn't use anything unusual it--the gin was Bombay Dry and the vermouth was Cinzano. I will more than likely stick with building it, but it was an interesting experiment and still resulted in a pleasant drink. I'm thinking that this style might be better suited for outdoor use.

Not to discourage you, but there are actually several websites (as well as mobile apps) in existence that do most or all of the things you've described. Some good, some not so good. You should put them through their paces and see how you could improve upon them. One of the biggest problems I've found with cocktail websites that allow user-added entries is the proliferation of bad drinks (I call them frat-boy drinks), drinks with puerile names, duplicate entries, and recipes for classics that are not aligned with any of the canonical sources. It's a noble effort and creating such a site can be fun but upkeep becomes a pain and such sites are often incomplete or become neglected. weinoo already mentioned Kindred Cocktails. If you can improve on that, you win the Internet. CocktailDB is another good one and has some fun gadgets to play with such as the Mixilator.

I didn't notice the chocolate notes in Meletti. Nevertheless, I would think with everything else in that Laughing Boy recipe, Chris could easily get away with just subbing Ramazzotti or Averna alone and the drink should not suffer one bit. Frustratingly, I happen to have some Meletti right now, but alas, no Fernet, so I won't even attempt this drink, because Fernet has no substitute.

I don't know if you are close to the PA border, but there are several stores around Philly that have it in stock. BTW, I love Magellan, not because of the novelty of its color (though it makes a lovely, eye-catching Martini), but I find it to be a very good tasting gin.

Came across the Two Blushing Pilgrims in KC yesterday. 1.5 oz gin (Bombay Dry) 1 oz Aromatized wine, Lillet Rosé (M&R Rosato) 0.25 oz Campari 0.25 oz Aperol 0.25 oz simple syrup 4 dr rose water The M&R Rosato worked just fine in this in lieu of the Lillet Rosé. I think it was the first time I've ever used my rose water which I measured out very carefully. Very strong rose aroma, but you don't actually taste it. My entire bar area still smells like roses. Might try just two drops next time. The simple syrup might even be considered optional in this drink. Very nice summer drink. Strong, floral, and highly aromatic.

They still make that? All we get here is the 81 crap. I might as well buy Jim Beam rye, but I usually just end up biting the Bulleit. (those three are pretty much my only choices in PA)