db_campbell
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Posts posted by db_campbell
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Foolin' around tonight on the Old Fashioned theme:
2 oz rye
1 oz Cherry Liqueur (Finger Lakes Distilling, quite dry and fresh)
1/4 oz Meletti
1 dash Angostura Orange
1 spiced cherry (homemade) and lemon swath for garnish
That's similar to a drink our bar manager, Hannah Kirshner, created that's on our menu as Green Velvet:
2 oz Henry McKenna (or Bulleit)
1 oz Cherry Heering
2 dashes Fee's OF bitters
Had to pay bills tonight, so merged these 2 with;
2 oz Bourbon (house-vatted, don't recall constituents)
0.75 oz Cynar
0.5 oz Heering
2 dashes Peychaud's
1 dash Angostura
Very cool drink; thanks.
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What would you do: Choices are pretty limited here and as I keep whinging, prices are high. Looking for something for mixing.
In the local stores my only rye choice is Jim Beam for $35. They also have Blanton's special reserve single barrel bourbon for $50. The Blanton's is only 80 proof btw (for export only). Mail order, Wild Turkey Rye is $57 + shipping. Other rye whiskey mail order is totally out of my price range.
I may simply be cheap, but I'd be very tempted to use the Beam as my standard pour, while still acquiring 1 bottle of the WT for special occasions.
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Case in point: we've learned that, in the basement of a funeral home, bootleggers made ersatz bourbon, rum, and scotch by adding some caramel color and other flavorings to formaldehyde. Meanwhile, the Canadian Club "imports" are starting in earnest.
This is an interesting take; my impression was that the 'distiller' simply told Jimmy that his drink contained formaldehyde just to mess with the kid. I couldn't imagine he would actually sell the stuff with such an additive and hope to maintain a consistent consumer base, so I figured that Jimmy's reaction was simply due to the poor quality of spirit. If you're right, though, wow, that guy's more dastardly than I had believed.
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St. Augustine is known to have a large Minorcan cultural presence, which in food terms translates into the preponderance of the datil pepper. Most local seafoods spots feature a "Minorcan clam chowder," which is essentially Manhattan clam chowder + datil pepper. I would also suggest picking up a bottle of datil pepper sauce on the way out of town, if feasible. There's a great little hot sauce shop on St. George street.
If you want to go less traditional, the Columbia Restaurant, also on St. George street, is a good example of Cuban-influenced (if I recall correctly) Spanish cuisine, especially for lunch.
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Robert Burns tonight for me and the mother-in-law:
2 oz Jura Superstition
3/4 oz Carpano Antica Formula
dash Regan's bitters
dash Angostura bitters
dash Marteau absinthe
I'm curious to hear your opinion of how well the Angostura worked in this drink. I've taken to combining Regan's & Peychaud's in my Bobbys, since the latter just seems to play better with Scotch to my palate.
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In North Carolina (Chapel Hill) at Southern Season, as of today. Enjoyed as Eric suggested, over ice w/ splash of soda & orange twist as an aperitif. Pretty epic.
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I've always been disappointed in this malt, though I recognise that places me squarely in the minority. I guess when I go Islay, I want something big, deep, rumbling, and expansively challenging, whereas I always find Lagavulin's offering exceedingly refined and eminently drinkable. Sure it's smoke & it's peat, but it almost plays like a Speyside on the palate.
I've discovered that this is a big problem with people when it comes to whisky in that they try and pigeon hole an expected flavour profile into a specific region.
It's true that every region generally has a stamp of a particular profile but it's wrong to look at a sole region for that profile as you will find gems in other regions that give you exactly what you're looking for.
For example, there's some fantastic smoked/peated malts from the Highlands that are definitely worth checking out, and even in Speyside something like the BenRiach Curiositas will give you what you're looking for without being an Islay malt...
I suppose the solution, then, is to reach for the Lagavulin when I'm feeling something more Northern or Western Highlands, rather than Islay. Incidentally, I looked long & hard at the Ardmore Traditional Cask this weekend, before deciding against adding another mid-ranger to the cabinet.
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Spent a bit of time at the liquor store (Town Wine & Spirits in East Providence for locals) and had the good fortune to taste two very good, and very different, single malts. The Laphroaig 18 was a real shock to someone used to its younger sibling: smooth and creamy, but still in the same smoky family. Loved it. A very different bottle, the Balvenie Madeira cask strength, was soft, fruity, creamy, a great balance of scotch and madeira elements. I almost grabbed it instead of the Macallan cask strength I went to get. Maybe next time.
What other scotches have people been grabbing this holiday season? I really wanted to swim around in the Taliskers....
It was Chivas Royal Salute & Ardbeg Supernova for me this season. These two couldn't be more dichotomous if they tried: the former, aged & blended for maximum suaveness, the latter carrying no age statement but packing 58.9% abv & 100+ ppm of peat.
I also picked up some Black Grouse to have around as a standard pour -- anyone had this stuff? I know its sibling is popular around here, but had never heard of this version. The label claims that it's a smokier, peatier Grouse, which at $30/1.75L was enough for me.
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Weller 107 is one of my all-time favorites but as I noted a few posts back I'm a bit concerned with the new label lacking an age statement.
You mean it's no longer "Seven Summers Old"? That is ominous. Last year I had someone bring me back a bottle Pikesville Rye from Maryland (I know it's not made there, but I figured that they should be able to easily find it there), and it's my understanding that it used to be aged 4 years, but this bottle is clearly marked "This whiskey is 3 years old." I don't think I like this trend. I hope distillers aren't rushing to get product onto the shelves and cutting time off the aging process.
Correct. As far as I could tell from a thorough examination of the label, there is no reference to the age of the liquor. Strangely the standard entry level Weller has also changed bottles (to the same shape as this one--both like the bottle for the 12 yr) and it still sports the 7 yr age statement. Hopefully this is my imagination saying it tastes different because I too have found the recent trend in dropping age statements to be more than a little alarming.
As much as I enjoy Old Weller Antique, I'm more concerned with how this potentially portends for the remainder of Buffalo Trace's wheated (well-aged) Bourbon line, particularly many of the Van Winkle bottlings. Not that I frequent the 20 or 23 yrs terribly often, but the 10, 12 & 15 yrs are pretty marvelous.
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A couple years ago, I used Aberlour A'bunadh as the base for a Bobby Burns that proved much more interesting than one made with either my usual vatted blend or my general step-up, Glenfarclas 12. Of course, this isn't much different from the Manhattan that you mention in the topic-starter. I do recall bostonapothecary doing some interesting things with Macallan Cask Strength over in the "Drinks!" thread, perhaps a year ago.
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Amen! I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person who had ever heard of El Jimador...it is sort of an "under label" of Herradura and is indeed, imo, comaprable to Rittenhouse BIB in terms of qpr--100% agave and about $17 for a 750 ml, buying it in the 1.75 knocks that down to about $12-14 for the same volume. Not the Tequila afficionado that some here are but it makes a damn tasty Margarita.
For a while, El Jimador was mostly selling (and may still be in some places), non-100% product. I know I did a double-take a few months back when I spotted their labels sporting the 100% distinction. The EJ Blanco is my current house pour.
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As I was typing this I got to thinking about how many whiskies are still out there labelled as 'Bottled in Bond'? We have the fan favorites of Rittenhouse and Laird's, as well as a very good candidate for my favorite Bourbon of all time, the Old Grand-dad BIB. Any others out there? It certainly isn't as common as it once was/ought to be.
Off hand, I know Henry McKenna single barrel to be BiB.
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The issue with White Horse for me, is that drinking it neat has caused me to never want to try it in a cocktail...
Because you find White Horse so wonderful ? Could you elaborate on that, please ?
Actually, the opposite; I can't find in it a focused flavour that I would describe as pleasurable. The menagerie of flavour notes, to me at least, come off as more a ragged harshness, rather than a complex whole. Perhaps it is the unwitting victim of undue expectations on my part, having read the back label before purchase and noting that whisky from Talisker, Lagavulin & Linkwood are in the blend. Given that provenance, I feel as if I should like it, but simply can't force myself to, despite heartened efforts.
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Thanks for the Kelt recommendation--it is definitely on my short list, and I'll remember to buy the VSOP over the XO.
Has anyone tried the Hardy cognacs? I'm interested to try the Napoleon and possibly the Noces d'Or. Another one I would like to try sometime is the Hine Antique--I've only heard wonderful things about that cognac.
The Hardy VS is my got-to for mixing at home since it is delicious and goes on sale with some regularity. I confess to not having tried anything higher but they tend to go on sale quite often as well and I may snag a VSOP next time I see it. The way I look at it, Hardy is so inexpensive that even if the VSOP is "only" as good as the VS, it's still not really a waste of $25-30 since thats what it takes to get a bottle of VS from one of the bigger houses to begin with.
Speaking of which, I've seen Martell VSOP with a red label around lately in the low 30s...anybody ever tried this? I've been thinking of picking it up since it's only a few $$ more than the VS and I love me some Martell. Seems to be a peculiarly low price for VSOP Cognac from a major producer but I'm certainly not complaining.
I've been disappointed in my bottle of Martell VSOP. It's a little too nutty, and not very round in flavour to my tastes, while being unnecessarily hot. It might be fine in a cocktail, though, and if you're a fan of the house then it's likely worth a shot. I think, more than anything, it's simply emblematic of the larger houses using younger & younger spirit to fill out their VSOPs.
The Hine Antique is superb; my friends and I rated it level with Hennessy Paradis. Another house that I would look into is Delamain; I've only had their Vesper, but it is excellent.
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When drinking White Horse I often sort of feel like if you took any aspect of its character away it would no longer really be recognizeable as Scotch, which while making for a somewhat unexciting rocks sipper, makes it ideal in many cocktail situations.
The issue with White Horse for me, is that drinking it neat has caused me to never want to try it in a cocktail. I've found a 1:1 vatting of Teacher's and Glen Salen blended malt to be a fine everyday type cocktail base, though both are lacking in sherry & peat. If I'm feeling the former, I'll spring for using a sherried Speyside malt (usually 12 yr; Glenfarclas is typically both useful and relatively inexpensive). If the latter, I try to have a vatting on hand that utilises a large proportion of McClelland's Single Malt Islay, which one can generally find for <$20 and is essentially a very young (4 or 6 yr I believe) Bowmore.
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Rachel Maddow judged a scotch competition held by The Gothamist that has an array of interesting drinks. One, by Richard Boccato of Dutch Kills, intrigues me in particular:
Scotch Zoom
3/4 oz. honey
3/4 oz. cream
2 oz. Scotch whisky
Shake & strain into a chilled coupe.
Anyone know what scotch that is?
Can't say for certain from the pictures which bottle Richard actually poured from, but there are numerous bottles of Dalmore on the counter.
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needed a refreshing drift after a big lunch...
1 oz. cognac (gaston lagrange vs)
1 oz. unaged cape verdean rum
1 oz. lemon juice
.5 oz. cape verdean orange liqueur
half spoonful of sugar
dash peychaud's bitters
i had recently had some havana club 3 year anejo. it was okay but just reminded me of bacardi silver with a splash of bacardi 8 in it. (not a bad thing. and bacardi 8 is spectacular rum for the money). anyhow i was wondering if i could create the same effect by juxtaposing two spirits to find an interesting overtone of flavors. pisco and cognac might be more appropriate but you'd swear the cape verdean stuff is made from grapes if you tasted it blind. the scant amount of orange liqueur adds its own tonal effect and the overall result is awesome. sometimes for me even a VS cognac in a sour is too mature and too rich. blending it down creates something my moods identify with better.
Following bostonapothecary's lead, I mixed up the following:
1.5 oz Kirsch (St. George)
1 oz Rum (El Dorado 15 yr)
1/2 lemon (~ 0.70 oz)
1 tsp. date syrup (Kassatly Chataura)
4 dashes, Peychaud's
2 dashes, Absinthe (Lucid)
shaken, strained, up.
I picked up the date syrup at a local Mediterranean restaurant today. While a Pisco-Grape Brandy formulation proved to be a Sidecar with darker fruit tones, this was a different beast altogether. The fruit of the lemon/date sour/sweet dynamic co-mingled with the dry cherry & demerara to create a bright/dark interplay of flavours that gives adequate approximation to a four-part choral harmony. The Peychaud's has a tendency to become somewhat lost amongst the darker fruit, while the Absinthe demonstrates surprising difficulty cutting through the other big flavours, though both seem to contribute almost 'invisibly' to the coherency of the amalgamative whole. I would definitely make again, provided sufficient supply of quality Kirsch, and it's worth a shot if you're a fan of structured yet wantonly excessive flavour contrasts.
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I'm wondering, has anyone tried Leopold's Peach Whiskey? They discard the kernels, which I assume results in a major departure from the flavor of historical Peach Brandy. It does have a wonderfully deep peach flavor, but I found it quite sweet. That may have something to do with it being only 70 proof (iirc). Is it something that would be closer to the historical product than modern peach liqueurs and eaux de vie?
I was able to procure a bottle last summer; it's been a while since I've tasted it neat, but I seem to recall it having what I can best describe as a darker-toned medicinal character. I primarily use it as a fractional supplement to the base spirit in mint juleps.
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*** I don't know of anyone else who is aging their apple brandy in charred new oak barrels, and I'm not aware of anyone in America who is aging their product as long as Laird's does. I doubt that any of the new American producers are putting anywhere near the 6+ years that Laird's puts on its bonded product.
I picked up the Clear Creek 8 yr over the weekend; for the oak, they're using old Cognac Limousin barrels. The distiller is definitely going for an overall Calvados-like character, though the entry retained an applejack-esque bite.
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I was thinking about how I would make a Carpano Silver sour. I would riff off a NY sour and float the Antica.
2.0 oz Whiskey (here it would depend on what you want. Big spicy to show through? Rittenhouse. Softer and more like a platfom on which the Carpano will shine. Beam Rye.)
.75 oz Lemon
1.0 oz simple
eggwhite
Float: Carpano
Mime, add Ice, shake, strain into a coupe + sidecar, float Carpano, lemon or orange twist.
Toby
With Antica standing in lieu of a dry claret, would you want to dial back a tad on the simple?
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Unlike most, I'll choose to not watch my wallet on the base spirits. If I'm limited to 10 bottles, I'm reaching for what's behind the glass case.
Rye (T. Handy)
Gin (Old Raj)
Scotch (Talisker 25)
Rum (Centenario Fundacion XX)
Benedictine
Bual Madeira
Campari
Sweet Vermouth (Antica)
Dry Vermouth (Noilly)
Angostura
I definitely shade more toward the autumnal beverages.
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Not trying to devolve this into a flip thread, but I've had the following on offer at my apartment for a few weeks now, with a Korean friend of mine in mind. He approved:
Masan Flip
1.5 oz persimmon-infused Soju
1 oz Vodka
0.75 oz Domaine de Canton
1 whole egg
Dry Shake. Add ice. Shake, serve up.
Standing at a mere 20% alcohol, the Soju needs an additional spirit to give the drink some life, but nothing that would obscure the subtle flavour of the persimmon-ginger combination; vodka seemed the most reasonable solution. The natural creaminess of the Soju and the richness of the egg are a perfect match.
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As for Fee's Aromatic bitters not being too concentrated, while they don't seem quite as intense as, say Angostura, the flavor is rather pronounced and certainly makes itself known if overdashed. I think the issue with them is that they're not very bitter.
I've found lately that the Fee's Aromatic really begins to take over a drink quite dramatically, even after just 1 dash, if not tempered by other bitters. It's fairly disappointing, given its enticing Christmas spice aroma, but I've ruined many-a whiskey-based drink by heavy-handing the Fee's and tasting nothing much more than a glass full of cinnamon.
Vermouth
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Found some Rosato while on vacation for a wedding; I drink a lot of 50/50 sweet/dry vermouth, and this definitely tastes different. It could pass, however, for a Rosso/Extra Dry vatting + extra "botanicals," specifically red fruit. To my palate, though, the base tastes more like the Bianco than the other two. My best guess, then, is it's M&R's entry into the Chamberyzette style, though utilising (primarily, it seems) raspberries in lieu of strawberries.
I'll add that the above is based on absolutely zero research, and merely the glass of vermouth in front of me this morning.