KD1191

Happy to be of service. In retrospect, I wish I'd been a bit more protective of my Willett Rye. I killed the bottle a couple weeks ago, thinking I had another on the way from DrinkUpNY, only to later receive an email from them that their distributor was out and they couldn't deliver. Not very happy with them at the moment.

Tried this last night with Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Punt e Mes, Yellow Chartreuse MOFS, and both Angostura and Angostura Orange bitters. The Angostura Orange bitters were a terrible mistake...glycerin, clove & cinnamon walked all over everything. Nearly made the drink end up in the sink. Will this again, but using the Saveur recipe.

As the drink only calls for 1/4 oz of Laird's, I think you'd be hard pressed to taste too much of a difference, particularly if you used a bonded Rye. If you had a softer whiskey, you might have noticed a bit more sharpness from the Laird's. I've had the exact opposite experience with regards to the majority of Calvados vs. Laird's...that is, assuming you're not talking about the Laird's Applejack (65% neutral spirit, lower proof), or the Old/Rare Apple Brandies (significantly more age, lower proof)...the 100 Proof Bonded stuff (which is what the recipe specifies, though that might not be clear on KC) is punchier than any Calvados I've tasted.

Intentional. Scroll further down:

This is stimulating the appetite quite nicely: 1.5 oz Leopold Bros Navy Strength Gin 1 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth .5 oz Secret de Montbourgeau (Macvin du Jura) 2 droppers Bittercube Door County Hop Bitters Stirred and strained into a coupe, topped with a healthy splash of soda water.

Restocks of Junipero, Punt e Mes, and Weller 107 (shelves were bursting yesterday after sitting empty for months), as well as a bottle of Bittercube's Door County Hop bitters.

In an infinite universe all things are possible. Perhaps the drink named after the national poet of Scotland was originally made with Irish Whiskey, but I have my doubts about Mr. Grohusko's attention to detail.

Not to bad mouth Jack, but he also has Italian Vermouth in his "Martini" (there's a separate 'dry' version that lists French), his Robert Burns calls for French Vermouth and Irish Whiskey(!), and his Bronx has no Orange Juice, only a twist. So, I'm not sure we want to be drawing conclusions... Not that the drink isn't delicious with Sweet or Blanc Vermouth. With Sweet, it's very nearly a Creole, which is one of my favorite drinks of all time.

And, don't stop there. Cut & juice supremes for the lime.

Found the Riga Black Balsam available at this place in Jersey while searching for some other products today. They also had the Van Winkle 12 in stock...I wonder how they keep it on the shelves.

There are a number of brands of ginger juice on the market, but it's not cheap. I've seen reports that folks have had luck at 'Health Food' stores. If they have a juice bar/commercial juicer and sell fresh ginger, you may be able to talk them into juicing your purchase. Have yet to try it, but I'm intrigued by the recipe for Ginger Syrup at the end of Jeffrey Morgenthaler's latest blog post...basically, combine equal parts roughly chopped ginger, sugar, and boiling water in a blender, then fine strain.

Somewhere on the neck band, there should be a stamp. It's the letter L followed by 6 digits. Take the first 3 digits (in this case, 921) and add 1084 (the year St. Bruno founded the Carthusian order) to get the year of the bottling (2005). To the best of my knowledge, the final 3 digits are the day of the year of the bottling. I don't know exactly how long they've been doing this, but at least since the late '90s.

Doing some restocking of my own...the Green Chartreuse is a 2005 (found at the very 2005 price of $45).

Made a half-batch of Erik's Great Pumpkin (Milk) Punch over the weekend...tried the first glass this evening and immediately regretted not committing to the full batch.

Found a very old bottle on a dusty shelf at a store near nothing in particular (except my client) on the far west side of Houston, TX...then, a couple months later, it was re-launched in the U.S.

Sounds good. Do you know how Nikka from the Barrel compares to the rest of their line? It's higher proof (102.8), but I find it has less finesse (some might say complexity). That said, it can certainly stand out in more complicated/modern cocktails. I actually just killed a bottle making several Holidays Away. The finished product is not as smokey as with the Bowmore that's called for, but none the worse for it, in my opinion. And, I imagine it's the rare Japanese Whisky that can hold its own against Unicum.

Not much else to tell...looks like it was posted on LTHForum shortly after StraightBourbon, by someone with the same handle. The name appears to be an homage to the main drag in Mokena, IL, a far SW suburb of Chicago.

Stick with HP. I've not been too impressed with Balvenie. I'll almost always choose American whiskey over Scotch, but the Balvenie 21 is in my top 10 whiskies of all time. I like the Doublewood (12 year, the 17 is crap) quite a bit for mixing.

Combined with alcohol, bottled, and refrigerated, there should be no noticeable effect on the citrus over the course of a few hours. Though, I wouldn't put it together the day before.

I batched a Harlan County for a party awhile back. It wasn't rife with cocktail aficionados, so sweetness wasn't an issue. For 8 servings, I combined the following in a 1L bottle: 16 oz Buffalo Trace 6 oz Lime Juice 6 oz Marie Brizard Apry 3 oz Simple I'd pour 4 oz of the mix & shake with ice to order, strain and add a dash of Angostura. If you want to avoid shaking, put the mix in the freezer until game time. Then, pour into a chilled pitcher with 6 oz of water, stir and serve over large ice cubes.

It's Minsk Kristall from Belarus. Looks like a liqueur that is part of their "Balsam" line. ETA: This shop in CT carries their vodka, which would seem to indicate there's an importer out there somewhere.

I also enjoy El Jimador, but it is essentially Herradura's second label, so probably not the choice to replace a bottle of Herradurra (assuming the OP is looking for something a bit different).

Needed mint for a recipe and had quite a bit left over, so I made a couple of my minty favorites and pretended it was a scorcher outside: The Wry Grin (a Sam Ross modern classic)...not sure of the original ratios, but I took inspiration from here and made mine as follows: 2 oz Rye (Willett 4yr for that slightly minty note found in the high-Rye mashbills) 1/2 oz Fernet (Fernet Leopold, here, which was terrific) 1/2 oz Simple 1/2 a lemon, quartered 10 mint leaves Everything got muddled a bit (though I tried not to beat up on the mint too badly), then shaken with ice and strained onto fresh ice with a healthy, spanked mint garnish. After that was a classic Mint Julep. I used Ancient Ancient Age 10 Year, and the only liberty I took was a few drops of Bittercube's Jamaican Bitters #2 on the leaves of the garnish, a trick I picked up from Stephen Cole (The Barrelhouse Flat & Lone Wolf). The spiciness adds a delightful counterpoint...allspice dram works nicely, too.

I'd missed the Crab Malice when it was originally posted, but will have to give this a try. With the Green Chartreuse added, it evokes the Magnolia Tree, which is probably my most frequently made Rogue/Beta Cocktail.

Tonight it was Tom & Jerry, of course. It's become a Christmas Eve tradition.