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Having recently tasted some home-made Swedish Punsch (made by a Swedish barman) I had to make some of my own, following (more or less) this recipe with cachaça. For the tea I used a teabag of English Breakfast and a pinch or two of lapsang souchong for interest and it came out very well. It only makes 400ml or so, so I'll need to repeat the exercise before long. Then, of course, I needed to try it in a cocktail. The Auteur cocktail from Kindred seemed to have my kind of ingredients, along with the punsch, so that was last night's medicine: Absolutely delicious. An interesting mix of tastes - I think I could detect a subtle bit of lemon from the punsch, and there was a trace of bay from the bay seed liqueur I sub for yellow Chartreuse - but overall it was very well balanced and definitely goes onto the list of favourites. Try it.

I had an email this morning announcing that the beta version of the Anova app for Android was available. I haven't got home yet to really put it through its paces, but I did notice that the recipe amounts, when they're by weight at all, are in Imperial units. I can switch Fahrenheit/Celsius but nothing else, it seems, which is sad. Anybody else tried it? How have the Apple aficionados found their version of the app?

Gentlemen, gentlemen, where are our manners? Pto, sorry to hear about your mishap. Can you hold the shaker under your arm on the injured side and wrestle the top off with your good hand? But yes; I think your immediate future calls for stirred drinks. Not a bad thing, in my view ...

We must be in sync, Chris - I also had a Sanny last night. I liked it. Lacking celery bitters I used a small splash of celery syrup, which probably made it a tad sweeter than intended. I don't recall getting coffee, but it was certainly a nice 'dark' flavoured drink; just the way I like them. Lose the cold then try again, maybe.

Pizza base with a bit of extra salt in the tomato sauce?

I haven't, but I might experiment with Suze.

It's nice when people come back from the US with some stuff you've been hoping for: Both are impossible to find here. I'm now moderately familiar with S&C, thanks to various helpful people (lookin' at you, Kerry!) but I think I've only had Gran Classico once, from a bottle somebody brought back from somewhere and gave to the Hawthorn Lounge. I haven't found any recipes that use both - that might be a little unkind to the Gran Classico - but I'm looking forward to using the GC in something interesting tonight.

I may have to splurge at some stage. It's over $100 here - vs. Rittenhouse 100 at (I think) $50ish.

Looks like a nice relaxing place, Smithy. A snippet for us iggerant furriners: what's CCC?

I agree with Chris on the 'if it tastes ok' rule. I'm rather partial to (eg) Punt e Mes, but a bottle still lasts us several months. But I've never found any sign of it going off. Rob, port is a slightly tricky beast. Tawny port has already been aged in the barrel and is ready to drink as soon as you take it off the shelf. Doesn't mean you can't hang onto it for a while, but it's not going to get any better. Real vintage port, on the other hand, is intended to age in the bottle - that's why it's normally decanted; a lot of interesting lumps can form over the years. Assuming reasonable cellaring conditions, vintage port will last for many years; even decades. Somewhere between tawny and vintage comes late-bottled vintage, or LBV, which has some vintage character but again is ready to drink as soon as you buy it. I quite like LBV; I find it more interesting than tawny but much cheaper than 'real' vintage. What you possibly hadn't grasped when you said you'd learned a vintage port should be drunk immediately is that once you've opened the bottle - of pretty well any port, or sherry for that matter - the shelf life is short. A bottle of nicely-aged vintage port ideally should be finished in one session. Fortunately that's not difficult ...

I suspect the PF would be too dry. The original tangelo, or the equivalent I make, are quite sweet. I made a Tolkien myself last night with some orange liqueur that's close to Cointreau and it was most satisfactory.

Well done, sir - glad you liked it. Although I must disavow any claim to 'ownership'. All we did was provide the inspiration; Gian did the work (he's now in Vancouver, unfortunately for us). I'd be inclined to go Cointreau rather than Grand Marnier, in the absence of tangelo.

Thanks for this one. We liked it sufficiently that I've added it to Kindred (by way of Cocktail Virgin Slut). Not sure I'd want to use a single malt in it, though.

FP, if you're working your way through the Sazerac section, don't miss the Alembic. We had it a couple of nights ago. Very simple but definitely tasty.

Yes, we've enjoyed Monkey Shoulder Coin Tosses too. But the anejo tequila one is definitely worth a try.

Rightly so (mine was also Appleton 12). The Chocolate Martica, while very good, isn't quite up to the original, to our taste. But one must try both to decide.

Kindred now can. And I also discover there's a Chocolate Martica, made my upping the Carpano a bit and subbing mole bitters for the Angostura. Have to try that too.

Thus inspired, tonight's drink is a Coin Toss with Revolucion Anejo. Oh yes!

And from that topic, I highly recommend the Tres Sangres. You probably wouldn't want it every day - hell, most of us probably couldn't afford it every day - but it is amazing.

I stumbled across the Martica last night (Cognac, Appleton, Antica formula, maraschino liqueur, Angostura). Delicious. A really exotic flavour I can't describe. The Appleton (I used 12 rather than the recipe's VX) was certainly there, but everything just blended into a fascinating whole. Every time I think I must have picked all the really good ones out of the book, another one like this pops up. Highly recommended.

You might be onto something interesting there. With Maltodextrin, maybe? I'm not sure if I can source marrow here, but I may just have to try so I can play with this.

Glad you enjoyed it. The Rittenhouse and the brandy variants were, I think, the best. It's been a little while, but I don't remember the rum one being particularly special. OK; just not wonderful. And as it happens, we had a Greenpoint last night. Certainly one of my favourites of the Manhattan variants, although I must put in a strong word for Death & Co's Manhattan Transfer.

I have no idea about granite discolouring and I certainly wouldn't want it to crack. But my rationale for using the cutting board goes in the other direction; I don't want the circulator having to work harder than it needs to because the benchtop is soaking up heat.

Ditto. We have granite; I'm not afraid of damaging it, but I can imagine losing quite a bit of heat through the bottom of my (usually) stock pot.

Yesterday was my longest (so far) cook with the new Anova. Duck legs at 72°C for (by the time we were ready for dinner) about 12 hours. Best ever, I think. For some reason I didn't put any orange zest in the bag as I usually do, but the main technique difference was a few minutes under the grill at the end rather than the usual screaming hot pan. I can't say whether that actually made any difference or it was just a serendipitous combination of time, temperature and the original duck, but it was very good.