Frederic

I make an arbitrary cut off at 20% ABV. Below, they require refrigeration. All my aromatized wines get refrigerated; the ports, sherries, and madeiras do not (these are generally 20%). The only way to determine shelf life is to taste them unmixed and determine whether they still taste good. Lillet or vermouth should not go 6 months once opened; you should notice enough of a difference after 2 months (+/-) that you wouldn't want to use them unless they are a smaller part of the drink. I cannot speak for how long Cardamaro should last. Two liqueurs that fall below 20% that I do not refrigerate are Aperol and Velvet Falernum (both are in the 11-12% range). There are gas replacement systems (argon or other) developed for wine storage to drive out the air; I have never gone that route. I know of others that aliquot open bottles into smaller containers (low air volume in the bottle).

I remember speaking with the Preiss Imports rep when he told me about VdV, and I said that it would be great to have a Green and Yellow Chartreuse alternative that was at a low price point. I shook my head in confusion when I realized that they were shooting for the same $50 price point as Chartreuse without having the history or quality.My best advice is to go to smaller liquor stores and look at the dusty bottles on the shelves. This has scored me $42 bottles of Green Chartreuse earlier this year. I am also surprised that the yellow is more expensive since it is either cheaper or the same price as the green (one liquor store here has the yellow for $50 and the green for $55). The other advice is just breakdown and buy the bottle but make Chartreuse drinks sparingly. There are plenty of delicious drinks out there that use more affordable liqueurs. That way, your pricey bottles will last.

Beside Henri Bardouin, I'd recommend La Muse Verte Le Pastis d'Autrefois which has the advantage of being dry like absinthe (you can add sugar to taste) besides being well crafted.

Villeroy and Boch has 6 oz sized glasses that are really elegant (but rather pricey) in a few styles. They also have the standard larger sizes.

From the Benedictfield Christiansted part, it's an aged spirit from St. Croix (the Virgin Islands). Because it says liqueur instead of liquor, it's either sweetened or sweetened and flavored in some way. Perhaps it's just sweetened to make the over proof go down easier (many rums are actually sweetened to a small degree yet can still claim to be liquor).

Not sure what you are getting charged or why it is so expensive, but I get my liters of Noilly Prat for $11 (which is comparable to 750mL of Martini & Rossi for $8 assuming you drink it all in time). I definitely like NP over other dry vermouths for I find it more flavorful. The Dolin is delightful to drink straight but I find that it can get lost in certain recipes.

Suze was supposed to be imported into the U.S. in 2010 and has been spotted in liquor stores in New Orleans that year (the group of people I stayed with for Tales that year bought a bottle as they stocked the bed&breakfast's bar). Now it's slated again to be here this year (but I will believe it when I see it on a shelf): My linkhttp://offthepresses.blogspot.com/2011/09/suze-to-finally-reach-us-shores.html Mayur, we are definitely looking forward to the Bittermen's liqueurs reaching our shelves (you can't mail them to us here in Massachusetts). I definitely am glad that an Amer Picon-like spirit will be available for I find it a sin against mankind if someone cannot mix up a proper Brooklyn. Any word on the price point for these liqueurs?

Dan, we went through the old Chowhound thread that included places to buy the Amaro Nardini (back in June 2010) and stopped into Gordon's in Waltham yesterday. I didn't spot it and the clerk had no clue what I was talking about and quickly try to sell me on a bottle of Fernet Branca. We would've tried Cirace's yesterday but they're closed on Sunday -- not that their website told me that since it has practically nothing useful on it anymore, but luckily Yelp had their hours. As for the 2 Cups of Blood, we can't find Suze here in Boston although I got to taste it at a bar here that had a bottle (not sure where they got it though). I'm a little wary of recipes using large amounts of bitters that cost $5 per ounce (if it were a 750 mL, it would be a $120+ bottle).

Erik Ellestad subs Caperitif with "1 tsp Amaro Montenegro, 1 oz Dolin Blanc" (1 part:6 parts) so by that estimation, it is more robust than Cocchi/Lillet, although Erik admits it is only a guess. Erik uses that amaro to up the quinine level. I think I have built the product up too much in my head. Sort of like how I got a taste of Byrrh at Tales of the Cocktail (the day before it started) in 2010 and though "Oh, that's nice, but it tastes a lot like the other aromatized wine products I already have access to." And perhaps Erik built up the quinine level in his head -- not every quinquina is all that quinine forward.

We're working our way through the new drinks in the new book. There are still old drinks in there plus we had already made some of the ones in the photoless 'zine-like one I was handed at the Cure in 2010 (5 in total). We've hit a road block of scoring some Amaro Nardini. The closest we got was going to Astor Liquors in Manhattan and seeing the empty spot where it usually sits. I was able to score Martin Miller's Westbourne Strength there though for one of the drinks. DrinkUpNY has it but that's not an option in Massachusetts (and all of the locations in an old Chowhound thread have turned up nothing).

We have a bottle that we found in Massachusetts ($20 at Julio's in Westborough). Between the peel and the spices, it is different from triple secs and curacaos. As for uses, there are a bunch in European cocktail books from the 1920s and 30s such as the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book (some of those recipes were entered into CocktailDB.com), UKBG's Approved Cocktails, etc. And even some newer recipes such as the Comet in David Wondrich's Killer Cocktails. VdH is also essential for the lady series -- it's in the Brown Lady (I also discovered both a Blue and a Green Lady, but I might pass on those except for a Martian or Smurf theme party).One that I'm curious about is Caperitif -- an aromatized wine frequently mentioned in the Savoy Cocktail Book.

One I enjoyed recently was: Teenage Riot 1 1/2 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye 1 1/2 oz Cynar 1/2 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat) 1/2 oz Lustau Dry Amontillado Sherry 2 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange) Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Overall, a little drier and more citrussy than a Little Italy. And to the above poster's comments, there are no fancy syrups or other in this drink. More about this drink: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2011/06/teenage-riot.html

First off: Drinking tobacco-infused spirits in quantity is dangerous and can be deadly. It is not recommended and feel free to do at your own risk, but do not put others at the risk without informed consent. In small amounts at certain concentrations, it can be an interesting sip. After a friend asked me how to make it and I told him not to take more than a shot or two of it at a time, his response of "how can I only drink that little in a night?" scared me. I had to explain that he ought to pick up a different bottle and put that one down. Informed, thinking people can make intelligent decisions; the problem is that a good percentage of the population cannot. Second off: A safer way of getting the tobacco notes in the drink is by bitters. I published my long-time guarded recipe for Smoking Ban bitters a week or two before Darcy did his post. Most of the math and warnings there were repeated in his more eloquent voice. But my math shows that even at the highest concentrations of nicotine in tobacco leaf, a barspoon (1/8 oz) of these bitters has still less nicotine than smoking a cigarette. So use at your own risk, albeit tasty risk: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2011/03/smoking-ban-bitters.html Note: feel free to flame away at how I am killing people. I've heard it before. I hesitated publishing this recipe for a year or two (despite requests from people who tasted it); however, other people were doing it, I figured it could be an educational experiment to publish the math. Third off: Tonka bean and cherry pits used in most liqueur or bitters concentrations are not that exceptional hazardous; however, the FDA frowns upon them with a zero tolerance policy. If there weren't a tobacco lobby, the same would probably be true of cigars and cigarettes.

Here is the wrap up including the recipes presented here: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2011/07/mixology-monday-beer-wrap-up.html

Thank you for your contributions! The wrap-up post will be up sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon.

"If you do not have your own blog, feel free to post the drink recipe, a photo, and a description of what you made, why you made it, and how it taste on this thread." Without at least a recipe, it does not help with the educational part of Mixology Monday.

Regular vinegar is 5% acetic acid, so if you have 12% than that is reasonably strong. The strongest you can get is glacial acetic acid which is 56% (11x more concentrated). There are vendors of "food grade glacial acetic acid" on eBay and elsewhere that can help you out if you do not have access to stores that might sell it locally (if the 12% stuff isn't strong enough for your purposes that is).

Our blog, CocktailVirgin, is hosting Mixology Monday on July 11th. The theme is beer used as an ingredient in any mixed drink, cocktail, punch, cup, flip, or fizz. Glasses of beer are out, but throw in a shot of whiskey for a Boilermaker and it's fair game! A better description of the event and more information on how to participate can be found on the URL below. If you do not have your own blog, feel free to post the drink recipe, a photo, and a description of what you made, why you made it, and how it taste on this thread. Cheers, Frederic http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2011/06/mixology-monday-announcement.html

A pair from the blog: Supernova 1 oz Gin (Death's Door) 1 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat) 1/2 oz Drambuie 2 dash Angostura Bitters Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Created by Anu Apte of Rob Roy. The Drambuie adds some whiskey notes to the mix and turns regular gins into something more akin to Ransom's Old Tom. Very similar to the Flora's Own aperitif from the 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book. Madelaine Cocktail 1 oz Light Rum 1 oz Drambuie Juice of 1/2 Lime (1/2 oz) Juice of 1/2 Lemon (1/2 oz) Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added a lemon twist to the recipe. A classic from the 1947 Trader Vic. Drambuie both as a (partial) base and sweetener.

Often called "Ratafia de Noyau" (or similar spellings) with recipes in Jerry Thomas and before. Rather tasty and because of the risks of drinking large amounts (as stated above), it has been outlawed. Commercial Creme de Noyau are still produced in France, but they are not as flavorful as the Ratafia (straight infusion in high proof spirits) since they are most likely distilled or other. Most cheap ones (Leroux and other bottom shelf dwellers) use artificial almond flavorings to achieve the peach pittiness. A lot of old recipes, especially every other one in Bariana, include Creme de Noyau. The Old Etonian being one of the more famous classic ones and the Pink Squirrel being one of the more late 60's-early 70's attrocities that call for it.

Acid also helps the foaminess, but it is a fine balance. Too little and there's not much of a foam(egg protein does not denature to form bigger matrices), and too much, and the foam breaks down (breaks up interactions between egg proteins). Same with shaking. Too little or too much agitation is bad. Some notes from the Eggpire Strikes Back talk at Tales of the Cocktail: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2010/08/notes-about-eggs.html

Aesthetics - garnish can differentiate one murky brown (or crystal clear) cocktail from another and give it something for the drinker to focus on beside the monotony of the liquid. There is also variation in peel shape - from coins to curly coils to wide swaths - that can change the presentation of the drink, besides whether it is floated, part on the edge and part in the drink, or on the rim of the glass (i.e. a notch cut into the peel). Imagine if you were taking a photo -- which would have better composition, the one with a peel or the one that was just liquid? Aroma - twist oils float on the surface and can dissipate after a few sips. The drink I had last night where the bartender dropped in the grapefruit twist contained the aroma of the oil through out the whole drink.

They're actually rather common in European recipes (or everywhere else in the world that does not use ounces). 1/3 of an ounce = 10 milliliters, and there are jiggers from around the world in 10 mL (and other metric-oriented) sizes. Both the Boston Shaker Store and CocktailKingdom sell these from England and Japan, respectively, I believe. Otherwise,1/3 oz = 1/4 oz + 1/2 tsp = 10 mL 2/3 oz = 1/2 oz + 1 tsp = 20 mL

The theme for Mixology Monday this month is tea, so either submit a recipe or check in a few days after the 25th to see what others have created: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2010/01/mxmo-xlv-announcement.html

After having taken a vermouth making course, a lot of "barmade" recipes utilize a slug of port in the mix to give the right mouthfeel and color. I need to revisit this experiment again in the future. After the class, I was just turned off by the additives (one recipe included Campari) that I put the project on hold.