EvergreenDan

A good intro to rum, if I may toot Zachary's horn.

Glad you liked it. Orange bitters too. I need to try this again with King's Ginger. Was it too sweet? I made this three years ago, and today I would scale scale down the rum and triple sec a bit to make it a bit less sweet and a touch smaller. Dark and Orangey by Dan Chadwick 2 oz Dark rum 1 oz Triple sec, Cointreau 1/2 oz Ginger liqueur, Crème de Gingembre (or Canton or King's) 1/2 oz Lemon juice 3 ds Orange bitters, Angostura orange 1 twst Lemon peel (as garnish) Shake, strain, rocks, lowball, garnish

Chris, I haven't had all the rums that you have, but a white really grassy agricole seems like a hole. And something with a massive amount of hogo (I know you can't get Smith & Cross, right? Other options?). I like Barbancourt, but it doesn't seem very agricole-like to me. Ditto for Clement VSOP. I've only had two El Dorados, but they are both very sweet. The ED3 white is too sweet to use as a dry white rum. Speaking of which, is either the Green Island and/or Ron Santiatgo really dry? I would not think so. If not, then adding a dry white rum would be helpful. Overproof rums are also quite helpful. You can use them in cocktails that take a lot of low- or non-alcoholic ingredients to boost the final ABV. JWray overproof white is pretty cool. LemonHart 151 is cool in its own way too. It would be a fun, interesting and worthwhile-to-the-cocktail-world project to come up with a list of rums to cover a range of cocktails. Maybe 4, 8, and 12 bottle collections. Maybe 2 series of sets, one for Tiki-lovers and one for non-Tiki-lovers. Each "bottle" could have a number of substitutions so that it could work in a variety of areas when different brands are available. If anyone wants to play this game (esp. rum authorities out there), we could start a new thread.

You mean in strong in flavor? It is not particularly high in alcohol. Viscous? I would agree with vicious. Did you like it? I think the Negroni it a tough introduction to Campari. Easier would be Campari and soda with a little lemon or lime, perhaps with a little gin.

Please do tell us what you think. I could not tell from their website whether the nicotine has been removed. It only says "a form that greatly diminishes the health concerns associated with tobacco use."

Next Kyle will be making Kumquat supreme juice Sounds like the kind of drink where you say to yourself "I hope this isn't really good" as you take the first sip.

If this were my birthday, I'd make a few substitutions. Use Irish Whiskey for Irish Cream. Use Lillet for Banana Liqueur. Use Cointreau for Blue Curacao. But, hey, it's your birthday. Happy Birthday. Weeski by Dave Wondrich 2 oz Irish whiskey 1 oz Lillet Blanc 3/4 oz Triple sec, Cointreau 2 ds Orange bitters 1 twst Orange peel (as garnish) Stir, strain, straight up, cocktail glass, garnish

Boston Common 3/4 oz Rye, Rittenhouse 100 (or other high proof) 3/4 oz Cognac 3/4 oz Amaro, Nardini 3/4 oz Sweet vermouth, Carpano Punt e Mes 3/8 oz Lemon juice 1 twst Lemon peel (as garnish) Shake, strain, lowball, rocks, garnish Delicious. Not as sweet as the inspiration due to lemon. A more mild rye will let the cognac through.

Apparently these were indeed potent. Sorry. EXR is sort of Fernet for weaklings. Maybe it's a Bar Back Handshake.

All this chatting about LemonHart 151 made me do this: 2 oz LemonHart 151 1 oz Cynar 1/2 oz Amaro Nardini (a fairly mild menthol/mint amaro) 1/2 oz Lemon 1 oz seltzer to top 8 leaves mint 1 spring mint garnish Muddle mint lightly, shake hard to further muddle, double strain into highball, top with seltzer, garnish. This drink has the light texture of a highball and the alcohol punch of a spirit-forward cocktail. Warning: scale down or one-and-done.

Bitter, Bitter, Bitter, Bitter by eGullet haresfur 2 oz Campari (or Aperol) 1 t Fernet Branca 3 ds Bitters, Fee Brothers Old Fashion 2 oz Bitter lemon soda Shake still ingredients, stain, rocks, top with seltzer, lowball. As written, I tihnk it is probably too sweet, unless your bitter lemon soda is very dry. I sub 1/2 oz lemon + 5 dashes lemon bitters + seltzer for the bitter lemon soda. Great drink. Tonight, I added 1/2 oz gin for alcohol mouthfeel and effect and complement the Campari and lemon. For a Campari lover, this is a wonderful drink. There is just enough Fernet to linger in the background, like a creep in the shadows. The bitters tones down the brightness of the Campari a bit (neither good nor bad, just different from other Campari cocktails).

I have a set of metal spoon/straws. They are stainless steel, and I don't think they contribute flavor any more than flatwaredoes. I use them for drinks where the spoon is helpful (e.g. I have a drink that uses a cube of frozen aperol/citrus, and you break up the cube with the spoon and sip.) I have thought that a bit of careless sipping could chip your front tooth, though.

If you are patient, you could get a synthetic swizzle stick from Boston Shaker when the become available.

I shook the 2 orange wedges with lots of cold, hard ice. A surprising amount of orange juice and also orange peel oil flavor came into the drink.

Slacker.

Fernet and ginger is a great combination (Eva Péron). A full ounce of Fernet is quite an introduction, though. I'd feel free to scale that down to, say, a teaspoon. Fernet grows on you, albeit slowly. You can always add more.

I agree with Andy, but I might add that you're not wasting your energy on inexpensive "mixable" rum, either. Many cocktails benefit from rougher ingredients than one might prefer to sip neat. A great example is Laird's BIB Apple Brandy. It would be a pretty rough sip, even with a touch of water. Their 7.5 year old apple brandy, by comparison, is more similar to cognac in character. Pour me a little glass anytime. Substituting it for the BIB apple brandy in a cocktail woud lose the "just took a bite of an apple" flavor though; the "better" ingredient might well be worse for the application. You're just going to have to find more room for bottles.

Too good. No. I mean it. Too good. It disappears a bit too quickly. Thank you Yarm for pointing this out of overlooked gem from Gaz Regan's 2011 Bartender's Guide. I need to dig deeper into that book.

Yup, The Art of Choke is fantastic. If you love Cynar and have access to mint, you really must try this. Has anyone experimented with other rums? Smith & Cross or J Wray, maybe?

@sbumgarner: Yes, Kyle Davidson is a magician. My mint is coming up. I know what tomorrow's cocktail will be. I omit the syrup entirely, and he specifies a fat quarter of Chartreuse, which I figure is about 3/8 oz. Here's The Art of Choke as he posted it on Kindred Cocktails.

Sometimes going in the opposite direction works when picking ingredients. Since you already have an overwhelming amount of cucumber flavor (or aroma) from the cucumber itself, picking a gin with complementary contrasting botanicals might work -- maybe a classic juniper-forward London dry?

Punt e Mes make a great partner in just about every perfect cocktail I've made with it. I think the bitterness goes well with sweet/sour flavors. I'd be interested to see what Chris thinks.

Chris -- do you have access to something funkier -- more hogo?

Skipped the egg white on your suggestion and had no Tiki bitters, but this is wonderful. I used Cointreau and about 1/2 oz of simple. I think 3/8oz would be perfect for me, or the egg white. I also made a variation with Cynar (no egg white, no bitters, about 1/4 oz simple). Excellent. I would like to have the Bittermens Tiki bitters to try.

I would be very interested in this. I tried using it with sweet vermouth to retain the flavor (no added citrus notes) but adjust the cloying sweetness. It was not successful, but perhaps I didn't try hard enough. Does anyone have a great recipe that shows of citric acid in a context where lemon or lime would not work as well or better? Side note: I was thinking of this as a sweet/sour vermouth, in contrast to dry vermouth which has minimal sugar and fairly minimal (at least compared to citrus) acidity. In the context of a 5:1 Martini, this is my definition of a "dry" cocktail -- neither sweet nor sour. Contrast this to say a Margarita which is balanced just so that it seems equally sweet and sour. I would not call this dry, but sweet/sour. And if it had more lime, I would call it sour, rather than dry.