EvergreenDan

Uh, yeah, I meant Chartreuse, too. Red ... green ... same thing. BTW, I used Creole Shrubb in the Magnolia Tree and thought it was a nice substitution, (although I didn't have any curacao to compare with). I'll have to try a Sazarac in a bigger glass. I don't have the barware variety that I might. I'll try the muddle versus squeezer, although my squeezer is the citrus-colored (lemon/yellow, green/lime) enameled ones. It turns the rind inside out, so I'm guessing it expresses some oil. And then there's the "21 drops of lemon" instructions....

I got my copy of the booklet, and after getting over the disappointment of its brevity, have to say that every drink I've made has been right up my alley. What's more impressive to me is that my wife has loved most of them too -- this a woman who liked nothing more challenging than Batida until about a year ago. Last night I mixed up The Search for Delicious, which starts with 2 oz of Cynar, then "softens" it with Punt e Mes. I expected to be drinking that one, but she wouldn't give it back. 2 to 2, Warning Label, Moment of Silence, Cleirmeil, Art of Choke, Gunshop Fizz -- all great. I found the Broken Shoe Shiner a little candy-like. I thought it needed less pineapple and pernod and more lemon, and maybe skip the egg white. I did substitute Creme de Violette for the rose water, though, and Absinthe for the Pernod. In the Gunshop Fizz, I substituted Campari and soda for the hard-to-find Sanbitter, and I thought it was great, plus bumped the alcohol a bit. The drink might benefit from a high-proof spirit to slow down your consumption. I'm reveling in the bitter aftertaste now. Simply great. I can't speak for the manifesto or the professional scene, but I consider myself a thoughtful drinker and a fairly serious home drink-maker. This recipes and ideas in this book pamphlet are provocative, interesting, and stimulating.

I understand that if you are using a standard sized glass at a bar, that a rinse is a quick way to repeatably measure a fixed small amount of a liquid. That is, if the amount that clings to the glass happens to be the amount the drink needs, something of a coincidence, I think. Different glass? Different size rinse, though. And I get that there can be an aromatic aspect when the rinse is above the liquid top, so you smell the ingredient, at least on the first few sips. But by the time the drink sloshes around, how much rinse is really left on the glass? I recently made a drink that made a big deal of rinsing the rocks ice with Campari. As we all know, ice surface area / volume varies greatly with shape. And the amount of liquid that will cling varies with how wet the ice is. So this instruction, it seems to me, just introduces variability and makes the drink harder to make. After I dump in the stained mixture, the Campari clinging to the glass and ice will immediately mix. Why not just tell me 1/4 oz (or whatever) in the shaker? So if, horror of horrors, you make a Sazarac with the Absinthe in the shaker, what exactly would be the deleterious effect on the drink, other than perhaps the pleasure of watching the mixing ritual? Ditto for muddling. I make a Caipirinha using my regular citrus squeezer. It does a better job of extracting the juice, and is a crap-load faster if I'm making 4 of them. Perhaps I'm missing a tiny bit of expressed oil that muddling gives, but I could easily whip off a zest and express it. Plus, there's wasted drink lost to the limes in the bottle of the glass. (Don't believe me? Suck one sometime.) And I find that the drink is more consistent with simple, rather than sugar, because sometimes the sugar dissolves well and other times less well. Am I missing something? I'm here to learn.

Sounds delicious, but sweet. Maybe the coffee/brown sugar flavor could be accomplished with expresso and a touch of molasses? I like that Cynar doesn't add much sugar to drinks. I had "The Search for Delicious" from Rogue Beta cocktails last night, and really liked it. It's mostly Cynar, and I think you'd have trouble doing it with something sweeter like Ramazzotti. (It is also a little low-alcohol -- perhaps one of those few times when a bit high proof vodka or something would help.)

I guess it needs a name. How about Potomac? I get cherry sorts of flavors from the Zwack. Sugar is the enemy. So the Kirschwasser reinforces the cherry / berry flavor of the Zwack without adding sugar, and adds alcohol. Life is better is complex bitter undertones, and Campari loves fruit flavors, and helps make up for the lameness of the bitter in the Zwack Liqueur, without adding the spice that most other amari would. I was going for bright, fresh flavors. I think a touch of lemon juice would balance the remaining sugar. I follow the usual advice to stir when only clear ingredients are involved. However, (flame suit on) at home I prefer most drinks on the rocks because: 1) My home ice is at -9F. There isn't much shaker melting compared to wet bar ice. This results in up drinks that start out a bit too undiluted. That said, my taste runs toward strong drinks and flavors. I've been known to sip 138 proof Absinthe neat, for example. 2) If I make it on the rocks, and strain it over fresh -9F ice in the glass, it takes a long time before the drink gets watery. 3) I like my drinks really cold. Between warm but strong versus cold but diluted, I prefer the latter.

I love kumquats in salads. They lend a sour/bitter component, that balances well with the dressing and fatty ingredients, like avocado and toasted nuts. I would think that they would be absolutely fantastic in cocktails. I'm always looking out for novel acids to tame the (damn) sugar, and if they come with bitter, so much the better. The problem that I see is that they have scant juice. I might puree them, perhaps infusing in some unsweetened spirits, or just add to the shaker and double strain. Please enlighten me as to what exactly a limequat is (and where you got them)!

Tried this wonder that I found on Cocktail Virgin Slut: Alto Cucina 1 oz Scotch (Balvenie 15) 1 oz Dry Vermouth 1/2 oz St. Germain Liqueur 1/2 oz Cynar Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass Garnish with an orange twist. I made it with Balvenie 12 and Dolin. Very good. Nice intro for non-Scotch-drinkers. It would benefit from a higher proof Scotch (as it's written above), but I didn't have any on hand, other than Islay. The unwelcome sugar from the St Germain creeps in, without any acid to balance it, but it's not particularly sweet. Still, I'd prefer it without the candy.

If you want to slow down the rate of freezing, the easiest way would be just to insulate the filled molds. I'm guessing that a towel wrapped around it a few times would do the trick. If that works, a simple enclosed box made of rigid foam insulation board would be easy to fabricate. Or maybe a small insulated soft-sided lunch box would work. Or drink it neat.

Even though he doesn't address the issue of Diageo importing Unicum, it looks discouraging from Diageo's website. First, Zwack isn't even listed in their brands. Second, in a press release, they refer only to "Zwack Herbal Liqueur" in their product listing. The Zwack Liqueur is somewhat interesting. However, it is burdened with so much sugar and so little bitter that I've found it challenging. I would be interested in hearing ideas involving Zwack Liqueur, since that's what we have in the US. I tried equal parts Rye, Zwack Liqueur, and Amaro Lucano. Delicous. I also tried it with Jack Daniels Black and it was obviously sweeter -- a bit like a bitter Bourbon Manhattan. I also liked equal parts Kirshwasser, Zwack Liqueur, and Campari. Next time, I may add a bit of lemon to this, in juice, peel, or bitters form.

1 oz. Laphroaig Qtr Cask 1 oz. Vermouth (Dolin) 1 oz. Carpano Antica 1/2 tsp Creole Shrub 1/2 tsp Maraschino 1 dash Peychaud's 1 dash Regan's From an idea of BostonApothecary, but my sub'ing of Laphroaig for Macallan and Carpano Antica for homemade chamberyzette was ill advised. Like sucking a hard candy by the campfire. Made a Booker's / Antica Manhattan and life was good again. I need to try the above again with different substitutions. I wish there were an ingredient you could pour in which did nothing but remove sugar.

The US Zwack Liqueur (apparently known a Unicum Next elswewhere in the world) clearly has the word Liqueur on the bottom of the bottle and Zwack at the top. It does not say Unicum Next at all. This is what I have. Unicum is apparently distributed in the US, according to the Wikipedia article. The Zwack Liqueur is very mild -- sweet, pleasant, very slightly bitter. I think you have the real deal, which I haven't found yet.

I feel like I did something wrong. I'm using the US version, "Zwack Liqueur" in the round dark bottle. Without any acid, this is a very sweet drink, as all three ingredients include sugar. Adding a half oz of Lime balanced it for me, and made for a delightful drink. Was the drink intended to use the non-liqueur version (which I don't see in the US, but I could be wrong)?

Sigh. If only I could edit. I made what I'm calling Arrack Attack: 1 oz Batavia Arrack 1/2 oz Ginger Liqueur (Creme de Gingembre) 1/2 oz Cynar 1/2 oz Lime 1-2 oz Q Tonic to top 1 dash Fee WBA bitters Build in a low-ball glass. Garnish with Lime Wheel. Better than very good. Loving it, actually.

Batavia Arrack, ginger, lime, and soda sounds good. Tonic maybe? Or an amaro, maybe Averna or Cynar? Or would this overwhelm the Arrack, I wonder. Also, I'm nearing the end of my bottle of G.E. Massenez Creme de Gingembre. It's fairly mild in ginger flavor, more like concentrated ginger ale, rather than spicy ginger beer. It's sweet, but not unworkably so. 40 proof. Should I try Canton or stick with another bottle of this stuff?

Thanks for the Octavia Books tip; they have one fewer now. $25 shipped. Reading the vile recipes quoted above, my selfrestraint failed. I'm sure this collector's edition will sell for thousands of dollars a century from now.

Just to follow up on the Brooklyn, I've made it twice since the sink cleaner version, with Dolin Dry and substituting Amaro Melleti for Amer Picon. I don't know how faithful this version is (and I'm not saying it is), but it is a very nice cocktail for the my taste. Fairly dry, especially if you keep the Maraschino to a fairly low dose, and the Melleti is dryer than (say) Ramazzotti I tried before. It's a bit flinty, which is the Russel Rye that I used showing through. I like it, and will continue to hunt for Amaro CioCiaro.

On a roll. Another Shiver variation that puts my new bottle of Mirto to good use: Creep 1 1/2 oz Campari 1 1/2 oz Mirto 1 1/2 oz Grapefruit 2 dash Angostrua Orange Bitters I might muddle a spring of rosemary, but I haven't tried that yet. Yummy.

Damn you Erik. Now I really want one.

I found a MxMO recipe that takes both ideas: Coffee, Ramazzotti, dark Rum, and add sweetened shaken/whipped cream. Dessert in a glass, I say. http://spiritmeaway.com/?p=1505

Congratulating myself on lowering the cost of ingredients, I offer up a variation of the Shiver: Bask 2 oz Campari 2 oz Orange 1 oz Kirshwasser Shake, strain, rocks. Absolutely delicious. The orange disappears into the Campari, softening it a bit, while the kirshwasser still peeks through. Beautiful color. Not quite as intriguing as the Shiver, but a good variation using more common ingredients. Then I looked at the Clear Creek Kirshwasser bottle and realized that 1 oz of Kirshwasser is about the same cost as the 1/2 oz of Doug Fir in the Shiver. $well. With apologies to Clear Creek, their eau-de-vies (eaus-de-vie?) mix like champs and the freedom from sugar is so liberating. Also made a: Corpse Reviver #3 1 oz Brandy (I used Cognac) 1 oz Campari 1 oz Cointreau 1 oz Lemon Very good, once I doubled the Lemon from 1/2 to 1.

Wow, tried again without success. Tried Coffee, Luxardo Ameretto, Amaro Meletti, Dolin Dry Vermouth. It was cloying yuck before the vermouth, and winy (whiny?) yuck after. Tried Coffee, Meletti, lemon bitters, lemon juice (thinking about espresso served with a twist). The sugar is in the way. Even after balancing with acid, you have a sweet/sour/coffee affair. I think the upshot for me personally is that behind the lipstick, I still see pig lips.

Thanks for the help. Yes, I was trying to simulate the Amer Picon (and I did use Maraschino). The next time I see your Amaro in the store, I'll pick up a bottle. I assume you're the importer? Maybe pick up Amer Picon and import that, too? That said, I can only recall having seen Amaro CioCiaro maybe once in the last few months around my area of Boston, and at the time I had forgotten that it can be used to simulate Amer Picon. I still would have expected the drink I made to be drinkable and I wonder if the Vya was also at fault. The flavors that I used seemed very compatible (Rye, Vermouth, Maraschino, tiny bit Ramazzotti, teenytiny bit Countreau, Orange bitters). That sure sounds like a winning drink, even if it's not a Brooklyn.

Ice cream? I'd like to know too, as I have a bottle of Starbuck Liqueur that I bought to make coffee/milk drinks for a friend. I since "moved her along" to something that isn't served in a happy meal cup with a straw. Searching on line doesn't reveal the kind of drink I like. OK. For fun, how about a group cocktail recipe. I tried: 1 part Coffee Liqueur (Starbucks, very sweet, not the cream version) 1 part Ramazzotti 1 part Rum (Old Monk) 1 part white rum 1/4 part dry sherry vinegar Not awful, but there must be a way to make this work. Finding a compatible acid is the problem. I also tried lemon and Fino Sherry, but neither one worked for me. Still I like the idea of coffee/Ramazzotti/Molasses, at least in theory.

Retried the Jupiter with Sapphire and Dolin. I'd say it went from sink cleaner to drinkable. It's not a drink I would revisit anytime soon, although I can imagine someone like it if they're into sweeter things. I also tried it with R&W Violette, and didn't care for it. (I like Violette only in tiny quantities, like behind the puckering sour of an Aviation. I did a little ingredient tasting (Tanqueray versus Sapphire) and Vya Dry versus Dolin Dry versus Boissiere Dry versus M&R Bianco (which I'd never tried before). I can now see why Vya could mess up a drink that would perfectly well with Dolin. I love Boissiere in a Martini (and in a pretty good proportion). I Martini with Vya would be good, too, but very different. I look forward to hunting for uses for the M&R Bianco (lordy is it sweet). While I was at it, I also tasted Boissiere Sweet versus Carpano Antica versus Punt e Mes. Very interesting. I think Antica may be very useful, with it complex flavors and bitter underpinnings. Alas, I didn't dump anything into the sink tonight.

Perhaps we chould just change the name to "Sweet Yuktini" and be done with it. I bought a bottle of Dolin to try tonight with Sapphire. Not optimistic. I also dumped a Brooklyn also made with Vya and 1 1/2 tsp Ramazzotti + 1/2 tsp Cointreau + 3 dashes Angostura Orange to simulate the Amer Picon. I wonder if the Vya is at fault here or my approximation of the Amer Picon. It was simply terrible, and I've heard such good things about the Brooklyn. If you add Campari, you've got an Old Pal, a wonderful drink. 2:1:1 There is just enough sugar in the Campari to overcome the flinty dry combination of Rye and Dry Vermouth. And the bitter tones of the Campari love rye.