turkoftheplains

In celebration of my newly-acquired Holland gin, an as-yet-unnamed Rumless Tiki Drink: 1 oz. Bols genever 1 oz. Bourbon (OGD100) 1/2 oz. Cognac 1/2 oz. Laird's bonded apple brandy 1/4 oz. Cointreau (*1/2 oz. if a sweeter drink is preferred) 3/8 oz. falernum (*increase to 1/2 oz. if increasing Cointreau) 1 oz. lime 2 dashes orange bitters 2 drops orange flower water

In honor of my own fresh batch, a small bottle of my friend's Fish-House Punch concentrate, which had been sitting on a shelf at room temperature since 2009. No off-flavors or spoilage of any kind, only a little fruit/pectin sediment that decanted off easily. Started off diluting with water, then switched to champagne. If I had more, this could have gotten dangerous.

After some more time with it, I think the PX is dynamite-- portier than port, with some very distinctive notes. It definitely lends itself well to the cold weather, as both a digestif sipper and because it works nicely in brown boozy drinks. It's potent as hell and can run roughshod over a drink if you aren't careful with the balance, though. My fino/manzanilla experience is limited to the fine drinks (many) other people have made with them. I don't think you can really lose either way.

Four bottles of Weller 12 just landed at my sister's apartment, which is located in a state with much more enlightened alcohol shipping laws.

A Final Ward made with bonded OGD. Great minds, etc. I also have half a batch of Fish-House Punch very slowly dripping through my Chemex filter. It should be shelf-stable and delicious sometime before the Earth crashes into the Sun.

Spurred on by the excellent sherry cocktails popping up everywhere these days, I went to the store and purchased a bottle of El Candado Pedro Ximenez Sherry, only bothering to educate myself on the different types of sherry after the fact. Even if it wasn't the sherry I intended to buy, the PX sherry is terrific, potent stuff and inspired this as-yet unnamed drink (served up with a lemon peel expressed over it and then discarded): 1 1/2 oz. rye (Rittenhouse BIB) 1 1/2 oz. Armagnac (Marie Duffau Napoléon Bas Armagnac) 3/4 oz. Cynar 5/8 oz. PX sherry (El Candado) 3 dashes orange bitters

Pusser's navy strength is a very passable S&C substitute.

Sidecar carafes are also a huge, huge spill prevention measure. I bought a whole bunch of them at restaurant supply store and it's a gift that keeps on giving.

Turk is fine. We're all friends here, right? Putting a drink on the menu says the the drink is "ready" (probably a better word than "done.") I know that bars can and do tweak recipes once they're on the menu, and that a good drink produces dozens of variations. My real question is this: what's your standard for saying "These are the proportions I'm going to use for this version of this drink when I make it again"? I'm a non-professional (as if that weren't readily apparent from me even asking these questions in the first place)-- and without the forced finality of a menu, it's hard to draw a line around a drink and decide that it's "ready." Would it have been better with 2 more drops of bitters? Should it have been 5:2:2 instead of 3:1:1? I know there's no absolute answer to these questions, but I'm sure others must have a better process for refining drinks. By the way, I am going to steal that St. Exupery quote.

I've been coming up with a flurry of new cocktails over the past few weeks, and then having the recurrent problem of writing down working recipes with the intention of tweaking them later. These recipes never get names, since it seems wrong to enshrine a drink that's not as good as it can be and that I may never drink again. I've had a hard time with actually tweaking the drinks, though. I thought it might help to consult the collective wisdom of eG. So, a few questions: 1. What is your process for refining the recipe for a drink? 2. How do you decide when a drink is "done"? 3. What makes a new drink worthy of a name?

If you register at Amazon you have access to Cocktail Kingdom products and (eGullet's very own) Adam Elmegirab's line of bitters. Also cocktail books.

My kneejerk answer is "at least 94," but the question is an interesting one. I'd imagine that higher proof is generally better (assuming appropriate adjustments in proportions), since you can achieve dilution using ice, but that's probably bad extrapolation from George T. Stagg.

You see where this went wrong, don't you?Apologies for this horrific oversight. Craft Blowjob (revised) Ingredients: one juniper seedling, one heritage calf (prefer Dutch Belted), heirloom potato seeds Prepare as usual. Top juniper-infused vodka with dollop of whipped cream. Serve up.

It's heartening to see craft bartenders improving so many of the classics. In this spirit, I present: Craft Blowjob Ingredients: one heritage calf (prefer Dutch Belted), heirloom potato seeds Prepare as usual. Top vodka with dollop of whipped cream. Serve up.

You forgot the part where you import ice en bloc from Antarctica, then hand-carve it into a miniature of the David (any Renaissance sculptor's interpretation acceptable) and stir by creating wind currents in the mixing pitcher so that it doesn't get any cloudier. This frequently requires moving the moon in order to achieve the desired effect.