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.

The main failure of this drink seems to be a lack of sourness. I've been able to modify the Monkey Gland into a drink that's pleasant (but still probably not worthy of canonization) by mixing in some lemon juice or adding citric acid directly. I don't find the idea of gin, citrus, maraschino, grenadine, and absinthe otherwise objectionable, but without acid the drink is a cacophony of maraschino funk, pomegranate, and anise. Mine is the Bloody Mary, which I've never liked no matter who was making it.

Agreed, Laird's bonded (like rum in general, and Blackstrap in particular) makes for great multiple-base drinks. I've had luck blending it with pretty much every single base spirit, other than gin, which is probably more a failure of my imagination than the Laird's. I imagine it would be perfect with genever, but I don't have any on hand (thanks, PA liquor control board!) The closest product on hand is white whiskey, and as an equal-parts or 1:2 mixed base with Laird's works very nicely indeed.

This reads like a Laird's-based riff on the Left Hand, subbing Luxardo for the Campari. If you're looking to recreate, I'd start with 2:1:1 (as in the Left Hand) and tweak to taste. There is only one Laird's product that is suitable as the backbone of a cocktail, and it is the Bonded. If you're looking to improve--well, you'd be better off listening to almost anyone else here--but I'd probably start by substituting the Luxardo with Cynar or Campari. Of course, I've yet to encounter a Left Hand variant that is anywhere near as good as the Black Hand (Cruzan Blackstrap in place of Whiskey)

I'm assuming that was the end of your friendship.

Now we're talking! (By the way, the rest of that site is a really great intro to cocktails.)

I have yet to see anyone (including diehard vodka-tonic/screwdriver drinkers) regret buying a bottle of Cointreau. Why settle for tequila/lime/oj/sugar when you can have a Margarita? Good God, that ingredient list reads like a cocktail geek entry exam. Even the vermouth choice seems calculated to alienate as many people as possible. I need to make one of these. Now.

My #1 recommendation would be to head back to the liquor store, buy: 1. a bottle of Cointreau (don't sweat the price, if you continue making drinks you will use this bottle for everything) 2. some limes (not mix, not lime juice) (3. ice, if you don't have an ice maker--good cocktails need a LOT of ice) Then start making yourself some honest-to-god Margaritas! The great thing about this drink is even with lousy tequila, with fresh lime and Cointreau it will taste great. Try 3 oz. tequila, 1 oz. lime, and 1.5 oz Cointreau to start (I like 3/1/1 but my taste is on the tart side.) Just shake them with lots of ice and strain (no blenders!) Too sweet? Use less Cointreau. Too sour? Use more Cointreau (or add some sugar/syrup.) The best way to start making cocktails is to pick a drink you like (or want to learn) and get what you need to do it, then build your liquor shelf one drink at a time. In a surprisingly short time (3-5 new cocktails), you'll have enough basics to mix dozens of different drinks. You'll progress especially fast if you stick with the classics, since the ideas in those cocktails are used in many different cocktails with just 1 or 2 different ingredients. This also prevents situations like the one you have now-- lots of bottles (e.g., creme de cacao, peppermint schnapps) that can't be used to make very many different drinks. The good news is you're already one very, very useful bottle away from a classic (and hugely popular) cocktail. Example: say that you liked that Margarita. Pick up: 1. some gin (another bottle that can be used for hundreds of drinks) 2. Angostura bitters (dirt cheap, used in hundreds of drinks, and a bottle lasts for ages.) Now use the same recipe as above, only instead of tequila use the gin and add 2-3 drops of bitters. Congratulations, you've made a Pegu Club, a drink so good that it has its own bar* and a guy has an entire blog dedicated to it. As for the Vodka and Kahlua, these are best consumed together with milk or cream while watching The Big Lebowski. *Pedantic cocktail types: I know Audrey Sanders actually named it after the same bar in Burma that the drink is named after.

Not sure if this is sufficiently original to merit a name, but I'm getting attached to my name (even if I'm applying it to somebody else's Manhattan variant.) Birch and Band-Aids 3 oz. Rittenhouse Rye 1/2 oz. Vya sweet 1/2 oz. Averna 2 dashes Regan's orange + 2 dashes Ango Lagavulin rinse, orange peel garnish I really like the mix of aromatics from the Averna, the Scotch, and the orange. I had the Blue Ridge Manhattan at Violet Hour about 4 years ago (still one of my very favorite cocktails from there), and I'm sure that was the inspiration for the Islay rinse. The "band-aids" descriptor is courtesy of Nandini from TVH, who applied it to Laphroaig and somehow managed to make it sound like a good thing.

Wigle Whiskey here in the 'Burgh sells home barrel-aging kits (pictured here) to go with their white wheat and rye whiskies. They say aging in this tiny barrel will take about a month. Prices are more or less the same as the baby barrels at the link above. This seems like a bad bet for the home bar financially, as others have said, but it immediately got me thinking of all sorts of bizarre and unholy applications of oak-- Campari, Cointreau, gin (?!) I also contemplated using vodka to create a kind of barrel extract (oak-infused vodka?) Since I am not that creative and perpetually late to the party, I assume that somebody has tried any or all of these things, probably in 2006 or earlier. Any interesting experiences with the creative misuse of oak?

My fiancée and I like to play a game where she lists ingredients and I have to mix a cocktail with them. I'm nowhere near the pros that frequent eG, but I can usually produce something vaguely potable (which is no small feat considering one of these challenges was smoked bourbon and Malibu "rum.") Last night's game was unusually productive, yielding two cocktails I plan to keep making: 1. Challenge: Applejack and TBT Celery Bitters 2 oz. Laird's Bonded 1/2 oz. Plymouth sloe gin 1 oz. Lime juice 3/4 oz. grenadine (home-made) 1/8 oz. simple syrup 10 dashes TBT celery bitters 2 dashes Regan's orange bittersThis is a Jack Rose variant, but I think it's distinctive enough to be its own thing. My grenadine is on the less concentrated side, so 1/2 oz. may be plenty if yours is more potent. 2. Challenge: whiskey and blackberries (not the toughest ingredients) 1 1/2 oz. rye (Old Overholt) 1/2 oz. peaty scotch (Talisker 10) 1/4 oz. Cointreau 1/4 oz. Aperol 3/4 oz. Lime juiceMuddle blackberries in shaker. Shake, double-strain, and serve up.