Stephen D

Nice!

You're more than welcome to! I'm a 'wild hair' kinda person that is prone to such acts of kindness. And I do need to replenish my supply of Himilayan Salt and Sichuan Buttons, so I'll be there sometime in the next month. With Halloween looming, you might also want to consider the 'fog' technique. It's quite simple- you take a 1" by 1" square of dry ice, add 1-2 ozs of gin, and then strain the vapor into a drink glass with the Gin and Tonic of your preference. The trick is to leave enough of a space from the water line to the top of the glass. CO2 is heavier than air, and will sit inside the vacant area- affecting the nose of the cocktail in the most pleasant of ways. And it looks pretty cool!

Aye, I have. Perhaps we should analyze why some work and others do not. Remember, most of the flavor in juniper lies in the volatile oils found in the skin. Did you use the same proportion of water to berries, as I did? How about the freshness of your product? Like spices, dried berries lose something over time- even those that come from bushes. I was doing this amongst other prep work- so maybe I had a certain reduction of liquid before I returned to the pot? Quite possible. I also eyeballed my proportions. Visual measurement, so to speak- like cooking rice or other grains. I had no problem with mine, to be honest. A one-and-done experiment... How did you do yours? And how did it differ from mine? It would be interesting to see... Perhaps a reduction of liquid (something I didn't see?)

I think it's important for everybody to keep in mind that the Progressive movement is still, 10 years later, extremely young. There is going to be more failures than successes, almost by design. More excesses than home runs, for sure. These are people who are doing something quite creative and new, whether they invented it or not. Who knows how it will be taken? A person's enthusiasm can easily be taken as arrogance- it happens all the time. Will any of this stop people from trying? The short answer is no- we all do what we love, and if the progrssive style makes these people happy, they will find the other people whom it makes happy, as well. Look at the Tippling Club- still doing it, still happy at it and are going nowhere.

Hmm... I hadn't run across this offering and it seems to possess a quirky combination of botanicals. I originally suposed that this would be a Genever-style and that flavor profile can be adjusted for those who enjoy the juniper-prevalance. From a previous post, it sounds like this is similar to Hendrick's, a personal fave in this style. So... Try making a juniper water. You should endeavor to source dried berries from your spice merchant or online. 1 part berries to two parts water. Bring to the boil. Turn off the heat. Allow to steep for 8-10 minutes. This can then be added to your gin to bring the flavor profile up to your liking. Remember that you have just added water to the gin, though. At the execution end, you wanna back off of the shaking times a skosh, or choose ice balls or large, singular cubes to minimize dillution for rocks applications. Cheers!

I had an idea for Halloween this year, yet it seems I won't be able to pull it off. Here's the tale... Underground Dining is huge in my city. Some of these people are goth, enjoy challenging fare or just like to be along for the edginess of the experience. I was thinking of doing a cocktail event, called 'the grotesques,' sorry DaVinci- I stole your name. 8-10 guests, three cocktails with food to compliment the libations. The cocktails would utilize 'the nasty bits,' and would challenge the individual's 'will you eat/drink it' impulse. It would utilize parts of animals normal people would have a tough time ingesting. Freaky as can be- that's the fun of it! I had my guest list, done in my mind. I know these people are game. I didn't know that these people also book their Halloween activities months in advance. Like booked all month with the creepshows they put on. I thought, maybe after. Nope, they all go dormant after the season's work. Blah- gonna have to rethink this one. I'll get 'em, sooner or later! Strangely enough, winter solstice looks promising. I was thinking an agar-solidified Sazerac, placed inside of a roasted veal bone. The gel is fluffed with a immersion blender, to give it the texture of bone-marrow. Enjoyed through a straw. A Dirty Martini, with a large fish eyeball in it. The eyeball would be injected with an olive juice/ vodka mixure and designed to 'pop' with this intense, salty flavor. I'm thinking Opah- the cell stucture is solid enough to support a draining of liquid and then an injection of other liquid. I've meat glue handy, in case. Snake wine- Anybody help me out on sourcing rattlesnake? It's used in SE Asia, yet not locally. I'd simply put the bottles on the table and let them pour it themselves. Kind of a Baccanalian Feast play...

It sounds like you are attempting to make Eben Freeman's solid Gin and Tonic, with the bubbles suspended in the shot. Why not try to reach him at Tailor Restaurant, NYC and see if he could give you the recipe? I've done a lot of work with agar in cocktails and the texture tends to throw some people. You'll probably find a combination of agar and sheet gelatin more well-recieved. I was thinking of the same gold flake idea as Katie, btw. It would catch the light, quite well. Or you can make 1/4 of the batch, let it set, run it through a microplane (elBulli's 'shark fin' technique) and then incorporate it into the main mixture during the setting process. This would inevitably give you some striations which would catch light. You could even choose another color, say pommegranate drinking vinegar as a base, for a more dramatic presentation.

Hi all! This is my first post here, so do be kind... Those are some awesome variations on the theme. I'm from Louisville, Ky, and this is the verbal tradition- as given to me by the Maitre d' of the Pendennis. It gets no purer. In a highball, muddle an orange slice and a cherry with 2 dashes Agnostura and a tsp sugar. Ice to fill. Add 2 ozs bourbon of choice. Empty into Hawthorne shaker. Shake 8-10 times. Strain over ice. Garnish with a lemon twist, if you must.