sbumgarner

I haven't made a Martinez in awhile but last night's (very) slight variation was good enough to put them back in the rotation. 2.25 oz Barr Hill Old Tom .75 oz Punt e Mes .25 oz Luxardo Maraschino A dash of Bittermens Burlesque Lemon twist The Burlesque bitters provided just enough balance to balance the syrup-iness of the maraschino. I'm really enjoying the Barr Hill Old Tom too, it's definitely on the pricey side compared to Ransom or Hayman's but I like how it seems to meld the sweeter profile of the Hayman's with the drier oak profile of the Ransom.

1 oz Rye (I had Redemption on hand) .75 oz Appleton V/X .75 oz lime .25 oz LH 151 .25 oz Becherovka .5 oz orgeat .25 oz grenadine Dash of tiki bitters few drops of salt solution Shake, strain, coupe For a wintertime sour/tiki experiment it wasn't bad, crushed ice might have been better than up.

I think the first drink I tried with Bonal was 50/50 S&C and Bonal based on Sam's recommendation, I need to explore some of the other spirit options. I have a six month old bottle in the fridge right now, still going strong.

For my wedding five years ago our primary cocktail was the Jack Rose - it was the first cocktail that really got me into the cocktail scene and according to David Wondrich it was supposedly invented in Jersey City, where we live and where the wedding was, so it was a nice story for the guests. We also had beer, wine and a few bottles of booze for things like gin and tonics, scotch on the rocks, Martinis, etc., but the Jack Rose was essentially the cocktail choice of the evening. The wedding space was totally DIY, we were not obligated to anything by the venue. I was in charge of all booze purchasing; I didn't trust anyone else to hunt down Laird's Bonded or anything else I wanted for the evening. The caterers had a bartender who handled beer and wine, but fearing they couldn't handle the cocktail I hired a bartender friend to be in charge of the Jack Rose and any other spirit-based drinks for the evening. She came over the week before to learn the proportions, how to prepare it (at the time she generally free-poured but I asked her to jigger for this drink) and had her taste the final product as a baseline comparison. I made the grenadine a few days in advance and brought it to the venue on the day of the wedding. I provided jiggers, shaking tins, strainers, etc. My bartender friend prepped all the lemon juice in the hours before the wedding but made the drinks to order. However, during the cocktail hour rush she started making a few at a time in a big shaker and "batched" them that way. Knowing what I know now I probably would have had her batch the ingredients without dilution and then shake them to order. There was something about seeing someone prepare them that added to the ambiance (the venue was an old art-deco Loew's Theater), and the point bostonapothecary raised about slowing down orders (although I didn't think of it at the time) is probably a pretty good one to keep the drunken sloppiness to a minimum, especially to people who think pink drinks are "girly" and won't eventually get you drunk. The drink was really well received, enough so that people still mention them to me, and in general my friends are not huge into cocktails. The one I tasted was good - obviously it'd be better at home or at a nice cocktail bar, but considering the circumstances (wet bagged ice, everyone rushing to the bar at once, and so on) I was happy with the quality. As I mentioned earlier we had a lot of control over every aspect of the wedding, this probably would have been harder to pull off if we were at the mercy of a typical wedding-venue bar. All in all I'd say keep the drink simple - it makes it easier to prepare and easier for non-cocktail inclined guests to understand what they're ordering - but also just different enough to make it memorable. I think the story definitely is important, a little placard at the bar briefly explaining it and listing the ingredients went a long way for us.

Had one of these last night, outstanding.

In case anyone was wondering the chamomile-infused Old Overholt from the book is definitely worth making, it brings out a lot of apple notes in the rye. I tried one of Thomas Waugh's drinks using it (name escaping me at the moment) - 2 oz chamomile OO, .75 Campari, .25 St. Germain, stirred, coupe - that was good but I've also been sipping on the stuff straight the past few days. I don't usually buy Overholt as it can get lost in standard rye cocktails, but I'm excited to play with the infused version more.

For the coconut orgeat, are you making coconut milk and then following standard orgeat procedure from there, or are there some different steps? Sounds really intriguing.

A good handful of recipes in the book call for Massenez Creme de Peche - I have Mathilde Peach on hand, does anyone know how interchangeable they are? The Mathilde runs very sweet and needs to be used with care to avoid the Jolly Rancher affect, assuming the Massenez might be a bit more subtle but have no idea.

It's been mine too but I honestly can't tell much of a difference between that recipe and the one in the D&C book. Orgeat aficionados may beg to differ, but I'm happy enough with it that it'll be my default recipe (for now at least). And yes, either recipe is both faster and cheaper than two-day shipping from CA, but to each their own.

Got my copy yesterday too, on a cursory read seems like an invaluable addition to the cocktail book library. Only recipe I've made so far was their one for orgeat, came out really well in about a quarter of the (admittedly inactive) time of my usual process. Having their entire drink index since day one is going to make the rest of this year pretty great ...

I wanted to utilize some freshly made cold-brew in a drink last night, this was pretty tasty. 1.5 oz aged rum (I used Chairman's reserve) .5 oz Smith and Cross .75 lime .25 falernum .25 PF Orange Curacao .25 oz 2:1 simple (I used 3/8ths of an ounce, that was probably a touch too much) 1/8 oz cold brew Shake, strain, coupe. I was surprised the berry notes from the coffee came through even in that small of a quantity.

Yeah, at the end of the day I don't care what it looks like if it stays at it's current price point. According to this article they're keeping it at the same price point for now, but I don't have much faith in it staying that way.

I found that odd too, if I hadn't seen the "151" in the bottom line of text I would have assumed he mistakenly identified an 80 as a 151.

I did find a few differences in mine: 1)In the Flickr version the 151 red label isn't there, on mine it is. 2)In the Flickr version the last part of the bottom line of text is "FA", mine is "BA". No idea what that means. If anyone has any info about when they think this is from I'd be interested in hearing about it.

We have a liquor store in my neighborhood that looks like time passed it by - random boxes everywhere, macro-brew only beer selection, hasn't been cleaned in quite some time, run by a very nice elderly couple who don't even seem to know what they have. I never see anyone go in there, and given it's prime real estate right on the nicest park in town it seems it may not be long for this world. The alcohol selection is meh for the most part, though they do have a couple of bottles of decent stuff (Rittenhouse and Bulleit Ryes, Buffalo Trace, Old Granddad, etc). However, as I walked by today this caught my eye: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aphonik/11746709673/ Based on the info on that page it must be a pre-1980 Lemon Hart 151. NY tax seal still intact. Probably old inventory they never got rid of, though given the store is in Jersey City who knows where it came from. $18. Sold. Also noticed a bottle of Cherry Heering with a label from at least 2 labels ago, and maybe more. Didn't have enough cash to grab it (they're cash only not surprisingly) but that's on the docket.

I really like the Yvette but I don't go to it often when making drinks. In an effort to prevent passing my current bottle down to my grandchildren, I've been experimenting with it more recently. This one works for me: 1.75 oz Genever .25 oz Mezcal (something on the smokier side, I used Los Amantes) .75 oz lemon .5 oz Creme Yvette .25 oz Maraschino Shake, strain into an ice filled Collins glass, top with club soda and a dash or two of Angostura. It's on the drier side, but the Yvette comes through despite the presence of stronger ingredients like mezcal and maraschino.

Thanks for the recommendation, this is definitely a well-balanced drink. The Chartreuse did jump out at me just a little, but with all of the herbal/menthol notes on the finish and none of the sweetness. Moving this into the rotation.

I don't do a lot of beer cocktails but picked up some Kolsch made by Stoudt's and it had a nice fruity/floral nose to it, which prompted me to experiment last night: 2 oz genever (I used WF Oude) .5 oz R&W Apricot .5 oz ginger syrup .75 oz lemon Shake, strain in a collins glass over ice, add 2 oz of Kolsch, top with a few drops of Bittermen's Boston bitters. A nice early spring cocktail, the ginger's heat kept the sweetness in check while adding to that fruity/floral nose from the Kolsch.

I'm always hesitant to make ginger syrups because 1) I don't have a tool that can easily juice ginger and 2) any steeping usually results in significantly muted flavor a day or two later. Usually for things like a Penicillin I'll just muddle ginger slices to achieve the same effect. I gave the method mentioned on the Morganthaler blog a try and am happy to say the syrup still has a lot of bite on day 5, plus it was really easy to make.

I've been enjoying taking drinks I've enjoyed at a bar and not necessarily trying to recreate them, but taking the flavor profile and making something of my own. Most of these experiments fail miserably or at best are decent but inspire nothing from the original. However this attempt, inspired by Death and Company's Cafe Sandinista, has been a pleasant surprise. They use rum (maybe aged, maybe not, can't remember), a coffee-and-chili-infused Campari, lime juice, and a few other things I've forgotten, shaken and strained over crushed ice. This is what I came up with: 2 oz white rum (both 5 Banks and Cana Brava have worked well, something with a little funk seems to be good in this) .75 oz lime .5 simple (also tried .25 simple, .25 cinnamon syrup, not sure which I prefer) .25 oz Campari 2 or 3 coffee beans Healthy dash of Bittermens Habanero shrub Muddle the coffee beans slightly, shake everything, double strain over a big rock. This has been working for me when I want something both refreshing but also complex enough to keep me from downing it in 5 mins

Gave this a whirl last night, very good indeed. I could see myself preferring this version in colder months and the original for warmer ones.

Yeah, that's weird, I actually find that drink a touch too dry when made with Buffalo Trace, I find I need something like EC 12 to round it off. I am now intrigued to try Dan's version with Campari and Ramazzotti.

The Krogstad is heavier on the anise than something like an Aalborg. It's good stuff, but that flavor may not work in certain applications (and works great in others).

It seems like it should be, but I've done half a dozen orders with them in the past 2 or 3 years and have never had a problem. There's also Shopper's Vineyard in Clifton who will ship within the state. They have a nice collection of things, including most or all of the Haus Alpenz stuff (like Smith and Cross). The nice thing about DrinkUpNY is the shipping is free for orders over $200, I usually go in with a few people or wait til I'm out of a lot of things.