ChrisTaylor

I just purchased a bottle. It's distilled from sorghum (85%), barley (8%) and wheat (7%). I haven't eaten in a few hours so I don't know if nosing it is a good idea.

Wee Paunchby Rafa García Febles, NYC.2 oz Irish whiskey1 sli Lemon (lemon coin; a cut of peel and pith containing a bit of flesh and juice)1/2 t Barley malt syrup Build in glass over ice, stir, rest, sip.This one surprised me, really quite good. Wee was taken (showing your paunch, Rafa?) so: Whi' Punch 1 1/2 oz Dalwhinnie Scotch 1/2 tsp light cane syrup (I considered treacle but thought better of it) small slice lemon, you know the drill build over ice, but as I'm drinking it time isn't helping much so maybe no ice next time As always my prototype measures are approximate so adjust as you see fit. I could see making this for Chris. ETA: Barley malt could be good, too Made this with a touch more Dalwhinnie and lime juice instead of lemon. What about honey syrup? Dalwhinnie has a certain honey-like quality to it.

Two things from the past couple days: Ti Punch w/ La Favorite aged agricole. Very nice. Even tho' I used lemon instead of lime.Gin and tonic using The Botanist and my new favourite tonic water, Cascade. Incidentally, haresfur, I was at Coles the other day and bought some Cascade and it scanned in for $2 for the eight pack. Time to stock up.

Ritt 101, Flor de Cana dry, Cruzan and The Botanist.

Umm it weighs in at 57% or so.

See the white bottle? It's made from sorghum. Anyone familiar with this product? It's much cheaper than vodka as it's clearly being sold tax free. Is it flavourless? With its high proof would it make an ideal base for bitters?

Two things: A John Collins made with Bols genenver. And the Spice Trade from beta cocktails. The one described as FUCKING METAL. I'm not sure what to make of this one (1 oz each kummel and Herbsaint, 0.75 oz curacao [i used Grand Marnier] and a couple dashes of Angostura bitters). At first the Herbsaint dominates but then the kummel pops up to say hello. The first sip isn't some a very great thing at all but the finish is rather nice. Herbsaint and curcacao take the edge off kummel. EDIT As the drink disappears, I warm to it. I can't help but think it could do with a garnish, though. Not citrus. Thyme, maybe. Lemon thyme? Thoughts?

I made two different sausages over the weekend. The breakfast sausages from Charcuterie and, from another book, the Daylesford Bull-Boar. The latter is a sausage unique to a small region in the old goldfields in my state. It's based on a traditional style of sausage brought over by Swiss-Italian migrants during the gold rush. As the name suggests it combines beef and pork. It's heavily spiced and jacked with red wine.

Interesting - the version of this on Kindred doesn't call for agave. Rafa put it there, referencing cocktailvirginslut, and they don't mention agave either. Is your recipe straight from the beta source, Chris? I've made the Kindred version and quite enjoyed it, but it's not a patch on the very serious Tres Sangres, of similar bitters-heavy style. Maybe I'll try again with a bit of syrup and see how it is. I took the recipe from the beta cocktails book itself, yes.

Not from the bottleo but from the furniture store. A furniture store that, I guess, kind of is a liquor store given it also sells aquavit (note the little sampler pack of aquavit and schapps). This replaces a trestle table that was starting to sag and a cupboard thingy that belongs to the landlord or previous tenant or whoever. These are much more stable and allow me to get a little autistic in sorting shit out. Amari with amari. Gin near but not in the same space as genever.

Another beta beverage: 2 cups of blood. This one's a bit of a monster, like so many of the beta cocktails drinks, containing the following: 0.75 oz Bitter's mole bitters 0.75 oz Suze 0.75 oz Punt e Mes 0.75 oz mezcal (Ilegal reposado in place of the sugested Vida) 1 bsp agave syrup (I just used straight agave nectar--it's not like a little extra agave-fuelled sweetness is going to do much against the best part of an ounce of bitters) 2 dashes Regan's orange bitters Stirred and strained. Instead of grapefruit oil I put a drop or two of Fee's grapefruit bitters on top. I mean, it's not like the drink is anywhere near bitter enough from the outset. EDIT I accidentally poured it before adding the agave and fuck damn did I quickly realise my mistake. Turns out a barspoon of agave nectar is enough to take this from too much of ... something to very but pleasantly bitter. EDIT 2.0: Now that I've had a couple cocktails I feel like whiskey. I'm writing reports for my students, see. This is mind-numbing when you have 23 to do. I had some High West Double Rye first of all. Am amazed at how much a couple drops of water--no more--opened it up. Smoothed off that slight edge. Now I'm finishing off the last of some Russell's Reserve bourbon. Just think: it could be your first grader I'm reporting on.

West Indian Summer from beta cocktails. 1.5 oz kummel 1. oz Old Raj gin 0.5 oz lemon juice 1 bsp maraschino 1 bsp simple a dash of Regan's orange bitters Stirred and strained. Being kummel-heavy, this one's a slow burn for me. I like it but it's not exactly going to topple the Hemingway off its perch this summer. Maybe a 1:1 kummel:gin ratio might be worth exploring. Or lime juice instead of lemon.

I just made this. It is now and forever named the haresfur and tonic.

A slightly modified White Hook. 4:1:1 Bols oulde, Cocchi Americano and Luxardo w/ a couple dashes of Regan's orange bitters.

Ilegal reposado, Aalborg aquavit, Bols Very Old and some 30 year old Torress Jaimei brandy. The latter is easily the best brandy I've ever had.

I've almost finished a bottle of Bols Genever. It's the kind in the clear bottle. I'm not a huge fan of the product, although I'll admit it has a place in something like a Last Word. I'm not inclined to replace it with the same stuff. That said, I've been told the Bols stuff in the stone(?) bottle--the corenwyn--is what I want. What's the difference? Is the base flavour profile totally different or basically the same thing? I have access to numerous variations of Bols as well as Bokma and Blankenheym.

My first attempt at a White Negroni using some new purchases: 1:1:1 Cocchi Americano, Suze and Tanq. I wonder if a more boisterous gin--a genever--might work better here. Suze and Cocchi don't fuck around. EDIT And now some Herbsaint, another new purchase. 1:1 with water and a single ice cube. Wow. So much better than Pernod, which I've only recently developed a taste for. I suspect this will be vastly superior in a Saz to either Pernod or the cheap bullshit South African absinthe that I have.

Cocchi Americano, Herbsaint, Suze and a small bottle of Amaro Sibilla. I've tasted the amaro but never owned it: it's hard to find in Australia. The other three are all new to me. Time to knock together a White Negroni, I guess.

The 'at Home' chilli con carne is forgettable, I discovered. Changing from the short ribs of the Perfection version to the mince of this one was a bad decision.

Marque, Bentley, est. and Four in Hand were my favourites. Aria is pleasant enough but largely forgettable. The food is done well but ... well, there's a reason it's mostly filled up with tourists and the business lunch crowd. You might find Sepia amusing enough, I guess, although personally I thought it was way too loud to be enjoyable.

I reckon it works. And I reckon you're right about wanting a rougher brandy--not that your stuff is the sort of thing a pirate surgeon would use to clean graffiti off his fingernails--being well-suited to going toe-to-toe with citrus juice. Lemon juice will knock the shit out of anything more refined. It's like cooking with a $100 bottle of Burgundy.

When we used to go trout fishing when I was a kid (the only summer vacations I knew about), the trout were always cooked in the left over bacon fat, after first being rolled in either corn meal or flour. Served with some fresh biscuits, crisp bacon and hot coffee from the campfire, there was no better meal. I was first introduced to the combination of salty pork fat + trout in the form of a recipe that saw the fish stuffed with a couple crisp slices of jamon (I used proscuitto) and then fried in the fat from said jamon. I think the chef--Australian/Spaniard Frank Camorra--may have even gone so far as to top the cooked fish with yet anothr slice of crispy jamon.

Sorry to let you down but in Australia we tend to just slice it and serve it as is.

Why not a cognac from one of the smaller houses like Jean-Luc Pasquet? If I can get it in Australia I reckon you can get it a lot of other places. It's very good and it's very reasonably priced. I've owned, at various points, bottles of the XO and the VS. I happily take them straight or use them in brandy-based cocktails. I have some Spanish brandy floating around, too. I must admit I've only used it in a couple of cocktails that call for it specifically. I've yet to experiment with it in a Sidecar or anything like that. I reckon it might worth. It's a fair bit rougher than the cognac but, hey, many brandies are.

I don't think agave ever does a good job of playing nice, even when it's decent quality agave. It's agave all the way or it acts all antisocial, wearing obscene t-shirts and playing vile music.