Sunny&Rummy

Agreed, and I much prefer the Hess ratios to Harrington, even though it is Paul's drink.

Tasty indeed, did you do it with vodka or gin? Tanqueray #10. You could drink that stuff neat! Haven't tried that one but, to be honest, I haven't met a gin I couldn't drink neat. Right now I'm wondering which rum that I have could stand in for the Barbancourt in a... Don's Little Bitter 1/8 oz Peychaud's bitters 1/8 oz Angostura Orange bitters 1/4 oz Angostura bitters 1/2 oz Fernet Branca 1/2 oz lemon juice 1/2 oz simple syrup 1 oz Barbancourt 8 year rum Shake, strain, coupe. You are one of the lucky Canadians who can get Havana Club 7, so that would be a more than suitable stand-in. Matusalem Classico would suffice, and the 15 or 18 would kill.

THAT is the Captain's Blood I know and love. Using your favorite aged sipping rums in that one makes about the best midnight daiquiri you can imagine. Matusalem Gran Reserva, Barbancourt, Cockspur 12, and Pampero Aniversario all shake up to make a glorious Captain's Blood.

That doesn't look at all bad to me, but the Clement VSOP isn't going to bring the agricole funk forward in the way the Hors D'Age does. Even compared to St. James Royal Ambre the Clement is a little subdued. The subtle complexity of the Flor 7 is also probably going to me muted compared to richer and rounder Appleton Extra. That said, if someone served me a Mai Tai made to your specs I would enjoy it 10 times out of 10.

Homemade orgeat does have a tendency to recede far into the background or disappear altogether. This is because homemade orgeat is made with sweet almonds and no bitter almonds. It is the benzaldehyde found in bitter almonds (among other places) that provides the "almond flavor" that cuts. There are a number of techniques you can use to provide the missing benzaldehyde component in a homemade orgeat: You can find and use a percentage of actual bitter almonds (good luck finding any);You can use perhaps 10% apricot kernels. Remember that many almond flavored things, such as Amaretto DiSaronno, are actually flavored with apricot kernels. Bitter apricot kernels have higher amounts of benzaldehyde are probably best for this and can be found on the internet, but people report good results with sweet apricot kernels;You can add natural bitter almond extract/essence (more or less straight benzaldehyde from a natural source) to taste. This is discussed fairly extensively upthread. Some people like to toast the almonds. I'm not particularly fond of this, as I think it reduces the versatility of the orgeat for use in white spirit drinks. I have had the best results by using blanched almonds, pulsing them roughly with water, soaking overnight, re-pulsing to a slightly finer consistency and then straining through cheesecloth. Looking at Katie's process, it would be interesting to do some side-by-side comparisons to see whether, for example, adding vodka actually did make any difference. Briefly infusing citrus zest in vodka certainly does make a difference when making things like grapefruit syrup. But I have my doubts as to whether adding vodka to something that is already mostly water would have an appreciable effect. Would be interesting to separate that out. I also wonder whether or not one really does "cook out" any special flavor by allowing the mixture to come to the boil when incorporating the sugar. Based on the good info in this thread I did exactly as you suggest and added a healthy dollop of bitter almond extract to my orgeat. It works well in a Mai Tai but doesn't taste quite right in a Japanese. It also doesn't make the drink look quite as appealing in the glass because it is so much milkier than the commercial stuff.

I am greatly looking forward to that boat landing!

That is the problem I usually have with "the float" of dark rum in general. I always think it looks gorgeous, but I usually stir it into the rest of the drink pretty quickly so it doesn't clash with or compete with the rest of the cocktail that I just spent a lot of time on trying to get the right flavor balance. When your orgeat travels take you into Japanese Cocktail territory, be sure to post your exploits. The hybrid Japanese recipe I have arrived at through a fair bit of trial and error with different recipes from several errors has been called "idiosyncratic." This cocktails has been re-interpreted so many different ways since its origin as more or less a boozy snow cone, that I think taste now has to trump provenance as far as finding a winning formulation. And I hate to say it, but overall I really think commercial orgeat plays better in the Japanese than my homemade versions usually do.

I would definitely also put Cruzan White in that list of winning quality vs. price light rums. Only slightly less versatile but still a very good white rum for the price is Flor de Caña Extra Dry 4 year. I have yet to try it, but I also keep hearing great things about El Dorado 3 Year light rum.

Smith & Cross is a gold rum just the slightest bit lighter in color than Appleton V/X. The lighter color is deceptive, as this rum just oozes the pot still ester funk that is such a defining feature of traditional Jamaican rum. Wonderful stuff.

Tell Hubby to Man Up and embrace the bitterness. Sounds like a good drink.

The Smith & Cross really does make everything sing. I, too, just got around to playing with a homemade orgeat based largely on Darcy's recipe and with a bit of orange flower and rose water and some organic almond extract as well to brighten up and sharpen the almond flavors. I regret being a little impatient and overheating the food-processed almonds to maximize milk extraction because i got some solids clumping that cost me some of the extracted oils and it shows a bit in the texture of the final product, but it is still quite tasty. The winning mai tai recipe and rum combination thus far has been: 0.75 oz Smith & Cross 0.75 oz Rhum St. James Hors D'Age aged agricole 0.75 oz Appleton 12 0.75 oz fresh lime juice 0.5 oz Clement Creole Shrub 0.5 oz homemade orgeat 0.25 simple spent lime shell and fresh spring mint garnish This is a bulletproof mai tai.

Ti Punch with Rhum St. James Hors D'Age vieux.

If you have Coruba, you have to try the Stephen Remsberg's Planters Punch from Remixed. It is honestly one of the greatest things I have ever tasted.

Kerry, can you please post that Captain's Blood recipe and tell me where it comes from? The Captain's Blood incarnation I am familiar with is this one from Robert Hess' site which is fairly different, but simile and excellent.

Probably my favorite Robert Hess original. In fact I think I'm going to shake one up right now. What rum did you go with? [mixes drink. . . ] Yep, that is very good. I honored the original Hess recipe and used Bacardi 8, but I had every intention of using El Dorado 5 until I realized I was out! Grog shop run tomorrow.

Yes, they are dissimilar. My may may be thinking of Cocchi Americano, which is very similar to Lillet, sharing the strong orange flavor, but having a better bitter aspect. Bonal is more like sweet vermouth -- rich and spicy. For a sub, I'd try a sweet vermouth with maybe 1/4th Punt e Mes if you have it. Or Carpano Antica although that has its own flavors going on. Next time you are out of sweet vermouth, I heartily recommmend you try a bottle of Bonal. It is nice enough to drink straight from the refrigerator, maybe with a wedge of lemon. It's pretty widely available in Boston now. Thanks for the info on Bonal. When I read that it was a chinchona wine I wrongly assumed it would be a blank and not a rouge. After months of pestering, there is one spirits shop in striking distance that will special order Haus Alpenz products fir me, so Bonal will have to go on the list now.

Yes, on the sweet side, but still a balanced drink. Not exactly my cup of gin but certainly worth a try. The club soda didn't moderate sweetness so much as it just sort of thinned out a drink that is already very light-bodied. I think a dash of orange bitters wouldn't hurt. The Cortez the Killer (tequila-based) and the Division Bell (mezcal-based) were vying for my attention this evening, and Cortez got the nod. • 2 oz blanco tequila • 0.75 oz Bonal (I subbed Lillet Blanc) • 0.25 oz creme de cacao • orange twist garnish stir/strain/up This one is nice. The orange oils and light chocolate from the cacao play well with the tequila, and the Lillet does a nice job of opening up the flavors. I have never had Bonal. Is it hugely different than Lillet?

The few PDT recipes I have tried (particularly the Bacon-Infused Bourbon Old Fashioned) have been very good, so yes, I am happy to see this book coming out.

Brigadoon caught my eye as well, and I will give it a try soon. The first drink from the book I tried out tonight is the Coral Reef: 2 oz Plymouth gin 1 oz St. Germain 0.75 oz. Aperol Club soda Build over ice in a highball glass, lemon twist garnish. Not bad. And I agree with gaz, this works well without the club soda too. Comparing it both ways, I definitely like it better without the splash of soda.

I am sipping an Arrack Attack now. I think most of the flavor combinations have promise. I might try it again and bribg the Canton up to a full ounce. I also used just a. Very small amount of salt but I think it is distracting just a bit from the other flavors for me -- less so as I continue to sip though. If there was a bit of mezcal in the mix maybe that would bridge to the salt accent a bit better. What are your thoughts on this one, Dan?

The Arrack Attack looks right up my alley, and I will spin this one up tonight for sure. Sometimes really good drinks have really forgettable names, and it doesn't make it taste any less great. I have been ruminating on some sort of spice-infused Arrack sour,and it looks like you've gone and done it for me. The names I was kicking around for something along these lines included Jakarta Spice Rack, or, if I went with a cinnamon syrup maybe Arrack Kiss. The latter name is an embarassingly dorky attempt at a pithy word play on the name of the spice planet from The Dune novels. At least I amuse myself once in a while. I do hope I can get around to putting some of my favorite original drinks up on KC soon. What a tremendous resource you have given everybody!

I never thought I liked Manhattans until I finally had one made with rye. Now I can't get enough of them and I understand why it is a classic cocktail.

Wow. The Batavia Arrack Flip is crazy good. I have yet to actually taste buttered stripper pole though, so I can't make an informed comparison. Really, really good. Currently, I am sipping yet another fine Batavia Arrack cocktail called the Dutch East India Daisy ( http://ohgo.sh/archive/dutch-east-indies-daisy-batavia-arrack-cocktail) ay at Oh Gosh wrote about a couple of years ago and I only stumbled across last night rooting around for interesting arak ideas. This is one the definitely needs to go into the KC database, Dan. I am not sure how this stuff got such a bad rap as far as being difficult to mix with. It has been great in everything I have tried so far.

Of course once I posted my Batavia Arrack question in antihero thread I searched and found this one. Tried a couple of these recipes as well as Robert Hess' Elderthorn, and all were very tasty. I made up a batch of espresso syrup so I can try the Batavia Arrack Flip this evening. I really like the stuff -- it has all the funk of a big pot still rum and isn't shy about showing that off. I can see where you wouldn't want to overdo the funk by pairing the Arrack with Smith & Cross or J Wray, but in a supporting role I can see this turning up in all sorts of drinks around here.

Yes, I enjoyed tbe autobiographical chapters and I look forward to next year's installment. I also even found myself practicing . . . mindfulness at work today (gasp!). Looking forward to digging into some of the recipes now.