tanstaafl2

I like it with a splash or two of soda but I agree it is quite nice. Then again I like Lillet and Bonal that way as well. Of the three Bonal may be my favorite.

Thanks! Great suggestions. The American Trilogy sounds interesting (The Conference also sounds quite interesting on that page but not one for this occasion I think). I recall you writing about the Little Italy variation so I may add that one too. Don't mind breaking open champagne to make a punch so much but I like to try a variety of drinks as much for me as my guests so if there is a punch people drink that instead and I don't have as good of an excuse to make people try a bunch of different cocktails! I just don't like opening a bottle of champagne to make a drink or two and not have a good way to use the rest of it in a timely manner.

I looked before my Tiki party last month but didn't see any (found grapefruit juice in small cans but not pineapple). I probably didn't look too hard. But you are right. It would be good to have a few available and leftovers can be saved for Tiki time! I will look again this week.

Had also contemplated the Prince of Wales from the August issue of Imbibe. It had an article that featured three drinks with pineapple. The Prince (In this case it was Prince Albert who is credited with the drink recipe) calls for rye, maraschino liqueur, superfine sugar (which I have) or simple syrup, Angostura bitters, pineapple chunks and brut sparkling wine. Sounds like it might be a good drink for warm (as in scorching, currently 102+ in the shade here) summer evening. But it has 2 things going against it, pineapple chunks and champagne. Could probably get a mixed fruit bowl and pull the pineapple chunks out of it (not all that fresh I would guess) but the champagne is annoying because if I open a bottle I want to try to be able to finish it rather than waste half of it (or more). Since it calls for only 1 oz per drink it means making a lot of drinks to use it up. And I hate pouring perfectly good booze down the drain, even if it wasn't all that expensive. I know, picky, picky, picky.

Yes, that one is in VS&FC, PDT and the KC website. Never had it though as I am not a big pineapple fan so I just have to decide if I want to get pineapple juice. Hard for me to find a good one in smallish quantities since I am unlikely to drink what is left myself after the party. Then again a bottle is not all that expensive I suppose. As for the number of different drinks I often will make a drink, or perhaps a double size drink, and then everyone gets a little taste. That way I can go through a number of different drinks in the same evening. So I aim for 10-12 although I rarely get past about 6 or 8 before silly distractions like food and conversation intervene. For me the enjoyment of the party is about making (and tasting) the different drinks! And that way I can avoid having to make all that annoying small talk...

Hosting a gather for about a dozen friends next weekend as a belated U.S. Independence Day celebration that will have rye whiskey as the theme in "honor" of the forefathers of the U.S. since rye whiskey presumably was one of the main spirits of choice at the time. The recent production of "George Washington Rye" sort of inspired me (I don't have any since it not likely easy to get, probably not all that good and most importantly ridiculously expensive!). I have been collecting some rye coctail recipes mostly using the Vintage Spirits and PDT cocktail books (listed below) and Kindred Cocktails. Was curious if anyone had any other good or "must try" rye based cocktails to suggest. Or perhaps there is one on the list I should avoid? Don't really have the time or inclination to do infusions and I don't have some of the more unusal ingredients that I might have to get just for a single drink but I do have moderately well stocked liquor cabinet. I have pretty much everything found in the drinks on this list. Rittenhouse BIB will likely be my primary mixing rye unless a drink makes a good case for using something else (and I happen to have the something else). Here is the list so far. It will have to be pared down to about 10-12 cocktails to put on the drink menu and I plan to select a "signature" cocktail (or two...) for the evening. Currently leaning towards two cocktails for featured billing, the Diamondback and the Rattlesnake. Nothing has a really good "Fourth of July" kind of name so these two stuck out. The Manhattan and the Final Ward are both front runners for the menu. The Blinker and Scofflaw are ones I like as well. I will have to also give some thought to ease of construction as well which tends to work against the Rattlesnake and egg white drinks in general even though I generally like them. A Moment of Silence Blinker Brooklyn Cooper’s Cocktail De La Louisiane Deshler Diamondback Duboudreau Cocktail Final Ward Fred Collins Fiz Greenpoint Harvest Moon (sans Abbott’s bitters, have to use some other bitters) Improved Whiskey Cocktail Japalac Junior L.E.S. Globetrotter Manhattan Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail Old Pal Racketeer Rack & Rye Rattlesnake Remember the Maine Red Hook Sazerac Scofflaw Silver Lining Solstice The Blonde Wood Triborough Up To Date Vieux Carré Ward Eight Whiskey Sour Any suggestions welcome!

That view of the marina in Little Current reminds me that I am not there by choice - not sure it was an entirely wise choice! Like Kerry I am drinking alone tonight and chose a Blood and Sand. After tasting it, I re-checked the ingredients feeling I must be missing something - but no. Just isn't balanced to my taste. Used Famous Grouse. Must try it again with a different Scotch. I find I like it as well or better with a nice mezcal instead of scotch. Typically Sombra is my go to mezal for mixing.

Ah yes - I did forget the angostura this time - the toothpick trick sounds great! Or if you want to get even more authentically Peruvian with your pisco sours (and in the endless debate about Chilean versus Peruvian pisco I came down on the side of the Peruvian pisco) you can use Chuncho Amargo bitters which at least here in Atlanta are remarkably easily acquired. I see that Cocktail Kingdom has them listed as available.

The low tech approach consists of adding a small amount of absinthe/pastis to the glass, rolling it around to coat the inside of the glass, and discarding the remainder. If one wants to jazz it up a bit I have found a small, usually metal, spray bottle makes a nice touch. Think a small fancy bottle a bit like an old timey perfume bottle with which to spray the glass or surface of the drink when called for. Don't know where you might find it online. One of my local liquor stores carries them.

My friend returned from the land of wooden shoes and I was delighted to learn they had secured two bottles of Roggenaer from the A. van Wees distillery de Ooievaar (which apparently means "The Stork"). If the stork always delivered this kind of offspring I would probably have a lot more of them! This also inspired a trip to the liquor store where I came across a bottle of Pendleton 1910 Canadian Rye bottled in Oregon by Hood River Distillers (clearly they didn't distill this). Not sure they actually distill anything themselves, sounds like they are really just a bottler/distrbutor). The company isn't saying who the source is but there is some speculation that it comes from Alberta Distillers Ltd. which is owned by Beam. Not a true straight American rye but a blend of whiskeys. But all components of the blend are made from rye or so I am told. Couldn't resist a little taste of the Roggenaer. A delicate whiskey with only a hint of wood despite its 15 years of aging. But still plenty of peppery rye character to be had. The website mentions a citrus note but I couldn't taste it. Any connection to a genever is purely incidental as the botanicals are pretty much gone or well in the background. Only that interesting "malty" character is apparent and even that is mild. This is definitely a rye whiskey, but perhaps in a class unto itself. Both will likely undergo a more extensive introduction this weekend!

Perfluorochemicals, the general class of chemicals that includes teflon and coatings on food wrappers, is now pretty much ubiquitous in western society and probably can be found in people (and many animals as well) in practically every corner of the globe for that matter. Essentially everyone in the US has some level of PFCs in their system with the average level of PFOA in the blood serum in the US according to the most recent CDC NHANES data (page 180) at 4.12 ug/L (equivalent to parts per billion). Like cockroaches, it's everywhere!

There are six Plantation Rums from Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Nicaragua. None of these rums are distilled from fermented fresh sugar cane juice but rather molasses. The rum from Babados for exampmle is made at the Black Rock distillery which is also known as the West Indies Rum Refinery where Cockspur and Malibu rum are distilled. I don't want to cast any doubt as the quality of Plantation rums, I like their Barbados rum, but to call any of these rums agricole is a bit of a stretch. The parent company, Cognac Ferrand, is a French company and is a private bottler of fine spirits. Anybody had a chance to try the Plantation 1998 Guadaloupe rum yet? Seems to have just hit the US market with a very limited supply. Was originally released in Germany in 2010 and then got recognition as the best Rhum Agricole at the UK Rumfest 2010 even though officially it can't carry the Rhum Agricole AOC on a technicality. But it is the first sugar cane rum in the Plantation series and sounds quite intriguing! So not much buzz on this new Plantation rum I presume? I guess the limited supply would make it harder to find and try. Since there was not much discussion on this new Plantation rum from Guadeloupe (OK, no discussion!) I figured I would have to take it for a test ride myself. Fortunately I was able to locate a supply and get access to it so I have now acquired several bottles to try. Was able to get them for "MSRP" of $65 (plus tax of course). A bit spendy especially for something I have not tried but I like unusual things so I took the plunge! For aged rhum agricole it isn't all that expensive I suppose. Compared to the 1994 Rhum JM it is a veritable bargain! It is only a little more than St. James Hors D'Age which is good but not necessarily my favorite. Of course age does not always mean it is better but the additional year in a second cask was intriguing. I was particularly delighted they survived the trip home in my luggage. In any case I look forward to giving this a try. I have bottles from cask 9 of 10 and it indicates there were 320 bottles from this cask. That suggests that perhaps only about 3200 bottles were produced and according to Ferrand at the link above only 600 of them made it to US shores. While there I also stumbled across a bottle of the Col. EH Taylor sour mash bourbon, the first in this series, and even though it was now marked up a bit, also due to scarcity I suppose, I decided to add it to my cabinet. I am still hoping to add the fourth edition which is a barrel proof version when it is released which should be soon.

For a long while I used a Lewis bag and metal muddler to whack it with when making only a few drinks. For a recent tiki party with 25+ people I decided to buy this Waring IC70 Professional Stainless-Steel Large-Capacity Ice Crusher I got on Amazon. Reviews were mixed but it worked well for me. You do have to feed the ice in slowly rather than filling up the hopper because the ice will jam up in the slide before it even gets to the blades (My refrigerator makes the large crescent shaped cubes). Smaller ice that I get at the grocery store tends to get through more easily. Now even for just a few drinks I will use the ice crusher and save any excess and put it in the freezer which I can then break up easily for later use when necessary.

Make no mistake, the new bols genever is a true oude genever with all the malty goodness you expect. While very full-bodied and complex, I've found the bols genever to be extremely mixable -- it's really been a revelation to me. I'm also curious about the barrel-aged bols. I suspect that I would prefer the barrel aged for sipping but the standard bols genever for cocktails and mixing. If you pick up a bottle let us know what you think! I got the standard Bols Genever awhile back over the internet and quite enjoy it. I am now a bit spoiled by the 10 yo Bols Corenwyn a friend brought back from Amsterdam. But I would probably try the barrel aged Bols if it shows up locally. I am hopeful that another friends is bringing me back a bottle of Van Wees Roggenaer from the Netherlands in the very near future. My back up option was for Old Schiedam Single Malt Genever if they can't find the roggenaer but I am holding out hope that they are able to find the roggenaer.

I just saw an email from Tower indicating they now have it. Although it looks a bit like a jonge genever (which is more like vodka to me) since it is clear it definitely taste more like a an oude jenever with plenty of malty goodness! I am happy to see it come to town. Now we just have to see if the Bols barrel aged genever will make it as well. Although at around $50 a bottle (at least it is a liter!) it is pretty spendy stuff for genever. The PDT Cocktail had a nice relatively simple drink using Banks called the Rhum Club cocktail I think. I first used Scarlet Ibis because I did not yet have Banks but have since acquired a bottle and find it works even better for me (I suppose it should be noted that Meehan is or has been an advisor the makers of Banks 5 Island rum). Worth giving it a try. I have see a few other Banks cocktails as well like the Periodista on the Cocktail Chronicles website.

Seems the Ron Medellin rum from Colombia are all produced at 35% ABV which would likely explain the thin watery result. I have alerted my friend who travels down there on occasion so perhaps a better representation of Colombian rum, should it exist, will be available next time!

Last night was a smallish dinner party of 10 to celebrate the arrival of the Rhum JM 1994. Needless to say it was all about rum for the evening! I broke out the rum collection for the gang. I made available some (ok, most!) of the rums and sugar cane related bottles in my own liquor cabinet for sampling. In addition a couple of guests rums included Ron Medellin Gran Reserva from Colombia and the Zacapa XO. The evening started out with a Doctor Cocktail using Kronan, lime juice and several different rums for comparison to include Brugal, Appleton Extra and S&C. Opinions were mixed as to which was best. I liked the S&C version but was surprised how good all three were. From there the evening moved on to rum tasting with our 2 guest rums, Pampero Anniversario and Zacapa 23yo among others and finished withe a tasting of the Rhum JM. The Rhum JM was splendid as hoped but the Pampero was also a pleasant surprise for me among the others sampled. The Ron Medellin was a bit thin and a little disappointing over all. The Zacapa XO was perhaps slightly drier than its younger sibling but the two were certainly similar in taste. After that it was on to Mojitos and dinner. I was mostly using the HC Blanco but also made one with the FdC 4yo blanco which I found to be at least as good (and a lot easier to buy!). Another pleasent evening seemed to had by all at the Tanstaafl Lounge!

Had the chance to try a really, really nice rhum agricole a few weeks ago but man was it damned spendy! But my birthday is approaching and dammit I am worth it! Not exactly the liquor store but my birthday present has just arrived in the mail. The rhum was the 15yo Rhum JM 1994 vintage. Never had a bottle with a leather label before. The box is pretty swanky as well! I guess that explains part of the cost. The angel's share explains much of the rest I suppose. Anyway, I hope it is as good as the example I had a few weeks ago because that was absolutely spectacular. Never seems worthwhile to order just one bottle off the internet so I also picked up a bottle of the Chinaco añejo that I hadn't been able to find around here but always wanted to add to my collection. Also threw in a bottle of the newish Ferrand 1840 cognac which I also had not seen locally around here. More pricey than my steple mixing cognac, Chalfonte, but hopefully it will add that much more to my cocktails. Next week I hope to pick up a bottle or three of the Plantation Guadaloupe 1998 rum. Happy Birthday to me!

Thanks. Looked there for restaurant ideas but didn't even notice the drinks thread!

Going to be in DC in a couple of weeks and was interested in any updated insight on a good bar for a well made cocktail without the need for a coat and tie as it were. The scene tends to change quickly so I don't know how relevant these places might be. If it were somewhat near the College Park, MD area that would be a plus but not mandatory. Just hate to fight traffic and parking downtown or in Georgetown if I don't have to. Maybe something within stumbling distance of the Metro? Any ideas?

I confess I rather like the Leatherneck but then CR was drunk a lot by my crowd back in the day some 30 odd years ago when we thought it was the top of the heap in the spirits world, mostly because our budget was severely limited and our cocktail knowledge even more so. A sentimental thing I suppose. I like the color as well when I have blue curacao handy, which isn't often, but I mix it with most any curacao when the mood hits me. Both the clear Senior curacao and the newer Ferrand dry curacao work for me. Close your eyes and you can imagine it as having that turquoise glow without the expense and effort of trying to track down a decent blue curacao! Hmm, I wonder what Clement Creole Shrubb would do as a sub.

There are six Plantation Rums from Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Nicaragua. None of these rums are distilled from fermented fresh sugar cane juice but rather molasses. The rum from Babados for exampmle is made at the Black Rock distillery which is also known as the West Indies Rum Refinery where Cockspur and Malibu rum are distilled. I don't want to cast any doubt as the quality of Plantation rums, I like their Barbados rum, but to call any of these rums agricole is a bit of a stretch. The parent company, Cognac Ferrand, is a French company and is a private bottler of fine spirits. Anybody had a chance to try the Plantation 1998 Guadaloupe rum yet? Seems to have just hit the US market with a very limited supply. Was originally released in Germany in 2010 and then got recognition as the best Rhum Agricole at the UK Rumfest 2010 even though officially it can't carry the Rhum Agricole AOC on a technicality. But it is the first sugar cane rum in the Plantation series and sounds quite intriguing! So not much buzz on this new Plantation rum I presume? I guess the limited supply would make it harder to find and try.

Had a small dinner party that included a number of different drinks. A Brooklyn (using Torani Amer) was quite good. But the clear winner was the Rattlesnake from the PDT cocktail book (used Rittenhouse BIB and Herbsaint for the rinse) was absolutely marvelous!

It is always a bit subjective of course. I have had Patron, Herradura and both versions of the DJ anejo. The Don Julio 1942 to me is by far the best and is the only one of these I keep in my liquor cabinet. It is also probably the most expensive and so perhaps it is not the best value if price is a consideration. Cuervo 1800 seems over priced and over hyped to me but perhaps I have a little bias against the big manufacturers. Herradura is also a major distiller but seems ok as a mixing tequila. Not my first choice as a sipper. Patron also seems to be overpriced based on the name to me so I tend not to buy it either. I like Casa Noble and Milagro Single Barrel Reserve (not the regular Milagro line) but as you note they may not be available in your area. Don Diego Santa is a newer tequila here in the US that I rather like and is still fairly reasonably priced. No clue about its availability in Australia but probably not likely.

There are six Plantation Rums from Trinidad, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Nicaragua. None of these rums are distilled from fermented fresh sugar cane juice but rather molasses. The rum from Babados for exampmle is made at the Black Rock distillery which is also known as the West Indies Rum Refinery where Cockspur and Malibu rum are distilled. I don't want to cast any doubt as the quality of Plantation rums, I like their Barbados rum, but to call any of these rums agricole is a bit of a stretch. The parent company, Cognac Ferrand, is a French company and is a private bottler of fine spirits. Anybody had a chance to try the Plantation 1998 Guadaloupe rum yet? Seems to have just hit the US market with a very limited supply. Was originally released in Germany in 2010 and then got recognition as the best Rhum Agricole at the UK Rumfest 2010 even though officially it can't carry the Rhum Agricole AOC on a technicality. But it is the first sugar cane rum in the Plantation series and sounds quite intriguing!