Hassouni

Yes, you certainly may

I know a delivery driver for Papa John's there, but I'm guessing you want slightly better than that

There are gins that cost nearly that much, and they're unaged as well. I too find it laughable. My benchmark for unaged spirits is Wray & Nephew overproof - 63%, pot-still product, complex and brilliant as anything, and a cool $18 a 750mL here. I don't pay more than that for London dry gins, either. As for unaged whisky....I was so repelled by the no-fuckin-around Kentucky moonshine my erstwhile roommate brought back from a bourbon booze cruise that the thought scares me.

Yeah a look on wine-searcher yielded no results stateside ETA: "I get my stuff directly from Switzerland" is one of the more baller things said on this subforum

Having received an officially branded Cocktail Kingdom lewis bag and wooden mallet a while back, I've been using it to good effect. I just made a brilliant accidental discovery which I have to share: Smash up as much ice as the bag will hold, and then, the brilliant part: Store in the freezer until needed! It'll hold several drinks worth of ice, and it's ready whenever you want. And being in the freezer means it will dilute less than ice smashed on the spot.

Had 2/3 of a large lemon hanging around after my Sidecar experiment, so... HURRICANE SWIZZLE! Exactly what it sounds like, with an ounce or so lemon juice, and ounce or so of passion fruit syrup, and 2 oz Lemon Hart 80.

est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un aux EU qui vend leur eau de vie d'abricot?

I'm just about done with the Wired course. All that's left is to do the drink builder and then I get my certificate. The history and detail is cool, although as Señor Amirault mentioned above, it has a heavy Wondrich-ness to it, a lot of which I suspect is mirrored in his books (none of which I own, only have glanced through Imbibe!). The bit about how to taste I thought was VERY helpful - never did I think I could taste room temp. Beefeater and get anything out of it except "GAH this is warm gin, BLEH!" but lo and behold, I was detecting lemon, black pepper, etc, apart from the base juniper. I also learned some useful information about various French brandies that I was unfamiliar with. As Chris mentioned, the "how to run your bar" thing was helpful, although brief. The rest was stuff that the regulars of the Spirits & Cocktails forum probably know in their sleep. The how-to section, and the "25 drinks you must know" have mostly been discussed to death here. Also I feel that it's a bit dated. It's what, about 5 years since the material came out, and, for example, there isn't a single decent bar I know of that doesn't use fairly fresh juices at this point (there is a section on "how to convince your bar to use fresh juice").

Clarendon you say...I shuffle back and forth between Logan Circle and McLean....perhaps I will check out the new 14th and U TJs, then if no luck the West End TJs, then if not there, Clarendon...and if not there, Tysons.... Were they decent limes, or pathetic small ones? I've noticed in the past the TJ's bagged limes were kind of dinky. Sigh....not so long they were 8 for a buck at Super H Mart...

OK, I'm approaching the last ounce or two of my bottle of Cointreau. I want to try the Ferrand stuff out, but my booze budget is heavily scaled back right now. Could the Ferrand Dry Curaçao sub for Cointreau in the classic drinks where the latter is called for?

Would that distilled from apricots (and peaches) were not so rare - a lot of the 19th century punches call for it!

I don't make many sidecars, but taking the BarSmarts course and browsing through Essential Cocktails by DeGroff, I thought I'd make a classic tonight. I noticed that both Regan and Bartender's Choice both have the same ratio for a Sidecar (3:2:1) so I thought I'd give it a go 1.5 oz Ferrand 1840 1 oz Cointreau (seems a bit insane!) .5 oz lemon Sugared rim, being a traditionalist and all... To my surprise, sugared rim aside, it is not a particularly sweet drink. I guess Cointreau is not nearly as sweet as simple syrup, and there is a distinct tart, even bitter quality from the lemon. Overall pretty good, though I think a 8:3:3 ratio might give it the kick that this lacks.

So, apricot brandy meaning eau de vie d'abricot is basically nonexistent as far as I know. Crème de abricot is probably what recipes mean when they say apricot liqueur

You're not the only one, apparently!

Also, to add to everyone else's helpful input, 2:1 dilutes drinks less and makes for a richer, silkier mouthfeel (especially in stirred drinks)

Take advantage of greater availability of Demerara rums in general, and indie bottlings of whisky and rum in particular. Heathrow as of last summer was selling Litres of Woods 100 (100 sykes, so 57% ABV) for some comically cheap price, like £13 or something. It beats the pants off the younger El Dorados for cocktails. Soho would be a good starting point - you have Gerry's, Amathus, and also Milroy's. You're also not a long walk from the Cadenhead (Marylebone) and Berry Bros & Rudd (St James's) shops

First off, pretty much every Jack Rose recipe I've seen does not call for sugar syrup - the Grenadine is the sweetening agent. Also, having nearly completed the Barsmarts course, and looking at Essential Cocktails, DeGroff DEFINITELY makes his cocktails sweet. He is, as far as I know, calling for 1:1 SS, which makes the 3/4 oz syrup to 3/4 lemon/lime more bearable that it would be with 3/4 2:1, but then he only calls for 1.5 oz of spirit in a standard sour recipe, which is really not much to balance everything else. Starting more or less here on the Daiquiri thread, there's a discussion of the the right ratios for a Daiquiri, but that applies to any sour. The sweetest one that seems to get the most appeal is 2.5 oz rum, 3/4 lime, 1/2 2:1 SS. This would be what Barsmarts refers to as "maximum acceptable sweetness," in my opinion. Several of us (myself include) prefer something dryer. Now, granted that's calling for 2:1 syrup and DeGroff is most likely calling for 1:1, so it's not the most straightforward conversion, but 1/2 2:1 SS perfectly balances the 3/4 lime juice in a way that it is neither cloying nor especially sour. Quite neutral. So given that neutral base, look how much more spirit the Daiquiri recipe calls for: a full ounce more than DeGroff's standard sour formula. Keep in mind that he admits his recipes are a starting point, and his ratio pleases the most people most of the time, but is not universal. Anyway that got a bit out of hand, but bottom line - DeGroff's recipes tend to be sweet and skimp on the booze, whereas a lot of us prefer dryer drinks with more booze (2 oz is typical). Also check out the Daiquiri discussion I linked.

I suggest you make Papa Dobles, something that'll really go through 8 large limes before the juice goes off Or perhaps a scorpion bowl...or three

Cool, I just got a bunch of limes for the same. Post your results!

Man, I got lemons in my pho too! (Over at Eden Center, where they really shouldn't be cutting such corners!). Also, which TJ's is that? Whole Foods is still holding at 69 cents for pretty decent limes, or $3.99 for a bag of 8 organic yet tiny ones.

Yeah, that I've heard of

eh?

¡Muy chido, wey!

Also, for what it's worth, as I mentioned in my post on the eG falafel cookoff, apparently Arax, one of the tastiest and most famous falafel joints in Lebanon uses garlic (and onion) powder in its falafel, as opposed to fresh. Not sure why, as many recipes I've seen call for fresh, but perhaps it's for ease of measurement and consistency?

Where in DC did you have them?