Rafa

Sorel by Jack From Brooklyn is a delicious spiced hibiscus liqueur with strong cinnamon and ginger notes. It pairs with everything. Its distribution may be limited to the NYC area, but DrinkUpNY can deliver it. It could sub for or complement the orange liqueur/ginger beer elements in your Margarita highball idea (which sounds a bit like a spicier Dove & Daisy). You could also look to Toby Cecchini's Fitty Spot for inspiration; he pairs hibiscus tea with Jamaican spices, pineapple and tangerine juices, and rich rum.

3/4 oz Irish Whiskey, Redbreast 12 3/4 oz Palo Cortado sherry 3/4 oz cinnamon syrup 3/4 oz lime Yum.

Based on their press materials, part of the point is "normalizing entomophagy through cocktails," i.e., getting people to think it's okay to eat bugs. Plenty of people think that's the future of protein for humans as the strains of maintaing livestock take their toll on the planet. The rest of it seems to be, as you rightly put it, shock value.

Introducing the latest in artisanal bitters: ground cricket.

Nothing too seasonally appropriate, I'm afraid. It makes a very good Tom Collins, and I've had success substituting it for light rum in Tiki/tropical drinks, which I've been making a lot of as a flipped bird to the weather. I made a version of the Donga Punch with it that I liked a lot. Not many recipes call for Malacca specifically; I have this ruby port-augmented sour and this flip on my to-try list.

I believe I've read, and have zip to back it up, that at least some of Gosling's rums are distilled by DDL in Guyana. I'll say no more lest the fine (and litigious) people at Gosling's, family-owned makers of fine rums, catch wind.

That's what shkle said.

Also, Branca Menta, which I intended to use in holiday baking, but which I like enough neat and as a substitute for cremes de menthe in cocktails that I'll probably make it a staple of my bar. I'd had it before but it had never made much of an impression. I also received and assembled a new home bar, but that wasn't bought at a liquor store, so I apologize for this off-topic excursion.

I do apologize for my silence on the matter of peach. I slipped into a diabetic coma after following Dan's suggestion. Looking forward to your results, Leslie.

I have to apologize to my secret santee as it does not appear that his/her/zir gift will arrive before the 25th as I had hoped, but likely a day or two after. I can only affirm that it was selected and wrapped with great affection and excitement.

Malacca. Medium-bodied and mildly off-dry, bright and tropical with cinnamon and grapefruit. Don the Beachcomber, as a gin.

Gosling's is a perfectly solid rum. Their ester-ific 151 version is my preference. The classic use is a Dark & Stormy; don't call a drink made with another rum a Dark 'n' Stormy or they'll sue the pants off you. It's not my first choice for a Vic's Mai Tai; I could see it working well as a float, though that's not traditional. The Gosling's 151 can be substituted in Tiki drinks that call for Lemon Hart 151; the taste won't be the same, but the punch of flavor (and proof) will be. Lemon Hart 151 is actually a delicious sipper if you mellow it with an ice cube or two, dangerously so. If the kids ever take to it politicians will be calling for it to be banned.

On its own, Mathilde Pêche tastes like melted peach jolly rancher. Miraculously, in drinks with other strong elements (like your Georgita) it can contribute some natural, and delicious, peach flavors. But I don't think I'll be replacing my half bottle when I'm through with it. Does anyone know of a better peach liqueur? If only peach season lasted longer than it takes to read this sentence...

Maybe try using it in place of cherry syrup or liqueur? If it has a strong cherry flavor, it might be a good fit for cocktails where the heavy body and dark flavors of brandy-based cherry liqueurs like Heering would be out of place. You could also use it in place of kirsch and simple syrup in cocktails that call for both.

I've been serving this as my requisite accessible/lowish alcohol drink for guests to good results: 3/4 oz Gin3/4 oz Dry vermouth3/4 oz Mint syrup (or simple syrup)3/4 oz Lime juice Sort of a Southside crossed with a Martini. The dry vermouth softens it but gives it a lingering interesting finish. The drink has been universally liked the names I've given it (Verve, Jet Set) have not. Suggestions welcome. My mint syrup is one cup sugar mixed with one cup brewed mint tea (I use this one) with six or seven mint leaves infused to taste.

I posted that comment in the wrong thread and edited out, but demand that you leave your now unprovoked slam on Britpop's shoegaze-y pioneers untouched, for future historians to puzzle over.

In receipt of my Santee and properly excited. My plan is to ship a bottle of spirits or its equivalent but I do not require this of whoever my Santer may be. From each according to her/his ability.

It must be a hat. We have your word.

Drink by JoNorvelleWalker, lighting by Caravaggio.

I'm in.

Thanks. That's at the top of my cocktail book to-buy list.

I wasn't a fan of that Pouring Ribbons drink—it just tasted like pineapple and anise to me. Nowhere near as complex or fun as the book it's named after. Yours seems more interesting. What's in your shrub?

Yup. Off-topic, but there's a nice Vieux Carre variant with Calvados as the brandy and bonded applejack as the "whiskey." I think I found it on these forums.

Flog away.

Haven't had Havana Club yet, sadly, but I agree on all other counts. Don Q is what I was reared on, but while perfectly inoffensive it's also rather flavorless, like a nice enough vodka with some rum around the edges. I find that Plantation 5, though a Bajan rum, does nicely when amber Cuban rums are called for; I tried it side by side with Brugal Extra Viejo and found it smoother, better-integrated, and just as flavorful. Eta: I haven't tried it yet, but Caña Brava, a rum distilled in Panama by a veteran of the Cuban rum industry, is supposed to be a very good Cuban-style white rum and the closest thing to HC Añejo we can get (legally) in the states. It's produced by The 86 Co, the industry heavyweights (Jason Kosmas, Simon Ford, Dushan Zaric) behind Fords Gin, Tequila Cabeza, and Aylesbury Duck Vodka.