KatieLoeb

Indeed. And in anticipation of what will more than likely be a "snow day" off from work tomorrow, I'm on my second one...

My hero! Awesome way to get those Cosmo swilling girls to take off the training wheels. Just because something is chocolate flavored and sweet doesn't necessarily have to doom it to gathering dust on the shelf. Certainly the Van Gogh Chocolate vodka is a decent enough product, as is their Double Espresso Vodka (as flavored vodkas go...). The Mozart Chocolate liqueurs are all very tasty and well made. Even the Godiva White Chocolate liqueur is tasty enough, if tooth achingly sweet. If we get over our own aversions to sickly sweet cocktails and realize that there's a whole host of folks out there that like their alcohol well masked (read: Masked Beyond Recognition) and that they help pay the bills, we can certainly find ways to make something they'll consider potable that won't make us want to shoot ourselves in the head or slit our wrists with repeated sawing motions of a bar spoon. Remember - we're only their Enablers. We aren't their Judges. I find that mixing the overly sweet chocolate with some other component like a shot of espresso for a mocha type drink or with an Orange liqueur like Grand Marnier for a different flavor profile seems to help. Think about all the various flavors you enjoy in a candy bar and work backward. Like Mounds bars? Malibu and chocolate. Almond Joy? Amaretto, Malibu and chocolate. Peppermint Patties? Creme de Menthe or Rumpleminz with Chocolate. With all of the various nut liqueurs and flavored vodkas and rums out there you can keep those sweet toothed customers busy for ages. It might make us shudder, but they'll think you're a genius... Of course the easiest way to create an "original" drink recipe is to swap out a component of the recipe. So if the original iteration calls for Maraschino or Cointreau/Triple Sec as the sweetening agent, try it with something sweet and chocolatey instead. Certainly subbing White Creme de Cacao for Triple Sec isn't that far of a stretch. Sometimes the results go down the sink, but even blind pigs occasionally find truffles. No guts. No glory.

Would that I were able to take credit for the Applecart name, but I'm sure I saw it referred to that way somewhere and then it stuck with me... As for your recipe, with the addition of the teaspoon of simple syrup you've pretty much approximated the ideal 3:2:1 Spirit:Sweet:Sour recipe for any sour drink, be it a Sidecar, Applecart or Margarita. Applying those proportions you'd have: 1.5 oz. 7.5 yr. old Applejack 1 oz. Cointreau .5 oz. fresh lemon juice If that makes it too "orangey" for you, I'd suggest trying a different orange liqueur like Gran Gala or Combier in place of the Cointreau, or just use a scant 1 oz. instead or up the lemon just a hair. That 7.5 year old Laird's is awesome stuff, no? Closest thing to domestic Calvados I've ever tried. And a steal for the price! edited to add: What's hitting the spot for me right this minute is a very large tumbler filled with ice and a double shot of Eagle Rare 10 year old bourbon. It's snowing like a mother outside (for the second time in a week, I might add...) and we're expecting between 12-18" in Philly by the time all's said and done. We just got 27" of snow last Saturday! This is a record breaking winter season in the City of Brotherly Love and nothing less than some fine whiskey in a glass will do while I watch the snow pile up on the trees outside my window and the across-the-street neighbors' rooftops...

I've been vicariously living this nightmare with a friend recently diagnosed with (mercifully, very treatable) thyroid cancer. She had most of her thyroid removed a couple of weeks ago and will be undergoing radioactive I-131 therapy and radiation in the coming months. Thankfully she has a very well developed sense of irony and is an extremely capable home cook, so there's little danger of her starving to death or having to eat anything that doesn't live up to her usual exacting standards. But advanced planning is most definitely called for. She's got all of her meals well planned in advance and will be eating (and drinking) well during her period of confinement away from her husband and children whilst she remains "radioactive" and needs to isolated. No mouse in the equation as far as I know, but definitely an eating plan in the works.

Can I just say "Ewwww...." Having been a manager at an establishment where one's hand might go numb to the wrist if a finger were dragged across the top of the toilet tank and having the more than occasional "coupling" tie up the rest room, encouraging either illegal drug use or <ahem> using the rest room as a brothel was never a good idea. Just a bad idea on so many levels I'm not certain which one is worthy of my most immediate attention. Silly and desperate marketing. I'm certain if it's widely enough shouted about, that there's some local ordinance that would kick in and cause the business in question more grief than it needs. Dumb, stupid, unnecessary attention that was easily avoided had they not sent up the flare guns themselves.

Doesn't sound much different than "leaving a deposit", which has always been required, as far as I know. I suspect they do that so that folks are serious about picking up their purchases, rather than ordering something, having them go to the trouble of bringing it in and then never hearing from the party that requested it again. Shipping is/has always been anywhere from $1-$3 per bottle, depending on what the item was. They're going to get it from you somehow. I think now they're just being more shameless and upfront about it.

Cool! Glad it works with the Lemon bitters too. I wouldn't call the Lemon bitters a "substitute" for the Rhubarb ones (and go buy them if you needed an excuse), but a different iteration of the drink perhaps. The Rhubarb bitters seem to go particularly well in rum drinks, and add a note of "red popsicle" wherever they are applied. In a good way, of course.

Even the PLCB Wine & Spirit Shops were out for a little while, but a quick look at the website indicates that they're back in stock throughout the Commonwealth. To the collective relief of cocktail imbibers everwhere...

Lemon. How about a Greek avogolemono style broth that's loaded with wilted watercress for something new and a little different? That sounds good. I might have to try make that for myself...

Go simple. Make a daiquiri or a Ti Punch. If you have any Creme de Violette around you can make a: Say Goodnight Gracie 2 oz. white rum .75 oz. simple syrup (I prefer demerara for this application) .50 oz. fresh lime generous .25 oz. Creme de Violette dash Fee Brothers Rhubarb bitters Garnish: Lime twist Shake, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish.

Not much sympathy coming from here in the land of the PLCB either. I'd be thrilled to have Astor at my disposal. The selection there blows away any stores in PA, and even in nearby NJ or DE. Finding bitters here is less of a chore. There are several stores that carry most of the Fee Brothers line and Angostura can be had at any PLCB Wine & Spirits Shop and many supermarkets. Funkier specialty bitters are harder to come by, but having cocktail geek friends that make their own is a big help. Have you looked at Kalustyan's for bitters?? At least from their online presence, it would seem they stock a pretty wide selection.

Just got me a fancy Professional model Healthmaster Mixer so I'm hoping to start drinking my greens. I know I'm never able eat enough fruits and veggies, so I'm trying to make it easier on myself to see if I can accomplish that. I went to the market today and bought a whole mess of varied fruits (apples, pears, bananas, melons, mango, oranges) as well as some tomatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli and spinach. Hoping to begin eating/drinking a rainbow of varied healthy smoothies starting tonight. I'll let you all know how it works out...

1/2 teaspoon sounds like a gaggingly large quantity of orange flower water to me as well. Calls to mind that scene in Gone with the Wind where Scarlett is gargling with cologne to get the smell of brandy off her breath...

Yeah maybe, but at an average cost of $1/oz. for Pama I'll stick with cranberry juice. Cassis is another story. Good Cassis de Bourgogne is well worth the cost of admission as there's nothing else that replicates that flavor.

Yes, but WHY is that considered the "Nick and Nora" glass?? Is that the glass that was used for cocktal imbibing in the films? What's the implication/reference? Sadly, I haven't seen one of those films in recent enough memory to comment on whether that is what is being referred to. Surely someone in this crowd has a better reference point.

That's hilarious. And so very illustrative of the Han experience. Handy Nasty it is.

Kent: We already serve a house made mignonette (as well as house made cocktail sauce) with every oyster platter, so that would be repetitive. I also don't know how folks would feel about doing shots of red wine vinegar. Has the potential to start choking, etc. The danger with infusing onions or shallots is that they have a tendency to turn sulphurous in a nanosecond when you aren't checking them. These recipes need to be somewhat forgiving if they don't get strained immediately. At worst, if the horseradish vodka gets too strong we can simply add more vodka. We're closed on Sundays, so sometimes it might be an extra day before something gets checked. Infusing sake could be intriguing, although I think the lower alcohol content would make the infusion more difficult/time consuming than doing it right into 80 proof spirits. The Salty Dog idea might work except that the kitchen doesn't have time to do any more prep for our bar than they already do. So it would fall on the bartenders to make the gremolata and that's just one more thing we don't have time for since we're already doing the other infusions as well as mixing batches of punch, Bloody Caesar mix and Rosemary Lemonade already. Salting the rims of the shot glasses during a crazy busy Happy Hour isn't efficient either. The oyster itself has to bring the brine to the party. Perhaps a more straightforward vodka and grapefruit infusion with a splash of grapefruit juice would work. If anyone has actually sipped a Negroni with a raw oyster and can tell me that those flavors pair together well, I'd suggest to the staff that they sell more Negronis, rather than try and recreate a shot with those flavors. These shooters are generally made in 1.75 liter batches, so the recipes are scaled to use one "handle" bottle per batch. One to three ingredients are chopped/sliced/microplaned and dumped into a large glass jar and 1.75L of the base spirit is poured over. Jar is identified by contents and dated. They are left to sit refrigerated for anywhere from 2-5 days and then strained. I suppose I should have made that clearer from the get go. Gaz Regan was kind enough to send me a recipe for a tequila-pineapple-serrano chile-tarragon infusion that I'll definitely be test driving. That one sounds delicious and like a perfect combination of sweet-hot-salty. The good news is that the vodka-garlic-pink peppercorn-thyme infusion was strained and tested today. With a little splash of tomato juice to soften it up it tastes almost like a pizza! I made an 8 oz. batch as the tester and the garlic was a bit overwhelming. That one will be called the Roman and will go on the menu as soon as I can scale up the recipe for a 1.75L batch and tweak the proportions just right so it's well balanced.

Working on some new oyster shooters for the restaurant. Basically house infused spirits with an oyster at the bottom. If anyone has a brainstorm please share it with me. Right now we have the New Englander (horseradish infused vodka and tomato juice). the Chihuahua (jalapeno and cilantro infused vodka and tomato juice), the Londoner (cucumber, lemon peel and dill infused gin with a few drops of lemon juice) and the Bangkok (ginger, lemongrass and Thai basil infused vodka with a few drops of lime juice) on the menu. I've got a Parisienne working (garlic, pink peppercorn and thyme with a splash of tomato juice) as well as trying to perfect a BLT shot that incorporates bacon vodka. I'm starting a batch of housemade Aquavit this weekend so something "Danish" is soon to arrive. Any suggestions should be easily replicateable and require not much more than being poured over an oyster in a shot glass and splashed with something out of a sqeeze bottle. We're a pretty busy restaurant that gets crazy busy at Happy Hour when there's $1 "Buck-a-Shuck" oysters to be had. No high maintenance shooters will survive service. You're all the smartest folks I know. What's missing and easy to make?? Think about which flavors could use the little shot of saltiness that the oyster provides. Sweet-hot-salty. Hot-salty. Sweet-salty. All good combinations. Provide me an "Aha!!" moment...

The perfect two fingered grip so you can drink whilst holding out your pinky, no?

Having read through that prior thread, I think your issue with the Monkey Gland is the grenadine and not the gin. Try the half hot cooked with some pomegranate molasses/half cold shaken combined method and get back to me....

What are you looking for? Arm garters? Spats? Moustache wax?? You need to be a bit more specific, but I'd always suggest looking on eBay first.

Seriously?? Yikes. That's a bit beyond the pale of opening jitters. That's just outright clueless service. Although, I did have a customer send back a hot toddie tonight because they didn't realize it was HOT. Kind of like sending back your iced tea because you didn't realize it would be cold...:shrug: People never cease to utterly astonish me.

Tequila, Canton, Lime, Cassis and soda ought to replicate that very well. I'd forgotton about the Diablo (and I love calling the shortie a Little Devil!), which is one of my favorite tequila drinks. Tequila and cassis or chambord go really well together, much like the strawberries in Tequlla por Mi Amante. Tequila and berries. YUM!

Or brandy/cognac, Calvados/applejack or rum for that matter... And as we're now all aware, a Gin-Gin Mule is a thing of great beauty so I'd even add gin to that list in the appropriate applications. Vodka is a no-brainer, so the concensus seems to be that ginger is tasty with just about everything, yes? I'd stick with swapping it into already existing recipes as the sweetening agent instead of ________ (fill in the blank with your favorite). Certainly it most definitely works instead of Cointreau in the Crusta and likely in a Sidecar. How about trying it instead of triple sec in a Margarita? Tequila might be one of the less obvious choices to mix it with, but why not? The earthiness of the tequila could certainly stand for the slight sweetness of the Canton along with the sharp bite of ginger. We'll never know until someone tries this at home and reports back...

A chilly night had me steeping up a giant cup of smoky Russian Caravan from my local tea shop, sweetened with lavender honey from one of my favorite apiaries, Busy Bee Farm nearby in NJ. I'm fortunate to have both of these vendors at my disposal.