KatieLoeb

Try a nice tropical herbal tea infusion. Don't let the tea sit too long if it is a black tea base. Green or Rooibos teas can sit a bit longer without turning unnecessarily tannic and nasty. I'd start with a couple of hours in a small sample and gauge up from there. Then make daiquiris, caipirinas or whatever out of your infused cachaca.

Feeling fiercely lazy tonight. Don Sergio reposado on the rocks. Tried a wee splash of Polish Rose Hip syrup in my second one. Those flavors have potential together.

Props to my friends at The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Company for their well deserved inclusion in such fine company. That's a great field of nominees.

You had me at "house cured lomo"...

Mango grows in Florida and California and Allspice is in Jamaica. I know I'm skirting the boundaries, but I think it still works.

Here's one I did a little while back for a dinner honoring one of our local chefs. The name comes from the fact that all the flavorings grow in the subtropical temperate zone. Subtropical Fizz 1.5 oz. Mango vodka .5 oz. Laird’s 7.5 year old apple brandy .75 oz. fresh lime juice .5 oz. housemade orgeat .25 oz. St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram dash Orange bitters 1.5 oz. club soda Garnish: Grating of fresh nutmeg, small lime wheel. Shake and strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Top with club soda and stir. Garnish with grated nutmeg and a lime wheel tucked into the glass.

Are they offended by the song, or just offended they got left out?

Doing double duty for book edits and work related cocktails. Had a Hemingway daiquiri made with my housemade pink grapefruit-lemongrass cordial in place of the juice and simple syrup as well as a Palmetto - Don Q. anejo based Manhattan riff with Carpano Antica, and orange bitters. Both excellent.

OMG. Oh no he Dih-Unht!! Oh yes, yes he did. Loyal Han Dynasty fan and local musician Brad Podray has written a rap song, well rhapsodizing his love for Han Dynasty. Han Dynasty Rap This was posted on Foobooz today. I thought they were kidding. This is awesome. Not many restarateurs can claim that their customers write songs about them. Just sayin'. Go Han! Your peeps love you, brother.

And another recent short on our fine drinking establishments. Philly After Dark Bars The first place is where I'm slinging these days, but that's a fairly comprehensive list of the better bars in town.

Kerry - I would be delighted to sign a copy for you in person! I am so very much looking forward to meeting so many folks I feel like I already know at the Heartland Gathering. It's going to be REALLY fun!

Great article to get you all geared up for your visit. 10 Reasons to Visit Philadelphia We'll be hitting at least a few of those highlights on our tour...

Wow. Thanks for the support y'all. Much appreciated. I looked at the link. The cover will have minor tweaks, but will be more or less as it was pictured. I think the cover shot is different and nicer than the one pictured on Amazon. Subtitle is changing slightly to reflect that we aren't making infused liquors. Didn't want to imply I was giving distilling instructions, but more so infusing instructions. My editor was unaware that had gone up so soon either. Apparently Amazon works at a varied pace, so they never know exactly when the advance sales materials they've sent along will appear online. Book will indeed be released on July 1. Thanks again in advance for the votes of confidence!

Seems it's a question of how they've ordered the sentence. Perhaps if they'd said ..."we offer our own bourbon based twists on classics like Martinis, etc..." it might have been clearer. I don't think their drinks are classics by any means, and in fact a few sound downright disgusting, but this seems almost a semantic argument after a point...

Wow! I didn't know that! And I just talked to my editor for a hour and a half this morning. Yes - the Aquavit recipe is included in the section on infusions, along with my limoncello recipe, and some of the oyster shooters I developed when I was still at Oyster House, as well as a couple of ideas for using those in cocktails... Thanks for letting me know! I have to check that out right now!

Katie, what are the two rums that you use? I must have tried 30 different rums for an old fashioned until I tried Pusser's and found that really works nicely. I'm not exactly sure why I put Pusser's off so long except that until then I guess I hadn't been really been impressed with it, but now it is my go to for a rum old fashioned. Sorry - just saw this. I generally use 1.5 oz. of either Scarlet Ibis or Abuelo 12 yr. old and 1 oz. of Smith & Cross Navy strength to "prop it up" a bit. The spiced simple gives it an autumnal/winter profile and the Whiskey Barrel bitters add to that. The flamed orange is particularly tasty with the more flavor forward rums in this. Stirred, served in a snifter to enjoy the aromas more.

If you're cooking it I wouldn't spend the money on something as dear as Woodford, though it is delicious. A mid-priced bourbon that I like quite a bit is the Jefferson's Small Batch. That will run you about $27-30, as opposed to $38-45 for the Woodford. A relatively inexpensive bourbon that tastes pretty good is the Evan Williams. Four Roses or Wild Turkey fall into this category as well. You could get a bottle of any of these in the $14-20 range. If you really need the bourbon bite, Wild Turkey 101 overproof would do the trick.

white lotus: We're a mighty veggie friendly city. In fact the Chickie's Veggie Hoagie is duly famous, and recently opened Vedge Restaurant have numerous offerings. Reading Terminal Market has plenty of options, and the Friday evening dinner at Zahav should have many vegetarian options as well. We'd be happy to give you guidance on places to go both on and off the planned events. Capogiro gelato is vegetarian, and you definitely don't want to miss that. Actually, if anyone else has specific dietary restrictions or allergies we need to know about in advance, please feel free to PM myself or philadining so we can make note of it and let the restaurants know in advance. In other news, rlibkind has spoken with RTM management and they're stoked to have us. Just waiting to speak to the folks in charge of the kitchen space for a final answer. No exact numbers for rental fees yet, but they seem flexible and conducive to being kind to our group. It occurs to me that we might have to cook in shifts and time this out with military precision, and it being the hell fire of a Philly August, we might want to go for more cold and room temperature dishes that don't require burner and/or oven space. I'm sure we'll be able to work out these logistics as the event approaches and we have more information regarding space available, cooking space available, number of attendees, etc. Meanwhile, let's get psyched up!!!

Do bartenders count? @katieloeb

So let's be clear about this. There are two very distinct styles of Old Fashioned. There's the Old School with simple syrup as the sweetener, bitters and expressed peels, and there's the "garbage" style with muddled sugar cube, bitters and orange slice and cherries being turned to a paste before the ice and whiskey is even introduced to the glass, and a splash of club soda on the back end. Both are perfectly acceptable iterations of a classic. My "house" Old Fashioned is Jim Beam Bourbon, garbage style. My off-menu (for now) rum Old Fashioned is spiced simple syrup, two rums, Whiskey Barrel Aged bitters and a flamed orange peel. There's room for both. They are both delicious in their own way. No problem here.

And our Szechuan brunch is now on the calendar at Han Dynasty as their manager was my guest at my bar this evening. Han Dynasty staff is so unbelievably psyched to host our brunch. Price point has been set at $25/person and they will be throwing their very best at us and including some delicacies just because they love eGullet. Awesomeness abounds...

OK. Glad everyone is happy with the dates. Now on to planning! I have officially appointed philadining as my co-host. We discussed some details over dinner a few nights ago and we're ready to roll. We've decided to add a stop at Capogiro as part of our Italian Market tour, because you all can't come all the way here and not have some of that! That would just be wrong. On to contacting vendors, chefs and venues...Wheee!

THIS LIST from World's Best Bar's website ought to keep you busy at Happy Hour for several days...

Seems Craig Laban had some service issues there too. Here is his two bell review from last weekend. I have to say, if a server told me the soup was "life-changing" I would have to slap them after I got up off the floor from laughing. Sounds like the servers are all about talking the over-exaggerated talk, but not walking the walk when it comes to simple service issues. Surprising that no one recognized Mr. Laban when he arrived and let him sit there for half an hour with no menus. Yikes! Everyone I know that has eaten there has had high praise for the food, but definitely agreed that the service wasn't living up to the high standards set by the food. I will reserve judgement until I've had a chance to go myself, but certainly the limited statistical sample of folks in my world are all in agreement. For what that's worth...

OK. Executive decision made. August 9-12, 2012 it is. Mark it down in your calendars folks. If there's an uproar the following weekend is fine too, August 16-19, but I thought that might be perilously close to Labor Day and schools starting, etc. for most folks. The earlier weekend unfortunately doesn't work for me, so I'm going to plan for the 9th-12th unless I hear otherwise. Have at it y'all...