Craig E
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Posts posted by Craig E
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Just had a Bombardier that I loved.
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I was thinking about various interesting bitters on the market, and it occurred to me that I've very rarely seen cocktail recipes calling for the use of extracts (vanilla, almond, etc.) Why do you think that is? It would seem in some ways like a useful ingredient: liquor-based; intense, cocktail-friendly flavors; easy to procure--like an even more concentrated form of bitters.
Is the hesitation that they are often artificially made? Too one-dimensional? Or have they just been overlooked?
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That's a huge Martini.
My first reaction too. But keep in mind there's no melted ice also taking up room in the glass!
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For those of us who are all too easily overwhelmed by the quantity of spirits available, can anyone comment on the recently released The 12-Bottle Bar by the Solmonsons.
There is a review on the Kindred Cocktails site (as a starting off point).
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Update: My cucumber-gin enthusiasm has been rekindled by the use of it in an Easy Street Fizz (cocktail by Anthony Schmidt, Noble Experiment, San Diego):
Easy Street Fizz
1 1/2 oz Hendricks Gin
1 oz St Germain
3/4 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
2 thin slice cucumber
1 egg white (large egg)
Prep: add all ingredients to a shaker can. before adding ice, shake vigorously to emulsify the egg white. Add ice and shake like you're crazy. Pour into a medium water glass, and top with a bit of club soda.Very nice!
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I have to say: I have bought a channel knife. Spherical ice molds. A Lewis bag for goodness sake. But I still don't understand what a barspoon would do for me that I can't already do with my usual stirring implement, a chopstick.
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Picked up some Greenall's gin, as it seemed from cursory research like it would be mild enough to not overwhelm the cucumber (and inexpensive).
Perhaps I should have done more extensive research, as when I got home and tasted the Greenall's I realized it's beyond mild--it has almost no "ginniness" at all, just a little alcohol burn. I think you could have convinced me it was a midpriced vodka.
But I pressed on. Peeled, seeded, and chopped the cuke and soaked it for two days, strained it through doubled cheesecloth.
The infused gin took on some of that fresh and cool cucumber aroma and flavor. I thought it might have been stronger, given that I had found a couple of slices of the same cuke dropped in a cold glass of water was enough to give the water a nice cucumber cast instantly. Color is, I guess partly cloudy.Made a gin and tonic with the infused gin, half a lime, and some Q tonic this evening. It was nice, again had some of that freshness, though the tonic flavor dominated.Still have a pint of the stuff so I'll have to come up with some additional cocktails to try with it. Some St. Germain concoctions sound promising to me.Upshot: The process worked, but I would be more excited about the product if I had found a more interesting mild gin to use (alas, the suggested Dorothy Parker was not available at my liquor store). I love drinks with muddled cucumber, and (similar to Kent's thinking) am not sure how this infusion presents any advantages over muddling. I suppose if it is shelf-stable long past growing season, that could be a plus, but I have no idea how well it keeps. -
Not originals, but posted by DrunkLab on Kindred Cocktails:
http://www.kindredcocktails.com/cocktail/dead-mans-mule
http://www.kindredcocktails.com/cocktail/the-crippled-creek
http://www.kindredcocktails.com/cocktail/french-maid
These are three of the best cocktails I've had in my life.
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I've grown some big cucumbers and want to investigate the world of infusions.
I think gin sounds better than vodka, but what kind?
- a workhorse gin (I like Brokers), because it seems like a neutral choice? (or is there more to consider?)
- a cheap gin, because the subtleties of pricier gins will be lost in the process anyway? (or is cheap gin going to taste bad whatever you add?)
- Hendricks, because it already leans in the cucumber direction? (or is that redundant?)
- some other kind of gin that's not on my radar? Plymouth? Old tom?!
What do you think?
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Isn't maraschino an alcoholic ingredient?
(Uh-oh, the pedantry is catching!)
Or did you just mean one alcoholic can find the four ingredients in the drink spectacular?
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Jerry Thomas's recipe. Go here and scroll down to recipe 188 on page 73 (for some reason searching the book, even for 'Curacoa' as Thomas spells it, is unreliable).
Excellent! Now let's see, where did I leave my carbonate of potash...?
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OK, that settles it - I'm coming to visit. That skull mug for the Fog Cutter is fantastic, and there are a couple of things on the list (Thunder Child, Jack Ketch) that might fit very well into our growing steampunk cocktail list.
To return to our scheduled program ... every now and then I just have to break out the tiki mugs and have one of my celebrated (by me) Mai Tais. I've had a cold this week, so a couple of nights ago was just such an occasion. I tweaked it a little this time; W&N, Appleton 12, Inner Circle, Curaçao, falernum and orgeat (the last three homemade). God, that's a nice drink. Particularly if you're not planning on standing up afterwards.
Details on the homemade curacao?
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I happened to be at a bar where a few of us had a shot that was 50/50 appejack and Cynar.
It does seem like Cynar is a good candidate for this kind of minimalist investigation, since by itself it has sweet, and bitter, and "vegetal" facets, so it can serve double and triple duty. I've never had Bonal but maybe it fits the project in a similar way.
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Ice is indeed the 3rd ingredient and it is 1/3 of your drink.
Granted. But I guess by that accounting there may be very few two-ingredient cocktails indeed!
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I'm amused by the idea of the Camparty (Miller High Life and Campari) but haven't yet tried it.
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Of course, the Cynar Flip actually has 3 ingredients.
Not the one I drank. Cynar and egg.
What's your third ingredient? Simple syrup? Or you're already including ice.
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Having found myself fascinated with the silky and intriguing Cynar Flip, I began to wonder what the most interesting two-ingredient cocktails are. A web search turns up listicles of pretty pedestrian ideas like screwdrivers and gin-and-tonics.
Better ideas?
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Making cocktails is one hobby I have. Another is writing pangrams, which are phrases that include every letter of the alphabet (like "The quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.") I've actually published a new original pangram every weekday for many years on my admittedly absurd Daily Pangram blog.
These hobbies collided recently when I decided to see if I could write cocktail recipes that were themselves pangrams. I thought you all might get a kick out of the results. Here's the list, which actually starts with a viable recipe but quickly goes south from there:
- Good drink, FYI: just mix up twelve oz. each: limeade, tequila, water, & beer.
- "Happy Kid": a jigger of aqua vitae, six oz. club soda, lemon twist.
- Mix gin & strawberry juice. Freeze overnight. Drink up quickly.
- Mexican tequila, just a dash of key lime bitters, fizzy water. Serve straight up.
- Galaxy Brew: 1 oz. vodka, 1 oz. tequila, a half-teaspoon lemon juice.
- "Execrable Cocktail": two oz. ea. OJ, Plymouth gin,Veuve Clicquot, and Fresca.
- Down a jigger of Sauza tequila, body-check the next person who moves.
- My version of "Sex on the Beach": 2 oz. tequila, Mtn Dew, pickle juice. No garnish.
- A gin fizz, w/ tequila, served in a mop bucket: "The Sexy Janitor."
- Muddle six breakfast patties with soju, freeze in liquid NO2, anchovy garnish.
Drinks! 2014 (Part 2)
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted · Edited by Craig E (log)
Thanks for the note--it inspired me to publish my first go at an original cocktail.
I have to sheepishly admit that it centers on Malibu coconut rum, which I recognize might get me laughed out of eGullet forums. But hear me out.
The idea is to see if I could get Malibu into a respectable craft cocktail. Starting with the coconut premise, I took it in the direction of Asian cuisine, with ginger, lime, and spicy pepper flavors. I settled on Cynar as a partnering liquor to bring some depth.