Craig E

I've found this little Applecart to be good and relatively simple: 1 oz Applejack 3/4 oz Cointreau 1/2 oz Lemon juice Stir with ice in old fashioned glass. Edited to add: Just noticed this is nearly the same as the drink posted just a few posts up!

Some nice gin drinks at City of London Distillery. This Distiller's Martini #5 included one of their gins with Lillet Blanc and rhubarb bitters. The best part of it was the large and fresh lemon twist which the small diameter of the class really forced near my nose with every sip. [Host's note - this topic is a continuing discussion. The 2018 drinks list starts here.]

Rendezvous Revisited 1 1/2 oz Gin 3/4 oz Campari 1/2 oz Kirschwasser 1/4 oz Lemon juice Lemon twist The "revisited" part of this is the lemon juice, a contribution by @EvergreenDan. This wasn't to my taste--I found it medicinal, and the brandy drew out the most disagreeable aspects of Campari and gin. It does occur to me that it may just be that the Kirschwasser I have isn't good. Or it may just be the case that I just don't really like Kirschwasser.

Avenue & Davenport (rye, bourbon, Cynar, maraschino, Fernet Branca). Gave this a long stir but it still packed a punch (with my bottled-in-bond rye as the base). The combination of flavors--black pepper from the rye, mint from the fernet, sweet funk from the maraschino--was a little odd. I couldn't decide in the end if it felt inventive or arbitrary. In all that flavor hubbub the Cynar gets surprisingly lost, only surfacing subtly in the finish.

@EvergreenDan's Dark and Orangey: 2 oz dark rum (1 oz Smith & Cross + 1 oz Cruzan blackstrap) 1 oz King's Ginger (Stirrings Ginger) 1/2 oz Cointreau 3/4 oz lime dash Angostura orange (Regan's orange) bitters rocks, with a lemon twist I was pleased to find that the firepower of S&C and ginger liqueur held the line against a full ounce of the Cruzan blackstrap rum, which in other recipes (even at smaller amounts) has commandeered and worsened drinks to my taste. This is a good use of the stuff.

A little over 3oz, prediluted, is my starting target if I'm trying to invent something new.

Tried this Gladstone: Rittenhouse base with a bunch of other stuff thrown in in small quantities—aquavit, maraschino, gomme (simple), absinthe, Appleton V/X (Smith & Cross), Boker's bitters. Stir, up. Kinda interesting. The absinthe spoke a little loudly. Caraway and marshmallow on the swallow. Something in the aftertaste that reminds me of toothpaste.

If you're looking for something boozy and autumnal, you could do worse than this Black Apple Old Fashioned: 1 1/2 oz Jägermeister 1 oz apple brandy (I used Applejack) 2 dashes apple bitters orange twist

This University of Pennsylvania scholar is figuring out, and recreating, the drinks served in ancient Greece. "Patrick [McGovern], who is something of a forensic mixologist, follows chemical clues and uses advanced processes to analyze ancient organic compounds and identify recipes. So far, bioarchaeologists have discovered the rice wines of ancient China, and Japan, barley beer and grape wine from the Middle East, corn beers of the Americas, and the elite cacao or chocolate fruit drink of the New World." link

The Death & Co. take on the Southside— lemon -> lime simple -> cane syrup + Angostura —was enough to raise it two stars, in my book. Yummy!

I tried the Benjamin Barker Daiquiri. Rum (I used a mix of Myers Dark and El Dorado 8), lime, Demerara syrup, Campari, and absinthe. My first sips were too licoricey, and I regretted being carelessly generous with estimating 1/8 oz in my jigger. But after a few sips that receded a bit, or better, started integrating in fascinating ways with the sour lime and bitter Campari. In the end I really liked this. I have found some daiquiris lacking dimension, and this drink remedies that in an effective way.

Tried out this Last Laph: Equal parts peaty Scotch, pineapple juice, ginger liqueur, lemon juice, plus three dashes absinthe, garnished with mint. My garden mint got fried in the late summer sun so my pitiful garnish didn't add much. I found the smoky Scotch (I used Laphroaig 10) ran roughshod; the ginger especially got lost. If I tried this again I think I'd try a blended Scotch base and an islay float, à la a Penicillin.

Lovely pic. How was the drink? Just looking at the recipe, I wonder if it didn't turn out a little limp (like so many OJ drinks).

High Society Cocktail 2 oz Chivas Regal 12 (Famous Grouse) 1/2 oz crème de menthe barspoon Fernet Branca 1 leaf mint garnish The crème de menthe I own is embarrassingly low grade, but I found the Fernet Branca classed it up pretty well in this drink. Sweet and minty.

An old-fashioned, steered as hard as I could towards autumn: 3 oz Evan Williams single-barrel barspoon maple syrup dash apple bitters dash Angostura bitters dash fig-citrus bitters expressed lemon peel 3 brandied cherries

This is a favorite: Kyle Davidson's Half Windsor: 2 oz Cocchi Americano 1 oz. grapefruit juice 1/2 oz. cognac Like grapefruit juice taken to the next level.

I gather there are a bunch of alternative recipes for a Brandy Port Sangaree. What I tried was: 2 oz Paul Masson brandy 1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand orange curacao 1/2 oz Dow's ruby port Built over an ice sphere, freshly grated nutmeg. Not earth-shattering, but made something pleasant out of a workaday brandy and was satisfyingly fitting for an end-of-a-long-day relaxer.

To ease your mind, I think it's rare that they make it through the distillation process!

Ah, okay, in that case, full speed ahead with the S&C experiment!

I wonder if apricot brandy instead of the apricot liqueur from the spec threw things off. A little more sweetness wouldn't in itself be "funky" but maybe it would bring out more from the rum?

Last night, tried a Hotel Room Temperature: 1 1⁄2 oz Carpano Antica 3⁄4 oz El Dorado 12 (El Dorado 8) 3⁄4 oz Marie Brizard orange curaçao (Pierre Ferrand) 14 drops Xocolatl Mole bitters Roll to incorporate and serve room temperature. Garnish with an orange twist. Loved the balance of this, with each ingredient playing a distinct role, unfettered by any pesky dilution. A grown-up drink, rich, boozy, and delicious. Anyone else have any favorite unchilled mixed drinks?

Enjoying this Bluebeard, a riff on PDT's Blackbeard: Muddle five blueberries in 1/2oz agave syrup. Add 1 1/2oz gin, 3/4oz aquavit, 3/4oz pineapple juice, 1/2oz lime juice. Shake and strain into ice filled tumbler. Mint sprig garnish. It's delicious, a really nice balance where the botanicals of gin and aquavit complement the fruity flavors.

@Rafa's O Negative: rye, Angostura (1 oz!), simple, dash absinthe, orange twist. Christmas in July!

The Good Life: 1 3⁄4 oz North Shore aquavit (Tattersall) 1 oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur (Stirrings) 3⁄4 oz lime juice 1⁄2 oz Demerara syrup (2:1) 10 dr Regans' orange bitters Orange twist (grapefruit) Recipe reads as sweet, and it was, though the herbaceous aquavit and spicy liqueur (and acidic lime) kept it from being cloying to my taste. I liked the ginger and aquavit combo in this sour format. Recipe called for orange twist but I only had grapefruit, which I think might've been more fitting anyway.

A while ago I received a gift of a small bottle of this odd Slow Burn liqueur. It's a gin-based, smoky sweet liqueur that I figured must be good for something but I had no idea what. Then recently I came across a variation of Sam Ross's great Penicillin (blended Scotch, lemon, honey, ginger, Islay Scotch float) that subbed in agave spirits--tequila for the blended Scotch and mezcal for the float. That sparked the idea--I could instead make a gin variant, with London dry as the base spirit and this Slow Burn as the smoky top. So I did it. 1 2/3 oz. Beefeater, 2/3 lemon, 2 tsp honey syrup, 2 tsp Stirrings ginger liqueur, 2 tsp Slow Burn floated, candied ginger garnish. Tasty but not earth-shattering, I parsed it more as an interesting Bee's Knees riff than anything that would rival a Penicillin.