slkinsey

Audrey's Earl Gray MarTEAni. I had once thought that Lapsang Souchong would make an interesting infusion into alcohol for a cocktail - but after trying it, it turns out that smoky-tea-infused-liquor is just as hard to mix with as scotch.

Audrey's Earl Gray MarTEAni has been a popular drink for several years. It's essentially a silver gin sour made with Earl Gray-infused Tanqueray.

Maybe if they do more shopping, Steven can explain the "Shaw Pineapple Index" metric for comparing supermarkets.

Yes, I believe that was in the original draft of the article: "I can remember my first customer," said Mr. Hoy, "an nice gentleman named Rich Schulhoff ordered a Martini back in 1948. I hear he's still around... living proof that gin is a preservative."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Oldest-Bartender.html I thought this was a nice article. Hoy Wong has been bartending for almost 60 years.

As I posted earlier, Eber Brothers/Paramount Brands is now bringing Laird's Apple Bond into NYC. Let's see what we can do to get liquor stores to start carrying it. They first brought in four cases, which have all been sold to the business. We should start making our favorite stores aware of Laird's Apple Bond's availability and asking them to get some in stock. Make sure they understand that it's not the 7.5 or 12 year old brandy you're talking about. You want the 100 proof bonded product. So... let's get something started in NYC! I'm willing to bet that if 4-5 people ask the liquor manager at Astor Wines to get in some Laird's Apple Bond, they'll start stocking it. Let's ask our favorite shops in NYC to stock Laird's Apple Bond and post about it here when we ask. I'm going to ask Astor Wines the next time I'm down there.

Exactly! I've thought about taking some Fairway pictures for the various foodblogs I've done, but managed to restrain myself by imagining a headline in the Post that said, "Stupid Foodie Beaten to Death by 80 Year Old Jewish Ladies in 74th Street Fairway." It's hard enough to elbow those senior citizens out of the way when I'm reaching for a number at the appetizing counter, never mind standing around trying to frame a shot.

Jason brought this Smirnoff video to our attention. It's an interesting example of an attempt to promote a liquor through viral marketing. Viral marketing is a relatively new advertising technique whereby marketers seek to spread awareness and increase interest in a product via word-of-mouth by associating the product with an interesting piece of content that people will talk about and share with one another. The most noteworthy example of viral marketing today is probably the "Snakes on a Plane" movie. Liquor may prove to be a particularly good match for viral marketing because new premium liquors -- and this is especially true of vodkas -- are often valued because of perceived prestige, which is largely created by word-of-mouth. In a way, having a celebrity bartender create a special cocktail featuring a certain liquor could be seen as an example of viral marketing. If the cocktail takes off, or if the liquor is able to associate itself with a currently popular cocktail phenomenon (as Bacardi is trying to do with the Mojito), it increases the presence and perceived value of the brand. Ed Hamilton asked the important question: So... what do we think of this. The Tea Partay video is amusing, on that we largely agree. Many of us may share the links with a friend or two. But, do we think it's a successful marketing strategy? Does this video make us more likely to try the new Smirnoff product? Does it succeed with any of us in associating itself with the image of the whitebread old-moneyed Martha's Vinyard set?

Of course, guacamole is also a mole. FWIW, I've had a pretty good Oaxacan pipian in a few NYC restaurants.

Except that I didn't get the impression anyone thought that 66 and Spice Market were any great shakes when they were JGV's newest restaurants at the time.

Today's review in the NY Times by Frank Bruni would suggest that the answer to the question posed in this thread is coming periously close to "yes." Ouch! Thoughts?

As chance would have it, we have a thread going on making Maraschino Cherries (plus variations) at home. I've had some going with NY State sour cherries, Maraska and a touch of simple syrup for a while. This particular jar can now be found in one of the refrigerators at Pegu Club. Luxardo cherries strike me as yet another category of cherry. Not really maraschino cherries, as I understand them.

Luxardo cherries are incredibly awesome. Seek them out. Hoard them. Eat them by yourself when your friends aren't around. Let those ingrates have the regular cherries.

eG Forums threads on. . . Maraschino liqueur The Aviation I wouldn't say that's exactly correct... Maraschino involves a special process in which the fruit is separated from the stems and pits, which are then distilled like grappa and the resultant liquor reincorporated at a later stage with the liquor distilled from the fruit. (More in the Maraschino liqueur thread).

FWIW, I've always taken "powdered sugar" in the old books to mean "superfine sugar" rather than the sugar-plus-corn-starch powdered sugar we have now.

Hee! Kudos, Andrew. This reminds me a little of the "pickled hot dogs" that my mother used to make every so often back in the 70s using miniature hot dogs. Tell us about the drunken weenies? Do you think they would be good slapped on the grill and served alongside a Weenietini? My mother also used to make pickled lamb's tongues, which would be an interesting experiment in vodka. A cured venison sausage might be good in gin.

This weeks Bar Buzz section of New York Magazine has an interesting bit on "Sangria" made with sake. Chino's mixes mild Okagura sake, riesling, and brandy in a tall glass with slender slices of lime, lemon, and orange and a maraschino cherry garnish. Hedeh has ons made with sake, orange and pineapple juices, triple sec, amaretto, and a variety of flavored vodkas. Japonais's peach sangria is made with Momokawa sake, Cointreau, sweet Moscato wine, and passion-fruit and lime juices, with diced fresh peach as a garnish. Sumile mixes junmai sake and sauvignon blanc with chunks of lime, orange, pineapple and crescents of green apple. Sushi-a-go-go has a more traditional sangria made with red wine and hunks of apple tweaked with dry sake. Anyone here ever used sake for sangria?

Actually, I think it will probably make a big difference. Ten Cane is I guess what you might call a "pseudo rhum agricole." I don't think it has as much of a distinctive agricole character as, say, Ed's rhums do. But it is made with cane juice, and it does have some of that character. If you're going to substitite, I'd use either one of Ed's rhums or maybe Barbancourt from Haiti.

Hmmm. I don't know about Broker's for Martinis (I've never used it for that purpose). But I wouldn't think that the proof makes all that much difference, so long as one uses a decent amount of vermouth. Tanqueray, at 94.6 proof, is the standard Martini gin for Pegu Club's Fitty-Fitty -- and I like it at as much as 4:1. I think the saffron gin would be Cadenhead's Old Raj (packing a whopping 110 proof, I believe).

Several of my bartender friends at Pegu and Flatiron (the latter sepecially can get quite busy at times) have remarked that, once you learn how to use the tools, working with a jigger doesn't take any more time than free pouring. They'll go up against any free pouring bartender on banging out a dozen specialty cocktails at speed and hold their own. More importantly, the benefits of significantly better accuracy and consistency are not to be ignored. The jigger-measured drinks will have better consistency.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! AAUGH! AAUGH! AAUGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! You poor, poor man!

Dave, a lot of it will depend on the strength and saturation of the grenadine you're using. I use a supersaturated grenadine I made by doing a fourfold reduction of POM, melting in as much sugar as it would hold, allowing it to cool and then thinning it out with fresh POM. This makes for a very strong flavored and very sweet grenadine. So I don't need to use as much of it as others might. My going-in formula for a Jack Rose is 2:1 Bonded Laird's to lemon or lime juice, and then (sorry!) dashing in the grenadine to taste. It shouldn't be a sweet drink, but there should be enough balance to take the bite off the acid. I'd probably start with a teaspoon and work my way from there. Jared Brown and Anastasia Miller have some cool stuff on the Jack Rose and grenadine over at their site. Also see this interesting bit on grenadine over at The Cocktail Chronicles.

Bottled in Bond: American spirits produced according to the Bottled Bond Act of 1894. This is a way to avoid paying excise tax until the spirits are aged and ready for sale; also originally indended to ensure that the spirit was actually what it claimed to be. Bonded spirits are aged no less than four years in a government bonded warehouse and must be bottled at proof (50% abv).

Yes, Laird's Bonded Applejack is now being brought into NYC! As johnder points out, they've got some in at Pegu Club. Spread the word to your local bars that Eber is bringing it in, and they should make the call to put in an order. Also, put some pressure on your favorite local liquor sources. I'd love to be able to tell Astor Wines that, if they order 3 cases of bonded applejack, it will fly off the shelves. If you've never tried the bonded stuff, it's well worth it. The difference between regular Laird's Applejack and Laird's Apple Bond is twofold: First, Laird's Applejack is at 80 proof and Laird's Apple Bond is at 100 proof. Proof impacts intensity of flavor, because an 80 proof spirit contains 20% more water than a 100 proof spirit. Second, at some point in the 60s or 70s, the US government decided that if Laird's wanted to call their product "applejack" instead of "apple brandy," it had to be a blended product. Laird's Applejack is a blend, containing about 35% apple brandy blended with 65% neutral spirits. Laird's Apple Bond is 100% apple brandy, which is why it is not called "Bonded Applejack" (even though that's what we all call it). This, needless to say, has a tremendous impact on depth and intensity of flavor. I actually still really like the blended product, but what I like about it is that I can still taste the faint backbone of what I have come to love about the bonded product. It still works well in things like an Old Fashioned. You have to be careful, though, not to stretch the blended stuff too much. It's difficult to make something like an Apple Blow Fizz with blended, because the base spirit doesn't have enough intensity of flavor to make its presence felt. It's like going between Old Overholt and Rittenhouse Bonded rye. Personally, I believe that Laird's bonded spirit is far closer to what was used in all the classic applejack cocktails -- many of which are not terribly interesting when made with blended. Try a Jack Rose using blended and Rose's grenadine. Eh? Not too inspiring. Try it with Laird's bonded and homemade grenadine. Suddenly it all makes sense. It's interesting to read in books by cocktail writers whose palates I respect tremendously (Doc's book comes to mind), and where applejack is described as being fundamentally a "mixing spirit." I think that's an impression that was formed from exposure to Laird's blended product. Laird's bonded is, in my book, definitely a spirit worth sipping.

Heh. I assume the "monte cristos" mentioned by the OP are cigars and not sandwiches.