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DrinkBoy

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Everything posted by DrinkBoy

  1. What? Monin has an alcoholic line? I always thought they just made flavored syrups and not actual Liqueurs. -Robert
  2. You can order Monin products (for home use) online here: http://www.moninstore.com/ However they are just coffee syrups, no alcohol. I had ordered several of their syrups after Gary and Mardee did a writeup about a cocktail they put together using their Gingerbread syrup (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/485546/). In addition to their gingerbread, I picked up Lavendar, Rose, Violet, and their "Mojito Mint" (a stretch, I know, and I don't recommend it). Their florals are nice, and have enough flavor for the florals to show themselves in a drink without having to add "too much" syrup to unbalance it. -Robert
  3. slkinsey, I -love- that cocktail mixer you picture. I had filmed a short bit for "Fine Living" a few months back, and they used a similar mixer for a prop. I've been casually searching for a similar one to add to my collection. I'm always looking for the "perfect" shaker, or mixer, but all too often when I find one that looks really good there ends up being something wrong with it's functionality. While specifically looking for a mixer like yours, I picked this one up off of eBay: (click here for a larger image) ...but while it looks really nice, the narrow strainer slot at the top makes it take forever to pour out a drink. -Robert
  4. Ryan is "Ryan Magarian", he built up the original bar program for Zoe here in Seattle, and as I recall their menu still has several of his signature drinks on it. Just look for any herbal infused spirits, and those will be his doing. Ryan just recently worked up an impressive cocktail program for Holland America Cruise lines: http://uk.us.biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040315/sfm114_1.html -Robert
  5. Well... for one thing you left off Vermouth! :-> as well as chartreuse, and perhaps Pimms. However, my recommendation for "stocking the bar" is slightly different then simply building up a shopping list. While I love all of the ingredients that Gary has on his list, something like Pernod, Campari, Chartreuse, or Benedictine might just gather dust on some folks shelves (not on mine!). What I recommend to folks is that they "stock their bar" the same way I did when I was first teaching myself about cocktails. Find "A" recipe that you want to try. Buy the ingredients that you need for just that recipe, and then for the next week make yourself one of those drinks each night. The next week, find another recipe, shop for that one. And so on, and so on... This does several things. First off, in about a year, you will have an -amazing- selection of items in your bar, and secondly, you will know how to youse -every- single one of them. The big question of course is what cocktails to use. You could start with a great cocktail recipe book (Gary's "Joy Of Mixology" comes to mind!) and randomly select recipes from that... it would be important to use a book that isn't trying to list "every recipe known to man", but instead is focusing on a smaller subset of recipes that the author thinks are actually worth having. Another recommendation for a more "automated" method would be to go to "http://www.CocktailTime.com", on a weekly basis, they rotate through a small selection of -great- cocktail recipes. Although sometimes they do recipes which use ingredients which are hard, if not impossible, to find (Amer Picon for one). Another website that does a different drink on just about a week basis is over at http://www.Esquire.com Just look for "Dave Wondrich's Semi-Regular Cocktail Column" (unfortunately I can't put a direct link to it here since it's one of those "popup window" type of things.) One problem with David's column, is that unlike CocktailTime (which hasn't done a "new" cocktail in several years), David is always adding new drinks, which means he's already covered all of the "standards" and is now getting more essoteric, as well as using hard to find ingredients (The current one uses Van Der Hum). A great solution to this problem is that David recently wrote a book "Esquire Drinks", in which he covers 250 "classic" drinks with great recipes and great writeups. Ok... enough out of me on this subject, this is after all Gary and Mardee's forum. -Robert
  6. The "Gin & Tonic" is always my "Safety Drink" when I'm at a joint that I feel aprehensive about.
  7. Actually, your Manhattan (besides being on the rocks) would be very close to the same size as my Martini, since I like to use a fair amount of dry vermouth in mine. :-> Ok... so then check out the recipe for the Alaska cocktail in JoM... why is it so small? I had decided this weekend to start going through all of the recipes on my site an trying to get them to all come out about the same size, in which I quickly ran into the Alaska, and wanted to see how you ratioed it out... only to find out that yours is even smaller then mine! It was then that the thought struck me that perhaps making all drinks come out to the same size shouldn't be the objective, but instead to consider the overall strength of the resultant drink. With a traditional cocktail glass, you can actually hide this level of difference -very- well. -Robert
  8. My question wasn't really implying that to make drinks the same strength would mean making a Manhattan with only a drop of vermouth. Instead it would be more like "sizing" the cocktail so that the overall totall amount of alcohol was the same (or close to the same) in all of the drinks. So a Manhattan would be served in a smaller glass then a Sidecar. And an "extra dry Martini" would be even less then that. Does that make any sense? -Robert
  9. I was recently looking through the various recipes I've collected, and noticed that they range all over the board on the actual size of the resultant cocktail. I was thinking about going through all of them and trying to re-formulate the recipes (keeping the ratios as close to the same as possible) in order to get them all close "enough" in the size of the poured drink, but then I thought about strength. A 4 ounce Martini, is clearly going to be a stronger drink then a 4 ounce Bronx... do you think cocktail recipes should try to be sized at a consistant size, or strength? -Robert
  10. It is a good friend of mine (Ryan Magarian) who is the cocktail consultant for this project. He's got an extremely creative eye for cocktails with lots of energy and passion. -Robert
  11. CanadianWhisky != Rye; Ok... perhaps I'm flogging the proverbial horse, but it just "bothers" me when I see people interchanging "Rye" and "Canadian Whisky". I understand that in Canada they call Canadian Whisky "Rye", but in truth there are very, very, very, few (ie. I think only two) Whiskies made in Canada which use Rye as their primary ingredient. As I'm sure I've brought up before, the "confusion" took hold during prohibition when American whiskey distillars shut down, and thereby made true Rye (which at that time was the more common version of American whiskey) unavailable. Our friends to the north however were more then happy to fill the gap and Canadian whisky was substituted for drinks that would otherwise have been made with Rye (or Bourbon). So when a customer came in and asked for a Rye... the bartender handed them the closest thing they had, which was a Candian whisky. When Prohibition was over, the American distillers were getting ready to fire up their stills, and they switched over to making a majority of Bourbon instead of Rye, since the American public now (mistakenly) thought that their Rye was coming from Canada, and the American distillers knew that they were going to have a bit of a struggle anyway, so chose to focus on the whiskey that was "missing"... Bourbon. -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
  12. Is there -anywhere- in the US where you can get Byrrh? I've never seen it on any of the internet spirits stores, and we haven't carried it here in WA state for -years-. I've got a single old bottle of it that I picked up a long time ago, and haven't had the heart to crack the lid yet. -Robert
  13. DrinkBoy

    Aquavit

    According to the online database for the Washington State Liquor Control board, we carry "AALBORG JUBILAEUMS AKVAVIT" (Brandcode: 968199, price $19.35) here. Unfortunately the only store in the state which has any left is the one on Orcas Island (Store #628, 8368 ORCAS RD, 360-376-6008), and they only had 2 bottles left when the database was last synched. You can either call the store up, or you can go to your local liquor store and ask them to issue a store transfer. If you want to search the states liquor store database yourself, you can do that here: http://www.liq.wa.gov/services/brandsearch.asp It is a -very- handy service, and one of the (few) fringe benefits from having a state-owned liquor monopoly. -Robert
  14. Speaking of Rye... Nothing ticks me off more (ok, perhaps there are lots of things that tick me off more, but allow me to be dramatic :-) then when some bartender asks me if I would like my Manhattan made with Rye, and when I enthusiastically agree... he then reaches for a Canadian Whisky, or worse, Seagram's 7... Many people think Canadian Whisky -is- the same thing as Rye Whiskey, all because of that lobotomy that prohibition saddled us with. And then just the other day I hear about an agreement between Canada and the EU/EC where Canada will finally recognize regional products such as Champagne, Ouzo, Grappa, Bordeaux, etc. and in return the EU "will protect 'Rye Whisky' as a distinctive product of Canada". (http://www.health.fgov.be/WHI3/krant/krantarch2003/kranttekstsept3/030918m08eu.htm) -Robert
  15. I (almost) always use Orange Bitters in my Martini's. The gins I usually keep on hand to use are Plymouth, T10, and Hendricks. One key I feel is important in such a Martini, is to also use enough vermouth to get all of the flavors balancing. Which just isn't possible with the "swoosh & dump" method of adding vermouth to this drink. I usually use 3 parts gin to 1 part dry vermouth (Noilly). -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
  16. I suppose if you need to use a channel knife, then cutting the twist over the desired infusing liquor, or at least over the vessel it will be infused in, would be better then nothing. I agree that using a paring knife can be slightly more difficult then using a channel knife, but with just a little practice it really isn't that hard. You want to first cut off the top and bottom half-inch of the lemon, and then cut slices of peel in a north-south direction. The peels should be about the width-length of your thumb. I find this a lot easier then trying to do a full spiral of the entire fruit in one fell swoop. -Robert Hess www.DrinkBoy.com
  17. When you are wanting to use citrus peels for "infusing", you probably -don't- want to use a channel knife. The problem is that it is the oils in the skin of the citrus that are adding the flavors to the infusion, and the "stress" of using a channel knife will actually pre-release many of these oils. Carefully watch the next time you spin a zest using a channel knife, and you'll see a spray of oils fly into the air. This is also why when you use a channel knife to cut a zest for a garnish that you should cut this "over" the glass that the garnish will be used for. This will allow these essential oils to be deposited into the drink where they can add a nice touch of flavoring. For infusions, you can just slice the citrus into thin slices and put them into the vodka whole, although this will result in a slightly cloudy result. If you want to use just the peel, then my recommendation is to use a pareing knife and gently cut off the peel of the citrus, trying to avoid as much of the white pith as possible (but you can't avoid all of it). -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
  18. A wildman perhaps, but a fun one... and as you can see here, he's recently had a haircut and shave, so perhaps he doesn't look quite so wild
  19. I too would recommend folks attend Gary's "Cocktails in the Country" course. No, it isn't a "bartenders" school, nor do you get any sort of certified diploma upon completion. You aren't taught to memorize hundreds of recipes, nor are you taught how to make change, swap beer kegs, or deal with problem customers. What you "are" taught, is a better understanding of "Quality" cocktails and bartending. Essentially, all the stuff that a "bartender school" -doesn't- teach you. Even if you are already a career bartender, I would recommend this course as a fun "refresher". And yes, it is fun. Gary also used much of his training material for this course as the basis of his recent book: "The Joy Of Mixology" If you sign up, tell em who sent you -Robert Hess www.DrinkBoy.com
  20. The fruit in the bottle -was- treated with something to prevent it from going bad. Alcohol. -Robert
  21. Yeah... I haven't had much in the way of good luck at Tini Bigs either. Any just out of principle I will avoid any place that thinks Hypnotiq is cool. -Robert
  22. Then he's going to need to buy a bottle of rye, but it's a great suggestion. Technically he'd need that rye for an Old Fashioned or Manhattan too :-> Although I suppose that since a Sazerac is a fairly uncommon cocktail it has retained it's "ryeness" long after the Old Fashioned and Manhattan have be re-cast to use bourbon. (And I won't even mention that the Sazerac was originally made with Brandy... oops, I guess I just did. :-) And speaking of the Sazerac, I notice a fairly wide variety of recipes and construction styles being used for this. Myself, the method that I've settled in on is as follows: Pre-chill a rocks glass with ice. Dump the ice. Coat glass with Pernod/Absinthe (I use Absinthe in an atomizer, works wonderfully) Add a scant teaspoon of simple syrup Add about 5 dashes of Peychaud's bitters Add 2 ounces of Rye (or Bourbon) whiskey Garnish with a lemon twist Note that I don't use ice at all in the drink itself, nor do I shake the rye with ice. Part of my thought here is that this drink pre-dates mechanical refridgeration, and so I expect that ice would have been a bit precious, and would therefore be nowhere near as pervasive of an ingredient as we see it today. Also, while I know most of you know this already, when the above recipe calls for "Rye" this does -not- mean (nor does it ever mean) Canadian Whisky. And for another suggestion for a bourbon based cocktail that you might want to try, here is a new one, the "Chas" [chaz]: 1 1/4 oz Bourbon 1/8 oz Amaretto 1/8 oz Cointreau 1/8 oz Benedictine 1/8 oz Orange Curacao Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist. -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
  23. Correct. While if you distill fermented grapes (wine) you normally get brandy. If you distill it to 95% alcohol or above, then add water to bring it down to the normal 40-50% alcohol, you have "Vodka". In this way, anything that is fermentable/distillable can be used to produce Vodka. The reason that most vodkas are made using grain, is because it is by far the cheapest way to arrive at a distillable product. -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
  24. The best one, is the one that you like the best. Once you get into the premium area, all of the spirits are essentially of very good quality, the main difference will be in the types of things that one person will like, while another won't. Sometimes, what you call the "super' premium brands are exactly the same as the premium brands... except for the price. Some fancy marketing person realizes that if they charge more for it, people will "think" it is better, and therefore not only sell more, but make more on everything they sell... Vodka is one of the worst offenders of this. But after all, they invented, or at least perfected, the whole science of liquor marketing. I realize that not everybody will agree with me, but vodka is the most over-rated of all of the spirits. People flock around it like moths to a flame. They listen to the "buzz" as to what is "currently" the in-vogue brand, and stores can't keep it on the shelves. Absolute, Grey Goose, Kettle One, Hanger One, Pearl, etc... each had their "15 minutes" of fame. Only to be eclipsed a little later by somebody else coming out onto the scene and stealing the stage. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... the most important ingredient in (US, domestic or imported) vodkas is the water that they use to bring it down to bottle strength. Yes, different vodkas -do- taste different. One might have a hint of sweetness, another a hint of flowers, or spice, or minerals, or just a clean brightness. Pick up different brands of bottled water at the store and do a tasting between them... you will notice exactly the same differences between each one. True, the "rot gut" vodkas will be nasty things, that will turn even a vodka tonic into a vile drink. This is due to poor distillation. But once you get into the premium brands, the raw distillate that they are all using is essentially the same, with virtually no contaminates... or characteristics... just clean and (virtually) pure alcohol. What you have is about 97% pure alcohol, with the remainder made up of water, and very, very, minute contaminates, with perhaps only one half of one percent being a direct/characteristic by-product of the original fermented mash used to produce it. To this, they add water, to bring it down to 40 to 50% alcohol... which means vodka consists of almost 60% added water. Thus the choice of which water to add, and how to pureify this water, is the most important choice of all that the distiller faces (most vodka producers don't even make their own raw distillate... they buy it in bulk... from the same distiller that is making raw distillate for their competition). ...but, back to the original question... :-> What I highly recommend people to do who are interested in finding that great vodka, is to go to the liquor store and buy the little airplane bottles of vodka that most stores sell. You can usually find many of the premium vodkas being sold this way, and once in a while the really expensive vodkas will come out like this as well. If there is another vodka or two that you want to try, but don't see them as a airplane bottle, then pick up a reglar bottle of those. Hopefully, this little shopping trip won't cost too much, but leave you with a fairly good selection. Now, once you get home, attempt to do a double-blind tasting of the vodkas you selected. Don't worry about chilling them, because at room temperature you will be able to pick out more of the undesireable traits then you could if they were chilled. Use identical glasses, label each glass with A, B, C, ... Now leave the room and have somebody else go in and pour the vodkas into the glasses, they need to record which vodka they poured into A, B, C, ... Now -they- leave the room, taking the bottles of vodka -and- their notes with them. You (or a third person) go back in and -randomly- re-label the glasses 1, 2, 3, ... being careful to record which number "A" gets, etc. Now, everybody can taste the vodkas, comments on them, and discusses which ones they like the best, worst. Nobody knows which vodka is which yet, and so there is no pressure to prefer one over another. You should be "hoping" that the vodka you like the best isn't the most expensive one :-> Once you've all made your individual decisions as to what you think of each one (many of them will be so similar that you won't be able to form an individual opinion), you can bring out the notes and determine which vodka was in which glass. This is the best way to find out what -you- think the best vodka is. And now, instead of simply "following the pack", you can actually order your premium vodka -knowing- that this is the one you like the best. This is the same process that I recommend for Brandy, Whiskey, or any other spirit. Give it a try and let us know the results! -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
  25. DrinkBoy

    Lillet

    It won't go bad from a "make you sick" standpoint, but it's flavor might not be as good as a "fresh" bottle. Lillet, and other such aperitif wines are "fortified", and so they aren't as touchy as regular wine in this regard. I never refrigerate my vermouth's, and every time I buy a "new" bottle, I compare it with the older stuff that could have been sitting around for a couple of months (depending on what sorts of drinks I've been making), and while I can detect some difference, it is about as great as the difference of a good brand to a lesser one. So personally I never worry about it. -Robert www.DrinkBoy.com
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