J_Ozzy

Prime reading season for me right now (Canon, Regarding Cocktails, and Tippling Bros all arrived in my mailbox in the same week). Canon arrived first, so that's what I've managed to tackle so far. The Canon Cocktail Book: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bar (Jamie Boudreau & James O. Fraioli) I very much enjoyed this book. It reminds me, in spirit, of a modern Harry Johnson's Bartenders' Manual, but weighted to more heavily to the drinks (to be fair, that original was a treatise for bars, restaurants and hotels, fully half its length an operator's manual). It covers a lot of ground: tips on planning, opening and running a cocktail bar; core cocktail theory; high-end equipment and substitutes; carbonated, aged, and bottled cocktails; shrubs, infusions and tinctures; flavored foams, Fernet cookies and Chartreuse ice cream. The drinks are nicely photographed, often alongside their vintage spirit or liqueur bottles. Drink descriptions helpfully explain less common ingredients, and (in the case of riffs) provide insight into the creative process behind them. The drinks are organized in broad categories, and stylistically run the gamut from elegant tweaks (Chrysanthemum #2) to playfully themed (The Elvis Ziggurat) to full mad scientist (Movie Night Float). Refreshingly, outside of the "Over the Top" section, there are very few recipes that require much more preparation than an infused syrup. There is a mix of standard, advanced and exotic (brain rum!) prepared ingredients, including the always-appreciated house Picon substitute, Amer Boudreau. Some of the exotic preparations call for specialized equipment, but conventional workarounds are provided for the truly adventurous. Outside of the drink recipes, the book provides a quality, high-level introduction on many craft cocktail topics. It doesn't delve nearly as deeply as some of the more specialized books (i.e. fundamental technique in Morgenthaler's Bar Book, or advanced wizardry as presented in Liquid Intelligence or The Cocktail Lab). It is instead an accessible, competent generalist, and an engaging read.

Just noticed that Regarding Cocktails (Sasha Petraske) is getting a late October release. Definitely going on my required reading list.

Just got my copy yesterday, so I'm still working my way through it, but I agree that Hamilton Jamaica black is the intended bottle for the Dr. Funk. It is indeed (relatively) unaged, black, pot still, and Jamaican, which hits all the qualifiers. It's also the only pot still rum listed on the referenced page (198).

Looking forward to the year ahead, I see a few interesting titles coming down the pipe: Two Italian-focused narratives: Spritz: Italy's Most Iconic Aperitivo Cocktail, with Recipes Aperitivo: The Cocktail Culture of Italy And 3 bartender-backed tomes: Lift Your Spirits A Celebratory History of Cocktail Culture in New Orleans (Chris McMillian) Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki (Martin Cate) The Canon Cocktail Book: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bar (Jamie Boudreau) I'm particularly looking forward to the Canon book , since I haven't been able to find a copy of The Pacific Northwest Gentlemen's Companion.

A few "can't buy them at home" purchases from a holiday trip to NY: Maker's cask strength, barrel-aged peach brandy from Peach Street Distillers, and Pineapple Stiggins from Plantation/Maison Ferrand [Host's note: this topic forms part of an extended discussion that grew too large for our servers to handle efficiently. The conversation continues here.]

Well that's going on my Christmas list.

Just finished the Experimental Cocktail Club book. It weaves the back story of the various ECC establishments with a selection of drinks (gorgeously photographed) that have graced their menus. I particularly liked that they included a section towards the end highlighting drinks from friends and former staff who have gone off on their own paths; I thought it was a nice touch. Also of note is the Classics section, which presents established drinks alongside their in-house variations, explaining the tweaks and substitutions and providing some insight into their process. I think this book slots in quite well as high-intermediate material. One page near the back covers some quick pointers on technique. Just under half of the drinks include some sort of homemade syrup (beyond simple, honey, orgeat or falernum), infusion, or tincture. Homemade ingredients are described either as they are introduced in a drink, or in the longer recipe section at the end. Most of the homemade ingredients show up in more than one drink, and the longest has a lead time of 72 hours, keeping the investment of effort reasonable. As learning material, I'd recommend it to someone who's solid on Morgenthaler's Bar Book, but might be overwhelmed if they jumped right into The Dead Rabbit or Death&Co. I think its stands up well as a cocktail bar book in it's own way, since it's a multi-venue story rather than the history of a single space.

I'm on a bit of a mission to replicate and improve Quebec's equivalent of Pimm's Cup, Caribou. Notes so far: • The commercial bottling tastes like fruity red wine sangria. • The official recipe calls for port, sherry, vodka and brandy, (roughly 2:2:1:1) batched to ~36oz. • Many of the house recipe I've seen are simply for "St-Georges" (a local value-priced fortified wine) and alcohol in ratios ranging from 3:1 to 2:1 • There's also various call for accents of cinnamon, clove and anise, citrus, or cider I'm looking to scale it down to a decent single serving recipe; thinking of playing with the brandy and the fortified wines (if necessary, sub down to a fruity red), with a dash or two of ango and peychauds for the spice notes.

Dave Arnold suggests no longer than 2 hours ahead of time for cucumbers in Liquid Intelligence

Anyone have any thoughts on how Bigallet China-China stacks up as a substitute for the original 78 proof formula? I've been seeing it used quite widely here in Montreal as the go-to.

I visited the Riverwalk location during Tales 2008. They had a really well provisioned exhibit; lots of donated/lent cocktail paraphernalia. The pre-revolution bottles of Bacardi and 19th century bottles of absinthe were really neat to see up close.

Cocktail Kingdom's got a new reproduction out: Hoffman House Bartender's Guide

Could be. I don't own either version. so it's new to me regardless.

Using Amazon to look ahead at the coming year's releases, I see a few books I'll probably pick up: Salvator Calabrese's Classic CocktailsJulie Reiner's The Craft Cocktail PartyPaul Clarke's The Cocktail ChroniclesThe Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual, from the eponymous establishmentGaz Regan's The Negroniedit: missed a word

A holiday trip to New York yielded some Zafra rum, Maker's Mark cask strength, Amaro CioCiaro and Gourry de Chadeville cognac. The green line 6 subway conveniently stops within blocks of the Astor, Union Wine, and Park Avenue retail shops (though the latter two can be reached more quickly on a green 4 or 5 train). I tried to swing by Borisal (DUNY) in Brooklyn but their store hours are a little weird (compounded by the holiday season). I also stopped in to gawk at the rare stuff at Financial District Liquor.

I mean, at least he made the effort to include something nut-based

There's no shortage of regional price variation based on retailer/distributor/producer markups, promotions and discounts within the three-tier system.

That looks more interesting than the corpse reviver variations I've seen using the name. Same ratios as the Absinthe Frappée?

Strawberry season here, so two jars of tequila por mi amante have been started using a portion of the proceeds from this morning's picking. Now the challenge is holding out until August.

Nice, I've wanted to get my hands on some Perique for years. I had a conversation, years ago, with Ted Breaux about the distribution situation for Jade products in Canada. He mentioned he had someone working towards getting his absinthes onto the LCBO private order list, but I don't know if anything every came of it. Though I didn't buy it, a cousin brought me back a bottle of Santiago de Cuba Anejo from a recent vacation. I'd compare it to the 12yr old expression available at the SAQ, but $100 is a little bit steep.

The Gaz Regan's annual manual / best new cocktails series has been a decent snapshot of cocktail developments over the past 3 years. Edit: the "best new cocktails" releases for 2012-13 and the inaugural 2011 annual manual, specifically; the subsequent annual manuals are great, but more focused on the craft of bartending than recipes.

A trip to Calgary provided an opportunity to pick up some products that were unavailable (or significantly more expensive) in Montreal: Cocchi Americano, George Dickel #12, Four Roses Single Barrel, Barbancourt 15, Lagavulin 16 and a 10 year old Scapa bottling. Edit: spelling

Nitrogen cavitation (i.e. the iSi charger method) is pretty effective at extracting flavour from thinly sliced ginger, plus it's quick.

You could give some of the early French cocktail books (~1890s-1900s) a shot. http://www.euvs.org/en/collection/books Edit: granted, most of the material is likely translated from period American books, but there surely must be a couple originals in the bunch.

Astor's got it on their website