Cocktails That End Up in the Sink

[Chris Amirault]

This is probably the most expensive drink I ever tossed down the drain:

2 oz La Favorite rhum agricole

3/4 oz lime juice

1/2 oz demerara syrup

1/2 oz St. Germain

1/2 oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal

2 dashes Scrappy's grapefruit bitters

Shake; strain; and, yes, waste a few precious mls of Lemon Hart 151 demerara rum as a float.

Taste once; taste twice; toss it and make a Manhattan.

[Chris Hennes]

Any idea which of those myriad components pushed it over the edge? Mezcal is notoriously difficult to mix with, of course...

[Chris Amirault]

Actually, I think it was the rhum, not the mezcal. But if we're pointing fingers, c'mon.... There's probably two good drinks in there that some dingaling mashed up into a fine mess.

[bostonapothecary]

This is probably the most expensive drink I ever tossed down the drain:

2 oz La Favorite rhum agricole

3/4 oz lime juice

1/2 oz demerara syrup

1/2 oz St. Germain

1/2 oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal

2 dashes Scrappy's grapefruit bitters

Shake; strain; and, yes, waste a few precious mls of Lemon Hart 151 demerara rum as a float.

Taste once; taste twice; toss it and make a Manhattan.

Actually, I think it was the rhum, not the mezcal. But if we're pointing fingers, c'mon.... There's probably two good drinks in there that some dingaling mashed up into a fine mess.

chris, do you really think this drink has olfactory problems (the rum) and not gustatory problems (your sugar/acid/alcohol ethic)?

your go to drink, the manhattan, has a drastically different gustatory setup than this one. here you made an above average in alcohol sour with a ruthless sugar/acid ethic. saint germain is largely contrasted with its own acidity, so its sugar does not dent that lime juice much.

if i made the drink i'd reshape it like this:

1.5 oz. la favorite rhum agricole

.5 oz. chichicapa mezcal

.75 oz. lime juice

.75 oz. demerara syrup (assuming 1:1)

.5 oz. saint germain

2 dashes scrappy's grapefruit bitters

if i made it again i'd trade the st. germain for either maraschino, sweet vermouth, or a triple-sec. i've enjoyed mezcal and agricole together in the past.

[EvergreenDan]

saint germain is largely contrasted with its own acidity, so its sugar does not dent that lime juice much.

Odd. I have not found St Germain to be acidic. Perhaps it has more sugar that it tastes, partially balanced by its pH? I would not have thought that from tasting it, and I certainly use a fair about of acid when mixing with it.

I'm imagining that my experience of this drink would go like this: smoky -> similar to Islay -> wut wait fruit? -> get that out of my scotch. Cultural experience, I guess.

[bostonapothecary]

saint germain is largely contrasted with its own acidity, so its sugar does not dent that lime juice much.

Odd. I have not found St Germain to be acidic. Perhaps it has more sugar that it tastes, partially balanced by its pH? I would not have thought that from tasting it, and I certainly use a fair about of acid when mixing with it.

I'm imagining that my experience of this drink would go like this: smoky -> similar to Islay -> wut wait fruit? -> get that out of my scotch. Cultural experience, I guess.

st. germain is a distillate of elder flowers cut with an infusion of the flowers then sweetened. they do this because the flowers are so acidic, sort of like hibiscus. st. germain is modeled after things like pinot des charentes but probably with more sugar. the reason i think it often "madeirizes" or turns darker in the bottle is that the acids with the help of a little heat, invert the sugars caramelizing them.

i haven't had st. germain in quite a few years now and i wouldn't be surprised if they remodeled it and made it sweeter with less acid. my new favorite place to get the elderflower aroma is ames farm of minnesota's elder flower honey.

as far as the aromatic contrasts go culturally, i doubt you could respond to them the way you described. cocktails are a game of aesthetics and we who mix them obsessively just look for raw tension. lots of scotches are finished in secondhand barrels like madeira anyway which is aesthetically similar to the elderflower experience.

but for some reason i feel smoke & elderflower is more likely to be aesthetically dissonant than something like smoke & orange. if you try and think of it with the minds eye, there is more "distance" between the aromas of the smoke and the elderflower than the smoke and the orange.

[Chris Amirault]

Back at it, this time trying for a toddy with pomegranate molasses, some tasty pilloncillo... uh... xocolatl bitters... maybe bourbon... uh... ...

Into. The. Sink.

I can report that the Oaxacan Old Fashioned makes a fine "toddy" base, OTOH.

[EvergreenDan]

Venetian

by Absinthe Brasserie & Bar

1 oz Gin

1/2 oz Amaretto

1/2 oz Campari

1/2 oz Dry vermouth

1 sli Lemon zest

Stir with ice until very cold and serve straight up. Express the oil from the Lemon Peel garnish.

I'd like to like this drink, but the amaretto got in my way. Into the sink and re-made without the amaretto results in a nice Martini variation. I think you have to really like amaretto for this one.

[ChrisTaylor]

Heh. I've had the same reaction to amaretto in things. Was something I found in the drinks thread, maybe. Just a small quantity of amaretto in the mix, pretty much like you see there. And, too, it was also going up against Campri. And Campari has a strong flavour--it doesn't fuck around. Might've even been the same drink. But all you can taste, at all, once you add amaretto to something is that medicinal bitter almond quality.

[Yojimbo]

Thought I'd open up a new thread to showcase some deplorable mistakes I've been making and drinking recently -- 'fraid my brain's rather addled with work lately (and grading exams will kill of the few remaining bits of gray matter).

 

Applying Edison's dictum that failed experiments offer the useful information of what doesn't work, I put forth the following:

 

1.  Yesterday I came home craving bourbon, and dropped 2 oz. of Wild Turkey 101 and 1 oz. of Cardamaro into the mixing glass, added a dash of absinthe for fun,   Then turned to the fridge and saw that I was all out of lemons.  Too late to turn back, I thought, and squeezed half a precious lime into the drink, and topped it with a slug of homemade Swedish Punsch.  Stirred with ice, it was not good.  Odd dry flavor.  Poured in about a teaspoon of cinnamon simple.  Better, but definitely not even the sum of its parts.  

 

Moral:  if anybody's thinking of mixing bourbon and lime, think again, unless you're following a well-balanced tiki recipe. 

 

2.  Today I thought I'd do something with Dolin Blanc.  2 to 1 Beefeater to vermouth, then threw in a half ounce of Royal Combier, which adds a little orange/dry spice note that works very nicely with white spirits.  A heavy dash of Angostura orange to up the orange flavor without adding sweetness.  Then insanity took over and I added 1/2 ounce of Galliano, maybe as part of my desultory campaign to finally kill off the bottle.  Ice, stir, strain, and lemon twist. 

 

Not exactly awful, but the nuanced nature of the Royal Combier was clubbed to death like a baby harp seal by the Galliano, and neither worked very well with the sweet gooseberry profile of the vermouth.

 

Moral:  (aside from "never experiment when you're exhausted?")  Dolin Blanc is too delicate to mix with anything assertive in any amoutn over a barspoon full.

 

OK, who else is willing to go public with their shameful failures?

[Adam George]

I can't relate to this thread; every cocktail I make is fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though I once put ginseng liqueur in coffee:  That was awful.

[Hassouni]

Bourbon and lime screams Lion's Tail, a sublime drink

[brinza]

I once mixed scotch with lapsong souchong tea.  It tasted like a dirty dish rag.  I kid you not.

 

While trying to force Lillet Rouge to do something useful, I imagined that it should go well with brandy.  The valuable lesson learned was that brandy is the last thing you want to mix it with.

[Czequershuus]

My determination to find good uses for Frangelico once led me to try an Amaretto Sour like construction with it, bourbon, and lemon. Turns out Frangelico does not play nicely with lemon. 

[FrogPrincesse]

I cannot believe people who say they never have misses; it's impossible or just means that they are just not daring enough.

 

Regarding my disasters, one that still makes my stomach churn also involved coffee. It was a thing called a Green Russian - like the Dude's White Russian, with a good dose of absinthe - and was incredibly disgusting . My (poor) excuse is that this was not my creation; I was just following a recipe.

 

 

 

 

[Hassouni]

I made a Jungle Bird following the recipe in...Tiki+? Bartender's Choice? One of the two....to the letter, and it was Frikkin' vile.

[FrogPrincesse]

The Jungle Bird is only good when made by Sam Ross. Maybe something about the pineapple juice that he uses?

[Hassouni]

Yes, a classic case of 3 things that sound like they won't work together really living up to it...

[Rafa]

The Jungle Bird is incredibly popular here right now and on every other craft cocktail menu. Most are the Sam Ross recipe, but Pouring Ribbons' uses their house blackstrap infusion, Smith & Cross, and apple cider vinegar. 

Edited May 7, 2014 by Rafa (log)

[Rafa]

I have made more disgusting failed concoctions than I can remember, many involving citrus, and one or more ingredients that should never, ever mix with that citrus. 

[Hassouni]

The Jungle Bird is incredibly popular here right now and on every other craft cocktail menu. Most are the Sam Ross recipe, but Pouring Ribbons' uses their house blackstrap infusion, Smith & Cross, and apple cider vinegar. 

 

Ugh and barf.

[FrogPrincesse]

I have made more disgusting failed concoctions than I can remember, many involving citrus, and one or more ingredients that should never, ever mix with that citrus.

 

Maybe it's a topic for another thread, but what are the ingredients that are challenging to mix with citrus? Czequershuus already mentioned Frangelico (not a terribly versatile cocktail ingredient to begin with). I used to think that sweet vermouth could not work with citrus, but then the Bitter Giuseppe is a good counter-example.

[Hassouni]

Orange juice and most things...

[mkayahara]

Maybe it's a topic for another thread, but what are the ingredients that are challenging to mix with citrus? Czequershuus already mentioned Frangelico (not a terribly versatile cocktail ingredient to begin with). I used to think that sweet vermouth could not work with citrus, but then the Bitter Giuseppe is a good counter-example.

I generally find vermouth challenging to mix with citrus, as well as most potable bitters (Campari, Cynar). Both have their exceptions, but unless I'm working from an established recipe (the Paper Plane being a good template), I tend to stick to Embury's categories of "aromatic" or "sour" when devising my own drinks.

[EvergreenDan]

I generally find vermouth challenging to mix with citrus, as well as most potable bitters (Campari, Cynar). Both have their exceptions, but unless I'm working from an established recipe (the Paper Plane being a good template), I tend to stick to Embury's categories of "aromatic" or "sour" when devising my own drinks.

I've found just the opposite -- that sour balances the sugar in amari and often makes for a wonderful drink. Gin/Campari/Lime, Gin/Cynar/Lemon. Lemon/Meletti flip.