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When Everything I Mix Sucks, I Make a ...


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Thought I'd embrace the second anniversary of Portland's fantastic Teardrop Lounge and make one of David Shenaut's Dizzy Sours. Got to the lemon and couldn't find any, so I tanked it. Strike one.

Found a lime, though, so I thought I'd make this funky punsch sour I have been working on. Got everything ready to go and, instead of turning the empty glass over the metal shaker, I turned the full glass over the floor and myself. Strike two.

At this point, I found the half lemon in the fridge, so I decided I should make a version of a Gloom Lifter I've been wondering about, subbing in some scotch with the Irish whiskey and adding a dash or two of cinnamon tincture. Grabbed the demerara I was going to add, squirted it in -- and realized it was mislabeled ginger syrup. Strike three.

When I'm making bad drink after bad drink, I nearly always go to the Manhattan, a nearly un-screw-up-able drink: Rittenhouse BIB 2 to Punt e Mes 1. Happily, I have Luxardo Maraschino cherries in the fridge, and I took two. Figured if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, you know?

When you're down and out, making swill drink after swill drink, what's your go-to, back in the saddle libation?

Chris Amirault

eG Ethics Signatory

Sir Luscious got gator belts and patty melts

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Sometimes you've just got to pour some good brown spirit over an ice cube (or not) and call it a draw. Latest favorite in that role for me is Barbancourt 5*.

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

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When I'm making bad drink after bad drink, I nearly always go to the Manhattan, a nearly un-screw-up-able drink: Rittenhouse BIB 2 to Punt e Mes 1. Happily, I have Luxardo Maraschino cherries in the fridge, and I took two. Figured if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, you know?

I think I'd call that a Manhattan variant, though, since the Punt has quite a different profile than sweet vermouth, at least to my taste. Your drink, with the addition of a few shakes of orange bitters, is called an Orange County - from Phil Ward during his D & C run.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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When I'm making bad drink after bad drink, I nearly always go to the Manhattan, a nearly un-screw-up-able drink: Rittenhouse BIB 2 to Punt e Mes 1. Happily, I have Luxardo Maraschino cherries in the fridge, and I took two. Figured if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, you know?

I think I'd call that a Manhattan variant, though, since the Punt has quite a different profile than sweet vermouth, at least to my taste. Your drink, with the addition of a few shakes of orange bitters, is called an Orange County - from Phil Ward during his D & C run.

The Luxardo Maraschino cherries probably make this closer to a Red Hook than an Orange County.

ETA: Oh, and the Red Hook is generally my 'go to' drink when all else fails, unless there's a particularly spectacular failure, in which case it's a sazerac.

Edited by KD1191 (log)

True rye and true bourbon wake delight like any great wine...dignify man as possessing a palate that responds to them and ennoble his soul as shimmering with the response.

DeVoto, The Hour

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negroni.  equal parts is your friend

Ditto here. The Negroni is my go-to drink under nearly all circumstances. You can't screw it up, and it never fails to satisfy.

Same. I'm convinced any proportions work. Or an americano if I want something lighter.

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When I'm making bad drink after bad drink, I nearly always go to the Manhattan, a nearly un-screw-up-able drink: Rittenhouse BIB 2 to Punt e Mes 1. Happily, I have Luxardo Maraschino cherries in the fridge, and I took two. Figured if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, you know?

I think I'd call that a Manhattan variant, though, since the Punt has quite a different profile than sweet vermouth, at least to my taste. Your drink, with the addition of a few shakes of orange bitters, is called an Orange County - from Phil Ward during his D & C run.

The Luxardo Maraschino cherries probably make this closer to a Red Hook than an Orange County.

The Red Hook has maraschino liqueur in it, I believe.

Neither one is a true Manhattan, however.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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The Red Hook has maraschino liqueur in it, I believe.

Yes, I would think chrisamirault's drink would pick up just a bit of that flavor profile from using the Luxardo Maraschino cherries.

Neither one is a true Manhattan, however.

If Punt e Mes is your preferred sweet vermouth, the result is not a 'true Manhattan'? Are types of rye that may be more robust than the norm also verboten?

True rye and true bourbon wake delight like any great wine...dignify man as possessing a palate that responds to them and ennoble his soul as shimmering with the response.

DeVoto, The Hour

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The Red Hook has maraschino liqueur in it, I believe.

Yes, I would think chrisamirault's drink would pick up just a bit of that flavor profile from using the Luxardo Maraschino cherries.

Neither one is a true Manhattan, however.

If Punt e Mes is your preferred sweet vermouth, the result is not a 'true Manhattan'? Are types of rye that may be more robust than the norm also verboten?

Luxardo cherries don't share much with the eau de vie funkiness of the maraschino liqueur, but they are like the Sangue Morlacco which is a cherry brandy.

Also, I don't buy the notion that using Punt e Mes should change the name. PeM is just bittered sweet vermouth, but it's sweet vermouth alright just as much as M&R or Cinzano or Antica. It changes the character, but so does Antica as opposed to M&R.

Adding orange bitters instead of aromatic: that calls for another name.

nunc est bibendum...

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Also, I don't buy the notion that using Punt e Mes should change the name. PeM is just bittered sweet vermouth, but it's sweet vermouth alright just as much as M&R or Cinzano or Antica. It changes the character, but so does Antica as opposed to M&R.

Adding orange bitters instead of aromatic: that calls for another name.

I'll buy that.

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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Anytime - bourbon and diet Coke or diet ginger ale.

Hot summer day - tequila and Wedge (Wegman's brand diet grapefruit soda similar to Fresca)

Katie M. Loeb
Booze Muse, Spiritual Advisor

Author: Shake, Stir, Pour:Fresh Homegrown Cocktails

Cheers!
Bartendrix,Intoxicologist, Beverage Consultant, Philadelphia, PA
Captain Liberty of the Good Varietals, Aphrodite of Alcohol

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One of my sillier screw-ups: I was making something (really can't remember what) that called for a dash of sweet vermouth and an ounce of dry vermouth. Since I had only about a shot or so of sweet vermouth left and plenty of dry vermouth on hand, this choice of drink was a good fit for what I had available. Just after dumping in one ounce of "french" vermouth--you know, the red, sweet kind :hmmm: , I realized I had not only mixed them up, but used up just about all the sweet (Italian, dammit!) vermouth I had left. I drank it anyway--not undrinkable, but obviously nowhere near what it was supposed to be.

Another time I had a shaker fly right out of my hands and hit the floor, and to my amazement, it never came apart! And it contained grenadine. As it was tumbling through the air all I could think of was cleaning the sticky off of everything within a six foot blast radius.

When things go south like that or if I'm tired, I do the same thing as many others have already mentioned-- go with either a brown spirit, neat, or a two-part something like a Rusty Nail, a Dark 'N Stormy, a B&B, or my favorite I'm-too-tired-to-think-of-anything-cocktail, the Old Fashioned (the simplest kind).

Mike

"The mixing of whiskey, bitters, and sugar represents a turning point, as decisive for American drinking habits as the discovery of three-point perspective was for Renaissance painting." -- William Grimes

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[...]

Also, I don't buy the notion that using Punt e Mes should change the name. PeM is just bittered sweet vermouth, but it's sweet vermouth alright just as much as M&R or Cinzano or Antica. It changes the character, but so does Antica as opposed to M&R.

Adding orange bitters instead of aromatic: that calls for another name.

Generally, if I use Punt e Mes in a cocktail that doesn't call for it specifically, I will forgo the aromatic bitters in a cocktail, unless I know it is someone crazy for bitters.

I've often wondered how "traditional" the recipes for either Punt e Mes or Carpano Antica are, but have never gotten enough ingredients together to attempt a real reproduction of 19th Century torino vermouth recipes. I know Eric Seed may have made some revelations along these lines in his presentation at Tales this year.

Does a Manhattan with Punt e Mes, deserve another name?

Maybe not, but it is far enough outside of expectations, that I wouldn't serve it in someones drink unawares, unless it was the house sweet vermouth (*cough*alembic*cough*).

---

Erik Ellestad

If the ocean was whiskey and I was a duck...

Bernal Heights, SF, CA

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+1 on the big ol' G&T and/or brown spirit (typically rum) on the rocks. Sometimes both, in that order.

Cheers,

Mike

"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."

- Bogart

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