What did you buy at the liquor store today?

[KatieLoeb]

Kerry - have fun with the Dolins. They're sooo good.

ThatNateGuy - wow that sounds intriguing. I have some Benton's Bacon fat from a friend that got a case for Xmas last year and was promptly instructed that he'd be summarily strung up if a single drop of those precious drippings were put into the trash or down the disposal. Might have to wash me up some bourbon and give that a whirl...

[ThatNateGuy]

@katie Personally i don't use benton's (though i suppose i should try it some day) I do marketing for whole foods as well as being a cocktail geek serving on certain nights and i use our organic black forest bacon and it has a wonderful deep smokey flavor. As for trying it though.. yeah you kind of have to.. bacon plus the apricot its as if it was fate when it touches your lips with the rich flavor of the egg white too... Delicious.

[J_Ozzy]

Kerry - Nice find, I didn't realize the SAQ had Dolin; I'll add that on my list to haul back over the holidays.

[Ashen]

two - 1 L bottles of Grand Marnier at the duty free in Orlando.

[Curt Rowe]

It was yesterday, but my application to this site only just got approved. I got Mozart Black Chocolate Liquor. All they had left was a set with glasses. Another liquor store I went to today said it hasn't been imported for six years. I also got a bottle of St. Elizabeth Allspice (Pimento) Dram and a bottle of Fee Brothers Rose Water because it was cheap. I passed on the Parfait Amour. I only know of one recipe the uses it and I'm trying to rein myself in. Today I got a bottle of Lebanese Arak. It's a gift.

[tanstaafl2]

Apparently the ration of Pappy for this area hit the stores yesterday and I got a call last night to see if I was interested in any. Well, OK I guess I will since they asked!

As a result I brought two new soldiers home to take up the fight for the complete and total subjugation of my liver! It will be a long hard battle but one might as well use the best weapons you can find...

And so a bottle of the Pappy 20yo bourbon (complete with fancy shmancy red velvet bag) and the Family Reserve 13yo rye are the newest shock troops to join the battle. Will probably sit on these until Christmas unless an appropriate occasion presents itself beforehand.

Interesting that the rye seems the darker appearing of the two.

While there are also picked up a bottle of 2007 Turley "Ueberroth" Paso Robles Zinfandel for my father for Christmas since he is a zinfandel fan. I know less about wines than I do spirits and my tastes tend to drift toward Alsace whites anyway but I am told this is a excellent specimen of Zinfandel so we shall see.

[Dexter]

Old Overholt for parties, fresh bottles of sweet and dry Dolin, and a bottle of St. Elisabeth Allspice Dram. Wines were some 2003 Brunello Terrasole, and 2009 Rios Mages Rully rouge. Wine cellar is feeling a little neglected as of late, so need to start putting a bit more emphasis on replenishing what's been drunk over the last several months...

[tanstaafl2]

The Eagle has landed. And best of all he brought friends!

Got the final missing member of the Buffalo Trace collection. While there I was offered a bottle of the Colonel E. H. Taylor Single Barrel Bottled in Bond bourbon. Who could say no? Missed out on the Sour Mash version this spring that got so well reviewed as the first bottle in this new experimental line and this one seems to have those who love it and those that don't. Supposedly a bit of smoke in this one in a couple of reviews which seems a bit odd for bourbon. We shall see.

Also still wanted to try this cranberry concoction by KC Dan. No luck finding the Clear Creek Cranberry liqueur, although they had a number of other flavors, but I did stumble across this lone dusty bottle of Leopold Brothers Cranberry liqueur so I decided to use it as a sub. Not exactly "spirits" but I happened to see the 2011 version of Infinium Ale from Sam Adams/Weihenstephan so I picked up a couple of those as well just for fun. May open those at Christmas and compare to a bottle of DeuS that I have in the cabinet

[Shamanjoe]

Two additions to my collection after a long hiatus are a bottle of Absolut San Francisco and that new Cotton Candy Vodka, which the BevMo! store employee assured me tastes much more like a sophisticated fruit juice blend than cotton candy, contrary to the label's claims..

When I crack them open I will give a few tasting notes.

[Yajna Patni]

I stopped by the wine and cheese cask in somerville on my way home from work, because Santa had whispered in my ear that i should get a bottle of redbreast, and put it in my stocking. Lo and behold the Christmas miracle. There was a little 200ml bottle of green chartreuse on the shelf. Just one left. and with the redbreast, it added up to the amount of my Christmas bonus. Yee haw! now i have to figure out what to make with it. The chartreuse that is. The whiskey i will open on Christmas morning, act all surprised, and pour my self a glass.

[EvergreenDan]

a little 200ml bottle of green chartreuse ...

Really? Perhaps a 375ml size?

I recommend forthwith that you make a Last Word, or since you like whiskey, a Final Ward. Both are very fine drinks that highlight the Green Chartreuse. (I'm assuming you have Maraschino, if not, return to Santa's village immediately.)

[Yajna Patni]

I do have maraschino! I made a last word last night, and was blown away. That is my kind of drink. It seemed at first like it was too sweet, but it actually wasn't. It had a kind of old fashioned "perfumy" taste that i love. I think people describe it as "funky" but that sounds too james brown to me, this was more.... eartha kitt.

And yes, it is a 200 ml bottle.

[catscandal]

picked up my first bottle of maraschino ever, and a bottle of beefeater because i just ran out of gin and what's the point of buying maraschino if i can't have an aviation?

i made a ritz of new york (from regan's recipe) to try it out, and while my hand may have been a bit heavy with the champagne, i'm pleased at how much the scant 2 dashes of maraschino adds to the drink. tasting the stuff neat was a bit much though.

[GlorifiedRice]

Has anyone tried that Strawberry Fragoli?

[tanstaafl2]

Whilst out on a mission today to try to stir up interest in getting Kronan Swedish Punsch to Georgia I of course took a moment to see what else was in, especially looking for the Rittenhouse Rye BIB which I had noticed was back in some of the online shops.

Lo and behold there it was! And nobody had called me! What were they thinking???

In any case I picked up a couple of those so that is one less thing I have to order over the internet. If the Kronan is indeed available locally I may hold off on ordering anything for the moment. As usual I succumbed to a couple of impulse buys while I was there.

I discovered a bottle of Boker's bitters at H&F bottle shop and decided I needed that for my next Martinez, price be damned. Also picked up a bottle of the Zirbenz Stone pine liqueur purely out of curiosity. I had been talking about Pineau des Charentes with the staff and they suggested Famille L. Dupont Pommeau de Normandie as a kind of apple Pineau so I got sucked into that one too!

Rounded it out with a bottle of Elmer T. Lee bourbon and also decided to pick up a bottle of Appleton Extra to see if my punch was really that bad or if I just have no sense of taste at all!

While I was buying my party supplies last week for New Years Eve I had also picked up a few new things I just never got around to mentioning.

That included the Nux Alpina walnut liqueur (375 ml) that appeared to be on closeout, a bottle of Bernheim straight wheat whiskey because it intrigued me, the aforementioned Prunier Pineau des Charentes, Punt e Mes because I had been meaning to get one but never got around to it and a bottle of Don Diego Santa reposado tequila. Had the añejo at a restaurant recently and really liked it so I thought I would give the reposado a try.

It has been a busy week!

Edited January 4, 2012 by tanstaafl2 (log)

[Jaymes]

I got a big bottle of Tuaca yesterday. It's a must-have for our favorite wintertime hot drink, the "Hot Apple Pie," made with mulled cider and a nice splash of Tuaca, topped with some whipped cream.

First noticed the label looked different. Said to the clerk that I hoped that didn't mean anything, and that the contents would still be the same. "Oh," he said, condescendingly, "that means nothing. They change labels all the time."

"Yes, but..." I said. And I pointed out that not only was the label different - the entire bottle was different. And instead of "Italian Liqueur," it now said "Italian-style Liqueur." And the liqueur inside was darker.

Sure enough, upon closer inspection, it turned out that that new label that "means nothing" said that, rather than having been made in Livorno, this Tuaca was made in Kentucky.

I still had a little left in an old bottle, so did a taste comparison. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's the same.

[mkayahara]

"Buy" can be a fluid concept. I ordered online and paid for on Dec. 22 - but picked up today - a bottle of Citadelle Réserve barrel-aged gin. I've read a bit about "yellow gin" before, but never had it. Looking forward to trying this one out.

[slkinsey]

It's always hard to say about these things. I remember for a while everyone was complaining about the "new Campari" and hoarding bottles of the "old Campari." Now we don't hear people complaining so much. On the other hand, sometimes formulations and products do change, of course. Whether or not Tuaca at the source was changed when it was transferred from Livorno to Kentucky... Well, making it in an entirely different facility can't have helped things stay the same, that's for sure. On the other hand, it doesn't necessarily mean that things have really changed -- or indeed that there wasn't some degree of change even while the product was still being made in Livorno. It's always difficult when one is comparing old bottles that have sat on shelves (or perhaps partially empty in a kitchen cabinet) for who-knows-how long against a freshly opened bottle. Could be that what you're tasting is the effects of oxidation and age, and maybe the newly opened bottle is actually a better product. And if the guys in Kentucky are getting the product from the factory into the hands of consumers faster than the Livornese had been, then it's possible that there will be some enduring differences merely due to age and nothing else. Or... yanno... not. Could be that the new product is inferior.

But it's worthwhile considering that if you are testing "new whatever" against a bottle of "old whatever" with the predetermined notion that the "old whatever" as you are tasting it represents the gold standard, it is impossible for the "new whatever" to match up. In times like this I like to think of a video I saw of Ed Hamilton and someone else (I forget who) testing the new Lemon Hart 151 against the old Lemon Hart 151. They did observe that the new wasn't quite the same as the old. But they said two interesting things: First, they said that it wasn't exactly apparent that the new stuff was any worse than the old stuff, or that it didn't still have all the markers you'd look for in Lemon Hart 151. And second, they said that even the old Lemon Hart 151 had batch-to-batch differences that were greater than the differences they were finding between the new and old stuff.

If it might help put your mind at ease, have someone make you two "Hot Apple Pies" with the new and old stuff and see if you can tell the difference. If not, or even if you can but they both seem good, it's probably not worth worrying about it (not that you are necessarily worrying about it).

[Zachary]

The problem with this isn't that there's new packaging, or whatever they've done. The problem is that accountants and marketing whizzes have taken a brand with a certain reputation and they're changing it. First, it's update the packaging. Then it's "well.... those ingredients are awfully expensive, let's change this and that out to make more money". Or it's "Our product has a niche market, let's dumb it down (smooth over rough edges, remove funky flavors, reduce bitterness and alcohol, increase sweetness) so more people will drink it". Soon, your favorite liqueur is a name, but it doesn't taste the way you remember it tasting. And that's the problem.

Perfumers have gotten away with this for years. Swapping out civet and other musks for gentler aromas. Making synthetic musks to replace natural ones. You're being cheated of a memory that you have because some bean counter somewhere needs to make a few extra pennies trading on your experience, or thinks you won't notice.

And there's always people who will say that you can't really tell, or that the march of progress means old things can't be made the same way. So it was Campari, now Tuaca. But what if it's Chartreuse? They sell out and their new owners hire some lab scientist to make up a flavor profile similar to the stuff (130 herbs and spices... so expensive!), adds it to GNS and sweetens and colors it to the proper level. And I bet they could bottle it in Frankfort, Kentucky with a modern label saying "Monastery-like liqueur".

Personally, the new Campari tastes nothing like the old stuff. The new stuff is less bitter, more sweet, and synthetically fruity. The old stuff is earthy and funky, with a lingering, intense, complex bitterness. I've given bottles of the old stuff to people who can't believe it's the same thing.

Unfortunately, the best you can do to impede this "progress" is to stop buying the stuff. You could write a letter to Brown-Forman, not that it will really get you anywhere.

Thanks,

Zachary

Edited January 5, 2012 by Zachary (log)

[Tri2Cook]

"Buy" can be a fluid concept. I ordered online and paid for on Dec. 22 - but picked up today - a bottle of Citadelle Réserve barrel-aged gin. I've read a bit about "yellow gin" before, but never had it. Looking forward to trying this one out.

I've been looking at that one on the website, let me know what you think once you get into it.

[Yajna Patni]

to be fair to the parfumier, a lot of the substituting has had to do with legislation about many of the natural substances that were being used. They are not allowed to use them anymore so have had to reformulate. The resulting scent is never ever quite the same.

The liquor makers though are not dealing with the kind laws that have decimated the perfume industry. Decimated scent wise, not money wise obviously.

[Zachary]

Yajna,

While I will grant you that some things are on the IFRA's banned/restricted list, there are a whole lot of things that are not. It's death due to small cuts as ingredients are swapped out for cheaper (or safer) alternatives until the stuff is no longer recognizable. I understand swapping out safrole and musk ketone for safer things. I don't when it's accountants and marketers demanding changes to save money without a care for the memories people have from smelling (or tasting) something.

Thanks,

Zachary

[thirtyoneknots]

Yeah I think a lot of the cessation of complaints about Campari has to do with the fact that it's not going to change anything. While it would be impossible to taste "new" and "old" Campari bottles of the same age, I can definitely pick out the difference in a neat pour. Not nearly so confident in my ability to distinguish in anything even as complex as a Negroni, however.

But yeah just look at Unicum/Zwack. I don't have my finger on the pulse of the college bar world, but I'd be surprised to learn they were making significant inroads on the Jaeger drinking crowd, which was the goal. And in the process they have transformed an utterly fascinating product into just another perfectly decent also-ran.

[thirtyoneknots]

Whilst out on a mission today to try to stir up interest in getting Kronan Swedish Punsch to Georgia I of course took a moment to see what else was in, especially looking for the Rittenhouse Rye BIB which I had noticed was back in some of the online shops.

Lo and behold there it was! And nobody had called me! What were they thinking???

In any case I picked up a couple of those so that is one less thing I have to order over the internet. If the Kronan is indeed available locally I may hold off on ordering anything for the moment. As usual I succumbed to a couple of impulse buys while I was there.

I discovered a bottle of Boker's bitters at H&F bottle shop and decided I needed that for my next Martinez, price be damned. Also picked up a bottle of the Zirbenz Stone pine liqueur purely out of curiosity. I had been talking about Pineau des Charentes with the staff and they suggested Famille L. Dupont Pommeau de Normandie as a kind of apple Pineau so I got sucked into that one too!

Rounded it out with a bottle of Elmer T. Lee bourbon and also decided to pick up a bottle of Appleton Extra to see if my punch was really that bad or if I just have no sense of taste at all!

While I was buying my party supplies last week for New Years Eve I had also picked up a few new things I just never got around to mentioning.

That included the Nux Alpina walnut liqueur (375 ml) that appeared to be on closeout, a bottle of Bernheim straight wheat whiskey because it intrigued me, the aforementioned Prunier Pineau des Charentes, Punt e Mes because I had been meaning to get one but never got around to it and a bottle of Don Diego Santa reposado tequila. Had the añejo at a restaurant recently and really liked it so I thought I would give the reposado a try.

It has been a busy week!

If your local store is stocking Zirbenz and Nux Alpina, they should be able to order Kronan soon as well.

And if anyone is wondering what to do with those two bottles, here's another treat from my friend Josh Loving of Fino Restaurant in Austin:

Ghost of the Pine

3/4 oz 100/101 proof Rye

3/4 oz Zirbenz

1 oz Nux Alpina

dash orange bitters

Stir everything together with cracked ice and strain into a rocks glass with a big cube that has been sprayed with about 4 mists of Lapsang Souchong-infused Mezcal. Garnish with a couple of more sprays on top of the drink. I believe Vida is used for the mister--it's a quick and simple infusion that only requires a couple of ounces to make. I'm sure the drink would still work fine with uninfused Mezcal.

The name is a subtle reference to the devastating fires in the Lost Pines area near Austin last September http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastrop_County_Complex_fire

[EvergreenDan]

Ghost of the Pine

3/4 oz 100/101 proof Rye

3/4 oz Zirbenz

1 oz Nux Alpina

dash orange bitters

mist of Lapang Souchong-infused Mezcal

Holy Crap. I actually have everything to make this, but I'm kinda scared to. That's a mouthful of Nocino. OTOH, you haven't steered me wrong. Much.

As for Zwack, I don't object to them introducing Unicum Lite and repositioning the brand at frat boys. What bugs me is not importing the real stuff. No need to poke me in the eye and punch me in the gut.