Where to from here?

[ChrisTaylor]

I recently purchased DeGroff's Essential Cocktails and armed myself (or I already had) the following:

Absolut

Amaretto

Americano

Angostura bitters

Campari

Canadian Club

Chambord

Cointreau

Espolon Tequila Reposado

Galliano Vanilla

Gin: Tanqueray, Hendrick's

Green Chartreuse

Green Island white rum

Kahlua

Maker's Mark

Maraschino

Martell VSOP

Mount Gay dark rum

Pernod

Scotch: Talisker 10, Glenfiddich 12

Vermouth: sweet red and dry white

Wild Turkey Rye

I also have grenadine, tonic water, soda water, tomato juice, orange juice and fresh fruit (lemons, limes, oranges, etc).

In short, this allows me to make most of the things I actually want to drink from DeGroff's book. I've already made most of the drinks that jumped out at me and enjoyed, to varying extents, all of them--most notably The Last Word (altho' I wouldn't want anything sweeter than that), Sazarac (with bourbon, rye or cognac), Old-Fashioned, Manhattan and Mojito were clear winners. I found the Americano (the cocktail, not the apertif) and Negroni interesting enough to want to further explore bitter cocktails. The Vesper was okay. I like gin and tonics, Bloody Marys and (out of character--I know) black Russians. I don't really like sweet things--altho' there are a few exceptions (basically the flavour needs to be really interesting or maybe have some sort of sweet and sour thing going on, it can't just be a booze-laden sugar rush). if it's to be sweet then sweet in the way of fresh fruit is more appealing than sweet in the way of, say, Fanta. Something sweet in the way cognac is sweet is about right. But sugary drinks aren't my idea of a good time at all. My palate is skewed towards the savoury.

I want to try something new but the amount of information avaliable when you enter an ingredient into, say, CocktailDB can be slightly overwhelming. I'd like to have some other liqueurs/spirits on hand--creme de cacao, etc--but I won't be shopping again any time soon.

So where to from here? What cocktails/family of cocktails should I be looking at, based on what I have in my booze collection and my taste?

[haresfur]

Seems you are fast moving out of the beginner category.

A couple of thoughts. You may want to explore sours more. A challenge with them IMO is to figure out the sweet/sour/booze balance that works for you. And of course that depends on your citrus so recipes are only a guide. Maybe try to perfect your margarita and sidecar. The next challenge with them is how to adjust for other people's tastes (usually add sweet).

You seem to like boozy drinks but highballs might be worth checking out, too.

[EvergreenDan]

Solid advice from haresfur. I think we have pretty similar tastes, and you are on a path similar to mine when I started getting more serious about cocktails. When you find a drink you like, look for other drinks that share the characteristics you like. For example, you like the gin-based Last Word? Try the rye-based Final Ward.

Because of the ubiquitous use of sugar in liqueurs, there are very few truly dry cocktails -- cocktails without substantial sugar. The dry Martini, a dry Manhattan, whiskey highball, and ???. The Sour category -- drinks with substantial sugar balanced by substantial acid -- will become your friend. If a Sour recipe is too sweet, add more acid to your taste.

Explore bitter. Bitter ingredients almost always come with tons of sugar because the are intended to be drunk straight too. Consequently, they require acid, either in the form of citrus or perhaps from an acidic wine (dry vermouth, fino sherry) or perhaps another acidifier (vinegar, citric acid, etc). These sweet/sour/bitter drinks are usually my favorite. There is a wide variety bitter liqueurs, hopefully some of which are available in Australia. Campari is king, by Cynar is probably queen. Aperol is accessible, if a touch milquetoast. You also need a pie-spiced brown amaro, like Ramazzotti or Averna. An orange-forward one like CioCiaro or Lucano is useful if you can't get Amer Picon.

Feel free to substitute freely. No one has every single ingredient in every recipe. The drink may not be the same, but the concept will probably still hold up. No Benedictine? Use Yellow Chartreuse maybe. Out of rye? Use Bourbon or even Scotch. No grapefruit? Use a mix or orange juice and lemon juice, perhaps with a touch of Aperol or Campari. Be creative. It the result is disappointing, revisit it when you have the specified ingredients.

And, last, a bit of self promotion. I think you will like many of the cocktails in Kindred Cocktails. If you find a cocktail you like, look it up and use the list of "Similar Cocktails" below it for inspiration. You can look at one and see its Similar Cocktails. These cocktails are calculated based upon the actual flavors in the drinks, not just identical ingredients.