Drinks! (2013 Part 1)

[Adam George]

A drink of equal parts fresh pineapple juice, green Chartreuse, and Fernet Branca. Sensational. The pineapple mellows the sip such that you're caught off guard by the minty blast of the Chartreuse and Fernet in combination, and then you're plunged into the Black Forest of herbal notes from the Fernet, this time given a tropical tinge. What at first comes across as an easy drinker is a slow sipper for sure. This combination is worth investigating in other ratios; it forms the center of a more complicated drink I'm still tinkering with.

I made this with fresh pineapple and added one short grind of rock salt. Really good drink.

It gets interesting as it warms, too.

[Adam George]

I was at Viajante at the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green and had

A Martini with

Monkey 47

Martini Dry

Bitter Truth Orange

Twist

2:1

And a Manhattan with

Pappy Van Winkle 13 Rye (I finished the bottle)

Cocchi Turino

Elmegirab's Boker's Bitters

Orange Twist

2:"1.5-ish"

Spot on.

[Rafa]

A drink of equal parts fresh pineapple juice, green Chartreuse, and Fernet Branca. Sensational. The pineapple mellows the sip such that you're caught off guard by the minty blast of the Chartreuse and Fernet in combination, and then you're plunged into the Black Forest of herbal notes from the Fernet, this time given a tropical tinge. What at first comes across as an easy drinker is a slow sipper for sure. This combination is worth investigating in other ratios; it forms the center of a more complicated drink I'm still tinkering with.

I made this with fresh pineapple and added one short grind of rock salt. Really good drink.

It gets interesting as it warms, too.

Glad you liked it. I made it in equal parts again Saturday night for a friend who requested it and we both enjoyed it in that ratio, though I want to play around more. The salt's a good idea; should help with integrating and mellowing all the strong flavors, though tasting them evolve/decay as they warm is also, as you say, interesting.

Tonight, I was in the mood for a Little Italy or Red Hook but was out of vermouth so I split the difference and made the Sanny which I found on Kindred Cocktails. Very good. Spicy, dark, strong, a bit sweet (maybe too sweet for some); rye would dry it out nicely, and complement the spice. I don't have celery bitters so I broke out my new bottle of Dutch's Colonial bitters. The woodsy and anise-y notes of the bitters probably make it a different drink, but regardless, the bourbon-Cynar-maraschino bedrock is solid. The drink seems to draw dark cherry notes out of the Cynar and the amaro in combination with the bitters created a cool cola profile. The maraschino's in the background but dominates the aftertaste; I wondered as I sipped whether nocino would work in its place. A very nice sipper. A keeper.

A while back I was working on a drink involving rye, Cynar, bold red wine (Barolo), and celery bitters in response to a prompt from a friend who wanted a Chicago-themed cocktail (the celery bitters were meant to recall Chicago-style hot dogs). This is a good execution of a very similar idea.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Rafa (log)

[Emily_R]

Made something this weekend that was simple and, to me, delicious. Canadian rye, lemon juice, and rosemary simple syrup. Shaken with ice. Was a big hit with everyone I served it to...

[Chris Amirault]

drinkboy Robert Hess's Rochester Cocktail is one righteous libation. I buy bottles of Dubonnet just so I can make 23 in a row. On different nights.

2 oz rye (Rittenhouse BIB)

1 oz Dubonnet rouge

1/2 oz Licor 43

1/4 oz absinthe (Kubler works nicely here)

2 dashes Angostura

Stir; strain; coupe. Robert calls for a lemon twist but I think it's nicely aromatic without it as well.

[Chris Amirault]

Made something this weekend that was simple and, to me, delicious. Canadian rye, lemon juice, and rosemary simple syrup. Shaken with ice. Was a big hit with everyone I served it to...

How did you make the rosemary simple?

[Adam George]

drinkboy Robert Hess's Rochester Cocktail is one righteous libation. I buy bottles of Dubonnet just so I can make 23 in a row. On different nights.

2 oz rye (Rittenhouse BIB)

1 oz Dubonnet rouge

1/2 oz Licor 43

1/4 oz absinthe (Kubler works nicely here)

2 dashes Angostura

Stir; strain; coupe. Robert calls for a lemon twist but I think it's nicely aromatic without it as well.

I'll be putting this in my "To Try" book.

Thank goodness for the metric system, though. I'll scale that back to 75ml pre-dilution.

Any subs for Licor 43? I've not got a bottle. I really know nothing about it.

[Chris Amirault]

Licor 43 is a Spanish liqueur that's very heavy on the vanilla. There's a slight citrus element that you could get with a twist of orange and lemon peel. I think you could substitute in a quality vanilla simple (maybe with turbinado or demerara sugar, not too dark or refined) and it'd work. The key players are the rye and Dubonnet: sounds like a gaffe but it's not. At all.

[Rafa]

After serving 400 drinks to a crowd of music industry types as dance music blares, and especially after tasting most of those drinks, nothing hits the spot like a shot of bitters. The Bitter Truth Aromatic in my case. It helps that by that time of the night your palate's so burned out you can hardly taste anything else.

[KatieLoeb]

Working on an Irish Whisky cocktail for St. Patrick's Day. I think I'll call it the Irish Exit. Those who know what that means should be amused...

[Kerry Beal]

Licor 43 is a Spanish liqueur that's very heavy on the vanilla. There's a slight citrus element that you could get with a twist of orange and lemon peel. I think you could substitute in a quality vanilla simple (maybe with turbinado or demerara sugar, not too dark or refined) and it'd work. The key players are the rye and Dubonnet: sounds like a gaffe but it's not. At all.

I'm thinking your Galliano might have a place in this drink - overlapping the vanilla of the Licor 43 and the licorice in the absinthe.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm thinking you may just be right....

[Adam George]

I'll try this out with Galiano. Thanks for sharing.

[FrogPrincesse]

50:50 Martini the other night with Beefeater, Noilly Prat, Fee and Regan's orange bitters, and a grapefruit twist. Olives best on the side, together with some Norcino salame from Olli.

Edited February 28, 2013 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Adam George]

Very, very nice.

[FrogPrincesse]

Very, very nice.

Thanks! Sometimes the classics are the best.

[sbumgarner]

I had an excellent drink at Dram a few weeks ago that included rye, Meletti, Suze, sherry and absinthe so a few nights ago I used the Meletti/gentian combo in another experiment:

2 oz reposado tequila (I used Baluarte)

.5 oz Meletti

.5 oz Salers

barspoon of PF Dry Curacao

Stir, strain, coupe, no garnish.

I was pleased with this one, the Meletti/gentian combo seems to be a winner. A dash of Mole bitters to play off the Tequila and Meletti might have enhanced the drink a bit.

[sbumgarner]

KD1191, on 24 Feb 2013 - 16:16, said:

Building off the Paper Plane template, today it was an Island Hopper

3/4 oz Lemon Hart 151

3/4 oz Noilly Prat Ambre (Cocchi Americano would probably be good here)

3/4 oz Campari

3/4 oz Grapefruit Juice

BD5c53uCQAEiGgQ.jpg

This is excellent (I did have to use Cocchi), the bitterness from the Campari and grapefruit was rounded off nicely by the LH151.

Edited March 6, 2013 by sbumgarner (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

A couple of classics for us last night. Bennett for me (Plymouh gin, lime juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters). I like the combo of the freshness of the lime with the spice of the Angostura. A good fresh Gimlet variation that I would be curious to try with other types of aromatic bitters.

Red Hook for him (rye, Punt e Mes, maraschino liqueur).

[Adam George]

Is it really sad that I felt like a little child at Christmas when my bottle of Plymouth that I received in this morning's stock was the new style? It's such an improvement over the old one.

[Keith Orr]

It's not a bad thing to get happy over the little things in life.

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk 2

[devillighter]

Is it really sad that I felt like a little child at Christmas when my bottle of Plymouth that I received in this morning's stock was the new style? It's such an improvement over the old one.

Definitely an improvement except for the new price. I've been stocking up on all the old bottles (including the pre-art deco bottles) that I can find at $20.

[Adam George]

I wonder if our buy in price has gone up.

Plymouth used to be our cheapest gin and I would always reach for it when making cocktails for guests because of the margin and that I like it. If its gone up by what I fear it may, it blows that margin out of the water.

[Rafa]

Plymouth has been going up for a while, sadly, as the brand tries to reposition itself as a premium spirit (which it's always been in quality, but soon will be in price). Hence the past couple of bottle changes, I'm sure.

[mkayahara]

The thing that irks me the most is that, as we saw the change from about $28 a bottle to $44 dollars a bottle where I am, the bottle design is the only thing that changed. If they'd given me even a couple more points of proof, I might be willing to spend that kind of money, but as it is, there's nothing to justify the increase. It's just a cash grab! There are plenty of other good gins out there, and I won't be buying Plymouth again anytime soon, unless the price comes back down to something reasonable.