Drinks! (2012, part 2)

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. los abuelos blanco

1 oz. "poncha da madeira" (from back of label; contents: rum, sugar, alcohol, water, honey, lemon, orange, passionfruit)

.5 oz. campari

.5 oz. lime juice

dash peychaud's bitters

this tastes like their is meat in it. no doubt from the strange agave expression that is los abuelos. you'd think there was mezcal in the drink, but there is no smoke. the bottled punch from madeira is pretty wild. the color is unreal and i bet is mostly a product of the passion fruits. between portugal proper, the azores, madeira, and cape verde there seems to be a trend of high acid liqueurs. those that love st. germain will adore them. the ingredients curiously distinguish between rum, alcohol, and water. which makes me wonder if they either dilute the rum for economy or the citrus are extracted first with an everclear and then blended into the rum (or maybe it is rhum?).

i could totally be happy running a portuguese themed cocktail bar. the recent finds from madeira have really pushed the theme over the edge.

[bostonapothecary]

chris angel's milk of manhattan

2 oz. lactic acid acidulated malt aromatized bourbon (two of my favorite verbs!)

1 oz. carpano antica

dash angostura bitters

like when the magician pushes the playing card through the plate of glass, the volatile constituents of the acidulated malt are forced in between evan williams. it is like the ghost of a milk maiden controlling a wigi board. creaminess haunts, perches, and lurks just over your shoulder. the specter of prohibition also haunts this drink. but maybe we could all have one together, join hands, and simultaneously cast out all evil like an exorcism.

[Tri2Cook]

but maybe we could all have one together, join hands, and simultaneously cast out all evil like an exorcism.

You provide the lactic acid acidulated malt aromatized bourbon and I'm in. I'm not gonna find that at the LCBO.

[FrogPrincesse]

A Mint Julep with mint from our garden and Elijah Craig bourbon.

And a great excuse to use my new swizzle stick.

[bostonapothecary]

1.5 oz. lactic acid acidulated malt aromatized bourbon

1 oz. cesar florido's moscatel especial

4 g. non aromatic white sugar

yolk

the moscatel especial is really cool. it probably has the same sugar content and acidity as a port wine. never having had one before, i expected an aroma like a marsala, but was wrong. the aroma is spectacular and more akin to an old tawny. a complete pleasure to drink on its own.

the yolk (leftover from preparing lunch) turns the aromas of the moscatel and whiskey into something enigmatically nutty. perhaps not too distant from walnut.

[FrogPrincesse]

I went to a class this weekend and learned to make a delicious cucumber lemonade that can be used as base for cocktails. [...] The cucumber lemonade (made with cucumber water) is great on its own, but adding a little gin doesn't hurt. It's very fresh/green and tart. I imagine that tequila or white rum would be good too. I used Hendrick's gin for its cucumber notes. [...]

I used Hendrick's gin for its cucumber notes.

Sometimes going in the opposite direction works when picking ingredients. Since you already have an overwhelming amount of cucumber flavor (or aroma) from the cucumber itself, picking a gin with complementary contrasting botanicals might work -- maybe a classic juniper-forward London dry?

Until the price went from "too high" to "insulting", Plymouth was my choice for pairing against cucumber.

I made this drink again last night (3 parts cucumber lemonade, 2 parts gin) with a London dry gin (Beefeater) and Plymouth gin, side by side. Both versions were good, with a preference to Plymouth. The Beefeater had a sharpness at the end that did not completely harmonize with the drink, while the Pymouth resulted in a more cohesive drink.

Edited May 8, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Kohai]

1.5 oz. lactic acid acidulated malt aromatized bourbon

Do tell.

[FrogPrincesse]

Catching up...

Last night I was looking for a rye sour in the Bartender's Choice app and found the Adderly (Sam Ross): rye, maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, orange bitters. It is described as a rye version of the Casino, which uses gin. It was good but too tart for my husband, who is not a fan of sours in general, unlike me.

So for him I immediately thought of the Final Ward (Phil Ward) - the same ingredients, minus the orange bitters, plus green Chartreuse (it is equal parts rye, maraschino, lemon juice, and green chartreuse). He liked it much better. The chartreuse of course completely transforms the drink and gives it an incredible finish.

The Bartender App also contains a variation of the Final Ward with yellow chartreuse (with adjusted ratios) which looks interesting. I will have to invest in a bottle eventually.

Edited May 11, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[Hassouni]

Yesterday bottled my homemade falernum

And made a Bermuda Rum Swizzle with it (Black Seal, of course)

Lovely drink, just need a proper swizzle stick! I did manage to get the glass icy on the outside though.

Tonight, a simple Kalimotxo with some crappy Egri Bikaver (gotta use up the case I foolishly bought) on the deck with my nargile. Best smoking drink ever, pretty much.

[haresfur]

Jersey Cocktail:

Henry of Harcourt Duck & Bull Cider (hard sparkling)

1 tsp simple syrup

6 dashes Fee's Old Fashioned bitters

The bitters' spices go very well with cider.

[FrogPrincesse]

Yesterday bottled my homemade falernum

And made a Bermuda Rum Swizzle with it (Black Seal, of course)

Lovely drink, just need a proper swizzle stick! I did manage to get the glass icy on the outside though.

I am sure it tasted great with your homemade falernum. The commercial stuff I have does not have much flavor.

[bostonapothecary]

an attempt at inverting a sidecar

1.5 oz. pineau des charentes (brillet)

.75 oz. compass box "orangerie" (their orange peel aromatized scotch)

.75 oz. lemon juice

some liked it and some didn't. i did not think the orangerie provided enough orange aroma to really push this into sidecar territory.

re-rendered as more of a collage for a unique someone

.75 oz. pineau des charentes (brillet)

.75 oz. vergano americano

.75 oz. compass box "orangerie"

.75 oz. lemon juice

this went over really well. a gorgeous, but slightly crazy young woman comes in every now and then wanting a last word, but we have no chartreuse or maraschino so i usually just end up making her something like this. she may also have a crush on me (but i probably also have a crush on her). she only wanted half a drink (as her second round) so i drank the other half. the guy she was with was not amused by our obvious prior bartender-imbiber relationship and splitting of a drink (and so read it as flirting), but i got the sense that it was already a first and last date. i instigated nothing, but merely followed her lead... i think she was trying to challenge him to be competitive and he failed. he didn't seem to understand the appeal of the drink when he tasted it. i keep finding that people (particularly well educated women) like ironic & complex service for dates as a test. if someone on a date for example, does not handle a wine list of only esoteric wine varietals well, they may have complacency issues and cannot scale well to the rigors of real life.

this morning:

1 oz. tabasco aromatized gin

1 oz. averell damson plum gin

.5 oz. cynar

.5 oz. lime juice

despite the propensity for damson gin to overshadow, the aroma of the funky gin is definitely the greatest attentional feature. it may be more elegant & accessible if the tabasco aroma was diluted more, but i really enjoyed it. in this context, the gin makes you think you are drinking the real deal medronho of the al garve.

[FrogPrincesse]

Impromptu cocktail party at our house tonight with a friend/neighbor to celebrate the end of a productive week. The weather was great in San Diego today so we went with rum-based drinks.

We started with a classic Daiquiri with Flor de Caña 4 years. Then we had a Captain's Blood with Appleton 12 years (and Angostura, lime, simple syrup), a new favorite we discovered yesterday (see here).

We followed with PDT's Paddington with Flor de Caña 4 years. Really nice with some oro blanco grapefruit (here is a picture I took previously).

To finish, a Santa Cruz Daisy with Appleton 12 years (+ lemon, a little bit of club soda and a few dashes of curacao/Clément créole shrubb).

[haresfur]

Ramping up from the Jersey.

Stone Fence

2 oz Inner Circle Red

over ice

top with Duck and Bull cider.

The Inner Circle beat the cider into the background. I think 1 or 1 1/2 oz would balance better.

When in doubt add bitters - a few dashes of Peychaud's helped as did a side of Camembert and biscuits.

[KD1191]

an attempt at inverting a sidecar

Was also playing with derivations from that theme the other day. I called this one the Clown Car:

2.25 Bas-Armagnac

1 Grapefruit

.5 Cointreau

.25 Batavia Arrack

The flavors just kept coming out, and they were all rather strange.

[bostonapothecary]

The flavors just kept coming out, and they were all rather strange.

a fruit that doesn't exist is conjured and the artifice is compelling.

i was playing this game the other night with some ladies that run a prestigious art gallery. even though they are at the forefront of modern visual art, they are quite squeamish about their cocktails. they like it when the greatest symbolic attentional feature is also the greatest sensory attentional feature such as a predictable "cranberry martini" with cranberry infused vodka, fresh pressed cranberry juice, and sugar (no lie, they order these).

if the drink tastes like it reads they will not end up with an acquired taste. even though they curate and sell visual acquired tastes, they do not recognize them in the other senses. its very sad and they usually drive me crazy (they are redeemingly funny and overall i adore them). somehow (because they overheard me doing it for someone else) the idea of making drinks taste like beautiful fruits that could be real, but do not exist was fun. we made a few, and they slurped them down.

we started with the sour orange bronx which conjures the lost burmese pomelo (if it was, it must be behind rebel controlled lines)

1.5 oz. farmer's gin

.75 oz. m&r sweet vermouth

.75 oz. dominican sour orange juice

expressed sour orange peel

i was bluffing about burma and only geographically guessing, but when googled they are actually famous for them.

then we went with the re-rendered maximillian affair

1 oz. j.m. rhum agricole

1 oz. j.m. (joao monteiro) cape verdean tamarind ponche (no relation to j.m. of martinique)

.5 oz. campari

.5 oz. lime juice

6 sprigs of mint

no one knew what tamarind was so i explained how cape verde was a point on the famous "tamarind belt" that stretches from guyana to east timor. the drink overall conjures monstrous expressions of heirloom grapefruit.

[Hassouni]

A Mint Julep with mint from our garden and Elijah Craig bourbon.

And a great excuse to use my new swizzle stick.

Whooooaaa where'd you get the stick??

[thirtyoneknots]

A Mint Julep with mint from our garden and Elijah Craig bourbon.

And a great excuse to use my new swizzle stick.

Whooooaaa where'd you get the stick??

I believe you can get them from Cocktail Kingdom

[FrogPrincesse]

Whooooaaa where'd you get the stick??

I believe you can get them from Cocktail Kingdom

That's where I got it.

[Hassouni]

So I made a "Jamaica Rum Daiquiri" as featured on Alpenz's page for Smith & Cross, first time, despite the bottle being 60% finished...

1 oz S&C

1 oz lime juice

2/3 oz (?*) simple (in my case Demerara)

Although I prefer my Daiquiris to be drier and more boozy, this is one of the most perfectly balanced drinks I've ever had. Sweet, but balanced by sour, with a deep richness brought out by the rum. Next time I'll change the proportions, but wow, this cocktail is like poetry on the tongue.

*(who the hell has 1/3 or 2/3 oz measurements?)

Edited May 13, 2012 by Hassouni (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

So I made a "Jamaica Rum Daiquiri" as featured on Alpenz's page for Smith & Cross, first time, despite the bottle being 60% finished...

1 oz S&C

1 oz lime juice

2/3 oz (?*) simple (in my case Demerara)

Although I prefer my Daiquiris to be drier and more boozy, this is one of the most perfectly balanced drinks I've ever had. Sweet, but balanced by sour, with a deep richness brought out by the rum. Next time I'll change the proportions, but wow, this cocktail is like poetry on the tongue.

*(who the hell has 1/3 or 2/3 oz measurements?)

Someone who is used of working with the metric system, I suspect. 1 oz is close enough to 30mL to not matter a whole lot (28.somethingsomething mL). 1/3 and 2/3 of an oz are 10 and 20mL--very sensible and nicely rounded metric measurements.

[Hassouni]

Hmm, I suppose, except Alpenz is based in the US....

[ChrisTaylor]

I have shotglasses that not only have the 1/4, 1/2, etc oz measurements on them, but also mL. Meaning measuring out 1/3 or 2/3 of an oz is not a problem at all. You should see if you can find such glasses. I stumbled on them at random in a junk shop and bought a few. I mean, if you lived locally and all, I'd pad a few with newspaper and box them and post them your way, as I too have stumbled across recipes with unusual measures (i.e. 5mL of something).

[Hassouni]

Yeah, I've been eyeing the Japanese jiggers over at Cocktail Kingdom but it seems they either come in only metric or US....

[thirtyoneknots]

Yeah, I've been eyeing the Japanese jiggers over at Cocktail Kingdom but it seems they either come in only metric or US....

If you know the equivalencies, there's no handicap to having a metric jigger. Those long, narrow jiggers are a delight to use.