Drinks! (2012, part 2)

[ChrisTaylor]

A few Google results for the 'New York' Sazerac speak of a bourbon/cognac combo. So I took the logical step and made a bourbon (Woodford Reserve) and rye (Rittenhouse) combo. It's pretty good.

[KD1191]

Any recommendations for a reasonably priced, fairly readily avaliable absinthe (given I live in an alcoholic backwater and all).

I recently noticed that St. George had started offering a 200 ml bottle of their absinthe...I think it was priced around $20 at my Whole Foods. Not exactly a great value, but it seemed like a nice option for those who make the occasional Sazerac or Corpse Reviver #2 but don't want to drop $70-$80 on a full bottle.

[Hassouni]

It's fuckin hot in DC. Mojito hot.

[rod rock]

Hassouni, is this mint leaves?

[ChrisTaylor]

The Trader Vic version of Navy Grog, using Ron Zacapa in place of dem. rum, which I don't have.

A DeGroff Sazerac using absinth instead of Pernod.

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. tequila (cuervo blanco)

1 oz. cape verdean tamarind ponche

.5 oz. pineau des charentes (brillet)

.5 oz. lime juice

2 dashes peychaud's bitters

this worked out really well. it is sort of a lopsided collage of things yet adds up to a very comfortable gustatory structure. previously something bitter had been used instead of the pineau des charentes, but the swap resulted in spectacular aromatic overtones and a certain sour shape that is quite refreshing. for some reason all i could scrounge up was cuervo blanco. its nice to have your optimal choice, but i like mixing drinks when you are forced to make do. when you have what you have and you're thirsty, symbols like brands and reputation mean nothing and all there is to consider is sensory values.

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. medronho

1 oz. ponche de madeira (bottled passion fruit rhum punch based from the island of madeira)

.5 oz. danzig goldwasser

.5 oz. lime juice

over crushed ice and swizzled with campari rock candy swizzle stick

the drink is really lovely. i hold medronho in the highest regard. the aroma might even be so great that it was wrong to put it up against the distractions from the texture of the crushed ice and the extreme chill it brings.

the campari swizzle stick was not the greatest thing i've ever had. i grew it very large like a commercial rock candy swizzle stick. it took on a pink color, but unfortunately did not pick up enough bitterness to warrant the effort. my plan is to start again but switch to the boutique sugar trehalose which i think will crystallize, but bring less sweetness to contrast any bitterness that gets sucked up. trehalose is known for bizarre and miraculous preservative properties when incorporated in dehydrated things. it is what makes the desert bloom in one rain after years upon years of drought. maybe it will grant my rock candy delicious magic powers.

[Hassouni]

Mint sprigs from the garden

[mkayahara]

the campari swizzle stick was not the greatest thing i've ever had. i grew it very large like a commercial rock candy swizzle stick. it took on a pink color, but unfortunately did not pick up enough bitterness to warrant the effort. my plan is to start again but switch to the boutique sugar trehalose which i think will crystallize, but bring less sweetness to contrast any bitterness that gets sucked up. trehalose is known for bizarre and miraculous preservative properties when incorporated in dehydrated things. it is what makes the desert bloom in one rain after years upon years of drought. maybe it will grant my rock candy delicious magic powers.

Pardon me if I missed this, but are you saying you made the swizzle stick by supersaturating Campari with regular white sugar, and then seeding with the stick? I realize it raises the (no doubt already high) cost, but why not supersaturate with dehydrated Campari crystals? That way you should be punching up the flavours (including bitterness) and the sugars by roughly the same proportion, right? (Not to say that trehalose wouldn't work; I'm not really familiar with it.)

[bostonapothecary]

the campari swizzle stick was not the greatest thing i've ever had. i grew it very large like a commercial rock candy swizzle stick. it took on a pink color, but unfortunately did not pick up enough bitterness to warrant the effort. my plan is to start again but switch to the boutique sugar trehalose which i think will crystallize, but bring less sweetness to contrast any bitterness that gets sucked up. trehalose is known for bizarre and miraculous preservative properties when incorporated in dehydrated things. it is what makes the desert bloom in one rain after years upon years of drought. maybe it will grant my rock candy delicious magic powers.

Pardon me if I missed this, but are you saying you made the swizzle stick by supersaturating Campari with regular white sugar, and then seeding with the stick? I realize it raises the (no doubt already high) cost, but why not supersaturate with dehydrated Campari crystals? That way you should be punching up the flavours (including bitterness) and the sugars by roughly the same proportion, right? (Not to say that trehalose wouldn't work; I'm not really familiar with it.)

it was already made with "super campari" so there was plenty of campari bitterness in there. the starter liked something like:

2 oz. dehydrated campari

2 oz. campari

45 g. non aromatic white sugar

heat in a sealed canning jar to super saturate.

let cool to room temp.

insert sugar seeded stick which is stuck through another lid drilled with a tiny hole

i kept adding a small amount of sugar and redissolving it all every few days. i didn't rely on evaporation to concentrate the mixture like other techniques. the idea of limiting evaporation was to keep as much really volatile aroma as possible.

currently i've got a few growing in some rose water to see how much aroma a non alcoholic solution can give up. the trehalose just arrived so i'll see how it goes. it was much hyped as a cure all to everything by a scientist friend of mine.

so far my recent experiments with solubility have shown that small amounts of alcohol can really hold onto a lot of aroma and if the alcohol content gets really high, counter intuitively lots of stuff comes out of solution. what isn't soluble at really high alcohol levels would interest anyone making their own tinctures and infusion.

it would be possible with a rotovap to make an angostura bitters 151 and it would be interesting to see what came out of solution at that alcohol content.

[Hassouni]

Surpriiiiise, it's hot, I love rum, it's a daiquiri!

FdC Extra Dry, lime (duh), and evap. cane sugar syrup stuff, 4:2:1.

Next time gonna notch down the sugar some, it's not quite as dry as I'd have liked.

[mkayahara]

currently i've got a few growing in some rose water to see how much aroma a non alcoholic solution can give up. the trehalose just arrived so i'll see how it goes. it was much hyped as a cure all to everything by a scientist friend of mine.

Interesting; keep us posted on how the trehalose works out.

[mkayahara]

Tonight's tipple was a Saratoga (of the "half-brandy-half-rye Manhattan" variety) with a couple of dashes of my recently acquired bottle of Bittercube cherry bark/vanilla bitters. A bit technicolor, but pretty tasty.

[KatieLoeb]

Tonight, after cooking up an enormous batch of homemade grenadine, I test drove it with a Pink Garter:

1.5 oz. Plymouth gin

.5 oz. grenadine

.5 oz. lemon juice

.25 oz. orange juice

2 dashes orange bitters

FIrst attempt with Angostura bitters was tasty too, but quickly accidentally spilled and I liked the second version much better. Orange bitters just went better with everything in the glass.

[ChrisTaylor]

Tipperary w/ Jameson 18, Punt e Mes (the sweet vermouth I have on hand) and Green Chartreuse.

[campus five]

Cocchi Americano and Soda, with a dash of Ango Orange and nice fat orange peel with dinner.

Followed by perhaps my favorite house Manhattan line up: Rittenhouse/Cocchi Vermouth di Torino/Miracle Mile Forbidden Bitters/Lemon Peel.

So good. So good.

[ChrisTaylor]

Final Ward -- equal parts Rittenhouse,Green Chartreuse, Maraschino and lemon juice. Very good. And as the site I visited for the recipe said, it's superior to the very good Last Word.

[tanstaafl2]

Too many open bottles lounging about in the fridge at risk of going bad so last night it was a Bonal "spritzer" made 2:1 with soda over an ice ball to try to keep dilution to a minimum. First was with a dash of Regan orange and the second was without. Liked em both and neither lasted very long but I think I prefer it without any additional bitters.

[ChrisTaylor]

Browsing the PDT Cocktail Book thread led to me attempting a couple of the cocktails (those with recipes easily found online).

Eclipse. Used Campari instead of Aperol because I don't have Aperol. I thought the Campari dominated ... I guess this means I need to buy Aperol.

Newark. Applejack, Punt e Mes, Maraschino and Fernet Branca. I like it, but I love bitters. I think the Fernet dominates, pushing the Applejack and everything else into submission like the toughest and meanest and scariest prisoner in H Block, but I like Fernet. So I guess that's really kind of acceptable.

[tanstaafl2]

Had a small dinner party that included a number of different drinks. A Brooklyn (using Torani Amer) was quite good. But the clear winner was the Rattlesnake from the PDT cocktail book (used Rittenhouse BIB and Herbsaint for the rinse) was absolutely marvelous!

[haresfur]

By request, a collins with Wild Turkey bourbon, demerara sugar, lemon, and soda. Muddled the lemon with the sugar per Gary Regan's suggestion. Very refreshing. This seems to be a forgotten drink it the modern, bitter world, which is a shame. But I do need to restock the gin because that would be even better.

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. india's pride "premium indian rum"

1 oz. hiram walker kirschwasser

1 oz. cynar

1 oz. dominican sour orange juice

2 dashes peychaud's bitters

this was delicious. the indian rum is some damn burly stuff. it is rather intense yet is composed of "matured cane juice spirit & high quality neutral alcohol". i wonder what the rum concentrate tastes like. it could be like the mythic jamaican rum concentrates of the 19th century that were designed merely as components of blends. the aroma even has an umami quality that could be a result of dunder.

i am in love with sour oranges and still have yet to see a bar use them in any regular rotation. there are so many new things to put on shelves our there and i think the citruses are getting overlooked. if anyone loves their imbibers they'll put down the "combier" and pick up a sour orange.

Edited June 4, 2012 by bostonapothecary (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Had a small dinner party that included a number of different drinks. A Brooklyn (using Torani Amer) was quite good. But the clear winner was the Rattlesnake from the PDT cocktail book (used Rittenhouse BIB and Herbsaint for the rinse) was absolutely marvelous!

Glad you liked it. It's really a fantastic cocktail. I try a lot of cocktails (if that was not already obvious...) and every once in a while I find a "gem". The Rattlesnake is without a doubt in that category.

Edited June 4, 2012 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

By request, a collins with Wild Turkey bourbon, demerara sugar, lemon, and soda. Muddled the lemon with the sugar per Gary Regan's suggestion. Very refreshing. This seems to be a forgotten drink it the modern, bitter world, which is a shame. But I do need to restock the gin because that would be even better.

I could not agree with you more regarding the Collins. I just started a thread on the Collins and the Fizz. These are great summer drinks that deserve more attention.

[ChrisTaylor]

Art of the Choke. Nice stage for Cynar.