Drinks! (2007–2009)

[MattJohnson]

Apologies if this sounds too basic to mention, but I just had the tastiest Old Fashioned. Somewhere between the proper and fruit salad variety:

1tsp sugar

2 dashes Angostura

2 dashes Angostura orange

Peel of half an orange

Maraschino cherry

All muddled and left to sit for a while, before adding Woodford Reserve, ice and stirring...

←

No apologies needed, for me, sounds great.

[bostonapothecary]

bar spoon of sugar

4 dashes angostura

1.5 oz. clear creek blue plum brandy

1.5 oz. suntory "yamazaki" 12 yr. single malt

no garnish

this was a lot of fun to drink. i've read that fermenting fruits together with grains can produce phenomenal whiskey. this was an attempt at what that might be like.

[eje]

Still enjoying "reverse" Manhattans.

Latest variation:

1 oz Michter's Straight Rye

2-3 oz Punt e Mes

4 dashes Angostura

Build over rocks in tumbler. Garnish with an orange twist if you're feeling fancy.

Great after a heavy meal, but I could drink these all night.

[slkinsey]

I've had a bit of a cold lately, so it's been toddies. In particular, Lemon Hart 151 toddies. Great for a cold. (I've already got plenty of hair on my chest, so I figured using the 151 wouldn't change much.)

[Chris Amirault]

Sam, can you give the basic outline? What else is in there with the LH 151 -- and how much of that?

[slkinsey]

2 oz Lemon Hart 151. Teaspoon or so demerara sugar. Peel of a whole lemon. Fill the balance with hot water (figure maybe 3 or 4 ounces boiling water).

[Chris Amirault]

That sounds great.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with a fifth of Hendricks I got as a gift, and came up with this Martiniz sort of thing:

2 oz Hendricks gin

1 oz NP dry vermouth

1 tsp Amer Picon

dash Angostura orange bitters

dash Luxardo Maraschino

Stir, strain, up, orange twist.

ETA: It's really good.

Edited January 6, 2009 by chrisamirault (log)

[bostonapothecary]

aged rum punch was on my mind tonight...

2 oz. aged rum punch (from last february or so...)

1 oz. benedictine

1 oz. lemon juice

2 dashes peychaud's bitters

this is pretty intense and its interesting how the large dose of benedictine dissolves into the drink and becomes hard to pick out. everything is massively extracted because the aromatized rum brings a super natural amount of flavor. with benedictine this drink works but the last time i subbed cointreau i couldn't drink it... too much flavor. its like when a new zealand sauv. blanc is too over the top or like an australian shiraz whose low yields has been pushed beyond wine making into motor oil territory. i think i need to make a french 75 style drink with the punch to dilute things back to elegance...

[bostonapothecary]

for some reason i wanted to make a madeira sour with an egg white... and so it goes the first person i made it for was from the canary islands... (his father any how...) and tells me the tale of how his father made madeira in the back yard here in america... (i have so many awesome stories of home wine making...) he knew cooperage and bought used whiskey barrels and knew how to shave them down and re-char them...

2 oz. genavieve...

1 oz. "boston" bual madeira from the rare wine co.

.5 oz. lemon juice

.5 oz. simple

egg white

shake and decorate with angostura bitters...

the drink was cool and had fun flavors contrast, but may have been better with something other than the gin... pisco maybe or a barrel proof single malt like the glen livet nadurra that i've been making boston flips out of...

[Nishla]

As we get a giant box of grapefruit from my best friend each winter, we've been having some grapefruit drinks:

2 parts Aalborg Jubilaeums Aquavit

1 part grapefruit juice

1/2 part yellow chartreuse

I really like how the chartreuse and aquavit work together in this.

1 part grapefruit juice

1 part tequila

1/2 part aperol

1/4 part St. Germain

This is very drinkable--almost too drinkable.

[bostonapothecary]

today i got some seville oranges to make creole shrubb. after using all the peels for the orange liqueur i decided to juice a few to make a bronx...

2 oz. gin (seagram's extra dry)

1 oz. m&r sweet vermouth

1 oz. tart seville orange juice

stir! (when i have sweet vermouth and citrus i still stir... drink it yourself and you will see...)

this has all these wild shades of fruit like pomello... and this not too hightly regarded gin is awesome. quite a drink but hard to come by the seville juice. its amazing how little you get out of every orange.

i made it again with vergano's barolo chinato instead of the m&r and the fruit was more like intense texas grapefruit with unique allspice notes of the chinato... i thought it was really special but my drinking companion prefered the subletely of the simpler vermouth...

citrus rule or not i enjoyed these stirred...

[bostonapothecary]

for some reason i wanted to make a madeira sour with an egg white... and so it goes the first person i made it for was from the canary islands... (his father any how...) and tells me the tale of how his father made madeira in the back yard here in america... (i have so many awesome stories of home wine making...) he knew cooperage and bought used whiskey barrels and knew how to shave them down and re-char them...

2 oz. genavieve...

1 oz. "boston" bual madeira from the rare wine co.

.5 oz. lemon juice

.5 oz. simple

egg white

shake and decorate with angostura bitters...

the drink was cool and had fun flavors contrast, but may have been better with something other than the gin... pisco maybe or a barrel proof single malt like the glen livet nadurra that i've been making boston flips out of...

←

i revisited the madeira sour and really enjoyed it.

1 oz. glen livet "nadura" (cask strength)

1 oz. "boston" bual madeira from the rare wine co.

1 o.z lemon juice

scant spoonful of sugar

egg white.

stir to dissolve sugar, dry shake, shake, decorate with angostura bitters...

really interesting focused flavors... madeira seems to enjoy the frothy sour medium...

i wish i could get cask strength madeira finished single malts...!

[bostonapothecary]

today i got some seville oranges to make creole shrubb.  after using all the peels for the orange liqueur i decided to juice a few to make a bronx...

2 oz. gin (seagram's extra dry)

1 oz. m&r sweet vermouth

1 oz. tart seville orange juice

stir! (when i have sweet vermouth and citrus i still stir... drink it yourself and you will see...)

this has all these wild shades of fruit like pomello... and this not too hightly regarded gin is awesome. quite a drink but hard to come by the seville juice.  its amazing how little you get out of every orange.

i made it again with vergano's barolo chinato instead of the m&r and the fruit was more like intense texas grapefruit with unique allspice notes of the chinato... i thought it was really special but my drinking companion prefered the subletely of the simpler vermouth...

citrus rule or not i enjoyed these stirred...

←

i made the bronx again but with carpano antica. the drink brought out all the vermouth in the antica and made everything taste like a creamsicle... kind of weird and not very elegant...

i just got another case of the sevilles so i need to find some st. james rhum asap.

any savoy cocktail book recipes that may be better with seville juice?

[thirtyoneknots]

any savoy cocktail book recipes that may be better with seville juice?

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Couldn't say if it's in the Savoy, but make some Regent's Punch. Yumyumyum

[bostonapothecary]

i drank this a few times recently...

1 oz. cynar

1 oz. chamberyzette (replica)

2 oz. prosecco

kind of like the negroni sbagliato...

[Splificator]

In honor of the day:

The Nonbeliever

Shake well with ice:

1 oz Tanqueray

1/2 oz strained blood orange juice

1/4 oz Drambuie

Strain into champagne flute and top off with chilled champagne.

[vice]

back at it with the apricot...

the best drink i've had in recent months was an batavia arrack apricot sour (with egg white) this matched my mood perfectly which is important with a drink... i don't hear of enough use of arrack as a mixing spirit.  it brings a high proof that i like (100) and some sort of terrior (the "arrackness") that contrasts delicate shades of fruit so well... i like this drink so much that i'm even ready to elevate the arrack apricot combo to higher levels than the divine flavor contrasts of black tea and lemonaide... an arrack apricot sour doesn't seem to exist in any books but if i wrote one i'd pen it in...

1.5 oz. batavia arrack van osten

2/3 oz. orchard apricot

1/3 oz. simple syrup

1 oz. lemonjuice

fraction of a egg white

chocolate bitters...

i don't think i ever noticed the bitters. they were drizzled on top... i could smell the wine of the people next to me and lots of food... hopefully it had a subliminal effect...

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just whipped up one of these. used r&w for the apricot, half an extra large white, no bitters.

i'd have to agree that it's a fantastic drink. absolutely enchanting aroma from the arrack, nicely balanced flavors, lovely translucent off-white color too. tailor it to your own sweet/tart preference and you will give the standard sours a rest for quite a while.

[haresfur]

Not today, but last Thursday we made it to Zig Zag and all I can say is "WOW!"

Ok, I can say a bit more. Tried to go for a drink or two before dinner but we were a bit early so back up the stairs for a bite.

Good thing. We are definitely light-weights - Getting right to the punch-line we had great cocktails, overshot the hotel a bit walking back (I would probably have kept going and ended up in Lake Union), were in bed by 9:00, and up early enough to drop EMP at SEATAC before the traffic got bad.

Back down from Pike Place we scored the best stools at the bar for watching Murray work. Ordered the first drinks off the menu, I had an Armistice (I think) and emp had something with gin, chartreuse and other good stuff. Yum. Pretty soon we were sharing tastes with our new best friends on either side, as they rotated into the line-up. After that we put our selves in Murray's hands with him asking me to narrow it down to dark spirit and bitter and seeing I didn't make a bad face at the mention of Fernet Branca. Hushed voice from beside me as it was being prepared, "Is that a Toronto?" I didn't have a clue until Murray told me it was. Wonderful. "What's that?" comes the question from emp's side. "A Toronto" I say knowingly, and pass it over. She's drinking a taste of muddled cucumber, hot sauce and gin. Nice but a bit too spicy for more than a tiny bit IMO. We taste an Aviation from over that way, and the Creme de Violette, and some gin, and something with Laphroaig and ginger-beer...

I ask for anything with rum and we decide on dark but not too molassesy. Out comes a taste of a Venezuelan rum who's name is lost in the haze followed by a Coin Toss. I look over and emp has a glass full of crushed ice, mint, sugar, and absinthe (maybe something else too?) Sweet, with a taste that is enough to drive you crazy even if the thujone content is low and you don't suck them down in rapid succession, tempting though that may be.

I feel a bit like the time I went to a restaurant and had a perfectly prepared piece of halibut - why do I bother trying to cook fish? Every drink was great, it was fantastic to be able to dry things with ingredients that the State stores don't stock, and the people were great. Thanks Murray!

[eje]

Playing with various combination of the new Noilly Dry and Dolin Rouge, I wasn't really enjoying many of the cocktails I created.

After a bunch of flops, aside from a more interesting than great fitty-fitty, I felt like rewarding myself with a Manhattan.

The following items were at hand:

1 1/2 oz Bulleit Bourbon*

1 1/2 oz Punt e Mes

dash Angostura Orange

Stir, strain. Screw the twist, screw the cherry.

I'm not even usually a huge fan of the Bourbon Manhattans, but goddamn if this isn't the tastiest drink I've had all evening.

*Bulleit Bourbon obtained for free through some ridiculous confluence of eGullet related acquaintances.

[Chris Amirault]

Interesting. I was also screwing around with a bourbon Manhattan last night and found a surprisingly nice trio:

2 oz Wild Turkey 101

1 oz Averna

2 healthy dashes of Angostura orange bitters

And, like the spartan eje, an orange twist but no cherry.

[bostonapothecary]

a pink lady sort of drink...

1.5 oz. gin (seagram's!)

.5 oz. pear eau de vie

.75 oz. grenadine

.75 oz. lemon juice

egg white

tastey!

[KatieLoeb]

Tonight's effort - a slight turn off of the Algonquin cocktail. We'll call this the Algorithm.

2.5 oz. Bulleit bourbon

1 oz. pineapple juice

.5 oz. sweet vermouth

.25 oz. absinthe (Vieux Carre in this instance)

1 dash Peychaud bitters

1 dash Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel aged bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

[brinza]

Interesting. I was also screwing around with a bourbon Manhattan last night and found a surprisingly nice trio:

2 oz Wild Turkey 101

1 oz Averna

2 healthy dashes of Angostura orange bitters

And, like the spartan eje, an orange twist but no cherry.

←

I'm sipping this right now (although the Wild Turkey 101 I happen to have is rye). This is excellent! Great idea.

[KatieLoeb]

Tonight's effort - a slight turn off of the Algonquin cocktail.  We'll call this the Algorithm.

2.5 oz. Bulleit bourbon

1 oz. pineapple juice

.5 oz. sweet vermouth

.25 oz. absinthe (Vieux Carre in this instance)

1 dash Peychaud bitters

1 dash Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel aged bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

←

This drink is better with just a barspoon of the absinthe. Today's version far tastier...

[Nishla]

Tried a couple drinks using orange juice tonight:

2 parts rum (Mount Gay)

1 part orange juice

1 part Madeira (Boston Bual special reserve)

1/4 lime juice

1/4 simple syrup

We first tried this without the lime and simple, and it wasn't quite right, but had a great finish. I think the lime and simple balanced the drink. It's really yummy as is, but can probably use some tweaking.

2 parts tequila (El Tesoro Anejo)

1 part orange juice

1 part campari

1/2 St. Germain

Orange twist

I thought this was really good.