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Help for a Couple of Cocktail Novices (Part 2)


Kerry Beal

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I just think wedge garnishes are brash and with a cocktail that the balance is clearly so critical....

I get what you're saying, I'd just like to think (or at least hope) that at a certain level, the people responsible for the dinks and how they're served in a cocktail bar wouldn't do something if it takes away from the drink. Since there are no cocktail bars, good or bad, within about 5 hours of where I live, I don't know that to actually be the case... but I like thinking it's true.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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I hope so too, and you're right. It probably takes nothing away. I just can't say I agree with the method.

I don't think a lime wedge brings enough to a drink if it isn't in the drink itself.

I've given up on the traditional Daiquiri garnish of a lime wedge because it's not doing anything. Not until it has been squeezed in, in which case it has just spoilt the balance. It hasn't brought any aromatic to the drink, either.

Now, as we all agree, the Pegu is a pretty hard drink to "find" - not to say the club by the same name haven't done so. My personal approach to a garnish is it needs to accent some some element of the drink, bring a new and contrasting element - or you let the drink do the talking. For my Martini, I like the former, my Daiquiri, the latter.

I don't wish to sound overly negative, or like I'm slagging anyone off - just offering an opinion.

Cheers.

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Last night I made (another) Pegu w/ 2 oz Junipero (first time I've made it with that particular gin), the juice of a lime, a generous .5oz of Grand Marnier and a dash each of Fee's whiskey aged bitters, Fee's orange bitters and Regan's orange bitters. It was pretty good.

Chris Taylor

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Part and Parcel tonight - used up the ends of 3 bottles of gin!

Finally found a couple of the glasses that I've been searching for. Anna broke hers - I found her a new one in a thrift store in Guelph last week - the next day found 3 for myself.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Tonight the boys were drinking The McCallan - so I was on my own for a Royal Bermudian Yacht Club Cocktail from PDT. Of course it was actually a Royal Barbados Yacht Club Cocktail as I had Cockspur VSOR as my rum of choice.

Time for a trip back to Barbados as I'm on my last bottle.

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Tonight made a Negroni with Ransome Old Tom and charged it with CO2 in the thermowhip as per Chefsteps. You can't tell it's carbonated - but it was delightfully bubbly.

Didn't have enough Punt e Mes left for the number of drinks I made so I stuck with the plain old vermouth.

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I see that Ransom isn't lasting long!

I'd love to try it, but I don't think we get it over here.

Half of it went over to Anna N's. Only fair to share when I get the good stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Kerry was kind enough, after the Chocolate and Confectionery Workshop, to gift me with the leftover liquor from our Saturday night cocktails, on the condition that I comment on some of what I ended up making with it. No time like the present to get started!

One of the bottles was Rittenhouse BIB, so tonight I made a Volstead.

Volstead.jpg

Rye, orange juice, Swedish Punch, grenadine and a dash of absinthe. The flavours are all there, but it was too sweet for me. Maybe with some added lemon juice, though I guess that makes it a cross between a Volstead and a Ward Eight.

Matthew Kayahara

Kayahara.ca

@mtkayahara

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Orange. This fruit of cocktail death.

Were oranges from the early 20th C much more tart, perhaps?

I don't know... but the tangelos I can get where I live are more flavorful and more tart than the oranges I can get where I live so I frequently use those instead.

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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Pisco sours - managed to get some Amargo Chuncho Bitters at Kegwork's the other day. Gotta say - it adds a very different accent than Angostura.

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