Help for a Couple of Cocktail Novices (Part 2)

[Tri2Cook]

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.

[Adam George]

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.

[ChrisTaylor]

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.

[Kerry Beal]

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.

[Kerry Beal]

Bubbaloo from PDT. Didn't have the correct bitters - used angostura. Kind of tasted like nutmeg and bubblegum. Hubby binned his.

[Beth Wilson]

Well, that is an interesting description of flavours....hate to hear good alcohol was binned but thinking of that combo of flavours I certainly can't blame him for binning it!

Like the new glasses!

[Kerry Beal]

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.

[EvergreenDan]

Man I like those trumpet-shaped glasses. Functional, classic, and contemporary all at once.

[Kerry Beal]

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.

[Adam George]

I see that Ransom isn't lasting long!

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

[Kerry Beal]

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.

[Adam George]

Have you tried the St George gins? One of the people at Viajante brought a bottle of Dry Rye back and let me taste it.

[Kerry Beal]

Jeffery Morganthaler's Caneflower again.

[Kerry Beal]

Rainbow Sour - from The Art of the Cocktail by DeGroeff. Well received! Need to find a steady supply of Apry - that stuff is fabulous.

[Kerry Beal]

Noble Order - from Cocktail Slut.

[Kerry Beal]

[the Blue Hour] from cocktail virgin slut here.

Didn't have any plum eau de vie - but did have my japanese plum liqueur. Used aphrodite bitters in place of Peychaud's.

Tasted a little like pink lemonade.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Adam George]

Spanish?

[Kerry Beal]

Spanish?

Yup - spanish! Duh!

[mkayahara]

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.

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.

[EvergreenDan]

Orange. This fruit of cocktail death.

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

[Tri2Cook]

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.

[FrogPrincesse]

Orange. This fruit of cocktail death.

Could not agree more. Oranges are very tricky in cocktails and so is grenadine... Use with extreme caution!

[Plantes Vertes]

Hamlin is a tart variety of orange that is also suitable for juicing, and Maltese blood oranges are also. Tangerine juice is tarter than orange juice as well, but more of a pain to get out of the fruit.

[Kerry Beal]

Caipirinha this evening. The weather seemed right, beef for dinner - what could be better!

[Kerry Beal]

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.