Drinks (2009–2011)

[KatieLoeb]

Had a Ransom Old Tom Martinez last night made with the Dolin Rouge. It was gorgeous. Seriously one of the finest libations in recent memory. Gotta get me some of that. For at home if not for professional use. That stuff is addictive.

[NadyaDuke]

Chris -

I'm out of the loop - why no CAF for 4 years? Is this a world-wide problem? EEEK!

[Chris Amirault]

It's a supply issue in RI, not world- or even countrywide. Sniff.

[NadyaDuke]

Thanks Chris! I haven't replace my bottle yet, and it's been difficult but not impossible to find in Oregon.

At the risk of seeming like an ignorant Westerner: Can't you pretty much throw a rock in Rhode Island and hit a liquor store in a neighboring state :-)?

Edited August 20, 2010 by NadyaDuke (log)

[Alcuin]

This is totally hitting the spot right now...

The North Star Cocktail:

2 oz Cynar

1/2 oz Flor de Cana Gold

5 drops Angostura Orange

Build in rocks glass (in order listed) over two large rocks. Swirl once or twice. Enjoy.

Dan

Good call! Made this with Havana Club Especial and TBT orange bitters, serves as a slightly mellowed dram of Cynar with powerful orange aromas.

Drank this one last night-fantastic. With the orange and added power from the rum (used FdC 7) it reminded me of amaro Nonino. Definitely a keeper-thanks!

[syoung68]

I have made this the lat two nights and have no idea what to call it. I got a bottle of Amaro Meletti and started playing around.

1.5 oz Sazerac Rye

1.0 oz Amara Meletti

0.5 oz Campari

0.5 oz Dubonet Rouge

Build in a rocks glass (I am too lazy to chill then strain onto fresh ice) and garnish with a lemon twist.

It is really tasty, but I am always open to suggestions.

[haresfur]

That looks mighty fine.

As my last Carpano Antica Formula drink -- only 1/2 oz left -- I made a very tasty Leap Year, courtesy of Harry Craddock, and thought about the possibility of drinking CAF in 48 months:

2 oz gin (Beefeater)

1/2 oz sweet vermouth (CAF)

1/2 oz Grand Marnier

1/4 oz lemon juice

Stir; strain; lemon twist.

Sigh.

Good one, thanks!

I used Seagrams and "Rosso Antico"

[Chris Amirault]

I guess you could call it a Hemingway old fashioned:

2 oz Saint James Ambre

1 tsp maraschino

1 tsp demerara

2 dashes Peychaud's

2 dashes Bittermen's grapefruit bitters

twist of lime

Made this as a rocks drink with J.M VSOP and Scrappy's grapefruit bitters. Hemingway OF it is, and a regular it will be.

[vice]

Glad you like it! In observance of National Rum Day earlier this week, I had made a Hemingway daiquiri with the JM 1997 that I squirreled back to the west coast. Oh man, it was everything I had remembered and more. So nice.

[Chris Amirault]

I wonder if it should be improved slightly, with a dash of absinthe.... Perhaps I should find this out right now.

ETA: Yes, it can, and Marteau is just the stuff to do it.

Edited August 22, 2010 by Chris Amirault (log)

[bostonapothecary]

had this one mixed up at the Gallows in the south end.

1.5 oz. clement VSOP

.5 oz. plymouth sloe gin

.5 oz. yellow chartreuse

1 oz. lemon juice

dash angostura.

i love how these agricole rums just can't be overshadowed...

[Chris Amirault]

1 oz of lemon plus 1/2 oz of sloe gin? Seems like a tart mouthful, that. Gotta try it.

[KD1191]

Sloe Gin and Yellow Chartreuse play beautifully together. My wife's favorite drink is a gimlet with the addition of both, created by fellow eGulleter Troy Sidle.

I just made something inspired by it:

1.5 oz Ransom Old Tom

.75 oz Lemon Juice

.5 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin

.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse

.25 oz Hibiscus Syrup

Dash Bittercube Bolivar Bitters

Edited August 22, 2010 by KD1191 (log)

[Chris Hennes]

Picked up a bottle of that Del Maguey Mezcal Crema de Mezcal when I was in SFO earlier this month, but hadn't had a chance to play until tonight. I started out just making a margarita, but cutting way back on the cointreau (the Crema has agave syrup in it). I'm not sure what the appropriate proportions wound up being, there was a bit of trial and error. Very interesting margarita, but not so sure it's a keeper.

[Chris Amirault]

I think that Crema is very hard to figure out. Best that you get a bottle of Chichicapa. Or Minero. Or both.

[FireAarro]

This is totally hitting the spot right now...

The North Star Cocktail:

2 oz Cynar

1/2 oz Flor de Cana Gold

5 drops Angostura Orange

Build in rocks glass (in order listed) over two large rocks. Swirl once or twice. Enjoy.

Dan

Good call! Made this with Havana Club Especial and TBT orange bitters, serves as a slightly mellowed dram of Cynar with powerful orange aromas.

Hey Fire,

Where are you buying your HCE & Cynar?

These bottles I got from duty free and a small shop that had a closing sale nearby respectively, but both can be gotten from Dan Murphy's, or Nick's Wine Merchants if you wanna support a fantastic business, or some of the other good liquor stores around Melbourne.

Edited August 23, 2010 by FireAarro (log)

[deensiebat]

Hot weather + frozen watermelon = frozen watermelon daiquiri. Brain freeze ensued.

[mkayahara]

A few days ago, I followed the lead of Dave Arnold and Co. and infused some Saint-James Royal Ambre rum with lapsang souchong tea in my iSi Thermo Whip. (I know, not the best use of the technique, given how fast tea infusions are to begin with.) Tonight, I made myself a Mai Tai with it, with Appleton Extra for the other rum, and Grand Marnier for the curacao. Brilliant: smoky, tea-inflected, delicious.

[bostonapothecary]

1.5 oz. overholt rye

1 oz. amontillado (bodegas dios baco)

.5 oz. cynar

.5 oz. "faux pommeau" ***

***faux pommeau was created by basket pressing common american apples then freeze concentrating their sugar using the faux ice-wine technique over many iterations to get a fairly high level. i think i hit 255g/l of sugar and had .5 liters of concentrated juice which took .333 liters of 50% alcohol lairds bonded to reach the goal of 20% alcohol final product. and the final sugar content is 153g/l putting it in the range slightly lower than most sweet vermouths.

i seem to have nailed the taste metrics but faux pommeau does have some olfactory symbolism issues on its own. the aroma is kind of common and therefore shows no "bouquet" or enigmatic "space in-between" character from aging (yet!), but will probably be drunk before it could ever develop.

this cocktail synthesizes a "bouquet" via the aromatic overtones and internals of the other ingredients. i really liked the drink but it would be more enjoyable if tonight wasn't 95 degrees and only 8:00 p.m.

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. aquardente de medronhos, nova (strawberry tree brandy from algarve)

1 oz. faux pommeau

1 oz. green chartreuse

1 oz. lemon juice

i don't even need to patent this because no one else has medronhos.

this is rather epic. the brandy and green chartreuse have serious affinity. the high acidity coupled with the apple aroma create a strange and round "green apple" effect which creates awesome tension with the contrasting aromas of the brandy and chartreuse. a hallmark of medronhos is its "ghost of tabasco" aroma and it definitely doesn't get lost in the drink.

[eje]

Where on earth did you find Brandy made from Arbutus fruit?

There are enough on my street, I could nearly make it myself, but is it imported?

[bostonapothecary]

Where on earth did you find Brandy made from Arbutus fruit?

There are enough on my street, I could nearly make it myself, but is it imported?

well you should collect them, make a simple wine, and get them to your nearest home distiller...

its imported by sarmentos of new bedford. but the bottles i have might have been in the basement of the liquor store for a decade. i was told sarmento only brings in an allocation of a few cases a year for the old timers.

the aromas are wild and crazy for a fruit brandy. arbutus also makes the most memorable single varietal honey i've ever had. i'm also in love with a liqueur called "brandymel" which is honey (i think its local algarve honey) fortified with arbutus brandy and is very easy to come by here. makes an excellent bees knees.

"medronhos" comes from a moonshining tradition that i heard was cracked down on in the late nineties. taxes weren't paid by the distillers themselves because they bartered with it for rent. most of it probably was taxed eventually when it was formally bottled.

it is supposedly made by old men who forage for the fruit.

this is an great slide show of the process.

[haresfur]

A few days ago I tried the Tinton cocktail from Savoy, via eje's blog using the end of my Laird's 12 yr apple brandy and Widbey Island port. It was ok. Then I decided to turn it into a fizzy drink with Henry of Harcort Duck and Bull (hard) cider made from a combination of pink lady and traditional cider apples. I think it would have worked better mixed than using the port as a sink since it was hard to judge the right proportions.

So what would this be? Not really a sangaree or a fizz or a shandy. Surely it must have been done before.

[mkayahara]

Test driving cocktails last night for a gathering of friends I'm having over tonight, I hit upon the Up-to-Date in the Savoy: half sherry, half Bourbon, with two dashes each of Grand Marnier and bitters. I made it last night thusly:

1.5 oz. Amontillado

1.5 oz. Woodford Reserve

1 tsp. Grand Marnier

2 dashes homemade "Hess House Bitters"

The front is all Bourbon and the considerable tail is all sherry. Delightful and highly recommended.

[EvergreenDan]

I recently bought a bottle of Fee's Rhubarb bitters. Since Rhubarb is one of the flavors in Aperol, and since the Beta/Rogue Cocktails guys proved that you can use a whackload of aromatic bitters in a cocktail, I created the following. I think an alcohol-based Rhubarb bitters would be better, but I don't know of one. Aperol is very low in alcohol, so an overproof rye keeps some heat in the drink. I didn't have Wild Turkey Rye 101 on hand, but that would be a good choice, I'd think.

Rhubarb and Rye

1 1/2 oz Rye (preferably overproof)
    1 oz Aperol
  1/2 oz Rhubarb bitters
  1/2 oz Lemon
    1    Lemon zest (for garnish)

Shake, strain, rocks, low-ball.

Bright, summer flavors, sour mid-taste, 
lingering beautiful bitter aftertaste. 
Gorgeous orange color.

Edited September 10, 2010 by EvergreenDan (log)