Drinks (2009–2011)

[Keith Orr]

FWIW also the name of a Salem Oregon Microbrewery (Gilgamesh)

Edit to add - I was trying to reply to the Gilgamesh Cocktail Post

Edited December 19, 2010 by Keith Orr (log)

[bostonapothecary]

i named the drink "gilgamesh" after the poet who hangs in our restaurant. he wrote a famous rendering of gilgamesh in the 1990's that is taught in most high schools. we have awesome long running conversations on poetry, art, and all things epic. perhaps my favorite bar regular ever.

"orange whips" (for, real its like being whipped)

.75 oz. sour orange juice

.75 oz. sweet vermouth (stock)

1.5 oz. aguardente de medronhos (nova)

expressed oil of a sour orange twist (luckily it didn't have too mch oil)

aaw, this is the flavor of fetish. virgil (of Aeneid epic fame) would have to hold some people's hand through drinking this one. i had some sour oranges left and wanted a riff on a bronx cockail (of course my bronx is tart). medronhos as opposed to gin adds an awesome sense of tension. the aromas create dryness, but in a completely different way than juniper.

one thing i've found when using aggressive aromas is that if they are too aggressive for people, you can bury them in the aromatic top notes of a sturdy twist. one of my coworkers has a serious aversion to mezcal, but if i double up a twist on a drink i split with her (mine gets none), she is okay with it. lately, i try and avoid twists because i don't want their overshadowing-attention-distracting effect on my drinks.

[ChrisTaylor]

Nothing but the best.

[bostonapothecary]

"mami wata" (named for the mermaid that gave sir victor uwaifo his magical powers)

1 oz. grenadine (fresh, not freeze concentrated; no aromative adjuncts; 400g/l sugar)

1 oz. lemon juice

2 oz. gin (olive oil infused)

dash peychauds

egg white

i haven't played with grenadine nor eggs in quite a while. the idea was to see if the grenadine would overshadow the olive oil aromas extracted by the gin. the results were quite favorable. a beautiful frothy sour with strange, mermaid-grotesque, fruity aromas.

[Tri2Cook]

Finally got my hands on some Campari and Green Chartreuse (I know this seems like a silly thing to be excited about to those of you in the civilized world but it required some planning and patience to get them where I live). Looking forward to exploring in some different directions now.

[Tri2Cook]

I already had tonights lineup planned so, despite my new acquisitions, I juiced a grapefruit, grabbed the honey syrup I made last night and did a Brown Derby followed by a Honey Fitz.

[vice]

Reading The Cocktail Chronicles, eh? That Honey Fitz looks real good.

[brinza]

Thanks, Dave!

Tonight, I made a version of Eric Alperin's terrific Skid Row -- and why that perfect name was available through the opening of the 21st century I do not know:

2 oz genever (Genevieve)

1/2 oz apricot liqueur (Apry)

1/2 oz amaro (Averna)

dash orange bitters (half Fee's, half Regan's)

He calls for a flamed orange twist, but I don't have one. This is a terrific post-prandial drink.

I tried this last night with Damrak Amsterdam Gin, and since I don't have Averna, I used Luxardo Amaro Abano which is much more peppery than Averna, but it worked nevertheless. I could have used Ramazzotti which I have just now learned the original recipe calls for (didn't know that last night!). You should try it again with the flamed orange peel. And I can see how this would be the ideal garnish to complement the Ramazzotti. I'll definitely have another go at this one. I might also experiment with other orange bitters choices.

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. smith & cross

1 oz. creme de mezcal

1 oz. clement creole shrub

1 oz. lemon juice

scant spoonful of herbsaint

i made this one big because i have to go to work in a few minutes. i'm not a fan of smith & cross and prefer lemonhart for a heavy rum, but someone has got to finish the bottle... to me, smith & cross smells like bubblegum and doesn't exactly come from the noble end of the "hogo" aroma spectrum, but yet it still can be mixed with other aromas to create extra-ordinary overtones that beg to be payed attention to. creme de mezcal has a sugar content inline with lillet and preserves the same sugar-acid ethic as a corpse reviver no. 2, but of course averaging the alcohol up a bit. this is an ambitious drink. good thing i don't drive a forklift.

i think the original inspiration from this drink came from the dual float (mezcl & lemonhart 151) that i was using in the summer.

[Tri2Cook]

Reading The Cocktail Chronicles, eh? That Honey Fitz looks real good.

Yes I have been and yes it was*.

*With the disclaimer that mine wasn't authentic because Ron Zacapa 23 isn't available where I live. I went with El Dorado 12. I'm not knowledgeable enough in this area to know if that was the right way to go but I've read that the RZ 23 is a somewhat sweet tasting rum and the ED 12 is pretty sweet tasting to me so that's what I did. Right or wrong, it was good but I suppose it wasn't actually a Honey Fitz.

[EvergreenDan]

I tried the Honey Fitz too, but added 1/2 of lime to satisfy my anti-sweet tooth. I liked it. Lemon may have been better.

[bostonapothecary]

"duende"

.5 oz. mezcal (vida)

.5 oz. prunelle sauvage ("wild" sloe berry eau de vie)

.5 oz. M&R rose vermouth

.5 oz. alvear's fino sherry

.5 oz. cynar

.5 oz. randall grahm's heirloom framboise

the idea was to find federico garcia lorca's "duende" in a drink. duende being a "demonic earth spirit embodying irrationality, earthiness, and a heightened awareness of death". natalie portman looks for it in aronofsky's "black swan". lorca thought dance, music, and bull fighting were arts most susceptible to capturing the spirit, but i'd like to bet it could also be found in the acquired tastes we drink. who better to include in the search than randall grahm? randall always thinks he is looking for "terroir" but he might just be trying to find lorca's duende...

the drink's creative linkage is a poetic collage which probably fails by being too redundent in the "sweet" aroma spectrum. bianco vermouth might have been a better fit. juggling six ingredients (that you only think you know aesthetically) might be the only way to capture irrationality without actually free pouring...

the search goes on!

[Tri2Cook]

Cuba Libres. Last night was a laid back, relaxed, watch a movie at home night. Work was closed for the weekend, the busy holidays were done and I kept it really, really simple. Juiced a couple limes, broke out the coca cola (the Mexican stuff, I'd ordered it to use with the buttered popcorn rum I made via Don Lee's recipe that he was kind enough to post on my now mostly dead blog after I'd attempted my own guess at it) and grabbed the bottle of Havana Club Reserva. They were tasty, I think I'll try them next time with the 7 year just for fun.

[EvergreenDan]

Here's a very simple, delicious duo for those times when you don't want much alcohol:

1 oz Cocchi Americano

1 oz Fino sherry

2 oz seltzer

1 oz Fee WBA bitters

I found it absolutely delicious. Light, yes, but with enough bitter umph and complexity (nut/citrus/pie spice) to be sippable. Maybe worth naming.

Gonna try this tomorrow with CAF/Fino.

[Chris Amirault]

As I mentioned over in my foodblog, I made a batch of smoked pineapple syrup. Very tasty in the Regent's Punch last week, but I think that this drink, from my shift last night, really showcases it:

Scratch Perry

1 1/2 oz Appleton 12

1/2 oz smoked pineapple syrup

1/4 oz Allspice Dram

dash Angostura

Stir; strain; coupe; no garnish.

[EvergreenDan]

1 oz Fee WBA bitters

I mean dash, although playing with an oz of Fee WBA bitters sounds like fun....

[KD1191]

An extremely bittersweet Rum-based riff on a Manhattan.

2 oz Rhum St. James Extra Old

1 oz Carpano Punt e Mes

16 Drops Bittercube Jamaican Bitters

Stirred & strained into a coupe rinsed with Yellow Chartreuse Cuvée MOFS.

If I may be so "Dude", the Chartreuse really tied the whole thing together. I had expected the rum to add a bit more sweetness, but this is not your normal cane juice. It has some very interesting bitter notes that were amped up by the vermouth and bitters. After stirring and tasting, I knew I needed an element that brought the sweetness a bit more forcefully, and it was the Chartreuse, while also lending a pleasant herbal character that balanced the spice of the bitters.

[thirtyoneknots]

Does it really, on any level, get better than an Old Fashioned made with Old Weller 107 and Angostura? I submit to you that it does not. At least not tonight.

[KD1191]

Does it really, on any level, get better than an Old Fashioned made with Old Weller 107 and Angostura? I submit to you that it does not. At least not tonight.

Reminds me of a bad joke I made the other day...how do you improve a Whiskey Cocktail made with Rittenhouse 25?

Add Absinthe & Maraschino... <rim shot>.

[bostonapothecary]

2 oz. cognac (gaston de lagrange VS)

1 oz. lemon juice

1 oz. "pear-ple-sec" *

pear-ple-sec is a triple sec like product but with pear aroma instead of orange. it is based on a 250g/l sugar model (like most triple-secs) which is approximated by 850 ml of pear eau-de-vie and 250 grams of non aromatic white sugar which has a dissolved volume of about 150 ml. i of course made a quarter batch.

this really simple to create product differs from others like matilde poire (which is modeled after pineau des charentes) and maybe the haus alpenz pear liqueur in that there is no pear juice (triple-sec has no orange juice) and the alcohol is very high like a triple-sec which is a big contributor to the emotional content of drinks featuring it.

use intuitively like triple-sec but get different aromas.

hmm, what to try next?

[bostonapothecary]

1.5 oz. blanco tequila (agavales very cheap 100% agave)

.75 oz. lime juice

.75 oz. pear-ple-sec

nice but not the most memorable. the aromas seem hard glean with such distracting gustatory features... maybe i need to experiment with less dryness.

[KD1191]

2 oz Leopold Bros. Gin

1 oz Cynar

1 oz Grapefruit Juice

1/4 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 oz Bittercube Grapefruit Cordial (not unsweet, but definitely bitter, Campari is about the only mainstream product that comes close)

Shaken and strained into a glass rinsed with Elixir Vegetal, a grapefruit swath expressed and discarded.

This is quite refreshing and delicious. It's taking inspiration from a couple places. I've been wanting to combine grapefruit and Cynar since having a spectacular branzino served with a caper/grapefruit sauce a few months back. The Elixir was a late addition, partially due to the wonderful way I recall Cynar and Green Chartreuse playing together in the Art of Choke, but mostly because when I tasted it prior to straining I didn't think the drink had enough going on aromatically. That probably could have been corrected by choosing a bolder gin, but Leopold Bros. is one of my favorites, and it has some interesting notes (Pomelo, Cardamom) that are really quite nice with both the grapefruit and Cynar.

[rarerollingobject]

Aperol and prosecco.. perfect for a hot Sydney day. The slight dryness of the Aperol (blood orange and rhubarb notes) cuts the sweetness of the prosecco just enough to be seriously refreshing.

[bostonapothecary]

1 oz. ransom old tom gin

1 oz. lustau dry amontillado

1 oz. carpano antica formula

barspoon hiram walker kirshwasser

finally got a bottle of the ransom old tom gin. i put off trying it for quite a while because i have a hard time rapping my head around premixing sugar in gin. i did try to measure the sugar and found that is pretty near negligible. maybe even 30g/l which is near the margin of error of the testing method so its really hard to be confident. basically the sugar isn't going to make or break your drink so you can throw caution to the wind and let the aromas fly.

spectacular!

[mkayahara]

Lately I've been working with a 5-spice honey syrup (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, star anise) that was left over from Christmas. After making a few Derby Daiquiris with it, and a couple of small rum punches, I've been settling into whisky sours, last night with Redbreast (and some Regan's orange bitters), but tonight was money:

2 oz. Bell's blended Scotch

1 oz. lemon juice

3/4 oz. 5-spice honey syrup

2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Honey, lemon, Scotch, Peychaud's... they all came together as a beautiful whole.

(I've still got a lot of honey syrup left, though, so I'd love to hear other suggestions about how to use it up!)