Drinks (2009–2011)

[thirtyoneknots]

Tasted the 17 yr Eagle Rare tonight for the first time (I think the current, ie 2010, release). Found it quite forgettable, no bite and a hollow midpalate. A rare miss from the folks at Buffalo Trace.

[Flavors of Brazil]

Here in Brazil, all supermarkets sell small frozen packets of fruit pulp - no sugar, no sweeteners, no preservatives. Just pure pulped fruit, and meant to be popped into the blender with water to create fruit juices. The variety is enormous - guava, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, tangerine, lime, graviola, acerola, açaí, caju, cajá and on and on.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try blending one of these packets of pulp, undiluted, with a good shot of cachaça in an attempt to create a frozen caipifruta. It worked marvelously, and has become my new favorite quick cocktail. I'm slowly working my way through the variety of fruits. Some particular favorites so far are tangerine and passion fruit. Maravilhoso!

Note: some fruits do require the addition of sugar to taste.

[eclip5e]

1.5oz Gin (Hendricks)

1oz Dry vermouth (M&R)

2 dash Angostura

Lemon zest

Simple and refreshing.

Edited December 6, 2010 by eclip5e (log)

[KatieLoeb]

I think I strained my back moving some furniture. I'm being lazy and sipping some Michael Collins Irish Whiskey over a cube. It's definitely helping.

[Chris Amirault]

You're making me want to lift a couch there, Katie....

[bostonapothecary]

1.5 oz. st. james ambre

1. oz. constelacao licor de cafe from the island of madeira

1.5 oz. unpasteurized milk form a local farm

god bless our local portuguese spirit importers for offering a killer coffee liquor for $8.49 retail. this was supposed to resemble a white russian and worked out fairly well. though i think i should have reached for a silenter spirit... the milk is unpasteurized but i think still homogenized. long story short, it didn't have the gamey, grassy aromas i was hoping for.

if it was gamey and grassy, a silenter spirit might let the terroir of the milk express itself better... and if it wasn't (or i wanted some alliteration of aromas) karlsson's gold new potato vodka (which smells slightly "truffled") might be just the thing to create the umami aromatic tension of my dreams...

[Kohai]

Two unique ones, neither of which have names yet.

Rye Negroni #2*

1 oz. Rittenhouse 100

1 oz. Campari

2-3 oz. Bells Two-Hearted Ale

3 dashes orange bitters

Build on a big piece of ice in a rocks glass.

Whew! The Two-Hearted jazzes this thing up like crazy, giving it effervescence, zip and lightness. I could easily down a few of these. I want to try it with anejo tequila instead of rye next.

Angostura Flip*

1 oz. Angostura

.75 oz. Licor 43

1.5 oz. Rittenhouse 100 (or most any other whiskey, I suppose)

whole egg

Preshake without egg, shake with egg, strain, etc. You know the deal.

This is pure Christmas in a glass - and extremely easy-drinking at that. The Angostura is tempered nicely by the whole egg.

* Yes, yes - of course. It's not really a rye negroni any more than it's a pina colada sub whiskey for rum, campari for pineapple and beer for coconut. Just as the Angostura flip could also be a Licor 43 Flip or a Rittenhouse Flip. The placeholder names are references to where I started from, not where I ended up. (I wish I didn't feel obligated to add this aside but I feel the Watchers' eyes upon me and wish to nip nitpicking in the bud.)

[KD1191]

A Van Winkle Family Reserve Manhattan...can't wait to get to the Buffalo Trace cherry at the bottom.

[KD1191]

Angostura Flip*

1 oz. Angostura

.75 oz. Licor 43

1.5 oz. Rittenhouse 100 (or most any other whiskey, I suppose)

whole egg

Preshake without egg, shake with egg, strain, etc. You know the deal.

This is pure Christmas in a glass - and extremely easy-drinking at that. The Angostura is tempered nicely by the whole egg.

There's something special about Rittenhouse with large quantities of Angostura...try it with maple.

[ChrisTaylor]

Tariquet VSOP

[brinza]

A friend stopped over lasr night and brought me a little jug of fresh maple syrup. We decided to make a Brown Derby cocktail, from the CocktailDB. Then we made another. And then we made another. They were that good.

First iteration:

1 1/2 oz Flor de Caña 7 year.

1 oz lime juice

1 tsp maple syrup

We found this a little too tart, so we added more maple. Then it was very good.

Second iteration:

1 oz Mount Gay Sugar Cane Rum

1/2 oz Cruzan Black Strap

3/4 oz lime juice

2 tsp maple syrup

This was excellent. There is no third iteration, because we repeated the second version.

[KatieLoeb]

Bedtime nightcap of the last few evenings has been thus:

1 bag Stash White Christmas Tea steeped in 8 oz. boiling water

1 oz. Ginger-Lemon syrup

1 tsp. honey

2 oz. spiced rum or cognac (depending on my mood)

Delicious, warming, soothing and just enough to relax me before climbing into the sack. I'll definitely be enjoying these all winter.

[Chris Amirault]

Had some leftover pineapple syrup after a workshop that included a Regent's Punch last night, so I made a Saratoga per this cocktaildb recipe:

2 oz Hennessy VS

1/4 oz pineapple syrup

1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino

2 dashes Angostura

Excellent -- though I wanted to get home right quick and try it with Adam's Bokers bitters.

[bostonapothecary]

2 oz. agavales 100% agave blanco ($27/1.75L)

1 oz. lemon juice

lump of "panela", "100% brown sugar cane" from columbia

dash bittermen's mole bitters

agavales is darn good considering the price. they must be bottling other producers surpluses. the aroma leaves nothing to be desired. i bought the loaf sugar so that i could rub citrus peels against it, but it doesn't seem to be coarse enough to capture a lot of oil. the sugar does on the other hand have a potent stewed greenness that is pretty cool in the tart context of all the drink's lemon juice.

an awesome low budget eye-opener. huge acidity and umami aromas contrasting significant gustatory sweetness are the parameters for my favorite acquired tastes...

[squirrel]

First post here ... I run a bar in Brisbane City called the Villager and I've been having a play around with a few things.

20ml Antica Formula

20ml Havana 7

20ml Domain de Canton

20ml Pineapple juice

Dash Ango Oranhe

Dash Fee Bro Aztec Choc

Shake and double strain into champagne saucer

Also

30ml Plymouth Sloe

15ml Plymouth Navy

Half Passionfruit

20ml Pineapple juice

10ml Massenez Peach

Shake and double strain into champagne saucer

[Chris Amirault]

Welcome, squirrel! What does "half" mean in that second drink? Literally half a passion fruit? So luxurious if so....

[squirrel]

Just half of the pulp from a fresh passionfruit ... love seasonal ingredients.

Oh and another, this was my Diageo World Class Entry for the Season Cocktail component.

Seasonal Vespa

20ml Tanq 10

20ml Ketel One Citroen

20ml Cherry infused Lillet

Dash Ango Orange Bitters

Garnish with grapefruit caviar (spherification)

[Chris Amirault]

After thinking a lot about gateway drinks the last several days for the MxMo, I decided to try out something quirkier.

1 oz Ransom Old Tom gin

1 oz Laird's BIB apple brandy

-1/2 oz demerara syrup

1/4 oz Cherry Heering

1/2 t Ardbeg 10 scotch

5 drops Regan's orange bitters

Stir all but bitters; strain; bitters on top.

If I had an orange, I'd twist a very small garnish. Or maybe not. It's delicious. It needs a name.

[JAZ]

Tommy Appleseed?

[Chris Amirault]

That's genius.

[vice]

I made this last night with Hayman's in place of Ransom. Great, great drink. I was blown away by how insanely floral it was. They whiskey fiend in me is tempted to double the scotch, but I fear doing so might cause everything to come crashing down. As it is, whisps of smoke and iodine linger in the background, barely insinuating themselves. The subtlety is definitely key.

I recall Hayman's being sweeter than Ransom. If I made it with the former again, I think I'd tweak that scant 1/2 oz down to a 1/4. I bet it's awesome with Ransom; I really need to pick up a bottle (better yet, for those who have yet to get me anything, here's a reminder that there are nine shopping days left til Christmas...)

[Chris Amirault]

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.

[bostonapothecary]

from last night...

"gilgamesh"

.75 oz. aguardente de medronhos (nova)

.75 oz. M&R rose vermouth

.75 oz. cynar

.75 oz. lime juice

i make this drink quite a bit, but usually with mezcal or tequila. the uniqueness of the strawberry tree (arbousier) brandy makes this variation quite memorable. the fairly low alcohol nature of the drink might be what magnifies the aroma of the brandy so much.

i've always found it hard to pay attention to a beautiful woman and my drink at the same time. my attention always defaults to a blond rendering most anything i drink as innocuous as a vodka & cranberry juice. my love of this drink has grown immensely because it is so far from innocuous and begs me to multi task while i chat up a gorgeous woman.

huge gustatory acidity, gustatory bitterness, tons of unclassified aromas. an epic acquired taste!

[ChrisTaylor]

Having a bit of shiraz recently. For my graduation my girlfriend and I opened a $60 bottle of Dalwhinnie '08. It was nice. $60 worth of nice? No. I've never paid that much for wine before and I can't see myself doing it any time soon. I don't think the jump from my usual $20-25 was anywhere near as huge as the jump from $10-15 to $20-25. Then again, I mean, I'm much less of a wine drinker than I am a beer/cider/spirits drinker. I've thrown down $100 on a cognac and felt I got my money's worth. I'd probably spend $60 on a couple of very nice Belgian beers. Have done so before, even, with the French 3 Monts. Wine, though? I feel like a bit of a sauvage Anglais, but no.

Last night's Tahbilk '05 was okay. Nowhere near as nice as their '08. Realising, tho', I should probably shift away from shiraz and move back to merlot and pinot noir, both of which I enjoy more--altho' yet to find a truly good merlot in my price range.

[bostonapothecary]

a collins for a shiny coat

2 oz. olive oil infused gin (simple fat washing with evoo and seagrams 1:1)

1 oz. lemon juice

spoonful of sugar

soda water

no bitters, no aromatic sugars, no top notes from twists or anything else to obscure the fruity aromas the olive oil contributes to the gin.

cheap thrills.