Drinks! (2013 Part 2)

[Rafa]

Flog away.

[Hassouni]

What bottling of Lemon Hart is that???

[ChrisTaylor]

A rum Old Fashioned with a slight twist:

2 oz Smith & Cross rum

1/2 oz Cruzan blackstrap rum

3/4 oz demerara pineapple syrup

2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl bitters

Making Regents Punch for Thanksgiving. Boy, it's great having pineapple syrup around the house....

My take on this:

2 oz Smith & Cross

0.5 oz aged Cruzan

Something like 0.5 oz demerara syrup

2 dashes Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole bitters

1 dash Scrappy's cardamom bitters

Having downed this I mixed a Ti Punch with La Favorite. Now. I'm thinking. Batavia arrack. A Batavia arrack Ti Punch. Yes or yes?

EDIT

So here we are. I thought it should be called an In Punch. haresfur suggested an Arr Punch. Then he said, oh, yeah, pirates ... Indonesia ... nah. But, hey, modern day pirates in SE Asia. I'm not sure about this one. The opening is nice but the finish is a bit much. A bit assertive. I used a bit more demerara and citrus than I normally would.

EDIT 2

As the ice works its magic, I think the Arrack variant fucking works. You just need to give it a right proper rest.

Edited November 29, 2013 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Plantes Vertes]

My drink today was six Martinis.

Well, OK, I had help. My housemate and I made a comparison of the three St George's gins. Being an assertive fellow, he preferred the peppery Rye, whereas I am, er, more herbaceous, and enjoyed the vegetal, fir-tree flavours of Terroir.

ET Get it right.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[haresfur]

Has to be Arr Punch.

[FrogPrincesse]

My drink today was six Martinis.

004 (640x334).jpg

Well, OK, I had help. My housemate and I made a comparison of the three St George's gins. Being an assertive fellow, he preferred the peppery Rye, whereas I am, er, more herbaceous, and enjoyed the vegetal, fir-tree flavours of Terroir.

ET Get it right.

Plantes Vertes,

Nice work. Our tastebuds are alike - my favorite in a Martini is the Terroir too. The dry rye is great for Negronis.

[FrogPrincesse]

Today for lunch I got to finally try a new restaurant in my neighborhood, Luce. Comfortable & unpretentious place.

I had a refreshing Gin Gin Mule with Plymouth gin which balanced some of the richness in my lamb shank tacos. AleSmith nut brown ale in the background.

Tonight: something bitter for me, a Hanky Panky (Ada Coleman) (Beefeater, Cocchi vermouth di Torino, Fernet-Branca)

...and something sweet for him, a Corpse Reviver No. 1 (PF 1840 cognac, Daron calvados, Cocchi vermouth di Torino, Angostura bitters, brandied cherry).

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Here is my Daiquiri from tonight. First image I have tried to post, and before I got the picture taken the drink had warmed up a bit.

[Plantes Vertes]

That's a gorgeous picture.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

That's a gorgeous picture.

Thank you, it was a lovely Daiquiri too! I was thinking about following it with a mai tai, but I have to be at work this morning.

[Plantes Vertes]

My drink today was six Martinis.

004 (640x334).jpg

Well, OK, I had help. My housemate and I made a comparison of the three St George's gins. Being an assertive fellow, he preferred the peppery Rye, whereas I am, er, more herbaceous, and enjoyed the vegetal, fir-tree flavours of Terroir.

ET Get it right.

Plantes Vertes,

Nice work. Our tastebuds are alike - my favorite in a Martini is the Terroir too. The dry rye is great for Negronis.

:highfive: Great minds drink alike.

I love the Dry Rye too, though, and I'm sure its vigour will be perfect in a Negroni.

Really have to ration these gins now or I'll become (yet more) spoilt. No more until December at least

Edited November 30, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[Plantes Vertes]

That's a gorgeous picture.

Thank you, it was a lovely Daiquiri too! I was thinking about following it with a mai tai, but I have to be at work this morning.

Stupid work. Incidentally, your lime looks about three times the size of a UK one, and a lot healthier. I imagine that makes a big difference in drinks; ours are like blood from a stone that doesn't want to give blood.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Limes here are ridiculously large these days, and easily give two ounces of juice. Note the size of the lime juicer in the foreground, which with these limes is useful only as a photo prop. I'd like to find some key limes, which are much smaller, but those are hard to come by.

And now I really ought to go to sleep.

[ChrisTaylor]

Ha. A Hanky Panky. I had one tonight. Bartender made it with rye instead of teeth.

[bostonapothecary]

.75 oz. aguarddente de Medronhos ("strawberry" tree brandy)

.75 oz. cocchi americano

.75 oz. danzig goldwasser

.75 oz. die hochland imker, chestnut blossom & honey dew mead

.75 oz. lime juice

five equal parts to make something somewhat resembling a corpse reviver. the goldwasser brings both orange and inflections of anise. I was hoping that the chestnut mead would create an extraordinary tonal effect and it was right on. the drink is great but by no means a masterpiece. if anything, it just illustrates how wonderful mead can be when crammed into a cocktail.

I think now I should re-sugar the mead to resemble cocchi (maybe 185 g/L of sugar or so) then try it in some four equal parts templates. it could be blasphemy, hackery, or whatever, but I am just looking for extraordinary sources of aroma.

[bostonapothecary]

.75 oz. gin (mix of aged citadelle and unaged citadelle from ancient sample bottles)

.75 oz. die hochland imker, chestnut blossom & honey dew mead (flower & sap)

.75 oz. cape verdean orange liqueur (20% alc. estimated 400 g/L sugar)

.75 oz. lime juice

bar spoonful yerba mate / sloe berry absinthe

the chestnut mead could be sugared similarly to lillet or cocchi by adding 5 grams of sugar and topping up to an ounce, but I didn't even have any 40% alc. real deal triple-sec so I didn't bother. the cape verdean stuff is low alc. and has a very high sugar content so I figured it had enough to support the dry mead and maintain a good average. I used lime because it was all I had.

this worked out particularly well. and the chestnut character is predominant and beautiful. I loved playing with sherry years ago and solving the riddles of using the various kinds in beautiful contexts, but now it is mead's turn.

[tanstaafl2]

.75 oz. aguarddente de Medronhos ("strawberry" tree brandy)

Is this the same as Brandymel? Or would that be too pedestrian?

Not that I am likely to find the die hochland imker mead just lying around! Is there a reasonably available substitutue mead for that?

[tanstaafl2]

.75 oz. aguarddente de Medronhos ("strawberry" tree brandy)

Is this the same as Brandymel? Or would that be too pedestrian?

Not that I am likely to find the die hochland imker mead just lying around! Is there a reasonably available substitutue mead for that?

Hmm, wiki says Brandymel is the aguadente sweetened with honey. So perhaps it is not a good substitute unless it can sub for the mead?

Edited November 30, 2013 by tanstaafl2 (log)

[Hassouni]

Right, so, did another pop up yesterday, offering these drinks:

Regent's Punch

(lemon and orange oleosaccharum + juices, pineapple syrup, sencha, Hennessey + Kyrgyzstani cognac, S&C, W&N + Dillon agricole for the arrack, and Crémant de Bourgogne)

Infante

(Camarena reposado + homemade orgeat)

Spiced apple old fashioned

(cinnamon syrup, Laird's bonded, a few shakes of Regan's orange bitters and one shake of Angostura, with grated nutmeg garnish)

Turc Noir/Blanc

(this one is my secret, but think Levantine spin on a Black/White Russian [and no vodka, either]. One guest described it as "tasting like the Middle East" and another said she was "waiting for the mud at the bottom of the cup" - exactly the reactions I wanted!)

[bostonapothecary]

.75 oz. aguarddente de Medronhos ("strawberry" tree brandy)

Is this the same as Brandymel? Or would that be too pedestrian?

Not that I am likely to find the die hochland imker mead just lying around! Is there a reasonably available substitutue mead for that?

Hmm, wiki says Brandymel is the aguadente sweetened with honey. So perhaps it is not a good substitute unless it can sub for the mead?

I highly regard brandymel but it is just a honey liqueur fortified with the medronhos I speak of. I only have a stash of a few bottles of real deal medronhos that are probably from the late 1990's. medronhos is a moonshine made by old men, untaxed at the point of production, but typically bartered for rent/etc. or so the stories go. it is easily the most extraordinary moonshining tradition of the world but is slowly dying out.

these drinks are just templates so you can really substitute just about anything; spirit for spirit or mead for mead. mead presents little sensory riddles because of its typical lack of acidity so you just can't use it like dry vermouth or your drink will taste bland and "flabby". but strangely when you add acidity and sugar all its aromas get woken up and turbo charged.

[sbumgarner]

Inspired by the aged Aquavit/tiki flavors combo used in a drink I had recently at Pouring Ribbons (Infinite Jest), I tried to incorporate an unaged Aquavit into a somewhat-similar-but-not-really experiment last night:

1 oz Krogstad aquavit (I wanted some of the anise flavor, and this is the only aquavit I currently have)

1 oz reposado tequila (I used El Jimador)

.75 oz lime

.5 oz homemade falernum

.25 oz pineapple shrub

.25 oz PF dry curacao

2 dashes Bittermens tiki bitters

Shake, strain over a big ice cube.

Really spicy and flavorful. A little simple syrup might be nice depending on your mood, but this one hit the spot for me last night.

[Adam George]

I love how that bottle says Artisan, Ultra Premium AND Small Batch.

Busted Buzzwords.

[Rafa]

Inspired by the aged Aquavit/tiki flavors combo used in a drink I had recently at Pouring Ribbons (Infinite Jest), I tried to incorporate an unaged Aquavit into a somewhat-similar-but-not-really experiment last night:

1 oz Krogstad aquavit (I wanted some of the anise flavor, and this is the only aquavit I currently have)

1 oz reposado tequila (I used El Jimador)

.75 oz lime

.5 oz homemade falernum

.25 oz pineapple shrub

.25 oz PF dry curacao

2 dashes Bittermens tiki bitters

Shake, strain over a big ice cube.

Really spicy and flavorful. A little simple syrup might be nice depending on your mood, but this one hit the spot for me last night.

I wasn't a fan of that Pouring Ribbons drink—it just tasted like pineapple and anise to me. Nowhere near as complex or fun as the book it's named after.

Yours seems more interesting. What's in your shrub?

[sbumgarner]

I wasn't a fan of that Pouring Ribbons drink—it just tasted like pineapple and anise to me. Nowhere near as complex or fun as the book it's named after.

Yours seems more interesting. What's in your shrub?

I used this recipe http://mymansbelly.com/2012/07/06/pineapple-cocktail-recipes-get-serious-when-its-a-shrub-cocktail/ - I didn't have cilantro on-hand so I omitted and substituted apple cider vinegar for the coconut vinegar. I've used it a lot more than I thought I would, for instance it makes a good Jungle Bird offshoot ()

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I love how that bottle says Artisan, Ultra Premium AND Small Batch.

Busted Buzzwords.

I can't speak for "Artisan" or "Ultra Premium", but having seen a picture of their still it certainly is "Small Batch". The bottle I'm working on is batch 2, bottle 510. I like Busted Barrel in a Daiquiri. Others are welcome to their opinion.

Tonight I wanted something from a warmer palette. My choice was a fancy rum cocktail, stirred. Garnished with a twist of meyer lemon. Sadly I can't say that I cared for the drink at all:

2 oz Appleton 12

1/2 teaspoon Cointreau

1 teaspoon syrup

2 dashes Angostura

Too sweet. I'd much rather have enjoyed my Appleton neat. It made a pretty picture though.