Drinks! 2014 (Part 1)

[Hassouni]

After graciously giving me samples of all his odder stash, Señor Rafa made be a Man Comes Around, to prove that Fernet isn't necessarily awful.  Very good drink - couldn't taste the Fernet 

[Rafa]

Hass didn't spit it out and throw my glass against the wall in disgust, so I'll count that a victory.

[Hassouni]

Weren't you hoping I would?

[Rafa]

Would you say that after that drink you.................................................................................................................................................................... came around to Fernet

[Hassouni]

Only if I can't tell it's there!

[FrogPrincesse]

Is there a cocktail named the TMI? If not, I think we need one asap.

 

Last night, an unremarkable cocktail, falsely advertised as a Negroni alternative. The Un-Usual Suspect with gin (Perry's Tot), grapefruit juice, lemon juice, Drambuie, honey syrup, (not enough) Fernet-Branca, Angostura bitters.

 

At the least the gin was good, but there was way too much juice in there.

 

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I finally got around to enjoying the hallelujah cocktail, Max Bilgray, by way of Charles H. Baker Jr.

 

1 oz FP

3/4 oz Whistlepig (here rum is also an option)

1 1/2 oz Carpano Antica

4 drops lime juice (I used just a tad more)

1/2 teaspoon grenadine (more or less)

 

 

Not bad, not bad at all, basically a fancy manhattan variation...while listening to Pete Seeger singing Aimee Semple McPherson, the preacher in whose honor the drink and the song are named.

[Hassouni]

FP? Fernet Pranca? Che?

[Plantes Vertes]

Based on this I thought it might be how you write Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao post-Hallelujah, although I see that doesn't make much sense from the KC recipe...

Edited May 21, 2014 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I'm guessing Pierre Ferrand cognac (rather than dry curacao).

[Plantes Vertes]

Doh.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Yes, sorry for too much shorthand!  By "FP" I meant Pierre Ferrand 1840 Original Formula.

[ChrisTaylor]

A Negroni made with Maidenii vermouth. I accidentally bought the 'original' variant, which sits in an awkward-but-pleasant place between sweet and dry. Trying it in various things. The Negroni works okay, altho' it's dominated by Campari in a way Punt e Mes or Dolin wouldn't be.

[EvergreenDan]

1 oz FrogPrincess

....

[lesliec]

I should think the more FrogPrincesse the better.  But we digress ...

 

Last night I fancied something simple but different and went for a White Negroni - equal parts gin (Colonel Hawthorne's finest), Suze and Carpano blanco, on a big rock with a slice of lemon zest.  Very nice.

 

What is it about the Negroni that makes it still a good drink if you change two (or more?) of the three ingredients?

[FrogPrincesse]

Leslie - flattery will get you everywhere...

 

Back on topic - I could not resist an Army and Navy with my fresh batch of (walnut) orgeat. I used toasted pecan bitters to stay with the nut theme. Perry's Tot for the navy theme.

 

Very nice, although I still prefer the Junipero - Angostura bitters version.

 

 

[Hassouni]

No photos, but I think I finally nailed the recipe for the Shi Salbeh, aka "Lebanese Bee's Knees". This D Parker gin is really magic stuff, I can basically drink it neat at room temperature and enjoy it

 

Undisclosed amount Dorothy Parker Gin 

1 oz of secret citrus

1/4 oz honey

2 drops special aromatic mix

 

Anyone wanting to try it will have to head down to DC!

 

 

 

(Sorry for the secrecy, but I'm trying to establish a bar using these proprietary recipes!)

Edited May 23, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[eldereno]

Had a cocktail that the bartender recommended at a local restaurant that was a French cocktail translated to mean "Big eye" or beautiful eye" (I don't remember).  I do remember that it contained a rye whiskey or another whiskey, cognac, benedictine.  Any help here?  I'd like to find the cocktail and make it at home.

[Hassouni]

Grand oeil or bel oeil?

 

Whisky and cognac together comes up with:

 

Cock n Bull Special 

 

de La Louisiane

 

Vieux Carré

[Plantes Vertes]

Yeux Carrés

 

One to sip in front of the TV.

Edited May 24, 2014 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[lesliec]

Another Rafa special last night (well, somebody has to make the things, if only to keep him happy) - the Montresor & Fortunato:

 

 

Mezcal, Cynar, Amontillado sherry, St Germain and orange bitters with a slice of lemon zest.  Maybe not quite up there with The Man Comes Around - no Fernet in it, for starters - but another good one.  The nuttiness of the sherry comes in quite late in each sip, and lingers.  It was worth buying the bottle.

 

When he posted this on Kindred last month I commented that there must be potential for a whole series drinks themed on Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems.  Rafa, the scoundrel, immediately came back with a bunch of ideas.  Who else is in?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The man who apologised to his publisher for how much he drank, yes?  Poe, I mean, not Rafa.

 

It is warm tonight and I made up a batch of Mississippi punch.  Much better scant on sugar.  I used two level teaspoons.  I confess I did not wash the shaker after tonight's daiquiris...not that arrack is worried much by Cana Brava.  Though now I need more arrack.

 

2 oz FP

1 oz S&C

1/2 oz arrack

2 teaspoons sugar

juice of slightly more than 1/2 lemon

 

 

For fifty some years I have wanted to use "The French army had entered Toledo."  I am working on it.

 

The French army (quite seriously) marched right past my apartment complex, which is why this is a National Historic Trail.  And in another century Napoleon's brother Joseph (after he was tossed out of Toledo) lived not far from here.

 

 

[mkayahara]

Another Rafa special last night (well, somebody has to make the things, if only to keep him happy) - the Montresor & Fortunato:

 

Fortunato.jpg

 

Mezcal, Cynar, Amontillado sherry, St Germain and orange bitters with a slice of lemon zest.  Maybe not quite up there with The Man Comes Around - no Fernet in it, for starters - but another good one.  The nuttiness of the sherry comes in quite late in each sip, and lingers.  It was worth buying the bottle.

Made one of these tonight, except it was only as I came here to mention that fact that I realized I had forgotten the elderflower liqueur. Even without, it was a delicious drink, though I'm apt to say that of nearly anything containing amontillado. A little shadowy, smoky and brooding. I killed one bottle of mezcal making this one, but fortunately I have a second bottle in reserve, so I'll be sure to revisit this... and include all the ingredients this time!

[lesliec]

Matt, if you liked that you'll probably also enjoy the Teenage Riot, which we had the next night.  Rye, Cynar, amontillado, dry vermouth, orange bitters.

 

Really good, but very grown-up.  You'll see.

 

I also find myself mezcal-less, but with no reserve.  You've prompted me to do something about that.

[Rafa]

^^Agreed, that's an excellent drink, as is the similar Doe's Path.

 

 

Made one of these tonight, except it was only as I came here to mention that fact that I realized I had forgotten the elderflower liqueur. Even without, it was a delicious drink, though I'm apt to say that of nearly anything containing amontillado. A little shadowy, smoky and brooding. I killed one bottle of mezcal making this one, but fortunately I have a second bottle in reserve, so I'll be sure to revisit this... and include all the ingredients this time!

 

Thank you. I originally made it as a three ingredient drink (mezcal, Cynar, Amontillado) but thought it lacked cohesion (hence the bitters) and needed a little bit of sweetness to make the flavors pop (hence the liqueur, which had the added effect of lightening the brooding flavors, a trick I nicked from bostonapothecary's beautiful Alto Cucina). Trying it now, though, without the bitters or elderketchup, I find it works quite nicely. Even time can do good things to you.

 

Let us not ignore the pressing matter at hand, however. No one has yet risen to Colonel Hawthorne's challenge, the good colonel, I am sad to say, very much included. Who among us will make a drink fit for a Poe? Certainly you, Leslie, given the Baltimore Bard's standing as a proto-steampunk (they just called it "punk" then) scribbler?