Drinks! 2014 (Part 1)

[Plantes Vertes]

My housemate has a broken heart so we selected some Hocus Pocusses for medicinal reasons:

2oz gin

3/4oz Carpano Antica Formula

3/4oz orange curaçao

1/8oz Fernet Branca

Stir, orange peel garnish

Agreed they're good for what ails you.

[KD1191]

Found this one searching this forum for Ramazzotti. It was cited y the OP as coming from a poster on straightboubron.com. Would love to know if anyone has more info on it.

The Front Street

Not much else to tell...looks like it was posted on LTHForum shortly after StraightBourbon, by someone with the same handle. The name appears to be an homage to the main drag in Mokena, IL, a far SW suburb of Chicago.

[FrogPrincesse]

My housemate has a broken heart so we selected some Hocus Pocusses for medicinal reasons:

2oz gin

3/4oz Carpano Antica Formula

3/4oz orange curaçao

1/8oz Fernet Branca

Stir, orange peel garnish

003 (480x640).jpg

Agreed they're good for what ails you.

So this is like a Hanky Panky with curaçao? Most recipes I could find for the Hocus Pocus, like this one in CocktailDB, are just gin, lemon, and cointreau (no sweet vermouth or Fernet), aka a White Lady.

As long as it works to soothe your roommate's sorrows...

[Plantes Vertes]

Yes, it's a hybrid Hanky Panky-White Lady created by Cocktail Collective for the Forty-Four bar in New York. I can't now find the article where I read about it but here is something about the bar with a mention of the drink plus some others from the original menu.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

Yes, it's a hybrid Hanky Panky-White Lady created by Cocktail Collective for the Forty-Four bar in New York. I can't now find the article where I read about it but here is something about the bar with a mention of the drink plus some others from the original menu.

I was able to find it with the name of the bar. Here. It's a creation by Misty Kalkofen.

[tanstaafl2]

Found this one searching this forum for Ramazzotti. It was cited y the OP as coming from a poster on straightboubron.com. Would love to know if anyone has more info on it.

The Front Street

2 Oz Rittenhouse Rye

0.5 Oz Vya Sweet Vermouth(Cinzano)

0.5 Oz Ramazzotti

0.25 Oz Maraschino

Stir, strain, up.

A really lovely drink. The basic Manhattan structure is so flexible, and so rarely a failure. Maybe a tich sweet, but I can handle that with rich, bitter concoctions

From "CrispyCritter" on StraightBourbon.com

Tonight, I picked up a bottle of Amaro Ramazzotti. After having a taste of it (very herbalized orange flavor, and to me it seems a wee bit smoky as well), the wheels started turning. Quick checks of Drinkboy and CocktailDB found absolutely nothing.

Aside from being 30% ABV, it's nothing at all like Campari. It didn't seem like something to use with gin, and then I realized that rye seemed more in line with Ramazzoti's profile.

Here's what I came up with (measured portions, but the amounts to use were guesstimated):

The Front Street

1-1/2 oz. Rittenhouse BIB rye (other ryes should work well)

1/2 oz. Amaro Ramazzotti

1/2 oz. Vya red vermouth (other high-quality red vermouth)

1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur (I've never found anything other than Luxardo here)

Stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with a cherry.

It turned out to be spot-on. Very complex, some sweetness, some spiciness, a bitter edge to it, and it was almost smoky as well. I tried a second version with 3/4 oz. of Ramazzotti, and it was OK, but 1/2 oz. is better - when more is used, it starts to dominate.

I named it after what was historically the main street in my town, before it became an ultra-suburbanized mess of curly streets that go nowhere.

Posted in August 2007. I don't know CrispyCritter so other than the fact he lists his location as the Chicago burbs which is already mentioned I can't provide any further details. Doesn't appear he has posted on SB in about a year.

[lesliec]

As promised, Rafa's Bulwer-Lytton:

Nice. Quite light and refreshing; I was surprised how the Earl Grey-infused Lighthouse gin subdued the Bundaberg ginger beer. No lavender bitters so I used a squirt of Angostura, and some of a rather good local lime cordial instead of a real lime. We'll do this again on a warm day.

Then we decided to dress up in full steampunkery (because we could) and head out to the Hawthorn Lounge, which we have unilaterally declared the Official Bar of Wellington Steampunk. It was necessary to begin with a Rusty Automaton, which we have unilaterally declared the Official Cocktail etc. etc:

The Hawthorn used some of their own cherry brandy in place of the Cherry Heering and it worked very well, with a nice lingering cherryness.

The box on the right is my steampunked version of this. Mine stands on elephant's feet, has an elephant's tail round the back (best place for it) and the switch turner-offer is an elephant's trunk. The elephant, I regret to say, did not long survive this transformation. And of course that's my pith helmet and spooky goggles in the background.

[mkayahara]

And of course that's my pith helmet and spooky goggles in the background.

Oh thank goodness. For a second there, I thought it was a Dalek. (Wait; wrong fandom?)

[lesliec]

Wait; wrong fandom?

Not really. Matt Smith's TARDIS was very steampunk.

Edited January 31, 2014 by lesliec (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Cold whiskey punch (Imbibe! p104). Two of them, using McKenzie for the rye -- three wine glassesful -- plus Appleton 12 for the rum component. For the second batch I confess I free-poured, and rather than mix sugar and water to make syrup, I simply added in some gum. The result was a little sweet, but by that time I can't say it really mattered. They sure were good.

[ChrisTaylor]

J-whisky sour. See: 2 oz Nikka from the barrel, .75 oz lemon juice, .5 -- too much -- simple and a dash of Angostura.

[ChrisTaylor]

Another whisky sour: this time with Ballantine's/less simple/Jerry Thomas' decanter bitters. Was gifted the Ballantine's. Never had it before. Makes for a workable sour.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

what about Brugal?

How shit is your shop? Flor de Caña is ubiquitous....

I think I saw something called Brugal. What's it like?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Coming down with a cold tonight: Trinidad Sour.

[Plantes Vertes]

Today we tried a Moonshine from the Savoy book. Horrible.

3 parts gin

2 parts dry vermouth

1 part maraschino

Drop absinthe bitters

I scaled back the maraschino, used absinthe instead of absinthe bitters and increased the quantity of absinthe. The result looked and tasted quite foul, somehow like rotten vegetables. The absinthe really threw its weight around and the drink was dismal and upsetting.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[Hassouni]

what about Brugal?

How shit is your shop? Flor de Caña is ubiquitous....

I think I saw something called Brugal. What's it like?

Not quite as molasses-y as Palo Viejo or smooth as FdC, it's a solid, dry white rum that is still identifiable as rum (as opposed to say, Batshitcardi), and if it came down to that or Appleton white, Matusalem white, El Dorado white, Mount Gay white, Barbancourt white, or most other whites, Brugal would be my pick for "Cuban style" white rum in the absence of the first two mentioned.

If you don't find Brugal white (there is now a "special dry" or something that costs more, which is also white), and they have Don Q, that'll do as well - it's the biggest selling rum in Puerto Rico, for what that's worth (ask Rafa!)

Many white rums are nearly indistinguishable from vodka, and many others have too much molasses character (because in many case they are aged then filtered to remove color) and while nice in their own right, don't really work for cocktails devised around pre-Fidel Bacardi or "Cuban-style" rum.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[lesliec]

Many white rums are nearly indistinguishable from vodka

Give me Wray & Nephew, or give me death.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Many white rums are nearly indistinguishable from vodka, and many others have too much molasses character (because in many case they are aged then filtered to remove color) and while nice in their own right, don't really work for cocktails devised around pre-Fidel Bacardi or "Cuban-style" rum.

I thought Bacardi filtered his rum going back to the mid nineteenth century?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Many white rums are nearly indistinguishable from vodka

Give me Wray & Nephew, or give me death.

W&N, what a sweet and pleasant way to go. At the moment I find myself febrile, flushed, and shaking uncontrollably -- though I doubt, in this case, the cause is delirium tremens. However I fear no rum run for me for a while.

(I once saw someone suffering from DT, and I don't mean to make light of it, but at the moment I don't feel well at all.)

[Hassouni]

Many white rums are nearly indistinguishable from vodka, and many others have too much molasses character (because in many case they are aged then filtered to remove color) and while nice in their own right, don't really work for cocktails devised around pre-Fidel Bacardi or "Cuban-style" rum.

I thought Bacardi filtered his rum going back to the mid nineteenth century?

I presume you mean aged, then filtered - a lot of liquor is chill-filtered, which is something else. Facundo Bacardi may have done the age and filter thing (no idea if so), but pre-revolution Bacardi was an entirely different product. Today's Bacardi may also be, but I HIGHLY doubt it. The shit might as well be rubbing alcohol.

Also, even in the age-and-filter rums, I don't know how much color there is to filter out. 10 year un-colored scotches for example, are quite pale. Añejo 3 Años from Havana Club is a very pale straw color. In Puerto Rico, rum MUST be aged minimum 1 year, but 1 year isn't going to put that much color on anyway.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Hassouni (log)

[Rafa]

I believe HC filters most of the color out of its white(ish) añejo after aging, similar to what El Dorado does with its 3 year offering. I don't think it's possible for a spirit to see three years of wood and not take on a lot more color in a climate like Cuba's, unless it's aged in huge Calvados-style barrels with minimum wood contact (which I don't think is the case).

I second everything Hassouni says about Brugal and the other Cuban-style whites, which incidentally is how the government listed my ethnicity on the most recent census.

[Hassouni]

Cuban-style white?

[FrogPrincesse]

J-whisky sour. See: 2 oz Nikka from the barrel, .75 oz lemon juice, .5 -- too much -- simple and a dash of Angostura.

Sounds good. Do you know how Nikka from the Barrel compares to the rest of their line?

Here are a few more Japanese whisky cocktails that I made during my trip (continued from here).

Chocker variation with single malt Miyagikyo (10 years), gomme syrup, Boker's bitters, St. George absinthe. Really wonderful.

Whisky Daisy (dry curaçao, lemon) and Gold Rush (dogwood honey, lemon) with Taketsuru Pure Malt (12 years).

[Plantes Vertes]

Did you really take a cosmetics atomiser full of curaçao on your holidays?

[FrogPrincesse]

Did you really take a cosmetics atomiser full of curaçao on your holidays?

Of course I did, together with absinthe, bitters, jigger, etc. Travel essentials!