Drinks! 2015 - 2016

Naftal · May 21, 2015

Thai Tea
60ml milk washed jasmine tea vodka
15ml honey simple syrup
15ml clarified lime juice
salt

very resfreshing.

_john, What is milk washed jasmine tea vodka?

JoNorvelleWalker · May 22, 2015

After all the wonderful recent commotion in the tequila thread I had to try a variation of infante made with mezcal, Vida in this case. Hard to say which agave spirit I liked best. Tequila made for a brighter infante, while mezcal was richer.

KD1191 · May 23, 2015

Sign in the bar advertised a barrel-aged Old Fashioned...when the bartender approached, I pointed at the sign and the following conversation ensued:

Me: Old Fashioned?

Bartender: Brandy or Bourbon?

Me: Bourbon.

Bartender: Sweet, Sour, or Seltzer?

Me: Uh... <quizzically> none of the above?

Oh, Wisconsin...I ended up with a decent, if somewhat bitter, Old Fashioned.

JoNorvelleWalker · May 24, 2015

I'm sitting here with a bottle of poitin, myself.

Craig E · May 28, 2015

With my first bottle of calvados, made a Tantris Sidecar. (Subbed 3/4oz pineapple syrup for the pineapple juice and simple.)

Goodness this is delicious!

JoNorvelleWalker · May 29, 2015

With my first bottle of calvados, made a Tantris Sidecar. (Subbed 3/4oz pineapple syrup for the pineapple juice and simple.)

Goodness this is delicious!

OK, but with the substitutions I employed, not something I would rush out to make again. I used:

1 1/4 oz PF 1840

1/2 oz Laird's bonded (not that I don't stock Calvados)

1/2 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz feste's pineapple gum

1/4 oz yellow V.E.P.

6 drops Jade 1901

On reflection I believe I would prefer any of the spirits by themselves.

Craig E · June 1, 2015

Finally found a more drinkable use for my syrupy date-infused bourbon: a Boulevardier riff:

1 1/2 oz. date-infused white-label Evan Williams bourbon

1 oz. Campari

1 oz. Cocchi Americano (with the idea that sweet vermouth is too redundant with the dates)

Served on rocks with a maraschino cherry garnish.

bostonapothecary · June 2, 2015

I've slowly been getting around to executing ideas I came up with quite a while ago. the idea here is to use some ideas in pectin removal to turn a marmalade or a jam into a liqueur. as alcohol % increases pectin solubility decreases and eventually you can shock the pectin out of solution. my first proof of concept was making an orange liqueur from some marmalade I had and the results were really enjoyable. for high proof spirits, I used the "technical reserve" from industry city distillery in brooklyn. I let it sit blended with the marmalade and after a few days centrifuged it. the resulting liquid I eventually ran through a coffee filter in my Acme centrifugal juicer and I sugared the result of that. it made a pretty spectacular sidecar.

I found some interesting and particularly affordable jams a while back made by the trappist monks at st. josephs abby in spencer mass. these monks had also just built a brewery to make trappist style ales. I think they should be making fruit liqueurs so I thought I'd play with my pectin removal technique and prove that to them:

1 oz. Amrum two indies rum (from both India and the west indies)

1 oz. St. joseph's abbey hopped damson plum gin

1 oz. lime juice

6 grams florida crystals cane sugar

an awesome drink. the spirits used to extract flavor from the jam were an uncut hopped gin from a few years ago, possibly pacific jade hops. the bulk of the pectin was centrifuged away and then it got the coffee filter treatment. I didn't use any enzymes and possibly you could to remove the slight remainder, but I didn't want any of the methanol that is formed as byproduct of breaking up the pectin.

I would love some other people to taste this mock Damson gin. it does lack some concentration that you find in others but sometimes others are also too concentrated. I also didn't add any additional sugar beyond what came through in the process. I'm sure I should make it sweeter.

what I'm hoping to do is inspire all those hipster jam makers in brooklyn (as well as various religious orders) to see their same fruit in a new way and possibly become liqueurists.

this technique shouldn't be the cornerstone of anyone's production (or should it?) and sometimes I just like a scoop of marmalade shaken in my drink, but its handy from time to time to show off a concept. I had used the ideas a few weeks ago to remove excess pectin from Aronia fruit and greenhook gin smith's uses the same concepts to remove pectin from beach plums in their beautiful beach plum gin.

**FrogPrincesse** · June 2, 2015

Revisiting the classics.

10:3:2 Daiquiri with La Mauny rhum agricole

Sazerac with High West Double Rye, gum syrup, Peychaud's and Angostura bitters, St. George absinthe

Sipsmith Martini à la Death & Co with a 2.5:0.75 ratio and Dolin French vermouth, Regan/Fee/Angostura orange bitters.

Moto · June 2, 2015

How does the La Mauny compare to La Favorite and Neisson Rums. Also whats your opinion of the Sipsmith?

**FrogPrincesse** · June 3, 2015

Sipsmith is a traditional London dry, with juniper and citrus as you'd expect. There is some sweetness in the beginning (coriander, almond) and floral notes (orris root), and a juniper/peppery finish. It just tried it side-by-side with Beefeater which has more pronounced juniper and lemon. What I like with Sipsmith is that it has a lot of flavor but also restraint; it's not wild like New World gins. It's good to sip on and makes a fabulous Martini. Gorgeous label too.

Regarding the rhum agricoles, La Mauny is not as amazing as La Favorite or Neisson, but it is only 40%. It's a bit less flavorful and the flavor is less deliciously vegetal, with more burnt rubber notes. I would still take it any day over most molasses-based white rums.

Edited June 3, 2015 by FrogPrincesse (log)

Craig E · June 11, 2015

A lovely green basil gimlet.

JoNorvelleWalker · June 13, 2015

Feeling remorse that I had been neglecting poor, dearest Florodora:

In a well frozen mixing glass I added a tablespoon of raspberry gum over ice, two ounces FP 1840, juice of a lime, and stirred. Carefully filled said mixing glass to brim with hyper-cold MR and drank. (Topping up with ice and other things as needed.)

It's hot here.

And she was, of course, Florodora imperial style.

bostonapothecary · June 13, 2015

introducing the Campari monsters:

1 oz. gin (seagram's)

1 oz. vermouth (M&R)

1 oz. Campari Monster®

Campari Monster®'s are created using nth degree high fidelity abstractions of Campari. Some people might be familiar with Super Campari or Super Aperol, but Campari Monster®'s are a bit more sophisticated. In this example, the volatile fraction of Campari is evaporated leaving behind a water based non-volatile fraction. The sugar in that fraction is fermented with yeasts immobilized in alginate beads. If assembled properly, the immobilized yeasts do not leak so there is less or no yeasty aroma left in the product. You can also ferment with a very high cell load so fermentation is very rapid which is needed in a restaurant scenario. That ethanol can be saved (beast mode) or be evaporated away to reveal a sugar free non-volatile fraction with the high fidelity color and gustatory bitterness of Campari. This abstracted fraction can be reincorporated into the volatile fraction or a complete Campari to up the color and gustatory bitterness. In the case above, the isolated sugar free non-volatile fraction was reincorporated into regular Campari to create a more bitter experience.

Campari monsters can take many forms and near every facet can be manipulated in isolation or a few tandems. Some Campari monsters are carbonated with their own sugars (Immobilized yeasts, and a champagne bottle manifold fitted with a guage to know when to arrest fermentation, and very sophisticated dosage). Some Campari monsters have their sugars swapped for others like Jaggery or Grape Mistelles. Some Campari monsters are Campari crammed into Malört shaped boxes (higher innate alcohol, less sugar, more bitter). To help anyone wrap their heads around it all, if a Campari monster was anthropomorphized, it would resemble a Rat Fink.

Hopefully I don't get excommunicated from the cocktail scene for pursuing this kind of stuff.

Edited June 13, 2015 by bostonapothecary (log)

GarethLangston · June 14, 2015

I wish more people were experimenting with things like this. I certainly would if I had the knowledge or equipment.

Are there other ingredients that could benefit from this process? Chartreuse maybe?

If you ever visit London and happen to bring some of those experiments with you..

bostonapothecary · June 14, 2015

I wish more people were experimenting with things like this. I certainly would if I had the knowledge or equipment.
Are there other ingredients that could benefit from this process? Chartreuse maybe?
If you ever visit London and happen to bring some of those experiments with you..

There is a pretty significant modernist backlash in the drink world. I don't think writers like it very much because it can be challenging to write about and there are no corporate sponsors or free trips. Modernist stuff for some reason gets more associated with science than it does with art which is a shame. I like to be in the art camp and I see a lot of it as the new painting. I'm going to teach a workshop on aesthetics at the sMFA in the fall and we are going to drink our way through some of the ideas and discuss them in the context art, making strong connections to painters like Kandinsky or Hans Hoffman. I've got permission to make drinks and I'm gong to make it well worth anyone's while to take the class.

You can do very similar things with chartreuse but the non-volatile fraction isn't very significant because chartreuse is the product of distillates and not infusions. There is a recipe for Sugar-swap-chartreuse in my distiller's workbook and it was re-imagined really well at Peg+Patriot in London. They also made a really cool version of my concept marmite distillate.

I'm itching to get to London.

bostonapothecary · June 14, 2015

1.5 oz. two Indies rum

1 oz. die hockland inkvar honey dew lime tree blossom mead

1 oz. Caramelized Campari Monster

Something just uncanny is gong on here and a penetrating rummy character is linking up with possibly the rare circumstance mead and its like becoming illuminated or something (in the mind). I lent my dehydrator to my friend's children to play with so I was dehydrating a partially fermented non-volatile fraction of Campari on the stove and I spaced out reading a really great BMW article and, well the non-volatile fraction reduced enough to caramelize so I just rolled with it. But I guess I need that dehydrator back to get a little more control over this stuff.

JoNorvelleWalker · June 20, 2015

I hadn't had a pina colada in going on two years. Now I remember why.

JoNorvelleWalker · June 21, 2015

Due to the vicissitudes of dinner I threw my measured out but not yet shaken mai tai in the freezer. When I finally got around to drinking it -- now it's 12:45 am -- I found the taste rather more alcoholic than that to which I am accustomed. Maybe there is something to this dilution business after all?

Equally plausible is that I left out or doubled one or more ingredients.

Craig E · June 28, 2015

Received a bottle of Zwack from a friend who had himself received it from somebody else: there may in fact have been a long chain of regifting of this Hungarian herbal liqueur that nobody knew what to do with.

It has some good potential in cocktails I'm finding. Tonight it was The Tempest, with lime juice, ginger syrup (honey-ginger syrup), Angostura bitters, soda, and an orange wedge.

tanstaafl2 · June 30, 2015

Received a bottle of Zwack from a friend who had himself received it from somebody else: there may in fact have been a long chain of regifting of this Hungarian herbal liqueur that nobody knew what to do with.
It has some good potential in cocktails I'm finding. Tonight it was The Tempest, with lime juice, ginger syrup (honey-ginger syrup), Angostura bitters, soda, and an orange wedge.

If you find that you like Zwack you owe it to yourself to at least try the original, Unicum, if you get the chance!

I think you may still have to find it overseas though. The Zwack of today available in the US is sweeter and more citrus flavor forward. The original is pretty intensely herbal and bitter. I generally try to keep one around in the freezer for "medicinal" purposes!

EvergreenDan · July 1, 2015

owe it to yourself to at least try the original, Unicum.

Stab me in the heart, whydontcha?

kayb · July 1, 2015

I was in Nashville last weekend and stopped off at the Patterson House for a cocktail. The notion of bacon-infused bourbon intrigued me, so I had a Bacon Old Fashioned. Wow!

House-made bitters applied via eyedropper. Four Roses bourbon infused with Benton's bacon. If there's a way to make simple syrup "artisan," I have no doubt this was. It was the best old fashioned I've ever tasted, bar none.

Info on the bar here.

tanstaafl2 · July 1, 2015

Stab me in the heart, whydontcha?

You are welcome to head south for a taste most anytime! As for your heart Unicum can probably fix it. After all it is made to cure what ails you! :cool: