Drinks! 2015 - 2016

[JoNorvelleWalker]

When I got home it was too dark for picking okra.  So to start it's ti' punch, simply l'Esprit and half a lovely lime.  No syrup.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The ti' punch was so delightful I made myself another.  Cleanly solved the problem of having half a lime left over.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Neisson at 140 proof always reminds me of the Firestone commercial..."Where the rubber meets the road".  In a good way.

[sbumgarner]

Here was my attempt at keeping the ABV lower than a typical sour the other night by cutting with sherry:

 

1.25 oz Junipero

1 oz fino sherry

.75 oz lime

.25 oz Giffard Pamplemousse

.25 oz Cynar

.25 oz orgeat

Dash angostura

 

Shake, strain, coupe.

 

It wasn't exactly harmonious, but I found myself wanting another one, go figure. I need to explore more sherry/orgeat combos, I enjoyed those flavors together.

[Czequershuus]

I was playing around with fresh herbs in cocktails the other night, and I think I may have hit on a winner with this one.

 

1.5 Oz Mezcal (I used Illegal)

0.75 Oz Lemon Juice

0.5 Oz Cointreau

2 ds Fee's Rhubarb Bitters

8ish leaved of fresh basil.

 

Did not bother muddling, as I feel a solid shake with ice does the tricky quite nicely. Something about this combo worked really well.

[ChrisTaylor]

Saw this on Kindred and it seemed appropriate for the weather. It's nice enough, although the meatiness of Millstone 100 trounces over my so-so homemade allspice dram and, shit, even the Averna. I like Millstone so much I can live with that, though. 

[sbumgarner]

European Vacation

 

1.75 oz Plymouth

.5 oz Kalani

.5 oz 1:1 simple

.5 oz lime

.25 oz Strega or Yellow Chartreuse

1 cube of pineapple

 

Shake, double strain, coupe

 

The herbal liqueur acts stands in for the mint in this tropical-ish drink but obviously adds some different characteristics as well. You could probably bump the simple down to a scant .5 or maybe even .25 (depending on the tartness of your pineapple), these proportions taste balanced to me given the the style of drink I was going for but YMMV.

Edited August 19, 2015 by sbumgarner (log)

[Craig E]

Rafa's Rubber Soul

Fascinating interaction of flavors including sweet orange and chicory coffee. I suspect my Kahlua is more syrupy than the spec'd Tia Maria? though I have a high tolerance for that. 

 

I haven't tried a bourbon-based Revolver which this riffs on. But I love the Bombardier, another Rafa creation with rye, vermouth, and a lemon twist.

[FrogPrincesse]

The Revolver is delicious. Try it! (with a good coffee liqueur preferably)

[Craig E]

Inaugurated the just-arrived Koriko tins with a Clover Club riff made with homemade rhubarb syrup.

This egg-white foam was an order of magnitude better that the stuff I made with my previous shaker. Which seems goofy to say, because the physics of the new one really can't be that much different than the old one...

[FrogPrincesse]

It's the egg, not your shaker. Although I have to say that I love my Koriko tins so much, I have two sets.

[Craig E]

For me they replaced a cheap Absolut promotional set that was a glass and a metal tin coated with thin foam insulation. So the main adjustment I have to make is getting used to how cold my hands get!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

For me they replaced a cheap Absolut promotional set that was a glass and a metal tin coated with thin foam insulation. So the main adjustment I have to make is getting used to how cold my hands get!

 

I am not ashamed to use oven mitts, myself.

[Craig E]

I was playing around with fresh herbs in cocktails the other night, and I think I may have hit on a winner with this one.

 

1.5 Oz Mezcal (I used Illegal)

0.75 Oz Lemon Juice

0.5 Oz Cointreau

2 ds Fee's Rhubarb Bitters

8ish leaved of fresh basil.

 

Did not bother muddling, as I feel a solid shake with ice does the tricky quite nicely. Something about this combo worked really well.

 

So, inspired by this (and working with what I had on hand), I kinda flipped the rhubarb and orange components:

1.5 oz. mezcal (Vida)

.75 oz. lemon juice

.5 oz. rhubarb syrup

2 ds Fee's orange bitters

8 lv basil

 

In my variation there may be too much tartness, but the underlaying vegetal/herbaceous plays a nice counterpoint. Grilled grapefruit flavors. Next time a little muddling maybe. And scaling the whole thing up--it went too quickly!

 

Thanks for the idea!

[Hassouni]

Speaking of mezcal, I guess I've come up with a cocktail based on stuff I had lying around. Made it twice now.

 

Fidencio Mezcal

homemade tepache

lime

2:1 Demerara syrup

Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters

 

Swizzled w shaved/crushed ice or blended w ice

 

The first time (a couple months ago) I jiggered it, so prob something like 2, 2, .5, .25, plus the bitters. Last night I didn't measure and it was not sweet enough and too tart (and also too smoky, I put in a lot of mezcal) 

 

Either way, it's the basis for a great drink

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Somehow I may have lost count of the number of wineglasses of cognac added to my Mississippi punch tonight.  (The arrack and rum I'm pretty sure I measured right.)

[Craig E]

Last night at Parlour in Minneapolis, really enjoyed this Sound Effects (gin, roasted beets, orgeat, lemon, strega, dill, bolivar bitters). Behind that is my friend's American Beauty (gin, cucumber vodka, lillet blanc, petal & thorn vermouth, yellow chartreuse, bolivar bitters), which was also very nice.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

A glass of Whistlepig.  It never ceases to amaze me how much this bottle has improved after opening.  (Earlier was the usual mai tai, etc.)

[BillBuitenhuys]

Browsing through the new version of Wondrich's Imbibe reminded me of one of my favorite classic families, the "Improved {base spirit of choice} Cocktail":

2oz base spirit, 1/2 tsp simple, 1/4 tsp Maraschino, dash absinthe, 2 dashes aromatic bitters, expressed lemon.

 

Last night I made one with Hacienda De Chihuahua Sotol anejo and it was quite lovely.

[Rafa]

Browsing through the new version of Wondrich's Imbibe reminded me of one of my favorite classic families, the "Improved {base spirit of choice} Cocktail":

2oz base spirit, 1/2 tsp simple, 1/4 tsp Maraschino, dash absinthe, 2 dashes aromatic bitters, expressed lemon.

 

Last night I made one with Hacienda De Chihuahua Sotol anejo and it was quite lovely.

 

A nice aperitif with a dry sherry as the base. Just omit the simple. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by Rafa (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

From this weekend, a round of Captain's Blood with Appleton 12 Jamaican rum, lime juice, simple syrup, Angostura bitters. It was a hit. Sometimes simple is best.

 

[ChrisTaylor]

A Rhum JM-based Daiquiri. 2.5, 1, 0.5.

[Rafa]

A rep for New England Distilling, a 4-person operation out of Maine, tasted me on their full product line: a gin (malty, complex, crisp, reminiscent of Green Hat out of DC), a rye (complexly malty and beer-ish, but still far too young), and a rum. The rum took me by surprise: I wasn't expecting much, certainly not a rich nose full of toffee, caramel, and roasted sugar matched to a lush, dry, whiskyish palate. They slow-ferment Brazilian molasses at low temperature with brewer's yeast for about a week, and distill slowly in copper pot stills. The rep described it as colonial-style, which I took to mean Medford. It's not mind-blowing; it's just good, solid, honest, un-sugared rum, which is rare enough on the market, let alone from the continental US. Promising stuff; I hope they release more, and that other US distilleries follow suit. 

[Craig E]

Still trying to figure out this sherry stuff. Thought I had bought an amontillado, but I actually had a manzanilla. So searching Kindred Cocktails for recipes, came across Rafa's Old Spanish, which has an odd back-story you can read at that link (it's a craft version of an absurd drink that was an inside joke involving a couple of TV shows). 

 

Easy drinking and pleasant. Reminded me of an Aperol Spritz, but more subtle. Or less exciting?

[FrogPrincesse]

From last week - a Cobble Hill (Sam Ross), aka Summer Manhattan, with Rittenhouse rye, Dolin dry vermouth, Amaro Montenegro, cucumber.