Drinks! 2016 (Part 1)

[FrogPrincesse]

[Host's note: This topic forms part of an extended conversation that grew too long for our servers to handle efficiently.  The discussion continues from here.]

 

 

Too hot for rum? Nonsense!

 

Here is a Rum Crawl (Bourbon & Branch) from last week with Appleton 12 Jamaican rum, lime juice, homemade falernum (Adam Elmegirab's recipe), Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, Fee Brothers' whiskey-barrel aged bitters. It's exotic and complex. This rum works beautifully in this drink.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2016 by lesliec
Added hosts' note (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

54 minutes ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Too hot for rum? Nonsense!

 

Here is a Rum Crawl (Bourbon & Branch) from last week with Appleton 12 Jamaican rum, lime juice, homemade falernum (Adam Elmegirab's recipe), Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, Fee Brothers' whiskey-barrel aged bitters. It's exotic and complex. This rum works beautifully in this drink.

 

 

 

That looks great!  I'm sitting here sipping the last of tonight's white mai tai, but now that the peanut bowl is empty except for a few salt flakes, I think I'll go cook dinner.

 

[Craig E]

Yesterday storms broke the heat and I celebrated with a Y Control, recipe by @Rafa

• Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac (Paul Masson VSOP)
• Lime juice
• Pineapple syrup
• Yellow Chartreuse
• Maraschino liqueur

Seems like a mashup of tiki-like fruits with sophisticated stirred-drink alcohols. Sweet and pineapple-y.

[lesliec]

6 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Too hot for rum?

 

Is that possible?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, lesliec said:

Is that possible?

 

I believe she was alluding to my assertion that it was too horribly hot for rum:  "Not that it is too horribly hot to drink rum, mind you, but too horribly hot for me to make a mai tai."

 

Thankfully, despite of the heat, the last three nights I have indeed managed to make my mai tai.

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Pineapple Express (Freddie Sarkis), a Daiquiri with Plantation Pineapple Rum Stiggins' Fancy, Neisson rhum agricole, lime juice, simple syrup.

 

Delicious! I had tried a Daiquiri that was 100% Sitggin Fancy before (at Rumba in Seattle). This is great too!

 

 

[lesliec]

13 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Thankfully, despite of the heat, the last three nights I have indeed managed to make my mai tai.

 

And your fortitude does you great credit.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

8 minutes ago, lesliec said:

 

And your fortitude does you great credit.

 

Thank you, Leslie.  Overcoming great odds, I managed tonight as well.

 

[Tri2Cook]

6 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

Pineapple Express (Freddie Sarkis), a Daiquiri with Plantation Pineapple Rum Stiggins' Fancy, Neisson rhum agricole, lime juice, simple syrup.

 

I was going to argue that it sounds tasty but I feel like it needs some sort of cannabis or, at the very least, hemp aspect to truly warrant the name. That I might have even given a free pass to absinthe on this one just to play on the whole psychoactive substance thing because that entire movie was based around the marijuana he dropped at the crime scene. I was going to say I just don't get Pineapple Express without some form of a nod to it. My disclaimer was going to be that I didn't particularly love the movie and I have no personal interest in marijuana so maybe I'm being a little too critical here. And then, about halfway through typing all of that, it dawned on me that alcohol is a psychoactive substance and I just felt silly.

[blue_dolphin]

My curiosity was piqued by a couple of Manitoulin cocktailians who made this recently over here so I tried an Arsenic and Old Lace for an after dinner drink.

Very interesting to watch the color in the glass shift and change.  

[blue_dolphin]

Today, there was a mention from Manitoulin of a cocktail with gin and St. Germain.  I know not what it was but it reminded me that I had an unopened bottle of elderflower liqueur that I hadn't tried so I mixed up a Bitter Elder.

Holy cow, if St. Germain is elderflower, this stuff is elderFLOWER!  The first sip was like drinking perfume.  I added another slug of Campari but it was still not the balanced drink I remember.  I'll have to give this another try or two before I dump the bottle and  use it for something else.

[FrogPrincesse]

@blue_dolphin I am not a huge fan of St. Germain or elderflower liqueurs in general, but this drink I tried recently was pretty good. Maybe reduce the amount of liqueur since yours seems to be quite intense?

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

On ‎7‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 11:58 PM, Craig E said:

Yesterday storms broke the heat and I celebrated with a Y Control, recipe by @Rafa

• Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac (Paul Masson VSOP)
• Lime juice
• Pineapple syrup
• Yellow Chartreuse
• Maraschino liqueur

Seems like a mashup of tiki-like fruits with sophisticated stirred-drink alcohols. Sweet and pineapple-y.

 

Ah, such a lovely drink, before I spilled it.

 

And now that you mention it, where is Rafa anyhow?  I like him very much even if he is not a girl.

 

[Craig E]

Speaking of Rafa, here's tonight's PPX, Cognac (brandy), rye, PX sherry, Cynar, mole bitters, Islay rinse, expressed and discarded orange peel. 
My orange zest was surprisingly generous so in the first few sips orange oil actually tamped down the strong flavors of sherry, Cynar, bitters, and Scotch. Strong iced-coffee-with-sugar effect, especially in the finish. On the sip I got a familiar taste I describe as metallic though I'm not sure that's the best word for it. I'd expected something thick and dark but in actuality this wasn't so heavy.

[Rafa]

Sorry to repeat what I already said on Facebook, Chris, but: I like Mezcal instead of Islay for the rinse when I'm feeling summery. As is, I also get lots of iced coffee notes.

Glad to know my girlish charms have been missed. I've been busy tending bar. 

[Rafa]

1 oz Smith & Cross

1/2 oz Cappeletti Aperitivo

1/2 oz Giffard apricot

3/4 oz Lime juice

1/4 oz Simple syrup

 

Lately this riff on the Millionaire (that's also sort of a Mai Tai if you squint) has been my jam. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

10 minutes ago, Rafa said:

1 oz Smith & Cross

1/2 oz Cappeletti Aperitivo

1/2 oz Giffard apricot

3/4 oz Lime juice

1/4 oz Simple syrup

 

Lately this riff on the Millionaire (that's also sort of a Mai Tai if you squint) has been my jam. 

 

I have all except the Giffard apricot.  Would Abricot Combier work?

[Rafa]

If Combier Abricot is as dry as Combier L'Orange then yes. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

It's not very dry, unfortunately.  Though I have never tasted L'Orange.  I also have Blume Marillen and Peach Street Peach Brandy, both dry.

 

[Rafa]

As long as it's not syrupy it should work. If it's syrupy, simply omit the simple, which is there for texture. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Thanks, will give it a try...though maybe not tonight.

 

[lesliec]

Welcome back, Rafa.  I believe I may make The Man Comes Around in your honour.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I gave the unnamed beverage a trial, using Combier and no simple.  Quite nice.  My initial reaction is there is nothing about this drink that I'd want to change...except to double the quantities.

 

Just for fun, next time I might try a drop or two of simple, but I'm not sure it's really necessary.

 

Thanks, @Rafa

 

 

[Craig E]

Had a fun rum tasting evening with friends tonight. Blind tastings of bottles we brought from home or picked up from the store. All sipped neat. We took notes, compared notes, tallied rankings, and then unveiled which was which. I printed out this flavor wheel for everybody, which, though it was made for coffee, was kind of useful for providing some vocabulary for our notes.

 

Round one was Spanish style: Plantation 3 Stars, Plantation pineapple, Ron Zacapa 23, Flor de Caña 4, Ron de Barrelito, Don Q Añejo. The clear winner was, maybe obviously, the Ron Zacapa, which I'd never had. My word, what a fantastic rum! Best of the whole evening, hands down. Stiggins Fancy came in second, and the others were quite far behind, with 3 Star bringing up the rear. 

 

Round two was aged agricoles and demeraras, with Barbancourt 8 and Clement VSOP in the first category and East London Liquor rum and El Dorado 5 in the second. The Clement won the French-style contest handily, and the El Dorado was easily the better of the Guyanese rums. The El Dorado was also new to me and probably the biggest pleasant surprise of the evening for me. Definitely the winner for value. Makes me want to try their 12 and 15 year rums. 

 

Break for potluck Carribbean-inspired dinner (mofongo, jerk chicken, pepper pot soup, kale salad if you must know). Yum.

 

Last round was English style: Myer's dark, Cruzan blackstrap, Appleton blend, Pusser's, and Smith & Cross. The winner here was Pusser's, which surprised me a bit. Scoring was tight among the other four. Myer's edged out Cruzan among the darks. This was the most contentious round, with some tasters not having the Jamaican funkiness (the "papaya," "new leather," "toasted coconut," etc. of the earlier rounds had now turned into "cat piss" for some participants). 

 

Of course some of these rums are sippers and others intended for mixing, and their performance in, say, a daiquiri, would likely result in different rankings. It's an imperfect methodology but made for a fun evening.

[FrogPrincesse]

Very nice report! That sounds like a fun evening indeed.

 

43 minutes ago, Craig E said:

The El Dorado was also new to me and probably the biggest pleasant surprise of the evening for me. Definitely the winner for value. Makes me want to try their 12 and 15 year rums. 

 

if you liked El Dorado 5, try to get the 8 instead. It's only a few dollars more and even better, same flavor profile but more intense and complex. It's one of my favorite rums for mixing. The 12 I tend to reserve for sipping because it often gets lost in cocktails.

Edited July 31, 2016 by FrogPrincesse
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