Drinks! 2016 (Part 1)

[blue_dolphin]

24 minutes ago, Craig E said:

At first I was very impressed with your daring garnish, but then I realized I'd misread it as "Small Hand grenade."

I misread it the same way last night and had a good laugh!

[EvergreenDan]

On 7/29/2016 at 10:17 PM, 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

 

Tried again, but with 1oz Cappelletti and no simple. Very nice. I like the bitterness more forward, and there's still plenty of hogo and apricot.  Next time, I'm going Stiggins'.

[EvergreenDan]

More fiddling:

1 1/2 oz Stiggins' Pineapple Rum

1/2 Vida

1 Cappelletti

1/4 dry Curacao

1/2 oz lemon

1 large grapefruit swath

 

Very good, although the pineapple is a bit lost. Might try again, but with more emphasis on the rum. Need to find a good white agricole to try in lieu of the mezcal.

[tanstaafl2]

Can you not make it work with just the Stiggins and no mescal or agricole? But it should be easy enough to find an agricole blanc locally, right? Clement at 100 proof is pretty common here and I have also seen Rhum JM and La Favorite on occasion, maybe even Damoiseau. In the islands they are typically around 110 proof (provides some lovely viscosity!) but here in the US we are usually lucky if we get 100 proof. Boston selection has to be as good or better than Atlanta?

 

I just got a bottle of the new St. George Bruto Americano that might be worth playing with in something like this.

Edited August 15, 2016 by tanstaafl2
Added the comment about Bruto. (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Hot here today.  Cooling down with a roasted peach & bourbon popsicle with a little more Elijah Craig for dipping:

[Anna N]

@blue_dolphin

 

hmmmm. Life can be so damn tough at times. 

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, Anna N said:

@blue_dolphin

 

hmmmm. Life can be so damn tough at times. 

 

You have no idea how tough - I have 3 more of those roasted peach popsicles but that was the last of the bourbon  !

[ChrisTaylor]

A couple of recent drinks:

 

Gin Smash a la Byron -- one of my favourites from the Dead Rabbit book.

 

And two from the beta cocktails book: European Union and A Moment of Silence.

 

 

[ChrisTaylor]

A couple more Death drinks. One, One, One and a White Nergroni. The OOO really sings with the Westbourne (a new acquisition).

 

 

[Rafa]

1 1/2 oz Cynar

1 1/2 oz Grapefruit juice

3 oz Prosecco

 

Build and chill  in Collins on KD cubes, garnish with a grapefruit slice, straw. 

 

I gave this to my beverage director to sample for our brunch menu. He took a sip, took another, and then left with the glass. I think that's a yes.

[EvergreenDan]

Kyle Davidson's Bells and Whistles. Bourbon (rye, whoops), Bonal, and tiny amounts of apricot, Averna, and amontillado sherry. It was sublime with rye. Definitely will try bourbon as specified. The small additions and a backdrop of flavor and aroma. Rotation-worthy.

[PassionateAmateur]

Noodling around with this -- it's almost just right:

 

1 oz R. Henry Hawaiian White Ginger Gin

1/2 oz Aperol

1/2 oz Pamplemousse

1/2 oz tea-infused Siete Leguas Blanco

About a barspoon ea of lime juice, grapefruit juice and cinnamon 1:1 simple syrup

Couple dashes Scrappy's Grapefruit Bitters

 

I think I need to up the Aperol just a tad or swap in something a little more bitter.  Also -- I stirred/strained, but it might work better swizzled with tiny ice & the bitters sno-coned over the top.

Edited August 22, 2016 by PassionateAmateur
edited for anal-retentive, inconsequential typo correction (log)

[Craig E]

Tried Misty Kalkofen's Low Rider, subbing Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro for the Zucca.

2 oz Blanco tequila
1⁄2 oz Zucca
1⁄2 oz Crème de Cacao
Dash Angostura

 

Sweet and smoky, with an odd finish that, after a bit, tasted like the numbing stuff you'd get at the dentist. 

Perhaps my old cheap creme de cacao was to blame. 

 

At any rate, this was drinkable, but in the end not that different from, and no better than, sipping the Sfumato on ice by itself.

[Rafa]

A year ago Sunday, Sasha Petraske died. His Wikipedia page is a disappointment. He deserved better from us as a culture.

 

I drank a Daiquiri in his honor. I'm drinking a Daiquiri right now. When you read this, wherever you are, I hope you resolve to join me in a Daiquiri at your leisure, to toast a man who would have us drink more sensibly, who treated our enjoyment of our brief lives with the seriousness it deserves.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Rafa (log)

[ChrisTaylor]

A Brooklyn using my freshly-opened Amer Picon. I think I like it more than the Manhattan.

[EvergreenDan]

I confirmed that Bells and Whistles is excellent as written with Bourbon, rather than my whoops-rye.

[Craig E]

Still in search of a cocktail use for Sfumato, I subbed it in @EvergreenDan's No Groaning (a Negroni riff with gin, Zucca, and dry vermouth). The starting point was looking for recipes that use Zucca, which also don't seem likely to be too sweet based on the other ingredients, since I find the Sfumato to be quite sugary.

 

I do think the dry vermouth helped dry this out. Net effect was rather Cynar-ish. 

[lesliec]

20 hours ago, ChrisTaylor said:

A Brooklyn using my freshly-opened Amer Picon. I think I like it more than the Manhattan.

 

I'm with you, Chris - I've had quite a New York geography lesson from the multitude of Manhattan variants (D&C's Manhattan Transfer stands out), but when it comes to the near-original I'd go for a Brooklyn first.

 

As it happens, I'm drinking one now, but it's made with my own rum - which means it's not a Brooklyn at all, of course.  Why?  Because I found two unlabelled bottles and was convinced the contents tasted like whisk(e)y, which was most unlikely since the only grain-based thing I've made eventually ended up as a rye vodka base for genever (and very satisfactory, too).  But I have made something from fermented molasses which I had just about given up on, but with time and a bit of oak it's turned into a useful ingredient.  Even if it doesn't taste a lot like rum.

 

So anyway ... has anybody made an 'official' rum-based Manhattan variant?

[Craig E]

I'd consider Phil Ward's Martica close, with its split base of cognac and Jamaican rum. (I know you're familiar because I see you're the one who posted it to Kindred!) 

[Rafa]

A rum-based Manhattan is a Palmetto. A white Palmetto, with blanc vermouth, unaged cane juice rum, and tiki bitters is a nice summertime variation—we have one on the menu at our rooftop bar.

 

I have a Pusser's-based Brooklyn variation floating somewhere around Kindred. I don't think rum Brooklyns (or Greenpoints or Cobble Hills or Bushwicks or...) are made or called for enough to have common names, but they can be very tasty (as well they should be, featuring rum).

Edited August 24, 2016 by Rafa (log)

[lesliec]

Well, here's a thing - David Wondrich would seem to suggest the earliest Brooklyn (1883) was made with rum.

 

I don't claim my rum is anything like the Smith & Cross called for in that one, other than being wet and brown and alcoholic, but it's nice to know I'm an accidental traditionalist.

[Rafa]

I am extremely happy to learn this, for so many reasons.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, lesliec said:

Well, here's a thing - David Wondrich would seem to suggest the earliest Brooklyn (1883) was made with rum.

 

I don't claim my rum is anything like the Smith & Cross called for in that one, other than being wet and brown and alcoholic, but it's nice to know I'm an accidental traditionalist.

 

Nice link.  I knew (or know, if he is still in the land of the living) the president of a corporation that manufactured DDT.  If I can obtain new old stock, would this be the most authentic ingredient?

[lesliec]

5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Nice link.  I knew (or know, if he is still in the land of the living) the president of a corporation that manufactured DDT.  If I can obtain new old stock, would this be the most authentic ingredient?

 

I should say so.  If quinine in a G&T helps prevent malaria, how much more effective would be a drink that kills mosquitos?

[tanstaafl2]

Had an interesting little off the cuff cocktail the other night made by a bartender friend of mine that doesn't yet have a name. Kind of a lighter tropical negroni-ish sort of thing.

 

1 part Bombay East gin (the lemon grass and peppery character seems to be essential)

1 part Bruto Americano

1 part Cocchi Americano

1/2 part Yellow Chartreuse

Stir with ice, strain and serve up with a lemon twist expressed and dropped in the drink.

 

Yum!