Drinks 2025

[Honkman]

The Highbush Solution from Shake, Strain Done by JM Hirsch - you muddle blueberries, mint leaves and simple syrup, add vodka, ginger liqueur and lemon juice and shake with ice cubes. Double strain into coupe and garnish with blueberries. The original recipe has a 6:1 vodka/ginger ratio but this one was more balanced for us

 

1/4 cup blueberries 

3 large mint leaves

1/4 oz simple syrup

2.5 oz vodka 

1oz ginger liqueur 

1/4 oz lemon juice

[btbyrd]

I created and run a cocktail program for a small Italian restaurant in my hometown. Mission Pizza Napoletana serves some of the best pizza in the world (and the other food is great too). Here are some photos of drinks from the initial menu. We have an ice program, a carbonation program, and a gigantic-freaking-twist program.  

 

Negroni on a big cube. Campari, Tanqueray, Punt e Mes. Our Boulivardier recipe is Elijah Craig, Campari, and Cocchi.

 

 

MPN Spritz. Organic prosecco (from one of two producers), Aperol, and San Benedetto sparkling water. I force carbonate everything so that the bubble level is off the charts.

 

 

Negroni, Italian Greyhound, Spritz, Black Manhatta, Paper Plane.

 

 

A photo from my home bar that helped me get/create the job.

 

 

And my favorite Paper Plane photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 20, 2025 by btbyrd (log)

[btbyrd]

Also: 

Beverage photography is hard, y’all. All the food I’ve ever photographed has been real and reasonably easy to shoot, but ask me to get 5 drinks together at the same time and get a couple different angles? That’s maybe the hardest thing I’ve done from a food photography perspective. The ice is constantly dying… the drinks are constantly dying. In unison. As an extrapolation of something Marco once said, five minutes is an eternity. Not quite as bad as cooking fish, but close.

Edited June 20, 2025 by btbyrd (log)

[Smithy]

45 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

 

 

Mega-kudos to you! I like the photos, but I'm just a piker. This "like" and comment, given its source? Major!

[btbyrd]

12 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Mega-kudos to you! I like the photos, but I'm just a piker. This "like" and comment, given its source? Major!

 

Thank you! I'm also a piker of the "fake it till you make it" variety, but I think I've been doing alright so far. That like and comment from Wylie are really an artifact of his being homies with my chef owner, but it's pretty cool nevertheless (especially given my love of technical/modernist cooking and ingredients). A few years ago, Grant Achatz liked and responded to one of my Insta posts, so now I've gotten likes from chef heroes in NYC and Chicago. It makes me long for the time before Instagram was populated by spambots. But I digress. 

[RWood]

Hugo Spritz after coming in from the pool. Pretty tasty. Prosecco, lime, mint, St. Germain and sparkling water. 

[rotuts]

@RWood

 

and a very nice glass

[blue_dolphin]

Recently, I made the Black Cardamom Whiskey from A Whisper of Cardamom by Eleanor Ford. I love black cardamom in cocktails so I was interested to try this as all the previous cocktails I’ve made have used the pods to infuse a sugar syrup while this one infuses the whiskey itself.

Here’s the “recipe”: “Fill a jar with whiskey, add a few black cardamom pods and leave to infuse somewhere dark.”  Easy peasy. As instructed, I tasted after 24 hrs and found the flavor very subtle. At 2 days, it was noticeable, very flavorful at 3 days and starting to get a touch bitter after 4 days. The infused whiskey was nice in the recommended maple syrup-sweetened smoked cardamom Old Fashioned the book suggests.
Serendipitously, I happened on a cocktail called Cabin in the Woods on a menu from Paragary's, a restaurant in Sacramento.  It listed cardamom-infused bourbon, amaro Nonino, sweet vermouth and orange bitters as the ingredients. I mixed myself one of those, garnished with an orange twist and one of the black cardamom pods. It was lovely. 

Cabin in the Woods (with apologies to the creator as this was just my best guess)
2 oz black cardamom-infused bourbon

0.5 oz Amaro Nonino

0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

2 dashes orange bitters

 

Garnished with a black cardamom pod and orange peel

The smoky flavor of black cardamom makes this more appealing for fall and winter sipping but I’ll make this again when cooler weather comes around.

[haresfur]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

Recently, I made the Black Cardamom Whiskey from A Whisper of Cardamom by Eleanor Ford. I love black cardamom in cocktails so I was interested to try this as all the previous cocktails I’ve made have used the pods to infuse a sugar syrup while this one infuses the whiskey itself.

Here’s the “recipe”: “Fill a jar with whiskey, add a few black cardamom pods and leave to infuse somewhere dark.”  Easy peasy. As instructed, I tasted after 24 hrs and found the flavor very subtle. At 2 days, it was noticeable, very flavorful at 3 days and starting to get a touch bitter after 4 days. The infused whiskey was nice in the recommended maple syrup-sweetened smoked cardamom Old Fashioned the book suggests.
Serendipitously, I happened on a cocktail called Cabin in the Woods on a menu from Paragary's, a restaurant in Sacramento.  It listed cardamom-infused bourbon, amaro Nonino, sweet vermouth and orange bitters as the ingredients. I mixed myself one of those, garnished with an orange twist and one of the black cardamom pods. It was lovely. 

Cabin in the Woods (with apologies to the creator as this was just my best guess)
2 oz black cardamom-infused bourbon

0.5 oz Amaro Nonino

0.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

2 dashes orange bitters

 

Garnished with a black cardamom pod and orange peel

The smoky flavor of black cardamom makes this more appealing for fall and winter sipping but I’ll make this again when cooler weather comes around.

 

I read that Chinese black cardamom and Indian black cardamom are different. Do you know which you used?

[blue_dolphin]

11 minutes ago, haresfur said:

 

I read that Chinese black cardamom and Indian black cardamom are different. Do you know which you used?

I bought a big bag at a local Indian grocery and it's labeled “Product of India.”

I didn’t realize there was Chinese black cardamom so I’ll be on the lookout!

[gulfporter]

Never a big fan of margaritas (other than Tamarindo ones).  

 

In recent years I enjoyed Ranch Water which is similar (but far better) than a margarita.

 

After awhile I realized what I REALLY liked was the orange liqueur.  So that's my after dinner drink now, sipping on a shot glass of it.  

 

Yes, I've had the Real Deals like Grand Marnier and Contreau, but my fave locally is this one.  Price 98 pesos ($5.25 USD). Accompany with a square of dark chocolate and that's one great dessert.

 

 

[MaryIsobel]

Is that used in Mexico to make margs instead of using triple sec?

[gulfporter]

Any orange liqueur can be used in margs, including this one.  This brand is popular at liquor stores, sometimes it's the only orange liqueur in smaller shops.  

[MaryIsobel]

48 minutes ago, gulfporter said:

Any orange liqueur can be used in margs, including this one.  This brand is popular at liquor stores, sometimes it's the only orange liqueur in smaller shops.  

Thanks - just wondered if it was a common substitute in Mexico. Orange and dark chocolate is one of my favourite food combinations!

 

[Dr. Teeth]

Playing with milk punches.   Rum, port, demara and lemon

 

[TdeV]

Where is the milk, @Dr. Teeth ?

[Dr. Teeth]

That’s the curdled stuff in the Cambro.  It’s a clarified punch

[Smithy]

33 minutes ago, Dr. Teeth said:

That’s the curdled stuff in the Cambro.  It’s a clarified punch

 

So the milk is just a clarifier? To collect things like lemon pulp?