Post Your New Cocktail Creations Here

[KatieLoeb]

Pear and Lavender is a great combination. Works in desserts so it'll work in a glass is my theory. I'm having a hard time getting hold of a bottle of the Absolut pear flavor, but as soon as I do I'd try something along the lines of a Pear-Lavender Sour with lavender simple syrup and fresh lemon juice to balance it. A dash of Fee Lemon bitters is also good in almost anything with a lemon component in the drink.

I'll let you know if this ever works out. First I need to get the danged vodka...

[Tela T]

I found the Grey Goose Poive(sp?) first - maybe you'll have more luck...?? Curious to see what you come up with.

[phaelon56]

Total Eclipse:

1.5 oz pineapple juice

1.5 oz. orange juice

2.0 oz Mt. Gay Eclipse Barbados rum

Shake with ice and serve over ice oe strained.

Fresh fruit juice is nice and a dash of cranberry for color is an option but it's refreshing as is.

[plattetude]

Continuing to work with my new bottle of M&R bianco vermouth (as detailed previously here), last night I broke out some El Tesoro reposado tequila and made something kinda interesting:

2 oz El Tesoro reposado tequila

3/4 oz M&R bianco vermouth

1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse

dash Angostura bitters

rinse of absinthe

The piling on of vanilla notes from the vermouth and Chartreuse worked well enough, and the absinthe lent just enough backbone. I might dial up the Chartreuse if I do this again, since the tequila really spoke louder than I expected over everything else. I was actually surprised how the other components really didn't register strongly at all.

Wasn't quite wowed enough to give it a name and put it in rotation, but still, interesting enough. Worth further experimentation...

Christopher

[bostonapothecary]

i've conceptualized a drink that hopefully i can make tomarrow.

on sunday while we should have been working... we cut up a pound of robiola (soft sheeps milk cheese) and kept pairing it with wines until we found magic. "what to drink with what you eat"s advice was not very good but we eventually found magic with an american viogner. the subtle earthy nature of the cheese contrasted with the wine and brought into focus intense flavors of carmelized pinapple. the whole thing was fantastic and i wanted to synthesize it in a cocktail.

i want to contrast rich, but not cloyingly sweet flavors of literal carmelized pineapple with a couple drops of earthyness curtesy of massively potent white truffle vodka i had made when they were in season. i put the vodka in an old bitters bottle to portion it because its so intense. i want the drink to have the faintest acidity like the wine but to also use some bubble curtesy champagne to fill the void of the lack of acid which is a technique that some white wine makers use.

maybe.....

1/1/2 oz. gin.

1/2 oz. carmelized pineapple syrup

1/2 oz. sparling wine (don't be afraid to stir)

dash lemon juice

2 dashes potent truffle spirit

will report back if i can get it done tomarrow....

if it seems disgusting in theory feel free to comment....

[KatieLoeb]

THIS particular post about a salmon dish with fennel and strawberries in my local forum got my mind reeling with possibilities for those flavors juxtaposed together in a glass as opposed to on a plate. Here's what I came up with:

one teaspoon Pernod

Two large strawberries - diced

.75 oz. tarragon syrup (a weak simple syrup with strong tarragon flavor)

1 oz. fresh lemon juice

2 oz. Bluecoat gin

.5 oz. Creme de Strawberry liqueur

Club soda

Rinse a Collins glass with the Pernod and dump out the excess. Muddle strawberries, tarragon syrup and lemon juice together in shaker. Add ice, then gin and strawberry liqueur. Shake vigorously and dump all into Pernod rinsed glass. Top with a bit of club soda and stir. Garnish with a strawberry or a sprig of tarragon.

I'll have to try and take a picture of this next time so I can post it. It looks really pretty in the glass and is really a delicious flavor combination. The kitchen staff and the manager thought it my best effort to date. I'm not so sure I agree, but it'll definitely agree it's one of my better efforts.

[bostonapothecary]

THIS particular post about a salmon dish with fennel and strawberries in my local forum got my mind reeling with possibilities for those flavors juxtaposed together in a glass as opposed to on a plate.  Here's what I came up with:

i made a liqueur with a similar flavor profile....

it is an interpretation of the monastic "usque baugh"....

it is driven by anises and saffron.....they used raisins and pounds of sugar....i used dried strawberries and no extra sugars.....

its pretty serious stuff. complex with the saffron hitting the tail and lots of fruit and anise on the mid palate to keep it very full. the finish is very long and the proof is really high (80).

dried and very concentrated raisinated fruits do very vell with anise and saffron....

its like pairing curried wild mussels and sultanas with a greco from gravina in southern italy..... those people live for that stuff and their wines which on their own are creepy just sing with the food.....

the dishes and the wines are not highly acidic so i would use some real restrained acidity in any cocktail modeling it.....

[ThinkingBartender]

The Capital Colada.

50ml Elements 8 rum,

10ml Fresh Lime Juice,

25ml Coconut puree/ sugar/ butter (melted together).

75ml Pineapple Juice.

Shake with ice, and then strain into an ice-filled glass; Garnish with grated

nutmeg, and a chunk of pineapple.

Equal parts coconut puree, sugar, and butter are melted together to make the third ingredient in this recipe.

Cheers!

George

[thirtyoneknots]

The bar manager at work is mildly obsessed with Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka, which is fine, I suppose, except that no one else seems to care for it much. Every once in a while when it's slow I try to make something palatable with it, which has been difficult for me due to its pervasive aftertaste, which tastes strongly of artificial lime flavor (which is even more peculiar when you consider Hangar One's reputation for using real ingredients in their flavors). The other day I finally hit on something that may be good enough to feature to 86 the bottle taking up valuable space behind the bar:

The Golden Apple (named for the boss, shamelessly)

1 oz Hangar One Kaffir Lime

1 oz applejack (blended, also trying to use up that to move on the the bonded)

1 oz red vermouth (M&R)

juice of half a lime

tsp-1/4 oz grenadine (homemade)

shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass. optional rinse of pernod. I can't really tell if it's adding anything or not. I'd use more, but then it would probably be a drink that only I like. Anise is not the best thing to add to a drink you're trying to make appealing in a college town.

Any other luck folks have had with the H1 Kaffir Lime I'd love to hear about it.

-Andy

[bostonapothecary]

The bar manager at work is mildly obsessed with Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka, which is fine, I suppose, except that no one else seems to care for it much. Every once in a while when it's slow I try to make something palatable with it, which has been difficult for me due to its pervasive aftertaste, which tastes strongly of artificial lime flavor (which is even more peculiar when you consider Hangar One's reputation for using real ingredients in their flavors). The other day I finally hit on

i don't use any of that mono flavored fruit stuff. some things that are real just really happen to taste artificial. either due to the lack of acid or just because its a creepy flavor (concord grape). isn't a lime defined by a huge amount of acid? therefore if it doesn't have it you don't really have a lime, just the ghost of one....

i wonder if a concord grape ever tasted good to anyone? or is it so gross because we are desensitized to its extracts which are put into all sorts of industrial products we consume....

alot of poeple have negative reactions to lavender for that reason....because its in their soap and a strong soapy association is made....

i never had an affinity for orange flavors and it may be because of my years as a child using tom's of main orange toothpaste.....

and that is why i love gin......

[thirtyoneknots]

If I'm not mistaken, this Kaffir Lime stuff is actually made from the leaves instead of fruit or peel, or at least that's what I've been told. To this I attribute the bizarre flavor profile.

Edited May 20, 2007 by thirtyoneknots (log)

[mbanu]

Some fun with horchata concentrate syrup. Picked it up at the local Mexican grocer while going on a lime run. Kinda like orgeat, only with rice and cinnamon instead of almond and orange flower. Names later, maybe, when feeling more creative.

Fun #1

1 oz. blanco tequila

1 oz. Cointreau

1/2 oz. horchata syrup

1/2 oz. lime juice

Shake & strain.

Fun #2

1 oz. heavy rum (Jamaican/Demerara/etc)

1 oz. Grand Marnier (or knockoff orange brandy)

1/2 oz. horchata syrup

1/2 oz. lime juice

Shake & strain

[mbanu]

Continuing to work with my new bottle of M&R bianco vermouth (as detailed previously here), last night I broke out some El Tesoro reposado tequila and made something kinda interesting:

2 oz El Tesoro reposado tequila

3/4 oz M&R bianco vermouth

1/2 oz yellow Chartreuse

dash Angostura bitters

rinse of absinthe

The piling on of vanilla notes from the vermouth and Chartreuse worked well enough, and the absinthe lent just enough backbone.  I might dial up the Chartreuse if I do this again, since the tequila really spoke louder than I expected over everything else.  I was actually surprised how the other components really didn't register strongly at all.

Wasn't quite wowed enough to give it a name and put it in rotation, but still, interesting enough.  Worth further experimentation...

Christopher

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El Tesoro does that. It has an all-pervasive flavor like Pernod, probably a byproduct of being distilled to proof. You might try cutting it with some light rum, or adding more vermouth, since it has the most neutral flavor.

[eje]

Some fun with horchata concentrate syrup. Picked it up at the local Mexican grocer while going on a lime run. Kinda like orgeat, only with rice and cinnamon instead of almond and orange flower. Names later, maybe, when feeling more creative.

[...]

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Cool stuff, mbanu.

Horchata is something I'm really interested in. Seems to represent a pretty wide variety of flavors and techniques from almond milk, to rice milk, to some weird thing involving sedge kernels. I'm not entirely sure I've even had one that didn't involve dairy. I'd also really like to try to making it myself.

[bostonapothecary]

raison d'etre.... (reason for being... for those not hip to the latin. i know etre from crossword puzzles but apparently raison and reason are the same)

this was in my notes from a long time ago and is in my glass right now....

inspired by the beer by dogfish head of course.... the usually horrible white wines of southern italy with some seriously outlying (yet not flawed) flavors.... and a dish on our menu.... (salmon dolmades....saffron rissotto....red wine sapa....mint pesto)

2oz. of something local to you, brown and dry.... rye maybe right now i only had flor de cana gold. it doesn't make or break or break the drink....

1oz. rosso antico.... oh hell yeah. totally requisite brand.

1/4oz. or spoon full of Usque Baugh**

2 dashes of orange bitters.... hermes was on hand.

**usque baugh is the king of pastis and there are many interpretations....

a dried fruit, anise, and saffron are the only requisites.

so breath some life back into the cheapest blandest cognac you can find....

infuse it with a cup of mixed anise flavored things.... star anise etc. blah blah blah and some cut up licorice sticks. a week two at the most.... then add one pound of sugared raisinated fruit.... i use strawberries. to finish bloom nice pinch of saffron in two ounces of vodka (so you can see the color change) blend it into your roughly handle of cognac to taste.... i might have only used 1/1/2 ounces.... you can add sugar as many recipes call for but i am sweet enough and so are the strawberries.

do not put in a martini glass.... this is only for roughneck philosophers and therefore needs a whiskey glass like a sazerac.

if you garnish at all and i don't because i am too busy add a tiny cutting of the "devil in a bush" aka sweet fennel.... i guess fennel pollen would be ok too.... old proverbs say "sowing fennel is sowing sorrow"

so sit and contemplate....

[slkinsey]

raison d'etre.... (reason for being... for those not hip to the latin. i know etre from crossword puzzles but apparently raison and reason are the same)

Raison d'être is actually French. And yea, it means: "reason for being" or, by extension, the purpose of someone or something.

Interesting use of "usquebaugh" you have there. I've always understood that it proceeded from the Scots Gaelic uisge beatha and Irish Gaelic uisce beatha, and later transformed into the word "whiskey/whisky" (depending on how one prefers to spell it). Yet, when I did some web searching, I found one reference in the 1913 Websters which gave a secondary meaning of "a liquor compounded of brandy, or other strong spirit, raisins, cinnamon and other spices." I'm not sure I'd call this "pastis" however, regardless of the infused anise flavors.

[bostonapothecary]

raison d'etre.... (reason for being... for those not hip to the latin. i know etre from crossword puzzles but apparently raison and reason are the same)

Raison d'être is actually French. And yea, it means: "reason for being" or, by extension, the purpose of someone or something.

Interesting use of "usquebaugh" you have there. I've always understood that it proceeded from the Scots Gaelic uisge beatha and Irish Gaelic uisce beatha, and later transformed into the word "whiskey/whisky" (depending on how one prefers to spell it). Yet, when I did some web searching, I found one reference in the 1913 Websters which gave a secondary meaning of "a liquor compounded of brandy, or other strong spirit, raisins, cinnamon and other spices." I'm not sure I'd call this "pastis" however, regardless of the infused anise flavors.

←

french? thats what i get for never taking a language in high school....

i have a bunch of different recipes for usque baugh.

regular

the green version colored with spinach juice....

the version of some king.

i think only one recipe i have doesn't have anise.

and all that have anise have saffron.

what i never understood is how those flavor combos ended up in northern europe?? it seems so mediterranean.

but it is pretty tastey and can be made for <$15

i didn't use any chlorophyl or cochineal to color mine because the strawberries give it this beautiful red hue.

i always had a thing against anise because if you drink too much of it your palate can get all desensitized.....it just clobbers everything. orange is sort of like that as well IMO.

work time...

[TallDrinkOfWater]

We've recently been drinking something I call the Lapin Agile (or Nimble Rabbit for the Francophobes in the crowd...)

It started life as a differently-proportioned version of Chuck Taggart's Hoskins Cocktail. The new proportions for the Hoskins I was given (by Murray at Zig Zag in Seattle) are 2.5 oz Plymouth gin, 1/8 oz each of Torani Amer, Cointreau, and Luxardo (or Maraska) Maraschino, dash of orange bitters, stir w/ ice and strain, finish with orange twist. We tried both the original and the variation at home (both with and without flaming the orange peel), and while I think that Chuck's shows off the Torani Amer much better -- as it was designed to do -- I think I prefer Murray's version.

Anyway, I wanted to use some Aperol in place of the Torani Amer, and started tweaking proportions a bit. This is the current iteration:

Lapin Agile

2-1/4 oz Plymouth gin

1/4 oz Aperol

1/4 oz Cointreau

1/8 oz Maraschino liqueur (I used Maraska)

2 dashes ROB#6 (have tried w/ both Fee and Bitter Truth as well -- for this, I'd suggest the Regan's)

Stir with ice in chilled mixing glass, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Use a channel knife to cut a long orange twist directly over the drink for maximum orange oils, and then garnish with the twist.

The drink gets its name from the color of the walls at the Montmartre, Paris, cabaret Lapin Agile. I have a picture of my wife outside of the cabaret on a rainy afternoon and the color of the drink matches my memory of the walls almost exactly. I'll try to post a pic of the cocktail in the next few days.

[Ktepi]

This must exist, but I can't figure out or remember what it is --

2 parts grapefruit juice

1 part Tanqueray Rangpur

quick squeeze of lime juice (probably not necessary if the grapefruit juice had been tarter)

healthy shake of Regan's orange bitters

in a glass rinsed with green Chartreuse

I wasn't sure how three citrus flavors would work, but I love the combination of these bitters with grapefruit juice, and had just made a granita/sorbet/something using these same ingredients in different proportions. "Rinsed" is probably an understatement for the Chartreuse -- it's more than the amount of absinthe in a Sazerac, but it's not a lot. A drizzle, maybe. A drizzle of Chartreuse.

[bostonapothecary]

We've recently been drinking something I call the Lapin Agile (or Nimble Rabbit for the Francophobes in the crowd...)

It started life as a differently-proportioned version of Chuck Taggart's Hoskins Cocktail. The new proportions for the Hoskins I was given (by Murray at Zig Zag in Seattle) are 2.5 oz Plymouth gin, 1/8 oz each of Torani Amer, Cointreau, and Luxardo (or Maraska) Maraschino, dash of orange bitters, stir w/ ice and strain, finish with orange twist. We tried both the original and the variation at home (both with and without flaming the orange peel), and while I think that Chuck's shows off the Torani Amer much better -- as it was designed to do -- I think I prefer Murray's version.

Anyway, I wanted to use some Aperol in place of the Torani Amer, and started tweaking proportions a bit. This is the current iteration:

Lapin Agile

2-1/4 oz Plymouth gin

1/4 oz Aperol

1/4 oz Cointreau

1/8 oz Maraschino liqueur (I used Maraska)

2 dashes ROB#6 (have tried w/ both Fee and Bitter Truth as well -- for this, I'd suggest the Regan's)

Stir with ice in chilled mixing glass, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Use a channel knife to cut a long orange twist directly over the drink for maximum orange oils, and then garnish with the twist.

The drink gets its name from the color of the walls at the Montmartre, Paris, cabaret Lapin Agile. I have a picture of my wife outside of the cabaret on a rainy afternoon and the color of the drink matches my memory of the walls almost exactly. I'll try to post a pic of the cocktail in the next few days.

←

i want one of those....

[DCP]

Some fun with horchata concentrate syrup. Picked it up at the local Mexican grocer while going on a lime run. Kinda like orgeat, only with rice and cinnamon instead of almond and orange flower. Names later, maybe, when feeling more creative.

(Recipes)

←

Sounds delicious. I'm going to try to adapt these to the horchata mix (powder form, 'Klass' brand) I have - not exactly quality stuff, but it'll have to do.

[The Hersch]

Lapin Agile

2-1/4 oz Plymouth gin

1/4 oz Aperol

1/4 oz Cointreau

1/8 oz Maraschino liqueur (I used Maraska)

2 dashes ROB#6 (have tried w/ both Fee and Bitter Truth as well -- for this, I'd suggest the Regan's)

Stir with ice in chilled mixing glass, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Use a channel knife to cut a long orange twist directly over the drink for maximum orange oils, and then garnish with the twist.

That sounds really good, and as it happens I have all of the ingredients in the drinks cupboard, but no oranges. (Well, I have Luxardo maraschino.) Do you suppose this is worth making with a substitution of lemon peel for orange, or should I just wait till I can get an orange?

[TallDrinkOfWater]

Lapin Agile

2-1/4 oz Plymouth gin

1/4 oz Aperol

1/4 oz Cointreau

1/8 oz Maraschino liqueur (I used Maraska)

2 dashes ROB#6 (have tried w/ both Fee and Bitter Truth as well -- for this, I'd suggest the Regan's)

Stir with ice in chilled mixing glass, strain into chilled cocktail glass. Use a channel knife to cut a long orange twist directly over the drink for maximum orange oils, and then garnish with the twist.

That sounds really good, and as it happens I have all of the ingredients in the drinks cupboard, but no oranges. (Well, I have Luxardo maraschino.) Do you suppose this is worth making with a substitution of lemon peel for orange, or should I just wait till I can get an orange?

←

I'd suggest getting an orange; the fresh orange oils really complement the Aperol and Cointreau in this one.

[The Hersch]

I'd suggest getting an orange; the fresh orange oils really complement the Aperol and Cointreau in this one.

Regarding the Lapin Agile: ultimately just too sweet for my taste. But here's a cocktail made with Aperol that I've been playing with. (It seems like a pretty obvious combination, so maybe this already exists as a canonical cocktail. Surprisingly, a search for ingredient Aperol gets no hits on cocktaildb.) I haven't given it a name.

2 oz gin

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz Aperol

2 dashes Regan's orange bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Now, I suppose you could cavil that my cocktail actually has more sweet stuff in it than the Lapin Agile, but the lemon juice balances it.

[lynchu]

Got ahold of golden kiwis so a cocktail was required. Not very original but focused on the main ingredient.

Golden Breeze

* 1 Golden kiwi fruit, peeled

* 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

* 1/2 ounce simple syrup (I used ginger-infused 1:2 syrup)

* 3/4 ounce Cointreau

* 2 ounces shochu (I used a sweet potato shochu but it could be improved with a more neutral barley or any spirit you feel would match for a twist)

Photo here.