Drinks! (2011–2012)

[EvergreenDan]

that is an interesting looking drink. i've never owned the quarter cask. which means if i wrote about it the drink was made for me by egullet member David Santucci ...

Or it could be that I only wrote down what I sub'd for. Your recipe could have been some other Islay or smokey scotch, for example. I have all those ingredients, which makes me suspicious that this may have happened. I've tried searching around on eGullet, but I can't find this recipe. Not knowing the original ingredients makes that pretty hard.

Oh, well. I'm still giving you credit for it.

[haresfur]

2 oz Campari

2 oz sweet vermouth

build over ice

top with pineapple juice to taste

contemplate the swirling red and yellow colours then drink.

[EvergreenDan]

2 oz Campari

2 oz sweet vermouth

(pineapple)

Mr. Negroni is agunnah beeah sooooo maddah. Campari sure loves Pineapple. Have you tried The Riviera? (I mess with it, swapping the ratios of Campari (more) and Maraschino (less), and skip the simple and egg white (just add lemon juice)). For some reason, the gin/Campari/Maraschino/Pineapple infusion works better than just mixing with pineapple juice. I love this drink.

[tanstaafl2]

Who is the importer/distributor for Vergano Americano? Is it still Louis/Dressner in NY?

That's what my bottles says on the back, but my bottle is at least a year old since it took me a while to get around to opening it.

It would appear that Vergano Americano is not licensed for sale in Georgia yet so no local opportunity to try it that I know of. It was suggested that Cocchi Vermouth di Torino might be a decent sub. I have that but without the Vergano to compare to it is hard for me to say if that is so.

Anyone have any thoughts on that?

[evo-lution]

A wee adaptation of The Bumble-Bee Cocktail from Charles H. Baker's South American Gentleman's Companion is really hitting the spot in the cold weather;

50ml / 2oz Kraken Black Spiced Rum

3-4 Dashes Dr. Heather Duncan's Christmas Bitters

25ml / 1oz Fresh lime juice

20ml / 0.75oz Honey syrup

Fresh egg white

Method: Add egg white, lime juice and honey to mixing glass in that order followed by remaining ingredients, shake without ice for 5 seconds then add ice and shake for a further 10 seconds

Glass: Frozen coupette

Garnish: Orange zest (spiral)

Ice: N/A

Edited December 13, 2011 by evo-lution (log)

[bostonapothecary]

over engineered colada (or maybe not enough engineering?)

3 oz. goya coconut cream & st. james rhum (2:1) centrifuged for 20 minutes at approx 4000g

1 oz. lime juice

the results are no doubt delicious and everything was very easy to construct. goya is my favorite coconut cream.

the idea was to try and avoid all the flecks of denatured stuff that are produced by making a colada. i hate when they cling to the glass. i thought they were due to alcohol and could easily be centrifuged away once they were mixed.

the flecks are probably due to acidity and might not be so easily avoidable unless you want to pre-acidify the drink and therefore totally batch it.

the centrifuging produced four distinct layers. the very top was oily. then there was a floating layer of solids. then the rum with the majority of aroma and sugar. the more solids on the bottom. no layer seemed devoid of aroma.

i separated the solids layer and the oil layer and proceeded into a cocktail with the rest.

curiously (as seen in the flaked rye aromatized bourbon) the gelatinous nature of the coconut helped suck up lots of color from the st. james.

where to go from here i don't know.

[Yajna Patni]

With my new little bottle of chartreuse the last word hit the spot last night. I love drinks where you cant taste the individual components. To night I think I am going to put some into hot chocolate.

[tanstaafl2]

Last night I attended a "rare whiskey" tasting at Prohibition (not much to see at the website but a couple of pictures here), Atlanta's version of a PDT type "secret" speakeasy. If you enjoy drinking well made albeit spendy drinks while smoking your favorite cigar then I suppose this is the place for you.

I can do that for the most part at home (OK, I may not make the drinks as well but I try!) but it would be a place I might take like minded guests who want to go out on the town I suppose.

The "menu" for the evening featured a selection of Buffalo Trace products to include Elmer T. Lee, Thomas Handy rye, Sazerac 18yo rye and George T. Stagg bourbon. I never really thought of the Elmer T. Lee as being all that rare but perhaps it is (there are a half dozen bottles on the shelf of my favorite adult beverage establishment as of yesterday) while the other three are certainly fairly hard to get hold of. Oddly enough the Elmer T. Lee was the only one I don't have in my own liquor cabinet.

I went out of curiosity to see the bar and hear what the local experts, led by Tom McGuire (one of the bartenders in residence. Not sure if he is the head bartender) had to say about them. I also wanted to ask how he might suggest I order the different whiskeys I have in my own collection when I hold my own little tasting.

I invited my father to join me and a good time was had by all. The unfiltered barrel proof whiskeys proved to be distinctly different as was expected and both bloomed quite nicely with a splash of water. Hard to pick a winner as I enjoyed them all and it wasn't a blind tasting but both the Handy and the Stagg were quite good. The 18yo Saz was perhaps my favorite by a slight margin though and the Elmer T. Lee seemed to be a cut below although at less than half the cost retail it was a fine whiskey in its own right.

May have to add the Elmer T. Lee to my liquor cabinet given its reasonable price as part of my ongoing effort to keep the Sazerac Company and its Buffalo Trace distillery in the black.

[haresfur]

2 oz Campari

2 oz sweet vermouth

(pineapple)

Mr. Negroni is agunnah beeah sooooo maddah. Campari sure loves Pineapple. Have you tried The Riviera? (I mess with it, swapping the ratios of Campari (more) and Maraschino (less), and skip the simple and egg white (just add lemon juice)). For some reason, the gin/Campari/Maraschino/Pineapple infusion works better than just mixing with pineapple juice. I love this drink.

I'll have to try that.

Today's version had a float of Inner Circle Green and a few dashes Fee's Orange bitters. Not bad.

[plattetude]

Last night's tipple:

2 oz Patron Reposado

1/2 oz Cynar

1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse

3 dashes Bitterman's Xocolatl Mole Bitters

Good stuff.

[sbumgarner]

Recently picked up some Luxardo Amaretto, only bottle of Amaretto I've ever owned but from what I hear it's considerably better than most else out there. Made this last night:

1 oz Bacardi 8

1 oz Luxardo Amaretto

.75 lemon juice

.5 cinnamon syrup

.25 Del Maguey Vida

Shake, strain into coupe.

Looks potentially over-sweet on paper but in the glass it really worked for me, kind of like a smokey apple cider.

[bostonapothecary]

"lord byron"

1 oz. brandy from brandymel (nonino gioiello castagno might be an acceptable substitute)

.5 oz. mezcal (vida)

.75 oz. lime juice

8 g. non aromatic white sugar

the 8 g. could even go as far as 9 or 10. the drink wants to give priority to the aromas of the two decadent and exotic distillates which means gustation has to be "simplified" to not cause a distraction. simplifying gustation requires perceived sweetness in line with port wine.

brandy from brandymel was a successful proof of concept.

[thirtyoneknots]

Who is the importer/distributor for Vergano Americano? Is it still Louis/Dressner in NY?

That's what my bottles says on the back, but my bottle is at least a year old since it took me a while to get around to opening it.

It would appear that Vergano Americano is not licensed for sale in Georgia yet so no local opportunity to try it that I know of. It was suggested that Cocchi Vermouth di Torino might be a decent sub. I have that but without the Vergano to compare to it is hard for me to say if that is so.

Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Vergano Americano is pink, not red, so in a basic way they are not going to be terribly similar. It would probably work ok as a highly imperfect substitute, certainly in the case of the Campari Swizzle it's fine.

[bostonapothecary]

Who is the importer/distributor for Vergano Americano? Is it still Louis/Dressner in NY?

That's what my bottles says on the back, but my bottle is at least a year old since it took me a while to get around to opening it.

It would appear that Vergano Americano is not licensed for sale in Georgia yet so no local opportunity to try it that I know of. It was suggested that Cocchi Vermouth di Torino might be a decent sub. I have that but without the Vergano to compare to it is hard for me to say if that is so.

Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Vergano Americano is pink, not red, so in a basic way they are not going to be terribly similar. It would probably work ok as a highly imperfect substitute, certainly in the case of the Campari Swizzle it's fine.

another way to differentiate the two is that cocchi vermouth di torino probably has about 165g/l of sugar like most sweet vermouths while vergano americano has well over 200+g/l. maybe even 240g/l because the sugar is well constrasted by bitterness.

long ago i had strange budgetary cuts and could not afford to stock punt y mes which the VA is probably modeled after.. i thought i'd just add a few drops of quinine tincture to sweet vermouth and everything would be fine. what i found was that to make them even remotely similar i had to increase the sugar by about 60g/l to contrast the quinine tincture. in the end it was doable, but only after broadening the tension in both directions between sweetness and bitterness.

if you understand how to properly change the sugar content, you can make some pretty cool modifications to sweet vermouths on the cheap.

Edited December 17, 2011 by bostonapothecary (log)

[bostonapothecary]

i finally got around to making the FCI's clarified lime juice recipe.

the recipe was definitely easy enough to execute. the agar clarification strips the majority of the color and seems to change the aroma as well. it almost seems like a lot of the pininess is stripped away. the result is almost like roses lime acid.

the acidity seems slightly lessened as well. which might be a result of the 4:1 lime to water ratio for the recipe. the water is used to hydrate the agar. i tried to use a PH testing strip to compare the results to plain lime juice but i wasn't confident in my results which measured them to be the same. the difference could definitely be a result of perception due to the loss of color and part of the aroma.

i did find a cocktail to enjoy it in.

.75 oz. mezcal (vida)

.75 oz. milagro mandarin (not sure how this made it into the house)

.75 oz. der lachs danzig goldwasser (i gave up on yellow chartreuse)

.75 oz. FCI clarified lime juice

really enjoyable. the color (or lack their of) is a great feature. the goldwasser also contributes beautiful flecks of gold.

[ChrisTaylor]

Gingerbeard ginger beer. It's the first alcoholic ginger beer I've had before and, mild as its alcoholic content is (4.something%) I feel the alcohol actually detracts from it. I've had superior non-alcoholic ginger beers.

[bostonapothecary]

a coworker requested i make some cashew milk using the amazing centrifuge technique from the FCI. their recipe adapted spectacularly well to cashews. besides the milk, i ended up with a sizable amount of cashew "cream". the cream is thicker than heavy cream, but definitely not butter. perfect for cocktails.

1.5 oz. pineau des charents

.75 oz. cocoa aromatized "whitened" bourbon (100 proof!)

.75 oz. cashew "cream"

this was formatted as an inverse alexander. quite lovely.

1.5 oz. 1995 guyana rum finished in chateau y'quem barrels

1 oz. pineau des charents

.5 oz. wray & nephews pimento dram

yolk sized glob of cashew "cream"

this was formatted as a flip. holy wow. spectacular. my favorite drink of recent memory.

[Ashen]

gin and chinotto with a slice each of lemon,lime and clementine.

Bombay sapphire 1.5 oz over ice in highball

the three citrus slices squeezed and dropped into the glass

topped with brio chinotto

stirred.

very nice and refreshing.. Not sure of the name of it but I am sure I have read something about gin and chinotto in the past. Brio chinotto has quite a bite of quinine to it so it works similar to gin and tonic. I think I will grab some italian bitters for next time though as it could benifit from a dash or two

[bostonapothecary]

2 oz. pecan (poorly) aromatized rye whiskey

4 g. non aromatic white sugar

4 dashes peychaud's bitters

rinse of yerba mate-sloe berry absinthe

i tried aromatizing the rye whiskey by blending the pecans with the spirit, letting it sit a few days and then centrifuging for 20 minutes @ approx 4000g's. the result was more like a nut milk than a spirit infusion. i will have to try again by just cracking the nuts and infusing then spinning.

something about the texture and aroma makes you think you are drinking a milk punch. it is definitely good but not as i had envision nor worthy of the name sazerac.

also in the 'fuge was more flaked rye aromatized bourbon. last time it was gone too quickly, but the empty jar after a few days took on an amazing cinnamony aroma. i suspect rye oxidizes into gorgeous aromas. i might aerate it in the blender and then let it sit for a while and see what happens.

the flaked rye clarifies nicely due to whatever gelatinous stuff is in it. i may take the remainder of the pecan rye and try some agar clarification, but if the yield sucks the recipe isn't economically viable.

[bostonapothecary]

vesper!

1.5 oz. cascade mountain gin (my second favorite after seagram's)

1 oz. brandy of brandymel

.5 oz. cocchi americano

gin from a giant juniper forest, distillate of algarve honey and moonshine made from old men from a "strawberry tree", exotic aromatized wine imported by an indiana jones like character. all spectacular symbolic values with the extraordinary sensory attributes to match...! amazeballs!

[bostonapothecary]

i wanted to re-render PDT's brilliant looking cocktail "kina miele" with things i had laying around the house...

their's looks like this:

1 oz. dolin dry vermouth

.75 oz. cocchi americano

.5 oz. nonino gioiello (brandy of chestnut honey)

.25 oz. clear creak pear brandy

1 dash bitter truth lemon bitters

my rendering:

1 oz. m&r dry vermouth

1 o.z cocchi americano

.75 oz. brandy of brandymel (brandy of algarve honey)

.25 oz. st. george aqua perfecta

2 dashes regan's orange bitters

for starters i made the drink slightly larger than theirs and thought i should make it slightly sweeter by increasing the cocchi americano. my choice of honey brandy is more affordable so i used a little more. a brilliant flourish to the kina miele is their addition of pear liqueur. luckily i had a nice pear brandy laying around. i don't stock lemon bitters and thought regan's might create similar inflections of aroma. as it warms, the contributions of the honey and pear brandies get more pronounced.

this rivaled the vesper i had for lunch. props to PDT.

[tanstaafl2]

vesper!

1.5 oz. cascade mountain gin (my second favorite after seagram's)

1 oz. brandy of brandymel

.5 oz. cocchi americano

gin from a giant juniper forest, distillate of algarve honey and moonshine made from old men from a "strawberry tree", exotic aromatized wine imported by an indiana jones like character. all spectacular symbolic values with the extraordinary sensory attributes to match...! amazeballs!

I presume Brandymel is available because of the large Portuguese population in the Boston area? Not something you see in these parts that I am aware of.

But is it really a Vesper without the vodka? Seems a bit like calling a Margarita without tequila a Margarita. Or is this brandy of brandymel one of your homemade centrifuged vodka and honey combos?

You do have a quite a bit of interesting stuff! I just can't usually replicate any of it.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

1 oz ginger panela syrup (byproduct of candying ginger)

1 oz fresh lime juice

2 oz Remy VSOP cognac

hot water to fill the mug

I have no idea what this even might be called, but it's faboo.

[bostonapothecary]

vesper!

1.5 oz. cascade mountain gin (my second favorite after seagram's)

1 oz. brandy of brandymel

.5 oz. cocchi americano

gin from a giant juniper forest, distillate of algarve honey and moonshine made from old men from a "strawberry tree", exotic aromatized wine imported by an indiana jones like character. all spectacular symbolic values with the extraordinary sensory attributes to match...! amazeballs!

I presume Brandymel is available because of the large Portuguese population in the Boston area? Not something you see in these parts that I am aware of.

But is it really a Vesper without the vodka? Seems a bit like calling a Margarita without tequila a Margarita. Or is this brandy of brandymel one of your homemade centrifuged vodka and honey combos?

You do have a quite a bit of interesting stuff! I just can't usually replicate any of it.

there is a really big portugeuse language community around here so there is a few tiny importers that bring in stuff from portugal proper, the azores, cape verde, and brazil. the quality is amazing, the prices are a gift, and no restaurant has ever touched them.

i use brandymel and algarvihna from portugal

maracuja liqueur from the azores

the rums of cape verde (i think they are the greatest fresh sugar cane juice rums of the world)

from brazil there is a liqueur of jabuticaba and some epic cachacas from salinas in minas gerais at really low prices.

my brother buys a cachaca called "diva" for $12/L which is really gorgeous. i didn't believe him when he told me the price and had to walk down to the store and see for myself. i think it is priced as some sort of deal.

brandy of brandymel is the product of distilling a liqueur. sugar is not volatile and beverage distillation never reaches temperatures high enough to caramelize. the liqueur is only $12 retail and 27% alc. centrifuging just removes the wax and has been really great for some of the weird honeys i like to use. the vesper rendering doesnt compare to a margarita because there is no significant acidity. the aroma from the brandy of brandymel just creates inflections of aroma as would adding the oil of an orange peel. i never think of cocktails as specific drinks but rather just patterns that can be re-used.

[bostonapothecary]

today i made some "pistaceat"

25% nuts by weight blended. centrifuged to separate the fat and solids, then run through the acme juicer lined with coffee filters to get whatever else lurked around, then sugared to 400g/l with non aromatic white sugar. the resultant intensity of the aroma and tonality really impressed me.

first up.

.75 oz. lime.

.5 oz. pistaceat

.25 oz. green chartreuse

.5 oz. mezcal

1 oz. blanco tequila

i thought the syrup was intense enough, but it really got lost when competing for attention with the other... delicious, but fail.