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trauma llama posted:What scotch did you get? There's Laphroig Quarter Cask, Talisker Storm, and two mores. It's my Dad's colleciton.
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Aug 31, 2015 20:50
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I agree that you should only mix with high-quality vodka. High-quality vodka costs about $15/bottle. Anything beyond that is a trick on people who don't know what glycerin is.
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Aug 31, 2015 20:50
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Hi friends. I read an article in the NYT Magazine about Spanish vermouth: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/magazine/starring-vermouth.html It sounded really good and I've never had it before. Do people have any suggestions with it? Is the article full of poo poo? Would I not notice a difference between Spanish, American, Italian etc? I know next to nothing about vermouth  .
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Aug 31, 2015 20:53
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Halloween Jack posted:I agree that you should only mix with high-quality vodka. High-quality vodka costs about $15/bottle. Anything beyond that is a trick on people who don't know what glycerin is. I still have almost an entire bottle of Belvedere I bought for when a friend who moved to Seattle came over. She hates gin, but I like her anyway. She could tell the difference, or at least she could tell when a bar made her drink with Grey Goose instead of Belvedere. I can see why she likes it, I guess. It's smoother than Three Olives, at least. I'm thinking about making Vespers, but I never get around to buying Lillet. She has had a fairly massive amount of vodka in her time, though.
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Aug 31, 2015 21:12
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I remember that post! I think it should go in the OP along with the "build a bar" post. In regards to vodka, I don't trust anything low-shelf. I had Red Square once, and it was horrible. I usually go Standard or Skyy. Tasteless, yeah, but I only ever use them in drinks that have a bunch of flavours I don't want to compete with a flavourful base spirit (Rum, gin, whatever). You know the type, heavy on the liqueurs. I think it's nice to have vodka around for those occasions. Gin is way better in more classic drinks like Martinis, or anything you actually want to taste the spirit in. I think it's a matter of the context of the drink. Vodka has it's place.
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Sep 1, 2015 05:48
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Rotten Cookies posted:I had an awesome cocktail with my girlfriend last night in Vegas. Muddled cucumber, Hendrick's gin, lemon juice, egg white, and a rim of some sort of pulverized pepper. They called it tahini? But I'm pretty sure that's not what it's called and I was just mishearing. Anyway, it was fantastic. Willing to bet it was Tajin. It's a lime peel, chili powder and salt mixture, and it goes awesome with cucumber based cocktails.
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Sep 1, 2015 16:38
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The Hebug posted:New Amsterdam smells like lemon furniture polish. New Amsterdam has gotten more expensive than I personally think it's worth, at least in my market. Obviously this isn't a comprehensive post of good brands, but it's a starting place. Mea culpa on the Carpano though, I definitely edited that recommendation in.
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Sep 1, 2015 20:26
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My bar is forming! I grabbed both vodka and gin, along with Cointreau and Aperol. Aperol is an interesting beast. When I brought Campari to a party everyone agreed it smelled and tasted like "washing detergent". Weirdly, I think the descriptions of Aperol I've read are spot on. It really is Campari-like, but with way less bitterness, way more sweetness, and a lot of orange flavour. I'm liking it a lot.
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Sep 2, 2015 11:00
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I like Aperol but it has a kind of saccharine element to the flavour that my wife detests. So we just drink Campari.
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Sep 2, 2015 16:26
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BoredByThis posted:Willing to bet it was Tajin. It's a lime peel, chili powder and salt mixture, and it goes awesome with cucumber based cocktails. That's exactly it. You are a golden man.
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Sep 2, 2015 17:09
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Doh004 posted:Hi friends. I read an article in the NYT Magazine about Spanish vermouth: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/magazine/starring-vermouth.html Ended up getting this: Atxa Vino Vermouth Rojo http://demaisonselections.com/achavermouthred.html Drinking it on the rocks with a lemon wedge after work, owns.
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Sep 3, 2015 22:57
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Any suggestions for which type of sherry would work best for replacing sweet vermouth in cocktails such as a Manhattan?
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Sep 4, 2015 14:22
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Oloroso prolly. A proper Amontillado would make a somewhat drier, bite-ier cocktail, but lots of cheap "Amontillado" sherry is not very good. If you find an Oloroso for like $20-$25 it should do the trick.
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Sep 5, 2015 06:50
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Kenning posted:Oloroso prolly. A proper Amontillado would make a somewhat drier, bite-ier cocktail, but lots of cheap "Amontillado" sherry is not very good. If you find an Oloroso for like $20-$25 it should do the trick. Thanks, I figured a PX sherry would have been too sweet, so did not know how much drier I should go on the sherry spectrum.
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Sep 6, 2015 13:17
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Saw some Lebanese Arak for sale. Grape spirits + aniseed. Not very expensive. Worth a buy? I already have Pernod on hand.
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Sep 17, 2015 21:10
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I just came into a bottle of Jeremiah Weed - sarsaparilla flavored. I'm trying to think of cocktails I could make with it, other than the obvious one of mixing it with root beer (and possibly topping with ice cream). Any ideas?
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Sep 17, 2015 22:14
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Comb Your Beard posted:Saw some Lebanese Arak for sale. Grape spirits + aniseed. Not very expensive. Different beast, acquired taste.
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Sep 18, 2015 03:29
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How do you guys go about dry shaking in cocktails that contain egg white? I've tried with cobbler and Boston shakers but without the seal from ice I just end up making a mess.
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Sep 18, 2015 10:46
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Tea Bone posted:How do you guys go about dry shaking in cocktails that contain egg white? I've tried with cobbler and Boston shakers but without the seal from ice I just end up making a mess. You have to align the tin and glass vertically. Make them straight up and down. Or... I am a more recent convert to the wet/dry method. Shake to dilute/chill, strain back into the shaking glass, dump ice, dry shake to emulsify. You get a really nice thick foam and make less of a mess. The utensils are cold so they seal, even when crooked.
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Sep 18, 2015 13:23
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Reverse dry shake rules. Can confirm.
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Sep 18, 2015 17:31
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Invoices we're desperately waiting on are further delayed at our West Africa startup, so we're scrounging up loose change and eating rice and beans for a few days until multiple tens of thousands get paid out to us. We'd already downgraded from Martinique rhum agricole to generic white rum two weeks ago when petty cash started getting tight, but as of today I'm reduced to mixing this stuff in my homemade limeade: I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, and I've had people shoot at me.
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Sep 18, 2015 21:27
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The Maestro posted:You have to align the tin and glass vertically. Make them straight up and down. Or... Someone mentioned doing that earlier in the thread and it changed the way I bartend. I love it. Thanks thread!
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Sep 18, 2015 23:13
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Yep, you should be reverse-dry shaking with egg whites, using a Boston shaker and a top tin, not a glass. Cobbler shakers are pretty useless in general.
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Sep 19, 2015 00:49
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:
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Sep 19, 2015 01:49
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Halloween Jack posted:I've never seen gin with a pop-top. Do we have a crying Africa smiley? Same, what the gently caress? A gin from Liberia seems pretty out of place. Magog fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Sep 19, 2015 |
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Sep 19, 2015 03:13
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Comb Your Beard posted:Saw some Lebanese Arak for sale. Grape spirits + aniseed. Not very expensive. If it's Arak Touma it's definitely worth checking out. It's what I drank during my summer in Damascus and it really is quite nice. Tea Bone posted:How do you guys go about dry shaking in cocktails that contain egg white? I've tried with cobbler and Boston shakers but without the seal from ice I just end up making a mess. Dry shaking is for scrubs.
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Sep 19, 2015 06:22
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Magog posted:Same, what the gently caress? A gin from Liberia seems pretty out of place. I live in Monrovia. Anyway, iirc a lot of the local/regional dirt-cheap liquors have more Western screw-top caps, but for some reason a lot of brands of gin are capped. Aside from gin there's a variety of cheap African made whiskies mostly, and rarely a rum or brandy, but a lot of local shops don't even know what rum or vodka are. Larger/nicer stores have an okay selection, just a slightly odd one by U.S. standards: really heavy on scotch, good variety of gin, very little bourbon and no rye, moderate selection of the big-name vodkas, limited selection of rums that's light on generic American stuff (no Bacardi or Capt) but lots of odder little things like cachaça, rhum agricole and pisco (which is technically a brandy iirc). Limited but slightly high-end selection of cognac, and liqueurs are really hit-or-miss: they'll have a lot of overpriced lovely Bols-type wacky flavors, but amidst all that some good German apricot schnapps, Slovakian bilberry liquor, really good selection of Anisettes (see below) and of course lots of Amarula. Re the arak chat earlier on the page (and btw arak is one of the liquors that *is* widely available at the nicer shops in Monrovia since lots of Lebanese merchants here). A few years back I was at a birthday party in DC, and one of the guests had just been on a business trip to Ankara, so on her way out had asked a guy at the liquor store for a really good brand of Turkish vodka to gift the birthday boy. She presents the bottle, they start mixing drinks, and my ears perk up at their loud exclamations about how Turkey makes the shittiest vodka ever. I mosey over and of course it turns out she'd bought a bottle of high-end rakī (my phone lacks the right final letter). So I show them the right way to mix it with cold water; most of them still didn't like it, but a few became believers.
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Sep 19, 2015 10:18
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The Maestro posted:You have to align the tin and glass vertically. Make them straight up and down. Or... Rotten Cookies posted:Reverse dry shake rules. Can confirm. Thanks guys, I'll give it a go.
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Sep 19, 2015 12:54
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Mmmmm. Amarula.
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Sep 19, 2015 19:09
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Incase anyone in this thread is in Bristol, UK. Cocktail week is October 19th to 25th, ranging from an hour of learning and drinking espresso martinis to gin distillery meet & greats [with gin and tonics] to the cocktail mask ball.Rotten Cookies posted:Reverse dry shake rules. Can confirm. 
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Sep 22, 2015 08:56
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Fluo posted:Incase anyone in this thread is in Bristol, UK. Cocktail week is October 19th to 25th, ranging from an hour of learning and drinking espresso martinis to gin distillery meet & greats [with gin and tonics] to the cocktail mask ball. I'm glad this has moved to being more of a public celebration rather than an industry event
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Sep 22, 2015 09:55
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mfcrocker posted:I'm glad this has moved to being more of a public celebration rather than an industry event Agreed, I feel some of the events are still going to be extremely industry cliquey like the Cocktail Cup Final etc but there is some good ones which feel less cliquey. The Cocktail movie drink along is kind of cool idea but I'd rather not have to watch Cocktail and not a huge fan of 80s cocktails lol. Craft gin experience I'm totally up for and maybe one or two of the other events. The Milk Thistle 1815 - 2015 five hour cocktails [each hour the era moves down the decades] seems really good, depends on if your friends have the stamina or not 
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Sep 22, 2015 10:57
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What's the best recipe for a Pegu Club?
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Sep 24, 2015 03:34
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Halloween Jack posted:What's the best recipe for a Pegu Club? Depends who you talk to, I'm not a big fan of Curacao though I don't think I can be too helpful and hope someone who is can help. But if its any help heres three I picked up from a friends blog: Savoy Cocktail Book: 1 Dash Angostura Bitters. 1 Dash Orange Bitters. (Angostura Orange Bitters) 1 Teaspoonful Lime Juice. (1 teaspoon Fresh Lime Juice) 1/3 Curacao. (3/4 oz Bols Dry Orange Curacao) 2/3 Dry Gin. (1 1/2 oz Plymouth Gin) quote:So this is the Savoy recipe for this cocktail. To me, it doesn’t make much sense, from a flavor perspective. The mere teaspoon of lime juice, does very little for the cocktail, to balance against the sweetness of the orange curacao, making it very nearly an after dinner proposition. Heres a pre Savoy one 4 parts Dry Gin. (2 oz Gin) 1 part Curacao. (1/2 oz Curacao) 1 part Lime Juice. (1/2 oz Lime Juice) 1 Dash Angostura Bitters per cocktail. 1 Dash Orange Bitters per cocktail. (Angostura Orange Bitters) quote:This is a very dry cocktail! Though it has its fans, it is a little too dry and tart for my taste. At this point, I have to admit I’m also thinking I don’t really like Angostura Orange Bitters in this cocktail. I like them in Martinis and such, but there’s something in the spice component that just isn’t working for me in a sour. The oldest recipe anyone has found, at the moment, is from an edition of Harry’s ABC of Cocktails from 1929. It is as follows: 1 dash Angostura Bitters 1 dash of Orange Bitters 1 teaspoonful of Lime Juice (Rose’s) 1/6 Curacao 2/3 Gin I've most likely not been any use but hopefully another goon could help
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Sep 24, 2015 10:14
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Don't use Roses, and I use .5, not a teaspoon. If you think you don't like curaçao, give the Pierre Ferand Dry Curaçao a try. Uses a cognac base, has a lot more depth to it and doesn't have that gross dirt taste some of the cheap ones do.
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Sep 24, 2015 15:53
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Although if you really don't like curaçao, just use Gran Marnier or Cointreau. Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao isn't particularly dry, and it's got way too much vanilla.
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Sep 24, 2015 17:29
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Hmmm. Ferrand and Gran Marnier are very similar to me, at least while mixed. Makes sense since they're both cognac based (for the red ribbon, anyhow. Yellow ribbon GM is neutral grain spirit based and just tastes like curaçao to me, a fairly mediocre one at that.) The vanilla on the PF isn't overwhelming to me at all and I'd rather support them with my 4 cases a month. Cointreau, while I appreciate how much cash they throw into Kyle Ford throwing fun parties, is so loving sweet to me I can rarely stand it. TBH I haven't tasted them side by side in a long time though, so I'll do that when I get to work.
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Sep 24, 2015 18:35
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I feel like Cointreau is the most well-balanced of the three, in fact. Of course it's sweet, it's a liqueur, but it also finishes dry and has a perfectly-honed orange essence.
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Sep 24, 2015 19:47
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Question here for bartenders, what's the etiquette for ordering drinks not on the menu? I was in a "cocktal-bar" last night and all the drinks on the menu were pornstar martinis, chocolate martinis and the like. I just wanted a simple Bennet. When I used to bartend I'd always try and accommodate what the customer wanted but I never worked in a real cocktail bar so rarely got requests for mixed drinks beyond vodka lime and soda. I can see it being a pain when you're mixing drinks all night and some goon orders something you don't know the recipe for, but that being said a Bennet isn't exactly hard to make, and fairly well known.
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Sep 26, 2015 11:42
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Especially in a "real cocktail bar" I would say your bartender should be able and willing to accommodate off-menu requests. Nothing weird or wrong about that at all, and there are some cool drinks I wouldn't know anything about if customers hadn't introduced me to them in that way. Just be considerate about ordering anything weird or complicated that potentially takes a lot of time/explanation if the bar is super busy, I guess, but even then your bartender should still make whatever you order for you edit: maybe we have a different definition of "cocktail bar" when you talk about chocolate martinis and stuff tho ... when I hear the term I picture accent wall and exposed brick and a mason jar with whole nutmeg in it and the only food they serve is an $18 cheese and pickle plate goferchan fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Sep 26, 2015 |
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Sep 26, 2015 16:57
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