in the 2k10 i am learning to make cocktails. this is my mixology thread

i've seen fred around town many times over the years. never figured out how to say "thanks for the blog," he's a pretty quiet and businesslike dude. i give him so much credit for sticking with the project.

love the look of that bonal cocktail. my bottle of calvados is not a brand i've seen recommended and i actually don't like it at all though i enjoy plenty of other apple brandies. maybe i need to just suck it up and buy the brand that death & co. or dead rabbit uses.

I've had American apple brandies (Laird's, Rhine Hall) but not a true calvados, and I've never been totally sure about how it differs.

Like with other wines and spirits from France and other old world countries these things are produced in delimited regions and are more regulated before they can use certain terms on their labels. There are probably some apple brandies in the US produced in a more French calvados style.

ugh, not saying though that america doesn't have requirements on spirits or wine before they can use certain terms/categories.

laird's bonded is def my basic taste memory of apple brandy. i've recently had the copper & kings unaged which is a great complement to laird's. i think i just need to broaden my calvados sample. the french are fine at distilling grapes so there should be nothing blocking them from distilling apples.

I was just reading up on the AOCs, Calvados Pays d'Auge can also use up to 30% pear and Calvados Domfrontais must use a minimum of 30% pear.

There are probably some apple brandies in the US produced in a more French calvados style.

Yeah, I think Rhine Hall says their oak-aged apple brandy is similar to calvados. What's a good affordable French calvados for mixing?

dead rabbit uses montreuil calvados selection, which is classified as a pays d'auge. i believe death & co. uses busnel vsop. looks like they're around $35-$40.

I've only ever had Lemorton and Camut (probably because I see them everywhere). They are fine.

Has anyone ever had the Clear Creek (oregon) eau de vies? I've bene meaning to try them for a long time, but I kind of just want the ones that have a whole pear in the bottle. I've heard very good things about them though.

Ah, I see that i see Lemorton and Camut everywhere because they have the same distributor (skurnik).

best of both worlds! http://www.clearcreekdistillery.com/products/clear-brandies/#pear-in-bottle

the clear creek products i have used have all been great. i have always wanted to try the douglas fir one but i don't see it around much anymore.

I was obsessed about how they got that pear in the bottle. I have never seen it in any store ever. I think it has to be ordered?

Like, the pics of them growing the pears in the bottles is so trippy.

I have loved every Clear Creek production I've tried, also home state pride

Thx, CAD. Now that you mention it, I do remember Busnel from the Death & Co. book.

Whoa @ the Pear-in-the-Bottle. I have seen Clear Creek in various recipes, but I don't think I have ever noticed it in stores around here. Rhine Hall is a local eau-de-vie distiller, and I like to support them whenever I can. (Recently used the Rhine Hall Plum Brandy in a Pouring Ribbons recipe that calls for Clear Creek.)

i wish i could personally vouch for those calvados brands... just as a rule i trust DR and D&C when it comes to products.

i checked my disliked bottle of calvados tonight when making the lovely bonal cocktail seandalai posted and it's still like 2/3 full :(

Cocktail Codex recommends Busnel VSOP and Dupont Reserve. Latter looks more like a $50 bottle.

This was also really good, one of those drinks where mixing 6 different things together makes total sense:

Bitter End
1.5oz Dry Gin
0.75oz White vermouth
0.75oz Orange juice
0.5oz Campari
0.25oz Amaro Nonino
0.25oz Green Chartreuse

(Shake)

I hadn't really thought about it before, but there are very few non-tiki cocktails that use orange juice. Other ones I rate are the Blood and Sand (apparently this one gets mixed reviews?) and the Adriatique. Gonna try this next: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2016/12/union-club.html

xp mmm time to buy some Amaro Nonino!

the bitter end and union club look good! here's a post i did about the blood and sand and having too many unjuiced oranges:

i have a bunch of oranges that have been peeled for garnish and a bottle of famous grouse that i don't really want so i'm amusing myself trying to fix the blood and sand, which famously consists of 4 sweetish ingredients without contrast. neutral cocktail acids (i have lactart) were pretty much invented for doing this, so now it's about fixndng proportions and moving the result from pleasant to interesting. tonight:

1.5 oz. famous grouse
.75 oz. oj
.5 oz. cherry heering
.5 oz. dolin rouge
1/2 tsp lactart

this is fine! doesn't suck at all. i think a vermouth with more character, or added bitters, plus a smidge more acid could really work well.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, December 6, 2017 11:43 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Someday I will buy Cherry Heering, if only so I can make the Blood and Sand-ish Cunningham cocktail.

i bought cherry heering really early on in my booze-collecting tenure and in retrospect i could have allocated that money more effectively

I have a tiny bottle that will last me a while.

My wife was having a book club and wanted me to batch up some mojitos. I'm not usually a fan of making big batches of cocktails, since it's tough (for me) to get the right amount of ice/water in there, especially if you're making them it advance, but I figured, sure, I've batched mojitos before, that's pretty straightforward (and looks pretty in a nice pitcher). I did a quick search and came across a couple of recipes that called for both lime *and* lemon, which, being a traditionalist, I thought was kind of weird. What's more, I looked in the fridge and only found a couple of limes, and a bunch of lemons, so realized, huh, whatever I make is going to have more lemon than lime, even if this recipe called for juice from four of each. So I make this batch of mojitos with only two limes and four lemons, worried that it's going to turn out funky, but you know what? It worked out ok! Maybe there was just enough lime to impart enough of a lime flavor to complement the lemon?

The best drink I've ever had or made with Cherry Heering, btw, is the Vanilla Sky, which also uses vanilla-bean infused bourbon.

Oh, and Singapore Slings!

I'm sure there's a better name for this than "beer negroni" but: 2oz red vermouth, 2oz Campari, 500ml pilsner. Recommended!

a beerevardier

or a pilsnericano

pilsnegroni rolls off the tongue pretty well

A farrago.

a baloney

I made a creole Manhattan subbing chicory liqueur for sweet vermouth and using Peychaud's bitters. Pretty good, but I was surprised how overpowered the Hoodoo was. The chicory is strong when drunk neat but the rye steamrolled it.

finally figured out something good with the Amaro Ciociaro

2 oz Evan Williams 100 proof bond
3/4 oz Cocchi Americano
1/2 oz Amaro Ciociaro
lemon peel garnish, stir well w/rocks

sounds good to me.

i had been on a bit of a cocktail break but midsummer always inspires me to break out the classic rum drinks. my beloved waring pro professional ice crusher mysteriously stopped working so i needed to spring for a replacement from ebay, but since then it's been plenty of navy grogs and planter's punches.

sleeve, that sounds like the bourbon version of the Negroni variant I have been interested in recently - which has gin instead of bourbon, with choice of amaro (suze/gran classico/amaro ciociaro), and apertif (kina l'aero d'or/lillet/cocchi americano)

The store was having a big sale on spirits so I got a bottle of white rum today to make Hemingways. But I don't have Luxardo so me trying out substitutes might be a bad idea.

tough to find a sub for luxardo. could just make regular daiquris?

ugh, no that would make too much sense.

I added some blueberry juice and honey.

https://punchdrink.com/articles/goodbye-fat-washing-hello-switching-spirit-infusion-cocktail-technique/

Brilliant concept, great potential for silliness.

whoa

wow, that is really something.

i could totally sneak a chest freezer into the basement, my wife hates it down there.

Preview of a new game where you have to out-drink the Devil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ8qcIVmr1M

This is good. A bunch of vintage cocktail books archived by Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux, a museum on the island of Bendor (FR) (and most are readable) here:

https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/

There's so many amazing book covers. I have a poster/print of L'Art de Boire le Vin (from a 1920s book) that I still need to get framed.

I've discovered the Toronto.

A long standing favorite

I got a bottle of genever last month in Atlanta (Boomsma Oude) and erstwhile ILXor Bill/Tep hipped me to the Shaddock -- equal parts genever, Aperol, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice. So many dancing flavors -- I'm sure this will be one of my alltime faves.

Nice. I've been curious about genever for a while. I imagine it being somewhat like Old Tom gin?