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

Would definitely trust anything with a Beachbum Berry affiliation.

(If yr in NOLA, his Latitude 29 bar is worth a stop)

Was it this, in the new issue of Bon Appetit?

It wasn't that, but that certainly sounds interesting. I've made peanut orgeat before...also toasted pecan orgeat (sweetened with a mix of dark Karo, sorghum molasses and Alabama legend Golden Eagle Syrup, to get close to the flavor of pecan pie) and pistachio orgeat, which is mindblowing in a gin fizz. I make a quick and easy orgeat for my workplace bar, just think of storebought almond milk as water and make a semi-rich (3:2) syrup from it, then add the appropriate amount of orange flower water, + brandy to stabilize. It stays good a really long time! I used to do it the hard way from almonds -- got a great product, so rich it would separate within a few minutes of shaking, but so time consuming. Never made macadamia orgeat but it's on my list.

I love making supporting products -- pineapple gum syrup, rhubarb syrup, ginger syrup, etc -- almost as much as I like making drinks. I should do that for a living when I'm too stove-up to work the shaker.

i tried making macadamia orgeat once, but even with a good blender and one of those nutmilk bags the result was grainy, which was very frustrating given how labor-intensive it is. nice to see that orgeat works site has a macadamia offering so maybe i will just throw money at it rather than trying again.

xxp Great coincidence, I've just started making plans with a friend to meet up in NOLA in November, and Lat29 will definitely be on the itinerary. Tipsy et al, any recommended spirits retailers I should check out while I'm there? I have a couple of names on a short list already.

We always stop by Martin's when we're in town. Good wine and spirits selections both. I'm sure there are other good stores too.

Bitter mai tai was delicious!
https://i.imgur.com/bev2cVe.jpeg

Nice! Yes, so good.

i just learned yesterday that the paper plane was invented at the Violet Hour? i had no idea! it's such a great drink.

It is! My local churrasqueria mixes a terrific one.

mmmm churrasco

It was invented by Sam Ross, who was a bartender at Milk & Honey in NYC, but he made it for the Violet Hour. (Toby Maloney had also worked at Milk & Honey with Ross before he opened the VH.)

It's been a while since I've had one. Nonino is expensive.

Yeah I only have them bc I can drink them for free as a shift drink. I would never buy the ingredients for home.

At this restaurant it's $16.99. It's a happy hour; for the second drink I have a glass of wine.

Nonino is expensive.

it sure is

the rest of it is easy, that's the dealbreaker at like $67 a bottle

i think ours is $15 iirc?

sometimes i put a little nonino in my whiskey for my shiftie as well, it's sooooo good

xp -- $15 for a paper plane, not for a bottle of nonino!

oh I figured, lol

apparently the aperol spritz is super popular right now as well, causing aperol shortages?

really? i haven't seen a major uptick in them but that doesn't mean anything.

there's a guy who used to sheepishly ask if we had chartreuse as the shortage started to get more dire, and we had it for a while. then i saw him again last night and he was drinking a beer. i think he gave up on his chartreuse quest because NO ONE has it anymore.

does anyone know if it will ever come back? i heard the monks are just sick of making it on demand.

They're popular here. If they displace in popularity the wretched mimosa, I'm pleased.

they = Aperol spritz.

i heard the monks are just sick of making it on demand.

the local liquor store guy told me that the monks didn't want to put more demand on the farms for the herbs, wanted to keep things sustainable, etc

I'd heard that the Vatican told them to do more praying and less distilling.

I bought a bottle of green Chartreuse for the bar in March and it's still 3/4 full. Nobody around here realizes what it is, and I'm not inclined to educate these bad-tipping chumps.

LL, a few months ago I asked a guy at the Binny's near your house whether they happened to have any Chartreuse, and he shook his head and said he didn't expect to ever see it again in his lifetime. I have heard that it can still be found in some places, though.

I have a 375 ml bottle of Green Chartreuse that I bought about several years ago, before the shortage began, and I've only drunk like half of it -- in part to conserve it, but also because the drink I use it in most (a daiquiri riff) only calls for 1/4 oz.

I do miss Yellow Chartreuse, tho, which I ran out of. I occasionally have a taste for a Naked and Famous -- basically a Paper Plane but sub mezcal for bourbon, lime juice for lemon, and Yellow Chartreuse for Amaro Nonino.

I did stock up on some chartreuse a year or so ago, when it looked like it might be on its last legs, production wise, and only belatedly realized I don't really use that much chartreuse except for maybe the Last Word now are then.

Ha someone asked for a naked and famous once and I was like wtf and had to ask the bartenders about it. We didn’t make it tho bc no chartreuse. I think he wound up w a Negroni.

We have a little green chartreuse left that we're hoarding. We perhaps unwisely designated the Last Word as our official wedding drink, so we like to have them on anniversaries.

Naked and famous is delicious.

goddamn it you people are guilting me for not buying a bottle less than $119

Thread inspired me to have a Paper Plane instead of dinner. (I had a large lunch.)

I have 1.4 bottles of green and 1.1 bottles of yellow, doling them out sparingly.

Beer

i have about half a bottle each of green and yellow. places are getting it on allocation, it's becoming a behind the counter, you have to know a guy type of thing, but it is out there. there's some spanish brand that is obviously positioning itself as a replacement, i'll have to try it at some point.

i do have the stuff to make a paper plane and did so tonight, great drink.

I decided to make a Mildred Pierce (equal parts mezcal, Aperol, grapefruit liqueur, and lemon juice). Very nice.

So essentially subbing for the yellow chartreuse. Sounds good. What grapefruit liqueur?

Intersting! Might try that tomorrow.

xp Giffard Pamplemousse

Ooh, this Mildred Pierce is good. (Del Maguey Vida, Tattersall Grapefruit Crema (40% ABV!))

Hey WmC I don't know if you get to Atlanta much, but we just went to a great agave place there called Ancestral Bottles. Great selection of mezcal along with tequila, they really know their stuff.

I used to go at least annually but covid and the end of my dayjob income have made trips rarer. I will check that place out next time though!

There's a great liquor store in Little Village here that prides itself on hundreds of different bottles of tequila and mescal, and even sotol and raicilla. It's totally overwhelming, you barely even know where to begin.

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

The Make and Drink youtube channel has a somewhat doofy host but his heart's in the right place and this White Elephant intrigued me, so I made the Thai coconut syrup and then the drink with Novo Fogo silver cachaca. DAAAANG this is delicious. I keep thinking the syrup needs more chile heat but it's been five minutes since I took a sip and my mouth is still warm.

thanks for the bump, I recently went to this INSANE Indian-inspired cocktail place in Portland, just check this menu out

https://www.pleasure-mountain.com/

the "Gora Uncle" was one of the best cocktails I have ever had, just wow

(Portland OR to be clear)

sulfurous "guava Mary" was also totally unique, they use a kind of salt that has sulfur trace minerals

This looks so good, WmC.

Wow, I want to go to Pleasure Mountain for a week so I can try everything there. They really lean hard into the infusions and syrups that I love to do at my workplace.

my notes to a friend/bar owner:

1919 was a fun riff on a vieux carre, 4/5. The food is basically bar snacks, 3.5/5 but not why one would go there.

Gora Uncle was exquisite, one of the best cocktails I've ever had, 5.5/5

I got the guava mary to experience the sulfur flavor, apparently it's a kind of salt with high mineral traces of sulfur compounds? very unusual and not really for me, 4.5/5

oh and that garnish on the 1919 was a fantastic disc of rock sugar with rose petal, kalonji, fennel, cumin, whole seeds. 5/5

https://i.imgur.com/2yk5QYK.jpeg

(I took that photo, to be clear, it was amazing)