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

RECIPE ONE: negroni (with a wink and a smile at HI DERE)

of course this is a classic. i bought the stuff to make it today because they are delicious:

EQUAL PARTS gin, campari, sweet vermouth. add ice and stir; garnish w/orange.

mine was a little sweeter than i planned--may drop vermouth content ever so slightly to suit my tastes.

ok here is a rundown:

GIN tanqueray (wanted plymouth but could not turn down deal on tanqueray)

BRANDY laird's applejack (regular, not bonded--bonded seems to be preferred all around but i can't find it atm)

TEQUILA corzo anejo (this is a nice bottle that was a gift--not for mixing imo)

RUM appleton silver jamaican (from a few nights of mojitos a while back)

RYE old overholt, tuthilltown manhattan rye, sazerac 18-year

BOURBON michter's us1, four roses small batch, van winkle 12 year lot "b"

SCOTCH laphroaig 10-year

ABSINTHE lucid

VODKA i don't know, there's some around here somewhere

VERMOUTH martini and rossi sweet and also dry, lillet blanc

BITTERS angostura, peychaud, fee bros orange bitters

OTHER STUFF campari, green chartreuse, herbsaint, cointreau

this is a good idea imo ~ wish i had funds rt now 2 mix along w/ and learn sum - shd b st8 by spring/summer 2 copy sum lavish drinks tht hopefully f/ tiny umbrellas

yeah dude i am saving rum drinks for the summer because it will be more appropriate and also frankly that shit is really confusing

RECIPE TWO: marconi wireless

1.75 oz applejack
.75 oz sweet vermouth
2 dashes orange bitters

stir in a mixing glass with ice, strain, garnish w/lemon

first, i garnished w/orange because i was already in the process of destroying an orange. second, tbh, i fucked up the proportions by reading too fast--assumed it was 2:1 applejack: vermouth and ignored that extra .25 oz. so of course the drink tasted a little vermouth-y at first. however, it did mellow out to a pleasant apple/orange concoction.

INGREDIENTS UPDATE

so one day after bitching about being unable to find laird's bonded apple brandy, i found it. it's like 3 bucks more than the 80-proof applejack. it also has a much shittier label for whatever reason. quick taste test indicates it has more of an apple flavor than its little bro (to be expected) and enough alcohol burn that you would only ever use it for mixing. i will remake the marconi wireless with it sometime soon.

also grabbed a bottle of lemon hart demerara rum. all i really know is that it is the 151 proof rum that serious tropical drinks people use. it's also next to impossible to find around here, so i will stash this bottle for the summer. ironically, i finally got it at the second-closest liquor store to my house.

also attempted to make some grenadine today (the things i can accomplish when i take a week off). recipe:

16 oz. POM pomegranate juice
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vodka added after cooking to preserve

combine POM and sugar, bring to boil, simmer while covered until bored. let cool and bottle w/vodka.

for whatever reason this did not reduce and become as syrupy as i think it is supposed to. maybe i didn't boil on high heagt for long enough. i really have nothing to compare it to but it smells good.

excited for this thread - i would like to make a request that you try the nipsy russell at some point.

By chance I picked up some bottles on the way home tonight. As of now I have:

VODKA gvori
RUM el dorado 5 cruzan
GIN bombay sapphire
TEQUILA dos manos
OTHER cointreau, grand marnier, cherry heering, blue curacao, angostura bitters, grenadine, etc

I'm not much of a fan of bourbon, and I do 95% of the drinking around here, so I don't have it stocked as of yet.

that's the most booze it is possible to have in one place without anything i'd want to drink

john i am glad you are excited--have no way of pureeing a haberno at the moment but i will oblige at some point, i promise

i gotta get some cherry heering like hell, too

i want to go survey my liquor cabinet, but its all the way over there and i am lazy

RECIPE THREE: jack rose

another well-known classic.

2 oz. laird's bonded
.66 oz lemon juice
.66 oz grenadine

combine and shake w/ice, strain, garnish with lemon

laird's bonded already proving its worth--there is a distinct apple taste amidst the other fruits going on here. with my homemade grenadine this was really tasty tbh--fruity but not oversweet with nice strong citrus and apple notes. would make for anyone.

btw recipe for that was proportioned up slightly from the one in jimmy patrick's 101 cocktails iphone app--which in terms of providing an intelligent selection of recipes by someone who knows what they're doing is a real winner.

Good start so far w/ the ingredients, also the jack rose is probably the most overlooked classic cocktail.

I wouldn't use the applejack, even the unbonded, in recipes calling for brandy - it's a substantially different ingredient. You can get a brandy that's fine for mixing for cheap - I use Tres Cepas, a spanish brandy, which wasn't much over $10.

pro tips:

- Keep your vermouth in the fridge. It is a wine, though fortified, and will spoil after a few months, less if you keep it at room temp. A nicer bottle of vermouth like Vya, Carpano Antica, or, if you can find it, Dolin, is an absolute revelation, and so worthwhile for the number of drinks it's used in.

- Learn how to cut citrus for different garnishes. Twists, strips, thumbnails, etc. Learn how to flame a citrus zest - very impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsdgadp6NTU

- Pay attention to the bartender in that video and his blog - http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/

good video, i dig that guy and his blog

also yeah i have no other brandy right now but am only using laird's products in recipes specifically calling for applejack. i'm planning on picking up some vs cognac soon for other brandy mixing. not sure what tres cepas is made of/if it's available here but i will look around.

RECIPE FOUR: corpse reviver #2

everybody on the internet swears by this cocktail

1 OZ. EACH gin, lillet blanc, cointreau, lemon juice
A TINY AMOUNT of absinthe (i used my 1/8 tsp measure)

shake well w/ice, strain.

sugg. garnish is a stemless cherry but i'm not going to bother with that given that i live alone and am watching the nba and posting to ilx right now. also i don't really like cherries.

you can see why people like this. the gin, lemon, absinthe, and cointreau are all clearly detectable and the lillet just seems to kind of hold everything together. the total package is pleasant and citrusy but ends on a more complex note (via the gin flavorings and absinthe afaict)

my pro-tip for recipes calling for whiskey (the scotch variety) - don't use a nice single malt like laphroig! that's for sippin!! buy a blend like johnny walker (or famous grouse, or bell's, or jameson, or etc)

also re gin - sapphire is garbage - tanqueray is yoga flame for all time

i just made a corpse reviver! FABULOUS

:D

hey friends back from a weekend away to continue makin drinks in the 2k10.

a visit to the new hampshire state liquor store didn't yield as much as i'd hoped. their selection of liqueurs is subpar and you only get really really great prices when they put stuff on sale.

so i settled for a bottle of courvoisier vs and a bottle of benedictine. why courvoisier? well, it was on sale, and my friend and i decided that their little logo looks like a gangster pulling a gun.

benedictine had been popping up in a few recipes i wanted to try; all i can say at the moment is that it tastes sweet and kind of weird.

RECIPE 5: diamondback

this was introduced to me by awesome local bartender j0sey p4ck4rd when i asked for an "intense" rye-based drink. (btw she appeared on rachel maddow's show a couple weeks ago; you can google it). i have been fucking w/the proportions and ingredients for a little while, but i am settling on the 3:2:1 measurements described to me originally:

1.5 oz rye whiskey
1 oz laird's bonded apple brandy
.5 oz green chartreuse

stir well over ice, strain into a small glass. no garnish you pussy.

this tastes really weird and is probably not for everybody. however, there is def. something compelling about how three strong spirits can combine into something that goes down pretty smoothly.

Tonight I am enjoying one of my very favorite drinks from the excellent Grog Log by Jeff Berry, which collects a bunch of "lost" tropical drink recipes from the 1940s-60s.

NEVER SAY DIE

.5 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz orange juice
.5 oz grapefruit juice
.25 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
.5 oz honey
dash Angostura bitters
1 oz Barbados rum
.5 oz light Puerto Rican rum
.5 oz dark Jamaican rum

Heat honey until liquid, then blend with all other ingredients with 4 ounces crushed ice for 5 seconds. Pour into diamond plated goblet and roll a fat one - you're about to have a fine sunday niiiiiiight.

(recipe originally developed by the legendary Don the Beachcomber)

http://i50.tinypic.com/2a99r3a.jpg

fuckin' love this guy

z s that sounds excellent. did you just use a microwave to heat up the honey?

Yep, just 20 seconds or so works fine!

hey guys, i'm back from being sick and busy with some new stuff for you.

first, i remade the marconi wireless (recipe two above) with three key changes: correct proportions, lemon not orange garnish, and fresh vermouth. i straight-up did not know about vermouth freshness until my mans I DIED said something upthread. he's right. obviously. anyway, the remade drink is more balanced and a lot better--sweet and light, v. refreshing imo.

so i had been wrecking a lemon for garnish for a couple days and needed a good reason to juice it. this leads us to

RECIPE SIX: the frisco

2 oz rye
.75 oz benedictine
.74 oz lemon juice
garnish with a lemon twist

stir over ice; strain into a cocktail glass (tbh the recipe i used says to shake but this does not feel like a shaken drink to me, ymmv)

found this browsing recipes on cocktailchronicles.com; apparently there are many options for proportioning these ingrendients. hard to say what the desired effect is but this is a weird drink--the tartness of the lemon juice and the sweetness of the benedictine hit completely different areas of your mouth at the same time. the rye is just kinda there gettin you drunk. i would re-proportion, but honestly i don't totally know what i would do different.

LOL .74 ounces. that is .75 but you already knew that.

Learn to pour freehand. 1 (slightly generous) ounce is 3 seconds' pouring through most pro quality pourers (which are cheap). Practice with water in old bottles so you don't waste booze -- it's not just a show-off thing, your feel for mixing changes in good ways at the same time.

so for the frisco--i tried again with only .5 oz benedectine and it might be better that way. final experiment i think is to shake it--benedictine is really syrupy and heavy and def sank to the bottom of my glass.

so then it's time for a partial INGREDIENTS UPDATE:

FERNET BRANCA is one of those things that is quite polarizing. as a fan of bitter drinks in general i figured i'd like it. my friend zoe remarked that it tastes like toothpaste which is actually as good a starting point as anything. the fernet site recommends you take three slow sips to fully appreciate whatever the hell they put into it. good idea--the mouth-numbing bitterness goes away and you can detect more fruit and whatnot.

FEE BROS WHISKEY BARREL AGED BITTERS i see a lot of what i'd call "blog cocktails" that use these bitters. they kind of smell like cola.

ok, let's talk recipes:

RECIPE SEVEN: old-fashioned

this is essentially an economy/simple old-fashioned for the home bartender; though i've seen some v. reputable places use only these ingredients. old-fashioneds kinda fall into the orange/cherry or no orange/cherry camp--for reasons of taste, simplicity, and economy, i think you get a really satisfying drink without the fruit. the version with the fruit is good too though!

1 sugar cube
2 oz. rye
.25 oz water
A FEW DASHES angostura
lemon peel for garnish

put the sugar cube in the old-fashioned glass, dash w/angostura (just a few times till the cube turns reddish pink). add the water and stir gently. add the rye and stir gently again. add 4-5 ice cubes and stir one more time, twist the lemon over the drink and wipe it around the rim of the glass.

one cool variation i've seen basically hinges on your ability to get one large ice block or chunk to fill the entire glass. slower dissolution = a cold but not watery drink.

and RECIPE EIGHT: fernet old-fashioned

v. slight modification of a recipe by the guy who does kaiserpenguin.com--he is purportedly a huge fernet branca fan.

take recipe 7, substitute fernet branca for rye, orange bitters OR fee whiskey barrel aged bitters gor angostura, and orange garnish for lemon. if you feel fancy, grab a lighter and flame the orange oils.

i think this is an awesome drink--tried both orange and whiskey barrel bitters and i think i prefer orange on the balance, they seem to bring out the fernet's character a little more.

one cool variation i've seen basically hinges on your ability to get one large ice block or chunk to fill the entire glass. slower dissolution = a cold but not watery drink

For Christmas I got an ice tray that makes giant ice spheres:

http://i48.tinypic.com/1sobpt.jpg

The only problem is that I can never get them to come out as perfect spheres like the picture. For reasons too complicated and idiotic to discuss here, the tops of them are always cut off so they look like the Death Star. Still, worth picking up!

wow, that's awesome! definitely going to track it down.

<3 fernet branca! i'll try that version of the old fashioned

I had a couple Sidecars last Saturday will watching football. Excellent drink imo.

brownie what brandy did you use? while not having looked hard, it seems difficult to find consensus on good cheap brandies. or maybe you used a pricey one! in which case more power to you.

also, this is nice: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/fashion/17shake.html?ref=todayspaper

I don't know what kind of brandy! a friend whipped them up. I'm not too picky anyway.

I just made a drink with this:

- fresh squeezed blood orange juice
- gin
- cranberry juice

shaken over ice, lovely

xp yeah the overriding sentiment seems to be that any common vs cognac will do for mixing. one book i have gave remy martin a nice writeup so i may try that next.

tracer what were your proportions?

no idea - maybe something like:

3-oj
2-gin
1-cranberry

cranberry really just for a little hint of sweet-tartness

we should definitely not leave this one out:

Hey guys I invented a new drink in honor of tonight's results

THE COAKLEY

6 oz of your worst vodka

shake with ice cube, pour directly into mouth

― CATBEAST!! (Z S), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 7:16 PM

lolllllllllllll

i'm sorry guys! i drove way the hell out of my way to vote in this one, had dinner with my parents, came home and saw the results, and quickly made a sidecar in honor of brownie who is a cool guy UNLIKE THE VOTERS OF MASSACHUSETTS

hey i was gonna do some other posts but in honor of the 2009 saints let's do some new orleans cocktails tonight.

RECIPE NINE: the vieux carre

1 oz. rye
1 oz. cognac
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 tsp benedictine
2 dashes angostura
2 dashes peychaud's

add all ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice, stir, strain, and serve. optionally, garnish with a lemon twist.

the ingredients (except the twist) are straight from the vieux carre page on gumbopages.com, an excellent resource for new orleans drinks (and probably other stuff too). however, he serves it as a rocks drink which makes no sense to me. it's obviously an up drink, and when i've gotten it out (admittedly not in NOLA) that's how it's been served. it is EXCEEDINGLY pleasant and smooth--nice dessert cocktail imo.

RECIPE TEN: the sazerac

the greatest cocktail? according to some, maybe.

2 oz. rye
1 sugar cube
4 dashes peychaud's
1 tsp absinthe or herbsaint
1 piece lemon peel

fill an old-fashioned glass with ice or pop it in the freezer for a bit. in a mixing glass, add the sugar cube, peychaud's, and just a little water, and mix or muddle them together. add the rye, some ice, and stir. now get your old-fashioned glass and rinse it with the absinthe/herbsaint. add the rye mixture, and wipe the lip of the glass with the lemon peel. in an orthodox sazerac you should NOT twist it over the drink and you should discard it when done.

I had a classic Wisconsin supper club brandy old fashioned the other night and it was excellent.

That sounds great. Yeah, I think there's a place for the Wisconsin brandy old-fashioned. The NYT drinks writer Robert Simonson, who's originally from Wisconsin, has written approvingly about it. And if you're at a supper club in the state, it seems like a real when-in-Rome situation.

Wondrich is great, I meant no impugnment. I don't feel like he totally cinched the "cocktail" case, but that may be because it's not as fun as other theories. Or maybe it's plenty fun, I don't know. The horse's ass part has resonance at least.

On the old fashioned, I just meant that wherever it was first documented, which Wondrich is probably right about, it was a drink long in circulation. It was a baseline mixed drink.

I was in Mexico and we went to a really nice restaurant that had old fashioneds on the menu. I was pretty astonished by it. Wound up ordering it because, if I didn't, who would? Anyway...it was okay

I actually just had a rum old-fashioned earlier tonight. That's practically dessert, but delicious.

OK this is pretty fascinating as the recorded history of angostura predates the Jerry Thomas book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angostura_bitters

I mean

Originally used to help with upset stomachs of the soldiers in Simón Bolívar's army,

I love how many spirits and the like were issued for "health" reasons, or, at the least, hangover cures. Drinkers must have been drunk all the fucking time, no wonder they outlawed it.

The amount that average people drank during the day and often while laboring in the pre-modern era is kind of astonishing.

Before the Second Great Awakening just about every man, woman, and child in America was drunk. Water was uh rather unsafe.

What was drank so heavily in the old days was usually small beer (near beer, basiclly) or other very low proof alcohols.

unless you lived in the South

ok so I'm doing Woodford Reserve + bitters + a little simple syrup + a splash of water + 6 oz Squirt + some green olives and a little bit of the juice from the olive jar. oh and a big ice cube. dunno what it is but its good

Godspeed

The sugar-free beverages thread gave me an idea for a low-ABV long drink that really has to be called "Safe/Fake Grapefruit Soda" -- Aperol, lemon juice, club soda. Maybe a little simple syrup.

They say the sbagliato was the drink of the summer, bc apparently some tosser said so on a reality TV show.

I say it's a classic, and shouldn't be linked to a passing trend, like say the cosmopolitan. What do you think about this drink? (Prosecco, sweet vermouth, Campari).

would drink, imo that would be even better subbing Cynar for Campari

lemon twist either way

It's clearly a Negroni subbing Prosecco for gin, but I think that switch makes it a lot more refreshing and more aperitif-like

Hmm. For a more refreshing take on the Negroni I'd probably just offer Aperol spritz, though I suppose that's just one more step removed/simplified from the sbagliato. And lots of people find Aperol less bitter than Campari.

Aperol is definitely less bitter than Campari, but the problem is it's too sweet. There are Aperol substitutes like Select that are slightly less sweet but for me sweet vermouth fixes that problem conclusively.

Or rather the combination of Campari & sweet vermouth

cosmopolitans are classic

One of my favorite summer cocktails is similar:

Take 3 by Zachary Gelnaw-Rubin
2 oz Cynar
.75 oz St-Germain
.75 oz lemon juice
seltzer to top

Add the Cynar, St-Germain and lemon juice to a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with club soda and garnish with an orange wedge.

It tastes like the best iced coca-cola you have ever had on a hot summer day.

Love a sbagliato.

My favorite spritz is a half-half combo of Aperol and Campari, cuts the sweetness but not as bitter as a Campari spritz. (I like all these spritzes tho.)

Tonight we made French 75s with cognac, a house favorite.

A couple of successes from Punch this week: banana peel "oleosaccharum" subbed in for most of the simple syrup in a Daiquiri. Probably going to have another one later today with all the simple subbed out. The banana peel syrup is banana-y but also tannic, really delicious.

Second was an Alpine Negroni, a riff I prefer over the original. Equal parts standard Negroni ingredients plus Amaro Braulio, plus 1/4 oz. of "champagne acid," a solution of tartaric and lactic acids in water. It really makes the vermouth pop, so use a good one.

A friend of mine was looking for a bottle of something I've never encountered: China-China. Is this an amaro? Is it used in any drinks? I'm not even sure where it's made, or why it's called that.

Technically, it's an amer (French amaro):
https://www.giffard.com/en/bigallet-liqueurs/546-bigallet-china-china.html

I think it's a common substitute for Amer Picon, which isn't available in the U.S.

Here are some recipes that use it:
https://kindredcocktails.com/cocktail?scope=0&index_type=2&output_type=1&ingredient%5B0%5D=Bigallet%20China-China

I had a Soleggiato last week, which is a spritz with Amaro Angeleno, dry vermouth, Manzanilla sherry, and soda. I love anything with dry sherry in it, but this was one refreshing cocktail. Need to find a bottle of Amaro Angeleno.

I am very excited that I have gathered all the ingredients to duplicate local foodie bar cocktail "THE BRAIN", the bartender kindly gave me the recipe

1 oz dry gin
1 oz Angostura Amaro
1/4 oz cocchi di torino
1/4 oz Cruzan Black Strap rum

stir w/ice in glass

add orange AND lemon peel, float with clear overproof rum (Wray & Sons)

only one mention of the boulevardier itt. for shame

― cozen, Monday, 18 November 2013 03:55 (ten years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bumping those numbers rn. Currently trying everything Negroni adjacent after having a cocktail awakening. Never been a straight spirits guy, never been down for all the fruity nonsense most of those around me drink (just give me beer!). But the Negroni, Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Brooklyn and now the Boulevardier have been an awakening. Please recommend more in this category to a mixology novice

little italian:

2 oz rye
1/2 oz red vermouth
1/2 oz cynar (cynar 70 is best but regular will do)

stire w/ice, orange peel garnish

not campari-related, but delicious

sazerac? vieux carre? martinez?

there’s such a deep well of drinks in the space you’re in, possibly only limited by the amount of amari you can acquire.

Made a martinez, had a little italian at a pizzeria around the corner but, the other two haven't heard of, cheers!

vieux carre is def a go-to of mine

One great sub is to mister-potatohead Laird's Straight Apple Brandy (BIB, 100 proof) into any whiskey recipe.
Also, every new aged rum I get I try out in a rum Old Fashioned.

I'm looking at two clairins (Haitian rhum agricole) on the shelf and wondering why I haven't subbed those into Negroni versions before. A job for tomorrow or Saturday.

oh man I never even considered a rum old fashioned

btw WmC, if you really need that Cruzan Black Strap there is tons here and it's like $15 a bottle, you know how to reach me ;)

One of my liquor stops* in Memphis has it and I'm going up early next month so I'll grab a bottle then. Thank you though!

*Buster's is legit one of the top 20 liquor stores in the country imo, and they just opened a 2nd, even bigger, location today.

Love a good stirred rum drink.

A few I like are the 100 Year Old Cigar, Ash Tray Heart, Black Prince, Bye Bye Batista, Desk Job, Drunken Dodo, and Rum River Mystic.

There's also the Kingston Negroni (subbing Smith & Cross for gin), which seems to have become somewhat popular, though it's not one of my favorites.

Oops, messed up one of those links; try Black Prince.

Rebennack variant
1.5 oz Rye
.75 oz Averna
.25 oz Cointreau
2 dashes Peychaud's Bitters
orange peel for garnish

Oooh -- Averna and Cointreau!

It's got a really nice orange/chocolate/whiskey thing going on.

ooh gonna get some Averna and try that one

xps Love the 100 Year Old Cigar. Gonna have to try an Ash Tray Heart.