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

I'm in Nashua (NH, home of the liquor stores) - my girlfriend lives in Boston so I spend a lot of weekends there. There's so many higher-end cocktail bars in Boston that I keep meaning to check out, but man ... it just always seems cheaper to make drinks at home and spend the money on Korean ingredient shopping or something instead.

― Bill, Saturday, April 9, 2011 1:09 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i am in somerville. does the nh state store system special order stuff? you probably have scouted your fair share of stores in the boston area but let me know if you're looking for anything special--i have a pretty good mental list of what is available where for some weirder stuff.

re: boston cocktail bars--there are only a couple that are worth going out of your way for if you're a prolific amateur (maybe eastern standard, craigie on main, and drink in fort point). a lot of places have some nice drinks on the menu nowadays but by and large it's stuff you can make v. well at home.

Have you been to Deep Ellum? We pass it on the bus a lot, so I'm always like - hey, we could go there. But Eastern Standard is supposed to have an excellent burger, so that's also on our list.

New Hampshire won't special order anything unless it's something sold at another NH liquor store, i.e. something already in the system. They require a product-specific permit that has to be approved at a liquor board meeting - so if you're Uncle Ted's Vodkaplex with 32 flavors of vodka from acai-goji to zubrowka, you have to submit 32 different packets of paperwork. I can always tell when a new product has serious marketing money behind it, because that's the only time when something new shows up in NH within a couple months of its release. (Lucid absinthe, for instance, and anything from Captain Morgan.) You also need a special permit to ship liquor to NH, which is only supposed to apply to vendors - most places don't have it, so anything weird and regional is usually something I can't order - but I've actually been scolded even for having free samples shipped to me, which I think is actually legal by the letter of the law.

It's this whole big thing.

The other side of the coin is that domestic product that is carried here is usually pretty cheap! Maker's Mark regularly goes below $15.

My best Boston cocktail-related purchase: Becherovka! At Bazaar, the Russian grocery (which is an amazing place tout court). I haven't actually done much liquor shopping in Boston yet - I love Central Bottle but we were basically there for cheese; I know there's a place called the Cocktail Shaker or something like that but haven't been there yet, I'm afraid of how much I may spend. It's easy to limit how much I spend on bitters when they're mail order and there's no instant gratification, but taking a bag full of bitters home ... oh man.

oh yeah deep ellum is rad! i used to live near it. good food, good beer selection, very nice people, and their cocktails well-made. some different stuff on the list since i was there last. i'm not seeing the 1970s manhattan which, in addition to being funny (it was a canadian club manhattan on the rocks) was really tasty!

Okay cool - Caitlin lives in Allston so it's right nearby.

This isn't a Pimms concoction but I need to test these juices out - kind of a Last Word variation and definitely the best mezcal drink I've made -

1 oz St Germain
1 oz kabosu juice
3/4 oz black raspberry infused mezcal
1/2 oz Chartreuse
pinch of citric acid

The St Germain pretty much disappears completely - not in a bad way, but between the citrus and the black raspberry, it just blends in. What's nuts is how little the Chartreuse shows up - I didn't want too much of it because I didn't want to overpower the kabosu, but the mezcal plows through everything. It's a really good drink, but the kabosu is probably totally unnecessary - I should probably make a lemon or lime version for comparison.

So you wind up with this smoky tart raspberry drink with some herbaceousness buried in there somewhere. I'm definitely drinking it pretty quick.

bill are you using fresh yuzu or out of a bottle? i only have the latter

Bottle - I've used fresh yuzu before and would again, but that's partly because I make marmalade after juicing them. Bottled seems pretty decent so far!

yeah i have no point of comparison so was just checking

yr cola infused cherries have reminded me - do you think that ramazotti has some sort of cola flavour happening? i havent mixed it w/ rum but am thinking abt it

yeah i def get a cola thing from ramazotti

3/4 oz black raspberry infused mezcal

yeah def curious about how long you infused this

I haven't had Ramazotti! It's on my list of things to buy from DrinkupNY this year - barring financial calamity, my goal is to try all of the amaros they carry that NH doesn't (having already tried the ones carried here, i.e. Campari and Aperol). So I've got Meletti, Cynar, Fernet Branca, Cardamaro, Del Capo, and Rarbarbaro Zucca, and then a bottle of Becherovka at Caitlin's place. Oh, and Averna.

The black raspberry infused mezcal is very cool. I was all excited about mezcal, and then when I finally got a bottle, it was SO smoky. I mean, tequila itself isn't exactly subtle, but have y'all had mezcal? Shit. That smoke eats everything you throw at it. But I had a bunch of frozen black raspberries that I'd ordered because the farm stands here have stopped selling black raspberries, and there's been so much housing development that my mother no longer has a bunch of forest with wild black raspberries behind her house. So I was missing em.

Only it turned out the black raspberries I got weren't the ones I missed. There are two kinds of black raspberries - the little wild ones thimbles could wear as hats, and larger softer darker ones. The little ones are nice and tart; the big ones have no tartness, but a sort of wineyness.

So they didn't fit my craving at all, and they're tricky to use in pie because they're just so sweet. And my freezer is sort of ridiculous even when black raspberries aren't in there. So, two birds - after I'd made a batch of black raspberry bounce (raspberries, whiskey, sugar, couple months infusion) I made black raspberry mezcal (raspberries, mezcal, no sugar, probably about two months). It's very dark and winey looking even after you've mixed it into a drink, and the raspberry definitely comes through.

Please don't be enormous, Flickr -

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5063/5604456083_2d5dd972bc_z.jpg

nice! i like mezcal but it's easier to use in like half ounce accents than as the actual base of a cocktail.

(meant to say, if you're hanging out in allston you are v. near blanchard's liquors and the only stock of laird's bonded apple brandy i've ever seen)

Yeah, if you "dilute it" with tequila, you get a whole different thing that's much easier to work with.

It's ridiculous how hard it is to get Laird's bonded in New England, of all places - don't even let me on that soapbox. The blended stuff is so disappointing, I don't even know why it sells - especially since the bonded is not much more expensive and actually tastes like something. I have a bottle right now - from New York! - but I think I've passed by Blanchard's en route somewhere else. Do they have a good selection in general, or do they just happen to be the one Laird's cache?

decent selection--kind of hit or miss but they get some odd stuff. they have a big stock of the flor de cana white rum which can be weirdly hard to find and is well-regarded as non-cuban white rums go (i have a bottle but not yet opened). last time i was there i scored some of the 12-year old w.l. weller bourbon (that's the only weller expression still carrying an age statement and it's not common around here). used to have lemon hart 151 but i think that's gone now.

wow, bill, that sounds great.

i had a mezcal old fashioned a while ago that was really neat, and there's a place here called bourbon that does a nice mezcal drink. but yes, it is a very dominant flavor.

They might have the Lemon Hart again, apparently it's back in stock a lot of places? I don't know if there was an interruption in the supply chain like with Angostura last year or what.

A mezcal old-fashioned worked well the one time I had it, I just kept finding that any time I wanted an old-fashioned, I wanted whiskey - so the bottle kept sitting there. Mezcal's supposed to work well with Cynar but I haven't gotten them to play well - it may depend on the mezcal, of course. I'm using Sombra because it was cheaper than the Del Maguey single villages, and Vida wasn't available.

Speaking of Cynar, though (I'm all over the place - blame the drinks) - Cynar over cubes of frozen melon juice. Or huckleberry juice, but melon juice is probably more realistic, and cheaper. You can add a little gin too, but it really doesn't need it. Something about the Cynar and the melting fruit juice, it's just really good in summer. Ahhh, cocktails are awesome.

yeah there are some lemon hart rumblings--the remaining stock was bought and being distributed to like 8 states and then it's being repackaged and reformulated by the current brand owner?

i have a bottle of the 151 with a very, very small dent in it.

Reformulated, shit. I should really get a bottle while it's around. I mean, I know sometimes a reformulation doesn't mean much - Campari is just fine without insect-based food coloring - but I was like 11 when New Coke happened, so I'm new-and-improved-shy.

yeah i can't find where i read that but the brand was purchased by the guy who runs the ministry of rum website so hopefully he gets why it's an important product. per their facebook page they're looking for a new distributor for mass. which means we'll see it here eventually.

anyways, glad it's getting saved--there are enough unavailable products out there already!

Oh wow - Ed Hamilton. Well okay, I'm sure it'll be fine. I don't know if I've ever seen someone so fanatical/devoted about a specific spirit who wasn't a brand rep.

man lemon hart 151 is another one that it seemed i have no hope getting a hold of, but maybe that will change now? i really like the goslings 151 that i have

Oh, on the Smith and Cross topic - and this might apply to all decent overproof rums? but I don't know - one really good drink with it is half S&C, half Bonal Gentiane ... which granted, is one of those things that might not be easy to find in London since it's imported by Haus Alpenz here. On the other hand, even if that's the case, there are probably other French gentian-based aperitifs that would be perfectly good substitutes.

I love this thread, I don't get to geek out about this stuff very much. Wine and beer, I don't know much about except the brands I like - but I'm definitely a geek about cocktails.

i took & modified a recipe from the New Brooklyn Cookbook based on what i had at home.

The Brooklyn Rumble

2oz aged rum
3/4oz lime juice
3/4oz symple syrup*
1/2oz framboise**
dash of angostura bitters
dash of grapefruit bitters (i added this for the hell of it)

* i had premade a limeade concentrate which is half & half simple syrup to lime juice in the fridge already
** i used st george framboise agua perfecta, which is their raspberry eau de vie mixed w/raspberry juice. syrupy and sweet. really good. http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/aqua-perfecta-fruit-liqueurs/

pretty delicious drink. a lil on the sweet side. i'd prob cut the framboise next time.

i would cut the simple tbh--that's quite a bit of simple.

what rum did you use?

i agree about the simple. i don't think i used that much, mostly because the wife can't deal w/citrus juices for fear of acid reflux. but she didn't even have any of the drink, so it prob made the drink better anyways.

i used my good sipping rum. ron zacapa 23. i've got a few other bottles around that aren't that good prob but i've used in drinks and they've been ok. whaler's original dark and sailor jerry spiced.

i really want to buy that rum! need to clear some shelf space first tho

i know this is a really old post, but i felt like commenting

ok so i made the negroni this past weekend as CAD notated it at the top of the thread and thought it tasted horrid when using equal parts of the three liquors but a lot better with less campari/more vermouth. campari is maybe too bitter for my taste but now i have most of a bottle of it left over i'd like to try it in other things
― im armond white btw (donna rouge), Wednesday, March 10, 2010 10:09 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i've made this w/equal parts gin, vermouth and campari and wasn't the biggest fan, but with a ratio of 4 gin, 2 vermouth, 1 campari, it's pretty excellent.

probably said this elsewhere, but i didn't like rum until i tried that ron zacapa

yah i think rum is much harder to "use well" than gin or rye but when you do it's magnificent

I think the as-seen-on-television rums are also much worse, for anything other than a rum and Coke or Dark and Stormy (don't sue me, Gosling), than the gins of similar or lesser price points, too. You can make a perfectly good cocktail with Beefeater, Boodles, even Seagrams, but I can't imagine ever buying Bacardi or Captain Morgan again.

yup--and it's funny because on the balance good rum can prob be had more cheaply than many other "good spirits" (esp. when we get into aged stuff) but a few mediocre or worse brands dominate the market.

re: Ramazzotti discussion upthread, it definitely has cola flavors and it's my go-to amaro. A few years ago I started drinking Ramazzotti and sodas over ice as a summer drink and it's so great and simple, just a super delicious adult cola.

xpost yeah its crazy what a lock bacardi has on the market, i mean over here you can get havana club everywhere + yet still most ppl reach for bacardi.

and jaxon you should try steadily bumping up the campari level in that negroni, i bet you'll be on board w/ equal parts soon.

Ultimately the liquor industry is always going to be heavily driven by what 20 year olds use to get their dates drunk, and kids like to draw the Bacardi logo on their notebooks in math class. They also like pirates.

You also see a lot of general meatheadedness - there's a lot of real scorn out there for the idea that a drink is worth enjoying. "It's just supposed to get you drunk," after all. Bacardi's like Bud - safe to drink when giving a shit would mean you're a pussy.

then compare that to ppl spending a lot of money on premium vodka

Continuing on the Do Not Drink This theme, Do Not Drink ri(1) or (ri)1 or whatever that shit is called, because the committee of mooks who came up with that one do not deserve your dollar. It's made more annoying by the fact that it's a Beam product and the long-rumored Old Overholt Bonded is still nowhere to be seen.

Rye is a troubled category.

xp; the quadruple-distilled premium vodka nonsense is so frustrating! I have a Facebook friend who is as fanatical about trying different premium vodkas as I am about citrus fruit, and I want to grab him and shake him and tell him the emperor has no clothes.

I'm going to make a million dollars selling cornstarch-and-water as quadruple-distilled pure premium ketchup.

rye is getting better! rittenhouse distribution is slowly creeping up--apparently heaven hill is mashing rye once a month instead of four times a year to keep up with demand. hopefully buffalo trace is doing the same for sazerac.

hopefully that'll make it cheaper over here! it seems like such a reasonably priced spirit over in the US, but here it costs abt as much as a good single malt

oh and i just got some battavia arrack in the mail from a friend for my birthday - any ideas of what to make? it seems to be another thing thats made by those alpenz ppl

We need more ryes like Rittenhouse. I like a lot of the newer ones - I really like Redemption - and I like that there are more >90% ryes now. But the price point for some of them is nuts. It's one thing to introduce new expensive bourbons, because we have plenty of bourbons to choose from - or gins or rums or etc. But there are only ... what, four? mid-price ryes anywhere, right? Old Overholt, Jim Beam Rye, Wild Turkey rye, and Rittenhouse. Five if the baby Sazerac counts, and maybe it should.

We need more choices in good mixing stuff, not $40-60 bottles I'll feel guilty diluting.

But yeah, it's still a better situation than 5 years ago, or even 2 years ago. I just felt like ri was a step in the wrong direction - higher price, less rye character.

xp - I've never had Batavia Arrack myself! It's been on my wishlist for a while.

also pikesville

I've never seen that! Huh, from Maryland. Maybe they'll send me some.

oh and i just got some battavia arrack in the mail from a friend for my birthday - any ideas of what to make? it seems to be another thing thats made by those alpenz ppl

― just sayin, Monday, April 11, 2011 10:41 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

i have a very cool arrack sour recipe--i will try to remember to post it when i'm home tonight.

fyi pikesville is also produced by heaven hill (in kentucky) with the same mashbill as rittenhouse. i believe it's one year younger.

xpost thx dude

That's probably why I haven't seen it - not much of the Heaven Hill stuff is carried here. I'm surprised I didn't see it when I lived in Indiana, though, but that was right on the cusp of this whole cocktail revival, and maybe it just wasn't carried at my local store.

yeah i've never seen pikesville in a store up here--some bars seem to get it but that's it.