had last night: plymouth, st. germaine, fresh ginger, twist. SO good.
― tehresa, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:34 (twelve years ago) link
for the first time in my life i own a bottle of angostura bitters. but now.... what do i do with it??
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Monday, 6 June 2011 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
make a manhattan or old fashioned!!!
― call all destroyer, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
hey tehresa when u say fresh ginger could you elaborate? muddled ginger pieces or something else?
― call all destroyer, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
hmm i guess i will need to also purchase my first ever jar of maraschino cherries
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Monday, 6 June 2011 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
i may go for a negroni
― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Monday, 6 June 2011 16:40 (twelve years ago) link
rusty nails are p great fwiw
― burberry kush (elmo argonaut), Monday, 6 June 2011 16:47 (twelve years ago) link
i am not 100% sure (it was at a restaurant) but there were definitely a few pieces floating in there... but not enough to give it as much ginger flavor as it had... so i'm wondering if it was juiced/strained/something?
― tehresa, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
i've boiled ginger before to make tea... i imagine if you chilled and strained it you'd get something similar to what was in this cocktail.
― tehresa, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:49 (twelve years ago) link
hmm, interesting. i've never really messed around with muddling it but the fact that there were pieces tells me that might be what they did? you can juice ginger but my understanding is it's a complete pain in the ass. i just made some ginger syrup which i now need find uses for.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:50 (twelve years ago) link
bitters tastes good in nearly anything IMO. I probably overdo it a bit though. I've been drinking old fashioneds with bulleit rye but when that runs out I guess I'll buy some scotch and try a rusty nail. although I've also been planning on making some of my own maraschino cherries so maybe I'll stick to the old fashioned for a while.
― unmetalled world (wk), Monday, 6 June 2011 16:52 (twelve years ago) link
i feel like you wouldn't really get enough flavor out of muddling ginger... that's why i thought it'd been boiled and crudely strained? or maybe a tiny bit muddled in...
― tehresa, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:56 (twelve years ago) link
damn i think i used all the ginger at home or i would work on this tonight
― call all destroyer, Monday, 6 June 2011 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
btw the pieces in the drink were TINY
― tehresa, Monday, 6 June 2011 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
grated?
― unmetalled world (wk), Monday, 6 June 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
almost like teeny tiny dice?
― tehresa, Monday, 6 June 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
if you boil ginger pieces you'll def get little solids that could be missed by a mesh strainer.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 6 June 2011 17:30 (twelve years ago) link
for tehresa, here is an experiment using the pegu club formula:
2 oz. plymouth gin.5 oz. lime juice.25 oz. st. germain.25 oz. ginger syrupdash angosturadash angostura orange
(ginger syrup: bring to a boil 1 cup water, 1 cup water, 2 inches of peeled/sliced ginger root. simmer for 2 mins, steep for 2 hours, strain)
this is pretty good imo!
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 02:47 (twelve years ago) link
oops one cup water, one cup sugar that is
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
thanks. i think this was my first gin drink in maybe a year? i don't even have any in house. i might start playing with it again, though i think i'd still try for a ginger water over syrup bc the st g is more than enough sweet for my taste. on the other hand, I had a blast making flavored simple syrups 2 summers ago so maybe I'll give it a go again.
― tehresa, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 03:35 (twelve years ago) link
so the liquor store near my workplace sells 750mL bottles of chartreuse for $35, which is about twenty bucks cheaper than i can find elsewhere. they also look like they've been sitting there for years (the bottles are dusty and i can't quite tell if some of them are meant to be yellow or green). should i avoid? i mean it's 80 proof liquor so i can't imagine it goes bad, per se...
― creme de cassie (donna rouge), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:38 (twelve years ago) link
i wouldve thought it would be fine... surely
― just sayin, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:41 (twelve years ago) link
the green is north of 100 proof, the yellow is 80. so that should help you tell if they have both (the bottles are extremely similar-looking!) that's a pretty amazing price and the stuff should be fine. worth a gamble imo.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
The color might be off, but I'd bet it's fine. I know I'd snatch up a couple!
― Bill, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
ok, just wanted to make sure. i probably won't be making another liquor run until my next paycheck but i doubt anyone's gonna snatch 'em up before i do. thx!
― creme de cassie (donna rouge), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 18:51 (twelve years ago) link
...as it turns out, they're all yellow. copped one today, will try later.
i also bought a bottle of fernet-branca and am trying it right now (neat). just had some weird proust/madeleine thing where i could smell my elderly italian relatives' cologne. that being said, i like it!
― badtz-maruizm (donna rouge), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 04:11 (twelve years ago) link
woah! yeah i love fernet branca but usually its not something that ppl are into the first time they have it.
― just sayin, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 09:51 (twelve years ago) link
i just made some ginger syrup which i now need find uses for.
this is one of my friend's fave cocktails
http://www.cocktailchronicles.com/2009/01/19/strong-medicine/
― jaxon, Thursday, 16 June 2011 20:14 (twelve years ago) link
that's a Penicillin btw
thank you! i will try that.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 16 June 2011 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
oh! forgot to say, i boiled ginger with water and have so far mixed it with seltzer and a bit of lime juice -- delicious. i think i will use that for any gingery cocktails i want because i just can't handle too much simple syrup in my drinks.
― tehresa, Thursday, 16 June 2011 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
what's a good substitute if a recipe calls for irish whiskey? bourbon? a non peat-y scotch?
― jaxon, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:38 (twelve years ago) link
yeah a non-peaty scotch or makers imo
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:40 (twelve years ago) link
hmm. in the house are a few ryes, a few bourbons, glendronach (kinda gross, we stole it from the inlaws) and hibiki. last one's prob my best bet, huh? even tho the wife saw me looking at it and said (don't u dare touch my whisky, ha)
― jaxon, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:48 (twelve years ago) link
what bourbons?
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:54 (twelve years ago) link
tho i think that most likely the hibiki is your best bet
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:57 (twelve years ago) link
i guess just one. henry mckenna. o, and found a caol isla, but that's like the smokiest whiskey ever (and so damn good)
― jaxon, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:58 (twelve years ago) link
looking for things to use my g. chartreuse in; just made a Jewel Cocktail
2oz gin1.5oz green chartreuse1oz sweet vermouth3 dashes orange bitters marischino cherry (don't have any)
pretty good. think i'd prob use a lil less vermouth next time. i've also seen other recipes for same cocktail that use equal parts gin/chart/verm.
― jaxon, Sunday, 26 June 2011 02:59 (twelve years ago) link
the bijou! one of my local places makes that. i just checked my copy of savoy and it's equal parts in there. never made it at home tho.
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 26 June 2011 03:08 (twelve years ago) link
ya, same ingredients as bijou, diff proportions.
what are some cocktails u make that use green charteuse? everywhere i read about it people say how they can't keep a bottle of it at home, but i'm having a hard time finding recipes that call my name.
also, what do you guys do about pineapple juice? make your own from actual pineapple? seems so labor intensive.
― jaxon, Sunday, 26 June 2011 03:13 (twelve years ago) link
did you check this thread? the chartreuse swizzle, the beuser and angus special, and the last word in particular are great drinks that use a good amount of the stuff.
re: pineapple juice there are a few choices. the most commonly-recommended one is to go to the supermarket and pick up some of the dole 6 oz. cans. whole foods also sells a larger bottle of pineapple juice for like 4 bucks if you plan on using more of it or just lie drinking it. i don't think anyone attempts to make it fresh unless you own a pretty serious juicer.
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 26 June 2011 03:23 (twelve years ago) link
ah, thought people claimed unless you made your own it was gonna be shit
― jaxon, Sunday, 26 June 2011 03:29 (twelve years ago) link
hahah no they always say that the one juice that is ok out of the can/bottle is pineapple. which may just be an admission that juicing a pineapple is a huge pain in the ass.
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 26 June 2011 03:31 (twelve years ago) link
yeah im a big fan of the chartreuse swizzle - you need to use a lot of crushed ice for it, or it wont work properly, but if you get a taste for them then yr chartreuse wont last long
― just sayin, Sunday, 26 June 2011 08:13 (twelve years ago) link
Discovered Maurin Quina this weekend, a cherry brandy-fortified white wine with a lot of quinine - it's like the amaro version of cherry cough syrup, but ... in a good way? I mean, it's definitely more medicinal than most vermouths, maybe comparable to Punt e Mes. I forget the proportions, but we ended up using that, Aperol, lemon juice, Cheribundi tart cherry juice, and Smith & Cross rum to make this cherry rum punch that hit the spot.
re: Chartreuse, I'm a huge fan, it's like comfort food for me - but I nearly always make some variant of the Last Word. You can sub out any base liquor for the gin, and I often sub another liqueur instead of the maraschino.
― Bill, Sunday, 26 June 2011 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
I mentioned curiosity about Barolo Chinato earlier - finally got around to buying and trying some. It's very good, but I don't think I can justify the over $40 - i.e. two Rittenhouses - price again. Maybe if I were less invested in cocktails, I would feel differently, but I think I get more value out of two bottles of liqueur or a bottle of Chartreuse.
Speaking of liqueurs. Also got Rothman and Winter's peach liqueur, which ... is it new? It's not listed in the Haus Alpenz portfolio, but neither are a couple of other recent products - they've gone from having the website list upcoming products a year in advance to lagging behind. Anyway, it's good stuff - recognizably peachy, good for summer.
― Bill, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 13:16 (twelve years ago) link
the price has definitely scared me off given that i don't know a lot about what i would actually do with it. can you describe a little more what it's like/what it might be good for?
btw, last word variant i made yesterday--chartreuse, lime, smith and cross, r&w apricot.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, I started to describe the Barolo Chinato, backspaced what I'd written, and forgot to write something better! Hm. Well, it's recognizably a fortified red wine. The way Dubonnet Rouge is, for example - the red wine flavor is going to be there in whatever you make, and that limits what I can see doing with it. Like, you can make a Manhattan variant, and make it any of a dozen ways by adding a drizzle of a liqueur or a shake of bitters, and then ... what else is there, really? Dubonnet Rouge lasts a hell of a long time for me because anything you make with it is going to taste like Dubonnet Rouge - moreso than that's true of Cocchi Americano, let's say.
And I suppose that's not a problem if you love the thing in question - maybe I should think of Barolo Chinato (or Dub R) as comparable to Punt e Mes, something that can stand up to the Campari in a Negroni. But it tastes both more subtle and more winey than Punt e Mes. Less bitter/bracing, too. Sweet - maybe not as sweet as a liqueur, but sweeter than I'd want to drink straight.
Before I really *discovered* cocktails, I drank a lot of port, and I think if I had never diverted onto the cocktail road, Barolo Chinato would be right up my alley. It has some complexity, you can sip it, you can have a cigar with it (I have not yet tried it with chocolate, which is supposed to be a good pairing). I've just ended up in a place where I see most bottles of alcohol as ingredients, and this one isn't really best-suited to that.
It is good with rye. Just not good enough to justify the price.
― Bill, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
thanks, that helps--the dubonnet comparison in particular because i'm really not a big dubonnet guy.
maybe i can find a bar that's working with it around here but in the meantime it's def a simple value proposition--a bottle of this would be two bottles of punt e mes or cocchi. even carpano is cheaper!
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
Do I need to refrigerate velvet falernum? It's only 11%, but made with a rum base.
― jaxon, Wednesday, 29 June 2011 20:54 (twelve years ago) link