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

i'm going to try that! i don't remember how many batches of grenadine i've made since then but i'm never really happy with it. thanks dude.

what have yall been making?

i've been vibing on beers and wines a lot recently so less time for mixing but the game never ends. tonight, from a local restaurant, this is called fire in the orchard.

1.25 oz. bonded apple brandy
.75 oz. cocchi americano
.5 oz. pear liqueur
.5 oz. lemon juice
.25 oz. mezcal
.25 oz. agave nectar (cut 1:1 with water, you can safely improvise on the sweetener)

shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass

i haven't been making anything :(

we just made a basil gimlet with fresh basil from our garden.

3–4 big leaves of fresh basil
1.5 oz gin
juice of 1/2 lime
3/4 oz sugar+water mixture
approx 1 oz club soda

crush basil leaves at bottom of glass. add gin, lime juice. stir awhile. add sugar+water, club soda. shake vigorously. pour strained (somehow this works better). you can garnish with a little basil leaf and/or wedge of lime.

it's really important to crush the basil good, so the basil taste escapes into the drink.

yum.

i'm a basil fan so the 2nd time around i added another 2 basil leaves. but that's just me.

good stuff.

call all destroyer where do you stand on the question of rye vs bourbon in an old fashioned. to put cards on the table I ask because this week I started making 'em with rye and I feel it is superior in this drink

types of old fashioneds I have fashioned:

bourbon
rye
rum
mezcal
tequila
brandy
armagnac

ALL with delicious results

aerosmith,

it's an excellent question. if i am mixing with american whiskey, it is going to be rye 90% of the time. bourbon manhattans, for example, are just not done around here.

that said, i probably make an even number of bourbon and rye old fashioneds. part of the reason is that an old fashioned is a great way to learn something about a new bottle of whiskey. other part is that a very austere old fashioned recipe can cooperate with even a very complex bourbon.

i happened upon some good-quality commercial raspberry syrup in the store last week and i've been hooked on this stupid little drink from the savoy cocktail book:

leave it to me (no. 2)

1.5 oz. gin
1 tsp raspberry syrup
1 tsp lemon juice
1/3 tsp maraschino

stir and strain.

Hi, long time thread fan here but I think I only posted once abt rum. I have finally started to stock a home bar, and I am super excited to try some of these recipes. Having experimented a bit now, I am confused by the drinks I've made with fresh squeezed lemon juice - it seems to overshadow everything else. Do I just have exceptionally strong lemons? Am I missing something? Mostly I've tried Manhassets:

1 1/2 oz whiskey
1 1/2 tsp sweet vermouth
1 1/2 tsp dry vermouth
1 tbsp lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

But they are sooo lemony/tart that on my pro bartender friend's advice I have been adding some Harlequin to mellow it out. Are the proportions different when you use fresh?

Anyway, this thread is a great resource, thanks everybody. My tastes seem to run a lot sweeter than most people here, so maybe I will contribute some good dessert drinks soon.

oh, here is another one that people have liked:

INCOME TAX:
2 oz gin
1/4 oz sweet vermouth
1/4 oz dry vermouth
1 oz orange juice
Angostura bitters to taste

Pour the ingredients into a shaker with ice cubes.
Shake well.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with the orange twist.

was just thinking about this thread the other day. i've mostly been too broke to buy new bottles of anything so my liquor cabinet is kind of languishing right now

i've been drinking more beer and doing more cooking, both of which kind of impede my desire to make cocktails. but i've been doing a bunch of recipes from ted haigh's book as a way of keeping in shape, so to speak. the algonquin is kind of amazing:

1.5 oz. rye
.75 oz. dry vermouth
.75 oz. pineapple juice

it comes out much different than you'd expect.

hi sleeve! glad you enjoy the thread. the proportions in that manhasset receipe are...interesting, and eyeballing it i'm not shocked that it tastes too tart. basically all drink recipes are calibrated for fresh juice, so i'm thinking what you're experiencing is a combination of your personal taste (which might skew a little to the sweet side) and some drinks that are not quite in balance.

have you ever made a really simple sour--like a daiquiri or a whiskey sour--and figured out what proportions you like?

I've done whiskey and pineapple juice, but not with vermouth! Sounds interesting.

Lemon-phobes should learn how to make the Corpse Reviver #2, the best anytime cocktail, ever.

I've done whiskey and pineapple juice, but not with vermouth! Sounds interesting.

― mh, Friday, December 14, 2012 10:25 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the sweetness of the pineapple juice magically disappears, it's weird

Hi cad! Yeah, I think the problem is in the Manhasset recipe proportions - I made a Jack Rose last night with the fresh lemon and it was perfect. That's what I get for using some random Mr. Boston's recipe.

I can't make Corpse Revivers yet b/c I don't have Lillet Blanc or absinthe, they are next on the list. Tried to fake it w/anisette and vermouth but it was not that good.

You can do it without the absinthe, I think. Usually only calls for a couple of drops. And Lillet Blanc is great for a couple of reasons:

1) cheap
2) you can drink it on its own, too

yeah i don't think 4 drops of anisette vs. 4 drops of absinthe would materially harm the drink, you can also omit completely.

OK, I gotta get to a wine store and find that stuff (Lillet). Oregon has really stupid & tightly controlled state liquor laws, so it's not in the liquor stores.

oh also I got some Noilly Prat sweet yesterday and my regular manhattan was a hell of a lot better, thread delivers the knowledge.

Sleeve: If you're in Portland, I've started to see Lillet Blanc showing up at a few liquor stores (along with various other aperitif wines, incl. Cocchi Americano which makes a great Corpse Reviver). I guess OLCC is loosening their restrictions? Have seen it at some Whole Foods too.

I'm in Eugene, but that is good news regardless, thanks.

hey c.a.d. this one is for you, I saw it at my fave restaurant last night and thought of you.

HIGH-LOW SPLIT
1 oz Old Granddad bonded
1 oz cynar
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz passion fruit syrup

I got the proportions, but forgot to ask about shake vs. stir and garnish. Only one web search result, which doesn't tell me. The search result uses grapefruit bitters instead of lemon juice.

that's gotta be shaken imo.

cool-sounding drink, i think i am out of passion fruit syrup but i really want to get some more to try it.

ok I have come up with my own concoction just because we've been mixing drinks for a while now so I thought why not. It probably is already a drink by a different name but maybe not. at any rate we had one earlier, it was delightful, I made another round tonight to check and it's a winner imo. It's called the Red Ghost, red because I expected it to be reddish though it really isn't and ghost because I like ghosts. As you might guess the main inspiration was "I have this pomegranate liqueur that's been in the fridge for a while let me try to make up a drink with it," you could probably substitute any tart liqueur and still get the Red Ghost

1.5 oz rye
1.5 oz red vermouth (I used Dolin's, I swear by that stuff)
1 oz pomegranate liqueur (this stuff, however nb if you're feeling ridiculously resourceful the #2 hit on "pomegranate liqueur" is a recipe for making it yourself
1 oz lemon juice
2 dashes bitters

combine all in shaker with ice. shake and strain into very deeply chilled glass and enjoy!

apologies for unclosed parenthesis above, I've been drinking red ghosts

argh you're going to make me go buy pama tomorrow aren't you

it will sit in your refrigerator for a long time between uses but this is a lovely little drink. like a whiskey sour with more depth. something about how super-cold the glasses were was a big plus too, the red ghost must be cold as the grave

yeah, gotta freeze yr glasses imo

I actually just discovered last night that PAMA works as an effective substitute for grenadine (for some reason I never knew that grenadine is traditionally made with pomegranate). Made a couple of Ward Eights, which is basically a spin on a whiskey sour:

2 oz. rye (I used Redemption)
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. orange juice
1 tsp. PAMA
cherry garnish (these)

like a whiskey sour with more depth

Ha, I didn't even read that bit.

Red Ghost sound good -- though I'll have to pick up that vermouth.

My girlfriend made us these tonight. It's not really tropical drink season yet, but we had some pineapple left over from making fruit salad. They was good.

The Pineapple Trainwreck

1 1/2 oz. aged rum
1 1/2 oz. fresh pineapple juice
3/4 oz. ginger syrup
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 dash each Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters
Shake and strain over fresh ice.

xp Oh, and it looks like jaxon posted about Ward Eights two years ago.

Hi, I have never read this thread before.

We have almost bought PAMA a few times, probably should.

How come there's no thread where people invent cocktails based on/in honor of ILX ppl? Huh? HOW COME????

Aero's drink is similat to the scofflaw:

http://12bottlebar.com/2010/10/the-scofflaw/

I got a bottle of Ransom Old Tom Gin recently which has more of a spicy flavor than regular gin.

This recipe for a Martinez has a very smooth cinnamon flavor.

2 oz Ransom Old Tom gin
3/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
1/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
Dash of bitters
Lemon Twist

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Add lemon twist.

those are interesting martinez proportions--usually iirc it's made with a good slug of vermouth and much less maraschino

Very happy that they're starting to sell Carpano Antica in small bottles!

they are?? that's tremendous news.

will buy!

I have been working through some of the genever recipes in this thread, damn that One-Armed French Hooker is good.

xpost They are! Bought one at Binny's, maybe ... $16?

man cad this thread is so good. hope to toast your health someday face to face

i'm glad it's been useful to ppl and likewise on the toast!

totally forgot i have some pretty good grenadine here so i will be doing a red ghost trial run later on.

update: yeah, i could knock back a few of these. big, bold-flavored drink.

something funny always seems to happen when vermouth (esp. sweet vermouth) and citrus interact. the end result is not always successful (though i think it is here) but it is always memorable. i used a healthy slug of boker's bitters (aka the bitterest of bitters i have) which gave it some nice depth.

I am so pleased! yesterday I brewed a cup of oolong tea and then forgot that I'd done so (this happens a lot in my busy house) and so I put it in the fridge and used it to improvise a drink at dinner time. I don't think the drink is quite ready for prime time yet but it was 1.5 oz gin, 1 oz of this stuff - I think more tea is actually what it needs, that was a delightful flavor, and maybe a rim the glass with a cherry

Have any of you actually had vermouth turn? I know it can, esp. since a lot of people don't refrigerate it, but I keep my bottles vacuum sealed and so far seem to be OK, even after a few months. Though per CAD, every once in a while I'll make a drink with vermouth and something seems to be off, but then when I try to replicate the (bad) results, the next drink turns out OK.

old-ish sweet vermouth is not usually that bad. dry vermouth turns amazingly quickly though. usually when i buy a new bottle of either i do a quick taste compare to the old bottle just to remind me of the difference. i don't think either will murder a drink where there are a decent amount of other ingredients (and the vermouth is more of a supporting player), but if you're making martinis or manhattans and have any doubt it's best to buy a fresh bottle.