I searched this thread to share a recipe and feel weird about doing so directly after a link to the obit of the guy who's largely responsible for people thinking about cocktails more than they had prior to the late 90s but, well, lemme raise this outstanding drink to Sasha Petraske. It was a "I want a bourbon drink, what have I got lying around" attempt and it's kind of spectacular imo
1.5 oz + a little of good bourbonjuice of 1/2 lemon2 shakes orange bittersa few drops poured from a bottle of maple syrup
chill glass, shake everything together with ice, strain
I don't have a name for it, it's just really really good
― tremendous crime wave and killing wave (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 23 August 2015 22:11 (eight years ago) link
love bourbon and maple, great combo. maple syrup in general is something where i'm always like why don't i use this more
― call all destroyer, Sunday, 23 August 2015 23:17 (eight years ago) link
http://www.theperfectlyhappyman.com/uploads/founders-canadian-breakfast-stout.jpg
― Jeff, Sunday, 23 August 2015 23:41 (eight years ago) link
hey who put beer in the cocktails thread!
― call all destroyer, Monday, 24 August 2015 00:15 (eight years ago) link
yeah, i don't see maple syrup in a whole lot of cocktail recipes, but it does seem like a natural pair with bourbon. last time i used it, i think, was in a riff on the alpine rabbit, which is bourbon, carrot juice, lemon juice, walnut liqueur, and simple syrup. i replaced the last two ingredients with maple syrup, and it worked out pretty well.
― jaymc, Monday, 24 August 2015 00:45 (eight years ago) link
actually, it would probably be really good with applejack/calvados, too.
― jaymc, Monday, 24 August 2015 00:46 (eight years ago) link
I didn't have much around the house this week except bourbon, limes, and soda water (I was drinking a lot of mojitos because it's been so hot but then I ran out of rum) so I've been making bourbon rickeys and they are a tasty and very easy summer drink imo
― marcos, Monday, 24 August 2015 02:08 (eight years ago) link
lol carrot juice, i will have to try that
― call all destroyer, Monday, 24 August 2015 02:13 (eight years ago) link
This sounds like the worst cocktail ever, and I'm not even sure it's intentional:
This is a delicate drink inspired by our generation’s most sensitive poet/rapper/singer.3 oz Moët Rosé Impérial1 oz Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita1 5-Hour Energy (any flavor)5 oz Sprite1. Pour chilled rosé and Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita into a wine glass.2. Add 5-Hour Energy and gently stir.3. Top with Sprite.
3 oz Moët Rosé Impérial1 oz Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita1 5-Hour Energy (any flavor)5 oz Sprite
1. Pour chilled rosé and Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita into a wine glass.2. Add 5-Hour Energy and gently stir.3. Top with Sprite.
http://luckypeach.com/recipes/drake/
― conditional random jepsen (seandalai), Tuesday, 2 February 2016 01:21 (eight years ago) link
lol
― just sayin, Tuesday, 2 February 2016 03:57 (eight years ago) link
you think a drink with Bud Light Lime Straw-Ber-Rita in it.... might be accidentally bad?
― just sayin, Tuesday, 2 February 2016 03:58 (eight years ago) link
How hit and miss are your cocktails? How often is something you dream up spot-on and how often are you like, “That’s so disgusting, no one’s going to drink that”?[Laughs] Some time they’re too disgusting, but often—well, I wouldn’t put it in the book if I thought it was too disgusting. Although there are some I haven’t actually tried. There’re a couple that are just for laughs.
― just sayin, Tuesday, 2 February 2016 04:01 (eight years ago) link
From the election thread:
The Short-Fingered Vulgarian:
1 oz Cranberry juice2 oz vodka1/2 oz Bud Lite1/2 oz chocolate syrup 1oz lime juiceshake with crushed ice for 10 seconds, serve unstrained in a rocks glass emblazoned with the words "Who Farted?"garnish with a glow stick
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, March 4, 2016 10:22 AM
― nickn, Friday, 4 March 2016 23:33 (eight years ago) link
I had a Cayo Romano last week (light rum, dark rum, ginger liqueur, fresh orange, fresh lime, angostura bitters, allspice dram, nutmeg grated on top) and it was the best cocktail I've had in forever. The only thing I don't have in the house to make my own is the allspice dram, so I started a batch of that yesterday.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Thursday, 22 December 2016 20:40 (seven years ago) link
oooh that sounds delicious! I'm recently back from Dominica with some local rums; they are not exactly sipping straight stuff, so working them into a nice cocktail will be U&K. How was the drink served--rocks, up?
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, 22 December 2016 20:52 (seven years ago) link
I'm obsessed with celery/gin and dill/gin cocktails right now. PLZ TO SUGGEST THINGS
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 22 December 2016 21:01 (seven years ago) link
xpostUp. The one I had was tiny and gone too fast, but multiples weren't in the budget that night.
1 oz. dark aged rum1 oz. silver rum1 oz. ginger liqueur, such as Canton3⁄4 oz. fresh lime juice3⁄4 oz. fresh orange juice1 dash allspice pimento dram (optional)1 dash Angostura bittersFreshly grated nutmeg and superfine sugar, to taste
No sugar in the one I had, I'm glad to say. Enough sweetness in the OJ and allspice dram.
― aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Thursday, 22 December 2016 21:02 (seven years ago) link
Yeah I feel like most rum reads sweetish to me anyway, no need for additional sugar. I avoid ice in my dranks so up is the best answer, always.
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, 22 December 2016 21:04 (seven years ago) link
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, December 22, 2016 4:01 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i remember this being fun:
celeriac2 oz Gin3/4 oz Pineapple Juice3/4 oz Lemon Juice1/2 oz 2:1 Simple Syrup4 dash Celery Bitters1 Egg White
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 22 December 2016 22:08 (seven years ago) link
xxp hell yeah WmC, that sounds great
― sleeve, Thursday, 22 December 2016 22:16 (seven years ago) link
i picked up the smuggler's cove book more b/c it was cheap on amazon and seemed like an interesting read than b/c i planned on starting to make more tiki drinks, but it's got some really good practical guidance. in addition to the very useful approach to categorizing rum, it's the first book i've read that strongly advocates for the use of a drink mixer/spindle blender as both the original and correct way to make donn and vic drinks. i picked one up for about 25 bucks and it opens a lot of doors that a conventional blender doesn't imo.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 23 January 2017 01:51 (seven years ago) link
oh cool. i have the book and have made a few of the drinks, but i feel like i'm still kind of an amateur when it comes to tiki, and part of that's not having the right equipment. like, with any recipe that calls for crushed ice, i just use mini cubes. glad that you've found the drink mixer to be worthwhile!
― Wozniak on Kimye's Baby (jaymc), Monday, 23 January 2017 02:06 (seven years ago) link
also, the rum categorization is interesting, though some of it feels counterintuitive to me. like, it's odd that appleton estate signature blend is in the same category as plantation 3 year, even if both are technically "blended, lightly aged" rums.
― Wozniak on Kimye's Baby (jaymc), Monday, 23 January 2017 02:11 (seven years ago) link
the idea behind the system seems super-useful, though. i found rum cocktails (not just tiki) kind of hard to get into at first because i never knew how important it was to have the specific rum a recipe called for.
― Wozniak on Kimye's Baby (jaymc), Monday, 23 January 2017 02:13 (seven years ago) link
yeah i feel like that's what they're trying to get around. i'm with you in that some of the rums that share a category don't really seem related (i'd never confuse appleton reserve and el dorado 12), but i do think it gives the knowledgable amateur ammo to go the store and pick a solid mid-priced rum in each category.
disclaimer on crushed ice, i've had and used the waring pro ice crusher the book recommends for years and apparently it's been discontinued which really sucks. for me, sticking the drink mixer right next to the ice crusher lets me handle the whole ice and mixing portion of the recipe in about a minute, and the cleanup is a world away from washing out an entire blender container because you felt like making one or two drinks.
― call all destroyer, Monday, 23 January 2017 02:31 (seven years ago) link
I've held off on all this stuff because I don't love rum enough to buy four different expensive bottles upfront before I make anything
― Headphone Jack (seandalai), Monday, 23 January 2017 11:31 (seven years ago) link
but I do like it when other people make me tiki cocktails :)
i don't make many original recipes since there are lots of great people who are paid to develop cocktails but tonight i did this:
2 oz. spiced rum (chairman's).75 oz. tawny port (warre's otima).25 oz. coffee liqueur (galliano ristretto)dash angostura
stir and strain, orange twist would be the right garnish but i didn't bother.
i'm always looking for stirred rum drinks and uh this is a stirred rum drink.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 03:58 (seven years ago) link
sounds good!
the drunken dodo in the death & co. book is a pretty solid stirred rum drink. i also like the negroni-like ashtray heart.
― Wozniak on Kimye's Baby (jaymc), Tuesday, 24 January 2017 04:09 (seven years ago) link
yeah i like the drunken dodo a lot
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 24 January 2017 15:15 (seven years ago) link
speaking of which, i made a rhum-agricole-based Manhattan riff last night, which was excellent.
― Wozniak on Kimye's Baby (jaymc), Thursday, 26 January 2017 16:40 (seven years ago) link
i saw that on your instagram! been thinking for a while about rhum agricole's potential in stirred drinks given how delicate and complex it can be.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 26 January 2017 18:29 (seven years ago) link
lactart in the house. functionally it's supposed to be the same as acid phosphate.
i was skeptical but it's pretty cool how a tiny amount of this stuff can lift drinks made with like an ounce of drambuie or drinks made with literally no other sour/bitter components.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 31 May 2017 02:06 (six years ago) link
i've been digging into the dead rabbit drinks manual, which beneath its facade of ridiculously fussy recipes and dry irish humor is one of the few original approaches to mixing drinks in existence. i'm not sure if jack mcgarry qualifies as a genius, but damned if he wasn't way the hell out there. reading the book today comes with a bittersweet tinge as he's a recovering alcoholic and doesn't work behind the bar anymore.
basically the book is a baroque take on the formative years of mixing drinks where herbal flavors are punched up with housemade tinctures, spirits are infused as often as not (usually with teas), and sweeteners are replaced with fruity cordials. the basic approach is why use lemon juice and plain sugar syrup if you can use lemon juice and lemony sugar syrup? similarly soda water is out because flavored soda exists. the result to my palate is drinks that are tighter and more unified than you'd expect given the ingredient lists. there's a lot of flavor bridging at work and i have no idea how he figured some of this stuff out.
anyone who's done some reading on classic cocktails has run into the lion's tail, a humble and random mix of bourbon, lime, and allspice. here's mcgarry's version (this is also one of the easiest 2 or 3 drinks to make in the book):
2 oz. bourbon.75 oz. white creme de cacao.25 oz. allspice dram.25 oz. creme de poire1 oz. lemon juice.75 oz. orange juice3 dashes aromatic bitters (dead rabbit orinoco or angostura)
shake and strain over a small ice cube, garnish with grated nutmeg (oh yeah everything has nutmeg).
it sold me and now i have a bottle of mace tincture and some lemon syrup in the fridge.
― call all destroyer, Saturday, 29 July 2017 01:53 (six years ago) link
I've been playing a lot with the gin martini lately, varying from the gin, vermouth and bitters. Best I've come up with lately has been
2 St George Terroir1 yzaguirre white vermouthThese Tasmanian pepperberry bitters in blanking on the name ofThin shave of lemon rind
Herby and delicious, not dry in the slightest but I'm OK with that.
I haven't yet tried paring the St George with Maidenii vermouth - could be great or could tip over into medicinal.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Saturday, 29 July 2017 03:06 (six years ago) link
Non-dry (what's the word? sweet?) vermouth-forward cocktails are basically my favourite drinks.
― Choco Blavatsky (seandalai), Saturday, 29 July 2017 10:44 (six years ago) link
I'm looking more for 'balanced' than sweet but yes vermouth forward is great and it's great that one can lay one's hands on such a diversity of vermouth. .
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Saturday, 29 July 2017 10:51 (six years ago) link
more dead rabbit:
1.5 oz. cognac1 oz. bonal gentiane.5 oz. anisette.25 oz. amaro sibilla4 dashes aromatic bitters (dead rabbit/angostura/boker's/whatever you have)lemon peel
without getting into nonsense superlatives this is an incredible recipe; if you can find the things to make it you should make it.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 5 October 2017 02:35 (six years ago) link
i have a bunch of oranges that have been peeled for garnish and a bottle of famous grouse that i don't really want so i'm amusing myself trying to fix the blood and sand, which famously consists of 4 sweetish ingredients without contrast. neutral cocktail acids (i have lactart) were pretty much invented for doing this, so now it's about fixndng proportions and moving the result from pleasant to interesting. tonight:
1.5 oz. famous grouse.75 oz. oj.5 oz. cherry heering.5 oz. dolin rouge1/2 tsp lactart
this is fine! doesn't suck at all. i think a vermouth with more character, or added bitters, plus a smidge more acid could really work well.
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 7 December 2017 04:43 (six years ago) link
What not to do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWeVRxR1qek
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 December 2017 20:53 (six years ago) link
I present to you all tales of true disasters
https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/your-saddest-desperation-cocktails-ranked-1825899419
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 May 2018 20:32 (five years ago) link
i once did blue gatorade powder and bacardi 151 and just enough water to make it actually stay a mix, needless to say it was a disaster and ended with me pulling a strange couch into my backyard
― challops trap house (Will M.), Friday, 11 May 2018 20:48 (five years ago) link
that’s a great article. i did some stupid shit but probably nothing as creative as any of those.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:28 (five years ago) link
Yuck. Didn't they just recently rank two ingredient cocktails? Along those lines, I picked up Robert Simonson's 3-Ingredient Cocktails book. Some good stuff in there, some twists as well as old standards.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:36 (five years ago) link
friend and i split a bottle of vodka and cherry kool aid once.
but worst drink was probably "turbo diesel"
Tennent's Super lager (9%)Frosty Jack's Cider (7%)BlackcurrantVodka
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Friday, 11 May 2018 22:43 (five years ago) link
My dad used to make snakebite out of Tennents Super and Ice Dragon. Ice Dragon is one of the most revolting white ciders I've ever drank, although tbh all white ciders are pretty revolting. I used to favour "British fortified wine" i.e. sherry for bargain boozing. I think white cider is the most ABV/£ though.
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:46 (five years ago) link
Happy are the days when I can afford to get pissed on Polish lager instead of that shite
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:47 (five years ago) link
You can't beat a good old 4-pack of Tyskie
― calzino, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:52 (five years ago) link
You can, you can have a 4-pack of Warka Strong, Okocim Mocne or Zubr!
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:52 (five years ago) link
I used to often see groups of Polish workers coming off the nightshift at the britvic factory and supping something looking quite strong at 6am. respect!
― calzino, Friday, 11 May 2018 22:54 (five years ago) link