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

finally figured out something good with the Amaro Ciociaro

2 oz Evan Williams 100 proof bond
3/4 oz Cocchi Americano
1/2 oz Amaro Ciociaro
lemon peel garnish, stir well w/rocks

sounds good to me.

i had been on a bit of a cocktail break but midsummer always inspires me to break out the classic rum drinks. my beloved waring pro professional ice crusher mysteriously stopped working so i needed to spring for a replacement from ebay, but since then it's been plenty of navy grogs and planter's punches.

sleeve, that sounds like the bourbon version of the Negroni variant I have been interested in recently - which has gin instead of bourbon, with choice of amaro (suze/gran classico/amaro ciociaro), and apertif (kina l'aero d'or/lillet/cocchi americano)

The store was having a big sale on spirits so I got a bottle of white rum today to make Hemingways. But I don't have Luxardo so me trying out substitutes might be a bad idea.

tough to find a sub for luxardo. could just make regular daiquris?

ugh, no that would make too much sense.

I added some blueberry juice and honey.

https://punchdrink.com/articles/goodbye-fat-washing-hello-switching-spirit-infusion-cocktail-technique/

Brilliant concept, great potential for silliness.

whoa

wow, that is really something.

i could totally sneak a chest freezer into the basement, my wife hates it down there.

Preview of a new game where you have to out-drink the Devil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ8qcIVmr1M

This is good. A bunch of vintage cocktail books archived by Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux, a museum on the island of Bendor (FR) (and most are readable) here:

https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/

There's so many amazing book covers. I have a poster/print of L'Art de Boire le Vin (from a 1920s book) that I still need to get framed.

I've discovered the Toronto.

A long standing favorite

I got a bottle of genever last month in Atlanta (Boomsma Oude) and erstwhile ILXor Bill/Tep hipped me to the Shaddock -- equal parts genever, Aperol, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice. So many dancing flavors -- I'm sure this will be one of my alltime faves.

Nice. I've been curious about genever for a while. I imagine it being somewhat like Old Tom gin?

I haven't had Old Tom (only came around to gin recently after a long aversion) but from brief research that seems to be so.

it's considerably more malty than old tom....very different animal. more like an unaged whiskey with a hint of gin's botanicals.

here's an absolutely killer cocktail from the first death & co. book:

1 oz. appleton estate signature rum (fka v/x)
1 oz. bols genever
1 tsp galliano ristrettoo
1/2 tsp absinthe
.25 oz. simple syrup
1 dash aromatic bitters
orange twist

stir and strain over 1 large ice cube, garnish with orange twist

Okay, the Ristretto in that recipe reminds me: Does anyone have a favorite coffee liqueur? It seems like it would be a nice thing to add to the collection. I'm leaning toward the St. George NOLA.

i haven't had the st george but dude the ristretto is amazing

Yeah? Maybe I'll try it.

Interestingly we've sold $5,600 worth of Margarita kits from Alinea. We've been doing this all wrong for years...

— nick kokonas (@nickkokonas) March 19, 2020

i forget if i've ever talked about it in this thread but one of the products i've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out is italicus, the bergamot liqueur. it tastes amazing but i've been having a hard time finding things that work well with it. having tried about a million variations on gin/vermouth/italicus, it hit me today that the botanicals in most gins are just going to clash and that i should go in a different direction--a mild rye or even an irish whiskey.

so tonight i tried 2 oz. old overholt, half an ounce each of dry vermouth and italicus, and a couple dashes of orange bitters. i think this is the aperitif i've been looking for.

didn't alfred buy a bottle of that recently (last year)? I remember because I thought the bottle was beautiful.

yeah i think you're right! it's a nice bottle, very art deco.

Yup, I have it, too -- and have barely used it! I will try that concoction.

drinking a Little Italy, thankful for this thread

Made a Campari Americano yesterday, and an Old Fashioned today

Made my wife a Martinez tonight (I've been cycling through recipes).

The great Chicago tiki bar Lost Lake is doing a twice-weekly newsletter for donors to its (COVID-related) GoFundMe, and each installment has a couple of cocktail recipes. Tonight I made the bar's Something from Nothing, a delightful mix of bourbon, aged rum, lemon juice, coffee *and* coffee syrup, cinnamon syrup, and coconut cream.

re Italicus, I just mix it with Prosecco and squeeze half a lemon into it. 3:1 Prosecco, not 1:1 as the recipe on the bottle suggests.

Great warm weather drink:

Take 3
2 oz Cynar
3⁄4 oz Elderflower liqueur, St. Germain
3⁄4 oz Lemon juice
2 oz Seltzer water
1 wdg Orange (as garnish)
Instructions
Shake all but seltzer and orange wedge, strain over fresh ice into a highball, top with seltzer, garnish with orange wedge.

It ends up tasting like the coldest, most refreshing Coca Cola on the hottest day of the year (and I don't really like Coke).

would tonic water work as a seltzer substitute?

ooh I love Cynar-based drinks, I'd probably cut the lemon to 1/2 like I usually do

Just got some Cynar last week. No elderflower liqueur though, which is a shame as that sounds good.

I often put a drop or two of St. Germain in my martinis.

Gonna try this now! It's Friday, last day of the semestser, 72 degrees, etc.

How was it Alfred? Tonic is not a direct sub for seltzer (club soda better sub), but in this drink might not matter much.

What I like so much about this cocktail is that it doesn't really taste like any of its constituent parts; they combine into a distinctive blend.

yo PBKR I made a Paper Plane (two actually) last night, eternal thanks again!

I got a sack of lemons the other day. Going to juice a bunch of them for paper planes and shaddocks (genever, aperol, elderflower, lemon) later today.

How was it Alfred? Tonic is not a direct sub for seltzer (club soda better sub), but in this drink might not matter much.

What I like so much about this cocktail is that it doesn't really taste like any of its constituent parts; they combine into a distinctive blend.

― Fetch the Bolt Thrower (PBKR),

Fine! I used club soda. I wouldn't mix one late afternoon before dinner, but as a light lunch cocktail it was tasty.

From the taste it looks like I can substitute Fernet-Branca.

Made an equal parts Old Pal with Irish whiskey (which probably means it's called something else), definitely one I'll have again: 1oz dry vermouth, 1oz Campari, 1oz whiskey; stir.

Another drink I really love is the Bijou, which is a Negroni variant: 1/1/1 Gin, sweet vermouth, and green chartreuse, with orange bitters, lemon peel and maraschino cherry (if you got them).

i love bijous but for any of the curious i'd recommend trying the dead rabbit modified bijou proportions:

1.5 oz. gin
1.5 oz. vermouth
.5 oz. chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters
2 dashes angostura bitters
2 dashes absinthe
orange peel

It's been a while since I made a Bijou, but that modification makes sense to me. I love Green Chartreuse, but more than a little can be cloying, especially mixed with another sweet ingredient. (Also reminds me of Dead Rabbit's recipe for the Tipperary, which is Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Green Chartreuse.)

Today I made an oleo saccharum for the first time, so I could make a Quoit Punch. (I have a bottle of Madeira in the fridge that I don't use enough, and I recently acquired Smith & Cross rum for the first time in a while.)

I started with David Wondrich's recipe, which makes about 24 servings, and scaled it down to 2. That meant 2 oz each of rum, cognac, and Madeira, and 1 1/3 oz each of sugar (to mix with lemon peels) and lemon juice. I think it turned out pretty well, though it was a little sweet, so maybe I'll use less sugar next time. Or else just dilute it more to start (I didn't shake it, just added ice as though my glass were a punch bowl and stirred a bit).

yeah that modified bijou is a more structured, thought-out drink. i think there's a few equal-parts cocktails that could benefit from not being equal parts but have stayed that way for ease of transmission.

re: green chartreuse, my wife spent a college year in grenoble, france not far from where they make chartreuse. when we went there together 5 years later we met up with one of her friends who met a local guy while in the program and wound up going back and marrying him. we went out with them one night and dude ordered a neat green chartreuse just to sip on. i chalked it up to being a local thing.

A bar I used to live near (now defunct) had a neon Chartreuse sign in the window, which I always liked.

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/10991532_766754133423136_8290960104367919861_o.jpg?_nc_cat=108&_nc_sid=85a577&_nc_oc=AQlI0V3XvszTI8fmCtoZpdV_Pp0-iT2UtdNTcr_NI6x3dNHOxpYVO0rOMXNBYgiTgBI2sLUGo_1AYrg-txsa0Hhd&_nc_ht=scontent-ort2-2.xx&oh=ffd8fe007fbb1b200a435ac8fe553d3b&oe=5EDC1CFAp

https://i.imgur.com/ZbrpbWX.jpg