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

Related:

[Michelle] Obama dished on her daughters’ bartending skills while promoting her new book, The Light We Carry, and recounted how Malia, 24, and Sasha, 21, invited their parents over to their shared L.A. apartment for some predinner drinks. “They had prepared a charcuterie tray and tried to make two very weak martinis,” Obama told Robin Roberts in a 20/20 interview. Obama said they realized they didn’t have all the ingredients for martinis but didn’t go into the details. One assumes both she and Barack Obama took some polite sips if nothing else. Michelle then told the story again in an interview with the Today Show’s Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb, saying, “The martinis were a little weak. I don’t think they really knew what it was.”

well whose fault is that

I've made fish sauce caramel to rim a cocktail glass, but I ain't going near blue cheese simple syrup.

I on the other hand can't find that recipe fast enough

*reads upthread* oh no

more like cocktailGTFO

Aw, yeah, you all know what time it is

https://i.imgur.com/2Y1HIgn.jpg

I made Penicilins tonight. Such a great tasting and really well thought out cocktail.

ooh, I had one of those yesterday, it was quite goodd

As discussed here (elsewhere?), the only thing that keeps me from making Penicillins, one of my fave cocktails, is rarely having ginger-honey syrup on hand. But I guess it's easy enough to make a small amount. Also probably great for a sore throat.

xp I've never made a Penicillin bc I don't want to fuss with making the honey-ginger syrup, as required in Sam Ross's recipe, although I guess some adaptations just call for muddling the ginger. How do you male yours, PBKR?

Penicillins are delicious — especially if you do a single-malt float on top — and honey-ginger syrup isn't hard to make, you just have to do it ahead of time. We just keep a little jar of it in the fridge, it stays good long enough for us to make several rounds over the course of a few weeks.

Yeah, I have a bottle of peaty scotch just for this drink (I'm not a scotch guy).

xpost fwiw I think it's just 1:1 honey and water, steeped with fresh ginger.

Yeah, I've made other syrups like honey and cinnamon, but I knew I could use those in more than one drink. But maybe I'll give it a go.

Honey-ginger you could always add to tea and stuff. My daughter uses regular simple syrup in her coffee.

I just make a honey syrup (takes 5 minutes) and muddle the ginger, but maybe I'll try making it a honey-ginger syrup next time.

What I've learned in the past few years of making bar syrups is that the old way of cooking sugar, water and your target flavor together then straining produces a relatively faint ghost of a flavor; plus sometimes a cooked [whatever] doesn't taste as good as fresh/raw. You get a more intense syrup if you combine the target flavor (ginger, rhubarb, whatever) in a blender with the amount of water you would have used otherwise, strain through cheesecloth, then sweeten the uncooked juice+water, warming it up just enough to dissolve the sugar. Doing ginger this way is especially good; you get a very intensely gingery syrup.

Might have to try that! I love penicillins so much, I try not to drink them too often so I don’t get burnt out on them, but at this point it’s been several months and I was just thinking it’s time to make some honey-ginger syrup again.

Now I wonder what effect kinetic energy (extreme blender violence) might have in creating an oleosaccharum. Usually the process is just chemical breakdown of cell walls.

I've grated raw ginger with a microplane to a similar effect. You just end up with pulp that packs a good punch.

That sounds like a good syrup approach WmC. We do something like that with mint — mint is tricky, because you have to blanch it to preserve the color or it turns brown. So we blanch it, then blend it with the simple and then strain. Gives a lovely emerald shade and obviously lots of minty flavor. With honey-ginger tho we just make honey syrup and then let a bunch of sliced ginger steep in it while it's warm.

Yeah, I have the same system with mint syrup. Frankly I want to drop the Mojito from our menu, it's a money-loser considering how much we spend on mint and how rarely it's ordered.

Yeah I feel like mojitos' moment in the spotlight has ended. I think partly for just what you're saying, lots of bars don't even make it because of having to keep mint around.

I had some blood oranges that were starting to shrivel a bit, so I juiced them and pondered what to do with the juice. The Blood and Sand is criticized a lot because OJ is a poor cocktail ingredient so I acid-adjusted the juice (mostly citric, a little malic) and give it a go. Equal parts Scotch, acid-adjusted blood OJ, Sangue Morlacco cherry liqueur (better than Heering, plus it's got blood in the name) and sweet vermouth. Tastes good, man. For now I'm calling it Sandy, Bloody Sandy.

https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/329337067_1594041551038258_3286885234608281867_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=PRVYkXm4AP0AX9pQwSD&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&oh=00_AfCtMl4wbJYNIWIGenupxfePbsJF7G3I_les-UiS7AOCCw&oe=63E7043E

Nice. I've made and liked this cocktail with mezcal, blood orange juice, cinnamon syrup, and fernet:
https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/3339/sangre-dulce-cocktail

i want to try that william! i love the idea of acid-adjusted orange juice but have only done it a couple of times.

I made some acid-adjusted pineapple juice (same recipe as for OJ iirc) and the resulting paste daiquiri was amazing.

But pineapple is pretty sweet so drop back the simple a good bit.

can u explain to a noob what the deal is with the acid adjustment? is straight orange too sweet?

The sweetness isn't the problem, it's just not tart/sour enough. Add citric acid if you want the sourness profile of lemon juice with the flavor of orange, or a combination of citric and malic acid if you want a lime sourness.

mindexplosion.gif

500 grams OJ or pineapple juice, 26 grams acid (16 citric and 10 malic, or just 26 citric), awww yeah

that is much more added acid, proportionally, than I would have guessed!

here's my invention:

Nobel Prize

3/4 Aqvavit
1/4 Swedish Punsch
some blood orange bitters (depending on volume)

carefully peel a lemon so that the entire peel is an unbroken, narrow strip - combine in a jar or bottle with other ingredients and let sit in fridge for at least one week, if not two.. make a whole batch. (The peel should resemble a sunny tapeworm floating in formaldehyde)
Serve chilled in small drams after dinner, or can be mixed with ginger beer into a cocktail

(I tried adding a single clove but it was too overpowering.. maybe if you left it in for only a day)

I've never tried Swedish Punsch, that sounds good.

it has kind of a toffee/butterscotch flavor, and is very sweet on its own.. that's why you dilute it. 75/25 might actually be a little too sweet, but it's nice when kept in the freezer

I have a lifetime supply because a bar manager buddy bought a case years ago and has never figured out what to do with it.. so he'll sell me a bottle from time to time
It's not super easy to find

I have a bottle of Swedish Punsch, iirc it tasted kind of ... rummy?

one of those things I've always wanted to try but never have found

I've been wary of using OJ as a mixer. Thanks.

xps yeah it is a rum liqueur, tho made with Batavia Arrack which is kind of its own thing. I feel like I've seen some around but I've never actually shopped for it.

We made some "mimosa" beer cocktails — with Miller High Life, of course — for some events a few years ago and orange juice is so weak on its own that we had to make orange syrup to boost it or you wouldn't get the flavor at all. There's a reason you only mix orange juice with vodka, anything else will override it.

kronan swedish punsch is i think the main one you can get in the usa, its base includes both batavia arrack and rum.....it's fine? idk it might be a more interesting historical artifact than actual cocktail ingredient.

I looked at my state's ABC website and Kronan is available, but as a special order. There's a new-to-me liquor store in Tupelo that I haven't been able to explore fully, but on quick glance they had a ton of stuff from the special order list, maybe they have punsch.

jaymc, didn't want to ignore your post, I'm tempted to make a bit of cinnamon syrup to try that.

Had a big party, made a bunch of negroni variants with Aperol, lillet and gin (plus grapefruit wedge). People loved it.

Further play with acid-adjusted pineapple -- I made some with a lemon profile instead of lime and tried a whiskey sour, a drink I've always been 'meh' about after my early enthusiasm wore off. Best whiskey sour ever, one I could definitely see prying myself away from rum drinks to order. (2 oz. Rittenhouse Rye, 1 oz. acid-adjusted pineapple, .75 oz. 1:1 simple syrup, 1 egg white; dry shake, shake with ice, double strain, garnish with a few drops of Ango)

so for the lemon profile it's just citric right? and citric/malic is lime?

I would like to try this w/ a pisco sour

xp yep

Do it! It's so easy, and the results are a lot of fun.

love that pineapple whiskey sour idea!!