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

7-bottle shopping spree today along with what i had already equals enough for a working home bar. i've already done some research, i have most of the tools, i have just about enough of the time and money. i am learning to do this.

itt i will post recipes, observations, and pro-tips abt making drinks at home for you and the guests you may/may not have. bartenders, pro, ex-pro, and amateur, pls feel free to contribute.

First question, what booze do you now have in your home bar?

RECIPE ONE: negroni (with a wink and a smile at HI DERE)

of course this is a classic. i bought the stuff to make it today because they are delicious:

EQUAL PARTS gin, campari, sweet vermouth. add ice and stir; garnish w/orange.

mine was a little sweeter than i planned--may drop vermouth content ever so slightly to suit my tastes.

ok here is a rundown:

GIN tanqueray (wanted plymouth but could not turn down deal on tanqueray)

BRANDY laird's applejack (regular, not bonded--bonded seems to be preferred all around but i can't find it atm)

TEQUILA corzo anejo (this is a nice bottle that was a gift--not for mixing imo)

RUM appleton silver jamaican (from a few nights of mojitos a while back)

RYE old overholt, tuthilltown manhattan rye, sazerac 18-year

BOURBON michter's us1, four roses small batch, van winkle 12 year lot "b"

SCOTCH laphroaig 10-year

ABSINTHE lucid

VODKA i don't know, there's some around here somewhere

VERMOUTH martini and rossi sweet and also dry, lillet blanc

BITTERS angostura, peychaud, fee bros orange bitters

OTHER STUFF campari, green chartreuse, herbsaint, cointreau

this is a good idea imo ~ wish i had funds rt now 2 mix along w/ and learn sum - shd b st8 by spring/summer 2 copy sum lavish drinks tht hopefully f/ tiny umbrellas

yeah dude i am saving rum drinks for the summer because it will be more appropriate and also frankly that shit is really confusing

RECIPE TWO: marconi wireless

1.75 oz applejack
.75 oz sweet vermouth
2 dashes orange bitters

stir in a mixing glass with ice, strain, garnish w/lemon

first, i garnished w/orange because i was already in the process of destroying an orange. second, tbh, i fucked up the proportions by reading too fast--assumed it was 2:1 applejack: vermouth and ignored that extra .25 oz. so of course the drink tasted a little vermouth-y at first. however, it did mellow out to a pleasant apple/orange concoction.

INGREDIENTS UPDATE

so one day after bitching about being unable to find laird's bonded apple brandy, i found it. it's like 3 bucks more than the 80-proof applejack. it also has a much shittier label for whatever reason. quick taste test indicates it has more of an apple flavor than its little bro (to be expected) and enough alcohol burn that you would only ever use it for mixing. i will remake the marconi wireless with it sometime soon.

also grabbed a bottle of lemon hart demerara rum. all i really know is that it is the 151 proof rum that serious tropical drinks people use. it's also next to impossible to find around here, so i will stash this bottle for the summer. ironically, i finally got it at the second-closest liquor store to my house.

also attempted to make some grenadine today (the things i can accomplish when i take a week off). recipe:

16 oz. POM pomegranate juice
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vodka added after cooking to preserve

combine POM and sugar, bring to boil, simmer while covered until bored. let cool and bottle w/vodka.

for whatever reason this did not reduce and become as syrupy as i think it is supposed to. maybe i didn't boil on high heagt for long enough. i really have nothing to compare it to but it smells good.

excited for this thread - i would like to make a request that you try the nipsy russell at some point.

By chance I picked up some bottles on the way home tonight. As of now I have:

VODKA gvori
RUM el dorado 5 cruzan
GIN bombay sapphire
TEQUILA dos manos
OTHER cointreau, grand marnier, cherry heering, blue curacao, angostura bitters, grenadine, etc

I'm not much of a fan of bourbon, and I do 95% of the drinking around here, so I don't have it stocked as of yet.

that's the most booze it is possible to have in one place without anything i'd want to drink

john i am glad you are excited--have no way of pureeing a haberno at the moment but i will oblige at some point, i promise

i gotta get some cherry heering like hell, too

i want to go survey my liquor cabinet, but its all the way over there and i am lazy

RECIPE THREE: jack rose

another well-known classic.

2 oz. laird's bonded
.66 oz lemon juice
.66 oz grenadine

combine and shake w/ice, strain, garnish with lemon

laird's bonded already proving its worth--there is a distinct apple taste amidst the other fruits going on here. with my homemade grenadine this was really tasty tbh--fruity but not oversweet with nice strong citrus and apple notes. would make for anyone.

btw recipe for that was proportioned up slightly from the one in jimmy patrick's 101 cocktails iphone app--which in terms of providing an intelligent selection of recipes by someone who knows what they're doing is a real winner.

Good start so far w/ the ingredients, also the jack rose is probably the most overlooked classic cocktail.

I wouldn't use the applejack, even the unbonded, in recipes calling for brandy - it's a substantially different ingredient. You can get a brandy that's fine for mixing for cheap - I use Tres Cepas, a spanish brandy, which wasn't much over $10.

pro tips:

- Keep your vermouth in the fridge. It is a wine, though fortified, and will spoil after a few months, less if you keep it at room temp. A nicer bottle of vermouth like Vya, Carpano Antica, or, if you can find it, Dolin, is an absolute revelation, and so worthwhile for the number of drinks it's used in.

- Learn how to cut citrus for different garnishes. Twists, strips, thumbnails, etc. Learn how to flame a citrus zest - very impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsdgadp6NTU

- Pay attention to the bartender in that video and his blog - http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/

good video, i dig that guy and his blog

also yeah i have no other brandy right now but am only using laird's products in recipes specifically calling for applejack. i'm planning on picking up some vs cognac soon for other brandy mixing. not sure what tres cepas is made of/if it's available here but i will look around.

RECIPE FOUR: corpse reviver #2

everybody on the internet swears by this cocktail

1 OZ. EACH gin, lillet blanc, cointreau, lemon juice
A TINY AMOUNT of absinthe (i used my 1/8 tsp measure)

shake well w/ice, strain.

sugg. garnish is a stemless cherry but i'm not going to bother with that given that i live alone and am watching the nba and posting to ilx right now. also i don't really like cherries.

you can see why people like this. the gin, lemon, absinthe, and cointreau are all clearly detectable and the lillet just seems to kind of hold everything together. the total package is pleasant and citrusy but ends on a more complex note (via the gin flavorings and absinthe afaict)

my pro-tip for recipes calling for whiskey (the scotch variety) - don't use a nice single malt like laphroig! that's for sippin!! buy a blend like johnny walker (or famous grouse, or bell's, or jameson, or etc)

also re gin - sapphire is garbage - tanqueray is yoga flame for all time

i just made a corpse reviver! FABULOUS

:D

hey friends back from a weekend away to continue makin drinks in the 2k10.

a visit to the new hampshire state liquor store didn't yield as much as i'd hoped. their selection of liqueurs is subpar and you only get really really great prices when they put stuff on sale.

so i settled for a bottle of courvoisier vs and a bottle of benedictine. why courvoisier? well, it was on sale, and my friend and i decided that their little logo looks like a gangster pulling a gun.

benedictine had been popping up in a few recipes i wanted to try; all i can say at the moment is that it tastes sweet and kind of weird.

RECIPE 5: diamondback

this was introduced to me by awesome local bartender j0sey p4ck4rd when i asked for an "intense" rye-based drink. (btw she appeared on rachel maddow's show a couple weeks ago; you can google it). i have been fucking w/the proportions and ingredients for a little while, but i am settling on the 3:2:1 measurements described to me originally:

1.5 oz rye whiskey
1 oz laird's bonded apple brandy
.5 oz green chartreuse

stir well over ice, strain into a small glass. no garnish you pussy.

this tastes really weird and is probably not for everybody. however, there is def. something compelling about how three strong spirits can combine into something that goes down pretty smoothly.

Tonight I am enjoying one of my very favorite drinks from the excellent Grog Log by Jeff Berry, which collects a bunch of "lost" tropical drink recipes from the 1940s-60s.

NEVER SAY DIE

.5 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz orange juice
.5 oz grapefruit juice
.25 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
.5 oz honey
dash Angostura bitters
1 oz Barbados rum
.5 oz light Puerto Rican rum
.5 oz dark Jamaican rum

Heat honey until liquid, then blend with all other ingredients with 4 ounces crushed ice for 5 seconds. Pour into diamond plated goblet and roll a fat one - you're about to have a fine sunday niiiiiiight.

(recipe originally developed by the legendary Don the Beachcomber)

http://i50.tinypic.com/2a99r3a.jpg

fuckin' love this guy

z s that sounds excellent. did you just use a microwave to heat up the honey?

Yep, just 20 seconds or so works fine!

hey guys, i'm back from being sick and busy with some new stuff for you.

first, i remade the marconi wireless (recipe two above) with three key changes: correct proportions, lemon not orange garnish, and fresh vermouth. i straight-up did not know about vermouth freshness until my mans I DIED said something upthread. he's right. obviously. anyway, the remade drink is more balanced and a lot better--sweet and light, v. refreshing imo.

so i had been wrecking a lemon for garnish for a couple days and needed a good reason to juice it. this leads us to

RECIPE SIX: the frisco

2 oz rye
.75 oz benedictine
.74 oz lemon juice
garnish with a lemon twist

stir over ice; strain into a cocktail glass (tbh the recipe i used says to shake but this does not feel like a shaken drink to me, ymmv)

found this browsing recipes on cocktailchronicles.com; apparently there are many options for proportioning these ingrendients. hard to say what the desired effect is but this is a weird drink--the tartness of the lemon juice and the sweetness of the benedictine hit completely different areas of your mouth at the same time. the rye is just kinda there gettin you drunk. i would re-proportion, but honestly i don't totally know what i would do different.

LOL .74 ounces. that is .75 but you already knew that.

Learn to pour freehand. 1 (slightly generous) ounce is 3 seconds' pouring through most pro quality pourers (which are cheap). Practice with water in old bottles so you don't waste booze -- it's not just a show-off thing, your feel for mixing changes in good ways at the same time.

so for the frisco--i tried again with only .5 oz benedectine and it might be better that way. final experiment i think is to shake it--benedictine is really syrupy and heavy and def sank to the bottom of my glass.

so then it's time for a partial INGREDIENTS UPDATE:

FERNET BRANCA is one of those things that is quite polarizing. as a fan of bitter drinks in general i figured i'd like it. my friend zoe remarked that it tastes like toothpaste which is actually as good a starting point as anything. the fernet site recommends you take three slow sips to fully appreciate whatever the hell they put into it. good idea--the mouth-numbing bitterness goes away and you can detect more fruit and whatnot.

FEE BROS WHISKEY BARREL AGED BITTERS i see a lot of what i'd call "blog cocktails" that use these bitters. they kind of smell like cola.

ok, let's talk recipes:

RECIPE SEVEN: old-fashioned

this is essentially an economy/simple old-fashioned for the home bartender; though i've seen some v. reputable places use only these ingredients. old-fashioneds kinda fall into the orange/cherry or no orange/cherry camp--for reasons of taste, simplicity, and economy, i think you get a really satisfying drink without the fruit. the version with the fruit is good too though!

1 sugar cube
2 oz. rye
.25 oz water
A FEW DASHES angostura
lemon peel for garnish

put the sugar cube in the old-fashioned glass, dash w/angostura (just a few times till the cube turns reddish pink). add the water and stir gently. add the rye and stir gently again. add 4-5 ice cubes and stir one more time, twist the lemon over the drink and wipe it around the rim of the glass.

one cool variation i've seen basically hinges on your ability to get one large ice block or chunk to fill the entire glass. slower dissolution = a cold but not watery drink.

and RECIPE EIGHT: fernet old-fashioned

v. slight modification of a recipe by the guy who does kaiserpenguin.com--he is purportedly a huge fernet branca fan.

take recipe 7, substitute fernet branca for rye, orange bitters OR fee whiskey barrel aged bitters gor angostura, and orange garnish for lemon. if you feel fancy, grab a lighter and flame the orange oils.

i think this is an awesome drink--tried both orange and whiskey barrel bitters and i think i prefer orange on the balance, they seem to bring out the fernet's character a little more.

one cool variation i've seen basically hinges on your ability to get one large ice block or chunk to fill the entire glass. slower dissolution = a cold but not watery drink

For Christmas I got an ice tray that makes giant ice spheres:

http://i48.tinypic.com/1sobpt.jpg

The only problem is that I can never get them to come out as perfect spheres like the picture. For reasons too complicated and idiotic to discuss here, the tops of them are always cut off so they look like the Death Star. Still, worth picking up!

wow, that's awesome! definitely going to track it down.

<3 fernet branca! i'll try that version of the old fashioned

I had a couple Sidecars last Saturday will watching football. Excellent drink imo.

brownie what brandy did you use? while not having looked hard, it seems difficult to find consensus on good cheap brandies. or maybe you used a pricey one! in which case more power to you.

also, this is nice: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/fashion/17shake.html?ref=todayspaper

I don't know what kind of brandy! a friend whipped them up. I'm not too picky anyway.

I just made a drink with this:

- fresh squeezed blood orange juice
- gin
- cranberry juice

shaken over ice, lovely

xp yeah the overriding sentiment seems to be that any common vs cognac will do for mixing. one book i have gave remy martin a nice writeup so i may try that next.

tracer what were your proportions?

no idea - maybe something like:

3-oj
2-gin
1-cranberry

cranberry really just for a little hint of sweet-tartness

we should definitely not leave this one out:

Hey guys I invented a new drink in honor of tonight's results

THE COAKLEY

6 oz of your worst vodka

shake with ice cube, pour directly into mouth

― CATBEAST!! (Z S), Tuesday, January 19, 2010 7:16 PM

lolllllllllllll

i'm sorry guys! i drove way the hell out of my way to vote in this one, had dinner with my parents, came home and saw the results, and quickly made a sidecar in honor of brownie who is a cool guy UNLIKE THE VOTERS OF MASSACHUSETTS

I made a Casino Soul this evening and it is extremely tasty:

1.5oz Demerara Rum
0.75oz Cynar
0.75oz Blanco Vermouth

You really taste each of the ingredients at different times.

nice, yeah I've made that a couple of times when I've been in the mood for a stirred rum drink. it's a good one.

those sound great wmc, the sour is an obvious next one ill try i think

I made the butter batter from here, https://punchdrink.com/recipes/jackson-cannons-hot-buttered-rum/ , for hot buttered rum at the bar. Caught a nice buzz field testing it. In other news, I hate my Kitchenaid mixer -- none of the attachments get to the sides of the bowl and I'm constantly having to scrape down. Going to sell that bastard and go back to Hamilton Beach.

hell yeah

Yum. I bought some premade batter once but have never made it. That looks like a good recipe.

paging WmC, i'm pretty sure i shipped you some of that clear creek douglas fir brandy, right? if you still have it this old-fashioned is a great and expensive way to dispose of it. really works as far as building those wintry evocative flavors into the drink.

https://www.deathandcompanymarket.com/blogs/recipes/fireside-old-fashioned-cocktail-recipe

You did, and I still have some! I get D&C's emails and saw that recipe this morning but I don't have any single-malt Scotches or the pear liqueur, so I kind of glossed over it. But I should see what kind of substitutions I can make...I haven't done much R&D with that brandy lately. I found out there's a liquor store in Birmingham that carries some Clear Creek products...I should make a road trip some week soon.

Jeppson's Malört has entered the Memphis market, incl. 50 ml bottles, so I got a couple to see if it's as horrible as all that. It's the most bitter thing I've ever tasted, but still not the worst thing I've ever tasted. I'd do a shot of it before I'd eat an olive.

That's funny. Yeah, it could definitely be worse, though that doesn't make it good! Or at least not something you want.

They used to have contests around here for who could devise the best Malort-based cocktail.

made myself an absolute dog of a martini earlier to try and get over a recent sporting disappointment, and actually almost revived this thread just to whinge about it. terrible stuff

been drinking a lot of straight up vermouth lately, Cocchi Americano and Torino etc on the rocks with a twist, nice and simple

Nice -- I want to learn more about the variety in vermouths. I've read that Spanish vermouths can be really good (and are kind of their own thing?) so I got a 375 of La Copa Rojo from Gonzalez Byass on my Memphis trip last week. Haven't tried it yet, maybe later today.

I also have been baffled that there are so many Italian red bitter aperitivos similar to Campari, Select, etc. How much variation between them can there be? So I got a bottle of Gran Classico and was knocked out. Rhubarb along with the bitter orange; the sweetness seems to be more from honey than just plain sugar. This + seltzer will do me just fine.

that sounds really good

There is actually a Spanish vermouth bar a couple of towns over from me that I've been meaning to visit for a while, I think everything I've had at home has been Italian (Cocchi/Carpano) or Australian (Regal Rogue)

I love Gran Classico. It makes a good spritz (recipe is on the bottle — 1 oz to 4 oz of bubbly). I also think Malort is pretty good! I was a little disappointed the first time I had it because I didn’t hate it at all. Definitely works best in the traditional shot-with-beer-chaser format.

Tximista, a Basque vermouth, is very good. A great Martini vermouth.

Dry vermouth if it wasn't clear. Never had their sweet vermouths.

Cocchi Torino is my go-to, great stuff. I started with Noilly Prat way back in 2012 (partially inspired by this thread), moved to Dolin, then Carpano Antico, but now the Torino is the stock bottle.

been a while since I had a Spanish vermouth, but I recall Casa Mariol Vermut Negre being very good

currently enjoying an Alaska but with Strega instead of chartreuse. Strega is so nice I think

Ooh, that's a good sub. Speaking of Chartreuse, I had a rare sighting of yellow in the wild last month, in Memphis.

I randomly found a bottle of green over xmas in Long Beach, snapped it up immediately.

way back in like 2011/12 i found a full-sized bottle of yellow chartreuse priced at $35 at a small liquor store near my office. i still have it lol

in serious need of a bar restock atm, i have so many nearly-empty bottles of amaro and mezcal. there’s a terrific store not far from me that has some excellent bottles in stock. last time i went they had a tasting of a really gorgeous gin distilled in arizona that was quite citrus-y, wishing i could remember the name rn

Suncliffe? Commerce?

suncliffe!

On the minimalist cocktail side, I recently made a Cognac old fashioned for the first time and it was delicious. Should have tried it before!

I've made a couple of these (Bubo Bubo) recently:

1.5 oz Rye Whiskey (50%)
.5 oz Cynar
.5 oz Amaro Montenegro
1/3 oz Honey Syrup
2 drops saline solution
Islay scotch rinse

It has a lot going on and is extremely drinkable, quite the combination.

lovely. do you have a honey syrup recipe?

also how do you prepare the saline solution?

Honey syrup: Combine 1:1 honey and water in a small saucepan, heat gently until they combine.

Saline solution: I believe the recipe I used was 20% salt and 80% water in a saucepan, heat gently and stir until the salt dissolves. I got a dropper bottle for this because you only want to add very small amounts. It's surprising how much you can taste salt in cocktails.

yep I have a fave that uses it, I believe covered upthread long ago, just rye and cynar and tons of lemon zest and a pinch of salt mmmmm

^^ actually cynar is dominant, 2 oz vs 1 oz of rye

I tried putting the saline solution in an old bitter bottle I had saved, but a dash is apparently a lot more than a drop as the first one I made was too salty.

Visine could work

Saline in a biology sense is only 0.9% salt, teaspoon in a pint kind of concentration

80-20 is a brine

Mmmm, brined alcohol.

https://www.liquor.com/using-salt-in-cocktails-5189656

I have thinned some sorghum molasses to pourable consistency, waiting a few minutes for it to cool off...going to try a "biscuits and molasses" old fashioned riff. If I put it into play at the bar, I'll use Maker's Mark since it's a relatively high-wheat bourbon. Might go out looking for butter extract tomorrow...one drop should be plenty if it works at all.

Nice! I used sorghum in a hot toddy the other week, because our honey was all crystallized. It worked just fine, I like sorghum. So did you mix it 1:1 with water, like a honey syrup?

Yes, but I think that thinned it out too much. I don't have any whiskey with a high-wheat mashbill at home, so I tried it with the first bottle at hand, G. Dickel, which turns out to be high-rye. Not great -- the sorghum was lost behind the rye spice. I'll keep tinkering.

that sounds fun. the concept reminds me of the flapjack old-fashioned:

https://www.boxesandbooze.com/cocktails/flapjack-old-fashioned-cocktail

Oh wow, I HAVE to make that. Thanks, jaymc!

yummmmm

hello thread, what is the best 3rd ingredient for a cocktail using equal portions of these?

https://www.totalwine.com/spirits/gin/condesa-gin-prickly-pear-and-orange-blossom/p/351689750

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italicus_Rosolio_di_Bergamotto

any other ideas welcome too, just going for an easy 3 or 4 equal part solution

What about sherry, like a Spanish negroni? You've got citrus in both of those, Amontillado's woody/nuttyness might sand them down a little. What else have you used that gin for? I guess a natural for G&Ts.

gin is unopened, we did try the bergamot aperitivo and yum

these were going-away gifts from friends

I am curious abt the sherry option but would love to stick to an ingredient that does not require a bottle/container purchase (i.e. juice of some kind, soda, idk??)

Maybe treat the Italicus as a sub for St Germain in a Shaddock… equal parts gin, Italicus, Aperol and lemon juice. Or drop the amount of Aperol so it doesn’t overwhelm that gin’s particular botanicals.

ooh yeah thx - St Germaine was the first thing it reminded me of

my fave recent use for Italicus has been a cocktail intended as a riff on a Wisconsin brandy old-fashioned (the Italicus mimics the splash of 7-Up):

Beverly Mae
2 oz cognac
1 oz blanc vermouth
0.5 oz dry vermouth
0.5 oz Italicus

(found in the Violet Hour book)