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'd heard that the Vatican told them to do more praying and less distilling.

I bought a bottle of green Chartreuse for the bar in March and it's still 3/4 full. Nobody around here realizes what it is, and I'm not inclined to educate these bad-tipping chumps.

LL, a few months ago I asked a guy at the Binny's near your house whether they happened to have any Chartreuse, and he shook his head and said he didn't expect to ever see it again in his lifetime. I have heard that it can still be found in some places, though.

I have a 375 ml bottle of Green Chartreuse that I bought about several years ago, before the shortage began, and I've only drunk like half of it -- in part to conserve it, but also because the drink I use it in most (a daiquiri riff) only calls for 1/4 oz.

I do miss Yellow Chartreuse, tho, which I ran out of. I occasionally have a taste for a Naked and Famous -- basically a Paper Plane but sub mezcal for bourbon, lime juice for lemon, and Yellow Chartreuse for Amaro Nonino.

I did stock up on some chartreuse a year or so ago, when it looked like it might be on its last legs, production wise, and only belatedly realized I don't really use that much chartreuse except for maybe the Last Word now are then.

Ha someone asked for a naked and famous once and I was like wtf and had to ask the bartenders about it. We didn’t make it tho bc no chartreuse. I think he wound up w a Negroni.

We have a little green chartreuse left that we're hoarding. We perhaps unwisely designated the Last Word as our official wedding drink, so we like to have them on anniversaries.

Naked and famous is delicious.

goddamn it you people are guilting me for not buying a bottle less than $119

Thread inspired me to have a Paper Plane instead of dinner. (I had a large lunch.)

I have 1.4 bottles of green and 1.1 bottles of yellow, doling them out sparingly.

Beer

i have about half a bottle each of green and yellow. places are getting it on allocation, it's becoming a behind the counter, you have to know a guy type of thing, but it is out there. there's some spanish brand that is obviously positioning itself as a replacement, i'll have to try it at some point.

i do have the stuff to make a paper plane and did so tonight, great drink.

I decided to make a Mildred Pierce (equal parts mezcal, Aperol, grapefruit liqueur, and lemon juice). Very nice.

So essentially subbing for the yellow chartreuse. Sounds good. What grapefruit liqueur?

Intersting! Might try that tomorrow.

xp Giffard Pamplemousse

Ooh, this Mildred Pierce is good. (Del Maguey Vida, Tattersall Grapefruit Crema (40% ABV!))

Hey WmC I don't know if you get to Atlanta much, but we just went to a great agave place there called Ancestral Bottles. Great selection of mezcal along with tequila, they really know their stuff.

I used to go at least annually but covid and the end of my dayjob income have made trips rarer. I will check that place out next time though!

There's a great liquor store in Little Village here that prides itself on hundreds of different bottles of tequila and mescal, and even sotol and raicilla. It's totally overwhelming, you barely even know where to begin.

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

The Make and Drink youtube channel has a somewhat doofy host but his heart's in the right place and this White Elephant intrigued me, so I made the Thai coconut syrup and then the drink with Novo Fogo silver cachaca. DAAAANG this is delicious. I keep thinking the syrup needs more chile heat but it's been five minutes since I took a sip and my mouth is still warm.

thanks for the bump, I recently went to this INSANE Indian-inspired cocktail place in Portland, just check this menu out

https://www.pleasure-mountain.com/

the "Gora Uncle" was one of the best cocktails I have ever had, just wow

(Portland OR to be clear)

sulfurous "guava Mary" was also totally unique, they use a kind of salt that has sulfur trace minerals

This looks so good, WmC.

Wow, I want to go to Pleasure Mountain for a week so I can try everything there. They really lean hard into the infusions and syrups that I love to do at my workplace.

my notes to a friend/bar owner:

1919 was a fun riff on a vieux carre, 4/5. The food is basically bar snacks, 3.5/5 but not why one would go there.

Gora Uncle was exquisite, one of the best cocktails I've ever had, 5.5/5

I got the guava mary to experience the sulfur flavor, apparently it's a kind of salt with high mineral traces of sulfur compounds? very unusual and not really for me, 4.5/5

oh and that garnish on the 1919 was a fantastic disc of rock sugar with rose petal, kalonji, fennel, cumin, whole seeds. 5/5

https://i.imgur.com/2yk5QYK.jpeg

(I took that photo, to be clear, it was amazing)

I think I have made a 1919, though not with the Indian rum and def not with that garnish!

That menu looks fantastic. So does the drink, WmC —I like the sound of this coconut milk syrup.

I'm going to play around with different rums in that drink tomorrow (maybe with my rum infinity bottle and ALL the rums), and probably make it my drink of the week at the bar next week.

That 1919 garnish is hilarious.

The White Elephant is amazing. Not even having to go to the store three times because I forgot limes and then sugar made it less so.

The syrup has just about the perfect amount of heat.

*takes notes*

Dang, that's commitment.

OK I made one with my infinity bottle which has more aged rums than unaged, so this is more of Beige Elephant. Still amazing, now with caramel/banana/barrel notes. I think I like the cachaca version better, but the coconut syrup is so good it would be hard to mess it up. Unless you used something like Bacardi that is column-distilled to the point of being cane-based vodka.

https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/492343044_10164872363923709_6180063391430651224_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=dRULr2N9eQ8Q7kNvwFbSvZN&_nc_oc=AdlXDwwcvgcoVjL85NYMNDyrja-G2oqk1LNFRQ72vxW2Uhf1fioS-rUGD8egwfXMBGg&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-2.xx&_nc_gid=0uJrT9qqqsW5Itj2aQBaVg&oh=00_AfE7Bm1RrUrxXWDQzSa-uQ8rlXxPFf8Nu9-rqYR5acgcqw&oe=680B53BB
Beige Elephant

Looks great!

very interesting, i need an occasion of some kind to make this coconut syrup

I made another batch of it because I want to make this my drink of the week at the bar this week, and I thought I'd punch up all the flavors but I overcorrected -- it's a little too hot, too much ginger and cilantro, so I'm going to add a little of the new batch to the rest of the first batch and it'll be juuuuuust right.

Le Mot Juste
25ml Gin
25ml Yellow Chartreuse
25ml Amaro Limone*
25ml Lemon juice

Invented after a few drinks so I thought it was good but who knows.
*I'm sure other Amaros would work if they are not too bitter.

hi thread

I have a single rangpur lime, what should I make w/it?

We went back to Pleasure Mountain (linked above) and had more wild stuff, the Dhoop was very very perfume-y, a bit overwhelming. The sulfury vodka lemonade was just as bizarre as the sulfur guava mary. The food all seemed WAY better? The jhal muri (puffed rice salad-ish thing) was incredible. I had a Brainfever Bird and the sabja seeds were totally fascinating, never had anything quite like them. Like wet pomegranate seeds, sorta, or passionfruit.

I have a single rangpur lime, what should I make w/it?

If it has enough juice and you have a good enough light rum, I'd say a daiquiri. Is rangpur lime peel extra fragrant? If you can get the peel off it before you juice it, add an equal weight of sugar, muddle a bit and wait an hour. The sugar will extract the oil from the peel, then add the juice for a little bit of lime cordial that you can turn into a gimlet.

ty!

green peel only and no pith, I should have added

oh totally! but thx. I would even scrape pith off for candied peel

yumm we blended that muddled peel and juice right up with some agave syrup and rum and ice, tasted like a dreamsicle with sharp citrus oil notes

with the warmer weather I'm finally getting into the Americano after previously viewing it as purely an obsolete version of the Negroni, The Official Cocktail of ILX

switched to Cocchi sweet vermouth after hearing it talked up a lot, and found it delicious but actually a bit overpowering in an Americano compared to the Australian stuff I'd had before

the one I made earlier was delicious so either I'm used to it or I somehow did something better

my other favourite discovery this year is the Port of Spain, a lurid crimson facemelter with mezcal, lime juice, orgeat and an uncommonly large amount of Angostura bitters

Not a huge French 75 fan, but my wife requested them for her birthday party. But today I learned the possible origin of the name: that it was named based on the diameter of the 75mm French field cannon, as in, it's so strong drinking one felt like getting hit by a French 75.

Now I want a Negroni.

fwiw I like the French 75 w/cognac more than gin.

Also the Americano is a great drink, thanks for the prompt! Enjoying one now.

I usually don't develop new drinks for my Drink of the Week — there are uncountable good cocktails already out there and it's enough for me to just give a little exposure to one per week — but I thought about the Screwdriver a few days ago and what it might be like with acid-adjusted OJ. Going all the way to lemon acidity is too sharp, as well as a little undersweetened, so my final product is 4% acidity (lemon is 6%) and has a bit of simple syrup for balance. I'm really happy with it — at work I'm going to make the drink with Cathead honeysuckle vodka and call it the Sonic Screwdriver even though I'm not a Dr. Who person. (It's freaking amazing with Zubrowka bisongrass vodka.)

what acid are you using? sounds like a great summertime special.

Just citric.