Just saw that this thread has been stickied in the Food and Drink forum. I now feel I have achieved everything there is to achieve in life.

Btw, that Pierre Ferrand looks great and will be my next purchase. Such a huge difference between good cognacs and meh cognacs.

Sup fellow drunkards, back from my South American vacation which included lots of Caipirinhas, Fernets with coke, and Malbec wines.

I bought a couple of nice bottles of Cachaca, having the one in the middle of the pic now (the bottle on the left is sold in the States), very nice taste and fairly smooth for Cachaca standards. The bottle on the right I haven't tried yet but they have won tons of awards so it should be good.



One thing I learned during my trip: It doesn't matter how good you are at making a Caipirinha, nothing compares to having a crappy one while hanging out at Ipanema beach

Bumping the thread because I finally put my bottle of Lillet to use.

Corpse Reviver No. 2
Absinthe rinse
3/4oz Gin
3/4oz Cointreau
3/4oz Lillet
3/4oz Lemon juice

Excellent drink, and although I don't have one today, it's supposed to be really good for nursing a hangover. Seeing the ingredients list I can't see why.

Anyone has a favorite Lillet recipe? I'll try the Vesper for sure, but don't know where to go from there.

Clare,

A lobsterman regular of mine has a green boat all his friends call the ninja turtle. We're trying to make up a drink for it but am having some trouble. One concoction was Sauza Hornitos and Midori chilled and strained and then a splash of Red Bull. It was okay, but not great. Any ideas or suggestions?

Also want to share a drink with everyone in case you haven't heard of it. Celtic Warrior. We do a full pour of Jameson and a full pour of Baileys over ice, shake once, and then shoot. I know most recipes have more Jameson than Baileys and its a drink but that is how it has come to be done on the waterfront here. It's a great way to start your night, but more than two of them is a great way to end it.

Happy,

Sauza + Midori + Red Bull sounds absolutely disgusting!

The Sauza and Midori was okay tasting, I could go without the Red Bull, but that's what a co worker did and it was just a little splash. Even not liking Red Bull, I didn't think it was that bad.

Hey happy, sorry to miss this. Have you tried fooling with creme de menthe? The ninja turtle thing made me think Japan, and sake came to mind. Sake and creme de menthe, that is my final answer

I invented this cocktail, it is kind of lame but it tastes great!



Ginger tea
2 parts earl grey tea liqueur
1 part ginger liqueur
soda water

I guess the name is sort of descriptive but boring.

thanks clare (feels weird calling you clare - juddnelson.jpg). i'll mess around and report back!

Garcia,

I think that would taste good with 4 parts whiskey in place of the soda.

You should also try it with gin. I'm not sure how that would taste, but then you could call it a GINger tea.

GINger tea.

Hmm, I will try this with whiskey, and with ice cubes. Will report back with results.

Garcia's cocktail needs "witty" name related to English colonialism. Possibly more so if he adds gin to it.

could call it: Mutiny on the Bounty

I picked up a bottle of Pierre Ferrand Reserve Cognac for my husband for Christmas, then forgot about it until yesterday and spent 15 minutes trying to find where I hid it. I did finally find it and give it to him. He says it's pretty smooth. I haven't had a chance to try it.

Always interested in cognac recommendations. Cognac and Bacardi Rum are the two spirits we drink the most.

Em,

Interested in your thoughts on the Pierre ferrand. I've been planning to try it, on Diablo recommendation iirc. I'm typically fine with Hennessey, but am looking to branch out, so anyone with cognac thoughts, please chime in.

Had a really good armagnac after NYE dinner but can't remember the name, sadface

My next simple drink:

Kyoho grape liqueur
Add this to strong, hot English Breakfast Tea

Tastes like grape tea with alcohol!

My favorite liquor to sip is scotch. But I'm still a newb. I have all the Johnnie Walkers except gold or platinum, Glenlivet 12, Macallan 12, and Lagavulin 16. What do I get next?


Glenlivet 12 is nice but simple. Lagavulin is too advanced for me. Macallan doesn't taste too great to me (maybe it's the sherry casks?) I'm looking to fill in any holes in my collection.

Balvenie 12 double wood is a great scotch for those starting up with whiskey, like myself.

The EDF whiskey thread has lots of great advice. Can't link it from my phone but it should be on the first page.

Nice! I didn't even know about that thread in EDF. Time for some research.

Toss,

Tons of good discussion re: your exact question in that thread.

One note, though. If you didn't like the flavor profile of macallan 12 you prob won't like the Balvenie 12 either.

Highland park might be a good next step for you. Like I said, tons more detailed discussion over there.

read the OP and skipped the whole thread

Guess my question is somewhat related to bar/restaurant "social norms". I dont drink all that much beside a few beers a week and I never order drinks at restaurants/bars except for wine to go with my entree. The other day we were at a really nice place and I picked up the textbook of the wine list and spent awhile just looking at their cocktail list for fun. They had some super interesting sounding drinks involving various house made fruit infused liquors/local ingredients, etc.

My first thought was that back in college everyone would have considered those "girl drinks" and you would probably never see a guy order one. Does this stereotype still hold as people age or would you expect to see guys ordering those type of "fruity" cocktails in this setting? (I prefer to save my money for the wine, but would seem weird to have that many drinks on the menu that only women would order)

Got a bottle of the pierre ferrand 1840 on the mail tonight. I'm drinking it side by side with the ambre right now and I think the 1840 is much better. At 90 proof it balances the fruitiness of the ambre better. I will be doing a sidecar test later tonight, as well as a comparison of the bruichladdich gin and Hendricks.

Pics of the cognacs:

ET,

I feel like maybe you asked me a cocktail question somewhere recently that I didn't get around to answering?

Just ran downstairs to see which one of those two I have. Dammit, it's the Amber. Yeah, I remember the 1840 sounding better, but the store was out of that when I went. I'll def make a point to make my next bottle 1840.

I ordered it from klwines so you should be able to get it local. They were out of it for a while but now it's back in their inventory.

Yeah, the Gran classico, how do you like it? My amaro bottle is running low and I'm debating what to buy next: gran classico, cynar, or averna.

ET,

Gran Classico is my favorite amaro. The two amaros I currently have are Gran Classico and Cynar. Both are great, and Averna is really solid as well. You won't go wrong w/ any of them, but they are all pretty different.

Averna IIRC is like a little more balanced Fernet. So it's pretty sweet and syrupy and thick, w/ a pretty prominent bitter herbal characteristic.

I just poured myself some Cynar and Gran Classico to give more accurate descriptions of those. I found a special shot glass for the Gran Classico in honor of 2p2.

OK, so the Gran Classico, the herbal component is way less than most amaros. It has a bitterness reminiscent of Campari, but I find Campari kind of extreme and also sort of sickly sweet. This is like a little less sweet and a little less bitter, just overall more balanced. And it has fruity element to it. So like a bitter orange taste w/ a whole bunch of other herbal notes around it. Love this stuff and it works well w/ so many different spirits.

The Cynar is much more like the Averna/Fernet type herbal flavor, but it's also more balanced IMO. I'd def choose Cynar over Averna. This has a little more herbal/vegetal type bitterness to it, and like the Gran Classico is one of the more balanced amaros IMO - it doesn't have that cloying sweetness that turns me off in some.

So, yeah, I love the Gran Classico, but it's a bit of a different flavor profile than a lot of other amaros. I guess it's prob amari actually, but whatever.

Here's a visual comparison of the two featuring a sweet old-school PartyPoker shot glass: