Fitz,

Old fashioned.

Try making a drink that includes egg white with those big ice cubes. I've noticed that the eggs get whipped faster and better, but also noticed an increase in the number of broken mixing glasses.

El T,

That seems like a mistake. If you are having issues getting egg whites to form up, mime shake (shake with no ice) to form your merengue and then add ice and shake again. This is very commonly done. Or like, you could be a man and shake harder/faster.

Fitz,

Basically any traditional stirred drink. Old fashioned is a simple drink and awesome and a good place to start if you're usually drinking shaken drinks.

Cit,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_LTDlBOX04

watch around the 2:00 mark. I don't do it anymore because I ended up cracking two mixing glasses, but it does work. I dry shake all the time and get a nice foam with regular ice, but the big ones are better and water down the drink a little less.

Here's a picture I took a while ago, notice that even after I was done with the drink the Angostura drops were still sitting nicely at the top of the foam.

Whoops, forgot to check back, ended up doing a simple whiskey sour. Ice cubes were a hit. Don't know why I didn't think of an Old Fashioned, that would have been great too. I need to work on my egg white drinks, I think I'll revisit this thread when I have a chance, and do some "research."

ET,

Tin-tin, bro!

You're right, brah. Gotta buy me a small shaker.

ET,

Random bar fact. A lot of older cocktail guys here have ****ed up elbows/shoulders from shaking tins/glasses. Lot of younger guys going tin/tin for that reason.

Interesting.

I'm going to sound like a wimp here, but my hands get cold really fast when I use a tin shaker. That's why I prefer glass as I put my thumbs on the bottom of the glass and my fingers just hold the parts of the tin that do not get cold. This allows me to shake longer without having to resource to a towel which makes it uncomfortable to shake. That becomes more important in a cocktail like the Ramos Gin Fizz, where you have to shake for a few minutes to get a good froth.

Cool back and forth here. I have tin/tin, tin/glass and a mixing glass. I usually shake tin/glass on quieter evenings but if I'm doing a big batch I'll go tin/tin for sure.

El D - thanks for those. You tipped me off on those in an earlier exchange but I didn't pick those ones up. I know I can get Punt e Mes easily. Will keep my eyes peeled for the others but I'm definitely open to a replacement for Campari - agree 100% on the sweet cloying note, which is a shame as I do like Negronis, if it weren't for that one flat tone.

re: shaking egg whites, I always build the meringue first, because I'd rather be consistently right and a fraud, than flub a few and waste precious booze. :P

The Muji silicone ice ball makers are awesome and totally represent in an old fashioned. I split one by accident so am having it just now in a sanguinello/grapefruit/oj blend. Gotta keep those perfect spheres for showoff drinks.

I've been trying quite a few non-standard cocktails lately, here's a few of them.

Lat night I made an Aperol sour with Pisco:


1.5oz Pisco
1.5oz Aperol
0.75oz Lemon juice
0.5oz Simple syrup
1oz egg white

This is a really good drink, it has a lot of citrus flavors, and the sweet Aperol taste gets balanced by the Pisco. Highly recommended.

Then I played around with the Negroni recipe and made this:


1oz Pisco
1oz Aperol
1oz Sweet vermouth (I used Carpano Antica)
2 dashes of orange bitters
Flamed orange peel

This one came out a bit too sweet, next time I'll probably do 1.25oz Pisco and 0.75oz Aperol to offset the sweetness of the Aperol.

Then I found this recipe:


The Golden Sour
by Paul Sanguinetti, Rays and Stark Bar

Cocktail Ingredients:

1 oz Don Cesar Pisco Puro
1 oz Luxardo Grappa Euganea
.75 oz Luxardo Limoncello
1 barspoon Luxardo Maraschino

1 oz lemon juice

1 egg white

This was my least favorite drink of the night, but I think I added too much Maraschino liqueur and my Grappa is not of the greatest quality.

Also, a few weeks ago I infused Pisco with coffee for a week and made a Zambito cocktail: http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2010/02/zambito.html

Infusing Pisco:


Finished drink:


To finish, a Pisco sour made with big-ass ice cubes.



I got thirsty writing this post!

ET,

Awesome!

Damn son

Finally I feel like I can put my Aperol to better use. Props.

Also Clare rightly making the 1,337th post in his great thread.

Definitely props to CQ for starting this thread. If it wasn't for him I'd still be drinking vodka with red bull and thinking that gin tastes like cologne.

I just wish good drinking were a little less taxing on my wallet

Shakers,

A blog post on shakers http://drinkscompanion.wordpress.com...il-techniques/

Thanks, guys, missed these posts.

It's kind of nice the way the thread has run sort of like a party or Friday night at the bar. Polite and sober early on, becoming a bit of a madhouse, someone gets too drunk, there's a fight or two, it clears out around two, then there's four or five dudes sitting around talking afterhours. Cheers.

Sorry we stiffed you with the tip, though
If you're ever in New Mexico, drinks are on me.

Gents,

Things I currently have:
Lots of liquors
Red and Dry vermouth
Cynar, gran Classico, Benedictine
Cointreau, st Germain, maraschino
Lots of bitters

Ideas for some new things to try?

Diablo,

Sounds like you can experiment with the golden ratio: 1.5oz base spirit, 0.75oz Vermouth (dry/sweet), 0.25oz sweet liqueur. Add bitters to taste.

If you think about it, the Vieux Carre has this ratio. This formula can really yield some tasty drinks.

P.S. Go to KL wines and get a small bottle of Yellow Chartreuse, add 0.25/0.5oz of it to a Manhattan, enjoy.

ET,

In general I like that formula better w/ 2oz spirit and .5oz vermouth I also like messing around with amaros in place of vermouth.

A couple new drinks I've picked up from bartender friends recently:

Scotch Martinez
2 oz scotch
1 oz sweet vermouth
.25 oz maraschino
Orange bitters

Modified creole cocktail
2oz bourbon
.5oz Cointreau
Ango and Peychauds
Absinthe rinse

ET,

Chartreuse is next on my list to pick up.

That Creole cocktail looks interesting. Except for Margaritas and Sidecars, I haven't had much use for my Cointreau lately.

Damn, those both look really good. Why did I start logging calories this week?

(Tangent that belongs in H&F: Mostly kidding, I'm actually skinny (5'7 140) but wouldn't mind dropping 10 pounds. Ran my third marathon last Saturday and now that that's over thought I'd log calories just because I never have before. myfitnesspal says my "drop 10 pounds in 10 weeks" is 1570, but I apparently eat a LOT more than that normally. Not sure how exercise fits in, haven't logged any runs yet, although I'll probably do a 5 miler today so I'll know soon. In any case, beer and booze make up like 15% of my calories so far, and I've been cutting back!!!)

Benedictine and Cointreau - one for the ladies is the B2C2, sorry if I've posted it before:

1oz Brandy, 1/2oz Benedictine, 1/2 oz Cointreau and top up Champagne (hence B2, C2), orange peel twist - it tastes fresh and orangey but the benedictine sweet/herby still comes through. Great one. Made in WW2 by US soldiers liberating France and picking up ingredients as they go.

Being British I love me a G and Tea too:
2.5oz Gin, 1/2-1oz St. Germain, 2oz cold breakfast tea, top up tonic. I use Fentiman's tonic (big on lemongrass). Nice. The tannins in the tea add an extra element.

I'd love some maraschino suggestions, mine's just been sitting here.

P