I'm going to be a nit here and say that an aviation without creme de violette is not an aviation. After all, it's the color that gives the drink its name.

Having said that, any drink twist that includes st germain is usually a great twist.

I actually appreciate all cocktail-related nittery! I do take shortcuts or liberties sometimes but I always think it's important to know what's standard/historical so I have something to reach for. And then hopefully improve upon.


this is my go-to for that category:

Part & Parcel
2oz Plymouth gin
3/4oz St. Germain
3/4oz grapefruit juice
1/4oz lime juice
1/2oz simple syrup
dash Peychaud's

shake, strain, up, then hit it with just "a suspicion" of grapefruit oil (love that turn of phrase) by twisting a fat chunk of grapefruit peel (including pith) about 2' over the glass.

this is a lift from The Violet Hour in Chicago, specifically from this thread where the head bartender from TVH shows up to fill requests for exact recipes for TVH cocktails (!!). I highly recommend checking out the whole thread.

speaking of nittery IMO this cocktail only works if you have time to squeeze the grapefruit and lime fresh, or at least within a few hours of making the drink. I've made it with juice squeezed just the day before and there's just no life to it that way.


always on the lookout for these sorts of drinks BTW for when I host ladies (or guys frankly) who don't want something super-boozy. But yeah St. Germain is basically the nuts in this situation


I like this one too that came from the St. Germain website (which doesn't seem to be up anymore):

Neige Russe
2oz vodka
1oz St. Germain
1/2oz white grape juice
1/4oz lemon juice
1/4oz simple syrup
3 dashes Angostura

shake, strain, serve on the rocks then garnish with another 3 drops of Angostura on top.

this one's annoying in that you need to have already shopped for white grape juice but on the other hand fresh lemon isn't a super must.

Guys, I failed you all today. One of the quiz questions I had was:

"What is the base spirit in a Bronx cocktail?"

I blanked and said but I'm sure you smart people know the right answer was .

Shame on me.

What quiz were you taking?

Hi nomad,

Sadly a general knowledge quiz that happened to have a cocktail question in it, rather than a quiz dedicated to the subject.

I am back at uni studying for a Masters and that makes me eligible to try out for the University Challenge team - it's a UK gameshow where unis and colleges are pitted against each other for absolutely no pecuniary advantage (loluk).

I have gotten into my Uni side - one of 4 players - and we are waiting for the regionals. Get thru those and I may get my first TV appearance to make a huge ass of myself.

As long as there's a bonus round on cocktails... Then I can make a supreme ass of myself.

Best,
Pete

Pete,

That sounds rather fun so long as there are no more cocktail questions for you to stumble over! Please post links when it happens.

All the luck in the world,
Nomad

Good luck Pete, and if you make it we'll need a 2p2 shout out.

so I tried my soaked cherries against Manhattans. Surprisingly (to me), the most compelling versions were the Averna and brandy cherries. Carpano Antica had an odd sweetness with kind of a funk in the background (somehow the vermouth-y herbs were overaccentuated) and the bourbon cherry was pretty indistinct. Brandy was boozy and straightforward and allowed the cherry's own sweetness to come through. Averna provided some of its own sweetness but gave the finish a nice bitter edge.

with 3 days' soaking the cherries plumped up slightly but didn't get bloated. Perfect IMO. PH, I didn't detect any weird oiliness in the soaked cherries.

I've a few more of each kind so I'll make some more Manhattans next week with Averna and brandy cherries (tonight I figured 4 Manhattans would be a bad idea so I just sipped my drink while eating cherries).

Thanks, guys, it was for an apt-warming party. I got Woodford Reserve and some Oban, and they vanished pretty instantly.

I want to try to make the cherries.

Goofing around on a night of festive music making:

Cherry Jam

2 oz Redemption Rye
1 oz Averna Amaro
large splash Luxardo Maraschino Liquor
2 dashes Rhubarb bitters (Fee Bros)

serve in old fashioned glass with 2x2 ice cube

Reno,

I make that exact same drink except half oz each averna and maraschino. I love those rhubarb bitters.

What do you call it?

Friends,

Some great developments! I got a DIY rhubarb bitters kit for my birthday this year (the big 3-0), and have about 7 fl oz of it sitting on my bar (after passing on some to the organic rhubarb grower and the people who brought the bitter seed kit back from the states), and that amaro-maraschino delight will be made very soon.

There is a booze and literature quiz on a newspaper site just now, in prep for my big quiz I answered as many as possible without aid of multiple choice and got 7/10. Not bad. here's the link to try yourself.

A question for you all. Mrs Harris made someone some crema di limoncello last xmas as a gift - link here to see the recipe. She is, this year, making some velvet falernum for my bar, after seeing the recipe and noting that I need some. However, she is properly skeptical that - given the crema recipe calls for a week of steeping - that the falernum only needs 48hrs steeping. Given the subtle flavours like almond butting up against lime, she wants to canvass opinion - is 48hrs enough steeping time, or should she extend?

Cue "how long can Mrs Harris's spirit take it for" puns. But advice is honestly welcome, as it's for my own benefit. Also as an added takeaway she calls it 'frenulum' as the word Falernum is more alien for her.

Thanks!

Best,
Pete

Most bartenders who drink while working probably do not do so when the owners are around. One of the other regulars will probably bring it to the owner's attention anyway so don't sweat it. When that happens the other bartenders will more than likely hypothesize as to who the rat was that turned their recently fired co-worker in to the owners and act accordingly. Since you live across the way you wouldn't want to alienate yourself from the remaining staff whom you seem to get along with, so just allow the event to run it's course.

I have seen a couple of bartenders where I tend get to the state you mentioned originally, such as spilling shots and generally looking out of it. Trust me the owners will definitely hear about it.

Reno,

Don't really make up names for stuff I make, but maybe I'll start now.

1) Its super fun!

2) It allows for discourse amongst the folks you serve to- "Hey El D, can you make that awesome cocktail you made last time we visited in June?"

versus

"Hey El D, how about another one of those Cherry Jams!"

Nice timing - I was about to bump my posts on this subject because I just found out that the bartender in question was recently fired. Not sure why, but I'd assume it's related...

that Cherry Jam / unnamed sounds like a cherrified twist on a Black Manhattan. I should try it out, I've got everything except the rhubarb bitters. I do though have some chocolate bitters coming soon that I think would work nicely.

I scored a bottle of Eagle Rare 10 last night (it's not available year-round here) and reading the label they also suggest using it in a Manhattan or Whiskey Sour. That seemed sacrilegious at first but I guess it's not THAT rare a bottle, so I might test that out this weekend. That'll give me a chance to see if the cherries developed further.

MF,

I do something pretty much like that drink w/ chocolate bitters as well. It's delicious, but a very different drink than using fruity/tart bitters

Where do you live? Around here Eagle Rare 10 is $25, pretty much the same price as Maker's Mark and Bulleitt ($22-23), but imo a lot better. I use it as my standard bourbon for cocktails and highly recommend that.

I'm in Ontario. Eagle Rare 10 is $50 and not available year-round, so I guess I mentally had it pegged as a sort of top tier selection (obviously well below the BTAC or whatever). I never paid attention to it because I don't really use a lot of bourbon, but yeah, Maker's is $43 and Bulleit is $38 so it's not really much of a premium to pay. I'll get through this bottle and stockpile if I decide to make it my rail bourbon.

your prompting me to look up prices really put things into perspective for me, because (for example) I use Sazerac as my rail rye (we don't get Bulleit rye here, just the bourbon, and I don't like the Rittenhouse 100 (which is also not year-round here)), and Plymouth as my rail gin, and both of those selections are $40+. There really isn't any reason for me not to use the Eagle Rare 10.

I'm tempted to buy the Fees Rhubarb but I really don't need more random Fees around. Everything I have from them I've been kinda meh on. I see Bittered Sling has a rhubarb bitters so I might add that to my list. Their Grapefruit & Hops bitters have been a real godsend for me so I want to try more of their stuff.

Peter please do post back about your joys/woes/lessons learned about straining/filtered those rhubarb bitters when you're done with them!

Monsieur F,

Recipe for bitters below. The seeds were bought from sugarpill in seattle by some friends who were visiting family over there, they brought them back to me along with some Bad Dog Sarsaparilla Bitters (am going to try making a root beer old fashioned next week using these and sarsaparilla syrup along with bourbon).

Apologies for size: wanted to make sure it was legible when opened!



As for straining: it was a nightmare. We tried coffee filter paper as they suggested and it didn't strain at. all. We also tried muslin which worked not much better and in the end strained it using a sieve and then increasingly fine tea strainers. The end result is this (bad lighting, sticky bottle):



You can just about see through it, and the sediment is not too bad, but I'll have to be careful pouring, not least that only dashes are needed. 2-3 dashes in a bar spoon, right?

Mrs Harris starts making the falernum tonight so advice on steeping time always welcome!

Best,
Pete

Peter,

thanks for the update! Your experience with the filtering is exactly what I was afraid you'd go through. I've never made my own bitters, but I make tonic syrup and a cold-infused coffee concentrate, and both require many filter passes -- easily the worst part of the process. I use a combination of sieves and coffee filters (usually dirtying 3-4 sieves and using over a dozen filters) and while I have a routine, it's still incredibly involved and messy.

one hint that may or may not apply to bitters: BEFORE I begin infusion, I sift my solids through a sieve and discard any fines that fall through the sieve. For something like the tonic, this is a godsend as it's these fines that REALLY clogged up the coffee filter after infusion. By leaving those out, I'm left with only large pieces of cinchona bark, which a sieve easily takes out. If the ingredients for your bitters are ALL finely ground, then you're out of luck. Or if the grind is mostly fine, then sifting out the fines will be too wasteful.

I read this thread and was tempted to get a similar setup, but it was very costly and, once I discovered pre-sifting, wasn't worth it. I also looked into various micropore cloth filter bags and such, but couldn't find food-safe specimens.


as for doling out bitters, I highly recommend investing in a few eyedropper bottles. The 1- or 2-oz sizes are perfect. I get incredibly tilted shaking bitters out of a dasher top, so every time I buy a new bottle, I decant it into an eyedropper bottle. I just find the dasher tops time-consuming and inconsistent.

in either case I think of 3 drops as being equal to 1 dash. I measured 9 drops into a 1/8 tsp (0.625ml) teaspoon and it was only half full, tops. I also tried 3 very hefty dashes from a Fee's bottle (relatively wide opening compared to, say, Angostura) and even that was less than a 1/4 tsp (1.25ml) teaspoon.

I've seen claims that a barspoon is roughly 1/4oz / 7.5ml / 1/2 tbsp, but not only is this untrue of any of my barspoons, but none of them match each other either.


if your bitters are relatively mild and you'll need a lot, all of what I said is unnecessary nittery, but I feel that for many commercial kinds of bitters, slight imprecision results in a wildly different result, given how concentrated they are.

tomorrow my room mate and i are having our annual holiday party, where i will make my famous punch. the recipe for which i have fine tuned over the years. it goes something like this:

1 liter of dark rum (bacardi gold)
1 liter of bourbon (in this case im doing honey evan williams, which i normally think is gross)
1 liter of cognac (stock 84)
fresh squeezed lemon juice
sugar (pour in to taste, like salt)
spices (nutmeg, cinnamon)
4 bottle of champagne (brut)

so i usually start it by mixing the sugar and the lemon juice in a punch bowl. mix in the spices. then pour in about 1/2 a liter each, mix around, let it sit for a few hours.

then when the party is about to get started, add 2 bottles of champagne.

needless to say, it packs a punch*. then once everyone's really drunk and the first batch runs out, you make a 2nd batch.

ill try to take a picture or two if im not blacked out. that usually happens 3 cups into it.

How much lemon juice do you use?

Sounds tasty.

ill take some pictures of the before, but i usually eye ball it. maybe like 6 oz of juice for each batch. my friend fresh squeezed like 15 lemons one year and let the liquor soak in the lemon rinds. took him about 2 days.

we've never done that much prep work since.