The Last Word

Well this is a drink I really like that isn't in this blog, so I'm adding it.

1 part Gin
1 part Maraschino
1 part Green Chartreuse
1 part Lime Juice

Silent Order

4 parts green Chartreuse, 2 parts lime juice, 1 part water, basil leaves.

The monks who make Chartreuse really are silent btw.

Passing Aden

Before:


After:






From Death and Company -

2 parts Batavia-Arrack
1 part Harvest Moon Tea-infused sweet vermouth
1 part demerara syrup
A cinnamon stick in the shaker
Lemon peel

Old Cuban

.75 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
6 mint leaves
1.5 oz aged rum
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 oz champagne

What we drank on election night.

The Bohemian

1oz Gin
1oz St Germain
1oz Grapefruit juice
1 dash Peychauds bitters

From the Green St Grill. I use Absinthe instead of the Peychauds as it's a really bright artificial red.

Calvados Cocktail

2 parts Calvados
2 parts orange juice
1 part Cointreau
A few dashes orange bitters

From Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.

Mint Julep

Chris McMillian's recipe.

Sangria

I tried to make Sangria from the El Bulli recipe. It tastes like a cross between traditional Sangria and mulled wine, and was pretty easy to make.

The wine part starts with a 5:1 mixture of wine and sugar boiled with oranges rinds, peppercorns, and bay leaves until reduced by half. Then 3 times its volume of red wine, 1/3 its volume of simple syrup, and 1/3 its volume of Curacao are added. The recipe also adds ginger and glucose but I didn't have any, I'm guessing the glucose would have helped separate the two halves of the drink.

The juice part is a 4:2:2:1 mixture of orange, tangerine, peach, and apple juices with a little lime juice added.

Ice so need to get out more

I tried to make clear ice cubes yesterday, after reading these and these instructions. Distilled water made clearer cubes than tap water, but re-freezing or double boiling didn't have a noticeable effect.

From left to right: tap water, distilled water, refreezed distilled, boiled distilled.

I felt a bit decadent trying to get perfect ice... and looked online for examples of the same sort of thing just before the falls of the Roman and British empires... and indeed there was concern in Rome over water quality which sort of counts and the Brits loved ice for their cocktails in India... So something big is about to happen.

Scoville Sour

I've heard that eating honey helps with hayfever as it gets the body used to the pollen that you're allergic to. Even if it doesn't work in that way, I have an appetite for sugar during hayfever season, and honey is healthier than chocolate bars or whatever.

This spring I tried to eat local honey every day during allergy season, and while I didn't notice an improvement, it was fun. Best was the Scoville Sour, a drink from No.9 Park, which has both honey and maple syrup in it. Apparently I'm allergic to Maple pollen, so this sounded like a good idea.

It's
2.5 oz Hendricks
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz honey simple syrup
1/2 oz maple syrup
1/4 tsp cayenne and espelette pepper mix

Cheap liquor

In Cambridge, the cheapest place to buy liquor is... the Wine and Cheese Cask. Actually it's probably in Somerville isn't it...

The graph was done with OpenOffice - I've been using it for a week. It's free. If you don't use word processors etc much and think Microsoft Office is too expensive, it's worth downloading.

Video cocktails

These videos are great - Chris McMillian, bartender of the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans, showing how to make his favorite drinks. In the video below he quotes 19th century prose as he prepares a Mint Julep. There are links to his other videos at the end.

Jack Rose

2oz Applejack, 1oz lime juice, and a few dashes of concentrated pomegranate syrup.

One of the bartenders at Cuchi Cuchi said they use pomegranate syrup from Mt Auburn St for their Jack Rose cocktails, which taste great, different from others... The syrup is harsh and molasses-y on its own but goes well with the drink.

Re-Animator

When you're shopping, protesting, or mountaineering, a cocktail in a sachet can come in handy. The Re-Animator is a Corpse Reviver #2 made with gelatin into a thin strip. In the photo it's been garnished with some St Germain cotton candy and a dried cherry.