1 1/2 oz amer picon (i subbed zwack)
3/4 oz brandy
1/4 oz lemon
1/4 oz grenadine

and from that, the template would be:

1 1/2 oz amaro
3/4 oz base spirit
1/4 oz lemon or lime
1/4 oz liqueur or syrup

first experiment:

1 oz gran classico
1/2 oz plymouth gin
5g lemon
5g mathilde peche
lemon twist

fantastic. maybe a little sweet, and a lot of peach flavor for such a small amount.

second experiment:

1 oz aperol
1 oz tequila
5 g lemon
5 g falernum

i went off script because aperol is so low proof. this is a good drink though maybe one-dimensionally aperol. the tequila (JC traditionale reposado) brings a nice butteriness…i think i’d like more of that.

experiment 2b:

1 1/2 oz tequila
1 oz aperol
1/2 oz lime
1/2 oz falernum

great, but maybe a little sweet/intense. cut lime and falernum back to 1/4 oz and i think we’re golden.

i should, though, cuz i love the stuff.

zwack is said to be a reasonable amer picon facsimile:

http://underhill-lounge.flannestad.com/2009/07/29/picon-grenadine-cocktail/

…so i threw together this picon punch:

1 1/2 oz zwack
3/4 oz armagnac
1/4 oz lemon
spoonful of grenadine (maybe 1/4 oz)
lemon twist

i tried to coat the glass with the grenadine but it wouldn’t cling, so i just mixed it in.

this is a delicious cocktail, especially given it’s strength: almost all 80 proof booze with just a dash of lemon and a dash of grenadine.

the original cocktail has soda water and no lemon. what is with these no-acid cocktails? that is insane, a little citrus never hurt anyone.

hypothetical cocktail history, part I

the year was 1855, or 1797. a saloon owner named carthus mickleberry was on the verge of bankruptcy due to a misguided decision to make his saloon an african-themed bar. (he thought he could capture a niche/fetish market but didn’t realize that people back then were just really racist.) in a moment of desperation he put some random things from his cupboard into his last remaining bottles of whisky and called his inventions ‘dr. mickleberry’s exotique subsaharan cock-tail fancys’.

because alcohol was, and continues to be, one of the worst tasting substances on earth, mickleberry did not discriminate about his choice of mixers; anything and everything improved the taste. he started with some leftover toast and jelly, a broken pencil, and some gauzy stuff he scraped off the underside of a piano. eventually he started using more expensive and palatable ingredients, and popularity for his ‘cock-tails’ grew ever more fervent, peaking at the usage of sugar and bitters. citrus juice was, at that time a luxury foodstuff affordable only by wealthy prospectors, bounty hunters, and corrupt county commissioners. as such, recipes for most classic drinks are without citrus, for the same reason that most recipes for sandwiches are without foie gras.

the moral of the story is: treat your guests/customers like the dirty county commissioners. let them drink lime!

http://www.kaiserpenguin.com/remixed-astro-aku-aku/

i decided to do my own proportions, cutting way back on everything but the cloves, adding toasted almonds, and also four black peppercorns. the end result was, i thought, flat and dead, not like the lively stuff i’ve made before. i strained out the solids and threw them in some rum wih a little fresh ginger for a couple days, then mixed it and the syrup together. the flavor balance was improved, but overpowering and spicy, even a little sip completely numbed my mouth. maybe the black pepper idea was not sound.

so one last attempt at a fix, 2 oz sugar, 2 oz water, and 1/2 oz falernum. delicious! added another 1/2 oz of falernum, still delicious, but numbing, so i didn’t go any further. i added more lime zest, almonds and nutmeg to the base, will strain it out in a couple days.

so, i like this idea, a kind of higher-proof, shelf-stable falernum concentrate. just add to simple syrup and away you go!

gq had a nice article recently about alinea and the creative process:

http://www.gq.com/food-travel/restaurants-and-bars/201011/grant-achatz-alinea-dishes-cocktails

one of the dishes described in the article is a ‘whimsical riff on the traditional holiday roasted ham’–flavors of pineapple, cherry and clove. well, it turns out i had just bought and cut a pineapple, and also picked up a bottle of sour cherry syrup from the polish section of a local store. so i put together this drink which turned out to be delicious, though i don’t know if tequila was the best choice of spirit:

2 oz tequila
1 oz lime
1/2 oz sour cherry syrup
1/2 oz falernum
approx 1 inch pineapple cube, muddled
dash of maraschino

this ran a little sweet, maybe next time i’d cut back on the syrups.

i’m loving my big ice cubes. after i make a batched cocktail, i scoop out the little ice and put in the big ice to keep it cold and further dilution to a minimum.

a thing i do for chuckles, create fictional restaurants and make up cocktail menus for them. here is the latest concept:

http://sharkfeeder.com/pix/lathe/

i’ve been making some cocktails from that list in order to…i don’t know, extend the fantasy by recipe checking?

lathe sour negroni – i love it. the typical negroni is too cloying and cough syrupy to me, a little squeeze of lemon adds just the right balance. and aperol and gran classico is superior to campari as the bitter agent.

anaskokos – obviously just a pina colada with vodka instead of rum. (because in this particular restaurant fantasy one of my friends is a partner, and this friend hates rum. you might wonder why, since this is my fantasy, i don’t just fantasize about having friends with better taste. i ponder this every day, fake restaurant or not.) it works fine, but rum is better.

you know what else is nice? making this with a dark rum float. and furthermore? i realized that the term ‘float’ is all wrong. when cate makes a mai tai, she doesn’t pour a layer of dark rum on top, she pours the rum into a jigger, holds the jigger about an inch over the serving glass, then deftly FLOPS it onto the drink. the end result is a gradation. NOT separate layers.

what i am saying is that there should be a new term, ‘flop’. wrong: ’serve with a float of dark rum.’ right: ’serve with a flop of dark rum.’

what i am really saying is that there comes a time in a man’s life when he watches his dreams of notable eponomy–rockstardom, a theorem, a charitable organization–wither and perish. and he desperately grasps at and yelps about whatever filament of original notion, be it obscure cocktail terminology or an unusually misshapen poop.

and so, i would like to be known for the flop. and if not the flop, then for saying: i like my gin the way i like my women: boring, and doesn’t taste like a christmas tree unknown to dr. dre cold as hell
you know what, let me work on this

[matt mentioned that he tried and liked the gary regan margarita which is 1.5 tequila, 1 triple sec, 0.5 lime]

wrt ratios and recipes, i think it depends on taste (obv?) and frame of reference. like maybe my reference point is the spiked limeade style margarita, or like hershey’s syrup and peppermint schnapps while hottubbing at alexis smith’s house. but for others (like regan?) the reference point is like, tequila neat, or maybe cointreau neat. and so the lime juice is more like a condiment.

coincidentally (and out of sheer laziness) i have been making some 1.5 gin 1 triple sec and 0.75 citrus cocktails lately. i dont dare go down to 0.5. do i?

some stuff i tried recently.

champagne cocktails for a lachlan party. champagne was going to be there anyway, so why not.

fave bubbly is roederer brut which is a light, moderately dry, champagne. so the optional base mixtures were on the sweet side, (1) equal parts bourbon and apple liqueur (this was actually quite good on its own, surprisingly) (2) pear liqueur, gin, chartreuse, and lime. one thing about this i found was that it was MUCH better when both the champagne and the base mixtures were ice cold. as in, kept in the freezer. (didnt keep it there long enough for anything to form
crystals, if thats even possible)

a rum punch: rum, lime, apple liqueur (trying to use it up), orange liqueur, ginger tea. i then ‘ruined’ it by adding a slug of dark rum and another of aged rum. the flavors of those are powerful and so dominated the drink…maybe made it taste better, actually, but too much like every other punch ive made with those two rums.

plan for mikey: rum, tequila, lime, grapefruit, blackberry honey, ango. kind of a riff/rip on the high plains drifter he liked so well at boot n shoe. i don’t have a bitter component tho (the HPD had campari). maybe will experiment with a vermouth.

[i named the above cocktail 'the warcraft soulmate']

just made a variant of the brown derby which itself is a variant of the warcraft soulmate:

2 oz bourbon
3/4 oz grapefruit
3/8 oz lime
3/8 oz honey OR 3/4 oz honey syrup
1 dash ango

(actually made a larger batch, so 8 bourbon, 3 grapefruit 1.5 lime, 1.5 honey)

really awesome. the proportions are girly/accessible, the manly version (as manly as a drink with honey can be) would be like:

2 oz bourbon
1/4 oz grapefruit + dash of lime
1/4 oz honey OR 1/2 oz honey syrup OR 1/2 oz honey-based liqueur
1 dash ango
1 dash grapefruit bitters
grapefruit and lime twists

on the rocks is the way to go, its a drink that needs to be ice cold.

bought a bottle of cruzan dark aged rum tonight, to test drive i made a kind of punch:

4 oz dark rum
1 oz lime
1 tbsp maple syrup (mainly cuz it was on hand and ez)
couple dashes angostura

was ok. was really hoping for something like the gunpowder punch we had at pizzaiolo, but this rum was just not strong enough.

but….jp’s mom made some kind of squash similar to butternut and the
pairing of the two things was AWESOME.

i’m still playing with the dark rum proportions, there is a traditional recipe called a ‘ti punch’ which is 2 oz agricole rum, 1/4-1/2 oz syrup (traditionally cane), and muddled lime peel. no citrus juice. there is nothing i hate more than muddled lime peel (eg, caipirinha). but nothing i love more than lime zest. so i made a ti punch with some zest. nice, but i still miss a little tartness. so i made a modification, which i think nails it:

- peel two lime twists, whittle off pith
- muddle one of them in a glass
- add a dash of ango to the glass
- squeeze 1/6 to 1/4 of a lime into the glass
- pour maple syrup into the measuring cup up to approx 1/4 oz
- fill to 2 oz with dark rum
- stir in the cup until syrup dissolves
- pour into the glass, stir, let stand for a minute
- add lots of ice, stir again
- twist the other over the drink and rub on the lip

so i made a batch of regan margaritas. at first i thought: too
strong, and too sweet. but i found myself sipping more and more,
until it MADE ME LOVE IT. i do think it could stand a dash of water,
or maybe a little extra shaking. i also used a low proof triple sec
(40 proof) so maybe that was part of it. i agree with your assessment
that it is really almost more of a triple-sec drink than a tequila
drink; maybe demanding cointreau.

i have been coming around to the less-tart side of things, in general.

here are my latest purchases, and comments:

new amsterdam gin – a great gin for me, probably not for real gin
lovers. its basically a less-ginny gin, very clean. made a real nice
drink: 1 oz pear liqueur, 3/4 oz NA gin, 1/2 oz lime.

mathilde pear liqueur – a clean, candy-like liqueur. maybe that is an
insult. points of comparison, aqua perfecta/st george, which is drier
and crisper, and j pear liqueur, which is funkier and dirtier and
(therefore?) more evocative of actual fruit

smith and cross rum – we had this at pizzaiolo in the gunpowder
punch. this is a great product, but not sure how versatile. it is incredibly
assertive, but, despite its proof, totally drinkable and with tons of
flavor. it is the kind of thing you either add a dash of for color,
or else you add a LITTLE sweetener and EVEN LITTLER citrus and let it
do its thing

jose cuervo tradicionale reposado – a perfectly serviceable tequila,
but not sure if better than, say, azul. it has a nice vanilla caramel nose.

clear creek apple brandy – expensive. don’t quite see the appeal.
good, but enough to justify the cost? my palate is not refined enough to appreciate this neat.

el dorado 5 year rum – need to play with this more. seems like a good
basic rum.

benedictine liqueur – terrific. a nice herbal, slightly licoricey
liqueur. cate has an awesome drink called the chinato speaker which i
am going to attempt to replicate soon: 3/4 rum, 3/4 lime, 3/4 barolo
chinato, 1/2 benedictine. barolo chinato is kind of like a cross
between a port/vermouth/amaro, i figure i could probably sub vermouth
and be ok.

dolin blanc – strong recommendation if you like light dessert wines.
nice over ice, with a twist and/or a dash of bitters, and plays well
in cocktails, too.

rothman and winter apricot liqueur – not sure what i think of this.
i’ve had it in cocktails in sf joints and liked it well enough. it
starts off all girls and bubblegum, but has a low-end rotty
finish…so kind of doesn’t go with anything. i made a rum drink with
it, then a gin drink with it, and it didn’t seem to play nice with
either. i think this might be more of a seasoning than a star player.

the tap water here is not very good, so i have become THAT GUY who
makes ice cubes from brita-filtered water.

been experimenting with the apricot liqueur with good results. stumbled across this page which seemed like a good starting point:

http://ohgo.sh/archive/apricot-brandy-cocktails/

tulip cocktail

1 oz apple brandy
1 oz sweet vermouth (martini and rossi)
1/2 oz apricot liqueur
1/2 oz lemon
lemon twist

this was excellent but i used my too-expensive apple brandy,
unnecessarily. i think i’d like to try again, cutting the non brandy
ingredients in half. need to buy some lairds bonded for these kinds
of drinks.

yellow parrot variation

3/4 oz green chartreuse
3/4 oz dolin blanc
3/4 oz apricot liqueur
3/4 oz lemon
orange twist

also excellent but maybe a little sweet, maybe cut the apricot to 1/2 oz.

hop toad

3/4 oz el dorado 5
3/4 oz smith and cross
3/4 oz apricot liqueur
3/4 oz lime
1 dash ango
lime twist

had a nice version of this at comstock, they use all smith and cross.
i liked what i made here, but maybe would take the lime down to 1/2
oz.

jp hates the smell of the smith and cross. she says she might ban it from the premises.

i also made a couple daiquiris with the el dorado 5, one which i loved and one i didn’t. i dont know what i did right/wrong…maybe the right one was sweeter/less-tart.

we have a guest tomorrow. he is a girly drink kind of guy, but last time we went out he discovered the negroni and loved it. now, i cannot abide by campari, NOT UNDER MY ROOF. so i have coming a bottle of aperol and also gran classico bitters, and will be doing a little experimenting with each/both.

i made a sidecar with the delord 10yr armagnac, was very good, not sure if its better than the paul masson….

the campari substitute experiment. i made a base mixture of:

1 part NA gin
1 part sweet vermouth
orange bitters
orange twist

then made four variations with 2 oz of the base mixture:

a) 1/2 oz aperol
b) 1/2 oz gran classico bitters
c) 1/2 oz benedictine
d) 1/4 oz maraschino (a martinez)

all enjoyable, but none are a negroni, for better or worse. maybe aperol + gran classico could come close. after a few sips of each i spiked them with a dashes of lemon. a VAST improvement across the board.

we went to a restaurant that had a shiity cocktail menu but a decent selection of amaro, so got a sample of: ramazzotti, averna, nonino. i wish i had a better palate, i could tell them apart but couldnt come up with many descriptors. i would call ramazzotti ‘port-y’, nonino ‘astrngent, musty’. averna….dunno. all were nicely balanced wrt sweet/bitter.

i made this variant of the vieux carre:

2 oz apple brandy
1/2 oz benedictine
1/4 lemon
1 dash ango
lemon twist

loved it! get some lairds bonded and benedictine, you wont be sorry.

just now tried:

2 oz tequila
3/4 oz aperol
1/2 oz lime

too bitter…i tried to fix it by adding 1/4 oz triple sec and that worked!

3/4 oz apple brandy
3/4 oz dolin blanc
3/4 oz lemon
1/2 oz benedictine
lemon twist

was a good citrus drink, but next time i will try: more brandy, less vermouth, less lemon.

modified busdriver

2 oz dolin blanc
1 oz grapefruit-infused gin

this is the first time i’ve used gin instead of vodka, and it is way better.

i usually use lillet blanc, which i slightly prefer.

as much as i like mild gins, this drink might actually benefit from something more assertive.

made another round of purchases because binny was having a 10% off sale.

lairds bonded
plymouth gin
appleton extra
cossart gordon bual madeira
lillet red
kraken

i haven’t yet tried anything but the laird. which is fine, but it made me really appreciate the clear creek which i think i now think is a really nice product.

i used it to make a jack rose (1 1/2 oz lairds 100, 1/2 oz lemon, 1/2 oz homemade grenadine) which is very, very tasty.

you may recall mike has sung the praises of kraken which i mostly ignored because im a snob. but it turns out that it is actually pretty well loved by the rum communnity. i bought a bottle because i’m preparing to make egg nog for christmas:

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/egg-nog/

i’ve made a version of this using regular rum instead of spiced, adding bitters, and using all whole milk, and it is excellent.

i entered all the double gold winners, and any single gold winner with a list price of less than $20.

partial list of sf spirit award winners

…

jp asked for a light cocktail the other day. i put some pear liqueur, apple cider, and lime in a glass and that made her happy. here is a non-light adaptation, similar to previous pear liqueur experiments:

1 oz pear liqueur (J Pear, 60 proof)
3/4 oz cachaca
1/2 oz lime
1/2 oz apple cider

bourbon and branch presented an incredibly complex drink of gin, persimmon and pear shrub, lemon, grapefruit bitters, ginger beer and cinnamon. i eventually decided i didn’t like it. but it did take me awhile, and many brain circuits got blown in the process. i think i can’t accept vinegar in a cocktail, except maybe an aged balsamic.

another drink i admired came from the cat at jardiniere: scotch, lemon, date puree, thyme, bitters, egg white. i like trying scotch cocktails; they signify a brave, or foolish, bartender. i enjoyed the drink, but i admired it more than i enjoyed it.

but my favorite of the night was simple and easy to drink. because i am a simpleton whore. winter citrus smash from sauce sf: rye, satsumas, tangerines, kumquats, syrup, j. witty chamomille.

…

range. i had a great time. the kokomo (rum, lemon, madeira, pineapple, benedictine, nutmeg) was superb. turns out, madeira is a criminally underused cocktail ingredient. i plan to acquire a bottle soon.

reading their COD blog for lo these many months, i grew increasingly sad that i don’t live closer so i could drink there every day. the COD on the night i went was ‘the downtowner’, rye, lime, pear, some other stuff i can’t remember, topped with brown ale. maybe a little overdiluted but the flavor was just right and outta sight.

[edit: got the recipe--

small chunk of pear (muddled)
1.75 oz. Old Overholt
0.5 oz. St. Germain
0.5 oz. apple cider
0.25 oz. lime juice

Top with about 2 oz. brown ale.]

i also ordered, and liked, the chili davis (tequila, punt e mes, mandarin napoleon, fresno chili, lime) though it was a more difficult drink to enjoy. not for chugging.

after that i was pretty wrecked, and so i asked for just a taste of their walnut infused bourbon, which opened the door for jeff to trot out some other house infusions and comparable products. i didn’t love the walnut bourbon; the nose was incredible but the taste was a little like raw cookie dough. jeff’s vin d’orange was excellent; it somehow produced a smell of bubblegum. jeff also gave me small pours of lillet to compare with the vin d’orange, and nocino to compare with the walnut bourbon. the nocino was pretty insane; it was more like a port than a nut liqueur like amaretto or frangelico.

a couple next to me was very friendly, struck up a conversation with me unprompted. from my fragmented eavesdropping, i surmised that their relationship was interesting and complicated. but i was too polite to ask about the complications.

i love the mission.

…

berkeley bowl carries both toschi and fabbri amarena cherries, both approved by scott beattie.