1/2 oz gin
1/4 oz lime
1/4 oz ikea elderflower syrup
1/2 kumquat
2 oz champagne

seed and muddle the kumquat. add gin, lime, syrup. dry shake* and strain. top with 2 oz champagne. drop in a candied kumquat.

*i made and chilled a batch of the base mixture ahead of time.

the flavors were good but intense; maybe a 3:1 champagne:base ratio next time. where next time is tomorrow, since i have so much left over.

version 1 made with 1/2 oz lemon. the above version is much better, and is quite delicious. i wanted to add muddled ginger, but there was none usable on hand. and turns out was probably not necessary.

i might add a little grated cinnamon tho.

this is for the family xmas eve party. the poirier’s have a tradition of reubens for xmas eve (?!). and so i am making the above cocktail and am also planning a french 75 variant of gin, lime, elderflower, kumquat, topped with champagne.

…

coming soon to this blog: a page of cocktail basics. basically some of my early posts, updated, and made into a page that can be reached via sidebar link.

and if i can get my shit together, an automated, randomized cocktail creator web page.

hoping posting that im gonna do it, will motivate me to actually do it.

brazilian – cachaca, st germain elderflower, lemon
williams margarita – margarita with pear brandy instead of triple sec

the williams margarita was a nice twist, and interesting. the brazilian, well, i won’t turn down anything with cachaca or elderflower.

they have a nice selection of late night bar snacks. i kind of felt like a sucker paying $6 for shrimp heads, though. that didn’t stop me from doing it, of course.

miles ahead – pimm’s no. 1, st. germain elderflower, lemon, ginger ale

a subtler, drier, tastier, sophisticateder long island iced tea.
i need to taste pimm 1 on its own one of these days.

they have a facebook fan page, james hetfield is a fan!

and they bring in a taco truck on thurs-sun nights straight from intl blvd. i am in love.

(over the course of three visits:)
mexican velvet – tequila, mezcal, lime, pineapple gum, falernum
chokehold – rum, cynar, elderflower, lemon
muay thai – thai rum, lime, orgeat, triple sec
bitter rivers – gin, aperol, grapefruit, lime, soda, rhubarb bitters
carjack – applejack, cane syrup, lemon
knickerdropper – rum, raspberry gum, triple sec, lime

everything worked. the depaz cane syrup in the carjack is crazy delicious.

no double straining, so there were some ice flecks.

one of the bartenders there (jacque) was ECHS class of 87, turns out he knows my sister pretty well, and is good friends with some people from my class, eg, steve bradley.

one my most recent trip i brought some of my warez to share with jacque and one of the owners. that will be a separate trip report.

2 oz grapefruit vodka
1 oz lime
1 oz ikea elderflower syrup

hit the spot, though the vodka didn’t have the same crisp smell and taste as it did last week. the day before our trip i strained out the fruit and peel, and also pressed down on the solids a little, to extract some of the juice. that may have been a mistake.

another batch has been started, this time i put all the zest plus a post-supremed carcass in a pint mason jar, then filled with vodka.

my uncle asked for a light cocktail. this is what i came up with. it didn’t quite work, too much lime.

1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz lime
1/4 oz maraschino
1/4 oz green chartreuse
1/4 oz syrup

this works. am thinking you can sub lychee or ikea elderflower syrup for the simple syrup. working title “ellipsis, lychee” omg im a dork

…

o-positive (renamed because ‘penta-tonic’ makes it sound like either it contains tonic water, or that its made from five ingredients)

3/4 oz punt e mes
1/8 peach
1/2 oz black rum/rye

so tasty. with a flavorful and/or ripe peach, might be able boost the spirit to proportions equal to the punt e mes.

…

some things i have planned:

experiment #1: infused tequila, pineapple, jalepeno, chardonnay, lemon, agave, black qi mist

experiment #2 (”improved sunrise”): tequila, lillet, triple sec/cointreau/orange shrub. aqua perfecta framboise at the bottom. maybe misted with vodka infused with orange flower water or hangar one mandarin. (am i a whore for st. george now? all it takes is a take-home glass and my pants come off?) maybe a foam of either of those things plus orange juice.

experiment #3: charbay grapefruit (or vodka + grapefruit juice, or maybe i’ll experiment with my own grapefruit infusion), sake (need to visit the tasting room in berkeley), vanilla, pistachio orgeat, lemon

experiment #4: something with mead

experiment #5: rum, kahlua, falernum, triple sec (like picante’s mexican coffee)