2 oz vodka
3/4 oz lemon
3/4 oz rich blueberry-ginger syrup
5 mint leaves

gently muddle mint, combine all other ingredients, shake.

…

japanese cocktail at pizzaiolo. delicious. like egg nog without the egg.

cocktail 1: tequila, mezcal, allspice, ango
cocktail 2: rum, ginger, lime, egg white thing
cocktail 3: gin, lime thing (comped)

the cocktails were very good, but not as complex as the drinks i’ve had by her at the cuesa gatherings nor (seemingly) her competition-winning drinks.

i did get to talk to her quite a bit, though, learned a lot, and she was very nice.

kinda funny, overheard this conversation:

customer: ‘i’ll have a ’sex on the beach”
jackie: ‘i dont really know whats in that. can i see some id?’

lol!

i was also served some samples of dolin dry and dolin sweet. also comped. the dolin dry is delicious, very light a little sweet and a little herby. more of what i think of as a vermouth than lillet.

the dolin sweet is good but do i taste oregano? its kind of like liquid pomodoro.

all this, plus a free-drink token from erik adkins, and another one from jackie. its almost like i drank for free.

[misc note: hd keeps their egg whites in a maple syrup dispenser type thing.]

after i left (without getting my drink), i soul-searched a little, thinking, was i wrong to be upset? i try to be an understanding person. bartenders at hoppin, douchey bars don’t have too easy a job. maybe it pays well, who knows, but it is still hard work. but i think what really gets me was that the person who got preferential treatment was such a entitled-prick archetype. in fact, another person got service before me even though i’d been waiting before her, but she wasn’t waving and bellowing like an imbecile, and my pulse stayed normal.

are entitled pricks good tippers? this one tipped $5 on a $35 tab.

so i took a stroll to heaven’s dog with the hopes that jackie patterson would be there. she wasn’t. i nonetheless enjoyed a couple of very fine drinks:

biarritz monk buck – armagnac, yellow chartreuse, lime, ginger
rattlesnake – rye, lemon, syrup, egg white, absinthe

no progress on the employment front.

tonight i will take a break from the ‘learn the classics’ series and instead mix something with the peaches that big sister and stuntman b are growing in their yard.

basil gimlet – really delicious but the basil could have looked better. just for cosmetic reasons if nothing else.
unnamed drink – bardude comped me a drink in exchange for being a guinea pig. a brandy sour made with vanilla sugar, with an aged rum float. excellent, though there was a slight flavor of…wax? maybe from the rum?

eccolo:

smoke screen – rye, lapsang souchong, kumquat. delicious, but i had to send it back to get the kumquat viscera strained out.
southern gentleman – bourbon, charred ginger, apricot liqueur. also great.

all in all a pretty good week for cocktails!
and: i submitted a barback resume!

muddle ginger, combine remaining ingredients, shake with ice, double strain.

minor story from cocktail night, one bartender (male) greeted another (female) with “hey, mama!” despite not being billy dee williams, he totally pulled it off. i was impressed. i started to think about what kind of person you have to be, what kind of life you have to lead where that comes naturally. or did it not? did he have to practice in front of the mirror? did he play around with variations, a rakish head-tilt, a wry half-smirk, a quick flip of the hand into the shape of a pistol? or did events conspire in his life to loft him gently, like a leaf in a current, towards a destiny of rad salutations? when was the first time he used ‘hey mama?’ was it a thrill? did he think about it much before or after?

is there another guy out there wondering about me, in awe of my easy roguishness, having once overheard my exuberant “hey, fucko”?

mango-ginger-sesame-cachaca experiment

2 oz cachaca
1 oz lemon
2/3 oz sesame orgeat
1 oz mango
1 slice ginger

i may have lost all perspective, i can’t tell if this is any good or not. it is slightly oversweet, but its more like the problem is that there are too many sweet notes–the orgeat, the mango, and the cachaca. there’s enough lemon to balance, but it all still feels lopsided.

the sesame orgeat has a bitter “seedy” flavor which, i think, comes from the hulls. is there a way to infuse the sesame flavor and creamy mouthfeel while minimizing hull-violence? or, do we want this bitterness, does it add character?

either way, next time i will add even less.

i’m not an expert on liquor by any means, but this leblon stuff is pretty insane. it has a good, strong, sugar cane aroma (since that is what it’s made from).

this is a good drink, as it adheres to the basic formula. but i don’t really taste the cardamom. too many competing flavors? i also used too much ginger, or maybe it was too old/strong.

i would make this again. maybe use the cardamom as a rim, for scent…mixed into the drink, it collected at the bottom (even after straining) and the last few sips tasted progressively like incense.

i finally used up the rest of the watermelon syrup making a punch for jp. (basically all the ingredients above, but more watermelon syrup, a lot of ice and water, and no booze.) of course i still have 3/4ths of a watermelon in the fridge. wtf was i thinking.

this drink is a blatant ripoff of the kaffir fling, by david wolowidnyk of west restaurant in vancouver, bc. his version includes cinnamon sprinkled through a blowtorch which looks and smells pretty awesome.

my mom loves this drink. qed.

thai kamikaze

2 oz vodka
1 oz lime juice
0.75-1 oz orgeat
2-5 kaffir lime leaves
2 coins ginger

muddle lime leaves one at a time in a shaker. add ginger and muddle. add the remaining ingredients with ice, and shake until very cold. pour through a fine strainer.

slacker orgeat

1 part almond milk
1 part sugar
orange peel, pith removed, at least 1″ x 1″ per cup of milk, more if you like

lay the peel pith side up, and use a sharp thin knife to cut away all the pith, as though you are whittling.

bring the almond milk to a simmer, remove from heat. add orange peel. after the mixture cools down a little, pour it into a jar with the sugar, and shake until the sugar dissolves. chill and shake before using.

beau retard

2 oz vodka
1 oz lemon
1 oz 1:1 syrup
5-10 blueberries
1 coin ginger
2 mint leaves, 4 tarragon leaves, half a shiso leaf, or some combination

muddle the blueberries, ginger, and herbs. [note: muddle the berries well, the herbs very gently] combine other ingredients and shake. strain coarsely, pressing solids. add ice, shake, strain.

option: sugar+brown sugar+toasted pecan rim

ginger-mango alignment

2 oz hendricks gin
OR cucumber-infused gin
OR gin plus one thick cucumber slice
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz mango cubes
two coins of fresh ginger
1/2 to 3/4 oz falernum
OR simple syrup + 2 drops angostura bitters

muddle ginger, mango, and cucumber. add remaining ingredients, shake, strain coarsely, pressing solids. pour liquid back into the strainer, add ice, shake until very cold.

poor man’s hendricks

let’s say you don’t have access to hendricks gin, or don’t want to pay that much, or you have a 10-year-old bottle of tanqueray that never gets used because hendricks is so superior, and finally you just need to accept, and bid farewell to, your past and all the terrible decisions you’ve made.   also, cupboard space is scarce.

simply combine some peeled and seeded cucmbers in a jar with inferior gin and/or vodka, approximately 1/2 cup of cucumber to 1 1/2 cups alcohol. after a day or so, strain out the cucumber, and top off with more alcohol. how much gin and vodka? depends on your taste. you can also muddle the cucumber before straining, this will make your infusion cloudy, but if you’re mixing it with other stuff then who cares.

these proportions will yield a pretty aggressive cucumber taste.  if subtely is thy name, then moderation shall be thy game.  you pretentious fuck.