I am interested in what you drink when you’re not “slumming” it. Right now the gins in my house are Bombay, Bombay Sapphire, Tanqueray 10, Tanqueray Rangpur (used almost exclusively for gin and tonics, I admit), Plymouth, and Hendricks. I’ve been considering adding bottles of regular Tanqueray and Beefeaters to those, plus maybe Boodles or something else.

The good thing on having lots of gins is that you have lots of choices!

I’ll admit, though, that Marshall and I saw the same thing. There *isn’t* a lot on LJ about cocktails. Right now, we strive to change that.

When/if we move to our own domain – well, we’ll see. I’d like to think we can maybe help bring the good word of good cocktails here, at least, for now!

What is also interesting is that I’m a huge martini fan (to the point where Bombay sapphire and Tanqueray have become what I drink when “sluming it”) and thought “my god – there must be an LJ community out there devoted to the martini”. The interesting part is that your journal appears to be the only serious journal on the topic – and it’s very entertaining to read a journal by someone as curious about liqours (my focus is on gins) as I am.

So bravo, I’m glad someone is keeping the standards up.

I’ll keep an eye on the other glass.

At my house, I do ‘em 3-1 gin to vermouth, so there is, but again, haven’t put in the Angostura. Though I did almost do the Sacre Blue tonight (Bombay Sapphire gin, Noilly Prat dry vermouth, stinky blue cheese as a garnish; I’m afraid the blue cheese I bought may not be stinky enough, and honestly, just got – well, lazy isn’t the right word, just “eh” towards gin after the Pink Gin).

To get back on topic…

The taste was…different. You definitely had strong overtones of the bitter, but you actually had the TASTE of the bitter, not just BAM!BITTER like when I did the bitter tasting last week (or in a Negroni). Meanwhile, you also had the taste of the gin, but the bitters took the edge off of it.

It’s definitely one of those drinks that can be hard to describe. Ted Haigh – aka Dr. Cocktail, the writer of _Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails_, where I got this recipe from – basically says it only works with Plymouth gin and Angostura bitters. I can *imagine* that…but at the same time, find myself wondering…what if I used Bombay? What if I used Beefeaters? What if I used Peychaud’s? Fee Bros’ Aromatic bitters might be a bit too weak, on the bitter side, to match up in there, but what about more dashes of an orange bitters?

Given the quantity of gin and bitters involved in the drinks, I’d foresee some rather strong drunkenness involved in investigating THOSE truths.

Mmmmm, martinis. I did buy more pickled asparagus (both “pickled asparagus” – asparagus in brine with garlic and some other seasonings, as well as “asparagus in brine” which is just “asparagus in salt water”) for when mom and dad come in next weekend. I’ve still got a gazillion different kind of olives, I’ve got two kinds of sweet vermouth, one kind of dry, Lillet blanc, Dubonnet red, six kinds of gin, olives out the wazoo, and am thinking I should get and/or make some pickled onions – I wonder if Mom will still want a martini. What I *don’t* have is a lot of vodka – mom is a big Cosmo fan, and all I’ve got is about half a bottle of Russian vodka, most of a bottle of Ketel One Citroen, some Absolut Kurrant, and that currently-infusing-horseradish Fris vodka. However, I also don’t have Crown Royal, but I’ve been informed that dad does keep a bottle of that in his car.

What that says about MY FAMILY I leave to the tabloids, who wouldn’t care, so it’s left to no one except the people who realize that he typically travels a lot and to places that don’t regularly have access to Crown Royal (but do to Coke, which makes things perfect) and that, no, he doesn’t drink that bottle while actually traveling (by car).

I hope.

(Mental note: Friday is Amtrak day. Need something to drink for that oh-so-long two hour ride down south…)

(end drunken rambling)

What is the flavour like?

I sometimes add a couple of drops of angustora bitters to my martini to make it extra dry, but have not thought to make a solely gin and bitters mix…