An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

I got an e-mail recently offering me a sample of Bulleit rye. I’m a fan of Bulleit’s bourbon so of course I agreed. It’s supposed to hit shelves in March, at least in this area, but it was cool to have a chance to try it early.

Bulleit Rye

I was expecting a different bottle but I have to admit, it was pretty cool to get a sample bottle like this (and I’m sure to reuse it later). The Bulleit rye is 45% ABV, so 90 proof, with a 95% rye mash bill.

I’m not the best taster in the world. I tried it first straight then with a bit of water.

I found it rather spicy, with a hint of floral and sweetness to it. It had a lot of rye flavor to it which is one of the things I liked about the Bulleit bourbon. Adding water to it I thought it tasted sweeter.

Since I’ve got a few different ryes, I decided to try it against some other ones. I have a bottle of Redemption rye, at nearly the same proof (92 proof for it) and the same mash bill in terms of rye content (95%). The Bulleit I found was more aggressive and spicy than the Redemption, which I found rather sweet.

I also compared it to Templeton rye, a bottle of which I have from 2008 and runs 80 proof. According to what I’ve read online here, the Templeton goes about 90% rye in the mash bill. It’s similarly spicy, though I preferred the Bulleit overall.

I’d like to do more tests to compare them, but I made a small miscalculation. I sort of drank all the Bulleit rye so far.

Oops!

So I’ll have to wait until I can buy a bottle of it and compare it in some cocktails!

The folks at Air & Water were kind enough to offer a number of bloggers one of their icemakers (I got the AI-100SS it appears).  I figured “What the heck, I’ll try that!”  In my old house, I was always short on ice, and though I have a rather prolific icemaker now in my fridge I was curious how it’d work for (perhaps) parties or tailgating.

The first thing that surprised me was its size.  I could tell you in inches, or centimeters, or whatever, but y’all are reading this blog due to booze, so here it is in booze bottles.

By the way, I hate the wax seal on Ransom Old Tom Gin

It is as wide as a bottle of Ransom Old Tom Gin.

It is as tall as a liter bottle of Pimm’s #1.

It is as deep as a bottle of Voyant chai creme liqueur.

It’s a bit heavy, but I didn’t have anything to compare that too.  Sorry!  (Not really actually sorry.)  A lot of the stainless steel was covered in blue plastic wrap that was a pain in the butt to take off.  Maybe I was just missing something.  That happens a lot.

Now I want a Pimm's Cup

“Geez SeanMike, that’s great and all,” you say, “but how does it work?”

Well, I’ll tell you.  Also, I imagine you having a nasally nerd voice.  Ha ha!

Basically, on the inside there are rows of little metal prongs.  You fill up the water to a certain level, select the thickness of ice that you’d like, and 6 or so minutes later (depending on the thickness you selected) you’d have your first batch.

I wouldn’t suggest really using the first batch, however.  Even at maximum thickness it tended to be melt quickly, but that might be because the inside of the icemaker isn’t very cold at first.  It takes it quite a while to cool off enough to keep ice solid, and during that time if you’re not careful the ice will melt and refreeze into a larger mass.

I need more room in my fridge so I can open this

The ice that is formed looks like a thimble.  That surprised the heck out of me when I first saw it but as I thought about it I realized it’s how the ice forms.  Even at the thickest they are not much bigger than the end of my thumb.  Given that the current movement in icing straight liquor such as whiskeys is using one large block of ice (I have a very nice ice cube tray I now use for that courtesy of Cocktail Kingdom, because Greg Boehm graciously gave it to me) I wouldn’t suggest using it for that.

EXCEPT…well, sometimes you just want to add a bit of water to your whiskey.  Like, sometimes for scotch, I guess.  I never know when it’s proper or not.  In that case, using one or two of these would be okay.  Just know it’s going to melt in no time flat.

Okay, okay, how about making cocktails?

Stirring – I got a lot more dilution in my cocktail stirring, and it seemed to get cold pretty quickly.  It’s not a bad thing, but you’ve got to mind your timing – it is NOT the same as using harder ice.  It’s more like using the bagged ice you get in a grocery store.  Your mileage may vary, of course.  I don’t stir my drinks that often (I don’t care what you think, shuddup) but it was feasible to use it for that.

Shaking - I cannot recommend that unless you’re going for a blender-less version of a slushy.  The ice broke down and disintegrated in no time.

A friend of mine was much more excited about the icemaker than I was.  She lives in the same building as me, just ten stories higher, and can’t stand the ice her fridge makes.  This lets her make ice with filtered water, which she likes a lot.  I’d thought about using it to try to make tonic ice or something but I was worried about messing it up.

I found the icemaker useful for non-alcoholic drinks as well.  Never did get a chance to take it tailgating but I think my next opportunity to tailgate will be in December in Pittsburgh so I probably won’t need a lot of ice there…

If you’ve used it, feel free to give your thoughts on it!

Hi guys!  Remember me?

It’s been a while.  We hit Tales of the Cocktail back in July – and not long after I got back from that I found out that my job was sending me out of the country.  It was the first time for me doing so, which also meant I got to do the fun of trying to get a passport in less than two weeks (surprisingly easy in the DC area once you get past the misinformation and apathy), get my stuff together, and head out to South Korea.

Which, really, at least the parts I was in, seemed to have no cocktail culture.  I didn’t even see a bottle of Campari the entire time I was there which meant that first Negroni back was magical – not to mention how I almost came to tears tasting hops in my Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA the first day back.  I did have my soju, and lots and lots of Cass and Hite, but that’s neither here nor there for this post.

Before I left I had a chance to meet up with Erich and Lindsay from Leopold Brothers over at The Gibson.  They took me on a tour of fourteen of their products, from vodka and gin to flavored whiskey to liqueurs, and I was honestly surprised at a lot of them.  When I got back I was lucky enough to find my favorite liquor shop was carrying some of them.  One thing you might not be able to see from the picture is that each bottle is hand numbered.

Keep away, this bottle is mine

We first started off with the vodka.  It uses multiple bases for it and instead of filtering distills it more.  I was really expected to say “meh, vodka” but liked the complexity I tasted in it when warm.  I haven’t bought a bottle yet but I’d have to say it’s more likely to be the kind of vodka I’ll buy for drinking straight – yes, I do that, shut up vodka haters – than for mixing.  Use the cheaper, more one dimensional stuff for mixing where you ain’t gonna taste it.  This is the kind I’ll knock back and chase with caviar and sour cream on homemade potato chips at New Year’s Eve.

Next up was the gin, which has a number of botanicals that are all distilled separately before being added together.  I picked out cardamom and coriander, I’m going to guess by accident, though I was surprised to see how floral it was and that there wasn’t much of a pine hit to it.  This is the gin I used to make my first Negroni after coming back to the States and while it was fine in that, it really shone in gin and tonic, especially with the Fentiman’s tonic.  I’ll be making more of those now that I managed to steal my bottle back.

After the gin we hit the rum.  It reminded me quite a bit of a rhum agricole – not something I’d necessarily drink straight but an interesting flavor.

The next three drinks we had were their flavored whiskeys.  They’re working on a plain whiskey but I didn’t get a chance to try that.

First up was the apple whiskey.  This was, as I said then and will still say now until I’ve drank too much of it, “slap yo’ momma” good.  (Note: now my momma will probably slap me, but what will be will be.  It’s worth it.)  They use real apples and smash the fruit in house.  I was reminded me of a story my grandfather told me about drinking hard cider made in bourbon barrels that had bourbon left in the bottom.  I seriously need to get at least a bottle or two of this, especially as fall approaches.  In fact, I have plans for me, a bottle, and NOBODY ELSE BOTHERING ME WHILE I WATCH FOOTBALL.  I don’t wanna share.

The blackberry whiskey was much more aggressive in the taste profile.  I almost felt like it was more like a blackberry wine in taste.  It didn’t bowl me over, but I could see how someone who really likes blackberries would love it (coughcoughMarshall) and it could be good in some things.  It was my first hint at what was my problem – there are too many good things in the line-up, I can’t afford them all!  (Not to mention store them, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  If Leopold Brothers (coughing again, man, what is in the air tonight?!) gave me a bottle of each, I’d damn well find somewhere to store ‘em…and not just in my belly.)

The peach whiskey was something I didn’t expect at all.  The proof on this one dropped from 80 to 60, but while I typically am not a huge fan of peaches I liked this.  I immediately started thinking of a lot of drinks that I’ve seen that incorporate peach  brandy or the such and was wondering how this would work (such as the Georgia Mint Julep from the first edition of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails – it might be in the second, but sigh I haven’t gotten that yet).

From there we went to the liqueurs.

The peach liqueur, like most of them if I remember correctly, uses three pounds of peaches per 750 milliliter bottle.  It was very concentrated, almost to a syrup.  It seemed much more of a one-trick pony to me and not something I’d buy unless I had something specific to use for it.

The tart cherry, though, made me thinking “maraschino liqueur that actually tastes like cherry”.  I’m tempted to pick one up – the difference between it, maraschino liqueur, and cherry Heering is a fascinating idea to me and something I’d like to experiment with.

yes it's dark, what, The Gibson is a dark bar

Next up was the blackberry.  If I thought the blackberry whiskey was like wine this was REALLY like wine, made with four pounds of blackberries per 750.  I liked it a lot – however, I saw myself drinking it more on its own as a dessert (or like I’ve done (ahem) to Horton blackberry wines in the past, chilled and straight from the bottle while at a horse race).

Cranberry was described as “great for your mom” and I was wondering if my mom was getting hit on in absentia.  I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but it did make me think of Thanksgiving, maybe kind of Christmas, so I might try to revisit it as those holidays approach.  (What?!  It’s September?  Feh, I guess I better get on that!)

The sour apple liqueur was like apple juice to me and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  Maybe I need an Apfelkorn versus sour apple liqueur battle in my future.  They’re not the same but they are both very delicious.

The French Press coffee liqueur was something I did not expect at all.  The use the same press to make coffee with the liqueur as they do the fruit, with one added exception – they actually add sugar to the coffee liqueur.  My goodness.  You can taste the quality in this one.  If you like coffee liqueurs either be prepared to give all your money to Leopold Brothers or don’t bother trying it.

Overly bright, overly tasty

Then we hit the herbal side.

They had a digestif called 3 Pins.  Very herbal, but sweet, I would definitely enter it in a battle royale with some of my favorite European digestifs.  It honestly probably reminds me of Hog Master more than a lot of them, since it’s so sweet, but I’d love to break it out for my friends who also like 999, the new Zwack, and Jagermeister.  If I was going to make an old fashioned with it like one might do with Fernet it would need a solid hit of bitters but maybe nothing else.

But the absinthe.

A quick note on me and absinthe: I like absinthe okay but I’d never really seen the holy grail of absinthes.  At Tales, over at the Mixo house, I was introduced to an Obsello reserve absinthe that had aged in barrels.  It wow-ed me.  I loved it.  I was like “OH THIS IS WHAT YOU LOVE”.

The Leopold absinthe uses 15 herbs for flavoring, is aged for three months, and uses 15 herbs for coloring.  It has a HUGE oil meniscus when it louches, and was amazingly smooth when I tried it.  At $71.99 at Ace, I was sorely tempted to buy some, the first time I’d really considered spending that much on an absinthe.  I may still do so, once I take care of a few other things, because it’s damn delicious.

If you haven’t tried these yet you really need to do so.  Ace carries a few of them; Best Cellars in Dupont Circle, from what I hear, carry more.  I’ll be heading out there soon to buy apple whiskey, believe you me.

And great to see y’all again!

Tomorrow night over at The Mixoloseum chat room, the theme of the night is “Muddled” where each drink will require the muddling of some component.  The theme is very apropos because I recently bought the best muddler I’ve ever used.

Specifically, I’m talking about PUG! muddlers.  I had read a few articles on these hand-made muddlers around the interwebs and they have had some great reviews.  Where most bar equipment can readily be purchased on-line at any number of on-line retailers, PUG! muddlers are a little more difficult to come by.  You see, there is no website to sell them.

The maker, Chris Gallagher takes orders via email.  It is actually a great way to talk to Chris and find out what types of wood he’s using at any given time, photos of various muddlers and the cost.  PUG! is actually an acronym for “Pick Up Gallaghers!” and to be honest, I don’t think I’ll pick up another muddler again.  These are that good.

Maple (L) & Cherry Wood (R)

You can see from the photo above that the shape is pretty unique.  The angled top really allows the palm of your hand to rest comfortably on the muddler.  It also gives you more control and a more efficient use of force to muddle.   In other words, it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to really do the job.  The height of the muddler also allows you to really reach the bottom of your mixing glass or tin.  These things are a beast!  And can offer personal protection if an unruly customer comes calling!

Almost as tall as a bottle of gin!

When I emailed Chris, I asked for the cherry wood muddler.  One thing I didn’t think about, and Chris was kind enough to point out before I made my purchase, was that different woods have different densities.  These densities play a discernable role in the job at hand.  A lighter wood will require slightly more force to muddle than a more dense wood.

When Chris sent me the shipping confirmation, he dropped the bomb that he was also sending me the maple wood muddler!  He asked me to put them both through their paces and let him know what I thought.

Well, this past weekend at Sean’s housewarming party, Sean, Rick and I did just that.  Both muddlers worked wonderful.  The added bonus of the heavier maple was that it could be used to bash the living hell out of ice cubes for crushed ice and swizzles.  We all know how Rick loves his swizzles . . .

I’ll be honest, these muddlers are not cheap.  Depending on the wood they run $30-35 and the more exotic Mexican hardwoods run in the $60 range.  Is this more than you are likely to pay for any other muddler?  Most likely, yes.  Is this one of the best bar implements I currently own?  Yes.  Will I recommend these whole heartedly?  YES!

Medley of Motley Muddlers

If you are interested in purchasing a PUG! muddler, email Chris Gallagher at jcgallagher08@hotmail.com.