An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Damn Sean, what do you do, take pictures as soon as you walk through the door???

I actually already put my stuff away, so no pictures from my haul, which included:

Noilly Pratt Sweet Vermouth
Liter of Maker’s Mark
Rittenhouse Rye (80 proof)
Rittenhouse Rye Bottled in Bond (100 proof)
Massenez Creme de Cassis
Junipero Gin
Castarede XO Armagnac

I also picked up some Stirrings Tonic, a bottle of Fentimaan ginger beer and Curiosity Cola.  Some Lyles Golden Syrup (to play with as a simple syrup substitute,) demerrara sugar cubes, nutgeg, star anise and vanilla beans.  Gotta start making syrups tomorrow!!!

Oh and I tried the Curiosity Cola with lunch . . . damn!  Best soda I’ve had.  But I’m not a big soda drinker (at least straight) so maybe my palette isn’t the best for it, but to me, damn tasty!!!

What’s on tap:  I think tomorrow I’m going to do an inventory of my bar.  I know Sean did one a few posts back, but I think I’s my turn.  I’ll take some pretty pictures for you folks too.  Plus, syrups . . . well probably just one, a vanilla-cardamom syrup. 

Cheers!

So after a trip to Schneider’s and World Market…

That’s a bottle of Punt e Mes, partly thanks to a WaPo article the other day, Schonauer apple schnapps, which is supposedly better than the other kind I usually get, some Heering cherry liqueur, and a bottle of Castarede XO armagnac that was on sale.  I also picked up a backup bottle of Laird’s Applejack.

We also hit World Market where I got some whole nutmeg plus some mixer:

That’s two kinds of ginger beer – Bundaberg and Fentimaan, plus Fentimaan “Curiosity Cola” and Stirrings tonic water.

tmfiii is probably coming over this way in a bit; we’ll get a chance to try some of this stuff out!

I have, what I call, a resilient tongue.  I can drink a lot, I admit, and by the end, I don’t taste a lot of what I’m drinking, but I still do taste it.  Conversely, when drinking a lot of stuff, I can still analyze what I’m drinking fairly accurately – for me.

The other problem is that I’m not that accurate of a taste tester.  I can taste, well, what I think I taste…but a lot of the subtleties are lost on me.  When a drink is great versus just good I can notice it (see: cocktail a la louisiane) but at other times, well – crap.

What’s good about that?  Well, I can drink a good bit – but I like to try lots of things.  So we’ll see what you think about what I think about what I had.

Apple Sidecar
1 1/2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. Clear Creek Apple Brandy
1 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. tangerine juice

Shake and strain into a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass.  Garnish with shredded tangerine zest.

The zest kind of fell apart there.  But yeah, it was delicious.  Awesome, in fact.  Sweet, a bit tart, with some bite to it.  A pretty good apertif to my pizza.

Then I had a Digiorno frozen pizza with some beer.

Yay, beer.  (Sam Adams Boston Ale)

So let’s experiment.  Earlier today, the Washington Post had an article about bartenders, and one of the questions they asked them was “What would you suggest for someone who didn’t know what they wanted?”  One bartender suggested Zubrowka buffalo grass vodka (a Polish vodka I first bought back in 2000 for

dan_oz

‘s wedding) and apple juice – he says it comes out coconut-ty.

I made a promise to

tmfiii

that I’m only buying flavored vodka; I keep my unflavored to Charodei.

A nice light drink – I made it off a recipe I thought of, since they didn’t post one.

Zubrowka and apple juice (yes, a great freakin’ name, screw you)
2 oz. Zubrowka bison grass vodka
4 oz. apple juice

Stir and strain.

Well, that was nice, a good change of pace from beer and pizza, sort of a dessert.  It’s time to change to something I’ve wanted to try since I saw it in The Joy of Mixology,  You’ve got black and tans, you’ve got shandys, this is a Pernod & Cider.

Pernod & Cider
2 oz. Pernod
12 oz. cider

Yeah.

So.

Uh.

Not so great.

It tasted like, uh, bubbly Pernod.  It got better as it went on, but I was eating vegetarian buffalo wings with Peppadew mustard sauce with them while drinking it.  It made it better.

But what next?

I debated for a while, and then decided:

Sidecar
1 1/2 ounce cognac
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1 lemon twist

Hey, I can compare it to the Apple Sidecar, and my plan had been to make one with the Remy Martin cognac I bought tonight, and one with the Hennessey cognac mini I’d bought earlier this month.

Unfortunately, I forgot the lemon twist.  It was a bit more balanced, maybe, than the apple sidecar, and had a nice warmth to it.  I liked it a lot.

BUT WHO STOPS THERE?!

WHAT DOES THIS MAKE?  YOU CANNOT GUESS!

Brighton Punch
1 1/4 ounce orange juice
1 ounce lemon juice
3/4 ounce bourbon
3/4 ounce Benedictine
3/4 ounce cognac
fill with ice, top with club soda, garnish with wedges of lemon and orange

I added a straw/spoon.

It’s pretty interesting as a drink.  As a punch, it’s a sipping drink and it can last a while.  It’s good and fruity for sipping.

Well, that done me well, but I still had one cocktail glass in the freezer, so it was time for one more before switching back to beer.

Ignore the stuff in the background; this is 2 ounces brandy, 1/2 ounce Chambord (creme de cassis can also work), 1 ounce Lillet blonde, 2 dashes orange bitters, 1 lemon twist.

Since I got the recipe from Gary Regan’s book, I used his bitters (Regan’s Orange Bitters #6).

Eh.  It tasted like a “grown up” drink to me, I’d almost say cough syrup-ish, but not as harsh or tart, something that keeps your eyes open.

Oh well.

Back to beer.

I love me some beer!

Well, time for me to go to bed – gotta hit Schneider’s tomorrow with

tmfiii

for shopping.  See y’all later.

The best Cocktail a la Louisiane ever.

Recipe from Cocktail Chronicles:
3/4 oz. rye
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. Benedictine
3 dashes Pernod (all I have; he suggests Herbsaint)
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Given that I’m making a double, I use 1 1/2 ounce of the first three; given my previous experience, I use 3/4 of a teaspoon of the Pernod, and just use simply 6 dashes of Peychaud’s.

Oh yeah.  Look at the ingredients.

Obviously, the Pernod, the Peychaud’s, and the Benedictine are standard.

The vermouth is Camparo Antica.

The rye is Red Hook Rye; I poured an ounce of it, and half an ounce of water, to make it an appropriate proof.

DRINK = TEH AWESOME

I simply can’t express how it good it was.  I used two brandy soaked cherries that I’d done myself with a bit of Grand Marnier.

Later that day I was asked to taste some wine; I felt like an ass, ’cause my tastebuds aren’t that refined to begin with (see next post here) and after that drink, well, damn.