An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

But it looks like my glasses have the same problem as his did:

The drink is a Pink Gin.

Pink Gin
3 ounces Plymouth gin
6 goodly dashes Angostura Bitters

The glass is – well, it cracked as soon as it went into the shaker.  It was room temperature when I put ice in it.

At least it didn’t shard!

So, PX last night kicked mucho ass.  We spent 5 hours there, getting there at 9 PM (despite our 9:45 reservation) and closing it out.  I can’t get over how great it was, and how much fun we had.  I believe

tmfiii

will have more on it…I might do a Four Letter Gourmand or something on it, too.

Inspired today, out I went.  I hit the liquor store and picked up some Maccu Pisco (actually, had to go to a second one for that since it somehow got left off my order), some Calvados, Bols Sloe Gin, and some other stuff.  Then it was to Total Wine where I got Cinzano sweet vermouth, Dubonnet red, and some other stuff.  Then off to

tmfiii

‘s house to give him his Christmas present (what’s left of it) and to get mine.

Hey, I’m an intoxocologist!

My first boston shaker, plus a lemon/lime squeezer and some other things.

So while Cathy made cupcakes…

i did a couple of things.

I finished reading Imbibe! the other day, so I decided to make some horseradish infused vodka.

I used the vodka that was suggested but man, slicing up horseradish is a pain in the ass if you haven’t done it before.

Now we let that sit for a “turn of the Earth” or so in a dark place.  Such as my closet.

Whew!  Hard work.  I need a drink!

A Pisco sour?  Don’t mind if I do!  They were good last night!

Mmmmmm, tasty.  Yes, I drank both of them, Cathy didn’t want one.

Pisco Sour
2 ounces Pisco
1 ounce lime juice
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1/2 egg white
1 dash Angostura (as a garnish)

I, of course, made two thanks to the egg white.

But I need something else.

Hey, it’s a chance to use two of my new things – an Ante!

Ante
1 1/4 ounce Calvados
1/2 ounce Dubonnet
1/4 ounce Cointreau
1 dash Angostura

Interesting drink.  It still tastes strongly of Calvados, but it’s metered by the Cointreau and Dubonnet.  I like it!

Now it’s off to Thai food, which means a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA.  If I make more drinks later, I’ll maybe post more…

Obviously – it’s late.  I’m not, as you might have surmised, drunk however.  A long night last night helped encourage me towards that.

But I was back on the feet.  It wasn’t the greatest day in the world, especially since someone messed with my Harley.  I added an extra fork lock to the bike, hit the gym, promised Barbara dinner soon in exchange for begging off from tonight’s dinner, and headed up to the grocery store to buy cat food.

Of course, right next to the grocery store is the ABC store.  I’m all a-quiver in anticipation for Rustico and PX Saturday night, so I walked in there first.

I spent a good bit of time looking around.  I almost bought some pisco, but they only had one brand, and I wanted to check the reviews on it first.  I know the store near my office has more brands.

Eventually I succumbed and bought a bottle of 10 year old Macallen (i.e. the cheaper stuff – I was debating between that and Glenfiddich Solera Reserve, and I may still go back and get that), a mini of Hennessey (I wanted to try it), and a bottle of Campari.

I’m not a huge Campari fan but I felt it was time to add it to my bar to help with some drinks.  I also felt that if I drank more of it, I might come to like it more.  I sent an IM over to

tmfiii

that I picked it up.

“nice” he responded “negronis for everyone”

I didn’t know what I’d thought of making first but, hey, a negroni sounds like a logical starting point.

I’d had a couple of drinks already tonight.  My brother, Cathy, and I finally drank the bottle of Pian dell’Orino Brunello di Montalcino 2000 which was even better than I’d remembered – it was the last vestige of the “Katie” stuff, in a sort of way, and I’d been wanting to enjoy it.  (I’d also bought a bottle of Horton Cabernet Franc for the very nice young woman who lives in our old condo and forwards on the mis-directed packages we get, oh, constantly.)  After that, I had a small – about 1 ounce, maybe 1.5 – taste of the Jefferson bourbon I’d bought (mmmm, good) and a larger taste of the Macallen (bit of a let down after the bourbon).

With Matt and Cathy off to bed I decided for a Negroni for the road.

Negroni
1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Campari
stir with ice, strain, garnish with an orange wheel

(Recipe from Drinkboy)

Hey, I’m getting light on the sweet vermouth.  Gotta restock before mom shows up next week!

But it’s a fairly easy drink to make.

I used two ounces of each.

And here’s what I taste…

CAMPARI

or maybe it’s…

CAMPARI

or even…

CAMPARI

Yeah.

I’m still not a huge Campari fan, so i dropped that orange wheel into the drink and that helped some.  But it’s completely wiped out the gin flavor, at least.  Good thing I didn’t use the Sapphire.  Maybe Plymouth instead?

Hendricks?

I’m like Campari a bit more now, which might sound weird, but hey, that’s how it works.  Just don’t expect me to be knocking it back like

sylvene

or anything like that anytime soon…

I haven’t had a cigar in ages.  One of my joys at night is to sit outside of my condo, using one of the nifty folding chairs I got from Harris Teeter with a table on the side, smoking a cigar, sipping a drink of some sort, and reading a book by the light of the street lights and house light.  That might sound dark but it’s actually rather well lit outside.

Unfortunately, one of the chairs broke at the party last weekend and both are still over at that house, the house light is out, and it’s been crappy weather.

Last night was milder than I expected and I was bored, so I said, you know what, I’m going to figure out a way to do this.  I grabbed the two metal folding bistro chairs we have in our kitchen to hold my “ash tray” (a plastic bowl of water) and drinks, grabbed my copy of Imbibe!, poured myself a couple of drinks, and grabbed a cigar I haven’t tried before.

The cigar was a Rocky Patel Edge.  I picked it up for a good price at Georgetown Tobacco over at Tyson’s Corner Center.  I was actually impressed with all their prices; it’d been a while since I’d been there, but it was remarkably cheaper than the Total Tobacco near my office in Rosslyn and seemed cheaper than Old Virginia over in 7 Corners.

The cigar was lighter than the RP Vintage 1990s that I’d smoked a lot of in recent times but was still an enjoyable smoke.  As I typically do in situations like this, I did smoke it a bit fast, so it was a little hot by the end, but I greatly enjoyed it.

To go along with it I made two drinks: first, a Pimm’s and Sprite Zero – a combination that worked REALLY well, I thought, and another notch in my continuing quest to figure out which diet lemon-lime soda goes best with Pimm’s (I also have some Sierra Mist Free) – as well as a double sized Winter’s Touch.  Instead of shaking it, which I had an aversion to doing last night for some bizarre reason, I made it in the glass with plenty of ice and stirred it.  It came out well, especially after I let the ice melt a bit and dilute it down.  I probably could’ve added a bit more simple syrup, too.

But that definitely hit the spot last night.  I hadn’t done that in a long time.  Imbibe! is a great read, too – I haven’t finished it yet, but once I do I’ll make sure to do a Runo Knows… on it.