Cocktails

I made up this drink back in the days when I used to bartend. Girls loved it.

MilkyWay Martini.

1oz Vanilla Vodka
1oz Chocolate Godiva liquor
1/2 oz Caramel Baileys

Decorate the glass with Chocolate syrup and Caramel. Garnish it with a Strawberry and/or a mini MilkyWay.

Another drink for those that like to try exciting things that can ruin you is a Habanero Martini

2 oz reposado tequila
1 oz dry vermouth
1/4 oz lime juice
1 small whole habanero pepper for garnish


And here is another shout out to Galliano. Later on I'll poste a dessert recipe of Flamed Mangos with Galliano.

Nearly anyone who really likes proper cocktails is not going to turn up their nose or struggle to put down a nice a glass of whiskey neat or on the rocks. Proper cocktails aren't about covering up the taste of alcohol (well they were originally when most spirits had shit for quality); they are about enhancing the natural flavors already there. A good bourbon cocktail is going to taste mostly like bourbon, but round out the profile to enhance a certain aspect of it. The mint julep is one America's great contribution to civilized society, and it's as close to perfection as you can get. It still mostly tastes like bourbon though.

Tea_sl said:

LA, New Orleans, San Fran, Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, New York all have pretty nice craft cocktail scenes. Anywhere else might have a 1 or 2 craft bars, that will probably be out of business in a couple years or adapt to be less crafty.

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Have you been to Japp's in OTR? I know that's a craft cocktail bar that opened in the past 15 months or so. I went there when I was back home for Thanksgiving last year and they have a bunch of Cincinnati-centric named drinks. A bartender friend who works at a cocktail joint in Chicago went with me and he said it sucked a lot, but I know nothing about cocktails really. I've been to quite a few of the "must-go" cocktail bars here in SF, but, as I said, I know nothing about cocktails since I'm primarily a beer drinker.

The last cocktail I had that I'd consider truly amazing was a mint julep at a place in downtown D.C. I think it was called "Sou'wester". Mint julep is one of my main standby drinks if I find myself in an upscale establishment (which is pretty damn rare, though).

not a cocktail but, 3 xanax bars dropped into some captain and coke does me wonders

Alex_sl said:

Have you been to Japp's in OTR? I know that's a craft cocktail bar that opened in the past 15 months or so. I went there when I was back home for Thanksgiving last year and they have a bunch of Cincinnati-centric named drinks. A bartender friend who works at a cocktail joint in Chicago went with me and he said it sucked a lot, but I know nothing about cocktails really. I've been to quite a few of the "must-go" cocktail bars here in SF, but, as I said, I know nothing about cocktails since I'm primarily a beer drinker.

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Japps makes craft cocktails shittily. I'm not a fan.

Tea_sl said:

Yes, lemons and limes. You will want to tailor the exact ratio for each drink, but 1 lime and 1/2 a lemon is a good baseline as that should give you roughly equivalent amounts of juice. Depending on the drink you may need to throw in a little simple syrup to keep it balanced.

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I find it easiest juice and bottle a dozen lemons or limes and use the juice in a week rather than juicing them drink to drink. It's really use it all as you have the base for a good amount of drinks: Any sours, margaritas, daiquiris, tom collins.

Tea is right, put down the mix and use fresh juice.

Oh man, Ishad I have some terrible news for you. Fresh citrus juice has an incredibly short shelf life. You got maybe 24 hours with that juice before it starts to lose a little zip. If you are keeping it in an airtight container maybe a little longer, but not much. It will still taste citrusy but it won't have that crispness to it. I bet you've made drinks before towards the end of the week that tasted basically right, but that just weren't quite as good as you were hoping. With a hand juicer it takes hardly any time at all to juice for each drink. Just cut in half and squeeze.

All of you people posting shit like FRUIT JUICE AND SOUR MIX. Here's a solution for you, especially good in Margaritas.




(not saying don't cut out the fruit juice. Fresh squeezed juice in shit is awsome).

Adebisi_sl said:

Any white russian variations? I love me my big lebowski treat.

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Make a white russian with a splash of Rumple Minze and some cinnamon. Perfect drink for this time of year really.

Adebisi_sl said:

Any white russian variations? I love me my big lebowski treat.

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Try a Brandy Alexander:

1 oz Brandy or Cognac
1 oz dark creme de cacao
1 oz Cream
Garnish with nutmeg

You can run the range from half-and-half through heavy cream for the last ingredient. Personally I like heavy cream, but I don't drink them too often where I would be concerned about putting that many calories into my body. The Brandy Alexander is one of the best winter after dinner drinks, and I highly recommend over the White Russian. It's a more complex drink, but otherwise very similar.

Comedy option:

Archer: "Ah! What did I just put inside me."

Pam: "Green Russians. It's absinthe and uh... milk.

Tea: Do you have any good cocktail recs using mezcal?

Mezcal is an odd sort. We haven't had much access to it in the states until fairly recently (well access to good mezcal that is), and even then it's not going to be stocked in many bars that aren't very high end. It's an interesting spirit though and packs a ton of interesting and great flavor, but that flavor is super dense. I liken it to trying to mix drinks with Chartreuse in that it will overwhelm a cocktail very easily, so it would take a lot of experimentation to nail down the specifics. Frankly I just haven't put much thought or time into nailing down how it works in drinks, and since I tend to make actual classic cocktails it's not something I've given a lot of thought to. So, take this with a grain of salt, but I have had a drink I really like using mezcal from a great bartender in NYC:

Jacko's End

1 oz Mezcal
1 oz Applejack
1/2 oz Benedictine
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters.

Stirred.

God damn that is a fucking drink. Applejack is a really unappreciated spirit that pops up all over the place in classic cocktail recipes. Applejack is also the US's first spirit, so there's a bit of mystique and history to it that I always like, which the Benedictine and Peychaud's doubles down on.

It does make me want to try my hand at a margarita using it. I often like to splash some scotch into my margaritas to add a little bit of smokiness to bring a little balance and depth to the citrus explosion. It seems like mezcal could accomplish the same thing but more extreme. I suppose you could use mezcal in place of tequila, but not without some significant alterations. I'm not sure how I'd go about it, but I'd start by bringing in something fairly beefy to the mix. I'll probably play around with it some when warmer weather hits.

There is a fairly decent cocktail bar in New Haven that I frequent and this is one of my favorites from their menu:

The Forth and Clyde:

Hendricks Gin - 1oz.
Makers Mark Bourbon - 1oz.
St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur - 1oz.
Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice - 1oz.
Local Honey - 1oz
Salemme Red Chili Flakes - 1 pinch or to taste

Prep directions:
Stir all ingredients together in Boston shaker before adding ice to allow syrup to melt.
Fill shaker with ice and shake.
Double strain into a cocktail glass

Tea you talk up Mezcal like it's mythical. All tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila... Tequila is made from blue agave and usually steamed whereas other mezcals can be made of different agave plants that are generally smoked. Mezcals definitely do have a larger range of flavor than tequilas.

Most tequila cocktails work well with mezcal as well. It's a bit of a different flavor profile, but it's not like comparing a different liquor altogether.

When Eyashua mentioned mezcal I immediately thought of the high grade 100% agave stuff that has been the craze among craft cocktail bars for a couple years. Of those, the ones I've tried have been in no way comparable in terms of mixing with tequila. Again though I've only tried a couple of these, so I accept that may not be representative of the drink as a whole. The ones I've had have been overwhelmingly smokey with this sort of great bouquet of everything. Like the background notes of a good tequila brought to the forefront, and I think it would be fairly difficult to mix those. For those mezcals it's not that they are mythical just difficult to mix. I wouldn't describe Chartreuse as mythical either, but the overpowering herbal nature of it means it can take over a drink pretty easily. For a milder mezcal, yeah just substitute for tequila.

For what it's worth, I did think very highly of those mezcals, which is probably why my post came over all gushy. That is hardly unique to mezcal though as I will go gushy over pretty much any spirit - except vodka.