|
The only blue curacao I've found locally is dekuyper and something even cheaper. Will I regret buying that? Should I try harder to get something better?
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 01:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:43 |
|
|
Good blue curacao doesn't exist. It's just cheap triple sec with food coloring. Just buy whatever you have available and it'll be good enough for your Blue Hawaiians or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 01:28
|
|
|
wormil posted:The only blue curacao I've found locally is dekuyper and something even cheaper. Will I regret buying that? Should I try harder to get something better? Do you need it to be blue? The giffard is probably the highest quality if you do. The rest of them are pretty much blue sugar water.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 04:49
|
|
|
Good white creme de cacao is weirdly the thing I have had the hardest time finding just about ever, even in places with a great selection and a surprising number of obscure liqueurs and amari. What the hell
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 06:52
|
|
|
The Bandit posted:Do you need it to be blue? The giffard is probably the highest quality if you do. The rest of them are pretty much blue sugar water. Kinda, we are adding some stuff besides the basic liquors. Everyone wants to make colored drinks. I'll just buy the dekuyper.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 09:16
|
|
|
wormil posted:Kinda, we are adding some stuff besides the basic liquors. Everyone wants to make colored drinks. I'll just buy the dekuyper. Grab some Pierre Ferrand dry curacao and put some blue food coloring in it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 10:05
|
|
|
Our bar group did a tasting of every blue Curacao regular ly available last year and we landed on Hiram Walker's being the best tasting by a solid margin FWIW
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 14:23
|
|
|
eSports Chaebol posted:Good white creme de cacao is weirdly the thing I have had the hardest time finding just about ever, even in places with a great selection and a surprising number of obscure liqueurs and amari. What the hell No poo poo, the best one I've had is the Godiva one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 18:02
|
|
|
prayer group posted:No poo poo, the best one I've had is the Godiva one. Do they actually make one? I don’t mean white chocolate liqueur, I mean a clear one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 20:34
|
|
|
I’ve tried Giffard’s and it was good. Don’t have anything to compare it to though
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2020 20:52
|
|
|
Oh lol I misunderstood what you meant by white creme de cacao. Yeah Giffard is about the best you're going to do for that particular product. That Godiva white chocolate liqueur earned me a lot of tips from drunk rich white moms at the bar I used to work at. I have no shame in admitting I used to make and sell for money a white mocha martini. When you have an espresso machine behind the bar and a huge shelf of weird liquor bottles you start experimenting.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2020 05:05
|
|
|
What are some of your go to ginger beer recipes? i have one but i'm interested to see how others do it and if I could be doing something better. also looking to mess around with it and maybe do pineapple instead of citrus juice, add flavorings etc. mine is something like 12 oz ginger juice 24 oz lemon 50 oz 1:1 simple 140 oz water flavorings like clove, habanero etc, champagne yeast and usually let it go for less than a couple days. i might be forgetting something this is just off the top of my head
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2020 03:06
|
|
|
We got new bitters this week to help keep us entertained during the continued quarantine from AZ bitters lab. As an aside, their stuff is really good, I love the orange bitters a lot. Was playing around with a cocktail to use their figgy pudding bitters and came up with a fun flip that reads nice and wintery, despite the weather still being so hot. Figgy flip: 2 oz brandy .75 oz averna .25 oz creme de mure .5 oz maple syrup figgy pudding bitters whole egg Shake it up and top with a drop more of the bitters to float on top. I think it would be good too adding in a little curacao or a little orange flavor somewhere. I wouldn't want it to get too sweet though, so maybe take down the maple, but I find it adds a nice flavor. Carillon fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Aug 28, 2020 |
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 19:35
|
|
|
Those bitters sound lovely. I’ve been looking at El Guapo’s holiday pie bitters, but maybe I’ll consider those instead.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 20:00
|
|
|
I have a bunch of rhubarb from my dads garden and want to make some rhubarb vodka. Does anyone have a good recipe and method?? A few places say to let the rhubarb sit in sugar for a day before mixing with the alcohol and a few included cinnamon and lemon and bits. I don’t know where to start so an idiots guide would be great 
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2020 21:04
|
|
|
Bape Culture posted:I have a bunch of rhubarb from my dads garden and want to make some rhubarb vodka. Does anyone have a good recipe and method?? A few places say to let the rhubarb sit in sugar for a day before mixing with the alcohol and a few included cinnamon and lemon and bits. I don’t know where to start so an idiots guide would be great No idea about vodka but in general rhubarb is sour as gently caress and requires lots of sugar. Leaves your pots shining clean tho!
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2020 07:39
|
|
|
How long do you guys keep fresh lemon juice? I had some that was in the fridge for a couple of days in a delitainer, smelled fine, but it had the most horrible industrial aftertaste that lingered even after flossing and brushing my teeth. I'm guessing it leached something from the plastic container, so from now on I only use glass, but I'm still a little worried about keeping it for more than one day.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2020 22:11
|
|
|
wormil posted:How long do you guys keep fresh lemon juice? I had some that was in the fridge for a couple of days in a delitainer, smelled fine, but it had the most horrible industrial aftertaste that lingered even after flossing and brushing my teeth. I'm guessing it leached something from the plastic container, so from now on I only use glass, but I'm still a little worried about keeping it for more than one day. Just keep it stored in the lemon
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2020 22:39
|
|
|
I may be insane, but I swear that peeled lemons keep longer than intact lemons. I mean, I've removed the sugar so it makes sense, maybe? The pith eventually gets hard as hell but the juice still seems fine for a couple of weeks. Also I just got a standing citrus press and now Life is Good
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2020 23:49
|
|
|
I also recently came into a standing citrus press, it is really nice to be able to batch juice citrus in the afternoon and not have to worry about it when mixing drinks in the evening.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 00:32
|
|
|
wormil posted:How long do you guys keep fresh lemon juice? I had some that was in the fridge for a couple of days in a delitainer, smelled fine, but it had the most horrible industrial aftertaste that lingered even after flossing and brushing my teeth. I'm guessing it leached something from the plastic container, so from now on I only use glass, but I'm still a little worried about keeping it for more than one day. I'm not positive but I think that's just the natural process of lemon juice oxidizing. To quote Dave Arnold in Liquid Intelligence because I happen to have it out for another project: Dave Arnold posted:Unlike juices from grapefruit, orange, and apple, which can be kept for a couple of days or even longer, lemon and lime juice must be used the day they are made. Lime is the most fragile, starting to change the moment it is juiced. I like like juice best after it has rested for a couple of hours.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 02:05
|
|
|
Funny, I was just reading an article in Cook’s illustrated about this topic and they were claiming that orange juice begins to decline shortly after juicing due to having some chemical compound that lemon and lime juice don’t.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 03:07
|
|
|
Yeah, that must be what I read because I was under the impression orange needs to be fresh, lime is best after a few hours and keeps half a day, and lemon up to several days. Any idea where grapefruit juice falls? The reason I asked is 1) our limes are really strong when fresh squeezed and dominate the other flavors, and are better after sitting a few hours. Lemons too but not as much. 2) I like to squeeze the fruits ahead of time so I don't have to fool with it at the last minute. 3) sometimes I squeeze too much.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 07:20
|
|
|
"serious eats posted:Grapefruit juice: aged for 1 to 3 days is best. Juice held for a day was noticeably more bitter, but that actually made the juice taste more grapefruit-ey. After three days, the juice tasted like it had lost much of its aroma, though the bitterness still wasn't overpowering.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 14:51
|
|
|
So can someone explain how an Old Fashioned is supposed to work? Specifically -- so there are a lot of variations, but what most agree on is that you're supposed to start by muddling the sugar cube and bitters in the serving glass, and then add ice, and then add whiskey. So ... this seems like the entire intent is for the sugar/bitters to stay at the bottom and not affect the drink at all until the very end. Why wouldn't one try to mix it better? Or is that, like, the point? Some "thing" about how the bitters/sugar should be just a hint to finish it off when you're almost done?
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 22:42
|
|
|
Data Graham posted:So can someone explain how an Old Fashioned is supposed to work? First you muddle some sugar, a cherry, and half an orange slice with the bitters. Then add whiskey and a bit of ice. Then top with sprite.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 23:16
|
|
|
No, an Old Fashioned should be well-mixed and integrated; some people like a little sugar grit at the bottom but the vast majority of the sugar should be dissolved. I'm not 100% on this (but I bet more knowledgeable posters will be in here to correct the record if I'm wrong), but I think the reason that lots of classic OF recipes call for you to muddle the sugar is simply because that's the old-fashioned way to do it. (Personally, I make cold process rich simple and use that.)
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2020 23:18
|
|
|
The only reason some people use sugar cubes is for tradition, but it's not really much of a tradition because the sugar itself is nothing like what they would have been using when the old fashioned came into Vogue in the mid 1800s. It's weird to think of simple syrup as an 'invention' but it just wasn't something used in the era of the old fashioned. Cocktails used raw sugar -- all of them. Simple syrup came along much later but there's no practical reason not to use it unless you want to enjoy the process. If you want to go through the process you'll want to add a touch of water to the crushed sugar cube and bitters and then stir that together so the syrup will dissolve -- because it wont dissolve well into the liquor alone. A lot of traditionalists use soda water. You still want to stir the drink a few times in the glass to integrate all the ingredients once they're all in. The addition of cherry and orange to the muddling is entirely the result of the post-prohibition / WW2 loss of the art of the cocktail. It's a practice that appeared some time in the mid century, likely to try and give the drink some kind of visual appeal in a market where brown liquor was dying. Fart Car '97 fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Aug 31, 2020 |
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 00:00
|
|
|
I do my old fashioned with just simple, bitters and whiskey over ice garnished with a lemon or orange twist.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 00:53
|
|
|
Cool, good to know. Do we still just sit the syrup/bitters in the bottom of the glass and let it mix naturally, or do we like swizzle it around with the ice a bit while feeling a bit of shame and pretend we're not doing it? Or actually mix it prior to pouring.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 01:57
|
|
|
I kinda pick the glass up and give everything a little jiggle
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 02:13
|
|
|
If I'm lazy, I build the drink in the serving glass, but even then I'll stir it a few times. If I'm not lazy, I stir and strain onto new ice. Generally speaking, every cocktail should be well-mixed (and the exceptions are obvious: things floated on top of drinks or explicitly layered drinks like pousse-cafés, which, I don't know if anyone really drinks those). If you're new to cocktail making, it might be worth mentioning that tons of recipes don't bother listing "combine ingredients in mixing vessel, add ice, stir/shake (depending) until cold and well-mixed, strain (onto new ice if your drink is served with ice)" as part of the steps, because that sequence of steps is so common that it's assumed unless the recipe explicitly tells you to do something that contradicts with one of those steps. Lots of drink books just list ingredients/amounts and then say "stir" or "shake" plus the recommended serving style or glassware ("up" "rocks" "coupe" "Nick & Nora" etc), because the techniques are so consistent.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 02:37
|
|
|
Yeah, you want to stir well because the water melting off the ice is an important component of the drink’s balance.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 03:05
|
|
|
vlad3217 posted:First you muddle some sugar, a cherry, and half an orange slice with the bitters. Then add whiskey and a bit of ice. Then top with sprite.  For the 10% who don't get the reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lf4qFL9nGU "Background posted:She was stunned when she walked not onto a set, but into a conference room at the Mahalo offices on Colorado Avenue. A black curtain had been draped on the back wall in a perfunctory attempt to dress up the surroundings. In front, a table was set up with dozens of bottles of bottom-shelf alcohol, but, notably, no bartending tools.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 03:52
|
|
|
There is also the Petraske approach with old fashioned /negroni style drinks: Simple, bitters, spirits in the glass. Lightly lower a big cube into the glass and give a few quick stirs to integrate but not so much that you begin dilution. The drinker just sits with the drink until it hit that correct dilution that they love at which point they'll quickly finish the drink.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 03:52
|
|
|
I think the relative lack of dilution is integral. I wouldn’t dream of stirring an OF and straining over fresh ice. Edit: forgot to clarify, I do believe in at least stirring enough to fully integrate the ingredients. Build over a large cube, and stir a handful of times. The Maestro fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Aug 31, 2020 |
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 04:48
|
|
|
Right or wrong I use about 1/2 oz of simple syrup, 2 dashes bitters, 1 dash of grapefruit bitters, stir, add ice, add 1.5 - 2 oz rye; and that's my Old Fashioned. Also, because I like updates from other people, I have 2: I asked about making grapefruit bitters and was advised against but did it anyway and it turned out fantastic. It was a bunch of grapefruit rinds with a few lemon rinds + warm spices and I don't know what all because my daughter made it when I wasn't home, filled with Everclear, 2 weeks-ish on the counter, strain. She made about 12 oz so we'll be using grapefruit bitters for a long time. Fruity, warm, spicy, and mildly bitter, a real fall/winter flavor. Also mint + grapefruit bitters doesn't work, I tried it so you don't have to. Lewis bag, I bought a Bulleit bag off ebay for $10 shipped because I assumed it would be good quality was about 1/3 cost of a good quality bag and only slightly more than a cheap chinese bag. I know, they were probably giving them away but I didn't get one when they were free. It does seem well made and holds enough ice for one or two drinks and magnets hold the top closed. The magnets are mildly annoying and tend to snap shut while you are dumping the ice. The grapefruit bitters were such a success I'd like to try something else (in a much smaller qty) if anyone has a recommendation on homemade bitters.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 06:52
|
|
|
About 20 seconds of stirring in the glass with one big ice cube should be enough. With most common big cube molds, a good rule of thumb is to stir until the cube and the liquid are both even in height.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 13:50
|
|
|
You don’t really need to sweat stirring, either. It’s much easier to under stir than over stir; once the drink meets the temperature of the ice, it stops melting, so you can stand there and stir to your heart’s content and the drink isn’t going to dilute any more than it would sitting on your table.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 13:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 16:43 |
|
|
Also, as punishment for my hubris: I put Nikka From the Barrel in a sidecar last night and it was actually gross. The lemon juice highlighted an unpleasant acrid note that the Nikka has and the drink and the spirit were just worse for off for the combination.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2020 13:59
|
|