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Alucard posted:Low brow cocktail question for the group - if I make negronis and boulevardiers with stuff like tanqueray and bulleit rye, is it really a huge step up shelling out for luxardo cherries instead of just the grocery store Maraschinos?
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Jan 8, 2023 16:23
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Alucard posted:Low brow cocktail question for the group - if I make negronis and boulevardiers with stuff like tanqueray and bulleit rye, is it really a huge step up shelling out for luxardo cherries instead of just the grocery store Maraschinos? There's a real difference, whether or not it's worth it is something only you can answer, but don't listen to anyone who tells you there's a right or wrong way to enjoy your drink. Besides the taste, visually they make the drink feel different, I'll grab the fancy cherry if I want to feel classy but the bright red ones have a kitschy, lowbrow appeal and sometimes I'm in the mood for that. Edit: If you buy the larger size can online it's a little more economical and takes the sting out of the price a bit. Human Tornada fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jan 8, 2023 |
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Jan 8, 2023 17:10
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You can also find cherries that are similar to Luxardo and not the bright red candy stuff, for half the price of luxardo. I don’t think they taste as good but they are definitely better than the candy ones.
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Jan 8, 2023 17:13
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Human Tornada posted:If you buy the larger size can online it's a little more economical and takes the sting out of the price a bit.
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Jan 8, 2023 17:49
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Yeah you can’t really compare Luxardo cherries to anything else, even other amarena/marasca cherries imo. They’re syrupy and “meaty,” with a rich, dark flavor. That being said, I love hosed-up neon grocery store cherry too. My local grocer stocks jumbo sized ones that are incredible, and they’re a perfect garnish for a tropical drink.
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Jan 8, 2023 17:55
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Yeah agree they're completely different things. I got the fancy ones once and I also kinda prefer the neon grocery store version. Try them both and use what you like.
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Jan 8, 2023 19:11
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Phil Moscowitz posted:You can also find cherries that are similar to Luxardo and not the bright red candy stuff, for half the price of luxardo. I don’t think they taste as good but they are definitely better than the candy ones. Yeah a jar of Toschi cherries is a larger jar for less money and they taste like 85% as good as Luxardo. If you want a really expensive, really cool looking (and decent tasting) garnish then get a jar of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O3VB4Q/
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Jan 8, 2023 19:17
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Thanks for the recs on some alternatives too - I've had luxardos in cocktails at bars and also use orange peel in my home negronis, but haven't decided to take the dive with fancier cherries. I'll give some mid-tier luxardalikes a shot to match with the mid tier liquors.
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Jan 8, 2023 19:44
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Just as a word of warning, I bought some Griottines a while ago at a schmancy French cafe and they are not what you might think they are. Not good for drinks, at least not where you're expecting the chew and muscle and bite of a Luxardo
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Jan 8, 2023 19:49
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Re: cherries. Luxardo cherries are great on cheesecake with some sauce drizzled on it and then dusted with cinnamon. Grocery store maraschino cherries are a waste of money unless you want to make a silly sundae, but even luxardo cherries are better for that.
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Jan 9, 2023 02:12
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Alucard posted:Low brow cocktail question for the group - if I make negronis and boulevardiers with stuff like tanqueray and bulleit rye, is it really a huge step up shelling out for luxardo cherries instead of just the grocery store Maraschinos? The Luxardo cherries are completely different to the lovely red grocery store cherries. They’re expensive though so “worth it” is up to you.
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Jan 9, 2023 07:37
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When I first started mixing drinks at home maybe a decade ago I used the liquid from the neon red maraschino jar as a sweetener. It's actually better than Rose's grenadine, which isn't saying much. I kinda want to revisit that in a nostalgic way sometime.
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Jan 9, 2023 17:28
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Superjuice: Yay or Nay? On the one hand, I have a hard time imagining that some citrus juice + powdered acids is going to taste as crisp and clean as actual fresh lemons and limes. On the other hand are two pieces of evidence against this: 1. I already use Morganthaler's lime cordial for several drinks, and I truly don't feel a loss of freshness at all with them, and 2. Limes are a real crapshoot at my grocery store; either they're wonderful little balls of juice or I need to squeeze two and a half to get a full oz out of them, and it's getting prettttty old now.
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Jan 9, 2023 17:48
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I thought about making some and was researching it recently. I have never tried it, there's a lot of consensus it is great and just as good as fresh. The problem is it is not actually shelf stable. It noticeably degrades in a couple weeks even when kept in the fridge. I came to the conclusion it makes a ton of sense for a bar that's going through lots of lime juice, but as a person making two or three drinks a week at home it's a waste, I'll never use enough of it.
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Jan 9, 2023 18:10
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A minor bonus to getting the fancy Luxardos is a teaspoon of the syrup they come in reaaaaally enhances a Manhattan
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Jan 9, 2023 18:11
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Yeah the luxardo syrup is a great addition to lots of different drinks.
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Jan 9, 2023 18:41
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Speaking as a home bartender that occasionally entertains guests, I love super lime for any time that I’m planning to make more than one or two tropical drinks. It’s economical, easy to make, keeps in the fridge for two weeks without any noticeable degradation, and tastes comparable to fresh squeezed. Some people like it a little more than fresh, some like it a little less, but nobody has ever said it isn’t good. You take two or three limes, batch ahead a huge amount of super lime out of it, and you’ve taken like 70% of the work out of making tropical drinks for the rest of your month.
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Jan 9, 2023 18:47
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I am personally offended at the addition of Luxardo cherry syrup to Manhattans or Old Fashioneds, as a standard. If you request it that way, so be it
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Jan 9, 2023 19:21
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Luxardo cherry syrup is just fine on its own
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Jan 9, 2023 19:54
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I like adding it to various citrus drinks for a little sweetness and flavor. It’s a great mocktail addition too, especially just a floater of it.
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Jan 9, 2023 20:01
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Strange Matter posted:Superjuice: Yay or Nay? Echoing the above posters, I loved having a bottle of super lime juice in the summer when I was making lots of tropical drinks. But I definitely also felt kind of pressured to use it up, as it won't last more than a month. (Which is still pretty good, as limes won't last that long either.) As far as the taste, I find it to be indistinguishable, if not better. No concerns there.
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Jan 9, 2023 20:12
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Even if you're only drinking a few cocktails a week, it's pretty nice getting two weeks worth of cocktails from one lime.
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Jan 9, 2023 20:20
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Super lemon is far superior to super lime in terms of quality:effort ratio, imo. Close to indistinguishable once it gets into the drink. I've yet to come across a super lime recipe that wasn't noticably sub-par to fresh lime. The convenience factor for both is through the roof though
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Jan 9, 2023 20:48
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I kind of skimmed over the superjuice discussion last time it came up since I’m usually lazy and don’t have actual fruit on hand to squeeze but I’ve been squeezing for the past few weeks and while it is noticeably nicer it’s a pain in the rear end. What all do I need to make superwhatever? The fruit and citric acid? Anything else? Edit: citric and malic acid it looks like? Unless someone has a superior recipe
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Jan 9, 2023 20:52
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RA3AaCO7A8 This guy is goofy, but I would probably copy what he's doing
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Jan 9, 2023 21:02
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Haven’t tried lemon but I didn’t like the lime nearly as much as fresh.
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Jan 9, 2023 21:41
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I found the lime to be a little better than the lemon for my tastes, and if you don't need the peel for something it definitely requires fewer visits to the grocer. I'm not sold on the eco impact though, since you're buying chemicals that almost certainly have some nontrivial impact in extraction / processing. Less food waste, more industrial waste.
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Jan 9, 2023 23:11
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return to when our ancestors were more in touch with mother nature, and used every part of the limes they hunted
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Jan 9, 2023 23:27
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I kind of think that luxardo cherry juice and a splash of vodka could stand in for cherry heering in a Singapore sling since that drink is the only reason I keep a bottle around.
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Jan 9, 2023 23:27
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I keep coming back to the Arbitrary Nature of Time to drain my Heering.
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Jan 9, 2023 23:32
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The syrup is the same flavor in Luxardo cherry liqueur (not Maraschino, but Sangue Morlacco), so you’re probably right.
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Jan 9, 2023 23:35
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it was definitely a bit of a shock to try Luxardo Maraschino for the first time and realize it doesn't actually taste like cherries
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Jan 9, 2023 23:39
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Fart Car '97 posted:Super lemon is far superior to super lime in terms of quality:effort ratio, imo. Close to indistinguishable once it gets into the drink. I've yet to come across a super lime recipe that wasn't noticably sub-par to fresh lime.
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Jan 10, 2023 00:39
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Reading reviews touting super juice, saying fresh juice only keeps for a day, that does’t fit my experience. Fresh citrus juice in a sealed container in the fridge lasts at least a week for me with no discernable change in flavor, often much longer.
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Jan 10, 2023 00:42
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This is definitely down to different people tasting things differently. OP, I'd really recommend trying it for yourself. It's very funny to see one of the main gripes with it here being that it doesn't last more than a couple weeks, considering that's at least twice as long as fresh juice will last if you're Phil Moscowitz here (a week is too long for fresh juice IMO but remember what I said about people tasting things differently? If you're just making drinks for yourself at home, do whatever you want.) I make the recipe from the video with the goofy Slovenian guy posted upthread and it's great, I love it. At my restaurant I've never had any super juice sit around for longer than a week so longevity hasn't really come up, but that's honestly kind of secondary to me, compared to the other benefits. I can just make big batches of juice twice a week and save my bartenders prep time before the shift so they can worry about other things. Plus, I use much, much less citrus, which is great because the price of lemons and limes can vary wildly based on all sorts of things, so I'm saving the restaurant a lot of money. I'll also add that in the video he mentions wanting to work out citric/malic acid ratios for other fruit juices, but I've made super satsuma juice and super grapefruit juice with his 45g citric/8g malic ratio and they've worked perfectly well in cocktails. Sure, they taste kind of odd on their own, but it lets you make, say, a satsuma daiquiri with no lime juice, which is pretty cool.
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Jan 10, 2023 01:03
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Alucard posted:Low brow cocktail question for the group - if I make negronis and boulevardiers with stuff like tanqueray and bulleit rye, is it really a huge step up shelling out for luxardo cherries instead of just the grocery store Maraschinos? Honestly, I feel that regardless of what liquor you use, luxardo cherries are a huge step up from the bright red standard bullshit. I wish this cruise ship had slightly better cherries, but at least they have decent rye.
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Jan 10, 2023 02:29
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Is there much versatile use for Bonal or Becherovka? I'm thinking about picking them up for a particular drink, but I'd feel better spending the $ if there were a bunch of things I could use them for.
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Jan 10, 2023 02:50
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I love adding Becherovka to random cocktails to make them Christmas themed. Doesn't work for everything, but anything that's vanilla, caramel, or spice forward should work well with it.
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Jan 10, 2023 03:01
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Origami Dali posted:Is there much versatile use for Bonal or Becherovka? I'm thinking about picking them up for a particular drink, but I'd feel better spending the $ if there were a bunch of things I could use them for. Mixel has 12 recipes that use Becherovka and 14 that use Bonal. Not super versatile but that's probably enough. A few weeks ago a lot of the people in this thread were making Punchy's First Strike which uses Becherovka and was apparently really good: https://cocktailwonk.com/2014/07/czeching-out-oddball-tiki-punchys-first-strike-the-strike-two-and-becherovka.html
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Jan 10, 2023 03:05
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Bonal is good in a Manhattan in place of vermouth. It's also good alone. Becherovka is a fun replacement for falernum sometimes.
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Jan 10, 2023 05:03
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