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Someone gifted me a bottle of Limoncello and I can't figure out what to do with it. Any suggestions? I looked up some recipes online and frankly all of them wind up feeling like "just throw some of this stuff in another drink." So far I've tried a Lemon Drop and a Sour and both were pretty underwhelming. Should I just make a spritz and call it a day?
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May 17, 2022 16:17
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Carillon posted:TBH I've mainly just had it as a cordial/liqueur chilled straight from the freezer.
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May 17, 2022 16:32
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BrianBoitano posted:Also, soak some berries in lemoncello and top with whipped cream. Bonus if you have a crumbly cookie or shortcake. Extra bonus if you crumble a handful of nilla wafers and toast them in brown butter! EDIT: Reading back on prior pages, I'm a bit worried about my ginger syrup. I use a 2:1 for the liquid, but then I went and processed a bunch of the candied ginger and strained out more ginger juice because I want the stuff to burn. I made a batch about three months ago that worked like gangbusters; it was so thick that I'd need to break it up with the back of a barspoon then shake it up before I could pour, but it was fire, and it was rich enough that it stayed stable for the whole time I used it. I ran out like three weeks ago and cooked up a new batch. I wound up losing a bunch of my strained ginger juice due to being clumsy so it ended up with half the strained juice as my last batch. On the bright side it's nice and hot while still being totally pourable, but I noticed that the bottle I put it in was ejecting its silicon stopper like a cannonball until I corked it with a heavier one. My previous G.S. was in a screwtop bottle so I didn't notice any pressure buildup. Is that normal for ginger syrup, or is that batch going to go bad on me? Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 21:11 on May 17, 2022 |
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May 17, 2022 18:03
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prayer group posted:That's fermenting for sure. I'd try adding a bit of vodka to the syrup to stabilize it, that should kill the fermentation and preserve it for longer. Trip report on Limoncello + Gin: it's okay, but it's got none of the zip of a normal gimlet, so its kind of a let-down. Though I may have spoiled myself with a Earl Grey MarTEAni which is like an out of body gin experience.
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May 18, 2022 18:03
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Limoncello Saga Part III: Found a recipe for a Limoncello Smash that was actually really good: 1.5oz gin 1oz limoncello 5 muddled blackberries Soda Water The recipe called for tonic water actually but I found that the tonic didn't play nice with the limoncello, so I think soda is probably the way to go. This was actually a really nice mix since the lemon and blackberry are one of my go-to dessert flavors. Really refreshing, nicely balanced, not super sweet.
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May 19, 2022 04:07
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One of the other advantages of a Boston shaker is that it minimizes splashes when mixing ice into your drink. Since it's two vessels you can fill one with booze and the other ice, then pour the booze over the ice and close the shaker. With a Cobbler you usually pour in the booze first and them add ice, and if you're using big fat ice cubes like Morganthaler suggests for maximum aeration you're going to get liquor splashing up and out of your container. I haven't upgraded to a Boston yet and I need to sort of gently land my big cube inside the Cobbler to avoid making a huge mess and losing volume.
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May 19, 2022 13:47
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Fart Car '97 posted:Use your mixing spoon to lower the ice into the shaker instead of dropping it in
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May 19, 2022 14:00
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The Maestro posted:But if you poured tall wouldn’t the liquid hit the ice and splash out?
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May 19, 2022 19:51
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Make the drink in one side of the Boston shaker, put the ice in the other side, pour liquid to ice, seal, shake. I'm not sure I've ever spelled that out even it's so intuitive. EDIT: Before I actually decided to learn what I was doing with drinks I deliberately went out of my way *not* to buy a Boston Shaker, lol Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 20:46 on May 19, 2022 |
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May 19, 2022 20:39
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Pander posted:The morganthaler ice method involves one big cube and a bunch of small ones. Add the small ice first, that cushions the big cube. Not hard. I mostly use a cobbler and have never had drink fly out from adding ice. Speaking of jiggers I bought a 2oz/1oz to replace the 1oz/.5oz that my shaker kit came with, but it was only about a month ago that I realized the line on the inside of the 2oz side was, infact, 1.5oz instead of the 2oz mark, so I'd been underpouring my drinks for like two months. My Mai Tais sure taste better now though! On the bright side it was only *slightly* underpouring since the 1.5 mark is actually more like 1.75 Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 01:23 on May 20, 2022 |
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May 20, 2022 01:20
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So I picked up some Campari to experiment with Negronis. I didn't *love* the standard Negroni, but that may have been my vermouth which is quite old and I've come to understand that old Vermouth kinda gets wonky. But I subbed Aperol for the Campari and *that* is lovely. But maybe I just love Aperol. I'm gonna try switching sweet vermouth for dry and seeing how a Contessa compares next.
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May 22, 2022 04:24
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The Maestro posted:Give it a few tries. Campari is absolutely an acquired taste, and you might just never like it. It took me about half a bottle but now Negronis and their variants are my favorite cocktails.
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May 22, 2022 16:14
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So speaking of bitters, I want to start expanding by collection of the stuff. I've got Ango and Orange (technically not actual ango since I bought Fee brothers which this thread has just taught me might be a mistake but they taste pretty good to my somewhat unpracticed pallet), are there any must haves I should check out? I'm interested in getting some Chocolate Bitters to make Left Hands since I have all this Campari, what's a good brand I should look into for that?
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May 24, 2022 14:12
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Another thing to do is to get some absinthe into a dasher bottle - absinthe is a fantastic bitter, and I use it a lot in nontypical situations. Anonymous Robot posted:Angosturra’s cocoa bitters are nice, as is Bittermens’ mole bitters. What to get next really depends on what you enjoy drinking. If you like whiskey drinks, black walnut bitters are quite nice. If you like rum, Bittermens’ Elemakule Tiki bitters are great (though ironically aren’t really at home in tiki drinks.)
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May 24, 2022 15:05
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Back to Vermouth chat, is Dolin a good starting place? I don't love a lot of vermouth centric drinks so I'd like to have something with a nice balance of good and cheap.
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May 25, 2022 22:45
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Kenning posted:Dolin is excellent, both sweet and dry. Vya is another good brand that's in the same overall tier. The Maestro posted:Oh god yes. Vermouth so good you’ll find yourself making 50/50 martinis.
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May 26, 2022 03:15
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Hmmm looking around for Dolin Vermouth, what's the variety used for Sweet? Is it Rouge de Chambery? Because I'm having a hard time figuring out which one is supposed to be Sweet, whereas the dry is quite evident.
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May 26, 2022 18:04
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I whipped up a batch of Morganthaler's Lime Cordial and now I'm desperate to find more things to put it in other than gimlets because that stuff rocks.
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May 28, 2022 03:57
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Pander posted:I take this back. I think it's a matter of taste. I eased back for a couple drinks today, lowered the ratio, and it ended up great. The other day I realized that I'm 3/4 of the way towards being able to make Paper Planes. The only ingredient I'm missing is Amaro, which is hard for me to justify since: a.) I'd be buying it just to make a Paper Plane, basically, and b.) the only liquor store that carries it around me (and anything else interesting) is way out of my way. But I thought about the flavor profile for Amaro (Nonino specifically): bitter root and a litlte sweet with notes of orange and other spices. So I came up with the idea of mixing Campari with an orange liqueur to sort of simulate something in the vicinity of Amaro Nonino. I used Triple Sec because I'm both basic and cheap, you could probably get better results with cointreau or dry curacao (I'd use curacao but I only have it in blue). BUT the result was actually very good! I can't really say how it compares directly with a Paper Plane but I really liked it. Quite orange forward thanks to the triple sec and aperol playing nicely together, but well grounded by the campari. The Amaro M.I.A, or the No-Nino Paper Plane 1oz bourbon 1oz aperol 1oz lemon juice .5oz orange liqueur .5oz campari I might experiment with the ratio but I really enjoyed it. Mainly bitter but with just enough sweet and tart to balance it out.
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May 31, 2022 16:00
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obi_ant posted:Use the amaro to make a Fallback! Data Graham posted:I got some Nonino but it doesn't quite agree with my taste buds on its own, a little too funky. But Meletti is real nice, probably does real well in a Paper Plane.
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May 31, 2022 16:35
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I'll happily make a DnS with Appleton Estate and nobody is gonna stop me. I think some wiggle room is necessary in mixology, otherwise the entire practice becomes hopelessly granular. There are a million different rums and all of them taste different, some wildly different even though they fall into the same category of spirit. If using Appleton vs Smith and Cross in a Mai Tai is going to result in a formally defined different drink then i think the entire thing becomes kind of inaccessible. If folks are saying that Nonino and Montenegro are closely related that one can be subbed for the other with approximately similar results then it should be seen as fine.
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Jun 3, 2022 16:04
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Scythe posted:There aren’t a lotta bright lines in cocktails, but fortunately/unfortunately the “bright line” concept itself turns out to be pretty loving hard to draw bright lines around. (Ask me about my philosophy degree. Preferably over cocktails.)
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Jun 3, 2022 19:06
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The Maestro posted:There’s always gonna be the person who’s pissed at you for serving a proper Mai Tai and not an unbalanced sugar bomb of OJ and pineapple. Everyone I've made a real Mai Tai for always reacts the same way, which is usually just shock.
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Jun 3, 2022 20:47
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EDIT: Pastis with Orgeat is the frenchest thing I've ever heard of. Speaking of orgeat is there an appreciable difference flavor wise between making it with fresh almonds vs almond milk?
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Jun 3, 2022 20:58
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I live in Zone 7B/8A and I badly want to see if I can plant a lime tree in my yard. Lemons are dirt cheap around here and one lemon easily gives up 1.5oz, but for some reason all the limes I get are incredibly stingy and I'm lucky to get .5oz out of one.
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Jun 4, 2022 03:35
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Anonymous Robot posted:Is it worth making creme de menthe? I’m planning to make creme de mure and limoncello, and I grow my own mint so it kind of seems like why not. But at the same time, it seems like it’s basically used in a grasshopper and nothing else? I've used to it make a pretty delicious dessert martini that someone asked me reverse engineer from a drink list they ran across at a restaurant: 1oz creme de menthe 1.5oz vanilla infused vodka 1.5oz irish cream shake and pour into a glass wit a chocolate drizzle inside and a mint leaf on top. Not the most complex drink but it's tasty and is visually pretty impressive. Granted I don't make my own creme de menthe but I do infuse the vodka myself, so I don't know how worth it that will be.
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Jun 7, 2022 15:14
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Scythe posted:That is disrespectful to the julep! The crushed ice gives it a totally different effect, IMO, and if you do a good job muddling (and remove the muddled mint) and cover the entire top of the glass with a giant mint bouquet it's plenty minty, especially if you purposely use a short straw so you have to bury your nose in it to drink. Also overproof bourbon is an absolute must with all that ice.
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Jun 7, 2022 17:01
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Tiki Question: how much of a difference does the pot still black rum make in a Jungle Bird? Because I made it the other day with regular 'ole dark rum and it was mighty delicious, very different flavor profile from most other tiki drinks I've had.
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Jun 11, 2022 17:01
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Fart Car '97 posted:Regular dark rum is going to be closer in style to the Blackstrap rum that's usually called for in a jungle bird, so it makes sense. The hamilton pot still black isn't really a Black strap and it wouldn't be the first thing I reach for to sub in for it. Dark rum, "pot still black" and Blackstrap are all fairly distinct rums Unrelated, I finally got my hands on some Dolin.  that stuff is excellent. I can see now why folks swear by it. I put it in a Negroni today and it completely changed my outlook on the drink.
Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Jun 11, 2022 |
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Jun 11, 2022 19:56
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was that made like any old Oleosacchrum, or is there some other trick to making it from bananas?
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Jun 11, 2022 20:33
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Barman said it was just like any other. First batch he said he added water because he thought there wouldn't be enough liquid, but that was a poor choice. Second batch normal recipe but with banana, worked a treat. Really tasted nice. Rum was a five rum blend they do at the bar, with a coconut water ice cube and orange peel/cherry garnish. Pander posted:Dolin sweet vermouth? Huh I only ever use it for dry, and stick to Italian reds.
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Jun 12, 2022 03:06
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Definitely going to add that Falernum recipe to my To Do list. I'm sure my wife is going look at me like I'm a maniac, but that's what she thought about my orgeat and ginger syrups and now whose the one cruising the dark and stormy seas to mai tai island?? EDIT: Speaking of Mrs. Strange Matter, she's got a real thing for flavored whiskeys, which I sort of despise. We bought some Ole Smokey peanut butter bourbon which is okay, and then this bird dog blackberry whiskey which tastes entirely like cough syrup and is completely unpalatable to everyone except her. That being said, I did discover something pretty amazing. A mere .75oz of lemon juice thrown in with 2oz bird dog makes a spectacular little beverage. If you somehow find yourself saddled with that stuff which tastes on its own like something the drink machine from Hitchhiker's Guide would make, that little bit of sour makes all the difference in the world. In exchange for this, someone please tell me what to do with the Fireball she was gifted. She drinks that stuff straight up, but it's orders of magnitude too sweet and honestly fake tasting for me. Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Jun 13, 2022 |
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Jun 13, 2022 20:36
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Waltzing Along posted:IIRC, part of the shaking process is to aerate the citrus which helps to mellow it out a bit. While the ice, at the same time, is helping to dilute the mixture. ...which I think is also a factor, really. I've had Whiskey Sours at restaurant bars that didn't have egg white or bitters added and it makes an enormous difference (which is why I don't really order mixed drinks from restaurants in general). Following "proper" methods and using real measurements really has a big impact, it turns out.
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Jul 3, 2022 20:36
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I follow Greg's method if only because it's easier on my ice supply. I also don't know how the 2 cracked-1 whole method is supposed to fit in a glass, since 1/1 pretty much fills all of my cocktail glasses just about to the brim.
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Jul 3, 2022 20:55
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Waltzing Along posted:Pretty sure the 1 big, 2 little is for when you strain the ice. The other benefit of not cracking the big cube is you don't end up with a bunch of tiny ice shards that could end up in your drink. Unless you double strain, of course.
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Jul 3, 2022 21:00
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PRADA SLUT posted:Is there a drink like a Mexican gin and tonic? Something tequila/mezcal based but more of like a large iced drink? Speaking of which I've been accumulating Grapefruit peel while making this exceptionally delicious drink. Once I make a few more I'll have enough peel to make Grapefruit Oleosaccharum, and from there Grapefruit Soda to make a fresh Paloma. Mrs. Strange Matter found this recipe to use the giant rosemary bushes that that have grown in our yard: Rosemary Salty Dog 2 inches Rosemary 2 oz Grapefruit Juice 1.5 oz Gin 1/2 teaspoon sugar Muddle the Sugar and Rosemary, then shake the rest of the ingredients together with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass rimmed with salt, garnish with more rosemary. I found that the half rimming the glass worked well because the herbal quality of the rosemary gets overpowered with too much salt, so half rimming it lets you be more measured in how much salt you take. I guess some saline might do the trick as well, but honestly I'm split on whether the drink needs salt at all because it's so good on its own. The grapefruit and rosemary play exceptionally well with the botanicals in Gin.
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Jul 4, 2022 17:11
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On the virgin side of things, anyone have a good Lemonade recipe? The other week some friends brought over some brand name store bought Lemonade that I hit up with some ginger syrup and they couldn't get enough of it, and now I volunteered to make some for a BBQ. Weirdly enough I've never made homemade lemonade before, what's a good lemon to sugar to water ratio? Also thinking of making a lemon simple syrup to instead of regular sugar, since that sounds pretty delicious anyway. Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 03:12
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BrianBoitano posted:From my wife, who got it from an Insta story I believe
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Jul 21, 2022 17:27
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Anonymous Robot posted:Has anyone ever tried a tonic syrup concentrate? My partner likes drinking tonic straight or with some bitters, I was wondering if the concentrate was a worthwhile upgrade over Canada Dry (or I suppose Fever Tree) or whatever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk8_3Z0Rce8 I'm currently accumulating materials to make Morganthaler's home made tonic. Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 04:05
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 07:54 |
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Made my first batch of Oleo-Saccharum today. Grapefruit for palomas. Man if that isn't an utterly transcendent mixture. What other good drinks can I make with this before it runs out, or should I just embalm myself with palomas which to be fair seems like a very good strategy.
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Aug 1, 2022 01:27
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