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I have been in a cocktail slump for a year or two now. As a young(er) man I had a bar of around 75-100 bottles and was constantly messing around with drinks. As I and my friends got older and lamer we stopped having as much time for boozing and now I am down to a sad little sideboard with maybe 5-8 bottles. I have however, resolved to turn this around and rediscover my love of drinks. This thread has been a big help so far. I do have a question, my beloved shaker, which has served me for 10 years now, has started to leak a bit. I suspect the woman of dropping it and not telling me. Fortuitousness she possesses the metalworking skill to get it working again, but in the mean time my eye has been wandering. I am looking for a recommendation for both a good "standard" shaker and a Boston shaker. Bonus points if the Boston can mate with normal pint glasses. To contribute, here is a Margarita variation that I really enjoy. It comes from Skeeter Skelton, who was a lawman/customs agent in southwest in the 50-70'. He was also a writer for gun magazines in that period and his stories and articles were filled with tales of drinking and liquor. He was a strong proponent of tequila and published his personal margarita recipe: "Skeeter Skelton" posted:2 shots tequila Clearly, it is strong as hell and very tart. I like to have one of them late in a session, when I am done with sweeter drinks and want something to sip at for a while. Conversely, they also make a decent breakfast drink, the tartness and citrus going well with a normal salty, hammy breakfast.
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Oct 27, 2011 16:06
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:55 |
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Kenning posted:I've served this punch to a party full of girls who ask me for cocktails "that are sweet where you can't taste the alcohol." People have taste, man, everybody has taste.  This thing was a huge hit. You had to keep in on "mist" as the "stream" setting will make some (many) people gag. I usually kept it loaded with 50/50 Old Crow and cranberry juice. I tried to fancy it up a few times but always went back to the standard. Honestly, bourbon and cran is a pretty decent "real" drink. It has the proper mix of sweet and sour and if you buy decent ingreadents it can have some depth to it.
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Oct 27, 2011 22:24
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Ernest Hemingway posted:... and to think I've been painstakingly chilling every glass before serving my guests when all the while I could have been shooting the drink in their faces. Dude, I was 21 and all hopped up on the LSD, it was a magical time. As for the cran, there are two schools of though. One is to by the best (and by best I mean the most cran and least added sugar) cocktail you can and use it as is or buy 100% cran and have to doctor it up with simple syrup to make it drinkable. I go either way, depending on what I am making and how lazy I am feeling. Straight cran is good but most cocktail recipes assume you are not using it and need to be altered accordingly.
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Oct 28, 2011 01:34
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I am in Chicago for work and the hotel I am staying in has a very decent cocktail bar. I am currently drinking a "Tart and Smokey", which is mescal, sambuca, maraschino liquor, and grapefruit juice. It is really really good, so much more so the I expected. They have about 6 other house cocktails and I fear my per diem will be spent on trying them all.
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Nov 11, 2011 03:58
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Wompa164 posted:What are your favorite gins? Bombay London Dry. Some friends and I had a gin tasting party many years ago (so this excludes many of the newer gins to hit the market) and of the 7-8 or so types we tried good old BLD came out on top in all three (Martini, G&T, and Pink Gin) categories. I will say that we did discover that most people cant tell the difference between any of the different brands in a G&T. The tonic water used seems to be much more important then the gin.
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Nov 16, 2011 06:07
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At a few different bars I have some variation on "Margarita w/ chili syrup" and I have loved them all. Anyone here have a favorite recipe for something like this before I go off making spicy syrups?
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Jan 28, 2012 00:43
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Vegetable Melange posted:Macerate chopped jalepenos and habeneros in vodka two days, fine strain and add 1/8 oz at a time. This was plan B. My plan A was to cut the peppers up and boil them with the sugar for the simple syrup.
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Jan 30, 2012 00:42
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But Not Tonight posted:I may be wrong here, but it seems to me like the capsaicin (along with the flavor) would be more alcohol soluble than water soluble. I've no sort of evidence for or against this, but sugar water doesn't sound like it'd pick up the flavor as well as a spirit. I sort of have that impression as well but one of the bars I had the drink at definitely had the pepper in a syrup form. I bought more then enough habs so I can try both ways.
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Jan 30, 2012 15:10
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Vegetable Melange posted:Yeah, I find that the vodka extraction works better than the water/sugar syrup, the flavor is more pronounced, which is important when you are mixing the infusion with other spirits and modifiers. Do you think it will is worth it to try and infuse some of the tequila I will be using or is that a waste of time? Infused vodka will be more generally useful as it is neutral enough that I can use it for other cooking stuff.
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Jan 30, 2012 23:07
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Vegetable Melange posted:I use infused tequila for a drink at one job, but its popular. And loving delicious. The vodka was just to have a neutral base, for adding to different drinks. Use a nice blanco tequila, you could probably get away with it. Espolon would be my choice, or chinaco. I usually use Cazadores Reposado (or 1800 if I am making a vat of them) for Margaritas because the woodsiness works with the tartness. I think for this I want to play up the fruitiness of the habs so maybe something lighter? I admit to knowing nothing about blancos as I usually avoid them. I have never heard of the brands you mentioned, the liquor distribution where I am is really bad but I will look for them.
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Jan 31, 2012 01:27
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:55 |
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I have been loving around with spicy margritas the last few days, trying to get the right balance of spice, tart and sweet. The addition of the habenaro vodka (which came out perfect, I did a super short steep and the flavor and heat came through really strongly without any bitterness)seems to make the drink want more simple syrup then I normally put in. Testing is going slowly as after 1 or 3 my ability to be all critical and scientific goes out the window. Gonna do some more "testing" tonight as I don't have to work tomorrow.
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Mar 13, 2012 22:46
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