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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Jul 12, 2016 11:53:26 GMT -5
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Jul 27, 2016 22:29:44 GMT -5
Tonight. Sipp organic ginger vanilla lime soda with dark rum, sort of a dark n stormy but not, but delicious.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 11, 2016 12:43:28 GMT -5
Help me out here, peeps.
Considering an Old Fashioned themed anniversary gift for my husband - two rocks glasses, bottle of good bourbon, cherries & bitters.
I've never actually made an Old Fashioned or used bitters. Are agnostura the way to go? Are the flavored options too weird? What about cherries, I should probably get the fancy Italian ones, right?
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Aug 11, 2016 13:03:01 GMT -5
Help me out here, peeps. Considering an Old Fashioned themed anniversary gift for my husband - two rocks glasses, bottle of good bourbon, cherries & bitters. I've never actually made an Old Fashioned or used bitters. Are agnostura the way to go? Are the flavored options too weird? What about cherries, I should probably get the fancy Italian ones, right? Yeah, I'd stick with angostura. There's an "old fashioned" bitters that might also work, and I've seen a black walnut one, but if you're going to just pick 1, go with angostura. To add a bit of homemade touch, you could also make your own sugar cubes www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/04/diy-sugar-cubes-homemade-sugar-cube-recipe.html
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 11, 2016 13:04:56 GMT -5
Help me out here, peeps. Considering an Old Fashioned themed anniversary gift for my husband - two rocks glasses, bottle of good bourbon, cherries & bitters. I've never actually made an Old Fashioned or used bitters. Are agnostura the way to go? Are the flavored options too weird? What about cherries, I should probably get the fancy Italian ones, right? Yeah, I'd stick with angostura. There's an "old fashioned" bitters that might also work, and I've seen a black walnut one, but if you're going to just pick 1, go with angostura. To add a bit of homemade touch, you could also make your own sugar cubes www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/04/diy-sugar-cubes-homemade-sugar-cube-recipe.htmlThanks! I thought I'd just make a simple demerara syrup, but homemade sugar cubes might be fun.
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Post by pairesta on Aug 11, 2016 13:58:33 GMT -5
Thanks! I thought I'd just make a simple demerara syrup, but homemade sugar cubes might be fun. I actually think syrup is the way to go instead of sugarcubes. Maybe it speaks to my skills at a bartender, but whenever we have sugarcube drinks, it winds up just being this sugar sludge at the bottom of the glass when the drink is over. Anyways, you also muddle oranges as part of old fashioneds, so maybe get a muddler too. And, because of the muddled orange, I don't ever bother with cherries. You can use orange bitters, also, since that would go nicely with the muddled orange.
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Aug 11, 2016 14:17:09 GMT -5
Thanks! I thought I'd just make a simple demerara syrup, but homemade sugar cubes might be fun. I actually think syrup is the way to go instead of sugarcubes. Maybe it speaks to my skills at a bartender, but whenever we have sugarcube drinks, it winds up just being this sugar sludge at the bottom of the glass when the drink is over. Anyways, you also muddle oranges as part of old fashioneds, so maybe get a muddler too. And, because of the muddled orange, I don't ever bother with cherries. You can use orange bitters, also, since that would go nicely with the muddled orange. Good point, but depending on the quality of the bourbon/rye, sometimes that sludge ain't so bad.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 11, 2016 14:20:15 GMT -5
Thanks! I thought I'd just make a simple demerara syrup, but homemade sugar cubes might be fun. I actually think syrup is the way to go instead of sugarcubes. Maybe it speaks to my skills at a bartender, but whenever we have sugarcube drinks, it winds up just being this sugar sludge at the bottom of the glass when the drink is over. Anyways, you also muddle oranges as part of old fashioneds, so maybe get a muddler too. And, because of the muddled orange, I don't ever bother with cherries. You can use orange bitters, also, since that would go nicely with the muddled orange. But eating bourbon soaked cherries is my favorite part! The syrup would dissolve easier, certainly. And bourbon soaked cherries in sugar sludge might be overkill.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 11, 2016 14:23:24 GMT -5
All the bitters suggestions you've gotten here are what I would say! (Actually, I wouldn't have thought of walnut, and now that it's been suggested I'm like, "Hm... do I need walnut bitters?") When I make Old Fashioneds I just use a cocktail spoonful of regular sugar and muddle it with the orange until I get a nice, dissolved slurry. So my vote is to not even bother with the syrup. (And ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS include a cherry. Or three. That's the whole point of an Old Fashioned! ) If you wanted to have some fun trying out making bitters (it's stupid easy to do, but a bit fussy to hunt down ingredients), this recipe for "Woodland Bitters" is the one I use in my Old Fashioneds. More complex than orange, more deeply-rounded than Angostura. It's perfect!
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Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 11, 2016 14:24:10 GMT -5
But eating bourbon soaked cherries is my favorite part! The syrup would dissolve easier, certainly. And bourbon soaked cherries in sugar sludge might be overkill. Bourbon soaked cherries in sugar sludge is the reason I'm a drinker!
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 11, 2016 14:29:48 GMT -5
All the bitters suggestions you've gotten here are what I would say! (Actually, I wouldn't have thought of walnut, and now that it's been suggested I'm like, "Hm... do I need walnut bitters?") When I make Old Fashioneds I just use a cocktail spoonful of regular sugar and muddle it with the orange until I get a nice, dissolved slurry. So my vote is to not even bother with the syrup. (And ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS include a cherry. Or three. That's the whole point of an Old Fashioned! ) If you wanted to have some fun trying out making bitters (it's stupid easy to do, but a bit fussy to hunt down ingredients), this recipe for "Woodland Bitters" is the one I use in my Old Fashioneds. More complex than orange, more deeply-rounded than Angostura. It's perfect! Re: homemade bitters - wow. That would be like a whole separate project for me. I have no idea where I'd get gentian root or walnut leaf or cherry bark...
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Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 11, 2016 14:45:07 GMT -5
Re: homemade bitters - wow. That would be like a whole separate project for me. I have no idea where I'd get gentian root or walnut leaf or cherry bark... Since you're near a big city, I bet there's some kind of storefront herbal/botanical kind of source somewhere in your neck of the woods, but I've found Dandelion Botanicals to be awesome. Again, if you're interested. It's definitely a lot cheaper just to get pre-made bitters. And also doesn't leave you with a quart of bitters when you're done. But it's a fun project if you don't mind buying all the ingredients and having several lifetimes' worth of finished product!
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Post by pairesta on Aug 11, 2016 14:49:32 GMT -5
If you wanted to have some fun trying out making bitters (it's stupid easy to do, but a bit fussy to hunt down ingredients), this recipe for "Woodland Bitters" is the one I use in my Old Fashioneds. More complex than orange, more deeply-rounded than Angostura. It's perfect! I subscribe to this local Houston food magazine. I love them, but they've been slacking the past couple years. This issue they have an article about bitters. They go through this long history, blah blah medicinal, blah blah popular until prohibition, yada yada popular now. Then at the end they're like "making bitters yourself is easy! Here's a recipe!" They proceed to give a bitters recipe, but handwave the actual bitters part of it. Like, the ingredients are: "stuff to make bitters, alcohol, water, sugar". ARRGH
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Aug 11, 2016 14:51:12 GMT -5
Re: homemade bitters - wow. That would be like a whole separate project for me. I have no idea where I'd get gentian root or walnut leaf or cherry bark... Since you're near a big city, I bet there's some kind of storefront herbal/botanical kind of source somewhere in your neck of the woods, but I've found Dandelion Botanicals to be awesome. Again, if you're interested. It's definitely a lot cheaper just to get pre-made bitters. And also doesn't leave you with a quart of bitters when you're done. But it's a fun project if you don't mind buying all the ingredients and having several lifetimes' worth of finished product! I think there's a botanica near our old apartment, and hell, Whole Foods and the hippie health food store probably have some of it, but yeah, that's a lot.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Aug 11, 2016 15:16:41 GMT -5
I subscribe to this local Houston food magazine. I love them, but they've been slacking the past couple years. This issue they have an article about bitters. They go through this long history, blah blah medicinal, blah blah popular until prohibition, yada yada popular now. Then at the end they're like "making bitters yourself is easy! Here's a recipe!" They proceed to give a bitters recipe, but handwave the actual bitters part of it. Like, the ingredients are: "stuff to make bitters, alcohol, water, sugar". ARRGH HA! Even with a big book of bitters recipes, I still wouldn't be able to wing it. Said book says something about how you can easily learn how to make your own recipes, but damn if I'm ever going to figure out what ratios of gentian root to cinchona bark most suit my "house bitters" needs. I'm not a potion-maker, dammit! (Also, I wasn't about to try out every recipe in the book, because, as mentioned above, each yields literally a quart of bitters. I never even bothered decanting my orange ones into dropper bottles, and instead just dip a spoon into the quart jar and drip as needed.)
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Aug 11, 2016 15:26:40 GMT -5
For me, the ideal way to prepare an Old Fashioned is to eat a maraschino cherry while holding an orange and looking at a bottle of bourbon.
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Aug 15, 2016 6:51:27 GMT -5
I subscribe to this local Houston food magazine. I love them, but they've been slacking the past couple years. This issue they have an article about bitters. They go through this long history, blah blah medicinal, blah blah popular until prohibition, yada yada popular now. Then at the end they're like "making bitters yourself is easy! Here's a recipe!" They proceed to give a bitters recipe, but handwave the actual bitters part of it. Like, the ingredients are: "stuff to make bitters, alcohol, water, sugar". ARRGH HA! Even with a big book of bitters recipes, I still wouldn't be able to wing it. Said book says something about how you can easily learn how to make your own recipes, but damn if I'm ever going to figure out what ratios of gentian root to cinchona bark most suit my "house bitters" needs. I'm not a potion-maker, dammit! (Also, I wasn't about to try out every recipe in the book, because, as mentioned above, each yields literally a quart of bitters. I never even bothered decanting my orange ones into dropper bottles, and instead just dip a spoon into the quart jar and drip as needed.) One of my girlfriend's friends makes different jars of each component, then blends to figure out what ratios she likes. So, she'll have jars just with grain alcohol (or vodka) and wormwood, cinchona bark, dandelion, lemongrass, etc.
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Post by St. Sextquisite on Aug 16, 2016 21:29:14 GMT -5
This is my first time trying Genever and the dude at the liquor store told me to go with an "Oude" (Aged, very malty-- the old style) Genever because he liked the "taste of the barrel" and well.. I was sold. So I settled upon Boomsma Oude Genever. It's fantastic stuff and I decided to use it in some simple cocktail creations tonight. Like this delicious orange and gentiane-accented beauty I made a second ago.
Oude to Genever 2 ou Boomsma Oude Genever 3/4 ou Salers Gentiane Aperitif 2 dashes of orange bitters 1/4 ou simple syrup
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Post by St. Sextquisite on May 18, 2017 14:54:25 GMT -5
Hm. I haven't posted in here in a while. I guess I'll update ya'll with one of my recent favorites that I've concocted. I've been getting into tiki cocktails heavily as of late and this is one of them, a complex boozy creation.
"The Micronesian Astrolabe" 1 ou Havana Club Añejo Classico 1 ou Plantation OFTD Rum 1/2 ou Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao 1/2 ou R&W Orchard Apricot 1/2 ou honey syrup 3/4 ou lime juice 2 dashes of Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub Garnish with orange peel and mint
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on May 19, 2017 5:43:15 GMT -5
Hm. I haven't posted in here in a while. I guess I'll update ya'll with one of my recent favorites that I've concocted. I've been getting into tiki cocktails heavily as of late and this is one of them, a complex boozy creation. "The Micronesian Astrolabe" 1 ou Havana Club Añejo Classico 1 ou Plantation OFTD Rum 1/2 ou Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao 1/2 ou R&W Orchard Apricot 1/2 ou honey syrup 3/4 ou lime juice 2 dashes of Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub Garnish with orange peel and mint That sounds awesome! What is the shrub like? I thought those were all fruit (and vinegar) based? How does it taste with a hot chile?
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Post by pairesta on May 19, 2017 8:06:47 GMT -5
Just finished making a batch of homemade St. Germaine (thanks again Gumbercules for tipping me off to that) and ginger liqueur, so I'm looking forwards to cocktail night tonight. Make a martini with St. Germaine instead of vermouth and thank me later.
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Post by St. Sextquisite on May 21, 2017 1:30:34 GMT -5
Hm. I haven't posted in here in a while. I guess I'll update ya'll with one of my recent favorites that I've concocted. I've been getting into tiki cocktails heavily as of late and this is one of them, a complex boozy creation. "The Micronesian Astrolabe" 1 ou Havana Club Añejo Classico 1 ou Plantation OFTD Rum 1/2 ou Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao 1/2 ou R&W Orchard Apricot 1/2 ou honey syrup 3/4 ou lime juice 2 dashes of Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub Garnish with orange peel and mint That sounds awesome! What is the shrub like? I thought those were all fruit (and vinegar) based? How does it taste with a hot chile? Yeah they are typically fruit and vinegar based, adding habanero instead seems to stretch the concept a bit but it works. It really works. It mostly gives a fruity fire, mostly fire with a touch of acidity. Compared to other shrubs I've both made and bought, this one seemed very light on the vinegar which was probably a smart idea. It really adds a bit of interesting and fiery flair to any cocktail.
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monodrone
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Post by monodrone on Jun 2, 2017 6:05:21 GMT -5
Whatever it's called when you put bourbon and amaretto together in a 2:1 ratio over plenty o' ice. That. That's what is good.
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Post by pairesta on Jun 2, 2017 7:35:11 GMT -5
Whatever it's called when you put bourbon and amaretto together in a 2:1 ratio over plenty o' ice. That. That's what is good. The Godfather is that, but with scotch instead of bourbon.
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Smacks
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Post by Smacks on Jun 2, 2017 11:55:28 GMT -5
Whatever it's called when you put bourbon and amaretto together in a 2:1 ratio over plenty o' ice. That. That's what is good. This sounds so amazing but I have ALL sorts of problems when I consume sugary alcoholic drinks. Like, I'm going to be craving this all weekend. Waaaaah!
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Post by St. Sextquisite on Aug 13, 2017 21:23:29 GMT -5
Amaros are love. Amaros are life. Amaro Week is August 21 - 27. So grab your bottle of Fernet your bottle of Campari (which is technically an amaro-- an aperitif amaro much like Aperol, Suzé, Salers etc) and your bottle of Ramazzotti (a digestif amaro-- pre-dinner and after dinner amaros!), and get ready to celebrate. I like Black Manhattans, I like combining Amaros of different flavors and levels of bitterness together, and I like adding unexpected touches. This is the result.
"A Stroll on the Tyrol"
2 ou Elijah Craig Bourbon
3/4 ou Amaro Braulio
1/3 ou Amaro Foro
1/4 ou Combier Liqueur de Rose
Garnish: cinnamon stick
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Post by 🐍 huss 🐍 on Aug 16, 2017 13:19:39 GMT -5
So I made this nectarine shrub. What drinks should I make with it?
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Aug 16, 2017 13:34:37 GMT -5
So I made this nectarine shrub. What drinks should I make with it? I've never known much to do with shrubs aside from adding seltzer and maybe a complimentary booze. Nectarine goes well with gin. Maybe muddle some mint or cilantro in there too. Hell, let's fire it up. Throw in a jalapeno, cilantro, and gin and that'd probably be delicious. Or Mezcal instead of gin.
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Nov 9, 2017 6:22:30 GMT -5
Gamblin' Telly Here's the cocktail thread, if you want to discuss more infusions, cocktails, or gossip about idiotking.
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Post by Gamblin' Telly on Nov 9, 2017 6:48:42 GMT -5
Thanks Gumbercules , I wasn't sure to put it here since it's "just" induced vodka but will do with any further hard booze related questions!
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