A Cocktail Compendium

[Pool Boy]

Over the last 5 or 6 years, after investigating and experiencing cocktails as a transition from seating to menu to perusal to expectation, my wife and I have built a cocktail cart to recreate some of the things we have had over the years when the mood hits us. Here is a favorite of mine that is a riff on The Last Word that I think is an improvement on same--

"True Syrum" by mojo1229 on kindredspirits.com

Rye and cointreau instead of gin and maraschino liqueur. It's great after a long hard week at work. Best with Rittenhouse Rye. Enjoy.

[MarkS]

Green Chartreuse brings back memories from college.  Mixed it with Pinnapple  juice to create a Swampwater.  If I recall the Green Charteuse was 110 proof.

[deangold]

22 hours ago, Pool Boy said:

Rye and cointreau instead of gin and maraschino liqueur

You know I like you but this is wrong. Triplum yes or some other interesting orange thing. But the 1-1-1-1 gin world is amazing from Corpse Reviver to Last word. Actually, shold the Last Word should precede the Corpse Reviver?

[deangold]

I just got a new shipment of bitters: From the Bitter Truth I got a 5 small bottle pack of olive, peach, cucumber, chocolate & tonic bitters. Samples off my fingers, they are simply delicious with the exception of the tonic bitters. Maybe in a drink, they will be better. The last addition is Bitterman's hopped grapefruit bitters which I have always love but our bottle at the Grotto was Andrew's.  Peach and Chocolate will be great in Manhattans. Olive I can see not only in martinis but other lighter drinks. It is more herbs than olives from a finger. The cucumber in Last Word or Corpse Reviver spins. 

[Pool Boy]

On 2/13/2020 at 8:28 PM, deangold said:

You know I like you but this is wrong. Triplum yes or some other interesting orange thing. But the 1-1-1-1 gin world is amazing from Corpse Reviver to Last word. Actually, shold the Last Word should precede the Corpse Reviver?

It's not a 1-1-1-1 for the True Syrum - it's 2-rye, 1-cointreau, 1-green chartreuse and 1-lime -- It's a bolder drink than the Last Word, and I love the Last Word for different reasons Dean.

[deangold]

Cross posting this from the Dinner thread because it is the cocktail portion of our dinner:

After dinner: DC Sazerac: We have a couple of bottles of Burrough Bourbon from Republic Restoratives. It is not a great sipping bourbon but it makes for nice cocktails. Given that it is a high rye mashbill bourbon, I decided to try it in a Sazerac. Kay and I has slight variations on each other's drink

Kay's: 2 oz bourbon, Suze rinse, sugar cube, peychauds aromatic bitters {4 or so dashes,} 2 dashes Peychaud's whiskey barrel bitters and a 1" dropper full of Bitterman's Orange Cream Citrate bitters.  

Mine: 2 oz bourbon, Dimmi rinse, sugar cube, 6 dashes Peychaud's aromatic bitters, 2 droppers 1" full of the Bitterman's orange citrate bitters, a healthy dosing of The Bitter Truth peach bitters. The doser on The Bitter Truth is stingy, making giving amounts used difficult. 

Comparison: Kay's was a little harsher, mine more aromatic with the peach adding an undertone and not a distinctve peach flavor. 

Notes: On the bitters: the Peychaud's bitters were added first to the sugar cube and muddled. Then upon tasting the drink, I add more bitters depending on what I think it needs. The orange citrate bitters add smoothness to a cocktail made with brown spirits so they went in to fight the harshness. When I made mine and doubled the orange citrate, the nose became washed out but the drink was far smoother. SO I tried my new Peach Bitters to see where it would go. I added about 6 shakes, tasted, then added about 6 more. As I say in my signature box: Bitters make the cocktail. We now have 15 different bitters for loads of experimentation.