I hope it’s proving therapeutic!
It worked exactly as expected.
A daiquiri, with half Smith & Cross, to toast the friend we lost today.
Gin Punch, straight out of JT, featuring 3 full oz of Old Duff 100% Maltwine Genever. This is awfully good. It’ll also mess you up if you take it too fast.
Gin Fix (from J. T., 1887 edition). Had no berries, today, so used orange slices.
Quite nice. Using Old Duff 100% Maltwine, of course. The drink just works because the booze can stand up to quite a bit of dilution. Not too sour, not too sweet, plenty of flavor.
Today, I’ve had @RobertSimonson’s Fair Harvard. A 2:1 pisco-based Martini with blanc vermouth and three dashes of orange bitters. Enjoyed it, although:
- most piscos we have in Spain are shit. In fact, I’m starting to suspect most pisco are shit (I know, there are great piscos I just don’t think they’re that common). And I made this with a shit pisco.
- the bianco I have at the moment is (a nice example of) a modern-style bianco, more intense and slightly bitter. This would have worked better with Dolin but, hey, beggars can’t be choosers, especially now.
El Presidente (Imbibe Magazine’s recipe, via @Splificator)
1.5 oz Hamilton White 'Stache Rum
1.5 oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth
1 bar spoon Curacao
1 dash homemade Raspberry Syrup (in lieu of Grenadine)
Perfect for the third day in a row of perfect Minnesota summer weather. Also will note that this is far superior than my last attempt at the drink, which was swimming in far too much Curacao. Will have to play around in the future with more pair-ups of White 'Stache and Dolin Blanc because they work together so gosh darn well.
Glad you enjoyed it! One of my all-time favorites, although I usually make it with the Havana Club 3 year-Old.
Today, I’m trying @RobertSimonson’s Fair Harvard
This drink could be all over the flavor map depending on which pisco you selected.
So, is that a good review or bad review? Which pisco did you use?
I used the last of a Quebranta—don’t recall the brand. Enjoyed the drink—a nice change of pace.
When I was testing it, the main constant was Dolin blanc vermouth. I tried a variety of piscos. It worked with each, though of course each was somewhat different, just as each bourbon or rye makes for a different Manhattan. I didn’t want to specify a pisco brand in the book, because the point of “3-Ingredient Cocktails” was to keep it easy for the reader and not make them seek out a specific bottle. But now I’m curious to go back to the drawing board and figure out which piscos really do work best in the drink.
That could be a fun, but also expensive, undertaking. In my (admittedly limited) experience, piscos can range much more widely than bourbons and ryes together are likely to. Especially if you go with an Italia or other particularly assertive grape.
By the way, I figured out that the pisco I used today was La Caravedo Quebranta.
I just made another Fair Harvard, this time using the only Pisco I have left… this super sketchy bottle I’ve had kicking around for… oh… about 24 years?
Result? Perfectly pleasant drink. Such is the magic of vermouth.
Tinkering around the notion that the Martini Cocktail, in its earliest days, was a 50/50 mix of genever and Italian vermouth (often the market-leading Martini & Rossi vermouth), with dashes of bitters and maraschino. It’s a good drink. Quite complex. Quite rich in this particular incarnation. A serious drink.
Doesn’t sound like much, does it? It’s such an unimpressive-looking recipe, I don’t think I’d ever tried it in all these years.
Well, guess what? It’s lovely! It’s a Champagne Cocktail, but with cider. The bitters and the lemon oil elevate the cider while taking nothing away. I used Eve’s Darling Creek and, again, Bogart’s.
