What cocktail are you enjoying Spring/Summer 2012?

[sob0728]

4RSB old fashioned. Damn good after a long weekend writing a paper for a grad school class.

[Trey Manthey]

Old Fashioned :

Sugar cube, heavy on water & bitters, swab inside of glass with orange peel instead of muddling. Rittenhouse rye BIB or Bulleit bourbon

Sazerac:

My perfected recipe, using Baby Saz of course.

"Just Like Honey":

Bulleit or 4Roses 1B, Sloe gin, Roses Lemon, Club Soda, and a diluted honey. Garnish with lemon peel.

Also, it's starting up into the hot weather in NOLA, so I've been making some Pimm's Cups and Negronis.

[Tony]

Old Fashioned :

Sugar cube, heavy on water & bitters, swab inside of glass with orange peel instead of muddling. Rittenhouse rye BIB or Bulleit bourbon

Sazerac:

My perfected recipe, using Baby Saz of course.

"Just Like Honey":

Bulleit or 4Roses 1B, Sloe gin, Roses Lemon, Club Soda, and a diluted honey. Garnish with lemon peel.

Also, it's starting up into the hot weather in NOLA, so I've been making some Pimm's Cups and Negronis.

[Trey Manthey]

My Sazerac:

I usually see Sazeracs served in Old Fashioned glasses, but I like to use something smaller, like this:

http://nolafoodie.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/sazerac-web-nolafoodie.jpg

Chill your glass with ice and water while mixing. In a separate glass/mixer, muddle a sugar cube with a splash of water, three dashes of Peychaud's, and a few drops of Angostura. Add 1.5 oz of Baby Saz, and stir/muddle until sugar is completely dissolved. Gently stir two cubes of ice in. Then, empty the ice from your chilled glass, and put a splash of Herbsaint or absinthe and swirl it around to coat, then discard (or drink :cool:) the excess. Strain the mix into the chilled glass. Peel a two inch strip of fresh lemon over the glass, then rub the inside of the peel around the edge of the glass. Then I twist the peel over the glass and drop it in.

Enjoy!

[sob0728]

Russell's Reserve bourbon with an ice cube, a splash of water, and a twist of lemon.

[yountvillewjs]

Everytime I watch this, I want to immediate book a flight to NOLA and go here.

The Old Fashioned

[DaveOfAtl]

It's Mint Julep season, and I have been honing my recipe in anticipation of my first ever Derby trip next week.

I love the fact that this drink has been so romanticized. The passage by Joshua Soule Smith comes to mind, which Chris McMillan eloquently recites when making his julep down in NOLA. I'm also a huge fan of this letter from Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner’s to Major General William D. Connor on the making of the Mint Julep.

My Dear General Connor:

Your letter requesting my formula for mixing mint juleps leaves me in the same position in which Captain Barber found himself when asked how he was able to carve the image of an elephant from a block of wood. He said that it was a simple process consisting merely of whittling off the part that didn’t look like an elephant.

The preparation of the quintessence of gentlemanly beverages can be described only in like terms. A mint julep is not a product of a formula. It is a ceremony and must be performed by a gentleman possessing a true sense of the artistic, a deep reverence for the ingredients and a proper appreciation of the occasion. It is a rite that must not be entrusted to a novice, a statistician nor a Yankee. It is a heritage of the Old South, and emblem of hospitality, and a vehicle in which noble minds can travel together upon the flower-strewn paths of a happy and congenial thought.

So far as the mere mechanics of the operation are concerned, the procedure, stripped of its ceremonial embellishments, can be described as follows:

Go to a spring where cool, crystal-clear water bubbles from under a bank of dew-washed ferns. In a consecrated vessel, dip up a little water at the source. Follow the stream thru its banks of green moss and wild flowers until it broadens and trickles thru beds of mint growing in aromatic profusion and waving softly in the summer breeze. Gather the sweetest and tenderest shoots and gently carry them home. Go to the sideboard and select a decanter of Kentucky Bourbon distilled by a master hand, mellowed with age, yet still vigorous and inspiring. An ancestral sugar bowl, a row of silver goblets, some spoons and some ice and you are ready to start.

Into a canvas bag pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow, keep it dry and do not allow it to degenerate into slush. Into each goblet, put a slightly heaping teaspoonful of granulated sugar, barely cover this with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Then pour elixir from the decanter until the goblets are about one-fourth full. Fill the goblets with snowy ice, sprinkling in a small amount of sugar as you fill. Wipe the outside of the goblets dry, and embellish copiously with mint.

Then comes the delicate and important operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until nature, wishing to take a further hand and add another of its beautiful phenomena, encrusts the whole in a glistening coat of white frost.

Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.

When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden where the aroma of the juleps will rise heavenward and make the birds sing. Propose a worthy toast, raise the goblets to your lips, bury your nose in the mint, inhale a deep breath of its fragrance and sip the nectar of the gods.

Being overcome with thirst, I can write no further.

Sincerely,

Lt. Gen. S.B. Buckner, Jr.

VMI Class of 1906

[Tico]

Hendrick's Gin and Q tonic water, garnish with a fresh lime. My favorite summertime cocktail.

[BFerguson]

Death's Door Mojito's.

Their white whiskey makes a decent mojito in my opinion. Not much to sip by itself, but pleasant in the mix.

Plus the name just sounds cool.

B

[ratcheer]

This is not a cocktail, but I went on a diet after Easter, so I can no longer have sugar. I believe this would be a type of a rickey. I am having a stiff shot of gin (currently using Tanqueray) in a tall glass with a squeeze of lime and lots of ice cubes and water.

"Necessity is the mother of invention". It is quite nice, but it would be better with a little sugar.

BTW, I've been on the diet for 2 1/2 weeks and lost 11 pounds, so far.

Tim

[Tony]

Thanks Trey will try this weekend.

Today had -

3 ounces of OWA

1.5 ounces of Campari

1.5 ounces of sweet Vermouth

Next time will bump the vermouth up to 2 ounces and the Campari down to one.

Best regards, Tony

[camduncan]

Made a Lynchburg Lemonade tonight. Didn't have any Jack Daniels, so substituted Makers Mark.:skep:

[Clavius]

A good ol' Bloody Mary tonight using Zing Zang mix, Russian Standard Vodka and a couple dashes of Tabasco. MmmmMmmm!

[BFerguson]

Bottle of Deaths Door ran out, so switched to some JM Rhum Agricole Blanc for the days festivities.

This is a pretty excellent white rum! I think it will be the new go to White standard in the house.

The grandma's of the family seemed to be pretty pleased with the results. Keep them happy, everybody is happy. :grin:

B

[Kalessin]

It seems I like my manhattans sweet at the moment:

1.75 oz WTRye101

.75 oz Cocchi Vermouth de Turin (it has some taste of bitters in it)

half teaspoon dark maple syrup ("grade B" is the dark and strong flavored stuff)

dash of Fee's Orange Bitters

3 Luxardo cherries garnish

Spicy rye, sweet syrup, good vermouth flavoring, I love the orange bitters.

[smokinjoe]

On a lazy day hanging around the GN last Saturday, catching up with good friends, I threw together a couple of Mint Juleps. It was a great day.

[cas]

I've been experimenting with the Sazerac for a couple years now, and it has become my favorite. I've cut back on the sugar content of the sugar water to a 1:1 dilution, and often chill the rye first so the drink is cool but not ice cold.

Craig

[Gillman]

One of my own devising, which (in variations) I've returned to frequently.

I started with a Cinnamon Whisky, Fireball, this is sold in Canada and the U.S. It is very sweet with a clean pure flavor of cinnamon, but I can't detect any whisky flavor in it. I am sure there is whisky there, probably Canadian whisky or some other type of a mild character, but the cinnamon and the sweetness dominate to the max.

I start by mixing it with bourbon, then I add some Canadian whisky, then some vodka for "display" (Scots blending term), then lots of rocks. One of the vodkas I added was a fairly congeneric craft vodka from a microdistillery.

When you get the balance right, it's really good. There is a light cinammon sweetness - away less than than the Fireball on its own - some good wood and whiskey flavours, and a light fruitiness.

Perfect as the weather warms.

Not sure what to call it, Glowing Orb maybe.

Gary

[ratcheer]

I mentioned my gin rickeys a few days ago. Well, I looked up the history of the drink and discovered that the original rickey was the bourbon rickey, invented in Washington DC in the late 19th century. It is now considered to be the drink of Washington, much as the Sazerac is the cocktail of New Orleans.

So, I tried one. I'm still on my diet, so I left out the sugar, but it was a good highball. Now I have two rickeys that I can have from time to time.

Tim

[bigtoys]

bought some "grenadine" made with tart cherries from quince and apple (husband wife team in Madison, WI) at Dose Market in Chicago on Sunday. Recommended with whisky.

Made this mini cocktail:

1 oz Lot B

few dashes Angostura orange bitters

1/4 oz Noilly Prat sweet vermouth

1/4 oz grenadine

my wife loved it.

then I added a little more bourbon and I loved it.

[GreggJ]

A couple of my Summer favorites. Since the Manhattan and Mint Julep are covered I will add something a little different.

My Own Recipe: Bastardized from a restaurant that I frequent. (They used Hendricks Gin instead of the La Poire and serve as a Martini not a highball. It was a little too sweet for me and I drank them too quick so I kind of adapted it into this. You can also remove the soda water and mix this as a Martini with good results.

-Fill Highball Glass with ice

-3oz Grey Goose La Poire (or any Pear Vodka)

-1oz St Germain

-Fill remaining space or to your liking with soda water add 2 lime wedges or a wedge of pear, if available, and enjoy the light and sweet goodness you have before you.

Perfect Margarita

-3oz Don Julio anejo

-.75oz Gran Marnier or St Germaine (2 very different flavors both with excellent results)

-Squeeze in 1/3 of a lime drop in shaker with ice

-shake

-Serve in cocktail glass over ice.

Enjoy!!

[Young Blacksmith]

That's a stout margarita! I prefer the same amount of limes to tequila. For 3 oz I would do 2.5-3 limes, juiced. Not persian limes, but mexican key limes, which are smaller, thinner skinned, and taste totally different.

I get them at my local Mercado.

Tonight is a margarita night, but a little different than fresh squeezed as there is some old low calorie margarita mix in the fridge that needs to be drank. 6 oz mix, 3-4 oz tequila, 1-2 oz Patron Orange Liquor. Sonic style ice, and I can sit on the porch for a while and watch the girls as my wife mows the fields.....

[steeltownbbq]

lately it been a an Old Fashioned Turkey

3 part WT 101 Rye

1 part American Honey

few shakes of bitters over ice

lemon twist would be nice if I wasn't too lazy to get one

[Happyhour24x7]

I've thrown a Vieux Carre in the rotation from time to time. 1 part each rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth, dash each peychauds and angostura, half part Benedictine; shake and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist. Nice drink with a lot going on.

[smokinjoe]

I've thrown a Vieux Carre in the rotation from time to time. 1 part each rye, cognac, and sweet vermouth, dash each peychauds and angostura, half part Benedictine; shake and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist. Nice drink with a lot going on.

Very nice cocktail. I discovered this over the Christmas Holiday. Have enjoyed several, since. Plus, I like saying it with a thick accent...

:toast: