Hey, if you like what you’re drinking you’re doing it right!
Stir with ice and strain into a Nick & Nora glass.
On the tin, it seems like this would be way too much, between the aggressive smokiness of the mezcal and the herbal bitterness of the Cynar, but the fruit in the slow gin is enough to balance all that out. It’s still pretty spirit-forward, but super palatable.
This is lovely, and pretty much right what it says on the tin. Delicious! The smokiness of the mezcal goes nicely with the flamed orange twist.
Stir with ice, strain into the glass, then flame the orange twist over the cocktail and discard the orange.
I love how this is literally a topographic map!
Bénédictine is really sweet with some herbal notes, so you’re right: not peaty! I used a blended scotch with medium smoky notes, but I think you have a lot of flexibility with scotches here to get different flavors.
This is one I saw linked on a punch article that @rbwells posted last week, from Daisuke Ito. It’s simple, elegant, and the scotch balances nicely with Bénédictine. I would have this again!
This quantity was good in a Nick and Nora, but I’d double it for a coupe next time.
I haven’t run out yet, so I don’t have any first-hand suggestions! But I found this article to be interesting, I think I originally found it after I read a times article about the monks cutting back production. I’d be curious to hear how any of them are if people have tried!
https://www.liquor.com/chartreuse-substitutes-cocktails-8347632
Yes! That’s a great one.
Good call out, I should have mentioned the garnish; I decorate with that thinly sliced lime round, just because I think it’s cute! It’s not big enough to squeeze or really change the acidity of the drink, it’s just cut super thin so it floats on top.
Keeping up with my little chartreuse theme, here is my all-time favorite equal-parts cocktail.
Seriously, so good! Tart, complex, refreshing; it really has it all.
If we’re looking for egg white and no lemon juice, I’d go for a Pisco sour!
We drove up a little after midnight and joined the party at boulder lake, and were treated to some great lights!
Mine is from before the monks got lazy!
But I hear your pain on the annoyingly tall bottle! There’s always one that doesn’t fit in the spot it’s should, and then breaks the whole system of organization. For me it was Luxardo maraschino liqueur; that thing is tall!
The redesigned packaging took nearly four years to develop
That’s… that’s quite a lot. I wonder what sort of wild iterations took up four years.
Here’s a nice, simple, boozy one from Death & Co:
The rye ends up being the least present ingredient even though it’s by far the highest volume one; I get much more apple and herbal chartreuse from it.
This started out as a Sother Teague recipe and got progressively further off base as I persisted through a series of substitutions 😂
That’s how it was written. Well, I didn’t have amaro but did have a related herbal liquor, I used more normal rum instead of overproof rum, Demerara syrup instead of cane syrup, passion fruit instead of mango, Sichuan bitters instead of Thai… but overall everything was in the right ballpark and ended up being surprisingly balanced while still quite refreshing.
I built a pedal board to use in my band (lake effect is in the band name); it’s basically a box with a slot to route power out of, and to the velcro’d down pedals on top.
It was my first time using a dremel to engrave, and I’m happy with how that turned out! I traced the characters from a print out, then engraved the outline, then the fill, then painted the inside.
The wood is stained cedar with a couple of coats of poly. The main body was put together with pocket hole joinery.
This one is from a great cocktail spot in NYC called Little Branch. It’s two strong liquors, but the apple brandy with a touch of simple combine to make it a pretty approachable aperitif.
Shake with ice, strain into a Nick & Nora glass, and garnish with an orange twist.
Another one from Smuggler’s Cove; you can probably tell that I’m trying to use up my pineapple juice! This one is unique among the recipes in that book in that it features Aquavit, a Scandinavian liquor that is close to gin, but typically infused with caraway and dill. The dill notes are especially pronounced in the Gamle Ode Celebration Aquavit that I used, and come out especially strongly in the finish. Delightful in contrast to the juicy start!
Shake with ice and strain into a glass filled with cracked ice. Garnish with a lemon wedge speared with a cocktail umbrella.
Here’s a nice one from Smuggler’s Cove, the Top Notch Volcano! It’s classic tiki flavors; the passion fruit and maraschino liqueur match really well. This recipe makes two; I went for serving over rocks instead of flash blending.
Serves 4. Mix the ingredients without ice in two mixing tins. Split evenly between the tins, and add 12oz crushed ice to each.
Flash blend separately and add to a punch bowl. Serve on fire! Or, for the weaker of heart, garnish with sliced limes and oranges.
We cooked a ham with pineapple glaze for Christmas, so went for pineapple-adjacent flavors for sides… and cocktails of course!
This is a Mai Tai with a passion fruit foam. A friend had something like this in Maui, and I’ve been thinking of it ever since! Why not Christmas? I found this recipe published by a restaurant on Maui called Monkeypod.
Shake the lime juice, orgeat, curaçao, and light rum with ice, then strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Float the dark rum. Top with the honey-liliko'i foam, and garnish with the pineapple.
For the foam:
Mix ingredients well and put in a nitrous-oxide infuser to half capacity. Use 4 charges for a liter-sized infuser. If you do not have access to an infuser, you can blend the ingredients on high speed until foamy.
It’s not looking good for harry welty.