I realize it’s early (at least on the Eastern coast of the US) to talk about cocktails, but I formulated a new recipe last night that I’m eager to share. And since there is a highly consequential debate tonight, you may want to get liquored up early so you’ll be prepared to slur your encouragement to President Obama on the teevee, urging him to take the fight to whichever Rombot shows up.
I’ve loved the flavor profile of piña coladas ever since I tried my first several at age 12 via room service at a fancy beach hotel. My mother had foolishly left my sister and me to our own devices in our hotel room while she met friends for cocktails at the bar downstairs. After she was gone, I called room service and ordered two piña coladas (even at 12 I had a whisky voice and could thus pull this off). Why piña coladas? Maybe that dumb 70s song? Maybe because that’s what people drank on “The Love Boat”? I don’t know.
Anyhoo, my little sister and I executed our plan: When the room service dude came to the door with the drinks, I pretended to be Mom in the shower. I was sitting in the bathroom with the shower on, and I turned the water off when my sister knocked, opened the door a crack and took and signed the receipt my sister passed to me while the room service dude deposited our drinks on the table. It worked like a charm! It worked so well that we did it again, ordering DOUBLES in the next round and fortunately getting a different room service guy so our ruse continued to work.
We didn’t get busted until we checked out and Mom wondered why there were charges for room service piña coladas (and a handsome tip) on our bill. But when we confessed, she was so impressed with our ingenuity that she just paid up and didn’t punish us.
However, the characteristics that made the drink perfect for a pair of prepubescent rebels – the sugary taste, gloppy consistency and over-adorned presentation – made the piña colada distinctly less appealing to me as an adult. But I still like pineapple, coconut and rum.
Which is why yesterday evening, as hubby and I were wrapping up our kitchen renovation labors for the day and accepting the fact that we would have to face at least 24 more hours without plumbing, I started thinking about piña coladas with a more grown-up twist, and thus the Kraken Kolada was born. It’s more of a martini-style cocktail than the alcoholic sundae that is the classic piña colada, but it delivers on the pineapple and coconut themes:
1 or 2 parts Kraken Black Spiced Rum
2 parts pineapple juice
2 parts coconut water (not coconut milk or, FSM forbid, coconut cream but coconut water)
I shook mine up with ice in the above-pictured cocktail shaker, and it was cool, refreshing heaven in a plastic cup (since we have no working kitchen sink or dishwasher to deal with dirty martini glasses). If you like rum but haven’t tried Kraken, by all means do so. Even if you’re normally not that keen on spiced rum. It’s really good.
Anyone else have tasty cocktail recipes to share? Beer finds? Good wines? No? Then feel free to discuss whatever.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
Elizabelle
Laughing at your room service trick. Shower and all.
That’s genius.
jibeaux
I enjoyed the Abita pecan ale, a seasonal offering. The pecan is subtle and a nice change of pace from all the pumpkin brews.
Mark S.
I did it!
I stood in line with about 50 teabaggers and voted!
Once you got past President, Senate, and Congresscritter, there were almost no dems on the ballot, though there were a few libertarians. God I hate living in a blood red state.
JS
Sorry, but the easiest way to ruin anything good in this world (alcohol, chocolate, etc) is to poison it with coconut.
The thought is appreciated, though…. I will be following you in spirit (no pun intended, but I’ll take it) if not direct action with either a nice bourbon or good stout.
And kudos to your youthful ingenuity! (goes double for your Mother’s reaction)
? Martin
So you’re who my daughter will grow up to be. Good to know.
geg6
Okay, I’ve ignored the term and never asked about it before because I’m afraid it will have something to do with that show that everyone here LOOOOOOOOOVES and that I find the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen on television (hard to believe, I know, but true), but now that they’re naming alcohol after them….
What the fuck are the Kraken (as in “release the Kraken!”) and why should I give a shit?
cathyx
@JS: I couldn’t agree with you more about the coconut. Yuck! But I’ve had pina coladas without coconut shavings. Then they’re good.
The Moar You Know
No such thing as “too early to talk about cocktails”. I start planning my evening drank when the alarm goes off.
? Martin
@geg6: Kraken are a mythological sea monster looking like giant squid. You’ve seen those old illustrations of a masted ship being grabbed by a giant squid? That’s a kraken.
Repopularized by a recent movie.
Culture of Truth
off topic, Russell Means died.
rlrr
@? Martin:
There are actually no Titans in Clash of the Titans…
geg6
You can’t possibly get a better deal than Rex Goliath Pinot Noir. Here in PA, it’s only $7.99 a bottle (and goes on sale at least three or four times a year at $5.99) and you won’t find a smoother or more velvety pinot at prices two or three times higher.
I am stocking up for Thanksgiving, along with Snoqualmie Reisling (another bargain at $9.99 a bottle, often dropping to $6.99 on sale).
Jennifer
Me and my fellow 12 year old delinquents were not so creative. We would just pour a slug out of each bottle in the liquor cabinet into a jar (so none would become depleted enough to detect) and then drink it. It was nasty, but had the intended effect.
Other gambits involved stealing bottles of Lancer’s from the stash of one of our friends’ mothers, who bought it by the case, and shoplifting pint bottles of the rotgut they stocked at 7-11; I’ll never forget Red Lady 21.
Considering how much drinking we did at ages 12 & 13, I’m surprised that I never became an alchoholic. These days, I probably average one glass of wine per month, a consequence of simply not having the desire to deal with even the mini-hangovers I can achieve with only 3 drinks.
Culture of Truth
You had a plan, and you carried it off.
Impressive, most impressive.
geg6
@? Martin:
Ah, so it has nothing to with that awful Dr. Who? I should have asked a long time ago.
What popular movie? Obviously, one I have not seen.
catclub
@JS: agreed on coconut.
(But Nanaimo Bars are an exception. I grew up pronouncing it
nana – imo , then learned there is a town on Vancouver Island
called Na nai mo, and all Canadians know what they are.)
Haydnseek
Great story! Your mom sounds like a peach, as well. Now, on to my favorite recipe, one I plan to employ pre debate, and who knows how long after:
I part Irish Whisky
I small splash of filtered water
Repeat as needed
Shana
We have two favorite bourbon drinks in our house lately. One is called “Moon over Manhattan” and consists of 2 parts bourbon 1/2 part sweet vermouth and 1/2 part amaretto. Delish.
The other one doesn’t have a name that we can recall but is 2 parts bourbon, 1 part lemon juice, 3/4 parts simple syrup and 1/4 part maple syrup. Also delish.
I’m open to suggestions on a name for the 2nd one.
catclub
@geg6: Pirates of the Mediterranean :)
Jennifer
Also, too: if nothing else did, that horrid, horrid, dreadful song would have put me off pina coladas for life.
I remember finding it offensive even when I was a kid when it first came out.
geg6
@Jennifer:
Heh. I’m the opposite. I couldn’t stand alcohol as a preteen/teen. Hated it and wouldn’t touch it. I love it now, though! But only beer and wine. Still hate all hard liquors. They are uniformly horrid tasting.
But I would smoke all the dope anyone had at that age. That was my vice (and sometimes still is; after all, there is no better hangover cure!).
Jennifer
@geg6: look up the kraken on wiki.
geg6
@catclub:
Okay, I guess I’m not getting the joke? I have never seen any of the Pirates films. Not my kind of thing.
Or are you making fun of me? Feel free to, I know my pop culture trivia knowledge isn’t up to speed since I’m not very big into a lot of the pop culture.
Metrosexual Manichean Monster DougJ
Sounds good but too sweet for me.
gogol's wife
@geg6:
It seems to have been the recent remake of Clash of the Titans.
speedbumped
@geg6: http://bit.ly/UtfsUv
JCT
In honor of my new home in the southwest — The Rattlesnake
2 oz Rye
3/4 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1/2 egg white
First dry shake for about 10 secs, finish with an ice shake and then strain into an absinthe- washed glass.
Smooth as hell…
different-church-lady
What are you talking about? It’s already the fourth week of October.
It’s autumn. Time to make the transition from the clears to the browns. Flips. Manhattans. Calvados and apple jack and bonded apple brandy (if you can find any, which I can’t). Stuff involving cider and lemon juice and Tuaca and maple syrup instead of simple.
John O
Bandits is one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s on CC right now, but near the end.
B.B. Thornton’s character is genius, and I love the complicated love story.
I’m always amazed by how many people have never seen it. Check it out. It’s very funny.
? Martin
@geg6: Kraken are part of Norse mythology. There is no specific source for the legend. They’re in 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea (including the ride!), and were in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, IIRC. You’ll find it referenced all over. The line is from the recent Clash of the Titans release. Blame Liam Neeson for making the line worthy of the trailer.
I should note that Kraken is plural. The singular is Krake. <- useless shit I store in my head instead of more important things like the names of my daughters friends
rlrr
@? Martin:
A line originally made famous by Laurence Olivier…
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
It’s hard for me to hate a show that made a 49-year-old woman into the hottest babe in sci-fi.
Haydnseek
@JCT: That sounds good. What Rye are you drinking? It’s kind of scarce, and the ones I’ve found in my admittedly sporadic search are small batch and really expensive.
Rosalita
We were a little more aggressive in my neighborhood, we primed our pump with Yukon Jack. The bottle was easily stored in a hole in an overgrown empty lot…
geg6
@Jennifer:
Took your advice. But really needed to look up “kraken in popular culture” to get an idea what people talk about when they say it here.
Sadly, there is nothing there that I’ve ever seen or read. It’s not the type of stuff I’d ever watch or read.
Ash Can
The mom in me is absolutely horrified at the idea of a 12-year-old child downing double PCs. The mom in me is also absolutely delighted at the idea of a 12-year-old child exhibiting such brilliance.
I have a 12-year-old son myself. If he were ever to pull a stunt like this, I’d probably react much the same way your mom did, but I guarantee that he’d be treated to a long and windy lecture on the dangers of mixing alcohol with young, still-developing brains and nervous systems.
And then I’d head straight for a double martini myself, to keep from tearing every last strand of hair out of my head. ;D
Spaghetti Lee
I wonder why they’d name a drink Kraken, although I probably know the answer: it got my attention, and I don’t really care about booze.
Does it taste like octopus flesh?
cursorial
Lately I’ve liked the El Diablo:
2 oz tequila (Recipe calls for reposado, but I prefer blanco)
1/2 oz Creme de Cassis (can sub Chambord in a pinch)
1/2 lime
Ginger beer
Ice
Perfect for summer, or wishing it were summer…
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Hmmm. Doesn’t really change anything for me. It was literally (to go all Joe Biden) the worst stuff I’ve ever seen. Bad acting, bad writing, bad camera work, horrid special effects…just nothing that justifies the worship it seems to get from a lot of people, especially here. I usually think BJ has some of the smartest people around, but in the case of this particular show, even the smartest FPers and commenters seem to lose about 100 IQ points in my mind every time they praise it.
To each their own, though. I love, love, love Survivor, for which I am sure I’ll be vilified.
gbear
You should put that drink in a glass that looks less like a doctor’s office sample cup. Just sayin…
Yutsano
@catclub: Nanaimo bars are serious nom. And not too difficult to bake either.
JCT
@Haydnseek: Rittenhouse 100 — one of the best alcohol deals around. Can be hard to find, but when I stumble on it I always buy a few bottles at around $22 each. Great spice at the end and not too harsh. Fantastic in any rye cocktails.
Schlemizel
@Jennifer:
I’m with you. Have wanted to beat Rupert Holes to death with demitasse spoon since the first time I heard it (Although I like Homer Simpson’s malprop’ed version “If you like Pina Colonics . . . “)
OTOH I really like coconut a lot. Not so much the sweet drinks with it but I like coconut curries & used to drink coconut water a lot until it got expensive to buy because the hipster found it.
Rum & coconut water would make a nice, if a bit on the sweet side, drink I guess.
DFS
The correct modern mai tai recipe:
Juice of one lime
1 ounce Jamaica rum
1 ounce aged Martinique rum
1/2 ounce orange curacao
1/4 ounce orgeat syrup
1/4 ounce sugar syrup
Shake like hell with crushed ice and half the spent lime, pour over more crushed ice and the other half-lime in a double old-fashioned glass, add a mint sprig.
mapaghimagsik
I like Kraken, as its one of the better spiced rums out there. Its a little overproofed, so you do have to show it some respect.
As far as spiced rums go, its interesting because its definitely spiced more with vanilla, which makes it great for a Rum and Coke (especially vanilla coke)
For those that like less sweet drinks, I’ll use Pusser’s Rum, Mount Gay Eclipse, Cruzan, or Appleton Estate
For those that like sweet rums, if you haven’t tried Zaya, El Dorado, or Ron Zacapa, I definitely recommend them!
Schlemizel
@Ash Can:
Mine were a bit older (16-17) when I found out they were smoking dope. I tried the lecture route but I doubt it did anything other than to make them more careful not to leave evidence where mom & dad would find it.
The wife would have gone full metal jacket if she knew – she is holy hell on the subject. Had I pulled a stunt like Betty when I was that age I would still not be walking normally & I think that informed my reactions.
Short of sealing your kids in a barrel and feeding them through the bung I don’t think you can do anything more than guide them by the time they are teens.
different-church-lady
@DFS: Yes, very close to what the Trader intended. I recommend Appleton VX — the same distillers who used to do the 17 year old J. Wray & Nephew the Trader used when he invented the Mai Tai (depending on who you believe…)
When I mix these according to the original formula noboby believes it’s a Mai Tai — they think it’s too good, too refined, because they’ve only ever had lousy fruit juice versions.
Ash Can
As for pina coladas, with or without the giant squids, I’m not a huge fan. But one sweet-ish drink I do like once in a while is a Manhattan, and they’re also a nice colder-weather drink. The husband and I have discovered that a small splash of Cherry Kijafa is a good substitute for the muddled marischinos.
Comrade Scrutinizer
Perfect cocktail:
Four fingers of Jack Black, neat.
(Why on earth one would pollute good alcohol with fruit juice, soda pop, etc is beyond me.)
catclub
@geg6: no it is not you, just a lame joke.
different-church-lady
@Comrade Scrutinizer: One does not pollute good alcohol with mixers. Which is why Jack Black is a perfectly cromulent cocktail ingredient.
/spirits_snobbery
mapaghimagsik
@DFS:
Actually, Don the Beachcomber has what I consider a better recipe. I’ll let drink nerds argue which came first, as I don’t care. I substitute pastis with Kubler Absinthe, and it seems to work very nicely.
2 oz (or 1/4 cup) water
3/4 oz or 1-1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 oz or 2 tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice
1 oz or 2 tablespoons sugar syrup
1 oz or 2 tablespoons dark rum
1-1/2 oz or 3 tablespoons golden rum
1/2 oz or 1 tablespoon Cointreau or triple Sec
1/4 oz or 1/2 tablespoon Falernum syrup
2 dashes or scant 1/2 teaspoon Angostura bitters
1 dash or scant 1/4 teaspoon Pernod or other anisette-flavored pastis
I’ve used a variety of dark rums. One site actually recommended Meyers, but I thought it a bit too much. Pussers worked nice, as did Appleton
The mint garnish is important, and needs a good slap before being put into the glass.
goblue72
For a kick-ass Pina Colada, try this recipe from Marcos Tello of L.A.’s Varnish:
2 oz White Rum
1 oz Coconut Cream
.75 oz Lime
4 1-inch chunks of Pineapple
1 cup Crushed Ice
Blend for 12 seconds.
For a variation, try the Painkiller:
4 oz Pusser’s Rum
4 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Coconut Cream
1 oz Orange Juice
8 oz Crushed Ice
Flash blend for 3 seconds.
Or the Coconaut from Beachbum Berry:
Coconaut
8 oz Coconut Cream
2 oz Lime Juice
7 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
Pour ingredients into a blender full of ice and then pulverize it until it’s a slushy, frothy, deliciously smooth mixture. Serves 2-4 people.
YoohooCthulhu
I normally don’t like tiki drinks…but that sounds like a perfectly respectable one! I’ll have to try it.
One that I’m quite fond of lately, which I acquired from one of the cocktail blogs that I waste too much time on (unfortunately, I forget the attribution):
4 part Tanqueray gin
1 part Cointreau
Sugar cube
Couple dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Smash cube with bitters and water, add gin and cointreau, and mix until freezing cold. Serve in a chilled glass with a dash of absinthe or pernod.
Always find the combination of gin and orange to be very refreshing.
mapaghimagsik
@different-church-lady:
Ah Wray and Nephew — perfect for mixing with Ting, warding off evil spirts, and stripping paint.
I had to suffer through a 1.5 oz pour of that stuff with about 1 oz of water, to cut the alcohol burn and really let that pot still funk settle in.
As the bartender said “For many people who try Wray and Nephew, it becomes their favorite rum”
Me: “Really?”
Bartender: “No, not really.”
Ash Can
@Schlemizel: Pretty much. Hell, I think I’d be more worried if my son didn’t eventually try to pull some kind of shit. I’m just hoping that when he does, it’s not too dangerous. And if it doesn’t happen until he’s at least a high-school upperclassman, that’d be a bonus.
different-church-lady
@YoohooCthulhu: OK, you talked me into it.
different-church-lady
@mapaghimagsik: You’re talking the overproof white, yes? I’m talking the stuff they were making 70 years ago. Trust me, Appleton VX is nothing like that.
Cris (without an H)
Seriously. These fuckin’ kids these days. There is no kraken like a Ray Harryhausen Kraken.
trollhattan
@Ash Can:
No kidding. Mine’s ten but the virtual time it takes to flip that calendar is becoming vanishingly brief. (Note to self: take phone with when leaving kid alone in hotel room.)
With alcoholism on both sides of the family, I can’t risk being particularly laissez faire about my young’ns future experimentations.
Roger Moore
@Spaghetti Lee:
There’s a very strong association between rum and sailing going back to the heyday of the British navy, so lots of brands of rum have nautical sounding names.
? Martin
@Ash Can: We have a lot of first generation kids where we live – so lots of parents new to US culture. We had to inform one mom that it wasn’t okay for her to put a Mikes Hard Lemonade in her kids lunch. She got a bunch from a neighbor that was moving, and thought they were just lemonade. Her kids were getting pretty smashed at lunch each day – both in elementary school. Apparently the kids hated them, but they were very diligent to finish their lunch as mom expected. Somehow they escaped detection for about 3 days.
mapaghimagsik
@YoohooCthulhu:
Have you tried a gin called Nolet? I found it to be really interesting, especially in spirit-only drinks like a martini.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
I will restrict myself to mocking you for preferring a staged game show to imaginative science fiction. If glossy production values automatically equalled interesting, intelligent entertainment, Michael “Transformers” Bay would be winning Academy Awards every year.
trollhattan
@? Martin:
Just, wow.
mapaghimagsik
@different-church-lady:
The overproof white is pretty traditional, and while pretty raw, is almost kind of necessary to try. The bartender at the time took pity on my and introduced me to Smith and Cross, which is Wray and Nephew aged in charred oak for a while. It smoothed out the harshness a lot, with still having some of that pot still funk. At that point, you begin to make the connection between the horrorshow that is Wray and Nephew and the flavors that one generally likes in a good rum.
Appleton VX is really great. Its just pampered even more to bring out the great rum flavors and mute the not so great. VX for me is a sipping Rum.
On another note. I was at a convention where both Sammy Hagar and Ron Jeremy were hawking their rums. (not in person, but through marketers). My favorite part was someone put plastic googly eyes over all of the Ron Jeremy and Sammy Hagar banners, which pretty much showed the regard people had for the rums.
Betty Cracker
@? Martin: LOL! I know it’s not really funny — poor kids! But LOL!
Spaghetti Lee
@? Martin:
Holy shit. Life imitates sitcoms, apparently.
Morbo
@JS:
Why choose?
? Martin
@trollhattan: Stuff like that happens a lot. Very well meaning, doting parents from Korea or China or Iran get hip-checked by American culture.
Ash Can
@? Martin: Holy crap, those poor kids. Talk about a communications failure all the way around. That makes a pretty good argument for putting the alcohol content information in more prominent lettering on the labels of drinks that are normally kid-friendly, such as lemonade.
Haydnseek
@JCT: Thanks! I live in the Los Angeles area, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find, price is right too. Jim Beam used to make one which was really decent for the price, but that seems to have disappeared.
thruppence
I’ll stream the debate (and liveblogs) on the computer and have Giants/Cardinals Game 7 on the TV with the sound down (I don’t much care for Fox’s announcers) and will be sipping a hot and smokey Bloody Maria.
YoohooCthulhu
@mapaghimagsik:
I haven’t, but it looks like just the thing I’m searching for. I like the flavor profile of gin, but really only in combination with citrus or other fruit accents.
Mayur
DFS: I would argue that the spec you posted is eminently tweakable. I do 1 martinique rum, 1 1/4 Jamaican rum, 3/4 lime, 1/2 orgeat, 1/4 curacao.
Haydnseek
@Betty Cracker: Sometimes you just get a bit tired of beer and need a change………
Culture of Truth
@? Martin: A few years ago my parents ordered Long Island Iced Teas at a restaurant. I almost let them drink it. Heh. heh.
JCT
@cursorial: One of my favorites as well — had one in Rome recently where they muddled some fresh ginger in it. Fantastic.
I came home from a business trip last year to discover a nice bottle of good tequila was missing. 16-yr-old son said that the cat knocked it off the counter. Hmmm, lots of bottles up there. Why just the tequila and that never happened when I was home. But this is the kid who always said he hated the taste of all alcohol and never accepted any when I offered it at home so I believed him. Of course, right before he left for college the truth came out about his real alcohol indulgence. At least he was responsible and never drove afterwards (ah, that’s why he never took the car to go to his friend’s house across town…). But the rather extensive lying to me was a bit horrifying. Of course his older sister still laughs at me for believing him. Sheesh.
And yes, yes I am enjoying this new empty nest stuff in case you were wondering….
MaryRC
@? Martin: See also Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Mayur
@mapaghimagsik: Where is that Mai Tai recipe from? I can’t find it in any Don the Beachcomber source I own.
(Actually, now that I look at that it looks very close to the Don’s 1934 Zombie recipe. Is that what you’re posting?)
Also, Smith & Cross isn’t just Wray & Nephew after barreling; it’s a different rum made from blending different-origin rums from W&N (although W&N may be in there for all we know).
Yeah, I’m looking through my notes from fellow bartenders (all NYC-based for these purposes) and I have SIX different mai tai specs. I’m not in love with that drink so I usually just work with the one I posted upthread.
With fall in full swing I’m going with some more autumnal drinks:
Pappy Van Pelt
1 oz bourbon
3/4 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz cinnamon bark syrup (1:1 sugar:water with some cinnamon bark thrown in, brought to boil, heat turned off, rested overnight)
Whip shake (Shake with 1 ice cube or a few bits crushed ice until ice is dissolved), pour into collins glass with 1 cube, top with pumpkin beer (been using Southern Tier Pumpking), garnish with Angostura bitters.
Incidentally, what’s wrong with coconut cream? It’s how you make a proper Pina Colada. There are ways of making your own if you don’t like the commercial stuff.
Schlemizel
@Ash Can:
Yeah, at some point you know every normal kid pulls something stupid & all you can hope for is they don’t f up their life.
The only hardass rule I made was if they ever drove or road with someone drinking I would make their life a living hell.
This really hit me hard. We were making an extraction from a wreck. The car was dad’s 280Z and it was wedged between two trees upside down. We had to remove the roof, working over our heads as it was just over 6 feet off the ground. Folks were out of town, teens decided after a few drinks to take the car out & see what it could do. All I could think was “There but for the grace of god go I”
Schlemizel
@YoohooCthulhu:
The only cocktail I actually like is a Gin and tonic. Needs lime and bitters to be at its best though. I jones for summer all spring long because I only drink them when its hot out. For all its failures the Empire did get one thing right – heat and humidity can be effectively beaten (to say nothing of malaria!) with a decent ginandtonic!
mapaghimagsik
@Mayur:
I believe I got it from a Beachbum Barry book, and several sites that list off Barry list it as a Mai Tai recipe, *and* its very close to the recipe that Don’s near Long Beach uses.
(they use cruzan)
I’m going on the Smith and Cross information from the bartender at Smuggler’s cove. He might have meant that the distillation process was similar (pure pot still), with some blending of others. Either way, you can definitely pick up that Pot funk in the Smith and Cross, but the aging *really* helps.
traveling
First request got lost at the end of the earlier debate thread, so will re-post: i’m “stuck” in Manhattan tonight; any suggestions for debate viewing location? Preferably with like-minded people.
different-church-lady
@mapaghimagsik:
Not that I’m disagreeing, but the true sipping rum in the Appleton line up is the 12 year old — a finish like cognac, seriously. (Ain’t had their older stuff, so it might be even better.)
Tying sipping and overproof together: one of my favorite party tricks is offering a tiny glass of Lemon Hart 151 to someone straight. Yes, a 151 smooth enough to sip straight. But sip, in this case, is singular — you get one sip. At the most, two.
Don’t get me started on how good a Jet Pilot is… and use real cinnamon for the syrup, not cassia.
Joseph Nobles
My personal favorite cocktail I call a Ruby Navel. It’s a Fuzzy Navel with unsweetened grapefruit juice instead of OJ. The peach schnapps is sweet enough for my taste. If you can find red ruby GJ unsweetened, bonus, but I use just a tiny splash of grenadine for color only otherwise.
I’ve also made margaritas with grapefruit juice instead of sweet and sour mix. I call that a Magdalena. But the Ruby Navel is more popular with my friends.
mapaghimagsik
@different-church-lady:
I love Lemon Hart! And yes, its definitely sippable, just in very small amounts :)
and yes, the 12 year old would be better as a sipping rum though with ice and a little melting I think the VX is pretty good! Though my choice in sipping rums is more along the lines of El Dorado, which is extremely smooth.
Larryb
I feel the need to represent for NorCal:
The Hanger 1 Jalapeno Martini
4oz Hanger 1 Gin
1 capful Noilly Pratt or other good dry French vermouth
Mazzetti jalapeno-stuffed olives (available at Safeway stores and online). There are other brands, but they aren’t as good.
Stirred, not shaken and strained into a frozen glass. Arriba!
For extra thrills, substitute habanero-stuffed olives. Yes, they make them. Enjoy
Goblue72
@DFS: That’s the one I use which is basically the original Trader Vic recipe, but with a different rum as the rum Vic used doesn’t exist anymore. He also called for a rock candy syrup which I think is a super-saturated sugar syrup.
trollhattan
Eleven (count-em) mai tai recipes, here, three of them supposedly from Trader Vic’s, although one doesn’t count because it uses their mix:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bartending/Cocktails/Mai_Tai
Legend has it Don the Beachcombers tried to claim its invention a decade prior to Trader Vic, ex post facto.
I used to make them with three rums, including a 151 float, just because. Couldn’t/wouldn’t that nao.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
I didn’t find much imaginative about Dr. Who. It’s just bad science fiction on my shoe budget. And don’t get me started with the acting. I watched a sampling of, I think, three seasons with various Drs. and none of them could get a leading part in our campus spring musical production. In fact, our campus production has better production values than that show.
As for my Survivor love, I find it fascinating in a sociological, psychological, game theory kind of way. Not so much now as in the first few seasons, but still more entertaining than most of the shit you find on the teevee.
Meh, it’s one of my quirks, I guess. Kind of like Cole liking that awful Chuck show.
different-church-lady
@Goblue72:
Correct, that’s just what mapaghimagsik and I were discussing. I can’t remember where I read the rec that Appleton is a good substitute, but I believe it to be true.
Correct again.
Bnut
Oh God, me and my friends finished an entire bottle of the Kraken while watching the Bama game Saturday. Just reading the name makes me want to run to the bathroom and release the Kraken myself. Although I enjoyed it at the time…
Haydnseek
@Larryb: You had me at Hangar 1 gin……..
Bob In Portland
@Jennifer: I used to take gulps out of different bottles in my dad’s liquor cabinet. Awful, but it felt good to get drunk. When I started noticing that he was marking lines on the bottles to see if I was depleting his stuff I began putting in water to cover the stuff I drank. Needless to say, watering his booze pissed him off more. It was nice turning 18, because back then the drinking age in NY was 18 and we used to make trips over to Staten Island to load up on supplies. From NJ.
Bob In Portland
Does anyone have a cocktail made out of Laird’s apple (I think it was brandy but it might have been a whiskey, or maybe it was called “apple jack”)? I grew up in Monmouth County NJ and the distillery was down the road. I remember around Thanksgiving having drinks made out of that and some of the unfiltered apple cider from local orchards.
different-church-lady
@Bob In Portland: Bob In Portland Says:
WATCH THIS SPACE — I’ll have one up in about 3 minutes.**
****
And here ’tis:
FORT WASHINGTON FLIP
1.5 applejack
.75 Benedictine
.5 maple syrup
1 fresh egg white
Shake (and shake and shake) and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish w/ grated nutmeg.
different-church-lady
In addition to the Fort Washington Flip, here are two of my other favorite autumnal cocktails:
APPLE BLOSSOM:
1.5 applejack*
1 apple juice
.5 lemon juice
.25 maple syrup
Shake w/ ice, strain into cocktail glass, garnish w/ thin slice of apple and half slice of lemon.
-* The official recipe calls for apple jack, but I prefer to substitute calvados.
THE NORMANDY
1.5 Calvados
1.5 Dubonnet Rouge
1 Fresh apple cider
.25 lime juice
Shake w/ ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish w/ a slice of red apple.
different-church-lady
@Bob In Portland: PS, Laird’s makes both Applejack and Apple brandy, although I’ve yet to actually bear witness to the latter with my own eyes, never mind tongue.
The Other Chuck
@Roger Moore:
So is there a cocktail named “Sodomy, Rum, and the Lash”?
tones
No votes for Sailor Jerry’s ?
92 proof dark spiced rum?
With that and real pineapple -and the coconut cream from the Thai market [unsweet] I learned to love P-C’s
tones
I did not intend the strike -out line..?
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Ash Can: My brother, when he was a reporter, interviewed a middle school principal, who described his job as “Trying to get them through adolescence without permanent damage.”
Which my brother defined as all the physical dangers you can imagine, plus suicide, addictions, pregnancy, police records, etc. I have one kid in college and a high school senior and we’ve made it so far. They’ve turned out to be great young men.
I sometimes wonder if watching two of the boys in our neighborhood get sent to juvie helped.