Comments for Cocktails with M

Comment on The Sazerac by Michael

Michael — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:43:27 +0000

A number of cocktail books, including In the Land of Cocktails, call for simple syrup. I would think that it would make for a more consistent cocktail and would be much faster in a bar. The muddle sugar cube give a kind of weird, though not unpleasant, effect of the drink subtly changing in sweetness as you drink it. It’s the same effect you get with an old fashioned.

Glad to know there are good places to get these in Boston. I would guess this drink would be a pretty good test for a bar. If they can make this without adding grenadine and raspberry schnapps, you are at a descent cocktail bar.

Cheers.

Comment on The Sazerac by Meghan

Meghan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:43:27 +0000

I like that one of the steps in the recipe is: ‘Drink the absinthe’. I can’t believe people would pour it out!

Comment on The Sazerac by Frederic

Frederic — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:04:08 +0000

A few places locally and the one place I ordered one in New Orleans (I had others at Tales, but only one at a bar proper) use instead of a sugar cube (about 1/4 oz simple) use a full ounce of simple syrup to 2 oz rye to make the drink more approachable. A good rye can handle that much sweetness, but it still is a different beast. Luckily, there are places here in Boston that can make it properly.

Comment on The Pisco Sour by The Pink Lady « Cocktails with M

The Pink Lady « Cocktails with M — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:22:44 +0000

[...] order this?” test, but my opinion is that the egg white would would more likely do that, but I’ve discussed that at some length before. This cocktail is based on one called the Clover Club (named after the men’s club of the [...]

Comment on The Essence of Simplicity by Michael

Michael — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:11:05 +0000

I completely agree. I think that is in part what makes a cocktail classic. That ability of just a couple of ingredients to come together and spectacularly harmonize. Gestalt as it were. It’s why lumping some of the blender creations under the same name kind of irks me. It’s not that on a hot summer day they aren’t enjoyable, but they just don’t have that simple magic. Cheers.

Comment on The Essence of Simplicity by Angie

Angie — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:12:43 +0000

Sounds lovely. Simple is often delicious.

Comment on The Essence of Simplicity by Beachcomber Cocktail « Cocktails with M

Beachcomber Cocktail « Cocktails with M — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:49:18 +0000

[...] going to be sweet. The problem is you could just leave out the triple sec but then you have a daiquiri-a legendary cocktail in its own right. So for this to be its own cocktail, I think we have to [...]

Comment on The Pisco Sour by Michael

Michael — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:52:35 +0000

I find that there is an interesting parallel between Wisconsin and California. When I got to California, I was amazed to find that greasy spoon diners often have a two page wine list and that seedy grocery stores have and isle and a half of high end wine, but hard liquor can be hard to find (at least the interesting stuff). In Wisconsin, you can’t necessarily get interesting wine, but the Piggly Wiggly has a dozen varieties of Hennessy and Courvoisier cognacs. I agree with you on the eggs vs spinach. With a couple of people that I know well enough, I have omitted the egg disclosure until they were well into the drink. It’s interesting the conflicted half-freak out that they have. One has to be careful about the audience when doing that though.

Comment on When Scientists Drink by Michael

Michael — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:35:09 +0000

Thanks for the tip about Flor de Cana. I made a regular daiquiri this weekend to try it out and I think we have a new standard light rum. It looks like your El Floridita daiquiri looks similar to the one I cam up with, except that there is a bit more Maraschino and the simple syrup is omitted, which probably makes more sense. I have also been thinking about tinkering with fresh grapefruit juice (my wife always has the boxed version for breakfast, so that’s always on hand). It’s funny that grapefruit juice is the only citrus that I don’t squeeze fresh. You seem to be pretty interesting in Rum. Have you read And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails by Wayne Curtis? It’s a pretty good read.

Comment on When Scientists Drink by AlchemistGeorge

AlchemistGeorge — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:47:10 +0000

I admire your curiuosity, and applaud your experiments. We went through about 60 cocktail books and a bunch of websites and came up with 8 sets of ratios of the same ingredients, and tried them all. Except, there are two or three recipes that start “take the juice of half a grapefruit” – we’ll do those later this summer.

We found the original La Floridita recipe way too dry, like you we found there was a point where both the grapefruit and maraschino liqueur (luxardo) were both there but not overwhelming.

We recently shifted to using Flor De Cana white rum, which has more flavor than certain other famous white rums, so we may have to do the experiment over again (smile).

We settled on
* White Rum 1.5 oz
* Maraschino Liqueur .75
* Lime juice .75 oz
* ruby (red) grapefruit juice .25

You can read about your research if you click on my name.