Your boss asks you to work overtime and you demand time and a fifth.
-FKR
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
A Shark's Tooth
Some days I find that every drink I mix comes out exactly as I imagined. Whether it's an ingredient I've never used before, or one I'm deeply familiar with, there are days where I could plow through half a dozen new recipes without a bad one popping up. Last week I had one of those days with margaritas and Sloe Gin.
Those of you who know me are well aware that I love browsing in a liquor store. I always feel I can get a sense both of the expected clientele, and the personality of the manager/owner of a store based on the layout and wares. The "Wine Bazaar" a block from my house is a little confusing that way. The guy who runs it is exceptional at pairing wines with housewives - most of their clientele is mothers coming in straight after buying groceries at the Stop & Shop next door. I've been disappointed multiple times before at their liquor options, as the liquor seems to cater to the young and trendy crowd rather than the crotchety old man crowd that likes my kind of amber nectar.
One thing they do always have is Eagle Rare at sale prices. If you get a chance, it's buffalo trace's bigger, more mature older brother.
Back to the Sloe Gin - After asking several nicer liquor stores if they had some sloe gin in the last six months, I happened upon it in the "Wine Bazaar" purely by accident. I'd listened to a podcast on midori and was willing to buy a bottle to try it, and right next to the midori was some sloe gin.
After that successful night making a few sloe cocktails - expect a Satanic Cocktail coming soon with sloe gin - including improvising several delicious margaritas with sloe gin, tonight I decided to try the Shark's Tooth.
Shark's Tooth
1.5 oz Dark Rum
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime
.25 oz Sweet Vermouth
.25 oz Sloe Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Shake and pour into snifter or cocktail glass
I found the original version to be way too sweet (admittedly, I don't have passion fruit syrup, so I substituted Rose's, and I didn't have gold rum, so I went with some Bacardi Select). It had a nice taste, but way too much sugar. Looking at the alternate version, I can see that someone else must have had that same opinion, as it switches out the sweet vermouth for dry vermouth. I refuse to drop the bitters though...
Shark's Tooth Variation
1.5 oz Dark Rum
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime
.25 oz Dry Vermouth
.25 oz Sloe Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Talk about a transformation. From a 'nice taste' but too sweet, to just plain colored dishwater. I'm done with the Shark's Tooth.
Sloe Gin, however, I will keep sampling.
Those of you who know me are well aware that I love browsing in a liquor store. I always feel I can get a sense both of the expected clientele, and the personality of the manager/owner of a store based on the layout and wares. The "Wine Bazaar" a block from my house is a little confusing that way. The guy who runs it is exceptional at pairing wines with housewives - most of their clientele is mothers coming in straight after buying groceries at the Stop & Shop next door. I've been disappointed multiple times before at their liquor options, as the liquor seems to cater to the young and trendy crowd rather than the crotchety old man crowd that likes my kind of amber nectar.
One thing they do always have is Eagle Rare at sale prices. If you get a chance, it's buffalo trace's bigger, more mature older brother.
Back to the Sloe Gin - After asking several nicer liquor stores if they had some sloe gin in the last six months, I happened upon it in the "Wine Bazaar" purely by accident. I'd listened to a podcast on midori and was willing to buy a bottle to try it, and right next to the midori was some sloe gin.
After that successful night making a few sloe cocktails - expect a Satanic Cocktail coming soon with sloe gin - including improvising several delicious margaritas with sloe gin, tonight I decided to try the Shark's Tooth.
1.5 oz Dark Rum
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime
.25 oz Sweet Vermouth
.25 oz Sloe Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Shake and pour into snifter or cocktail glass
I found the original version to be way too sweet (admittedly, I don't have passion fruit syrup, so I substituted Rose's, and I didn't have gold rum, so I went with some Bacardi Select). It had a nice taste, but way too much sugar. Looking at the alternate version, I can see that someone else must have had that same opinion, as it switches out the sweet vermouth for dry vermouth. I refuse to drop the bitters though...
Shark's Tooth Variation
1.5 oz Dark Rum
.25 oz Lemon Juice
.25 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime
.25 oz Dry Vermouth
.25 oz Sloe Gin
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Talk about a transformation. From a 'nice taste' but too sweet, to just plain colored dishwater. I'm done with the Shark's Tooth.
Sloe Gin, however, I will keep sampling.
Sloe Gin - Not The Gin I Expected
You'd think with a name that included "Gin" there would be some simularity between gin and sloe gin. Well, if you did think that (if, in the unlikely case, you'd ever heard of sloe gin before), you'd be wrong.
Sloe comes from sloeberry, but even with the 'berry' added in, Sloe Gin still sounds kinda like a mix of the sugar from candy-wrappers and bathtub gin. I figured it would be brutal like bai jiu.
Well, it's not at all the gin I expected. It took only one whiff of the 5$ bottle to determine that it was a sweet liqueur and not a hoary liquor.
As a replacement to sugar in my bourbon cocktails, it is changing things up. It also plays a starring role in the last few margaritas I've had in the last two weeks.
If you're interested, take a look at the CocktailDB note on it or the Wikipedia article, both are useful. At some point in the future, expect a detailed post where I make some homemade sloe gin!
Well, it's not at all the gin I expected. It took only one whiff of the 5$ bottle to determine that it was a sweet liqueur and not a hoary liquor.
As a replacement to sugar in my bourbon cocktails, it is changing things up. It also plays a starring role in the last few margaritas I've had in the last two weeks.
If you're interested, take a look at the CocktailDB note on it or the Wikipedia article, both are useful. At some point in the future, expect a detailed post where I make some homemade sloe gin!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Water of Life - Not Just for Drunks Anymore
Most cultures have a word for their national liquor and it usually boils down to something resembling "Water of Life." While anyone knows I could launch into a stupefying yet sophistic rant about what that says about alcohol's value in society, history, and politics, I'll stick to the recent news that my friend Jake sent my way. Scottish Scientists Develop Whisky Biofuel.Judging by the article, it's years down the line, but what's important to note is that it's an old process, and it uses pot ale, not whisky itself. When I first clicked the link, I was afraid it was going to be a scientific process that told me I could just pour liquor into my tank and drive on it... ...I'm glad that fear was unfounded.
They're starting a spin-off company from the university, so if you're interested in moving to Scotland and being a part of a project that might revolutionize the way people think about whisky, I'd investigate.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Drunk Calculus
Hello, and welcome back to Redfacery. I know it's been a long time, but I've been busy adventuring.
Back to the matter at hand:
Drunk Calculus:
Whenever you're planning on getting drunk, it's important that you have enough booze - there's nothing worse than having a place, and the time, but no more liquid joy.
As I mentioned above, I just got back from adventuring. Since I've been gone so long, I'm sure you could imagine that there was a considerable amount of planning that went into that there adventure; and you'd be right. From the 3 calories in each Altoid, to the stashes of book matches littering the gear, everything had a purpose and a place.
But we screwed up our Drunk Calculus.
We figured two strapping young men out in the woods for four weeks would be more than happy with the luxury of three bottles of whiskey. Two high proof ones, and one crap bottle to finish first.
We could not have been more wrong. 175 beers and 6 bottles of ethanol later, we'd moistened our trail-dusted throats sufficiently. Carting around 12 pack after 12 pack of unspeakably bad beers, it occurred to me that there is a certain mathematics that goes into drinking. There are particular numbers for everything in the wide world of drinking: 17 shots in a fifth, 9 ingredients in a Slickheel Lemonade, 12 ice cubes in a tray, and even unknowable ones, like how many ice cubes Justin Bieber puts in his drinks.
What's important to learn here is that you should follow this simple equation in the future when calculating how much booze you'll need to achieve the desired level of drunkenness:
Number of people is straightforward, but drinks per person can be a little tricky. I suggest you think about how many beers a healthy 25 year old could pound in an evening, add how many appletinis a slim girl could drink and divide by two. I find that 6-8 is a pretty good number when I'm throwing a party, but 12-15 is much more reliable when it's just a few pals shooting the shit.
The drunk factor is the party index more or less - if you want a rager, then make it huge, just be sure to have adequate blankets + puke boxes for people who tap out without making it home. I suggest here that you make it somewhat proportional to the number of people expected. If there are only five people there, and you want a calm night, make it 5-10, but if you expect 25, and you want the party to take off around 1am and not look back until pepper vodka smells like roses, make it 35-50.
Back to the matter at hand:
Drunk Calculus:
As I mentioned above, I just got back from adventuring. Since I've been gone so long, I'm sure you could imagine that there was a considerable amount of planning that went into that there adventure; and you'd be right. From the 3 calories in each Altoid, to the stashes of book matches littering the gear, everything had a purpose and a place.
But we screwed up our Drunk Calculus.
We figured two strapping young men out in the woods for four weeks would be more than happy with the luxury of three bottles of whiskey. Two high proof ones, and one crap bottle to finish first.
We could not have been more wrong. 175 beers and 6 bottles of ethanol later, we'd moistened our trail-dusted throats sufficiently. Carting around 12 pack after 12 pack of unspeakably bad beers, it occurred to me that there is a certain mathematics that goes into drinking. There are particular numbers for everything in the wide world of drinking: 17 shots in a fifth, 9 ingredients in a Slickheel Lemonade, 12 ice cubes in a tray, and even unknowable ones, like how many ice cubes Justin Bieber puts in his drinks.
What's important to learn here is that you should follow this simple equation in the future when calculating how much booze you'll need to achieve the desired level of drunkenness:
Number of people is straightforward, but drinks per person can be a little tricky. I suggest you think about how many beers a healthy 25 year old could pound in an evening, add how many appletinis a slim girl could drink and divide by two. I find that 6-8 is a pretty good number when I'm throwing a party, but 12-15 is much more reliable when it's just a few pals shooting the shit.
The drunk factor is the party index more or less - if you want a rager, then make it huge, just be sure to have adequate blankets + puke boxes for people who tap out without making it home. I suggest here that you make it somewhat proportional to the number of people expected. If there are only five people there, and you want a calm night, make it 5-10, but if you expect 25, and you want the party to take off around 1am and not look back until pepper vodka smells like roses, make it 35-50.
Humanity I love you because when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink.
- E. E. Cummings
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