Cocktails

[benhall.1]

Frankie Boyle has a story about an Englishman ordering a pint of lager and lime in a Glasgow bar and being sternly informed, "We don't do cocktails".

[Dan A.]

Couldn't I use a standard sour mix instead of the 7 Up?

Such a mix would make a cocktail more akin to a Whiskey Sour, I believe. The Whiskey Sour is one of my favorite cocktails, though I steered away from liquor and toward beer around the time I turned 30.

[benhall.1]

Couldn't I use a standard sour mix instead of the 7 Up?

Such a mix would make a cocktail more akin to a Whiskey Sour, I believe. The Whiskey Sour is one of my favorite cocktails, though I steered away from liquor and toward beer around the time I turned 30.

Ah. I went in the opposite direction.

[benhall.1]

Well, the Pisco Sours were absolutely gorgeous. I liked it much better than Deb did, for some reason. Beautiful, classic cocktail though.

Here it is, with some home-made hummus:

[Dan A.]

Crispy pita bread dipped in hummus sounds really appetizing right now.

[Nanohedron]

Jeez, Ben: and homemade hummus, too. Does Martha Stewart come to you and Deb for ideas?

[david_h]

Wow, and the 1980’s plates! So someone else still has them.

[s1m0n]

Yeah. Plates these days are about three inches wider in every dimension.

[oleorezinator]

Back when booze still tasted good to me
one of my favorites was the negroni.
Equal parts of the highest proof gin,
campari and sweet red vermouth.
Over ice or strained with an orange twist.
There are variants of course that I never
got around to, substitute bourbon, rye
whiskey (canadian whiskey) etc. for the gin.
Another is the bunueloni where punt e mas
vermouth is substituted for the campari.
But with any of these it's nothing but booze,
no mixers to take up precious alcohol space.

[oleorezinator]

But I gather that, in the States, the soda tends to be left out of soda, leaving, essentially, just carbonated water.

You are correct, sir. We must have used bicarb in the past too, but now the general product is just carbonated water. We still call it "soda", though, and don't even think about it. A whiskey soda is just whiskey with carbonated water.

The word's so ubiquitous for carbonated water and the flavored drinks made from it that I seldom say "soft drink", which is our term for a carbonated beverage (without alcohol, hence the "soft"), and chiefly of commercial make, like Coke, 7 Up, Dr. Pepper, and the like. People in my region are more likely to call a soft drink "pop", but for some reason I took up the more East-coasterly habit of calling it "a soda". I have no idea how that happened. But everyone calls plain carbonated water "soda". Clear as mud?

Clear? As an unmuddied lake, friend.
As clear as an azure sky of deepest summer.......
Then there's the club soda vs. seltzer in the USA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonated_water

[NicoMoreno]

Your well whiskey is likely to be similar to Seagram's 7 crown (in taste and quality), so you've basically reinvented this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_and_7 By the way, as far as I can tell, this is a common drink and your only variation is the addition of bitters.

The thing about cocktails is that they all end up coming down to some basic building blocks with variations.

One of my favourites is the Negroni, which as mentioned above has a traditional recipe of 1:1:1 Gin:Campari:Red Vermouth. If you think of this as "base" (liquor), "bitter" (liqueur), "sweet" (sweetener or vermouth or similar things), you can build a whole slew of classic cocktails.
Recipes usually adjust proportions, but basically by adjusting one or more things from the Negroni you get a whole spectrum of "classic" cocktails:
For example:
Rye or bourbon whiskey, Campari, Vermouth = Boulevardier
Whiskey, Bitters, Vermouth = Manhattan

I love swapping the Gin for Rum (Jamaican Negroni), Mezcal (Mexigroni - there's probably a more widely used name), the sweet vermouth for dry (or a mix) or Averna (Black Negroni), and the Campari for any liqueur that I feel like (usually Gran Classico).

Favourite Negroni: 1.5 Gin (often Death's Door, but there are many good ones), 1 Gran Classico, 1 Carpano Antica sweet vermouth. This is so much more complex and flavorful than regular versions, especially with any typically found vermouth, which has usually gone bad unrefrigerated behind the bar.

[Nanohedron]

Your well whiskey is likely to be similar to Seagram's 7 crown (in taste and quality), so you've basically reinvented this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_and_7 By the way, as far as I can tell, this is a common drink and your only variation is the addition of bitters.

Yep, the 7&7 formula. Exactly that. I know what it is, because a good friend drinks it. A real 7&7 has a nice flavor, but the poison they serve as rail/well "whiskey" at my regular bar doesn't even measure up to that humble fare. Being a cheap SOB I tried the combo with what they had at the spout, but found it sorely wanting for character. I then asked for a splash of bitters to liven it up, and thus the Blood in the Water was born.

I was surprised to learn (strictly by word of mouth, mind you) that it's almost impossible to find Seagram's 7 in bars outside of Minnesota. We must be far more intimately Canadianoid than I ever would have suspected. But in my own wanderings I was even more surprised to learn that not every bar stocks bitters any more. THAT is a serious omission.

[benhall.1]

Tonight's cocktail: Chanticleer.

[an seanduine]

Cointreau? Or Pine Mountain Orange Blossom Gin? Or would you make your own infusion?

Bob

edit: What is the garnish?

[Dan A.]

A real 7&7 has a nice flavor, but the poison they serve as rail/well "whiskey" at my regular bar doesn't even measure up to that humble fare.

On bad alcohol...one used to be able to buy "Military Special" whiskey at the Navy Exchange. A 1.75-liter bottle, back in the former half of last decade, could be bought with a $10 bill and change left over. If whiskey wasn't your thing, Military Special rum and vodka were on offer, too!