Distilled Spirits / Cocktail Discussion

[KoolBak]

Ok RL...I looked at my local joint and they don't have that gin ;o( .....I'll attempt to grab some online.

I'm enjoying a nice Tanqueray cocktail - an easy one I designed in lieu of a Tom Collins. Gin, splash sweet / sour finished off with a citrus soda...I typically use diet Squirt but am trying a new squirt-like variant. Refreshing.

[mookiemcgee]

Squirt? Interesting... rarely see that anymore, thinks it's owned by Keurig now along with Dr Pepper.

To the degree I drink booze it's usually Gin based too. A few years back I ordered a negroni at a seedy casino steakhouse in Reno and almost got kicked out because they had never heard of it and thought I said something else.

Of the gins distributed by the big two (Southern Glazers, Republic National) I like Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire. I find myself ordering Hendricks alot, but not because i find it all that better than the other two. If i had to sip on just straight Gin (no one actually does this do they?) I'd probably go with Barr Hill, though that might be hard to find locally(I don't love barrel aged Gin but theirs is by far the best I've had).

From the little I could dig up on Kyro, they have someone somewhere in this country importing a little bit of it... but it's gonna be hard to find. The closest Total Wine to us that has any is in Missouri, and most of the bottle shops that pop up with inventory on wine-searcher are on the east coast. There is a rando shop in CA, but you are probably better off buying it from a no-sales tax state somewhere farther haha.

https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/kyro ... land/1/usa

[KoolBak]

Cool. Will check.

There are so many craft companies in Oregon alone that compete to make the best gin. IMHO, most of them go over hard on the flavor attempts. Interesting, but too much for more than one drink.

And yeah, gin is no bueno straight.

Love gin / tonic with lime but more than two hurts my stomach. My concoction in the first post is a keeper for me.

[2dimes]

I like dark rum either with cola or some tasty mixed citrus/tropical fruit juice. Locally produced Potters is pretty good, I also like Screech, Meyers' is ok. I'll certainly drink some SailorJerry's, Bacardi or Captain Morgan.

One of my best buds tricked me into drinking some single malts.
Terrible idea, that stuff's expensive.

My current favorites are Bowmore number 1 and Glen Gerioch, which is a Doric name and somehow is pronounced Glen Gear-eee.

https://www.visitabdn.com/blog/a-beginn ... -to-doric/

show: Doric video

Then everyone wonders why my Canuck English spelling is all wonky.

[KoolBak]

Liqueurs...

I keep many in my whisky cabinet for craft cocktails when I / we do that.

The ONLY one I drink in and of itself is Frangelico. That shoite is the nectar of the gods to my palette. I LOVE it on a cold morning in black coffee, or a shot to sip as a dessert. One bottle (a fifth here which is a fifth of a gallon / or about 750 ml) lasts me about a year. Good thing cause it's spendy to an old redneck

[mookiemcgee]

Liqueurs...

I keep many in my whisky cabinet for craft cocktails when I / we do that.

The ONLY one I drink in and of itself is Frangelico. That shoite is the nectar of the gods to my palette. I LOVE it on a cold morning in black coffee, or a shot to sip as a dessert. One bottle (a fifth here which is a fifth of a gallon / or about 750 ml) lasts me about a year. Good thing cause it's spendy to an old redneck

What's your feeling on things like Cynar, Amaro, Chartreuse? Seemed like these things were relics of a different age that have seem to blossom in popularity again with Gen X and millennials.

[KoolBak]

I honestly don't recognize any of those manno....

[mookiemcgee]

They are all digestifs... along the lines of Jägermeister. sometimes a little sweet, always extremely herbal and usually bitter (though depends how sweet it is as this offsets the bitter in some).

Cynar is pretty gross but got really popular with hipsters, it's made from artichokes. Chartreuse is one I actually really like. Amaro is like a broad category for the italian ones, cynar is an amaro . You've probably seen some of these stashed somewhere behind a bar even if you'd never know wtf is was and have never seen a bartender reach for it.

After a nice meal at a half decent restaurant ask for a Chartreuse sometime and let me know your thoughts.

[KoolBak]

Gods. Was gonna order a bottle but what I see is $60-$150. f*ck that

I'll find a shot in a bar!

[mookiemcgee]

Gods. Was gonna order a bottle but what I see is $60-$150. f*ck that

I'll find a shot in a bar!

Historically... it hasn't been expensive haha. I guess like all things the price has shot up over the last 5-10 years but last time i bought a bottle it was $20. Just find a shot at a bar lol... Also found it at liquorama on disco

https://liquorama.shop/shop/product/cha ... feed&gQT=3

[riskllama]

yeah, I had to order the Kyro stuff in as well...I told them I wanted a bottle of the gin & a bottle of their rye. what I got was a case ( ) of white/clear(?) gin and a case of BROWN gin, which I didn't really care for & promptly returned given the fact that I had paid over $400 for 8 bottles of hooch that I technically didn't really want in the first place. as I said, the clear stuff is quite yummy - the rye whiskey is still on order... .

[mookiemcgee]

yeah, I had to order the Kyro stuff in as well...I told them I wanted a bottle of the gin & a bottle of their rye. what I got was a case ( ) of white/clear(?) gin and a case of BROWN gin, which I didn't really care for & promptly returned given the fact that I had paid over $400 for 8 bottles of hooch that I technically didn't really want in the first place. as I said, the clear stuff is quite yummy - the rye whiskey is still on order... .

brown gin usually means it's barrel aged and 99% of the time the stuff it weird, I've had a handful of decent ones but the concept is just strange to me.

[KoolBak]

Damn!

[KoolBak]

Infused...

So when we travel to the coast (60 miles from home) we typically go to Astoria, Oregon and stay for 3 days or so. Tons of shoite to do, but Astoria has lots of great bars.

One is the Inferno Lounge, totally cool atmosphere and built on a pier over the ocean.

Their claim to fame is their infused alcohols. Took my youngest for a weekend there on his 21st birthday recently. Ordered Red Vines vodka (yes they dissolve licorice in it) with lemonade / soda. Killer. Their infused stuff is on their menu (website below) and is all stuff you can make at home.

pix

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CSELvUUVh2w9ipi4A

https://photos.app.goo.gl/R5eNK1LEKrzTCVPA9

http://www.infernoloungeastoria.com

[mookiemcgee]

I have a broker in Michigan who LOVES root beer infused vodka, she had a shit fit last time i was there because the brand was discontinuing it. I have nothing against infused/flavored vodkas, vodka is built for it!

Cherry Vanilla Whisk(e)y doesn't sound half bad, kinda like the flavors you'd expect from whisk(e)y aged in barrels previously used for red wine. I feel like I've seen alot of those pop up last few years, and I'm good with it. It really turns my stomach that there are a bunch of wine aged in whisk(e)y barrels on the market now though, that shit wrong.

[KoolBak]

I bow to your expertise in the wine field my friend! That sounds weird

And yes, I agree....folks will try anything for the next new mousetrap.

[Dukasaur]

I started drinking CC (Canadian Club) early in life, always with Coke. All through most of my life it was my favourite. Later on, when New Coke came out, I refused to mix with New Coke, and when they backtracked and brought back the old recipe as Coke Classic, I invented the term C5. (Canadian Club and Coca Cola Classic.) All around Toronto I would order a C5 in restaurants, and when the waitress had no idea what I was talking about, I would explain. Eventually I did hear a few other people using the term, which was very gratifying, but then they took New Coke off the market entirely, so it was no longer necessary to specify.

The second booze I started drinking was Pusser's Rum. We drank a lot of that in Grade 11, until the day that I got so trashed I was crawling around the hall so drunk that I couldn't stand up, and I got suspended for a week just before exam time. That kind of soured me on Pusser's. It was never the same after that.

In my mid-twenties I started trying various sweet liquers -- Creme de Menthe, Anisette, Kahlua, Amaretto. I actually started drinking Creme de Menthe with Club Soda as a refresher. Tasted like Scope. My friends thought they were making fun of me when they said I liked to drink Scope at parties, lol. I didn't see anything wrong with it. There's a reason Scope is popular, lol.

My worst trash-out drunk was sometime around '85 or '85. We had a B-52 party. A B-52 is layered Bailey's, Grand Marnier, and Kahlua. Man it tastes good! Trouble is, you're trashed after abour four of them, and I think I had 20. We went to a dance with some sorority girls at U of T, but I was more falling than dancing. That was the night I broke into St. Mike's Cathedral and shat on the Archibishop's desk. I'm missing the few hours in between. Apparently I left the dance sometime around 11:00, and I got to St. Mike's around 3:00, so there's a few hours in between that are completely lost to posterity. I do remember trying to climb the bell tower at St. Mike's and falling down a couple times, so I was already starting to sober up when I decided on the plan to leave a liturgical offering in the Archie's office.

Gin and tonic was my mother's drink. I didn't like it much when I was young, but sometime around the age of 40 I started to take it up. I found that tonic water, although it doesn't taste sweet, has almost as much sugar as cola. So I got my local supermarket to stock sugar-free Diet Tonic. As a consumer, you have more power than you think. Grocery managers do try to please.

Around the age of 50 I started to explore the wine world and found a liking for it. In the last 10 years or so, I don't drink much, but if I do it's mostly wine.

Although, the very most recent drink that made me say "WOW!" was limited-edition Green Apple Crown Royal. That was fucking amazing! I've tried other Apple-infused whiskeys and none of them are even close. Something special about the Crown Royal version.

[KoolBak]

Fun....

I don't like ANY of the flavored Crowns personally. That crown IS well blended but it's just not for me.

You guys ever try Skrewball? Peanut butter whiskey. That shirt ROCKS. Mixed with Chambord, it tastes just like a p-butter / jelly sanny. Decadent....great sipping aperitif.

Luckily a little goes a long ways cause they're both expensive.

Now that Skrewball has been out for a while there's a ton of inexpensive copycat pbutt whiskeys but none of them come close. Shit's killer....

If you haven't, grab a one ounce bottle at the whisky store and do it!

[detlef]

Liqueurs...

I keep many in my whisky cabinet for craft cocktails when I / we do that.

The ONLY one I drink in and of itself is Frangelico. That shoite is the nectar of the gods to my palette. I LOVE it on a cold morning in black coffee, or a shot to sip as a dessert. One bottle (a fifth here which is a fifth of a gallon / or about 750 ml) lasts me about a year. Good thing cause it's spendy to an old redneck

What's your feeling on things like Cynar, Amaro, Chartreuse? Seemed like these things were relics of a different age that have seem to blossom in popularity again with Gen X and millennials.

Chartreuse is amazing. It's just so damned hard to find these days. I visited the Chartreuse museum in Paris last year and brought back some rare editions and now have 6 different kinds in my bar. My favorite is the VEP. It's aged for 15 years in acacia barrels and is absolutely stunning.

Note on Chartreuse: Because it's gotten so hard to get, I've taken to cutting it with a simple Cognac like Martell VS because it still dominates the flavor of the brandy and means I don't go through it as quickly. About equal parts in a glass works fine.

I also enjoy Amaros and have about 10 or so kicking around.

[detlef]

I have a broker in Michigan who LOVES root beer infused vodka, she had a shit fit last time i was there because the brand was discontinuing it. I have nothing against infused/flavored vodkas, vodka is built for it!

Cherry Vanilla Whisk(e)y doesn't sound half bad, kinda like the flavors you'd expect from whisk(e)y aged in barrels previously used for red wine. I feel like I've seen alot of those pop up last few years, and I'm good with it. It really turns my stomach that there are a bunch of wine aged in whisk(e)y barrels on the market now though, that shit wrong.

agreed. Mind you, they're taking shit wine and doing that to it, so it's not like they're ruining something I would have enjoyed. It's likely overripe wine with mega purple in it to begin with.

Are you in the business? Sounds like it. I'm a retired sommelier and restaurant owner.

[detlef]

Infused...

So when we travel to the coast (60 miles from home) we typically go to Astoria, Oregon and stay for 3 days or so. Tons of shoite to do, but Astoria has lots of great bars.

One is the Inferno Lounge, totally cool atmosphere and built on a pier over the ocean.

Their claim to fame is their infused alcohols. Took my youngest for a weekend there on his 21st birthday recently. Ordered Red Vines vodka (yes they dissolve licorice in it) with lemonade / soda. Killer. Their infused stuff is on their menu (website below) and is all stuff you can make at home.

pix

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CSELvUUVh2w9ipi4A

https://photos.app.goo.gl/R5eNK1LEKrzTCVPA9

http://www.infernoloungeastoria.com

My wife bought me a still a few years back for Xmas and I started making moonshine. Of course, that means a lot of infused stuff. But I got pretty serious with it. For starters, I use a vacuum sealer and thermo circulator which allows me to complete infusions in 4 hours rather than months. Additionally, I really try and make the flavored shine taste like what it's named after. Like, one common flavor of moonshine is 'apple pie' and it's normally done by just putting some apples and cinnamon sticks in the booze for a while. But I butter wash the liquor with brown butter, infuse toasted oats, brown sugar, ofc cinnamon and apples to make it actually taste like apple pie. I then started in on a series of "classic desserts". Pineapple upside down cake (roasted pineapple, caramelized brown sugar, toasted rice, and dried cherries), pecan pie, etc. I even do a carrot cake one.

Of course, I also do some simpler ones like peach, lemon, espresso, muscadine, mango... which are basically one-ingredient infusions.

It's really fun.

[mookiemcgee]

I have a broker in Michigan who LOVES root beer infused vodka, she had a shit fit last time i was there because the brand was discontinuing it. I have nothing against infused/flavored vodkas, vodka is built for it!

Cherry Vanilla Whisk(e)y doesn't sound half bad, kinda like the flavors you'd expect from whisk(e)y aged in barrels previously used for red wine. I feel like I've seen alot of those pop up last few years, and I'm good with it. It really turns my stomach that there are a bunch of wine aged in whisk(e)y barrels on the market now though, that shit wrong.

agreed. Mind you, they're taking shit wine and doing that to it, so it's not like they're ruining something I would have enjoyed. It's likely overripe wine with mega purple in it to begin with.

Are you in the business? Sounds like it. I'm a retired sommelier and restaurant owner.

Yeah, I'm in the business lol. In unrelated news, Detlev is also my dad's middle name!!!

When the first 'wine aged in whiskey/bourbon barrels' products started coming out it was mostly sourced from Spain, but now all the big companies are doing them and yeah that shit is mostly California/North America/Western Hemisphere sourced wine. It is what it is I guess, maybe it actually helps cover up how very bad the wine already was idk. I doubt these products will exist in 10 years but there is a glut of used bourbon barrels on the market so it's incredibly cheap to do it (around .05-.10c bottle in additional production costs) and the big companies love to lean into new trends and then move on to the next trend in a few years.

[detlef]

I have a broker in Michigan who LOVES root beer infused vodka, she had a shit fit last time i was there because the brand was discontinuing it. I have nothing against infused/flavored vodkas, vodka is built for it!

Cherry Vanilla Whisk(e)y doesn't sound half bad, kinda like the flavors you'd expect from whisk(e)y aged in barrels previously used for red wine. I feel like I've seen alot of those pop up last few years, and I'm good with it. It really turns my stomach that there are a bunch of wine aged in whisk(e)y barrels on the market now though, that shit wrong.

agreed. Mind you, they're taking shit wine and doing that to it, so it's not like they're ruining something I would have enjoyed. It's likely overripe wine with mega purple in it to begin with.

Are you in the business? Sounds like it. I'm a retired sommelier and restaurant owner.

Yeah, I'm in the business lol. In unrelated news, Detlev is also my dad's middle name!!!

When the first 'wine aged in whiskey/bourbon barrels' products started coming out it was mostly sourced from Spain, but now all the big companies are doing them and yeah that shit is mostly California/North America/Western Hemisphere sourced wine. It is what it is I guess, maybe it actually helps cover up how very bad the wine already was idk. I doubt these products will exist in 10 years but there is a glut of used bourbon barrels on the market so it's incredibly cheap to do it (around .05-.10c bottle in additional production costs) and the big companies love to lean into new trends and then move on to the next trend in a few years.

Detlef is a shortened nickname for me. I was a chef and my favorite NBA team was the Supersonics. Back when they had Detlef Schrempf, one of my friends started calling me Detlef Chef and it stuck.

Yeah, I remember the first time I got an email for Bourbon barrel aged wines. You're right, I think it was Spanish juice. But I was just like, "Oh dear. Here we go." I was never into the idea, but when I saw Tequila barrel-aged Sauvignon blanc, my stomach turned. That sounds freaking awful!

What do you do in the business? Wholesaler?

[mookiemcgee]

Producer, I make and sell

[detlef]

Producer, I make and sell

Very cool. What do you make? I see from your profile you make wine. I'm pretty familiar with CA wines. Which one(s) do you make?