Month: August 2013

Adventures in Booze: Dombey’s Last Word

Octopus Gallery 1 Comment

Light green cocktail in a martini glass with Greta in the background

Greta hangs out with us boozehounds on the deck.

½ ounce gin (Plymouth or another London dry gin)
½ ounce Verveine du Velay
½ ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 sprig fresh lemon verbena

Shake all the ingredients except the lemon verbena sprig with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Rub a lemon verbena leaf around the rim of the glass and garnish with another leaf. If you can’t find Verveine du Velay, green Chartreuse is a fine substitute.

Second (and third) bottle of new-to-me booze is in this cocktail and boy do we have winners. I subbed in green Chartreuse because I could find that at the ABC store (Oh Virginia, I hate your liquor laws so much) which I guess brings it back to the more classic version of this drink. They did, however, have the maraschino liqueur. \o/ I am going to have to make maraschino cherries if I can still find cherries at Whole Foods.

Again, I used Bulldog gin because it’s what I’ve got. It’s a London dry so it fits the recipe. I skipped the lemon verbena bit because lazy and didn’t have any. I should add that to the plant list one of these days.

I was trepidatious about the Chartreuse after the Campari. In my reading, it would show up in the same sentence as Campari as an herbal liqueur. And we know how much I liked the Campari. However, this stuff was good! It’s herbal in a completely different way that reminds me more of the herbal shampoo I’ve been using for the last decade that I’ve sadly recently developed an allergy to. *whinge whinge whinge* Anyway. On it’s own, I find green Chartreuse to be sweet and have a delicious anise/licorice taste, especially on the finish. It’s not overpoweringly licorice, but just enough to be noticeable. It actually reminds me a lot of NECCCO wafers, to tell the truth.

The drink overall had this amazing floral character. It was the mix of sweet and acidic that I love with this aftertaste of a bouquet in your mouth. I went and tasted the Luxardo maraschino liqueur by itself afterwards and that’s where the taste comes from. Jason says it tastes like drinking perfume and I agree with that. A lot of times when you go to wine tastings, the pourer will talk about how the wine has floral nose but I have never found a wine that was like getting smacked in the palate with flowers like this liqueur. Not a bad thing though! It’s a bit overwhelming on it’s own, but in this cocktail? Marvelous.

Overall rating: fabulous summer cocktail. Will drink regularly.

Thursday Pics

Octopus Gallery Leave a comment

Juvie catbird sits on the porch railing covered in grape vine

One from the front porch. I’ve given up on the grape vine and will hopefully be giving it to a friend in the spring who has more space than I do. I’m letting the birds have free access to it this year. The catbirds and robins are there most of the daytime and the cardinals move in at dusk.

Adventures in Booze: Campari and Negroni

Octopus Gallery Leave a comment

Close up of a red Negroni cocktail in a martini glass

The first bottle we cracked open from the intial booze spree was Campari. Now, I had never had it before, but the citrus description made it sound interesting and I decided to give it a go even though I don’t like gin a whole lot. I figured that the rest of the ingredients would cover the gin tastes I don’t care for.

NEGRONI from The Drunken Botanist

1 ounce gin (I used Bulldog here, the only gin I’ve found so far that I like.)
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Campari
Orange peel

Shake all of the ingredients except the orange peel over ice and serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange peel.

This cocktail mixes up into the lovely red drink you see above. I can’t be buggered to put in orange peels, especially when I don’t have any. It turns out that the non-gin ingredients do very much cover the taste of the gin, but it also turns out that I don’t care much for the taste of the other ingredients! Especially Campari. Campari, in my opinion, tastes like chewing on orange pith. It’s a funky, bitter taste that lingered through a 40 minute walk with my dog. Bleck!

Jason seemed to like it more than I did, but he also says that the next time he makes it, he’s going to probably use about half of the Campari. He also did a bit of research and found a Negroni recipe that includes a bit of salt. Salt does some good things for bitter flavors, so I may try that to see if it makes it more palatable. Otherwise, I suspect it’s going to be given to a friend of mine.

We also bought a bottle of Punt e Mes vermouth upon book suggestion and discovered it has the exact same bitter finish to it. Something to be aware of when buying vermouth.

Adventures in Booze

Octopus Gallery 2 Comments

A list of alcohols lying on top of Greta the dog A list of alcohols lying on top of Greta who is starting to get up

So I’m starting on a new project. I’ve mentioned The Drunken Botanist a number of times (review) and now I’m really starting to have fun with it. The list you see above is the list of cordials and alcohols that I want to try from the book. They either sound interesting in their own right or they’re ingredients in cocktails mentioned that sound tasty. My exposure to liquors outside of the usual is pretty limited so as you can see, it’s an extensive list. It goes onto the back of the page. My plan is to review the stuff I’ve bought and the cocktails I’ve tried and I’m always open to suggestions. I also plan to take ridiculous pictures and have Greta in as many of them as I can. Because what else is the internet for?