Photographs from the 13 June, 2009 cocktail party.
Jun/091
I have posted some of these to Facebook already, but since I just threw up my hands in disgust at Gallery2 and went with something simple and clean, I figured I might as well actually present the whole massive pile of them:
gr’s Bottled Cocktail Recipes
Jun/091
In order to mostly keep up with orders during cocktail parties at my house, I routinely prepare several bottled cocktails, in 1 L surplus US military (World War II era, I think, but plausibly replica) bottles marked “poison” in three languages (”gift” and “veleno”), in advance of the event and encourage my guests to serve themselves from those, preferably pouring over ice. Three common ones are:
Margarita (1 L)
This is a shameless rip from Mr. Regan’s recipe, but it is 1.5 times the volume.
12 oz white tequila (preferably 100% agave; Cuervo actually makes a decent one, the Tradicionale)
9 oz Cointreau (or triple sec, but I only bother keeping the former around)
4.5 oz lime juice
7.5 oz filtered / bottled water
Fish House Punch (1 L)
There are various, relatively divergent, recipes for this out there in the world, and this is cobbled together from several. Apologies for the ⅓ measures: it took that to hit the right balance in 1 L. Obviously, I just eyeball it between ¼s.
500 mL dark rum (I use Gosling’s)
6 oz brandy (not really worth using cognac or armagnac here)
2⅔ oz peach brandy or crème de pêche
2⅔ oz simple syrup
3⅓ oz fresh lime juice
3⅓ oz fresh lemon juice
fill with filtered / bottled water (if there’s any space left)
Bottled Stiles (1 L)
This isn’t enormously clever, but it is something that I came up with when I first had a bottle of St-Germain. (It’s named for a street on which I’ve lived.)
300 mL gin (I use either Plymouth or Bluecoat usually)
150 mL St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
150 mL Lillet Blonde
fill to 1 L with filtered / bottled water
15 June 2009’s libations.
Jun/097
Rather than go through any sort of rigamarole about starting a new blog, I’m simply going to kick off with a post in a format I plan to maintain whenever I feel like it, but probably frequently. Here, then, are the drinks I had tonight, down to the brands used, in the order consumed:
The Attention
(See also. Thanks to Plymouth Gin, Apothecary, and Nicholas Jarrett for introducing me to this wonderful waypoint between the Martini and the Aviation.)
2½ oz Plymouth Gin
½ oz Crème de Violette (Rothman & Winter)
½ Noilly Prat dry vermouth
½ barspoon Philly Distilling Vieux Carré
2 dashes Fee’s orange bitters
Stir on ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with either a lemon or orange twist (to taste).
The Chaplin
(For introduction to which, thanks Rodolphe.)
¾ oz Eagle Rare bourbon
¾ oz Williams & Humbert Dry Sack sherry
¾ oz Ramazzotti Amaro
⅛ oz Cointreau
2 dashes orange bitters
Stir on ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a (flamed, in this case) orange twist.
La Louisiane
(See also.)
¾ oz Old Overholt Rye
¾ oz Punt e Mes rosso vermouth
¾ oz Benedictine
1 barspoon Pernod
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Stir on ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a (again flamed: I’m using it up and practicing) orange twist.
Blood & Sand
1½ oz Ardbeg 10 Scotch
¾ oz Cherry Heering
½ oz Cinzano rosso vermouth
½ oz fresh orange juice
Shake all ingredients on ice, strain into a cocktail glass. What the hell, flame an orange peel on it.
Dark & Stormy
2 oz Gosling’s Black Seal dark rum
~3 oz home-made ginger “beer” (no fermentation, just CO2 charging)
Build in a Collins glass over ice, top with ginger beer.
Moscow Mule
(You may notice something of a pattern here. I was on the phone with my parents.)
2 oz Svedka vodka (Yeah, really. I’m trying to kill it.)
~3 oz ginger beer (as above)
Build in a Collins glass over ice, top with ginger beer.
an interlude
A glass of wine with dinner. It was opened during a cocktail party I threw a couple of days ago, so it needs to be used up.
Trinidad Sour
1 oz Angostura Bitters
1 oz Fiume Sciroppa di Orzata (If you’ve only had Fee’s Orgeat before, you’re missing out)
1 oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz Rittenhouse 100
Shake on ice, strain into a cocktail glass.
Lagavulin 16 year
1 shot. Neat.