Random notes on alcoholic experiments

Blood and Sandish

  • 1 oz Scotch
  • 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
  • 3/4 oz Liqueur de Pamplemousse Rose
  • 1 oz Orange Juice
  • 1 ds Orange Bitters

Homemade ingredients: sweet vermouth, does orange juice count? (No, it doesn't.)

Basically, I replaced the cherry liqueur with grapefruit liqueur. The result is quite nice. Now...

Continue reading...

I don't make my way to Gordon's in Waltham as much as I'd like to (wait, that didn't sound very good) but when I do, I almost always walk away with something new. This time, it was Cynar 70 Proof. Cynar, one of my favorite amaros, is generally bottled at 33 proof. Cynar 70 is, naturally, turned u...

Continue reading...

Recipe

Cooked Ingredients

Cooked Ingredients

  • 750 ml white wine
  • 20 cardamom pods
  • 20 juniper berries
  • 5 cloves
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 tsp rooibos

Cardamom

Crush the cardamom pods and juniper berries and break up the star anise by hand. Add the dry ingredients and the wine in a lidded pot and bring to a boil....

Continue reading...

Little Italy

  • 2 oz Rye
  • 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
  • 1/2 oz Cynar
  • 1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
  • Garnish: Cherry

Homemade ingredients: sweet vermouth, brandied cherry.

This Manhattan variation is one of my favorite cocktails. The recipe calls for Maraschino cherry syrup, but I like to skip the middle man and us...

Continue reading...

In preparation for batch #19 of my sweet vermouth, which I will be making this weekend, I thought I'd better give a quick overview of batches 1-18.

When I first decided to make my own vermouth, my plan was to begin with as few ingredients as possible, and then start filling in missing flavors. Af...

Continue reading...