For several months now, I haven't been making anything new. There are plenty of excuses, but mainly I blame success. My vermouth and amaro recipes have been stable. It wouldn't be very interesting for me to say "today I made another batch of that thing I've already described in excruciating detail" but that is all that has happened recently. I've decided that I'm sick of this, and I'm going to finally take on some new projects. Here's a list of things I want to try over the next few months.

• Falernum: It seems to be the hot ingredient right now. I've never really gotten into tiki, but maybe it's time for that to change. Also, I'm sitting across from someone who will snap up any falernum I can't find my own use for. Falernum recipes vary dramatically, and I've already started a spreadsheet of some of the variations, which should make for an interesting (/nerdy and boring) post.

• Dry Vermouth: I don't want to change my sweet vermouth recipe, so the solution is to make a completely different vermouth.

• Fat Washing: I tried making bacon bourbon a few years ago, and it did not go well. After listening to a recent episode of The Speakeasy, I was inspired to try again. My first experiment is already underway, and will be the subject of my next post.

• Someone Else's Recipes: Every time I think about making up a completely new amaro, I just don't know where to start. Brad Thomas Parsons' book Amaro includes four amaro recipes, one for each season. I plan to use these as jumping off points. We'll see what happens.