Daughter #2 got a wild hair (along with suggestions from D#3) and simmered blueberries, grated ginger, minced fresh rosemary together with sugar and a bit of water, mashed through a sieve to retrieve the liquid syrup. I tasted it and said “Sorry Honey, it tastes like foul medicine [the piney rosemary] being masked with sugar”.
She then squeezed limes and added 1 lime juice per glass with an equal amount of the syrup, and topped off with sparkling water.
The result was surprisingly good.
Had to pre commit to x number of bottles from each barrel. I own a lot. But they are fabulous and in high demand. Very bourbonesk
My first round of purchases
Many more barrels came after that from subsequent barrel purchases all from that little farm house after the first round.
Nice and dark from the barrels. Were they fresh wood or used for some other purpose? Is it woody in any way ?
Satan’s Whiskers, which you can have either “curled” (with curacao) or “straight” (with Grand Marnier)
–1/2 oz. gin
–1/2 oz. dry vermouth
–1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
–1/2 oz. orange juice
–2 tsp. orange curacao or Grand Marnier
–1 tsp. orange bitters (yes, that’s the right quantity)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a strip of orange peel.
No woody taste at all
Here is an article from Vinepair that highlighted our trip
Great. Too many pricy bourbons taste like shit to me this way.
Monkey Gland (not to be confused with the “monkey gland” sauce popular in South Africa [contains no monkeys])
Shake vigorously with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
I had a cup of coffee this morning.
Been working thru our way of some really fine Bourbons and Ryes. Peerless, Barrell Dovetail and Willett 4 year rye.
The book I got this recipe from was very specific regarding brands of alcohol to use. It was pretty good using what I had on hand.
Alexandre
–2 oz. rye (Rittenhouse)
–1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
–1/8 oz. Benedictine
–1/8 oz. creme de cacao
–2 dashes orange bitters (Regan’s)
Shake and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a strip of orange peel.
is that a relative of the brandy alexander ?
Rittenhouse is a favorite. It is a minimum-rye mashbill so it is less spicy than a high-rye rye And Heaven Hill also has a more aged rye with the same mashbill: Pikeville.
In the middle is a high-rye from Old Forester which is 73% rye. Leaner and spicier than the R. At the highest level is Redemption which is based on the 95%rye mashbill from MGP.
All three of these are under $30. It is loads of fun making the same cocktail with these various ryes and seeing the effect of the eponymous grain on the finished rye.
for reasons better left unstated, I have not been able to drink any brown liquor or tequila since college which is now…45 years ago. About a year ago we went to a dinner party and one of my friends insisted he make me a “craft manhattan”. I tried a sip, my gorge rose, but came back to the drink over the course of an hour and had another.
so we’ve just started making our own with maker’s mark, angostura/orange bitters, dolan vermouth, cocchi americano and a good cherry. It’s supposed to be a perfect manhattan (half sweet, half dry vermouth), my wife tried to replicate the recipe from the Grand Tier at the Met but goobered and bought a different vermouth.
anyhow, it will be fun to play with different bourbons, ryes, vermouths, bitters etc. We have pretty good palates from wine tasting but honestly haven’t been able to taste a difference between bitters, perhaps we need to taste the manhattans side-by-side.
best,
I don’t think so. It comes from a restaurant in the East Bay (can’t remember which), who named it after a specific person.
I used Old Forester, the rye I had on hand, in this drink. It’s nearly done and I just got a bottle of Bullitt to replace it, the local Total Wine having seemingly every brand of rye on hand BUT Rittenhouse.
Heaven Hill is the second largest distiller in KY. But some of their main selections can be hard to find. I do like a number of their bourbons and ryes.
Do try Redemption if you have not. It is MGP juice and they really do s good job getting it into bottle. They also have a wondrful high rye bourbon that I am loving in a store pick.
And this year Bardstown Bourbon Co is rolling out their origins series, a farm to glass project. All their own distilates, all aged 6 years at least. Pretty incredible. Their rye is 95% rye and they have a bottled in bond bourbon. There is also a wheated bourbon that was not to my taste.
We took a special tour and got to taste these out of barrels. Looks like $50 which is spendy but worth it. While i will sip these, i also would love them in old fashioneds and manhattans or any other booze forward cocktail.
For a fun demonstration of bitters, try three otherwise identical old fashioneds, one with Angostura, one with Peychaud’s, and one with Fee’s black walnut. In a Manhattan the bitters and the red Vermouth can almost merge, making it harder to sort out. This is especially true with my two favorites, Punt e Mes and Cocchi. Cheers!
