A Pink Gin, using up the last of our Plymouth gin.
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Frappé season (the Greek iced coffee) has begun!
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My wife was just recalling coffee granitas, sort of coffee slushies. I may try something along those lines with a couple of shots of espresso, a little simple sugar, some milk, a few ice cubs, and the blender. Recommended changes or improvements welcome.
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There’s also a crema di caffe / crema al caffe/ Caffe crema some Italian coffee shops serve, which is a creamy coffee granita.
I like both coffee granita and crema di caffe.
Some versions of Espresso Fredo are also more of a slushie.
That sounds superb. Thanks.
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I think Crema al Caffe is the correct phrase, Eataly in Toronto calls it a Crema di Caffe.
I’ll post this recipe as a reference, to compare to what you are making at home.
Any fluency I ever had in Italian has been atrophying since I left Venice in 1962. However, thank you for the correction. BTW, I love your avatar. I have long admired Sophia. I encountered her on the beach at Livorno. Unforgettable.
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The Greek Freddo
Lucky you! 
(I wasn’t correcting your granite! I was correcting my crema di caffe vs crema al caffe)
Some coffee shops and bars have a slushie machine with coffee granita, with sugar but no dairy, churning all day, and others have a slushie machine with the creamier caffe al crema.
The caffe al crema is often a smaller serving than a regular coffee granita or a fruit granita, at least in Toronto. It’s pretty rich.
I became enamored with the description of a cocktail @PerdoPero had in CDMX called Reina Yara. I made my own version, 1-1/2 oz reposado tequila, 3/4 oz Galliano, filled the glass with ice and then added passion fruit soda and a splash of tonic. I even had a butterfly. It is luscious.
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How do you make yours?
A classic! Thank you!
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A PITA to make but lovely to nurse: pack tightly a julep cup or tall glass with alternating layers of crushed ice and powdered sugar with mint crushed in it. Pour in a jigger of Cognac and fill to the top with bourbon. Garnish with mint sprigs.
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Recently our martini nights shifted to Tanq and Noilly. Noilly lasted for the first round of one night. We knocked off the handle of Tanq, eventually. Tonight I am nursing Bombay red cap and Dolin, 3:1, and it has warmed a bit. It is so smooth and elegant while possessing proper assertiveness. For me, probably not for anyone else, Bombay and Dolin, 3:1, stirred 47 turns, garnished with one Mezzetta queen sized Spanish olive, served in a frozen Nick and Nora, is perfection, and I am ready to stop experimenting. It’s that good.
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2:1 Manhattan with Rittenhouse BiB rye, Carpano Antica Formula, and a dash of Angostura bitters, with a Luxardo cherry.
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I discovered that a local spice shop, Oaktown Spice, has tonic water kits: a set of herbs, spices, and citric acid to make a concentrate.
I got one and prepared it today. You simmer the kit’s contents with orange, lemon, and lime zest and juice. Then you add citric acid and strain it through a sieve and then cheesecloth (I used a paper towel). The recipe calls for a lot of sugar, and the main reason I was interested was that I don’t want all the sugar in commercial tonic waters (more than in Coca Cola, and sugar free tonics are sweetened with saccharine). So I used Splenda.
It’s delicious! More complex spice notes than the one-dimensional Schweppes. The tint is from the juices and zest. I made half the kit, which came to about a cup and a half of concentrate. Two tablespoons go into the drink, mixed with sparkling water.
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Just curious - why is splenda OK but not saccharine. Both are artificial sweeteners with the “typical” potential “side effects”
