The Last Word

As I said in my previous post, I mixed up my first Last Word the other night and my maraschino was running low. Well, I finished off the bottle with another Last Word last night. The drink is made up of this:

• 1 part gin (last night I used Tanqueray 10)


• 1 part green Chartreuse


• 1 part maraschino liqueur


• 1 part fresh lime juice

Oh, and this is the first photo I've taken for the site with my new iPhone. Didn't turn out too bad, probably because I took it in a spot where I could shine a light right there. The pretty green color of the drink doesn't show that well, but I haven't played with the photo or anything either.

Apologies, again

I really need to get back on the horse and start posting again. I really don't have any excuse other than that I was too busy doing... nothing for a month and now I'm always at work. I do have some posts with pictures still waiting in the wings at home, so maybe I'll get them up this week. In the meantime, I will leave you with the following:

1. I did use a fat-washing technique to infuse some bourbon with bacon flavoring. This definitely added a bacon flavor to the Jim Beam I used, but I did this with pretty crappy bacon and I think it would turn out better with something good. I'll try again. I took some pictures for a planned post for this month's MxMo (Local Flavor) using the bacon bourbon for my home state of Iowa. After all, what's more Iowa than hogs (bacon) and corn (bourbon)?
2. I finally got my hands on a bottle of green Chartreuse and mixed up a Last Word last night. I really like this cocktail. The only problem I have is that after mixing up Aviations all summer my bottle of maraschino is almost empty and the prospects of me hitting a liquor store outside of the greater downtown/Dupont Circle area anytime in the next few weeks is somewhere between slim and none. Hopefully I can find a new bottle, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
3. My favorite sipping rum of the moment is El Dorado 15-year old. Yum.

My sincerest apologies

To Nick and Kate, who had the two Mai Tais I made last night. At least, I thought they were Mai Tais at the time. Only this morning did I realize that I accidentally poured from the bottle of falernum instead of orgeat. Those were most decidedly NOT Mai Tais. Oops. Probably a little on the tart side, too.

I'll make you real Mai Tais to make it up to you sometime. Or bacon bourbon Manhattans. Yeah, bacon bourbon.

Slacker

I've really been slacking on the posting so far this month, but since no one actually reads this I'm not too worried. I haven't been completely slacking on the cocktails front, however. I finished my first batch of tonic syrup, based mostly off of Jeffrey Morganthaler's recipe but with a few personal touches. I kind of messed it up a bit, and the flavor profile was too heavy on the cardamom for my tastes. I'll be mixing up another batch this evening, I still have PLENTY of quinine powder and all of the other ingredients. I also started a batch of Tequila por Mi Amonte, so I'll have that to test when I return from the Mayan Riviera later this month.

Over the holiday on the 4th, I got a chance to try some homemade sangrita with tequila at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. P. Pretty tasty stuff. They got their recipe from a Mexican bartender in Spain, but substituted a bit of maple syrup for the grenadine. I've also attended the Tuesday cocktail sessions at Bar Pilar twice this month, but neither visit offered anything that really struck me as fantastic. I really want to get over to Central Michel Richard to try the black pepper gin rickey that I've been reading about, it sounds fantastic.

I'm going to try my best to interest some of my friends in cocktails more interesting than simple vodka-based things or highballs tomorrow. Maybe it's time to mix up some tiki drinks now that I've gotten my hands on some orgeat. Hmmm...

Tailgate!

I mixed up some bloody mary mix on Saturday night in preparation for a Sunday morning tailgate for the DC United game. It was pretty damn good. I can't quite remember exact proportions, but the 46 oz bottle of V8 contained V8 (obviously), Worchestershire, A1, celery salt, Texas Pete hot sauce, minced garlic (one clove), horseradish, and fresh cinnamon basil from my garden. We also had beer and mimosas. It's always a fun Sunday when you can say you stopped drinking at noon.

That's right, stopped. Fun times. It was DAMN hot, though.

Bleccch.

This one looks pretty, but doesn't taste good. I'd been experimenting with some basil-infused vodka made with the "cinnamon" basil growing on my patio and some Smirnoff. The vodka tasted decent on its own, so I thought I'd combine it with some tomato flavor. I muddled a few cherry tomatoes in a mixing glass, added the basil-infused vodka and a bit of dry vermouth, and strained into a chilled glass.

I didn't finish it.

Hey, at least it looked pretty, right?

Summer Drinks

I discussed a list of summer drinks with pals James Poulos and his beautiful wife at Bar Pilar several weeks ago. I agree with most of the selections on his do list and several of the don'ts, but I have some additions:

1. The Dark & Stormy. A Bermudan concoction of rum and ginger beer. Delicious. For more details, see the previous post.
2. An Aviation Cocktail, bitterly cold. Gin and lemon juice, a perfect summer combination, made even better with the addition of maraschino liqueur. I make mine without the creme de violette.
3. REAL Margaritas. On the rocks, never blended, and always with fresh lime juice and decent tequila. Never, never, never with Jose Cuervo. Jose is not your friend.

If James ever returns from his globehopping long enough for a drink, I will force these libations on him and make him see the error of his ways in not including these on his list. Maybe I'll start by winning over his wife...