What are you drinking right now? - Page 770

Zywiec beer. Good Polish beer

High West "double rye," meyer lemon, agave nectar whiskey sour.

Liefmans kriek.
Judas blonde.

And now a large Manhattan.

Gin and tonic

Vieux Carre.
 

Had a Vieux Carre and a Delicious Sour today. The latter is applejack, peach brandy, juice of one lime, sugar to taste, and an egg white with a splash of soda. Tasty.

What vermouth do you use for your Vieux? I'm working on a bottle of Noilly Prat and it's a nice step up from the Martini and Rossi I used to get. Tempted to try Carpano Antica but it's a little spendy for vermouth.

Yeah, Carpano is expensive, and its a full liter, which is a pain to use up, even though I am happy to drink that stuff straight.

 

The Vieux Carre, is in my top three drinks, I suppose, and I use my very favorite sweet vermouth in it, Cocchi Vermouth del Torino.  http://www.cocchi.it/eng/vermouth_torino.htm It's like $25/750ml. Have you had Carpano? It is very much like it, but with the vanillla toned down a bit and to my taste it completely lacks the bit of mentholy-ness I detect and have over time come to not really love in Carpano (same flavor that I do not enjoy in Fernet and Luxardo's Bitter).

 

I haven't had NP in a long time. If I had my druthers, I would have all that I needed in rossos by stocking Cocchi, Vya Sweet and Lillet Rouge -- but they are all very hard for me to find. I actually think that M&R is pretty solid in many drinks, and makes a very decent Negroni -- the earthiness of Cocchi or Carpano does not match as well. Petrucchi is also very decent and like $20/750ml if you can find it.

 

~ H

Some Kiefer cuvée with riesling and other vines -- not too expensive easily drinkable. Lacks some body but still good.
Rest of yesterday's Santa Cristina rosso ’10.
Old Fashioneds
Manhattan
Mint Julep

 

Magnificent.

So picked this up to see what all the hype is about:

Had a Gin & Tonic with Thomas Henry's Elderflower tonic water. Interesting but I don't think it was a necessity to invent the product. I for one am unlikely to ever purchase it again.

Also cross-tested different ginger beers in Dark & Stormys. Thomas Henry's, Fever-Tree's and Fentiman's.

Neat, Thomas Henry's is very sweet. The ginger dominates in the aftertaste with moderate hotness. Fever-Tree's has a pronounced ginger taste in the body, a hot aftertaste. Fentiman's is a little odd as it tastes very differently -- probably due to the fermentation. It has a herbal ale-like quality.
Neat, I preferred Fever-Tree's. Thomas Henry's ranked second, Fentiman's last.

In Dark & Stormies, Thomas Henry's ginger beer was very well balanced. The sweetness wasn't unpleasant anymore. The ginger was present, the spicyness balanced. Fever-Tree's had a distinct ginger taste and quite some hotness. Fentiman's resulted in a very tart, rough, ginger-y Dark & Stormy.
I preferred Thomas Henry's and Fever-Tree's. I didn't have a favorite as I think it depends on my mood -- either I want a moderately spicy, ginger-y Dark & Stormy (in which case I would choose Thomas Henry's ginger beer) or a Dark & Stormy that's more on the ginger/spicy side (thus Fever-Tree's). Fentiman's was a little odd.

How was it? Coincidentally, my whiskey buddy mentioned it today and it made me curious. It's distilled in Vermont?

I like Whistlepig. Prefer some others, but it's plenty good.

First real warm day here for a while. Put me in the mood for a margarita. Had a couple using 1921 Anejo and Grand Marnier. Feel aiight.

Hit my cask-aged Manhattan for the first time. It's been about three weeks. It's starting to round out nicely, but hasn't developed any additional depth yet. Very enjoyable, very smooth (the wife got in trouble ).


Also tried a "Remember the Maine."
2 oz rye
3/4 sweet vermouth
2 tsp cherry brandy
splash absinthe

Very interesting. I really like the cherry note along with the anise, but I've been on a cherry-brandy kick this week.

picked up some Sazerac, Dolin Rouge, Regans orange, what are opinions on the proportions for a Manhattan? 2oz rye, 1oz vermouth coupla splashes orange and splash of aromatic?