Cocktails

[nmduke2001]

Every year a co-worker brings me several mint plants that we place in pots because she's warned us that they will take over our yard if not placed in a pot. This year, the mint isn't doing so great. I might need to buy some leaves from the store for this weekend. I usually enjoy a mint julep while watching the derby. I need to pick up some bourbon too. Any suggestions on the bourbon?

With all the players declaring for the draft, I think this thread is coming in handy....

[OldPhiKap]

Every year a co-worker brings me several mint plants that we place in pots because she's warned us that they will take over our yard if not placed in a pot. This year, the mint isn't doing so great. I might need to buy some leaves from the store for this weekend. I usually enjoy a mint julep while watching the derby. I need to pick up some bourbon too. Any suggestions on the bourbon?

With all the players declaring for the draft, I think this thread is coming in handy...

Makers Mark is sweet and works well for me.

[pfrduke]

Count me as an anti-Fever Tree vote. I recently ended up with some (shopping in a healthier grocery and that was the only option). It got in the way of the gin. And not in a good way. Wanted to see if anyone else had the same reaction and found this taste test: http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/0...-seagrams.html

I'm no expert; probably swayed by traditional taste. But I actually went into the experience hopeful, and was surprised at how negative I felt about it.

My wife is essentially exclusively a G&T drinker and has been a devotee of Fever Tree as her tonic of choice. Reading the taste test reviews are consistent with what she's looking for in the cocktail - herby, floral, contributing to the flavors behind the gin. My wife prefers Hendrick's Gin because it dials up the herbiness of the gin; if Fever Tree amplifies that, all the better.

[Karl Beem]

Scotch and Drambuie.

[Mal]

If you're ever in NYC, give Brooklyn Gin a go. Hands-down the best gin I've ever had, and it's turned many a non-gin drinker in my family over to sipping G&T's on the back porch with regularity.

I haven't, though I once had a bottle of Breuckelen Distilling's gin and hated it. Too much ginger (love the flavor elsewhere but it seemed out of place in gin) and it had almost a bubble gum like nose to me. I'll give Brooklyn a spin sometime, though. And put in a rec for Death's Door. I don't drink martinis but am told it makes a great one, and a g&t with it is satisfactory, as well. Nice evergreen notes with the juniper and finishes with a bit of fennel.

[Mal]

As long as we're adding G&T recommendations -- have you tried Fever Tree? I prefer it to Q.

I have. I like the quinine bitterness of Q more than the more prominent floral/citrus notes in Fever Tree - maybe I should try it without squeezing a lime wedge in there sometime, but I like the ritual of that lime wedge. To each their own!

[nmduke2001]

I enjoy crown royal regal apple. I'll drink it on the rocks or with ginger ale. It's delicious and I don't care if people think less of me.

[OldPhiKap]

I enjoy crown royal regal apple. I'll drink it on the rocks or with ginger ale. It's delicious and I don't care if people think less of me.

Having met you and your better half (IIRC) in El Paso, I can vouch that nmduke2001 is "good people"

I enjoy a nice Calvados every once in awhile, which is apple brandy from the Normandy region of France. Kinda similar, although I usually drink it neat.

[DukieInKansas]

Junior year, friends threatened to forcibly put me in a car for Thanksgiving in NY rather than stay in Durham. I gave in so I could have a suitcase - they would have put me in the car luggage-free. Friend's mom taught me to drink an Oklahoma Screwball - Wild Turkey, Tab, squeeze of lime. When I came home over the summer, my father told me it was a crime to do that to Wild Turkey so the next cocktail hour, I had it on the rocks. My mother told me that wasn't "ladylike". I switched to red wine from there.

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

I'm in DC regularly for work and end up at the lobby bar at the Fairmont pretty often. Jawad is the head bartender there and is a blast to talk to if you get the chance. Last time there, we asked him to make us something with gin. He produced the following:

Fresh sprig of rosemary in a glass, a splash of sambuca, lit it on fire, doused with ice to put out the flame before the rosemary burned and crumbled, mix The Botanist gin with simple syrup, fresh lime juice and ice, shake, and pour over the sambuca/rosemary.

Can't for the life of me remember what he called it. But it was killer.

[nmduke2001]

https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2017...assic-cocktail

[Reilly]

https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2017...assic-cocktail

Oh dear God, the first line of that article: "The Mint Julep has become as synonymous with the Kentucky Derby as peanut butter is with jelly."

It's like the DBR Off-Topic board decided to take over the internet.

[Reilly]

https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2017...assic-cocktail

Any discussion of mint juleps should include this recipe from Walker Percy's classic essay on bourbon (which references the 1935 Duke/Carolina football game):

http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/bourbon-neat/

[devildeac]

https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2017...assic-cocktail

Oh dear God, the first line of that article: "The Mint Julep has become as synonymous with the Kentucky Derby as peanut butter is with jelly."

It's like the DBR Off-Topic board decided to take over the internet.

Any discussion of mint juleps should include this recipe from Walker Percy's classic essay on bourbon (which references the 1935 Duke/Carolina football game):

http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/bourbon-neat/

Watermelon, strawberry, basil and iced tea in a mint julep? Blecch.

I haven't made one in years but it was always (from memory) ~ 2 ounces of good bourbon (I don't even recall which one), 1-2 ounces of simple syrup (homemade and always in the fridge) muddled with a couple of gently crushed mint leaves, all poured into a pewter vessel filled to the top with hand-crushed ice and then agitated until the mug/Jefferson cup frosted lightly and sipped slowly after another mint leaf was delicately pressed with a spoon or knife handle, for aroma and flavor, and floated on the top. That was a delicious mint julep.

[nmduke2001]

Well, Cinco de Mayo is Friday.
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/reci...garita-recipes

[FadedTackyShirt]

As a mountain dweller, moonshine might deserve its own thread. Quite a wide range of quality, flavor, and intensity. Best I ever had was purchased from a hippie customer at my store who makes his own. The worst I ever had left you feeling like your insides had been flushed out the next morning - and not in any sort of positive way.

Oh, and of course, any sort of store bought, flavored, super-sweet mess is just an abomination.

Post script: shine cherries are positively amazing

A friend texted me today and claimed Apple Pie moonshine was his favorite!?! I'm no Popcorn Sutton, but that's really a thing? Seems like apple pie flavored 'shine would be almost as difficult as putting University in UNC...

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

A friend texted me today and claimed Apple Pie moonshine was his favorite!?! I'm no Popcorn Sutton, but that's really a thing? Seems like apple pie flavored 'shine would be almost as difficult as putting University in UNC...

Apple pie "moonshine" is readily available at liquor stores. Not my cup of tea.

[rsvman]

Well, here's a somewhat interesting story.

I'm a Mormon, so I don't drink. At all. Never had an alcoholic beverage in my life. My brother was also reared Mormon, but no longer attends any church. He is now quite the mixologist, having taken a course in NYC and having practiced a lot over the past couple of years, but he doesn't drink! He makes cocktails for others.

My wife and I visited him recently and he made us some virgin cocktails (now, apparently preferably called "Mocktails.") The first was a Southside. Delicious and refreshing. The second was a mojito. Again, tart, delicious, and refreshing.



So, when my wife and I got back from vacation, we bought a cocktail shaker and I have been experimenting with mocktails at home. Some of them I'm just making up. Grapefruit juice, lemon juice, rosemary simple syrup, voila! I don't know if it has a name, but it's delicious. I have, of course, also been making virgin Southsides. Highly recommended, especially when the weather is hot.

[left_hook_lacey]

Steakhouse: Old Fashioned

Beach Bar: Hurricane(Unless you're at the pier bar in Atlantic Beach. You're not allowed to call it a hurricane. They call it a Nor'Easter"

Mountains: Moonshine if I can get it. No apple pie. No Lemon Drop. No peach. Straight moonshine.

Work Outing: Beer so I can keep my job.

Will get a Moscow Mule from time to time. The first one I ever had was in Charleston and it was one of the best drinks I ever had. Haven't had one that comes close to that one anywhere. Even tried to make my own. The misses really likes them though, so the copper cups weren't a total waste of money.

[pfrduke]

Apple pie "moonshine" is readily available at liquor stores. Not my cup of tea.

After what Mags Bennett did with apple pie moonshine in Justified, I'll stay away, thank you very much.