Tonight's menu:
Blood & Sands - 3
Boulevardier - 16
Caribbean Mule - 19
Daiquiri - 16
Dark n' Stormy - 10
Farslane - 15 (citation needed)
Martini:
- Gibson - 5
- Gin - 8
- Lucky Jim - 5
- Vesper - 2
- Vodka - 5
- Technique 8, 17, 20
Negroni - 9
Smoked Turkey - 7
Stinger - 12
Original blurb...
On and off I get into making cocktails at home, and this is obviously an on time! I generally fixate on one cocktail, read and try lots of variations and settle on my favourite. I thought given the precise nature of the hobby, that the forum would be a great place to collate some recipes (if that’s the right word!?) and advice, especially from anyone who can tell me how to make my martini smooth but not watery...
Last edited by greenandblack; 16th September 2021 at 23:36.
Vesper Martini
6 parts Gin (Tanqueray)
2 parts Vodka (whatever I’ve got)
1 part Lillet blanc
5 drops angostura bitters
Shaken with ice and strained
Lemon twist
I read the combination of Lillet Blanc and the bitters is a good way to get close to the original flavour of Kina Lillet, and it works for me!
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Have just fixed a couple of Blood & Sands. Equal parts scotch, sweet vermouth, cherry heering and blood oj. Lovely.
Last edited by JGJG; 30th August 2021 at 23:14. Reason: Typo in the name!
A few favourites.
The Lucky Jim (from Kingsley Amis' How To drink)
Juice an inch or two of cucumber.
Strain into a cocktail shaker.
A capful (10ml) of dry vermouth.
A double (70ml) of Vodka.
Add ice and shake well.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and float a thin slice of cucumber on top.
A Really Good Vodka Martini
A double (70ml) of 50% Vodka, Smirnoff Blue is good or Stoli.
A capful (10ml) of dry vermouth.
A few dashes of orange bitters.
Add ice and shake well.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the oil from a lemon twist and add to the glass.
The Gibson
A double (70ml) of gin. Tanqueray, Plymouth, even Beefeater, all good.
A capful (10ml) of dry vermouth.
Add ice and shake well.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add one, three or five cocktail onions.
I understand that a Vesper was supposed to be made with overproof Gordon's, but I suppose Tanqueray Ten would do, as it's the same strength.Originally Posted by greenandblack
A Disneyworld hotel special as I loved them when there
A "Smoked Turkey"
3/4 oz Monin Hickory Smoke Syrup (I had to get the William Fox version as I can't find Monin in the UK)
1 1/2 oz Wild Turkey 101
1/2 oz Red Stag Black Cherry
2 oz Lemonade (American lemonade as in the still made from real lemons stuff not the clear fizzy one we have)
1/2 oz Grenadine
Luxado cherries to garnish
Over rocks and enjoy
For a gin martini I use noilly pratt vermouth, for a dry, one bar spoon of vermouth over ice in a chilled stirring glass, stir to coat the ice and strain off the liquid, add 50ml of gin, I like Plymouth navy in this, stir until chilled, strain into a chilled glass and express a lemon zest over the top. Rest the zest on the edge. Gin Martini - clean, dry with a twist.
For one less dry, dont strain out the vermouth, for one positively wet, 25ml of vermouth, for sweet and old school - as well as 25ml vermouth, use an Old Tom gin, Jensens works for me.
A martini must only ever be stirred, never shaken, this 'bruises' the drink and over dilutes it. Some people disagree with this, it is their prerogative to be wrong.
Negroni: two shots each of gin (Bombay Saphire works for me), Punt E Mes Vermouth and Campari. Pour it all over a lot of ice and a couple of slices of orange. The flavour gets better as the ice melts.
"A man of little significance"
Dark, Sweet, and Stormy
The Dark n' Stormy is Bermuda's national cocktail, and it's made with dark rum and ginger beer.
Ingredients
- Ice
- 1 ounce Kahlúa
- 1 ounce dark rum
- 4 ounces ginger beer
- Lime wheel for garnish
Instructions
- Fill a collins glass with ice.
- Add the Kahlúa and dark rum and stir.
- Add the ginger beer. Stir again.
- Garnish with the lime wheel.
This thread needs a bump.
Although my missus and I worked through both lockdowns, I along with many others bought a cocktail shaker and now have a full drinks cabinet (it was either that or take up running...).
I'd never bought vodka or rum before but now have several varieties of both along with a couple of extra ice cube trays. The missus isn't that fussed on mixed drinks although she'll happily sip an espresso martini or white Russian if I'm making one or her favourite on a hot day, an invention of mine, a Dark and Stormy with an ice-cream float!
My top 5:
Vodka martini (shaken, obvs)
Manhattan
White russian (with salted caramel flavoured Stoli)
Mojito
Dark and stormy
I've taken a liking to an occasional post-prandial Stinger.
50ml brandy, I happen to have Armagnac at the moment
25ml white creme de mente.
Shake or stir with lots of ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
My current usual:
Spiced rum (usually Bumbu)
Jack Daniels
Coke/Diet Coke
It's just a matter of time...
Chapeau!
In Helensburgh a few weeks ago I had a lovely cocktail called a Faslane. Wish I could remember exactly what was in it and couldn't find it online, but dark rum, bitters, orange liqueur (I think) and Tabasco sauce. Powerful.
I do like the Gibson referred to above!
Boulevardier
Recently I’ve been introduced to a Boulevardier which is just a negroni but with whisky instead of gin - it’s less bitter (esp if you use bourbon) and there’s great variety depending on whisky.
45ml whisky (this one used Woodford Reserve)
30ml martini Rosso (antica formula)
30ml Campari
Stir with ice then strain into an old fashioned glass on the rocks with a twist of orange
Daiquiri
Only recently tried this during the one week of summer in late July (when we were stuck isolating at home) and for that week it became quite a staple!
50ml white rum (Bacardi)
15ml lime juice
10ml sugar syrup (monin pure cane)
4 dashes bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. It won’t long..
On making a martini smooth - obviously the choice of water is important. I don't shake them or use ice, I mix the vodka + water in the right quantities and put the mix in the freezer until the right temperature is achieved. Then add the vermouth (about half a small teaspoon) and stir well. I used to go to a place on the Strand that did the most phenomenally smooth vodka martinis, and the cocktail waiter there told me it was all about using filtered water. Although they did shake them.
Wish I could crack a really smooth homemade martini - sounds like I may have to invest in a water filter! (I'm sure there's a thread around here on that..)
Caribbean Mule:
Glass with ice
1 measure decent spiced rum.
Good dash of Angostura
Juice of half a lime
Half a can of Old Jamaica ginger beer (or other ginger beer of your choice but I’ve found it best with this one)
What’s your vodka to water ratio then?
I have given in and bought a water filter (phox V2) to make ice to mix my martini with and tonight was the first go. IT REALLY WORKS! Much smoother and cleaner, very grateful for the tip.
I normally prefer an olive garnish but occasionally go lemon - tried some Fee Brothers orange bitters with the lemon and there wasn’t an obvious difference but felt added to the complexity/depth of flavour a bit. But maybe I’m making that up! Will do a blind tasting and check..
I call this one the Obliviator. It requires one spirit measure, two glasses, a bottle of good quality Scotch whisky and some lemonade. The recipe is as follows:
Pour two measures of neat whisky in a glass, and drink briskly. At a push, dishevelled whisky will do if neat is unavailable. Pour one measure of lemonade and add it to the separate glass. Add two more measures of Scotch to the first glass, another measure of lemonade to the second and drink as before. Repeat a third time. Pour two measures of Scotch on the carpet, one measure in the glass and then measure half the table. Take the lemonade glass and bottle it back into the measure. Then, put the lemonade cupboard back in the bottle. (You may find the room starts spinning - don't worry, this is normal. But if you start spinning, stop immediately because you look like a right tit.) Anyway, measure two more bottle pours, and forget them from something while thinking of drink you don't want to remember. For some, this helps reason. At this point, you should be seeing double, so drink that too. Pour double one more glass to shake more and drink. And that's the, the... the, um, Obligation. No, the Olive Bater. Sorry, the Obladi Oblada, the obzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
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