My home bar is the best bar because of gifts like this from people like my sister-in-law who has always supported and continues to encourage my research and experiments as a bartender.
It must be in the DNA. My wife and her parents are similarly some of my all time best test subjects.
Filed under HOME BAR, NEW PRODUCT, NEW TO ME, SHRUBS, SHRUBS
Photos from a batch of flavored simple syrup I made this week:
Filed under APPLE CIDER, FLAVORS, KITCHEN EXPERIMENTS, MAPLE SYRUP, MIXERS, PHOTO POST, SIMPLE SYRUP
We have several loose-leaf teas at the restaurant where I work.
A few weeks back I tested a tea simple syrup and yesterday I moved on to making cold-brew and using it as a mixer:
Thirsty for more?
— A nice rundown on the basics of cold brew tea.
— Info about which teas to use, how much tea to use, steeping times and more.
— A taste-test of cold vs hot-brewed teas.
— This one’s a quick read about cold brew tea.
— A “how to” about cold brew coffee.
— And lastly, the “Definitive Guide To Cold Brew Tea.” It’s a pdf document.
In A Cocktail:
The tea in the picture above is a cold-brew peach tea I made. The only things I added to it were lemon juice and simple syrup, though bourbon would’ve made a nice addition to it as well. The possibilities are as endless as however you might use iced tea out of a bottle or even flavored tea vodkas — make an alcoholic Arnold Palmer with limoncello or swap in some other flavored liqueur to suit your tastes.
Filed under MIXERS, NEW TO ME, SIMPLE SYRUP, WORK-RELATED
Need a little something extra to take your mixology game to the next level?
Well, whille I was tasting spirits and craft beer at Five & 20 in Westfield yesterday, I noticed that they’re selling several Bittermens products alongside their in-house products and other merch.
Here’s a picture I took of their selection:
More than just bitters, Bittermens makes Citrates and Shrubs. More on those in a minute, but first, here’s a list of the bottles I saw on display at Five & 20 yesterday:
BITTERMENS AT FIVE & 20:
Small batch bitters have become extremely desirable in recent years as the ongoing renaissance in craft cocktails and mixology continues to boom.
Bittermens makes all its products by hand at its New Orleans facility from primarily organic ingredients. The company was founded by Avery and Janet Glasser and dates back to early 2007, when the pair were trying to make an extract of a traditional Mexican cooking sauce — which became their Xocolatl Mole Bitters.
There’s more info about the company and their products online at Bittermens.com.
CITRATES & SHRUBS:
For their Orange Cream Citrate, Bittermens uses citric acid instead of phosphoric acid to create an orange tincture that’s a riff on the classic sodajerk orange cream soda syrup.
A “Shrub” is also known as “drinking vinegar,” a beverage that dates back to colonial times and is made by combining vinegars with sugar and either fruits or vegetables. I made raspberry and blueberry shrubs last summer, as I posted here. And Bittermens produces a celery shrub, which Five & 20 is currently selling.
Where else can you get bitters in Chautauqua County?
•BAG & STRING — If you’re looking for even more craft bitters, check out Bag & String. Last time I was in the Lakewood shop, they were stocking four flavors by The Bitter Truth — as well as a sampler pack which the company offers.
•WEGMANS — Wegmans usually has both Angostura and Fee Brothers. Most all the other supermarkets in the county only have Angostura as far as I’ve seen.
•CHAUTAUQUA RESTAURANT SUPPLY — Located down by McCrea Point in Jamestown is Chautauqua Restaurant Supply — where last time I checked, they stock Fee Brothers.
•FORTE — Lastly, if you come see me at Forte in Jamestown, we currently have The Bitter Truth’s grapefruit bitters and Peychaud’s in addition to Angostura, Fee Brothers and Angostura Orange. Of course, unlike the avove mentioned locations, our bitters aren’t for sale. We just keep a variety in house for shaking up cocktails.
Filed under BARS, BITTERS & TINCTURES, BITTERS BRANDS, BRANDS, CITRATES, MIXERS, SHRUBS, WESTFIELD
I’m slowly trying out every flavor of Dry Soda.
They just keep tasting better and better. This is easily the best one I’ve had yet:
These sodas are great in their own and are even better when mixed with a spirit, nothing too complicated or fancy.
From their website:
DRY Soda is a less sweet, all natural soda made with just four ingredients, including a little bit of pure cane sugar. Each of DRY’s eleven unique flavors is perfect to sip on its own, pair with a meal or mix into cocktails.
Their 11 flavors are: Blood Orange, Ginger, Vanilla Bean, Apple, Cherry, Rhubarb, Lavender, Juniper Berry, Cucumber, Wild Lime and Pear.
This new flavor of Dry Soda just might be my favorite.
Okay, okay… So the Rhubarb’s probably not a new flavor, but it’s new to me (and it’ll probably only be my favorite until I try their ginger soda).
I had a bottle of this stuff on its own and then I mixed a little with gin, which was nice. I really wanted to make a rye whiskey drink, but it just wasn’t working.
From their website:
DRY Soda is a less sweet, all natural soda made with just four ingredients, including a little bit of pure cane sugar. Each of DRY’s eleven unique flavors is perfect to sip on its own, pair with a meal or mix into cocktails.
Their 11 flavors are: Blood Orange, Ginger, Vanilla Bean, Apple, Cherry, Rhubarb, Lavender, Juniper Berry, Cucumber, Wild Lime and Pear.
I’ve written before about Fentimans, and recently I got to try two new flavors: “Dandelion & Burdock” and “Mandarin & Seville Orange Jigger.
•Dandelion & Burdock:
•Mandarin & Seville Orange Jigger:
Both are “Botanically Brewed” with ginger extract. The Dandelion & Burdock had a slight anise taste. I added rye whiskey and was tempted to add Peychaud’s. It tasted sort of like a juicy Sazerac in a way. Here’s the Fentimans description:
Full-strength infusions of Dandelion leaves and Burdock root, sweetened with pear juice and spiced with a touch of ginger and anise, all intermingle to create the unmistakable aroma and distinctive palate of this traditional English soda.
The Mandarin & Seville Orange Jigger was a delicious orange soda. The addition of the Seville orange gave it a little bitterness on the finish. I was tempted to add vodka, but the bottle was gone before I knew it. Here’s the Fentimans description:
“Jigger” is an old English term for good measure which we use when we combine the juice of eight mandarins and the zest of Seville orange in every bottle. Speedwell, juniper extract and fermented ginger botanicals then conspire to stimulate your senses with Fentimans Mandarin & Seville Orange Jigger!
Fentimans is a UK-based company with a large line of soda products. I’m a bit of a fiend for ginger beer, so that’ll be next up on my buy list. In the states, a Pennsylvania-based company called Lion Brewery makes and distributes Fentimans products in the U.S.
More info’s available online at their website, which can be found here.
New mixers stocking my home bar: Dry Soda Lavender and Cucumber!
So far all I’ve made with ’em is a tall Bols Genever & Dry Cucumber Soda. I guess it’d just be a classic highball variation.
From their website:
DRY Soda is a less sweet, all natural soda made with just four ingredients, including a little bit of pure cane sugar. Each of DRY’s eleven unique flavors is perfect to sip on its own, pair with a meal or mix into cocktails.
Their 11 flavors are: Blood Orange, Ginger, Vanilla Bean, Apple, Cherry, Rhubarb, Lavender, Juniper Berry, Cucumber, Wild Lime and Pear.
I tried this for the first time recently:
It’s the first tonic water I’ve ever had that’s not a syrup from a soda gun. And honestly, it made the best damn vodka tonic that I’ve ever had. Of course, it was the first drink of the night after a long summer Saturday shift, but still… The difference between this “botanically brewed,” “natural” tonic and the usual stuff was noticeable.
Fentimans is a UK-based company with a large line of soda products. I’m a bit of a fiend for ginger beer, so that’ll be next up on my buy list. In the states, a Pennsylvania-based company called Lion Brewery makes and distributes Fentimans products in the U.S.
More info’s available online at their website, which can be found here.
Filed under MIXERS, TONIC WATER
Frontier Mixology 