plattetude

So... "Bring Me a Shrubbery" then.

Yup. Don't disagree that the best recipe would try to elucidate and not obscure. We take what we can get.

I guess. Though, you know, if you care enough to find the recipe and try it, try it with whatever. If you have a limited home bar, maybe you wouldn't necessarily read between the lines that it has to be the specified bottle of a given spirit. Maybe you make what you make, you like it or not, you move on. Or you make it and start to wonder, "hey, I didn't like that, but I used Stock vermouth and not Antica, so maybe I should try that other vermouth..." Maybe it can be a door and not a wall? Not that I don't see your point. Totally do. But it seems like it can go both ways, no?

I don't see it as requirements so much as information. Obviously, use what you've got that's in the ballpark, and different home bars are gonna have different levels of options. But I'd prefer to know that, as an example, Antica was used rather than Dolin Rouge. The recipe Stephanie posted didn't call for a specific creme de cacao, so while it listed the rye and the vermouth and the orange bitters (and the Benedictine which, you know, is the only Benedictine), I've found that different creme de cacaos can be wildly divergent. All of which is to say, I'd rather know more than less. B

Per Astor's social media posts: The sale, announced today, was made to an ESOP, in which shares of the business are allocated to the employees. Astor's owners, the Fisher family, explained: "the best succession plan is to entrust Astor to the people who have been so instrumental in building our enterprise.” clicky Here's hoping this isn't a bad thing.

Really though? Not to say it's not a well-constructed drink, but strikes against are: vodka base (cocktail cognoscenti eyeroll, like it or not) reads like a tarted up Cape Codder Whereas Paper Plane, you've got an amaro in the ingredients, plus bourbon, so right away there's a clear demarcation from "fruit juice + unchallenging alcohol" I mean, you do understand. Rightly or wrongly. Right? In a (clearly imaginary) world where you'd never heard of either and you see the ingredient list on a menu, which do you think speaks to you?

Well also, it's your name and I should leave it to you. Unless we want to contrive a new class of cocktails we call Fruit Bats.

My own Fruit Bat concoction tonight: 2 oz rye (Old Overholt Bonded) 3/4 oz blanc vermouth (Comoz) 1/4 oz Suze 1/4 oz maraschino Stir with ice, strain. (Gilded with a couple dashes of the amazing King Floyd Scorched Pear and Ginger bitters) imma do this again for sure

Last night, Filthy Rich 1 oz rye (Rittenhouse) 1 oz dry vermouth (Dolin) 1/2 oz Cynar (40proof, though I should try with the 70) 1/2 oz Benedictine In the neighborhood of a Vieux Carre, but lighter. Good stuff!

2 tbsp Pimento dram! That seems like it'd take over, even with all that Suze. But it sounds pretty amazing.

Right? Saw a 375 a few weeks ago and couldn’t say no.

For fun, a 2x2 matrix of Negronis tonight. Mostly in the interest of sussing out interplay of two distinct vermouths and two distinct apertivos. (Campari+Vya was most compelling to this palate, though the combo of Forthave Red+Lustau was definitely pretty cool.) Followed by some taste bud numbing pair-wise tastes of Campari vs Contratto Bitter, vs Bruto Americano, vs Forthave Red. For science!

Everyone on this thread cares one way or another. If I remember right. It’s was Punch Drink that posted about it early last year and that was my first knowledge of it.

I stumbled on it about a year ago. But good stuff, right?

Like so!