Cocktail Recipes Tonight

[small h]

I stopped drinking merlot after I saw Sideways. For no good reason, but now every time I see it in the store, I hear Paul Giamatti yelling about it.

[Sneakeater]

Merlot is fine.  Some of the best wines in the world are Merlot.  It's just the bad ones that are bad.

(Not unlike sweet wines.)

[Sneakeater]

It's like the ABC people who stopped drinking Chardonnay.

Chardonnay is great.  It's just bad Chardonnay that's bad.

I wish people would just stop drinking bad wine instead of making categorical dismissals that don't comport with reality.  It's bad for wine, and it's bad for them.

[Sneakeater]

When my father had a leave during late WWII, he went to the recently liberated Paris.  One of his fellows told a waiter, when asked if he wanted a domestic wine, "bring me something imported.  I don't drink that domestic shit."

[Wilfrid]

I would use Cointreau rather than (generic) Triple Sec, although I would have to buy some cranberry juice.

Edited for clarity. 

[Sneakeater]

Cointreau IS Triple Sec.  It's just a particularly good one.

[Wilfrid]

8 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Merlot is fine.  Some of the best wines in the world are Merlot.  It's just the bad ones that are bad.

(Not unlike sweet wines.)

There was that whole movie about how Merlot is bad and Giamatti climaxes by drinking a Merlot (okay cab blend). 
 

eta: Sorry just seeing small h’s post above.

[Wilfrid]

Just now, Sneakeater said:

Cointreau IS Triple Sec.  It's just a particularly good one.

Of course, just seeing some Triple Sec hate.

[Sneakeater]

Yeah, it's the same thing:  don't go denying yourself Triple Sec, deny yourself bad Triple Sec.

Cointreau and Combier are great.

[Sneakeater]

It's like denying yourself hamburgers cuz McDonald's and Burger King are so vile.

[Sneakeater]

I have this friend.  Let me say upfront that she's an excellent cook.  But she's been a vegetarian for the 40 or more years I've known her, and her food choices are motivated as much by what she perceives as healthy as by what tastes good (although, to be clear, with food she's always very careful to make sure it tastes good — and it does).

She's an Old Line Reform Jew, coming from a family that Doesn't Drink.  But 20 or so years ago, when that study came out saying that red wine was healthy for you, she and her husband started forcing themselves to drink red wine.

Of course, though, they didn't drink GOOD red wine (which, I shouldn't have to state as the initiator of the "The Rest of Us" thread, doesn't necessarily mean expensive red wine).  They drank the red wines that were easiest to get at that time:  Australian Critter Wines.  Which are vile.

Then, the health studies proved to be flawed, and they stopped.  Now, my friend says she won't drink wine cuz she doesn't like it.

I'm like, "how do you KNOW?  All you've drunk is toilet water."

(The favorite wine of her father, a person I respected and adored more than almost any other I've ever known [except for her mother, who really is the most impressive person I've ever known], was Maneschewitz Extra Heavy Malaga -- the wine for people who didn't think Maneschewitz's Concord was quite disgusting enough.   He drank it once a year, on Passover.)

[StephanieL]

I didn't like tea when all I'd had was Lipton, and I didn't like coffee when all I'd had was Dunkin' Donuts and diner coffee.

Getting back to the topic at hand....we had Royal Bermuda Yacht Club cocktails tonight.

• 2 oz. Barbados rum
• 3/4 oz. lime juice
• 2 tsp. falernum
• 2 dashes Cointreau

Shake and strain into a cocktail or coupe glass.  This is quite tart, so you can adjust the lime juice and/or falernum to your taste.

[Sneakeater]

YO YO ROYAL BERMUDA YACHT CLUB

[joethefoodie]

 

[Wilfrid]

Having been gifted some nice Cachaca, I made a Caipirinha for the first time. Recipes call for sugar or simple syrup, but given that the base is made from sugar cane I didn’t really see the need for that.