So I made my own Sour Green Apple Liqueur a while back (recipe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSNPzsygz0)

And then I finally tried my very first Appletini, here's the recipe I used:

• 1.5 oz Vodka
• 1.5 oz Sour Green Apple Liqueur
• 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
• 1/4 oz Simple Syrup

You can use sour mix if you want.. I don't care for sour mix.

It was good.. I do really like sour green apple flavor (green jolly ranchers are the best candy! :P) but the one thing holding it back was the Vodka! It's not adding anything, if anything, it's diluting the apple flavor!

So I made it again.. this time using a local Apple Eau-De-Vie (unaged apple brandy) instead of vodka

• 1.5 oz Apple Eau-De-Vie
• 1.5 oz Sour Green Apple Liqueur
• 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
• 1/4 oz Simple Syrup

And WOW!! ...what a difference! It still still has that signature sour apple candy flavor.. but the brandy brings on this overwhelming fresh apple flavor!

By far the BEST apple cocktail I've ever had!

1 fl oz Cognac (Ferrand 1840)

1 fl oz Crème de Cassis Liqueur (Bols)

1.25ml Orange Bitters (The Bitter Truth)

1.25ml The Bitter Truth Bogart's Bitters

1 1⁄2 fl oz Brut sparkling wine (Korbel)

Stir first 4 ingredients with ice. Strain into a pre-chilled Coupe glass. Top with sparkling wine (to taste). Express orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

I’ve been tasked with bartender duties for this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner and I’m starting to audition Aperitif and Digestif cocktails.

I liked the Flannel Shirt I tried a couple of nights ago, but I wanted something lighter with more repeat passes as the fam tries to cope with each other’s worldviews.

I came upon this recipe which originally called for Cherry Heering, which I used last year in a popular rye whiskey-based cocktail, but turned out to be too uninhibiting.

I liked the OG Carlton Banks, but I wanted to dial down the abv even more and substituted Crème de Cassis for the Cherry Heering. It’s a perfect solution for a before dinner cocktail and so simple. Extra points because it tastes so good and evokes the season so well.

My hostel has a self-service bar. Most of my cocktails are vodka or gin based, so I'm not sure what to make. Any suggestions? I'm not sure the green bottle would "replace" a gin.

Last night was cocktail night and I did my version of Truffles On The Rocks Apricot Boulevardier. I made a few tweaks to make this drink work better for me and my palate. Try both and see which is better for you.

Recipe:

1.75oz Rye (Original used 2oz) (I used Sazarac Rye because using WT101 seemed ridiculous)

.5oz Benedictine

.25oz Fernet (Original used .5oz Fernet Branca) (I used Leatherbee Fernet because I like it)

.25oz Bruto Americano (Original omits) (I used this because ai know it works with apricot and I found the original recipe to be a tad Fernet forward)

.25oz Apricot Liquour

Stir over ice and serve in a chilled rocks glass over a large ice cube (Original served up)

Garnish with an orange twist (Original used a mint leaf) (I wanted this to visually present more like a Boulevardier and I thought the sweetness of the orange would round things out (not that the original was unbalanced))

Again not trying to insinuate this is an improvement. It just works for me and my palate. Try both an see which works for you.

1.5oz Blanco Tequila
0.5oz mezcal
0.5oz Coffee-Cacao simple syrup
2 dashes mole bitters
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir, serve over a cube with a orange wheel

Part of my ‘he can’t be trusted in the kitchen unsupervised)’ day was making syrups, including this one:1/2c of espresso, 1/2c demerera sugar, 1.5T of cacao nibs, 1/2 tsp of shelled cardamom seeds, very low simmer for 10 minutes.

Absolutely delicious.

I went on a syrup making kick (I should never be left without oversight) and amongst other things made sesame syrup (1:1:1 sesame seed roasted and crushed, 1 part sugar, 1 part water, simmered for 10 minutes then strained through a coffee filter). It tastes delicious (like sesame mochi, kinda) but I have no idea what to pair it with to make a nice contain. Any suggestions?

Recently saw someone posting a clarified milk punch that had rum/cognac and apple cider. Cannot for the life of me find it here. Maybe I hallucinated. If anyone can locate, please drop me a link. Seems like a nice fall cocktail to batch for events.

I tried it once and now I’m addicted. The gods have graced me this month with two bottles and a bottle of vegetal.

Hey everyone!
I recently came across two bottles of sake from Saijo, Hiroshima, Japan, and I’m looking for some interesting cocktail recipes to try with them.
The two bottles are:
1. Hakubotan Hyoka (白牡丹 氷華)
A sake from Hakubotan Brewery. According to the brewery, it has a fruity profile, noticeable sweetness, and a slight natural effervescence. It sounds like it could work well with citrus or something refreshing.
2. Sanyotsuru Karin (山陽鶴 花凛)
A Junmai Ginjo sake from Sanyotsuru Brewery, around 13% ABV. From the tasting notes I’ve found, it’s relatively light and delicate, with floral and fruity aromas, subtle sweetness, refreshing acidity, and a clean finish.
I’m fairly new to experimenting with sake in cocktails, so I’d love to hear your suggestions.
I’m particularly interested in recipes that complement the sake’s original character rather than overpowering it with stronger spirits or overly sweet mixers.
Would you go for something like a sake martini, a citrus-based sour, a highball, or something completely different?
I’d also love to hear about any unusual ingredient pairings or original recipes you’ve tried.
Thanks in advance! Looking forward to experimenting with these two bottles.

Olive oil washed vodka:
* 8g basil
* 180g Tito's
* 36g olive oil
* Removed basil after 2 hrs counter top rest
* Put in the freezer overnight
* Removed oil layer with spoon (didn't strain)

Martini
* 2 parts washed vodka
* 1 part dry vermouth
* 1 part water
* Splash salt and lemon peel
* Stirred

Sorry I drank all the martini before the photo!

How are you guys doing vodka washes? I think this turned out pretty smooth but I think next time I would strain the olive oil. Also I have another batch of grey goose which I left the basil in for 3 days. I'm thinking to do something with gin and lillet.

Also I have a bunch of rosemary I need to harvest before fall weather kills it. Thinking to infuse some vodka with that too! Recipes appreciated!

What, in your opinion or experience, will give a stronger pistachio flavor that will stand up to some other flavors: fat washing with pistachio oil or infusing with whole pistachios?

I will be using a whiskey or some kind, blended scotch or wheated bourbon are the top two contenders though. So probably looking at 40-45% abv max. No Everclear here.

Someone sent me a post about a smokey Scottish creation from Death and Co. I had most of the ingredients on hand already so thought I'd give it a try! A smokey, herbal and refreshing martini.

*3/4 oz Lagavulin (they use Laphroaig)

*3/4 oz Botanist Gin

*3/4 oz Dolin Blanc

*3/4 oz Dolin Dry

*1 tsp Genepy

*2 dash Absinthe

*Chill a Nick and Nora

*Add ingredients to a mixing glass

*Stir till chilled

*Strain into your coupe

*Express a lemon peel and add a lemon twist

I usually prefer my martinis dry but was in the mood for something light so I tried a reverse martini. Light, refreshing and tasty but it won't replace my dry martini.

• 3.75 oz dry vermouth (Cocchi di Torino extra dry)
• 0.75 oz gin (Conniption Navy Strength)

Stir in a cocktail glass with ice. Strain into a cold martini glass. Express a lemon twist then add to the glass.

My sipper for the evening after some playing around with Verde and the original Ancho Reyes. I chose the original. It’s boozy, dry but lightly creamy, bitter and spicy. Cheers!

1 1/2 oz Wray & Nephew
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Ancho Reyes Chile Ancho
2/3 oz lime juice
1/3 oz pineapple juice
1/4 oz Liber Orgeat

Shake until well chilled and diluted. Double strain into a Coupe.

I made hot buttered rum for guests at one of parties last year and it was a big hit….until…the mixture started to cool on the stove and butter hardened on top and it just looked gross. I was thinking of trying to put it in a crock pot? Does anyone ever make this in a big batch and how do you keep it from separating?

I want to connect with bartenders, or regular bar goers, cocktails and mocktails lovers from Delhi.

Fellow Imbibers,

I’ve been a huge fan of [u/luisc123](u/luisc123)’s version of a rum flip Rum Barrel Flip with the inclusion of beer since first trying one. In fact, it’s easily become one of my favorite fall/winter cocktails up there with a high quality hot buttered rum. I love the complexity and interplay of beer and liquors in a cocktail. Anytime I pick up a new dark ale, porter, or stout I’m likely to whip up one of these flips as well.

I made a trip this past weekend down to Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens beautiful location in Escondido which is soon to be shuttered mid November and left with a growler of their Arrogant Bastard Ale. Our brief cold weather here in So Cal from the recent storm inspired my first flip of the fall.

Consider this post a gentle nudge to try a beer and rum flip if you haven’t tried one, or for those in the greater So Cal area to visit Stone before it closes down. Cheers!

Ingredients:
2 oz Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale
1 oz Mount Gay Eclipse Rum
1 oz Smith & Cross Rum
.75 oz homemade 1:1 simple syrup
1 whole egg
cinnamon for garnish (I alternate between cinnamon and the standard grated nutmeg based on mood)

Instructions:
I usually add the beer and egg first in my shaker and start mixing them up with a fork to decrease the carbonation somewhat
Add remaining ingredients
Dry shake
Wet shake
Double strain into vessel of choice
Add garnish if desired

I believe this is an original recipe.
1/2 oz Pumpkin syrup-see below
1/4 oz Lime
1/4 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Bols pumpkin spice
1oz Pecan Honey Rum
.5 oz Bacardi
1.5 tbsp pumpkin puree
1/8 tsp pie spice
5 drops pumpkin extract

Shake with ice, dirty pour, fill glass with ice, dust with pumpkin pie spice and garnish with mint

Pumpkin Simple Syrup (2:1)
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
½ cup pumpkin purée
Instructions:
Combine the sugar, water, and pumpkin purée in a saucepan.
Heat gently over medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. Do not boil.
Remove from heat and allow the mixture to steep as it cools to room temperature.
Strain through a fine-mesh strainer to remove most of the pumpkin purée.
Transfer to a clean bottle and refrigerate until ready to use.

Perfect cocktail for the fall. Best Three Dots I've ever made. It's so good, I put it on my menu. The "OOO -"

In Japan, cocktail sizes and glasses are smaller, so most cocktails tend to be about 30% smaller.

Here's the recipe if it were full size:

DP Three Dots

• 30ml Acou Japanese Rhum Agricole
• 30ml Havana Club 7 (or Banks 7)
• (Optionally) 15ml OFTD
• 30ml acid-adjusted orange juice (5% acid)
• 15ml homemade winter spice syrup
• 5ml homemade falernum
• Barspoon of honey
• 1 dash homemade tiki bitters (just use angostura)

The most important ingredient is the quality of your orange juice. If you're gonna use bottled stuff, make sure it's quality.

The Acou Rhum is an agricole style from Kagoshima. They have a shochu distillery and they make this Rum and others too. Japanese rum is....strange. It doesn't really work on its own. They market it as japanese Rhum agricole but it's made with Kagoshima kokuto and molasses and a unique distillation process. This bottle you can get at any yamaya for like ¥2,800 or 20ish bucks.

Japanese falernum:

In an immersion blender, combine:

• One knuckle of Myoga Japanese ginger
• 3~5 cloves
• Peel of 3 limes
• 10g toasted almonds
• 200ml water
• Charcoal-filtered rum
• White sugar

Blend until it has a granular consistency.

Strain through a nut milk bag and then a coffee filter.

Pour the resulting liquid into a pan, add sugar, and heat until it reaches 58~62 Brix. Add 50ml charcoal-filtered rum as it cools, balancing the alcohol content with the correct Brix.

Winter spice syrup:

• 10g allspice berries
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 Cardamom pod (optional)
• 200ml water
• 100ml vodka
• Brown sugar

Toast the allspice berries, but don't burn them. Crack the cinnamon stick.

Add the toasted allspice, cinnamon, and water to an immersion blender. Blend until it's the consistency of a Starbucks frappe

Transfer everything to a pan and heat until it's almost boiling. Then lower the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the sugar and raise the heat to dissolve it. Add the vodka as it cools. We're targeting 58~62 Brix here.

Orange juice:

We use dekopon juice in our bar, but I think a blend of valencia and navel oranges is optimal. We then acid adjust the juice.

Remember that every orange variety has a different acidity level. We don't have a way to measure the exact acidity, but generally, we use 15g of acid per 300ml of orange juice to try to get it to the acidity of lemon juice.

Finally:

Add all the ingredients to a shaker and shake with pebble ice.

Ive done a lot of experimenting with pebble ice shaking. I recommend a vigorous 3–5 second shake for tiki cocktails specifically. I actually count ten strokes. Why? Because pebble ice generally dilutes the drink faster in the shaker. It also depends on the temperature of your ice.

You can shake with clear ice and pour over fresh pebble ice, but I think dilution is important in these thick tiki cocktails. Water is a very important ingredient in cocktails, and it's often overlooked.

The cherries are from Takashimaya, and they are made in Japan and they are much better than those cheap cherries you get at Walmart. The pineapple is from the same place and it's a dehydrated pineapple. Normally I only garnish with one cherry because they ain't cheap.

Play with the recipe and tell me what you think.

Enjoy!

side note: Desperate Prayer has been super busy lately and I haven't had the bandwidth to post. I will do my best to post once a week. If there is anything from my menu anyone wants me to post, be happy to take requests.

With the colder weather coming, I figured it was a good time to revisit one of my favourite hot cocktails... Hot Buttered Rum!

I made three versions: Classic, Maple Spiced, and Tropical. Each one uses a different homemade compound butter.

If you're not familiar with compound butter, it's basically just butter mixed with other ingredients. You know those fancy butters they put on steaks at restaurants? Same idea, except we're using sugar and spices!

I like to roll mine into logs using plastic wrap and keep them in the freezer. Whenever I want a Hot Buttered Rum, I just slice off a tablespoon or two and I'm good to go.

Here are the recipes!

Watch the video => https://youtu.be/ya7VOqB2OeY?si=wZfzbOHLdss-IzDE

🧈 CLASSIC SPICED BUTTER

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• Splash of vanilla extract

🍁 MAPLE SPICED BUTTER

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2-3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• Pinch of salt

🍍 TROPICAL SPICED BUTTER

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• Zest of half an orange
• Pinch of salt

Just mix the ingredients together. You can store the butters in containers in the fridge or roll them into logs and freeze them.

🥃 CLASSIC HOT BUTTERED RUM

• 1-2 tbsp Classic Spiced Butter
• 2 oz aged dark rum
• Hot water to fill
• Optional splash of cream

Garnish with cinnamon and grated nutmeg.

🍁 MAPLE HOT BUTTERED RUM

• 1-2 tbsp Maple Spiced Butter
• 2 oz aged dark rum
• Hot water to fill
• Optional splash of cream

Garnish with cinnamon, nutmeg and star anise.

🍍 TROPICAL HOT BUTTERED RUM

• 1-2 tbsp Tropical Spiced Butter
• 1 oz pineapple rum
• 1 oz coconut rum
• 1 oz warmed pineapple juice
• Hot water to fill

Garnish with cinnamon, nutmeg and a pineapple frond.

For all three, start by melting the spiced butter with a little hot water, add your rum and other ingredients, then top with more hot water and stir.

My ranking:

🥇 Classic: You really can't beat it. Especially with a little splash of cream! I know it's not traditional, but it adds a wonderful richness to the drink.

🥈 Maple: Very close second! The maple syrup and extra spices add something really nice. Being Canadian, I had to make a maple version!

🥉 Tropical: Think Hot Buttered Rum meets Piña Colada. It's actually really good, just a little sweeter than the others. Personally, when it's cold outside I'm usually not craving tropical flavours quite as much.

If you've never tried cream in your Hot Buttered Rum, I highly recommend it. Just a little splash makes a huge difference!

Anyone else making Hot Buttered Rum when the weather gets cold? And which of these three would you try first?

Cheers! 🥃

A pairing of two of my favorite things — horror movies and a Jungle Bird riff (packed with more of my favorite flavors).

As the weather turns to autumn, the addition of cinnamon, coffee, and smoke really sing in this one!

1oz Planteray OFTD
1oz Aged Rum
1oz Pineapple Juice
.75oz lime
.5oz Campari
.5oz Cinnamon syrup
.5oz Coffee
.25oz Laphroaig
2 dashes Havana Hide Bitters

Shake all ingredients, served over crushed ice in your favorite scary movie tiki glass.

I had ordered two bottels of Yellow Chartreuse from Alberta a while ago, and I had 2 bottle of Strega. All are almost done and LCBO haven't restocked Strega for a while now. What do you use instead of these two? Or is there a way to order them from other provinces with a reasonable price? I had ordered Y.Ch. from BSW in Alberta, at that time their prices were good. But now their price for Strega is very high: 45 CAD+tax+60CAD shipping.

Any help is appreciated :)

I got it in Costco MX, and im not sure when it goes bad after i use it for a cocktail, i keep it in the fridge

https://www.costco.com.mx/Grocery/Grocery/Leches-y-Bebidas/Calahua-Crema-de-Coco-2-l/p/624762

I had a cocktail called the Brooklyn Tap Water at DUMBO House (Soho House) in Brooklyn, NYC, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to recreate it at home.

Does anyone happen to know the actual recipe, ingredients, or proportions? Maybe someone who worked there or has tried making something similar?

Would appreciate any leads!