One drop—no more—of Angustora bitters can elevate a martini from the everyday to the exquisite.
I recommend adding a dash of bitters to any cocktail with tonic. Rum and tonic is a go-to in the summertime with gin and tonic a year round favorite. I tend not to go for vodka in this cocktail as it doesn’t add any flavor notes but you might like it. Plenty of people do.
The dash of bitters ironically makes the drink less bitter and more herbal.
Hard disagree here. I keep one or two big plastic bottles of Nikolai vodka in my freezer. It is dirt cheap, but does surprisingly well in blind taste tests.
And when I have some extra cash, I love Grey Goose & Belvedere.
I like Woodford Reserve for bourbon. Havana Club (amber rum) is much better than Bacardi. And for gin, Hendricks.
For your Sidecar, recipes vary quite a bit. Some suggest a 1-1-1 ratio (horrible). I eventually landed on a 3-1-1 (Cognac is the 3 of course). I splurged on Hennessey VSOP although it was a bit of a waste putting that in a mixed drink.
For tools you’ll need a Boston shaker with a Hawthorne strainer and a regular cocktail shaker.
I’m skeptical. Apparently Nikolai is $7 a liter at my local store. That might be worth a try even if I expect it’ll end up in the drain.
I’m not a vodka guy (it’s boring…) but all the vodka I’ve ever had falls into 2.5 categories. 1) Disgusting - Popov, Burnett’s, Skol, Wolfschmidtt. All these are so bad that the only people that should drink them are hobos and college kids. 2) Fine - Smirnoff, Grey Goose, Ciroc, Tito’s, etc. They’re neutral enough that they don’t ruin cocktails. The 0.5 is for Stolichnaya Elit, which I’ve found is reasonably pleasant neat. Extremely boring, but pleasantly smooth.
Why a Boston shaker w/ strainer vs a regular cocktail shaker (which I have)? What drinks do you make in the former that you can’t make in the latter?
I have no cognac or brandy, that’s something I need to add. And I’m almost out of gin. I think I need two; a London and something a bit more botanical.
Although you can certainly get by without it, if you want to look like Tom Cruise it’s essential 
Here’s some info: https://cocktaildb.com/hawthorne-strainer/
Vodka being one of my most frequent go-to liquors, I almost agree. The quality of any reasonable vodka is irrelevant in a mixed drink. But when drinking it straight or nearly so, like in a vodka martini, quality does matter. Not at the “Grey Goose” level, which I always thought was unreasonably overpriced for little or no discernible difference. But although Smirnoff is commonly regarded as the “standard” table vodka, I consider Absolut to be subtly smoother, and that’s my standard vodka since it’s basically the same price as Smirnoff. I haven’t bought Smirnoff in many years.
Style and capacity more than anything. Save yourself the trouble and just use a regular shaker and a Hawthorne.
Brandy is going to depend on what you do with it. Dumping in coffee - E&J is fine. Swirling in a snifter by the fire while petting a loyal dog - Spend some cash, cheapskate! Everything else - Experiment. Virtually every country produces a brandy of some sort. Personally, I always have a bottle of Ararat around, usually the 10 year old. It was Churchill’s fave. Skip cognac and buy armagnac instead. More bang for your buck and it tastes better, too. Plus you don’t get lumped in with the classless posers at clubs.
As for gin - I like Aviation for just about anything except martinis. For those I like The Botanist. Can’t stand Hendrick’s, probably because I am allergic to cucumber unless pickled. (The cuke, not me.)
Vodka - Just buy Tito’s and forget about it.
Blind taste tests show Grey Goose to be on the bottom.
Sure. What I meant was decent vodka in around the Smirnoff price range.
Yeah, some good cognac is worth the $$ if you savor it.
Ha, E&J was my standard camping tipple. Brings back good memories.
Not a vodka fan. I love cucumbers, so I really like Hendricks.
One of the things I like about Eddy Muller’s book is that he is not hardcore about any of the recipes and offers helpful suggestions for adjustments if you prefer one taste over another.
Just remember that vermouth is a low-proof fortified wine, not a spirit. As such, it should be refrigerated. And then used within a month of opening.
And yet I love it.
I’m sipping a glass now while I preheat the grill for a spatchcocked chicken. It’s delicious. Sure, I’d prefer Grey Goose or Belvedere, but Nikolai is so damned cheap I can’t afford not to drink it. Cheers!
Sheee-it. Nikolai is the stuff I use to clean my bong!
[shudder]
There are lots of mid-range tequilas out there. Just stay well clear of the big names, because they are crap. Around the Dope Milagro, El Mayor, Don Julio and El Jimador are all recommended as good, solid tequilas that won’t break the bank.
Sazerac rye? I’d say that Dickel Rye is probably the best bang for the buck right now.
FWIW, they’re supposed to have a dash or two of orange bitters anyway, but a lot of modern bartenders leave that part out.
I’m not a vodka person either, but for the off time I have something vodka-based, I’ve found that Sobieski vodka from Poland is awfully good and very inexpensive stuff.
In general, you can’t go very far wrong with Tanqueray or Beefeater. They’re kind of like the Chevrolet and Honda of vodkas. If you’re going higher-end, I’m impressed with Drumshanbo Gin from Ireland.
Tequila… You can’t really go wrong with any of the following: El Jimador, Cazadores, Olmeca Altos (my favorite), Milagro, Espolon, and Tapatio.
Bourbon: There are really two types- the more classic kind with a portion of rye, and those with a portion of wheat. Of the classic kind, Old Grand Dad Bonded and Wild Turkey 101 punch way above their weight class, as does OGD 114. Wheated bourbons are not my thing, but Bernheim Wheat Whiskey is pretty good stuff.
Rum… depends on what you want it for, but in general you can’t go wrong with Plantation or Hamilton, but you have to be careful with Hamilton because they have some oddities aimed at Tiki drinks, not general mixing. El Dorado and Lemon Hart are also great. (I like big Demerara style rums, FWIW).
Brandy… I typically just get some kind of inexpensive VSOP Cognac that costs around 25-30 bucks. I don’t drink it straight, and that price-point works fine for mixed drinks (primarily the cognac version of the French 75).
And if you want something surprisingly good but a bit weird and low-rent looking, try corn whiskey- Mellow Corn or Platte Valley Corn Whiskey are both tasty. The former has a very weird 1920s bottle, and the second comes in a ceramic jug.
I opened this thread to say that Eddie Muller’s book arrived today, and here’s a post from the club soda thread about Gimlets. That drink is literally the first one I saw when I went to the recipes pages.
There’s a two-page chapter called The Well-Stocked Bar How to Assemble an At-Home Bar. I think I’ve never heard of more than half of the Liqueurs & Aperitifs. The spirits are more familiar: Bourbon, Rye, Scotch, Gin, Light Rum, Dark Rum, Tequila, Mezcal, Vodka, Brandy, and Cognac. We never have all of those at once. (I can’t remember the last time there was vodka or scotch in the house.) ‘All cognac is brandy, but not all brandy is Cognac,’ as the saying goes. I only buy Cognac occasionally, since Napoleon brandy is good enough for me. I’ve never bought mezcal, though I’d like some to sip on.
As for the rest, we never have dry vermouth, but we always have sweet vermouth. Of the Bitters and Sweeteners, we always have Angostura and Peychaud’s. There’s a little jar of simple syrup I made, in the fridge. Orange bitters? Don’t have any. For Mixers, we have club soda and tonic water (sugar-free, since the Moll doesn’t drink it), but no ginger ale. And then you have the fruits. Not big on fruits, and fruit rots if you don’t eat it. Yes we have some Luxardo cherries, but everthing/anything else is bought fresh.
The next section is about ‘tools of the trade’ and glassware. We just don’t have the space. We use what we have.
We have
- Highball
- Rocks
- Champagne flutes
- Scotch snifters
- Tulip glasses
What drinks are best served in coupe glasses and what is the best alternative until I get them in house?
Manhattans, martinis and such. High-proof neat-ish pours.
Your alternative is to use rocks glasses and just don’t rock them.
Cf. Nick and Nora glasses. They’re similar to coupe glasses, but a little more elegant.
We have 12-ounce rocks glasses (that usually get used for milk or V8 juice), 12-ounce stemmed glasses from Dollar Store, and 8-ounce Coca Cola glasses dad bought in the '70s, and pint glasses for beer. Right now, with my wine, I’m using a 12-ounce non-stemmed glass shaped like a brandy glass, and we have a couple of similarly-shaped Seahawks glasses. Oh, and we have wine glasses that the Moll uses.
Buy 'em by the case.