So, looks like you narrowed down your favorite to either the Porto Flip or the Rabo de Galo. If you had to pick one, which would you say is your favorite?
my favorite cocktail these days is the bijou, which you can think of as a negroni with green chartreuse instead of campari, and with orange bitters—you wouldn't think chartreuse and italian vermouth would make a good drink but it's fantastic
Very cool motivation around personal “lists” generally!
Gin took me the longest to “get” and subtle cocktails that play to its strengths seem to have had the most lasting appeal.
Whiskey drinks are great but I’d usually just rather have a nice whiskey straight, versus diluted with sugar. Whiskey+wine has some good combos.
Likewise with tequila.
Rum/rhum I still don’t get the sipping side, so cocktails is still the go-to there. A splash of nice white wine+rum has been a recent successful experiment.
Did you, though? Many great cocktails (including ones on the IBA list) are really show cases of a very specific liqueur or spirit... and when that product dies, you may have something similar, or something inspired by, or something attempting to recreate... but you haven't had the classic cocktail. For example, unless you stir up a new-old-stock bottle of Kina Lillet (and its flavor has held up over time), I'd argue that you haven't had a Vesper.
Such a fun and entertaining read. I'd never suggest someone give up a software career to become a food writer, but I'd love to read more of OP's writing as he pursues these goals.
I had a similar obsession with cocktails starting in 2019 after moving out of NYC and missing it. So I started making my way through the Death & Company book and it inspired https://www.cocktaillove.com to keep track of everything and know what I could actually make given the ingredients on hand. It’s been a fun side project ever since, and I’ve made a little over 200 (and photographed them all) so far.
For those that are getting into cocktails, by far the best piece of advice I can give is: know when the quality of ingredients matter and when they don’t. If it’s a very sugary/salty drink, or people are smoking, or already drunk, most people won’t care, but for a lot of cocktails the ingredients make a massive difference. The best bang for your buck is Carpano Antica, a sweet vermouth with real complexity to it; the worst value is high end vodka.
> know when the quality of ingredients matter and when they don’t.
Very good point. The first time I had a Gin and Tonic with a fresh squeezed lime half and a good tonic water was mind blowing. I had thought that sour mix was just as good as a fresh lime and that all tonic water was the same, but man I was wrong.
surprised the white lady is in the obscure category, it's a delightful cocktail with common ingredients and a simple recipe. highly recommend trying it, it's one of my go-to cocktails to make at home.
Hah. What a great idea for a side quest. Still tempted to try to speed run it though. I reckon in a place like NYC or London you could get it done in a week easy :D
> First semester that year, I took a Beverage Management class, which was ostensibly about managing bars, but it was no secret that everyone took it because of its tasting component.
Is this breadth of topics common for the American higher educational system or did the author go to a special university?
Such a sweet story! My friend actually went to the author's Borg party a few weeks ago and I'm second-guessing my choices that night after reading this. Funny to see it on Hacker News!
If you guys like reading about this kind of thing I recommend Cocktail Codex from the people behind Death & Co (referenced in the article). It's a great way to think about cocktails as a remixable grammar and the purpose behind all the mixing, muddling, and stirring.
If anyone is interested in getting into cocktails I really can't recommend Cocktails with Suderman enough. The early posts are free and go into the theory of how cocktails are structured and why they work. Once you start to understand the structure of the major cocktails it makes it a lot easier to understand how you can play with the ingredients and make something new.
For instance, tons of cocktails fall into the "sour" category. They usually have proportions of 2:1:1 or 3:1:1 of a liquor, a sour, and a syrup. If you have rum, lime juice, and simple syrup it's a daiquiri. Swap out the lime juice for lemon juice and the rum for whiskey and you get a whiskey sour. Swap out the simple syrup for honey syrup and you get a Gold Rush. Use tequila, lime juice, and a blend of agave syrup and Cointreau and you have a margarita. Gin, lime, and simple syrup is a gimlet. And so on.
Also, as others have mentioned, the quality of the ingredients and the brands often matter a lot. A Manhattan calls for whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, but the choice of whiskey and vermouth makes a big difference in the character of the drink. (And if you are using old vermouth that has been sitting out on the counter for a few years, or making a drink with bottled lime juice, it's just not going to turn out all that good.)
I also want to shout out The Sprits which serves as a book club for cocktails. Very good if you're just exploring. Each week you get a cocktail and a themed playlist to go with it, plus some other random musings.
This. As someone for whom food & bev was a career for 18 years and now it's a dedicated hobby Suderman is the Salt Fat Acid Heat of booze. It's graduating past memorizing recipes and into theory and framework.
Also please God pour out that old vermouth, get a new one and put it in your fridge.
I found this to be a pretty charming blog post & an enjoyable read. Does anyone else feel like some of the newer entries in the IBA list seem a bit contrived, maybe to promote a particular type of spirit?
I believe the monkey gland is called that because around the time it was invented there was a surgeon (Serge Voronoff) who was promoting a surgery in which he would implant baboon testicles into men (there was a corresponding surgery for women as well). It was supposed to improve the libido. An early, probably ineffective form of hormone replacement therapy.
It's strange to note that a Dirty Martini, probably one of the most popular cocktails in the world, isn't on the IBA list. Likewise I've found many cocktail books also won't deign to list it as a 'real' cocktail. But I'd argue the heritage is the same as a great many now classic prohibition drinks -- adding ingredients to distract from low quality liquors.
I think that's a disservice, and it's worth standardizing; just like many of these, it can be surprisingly hard to get just right.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 68.0 ms ] threadMindscape 307 | Kevin Peterson on the Theory of Cocktails
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCSmrdzistc
bonus if garnished with a green olive
Gin took me the longest to “get” and subtle cocktails that play to its strengths seem to have had the most lasting appeal.
Whiskey drinks are great but I’d usually just rather have a nice whiskey straight, versus diluted with sugar. Whiskey+wine has some good combos.
Likewise with tequila.
Rum/rhum I still don’t get the sipping side, so cocktails is still the go-to there. A splash of nice white wine+rum has been a recent successful experiment.
Vodka… well what’s the point?
I'm curious the opinion of those here on this.
Are you able to be classified as "having a problem with alcohol" if you "only have 2 drinks a night" a lot?
Very good point. The first time I had a Gin and Tonic with a fresh squeezed lime half and a good tonic water was mind blowing. I had thought that sour mix was just as good as a fresh lime and that all tonic water was the same, but man I was wrong.
What would have been hilarious is if he had said "my 14th birthday was quickly approaching" at this point in the post
Is this breadth of topics common for the American higher educational system or did the author go to a special university?
If you guys like reading about this kind of thing I recommend Cocktail Codex from the people behind Death & Co (referenced in the article). It's a great way to think about cocktails as a remixable grammar and the purpose behind all the mixing, muddling, and stirring.
For instance, tons of cocktails fall into the "sour" category. They usually have proportions of 2:1:1 or 3:1:1 of a liquor, a sour, and a syrup. If you have rum, lime juice, and simple syrup it's a daiquiri. Swap out the lime juice for lemon juice and the rum for whiskey and you get a whiskey sour. Swap out the simple syrup for honey syrup and you get a Gold Rush. Use tequila, lime juice, and a blend of agave syrup and Cointreau and you have a margarita. Gin, lime, and simple syrup is a gimlet. And so on.
Also, as others have mentioned, the quality of the ingredients and the brands often matter a lot. A Manhattan calls for whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, but the choice of whiskey and vermouth makes a big difference in the character of the drink. (And if you are using old vermouth that has been sitting out on the counter for a few years, or making a drink with bottled lime juice, it's just not going to turn out all that good.)
https://cocktailswithsuderman.substack.com/
https://thespirits.substack.com
Also please God pour out that old vermouth, get a new one and put it in your fridge.
I think that's a disservice, and it's worth standardizing; just like many of these, it can be surprisingly hard to get just right.