Aged Eggnog Redux

Posted on December 14, 2014 by BoozeNerds

eggnog-ingredientsA couple years ago we came across a recipe for aged eggnog from one of our local bars. You mix everything together – booze, eggs, dairy – and put it in the fridge for however long. We decided to try it out and see what, if any, difference it made in terms of how long we aged it. Turns out 3 weeks was optimal.

Then last year, we came across an article in Cooks Illustrated that suggested that aging just the booze and eggs without dairy and then adding that at serving time was better. Being the nerds that we are, we decided to test it out. Read on to see what we discovered.

Continue reading →

Posted in aged rum, cognac | Tagged | Leave a comment

MxMo: Demimonde & Field Trip

Posted on December 7, 2014 by BoozeNerds

Time again for Mixology Monday. This month’s theme comes from our inestimable host Fred Yarm over at cocktail virgin slut. The theme this month is Apples. To quote our host,

Apples have been an American booze staple with Johnny Appleseed as its symbolic hero.

With Repeal Day just passed, this is a perfect theme in our opinions, tasty and able to provide a base for cocktails from light and elegant to rustic and warming. With that in mind, we pulled out several of our apple based spirits and started experimenting.

Continue reading →

Posted in amaro montenegro, angostura bitters, apple brandy, apple cider, apple eau de vie, boker's bitters, dry vermouth, holiday cocktail, licor 43, Mixology Monday, Original Cocktail | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Gracious Plenty

Posted on November 30, 2014 by BoozeNerds

really-closeWe were recently challenged by the Fernet-Branca marketing folks to come up with a festive cocktail using Fernet. They make the very good point that many people think of shots when it comes to Fernet, which we think is a damn shame. We love mixing with this stuff, in case that wasn’t obvious. 😉 So we set out to create a tasty and festive Fernet Branca cocktail that would be appropriate as a pre-dinner drink for your next holiday party. Read on to find out what we came up with.

Continue reading →

Posted in angostura bitters, cognac, Cointreau, cranberry syrup, fernet, orange bitters | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Center Stage Tequila

Posted on November 23, 2014 by BoozeNerds

lemon-bomb-closeWe haven’t done tequila for a while, so we thought we’d throw that into the mix this week. Conveniently enough, we recently received a bottle of Hornitos Black Barrel as a sample. Is that good, bad, or indifferent?

Continue reading →

Posted in absinthe, green chartreuse, lemon bitters, Original Cocktail, saffron simple syrup, tequila - anejo | Tagged , | Leave a comment

MxMo: Chalet & Golden Bough

Posted on November 15, 2014 by BoozeNerds

After being somewhat delinquent last month, it’s Mixology Monday time again! This month’s theme is all about “shims” – low alcohol drinks – from Dinah over at Bibulous. Normally we’re a little leery of low-alcohol anything, but we figured we’d give it a go. Read on to find out why we stopped worrying and learned to love the shim. 😉

golden-bough-close

Continue reading →

Posted in angostura bitters, calvados, celery bitters, dry vermouth, gin, lime juice, Mixology Monday, orange bitters, sweet vermouth | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sweetness

Posted on November 9, 2014 by BoozeNerds

sweetenersWe recently picked up Dave Arnolds new book Liquid Intelligence. If you’re looking for some serious Booze Nerdery, this is the book for you. We’re pretty sure this is the only cocktail book with equations in it. 😉 So it’s right up our alley. One of the many things that caught our eye was the interesting section he had about sweetness. It discusses how different sweeteners are made up of different sugars, and how the these sugars react differently to temperature and can change the perception of sweetness in a drink. So we decided to make a drink using several different sweeteners and see how each sweetener changes the drink profile. Read on to find out what we discovered.

Continue reading →

Posted in agave syrup, honey, lemon juice, maple syrup, vodka | Leave a comment

3 Howls Hopped Whiskey Three Ways

Posted on November 2, 2014 by BoozeNerds

lucretia-closeWe were recently contacted by the 3 Howls folks about creating three original cocktails with one of their spirits. Given that we are big fans of theirs and already own several of their products, we said sure! We always love a challenge. The trick was to decide which one of their spirits we wanted to use as the base. We find their hopped whiskey to be very interesting and unique, so we decided to use that as our starting point. Read on to find out what we came up with.

Continue reading →

Posted in amaretto, angostura bitters, fernet, honey, hopped whiskey, lemon bitters, lillet blanc, lime juice, orange bitters, orange juice, Original Cocktail, tarragon tincture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shandies

Posted on October 26, 2014 by BoozeNerds

draughtsman-closeWe recently received some samples of Innis & Gunn barrel aged beer from Scotland (see our samples policy to understand what it means that we’re posting about them). Since we now had some beer to play with, we decided to experiment with shandies. A shandy is a cocktail created from beer mixed with another beverage. Normally they are considered a drink for warmer weather, but we decided to see if we could come up with some more robust drinks appropriate for the season.

Continue reading →

Posted in angostura bitters, barrel aged beer, gold rum, lime juice, rye, saffron simple syrup, sparkling wine, vodka | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Smoke Signals

Posted on October 19, 2014 by BoozeNerds

your-charming-cousinWe’re well into indian summer here, with warm days and cool nights. The leaves are coming down, and at least in the more rural areas the fragrance of burning leaves (delightful!) is ubiquitous. With that scent in mind, we thought we’d make a few cocktails using smoky spirits and flavors. These can be harder to put together into a balanced whole, but we were willing to make the effort 😉

Continue reading →

Posted in amaro montenegro, amontillado sherry, angostura bitters, coffee liqueur, gin, grapefruit liqueur, lemon bitters, mezcal, oloroso sherry, ramazzotti amaro, scotch | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Maple Cocktails

Posted on October 12, 2014 by BoozeNerds

maple-old-fashioned-closeWe’ve had a lovely warm October so far here in the Seattle area, but it is nonetheless getting autumnal out, with chilly nights and sudden rain showers. And there are few flavors that speak more of fall than sweet, rich, earthy maple. So we’ve spent a leisurely afternoon tasting various spirits with maple syrup and seeing what rings our bells, and lo, a couple of cocktails have come out of that. We found that it’s better to keep things pretty simple to let the maple flavor shine through, and aged spirits definitely pair better. Read on for two new cool-evening, fire-side-sitting, novel-reading type drinks to add to the repertoire.

Continue reading →

Posted in apple brandy, boker's bitters, canadian whiskey, irish whiskey, maple bitters, maple syrup | Tagged , | Leave a comment