MxMo: Resin

Posted on November 3, 2013 by BoozeNerds

Time for November’s Mixology Monday! We’re excited to be doing our Nerd spin on it 🙂 We thought hard about a theme that would work well for this time of year, and after contemplating the food, booze, and decor we like for the holidays, we settled on “Resin”. From savory rosemary in a stuffing, to a delicious juniper-y gin in a martini, to a fragrant fir ornament or garnish, our friends the evergreens have a lot to offer.

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Posted in Mixology Monday | 64 Comments

Shaker Showdown: Koriko Tins vs. Oxo Cobbler

Posted on November 3, 2013 by BoozeNerds

shakers-finalHere at Booze Nerds HQ, cobbler shakers are our workhorses. We find them more convenient than Boston shakers, which tend to leak more and require more overhead to make/break the seal. For a home bar, that’s kinda a deal breaker for us, and no one’s watching us mix anyhow so we just don’t need to be that cool 🙂 However, Boston shakers do come in handy if you’re frequently making doubles of larger drinks or need to capture smoke. So they’re good to have around.

However, the Boston shaker we had was not the best, so recently when we were placing an order with Cocktail Kingdom, we decided to pick up a Koriko shaker from Japan. They did a good job of selling us with their ad copy 🙂 It’s a very attractive shaker, being all stainless, and we liked that they supposedly sealed really well (they do indeed, now that we have one and have played with it).

With our new shaker in hand, we were curious if the Boston style worked better at really integrating ingredients than our Oxo shaker, which is a cobbler style. Read on to find out what we discovered.

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Posted in apple brandy, Bar Tools, Cocktail Comparisons, gin, rum | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Vinn Distillery

Posted on October 27, 2013 by BoozeNerds

Christa was down in Portland last weekend (with Christopher, to watch Lovecraft films at the Hollywood Theater ’cause she’s a geek ;)), and visited Vinn, the newest addition to Distillery Row, while she was there. Vinn makes outstanding spirits in the Chinese tradition from family recipes, as well as some vodka. Read on for some tasting notes and cocktail recipes based on their off-the-beaten-path offerings.

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Posted in baijiu, Booze Review, mijiu, Tasting Notes | Leave a comment

Salt

Posted on October 20, 2013 by BoozeNerds

This week, we wanted to talk about the effect of salt (one of Christa’s favorite food groups!) on drinks. We first found out about salt in cocktails at an Irish whiskey tasting. The host said that mixing with Irish whiskey is challenging because it’s a subtle spirit, however he felt salt could help accentuate the flavors of the whiskey in drinks. Naturally, we were intrigued and started noodling with salt in drinks when we got home.

salt-finalSince then, we’ve seen other posts on the science of salt in drinks, but we’re pragmatic nerds. We want to know how it actually affects how we perceive specific drinks vs. the theory of how it might affect a drink. We figured we would make one of our recipes that specifically calls for salt, and also try adding a little to a classic cocktail to see if it made it better, worse, or just different. We found that we agreed on how they varied in some respects, and had different perceptions in others. Read on for our results… Continue reading →

Posted in cognac, Cointreau, Original Cocktail, rye, spanish brandy, the balanced cocktail | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

MxMo: Amundsen

Posted on October 13, 2013 by BoozeNerds

It’s Mixology Monday time again. This month’s host is Stewart over at Putney Farm, and his theme is “Intercontinental”. Submitted drinks must have ingredients from at least three different continents. Being over-achievers, we decided to see if we could hit all seven. Read on to see what we achieved…

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Posted in aguardiente, amaro, bourbon, Mixology Monday, Original Cocktail | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Dry Rum

Posted on October 6, 2013 by BoozeNerds

We recently received a complimentary bottle of Brugal Extra Dry. Once we learned about it, of course we were very curious about how to use a dry rum. We tried it in a few things to see how it fared. It reminded us of some other drier rums in our cabinet (though most of them don’t declare themselves as such), such as the Barbancourt 15 Year. In this post, we try both the Brugal and the Barbancourt in one drink,  and also compare the Brugal to the Matusalem 15 year (a sweeter rum) in a different drink. Read on for our findings.

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Posted in aged rum, Cointreau, white rum | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Happy Anniversary!

Posted on September 29, 2013 by BoozeNerds

It’s been a year since we started this blog and we’re still with it! Yay us. Hopefully a number of you are still with us as well. 🙂 In honor of the auspicious occasion, we decided to make a couple of sparkling wine cocktails since we’re in a celebratory mood.

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Posted in apple brandy, calvados, champagne, gin, oloroso sherry, sparkling wine | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MxMo: The Hearthstone

Posted on September 22, 2013 by BoozeNerds

It’s time again for Mixology Monday. This month’s theme is Smoke! and it comes courtesy of Elana over at Stir and Strain. We’ve been wanting to noodle around with smoke infusion for a while now, so this was a perfect excuse to do so.

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Posted in benedictine, bourbon, malaga, Mixology Monday, Original Cocktail | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Any Excuse to Drink Bourbon

Posted on September 15, 2013 by BoozeNerds

September is National Bourbon Heritage Month, which is certainly worth celebrating to honor this uniquely American whiskey. Since we’re big fans of the spirit around here (the post title says it all, really :)), we decided to mix up a couple of bourbon-based drinks this week. We went with one classic and one original to showcase a couple of our favorite bourbons.

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Posted in bourbon, Original Cocktail, peach brandy, Tasting Notes | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Pink 6

Posted on September 8, 2013 by BoozeNerds

This week we look at the Pink 6, one of Christa’s early original cocktails. Because Pink 6’s are quite tasty and we drink them a lot,  we’re constantly noodling with which gin makes the “best” Pink 6. So this week we decided to start documenting our results, starting with Ebb+Flow, Amethyst, and Soft Gin. If you’d like to know more about each of these gins, please check out our Washington gin showcases parts one, two and four respectively.

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Posted in creme yvette, gin, Original Cocktail, st. germain | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment