Dry Vermouth

Posted on March 1, 2015 by BoozeNerds

IMG_3753A few months ago we did a post on sweet vermouth. This week, we decided to do a post on dry vermouth. It is definitely a bar staple, called for in a wide range of cocktails. As with everything we have a number in the liquor cabinet, so we pulled out a few to do a taste test with each. Read on to see how much dry vermouths can vary.

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Posted in dry vermouth, lavender bitters, pear eau de vie, simple syrup | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

You say toe-mah-toe

Posted on February 22, 2015 by BoozeNerds

IMG_3687This week we decided to experiment with tomato juice. It’s a common ingredient in Bloody Marys, but you rarely see it combined with anything but vodka. So we decided to see what else we could mix it with. We also wanted to see if tomato juice paired with aged spirits, as you never see that. Read on to find out what we discovered.

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Posted in aquavit, celery bitters, chipotle tincture, lillet blanc, lime juice, mezcal, quince-bay shrub, tomato juice | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Playing with Margaritas

Posted on February 15, 2015 by BoozeNerds

bodysnatcher-closeIt was recently brought to our attention that February 22nd is National Margarita day, in the form of a sample bottle of Casa Noble tequila 🙂 (see our samples policy to understand that it made the cut). Now the Margarita is one of those wonderful 3-ish ingredient drinks, salt being the ever important fourth ingredient. 😉 So in making a classic one, there’s not a whole lot to do except to say that a properly made one is delicious. Being the Booze Nerds that we are, we wanted to go a little farther afield with Margarita flavors and ingredients. So we decided to deconstruct it as well as play around with the idea of the base ingredients to see what we could come up with.

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Posted in lemon bitters, lillet blanc, lime bitters, lime juice, limoncello, orange juice, tequila - anejo, tequila - blanco, tequila - reposado | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

MxMo: Martini-like

Posted on February 8, 2015 by BoozeNerds

Hot on the heels of last month’s MxMo comes this month’s Mixology Monday. The theme this month is: “That’s Not a Martini!“. It comes from Dagreb over at Nihil Utopia. In his words:

This month’s Mixology Monday theme is that which is almost, but not quite, a Martini. Perhaps there are dashes (or more) of a liqueur (or two) added to the basic structure. Perhaps a Fino Sherry (or other fortified/aromatized wine) is standing in for vermouth. Maybe there’s Oxygene instead of bitters? Gin, certainly!

We’re big fans of martini alternatives, so this is a fun challenge for us. Gin is a wonderfully flexible base spirit, and we set out to have a bit of fun with it.

NorthOfTheWall-Close

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Posted in angostura bitters, gin, lemon bitters, orange bitters, punt e mes, smokey scotch | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Does Size Make a Difference?

Posted on February 1, 2015 by BoozeNerds

side-by-sideIce cube size that is. 😉 In case it isn’t obvious at this point, we’re somewhat obsessed with Dave Arnold’s new book Liquid Intelligence. And why not, there’s some serious science and booze nerdery which is right up our alley :). This week, we’re investigating one of his claims that shaking your drinks with one big ice cube and a few small ones makes a difference in the texture of the drink. Read on to find out what we discovered.

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Posted in absinthe, Gin, st. germain | 4 Comments

MxMo: Rone-ry & Blue Alert

Posted on January 25, 2015 by BoozeNerds

It’s Mixology Monday time again! This month’s theme comes from Andrea over at Ginhound. The theme is Blue. Andrea gave everyone permission to interpret that however they see fit, so we’re taking that flexibility to the limit. Read on to see what cocktails we came up with to match the theme.

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Posted in blue plum eau de vie, bonal gentiane quina, cherry bitters, grapefruit bitters, green thai chili tincture, lime juice, mezcal, rhum agricole | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Birthday Cocktail

Posted on January 18, 2015 by BoozeNerds

zimmer-frame-closeAfter a brief hiatus (we were both sick :-P), we’re back! Today is Shaun’s birthday, so in honor of that we thought we’d come up with an original cocktail in celebration. For major events we like to do such things. Oh yeah and apparently the Seattle sports ball team is playing a game today. Or so we hear. 😉

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Posted in branca menta, cognac, Cointreau, orange bitters | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hopped Cider

Posted on January 4, 2015 by BoozeNerds

gentleman-farmerEarlier this year we went on a cider tour on the Olympic peninsula, and one of the ciders we got to try was a hopped one from Finn River that we quite liked it. Recently, we were offered a sample of another hopped cider from Woodchuck (see our samples policy to see what that means). We sensed a trend. 😉 Since we liked what we had tried of hopped ciders so far, we looked for and found a third one from the Portland Cider company. With three kinds of hopped cider in hand, we decided to taste them side by side to see what we thought of them, and then see which if any lent themselves to mixing up into a cocktail.

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Posted in barenjager, gin, hopped cider | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Salt Redux

Posted on December 28, 2014 by BoozeNerds

daiquiri-ingredientsAs we’ve discussed before, salt can make a marked difference in the flavor profile of a drink. In his book Liquid Intelligence, Dave Arnold also discusses salt and how he adds it to any drink with coffee, chocolate or fruit to make the flavors pop. He recommends that the next time you make a daiquiri, that you split it and try one half with salt and one half without and that after tasting, you’ll never make it without salt again. Of course that’s a challenge that we as Booze Nerds couldn’t resist. 😉

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Posted in aged rum, lime juice, simple syrup | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Hot Sangarees

Posted on December 21, 2014 by BoozeNerds

bubbling-overFor this holiday weekend we decided to break out David Embury’s book to see if we could find something to make that would be appropriately festive. We came across Hot Sangarees and were intrigued. They seemed just the ticket; they are simple drinks to make since they only have a few ingredients, their warmth helps combat the cold weather (you might have guessed that from the name :)), and most importantly, they have an element of danger to their making! What could be better than the combination of booze and hot pokers? We couldn’t think of a thing, so we put the poker on the fire and got started.

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Posted in rhum agricole, tawny port, winter ale | Leave a comment