What Cocktails are you drinking lately?

odyssey06 · 25-06-2021 4:00pm

Hodors Appletart wrote: »

Saw Aperol in Lidl, and beside it was a knock off called Bitterol, wondering if anyone has tried that one?
Made a small Negroni there, my first one ever.
Added some more essentials to my cocktail shelf, namely Campari and Sweet Vermouth
Those two open up a whole new avenue of cocktails, so a month of learning ahead.

The Bitterol is pre-mixed (with prosecco and soda) so it is Aperol Spritz rather than Aperol

irish_goat · 25-06-2021 4:32pm

One of my work colleagues has given me a jar of coffee-infused bourbon. Anyone any suggestions for a cocktail I could make with it?

L1011 · 25-06-2021 7:10pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

The Bitterol is pre-mixed (with prosecco and soda) so it is Aperol Spritz rather than Aperol

I belive they have both premixed and non

Hodors Appletart · 26-06-2021 10:59am

L1011 wrote: »

I belive they have both premixed and non

Yeah this was straight, same % as the Aperol beside it

What else would it be used for apart from Spritz?

L1011 · 28-06-2021 9:42am

Drunk straight as an aperitif/digestif.

Use in lieu of Campari for a sweeter tasting negroni

Dont be at yourself · 28-06-2021 10:54am

It's lovely in a Petruccio if you're looking for a sweet cocktail:

1 measure Gin
1 measure Aperol
1/2 measure lemon juice
1/4 measure rich simple syrup
Egg white
2 dashes orange bitters

odyssey06 · 16-07-2021 8:00pm

Mr Price (kinda like a supersized Dealz) are selling cans of Gunna Cola & Ginger for 70c.

Makes a great mixer for a 'dark & stormy' with lime and rum or whiskey.

Usually retails a lot more expensive:

https://www.smallchanges.ie/store/Gunna-Steelworks-Cola-%26-Ginger-330ml-p265820272

ambro25 · 29-07-2021 11:20am

Great thread 👏🏻

Our go-to currently are Italian Mojitos and Airmails.

The Italian Mojito is plenty easy: take the standard Mojito base recipe (rum, fresh mint leaves, sugar, fresh lime juice) and substitute sparkling water for Prosecco, plus half-a-cap to a full cap’s worth of red Campari for colour.

For the airmail:

3cl rum, clear or amber

1.5cl fresh lime juice

1.5cl honey syrup (3 honey measures to 1 water & reduce/clarify)

4.5cl champagne or the like (Prosecco, crémant brut/dry)

Top 3 ingredients into a shaker, serve into highball filled with ice, champagne on top.

Dont be at yourself · 29-07-2021 12:26pm

I'm on a bit of a tiki buzz at the moment. Been making Mai-tai, but substituting Orgeat syrup for Falernum.

Just ordered the book from Smugglers Cove (reputed best modern Tiki bar in the world) so will be going down a rabbithole for a while. I'll report back, if I survive!

Dont be at yourself · 26-08-2021 7:49pm

Just back from a booze cruise to France. Picked up some great stuff in the hyper market: orgeat syrup, armagnac, lillet blanc, byrrh, and a bunch of rhum agricole. Now to start mixing! Any suggestions?

ambro25 · 31-08-2021 12:09pm

Well,you could use some of your rhum agricole, to prep some rhum arrangé?

Tons of recipes about, each more exotic than the other, but basically it involves putting some diced kiwi (and/or or other fruit) and sugar into it, leaving to macerate, agitating twice a week, eventually topping up the sugar to taste.

Takes a while, and not exactly a ‘cocktail’, but truly delightful.

the beer revolu · 02-09-2021 10:08am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117827207#Comment_117827207

I did rum with charred strawberries, recently.

I charred a punnet of large strawberries over charcoal and steeped them in rum for half an hour.

I stained the rum into cocktail glasses and served the strawberries with a sweetened elderflower cream.

It was really, really good - a combo of dessert and cocktail!

limnam · 05-09-2021 12:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117836874#Comment_117836874

That sounds amazing.

You need to start considering a book beer!

the beer revolu · 05-09-2021 8:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117849114#Comment_117849114

Of course, I stole the idea!

The inspiration was from The Glass Curtain restaurant in Cork who, I'm told, paired charred strawberries with blackwater vodka to make a cocktail ingredient. I was intrigued by the idea of charring strawberries and assumed it would work with rum, too.

Then, it's obvious to just eat the delicious, mushy, charry, warm strawberries with cream.

It's really worth trying. I'd imagine pineapple, peach, mango would all work really well too.

dobman88 · 17-10-2021 5:00pm

On the whiskey sours today after my cocktail kit arrived. We've had 2. One with Jameson, one with JD. And the JD is far superior taste wise so will be sticking with the bourbon.

Requires a little bit of effort to prepare. buy lemons and squeeze fresh lemon juice. To make the sugar syrup, 200ml water, 200g caster sugar, put it on the hob and stir until it becomes a syrup, set aside to cool, bottle and.refigerate.

50ml whiskey

30ml lemon juice

Dash sugar syrup free pour to your liking. Probably use 20ml for your first one and work from there.

Egg white.

Put all ingredients into an iced shaker. Shake it well so egg white emulsifies and strain over ice.

I just know this cocktail kit is going to be an dangerous addition.

Dont be at yourself · 17-10-2021 6:39pm

Agree on bourbon for a whiskey sour.

For any cocktails with egg whites, I recommend first a dry shake (eg without ice), before shaking with ice to chill and dilute. You'll get a much better foam that way.

For simple syrup, a few tips:

If making 1:1 ratio, you can make the syrup by just vigorously shaking sugar and water, no need to heat it first.
For rich (2:1) syrup, you can use boiling water from the kettle, again shaking to dissolve.
To preserve its shelf life, add a measure of vodka to the bottle.

The whiskey sour is a great cocktail to riff on -- happy shaking!

dobman88 · 17-10-2021 6:58pm

Yeah, I tried a dry shake 1st and thought it was better just doing it with ice so I'll be sticking with doing it that way.

All just personal preference though. And I do like the experimental aspect to food/drink so will enjoy the cocktails.

Hodors Appletart · 18-10-2021 8:59am

Rum sours are also good!

the beer revolu · 18-10-2021 2:00pm

I haven't given this a name but it's very, very good.

40ml gin

10ml Cointreau

A dash of absinthe

20 ml lemon juice

20 ml simple syrup \or Elderflower cordial

few drops of bitters

Eggwhite.

A few mint leaves.

garnish with a basil leaf.

Dry shaker all ingredients except basil.

Shake over ice.

Strain.

tear basil leaf and place on top.

Boardnashea · 21-10-2021 5:22pm

I haven't gone back over all this tread but our recent favorite is a Cornish Margarita. Really tasty and not quite as strong as the tequila version.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jul/09/cocktail-of-the-week-paul-ainsworths-cornish-margarita-recipe

Triple sec, Lime juice, syrup and a good cider. I'm using Stonewell so I suppose it should be a Belgooly Margarita!

And nowadays I usually salt just half the rim of each glass so you have the choice.

I love the charred strawbs recipe above. Thanks Beer.

Hodors Appletart · 23-10-2021 9:52am

oh I've just bottled some cider I made from this year's apples

will deffo be using some of it for this!

thanks

the beer revolu · 25-10-2021 2:37pm

Another dessert rather than a cocktail but it is booze related.

Someone had very kindly gifted be a bottle of Lindemann's Kriek because they knew I liked Lambics. However, this is a sweet Kriek and not to my taste at all.

So, was having some friends around for dinner and was wondering about a last minute, easy dessert. Wife suggested poached pears as we had 4 small pears. Then she suggested poaching in the Kriek!

I liked the idea a lot. Into a small pot went the peeled pears and the bottle of Kriek. I added a bit more sugar, star anise, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and liquorice root and poached for about 35 minutes and left them to cool in the liquid.

To serve, I crushed up some ginger nuts and mixed with natural yoghurt. This acted as a cement base for the pears. I reduced the cooking liquid to a syrup and poured the warm syrup over the pears and grated a little 95% chocolate over and served a rye cracker alongside.

The spiced Kriek syrup was really, really good!

Claregirl · 11-11-2021 11:18pm

Had one of these recently in a restaurant and it was fab!

Blood Orange Old Fashioned
Bourbon, smoked demerara syrup, blood orange oil

Would anyone have any tips on replicating this at home i.e. where to get ingredients and what quantities to use? Also for anyone that has bought a cocktail set what would you recommend and where to buy from.

Many thanks in advance......

Dont be at yourself · 13-11-2021 12:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118153852#Comment_118153852

I'd say something like:

2oz bourbon

.5oz Demerara syrup

Dash of blood orange oil

Celtic Whiskey Shop is great for cocktail supplies. You can also make Demerara syrup at home. Blood orange oil might be trickier to find.

Urban Bar do some decent cocktail sets, as do A Bar Above. Starting off, you want a shaker, strainer, muddler and jigger, and a citrus juicer. If you like an old fashioned, I'd also invest in a ice cube tray that makes large cubes.

Claregirl · 14-11-2021 12:17am

Thanks a mill Dont be at yourself that's very helpfull!! Must get shopping.... 🤗

odyssey06 · 15-11-2021 10:12am

LIDL have some specials on cocktail ingredients on Thursday 18th.

* Triple Sec 500ml for €9.99

* Cherry Brandy 500ml for €9.99

* Creme de Cassis 500ml for €9.99

* Espresso Martini 500ml for €12.99

hynesie08 · 15-11-2021 4:09pm

Gonna buy at least 6 bottles of triple sec.

OldRio · 18-11-2021 5:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118167991#Comment_118167991

I checked in our local Lidl in Carrick on Shannon. Nothing. Rather dissapointing.

odyssey06 · 22-01-2022 9:21pm

A lazy cocktail tonight... but a nice one.

* 50ml Roe & Co Curators Series 0.1 (46%)

* 50ml Vit-Hit Berry

* Juice of 1 lime wedge

* 1 large ice cube

* Shake in cocktail shaker and pour

Sipped slowly while watching saloon bar action in western series 1883.

Dont be at yourself · 23-01-2022 10:41am

Been making a half-hearted attempt at Dry January, and drinking a couple of mocktails I found on YouTube:

Orgeat, basil, lemon juice and soda water: very refreshing, and the orgeat and basil bring a bit of depth to it missing from a lot of mocktails

Grey Fox (Earl grey syrup, lemon juice, egg white, tonic water): This one is absolutely delicious, worth the small faff of making up the tea syrup.

Source video here for those curious: https://youtu.be/5wgvpo-xBnA

Anybody have go-to non-alcoholic recipes?

alias no.9 · 21-12-2022 11:48pm

Christmas Cocktail recommendation

I've been experimenting at recreating a cocktail I had before a Christmas party pre covid and have never seen anywhere since. Anyway I thought I might share my Spiced Apple Daquiri recipe

The tricky bit to figure out was how to get the big cinnamon hit without resorting to ground cinnamon which leaves a powdery texture on the tongue or going nuclear with red aftershock so I went with a spiced syrup instead of simple syrup, not difficult to make and is great added to coffee to make a christmassy coffee too apparently, I don't do sugar in coffee so I haven't tried it but Mrs9 loved it.

Spiced Syrup Prep - 1 part by volume Gem Dark Brown Sugar, 1 part by volume water and an optional squeeze of maple syrup, make as much or as little as you like, boil it up and stir, once dissolved add a cinnamon stick and leave to cool and infuse for 24h or more, you can bottle off the boil and add the cinnamon stick to infuse in the bottle.

That's all the prep really, everything else is cheating, in addition to my spiced syrup, I used Ridge Valley Lime and Ginger Cordial from Aldi, cloudy apple juice from Lidl and Bacardi Spiced Rum on special at SuperValu (€20ish IIRC).

For 2 people

4 Irish measures of Spiced Rum (~140ml)

2 Irish measures of Lime and Ginger Cordial (~70ml)

1/2 Irish measure of Spiced Syrup (18ml) add a little more or less to find your own balance

300ml Cloudy Apple Juice

Add all to a shaker and some ice, do the whole shaky shaky thing and pour into cosmo glasses rimmed with lime and the dark brown sugar

Dont be at yourself · 22-12-2022 12:08am

I've been drinking Negronis, with cacao-nib infused Campari. Like drinking a boozy chocolate orange.

Hodors Appletart · 22-12-2022 9:25am

I did Gingerbread Espresso Martinis last weekend, and I'll be doing Hot Buttered Rum this week.

irish_goat · 22-12-2022 9:51am

Had a whiskey espresso martini in the pub the other day after food. Was a pretty nice dessert.

Hodors Appletart · 22-12-2022 9:53am

Whiskey instead of Vodka was it?

irish_goat · 22-12-2022 11:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120024426#Comment_120024426

Yep.

the beer revolu · 23-12-2022 1:19am

Rum ginger sour.

50ml golden rum

10ml cointreau

25ml lime juice

20ml Belvoir ginger cordial (half half cordial and simple syrup if you don't want it too gingery)

Dash of bitters

1 egg white.

Shake without ice, then shake with ice and pour into suitably small glass.

odyssey06 · 30-12-2022 8:26pm

Its that time of year... watching Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot on Death on the Nile. One of his favourite tipples is creme de cassis.

3 parts Method Madness Single Grain

1 part Creme de Cassis

Dash bitters

2 parts Cranberry Juice

1 part Classic Coke (or simple syrup if you have it)

Ice

youngblood · 30-12-2022 11:45pm

Had a Pink lady and a white Lady last night highly recommend!

thinking of possibly trying a purple lady with cassis? Or a green one with Apple liquor?

Nevin Parsnipp · 19-01-2023 7:00pm

Excellent thread ...well done contributors...got a lot of ideas.

Just one thing ..when you say "shake over ice" is it crushed ice or ice cubes ....or does it matter ??

Also apart from the Aquafaba can anyone recommend any good substitute for egg white ?

the beer revolu · 19-01-2023 7:56pm

Usually cubes. The smaller the ice, the more the dilution. You may or may not want that.

My local uses an egg white substitute that's also a bitters which seems a bit odd but the cocktails are great. I'll come back with a brand.

Nevin Parsnipp · 19-01-2023 8:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130931#Comment_120130931

Thanks Beer....much appreciated .

The name of the brand and where it might be got would be great.

ablelocks · 19-01-2023 9:51pm

had a Revolver Cocktail the other night - but made it with crested rather than bourbon. I liked it, although i didn't have orange bitters to add...

also had a duck fart (stupid name) - a baby guinness but with a third layer of whiskey on top.

the beer revolu · 20-01-2023 12:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120130965#Comment_120130965

it was Ms. Better's Bitters Miraculous Foamer from Celtic Whiskey Shop, but they are out of stock atm.

These foamers are pricy but go quite a long way.

Edit: I see CWS have Fee Brother's Fee Foam in stock - much cheaper but I don't have experience of it.

irish_goat · 20-01-2023 1:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131515#Comment_120131515

Might give that revolver one a go this evening. Sounds up my street.

Hodors Appletart · 20-01-2023 3:28pm

I've no orange bitters, but Ango will do I suppose - Kahlua and Woodford Reserve Rye might be nice

odyssey06 · 29-05-2024 2:56pm

Hope it is ok to bump this thread.

Anyone try out these new pre-mixed cocktails in Supervalu?

€19 for 50cl, seem to come in about 17 - 20% ABV

https://shop.supervalu.ie/sm/pickup/rsid/1703/product/johnnie-walker-old-fashioned-cocktail-50-cl-id-1914188000

https://shop.supervalu.ie/sm/pickup/rsid/1703/product/tanqueray-negroni-cocktail-50-cl-id-1914136000

https://shop.supervalu.ie/sm/pickup/rsid/1703/product/ciroc-cosmopolitan-cocktail-50-cl-id-1914182000

Hodors Appletart · 30-05-2024 8:06am

I mean, if I want a Negroni I want Gin-Vermouth-Campari in a 1:1:1 ratio, using well kept, fresh Vermouth, freshly stirred and presented.

What I certainly do not want is

herbal and fruity notes of vermouth flavourings, complemented by tangy bitter undertones

not for me I'm afraid.

Hodors Appletart · 30-05-2024 8:07am

In other news, Tesco weirdly had some Peychaud's bitters so I picked up a bottle without knowing what to use them for.

Having done some research, I'm going to try a Sazerac made with Cognac, probably this weekend.

What Cocktails are you drinking lately?

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