The Cocktail's Golden Mean

A quest to master the art and science of mixology.

Conversation with a Cocktail Epicure

Alberta Straub, once described as “the Alice Waters of booze,” has been mixing up sublime adult beverages made with herbs, spices, and fresh fruits and vegetables for the past six years at San Francisco’s Orbit...

Key to the Liquor Cabinet

How to create the ultimate home bar.

good companion for that cupcake you’ve been eyeing. Has anyone been compelled to try a recipe that didn’t sound right to them that turned out to work perfectly?

Oooh – you put creme de violette in your Aviation? This tail is the one that taught me how to like gin. Perhaps that’s why I thought the Colbert Bump sounded good! I have an Aviation recipe that calls for peach brandy,...

It’s not much of a step from a Tom Collins to an Aviation. And boy, is that right square in your era! There is a recipe on Chow, but it’s wrong. 2 oz gin 1/2 oz lemon juice 2 tsp Maraschino liqueur 1 tsp crème de violette...

I’ve seen it two places in the Boston area (BRIX Wine Shop and Mall Discount Liquors near Fresh Pond in Cambridge). So far, I’ve been using the Aviation recipe on the Alpenz site...

I made my first attempt at xiao long bao yesterday, and instead of using gelatin to solidify the soup, I wanted to use pig skin. Recipe (adapted from Saveur) called for fine dicing the skin. What a challenge! Toss aside the...

I disagree that a strong flavored or juniper heavy gin wouldn’t work in this tail. Actually I think they would be preferable, the simple recipe is designed to focus on the gin. That’s a riff on the old classic, the...

Unusual gin drinks — I’d have to give my vote to the Jasmine. It’s very pink, tastes like grapefruit juice, and is terribly addictive. If you have any maraschino liqueur around, I’d also recommend the...

and clean with subtle flavors. Makes a nice pre-dinner coctail IMO and far more interesting than most modern -tini drinks. You can play around with the ratios as well. Degroff has 2oz,1oz,3/4oz (Gin, Marasch, lemon). Link:...

and other classic tails (Manhattans, Negronis, Aviations). I am, however, a bit at a loss for similar recipes that are based on white rum. I’m sampling a “Bacardi Martini”....Rum, with dry vermouth and...

-hating friends into liking gin (I start them on Aviations). http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

chewy crust, tender innards. ;) I’m not entirely shocked since this place keeps Kosher... so, you know someone with “some bagels in their blood” is behind the recipes. However, does anyone have any other bagel...

The original Aviation did contain creme de violette or something like it that became unavailable, and so was deleted from the recipe. Green Street has a Blue Moon on their tail menu, which is an Aviation with creme de violette...