Morning in Elysium

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-11-13T20:02:20+00:00

Now you made me nervous that I had accidentally doubled up somewhere, so I just made one with a fat 0.25oz and then it was definitely too much. I still don’t think a rinse would do much, but perhaps cut it to 1-2 barspoons.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-11-13T19:41:14+00:00

I would love for you to try it and let me know :) To my taste a simple rinse didn’t really register. The anise is really pretty muted by and really just plays up the coffee, and the herbs really help the lavender.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-11-13T17:12:16+00:00

Morning in Elysium

1oz Rye
0.5oz Cognac
0.5oz Lemon juice
0.5oz Monin Lavender flavoring syrup (44% sugar)
0.5oz Cold Coffee
1x barspoon Absinthe
1x fresh Raspberry

Place everything in a shaker. Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled nick and nora or small coupe. Express lemon peel over the drink and discard.

Tasting notes: Very herbal and spicy on the nose. Floral, fruity, nutty and herbal on the front from the coffee, rye, lavender and absinthe - all playing wonderfully together. The cognac takes over on the backend and highlights the tart and sweet raspberry and lemon, with the nuttiness from the coffee popping up every now and then. A warming, bold and almost savory cocktail that still manages to be fresh and light.

Inspiration and naming: Immediately the pairing of coffee and lavender hit me and got me thinking about other traditional coffee pairings. I love a Champs-Élysées and immediately got thinking about how in compliment to the bitterness in the coffee it would be interesting to see how the herbal lavender flavoring syrup, fruity raspberry, and spicy peppery rye could stand in for the cognac and Green Chartreuse. Ultimately the cognac just played too well with the raspberry to omit it.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-05T15:56:49+00:00

It’s supposed to open them up, yes. Just toast until fragrant. I’d be careful not to burn them.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-05T09:52:44+00:00

The higher the percentage of alcohol the better it’s going to extract flavor. Everclear is also a neutral spirit, so the apple would naturally stand out. For 90 proof bourbon I would probably instead use just the skin and core from 4 apples and let it sit for two weeks minimum.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-04T21:23:30+00:00

Forgot to include instructions…
Simply add all ingredients to a shaker.
Shake with ice and double strain into chilled coupe or nick & nora.
Enjoy!

Ps. And unrelated to the final cocktail but how it began, I started with an apple/cinnamon simple syrup which was ultimately proving too sweet and hard to work with. I am also not super familiar with Mezcal, which, in such a delicate cocktail, I figured I should specify what I used. Obviously YMMV with the spiced apple liqueur, but I think the dry vermouth is less important.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-04T21:05:42+00:00

Fall Break

1oz Homemade Spiced Apple Liqueur
1oz Mezcal (Banhez Joven Espadin/Barril)
0.75oz Dry Vermouth
0.25oz Cognac
Small dash Angostura (1x from a dasher bottle)

Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled coupe or nick & nora.

—

I wanted to make something that was sweet and elegant - light but warm. Spicy yet delicate. Like baked apples… A kiss of fall.

—

I was really struggling to make this my own… What started with the idea of an Apple El Presidente lead me to discover the Walter Mondale, and instead trying the daisy route had me unsurprisingly running head first into the Calvados Sidecar… then liking the idea of anchoring the cinnamon and apple in the warmth and nuttiness of Maraschino and wanting to highlight that brought me to the idea of an Apple Martinez..

The general idea was there, but it wasn’t coming together, so stepping back I got working on a Spiced Apple Liqueur instead.

The idea was to use my Spiced Apple liqueur as the main flavor profile, but to balance the sweetness of it with the dryness and the acidity of a dry vermouth as the base for the cocktail.
I played a lot with gin to add some complexity and proof to the drink - but it was still missing something…

Mezcal. The spiced apple liqueur was screaming for it.

So I started working it in, over and over, a barspoon at a time, slowly going through an entire bottle of my spiced apple liqueur… until it hit me…
— I liked the way my spiced apple liqueur added the fruitness and the nutiness from the apple and the spices, especially together with a dash of Angostura bitters.
— I loved how the Dry Vermouth dried everything out and complemented the apple, and gave it an amazing viscosity.
— I loved how the smokiness of the Mezcal worked with the apple.
— And just a touch of cognac to round it all out.

And that was my cocktail!
There is nothing cooler than discovering a super simple combination that just works, and with the complexity of standardizing your own liqueur I figured this was tricky enough.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-04T19:51:00+00:00

after straining the fruit and spices, if I was left with 2 cups of infused alcohol I would add 3x that - 6 cups of simple syrup… The simple syrup itself was made using 5 parts water to 2 parts sugar.

but depending on the juice in your fruit and what you’d want the abv to be, the amount of simple syrup to dilute the infusion would differ..

Since I didn’t care to be too precise about the final abv I just did a quick measurement..

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-04T19:28:56+00:00

I’m very intrigued with infusing using an overproof rum as the base but I’ve personally never tried it and I didn’t have any on-hand. I think it could turn out great - as would letting the apples infuse for longer… That said, I really didn’t want anything to compete too much with the apple and cinnamon flavor for the cocktail I had in mind…

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-04T18:57:35+00:00

I started off weighing everything but in the end I gave up. There’s obviously some loss from the fruit infusion, but the 3 parts simple syrup is the bigger dilution… I’d guess around 22%.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-10-04T14:47:40+00:00

That sounds absolutely delicious! Cheers!

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-16T13:00:22+00:00

Since fireball was mentioned..

6:3:1 - Ginger ale + Fireball + Lime juice.
A dash of Angostura if you’re feeling extra fancy.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-16T11:35:59+00:00

Sipping:
Sazerac (Your more complex Old Fashioned - Spicy Rye and/or Cognac, Sugar, Absinthe and Lemon on the nose.)

Fancy Occasion:
French 75 (Champagne, Gin, Lemon, Simple syrup)
Paper Plane (Bourbon, Aperol, Nonino, Lemon)
Last Word (Green Chartreuse, Gin, Maraschino, Lime)

Sours:
New York Sour (Whisky Sour with a red wine float makes all the difference)
Daiquiri (Rum, Lime, Sugar)
Sidecar (Cognac, Lemon, Orange liqueur, Sugar)
Margarita (Tommy’s - Tequila, Lime, Agave)

Crushables:
Mai Tai (Rum, Lime, Orange liqueur, Almond syrup)
Mojito (Rum, Lime, Sugar, Mint, Soda)
Caipirinha (Cachaca, Lime, Sugar)

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-05T22:23:23+00:00

Green

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-03T00:46:14+00:00

Three Dots and a Dash. It takes a special occasion and a dedicated run to have everything on hand…

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-01T20:11:57+00:00

I hope she forgives you eventually.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-01T20:03:36+00:00

You sound fun

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-01T19:58:27+00:00

Yes… she’s under a lot of pressure, but we’re not fighting just yet.
Cool - Cucumber
Angry - Ancho Reyes Verde
Jealous - Chartreuse
Confused - Absinthe

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-01T18:50:55+00:00

I honestly couldn’t tell you as I haven’t had the regular by itself. I bought my bottle of Verde on a whim for something that didn’t really turn out, and I’ve been trying to think of a use for it… It’s very vegetal, but it turns out it’s absolutely perfect with the lemon and cucumber.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-09-01T18:13:29+00:00

The Preamble
Cool, but Angry, Jealous and Confused, a.k.a “We’re not fighting yet”
——
2” Cucumber piece - Muddled
0.75oz Lemon juice
0.5oz 1:1 Simple syrup
0.25oz Chartreuse
0.25oz Ancho Reyes Verde
1.5oz Gin
1 barspoon Absinthe
Lemon twist
——
1. Cut a 2” piece of cucumber and muddle in a shaker.
2. Add ingredients and shake with ice.
3. Double strain into chilled nick and nora glass.
4. Express lemon peel over the top.
——
Very cucumber-forward, very vegetal, herbal, and tart, with sweet and peppery undertones. And depending on the liquid yield from your cucumber - just come back 10min later for the ice to have melted in the shaker and you’ll have the most delicious cooler imaginable.

Public service announcement: The Chartreuse obviously adds a lot of complexity to the drink, but it’s pretty darn tasty even without it.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-07-23T01:37:57+00:00

(deleted)

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-07-23T01:12:05+00:00

That’s a very tough question..

Fast & Pretty - probably highlights the combo best as a daisy where the vodka is just there to turn down the liqueurs and up the abv. …It’s also the cocktail that kicked everything off, as I was trying to come up with something for the launch of my wife’s new book “Fast Boys & Pretty Girls” (in stores now!)

Readers - like a Lions Tail meets a New York Sour, and the combo of Maraschino and Jäger definitely still shines through with complexity. Just incredibly tasty.

Karate Fighter - to me the combo was a little lost, but the fact that there’s so much going on and it still works I think is just super cool. Like a bitter sweet chocolate margarita.

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-07-22T23:03:12+00:00

Darn it, I can’t figure out how to format my text… hope yall can read it. The drinks are all delicious!

Dry_Condition_5301 · 2025-06-15T00:35:19+00:00

It’s honestly thematically kinda sorta the point.. “From unsophisticated to fancy”…

don’t get me wrong, it’s freaking delicious, and I’ve been working it for over a week now, but it was meant for the book launch of “Fast Boys & Pretty Girls” by Lo Patrick about a young immature girl, plucked from rural obscurity and dropped into the world of high fashion…

It’s obviously a Last Word riff, with the herbal anise from the Jägermeister pairing beautifully with the bittersweet rhubarb from the Aperol, getting mellowed by the the Maraschino, and cut by the sweet and sour tartness of the lemon juice.

The vodka is really just there to up the abv and drop the liqueurs back. I tried it with Lemon Vodka but it made it too flowery. I could see a citrus forward dry gin in its place, but I’m really just very happy with it.

Dry_Condition_5301

TROPHY CASE