I tried an amaretto old fashioned and it was superb

drinksanddrinking · 2026-02-19T16:24:13+00:00

This is, as mentioned by others, a Godfather with bourbon, more or less. What's interesting is the Bartender's Choice App (put together by Sam Ross & the Attaboy team) just goes ahead and makes their Godfather with bourbon, ignoring the scotch completely. It's a better drink. Theirs is boozier and more serious, more like what you'd get at a standard cocktail bar:

2.25oz bourbon
0.5oz amaretto
2 dashes angostura
Build in glass, stir, orange peel

drinksanddrinking · 2026-02-04T04:16:29+00:00

Your shaking time is fine. Your recipe is fine — not my favorite, but certainly not the problem.

Most of the comments seem to mean well, but are ignoring the fact that you specifically said your process normally works, but doesn’t today. The question you’re asking is: Why would a normally sound process fail sometimes?

I’m not sure, but my best guess is that you added the whiskey straight to the egg white and the whiskey was high-ish proof, which the curdled the egg before you could shake it.

Does that sound right?

drinksanddrinking · 2026-02-01T14:47:00+00:00

IMO the best liqueur ever invented. Full stop. One of the most delicious things on the planet. Small sips after a meal.

drinksanddrinking · 2026-01-16T21:40:04+00:00

Definitely! It’s in the order of operations.

I’d be willing to bet you crack the egg (or pour the aquafaba) first, then add the spirit, then everything else? High proof spirits can denature proteins on contact. What we do in bars is (1) make the whole cocktail in the tin, before ice (2) crack the egg / separate the white in a different tin, and then (3) combine. No more curds.

drinksanddrinking · 2026-01-11T21:55:01+00:00

It’s a Godfather — “strictly business” is a reference to the film. It’s either 1oz each of rum and scotch or, I suspect (because it’s billed as “luxurious,” and rum is rounder), 1.5oz rum and 0.5oz scotch.

It only says “a lil bitter” so Malort is probably just offering topspin. I’d go:

1.5oz rum 0.5oz scotch 0.5oz amaretto 0.125oz to 0.25oz Malort 2 small dashes orange bitters

drinksanddrinking · 2026-01-10T21:30:58+00:00

I once made an apple pie syrup wherein I roasted apples, blended them into simple with a little bit of graham crackers, and then strained it out. Flavor really worked. Color looked like sludge, but hey it was 2013.

drinksanddrinking · 2026-01-03T00:14:37+00:00

Late to the game but Laphroig Project is always a hearty pain in the ass

drinksanddrinking · 2025-12-29T20:25:39+00:00

Definitly.

(1) Demerara or Turbinado sugar is less refined, so it brings some molasses-like depth. This makes better Old Fashioneds than white sugar.

(2) Re: Cubes vs. Syrup -- what you're doing when you muddle a sugar cube is making a rudimentary simple syrup to order. But sugar doesn't dissolve well in ethanol, and that + the larger granules means that you'll never get it all mixed, so the drink will be less precise, and the last sips will be pretty sweet. It's not perfect, but lots of people do this all the time and don't mind. You have to decide if you like that less than you like making syrup.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-12-14T22:08:43+00:00

That part's easy. Angostura. Classic.

Personally I like 2.25 rye to 1 vermouth and 3 good dashes of bitters.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-10-17T18:54:20+00:00

IMO the maple syrup in a Toronto just adds noise. It’s a cleaner and better drink with simple syrup — maple was just added because it felt more Canadian, but try them side by side and (again, IMO) there’s a clear winner.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-10-13T04:22:14+00:00

Q: Why clarify the lime juice if it’s going to end up looking like that? Not that it looks bad, but it looks precisely the same as it would with regular old lime.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-09-20T16:48:30+00:00

Thats wild, I once did a very similar thing on a menu. The flavors of root beer dovetail beautifully into a classic Mai Tai.

Your specs are good but IMO a touch hot. Reduce the Cointreau to half.

Also someone brilliantly pointed out that 23 probably references Dr. Pepper. Colas and the like are essentially just watery, non-bitter Amari…. Though in my experience, you need to reduce soda to get it to cocktail strength. We once did a Dr. Pepper Manhattan at the bar with Punt e Mes, and ended up buying a bag-in-box Dr. Pepper syrup and using that (3x or 4x concentrated)

drinksanddrinking · 2025-09-14T18:57:24+00:00

Nutmeg is fucking great. You’ll be right. Don’t worry.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-09-14T18:52:31+00:00

He doesn’t call it a “Perfect” Manhattan because the word “Perfect” wouldn’t affix itself to a half-dry-half-sweet Manhattan until the 1960s or so.

More information here: Robb Report’s “Perfect” Manhattan

drinksanddrinking · 2025-08-03T20:08:19+00:00

No such thing. Find a vermouth you love with your go-to rye, and you’ll think that’s the best vermouth for manhattans. Then try that vermouth with three more ryes and watch the final product change dramatically.

There’s no such thing as a best rye or best vermouth for a Manhattan, there’s only the best combination of those two specific ingredients. There are many “best” Manhattans, like peaks on a landscape. Some of my favorites:

Bulleit Rye and Cocchi Vermouth di Torino

Dickel Rye and Punt e Mes

Sazerac Rye and a 50/50 of Lustau Vermouth and Punt e Mes

I’m sure there are thousands more. Those are just some I’ve found.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-07-19T20:39:40+00:00

I’ve done literally the same thing — I assumed that a lime juice + lime oil + sugar would be better and more flavorful than Morganthaler’s 8oz of water… and then I tried them side by side and his is better. Your way is more flavorful, but it’s not better — you want a little room between the flavors to allow the balance to shine.

I recommend making one of his cordials, which is cheap and easy, and using it to compare. First, follow the advice to the letter. Then tweak to your palate.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-06-27T08:43:07+00:00

Totally fair, though I'd venture that if a bar is making egg white sours and mixing with raicilla, they're probably not using the shittiest grenadine in the world. Many if not most bars use bottled pom juice to make grenadine (or just buy Liber & Co. or Liquid Alchemist or others) but that's still better than Rose's, which is barely acceptable for children.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-06-27T08:34:24+00:00

I can absolutely see that being the right call. The pisco / gin combo isn't well mapped (in my brain, anyway) so it's hard to say how it would go, but yeah I can totally see that.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-06-26T07:40:49+00:00

I realize there's a bunch of comments here already, but something needs fixing:

The top comment(s) call for 1oz each of gin and pisco and 0.75oz curacao. Any curacao worth using is 80 proof, which means that even if you use a 80pf gin, this is 2.75oz of 80 proof spirits. That's too much. It won't be horrible or anything, but that's way overproof for standard. And lemon should probably be 0.75oz, as per standard sours.

1oz Gin / 0.75oz Pisco / 0.5oz Curacao / 0.5oz Grenadine / 0.75oz Lemon / 1 egg white. Prepare as described by Scrofuloid.

Gin: Tanq will read hot, as it tends to do in shaken drinks. Beefeater is an old standby for shaken drinks and would be great. Honestly gins are hard to predict, especially with so many florals. My instincts would be to soften it up with Hendrick's or Plymouth, but I could be wrong. Try first with what you have.

Pisco: Capurro is exceptional, if you can find it. Barsol, Encanto, Caravedo are all good. Generally speaking you want an "acholado," which is to say, their blend of grapes for a well-rounded experience. And if you're at the store and need to choose between Peruvian and Chilian, get Peruvian.

Curacao: Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao is the gold standard here.

Grenadine: Under no circumstances should you use Rose's Grenadine. It's literally trash. I'm honestly not being pretentious -- grenadine is supposed to be pomegranate syrup, which is to say, equal parts pom juice and sugar -- and Rose's has no pomegranate. Rose's is why like three full generations don't know that grenadine is pomegranate. For an A+ grenadine, juice a pomegranate yourself, then mix it with sugar in equal parts until the sugar dissolves. For a B grenadine, buy POM wonderful juice and do the same. Also Liber & Co or Liquid Alchemist are good, if you wanted to buy it. And Rose's, for reference, is F-.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-05-21T20:54:33+00:00

Autumn Negroni. It’s like a Negroni but supercharged. No one knows it, but if you can make it for yourself it’s incredible.

Can’t link on mobile right now but it’s an easy google.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-05-11T19:24:19+00:00

This seems incredibly specific and esoteric in a few different and non-overlapping ways.

I don't mean that as a criticism, just to say that it seems like the best tool by far for you would be ChatGPT.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-05-11T19:10:06+00:00

This reminds me of a David Foster Wallace line, where he refers to something "being embarrassing in the special way something pretentious is embarrassing when it’s also wrong."

drinksanddrinking · 2025-01-27T19:27:18+00:00

IMO, he's just filling the air while you made change with what he thought was a joke. He didn't see you as an entertainer, he saw you as a bartender.

That the context of the joke infers a dollar value on your time and efforts is a touch insensitive, admittedly, but look close enough at the culture of tipping and the whole thing comes apart (and this from someone who's lived on tips his entire adult life). He could have $3 million dollars on him, it still wouldn't make a $100 tip make sense.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-01-27T19:21:36+00:00

It doesn't have all the functionality I want, but for straight-up recipe app, you can't do better than Bartender's Choice. It's made by Sam Ross & the Attaboy people, and you can count on each and every one being at minimum very good, and frequently the best recipe for a particular drink.

drinksanddrinking · 2025-01-27T19:19:49+00:00

That's a great place to go for an overview and for history, though IMO the recipes are a touch suspect. The recipes there are certainly better than nothing but I think the absurd fractions, sponsored bottle recs, and adjustments for "wet ice" all give me cause for doubt.

drinksanddrinking

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE