We met Therese and Jake of Mosswood Distillers at the San Francisco Craft Spirits Carnival. We talked booze and tasted whiskey. They were warm, honest, friendly, and all-around great people, so we decided that we had to meet them in their element and see their operation. So on a warm fall morning we make our way…
The first thing any living creature will ask itself after drinking AL LONG’S SPECIAL HOT TODDY is “Who the hell is Al Long?” Jesse asserts that Mr. Long is a veteran of the blue movies, but after significant digging I conclude that Al Long is not actually Al Long at all, but A.L. Long (Armistead Lindsay…
AGGRAVATION 1 oz. Kahlua 1 oz. Scotch (Monkey Shoulder) Milk Fill glass with milk, add ingredients and two ice cubes, stir slowly, and serve. Brian That’s weird, but it’s not bad. It’s the scotch. The scotch is weird. Eric Why is this called the Aggravation? Brian I don’t know. I am in no way aggravated…
In Part 1 of the After Dinner Aggravation, Brian, Eric, and Guest Taster Jason tried out two separate “After Dinner” drinks with unprecedentedly positive scores, while still kind of hating them. We pick up where we left off, with Rituals crew building the AGGRAVATION: Next up we have a drink that uses Kahlua and of…
36 HOURS OF MAYHEM “I’m scared, Brian.” This is not the first time I have uttered these words and it probably won’t be the last. But it is a very real fear this time and it is potent. We are attending our first liquor convention, the San Francisco Craft Spirits Carnival, and we have no…
The AFFINITY COCKTAIL replaces the dry and sweet vermouth of the AFFINITY with dry sherry and port. The Internet knows nothing about this particular variation, although FinestCall.com says: “Incorporating sherry or port into a Manhattan adds tremendous body, depth of flavor and complexity to the drink. Port is a sensational replacement for sweet vermouth. On the…
The AFFINITY is a Perfect Rob Roy for somebody with a vermouth fetish. A Rob Roy is a Manhattan with Scotch, and a Perfect Rob Roy divides the normal sweet vermouth allocation into equal parts sweet and dry vermouths. But while a proper Perfect Rob Roy usually combines 2 parts Scotch with 1 part vermouth (half dry and…
Tonight’s session is a low-stakes affair, with only three cocktails on the schedule: the ADONIS, the AFFINITY, and the AFFINITY COCKTAIL. There is port to be purchased and there is dry sherry to be purchased, and once again we are confronted with the utter foolishness of this endeavor. We buy bottle after bottle of obscure…
Finally, a drink that isn’t swimming in citrus—but it uses a sweet wine. Don’t get me wrong I like a good sweet wine and Tokay (Tokaji) is one of my favorites, but mixed with bourbon? Pineapple juice? Lemon juice? Okay. Let’s taste what we’re stirring. ADMIRAL HIGHBALL 1.5 oz. Bourbon (Grass Widow) 1.5 oz. Sweet…
If you live in Seattle a craft distillery might not seem like a big deal—there are 24 to choose from. But if you live in Los Angeles, like us, you have nothing—or you had nothing, at least, until 2011 when Greenbar Craft Distillery ended a 95-year spirits-making drought for L.A. by moving downtown. The company’s story reads like a…
After spending 3½ weeks working on a movie in New Orleans, I persuaded Brian to let me do a recap of my experiences here—because there were a lot of good ones! During this time I was able to visit 27 establishments; certainly not every bar in New Orleans but a good, obsessive chunk nonetheless. In…