The Early Minutes of the Cocktail Hour

Reading this book makes us long for the days when our friends lived closer and had stronger livers.  This drink is recommended to be served as a first drink pre-dinner, followed by something stronger before food, almost certainly to be followed with wine at dinner and one or more digestifs.

This drink also inspired us to stock more than just Angoustra bitters.  I had vaguely known that there were other types of bitters out there, but the variety was surprising, and there are still so many that I'm eager to try.  If you're curious, I recommend the book "Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, with Cocktails, Recipes, and Formulas" by Brad Parsons as a good introduction to the art of drinking and making all sorts of bitter-like concoctions.

Drink 2: The Astoria

2 oz gin

1/2 oz dry vermouth

dash of orange bitters 

Shake with ice and strain

This was definitely a light drink.  The bitters were not really noticeable, though that's partly because we used Hendricks, a very flavorful (and my favorite) gin.  We keep our gin in the freezer and chilled the glass, so the drink was very crisp and cold.  I've since learned that some distilleries prefer to serve base liquors at room temperature to showcase the flavor, but I'm so far unconvinced.  

  

Overall, I didn't like it very much.  If I want an apertif, I'm much happier with a small glass of Lillet Blanc than something that I have to take time to prepare.  I am making dinner, after all.  In a restaurant, I may order something like this if I had enough courses in front of me that a followup cocktail or two made sense.

Final Verdict

Educational for learning to use orange bitters, but unlikely to make again.

The Noble Experiment

A few months ago, Chris unearthed the book "Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century" by Paul Harrington, aka "The Alchemist", who earned his name writing a cocktail column for Wired in the 90s.
He was involved in the recent resurgence of classic cocktails and spent a considerable amount of time studying the history and variations of cocktails of the era before blended margaritas.

  While the book goes into length about barware and base liquors, the highlight is 64 pages of colorful recipes highlighting the full spectrum of "classic aperitif cocktails that was meant to give the reader a "wide breadth of experience." In this project, we will go through all 64 drinks and provide pictures and notes, along with any variations we discover are particularly good or, more likely, should be avoided at all cost.  

Without further ado, 

Drink #1: The Americano

• 1 oz Campari
• 1/2 oz sweet Vermouth
• Soda water

 Stirred, not shaken

 This was the first drink either of us had made that involved chilling the glass beforehand.  It's so easy: just a few minutes in the freezer makes all the difference in a drink that is cold and stays that way.   Unless I'm making drinks for a large crowd, I always chill my glasses now.

I don't really like either Campari or sweet vermouth, so I had my doubts about this drink, but it ended up being surprisingly delicious (at first: by the end the Campari in the bottom defeated me).  It was also very pretty in the sunlight, which the picture doesn't quite capture.  We definitely made the right decision when we threw out the bottles of Gallo vermouth that had been with me for my last 10 moves and spent the extra few dollars for Martini and Rossi.  The new vermouth tasted good enough on its own that I had some vermouth and soda as a refresher after we'd polished off the Americano.

Chris agreed that the top of the drink was refreshing, though the Campari at the end even got him.

Final Verdict: 

The Americano, mixed properly, would make a great summer drink.  Add more sweet vermouth if the Campari starts huddling in the bottom of the class.