Tonight's pre-game

It's my friend Randy's big b-day bash tonight, and because I can't afford to be drinking at the bar, I'm doin' the pre-game something special.

It'll feature my good friends the Dark N' Stormy, The Moscow Mule, and probably a visit from the Old Fashioned, and perhaps the Martini.

It's going to be fun!

Come by and meet them if you like. I'm sure it'll be a grand ol' time.

TGIF

Hopefully I get to check out The Town tonight, but we'll see.

And even if I don't, I just enjoyed my favorite cocktail, the Old Fashioned.

Sooo good.

I think I've finally perfected my recipe.


1/2 oz simple syrup, couple dashes Angostora bitters, stir, then add 2 oz bourbon whiskey, stir again, add ice and garnish with a lemon or orange peel. (Personally this comes down to personal preference. The lemon peel was in the original recipe, but a lot of people like the orange peel. I like them both, and switch between the two depending on what I have at my house. Also as an additional garnish you can throw a maraschino cherry on top. No muddled fruit, no soda water.)

Again, sorry for my crappy ass photos lately. I promise one day I'll get another camera.

Let's get Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned.

When this is made properly--and it rarely is--there may not be a better example of what a great cocktail can be.

The one pictured above was something of an eye opener. It's from a speakeasy bar called Single Barrel, in downtown San Jose. The bartender, Cash, was quick to engage me in conversation once he found out that I was ordering the Old Fashioned.

"When was the last time you had an Old Fashioned?"

"Last night!" I said.

"You didn't put any muddled fruit in your drink did you?"

"NO!"

"That a boy!" And he continued making my drink. We went on a little further, and like me he uses simple syrup instead of a sugar cube, but sort of quizzically he squirts a dash of soda water in it. Not much just a dash. His opinion is that there should be some in it, but I think he feels like its necessary to do so, because he does not stir the drink with traditional ice. Instead, he drops a big ball of ice in the middle of the drink. Anyway, it seems like the soda water just gets the bitters and simple syrup mixing, and doesn't dilute the whiskey as much as regular ice would. (There is something to be said about the whiskey he used though--goddamn)! But the big debate of the night, was whether to use a lemon peel or an orange peel to garnish the drink with. Cash felt that a lemon peel really brought out a bigger taste in the drink, especially with the aroma. He also rightly pointed out that a lemon peel was the OG garnish back when the drink was first invented. I think the bigger aroma came from his brimming of the glass with the peel; and that the same could be achieved with an orange. But I think I'm going to need to test that theory for myself.

Anyway, there's no better spot in SJ for quality cocktails. Here's to Cash, Single Barrel, and the Old Fashioned.

Cheers!!!

I like characters

Tonight my roommate and I bought a bunch of liquor.

We had no real reason for it, other than it seems somewhat retro-gentlemanly to have a liquor cabinet.

Anyway, I LOVE mixing cocktails so a nice stash of liquor also enables my hobby. Tonight, I had an Old Fashioned and I made my roommate two Vesper Martinis. He should definitely sleep nicely tonight.

In case you were wondering the "Vesper" is the infamous James Bond cocktail. The OG recipe calls for something like this:

3 parts Gordons
1 part Vodka
1/2 measure of Lillet
Shake over ice and garnish with a lemon peel.

First off, this is a massive cocktail. It's also a badly balanced one. The gin overpowers almost everything in the drink, and you're not left with much but big glass of gin. Of course this is okay if you a gin advocate.

But after a bunch of experimenting, I've come up with something which I feel is a much more elegant, balanced, cocktail.

1 oz Gin
1 oz Vodka
1/2 oz Lillet
couple of dashes orange bitters
STIR (all clear ingredients should always be stirred) with ice
garnish with a lemon peel.

Personally, I think this ratio allows the gin and vodka to work well with each other, and the orange bitters and lemon really bring out all the citrus in the cocktail. Try it at home. I'd make you one, but that's sort of tough over the interwebzzzz.

Wow that was a long ass lead in.

What I really wanted to write about was Up in the Air, a movie I re-watched tonight. I really think this was the best movie of last year; and yes even better than Avatar and Hurt Locker. Don't get me wrong, I really liked those movies, but my favorite movies--and TV shows--are those "slice of life" type stories. I want characters with pain/problems that I can feel, who have interesting stories. The George Clooney-Ryan Bingham character was one of those. Hell that character even inspired me to write the poem that is below this post. Like personally, Inception and A Single Man deal with very similar subject matter, but in different ways. Inception is a sci-fi action movie, whereas A Single Man is straight drama; but both are about how losing a loved one can affect your entire being (the physical and the mental). Both deal with this subject well too, but to me A Single Man resonated more, because the movie focused more on characters rather than spectacle. Give me characters over effects any day.