A drink discovered in the pages of the latest Imbibe magazine, a drink from 1892 called the “Appetizer à l’Italienne”.

It appeared in William Schmidt’s book “The Flaming Bowl”.

It’s a good one!

2oz Italian vermouth
1oz Fernet-Branca
1 barspoon simple syrup
1 barspoon absinthe

Stir w/ ice and then strain into a coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist

Appetizer à l’Italienne
#italianvermouth #absinthe #fernetbranca #theflamingbowl #19thcenturycocktails #AppetizeràlItalienne
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Japanese Cocktail

Enjoyed a “lazy bones Sunday” yesterday with a Japanese Cocktail.

2oz brandy
1/2oz orgeat
2d @angosturahouse bitters
shake w/ ice and strain
garnished w/ an orange twist


A couple of spectators for fans of tequila

This variation of one my favorite cocktails I dreamed up, “The Spectator”, is just as good as the original I think. The “Spectator version 2” swaps out the blanco tequila with reposado tequila and swaps out the jalapeño syrup with regular simple syrup, providing a smooth, easy-drinking cocktail.

1 1/2oz reposado tequila
3/4oz maraschino liqueur
3/4oz lime
1/4oz simple syrup

Shake w/ ice and strain

For the original “Spectator” recipe from 2018, visit… https://scientistmcgee.wordpress.com/2018/04/23/the-spectator-a-smcg-original/


I like pommeau.

I had my first taste ever of pommeau last week and I’m in love.

Just outside of Traverse City, MI, I visited a cidery called Tandem Ciders. While there, my wife and I enjoyed a flight of ciders and they were great. But what I loved most was trying their pommeau they call “Pomona”…. a 5-year aged blend of brandy (distilled from a blend of their ciders) combined with actual hard cider. Basically calvados + hard cider… It’s delicious! It’s basically an aperitif or a dessert wine. It comes in a 17% alcohol content.

Tandem Ciders’ “Pomona” pommeau
A flight of cider and a pickled egg
Tandem Ciders in Suttons Bay, MI
Tandem Ciders’ Pomona

#cider #cidery #applebrandy #pommeau #michigan #suttonsbay #traversecity


Robert Treat Special w/ Dubonnet

A simple drink that I really love. I discovered this drink at an old restaurant that is no longer… Water Street in Maplewood, MO (a nice town just west of St. Louis).

Robert Treat Special

1.5oz cognac
1.5oz Dubonnet
1 dash of @angosturahouse orange
bitters


Stir w/ ice and garnish w/ a lemon
twist

Robert Treat Specials on the rocks are also nice. Here’s one with an orange twist.

#roberttreatspecial #brandy #dubonnet #cognac


Finally!

After having first tasted this delicious drink at Disney World, called a “Brandy Antigua” there, I had to have my own bottle of the crema de alba liqueur. The trouble is it’s really hard to find in stores and it can’t be shipped to the state of Missouri (where I live).

Fortunately a new location of The Wine and Cheese Place opened up near my house (Spirit Wine & Craft). Their my favorite place to buy alcoholic beverages in St. Louis because of their perfect selection, fair prices, and top notch customer service. An example of their stellar customer service is the fact that when I brought up this liqueur that had been so elusive to me, they recommended I check the Friar Tuck in Edwardsville, IL. I called that store the next day and sure enough they had it! The Wine & Cheese Place is THAT good! Even stuff they don’t have, they know exactly where you should check to find it! I had already, long before this, called many shops in Illinois thinking I might find some in our state next door. But I hadn’t called the one place that had it. The one place The Wine & Cheese Place recommended. Now after a 3-year hunt, I have my own bottle!

I immediately went to work mixing up that Brandy Antigua drink only with some nice Armagnac instead since I didn’t have any special brandy on hand at the moment. It lived up to my memory and was as good as I remembered. Yum!

Crema de Alba is a cream based liqueur made from aged Spanish brandy. It’s sort of like Irish cream but instead of being based on Irish whiskey, Spanish brandy. It’s very tasty and it’s only $18.

An Armagnac Antigua

1 1/2oz Armagnac
2d orange bitters
Set up a rocks glass with ice, and fill the rest with Gran Duque Crema de Alba liqueur.

Stir with ice and enjoy. (Good with plain cake donuts)

Armagnac Antigua

#brandy #granduque #cremadealba #spanishbrandy #creamliqueur #liqueur #brandyantigua #disney


The 9th edition of the “Scientist McGee Drinks Menu & Manual” is here!

Now in its 9th year, the newly updated “Scientist McGee’s Drinks Menu & Manual” features 33 new drinks (pages 137-153)!

This printable book collects the drinks I’ve mixed up and enjoyed at home over the last 9 years, and the new additions include some wonderful classics such as the Dark & Stormy, The Hurricane, Aged Egg Nog, Whiskey Flip, Singapore Sling, as well as quite a few drinks you’ve probably not yet heard of (including a few of my own creations).

So kick back and enjoy the pages of this menu and manual, with a table of contents organized by base spirit as well as an all-inclusive, carefully cataloged index of all the supporting characters in each drink’s make-up.

Part 1 of 2: Scientist McGee’s Drink Menu and Manual – 9th Edition Sept. 2020 – FRONT COVER, TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 2 of 2: Scientist McGee’s Drink Menu and Manual – 9th Edition Sept. 2020 – RECIPES, INDEX


Blackjack

Tonight’s quarantini happy hour is a “Blackjack” by Jacques Straub in 1914 and published in the 2011 @pdtnyc book… Made with 1 1/2oz brandy, 1/2oz kirschwasser, 1/2oz cold brew coffee, and 1/4oz Demerara syrup. Shake w/ ice, then strain into a coupe. Garnish w/ a cherry or three.

Blackjack

St. Louis Old-Fashioned

A “St. Louis Old-Fashioned” made with 2 1/4oz of Schnucks Supermarkets bourbon, 1/3oz of St. Louis-made ginger liqueur called “Big O”, 1/3oz of St. Louis City water (voted “Best Water in the Nation”), and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters (from Trinidad & Tobago) and garnished with a lemon twist.


Quarantini Happy Hour

I turned to an old favorite of mine, a “501”, to celebrate the end of the remote-work week yesterday evening. After a long day, a happy hour tipple with my wife before dinner is always a special treat.

My wife doesn’t like her drinks to be as boozy as I do mine so I oftentimes modify the recipes to suit her taste. So instead of the original single recipe of 1 1/2oz blanco tequila, 3/4oz ginger liqueur, 1/2oz lemon, and 1/4oz Aperol, I made two drinks using the following amounts: 3oz blanco tequila, 2 1/4oz ginger liqueur (Big O brand), 1 1/2oz lemon, and 3/4oz Aperol. Basically I doubled the tequila for two drinks but tripled all the other less stiff ingredients.

It worked out well and was a very nice start to our quarantined weekend, cheers!