The Proper Gentleman's Bar

Cuisine Food & Drink
1

Partially to drwn my sorrows, partially in the name if science I went to Macau and purchased an all singing, all dancing, wooden folding bar (it’s about the size of an armoire), bar equipment like bostong shaker, plus a Laurousse cocktail ecyclopedia thingy and I want to fill it with as many aperatifs, liquers, and alcohols as I can find.

Knowing when to seek out expert help, I was wondering if you gentleman would know, wht should I fill it with - your advice would eb grtly appreciated.

As you may surmikse from my types, So far this morning I’ve already worked my way through Vodka & Gin based dry cocktails, but I still have thirst quenching cocjtails, fruit based cocktails, liquier based cocktails times, Whisky, Rum, Tequila, Brandy, Champaign and Other. Again - looking to the eprt opinions on this forun while I can still make it to the package store…

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2

Time for the pastis, Elegua? You got one of those sugar burners for drinking Absinthe? There’s a bar called Gecko in Soho here in HK that have it all. A cool spot it is too.

My personal taste runs to Mojitos and Margharitas, so that’d be Cuban rum, triple sec and tequila as far as bar essentials go.

HG

3

Nope - but I do have a big bottle or Ricard. I tend to be the iced water type.

I’ll have to try Geko. Where in Soho?

I’m workong on Whisky now. a Hondaribba. Scotch, Campari, red vermouth & lemon peel. I made a Churchill for my wife - same with triple sec and lime juice instead

Is is me - of is the haze so bad today you can’t see farther than 100 yards?

4

There is indeed a horrid haze.

By the way, a classy addition (or so I reckon) to my minibar comprised of a solo bottle of white rum, several of soda and a bag of Thai limes is the mint growing on the balcony.

Sounds like your wife’s a mojito type.

[quote]Cuban Mojito recipe

the original authentic recipe from Havana Cuba

1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Juice from 1 lime (2 ounces)
4 mint leaves

1 sprig of mint
Havana Club white Rum (2 ounces)
2 ounces club soda

There are countless recipes for the Mojito (prounced moh-HEE-toh), but this version is for the one Hemingway himself enjoyed at the Mojito’s place of birth: La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba. If you are throwing a Cuban theme party (Havana night themed party), plan on serving mojitos.

Place the mint leaves into a long mojito glass (often called a “collins” glass) and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. You’ll want about two ounces of lime juice, so it may not require all of the juice from a single lime. Add the powdered sugar, then gently smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long wooden device pictured below, though you can also use the back of a fork or spoon if one isn’t available). Add ice (preferably crushed) then add the rum and stir, and top off with the club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig.
[/quote]

HG

5

Great suggestion - my wife’s got a big pot of mint growing - Guess I’ll raid it. I’m de-hydrated now so I’m freshening up with a Pim’s & Ginger Ale w/ lime.

Here’s what I’ve gotten so far:
Rum
1 btl Cachaca
1 btl Screetch
1 btl Meyers
Bitters / Other
1 btl Camparia
1 btl Pernod
1 btl Chinar
1 btl Cointreau
Vermooth
1 btl Noilly Prat Dry White
1 btl Carmpano Sweet Red
Vodka
1 btl Stoli
Gin
1 btl Bombay Saphire
Brandy
1 btl Asbach Uralt
Blended Scotch
1 btl white horse
Single Malt
1 btl Glenlivit
Burbon
1 btl Makers Mark (looking for Blantons)
Tequila
1 btl white
1 btl amber
Armenac
1968 labaud
1976 (not sure)

On the list:
Marachino
Limonchello
Galliano (just for the bottle)
Slivovits
Lillet
Strega
Grand Manier

Should I get some champaign? Might be nice to have a Kir Royal or a French 75 on the veranda no? What’s missing? I’m very serious about putting a major hole in my liver and I want to do it in the most enjoyable way…

6

About the Mojito recipe above. . . I would make a mojito with 2 parts rum to one part lime, sweetened to taste with syrup (you can make batches of sugar syrup and store them in the fridge - much easier than messing about with sugar), and as in the above recipe go easy on the soda. The main problem with mojitos in bars is too much soda (or the use of sprite instead of soda). Unless you scale up the quantity of rum then a mojito shouldn’t really fill a collins glass. It needs to be a more potent drink that a Tom Collins for the warmth of the rum to carry through. Makes sense since the flavor of gin (full of aromatics and what not) is far more than rum. You also want to mess about with different types of mint and find one that suits. Peppermint has a very intense taste, you don’t need many leaves to get the flavor, and the effect can be a bit too much like putting a shot of creme de menthe in there. Ideally you want a more herbal tasting mint. I’m not quite sure what the best choice would be. I just limit myself to buying what the supermarket happens to have and adjust quantities accordingly. I guess if you were really serious you would find a good variety and grow it yourself.

As for other stuff. . .

I’d suggest:

creme de casis - works will in equal parts with gin and dry vermouth to make a nice drink to serve up, or a part cassis to two parts dry vermouth on the rocks in a collins and topped up with soda for a nice apperitif, and of course many other uses.

marachino - get Luxardo and try an Aviation (roughly 3 parts gin, 1 part lemonjuice, and a teaspoon or so of marachino - shaken over ice and served up).

aromatic bitters (i.e. angostura) - you can’t do much without it.

orange bitters - make yourself if you cant find it. You just dry a lot of orange peels, infuse them in vodka for a month, strain, let sit for a month, and use. You can add a little spice to it too if you want (cinnamon etc.)

Amareto - Makes an excellent sour. Girls love it. I know you’re married and all but it never hurts.

Dita (or another lychee liqueur) - Again excellent stuff for girls. 2 parts dita, 1 part gin, 1 part lemon juice, and just a little dash of sugar/syrup, shake it over ice and serve up. Delicious. Also there is the popular China Blue - Dita in a collins glass, topped up with grapefruit juice (a pale colored one), and with a little blue curacao drizzled in to create a blue cloud effect.

Kirsch might be more useful than Slivovitz.

Also consider picking up some sweet apricot brandy and some orgeat.

And if you do make a French 75 I recommend making over ice and in a collins glass (just make a Tom Collins but top up with champagne rather than soda). A delicious drink you can really feel and better than the champagne glass version.

7

Stock 16 year old bottles of Lagavolin.

8

Midori
Pineapple juice
Malibu

Equal measures shaken and poured over ice. Very refreshing, known as a Nothing.

9

You know Elegua, the only decent thing missing from your bar now is me! :laughing:

HG

10

[quote=“Kiwi”]About the Mojito recipe above. . . I would make a mojito with 2 parts rum to one part lime, sweetened to taste with syrup (you can make batches of sugar syrup and store them in the fridge - much easier than messing about with sugar), and as in the above recipe go easy on the soda. The main problem with mojitos in bars is too much soda (or the use of sprite instead of soda). Unless you scale up the quantity of rum then a mojito shouldn’t really fill a collins glass. It needs to be a more potent drink that a Tom Collins for the warmth of the rum to carry through. Makes sense since the flavor of gin (full of aromatics and what not) is far more than rum. You also want to mess about with different types of mint and find one that suits. Peppermint has a very intense taste, you don’t need many leaves to get the flavor, and the effect can be a bit too much like putting a shot of creme de menthe in there. Ideally you want a more herbal tasting mint. I’m not quite sure what the best choice would be. I just limit myself to buying what the supermarket happens to have and adjust quantities accordingly. I guess if you were really serious you would find a good variety and grow it yourself.

As for other stuff. . .

I’d suggest:

creme de casis - works will in equal parts with gin and dry vermouth to make a nice drink to serve up, or a part cassis to two parts dry vermouth on the rocks in a collins and topped up with soda for a nice apperitif, and of course many other uses.

marachino - get Luxardo and try an Aviation (roughly 3 parts gin, 1 part lemonjuice, and a teaspoon or so of marachino - shaken over ice and served up).

aromatic bitters (i.e. angostura) - you can’t do much without it.

orange bitters - make yourself if you cant find it. You just dry a lot of orange peels, infuse them in vodka for a month, strain, let sit for a month, and use. You can add a little spice to it too if you want (cinnamon etc.)

Amareto - Makes an excellent sour. Girls love it. I know you’re married and all but it never hurts.

Dita (or another lychee liqueur) - Again excellent stuff for girls. 2 parts dita, 1 part gin, 1 part lemon juice, and just a little dash of sugar/syrup, shake it over ice and serve up. Delicious. Also there is the popular China Blue - Dita in a collins glass, topped up with grapefruit juice (a pale colored one), and with a little blue curacao drizzled in to create a blue cloud effect.

Kirsch might be more useful than Slivovitz.

Also consider picking up some sweet apricot brandy and some orgeat.

And if you do make a French 75 I recommend making over ice and in a collins glass (just make a Tom Collins but top up with champagne rather than soda). A delicious drink you can really feel and better than the champagne glass version.[/quote]

Thanks - some great ideas. I do have a bottle of bitters (can’t live w/out the stuff). I was wondering where to get the the orange bitters - but I think you answered it.

I got the slivovits 'cause I like to drink it straight (is that normal?)

11

Orange bitters may be available in Hong Kong. I’d assume there are a handful of better bars arond town that use it. But since it is so transportable alot of bars rely in customers bringing it in. The one bar I know of here in Shanghai that stocks it has customers bring it in from Japan.

The Japanese brand is called Hermes and is good stuff. Alot of people reckon it is the best brand to use for a traditional Martini.

Then there is one from Fees Brothers in the US, and a newer one being produced by a spirits writer called Gary Regan. It is called Regans No 6 Bitters or something. I think it is distributed by the Sazerac company.

If you make your own and want to cheat a little you could always buy dried orange peels from a Chinese medicine shop. When I made my batch I didn’t bother to dry the peel. I tasted the result half way through and decided the orange taste was a bit lacking. I couldn’t be bothered to dry peel though (the weather is a bit damp in Shanghai) so I just bought dried orange peels from the Chinese medicine shop. The taste probably isn’t ideal, but it was a shortcut to tempting to pass up.

The link below is the recipe I used. Maybe you could dry the peel in an oven or something? A friend in Beijing (where the extremely dry climate makes drying orange peel a breeze) says he gets better results with dried peel than fresh.

ipi.fi/~hessu/orange-bitters/

I’ve only ever drunk it straight. But then I haven’t drunk it since uni when I drank everything straight. If you are into mixing drinks then I can’t think of anything specifically that uses slivovitz, whereas there are some good drinks using kirsch, calvados, and apricot eau de vie.

For syrups like grenadine etc it pays to hunt around for a good brand. Most grenadine is just corn syrup with food coloring. Monin is a reasonable one that is likely to be available in HK. The Monin grenadine doesn’t have much of a pomegranate taste, but it at least has a fruit taste and isn’t offensive. Alot of brands (e.g. Roses) will actually ruin a drink. Monin’s orgeat is very good.

Luxardo Marashino is available in City Supermarket (is that the name?) down in the Ocean World(?) shopping center. I’m talking about the good supermarket in that big mall on Canton Rd(?)just north of the Star Ferry terminal in Kowloon. The supermarket is right beside a big English language bookstore, up on the 2nd or 3rd floor.

Somebody suggested Malibu. Any ideas what I can do with Malibu? I’ve got a bottle here that I’ve hardly touched. I don’t like overly sweet drinks, and most of the Malibu recipes I’ve seen seem on the sweet side (often Malibu plus a bunch of other liqueurs).