Huntsman
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- Jul 3, 2004
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I'm going to pick up some Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao tomorrow. How is it in a Pegu Club (actually never had one)? Some other cocktail ideas, besides Brandy Crusta or El Presidente for it?
Right now, Dark & Stormy while watching the game. Also a bottle of Robert Weil Riesling kabinett trocken in the fridge. An Old Fashioned or Manhattan in the break.
I don't like using the Ferrand Dry Curacao in cocktails with a gin base; I feel that the distinct brandy note clashes. I have a bottle, and I've had cocktails out with it, but have not yet been impressed' it reminds me very much of a rougher Grand Marnier Centenaire. No reason not to make the Pegu Club with Cointreau. Using it in a cocktail with brandy just seems redundant, as in a Sidecar. Might be good in a rye, bourbon, or Calvados cocktail. Where it really might shine is as the base for a cocktail, but I've not gotten that far with it.
The first time I saw it, I was in a very high-end cocktail bar in DC, and when I asked for bartender's choice with it, they made me a Savoy CR#2; I was like, really? It wasn't very good in that role.
I want to get a bottle of Chartreuse, but I don't want to drop $100 getting green and yellow. Which of the two is more useful?
For my taste, I've been finding more and more that I do not like mixing really fresh, herbal things with brown spirits; thus, green chartreuse with rye, bourbon, etc. The Widow's Kiss for instance, I think is quite awful with green; but incredible with yellow. Likewise with the Champs Elysses. The reverse is not true;however, and I have no problem mixing Yellow with gin. The Last Word, however, is a sublime cocktail, but that is the only thing that I use Green for consistently at the moment, though I've tried a number of cocktails with it (edit: Songbird, which combines gin, lemon, St. germain, and Green Chartreuse is worthwhile). Here's my favorite Yellow recipe: My version of the Smoke And Chartreuse, with credit to the originator of the cocktail (it may be Felten, not sure, the article has disappeared from the Web) and ESR, wherever life finds her:
1.25 oz Yellow Chartreuse
0.5 oz Dolin Blanc vermouth
0.25 oz Lillet Blanc
0.25 oz Laphroaig 18
Stir over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Float a barspoon Laph 18 on top.
~ H
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