Recent discussions on Difford’s Guide

We got a bit excited anticipating trying this and we weren't disappointed. It was fun to make and, taste-wise, deliciously complex with the savoury, sour and sweet in lovely harmony. Bravo to the creator.

Can't say that I like this...'cause I love it! And clearly a Negroni. Bittersweet, check. Aromatized wine/ vermouth, check. Spiritous base liquer, check. All in balance. 5=3. Thanks again Simon.

Very nice drink. I agree with John Carr below that it is superior to the Preakness cocktail. The cognac adds a really interesting nuance that the other drink lacks.

Quite herbal beyond the sweetness, which I do think is at least somewhat necessary, but can see the debate between how much. The bitter grassy gentian liqueur needs a counter, but I can't tell with one try if the yellow chartreuse brings enough on its own. Might need to experiment.

This is like the Coke Zero of the Last Words, is there but smtg is lacking. But nevertheless I wanted a light one, so this is perfect. I went for Roku Gin in this. And let me tell a strange thing: in english what is lime here in Mx Spanish is Limón, and what is lemon there here is Lima. So we have twisted citrics it seems (at the same time when you say Tuna we say Atun).

We found this to be waaaaay too sweet with these proportions

The old manuals loved to call for dashes and drops of things cause glasses were really small, like 2-3oz (60-90ml).

You are on to something wonderful!

Three complex, divisive flavors combine to make something truly magical!

Don't skip the rosemary and mint; they really pull it all together :)

Fortunate enough to have some Amer Picon, I tried this again. Intrigued by the origin story, I sought out the GumboPage.com site referenced by Difford's under History. Difford's indicates the each ingredient has been reduced by one third, but I believe in fact only the amount of gin has been altered. I wanted to try the original recipe calling for 2oz of gin but as I only had Plymouth Gin Navy Strength, I reduced it as per Difford's adaptation thinking it might approximate the original. Very tasty but 1) as per comment below, maybe some acid would elevate this drink, and 2) I won't be driving tonight!

We tried substituting Escorial in place of Chartreuse and were dazzled by the resulting cocktail.

I had to try this after reading the comments on the cocktail that inspired it. I went with standard strengths for this one - Rittenhouse, Still Autsin, and a blanco Mezcal and this is a more balanced, a bit sweeter, and ever so slightly smoky version of the Purgatory cocktail.

I think it is more approachable, and has very tame spice and a bit of herbal that leans into the Mezcal. I sorta miss the spice but like the Mezcal addition. Maybe the cask-strength rye I used for the original or split rye and Mezcal, skipping the bourbon would be something I could explore for my own preferences.

Delicious. I may try a Last Word with egg white soon.

I have found myself going a little more "wet" with my martinis, sometimes including a splash of Cocchi Americano. Overall, I tend to agree with the claim that those who have an aversion to larger proportions of vermouth might be those who don't realize it needs to be fairly fresh (and refrigerated to help with that). That said, I am pretty much in the 4:1 to 5:1 ratio most of the time.

Also, I have experimented with different bitters - grapefruit and celery being my current favorites to use.

I really liked this one. On top of that, it packs lots of flavour with little alcohol. I used El Dorado 8, and I'll probably experiment with other rums.

I knew I would like this given the ingredients. I actually went with a spicy cask-strength local rye and the overall spiciness of the cocktail took center stage with the herbal notes playing at the edges and in the finish. Even with that, I got the impression the saline addition did round out the feel more than I expected.

The cherry tomatos and elderflower liqueur made this cocktail special, rum body and some sweet grenadine, wonderfull.

Great cocktail. But you really need to be careful with the absinthe. ‘3 dashes’ is relative – even 1 ml more can throw the drink off balance. It’s better to control the dashes using a jigger. Up to about 3 ml of absinthe the cocktail was pleasant, but I’d recommend being careful going much beyond that, because the absinthe can become dominant.

My feeling was that doing the dilution in the glass made the flavor better, because it reduced the earlier dilution. They were two different cocktails. I get the sense that sherry is more sensitive to dilution.

I'll try it next time. Thanks for the suggestion, Hunter.

That sounds awesome!! Definitely a must-try.

great in cocktails

really good by itself, smooth round filling

Really like this one. Kirschwasser can be nicelly swapped with gin. I don't have vanilla vodka, so I just add vanilla paste or natural vanilla flavoring.