Recent discussions on Difford’s Guide

I understand where you are coming from, but I wonder if maybe the tartness of the lemons was a factor? i.e. if not overly tart, maybe less Chartreuse / sweetness needed? Having tried this twice now, I am considering repeating with 5ml more or maybe decreasing the lemon by 5ml.

This excellent riff on a Vieux Carre makes me wonder if many Manhattan variants can be "blackened" with Averna and made even more enjoyable.

I'm a huge fan of this cocktail, it's amazing. I made it with Diplomatico rum and Miró vermouth. It's honestly incredible - simple and wonderful. Totally recommend it.

what a surprice, I did not expect such an amazing cocktail with those few and simple ingedients. totally liked it, fresh, not sweet not dry, bitterness with yellow fruits coming through and lasting taste. Perfect for this 23 degree C heatwave midnight in Copenhagen. I used Fewer Tree's normal tonic, Dubonnet and the Suze. And the lemon peel :-)

Ah yes, a sort of fresh Ginger Mule with a little bit of parfum (that’s the elderflower). Nice.

Pretty good for an orange juice cocktail. As for the whisky, I used 45 ml of Vat 79, and 15 ml of Glengoyne 12. It's amazing what a bit of quality malt can do.

Nice, but too sweet as is. I recommend dialing back the grenadine by half, maybe playing around with the pineapple (lightly reduce) and lime (lightly increase) ratios as well, but that needs further testing.

So I tried making this without the simple syrup and it does seem a bit of a different experience than the one the other day. The herbal notes are more pronounced and the components are in nice balance. I added just a couple drops of simple and the Chartreuse came forward. Interesting.

In the end, I have my preference leaning towards having this a bit less sweet than the recipe calls for.

Very nice. A caipirinha with slightly more going on.

I made this exactly as followed using Knob Creek Rye, Carpano Sweet Vermouth & Scrappy Aromatic Bitters and added 5ml of Luxardo Maraschino Syrup, to bring in some sweetness without wanting to take away from the from the rye whisky and sweet vermouth, which overall it’s a pretty good drink that’s worth making again

Perfect as is. And with a salt rim - mhhm!

Used some blanco tequila and sugar syrup instead of the sgave sirup, works perfectly for me. Great flavours, rich of different tastes. Clement Rhum Agricole vieux 10y

I kind of love that. The aged tequila, elderflower and Averna all work together with the mezcal and bitters working to just accentuate the other flavours. It's weird but it 100% works.

A great drink for this very, very, very hot summer day, and one I've been wanting to try for ages. Have never been able to track down mango liqueur where I am, so in the end I resorted to making a homemade version! Glad I made the effort, because this cocktail went down a treat.

Enjoyable Negroni riff. The herbal notes of the Jager pair well with the Plymouth gin. I was out of Cocchi Vermouth di Torino and used Grassotti Vermouth di Torino Rosso which is more fruity and not nearly as rich as the Cocchi. Finding this vermouth to be a bit flat for this cocktail I added a dash of Aztec Chocolate bitters which rounded out the flavors very well. Will definitely try this again once I have a new bottle of the Cocchi.

I updated this recipe on 26.June.26 ahead of rephotographing. The previous recipe:
2 inch Cucumber (fresh)
7 fresh Mint leaves
60 ml Vodka
30 ml Apple juice
7.5 ml Sugar syrup (65.0°brix, equivalent to 2 sugar to 1 water)

Shook out very nicely indeed Heidi. Thanks so much for the tip. And, as you say, "different drink", so we felt at liberty to call it 'Heidi's Limoncello Cream Delux'. Having added your 15ml lemon syrup and loved it, we decided to go a step further and added 7.5ml Montenegro Amaro. You be the judge but we think it adds depth. We're sure that you have your own luscious lemon syrup recipe but, just for the record, here's ours: heat 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice and 1 3/4 cups of white sugar in a pan; bring to the boil and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes to thicken a little; remove from the heat, add 1/2 cup lemon juice and allow to cool. Adding the juice at the end, to our taste, contributes a fresh zesty element to the deep and luscious boiled syrup. Best wishes.

Like many others I had to make substitutions, in my case 2 dashes of smoked cinnamon bitters in place of the syrup. I rather like this drink. I'm not sure I get any rosemary, but the cognac/PeM/Heering combo is really quite pleasant. The Scotch adds some interesting light smoke and an additional dimension to balance the roundness of the cognac. Overall quite pleasant, one I would gladly make again.

Thanks, Matt. And thanks, Core. I've added Iggys to Difford's Guide. Sounds like a great bar.

Too sweet for me, and the vodka doesn't add anything except alcohol, of course. Thought I would enjoy it with the Galiano and absinthe, but not for me.

Horse with no name habanero bourbon: we meet again in a recipe. But even when is of the same guys from Monkey 47 is not available in my country. So I went for a Bourbon made in Rhum Barrel The Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve with some epilepsy drops of Fire tincture of Scrappy Bitters. Then Luxardo and the Yellow Chartrueses. In mexico the limes are lemons and the lemons are limes. Really. ( I swear I wrote this before) And instead of the Margarita Bitters I went for Orange Angostura (like the Cointreau in the Margarita) Is cute, lovable, spicy.

Sampling all of the Last Word variants. What a wonderful endeavor! Must take some sleuthing. I keep running across Negroni riffs I didn't know existed. Cheers.

I did it with a 43º Appleton State Jamaica Rum, I was between that and a Kingston gold :D thank you for reading my review! Is sort of my Dipsomaniac Diaries :D

This will not be one of my favourites. It is ok, but maraschino it is way too dominant IMHO.