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Mason Hanson

Mason Hanson

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Moonside
7 Comments
Mason Hanson

I liked this, but found it a little on the sweet side. I bumped up both gin and lemon by about a deciliter and enjoyed that. Might be better with a more juniper-forward gin than I used. Mine had notes of fruit ("Jamun", dry gin from the Himalayas, brought back by my husband from India).

Snowfall Cocktail
3 Comments
Mason Hanson

I did the low budget version of this, and quite liked it! I had neither vanilla bean nor vanilla-flavored vodka, so I followed the recipe as specified but minus the muddling and instead adding approx 10ml vanilla extract. Delicious, served ice cold! I imagine it'd be fantastic with real vanilla bean.

Cardamom Daiquiri
2 Comments
Mason Hanson

I love cardamom! I muddled 4 pods instead of 3, and threw in a few extra dashes of cardamom bitters (Scrappy's), but I didn't end up with a strong cardamom taste, more like scented. Next time I might scale back the lime and really go for it on the muddling. This was a great use of the Scrappy's bitters -- they went perfectly!

Kalimka
1 Comment
Mason Hanson

I liked this after upping the gin to 1 oz. I found the original ratio too heavy on the Campari; I like bitter but it just wasn’t quite in balance for me.

Diplomat Sour
8 Comments
Mason Hanson

Very tasty! Mine needed more sour, as the bitter was too strong. I added a touch more lemon, bringing it to about 2/3 oz total. The color is fantastic. I gave it a long shake, maybe 2 min with ice, then 1 min without. Feels elegant and sweet but delicious

High Five
9 Comments
Mason Hanson

I loved this! Made with St. George Botanivore. For me, this had a perfect balanced bite of sour-bitter with the grapefruit + Aperol + lime. If your grapefruit is sweet, though, Campari might compensate nicely. I wanted to taste a little more of the gin, so I added another 15ml. Delicious!

Jewel
5 Comments
Mason Hanson

I found this cocktail fantastic! Excellent with Suncliffe gin, which (to me) has a savory, salty streak from desert botanicals. Complements because it's not too sweet.

Ampersand Cocktail
17 Comments
Mason Hanson

I loved this! I didn’t have Old Tom so I used St. George Botanivore instead; Pierre Ferrand and Cinzano. Really nicely balanced. Next I’d like to try the variants that combine Grand Marnier and Cointreau

Frederic D.

I had no Old Tom so I made this with 2 oz Bombay Sapphire. I also added 1/4 oz of simple to dial the dryness down just a bit, and ended up quite liking it. The lemon comes through nicely, and it benefits from using Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau/triple sec.

Mason Hanson

Agreed about the lemon! It came through much stronger than I anticipated given its amount.

Mason Hanson

I made this with St. George Valley gin (didn't have any Old Tom) and Cinzano. I felt like I couldn't quite get the taste right; I tinkered with amounts of lemon, Grand Marnier, and finally added a bit more gin and that seemed to do the trick. Next time I'll lean a little heavier on the gin in the beginning.

So So Cocktail
3 Comments
Mason Hanson

I made this with St. George apple brandy. For my taste, I needed a little extra grenadine to balance out the taste of the brandy -- others might not need this. But even before I added the extra syrup, I was pleasantly surprised at how much the apple notes in the brandy came out.