Simon Sedgley

I tried another one, closer to specs (mainly I had to use Cocchi Americano as the dry vermouth). And it was pretty decent, but I liked my Apple Jack heavy version a little better.

But having your comment in my back pocket, I added a dash of grapefruit bitters to mine. It did seem to spackle some small holes I felt were in the cocktail - not changing it greatly, but improving it a bit. Thanks for the tip!

We usually reach for the Calvados with this one but tried your base spirit split using Applejack and it was good...nice apple forward. Thanks for your tip.

Another to add to our ever lengthening list of favourite Margaritas. Bravo to our good host. But we have a challenge for him also. With all of the vegetables that are these days climbing their way into our cocktails, where are the humble potato and the noble leek? So perhaps our host might find a way to conjure up a Cawl Cennin or French Fries Martini. Just a thought.

Fruity and sweet. Thinking that there was already enough syrup to tame any diabetic rage, we substituted passionfruit liqueur for the specified syrup. The solid Rum split gives it a stiff backbone...we used a Rhum JM light agricole and Worthy Park 109 pot still overproof. A fun party drink.

Straight out of the shaker, this was a bit 'all over the shop' for us. But allowed a few minutes to warm and integrate it blossomed beautifully with lovely balance and a delicate, complex harmony. Bravo to our good host.

Really delicious as is but we couldn't resist splitting the base spirit 45ml Tequila and 15ml Mezcal, and adding a splash of Ferrand Dry Curacao. Complicates preparation and unbalances things slightly but, on the upside, enhances complexity and emboldens things.

For us, this is an autumnal Last Word. Rich and fruity from the Summer harvest. A drink to dance in hand with as the Sun, in its arc, falls towards the horizon of Winter, when a widow might feel her loss most keenly.

We added 5ml Lagavulin and things got a little more interesting.

My second time making this delicious, generously flavoured sour. And as a consequence, I’ve changed my rating from a mere 5 to a 5+ out of five.

On this recommendation we had to try it. And yes, big and delicious. But we were a bit uncertain about what to do with 0.3ml Angostura, as specified in the recipe. We guesstimated that six drops would be about right. Are you able to offer some precision on this? What measure did you use?

To be honest, we had low expectations here since the recipe looked a bit algorithmic. But we were wrong. It's really beautifully balanced and there is more than ample complexity. We went with a green olive garnish...perfect. Bravo to our good host. btw we are big fans of South African Chenin Blanc. If you can lay your hands on a bottle of De Morgenzon Reserve, you won't be disappointed.

For us, a good dash of grapefruit bitters woke this one up from its very pleasant slumber.

We enjoyed this but think that it benefits from a bit of simple syrup (or agave) just to round it out. We added just 2.5ml but maybe 5ml wouldn't be excessive. Our first thought was that it looks like a shy Margarita.

Very elegant and subtle. Bravo to the creator. We added just 5ml Cardamaro to give it a bit of gentle depth and used nutmeg as the garnish.

Really luscious. Big and fruity but very nicely balanced. We added a dash of cherry bitters to make it a 'Cherry Bomb' as a nod to Joan Jett and her Runaways song.

As others have commented elsewhere, combining dry and sweet vermouth is maybe not such a good idea. But this one worked okay for us. We did up the Scotch a bit.

Out with the old and in with the new was the theory. However, it will return to our 19th edition.

Good to hear, for us.

A happy accident saw us reaching for smoked paprika only to notice, once the drink was made, that we'd actually laid our hands on turmeric. Really delicious. Bravo to the creator.

We don't understand why our good host decided to drop this recipe from his book. For us it is perhaps one of the most subtly balanced and elegantly complex Daiquiris that we've tried. We used Bounty White and, hoping to give it a bit more presence, eight large basil leaves and Maple Syrup (12.5ml).

Interesting but don’t love it. Didn’t quite come together for me. Spec plus one dash each bitter truth aromatic and Jerry Thomas bitters, and plenty of dilution. Would consider retrying.

With this one we substitute Cocchi Vermouth Amaro (Dopo Teatro) for the dry Vermouth and use Boker's Bitters. That way, one can up the Rye Whiskey volume a tad (say by 5ml), if one wishes. Cheers.

I see. What about 1 dash of angostura and 1 dash of orange? Would that be too much?

We don't think that would be too much. In fact, we're about to enjoy a reflective late night tipple. So we'll try it ourselves. Cheers Olga.

I couldn't believe it but I was able to get a Mastiha bottle for this cocktai. When I end this project of preparing all Last Words in the Worlds I will be in chapter 11. Ok this is totally different to everything I taste, in certain reccounts it says Mastiha must taste like mint: Nop. Its herbal but like grass, in a very far far away way like ¿zubrowka? And keeps everything in grass, that is: rolling in the grass with a last word. It was... ok. Not amazing, not earth shaking: ok. But now I have to use this bottle in other cocktails :(

Oh that's easy. Shake up a Greek Sidecar or El Mediterraneo.

I didn't use any bitters because they were optional, but it's a very tasty and balanced cocktail despite the big amount of vermouth.
It would be possible to use another type of bitters?

We think that Angostura or Orange Bitters would work just fine. Maybe just one dash if you're a bit shy when it comes to bitters. We really enjoy this cocktail.

Very pleasant. For anyone wishing to use their own juiced watermelon, we used 30ml which worked very nicely for us.

How was this Negroni? I'm hoping to source some good swaps for your local delights. (plum bitter aperitivo? be still my heart)

To be honest, we're not fans of the classic Negroni recipe and we don't have a sweet tooth. So why we are tooling around with lemon syrup in this drink is a bit of a mystery. But never mind, "to boldly go" as the inventor of the deep fried Mars Bar might have said. We pushed it back towards the classic by substituting a bolder Vermouth Amaro, Cocchi, for the Cardamaro, increasing the red bitter to 22.5ml and upping the lemon syrup to 7.5ml. Maybe think of it as a frivolous and fun dalliance between Florence and Capri.