Clearing out my fridge. I used up my remaining gin, added four dashes of local bitters, a splash/jigger of triple-sec and it was pretty good. A bit of googling and I discovered this cocktail was pretty close so added a the juice of half a desiccated lemon and wow that made such a difference!! Alas I have no more gin, so unable to repeat with a more scientific follow-up but this cocktail is well worth experimenting with methinks!
Following a recipe for a "Tequila Negroni" on another site which used Italian Red Bitter liqueur I can say that that is too bitter and swamped the other ingredients. This one sounds more likely to work (ironic because for a while I was using Luxardo Aperitivo instead of their Bitter Liqueur in other recipes!... And enjoying the results to be honest! :-) )
I will like to try this in due course - with some tweaks due to lack of exact ingredients... as a bourbon (and triple sec) version of the Brandy Buck cocktail was very nice and similar to this one.
Don't shoot me but I substituted GM with Triple-Sec as it was all I had and thick end of a lemon for a wedge (squeezed so a little extra juice and oils). I also got lazy so stirred over two ice cubes - very nice indeed but the melting cubes dilute things quickly - you live and learn...
I also repeated this with bourbon instead of brandy/cognac - a variation on Kentucky Iced Tea without extra sweetness, lazy reuse of the lemon "wedge" too - and it's also nice, the reduced sweetness allowing a little extra citrus to cut through the mix but just as tasty I think. (Too much so, hard to sip and savour either option trying to beat the meltwater!....)
Don't shoot me but I substituted GM with Triple-Sec as it was all I had and thick end of a lemon for a wedge (squeezed so a little extra juice and oils). I also got lazy so stirred over two ice cubes - very nice indeed but the melting cubes dilute things quickly - you live and learn...
Another tasty blend I hadn't expected, the rum and ginger ale work very well together, I actually forget to add the bitters (Australian in my case) which adds extra spice but could easily be omitted as a variation I think? Sweet and spicy and all too easy to drink!...
Oops - overdid the bitters (Australian in my case) so the warm spices dominated everything... Reused lemon wheel in place of lime probably didn't help either but it was an interesting mix of botanicals from the gin and spices from the ginger ale and bitters which didn't seem to suffer as the ice melted and dilluted things. :-)
With an excess of Martini Bianco and some Aldi tonic water, I've made some free pour versions of this cooler - I have to say it might just surpass G&Ts! It's delicious! Mine was a very much "wetter" (more dilute) version but play around with the proportions and find one you like -try sweet/rosso or extra-dry vermouths too - it just seems to work :-)
Playing with substituting blanco for rosso vermouth in a "Perfect" Martini recipe, I found it rather sweeter, even using olives in place of orange rind. I should have tried this recipe instead - and I will - as it seems to be the right "perfect" martini that still looks like a martini! ;-)
OK - tried this without lemon twist using stuffed Spanish green olives (they're easier to get here and look fancier) and it's a lot more balanced but perhaps still a bit on the sweet side? Definitely a recipe I want to play around with more though (6:4:1/3:2:0.5 perhaps?) but definitely more what I expected of a "perfect martini" than the rosso version, nice though it is.
Playing with substituting blanco for rosso vermouth in a "Perfect" Martini recipe, I found it rather sweeter, even using olives in place of orange rind. I should have tried this recipe instead - and I will - as it seems to be the right "perfect" martini that still looks like a martini! ;-)
I made a slight tweak to the recipe as I didn't have orange bitters so decided to add a little Luxardo Aperitivo instead (I thought this closer than the Australian Bitters alternative I had).
I made a mistake and went for my usual stuffed olives garnish, so removed and added orange zest instead - it didn't seem to suffer too much!...
I will be trying the same cocktail using blanco vermouth which ought to look more like your typical martini.
Hmm - it seems blanco is sweeter than rosso so 2:1:1 Gin:Dry:Blanco is still pretty sweet so the Three Two One Martini looks to be a better option. Still tasty, just not "perfect"...
I made a slight tweak to the recipe as I didn't have orange bitters so decided to add a little Luxardo Aperitivo instead (I thought this closer than the Australian Bitters alternative I had).
I made a mistake and went for my usual stuffed olives garnish, so removed and added orange zest instead - it didn't seem to suffer too much!...
I will be trying the same cocktail using blanco vermouth which ought to look more like your typical martini.
Oops I've been using Luxardo aperitivo in red bitter liqueur recipes (still tasted good to me :-P ) so this time I have the right ingredient for the job. I almost forgot the saline and it does make a difference.
Yum - I reused a lemon peel garnish from a previous cocktail (muddled a bit to hopefully extract more oils), using Buckeye Classic Silver Rum, Vok Triple Sec and Martini Blanco. Lazy but the combination still works (fresh lemon oils would add more for sure). This combination definitely seems to ad depth/complexity to the whole, each ingredient playing its part identifiably :-)
I made this with Jose Cuervo Especial Silver, and the remains of an unimpressive Croser X 78 Degrees NV (still seemed expensive at the discounted price - I appreciate the idea but it just didn't work and/or doesn't last?) A little short on the sparkling wine, but tequila+lemon+anything seems pretty hard to fail! The added syrup does balance things out. Yum - adding salt/saline solution might be a step too fair here.
Lemon twist for me - no oranges and a surplus of home grown lemons (so no wax!) I might've added a little more saline by accident but it doesn't seem to have affected anything - tasty!
I made an "Italian 75" (although strictly speaking it was an Aussie/"Italian" 75) using Michinbury Prosecco I had left over and using rich syrup. Not bad but will try again with an Champagne-style Australian sparkling
Oh nice! My variant used Jose Cuervo Especial Silver Tequila (not quite as tasty neat as Rooster Rojo so I thought ideal for this), Martini blanco and Australian Bitters Company Aromatic Bitters (the only bitters I have). The combination works very nicely - silver tequila dominates (not a bad thing!) with the vermouth and bitters adding spicy complexity. No lemon twist (although I could and maybe should have to reduce waste...) this really demonstrates how tequilla can substitute/rival/surpass gin in cocktails! And I love gin (juniper!!!)
My first rum-based cocktail, sipped first then remembered saline, accidentaly added a bit much but either way this is a tasty cocktail (the salt really adds something so don't be put off by it. Before that it tasted vaguely tequila-ish, but the salt rounds everything out and enhances it too? It's an intriguing combination that I will research with more rigour ;-)
Starting off with more sophisticated cocktails (over basic two ingredient martinis etc) I gave this one a go with budget ingredients. Oxford Arms gin, Luxardo aperitivo and Martini rosso - but with and without lemon zest (all I had) - tasted good to me, nothing jarring, I can see why this "holy trinity" is a classic :-)
I tried a budget version - Hogs 3 bourbon, Vok triple-sec, Martini rosso, with fresh lemon from my parents and my own rich syrup - no cherry. Stirred not shaken so possibly a little warm (most ingredients were chilled though), the sweetness, etc seemed good to me - citrus forward but balanced and very enjoyable!