Loved the extended espresso martini bit; this drink is one of my favorites, and I'm glad it's popular now and I can get them anywhere.
My recommendation for people doing it at home with cold brew concentrate: make your own! Off the shelf is fine for convenience and in a pinch, but really just put coarse ground coffee (coarse is very important here) in a container with filtered water for 12 hours. Strain and refrigerate, keeps for a couple weeks, also makes great ice cubes.
Nice thing about homemade is that you can easily adjust the flavor and strength to your own taste, because you control both the ingredients and the extraction time. You can even swap in decaf, for the flavor without the jitters.
One twist is that picking beans for cold brew involves more trial and error than you might expect. I can generally guess if I’ll like a roast hot-brewed by smelling them, but I find cold brew flavor harder to predict.
My two strategies have been to buy roasts that I’ve had in great cold brews at restaurants, or to buy sample portions of a large number of roasts to brew simultaneously and compare.
The latter option is a lot more work than the former, but cold brew is so easy to make that it’s still a pretty easy weekend project. And a fun activity to share with friends, at least if they love cold brew, too.
100% true; cold brew isn't just brewing room temperature coffee, it's a different process altogether, and the lack of bitterness and certain flavors can change how you feel about the final product. The place I like to get coffee from sells 12oz whole beans bags for $10-12 a pop, so I'll take a flier on something new from time to time.
Looking forward to some light cocktail chitchat on my way to pick up my kid from a field trip, and around 7 minutes in, Peter casually drops “...vermouth that does not need to be refrigerated...”
What. The. Fuck.
Am I actually expected to refrigerate my opened vermouth? A quick google confirms that, yes, I am. Among other things. Like Campari.
This adds a layer of unwanted complexity to my life that I will numb with a stale Negroni or three later this evening.
You do need to refrigerate vermouth, sherry, port, and other aromatized wines (like Lillet) after opening, unless you plan on using them within a few days (maybe a week or so for sweeter bottles). These are all wine. And like normal bottles of wine, they have a shelf life after opening. Keeping them in the fridge extends that life — depending on how sweet they are, vermouth and sherry bottles will last for several weeks and up to several months in the fridge after opening. (I err on the side of longevity, so long as they have actually been stored in the fridge.)
But you don’t need to chill Campari or most other bitter liqueurs. Some people argue that wine base amari like Salers should be chilled. This is a fair argument, to a degree, but I’ve also never, ever followed it and never seen any strong reason to do so.
Is Salers wine based? My impression is that it’s a neutral spirit base. My bottle is labeled as a liqueur on the back (which I think implies a spirit base) right where a Cappelletti bottle says “aperitif wine.” And their US importer lumps it in with its spirits portfolio -- https://alpenz.com/category-floral_herbal_amaro.html.
I am a fan of the classic daiquiri as well as the Hemingway Daiquiri, so I was inspired by Peter Suderman's suggestion of using a whole strawberry shaken into a classic daiquiri. It came out really well! I used honey syrup in place of simple syrup and I actually used Cuban Habana Club (not to be mistaken for the Bacardi Havana Club) which I was able to pick up while I was in Japan last week.
BTW about mocktails: my secret weapon is Q Mixers Ginger Beer. It has a significantly lower sugar content than the typical supermarket fare (so it's not too sweet on its own), it's heavily carbonated, and it contains extracts of ginger, chili pepper, coriander, cardamom, and citrus -- i.e. it's quite spicy. Pour it over ice in a copper mug, squeeze a lime wedge in there, and you have a fun drink for the non-drinkers. Less than a buck a can if you're bulk ordering.
It's also good in standard drinks where you'd use ginger beer, like a mule or D&S or a gin-gin... but the spice can overpower the booze you're putting in there, so do watch out for that. I like it better with rums and gins than I do vodkas.
I enjoyed your episode with the Mixologist more than I thought I would. Very interesting.
One question that occurred to me was what is the difference between house level spirits in mized drinks and high-end level spirits? Other than price, I'm not sure I'm a sophisticated enough drinker to tell the difference.
Keep up the good work Josh. I listened for years to you on Left, Right and Center, subscribe to your podcasts and writing ( and Ken White too), and recently went back and binged on the entire series of All The Presidents Lawyers.
This really is the future of journalism I think. And, one gets what they pay for!
Personally I think that tea (high quality cold brew tea) should be used more often as non alcoholic base (try lapsang souchong as an alternative to a peaty scotch) the only issue is texture needs to be adjusted more.
Loved the extended espresso martini bit; this drink is one of my favorites, and I'm glad it's popular now and I can get them anywhere.
My recommendation for people doing it at home with cold brew concentrate: make your own! Off the shelf is fine for convenience and in a pinch, but really just put coarse ground coffee (coarse is very important here) in a container with filtered water for 12 hours. Strain and refrigerate, keeps for a couple weeks, also makes great ice cubes.
Nice thing about homemade is that you can easily adjust the flavor and strength to your own taste, because you control both the ingredients and the extraction time. You can even swap in decaf, for the flavor without the jitters.
One twist is that picking beans for cold brew involves more trial and error than you might expect. I can generally guess if I’ll like a roast hot-brewed by smelling them, but I find cold brew flavor harder to predict.
My two strategies have been to buy roasts that I’ve had in great cold brews at restaurants, or to buy sample portions of a large number of roasts to brew simultaneously and compare.
The latter option is a lot more work than the former, but cold brew is so easy to make that it’s still a pretty easy weekend project. And a fun activity to share with friends, at least if they love cold brew, too.
100% true; cold brew isn't just brewing room temperature coffee, it's a different process altogether, and the lack of bitterness and certain flavors can change how you feel about the final product. The place I like to get coffee from sells 12oz whole beans bags for $10-12 a pop, so I'll take a flier on something new from time to time.
Looking forward to some light cocktail chitchat on my way to pick up my kid from a field trip, and around 7 minutes in, Peter casually drops “...vermouth that does not need to be refrigerated...”
What. The. Fuck.
Am I actually expected to refrigerate my opened vermouth? A quick google confirms that, yes, I am. Among other things. Like Campari.
This adds a layer of unwanted complexity to my life that I will numb with a stale Negroni or three later this evening.
Hi Kevin,
You do need to refrigerate vermouth, sherry, port, and other aromatized wines (like Lillet) after opening, unless you plan on using them within a few days (maybe a week or so for sweeter bottles). These are all wine. And like normal bottles of wine, they have a shelf life after opening. Keeping them in the fridge extends that life — depending on how sweet they are, vermouth and sherry bottles will last for several weeks and up to several months in the fridge after opening. (I err on the side of longevity, so long as they have actually been stored in the fridge.)
But you don’t need to chill Campari or most other bitter liqueurs. Some people argue that wine base amari like Salers should be chilled. This is a fair argument, to a degree, but I’ve also never, ever followed it and never seen any strong reason to do so.
Is Salers wine based? My impression is that it’s a neutral spirit base. My bottle is labeled as a liqueur on the back (which I think implies a spirit base) right where a Cappelletti bottle says “aperitif wine.” And their US importer lumps it in with its spirits portfolio -- https://alpenz.com/category-floral_herbal_amaro.html.
I am a fan of the classic daiquiri as well as the Hemingway Daiquiri, so I was inspired by Peter Suderman's suggestion of using a whole strawberry shaken into a classic daiquiri. It came out really well! I used honey syrup in place of simple syrup and I actually used Cuban Habana Club (not to be mistaken for the Bacardi Havana Club) which I was able to pick up while I was in Japan last week.
I assume the Martini Police are somehow connected to the Jazz Police from that bizarre Leonard Cohen song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7YebrCuqsU
You have no idea how thrilled I am to encounter a reference to "Jazz Police." What an odd misstep on one of the best albums of the '80s!
"Stick another turtle on the fire /
Guys like me are mad for turtle meat"
BTW about mocktails: my secret weapon is Q Mixers Ginger Beer. It has a significantly lower sugar content than the typical supermarket fare (so it's not too sweet on its own), it's heavily carbonated, and it contains extracts of ginger, chili pepper, coriander, cardamom, and citrus -- i.e. it's quite spicy. Pour it over ice in a copper mug, squeeze a lime wedge in there, and you have a fun drink for the non-drinkers. Less than a buck a can if you're bulk ordering.
It's also good in standard drinks where you'd use ginger beer, like a mule or D&S or a gin-gin... but the spice can overpower the booze you're putting in there, so do watch out for that. I like it better with rums and gins than I do vodkas.
I enjoyed your episode with the Mixologist more than I thought I would. Very interesting.
One question that occurred to me was what is the difference between house level spirits in mized drinks and high-end level spirits? Other than price, I'm not sure I'm a sophisticated enough drinker to tell the difference.
Keep up the good work Josh. I listened for years to you on Left, Right and Center, subscribe to your podcasts and writing ( and Ken White too), and recently went back and binged on the entire series of All The Presidents Lawyers.
This really is the future of journalism I think. And, one gets what they pay for!
.....Art
I haven't seen a Very Serious podcast in Ages. Are you still doing them?
When are we going to get some more episodes? I'm missing them!
Yesterday I had a fantastic mocktail using https://www.amazon.com/Lurisia-Nostro-Chinotto-Italian-Bottles/dp/B0081JYS82 (I do believe they used a splash of alcoholic bitters so this is more for the person trying not to drink than someone who has a religious objection).
Personally I think that tea (high quality cold brew tea) should be used more often as non alcoholic base (try lapsang souchong as an alternative to a peaty scotch) the only issue is texture needs to be adjusted more.
Also on the topic of espresso martinis and coffee cocktails I encourage you to check out Dan Fellows https://www.youtube.com/@DANFELLOWScoffeecocktails
Spring has truly sprung now!