Ok so my garden is basically a watermelon patch right now, so I was interested in this as it uses one whole mini watermelon, but this says the juice lasts one day, the drink once clarified lasts months.

I guess I could freeze the rest, or simply make less, or since the final version keeps well, make more of that - but why does the recipe say to make so much more of the watermelon juice than one would use, if it doesn't keep?

Has anyone on here done milk clarifying, is it very fussy?

My coworker went to renew her driver's license.

They sent her back, said she needed a birth certificate because she didn't have the star on it yet. She's old and from some small town up north so this took 6 months plus another to get another DMV appointment.

She went back yesterday and they said no, you also need the marriage certificate from your first marriage, the divorce documentation, the marriage certificate from your second marriage and the divorce documentation from that too.

So now her license is expired, and she can't renew it until some tiny vital statistics department far from here responds to her with paper copies of all those items.

I am wildly infuriated.

This was a test-and-adjust drink. I was looking for something with Fernet & Mezcal and everything I saw were stirred very boozy things, I was not in the mood for. I saw one though with cachaca and lime so tried a margarita approach.

Started with these, shaken:

1.5 oz tequila

.75 oz each Fernet and Mezcal

Juice of one lime.

Nope. Too flat, too sour. Added about 1/2 oz Pineapple Amaro, and a squirt of Agave, shook again and THIS is a keeper. I guess Fernet does like sweeter drinks more. This one is balanced and I can taste all the ingredients but they did cocktail into a new taste. I usually don't taste the pineapple in the pineapple Amaro but it's shining in this drink - I may try another Fernet-Mezcal-Pineapple Amaro variation (when I am in the mood for stirred and boozy) as I think those together are the magic here.

Wow this looks good, I love whiskey & pineapple juice.

3/4 oz. Rittenhouse bottled in bond rye (or other 100-proof rye).
3/4 oz. Jamaican rum.
3/4 oz. Campari.
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice.
1/2 oz. demerara syrup.
2 oz. pineapple juice.

Just made a penicillin with a splash of banana liqueur - it's not really perceptible as banana but makes it rounder, fuller.

When I make a paper plane I like double bourbon but also replace some of the Aperol with Campari - less sweet and extra bitter is better.

What small changes do you always make to a standard recipe?

So, I saw this recipe that inspired me.

https://punchdrink.com/recipes/green-mango-martini/

But don't have mango eau de vie and not about to make it, and I think as written it would be too sweet for my palate. And of course everything needs ice here in the summer. I did make the green mango tequila.

So far I can vouch for tequila, green mango and sauternes - it's a surprisingly good combination.

This is:

2.5 oz green mango infused tequila

1 oz Sauternes wine

.75 oz lemon

.25 oz Giffard Apricot (because I have no mango liqueur right now and did you hear Chinola is making a Guava liqueur? I am excited for that.)

Squirt of honey.

Shaken with ice.

My thoughts - the green mango tequila is tart and I think the lemon sort of muddies the flavor. I would try this again with more Sauternes and a splash of mango liqueur, leave out the honey and if it was too sweet adjust with citric or malic acid not lemon.

I would also like to try the green mango tequila with ginger beer but not today, this is a one and done.

And I was thinking to convert the recipe into a punch or sangria, a pitcher cocktail using a whole bottle of Sauternes, but I think that it might need to go in a different direction. Again, I do love the combination of the green mango with the Sauternes, and tequila - the main flavor combo is good. I've tried amchur and tequila - the green mango infused tequila worked so much better to get that flavor.

1 oz tequila blanco

1/2 oz each mezcal, Campari, passion fruit syrup, ginger syrup and lime.

Squirt of fire tincture

Shake these together and add 1-2 oz IPA beer.

I had to substitute apricot liqueur for the passion fruit and it's really good so I suspect anything fruity would be fine. Beer I used is Jai Alai and only 1 oz, I don't like it but as an ingredient in here can't taste it, must add something though. This is bitter in a great way, somehow not too sweet, I went a little heavy on the lime but close to the 1/2 oz. If you do like beer I think you could safely increase it past the 2 oz and still have something really nice.

The rainy season is finally here too. So happy to be out here watching the rain.

Biker kitty!

Biker kitty!

I am halfway through the Dry July and would like to celebrate but at a loss. I have the following ingredients, and define non alcoholic as non intoxicating not completely alcohol free, so splash of something ok.

N/A liqueurs:

Pathfinder

Seedlip Spice

Other:

Coffee

Coconut water, coconut cream

Tepache de piña

Enough pineapple to make a little pineapple juice

Strawberries

Tonic water

Yuzu lime tonic water

Ginger, lemon, lime, bitters

A pretty full bar, and a small amount of good red wine.

Considering just Pathfinder in tonic, that ends up like Chinola soda. But with all this I just feel like it could be more interesting!

In celebration of today, I present the Guillotine. Old Fashioned variations are always too sweet for me but with extra lemon zest as advised, it goes on the list for August. I will probably be stirring a lemon slice in it.

So, what are you drinking this weekend? It's tepache for me tonight!