Post #747632 by AceExplorer on Wed, Jul 22, 2015 1:52 PM

Back when I first started making syrups, I spoke to the Bum at several Hukilaus about some of the recipes I was following. He told me generally "an ounce or so," but I eventually bumped it up to 2oz of Everclear because he didn't have a real formula of how much PGA per how many ounces of syrup. I settled on two ounces per 16 of syrup because it was a decently large percentage, it has only a minor influence on the flavor of the syrup, and that effect is overcome by the greater freshness and flavor intensity of the homemade syrups. Having tried my one-and-only bottle of Taylor's Velvet Falernum against homemade falernum, and finding it TOO WEAK to actually be falernum in my book, reinforced this "homemade is better" belief. I have no problem with the 2:16 ratio, and it has had no noticeable impact in my drinks. (Maybe my tongue is dead? ha)

On Total Whine - they are very inconsistent at times. They move stuff around for (to me) random reasons. They frequently don't replenish their rum and gin stock in time and force me to go to other liquor stores or mail-order more often than I want. (When they recently relocated all their rum, I've thought about bringing a tape measure to see if they increased or decreased the amount of shelving devoted to rum.) They have no idea what Lemon Hart or Hamilton's is. They suck at special orders for me which other smaller liquor stores seem more able to do. So I would welcome more competition in my city - we would certainly benefit from it. But they do have a good selection of wines and beers. Too bad for them that I swapped most of my beer and wine consumption for cocktails when I discovered tiki.