Post #779373 by Early Landed Larry on Thu, Aug 31, 2017 3:22 PM

On 2017-08-30 06:39, AceExplorer wrote:
Early Landed Larry - thanks for the GREAT analysis and your impressions based on real tests. You have definitely "dropped the drawers" of Frankie's. I have always thought that they have gone out of the way to create their own unique cocktails, and quite interestingly using a number of pop-culture ingredients. I also like some and dislike others, but that's typical for me at any establishment or in any book, so I have tended to gloss over (or entirely overlook) those things in Frankie's. I, especially, don't like anything with an energy drink in it. But you focused very specifically on some of the quirks and deficiencies, and then addressed them, and I plan on following in your footsteps and revisiting some of the drinks.

I have small collection of vintage, and a fairly large collection of modern, cocktail books. I have developed a habit of picking through and dabbling with each. I have a high "discard rate" for drinks that don't blow me away, and then I absolutely fall in love with others. So you've really reminded me of many of the things which make a home bar so much fun.

By the way, your flaming pretzel sticks are SAVAGE! Love it!!! I have been using lemon extract for flaming garnishes, smells nice and burns well.

Hey thanks for the feedback! I was worried I'd rambled as I wrote that after the cocktails in question. We were pleased with the pretzel stocks although they dlefinity didn't look quite professional!

I'm going to keep adding to this as I go along. Another development I've been quite pleased with has been with the fruit nectars, an ingredient I've never used before. We bought some guava nectar but I didn't like the flavour (too indistinct) or the mouthfeel - it was too obviously an emulsion of smashed up fruit and mildly sugared water. Maybe we picked a poor brand.

Anyway, my wife made another drink from the book, the Tangerine Speedo, and used a purée of fresh conference pears for the pear nectar. This worked REALLY well! I think that using fresh fruit blitzed to a thick-ish puree will be the way forward, as it solves both the problem we seem to have in the UK with indifferent brands of nectar, and also the additional sweetness the commercial nectars bring.

I've now bought some guavas so we'll see how that works out, as some of the most appealing looking recipes have a requirement for this nectar. Cheers!