Post #792690 by swizzle on Fri, Jan 25, 2019 6:09 PM

There's a handful of ingredients that i just do not like in cocktails. Even used sparingly i can always taste them and although sometimes the overall drink might not be too bad i would never order them again just because that flavour doesn't appeal to me. At least in a drink.

For example, i eat cucumbers in salads and in sandwiches no problem but if used in a drink it just stands out so much to me and i feel it doesn't belong, no matter what.
Honey is another one. Perfectly fine to eat it when used in food but when it's in a drink that seems to be all i can taste.

(That was ONE of the issues i had with Blair. I specifically asked him if i could swap that bottle for something else and he said no problem but when my delivery finally arrived it contained a bottle of Honey Syrup. I'm not going to order something i just don't like but even more specifically, why would i order something which is one of the easiest syrups you can make, just like cinnamon and vanilla? Those i can make at home no problem. It's the more complex ones that i'm going to buy).

As for cloves, that is the one thing that completely ruins a drink for me no matter how little is used. As soon as it hits my tongue after the first sip that is ALL that i can taste and i can't drink any more, i hate that taste so much.

Now the Fassionola is perfectly fine, and i'm aware of the debate of people not really being sure, or agreeing on what it actually tastes like, but had i known it was going to taste predominately of cherry i could have just bought a bottle from a European deli and given one of those a try. Cherry, orgeat and a few other random flavours are syrups that can be found in European delis here quite easily.

There's a new store here that opened maybe a couple of years ago that specializes in bitters but they also do sell a few syrups. I was able to get a few different Small Hands Foods flavours for cheap because they were getting close to their use by date and they just couldn't sell them. (Including passion fruit. I'll have to make sure to save a little before i open the BG Reynolds one so i can compare). Unfortunately our population is just too small and there is no demand for any of these sorts of products. The majority of items are imported once, sit around forever and then never ordered again. There are a few Falernums i can buy but i haven't found one yet that was really impressed with. The best ones i've ever tasted have been in-house ones made at some of the awesome cocktail bars we are lucky to have here.

As i said, he's lost me as a customer just because of his poor service, but even if i was to buy from him again, unless i can try a product beforehand i'm not going to waste my money. I'll stick to the few ingredients i'm familiar with and can get easily for my mixed drinks at home and leave the experimenting to when i go out to a good cocktail bar.