Negroni

Then Negroni is one of those drinks that enjoyed some popularity back in the Mad Men days and is now becoming popular again thanks to "boutique" Gin labels which are doing a good job tricking hipsters to shell out too much money for Vodka that they dumped an herb garden into and let sit for a week (seriously you can make your own Gin at home, it's not hard).

But if you're going to live life as a secret agent or want to drink something dark colored that isn't whiskey based (or something retarded like vodka and diet coke), then this is worth it.

A standard Negroni contains Gin, Campari, and sweet Vermouth.  You will not be getting the standard Negroni how-to here.  Instead you will be getting our take on it, which is decidedly more bitter and angry than a normal Negroni.  We will still be using Gin, but as for the rest:

Campari --> Fernet Branca.
Vermouth --> Punt e Mes. (sorry Dolin, you're too hipster).





We recommend keeping all these ingredients chilled.  The Gin can live in the freezer, but keep the Fernet Branca and Punt e Mes in the refrigerator.  Punt e Mes will actually freeze solid, and Fernet Branca doesn't like being that cold because it mutes the flavor too much.







We are not saying top-shelf gin isn't worth it, but we're saying that combined with the heavy hitting aromas and flavors that the other ingredients are going to bring to this, you are going to lose the subtleties that make a good gin good.  We certainly do own a bottle of Brooklyn Gin, which is really good, but putting it in this would be a waste and we prefer to enjoy it neat.  Top level Gin (even the London stuff) can have some fragile botanical qualities that you would obliterate in this recipe.  Since good Gin costs, why would you use it in something in which you'd never get the full gin-ness of it?  











The ratio we use here is a straight up 2.5 ounces of Gin (2 shots) and 1.25 ounces of the other two ingredients (that's a shot of each). 




You can even add a dash of orange bitters if you want to shake things up even more. We garnished with a lemon peel, but the orange peel is traditional.  If you really want to get crazy, you can garnish with a stick of licorice root.  

These are smooth, they go down easy and before you know it you've killed a fifth of Gin before you friends show up.  As you know our little slideshows usually include a cautionary tale involving the loss of pants and such.  However, as you can see, we are outdoors for this one, and the loyal staff of Pinky Mixology had already lost about a pint of blood due to some very aggressive mosquito activity. Knowing that these little biting bitches would probably die form ingesting our blood which had alcohol levels high enough to need a catalytic converter was very little comfort, and we ducked for cover.

Next time:

SODAS

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Moonshine Mojito

Our interwebs are back and we now bring you a look into Kings County Distillery here in Brooklyn and give you an idea what to do with the moonshine they (and a gazillion other places) make and such.




Moonshine, friend of mine.  Corn-water is some interesting stuff and is now being sold legally in just about any place where you can get booze. 






Taking out the rum in a mojito kind of stops it from being a mojito, but since the mint julep already exists, the transparent quality of the end product puts this in "mojito" land.



It's illegal to make your own moonshine at home if you're in the USA.  We at Pinky Mixology honestly don't give a fuck about this, but most of the time it's easier for us to just go buy it.  Also, distilling your alcohol can be dangerous, risking everything from fires to accidentally poisoning yourself with acetone.







Although their Chocolate Whiskey is rather nice, the retardulatastic high prices Kings County Distillery charges make using this stuff basically not worth it.  Buffalo Trace makes an un-aged corn whiskey ...which is horrible for this because it's got rye in it, and Tuthilltown's Hudson Valley has one that's really nice, but again for many people the price puts it out of reach, and they have just as much chance of being able to match what Eliot Spitzer had to fork out for access to Ashley Dupré's vajayjay.























3 shots of moonshine sounds like a lot, but we're filling up a 500+ml mason jar with this thing, not some little highball glass.



The color is actually coming from the chlorophyll in the leaves but that's a good barometer to go by.




No reason to have the mint bits in there anymore. 







Do NOT shake it after you add the seltzer/soda (for obvious reasons).  Shaking not only mixes this up but also cools it down very rapidly.






































Get out there and enjoy summer.

Next Up: THE NEGRONI

Sangria

The Summer Staple Sangria. That ever so popular warm-weather brunch juice is all to often an adulterated jug wine sold at $7 a pop for a 6 ounce glass already full of 2 ounces of ice. We now shall show you how to pull this off properly and have it ready for the next time you bring home some pre-licked hepatitis Taco Bell.









Sangria really is a racket.  Places take wine which has sat out for too long, add some crap to it and then sell it at $7 for a 6 ounce glass that already has 2 ounces of ice in it.  This bullcrap ends now!



There are too many red wines to name that will totally work for this.  From Hungarian Bull's Blood to California Mass-Market.  The Sangiovese you see here was picked at a price of $5 (well 2 for $10) from Best Buy Wine and Spirits in Brooklyn.








You don't need to slice the apple as thin as the other stuff.  But core it so that the seeds don't come loose and float around in there.



You can obviously add more or less depending on how you like it. 










This is a really important step.  While the restaurant stuff is maybe an hour old and adulterated with grenadine or Hawaiian Punch (seriously I've seen this happen), this will be the real deal, and the one thing you can't do is try to hurry it up.












Seriously, the fruit has given up all it's gonna give, and ice cubes will just splash into your glass and send little drops out to stain your shirt.  Just avoid them.




What you see here is Strawberry Jarritos, Doc's Draft Cider (much better than the overly sweet candy sticky JK Scrumpy yuckieness from Michigan), Risata Moscato d'Asti, and plain seltzer.




Sit back relax and enjoy.  Stick it in a fruit punch bottle and no one is gonna give you shit for drinking this in the park.



Next Time:
We take a trip to King's County Distillery .








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