16 Comments
Apr 22, 2023Liked by Josh Barro

Loved the extended espresso martini bit; this drink is one of my favorites, and I'm glad it's popular now and I can get them anywhere.

My recommendation for people doing it at home with cold brew concentrate: make your own! Off the shelf is fine for convenience and in a pinch, but really just put coarse ground coffee (coarse is very important here) in a container with filtered water for 12 hours. Strain and refrigerate, keeps for a couple weeks, also makes great ice cubes.

Nice thing about homemade is that you can easily adjust the flavor and strength to your own taste, because you control both the ingredients and the extraction time. You can even swap in decaf, for the flavor without the jitters.

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Apr 21, 2023Liked by Peter Suderman

Looking forward to some light cocktail chitchat on my way to pick up my kid from a field trip, and around 7 minutes in, Peter casually drops “...vermouth that does not need to be refrigerated...”

What. The. Fuck.

Am I actually expected to refrigerate my opened vermouth? A quick google confirms that, yes, I am. Among other things. Like Campari.

This adds a layer of unwanted complexity to my life that I will numb with a stale Negroni or three later this evening.

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Apr 24, 2023Liked by Sara Fay

I am a fan of the classic daiquiri as well as the Hemingway Daiquiri, so I was inspired by Peter Suderman's suggestion of using a whole strawberry shaken into a classic daiquiri. It came out really well! I used honey syrup in place of simple syrup and I actually used Cuban Habana Club (not to be mistaken for the Bacardi Havana Club) which I was able to pick up while I was in Japan last week.

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I assume the Martini Police are somehow connected to the Jazz Police from that bizarre Leonard Cohen song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7YebrCuqsU

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BTW about mocktails: my secret weapon is Q Mixers Ginger Beer. It has a significantly lower sugar content than the typical supermarket fare (so it's not too sweet on its own), it's heavily carbonated, and it contains extracts of ginger, chili pepper, coriander, cardamom, and citrus -- i.e. it's quite spicy. Pour it over ice in a copper mug, squeeze a lime wedge in there, and you have a fun drink for the non-drinkers. Less than a buck a can if you're bulk ordering.

It's also good in standard drinks where you'd use ginger beer, like a mule or D&S or a gin-gin... but the spice can overpower the booze you're putting in there, so do watch out for that. I like it better with rums and gins than I do vodkas.

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I enjoyed your episode with the Mixologist more than I thought I would. Very interesting.

One question that occurred to me was what is the difference between house level spirits in mized drinks and high-end level spirits? Other than price, I'm not sure I'm a sophisticated enough drinker to tell the difference.

Keep up the good work Josh. I listened for years to you on Left, Right and Center, subscribe to your podcasts and writing ( and Ken White too), and recently went back and binged on the entire series of All The Presidents Lawyers.

This really is the future of journalism I think. And, one gets what they pay for!

.....Art

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I haven't seen a Very Serious podcast in Ages. Are you still doing them?

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When are we going to get some more episodes? I'm missing them!

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Yesterday I had a fantastic mocktail using https://www.amazon.com/Lurisia-Nostro-Chinotto-Italian-Bottles/dp/B0081JYS82 (I do believe they used a splash of alcoholic bitters so this is more for the person trying not to drink than someone who has a religious objection).

Personally I think that tea (high quality cold brew tea) should be used more often as non alcoholic base (try lapsang souchong as an alternative to a peaty scotch) the only issue is texture needs to be adjusted more.

Also on the topic of espresso martinis and coffee cocktails I encourage you to check out Dan Fellows https://www.youtube.com/@DANFELLOWScoffeecocktails

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Spring has truly sprung now!

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