Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Greystone - Because the Lady is a Tramp



 
 
As our late California Spring drags on (we had a very straightforward and unambiguous drenching brief rain last Monday morning here in the East Bay), big clouds continue to roll over in pullulating abundance, and the lawns and brick walks are repeatedly dampened with a chilly mist o'morn.
  
Today, after a pleasant mid-day respite at the county dump rummaging books and cardboard and the odd end or two, we repaired home to prepare an early Sunday supper. 
 
Black is a definite feeling, no-nonsense and classy and conclusive. Grey, however, may signal ambiguity or coolness, aloof and non-committal. 
 
Here is a sophisticated grey-green tinted cocktail. Demure. Pat. Overcast.
 
 
Ingredients (by proportion)
 
 
5 parts white rum
2 parts pineapple liqueur
1 part mandarin liqueur
1 part Romana Sambucca Black liqueur
1.5 parts fresh lime juice
 
Shaken hard and served up, with a lime twist if desired.

A sophisticated taste, cool, seductive, and dignified. Because the lady is a tramp. Imagine Frank Sinatra singing it, and it makes more sense.              

7 comments:

  1. our dump no longer available to pick through...

    it is now a concrete hole in the ground where one chucks perfectly good/usable stuff into large truck-size metal containers that when full they put on trains and
    carry from Maryland to South Carolina to dump...

    I , as Tinguely more better did, use used stuff from The Dump for making
    art/statements.

    and the Dump Gulls!

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  2. Looks nice, but sounds sooper-zuckery and a recipe for hangover (ie mixing different boozes).

    White bacardi and the pineapple jazz, blender-whip it with ample ice, and call it...Angel Eyes. Or sub. in 7-up, grenadine--Shirley Temple, all grown up....

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  3. The "different boozes" business is an old wive's tale. From what I've read, the more complex the organic mix, the greater the stress to the endorcine system. But gin--which you'd think is the clearest, simplest stuff--is really hard on the body, much worse than others. So go figure.

    The latest trend is to mix fresh condiments and juices etc., to make clearer, fresher flavor. It does work, but it's a great deal of trouble. Getting perishable bits and pieces of herbs and fruit juices. They spoil fast.

    The main drawback to this recipe is the black Romana, because it colors the drink grey--not the most appealing tint.

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  4. I love yr cocktail recipes, Curtis, but Ledger's Liquors may soon put a lien on my digs to cover my tab for my rapidly expanding inventory of exotic liqueurs!

    I would have thought that gin's bad rap is also an old wives' tale. No?

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  5. Ledgers would never give me a tab. They hardly allow me even to go behind the counter.

    I get most of my stuff from BevMo, even though they don't seem to have a clue about what to stock.

    Have you seen Alastair's book on Serendipity yet?

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  6. Just kidding abt Ledgers. No, they don't give anyone tabs.

    Yesterday at BevMo I wanted a fifth of Dolin red vermouth. They were OS & couldn't understand why I didn't want the 375ml for $12 (when the 750ml is $15). Not even basic math let alone . . . taste!

    NO, haven't seen the book on Serendipity. Anything by the Irascible Alastair is worth seeing. In my book.

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  7. Warnings against mixing booze are not old wives' tales--try chugging a few shots of bourbon after 2-3 glasses of cabernet. You'll be queasy, nauseated, if not vomiting. The sulfites in the wine plus sucrose, acids don't jibe with the grain whiskey--it's probably a mild acid-base reaction.

    At any rate that's the common view, and with empirical support--some hard core Kerouac-ian drunks probably build up a tolerance, until their liver stops working, and/ or they hemmorhage..adieu!

    ReplyDelete