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I've a bottle of the Qi Black Tea Liqueur from St.George Spirits, product page.
It's smoky and vanilla, very interesting straight. When mixed with bourbon it simulates scotch. I've had trouble finding exactly what to do with it.
Does anyone here have experience and/or suggestions?
Mix with some Honey, Lemon and a dash orange bitters for an Arnold Palmer cocktail?
Hard to say without tasting it, but trying it in a few gins is usually a good start.
At Alembic, here in San Francisco, Thomas Waugh has drink on the menu called the Macanudo (as in cigar.)
I don't know exact proportions, but the constituents are: Partida Anejo tequila, qi tea liqueur, apricot eau de vie, agave nectar, a lemon twist, and a dried apricot as a garnish. I haven't tried replicating it, but if I were to guess, I think this would be close: 2 oz tequila, 1/4 oz qi, 1/4 oz Eau de Vie, and a bar spoon agave nectar. It's mostly an elaborate tequila old fashioned. The smokiness of the tequila and the qi liqueur are really nice together.
That is a good avenue for exploration. I wonder if trismegistos could make a mezcal recommendation.
Tough to say w/o tasting it first. Does anyone know if it exists in P-town yet, or does Matthew have a bootlegged bottle? My instinct, in pairing it w/ mezcal, would be to let those 2 products carry the smokiness, w/ perhaps the addition of a hot tincture to carry through the smokiness trhu the finish. Here's my thought:
2 oz. 209 gin
1/2 oz. qi
1/4 oz. mezcal
bar spoon agave nectar
? drops tincture (we have a smoked jalapeno tincture, I'd guess 5-6 drops)
If you want to bring in your bottle, Matthew, I'd be happy to give it a whirl.
In light of erik's tequila old fashioned comment, Death&Co. does in fact have a tequila old fashioned w/ Partida anejo, a mezcal rinse & orange bitters. Duplicated it, according to my best guess, at the bar, & it does work pretty well.
I really shouldn't have said, "old-fashioned," as it is stirred and served up. I suppose "Fancy Tequila Cocktail," as in Jerry Thomas, would be a better classification. Or maybe even "Improved Tequila Cocktail" since it has two liqueurs and sweetener. Oh, damn, and I forgot, he was using some Orange Bitters in it as well...
Hey, if you want to hold yourself (& us, by default) to a high standard of classification & definition, then thank you. Btw, do they know what you really do during work hours??
Qi is not distributed in the state of Oregon. However, I should be able to stop in with a sample soon if you'd like.
"Btw, do they know what you really do during work hours??" Yeah, I've been trying to cut my forum and blog participation down to before work, after work, lunch hour, and breaks. The problem is, most times cocktails, or whatever, are a lot more interesting than installing Linux on a server.
If I'm forced to multitask at work, I expect at least a 20% window fee. 4 windows for work, 1 for me.
for a dinner party last week I went with
1½ oz Cruzan amber rum
¾ oz Qi black
½ oz Lillet Blanc
dash of Fee's peach bitters
lemon twist as garnish
This balanced well, and even warmed nicely. The herbs in the Lillet Blanc met the lapsang souchong flavors in the Qi.
Hmm, I'm picking mine up tonight from the FedEx yard once I get off work. I should have both the black and the white at Carlyle tomorrow evening.
Well, we tried both samples last night at Carlyle. My initial impressions-
Qi White- a nice orange liqueur, very well made. Its orange liqueur though. I didn't get much of a tea flavor out of it.
Qi Black- Wow, really smoky stuff. Almost cigar like. I'm thinking that this will be some fun stuff during bbq season. I like smoke and bourbon together, but I'm guessing anything more than 1/4 oz in any drink will overwhelm it.
Neat, I'd not tried the white.
I wonder if my bottle of the black has lost some of its strength over a year and a half or so.
Shoot, I wish I'd stopped-by last night.
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