Quick Holiday Acquisition Roundup
When you make cocktails a major part of your personality, people give you cocktail stuff at the holidays...
Happy 2025 and first full week back at work! Hope you’ve dug out of emails and remembered all of your passwords and to-dos…
This first week of January is not, it should not surprise you, a week of unbridled cocktail creativity for me. I generally don’t want to drink much at all after ~2 weeks off under “airport rules”, and when I do look for something in the evenings I’m not usually looking for that to take much time. So generally we’re looking at light beer or a neat whiskey. Or something NA that also takes very little effort, like Vibrante and soda…
And that’s all a bit unfortunate, because invariably, given I am who I am and have written many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of words on the internet about booze and cocktails, I have acquired fun new things!
And so, while I don’t really yet know exactly what place these things have in the bar, I wanted to give a brief overview of the fun new stuff I’m starting with in 2025.
Japanese Jigger
I’ve used the angled OXO measuring cup for years and years now, and I thought a new jigger could be a fun change. I do like that I can more easily measure more specific volumes, but I still don’t know how to feel about that also naturally leading to more mess as I change the side I’m using. The bar mat certainly helps with that, and I do love the aesthetic, so we’re going to keep developing a take here.
Fabbri Candied Ginger
I had no idea this stuff existed, but Mary found this amazing Serious Eats gift list and this is a revelation. The guide calls out that the syrup and the ginger pieces are very different ingredients, and I can confirm. So far I’ve used a bar spoon of this instead of cherry juice in the house Old Fashioned, and I really appreciate the added citrus and spice! Expect this to be a game-changer for NA concoctions too since the spice adds so much weight that’s hard to get without alcohol.
1821 Earl Grey Bitters
From the same gift list! Truly tastes like a concentrated Earl Grey tea, which I love very much. Think this will be good in just about anything, though I’m curious to see what happens when it’s added into both Manhattans and Negronis…
Velvet Falernum
I’ve written a bit about Falernum before, but I haven’t used it too much and I had never tried this original expression. But, when my brother-in-law wanted tiki drinks for his birthday and I happened to be at a liquor store, I thought this would be a fun way to continue my exploration and get some good tiki vibes into the bar. I essentially made modified Barbados and Rum Old Fashioneds, and I really like this stuff. It’s basically light orgeat with some booze and citrus notes, which means it both lasts longer and overpowers less. Win-win!