in the 'duh' category

Homemade grenadine kicks store-bought grenadine's ass. I used it to make a Secret Cocktail (gin, applejack, lemon, grenadine, and an egg white), and the results were stunning. I'm going to try it in a Jack Rose tonight. It's very simple to make, but definitely not cheaper or easier than the corn syrup slurm that Angostura puts out. Basically, you macerate the edible bits out of 2 large poms in sugar overnight, then mix in enough sugar to make a syrup. It's easy enough that I can apply the same technique to making other flavors of syrup, hopefully suitable for Italian sodas or whatnot. If pomegranates were cheaper or easier to disassemble, it would be totally worth it. I've bought some bottled 100% pomegranate juice (cheaper than the fruit) and I'm going to see how grenadine made with that compares. If it's even close, the added convenience of getting the poms pre-juiced will be worth it.

Drink Recipe

Last month on my birthday, I took the day off from work and my wife and I went out to the Edgefield in Troutdale to play golf on their par-3 course. While we were there, she was kind enough to buy me a bottle of Pear Brandy. Once we got it home and tried it, we both agreed that it was not something to drink straight, so it has just been aging amongst the other bottles of spirits, waiting.

Last night, the wait was over, and I understood, with perfect clarity, the purpose for which this bottle of brandy was intended. I made up some simple syrup, consisting of equal parts (1 cup each) sugar and water. It's dead easy, you just put both ingredients in a pan, and stir it while you heat it up. Once it's perfectly clear, you have simple syrup. One the simple syrup has cooled to room temperature, I got out the shaker, filled it with ice, and added the juice of 1/2 lemon, an ounce and a half of pear brandy, and an ounce and a half of simple syrup. I shook it madly, poured it into a cocktail glass, and tried it...it tasted just like a perfectly ripe pear (Bosc, I would say).

This is basically a Brandy Cocktail, but the distinct fruit aroma in the pear brandy really turned this whole thing into something special. My wife described it as, " ...like drinking the juice out of a can of pears." I thought it has a crisper, fresher, perkier flavor than that, but I can see her point. This is definitely a sweet cocktail. Individual tasted might dictate a variation with equal parts lemon, syrup, and brandy, or even equal parts brandy and lemon with only 1 ounce of syrup. I liked it the way it was. I think I'll be trying this recipe with other kinds of brandy. I gave it a shot with Applejack, but it wasn't nearly as good, tasting mostly just like a Whiskey Sour.