Glibertarians.com 2017 Archive

Author: R C Dean

Belly Up to the Bar

Cocktail of the Week – The G & T and a Guilty Pleasure by RC Dean

I have noticed a number of gin and tonic fans in the glibertariat, to the point where some of you actually make your own tonic from scratch (quelle artisanale, non?). I thought I was being hardcore by not using store-bought tonic and going with syrup-n-soda water tonic, but dayum, it honestly never crossed my mind to make it from scratch. I know some homebrew tonic recipes have been bandied about already; I would appreciate it if you could repost in the comments here.

Gin and Tonic

3 oz. gin (I’ve been using The Botanist, but its probably overkill and I could get away with something a little less expensive/refined).

6 oz. tonic water (my preference for store-bought is Fevertree Indian, but its been at least a year since I didn’t do the home-mixed version).

Splash of lime, lime garnish optional.

For store-bought tonic, pour everything over ice in a highball glass. The proportions aren’t critical here.

For home-mixed, grab a handy measuring glass, add gin, tonic syrup, lime, top off with soda water from your trusty siphon (or add seltzer or soda water from a can or bottle), pour over ice in a highball glass.

I like the Liber Spiced Tonic Syrup, but there’s a bunch of them out there I haven’t tried. Now that we are getting into the summer season (when RC likes him some G & T), I’ll probably order some other brands and do a little experimenting. The Liber is strong – for the recipe above I use around ¾ ounce, and I suspect ½ ounce would be fine. If you’ve never had anything but Schweppes, this will be almost unrecognizable – pronounced bitter flavor, some body (of all things in a mixer), and a lot of flavors going on.

I live in Arizona, where our summer drink season is long. I find that I lose my taste for Scotch in hot weather and even for rye or bourbon to some extent, and I drink mainly gin, rum, and tequila cocktails. We’ve already covered some of my favorite rum and tequila cocktails, but there is one more Casa Dean regular I have to put out there: the Jack and Coke. We use Mexican Coke made with cane sugar, which delivers a better drink. Mexican Coke is not hard to find in Arizona – I actually get mine at the local hardware store.

But seriously, RC (you’re undoubtedly thinking), Jack and Coke? Frankly, it’s a nostalgia thing. Mrs. Dean and I both remember these from our high school and college days, and nothing takes you back like the tastes and smells of your youth. Cocktailing is about enjoying a drink, about whatever works for you. Gearing up, adding some showmanship, all that is fine if you have fun with it; if you just like to keep it simple and cheap, well, de gustibus, my friends. You can call my Jack and Coke a guilty pleasure, but when it comes to cocktails in my book, there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure.

Calvados update: I snagged a bottle of the Berneroy XO. Not as refined as the Busnel Vielle Reserve VSOP, with more of a kind of pronounced winter apple flavor. For something like this, though, a little more rustic isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Spot the Not: Lyrics from National Anthems by Derpetologist

1. What the alien power has seized from us, we shall recapture with a sabre

2. So we have taken the drum of gunpowder as our rhythm and the sound of machine guns as our melody

3. He who is a true man is not frightened, but dies a martyr to the cause

4. Oh God, bless our bullets, bayonets, and grenades

5. The path to glory is built by the bodies of our foes

6. How can this fiery faith ever be extinguished by that battered, single-fanged monster you call “civilization”

7. Let us all fight, every one of us, for our black country

8. And if we have to die, what does it really matter?

9. Countless fighters died for our beloved people

10. Facing the enemy’s gunfire, march on!

11. There sat in former times, the armour-suited warriors, rested from conflict

12. Do not fear a glorious death, because to die for the motherland is to live

April 21, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

Cocktail of the Week – Polar Vortex

Another ginger beer treat this week (last one – I promise). The funny thing is, I practically never used ginger beer until a few years ago, when I got into some authentical Dark and Stormies, decided to make them at home, and discovered the superiority of small batch ginger beer (Maine Root) and “home-made” (Pickett’s and soda water). When I saw how good ginger beer could be, well, I just couldn’t keep my hands off of it. Can’t recall where I originally ran across this, but its a regular at Casa Dean.

As with the Dark and Stormy, there are a couple of ways to go at this – ginger beer out of the bottle, and make-your-own ginger beer.

This beverage as seen from space (Thanks NASA!)

3 oz. rye whiskey (can’t go wrong with Bulleit or Rittenhouse )
1 teaspoon Amaretto, maybe a little less (honestly, I don’t have a brand preference here)
1/3 oz lemon juice
6 oz. ginger beer (see the Dark and Stormy linked above for your options)

I use rye for just about any whiskey-based cocktail, even if the recipe calls for bourbon or similar. I just like the way it mixes, it seems a little smoother and a better neighbor for the other ingredients. The short teaspoon of Amaretto doesn’t seem like enough to make a difference, but it adds a nutty sweetness that is right at home with the ginger beer. The lemon juice kind of opens and brightens up the drink (yes, I have unintentionally made this without lemon juice or Amaretto, so I know whereof I speak). I’ve tried it with lime juice, and it just doesn’t work as well – for some reason, lime juice works with tequila or rum based ginger beer cocktails, but not this one.

Anyhoo, this is a highball, so grab a big enough glass, pour the ingredients over ice, and you’re done.

Pictured: the only calvado image that this site could afford

During our discussion of sippin’ likker, KSuellington recommended Calvados (apple brandy from Normandy) in the comments. Holy crap, is that good stuff. I grabbed a bottle of Busnel Vieille Reserve VSOP and have been working it ever since. Good cognac is very nice, but its not on my short rotation (partly, admittedly, due to cost), but I find cognac to be a little thin and “hot” unless you spend truly impressive amounts on an XO. This Calvados stuff, though – nice body, just the right alcohol heat, and a deep complicated apple/pear thing going on. If I lived in Normandy, my liver probably would have exploded by now.

Which raises another issue: glassware.

Generally, I am fairly indifferent to the glass used for a particular drink. As long as its pretty much the right size, I’m good. I do have Scotch glasses (umm, actually, three different kinds, but two were gifts, OK?), and I do think Scotch is better out of purpose-built glasses than a plain rocks glass. I actually use a Scotch glass for most anything I drink neat. But brandy (and this proved to be true with Calvados) is notably better out of a proper snifter. Can’t explain it – when I tried the Calvados the first time, I used one of my Scotch glasses – very nice. Next time, I used the brandy snifter, and it just opened up and became a very close friend. Plus, for the true plutocrat fashion statement, nothing pairs with a tophat and monocle better than a brandy snifter.

Spot the Not: Sonia Sotomayor

The Honorable Sonia Sotomayor

1. Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging

2. The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.

3. I have a very close relationship with my sister. My sister is a precious jewel.

4. I had no need to apologize that the look-wider, search-more affirmative action that Princeton and Yale practiced had opened doors for me.

5. My diabetes is such a central part of my life… it did teach me discipline… it also taught me about moderation.

6. I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale.

April 14, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

The Good Stuff

By RC Dean

I can tell this crowd has its fair share of folks who like their liquor straight up, with none of that faggy “mixology” or “artisanal” bullshit [mental note: must Google to see if “Artisanal Bullshit” is a cocktail already]. So, this week’s post is for you lot.

Liquor that’s enjoyable straight out of the bottle is the Good Stuff; at some level, cocktails are what you do to make liquor that isn’t as palatable more drinkable. You can use the Good Stuff in cocktails and it will often make a better cocktail – although we use Casa Noble for margaritas due to Mrs. Dean’s unfortunate reaction to other tequilas, it is plenty good enough to drink straight up.

For me, mixed drinks are more social – I just associate them and generally drink them in groups when there is a lot of chatter and whatnot. Drinking liquor neat is more contemplative for me – I’ve done some of my best thinking with a glass of Scotch, a cigar, and a sunset. As Timothy Leary taught us way back in the day, set and setting are important when monkeying with your brain chemistry, and those are the sets and settings I use/associate with different kinds of drinking.

Ice? Water? Hey, de gustibus. I don’t drink the Good Stuff on the rocks, but I put a splash of water in my Scotch. Do what thou wilt, I say.

Things about the Good Stuff to keep in mind:

There is a deliriously huge number of brands and varieties. No matter how hard you try, there will always be a ton of things you haven’t tried yet. I always try to have two or three bottles of sippin’ likker in the cabinet, and not just Scotch (I’m a Scotch guy, not a Bourbon guy, when it comes to drinking neat). I always have a good Scotch and tend to rotate rum, mescal/tequila, and Armagnac. I am a creature of habit; I typically get the same booze for mixing, but the variety of the Good Stuff on offer practically demands that I try different ones. The good news is that it’s hard to go far wrong, so that $50 bet you just made on a new bottle is likely to pay off. Worst case – you can use it for making cocktails.

Unfortunately, it’s the Good Stuff, and it is priced accordingly. While my palate for wine runs out around $20/bottle (retail, not restaurant, pricing), in that I just don’t taste what’s “better” about more expensive wines, my palate for liquor hardly ever runs out as the price goes up. Sure, there are bottles that cost $60 that are as good as bottles that cost $100, but by and large the older, more expensive stuff tastes better, sometimes a lot better. That said, anything that is the latest, hottest booze is probably going to be overpriced – I’ve never had Whistle Pig or Balcones because I figure the hype on these has run the price too high. My personal price cap for stuff I drink neat is around $60/bottle (subject to moments of weakness); I’ve never paid much more than $80/bottle for anything but a gift.

So, a few recommendations:

Scotch: I’m an Islay guy. Laphroiag Quarter Cask is a regular visitor to the liquor cabinet, and their 18 year old bottling is reliably divine (I’ve never had the 25 year old). One of these years I hope to make it to the Islay Festival. Caol Ila (thanks to Ron for the recommendation over at TSTSNBN) is excellent, not as peaty/oily/smoky as Laphroiag. Honestly, the problem isn’t finding excellent Scotch, it’s affording excellent Scotch. Personally, I blame hipsters.

Mezcal: The Del Maguey Single Village line-up is excellent. They have contacts with OG local distillers, and some of it is amazing (and priced accordingly – the spendy Chichicapa tastes like the love child of an excellent Scotch and a very naughty tequila). I tend to have a bottle of the more affordable Vida available for those evenings when the world needs that particular mescal vibe.

Rum: The Ron Zacapa Solera 23 has to be tried to be believed. They age it like brandy, and, well, just try it. Honestly, I’ve never even tried another rum for drinking neat. I sprung for a bottle of their XO once, but that was one of the few times when I just couldn’t quite taste the extra money.

Armagnac: Basically, Cognac’s country cousin – I think the only real difference is that each is grown in a particular region (yeah, I’m sure the terroir is totes different, but whatev). I have the vague impression that Armagnac is a little more affordable. This one is more occasional, but I’ve enjoyed the Dartigalongue XO and Hors d’Age, which are both affordable(ish) and not a bad place to start if you are curious.

Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Thomas Piketty

1. My premise is not to tax to destroy the wealth of the wealthy; it’s to increase the wealth of the bottom and the middle class.

2. I draw my inspiration from Sweden, not the Soviet Union. I have never advocated a centrally-planned economy.

3. I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from it.

4. One way to have broader access to wealth is to reduce the tax on the large group and increase the tax on the very top so concentration of wealth doesn’t get to extreme levels.

5. I loved American universities. In many ways, they are better organized – certainly than French universities.

6. To put it bluntly, the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics.

March 31, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

Gearing Up for Cocktails

By RC Dean

Last week’s post on the Dark and Stormy dabbled in the equipment and supplies that can be put to good use by the home bartender. This week we will survey the Casa Dean’s loadout for cocktailing, which by its nature invites a plethora of tools and ingredients.

Casa Dean Gear

In addition to the cocktail measuring glass and soda syphon mentioned last week for the Dark and Stormy (ginger beer syrup edition), and the eyedropper the week before (to dose Pernod properly for a Monkey Gland), there’s also a few other items that we use:

• Shaker. There are some variations on this, and a lot of [real] bartenders use a Boston shaker (two stainless steel containers, the top of one fitting inside the top of the other) or a variation with a pint glass and a stainless container. These are tricky to pour out of and prone to accidents, so I use a pretty standard shaker, the kind with a cap that has a strainer.

Shaking your drink does a couple of things, in addition to mixing the ingredients: it chills the drink, and it dilutes the drink a little (remember: a proper shake is 10 – 15 seconds). Both of these are Good Things – water is one of the unacknowledged ingredients of many cocktails, which just taste better a little diluted. Hell, it’s acceptable, even expected, to add a splash of water to even the finest single malts.

• Spherical ice makers. This is a recent addition to our setup, and we’ve started using them almost exclusively for “rocks” drinks. Highballs still get the usual cubes from our icemaker. The spheres have a couple of advantages; they just look cool, and they melt more slowly, so your drink doesn’t get as watery. The 1 ½ inch size seems pretty standard. It does take them a little longer to cool the drink, if it started at room temperature.

I’ve been using this SVERES Jumbo Ice Ball Tray, which makes six at a time. A little more labor intensive than just pushing the lever on the front of the fridge, but worth it, IMO. I’ve also got a pair of these Tovolo Sphere Clear makers, but they’re kind of a pain in the ass to use. I think they make somewhat better spheres than the tray.

• Glasses. For highballs, we just use whatever. For rocks drinks, I’ve been using these Bodum double wall glasses. They slow the melting of the ice balls even more and look pretty cool. These used to be pretty fragile, but they’ve been beefed up enough we haven’t had any problems.

Casa Dean Supplies

Confession time: I don’t fresh squeeze my citrus juices; I get good lime, lemon, and orange juice in bottles and just use that. I also don’t generally garnish. When I’m thirsty, I get lazy, OK?

For liqueurs, we have the following:

• Pernod, for Monkey Glands. I haven’t found another use for it that I liked, so that’s about it. Its basically licorice concentrate, to my palate.

• Amaretto, mostly for Polar Vortexes (to be written up one of these weeks). It’s a sweetener, mainly, but even in small amounts it changes up the drink.

• Salerno, for margaritas, sangria, anything that calls for orange liqueur. I’ve got some Grand Marnier, but just don’t really use it much since I found Salerno, which isn’t as sweet and “heavy” as most orange liqueurs.

• Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur. I pretty much just use this to make my own maraschino cherries, which are completely different than the dyed candied cherries passed off as such in the grocery store. Real maraschino cherries on chocolate ice cream is just divine, BTW, and justifies making your own all by itself.

• Drambuie. For the occasional Rusty Nail. Mrs. Dean also likes it sometimes just over ice.

• We also have Rivata sweet and dry vermouth. I mostly use the sweet to make Rob Roys and Manhattans. I’ve tried olde schoole martinis, but just don’t come back to them.

For bitters and mixers, there’s a few standards and a lot of interesting stuff to try. As mentioned last week, Pickett’s Ginger Beer Syrup is excellent. The Jack Rudy Classic Tonic syrup gets a real workout in hot weather, as well – it produces a vastly more flavorful gin and tonic than what you get in the store. You need a soda syphon to use these, or you can just crack open a soda water or club soda and pour in. But the soda syphon’s more fun.

I like the Bittermilk lineup, and use several of their mixers off and on (the Charred Grapefruit with light rum is way too easy to drink in hot weather). Others make their way in and out of the pantry from time to time as experiments (I have this Maple-Bacon Syrup going through testing right now), and it is remarkable how many smaller companies are putting out good stuff. These will get called out as needed in future recipes.

Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Leonard Peikoff (a famous Randroid)

1. [Regarding the so-called Ground Zero Mosque] Any way possible permission should be refused and if they go ahead and build it, the government should bomb it out of existence, evacuating it first, with no compensation to any of the property owners involved in this monstrosity.

2. Responsible parenthood involves decades devoted to the child’s proper nurture. To sentence a woman to bear a child against her will is an unspeakable violation of her rights: her right to liberty (to the functions of her body), her right to the pursuit of happiness, and, sometimes, her right to life itself, even as a serf.

3. Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics.

4. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon facts.

5. Statism and the advocacy of reason are philosophical opposites. They cannot coexist—neither in a philosophic system nor in a nation.

6. What is is. Perceive It. Integrate it. Act on it. Idealize it.

March 24, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

Cocktail of the Week: Dark and Stormy

By RC Dean

The Dark and Stormy, the classic cocktail from Bermuda. This is an easy one, but as ever when cocktailing, there is the opportunity to make it a little more elaborate. I actually have two versions of this, depending on what I have for ginger beer and/or what I’m in the mood for. I think dark rum is absolutely essential for this – I prefer Pusser’s, which gives a really nice deep molasses flavor; Mrs. Dean prefers Pyrat XO, which is a tad lighter. It’s the combo of molasses and a serious ginger flavor that makes this one work.

3 oz dark rum (I use either Pyrat XO or Pusser’s)
6 oz ginger beer (see below)
Healthy splash of lime juice, w/optional lime garnish

Dark and Stormy (bottled ginger beer):

Pour ingredients over ice in a highball glass, give it quick stir, garnish. Pretty easy. The key is the right bottled ginger beer. Grocery store ginger ale (Schweppes or whatever), and even the Bermudan ginger beers are just too sweet and not gingery enough for me. I haven’t found anything in a bottle I like better than Maine Root’s Ginger Brew – it delivers the ginger. I get it at Whole Foods. If not available, I would probably fall back to Gosling’s.

Dark and Stormy (ginger beer syrup):

This is the one for impressing the ladies with your mixological mastery. I like the Pickett’s #1 Medium Spice Ginger Beer syrup – they make stronger #3 Hot ‘N Spicy also, but it’s a little overwhelming for me. BTW, these syrups can go into some very interesting meat glazes as well, if you like getting your meat all sticky and gingery.

Additional gear for this one includes a 16 oz. cocktail measuring glass (with all the measurements marked on the side), and a soda siphon to make the drink fizzy. The classic soda siphon is the 1 liter with the metal mesh wrap on it that takes standard CO2 cartridges, but there are cheaper alternatives. I’ve taken to throwing a little salt and baking soda into mine when I fill it – its almost a club soda, but I think it helps draw out the flavors. As with much else, gearing up for the Dark and Stormy means you are now equipped for a whole range of other drinks or upgrades to standard drinks (once you have had “real” tonic water made from a good syrup, you’ll never go back).

Pour the rum, an ounce or maybe a little less of the ginger beer syrup, and the lime juice into the measuring glass, add around 6 oz. of fizzy water from the soda siphon, and pour over ice in a highball glass. Garnish if you feel like it.

On a hot day, these go down fast and maybe a little too easy.

Bonus Cocktail – Mexican Moose. If you’re a tequila fan, you can substitute tequila for rum to make a Mexican Moose (our name for it at the Casa Dean; it’s basically a variation on the Mexican Mule). We use silver tequila, but I’m thinking an anejo would be good, too.

Derpetologist’s Spot the Not:

Round One: Donald Trump

1. Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money.

2. I was never in this for the money. But it turns out that the money was an absolute necessity for me.

3. The beauty of me is that I’m very rich.

4. When we go in church and I drink the little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and I eat the little cracker.

5. Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest—and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure. It’s not your fault.

6. My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well been documented, are various other parts of my body.

Round Two: Mistakes were made…

All but 1 of the following are real quotes from American politicians.

1. Mistakes were made. Then, other larger mistakes were made.

2. Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit.

3. Serious mistakes were made.

4. It is quite possible that mistakes were made.

5. Mistakes were made in terms of comments.

6. Serious mistakes were made.

March 17, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

Cocktail of the Week – The Monkey Gland

By RC Dean

This week – the Monkey Gland. The key to this one is getting just the right amount of licorice flavor from the Pernod. Yes, yet another liqueur you probably don’t have in your liquor cabinet. Oh, yeah, you’ll need Grenadine, too. I didn’t have either when this recipe first showed up. If you’re serious about cocktailing, though, you are going to acquire a collection of liqueurs and mixers. As I peruse the rotation at the Casa Dean, though, I note that most of the rest of the regulars don’t really call for exotic ingredients (although I will have an article on bitters, related mixers, and tools one of these weeks).

The Monkey Gland

The Monkey Gland:

3 oz. gin (I like The Botanist)

2 oz. orange juice

1 tsp. Grenadine

2 ml Pernod (yup, those are milliliters – I use an eyedropper with an ml index on it)

Add the Pernod to an empty cocktail shaker, and “rinse” (coat the sides of) the shaker with it. Rinsing the shaker adds more of a licorice nose to the drink, but isn’t completely necessary. Note: do not pour out the “excess” Pernod after you have prepped the shaker. I tinkered with this recipe before I landed on 2 ml as being the right dose for me. Pernod (originally, a faux absinthe after the real deal was banned) is powerfully licorice flavored – too much is way too much, but too little just takes away the character of a Monkey Gland. I went to the eyedropper because it was the only way to be consistent, and you want to hit the sweet spot for the Pernod.

Add ice, gin, orange juice, and grenadine to the shaker. Shake (a proper shake is 10 – 15 seconds, in case you were wondering). I pour mine over ice; I think the classic serving is straight up in a martini glass. I like my drinks to stay cold – we’ve recently gone to the 1½ inch ice spheres (one per glass) to keep things cold without diluting too much. Personally, I think a Monkey Gland with a big ball floating in it is the optimal presentation, anyway.

This is an old cocktail recipe dating back to the 1920s or so. It was inspired by a Dr. Serge Voronoff, who made a pile of money implanting slices of freshly-harvested monkey testicles into the scrota of old, rich, and stupid Europeans, for exactly the reason you think. One can only imagine the complications and outcomes, but at least it inspired an excellent drink.

Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan

1. Parents have a right to insist that godless evolution not be taught to their children.

2. Bill Clinton’s foreign policy experience stems mainly from having breakfast at the International House of Pancakes.

3. No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world.

4. Terrorism is the price of empire. If we do not wish to pay it, we must give up the empire.

5. The ultimate goal of the anti-religious elites is to transform America into a completely secular nation, a nation that is legally and culturally biased against Christianity.

6. The War Between the States was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give allegiance.

March 10, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

Cocktail of the Week – The Panacea

By RC Dean

This week’s libation is the Panacea, which is one of my favorite cold-weather drinks and the one Mrs. Dean “requests” when she is feeling under the weather. It’s made with a honey/ginger/lemon syrup, so it’s quite effective on a scratchy throat. If the first one doesn’t cure what ails ya, the second one will ensure you stop caring. Trigger warning: what with the honey, this is a sweet drink.

I know, I know, it’s one of those froofy artisanal drinks that you have to make the mixer yourself. Tough – the ingredients are universally available and it’s easy to make. I keep my Panacea syrup in an empty bourbon bottle, of which I am sure the Glibertariat will have an ample supply.

Panacea Mixer/Syrup:

Simmer in a small pot for 10 – 15 minutes (looking for a thickish syrup)

1 cup honey

1 cup water

½ cup minced or shredded ginger

Strain through a fine sieve, toss the ginger solids left behind. Stir in:

¾ cup lemon juice

Keep refrigerated. Pro-tip: put it in the fridge before your third refill to avoid unfortunate and very sticky accidents (no euphemism).

The Panacea

3 oz blended scotch (I like either Black Grouse or Dewar’s Scratched Cask)

2 – 3 oz. of Panacea Mixer (I go 2 oz., Mrs. Dean prefers 3 oz.)

Pour the blended scotch over rocks, add the Panacea Mixer, stir, and add a “lid” of smoky, smoky single malt (I’m an Islay guy for single malts). You can get a lid by angling a spoon upside down so the tip is just under the surface and slowly pouring a little of the single malt onto the back of the spoon so it floats on the drink itself. It gives the drink a smokier nose, and more of a scotch hit when you start guzzling. The lid is optional (Mrs. Dean prefers not).

This is a favorite with non-scotch drinkers, especially without the lid – the honey/ginger/lemon syrup does an excellent job of cutting the scotch flavor for those unfortunates who don’t recognize it as the drink of the gods. When I take a bottle of the syrup with me on cold-weather outings, it never lasts long.

Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Translated Scientific Names

1. potato buffalo flamingo

2. the creature from the black lagoon

3. giant deformed penis

4. little chief nipple twister

5. itty bitty thing

6. Owen’s ninja turtle

March 3, 2017
Belly Up to the Bar

by RC Dean and Derpetologist

After noting the enthusiasm with which the Glibertariat greets happy hour, I thought a weekly cocktail thread would be worth a go.  This week:  RC Dean’s Own Margarita.

I hadn’t been a particular enthusiast of margaritas until moving to the Sonoran Desert.  With all kinds of agave type plants (including century plants which actually produce a nectar when they bloom which is made into candy), it was hard to avoid, though.  I’ve always found the classic recipes with simple syrup, Rose’s, and even Grand Mariner or Cointreau to be a little on the sweet side, so a few years ago I devoted the summer (and a goodly portion of my liver) to coming up with a recipe that was a little more tequila-tastic and a little less sweet.

RC Dean’s Own Margarita

4 oz silver tequila (Casa Noble)

1+ oz Salerno Blood Orange Liqueur

¾ oz lime juice

½ oz agave nectar

We use Casa Noble because Mrs. Dean had a bit of a bad reaction to some other brands.  Casa Noble is organic, which may (or may not!) have something to do with her tolerance for it.  Regardless, because the tequila is foregrounded, a few extra bucks for better tequila is well-spent.

The Salerno is an ingredient you probably don’t have in your liquor cabinet.  Too bad.  It’s essential for this recipe and I like it as an orange liqueur mixer for any recipe.  It is lighter and maybe crisper?  Anyhow, it’s a good addition to your cocktail toolkit.

I’ve gone to agave nectar over simple syrup for everything.  I just like it better; I substitute at a ratio of about 2/3 nectar to 1 simple syrup.  If you get a darker nectar for this recipe, it adds a richer flavor.

A friend of mine works a variation of this, with orange substituted for some of the lime juice.  I’m not sure of the proportions, but whatever.  You’ll probably tweak the proportions on this one anyway.

Derpetologist’s Spot the Not: Famous wrong predictions

1. This “telephone” has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.

2. Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

3. Electricity is merely a scientific curiosity; it has no practical applications.

4. I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

5. Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.

6. The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.

7. I do not believe the introduction of motor-cars will ever affect the riding of horses.

8. Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.

Belly up to the bar and enjoy!

February 24, 2017