These days, I like my Old Fashioned a little sweeter. It used to be that I preferred it with extra bitters in the past.

Couple of twists in this drink – I used Old Fashioned sugar cube (you can get it from “The Bartender Atlanta”) and dried orange pieces to do the initial muddling. Bulleit Bourbon and Fee Brothers Old Fashioned bitters.

Gin, Green chartreuse and lime juice. The nose is all chartreuse but the palate had fairly strong notes of juniper. Good length too.

Elderflower liqueur, champagne and lemon juice

Strawberry Liquor and Vodka. If are wondering why the Texas vodka looks like an aged drink – this is the infused vodka that I made (with Tito’s).

Finished the full cycle of infusing vodka with grapefruit and ginger. Decided to try out some vodka tonic with it. Can’t say it was a big hit. The bitterness showed thru too much and the ginger in tonic water mixing with ginger in the infusion was not a good idea. Will try with soda water tomorrow.

Used the grapefruit and ginger infused vodka to make the first cocktail. The color difference will tell you it is infused vodka and not flavored vodka – which would have been clean in color. Also, Tito’s does not have a brown color – that happened to be an empty bottle I had handy.

So, this has my first ever infused vodka with Angostura bitters, lime juice and tonic water.

As I watch my vodka get infused, made a Rye Whiskey cocktail. Is it a crime that I did this while talking to my dearest friend – Mark Meade from Lexington – the Mecca of Bourbon Whiskey?

Got grapefruit and ginger freeze dried. Put Tito’s in it. Will find out how this turns out…

Made a Whiskey Sour after a long long time. Used Bulleit Bourbon.

Last week, Hunt mentioned that he had tried a Negroni with a Old Tom gin instead of a regular gin and that he rather liked it. Old Tom gin is a precursor to today’s gin (often called London Dry) and is usually aged in barrels unlike gin.

To go back a little more in time, I tried mine today with Genever. Which is the original source of today’s gin. In fact Old Tom gin is considered the bridge between Genever and modern day gin.

The effect was indeed remarkable. I think it was the ageing (the wood aroma) that you could feel on the nose that made the difference.