Happy first Friday in December. I was having a conversation with Mrs. Sharkbait the other day, and we were trying to figure out a good analogy for this time of year. I mean, we’re already in the 4th quarter, but have we hit garbage time status yet? We came to the conclusion that we’re inside 5 minutes of a blowout, just running up the middle to kill clock until the 2 minute warning (Christmas Eve) when we can start taking knees.
What was I talking about? Oh right. Drinks. This week I had a coupe ideas lined up, which blew up in my face when I realized we finished off all the apple cider from Thanksgiving last week. So, I needed to scramble and come up with a last minute fill in. That’s when I found The Oriental. To be honest, I’m kind of surprised I haven’t made this before, or even thought of adding all these together just by pure accident, but here we are. Let’s mix!
1.5 oz rye whiskey
.75 oz sweet vermouth
.75 oz triple sec (Cointreau)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.
Nose is surprisingly on the mellow end of the spectrum. The lime emerges as the dominant aroma, edging out any kind of additions the rye makes to the collective smell party.
What this drink is in mellow nose, it makes up for in flavor. The sip starts out as an excellent blend of all the flavors, resulting in a very bright start to the flavor profile. Subsequent sips is when you can start to discern the different layers at work here. The rye provides a nice base for everything else to build on, and it’s flavor remains fairly constant, despite the majority of it’s boozy bite being held back by the other ingredients.
The twin citrus ingredients (the fresh lime and the orange liqueur) I think contribute the most to the bright mouth feel this drink has going for it. I think they are also the most critical to muting the rye and keeping this as solid and easy drinker.
The vermouth is the weakest of the ingredients flavor wise. It is definitely there to just add a little bit of background sweetness. Of which, isn’t a bad thing. Just because I can’t pick up much of it, doesn’t mean it isn’t needed. If it wasn’t there, this drink would certainly be lacking.
I very much enjoyed this, Especially since my other options for drinks were not available for ingredient reasons. I’m pleased to add this to my repertoire.
(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)
Holy Crap Cameroon!
Christmas toy shopping advice rule of thumb.
It’s late enough in the year (JV regular season done and dusted) that I start to think of my own mortality. Is it weird that I think of my life as “how many FITBAW seasons do I have left?” SHEEEIIIT, maybe it’s weird that you DON’T chuh chuh.
Super bowls, winters, books left all here:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html
interesting but the parents and friends thing is kinda depressing and sad
Remember friend as you walk by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now you will surely be
Prepare thyself to follow me.
Hey, & thank you for your most excellent cocktail recipies on this very, very special day, Sharkbait!!!
“National Bartender Day is celebrated in the US every year on the first Friday of December to commemorate the people who make our drinks and appreciate the profession.”
https://nationaltoday.com/national-bartender-day/
Interesting. Tis the season…
https://www.vintag.es/2021/12/dali-christmas-cards-hallmark.html
Shouldn’t this have some baijiu or soju in it?
I was wondering why ¡Telemundo! would be broadcasting Brazil’s game, since they’re already through and have nothing to play for, but then I realized the other game includes Switzerland. Nobody wants to watch the Swiss play soccer.
Especially Serbia, amirite?
Done with work. Made it through the weeks leadership “refresher” training without any felony raps. So bring on the weekends shopping obligations, I can take it. Heavy metal chick here is ready to help out in Sharkbait’s bar.
Is that from the fall Dalek line?
Man, I’d hate to see Luis Suarez’s World Cup career end like this.
I would have preferred it end with an incident involving a malfunctioning traffic signal, an intersection, and a drunk driving a garbage truck.
Having never seen a second of the movies, but I vote for him to get eaten by a sharknato
As for garbage time, I pretty much check out and mail it in from Thanksgiving until I get back from my annual end of the year disappearing act, generally the first week of January.
Just like Bruce Lee in The Green Hornet, Son, (right down to the bitchin’ mask), did all the work just for some other guy to cruise in and take all the glory.
More like UruGONE
Look at the stupid green gun. That thing’s ridiculous. If it weren’t for Kato that goober would have been dead one episode in.
I’m just disappointed that I was too young to appreciate Bruce Lee beating the shit out of people in the show.
From wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Hornet_(TV_series)
The TV series featured the Green Hornet’s car, The Black Beauty, a 1966 Imperial Crown sedan customized by Dean Jeffries[24] at a cost of US$13,000. Two cars were built for the show and both exist today. Black Beauty 1 is located in the Petersen Automotive Museum collection and Black Beauty 2 has been fully restored and is located in a private collection in South Carolina.
“Private collection in South Carolina,” belongs to my sister, or her and her husband, or my brother-in-law. Not sure how they split up their stuff. Six degrees of separation for “shows you can barely remember.”
That’s awesome. Can I drive it? I promise I will bring it back.*
*will drive off into the sunset, never to return
Only if I get to first. It’s in South Carolina, and I am not.
You just made Gumby soooooo jealous! We are old enough to remember the show. My SIL is coming home for Christmas ( the Scottish astrophysicist who is now a Vice Chancellor at UC Merced) and we have been promising to go to the Petersen museum with her since we moved to California. Maybe we’ll go when she gets home. Her wife and the kids never wanted to go.
I love The Peterson. I’ve been about a dozen times. An old girlfriend was kind of a gearhead so we used to go when they changed exhibits. The low rider exhibit was insane but I also loved the Duesenberg exhibit. It’s absolutely worth the visit.
They changed the inside dramatically when they dramatically changed the outside. The whole “history of the automobile” design of the first floor (which was awesome) is gone, and there are now far fewer cars displayed through out. They took a great museum and a turned it into a venue for private evening cocktail party rentals, which is apparently a lucrative thing (see Academy Museum across the street). It’s too bad because the Petersen has an enormous collection, only a fraction of which can be displayed, and it used to be Smithsonian-class in its curation.
“Garbage time is when I get all my Christmas gifts for the boys down at the railyard.”
-J. Tomsula, hopping out of a Target dumpster
I remember a video, from here I think, that showed people busting into stopped boxcars and digging through them looking for high-value items. iPhones, laptops, etc. Just hundreds of yards of opened boxes. I thought that railroad detectives were supposed to go out there and beat the shit out of people they catch on the tracks to keep them away, but I guess not.
“We gave the Bulls a cut of the loot”
-Jimmie T.
As for the drink, definitely gonna try this one next weekend! (This weekend is spoken for). But might I suggest we get a more :ahem: contemporary name?
“I got a few ideas”
-B/ Parcells
I don’t think this time of year is garbage time until you get to Christmas week. Until then it’s like (strains beyond my comfort zone) a short handed shift when you’re losing a hockey game. You need to stop dumb shit, beat some deadlines, and even though people are missing the pressure is there to do what you would fully staffed.
In my line of work it starts slowing down a little bit until January, but there’s always some customer (Health Insurance company usually) who throws us some, “We need this fixed NOW!!!” issue from where they’re moving to new systems, upgrading, or whatever on the week before Christmas. I think it’s just to show their bosses that they’re actually working, but I’m old and cynical.