I have a bottle of Ransom Old Tom gin, and I'm just not crazy about the flavor it imparts to most of my favorite gin drinks. It works very nicely here, however- better than the suggested Aviation in my opinion. I have a bottle of Strega that I'm trying to finish, and in this particular case it made a fine sub for the yellow Chartreuse. I used Krogstad aquavit, which I prefer to Linie as it is smoother and the spice flavors are more forward.

imho, while it is great in other things, Ransom was made for one drink and one drink alone: the Martinez. Made with Carpano and Boker's, it's one of my all-time favs. I wouldn't put Ransom in many other drinks except those that specifically call for it (similar to Smith and Cross).

I'll give that a try. The Martinez is one of my favorite drinks, and I've tried making it with a few gins (Genever being my favorite actually)- I never thought to try the Ransom, which is silly since it is an Old Tom Gin and all...

Quite the backstory: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2011/08/the_history_of_mahna_m…

My childhood is now ruined ;)

alright but lacks something.. a herb muddle perhaps? an added sweetener? the chartreuse doesn't manage to lift the mixture above the preponderance of sour and herbal. 

I think doubling the Cynar is a good idea.

A bit sweet for my taste. The Vergano Americano is a touch mild-mannered. I added a 1/2 oz of lime (although maybe lemon would have better) and like it more.

I haven't opened my bottle of Vergano Americano yet. I was hoping for a less expensive but equally good alternative to Cocchi Barolo Chinato- maybe this isn't it. I'll probably start with half the cointreau when I get to trying this, as that ingredient takes over pretty quickly for me. A little citrus does sound good too.

I finally opened my Vergano Americano so I could make this. Sadly, all I taste is rum and cointreau, which is a shame because the Chinato itself is delicious. Much wiser to make the Campari Swizzle (thank you Dan!), or just mix it with some gin and maybe a bit of lime.

There's another drink in the database called Dark House that's attributed to Ken Arbuckle and has the exact ingredients and ratios. I'd love to know who actually came up with the drink and what the true name is.

Stew,

Crazy - Morgenthaler's drink (from the citation) was sometime before June 1,2009. If the Kenny that posted the Dark House is Ken Arbuckle, maybe he'll see this and clarify things.

Thanks,

Zachary

I can't get over how well Old Monk pairs with apple cider.

Great drink! We liked it a bit better with equal parts bourbon and apple cider.

I feel like it needs a little spice to cut the cough-syrupiness of the sloe gin, like if you cut the amount of Cynar by half and add the same amount of Punt e Mes. Will try that.

What sloe gin are you using? I find the Plymouth pretty far from cough syrup.

OK, you got me. Not Plymouth. I'll have to give it a try with that, too.

I haven't tried it, but The Bitter Truth also makes a good one -- reportedly a bit more bitter than Plymouth. I'm not familiar with any others that are worth drinking. The Plymouth sloe gin is a challenging flavor -- definitely not like cherry cough syrup.

Plymouth and TBT are the good ones, with TBT being more bitter. Like most things, cheap sloe gin is bad sloe gin - they're usually flavored instead of infused, and full of sugar.

Thanks,

Zachary

This sounded interesting, but I think it really needs some acid. May give it a try again next time I am stumped by what to do with my sloe gin; I used the Bitter Truth.