ten tips for an "overtly consumptive hobby"

January 9, 2025 4:59 AM

"What I wish I had was a list of now-obvious tips for keeping and running a home bar, and here is where I will keep them", says Justin Duke, who believes much cocktail-related writing on the Internet is 'not particularly actionable to the genre of person who is like "I made this drink and it's tasty! How do I get better at this?"' Disclaimer: Justin is a friend of mine.
posted by brainwane (33 comments total)

"The point of a hobby is to be a dork."
posted by box at 5:08 AM on January 9 [12 favorites]

That's the point of any hobby. Being cool is for dilettantes.
posted by rikschell at 5:19 AM on January 9 [3 favorites]

I like it. He sounds like a guy I’d enjoy. Here’s my favorite:

Freezing citrus works really well — as does super juicing — but sometimes the point of the tea ceremony is the ceremony and not the tea itself.

I greatly agree. My (very minor) contribution to home cocktail technology is I’ve been making turned ice mallets. They make a nice gift when paired with a (remarkably cheap) canvas bag and add considerable theatrical potential for the home bartender.

Excellent post. I hope he keeps it up.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 5:23 AM on January 9 [3 favorites]

Left me wanting more, which I guess is good.

Maybe it's my being on the autism spectrum, but the idea of putting anything in a glass of bourbon* except water or ice makes me feel like Gollum watching Sam cook.

* In matters of whiskey, I am patriot.
posted by Lemkin at 6:12 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Justin's "snippets" blog ["For topics that aren’t quite essays but aren’t quite tweets, either. (A self-imposed rule: no entry here should take longer than ten minutes to write and publish.)"] includes twenty "I made this cocktail and here's what I thought" notes on drinks such as "Dawn of Hospitality", "Richmond Gimlet", and "Kingston Negroni". Also, he recommends two brands of canned cocktails: Tiptop Cocktails and Straightaway Cocktails, and a few cocktail-themed gift ideas.
posted by brainwane at 6:35 AM on January 9

This is a lot for me at once, so I'm going to take away the saline tip for now and try it.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:37 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

And can I use eye drops / saline solution if I'm too lazy to make my own?
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:37 AM on January 9

A hobby is what you do when you're not doing what you have to do. You love it because if you didn't, you wouldn't do it. You'll inevitably want to talk about it and that's guaranteed to make others consider you a dork. Let them.
posted by tommasz at 6:46 AM on January 9

tofu_crouton, I would want to be very careful checking the ingredients on saline solution meant for eyes before I ingested it, in case it had additional blood vessel constrictors, preservatives, or lubricants etc. If it's purely salt and water I would presume that's safe. But it still might not be the right salt concentration for cocktail saline.

Looks like it works to make a single bottle of cocktail saline to put on the shelf and reuse for years (mixing some salt and distilled or boiled water, then putting it in a clean dropper bottle).
posted by brainwane at 6:54 AM on January 9 [4 favorites]

He is so right about vermouths in "perfects." As someone raised by a bartender who kept a travel spray bottle of dry vermouth for application of the thinnest mist to a martini, I have lived in fear of the vermouths for TOO LONG.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:07 AM on January 9

It took me too long to come around to it, but the thing that's helped our home bar become less of an out of control spiral was simply coming to grips with not having everything. Some cocktails are just too impractical to make at home because you'll never use the ingredients for anything else, so you end up with a lot of money sunk into bottles that mostly collect dust. But what that also meant was getting over the obsession with making every drink precisely to spec. Eventually we stopped keeping multiple varieties of a thing when one would do.

Instead of Dolin Rouge, Carpano Antica, and Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, we just keep Cocchi (Dolin doesn't add much to a cocktail, and Carpano is both expensive and often overpowering). Similarly, we keep one dry Vermouth (Dolin), one thing that's sort of Blanc/Bianco-ish (Cocchi Americano, and yes I know it's not technically a Bianco vermouth, but we get more use of it than anything else that's properly in the category), and generally one good red bitter (Contratto is good and much better priced than Campari), although for various reasons we currently have four (those two, some Nardini I bought when Contratto had distribution problems, and some Italian market Campari at higher proof than the US stuff). We also could get by with only three bourbons (80 proof in a handle, currently Four Roses; 100 proof, Very Old Barton or the Kirkland 100 proof made by Barton when it's in stock; and a sipping bourbon, but we have more than one of those because people give us gifts) and two ryes (Overholt for 80 proof and then something higher proof, Old Forester by preference, Sazerac by availability, or Rittenhouse when on sale; we also have a few sipping ryes but we rarely touch them and I won't replace them when they're empty).

We're still spiraling out of control on the rum shelf because the perfect white rum doesn't exist and we're playing with house blends for Daiquiris, and the amaro shelf is pushing its limits, but being able to admit a bottle doesn't need to be replaced was a big shift.
posted by fedward at 7:44 AM on January 9 [7 favorites]

Am I being overly sensitive to be annoyed by his opening line? Why are hobbies that require too much stuff being coded by him as 'straight white male'? Queer BIPOC also can have enough disposable income to take up useless pastimes. Perhaps the adjectives reflect his own social circle, but IMO it lowers the tone of the whole post.
posted by sid at 7:56 AM on January 9 [3 favorites]

The first proper cocktail I had was at Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco during a work function. This must have been 2004 or 2005. Up until that point I had been a beer / wine guy, aside from the screwdrivers, vodka tonics, whiskey sours and sex on the beaches of college. We were given a cocktail menu and I saw the phrase "old fashioned." I thought "hey, that sounds good" and ordered one. And I liked it! It was spirit-forward but also had a nice tinge of sweetness. And so that became my go-to cocktail. Like everything else I came to enjoy at the time, the old fashioned eventually became obnoxiously popular and gratingly cliche. Such is life when you live on the bleeding cusp of what will one day be extremely uncool.

But! What I have learned, ordering old fashioneds in various bars around the country, is that in reality there is no actual definition of an old fashioned - only a broad concept to which each bartender will bring their particular opinion and technique, or lack thereof. If I see a big ice cube, I know I am likely in for a good time. If I see fizzy water... well, I should have ordered a beer.

And, sid, I agree with you about that opening paragraph.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:06 AM on January 9

OK what's "super juicing" though?

A "Scaffa" is a room temperature cocktail, which seems like a good idea in north american winter.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:18 AM on January 9

Super Juice is a commercial bartender trick to get a more intense citrus flavour/shelf life (and more quantity) by incorporating an oleosacrum made from peels in the squeezed juice. I'm a little on the fence with it. It does change the character of the final drink.
posted by bonehead at 9:06 AM on January 9 [3 favorites]

thanks for the link!
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 10:05 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

I feel you fedward. Round about the time we realized rationalizing buying that next bottle of scotch when the shelf was already overflowing we decided we should slow down a little bit. We still bought that bottle anyway of course.

Honestly, we drink a lot less than we used to as well as we're getting older too.
posted by bonehead at 10:38 AM on January 9

oleosacrum?

Oh, that's orange peel sugar! I don't muddle it if I am using organic oranges - I just microplane/shave some of the organic zest off the peel, and it turns out great in my orange Mojitos.

Sometimes the dividing line between dorks and cool is just latin.
posted by zenon at 11:32 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

I appreciate the list, but Dave Arnold absolutely doesn't deserve to catch the stray here. Liquid Intelligence is a book that absolutely does some really crazy shit with rotovaps and modernist techniques, but there is so much there about the basics of cocktails. His online writings also can trend towards the wild, but there is also stuff that is very similar to his own lists that you can find.

I also wonder what his point is. Are you trying to just make decent cocktails and not think about it? That's fine, but if the point of the hobby is to be a dork, surely it is also to go into details that don't matter to people in the hobby!
posted by Carillon at 11:37 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Honestly, we drink a lot less than we used to as well as we're getting older too.

My hangovers are so bad now. I overdid it at a party on Sunday and Monday was basically a lost day.
posted by fedward at 11:42 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

First comment as a MeFite! Yay, I'll try to be succinct. Yes, Sid, too sensitive-I think the author was trying to communicate that it is inherent to being a white male in your 20s not exclusive to? Maybe he'll clarify.
For Carillon: I spent 30 years designing, running, consulting, and winning awards for my cocktail programs and Liquid Intelligence is a great book, but also a lot of challenging conceptual stuff that can be hard to place in a hobby setting. I didn't read it as a shot.
For the author-LemonSoda makes a way to combine your ice trays (and required freezer space) with making a set of 8 crystal clear large rock cubes for under $50. Also great reference material is a must i.e. Dale Degroff's The Essential Cocktail and Difford's Guide website (which lets you build your bar virtually on their site and mixes up cocktails to make with what you have).
posted by teeleej2003 at 12:03 PM on January 9 [7 favorites]

Coming here having barely started looking at TFA to lol a bit about a guy offering his female date a cocktail of Clitoria blossom, a flower so-named because it looks exactly like what you'd expect from that.

Is there any more bro than that?
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 12:31 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Well that was a short read. IDK why I expected more.

I see nothing to disagree with, among them some things I've discovered myself. I'm wondering what's a good concentration for barkeeper's saline, though.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 12:39 PM on January 9

I'm wondering what's a good concentration for barkeeper's saline, though.
I've used 20% by weight, & looking around that seems reasonably common, so I'd say to start there
posted by CrystalDave at 1:22 PM on January 9

Fair enough, teeleej2003. I did read that as more dismissive of his work, and in ways that I think are unfair. Even not running a cocktail program, but ymmv.

(Also, it sounds like he should be reading more of Wondrich's work)
posted by Carillon at 1:24 PM on January 9

Hi teeleej2003 and thanks for your first comment! Welcome! I'd love to hear more about your cocktail programs and what you learned, and what changed in the larger environment over those decades.

I've pinged Justin to let him know folks here have some questions & suggestions for him.

Upon rereading, his post says:

...Dave Arnold-style postmodernism[footnote2]...

[footnote2]: Fun and good, but not particularly actionable to the genre of person who is like "I made this drink and it's tasty! How do I get better at this?"

and then contrasts that and two other genres of "cocktail writing on the Internet" with the kinds of "now-obvious tips for keeping and running a home bar" he shares. So to me that feels like he's not dissing those other genres as "bad and should not exist", just more like he found them more entertaining than immediately useful.

I'm reminded of the Five Laws of Library Science, including "Every person their book" and "Every book its reader." It sounds like there are some MeFites whose tastes in Internet cocktail writing vary, and I hope you make some front page posts sharing the things you like!
posted by brainwane at 2:03 PM on January 9

Seconding the Dale Degroff suggestion and adding Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology.
posted by nestor_makhno at 3:52 PM on January 9

My hangovers are so bad now.

I swear I can now get hangovers from a bit too much coffee, or not quite enough water, let alone multiple cocktails
posted by Jon Mitchell at 5:00 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

The game I'm playing is asking if it's a hangover or if its covid or if it's just lingering long covid
posted by zenon at 5:38 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

I should have learned younger than I did the following fairly obvious things about mixed drinks.

1. Better tequila makes better margaritas. It is your money and if you want to make your margaritas with añejo, invite me over to help you drink them. :)

2. You can fix your bloody mary however you like it if you make it at home. More hot sauce? Go for it. Cholula instead of Tabasco? Sure. Horseradish instead of hot sauce? Fine. Horseradish AND hot sauce? Fine. V8? Ok. Stick-blendered home grown heirloom beefsteaks instead of "tomato juice"? Summer in a glass, yes, please! You can also have more celery and olives and pickles if you want. It's OK to reload the garnish.

3. Fresh fruit juice every time you can, especially if it's citrus.

Also @zenon, I'd like to hear more about your orange mojitos...
posted by which_chick at 6:05 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]

11. Keep vermouth in the fridge. This is apparently not common knowledge!
posted by Dokterrock at 11:22 PM on January 9 [3 favorites]

You can fix your bloody mary however you like it if you make it at home.

We really like ours with 50% clam juice. And a pickled bean, no olives.
posted by bonehead at 9:40 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

11. Keep vermouth in the fridge. This is apparently not common knowledge!

And write the date you opened it on the label. I was very proud of myself for innovating this before realizing Dolin at least helpfully includes a spot right on the back label for you to do exactly this.
posted by zap rowsdower at 12:04 PM on January 10