Hey, I've got a podcast, and I really truly deeply need you to give it a listen, you're gonna love it! bit.ly/MidnightLocal OR check it out on youtube: www.youtube.com/@MidnightLocal We are loving our new high-quality Viski Glassware. If you want to pick some glasses for your own home bar use code HOWTODRINK15 for 15% OFF on all glasses and bar tools site wide - viski.com/howtodrink One way you can make sure you are using great spirits in every cocktail you make is to head over to Curiada and shop the How To Drink Collection. You will find lots of the bottles we use on the show - bit.ly/goodbetterbestdrinks Viski: viski.com/howtodrink Curiada: bit.ly/goodbetterbestdrinks Twitch: bit.ly/2VsOi3d H2D2: bit.ly/YTH2D2 twitter: bit.ly/H2DTwit instagram: bit.ly/H2dIG Blog: bit.ly/H2DBlog Patreon: bit.ly/H2DPatreon Gear: amzn.to/2LeQCbW Blind taste test 10 Vodkas - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-75bAgWXLh3g.html Best Whiskey under $20 - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zYGBgOzMo_8.html $3000 Whiskey worth the hype? - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KG-UYeQBtrI.html
Hey Greg cool vid. For the El Presidente & Daiquiri I would recommend checking out Column Still/Spanish Style Rums (Don Q, Brugal, Angostura, Bacardi, Flor De Cana, Havana Club) to keep an apples to apples comparison. I love me some Plantation & RL Seale 12 but there blended rum (Pot Still + Column Still) and have more of a richer flavor imo Premium Vodka: Stolichnaya Elit Vodka Premium Light Spanish Rum: SelvaRey Light Rum Premium Tequila: Fortaleza, Tequila Ocho, El Tesoro - I personally consider Don Julio/Patron middle shelf
Okay, now what do you say to those people who when they make cocktails pull out their locally produced batch 2 of 20 bottles? Is that making a fundamentally better cocktail or are they just being pretentious/boastful?
I've seen this suggestion before but I want to re-up it because I think it would be neat: you could have Meredith read the tasting notes you gave to a drink in a past episode without saying what the drink was, and then you have to try to make a drink that matches those notes
Basic Four Roses is under 20 bucks for a 750ml, so you may not be in 8 dollar rotgut territory, but it's not that big of a step up. I would have gone with something more in the midrange like the small batch or single barrel. Or another brand in more of the 40 dollar range.
I agree. I've found that for old fashioned I like Evan Williams Bottled in Bond or Old Grand Dad BiB. Both a good budget mixer bourbons but at 100 proof the don't get watered down easily in a cocktail. OGD is same mash bill as Basil Hayden (both made by Jim Beam) just younger and higher proof.
Yeah, I think there’s an argument for adding a 4th tier, so it goes bottom/mid/top shelf + premium. This would make for a clearer comparison of where on the “price ladder” it might make sense to stop. Also, I found the lowest tier representatives a bit uneven, especially the $8 bourbon and Bacardi Gold both being the lowest in their category. One seems to be really bottom shelf, while the other inching more towards a middle shelf and certainly not in the kind of tier that the lowest bourbon and tequila occupies. Hence, some of the categories seemed more like a bottom shelf/(lower) middle shelf/premium comparison, while others were more like middle shelf/top shelf/premium.
I agree, the difference in price between old fitz 15 and basic four roses is staggering. There's a ton in the $40-60 range that would have been a more interesting comparison
This is always a good question to probe. My only critique is that all the cocktails you made her are relatively simple and the base spirit is doing a lot of heavy lifting, so you should see a difference if there is any to be found. Cocktails with other big flavor additions may be different. For example I've found with the Paper Plane the bourbon used doesn't cause much of a difference as the Amaro Nonino is more dominant of a flavor. Similar to something like a Negroni.
I just made the first drink for a party of friends and family, they absolutely adored it! It was absolutely incredible. I still can’t believe how much they enjoyed it.
A more bracing rita is 3 oz blanco tequila, 1 oz lime juice, 1 oz triple sec or cuantro, curaçao, or gran mariner, tsp agave syrup and a pinch of salt in the shaker. Shake until cold and open pour
Spiced rums have a weird cousin in Slovenia and it's old enough to get a regional protection. Also actually becoming based on sugarcane regulatory. This monstrocity exists because Austria didn't have sugar cane producing regions. Also now several desserts call for this weird tincture.
Time to break out the old vodka filter. I mean, the "britta" filter - run the cheap stuff through it a couple times and tell your friends you got the good stuff. Works like a charm
He did a segment on famous drinks not that long ago. I distinctly remember he did sweet vermouth on the rocks with an orange twist from Groundhog Day, but he did others, too.
Dang it Greg! I’ve been dying to get my hands on a bottle of Old Fitzgerald 15. Now after watching this amazing video, I REALLY want a bottle so I can make an Old Fashioned with it. Thank you for all you do for all of us who love cocktails, and finding new ways to elevate them. Keep all the great content coming.
As a vodka drinker I can say this: My favorite drink is the black Russian (maybe a little basic, but I love it) and I normally use low price vodkas to prepare it. One day I used Absolut and the difference was amazing. Then one day a friend gifted me a Beluga, amazing vodka one of my favorites until now, and I used the last of it to make a black Russian and it was the best one I've ever had. The difference was astronomical. I don't know how to describe drinks and all that fancy talk, I just know what I like and that was amazing.
You should make a cable car, I do it with 1 1/2 oz Kraken black spiced rum, 3/4 oz orange liquor (I prefer a triple sec but curaçao would totally be acceptable), 1 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz Demerara simple syrup. Rim the glass with a cinnamon sugar rim and express a orange peel over the top
Glad to see Greg speak well of the Don Julio blanco, I love that stuff and it's my go to for tequila. The limited 1847 anjero in the tall bottle is some damn fine tequila as well but its expensive stuff.
Generally, I find that only Vodka and Tequila increase in quality from rock bottom prices to name brand prices. Amaretto might qualify, but competitors to Disaronno are so different that it doesn't really matter. Outside of that most other types of liquor/spirits are so regulated in recipe that they all generally taste the same until flavoring enters the mix.
This price comparison reminds me of something that happened at work a few weeks ago-I work in the warehouse at UPS, on the early shift loading the package cars as an assistant manager. We had a box of whiskey bottles break open, spilling the booze everywhere. Because it was being shipped between people, not from distributor to liquor store, my boss got curious as to why and looked up the bottle. According to him (a self-professed "whiskey guy"), it was a mid-range bottle, specifically saying "if you asked for a whiskey at a sit-down chain like Applebee's without asking for a specific brand, this is what they'd probably give you", but he found people selling bottles of this brand from this particular batch for, like, $200 for reasons I didn't find interesting enough to commit to memory. It had aged particularly well or something? I doubt it'd be a good episode, but maybe for some filler patter on a less thematic episode you could explore some of the biggest price jumps between MSRP and the aftermarket for bottles, and some of the reasons why?
I mean vodka is usually meant to be devoid of taste, because most brands opt for dilluting 95% ethanol to 40% and throwing some glycerol for texture and a slight sweetness. Sure there is vodka with more "taste" than other due to the base material its made from but due to the collumn stills most of the taste is lost in the process which is the point.
As someone who's drank the definition of paintstripper polish vodka when they were younger I can guarantee you there's a different when drinking that and grey goose neat (not in a cocktail)
You should do this but with like $20 vs $30 vs $40 bottles. More the price range of stuff I'm actually likely to ever buy (neither absolute bottom shelf, nor super premium).
I really wish Midnight Local was either longer, covered more than one movie, or you released episodes more than once a week. I hate Mondays, but I absolutely look forward to the release every week.
The R.L. Seale's 12 year runs in the $45-60 USD range currently from what I'm seeing online. Definitely towards the upper range of what I can afford to regularly drop on a bottle but it's not something you have to scrimp and save for months for or that is essentially unobtainable as anything other than a occasional gift at best for a working stiff or a young person starting out in the world and trying to have a nice drink every once and a awhile due to price!
R.L. Seales is the head distiller of Foursquare's solo project. That Left Handed rum is so fantastic and the bottle is definitely a conversation piece.
As usual, excellent content, funny and educational. On a slight tangent - please, please, do a comparison between cheap and expensive Chinese baijiu. From an admiring Englishman, living in teetotal Saudi who lived in China for 8 years, is married to one of her daughters and used to make champagne for a living. I have owned bars for 30 years and never, ever got used to the utterly alien taste of baijiu, the world's number one selling spirit. It will be an awakening of sorts. Maybe see if you could make a cocktail out of any of them as the key ingredient.
Way to spend more money on a rum for a white daquiri: Probitas. Its not much more expensive than the Hamilton 87, but maybe $10 more per bottle? Also, an unaged rhum agricole is really fun a daquiri. Honestly, I don't think the idea that using a different type of rum makes a non-daquiri really holds. You can have a ton of fun with pretty much anything rum in a daquiri. Aged rums can also be fun. I'd also suggest a lower lime/sugar ratio for daquiri with fancy rum, I'm 2 oz rum, 3/4lime, and 1/2 dem simple
Light spirits in a cocktail it doesnt matter with the exception of gin. Dark spirits matter if the cheaper stuff is blended malt or has extra added flavours like JD.
I guess flavour wise a vodka is supposed to be a neutral component in a cocktail, or that's what I keep reading. If that's true it could explain why the difference is more subtle. Loved this video! Would be cool to see more of the same concept, maybe with some other, less common base spirits or even as a test to see if quality matters less in split base cocktails,... In a similar vein you could check how much of a difference the quality of the vermouth makes in various cocktails?
I'm surprised you didn't bring up that vodka is so regulated that it's basically all identical. Up until 2020 vodka had to be "without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color" although that's been laxed there's still a lot of restrictions and long time brands aren't changing up the recipe
Something I was told when I first started drinking was that there was no such a thing as a top shelf vodka and as bad as smirnoff can be talked about honestly more 'expensive' vodkas tend to actually taste more like something. I.e. Grey Goose has always tasted peppery to me. Which isnt exactly what youre looking for in a vodka
Hi Greg! Longtime fan of the show. I’m having a nephrectomy next month, which means that likely I will have to give up alcohol for the rest of my life. :( As someone who loves a good old fashioned, and other bourbon or gin cocktails, I’m in search of some good non-alcoholic alternatives. What are some good non-alcoholic cocktails, or N/A spirit substitutes?
Did he say $700!? What!? When I visited the U.K., I found a good amount of what we consider top shelf gin here, is their bottom shelf lol But I’d love to hear your reviews of Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain”, or anything by Nicolas Winding Refn via Midnight Local
If I had to suggest a change it's in the vodkas. Try and find a brand called Gvori. It's a Polish Rye vodka and neat it has this wonderfully spicy undertaste to it which I haven't found anywhere else. It's around the same price point as a Tito's, maybe a bit more expensive, but you can also buy gigantic bottles of it which are great to show off as a party conversation starter.
As someone who hates vodka because it's rank and stank, I tried a Russian brand that I actually didn't hate because it had no flavor which is what I was told Vodka should have: No strong flavors. But I've had vodkas with overwhelming stinky flavors that were cheap vodkas so.. idk I find there to be a difference.
Interesting choices. I consider Mt. Gay's mid tier like the XO etc to be a great mid-tier rum. Funny that you go for the skull vodka as 'top shelf'. Its alright but not great IMO. I'd have to check but I have a few different polish/finnish vodkas that (one has a programmable LED label, the other I forget but it has a wide wooden cap).
whats hilarious to me is that at the time of viewing this video the R. L seals rum is very cheap where im from and it was considered as an expensive one here
This may be off topic, but is there a place that i can go to learn how to invent cocktails? I am working on a novel and would like a cocktail that can pass for an alien ale or liquor.
I know you like coconut and Mr Black coffee liqueur. They released a Mr Black with coconut infused into it. What cocktail would you recommend for that?
Hi Greg. I was wondering if you take requests for video ideas, if not, no harm done. I am asking if you would be able to concote a cocktail of my own creation, called a "Dead Man's Glory" and put it in a video and tell me what you think of it. The recipe is below : 1 oz black absinthe 1 1/2 oz cognac 2 1/2 oz vodka It is all stirred over ice and then served in a short tumbler with the same ice Thank you
I was expecting this to be an episode where you make "cheap" drinks with various levels of booze and REALLY wanted you to make a pappy and coke. LOL Also, Tangueray is well gin everywhere here and is in no way equivalent to the level of 4 roses. Bombay would have been a better middle gin IMO.
I mean... There are Silver Rums WAY better than Bacardi in my opinion, what about Diplomático Silver? Don Q? Flor de Caña Silver? There are a lot of "not cheap" options out there
Greg doing a cold open with a question gives me massive GMM vibes for some reason. It shouldn't, plenty of shows like this open with a cold open question, but maybe it's because Greg also kinda rocks a hipster look. ... On that note, you should do a collab with Josh Scherer. Maybe you could make something boozy on your channel and virgin on Mythical Kitchen.
So. Before watching, my prediction - for old fashioned/martini style drinks, spirit quality will matter a hell of a lot more than for something like a sidecar or last word, for those latter ones that are less about featuring the spirit and more about the combination, I think past a certain point quality will be lost.
I may be biased, but crystal head vodka *is* garbage. Reyka or even luksusowa, as cheap as it is, blow it out of the water. Tito's is too rough, too. So skull - tito's - popov comparison is probably hard to tell much of a difference... My personal fave would be Ocean--the softest vodka I've ever tried. And I don't actually know if it's also a damn gimmick :P
