It’s what we’re here for 😂

I think I also busted 1k easy, let's blame Leandro :) (but totally worth it!)

Right!

So you remember that summer? lol.

i saw that also. I even went back when it disappeared and was like "did i imagine that?" I love fernet branca but I was like "it's definitely not a 'workhorse spirit'"

@@Aekif Same, I was like "Fernet?! Over Sweet Vermouth? Over Campari?!"

😂 you liked that little Fernet Troll did ya?

@@TheEducatedBarfly lol. On your website, I did notice you put fernet under must have Amari, but you don't have Campari on your list under Amari or liqueurs. If you combined those categories, I'd prob put Campari as the third most important bottle (after one orange liqueur and maraschino liqueur). Between the Negroni and all of its riffs and the americano, I don't see how it could be left off a list that also includes cynar and fernet (both of which I have, but I go through Campari 10x faster than those). Anyway, I know the website post is from last year, so consider including Campari when you get to the video on Amari and/or liqueurs!

If Fernet is not on the mandatory bottles in the end, I’ll be disappointed.

The word Cocksmith just sounds wrong.

Cocktail Craftsman? How about Cocktail Artisan? I like Cocksmith. What do you prefer Leandro?

Much as Cocksmith made me laugh, I think the swanky term these days is 'mixologist' 😂

Have you checked out Smith and Cross? Bit more higher end but well worth it. Great for sipping and mixing.

The Navy strength is amazing. My wife hates it. Too funky for her, but it’s everything I want in a rum

Great book

I agree about mezcal, but I think for a video on "workhorse" spirits, doing a tequila and not a mezcal makes sense. All it takes is making margaritas sometimes to require using lots of tequila, so having something good enough and budget friendly is important. On the other hand, I think mezcal would go nice in another video on other base spirits to have on hand (eg, mezcal, cognac, cachaca, Pisco, some other rums, etc.). Depending on preferences, I could see some people needing a "workhorse" choice for any of those, but most people probably don't. Of them all, mezcal or a dark rum would prob be the most likely to need a good workhorse value choice.

​@@brendancurtin679 Yeah, you're definitely right that tequila is the more expected "core spirit", and probably was the right choice. But I think it's worth noting a couple things here. Warning: long comment ahead. 😄 So I think at the heart of it is that spirit popularity and use in good/modern classic cocktails is on a curve, but it's a pretty sharp drop-off of that curve from the most popular to the least popular spirits. Tequila actually falls into the least popular when it comes to number of recipes that include it. For the most part you have whiskey and gin as by far the most popular, with vodka and arguably rum coming in reasonable seconds as far as the number/variety of recipes that use them. Tequila is a fairly distant 3rd place, so to speak, and mezcal is not that far off from a similar number of recipes that use it. Again I'm talking about *modern classics* and other currently popular recipes, and also referencing number of recipes, not popularity of a single one. Obviously margaritas are made quite often, but that's a single drink. The Paloma is probably another quite popular tequila drink. And... that's largely it. So not to say that mezcal is as popular *overall* as tequila, but I'm talking about use in a variety of recipes here, and also contextually for *this* channel. Think of the number of tequila vs. mezcal recipes you see on here. Checking the Edu Barfly website, the number of hits for each spirit in a search is *very* close, with tequila having 30 results and mezcal 25. Compared to gin at more than 200, and even rum at 135. In other words rum is used more than 4x more often in Edu Barfly recipes vs. tequila, and tequila in contrast is only *slightly* more popular than mezcal. So I suppose I'd say my point about mezcal is that because tequila is actually in so few popular/modern classic recipes, it feels to me as though mezcal deserves some mention. Not a bottle recommendation perhaps, but I would have said e.g. "mezcal is another agave-based spirit that's increasingly popular, which we'll get to in a future video". I'd also point out that your suggestion to include it in a separate video along with a bunch of other less popular spirits makes total sense given the choice to include tequila here, but again departs from the reality of their use in recipes, at least as reflected in this channel's content. If you put together hits for cognac and brandy on the Edu Barfly website, it's something like 70-80, far outweighing tequila's representation (and even cognac on its own is at a similar level to tequila). So should cognac/brandy have been in this first episode? In the end again I understand why tequila is here. It's still considered one of those important core spirits. But its popularity is also being challenged by mezcal, and as far as actual utility and number of recipes you can make from this channel, you'd be as well off knowing what mezcal to buy as what tequila. I think this is a great video, and it's part of a series so nothing important will get missed. But I also think it's a good opportunity to consider and perhaps update our understanding of what constitutes "core spirits" as far as modern cocktail representation and curation of one's own home bar is concerned.

I’ve been wondering why Tequila is about double the price of the other liquors I like to drink, I had no idea the agave cactus takes so long to mature for harvest, yea sustainable estate Tequilas will be my only future purchases.

@@ogreenius All good points. I just think "workhorse" implies you're going to go through a lot of it, so you want something that is good without breaking the bank. Even though tequila isn't in as many popular cocktails, one of the cocktails it is in is one of the most popular cocktails in the world and one that people will drink several of in one sitting. You can easily go through a few bottles of tequila just having a few friends over for tacos and margs. Yes, you can use mezcal in a marg (and I like to), 99% of them will be all tequila. I think most people are less likely to go through several bottles of mezcal in a night than they are to go through several bottles of mezcal. But you could go through several bottles of anything if you make it the feature drink of a party. You can go through several bottles of pisco making pisco sours for everyone. But I just don't think it's as common to have a lot of those drinks be what everyone is drinking several of as it is for the margarita.

@@brendancurtin679 Yeah, I have to agree this is probably true. It annoys me (margaritas just aren't great cocktails to me), but I can't argue with their genuine popularity. 😄 And I think more than that I'd like to believe viewers of this channel have broader horizons much of the time. But still, given people drink a lot of them in general, it's a very good thing to have an ethical/sustainable recommended bottle at a good price point!

Will do!

Very weird to think that I'm 7x further away from London than Oslo is and yet I get Beefeater for half the price you do...

Prices vary a lot in the USA, too. Marius in California is paying about $5 less per bottle than I pay in New Jersey. Weird, but true. That said, his recommendations are still solid, because that price increase is universal, and the value for money is still there.

HAHA I was thinking the same thing.

Hah, I know that feeling. I'm at that point where if someone for example goes "I once had this herbal thing in Prague thirty years ago" I get up, open a door, and hand him some Becherovka. "Was it this?"

I brought a bottle of Amer Picón home from Spain just so I could make a real Liberal cocktail 😅

😂 rage that isn’t actually there 😂

Have you tried Salignac cognac? It's around $43/bottle in New Jersey, and it's versatile. It tastes good neat, but I find that it mixes well, too. Cognacs are generally smooth, so you aren't going to get harsh edges with any of them, but why put $65 cognac in a cocktail? I don't use if for cooking, though. I've got a small bottle of E&J for that.

Tanqueray is absolutely better than Beefeater. Still right in that affordable spot, still a London dry gin, still juniper forward. I also find when serving people new to gin that I have far more success with Tanqueray No. Ten. Tastes change, that's okay.

Same

Flor de Caña 4 is a good one

Yep love me the 114 too I’ll put together a bourbon video at some point soon, I’ll be doing this for all spirits

@@TheEducatedBarfly be excited for that one, I feel whiskey can get as crazy as rums with all the diversity

@@TheEducatedBarfly A spirit series would be appreciated. You could really help steer folks to great choices. For me, I have a solid handle on starter bottles. I could use your insights on which bottles/spirits are worth the the extra cost. For example, in tequila I like Arette as a starter bottle. But in spirit forward tequila cocktails Tapatio is worth the extra money. Plus, I would value your thoughts on less well traveled spirits like Pisco, Mezcal, Amaro, etc.

Appleton estate will definitely be in a video but it’s specifically Jamaican rum which doesn’t work for every drink. Then again no single rum works for EVERY drink lol 😂 it’s a great option. Kudos to you for upping the game for your friends!

Appleton Estate Signature is a must have! It's always in my bar!

Luckily we have this: tequilamatchmaker.com Problem solved ::::mic drop:::::

Thanks for the time stamps! Caught Marius asleep at the wheel 😂

@@TheEducatedBarfly Doesn't happen often, gotta take advantage when it does 😁

You Rockstar!

Total reverse here. My Total Wine has Plantation 3 for $18/750ml and JR Royal Standard for $26/1L.

😂 we do what we gotta do!

😂 glad to be of service!

Would love to see them do a *blind* taste test between Kirkland bottles and A: the other low-priced well/workhorse they'd otherwise recommend as well as B: bottles of similar price to the Kirkland. I'd be shocked if Kirkland's stuff didn't beat similarly priced products, at the least. My general understanding is that Kirkland spirits products are often made by some of the same large producers as other major brands (their vodka is rumored to be produced similarly to Grey Goose, etc.), and while the recipes and blends, etc. may be different, the basic "quality" of the spirit is reasonably good for the price point.

Yep we can do that! I’ve been meaning to do a Trader Joe’s and Costco bottles vid for a while

​@@TheEducatedBarfly Oh yeah, TJs! Sounds like it *might* make a good series then, go one spirit at a time and test: Kirkland vs. TJs vs. Price-equivalent product vs. name-brand Workhorse. Could probably be done as Shorts if you wanted, and those are shorts I might actually watch. 😄

@@ogreenius I'd also guess that Kirkland will generally beat out anything at the same price point, but probably will usually fall a little short of the other workhorse choice, similar to the gin example I gave. But it'd be interesting to see where it comes close or could beat out a more expensive workhorse choice.

@@TheEducatedBarfly Awesome! Thanks! As Oshyan mentioned, it'd be nice to see how they compare to other workhorse options.

Tanqueray seems like the best deal why is your Beefeater so damned expensive???

@@TheEducatedBarfly I have wondered your kind words on Beefeater, 'cos it ain't cheap here in Finland (a.k.a. Funland, the happiest country in the world). We have government-owned monopoly on alcohol stronger than 5,5%. The monopoly favours the more expensive products by having bigger profit marginals on the cheaper stuff. The cheapest gin in Alko is Juniper Gin (37,5%), 20,69€. The bottle size of these gins is 0,7L. The crazy priced bottles might be cheaper here than elsewhere. We do booze cruises to Estonia and Sweden, because alcohol is cheaper in Estonia and the ferries to Sweden have tax free.

You don’t keep it good for a long time. In the beginning of this channel I would pre-Squeeze juice and shoot multiple episodes and use it all up in the course of a shoot day. Nowadays I just squeeze per cocktail

@@TheEducatedBarfly Got it!

My Bar is better Stocked with more flavors than some City Bars

re-upload, moved it over from the other channel because it's a better fit here. And we're continuing the series here. Watch it again :)

That sentence is so downhill, because it's so uphill understanding it!

🤔

Pour one out for the homie 🥲

🤔

It was just me trolling y’all lol

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@@TheEducatedBarfly a workhorse spirits videos from like 3 years ago. But an update doesn’t hurt. Still watched the whole thing lol