 One of the unexpected joys of getting started on YouTube has been meeting others who are on the same path. Case in point, my friend Pete. Pete has a channel where he experiments with ingredients and drinks, and he has a format he calls Let Me Fix That For You, where he takes viewers submitted drinks, makes them, and sees if he can make the drink better. Now, because I'm an egotistical bastard, I couldn't not take the bait on that one, so I sent him a drink, and he made it. I'm not going to tell you what he thought of the drink, but I do love how the video came out. However, he does do an impression of me in the video that's a little on the nose, and let's just say I may have felt confronted. In all seriousness, he should check out his channel. He has a kind of Bob Ross way of getting things across that I really enjoy. I'll link to the video and his channel in the description. Okay, on to shenanigans. I love books, which is ironic, because I actually don't know how to read. Please don't tell anyone. It's quite embarrassing. But darned if that hasn't stopped me from buying them. My most recent acquisition? A copy of the revised and updated Craft of the Cocktail, by the one and only Dale DeGroff. If you don't know who Mr. DeGroff is, he single-handedly kicked off the modern cocktail movement in New York back in 1985. A lot has happened since then, but there's no denying that if it weren't for Mr. DeGroff, you'd never see a bartender anywhere wearing a bow tie or sleeve garters. Anywho, while I was skimming this, I came across an ingredient I'd never heard of, triple syrup, and I immediately thought, what the f**k is triple syrup? Triple syrup is just simple syrup, agave nectar, and honey. When I read, I mean, when I saw that, I thought, okay, neat, but why? I did a bit of research, and I learned there's actually some solid reasoning behind this. Thing is, simple syrup is great for balancing citrus, but beyond that, it doesn't do much for the drink. It's a neutral sweet, and it's kind of boring. Honey is another way to balance acidity, and one that adds other layers of flavor, which is great. But DeGroff says honey has a tendency to overpower certain drinks, and he's absolutely right. So he makes a simple syrup, agave nectar, and honey, which in my opinion is a rather brilliant solution to a problem I'd say most bartenders would probably say isn't actually a problem. You can't just mix them in equal parts, though. The honey will still overpower. The magic ratio is 4 to 1, or four parts simple syrup, two parts agave nectar, and one part honey. DeGroff started working on this recipe in the late 90s, but by the time he had the magic proportion down, he had already turned in the manuscript for this book, which is why a lot of people haven't heard of it before. I was excited to play around with this in drinks, but when I made it, I didn't like it. I'm serious, I didn't. It was still too honey forward. Then I realized I'd read the recipe wrong. It wasn't simple syrup, agave, and honey. It was simple syrup, agave syrup, and honey syrup. Ew. I whipped up another batch, and I still didn't like it. The honey was a little too subdued for my palate. Not to get too far into it, but Mr. DeGroff uses one to one honey syrup, and I've always preferred two to one. After turning my kitchen into a disaster with experiments, which at one point meant trying five of the same cocktail made with slightly tweaked versions of triple syrup, I came to an interpretation of this unique mixture that suits my taste. I'll leave it in the description. To field test this, I'm going to make one cocktail with honey syrup, and one with simple syrup, and then make two more of the same drink, subbing the triple syrup for the honey and simple. So four drinks total. Got all that? No? Well, I'm doing it anyway. And forgive me for not doing my usual smash montage, but that's a lot of drinks, so I'm just going to do it all off-camera. Be right back. All right, first up is the bee's knees, the venerated classic from 1951. Gin, lemon, and honey. Simple, delicious. Delicious, but the honey does kind of steal the show here. Still, the marriage of honey with gin botanicals is marvelous. Now the same drink with triple syrup. Hmm. The same drink, but more delicate and nuanced. The honey doesn't make as much noise in the drink, and in a way, the gin botanicals are kind of pronounced. This is terrific. Wife, want to try these? That's a bee's knees? That's nice. Right? Do you want the other one? Yeah, I'll take them both. Hey. Next up is the mahogany hall gimlet, a digraph original. Gin, lemon, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, and bitters. I'll leave all recipe info in the description. Cheers. It's a really good drink. Simple and refreshing. If you're curious about the bitters, Mr. Degraph recommends his own pimento bitters, pimento being another word for allspice. If you can't get them, you can subango, but it's not quite the same thing. This is still really good though. Now the same drink, but with triple syrup. Oh wow. It's worth noting that this drink was conceived with triple syrup in mind. Knowing that, I still wanted to know what it would taste like with plain simple. Man, it has a long finish too. Subtle honey note takes this drink a lot further. But yeah, this is noticeably better. This is a good time to point out Degraph's observation that triple syrup pairs well with grapefruit, and this is a sterling example of that. Now you can't sub triple syrup in any drink that calls for honey. I made a cocktail with it and the nuance was buried under the base spirit. If you end up making this stuff at home, and if you make a lot of drinks at home, you should, start by putting it in drinks with clear spirits and go from there. If you liked it, it like, consider subscribing if you have it already, and if there's something you think I should try, let me know in the comments. Take care, and I'll see you soon.