And a note on ratings: These are still rated on the same scale as everything else, but since they aren't intended for drinking, even a * might be quite OK.
Escofier Essences Bourbon Extract:
Bourbon essence for cooking and flavouring purposes.
Meant to replace bourbon in cooking, it looks like bourbon, but is not convincing, smelling like artificial
colouring and flavouring. Actually better than many low-grade bourbons, but still falling well short of a good bourbon,
and not really the same taste, either. Somewhere between 40 and 45% alcohol.
T *
Escofier Essences Chocolate Liqueur Extract:
Opaque and chocolate-coloured, very strongly chocolate flavoured, it tastes quite good, though it's a bit
harsh and synthetic. This would be excellent ice-cream topping. Somewhere between 40 and 45% alcohol.
T ***
McLintocks Vanilla Fridge Wipe:
500 ml sprayer
Not for culinary use as such, but it is 100% food grade. I've
not tried it as a fridge cleaner, but it is a very good safe,
non-toxic, food grade cockroach killer, which makes it very useful in the kitchen
if you have roaches. (The little buggers
don't have livers, so they just die.) If you were to drink
it, you would find it outrageously strong. Not as sweet
or as strongly vanilla flavoured as vanilla essence.
Very good for scaring people with.
T * G *
Mei Kuei Lu Chiew (cooking version):
500 ml bottle
Chinese alcohol, smells like rosewater. This was a cheap version for cooking (apparently there is one
intended for drinking which is supposedly quite good), with 1.5% salt added. I thought
it might be OK for making
Indian-style rosewater drinks, but it's
a bit salty. High proof. Glen: "Good God!"
T ** G (unrated - the smell was enough)
Pearl River Bridge Cooking Rice Liquor:
600 ml bottle
From our favorite soy sauce makers comes the cheapest 76 proof
vodka we've ever seen, at $2 a litre. If you want a good
cheap spirit for cooking, this Chinese rice spirit can't be too
far from what you need. As it is not for use as a beverage,
it comes with the usual heavy dose of salt. Glen - Na, this is
going too far!
T * G (huh!)
Supreme Grappa Essence Flavour:
Synthetic grappa, sold for cooking purposes. Very industrial packaging for a very industrial product.
It doesn't taste particularly convincingly grappa-like, but might pass casual examination, and the flavouring
readily masks any deficiencies in the base spirit. Somewhere between 40 and 45% alcohol.
T **
