The Importance of Proper Glassware

The purpose of cocktail glasses is just to look pretentious, right? It'd be just as well to drink things out of a pint glass, or a mug, or a shoe, wouldn't it? It's still the same drink after all. Mine's a Cheeky V.


No.


These days we are inundated with the accumulated specialist drinkware of centuries, and so with all the different shapes, sizes and styles available it is not difficult to mistake this variety as something that exists largely for aesthetic reasons. Obviously to an extent this is true, as how a drink looks is the first stage of its making an impression on the drinker, and so the importance of the visual aspect is not to be discounted. However, more often than not a glass's primary function is practical in nature, with two main aims: firstly, maintaining the temperature of a drink, and secondly to accentuate its aromatic qualities.

Let's go through the most important types:

Cocktail glass AKA Martini glass

The glass most synonymous with what we might term 'serious' cocktails (i.e. those not served in a jug with four measures of vodka and 'cosmopolitan mix' out of a carton), this type originated around the beginning of the 20th century. Drinks in these are almost always served chilled without any ice in the glass itself. The stem allows the drinker to hold the glass without warming the drink with their hand, allowing it to stay cool for longer. The wide mouth and conical shape means that it's difficult to drink from it quickly (without considerable care and/or practice), and so it encourages a manner of drinking that is more conducive to enjoying 'short' drinks like a Martini, Manhattan or Cosmopolitan. The shallow bowl also brings the drink closer to the nose of the drinker, meaning that any citrus oils or other fragrant elements will be easy to detect and will add considerably to the drinking experience.

Old Fashioned glass AKA lowball glass, rocks glass

As the name suggests, this is the glass you'd be served an Old Fashioned cocktail in. Drinks served in these are often served over ice, or 'on the rocks', hence the 'rocks glass' name. However, some drinks like the Gin Fizz or the Sazerac are traditionally served in an Old Fashioned glass without ice. The thick base allows fruit and other ingredients to be muddled with impunity.

Collins glass

So named because this is the glass you would be served a Tom Collins in. These glasses are suitable for 'long drinks', more dilute than you would typically encounter served in an Old Fashioned glass and served with a lot of ice, and probably a straw.

Highball glass

Like an Old Fashioned glass but taller and thinner, or like a Collins glass but shorter and wider, depending on your perspective! Functionally this is really used in just the same way as a Collins glass, for drinks where the volume of alcohol is balanced with a fairly substantial amount of non-alcoholic ingredients. 

Shot glass

This is the sort of glass you'd normally encounter layered drinks in such as the B-52. Being so small allows decent-sized layers to be created with ingredients that you wouldn't normally want to drink straight in any quantity such as blue curaçao or grenadine. In any case, for layering to work at least some of the ingredients must be fairly sugary in order to create adequate separation due to the variation in specific gravity.

Champagne Flute

This is the obvious choice for champagne cocktails or any made using sparkling wine, for the same reasons you would use them to drink the wine on its own: the narrow mouth means less exposure to the air and longer-lasting bubbles, as well as focusing the effervescent aroma of the drink.

There are other types of glassware that you might encounter...champagne coupes, for example, are often used for Margaritas, as they allow more room for ice should you wish to serve them that way, but equally a regular cocktail glass will do fine. Similarly, while an Irish Coffee will look nicer in a heatproof glass, there's no taste-related reason why you can't make an equally good one in a mug if that's all you have available. The above types have a closer relationship with the drinking experience, and so if you're serious about cocktails, it's probably worth getting hold of a couple of all of these types.

The Jägermeister Project: Introduction

Photo credit: Paul Templing

Due largely to my links with the rock and metal community, Jägermeister is a substance I have become very familiar with over the years. In recent times I've given quite a bit of thought to how it could be included in cocktails, which besides the ubiquitous Jägerbomb does not seem to have been done at all. I imagine the reason is that it's a really difficult ingredient to combine with anything due to its very complex and strong (not to mention polarising) flavour. It's herbal, bitter, sweet, spicy and fruity all at the same time.

Because I always like a challenge, I'm determined to find a place for this curious concoction as a legitimate cocktail ingredient. It must be possible, surely? Green chartreuse, absinthe and other intensely-flavoured spirits, liqueurs and digestifs are frequently found in high-quality mixed drinks so I don't see why this one shouldn't be. I suspect it's only the reputation it enjoys as a dirty student drink (albeit one well-supported by the evidence) that drags its image so low in the eyes of today's mixologists.

Firstly though, what exactly is Jägermeister? It's a type of kräuterlikör ('herbal liqueur' or 'spiced liqueur'), a category of German drinks that are flavoured with herbs and spices and sweetened with sugar, similar in style to other central European liqueurs. Jägermeister is one of the sweeter varieties of this type available, which may be one reason for its broader popularity worldwide (though I suspect that has more to do with music/sporting sponsorships than anything else). Wikipedia indicates that some of its 56 flavouring ingredients include citrus peel, liquorice, anise, poppy seeds, saffron, juniper berries and ginseng. After steeping, the mixture is aged in oak barrels for a year. So curiously this drink has things in common with vermouth (citrus peel), absinthe (anise), brandy & whisky (oak ageing), and gin (juniper berries) as well as a host of unique features. Does this mean there are many undiscovered combinations out there to try? Definitely. Whether they work or not remains to be seen! 

So far my experiments have not begun in earnest, but my experience so far suggests that flavours that work in combination with Jägermeister (besides Red Bull, more on which later) include malt-flavoured soft drinks, coffee, and lemon juice.

In terms of cocktails, so far I can only lay claim to the creation of this unusual drink:

Christmas

1.5 Measures Jägermeister

Dash of fresh orange juice

Kvass (Russian malt-flavoured soft drink)

Pour ingredients into rocks glass with ice, top with kvass, garnish with orange wedge.

Invented very casually in late 2007, this drink was so named because I thought it tasted like Christmas, with an intangible Christmassy quality reminiscent of Christmas pudding or fruit cake or other wintery spiced food and drink. The orange juice is a more recent addition. I imagine other malt-flavoured drinks could be substituted for the kvass. I think it works because the kvass has a strong sweet malty aftertaste, with a slight acidity from the carbonation, both of which fit in around Jägermeister's unique flavour profile. In style I suppose it's like a Jägermeister Cuba Libre.

My friend Paul used to drink what he called 'Coffeemeister' while at university, which was as it sounds: coffee with Jägermeister in it. I'm currently wondering whether or not this could work a bit like an Irish Coffee, with cream floated on top, so this will probably be one of my lines of investigation.

Another thing I'm intending to try is some sort of 'Ultimate Jägerbomb', reverse-engineering the sickly flavour of energy drinks in order to try and create something recognisably similar but with fresh juices and high-quality ingredients, a bit like Chris McMillian's Pimm's Cup recipe, which uses lemon juice, syrup and soda water in place of the UK-style bought lemonade that Americans would be unfamiliar with.

As a fan of vermouth and its role in the true classic cocktails of the late-19th/early 20th century, I'm keen to see whether some style of vermouth would pair well with the Huntmaster, so this will be another path I will take in the course of my experimentation.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggestions, or let me know about your own experiences with drinks you've made yourself. I'll keep you informed of my progress!

Cocktail Experiment: Lamb's Best Friend

This evening I was tasked with creating a drink to accompany roast lamb. It had to be a long drink and not too strong. I'd previously been imagining a sort of sweet martini with gin, red vermouth and orange bitters, so the challenge then was how to extend it without hollowing out the flavour too much.

This is what I came up with:

Lamb's Best Friend

1 measure Bombay Sapphire gin

1 measure Martini Rosso vermouth

1/4 measure sloe gin

1/4 measure Benedictine

1/4 measure Monin grenadine

Juice of 1 orange

Mint leaves

2 dashes Orange bitters

1 dash Angostura bitters

Dash soda water (optional)

Place 5-10 mint leaves in a mixing glass and muddle gently to release the oils (don't muddle too hard, or you'll release chlorophyll into the drink which will make it taste like a freshly mowed lawn). Add the remaining ingredients, add ice and shake hard. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice, and garnish with an orange spiral and a sprig of fresh mint.

This recipe was inspired by the mint sauce and redcurrant jelly that lamb is often eaten with, as well as red wine drinks such as Sangria. The overall flavour is sweet, but not cloying, with prominent herbal notes from both gin and vermouth, and no one flavour dominating. I haven't yet decided whether a dash of soda is required to lighten the whole thing, so I'll leave that up to you. I think this works very well as an accompaniment to lamb, but would also make a perfectly good summer drink.

See what you think! If anyone else makes this, please let me know how you get on!

Note: I would usually use home-made grenadine but I chose the monin version for its more general red berry flavour. In future I might use the home-made stuff for a bit more tang and natural fruit flavours as I think it might give the drink another dimension.

Spirits for the Uninitiated

Given that for many people, spirits are regarded mostly as a higher-strength intoxicant or just as a way of making sugary drinks alcoholic, it's not so surprising that I often encounter a rather narrow awareness of the differences between and nuances within different types of distilled spirits. As I'm writing mostly with those yet to be initiated into the cocktail arts in mind, what better place to start than a rough guide to what will be your primary ingredients most of the time!

Each of these is a big subject in itself, so for the sake of brevity I will be providing an overview you can hopefully use as a basis for further study. Obviously this is a cocktail-centric view of things, passing over the nuances of drinking these straight, but I am not writing for experienced spirit connoisseurs. What follows is a list and simple description of the most common spirits available worldwide today.

Vodka

A colourless spirit produced from...well, potentially just about anything that can be fermented, but usually grain or potatoes. Since by volume it's largely just a mixture of ethanol and water, it's the nature of the remaining impurities that dictates the flavour (and any subsequent infusions or flavouring agents). A better quality vodka will be filtered and/or distilled more carefully and thoroughly in order to remove any harshness from the taste of the product. Vodka is generally bottled at 40% ABV but overproof vodkas are available up to as high as 95% ABV.

In cocktails, vodka's neutral flavour means it's often used to add alcohol content when a strong-tasting spirit isn't appropriate or desirable. Some people consider this lack of character makes vodka an inferior spirit, but there are many cocktails that would not be at all the same without it.

Consider the Black Russian...no spirit could be substituted for vodka without radically altering the flavour, but drinking coffee liqueur on its own would be a much sweeter drink without the bittersweet after-dinner flavour of the original. The vodka extends the drink and gives it a more mature quality.

Other classic vodka cocktails include the Bloody Mary, the Moscow Mule, the Cosmopolitan (which uses lemon-infused vodka, originally Absolut Citron), the Kamikaze, the Godmother, the Screwdriver and the Sea Breeze among others. There's also the famous favourite of James Bond, the 'Vodka Martini', more properly called by its original name, the Kangaroo or Kangaroo Kicker (although post-Bond it's likely the Vodka Martini name is with us for the long haul). A classic Martini is, of course, made with gin.

Gin

Gin is a neutral spirit with juniper as the dominant flavouring. It starts off in much the same way as vodka, although gins are most often made with grain alcohol (one notable exception I can think of is Chase distillery's excellent Williams gin, which is made from organic cider apples). After the neutral spirit is produced, it's then re-distilled with ingredients referred to as 'botanicals' to give the gin its distinctive flavour. Each brand of gin has its own selection of specially chosen botanicals (always including juniper), which means that gins made at different distilleries often have very different characters. Alcohol content is usually somewhere between 37.5% (e.g. Gordon's) and 57% (Plymouth Navy Strength) by volume.

Gin has a long and rich history as a cocktail ingredient, stemming no doubt from its popularity in 18th-century Britain. The classic Martini, the Gin Fizz, the Tom Collins, White Lady and many others owe their character to the unique herbal flavour of gin. Gin is often paired either with citrus fruits or with herbal-flavoured products such as vermouth. Of course, there's also the classic pairing of gin with tonic water, which is flavoured with quinine and so has a bittersweet quality that complements the flavour of gin extremely well.

Rum

Rum is usually produced from molasses, or sometimes from sugarcane juice. Unlike the two spirits I've mentioned so far, rum is typically aged after distillation (often in used bourbon barrels). After aging it's then blended and sometimes filtered to produce the final product. Rums are a diverse bunch, with no clear categories, but for mixological purposes they're best divided into the following subtypes: white rum, gold rum, and dark rum. White rums are clear in colour and have the lightest flavour, while dark rums have a stronger flavour (gold is somewhere in the middle). Gold and dark rums are also often sold with added spices. The differences come from the fact that white rum is aged in stainless steel barrels, while dark rum is usually aged in oak.

When spirits are aged in oak, temperature changes cause the spirit to be partially absorbed into the oak of the barrel and discharged again, imparting some of the flavour of the wood and anything previously stored in it to the spirit as it ages.

As I've mentioned before, rum has a long history as an ingredient in mixed drinks. Cocktails made using rum include the Mojito, the Cuba Libre, the Planter's Punch, the Mai Tai, the Daiquiri and the Piña Colada. It's often paired with either sour ingredients or creamy ones (or both), either one providing a contrast to the rum's natural richness.

Whisky

A vast topic that does not really lend itself to a brief discussion, whisky is essentially an oak-aged grain spirit made from barley, corn, rye, and/or wheat depending on the type.

Again, keeping things brief, the most important types of whisky are as follows:

Bourbon Whiskey - Made mostly from corn. The natural sugar in the corn gives it an almost caramel flavour, which will be complemented both by other whichever other grains are used, and also from the distinctive woody taste imparted to it by being aged in new (not previously used) white oak barrels. This woody quality is probably bourbon's most distinctive attribute.

Rye Whiskey - Made predominantly from rye, as you might expect. In some ways a more subtle flavour than bourbon, rye whiskey has a very distinctive slightly sour flavour with spicy notes. It's helpful when comparing the differences between whiskey types to think of what bread made with these different grains tastes like; if you can imagine the gently sweet 'n' sour but robust and earthy flavour of rye bread, you're a good part of the way to imagining how a rye whiskey might taste compared to a corn, wheat or barley one.

Scotch Whisky - The flavour of scotch is derived predominantly from malted barley, often with a smokey quality imparted by burning peat and letting the smoke pass over the malt (though not all distilleries do this), and then the choice of cask for ageing makes a further difference (bourbon or sherry barrels are the usual choice). It can range from intensely smokey, with a tar-like taste, to smooth with a hint of spice. Whiskies that are blends of the products of different distilleries ('blended malts') are usually smoother-tasting and better for use in cocktails, where the nuance of a single malt might be missed.

Irish Whiskey - A slightly looser category than scotch or bourbon, Irish whiskey is somewhere between scotch and rye in flavour. Generally a little lighter than scotch, often without the peatiness (although at least one Irish distillery does use peat smoke), and most often triple-distilled, unlike the usually double-distilled scotch (although neither is an absolute rule), it's a slightly more accessible drink than scotch to those new to spirits.

In cocktails, any of these could be used to make a Whiskey Sour; Irish whiskey is the base of an Irish Coffee; scotch can be used to make a Rusty Nail, or Godfather; rye is the traditional main ingredient of the classic Manhattan; bourbon is the base of the Mint Julep, and first choice for an Old Fashioned. Whiskies are very particular drinks that have to be carefully matched and balanced with other ingredients, but when you get it right it's extremely rewarding.

Brandy/Cognac

Brandy is a spirit made from distilling wine that's then aged in oak. Cognac is a popular variety of brandy made in the region of the same name in France. Its production is very tightly regulated to maintain a premium-grade product.

Brandy is a common ingredient in cocktails of 19th-mid 20th century origin, and is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, along with gin, after a lull in the latter portion of the 20th century. It's a very rich-tasting spirit with a raisin-like quality to its flavour.

Brandy-based cocktails include the Sidecar, the Between the Sheets, the Stinger, the Sazerac (originally, before the change to rye), the Horse's Neck, and the Alexander to name but a few. It's often used as the base for after-dinner drinks due to its rich, sweet flavour.

Tequila

Made from the blue agave plant, this is the quintessential Mexican spirit. Tequilas can be bought either un-aged (Blanco) or oak-aged to varying degrees. The ageing imparts an oaky quality much like with other aged spirits, while the un-aged variety has a unique sweet/savoury flavour, almost like barbeque sauce.

Tequila is principle ingredient in the classic Margarita, arguably the greatest tequila cocktail. The Tommy's Margarita variant is also excellent. The Tequila Sunrise should also not escape mention.

Not all drinks are made with one dominant spirit; the Long Island Iced Tea is a good example of a multi-spirit drink, featuring as it does vodka, gin, tequila, and white rum!

What is a cocktail?

What is a cocktail? Let's return to that 1806 definition: 

'a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters'

Besides the obvious Old Fashioned and Sazerac, this description most calls to mind Bumbo, the 18th century caribbean pirate's drink of choice. It's made with ingredients that would have been readily available in that part of the world, and so it doesn't seem too great a stretch to imagine that the west indies had a fairly profound influence on the drinking tastes of the time, as the early 19th century recipe for 'cocktail' is very close to this.

Now of course the word 'cocktail' essentially means any mixed alcoholic drink, which is perhaps what leads to some of the apparent confusion over what separates a cocktail from a dirty pint or the combined contents of the average cupboard under the stairs.

This proto-cocktail of the early 19th century has a spirit, a sweetening agent, spices, and a little dilution. What this illustrates is that the cocktail has always been about balance: no haphazard spirit-and-mixer combo this, but something with multiple elements that need to be balanced against one another in order to create something that's more than the sum of its parts. Again, I refer you to Chris McMillian for an illustration of this.

Of course, it's not just Old Fashioneds and sours that require this approach...the same applies equally to a Brandy Alexander, a Martini, or a Bloody Mary. All that differs is the intended overall flavour profile, and the drinker's personal tastes. Whether you're balancing gin against vermouth, or cream against alcohol content, the same basic principles apply in every case.

The Real Old Fashioned

Having begun this blog with an example of how not to make an Old Fashioned, it's only right that I furnish you with an example of how this most majestic of drinks should be made.

Personally, I find the great Chris McMillan's version difficult to beat. Here's my take on it:

2 measures good quality, characterful bourbon/rye whiskey
1 sugar cube/teaspoon of sugar (or more if you prefer)
Angostura bitters
Orange peel

Place the sugar cube in the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass (a lowball glass or any flat-bottomed glass that isn't too tall or thin), saturate with Angostura bitters, add a splash of water (as small an amount as you can manage) and muddle into a syrup. Cut a wide, short strip of orange peel and muddle in the bottom of the glass to release the oil from the peel. Add ice (amount will vary wildly depending on your preference), then finally the whiskey. Personally, I think the drink benefits from being gently stirred at this point to mix the syrup with the spirit, as the amount used will in no way overpower the whiskey but just render it that little bit more accessible than it would be straight...however, this is down to personal preference.

The goal of the ice is to keep the drink cold without causing excessive dilution. Too much stirring while in the glass will inevitably cause this, so it's best avoided. Counter-intuitively, while adding more ice increases the amount of potential dilution, by keeping the drink colder it actually melts slower. One ice cube will disappear faster than three, so keep this in mind. Unless you want a bit of dilution, the ideal cooling solution for a drink served in this way is a Japanese ice ball.

As with any whiskey-based drink, you'll find purists calling for some variation on 'just give me the whiskey', e.g. less ice, less sugar, less everything, but I feel that's missing the point of cocktails altogether...to create something that's more than the sum of its parts, where through the addition (in this case) of a little sugar, bitters, orange peel and ice, the whiskey of choice takes on an entirely new aspect, allowing the drinker to appreciate it from a new perspective. There's nothing wrong with drinking spirits straight, though some are better suited to this purpose than others, but we're talking cocktails here...and a cocktail, by definition, cannot be straight spirit, whatever drinkers of the Desert Martini might think.

Speaking of definitions, the Old Fashioned is so named because it conforms to the original definition of the word 'cocktail' (first recorded in this famous letter printed in the 13th of May 1806 edition of The Balance and Columbian Repository):

'Cock tail, then is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said also, to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow any thing else.'

This is a great drink for appreciating your chosen spirit, whatever that may be...accentuating certain aspects without overwhelming its essential character. If your spirit is one-dimensional or less than exceptional you may find it benefits from a bit of additional sweetening.

Introduction: What's The Point?

Welcome.

My intention for this blog is to provide a place for contemplation and study of the noble art of cocktailmaking. I am no industry expert, but having been studying the subject for only a fairly short time it has become clear to me that the humble cocktail is a much-misunderstood thing, and the process of a typical cocktail's creation can be as muddled as the fruit in this alleged 'Old Fashioned'.

While it would be comforting to dismiss the above gut-wrenching atrocity as a one-off aberration, this is by no means the only horror of this kind I have encountered.
What's even more extraordinary is that many of these videos, most of them even, are presented by people who appear to work as bartenders! And indeed I've encountered similar wrong-headedness in bars I have attended myself, even quite expensive ones. How can it be that this persists, but from a near-universal lack of understanding of the fundamental aims and methods of cocktail preparation? 

As a fairly recent mixological initiate myself I am still working my way through the classic drinks of the last two centuries, so when interesting new ingredients or recipes come my way I'll write about my experiences, lessons learned and insights gleaned. And of course, any drinks I happen to conjure up along the way will be recorded here for posterity and comment.