Science Of Drink

Now we explore two so similar cocktails of Prohibition Era. The Flamingo Cocktail and the Mary Pickford Cocktail. Both of this cocktails are so rare and hard to find in popular cocktails book. Both has similar composition with rum and pineapple with hint of fresh lime (Flamingo) or maraschino liqueur (Mary Pickford). Both has beatiful foam as a garnish.

Dale DeGroff suppose that cocktail Flamingo was created by famous Constante Ribalagua – owner and barman of La Floridita, Havana. The gold age of this and another cuban bar was at Prohibition. I use recipe of Flamingo Cocktail from The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff.

Flamingo

35 ml light rum
35 ml pineapple juice
1 tsp. grenadine
1 tsp. fresh lime juice
Shake. Pour into cocktail glass.

The Flamingo Cocktail has smooth and light fruit cocktail with great rum palate. My favorite white rum – Havana Club Anejo Blanco – work extremely well in this cocktail.

The Mary Pickford Cocktail has so similar composition with maraschino liqueur instead lime juice. Dale DeGroff suppose that Mary Pickford Cocktail was invented also Constante Ribalagua but another sources report that Mary Pickford Cocktail was invented by another cuban barman – Eddie Woelke (the creator of famous El Presedente Cocktail). This cocktail created for first Hollywood superstar – Mary Pickford.

First mention of the Mary Pickford Cocktail is in Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddoc (1930) but I use version from Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg.

Mary Pickford

35 ml white rum
35 ml pineapple juice
1 tsp maraschino liqueur
1 tsp grenadine
Shake and strain in the cocktail glass.

Wow! The Mary Pickford Cocktail is awesome drink. It is one of the best cocktail that I drink!

Dale DeGroff also specify another recipe of Mary Pickford Cocktail – “the Flamingo Cocktail plus orange curacao”. It is worth to try.

Mary Pickford #2

35 ml white rum
35 ml pineapple juice
1 tsp orange curacao
1 tsp grenadine
1 tsp fresh lime juice
Shake and strain in the cocktail glass.

This version of Mary Pickford Cocktail has well-balanced smooth taste with pleasant fruit and citrus taste with great rum palate. Great drink for hot summer evening. By the way, best orange liqueur for this cocktail in my opinion is Cointreau.

The Old-Fashioned Cocktail is genuine cocktail. Actually, as Jerry Thomas suppose, cocktail is mix of strong spirit, bitter, sugar and water. Consequently the old-fashioned is the cocktail. Whiskey cocktail. Simple but famous and great.

The Old-Fashioned Cocktail was created in the Pendennis Club in Loisville, Kentucky circa 1890. This cocktail consist of whiskey (bourbon as a rule or rye), cocktails bitter (Angostura is common), sugar and water. The standart recipe and preparation is follows:

Old-Fashioned

1 sugar cube (or 1-2 bsp. of simple syrup)
1-3 dash Angostura bitter
1 tsp. water
50 ml bourbon (or rye whiskey)
Place sugar cube on the bottom of an old-fashioned glass (or pour simple syrup). Soak the sugar cobe with bitters and carefully muddle it. Add some water and stir. Than add some whiskey and stir. Than add two (only two!) large (very, very large!) cubes of ice. Fill the glass with more whiskey and stir. Garnish with a lemon peel.

You may add some dash curacao or Cointreau in your Old-Fashioned Cocktail (optional).

Actually the Old-Fashioned Cocktail is gobsmacked palate-paralysing drink. Absolutely idiosyncratical cocktail. And I love it!

Next great thing about Old-Fashioned Cocktail is the question. To muddle or not to muddle? :) Some barman (DeGroff for example) prefer to muddle some fruits (as a common – piece of orange and maraschino cherry) for yours Old-Fashioned. Some purists deny.

Old-Fashioned (Muddled)

1 sugar cube (or 1 tsp. simple syrup)
1-3 dash Angostura bitter
1 piece of orange
1 maraschino cherry
1 tsp. of water
50 ml bourbon
In the bottom of an old-fashioned glass carefully muddle the sugar cube, bitter, orange slice and cherry with splash of water. Remove the fruit husks. Add the ice and whiskey, stir. Garnish with orange slice and red maraschino cherry.

Yoг may also muddle some pineapple cubes.

The muddled Old-Fashioned is another Old-Fashioned Cocktail. It has interesting and delicious fruit and whiskey taste. It has great look. But it has not the charisma :) or power… But it is delicious, whatever!

Actually sling is old mixed drink which made with strong spirit (like gin), water and sugar. This drink is no so popular today. This mixed drink continue now to its famous version – Singapore Sling.

One of the simplest recipe of Singapore Sling I found in one of my Salvatore Calabrese book. He notice that is not original version, but this recipe is so use.

Singapore Sling

40 ml gin
20 ml cherry-brandy liqueur
20 ml fresh lemon juice
soda
Shake (except soda) and strain into collins glass. Add soda. Garnish with a lemon wedge and red maraschino cherry.

It is so dry cocktail with bitternes of cherry. The taste of this Singapore Sling depend on cherry-brandy. I use cherry-brandy liqueur by BOLS. Also I use famous Cherry Heering Liqueur by Peter Heering with great results.

The “Original” Singapore Sling is more compose drink. This version is average from two recipes from The Essential Bartender’s Guide by Robert Hess and Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh with a hint of The Essential Cocktail by Dale Degroff :) .

The Singapore Sling

60 ml gin
20 ml cherry-brandy
10 ml Benedictine
10 ml Cointreau
60 ml unsweetened pineapple juice
20 ml fresh lime juice
2 dash real grenadine
1 dash Angostura bitters
soda (optional)
Shake (except soda) and strain into sling-glass. Add soda (optional). Garnish with an orange wedge and red maraschino cherry.

I use both cherry-brandy – BOLS Cherry and Cherry Heering – with similar results. The taste of this “Original” Singapore Sling depend on composition of Cointreau, Benedictine, cherry-liqueur etc. I use homemade-cold-process-real-pomegranate grenadine for this ultimate cocktail also.

The Singapore Sling has very unusual taste. The complex bitter and herbal palate is unique pleasure. It is cocktail for real gentleman and connoisseur.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is one of key-cocktail for my blogging. Some years ago this cocktail was found at Slakethirst (now defunct) and I was fascinated by it.

The Lucien Gaudin is an interesting cocktail which consist of four components – gin (as main alcohol), vermouth (deluent), cointreau (sweetener) and Campari (for piquant taste).

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

30 ml gin
15 ml vermouth dry
15 ml cointreau
15 ml Campari
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is awesome drink with compose bitter-sweet palate. It is great aperetive.

P.S. The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is so popular in mixosphere – about Lucien Gaudin Cocktail wrote drohnenton (russian), anonimous с (Slakethirst), Robert Hess (DrinkBoy) for The Spirit World, Rick Stutz (Kaiser Pinguin), Paul Clarke (Cocktail Cronicles) for Serious Eats, Chuck Taggart (Looka!), Jessica (сocktail virgin slut). Not bad! It is like great MxMo roundup :)

Some day ago one of my favorite cocktail-blogger Dr. Bamboo posted some words about marvellous liquor – the Midori. And my cocktail-friend from St. Petersburg, Russia nabocov wrote about Melon sour (Midori-based sour). Actually it is strange thing – three blogers on one week wrote about Midori…

I explore some cocktails with the Beautiful Green Liqueur last week too. First of all I prepared one of the signature Midori cocktails – the Japanese Slipper. This cocktail was invented in 1984 by Jean-Paul Bourguignon at Mietta’s Restaurant in Melbourne. This cocktail has very strange recipe with Cointreau liqueur as main alcohol.

Japanese Slipper

25 ml Cointreau
25 ml Midori
25 ml fresh lemon juice
Shake. Pour into cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

The Japanese Slipper Cocktail has light sour-sweet fruit taste. It is good cocktail for summer or tropic beach. If you replaced cointreau with vodka you may obtain more powerfull drink.

Next my cocktail is Suntory Cocktail. Suntory, as you know, is a large japanese beverage holding, which launched Midori worldwide. This recipe was found in The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff.

Suntory Cocktail

30 ml citrus-flavored vodka (Absolut citron)
20 ml Midori
20 ml fresh grapefruit juice
Shake. Cocktail glass.

The Suntory Cocktail has sweet candy taste with fruit-melon palate. Admirable cocktail.

The Golden Cadillac Cocktail is one of the famous after-dinner cocktail from Alexander`s family. It was invented at Poor Red`s Saloon in El Dorado, California, near Sutter`s Mill, which was Gold Rush territory, hence the name (or only half of the name :) ). It has composition similar to Alexander – spirit, liqueur, cream. Simply and very tasty. This kind of cocktail is great stuff for St. Valentine`s Day evening.

Golden Cadillac

30 ml Galliano
30 ml creme de cacao white
30 ml cream
Shake vigorously and pour in a cocktail glass.

Salvatore ‘The Maestro’ Calabrese garnish some of creamy cocktail with ground-cherry. I think that is great idea. A ground-cherry is very interesting and good-looking garnish for cocktails.

The Golden Cadillac Cocktail has sweet, creamy taste with chocolate and vanilla with a hint of spices palate. It is admirable cocktail.

My next choice for Valentine`s evening is modern Creme Brulee Martini. This recipe was found on the so interesting site – Cocktail Times. It is so rare chance to use in cocktails another interesting italian hazelnut liqueur – Frangelico.

Creme Brulee Martini

45 ml vanilla-flavored vodka
30 ml Frangelico
15 ml Cointreau
30 ml half and half
Shake. Pour in a cocktail glass and garnish with a vanilla stick.

I use Absolut Vanilla in my cocktail. The result are excellent. The Creme Brulee Martini is sweet creamy cocktail with comlex palate. It is like an ice-cream from my childhood.

Happy New Year! This beautiful holiday is excellent cause for great party with best cocktail in the world. But for party we need especial cocktail with a little festivity. Like this Finlandia Arctic Cosmo Martini!

Finlandia Arctic Cosmo Martini

50 ml vodka Finlandia Cranberry
13 ml Cointreau
5 ml cranberry juice
1 bsp. fresh lime juice
Shake. Serve in frosted cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wedge.

Strong and so sweet cocktail with crisp frosty taste. The Finlandia Arctic Cosmo Martini Cocktail is ideal celebration cocktail. It has interesting taste, great looks and it is so strong. Happy New, 2010, Year my dear readers! I wish you all the luck in the world! Sincerely yours – scomorokh.

This month MxMo hosted on Beers in the Shower. The author of this blog announce theme so interesting, but extremely elusive for me. I think “Money Drinks” is like “worth the money” drinks or “make the money” drinks… I hope I have right understanding. For this MxMo I explore one of my favorite “for my guest” cocktail – Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan Cocktail is very popular modern cocktail. It has so many fans and it is a TV-star. It is really one of the most popular cocktail worldwide.

The story of this cocktail is relatively unclear, you may read some of it here (wiki) or here (webtender). My favorite Dale DeGroff in The Craft of the Cocktail and The Essential Cocktails wrote that author of Cosmopolitan is Cheryl Cook. Also he associate the Cosmopolitan with Ocean Spray cooperative and its cranberry juice.

Now we have many recipes of Cosmopolitan. The Cosmopolitan is father of big “cosmo”-family (like margarita or martini). I think that Cosmopolitan consist of vodka as main alcohol, Cointreau as sweetener, cranberry and lime juices. Optional ingredients are orange bitter, simple syrup or lime syrup. Generalized recipe of Cosmopolitan therefore is:

Cosmopolitan

30-45 ml vodka (or citrus vodka)
7-25 ml Cointreau
2 dash – 28 ml cranberry juice
5-13 ml fresh pressed lime juice
optional:
0-2 dash orange bitters
0-8 ml simple syrup
0-5 ml lime syrup
Shake all ingredients in ice-filled shaker and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a orange twist (spiral) or flamed orange peel or lime wedge (or wheel) or lime zest.

I tested eleven version of Cosmopolitan which was found in different sources (like blogs, sites, books etc) and at different times. You may find all recipes in this .pdf files. You may organize yours own “Great Cosmo Roundup” with this simple and clear table :)

Cosmopolitan.PDF

This is results of my “Great Science of Drink Cosmopolitan Roundup”. It begin with my first Cosmopolitan, I do not remember a source of this version.

1. Cosmopolitan (Unknown version) – so strong cocktail with elegant citrus taste;

2. Cosmopolitan (Chris Doig – Brilliant Cocktails) – this version has medium strength and sour-sweet very orange taste, good choice for novice;

3. Cosmopolitan (Jay Hapburn – Oh, gosh! ) – aromatic version of Cosmopolitan, has rich aroma and taste;

4. Cosmopolitan (Dale DeGroff – The King of Cocktails ) – it is well-balanced version with medium strength and delicate citrus taste, this recipe has one lack – too much of the cranberry juice. This is good for novice, not for adept :) ;

5. Cosmopolitan (cocktailtimes.com) – this version has very indistinct taste;

6. Cosmopolitan (Davide Wondrich — quintessence (Esquire Drink Database)) -
it is very good version, it has smooth aromatic and citrus sour-sweet taste, but please omit sugar rim – I think it is joke;

7. Cosmopolitan (Gary Regan (The Joy of Mixology, 2003) (from CocktailDB) – strong and sweet cocktail (Kamikaze :) ) with cranberry juice as dye-stuff, excellent drink;

8. Cosmopolitan (Time Out (wiki.webtender.com)) – sophisticated recipe but mediocre results;

9. Cosmopolitan (Salvatore Calabrese – The Maestro – (from book Classic Cocktails)) – so strong and tempered version;

10. Cosmopolitan (IBA) – light sweet cocktail, novice only;

11. Cosmopolitan (cointreau.com) – strong, sweet and citrus cocktail.

Some tips for your Ultimate Cosmopolitan:

- use good quality vodka (pure or citrus-flavored depend upon you taste, both variants work well in Cosmopolitan)

- use Cointreau (not cheap triple sec), it is good choice for you fresh and citrus Cosmo;

- use good and expensive cranberry juice (and omit the recipe with high amount of cranberry juice, if it possible);

- use fresh ripe limes for yours fresh pressed lime juice, DO NOT use preserved lime juice or something like that. You may add some simple syrup for preferable balance of sour-sweet. Omit lime syrup;

- you can use orange bitter for high aromatic cocktail, please add bitters responsibly ;) ;

- in my humble opinion, most appropriate garnish for Cosmopolitan cocktail is orange zest. I use orange zest spiral for strong version (with high Cointreau content) and flamed orange peel for the others. Flamed orange peel is real show, it is real Cosmo-mood. For flamed orange peel you may:

1. Cut small piece of orange peel. Take this piece of orsnge peel in one hand and a match in other. Strike a match as you see on foto :)

2. Heat the surface of peel with a flame of match through few seconds.

3. Press on peel for release of essential oil.

I can resume that Cosmopolitan cocktail is awesome drink. It has right name, good taste, good looks and good mood. It is acceptable as for cocktail novice as adept. When made correctly, it is a brilliant drink.

This modern tropic cocktail was found on epicurean.com in article about Passoa liqueur by Roberta Roberti. The Monkey Passion Cocktail is sweet and tropical concoction for pleasant rest on the summer beach.

Monkey Passion

60 ml Passoa liqueur
30 ml vodka
60 ml Cointreau
150 ml fresh orange juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Serve in a tumbler.

I recommend shake this cocktail with cubed ice and serve in double rock glass or hurricane glass.

The Monkey Passion cocktail has sweet, light and tropical taste. Admirable drink!

This interesting rare cocktail was found in CocktailDB. The Orange Bloom Cocktail is classic combination of three classic cocktails ingredients – gin, vermouth and Cointreau.

Orange Bloom

45 ml gin
15 ml sweet vermouth
15 ml Cointreau
Stir and strain into cocktail glass. Add cherry.

The Orange Bloom Cocktail has beautiful gold-orange color and great strong and sweet taste with aromatic orange and herbal notes. It is admirable drink.