Science Of Drink

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The Pick Me Up Cocktail from my last post impress me. This post is devoted to some variations of Pick Me Up Cocktail which was found on Cocktail DB. All of this pick-me-up contains champagne, it is very interesting on my opinion.

I.b.f. Pick Me Up Cocktail [wtf the i.b.f??? Internationla Bartender Federation???] contains my favorite anti-abuse remedy - french bitter - Fernet-Branca.

I.b.f. Pick Me Up

45 ml brandy
8 ml orange curacao
8 ml Fernet-Branca
champagne
Build in highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lemin twist.

The I.b.f. Pick Me Up Cocktail has so dry taste with herbal bitternes of Fernet-Branca. It is interesting cocktail.

Next pick-me-up contains pastis - another great anti-abuse thing. I use Ricard as usualy.

Pick Me Up Hiball

60 ml brandy
8 ml orange curacao
8 ml fresh orange juice
8 ml pastis
champagne
Shake brandy, liqueur and juice with ice and strain into highball glass filled with ice. Fill with champagne and float pastis.

The taste of Pick Me Up Hiball cocktail is so dry too. It is real buzz :)

The Harry’s Pick Me Up was invented by famous Harry McElhone on 1925.

Harry’s Pick Me Up

45 ml brandy
15 ml grenadine
30 ml fresh lemon juice
champagne
Build brandy, juice and syrup in a highball glass and stir. Fill the champagne.

The Harry’s Pick Me Up Cocktail has sweet and sour refreshing taste. Admirable cocktail.

This cocktail with german name and interesting composition was found on one of my new cocktails book - Falken mixbuch: 1444 Rezepte mit und ohne Alkohol by Peter Bohrmann.

Russische Nacht (Russian Night)

60 ml vodka
15 ml curacao blue
1 dash Pernod
Shake with a lot of ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

The Russische Nacht Cocktail has flickering deep blue color and looks great :) The taste is very interesting smooth orange-anise taste with bitter-sweet aftertaste. I think it is admirable cocktail.

For this Mixology Monday XXXVII: First Time (LUPEC Boston) I prepared two my favorite cocktails. This two cocktails is very discovered by me and I found “gold” proportion and technique for it. This is my ultimate or supreme-version.

First cocktail is a Mai Tai. Pure tiki-classic and best cocktail in the world.

SupreMai-Tai

30 ml aged Cuban rum Havana Club Anejo 7 Anos
30 ml aged dark rum Angostura 1824
15 ml orange curacao
15 ml orgeat
5 ml rock candy syrup
1 dash Angostura bitter
Shake all with a lot of cracked ice. Serve in apropriate rock glass with crushed ice. Garnish with beautiful flower.

This SupreMai-Tai has very smooth, a little sweet and gorgeous taste.

I try to use different flowers for my SupreMai-Tai. All of it look very good. For example - narcissus.

Second cocktail is Mojito. It is very simple cocktail. The preparation of the Mojito is an art.

SupreMojito

1 tsp. sugar
10 ml fresh lime juice
10 fresh mint leaves (Mentha piperita var. alba)
70 ml white cuban rum Havana Club Anejo Blanco
50 ml soda water (alkaline mineral water)
Muddle mint with sugar and juice. Add crushed ice, rum and stir well. Add crushed ice and sida. Garnish with lime wedge and mint sprig.

SupreMojito has bright and very fresh taste of mint and rum. It is very smooth and light cocktail.

Actually I have some problems with recipe normal cocktail with my new liqueur DeKuyper Blueberry… But result is great!

Blueberry Martini

50 ml vodka
25 ml blueberry liqueur (white)
1 dash blue curacao
2 drops of grenadine
Shake well and strain into frozen cocktail glass.

I use BOLS Blue and Lemon-X grenadine for color like blueberry. This cocktail has strong, sweet berry taste. Admirable!

Cuban classic cocktails - El Presedente was created in Club El Chico in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village (Cuba). My favorite version of this cocktail (without lime juice and bitters) was found on Esquire Drink Database (by D. Wondrich).

El Presidente

45 ml white rum
15 ml orange curacao
20 ml dry vermouth
1 dash grenadine
Stir with cracked ice. Strain in cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Cocktail El Presidente has amazing orange color if it right prepared. I use rum Havana Club Anejo Blanco for excellent results and homemade grenadine for right taste and color.

Pegu Club Cocktail is very interesting drink. It was born in Pegu Club, Rangoon, Burma about 1927. I think it was very interesting place and time. Great time for great classical cocktails and very unusual place - Burma…

I payed attention for Pegu Club Cocktail on my blog. But I think that this classical cocktail is worthy of most detailed investigation. I try some version of this cocktail from competent sources for best understanding of Pegu Club Cocktail.

First recipe was found on Esquire Drink Database:

Pegu Club #1

60 ml gin
20 ml orange curacao
20 ml fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Shake with a lot of cracked ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

We have sour and bitter-taste cocktail in result. I think that it is great aperetive but it is not my choice.

Two next recipe was found on CocktailDB:

Pegu Club #2

60 ml gin
30 ml ml orange curacao
5 ml fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Stir with ice. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

This cocktail is awful. It has oily-sweet and very bitter taste. As for me it is disappointing thing. But this cocktail let me to understand one key problem of Pegu Club Cocktail. One of key thing of Pegu is airing of a drink. Airing of coctail during it shaking give us smooth and pleasant drink.

Next recipe of Pegu Cocktail was found on CocktailDB too. The composition of this version of Pegu Club Cocktail seems very interesting:

Pegu Club #3

50 ml gin
15 ml orange curacao
8 ml fresh lime juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Shake (Hard! Bruise it!) with a lot of cracked (or crushed) ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

This cocktail has bright, very aromatic and smooth bitter taste. Actually this Pegu Club Cocktail is great cocktail. For best result you must shake your cocktail very, very hard. I use crushed ice and shake hard my cocktail about 30 - 45 sec. In this condition the airing of drink is optimal and we obtain great cocktail.

I try version of Pegu Cocktail by Dale DeGroff too.

Pegu Club by Dale DeGroff

60 ml gin
20 ml orange curacao
2 lime wedge
2 dash Angostura bitters
Muddle lime with liqueur and bitters, then add gin, ice and shake. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lime wedge.

It is very interesting and refreshing cocktail. This version of Pegu Club Cocktail has light bitter taste and is good balanced. The taste of this cocktail is more closest to #3 version but has some interesting notes of lime essential oils from peel. Actually it is very interesting drink.

I posted the Martinez Cocktail on my blog before, but I decided to return to this cocktail for detailed investigation. The Martinez Cocktail is one of my favorite classic cocktail.

The Martinez Cocktail is very old cocktail. Some peoples think that Martinez is the precursor of most famous cocktail of the world - The Martini cocktail. The author of Martinez Cocktail is legendary Jerry Thomas.

Some imbabers-bloggers give attention to this cocktail too. You can find more interesting information about Martinez on one of my favorite blog Oh, Gosh! (by Jay Hapburn) and, of course, on Spirits And Cocktails (by Jamie Boudreau).

First I discovered old-style version of Martinez Cocktail, which is more closest to original recipe by Jerry Thomas.

Martinez (Old Style)

60 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml gin (Old Tom gin is preferable)
1 tsp maraschino liqueur
1 dash bitters
Stir. Strain in cocktail glass. Garnish with a quarter of lemon wheel.

It is amazing cocktail with right and elegant taste. It is so week as for my taste, but rich complex taste of this version is very good for me.

Next step of my investigation is recipe of Martinez from CocktailDB. In this Martinez we can to try orange curacao as substitute of maraschino liqueur and dry vermouth instead sweet.

Martinez (Dry Style)

35 ml gin
30 ml dry vermouth
7 ml orange curacao (or maraschino liqueur)
1 dash orange bitters
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

This Martinez is so closest to Martini Cocktail. It has so dry, aromatic taste (I use MB Orange Curacao 30%). This cocktail is very good aperetive, but this version is not my choice.

This version of Martinez with maraschino liqueur has beautiful light sweet aromatic taste with floral undertones. This taste is more preferable for my understanding of Martinez Cocktail.

And of course I try modern version of Martinez Cocktail by Jamie Boudreau. It is one of my favorite cocktail.

Martinez (Modern style)

45 ml gin
45 ml sweet vermouth
2 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dash orange bitters
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon slice.

Magnificent cocktail! It is smooth and very aromatic cocktail. Sometimes I use Angostura aromatic bitters instead orange bitters, this work well in my opinion.

In conclusion I try my own version of this classic cocktail. I like to use sweet citrus vermouth by Cinzano in my Martinez.

My Martinez

35 ml gin
35 ml sweet citrus vermouth (I prefer Cinzano Limetto)
2 tsp maraschino liqueur
2 dash Angostura bitter
Stir. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with lemon slice.

It is beautiful cocktail with smooth aromatic citrus taste.

This (I think so) tiki-cocktail was found on my favorite CocktailDB. It has some strange things in recipe. 15 ml of sugar… Hm-m-m-m… 1 oz of simple syrup? It seems so (very!!!) sweet drink, but I use sweetened pineapple juice and no sugar :)

Treasure Island Special

30 ml light rum
30 ml Jamaican rum
7 ml orange curacao
7 ml peach brandy
15 ml fresh lime juice
60 ml pineapple juice
15 ml sugar
2 drops Angostura bitters
Shake. Strain over ice in a double rocks glass.

Admirable! Treasure Island Special Cocktail is well-balanced and has very interesting piquant rum flavor.

I use Webtender Wiki for new cocktails this evening. I go mad on tiki-drinks last few days and search something interesting here. And I find great idea - my favorite Mai Tai cocktail, but which made with blended scotch instead rum! Wow! Great idea, I think. And this cocktail has amazing name - Honi Honi… Another great idea - Pinky Gonzalez (Mai Tai with tequila instead rum) I find right here. It is great idea for comparsion of this cocktail.

I use my favorite motto - “Creating a drink that would be the finest drink we could make, using the finest ingredients we could find” (Trader Vic about Mai Tai`s idea) for components choice. Best scotch in my liquore cabinet is Famous Grause 12 y.o. and best tequila - Leyenda del Milagro Select Barrel Reserve Anejo. Both ingredients are ultimate spirit in my collection.

Honi Honi

45 ml blended whisky
15 ml orgeat
15 ml orange curacao
7 ml rock candy syrup
30 ml fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients and strain in rocks glass over ice. Garnish traditionaly.

Actually it is great, well-balanced cocktail. The scotch give fascinating complex aftertaste.

Pinky Gonzalez

45 ml tequila
15 ml orgeat
15 ml orange curacao
7ml rock candy syrup
30 ml fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients and strain in rocks glass over ice. Garnish traditionaly.

This is amazing cocktail too. It has complex sweet taste, but in color it is light brown :)

P.S. Another Honi Honi Cocktail - consist of light rum, apricot brandy and lemon juice. It will be tasted soon :)

This cocktail has amazing character - as for me is symbol of La Dolce Vita. It is great thing for relax after hard work.

Blue Hawaiian was invented in bar of Zanzibar Club (London, UK). The Blue Hawaiian is a cocktail that contains white rum, blue curacao, pineapple juice and cream of coconut (or creme of coconut ???). However, some recipes substitute cream of coconut with coconut-flavored rum. This cocktail shouldn’t be confused with the similarly named Blue Hawaii (with vodka).

This two more beautiful (as for me, of course) version of Blue Hawaiian Cocktail.

Blue Hawaiian (with a coconut liqueur)

30 ml white rum
30 ml coconut liqueur
30 ml pineapple juice
15 ml blue curacao liqueur
Shake. Serve in double-rocks glass. Garnish with a cherry and pinneaple spear.

Admirable cocktail with very smooth, light, sweet taste.

Blue Hawaiian (with a coconut cream)

40 ml white rum
20 ml pinneaple juice
10 ml blue curacao liqueur
1 tsp coconut cream
Shake vigorously. Serve in cocktail glass. Garnish with piece of pineapple.

This version has so strong and less coconut taste.

For my Blue Hawaiian I use Havana Club Anejo Blanco for very smooth and light cocktail.