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!

As the Difford`s Guide specify, the Blue Lagoon Cocktail was created by Andy MacElhone (son of legendary Harry MacElhone – the creator of White Lady, Monkey Gland and Side-car) at Harry’s New York Bar, Paris, France in 1972. Some sources specify another date of birth for this cocktail – a 1960s, when blue curacao liqueur was launched at european market by BOLS.

Common recipe for Blue Lagoon Cocktail specify vodka (as main alkohol), blue curacao liqueur (as sweetener) and lemonade (as deluent). The most abstruse component of this cocktail is lemonade, actually. I have three ways to avoid this difficulty.

1. Using of the home-made Lemonade.

It is more correct solution. You may cook your own lemonade in such way (recipe from Cocktails and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg).

Lemonade, home-made. Wash three big lemons, cut each in half and squeeze the juice. Pare off the rinds, putting them in a basin with 150 g sugar. Add 850 ml boiling water, cover and leave until cold, stirring occasionally. Then strain into a jug, add the lemon juice and chill. (I recommend to remove the white mesocarp of lemon skin before hot-water infusion. I prefer to add some soda in this concentrate before using).

Blue Lagoon

45 ml vodka
20 ml blue curacao liqueur
home-made lemonade
Build. Collins glass. Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.

The Blue Lagoon Cocktail with home-made lemonade is great summer drink with interesting citrus sour-sweet taste with some bitternes of lemon peel essential oil in the palate. This is admirable drink.

2. Using different recipe.

This recipe of the Blue Lagoon Cocktail was found in the The Classic Bar & Cocktail Book by Jonathan Goodall.

Blue Lagoon

45 ml vodka
30 ml blue curacao liqueur
15 ml fresh lemon juice
soda water
Build over ice in a large goblet. Garnish with blue maraschino cherry.

This version of the Blue Lagoon Cocktail has refreshing sour-sweet and tart taste with light citrus palate. You may use some simple syrup for best sweet and sour balance in this drink.

3. Using of lemon-lime soda.

One of my favotite version of the Blue Lagoon Cocktail is drink with lemon-lime soda. This cocktail is very popular among my guests. I think it is best choice for cocktail-neophite.

Blue Lagoon

45 ml vodka
20 ml blue curacao liqueur
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
lemon-lime soda
Build. Collins glass. Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.

This version of the Blue Lagoon Cocktail has so sweet and citrus taste. This drink also has great show. It is admirable drink for hot summer days, beach party or club.

As you know, I was realy inspired by March MxMo theme – punch. And I realy inspired by old mixed drink – pure classic like Gin Punch. Now I exploring another old and classic cocktail – The Knickerbocker Special. This cocktail has very interesting composition – rum and raspberry syrup. The classic version of this cocktail specifies five main ingredients – raspberry surup (Hogg and Jackson, but CocktailDB specified grenadine), lime or lemon juice, orange juice, curacao liqueur and rum. Thereat CocktailDB and Jackson prescribed light rum, but Hogg and DeGroff – dark. I use one of my gold (actually aged) rum – Bacardi Reserva.

Knickerbocker Special

60 ml gold rum
8 ml raspberry syrup (berry grenadine)
8 ml fresh lemon juice
8 ml orange juice
8 ml orange curacao
some peneapple chunks
Muddle the pineapple spear with juices. Add the rest of ingredients and shake. Serve in a cocktail glass.

The Knickerbocker Special Cocktail has very interesting taste. It has rich berry-fruit sweet-and-sour taste with bright rum palate. The Bacardi Reserva Rum work extremely well in this cocktail. It is amazing cocktail.

I explore one of the oldest version of Knickerbocker, which I found in Imbibe! by D. Wondrich (one of my favorite cocktail book in present time). The original recipe is:

1/2 LIME OR LEMON, SQUEEZE OUT OF THE JUICE, AND PUT RIND AND JUICE IN THE GLASS
2 TEA-SPOONFULS OF RASPBERRY SYRUP
1 WINE-GLASS [2 oz] SANTA CRUZ RUM
1/2 TEASPOONFUL OF CURACOA

Use small bar-glass.
Cool with shaved ice; shake up well and ornament with berries in season. If this is not sweet enough, put in a little more raspberry syrup.

I adopt Wondrich`s recipe to:

Knickerbocker Punch

60 ml gold rum
15 ml raspberry syrup
15 ml orange curacao
15 ml fresh lime juice
Shake. Serve in a tumbler with crushed ice. Garnish with berries, pinneaple spear and lime shell.

The Knickerbocker Punch is a magnificient drink. I was fascinated by its rich and smooth palate with a first sip. Actually it is real “mai tai!”, awesome cocktail. One of the best cocktail that I ever drink.

The source of this interesting version of famous Zombie Cocktail is Bartender’s Guide by Trader Vic, 1947. It contain one of my favorite spirit – Pernod – strong anise flavored liqueur from France. The Zombie is one of my favorite tiki-cocktail.

Zombie (Trader Vic`s, 1947)

30 ml dark rum
60 ml Puerto Rican light rum
30 ml orange curacao
30 ml fresh orange juice
30 ml fresh lemon juice
15 ml grenadine
1 dash Pernod
15 ml 151-proof Demerara rum
Mix in a mixing glass with a large piece of ice, stir well and pour over cracked ice in a14 oz. chimney glass. Serve with straw.

I use four rum – dark and heavy rum from Trinidad – Angostura 1919, dark Demerara rum El Dorado Dark, light cuban rum – Havana Club Anejo 3 Anos and 140-proof Demerara Rum El Dorado. I increase amount of Pernod up to 1 tsp for excellent results. Also I use BOLS Dry Orange liqueur, commercial grenadine and fresh juices. I shake this cocktail and serve in my new ceramic mug, garnish with a traditional flag.

The Zombie Cocktail is great drink. Admirable, very booze and very funny cocktail. The Zombie is a Damn Strong Rum Punch! :)

This cocktail recipe was found in The Craft of the Cocktail: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Master Bartender, with 500 Recipes by Dale DeGroff. The Tropical Cocktail has classic elegant composition and, as Dale DeGroff specified, is an alternative to a Daiquiri Cocktail from the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

Tropical Cocktail

60 ml white rum
15 ml orange curacao
8 ml fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.

The Tropical Cocktail has rich rum taste with some sourness and hint of citrus. It is admirable cocktail.

Recipe of Sweet Memories Cocktail I found in great book Cocktail and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg. This sweet and strong cocktail is ideal drink after evening meal.

Sweet Memories

25 ml Bacardi rum
25 ml vermouth dry
25 ml orange curacao
Shake. Cocktail glass.

Admirable sweet and strong cocktail with smooth rum taste with herbal notes of vermouth and citrus sweetness of liqueur.

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.