Science Of Drink

The most cited story about Harvey Wallbanger Cocktail is about California surfer Harvey, who, after losing important competition one day visited his favorite Duke’s Blackwatch bar. He consumed a lot more of the special Screwdrivers (aromatized with Galliano) than he should have and it is causing to bang against the wall. Some people suggest that the idea of adding Galliano into Screwdriver was Harvey’s invention. Than drink and its name born.

Another story of creation the Harvey Wallbanger Cocktail was founded in The Joy of Mixology by Gary Regan (also you may read this story on his site – Ardent Spirits.com). The Regan wrote “According to an article in Bartender magazine, by Brooks Clark, the Harvey Wallbanger was created at a party in the mid-1960s in Newport Beach, California. The host of the party was a certain Bill Doner, then a sports editor for a small newspaper, and he found that the only potables he had available to him were vodka, frozen orange juice, and a bottle of Galliano, so he simply mixed them all together. In the early hours of the morning one of the guests, by the name of Harvey was found banging his head against the wall, and blaming Doner’s concoction for his misery. A drink was born.“

Actually seems that both story is advertising tool of Galliano owners in USA. Really Harvey Wallbanger is one of the most famous and popular cocktail of the 1970-s. This drink has own National Day which celebrated November, 5.

Harvey Wallbanger is to similar to one of the famous highballs – the Screwdriver. It consist of vodka, orange juice with float Galliano liqueur on top. The key ingredient of the Harvey Wallbanger Cocktail is italian vanilla and liquorice flavored liqueur Galliano. Now new owner of this brand – Lucas Bols Company – renewed original taste of Galliano in Galliano l’Autentico Liqueur. But I use old Galliano Vanilla for my cocktails.

Harvey Wallbanger

30 ml vodka
60-90 ml fresh orange juice
15 ml Galliano
Build vodka and juice in tall glass over ice. Stir briskly and float Galliano on the top. Garnish with an orange slice or wheel and maraschino cherry (optional).

One of my secret of good Harvey Wallbanger Cocktail is using of “normalized” orange juice. The taste of fresh orange juice is so different time to time but I add some simple syrup in the fres juice for optimal sweet and sour balance.

The Harvey Wallbanger Cocktail is great so sweet citrus refreshing drink with smooth vanilla flavor. It is amazing drink for summer or beach or nightclub.

Harvey Wallbanger has Mexican cousine – Freddy Fudpucker, this cocktail contain tequila blanco instead vodka.

Freddy Fudpucker

30 ml tequila
90 ml fresh orange juice
15 ml Galliano
Build tequila and juice in tall glass over ice. Stir briskly and float Galliano on the top. Garnish with an orange slice.

The Freddy Fudpucker Cocktail has very interesting flavor and taste. The Galliano liqueur enlarge taste and flavor of tequila and it result great drink. It is admirable cocktail.

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The extremely positive experience of exploring of Bloody Mary Cocktail inspire me to try some similar cocktail with another nutritious component. Two present cocktail – the Bull Shot and Bloody Bull – contains beef broth and I think it is very interesting.

Bull Shot

45 ml vodka
1 bsp. fresh orange juice
1 dash fresh lemon juice
2 dash Tabasco sauce
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
120 ml beef broth
Shake all ingredients with a lot of ice and strain into tall glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

Some recipe of Bull Shot prescribe Worcestershire sauce. But I decide to omit it.

The Bull Shot Cocktail has piquant and spicy taste. I think that it is great anti-hangover stuff. Next cocktail in the beef topic is Bloody Bull.

Bloody Bull

45 ml vodka
1 bsp. fresh orange juice
1 dash fresh lemon juice
2 dash Tabasco sauce
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
60 ml tomato juice
60 ml beef broth
Shake all ingredients with a lot of ice and strain into tall glass. Garnish with an orange peel.

The taste of Bloody Bull Cocktail is so similar to Bloody Mary but with meat taste. It is very interesting drink.

The Bloody Mary Cocktail is one of the most famous and most consumable cocktail in the world. It is great pick-me-up and anti-hang-over remedy. The key of this mix is a sauce. Two old and famous sauce – the Tabasco and the Worcestershire make Bloody Mary Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary Cocktail has interesting and so unklear story. The common version say that this cocktail was invented in Paris Harry`s American Bar by Fernand “Pete” Petiot in 1920-s. Some people suggest that first cocktail with tomato juice and vodka was prepared by George Jessel but Petiot only improved this drink. Interesting article about this problem you may read at the great blog – Bourbon George (Thinking Bartender, or George Sinclair).

The original garnish of the Bloody Mary Cocktail with selery stalk also has own unclear story. This garnish was incidentally invented by unknown quest of Pump Room Bar, Ambassador Hotel, Chicago under 1960-s.

For my first real Bloody Mary Cocktail I use recipe from one of my favorite cocktail book – The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff:

Bloody Mary

45 ml vodka
2 dash Worcestershire sauce
4 dash Tabasco sauce
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
15 ml fresh lemon juice
120 ml tomato juice
Add all ingrdients of mixing glass. Add ice and than rolling mixture. Pour into highball glass with several ice-cubes. Garnish with selery stalk as swizzle-stick (optional) and lemon or lime wedge.

The amount of the Tabasco sauce is very variable. My choice is about two dash of Tabasco for my Bloody Mary Cocktail. Also I prefer to decrease amount of Worcestershire sauce to 1 dash.

The Bloody Mary Cocktail has delicious spicy taste. It is awesome drink and it is very nutritious. Great choice for supper.

Next we explore Russian variation of Bloody Mary Cocktail – the Bloody Mary Shooter.

Bloody Mary Shooter

30 ml vodka
30 ml spicy tomato mix
Pour first tomato mix and than layer vodka into shooter glass with spicy rim.

To make spicy tomato mix you should mix tomato juice, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, freshly ground black pepper, optional – horseradish, while olives or whatever else you like to put in your Bloody Mary.

For spicy rim you should make mix with teaspoon of salt, dash of freshly ground black pepper, ground red pepper and pinch of celery seeds or caraway seeds. Then moisture the rim of the shooter glass with a lime or lemon wedge and dip it into the mix.

Actually this shooter is great way of drink vodka. This cocktail has awesome look and very balanced taste of strength vodka and sweet and spicy tomato mix.

And finally we explore one of the modern version of canonical Bloody Mary Cocktail – the Inside Out Bloody Mary – martini style cocktail created by Kim Haasarud (founder of the Liquid Architecture and author of several book about cocktails – “101 … (Margaritas, Martinis, Sangrias etc.)”)

Inside Out Bloody Mary

3 to 4 spicy Mary cube
60 ml pepper (or citrus) vodka
dash lemon juice
Shake vodka and juice. Straint into cocktail glass with spicy mary cubes. Garnish with small celery stalk, speared red chile pepper (optional).

To make spicy Mary cubes pour the spicy tomato mix into ice trays. Place the trays in the freezer and let sit until cubes are frozen.

The Inside Out Bloody Mary Cocktail has strong and spicy taste of vodka. After melting of spicy cubes its taste is so similar to original Bloody Mary Cocktail.

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.

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.