Science Of Drink

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.

Both of this cocktail was created by Philip Duff - the ambassador of BOLS. I found this recipes on bolscocktails.com, both of them are rare possibility to use BOLS Kiwi and Bols Lychee liqueur in so average cocktail. This cocktails are not extraordinary but so interesting “for girls” drinks.

Antipodean

15 ml BOLS Strawberry
45 ml BOLS Kiwi
45 ml cranberry juice
Shake. Cocktail. Garnish with kiwi slice and lime slice.

Eurasian

15 ml BOLS Peach
45 ml BOLS Lychee
45 ml cranberry juice
Shake. Cocktail. No garnish.

Both cocktails has sweet and fruity taste. The Antipodean and Eurasian cocktails by Philip Duff is light and sweet concoction. They has one lack - they are very weak. I reccomend to add some (about 15 ml or more) premium vodka for more crisp and bright cocktail.

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 modern cocktail was found on the Dale`s DeGroff site. The Metropolitan cocktail is so close to the Cosmopolitan, but use black currant vodka instead citron vodka. Dale DeGroff inform that author of this version of the Metropolitan Сocktail is Mike Hewett at Marion`s Bar on the Bowery in the NYC. Site and two books - The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff and The Essential Cocktail by Dale DeGroff has similar composition but different proportions. This proportion was found on the Dale`s DeGroff site.

Metropolitan

60 ml Absolut Kurant
15 ml cranberry juice
8 ml Roses lime juice
8ml fresh lime juice
Shake with ice and pour into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.

The Metropolitan Cocktail is admirable cocktail with strong and dilicious currant taste with a hint of citrus. For more smooth, light and sweet cocktail you may to decrease the amount of vodka to 45 ml and inrease the amount of cranberry juice to 20 ml and lime syrup to 15 ml (as in The Essential Cocktail by Dale DeGroff specified).

This post is about one of my first cocktail - the Sex on the Beach Cocktail (SOTB). The SOTB is relatively young and popular cocktail. It was invented approximately in end of 80-s or start of 90-s for promotion of peach schnapps. Some people consider that name of SOTB connected with sex scandal with William Kennedy Smith. This cocktail is so popular around the world but actualy is not a classic cocktail.

As a many cocktail novice I liked this cocktail very much at one time. This cocktail has sweet and fresh taste, simply preparation and looks so good. Now I decide to prepare and compare some popular recipe of Sex on the Beach Cocktail.

My [historically] first Sex on the Beach Cocktail contains only four ingredients - vodka (always use good premium or ultrapremium vodka with clear and neutral taste), peach schnapps, freshpressed orange juice and preserved cranberry juice. Similar recipe was found in the The Classic Bar and Cocktail Book by Jonathan Goodall:

Sex on the Beach

30 ml vodka
30 ml peach schnapps
50 ml fresh orange juice
50 ml cranberry juice
Build all ingredients in highball glass with ice. Garnish with piece of orange and maraschino cherry.

By the way, I prefer to add one barspoon of grenadine in my Sex on the Beach for more bright color. The Sex on the Beach Cocktail has sweet taste with some piquantness of the peach schnapps and cranberry juice. It is admirable cocktail for some cases or peoples.

Similar composition has “official” SOTB from IBA (International Bartenders Association) site.

Next recipe was found in The Bar and Cocktail Book by Michael Jackson (russain edition).

Sex on the Beach

30 ml vodka
30 ml peach schnapps
60 ml fresh orange juice
60 ml cranberry juice
60 ml pineapple juice
Build all ingredients in highball glass with ice. Garnish with piece of orange and maraschino cherry.

This version is more sweet and more light. Great sweet cocktail for modern dancing club. If you use fresh pressed pineapple juice you may obtain excellent results and very delicious drink.

Next recipe I found in The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff. Many good barmans consider that it is more classic recipe of the Sex on the Beach Cocktail:

Sex on the Beach

45 ml vodka
15 ml peach schnapps
8 ml Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
60 ml cranberry juice
60 ml pineapple juice
Shake all ingredients and strain into highball glass with ice. Garnish with piece of lime.

I use Bols Raspberry except Chambord on Darcy`s advice. This version has sweet and piquant taste too.

And finally I taste this recipe, which was founded in one of my favorite site - cocktailtimes.com:

Sex on the Beach

45 ml vodka
20 ml peach schnapps
15 ml creme de cassis
60 ml cranberry juice
60 ml orange juice
Shake all ingredients and strain into highball glass with ice. Garnish with lime wedge.

Great sweet cocktail. This recipe of Sex on the beach Cocktail is so similar to the rest of. All of specified recipe of Sex on the Beach are admirable drinks for some cases and some peoples.

In my Sex on the Beach I use ultrapremim vodka - Russian Standart Platinum. I use three trademarks of peach schnapps - Teichenne Melocoton (Peach) schnapps, Marie Brizard Licor de Melocoton and Bols Peach liqueur - with good results.

This cocktail with amazing russian-sound name - Volga Boatman - has classic composition - vodka (as main alcogol), cherry-brandy liqueur (as sweetener) and orange juice (for diluting). You may find another recipe with kirsch instead cherry-brandy for more dry drink.

Volga Boatman

45 ml vodka
20 ml cherry-brandy liqueur
20 ml fresh orange juice
Shake. Cocktail.

Admirable cocktail for long evening. The Volga Boatman Cocktail has so sweet and so strong fruit taste with piquant bitternes of cherry.

This simple but so strange cocktail is unusual modification of Vodka Stinger Cocktail.

Green Dragon

30 ml vodka
30 ml green creme de menthe
15 ml Cointreau
Shake. Cocktail glass.

Admirable digestive cocktail with smooth and sweet mint taste. Light orangу notes in aftertaste is very pleasant and interesting.