Cucumber Margarita

As a kid, I remember an oft-played TV commercial that ran in the summertime.  "It's hot, and you need a pool!" the man said, over and over again.  He was right!  At 8 years old, all you want is a pool. 

At my age now, I want a cold drink!  We've got just the ticket: the Cucumber Margarita!

The Ultimate Bar Book, page 293

Cucumber Margarita

1 tablespoon superfine sugar
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/4 cup thinly sliced English cucumber
1 1/2 oz silver tequila
1 oz Cointreau

Put the sugar and lime juice in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass.  Add the cucumber and muddle.  Add the tequila and Cointreau.  Fill the glass with ice and stir.

Damn this is a solid cocktail.  It is a wonderful confluence of the traditional margarita flavors and the fresh taste of summer cucumbers.

Admittedly, I did not use an English cucumber.  I used the more heavily seeded variety that grows in my backyard garden.  If you happen to do the same, remember to take out the seeds in the middle.  Simply slice through the middle and take out the seeds individually with the edge of the knife or you could simply cut out the middle (you'll lose some of the great cucumber taste the more you cut up the middle).

This is a sweet cocktail, no doubt about it. It's sweeter than your usual margarita - there is a tablespoon of sugar in here after all.  It goes down really smoothly though, and isn't sickly sweet. 

I'm particularly a fan of this cocktail because my garden has produced an abundance of cucumbers this year.  It's as though the cucumber plant watched John & Kate plus 8 and got inspired (minus the trashiness, of course - my cucumbers are classy as hell).

Friday, we drink the St. Germain Cocktail.  I'm very excited about this one - and I know JB is too.  Ladies love St. Germain Cocktails.  Love them!  If you're a single guy, buy a bottle for the next time you need to make a drink at your house - it will go over well, I assure you.

See you Friday!

Dia Del Amor

Today is the first of a couple reader submitted drink ideas.  Mike, hailing from beautiful Dayton, Ohio, thought it would be germane to make a cocktail using St. Germain.  (I'm so proud of that last sentence)  Thank you Mike for the suggestion, and your readership.  Keep sending in suggestions, as we'll no doubt be doing this in the future.

I realized after receiving Mike's e-mail, and acknowledging that it was a stellar idea, that I did not have a bottle of St. Germain on hand.  This, of course, necessitated another trip to the local bottle shop.

Barca, the Official Mascot of the Amateur Mixologist, was along for the ride.  At various times, she perched up against the car window and at other times she laid out on the backseat.  Then, she sat like a person (well, as much as a dog can sit like a person anyway), which I found enormously entertaining.

Once at the store, and Barca safely confined for the 5 minutes I was inside, I found the St. Germaine fairly quickly.  It sat along side other liqueurs, like peach schnapps and apple pucker.  Seemed out of place really, as St. Germaine is made from handpicked elderflower blossoms from the Alps.  The friggin' Alps!  And it sits next to the apple pucker!  France, the country of St. Germaine's origin, would be horrified, and rightly so.  At least have the decency to place it next to the Cointreau.  Come on people, help a French-made liqueur out.

After returning from the store, I set out to find a suitable recipe.  I happened upon the Dia Del Amour recipe, and decided it was good enough.  And, it has tequila. 

As mentioned in the Toreador post, I have a history with tequila, and am learning to love it.  Right now, I'm just at the like stage, but am hoping for some serious-like, or something similar, in the next couple of months.  Love may be another year away, I don't know.  In any event, the recipe is called Dia Del Amour, so there is a bit of love in the air, even if in name only.

Here is what the Dia Del Amour looks like:

Recipe
Dia Del Amour

2 dash(es) hot sauce
1 1/2 part(s) tequila
1 part(s) St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
3/4 part(s) lime juice

Shake and strain into chili salt rimmed rocks glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

For this drink, I'm using 1800 Tequila, Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice and Cholula Hot Sauce.  I don't have a lime, unfortunately, but loyal readers know that according to Amateur Mixologist Rule #4, and as first stated in the Velvet Champagne Amour post, "[a] drink should never be avoided as a result of little-to-no garnish availability."

Also, I have no idea what chili salt is, and definitely do not have any in my pantry.  I looked online for it too, but could not find any further information.  As a result, I figured it may be similar to seasoning salt, like what you'd put on a steak if you were so inclined.  I have consumed bloody mary's with seasoning salt rimming the glass, so why not this too.  That's what I did, pulling out the seasoning salt and using the lime juice as the mechanism to wet the rim of the glass.

Done and done.

Admittedly, I didn't think this drink's combination of ingredients would work, but it does.  It's an interesting mix of spicy and sweet, and I dig it.  The St. Germain and the lime juice provided the sweetness, the hot sauce, tequila and seasoning salt provided the spice. 

I'll tell you what though, when using a small amount of liquid in total, be careful how much hot sauce you use.  In a bloody mary, for instance, there's enough liquid and ice to dilute the heat from rampant hot sauce usage.  Not here.  A couple sips in, and my throat was closing up fast, as if the drink had gone down the wrong way.  No no, it was merely the heat that was doing it.

With the first sip, you're going to pull a small amount of the seasoning salt, which, in moderation, is a nice flavor.  Then, you'll taste the mix of ingredients.  At this point, the heat from the hot sauce kicks in - and that's when it all comes together. 

The drink reminds me of the Toreador, and the tequila has everything to do with it.  Tequila has proven to be stellar in mixed cocktails, though, I knew that to be the case.  A freshly made margarita is remarkably good.  In fact, I'd venture to say that I've never had a tequila based cocktail that I didn't enjoy. 

I'm in serious-like with tequila folks, serious-like.  And, if you have suggestions as to a good sipping tequila, please share in the comments or by e-mail.  I think I'm ready to step out and give it another whirl.

Toreador (Drink # 9)

Let's start by discussing tequila for a moment.  As I indicated yesterday, I've given tequila a couple of chances in the past as a stand alone drink, with mediocre results.

The first time I tried tequila as a stand alone drink was back in the summer before college.  My good buddy Jeremy and I were about to head off to our respective institutions of higher learning, but before doing so we decided to purchase a couple of cigars (legally) a bottle of tequila (not legally) and sit on the edge of his parents' driveway, taking in the last of the summer.

He bought a bottle of Patron Silver, and was told that it was for "sipping" and not for taking shots.  At the time, taking shots of tequila was all we knew.

Sipping tequila proved difficult.  I could tell even then that the quality of the Patron Silver was markedly better than whatever I had drank in the past.  Even so, I didn't yet have the taste for drinking 80 proof alcohol neat, and I wasn't familiar with the tenant that some spring water can be used to open up the alcohol.  So I drank the Patron Silver, trying each time to like it more than the last sip, but it was not to be.  The cigar was welcome refuge from the taste of the tequila.

Fast forward to about 6 months ago, my second attempt.

Having just read an Esquire magazine article about tequila, entitled Things We Think We Know About Tequila, and featuring an accompanying article listing good tequilas, I was convinced to give it another try. 

I bought a bottle of Cuervo Tradicional, a modestly priced selection that the article said tasted of "Figs and chocolate" and was a "great value" at $25.  I poured a glass, throwing in a couple of small ice cubes.  I didn't love it.  I gave it a serious college-try too.  It was as though the pool water was just warm enough to put my feet in the wading area, maybe even my ankle.  But I didn't get much further though, the water was just too cold, the tequila too, I don't know, tequila-y.  I stopped sipping about half-way through the drink.

Here we are again, another try at the agave king.

So on my way to the soccer game (we lost in a crushing 3-2 defeat), I stopped by a liquor store I've never seen or been to, but apparently has been in the same location since August of 2008.  Funny how that works - a store sits in same the place for years and you only notice it when you need it to appear (kind of Lost-ish, in a way).

This liquor store was fantastic too, and will be on the short list of places to buy alcohol in the future.  On this visit, I needed the silver tequila for the Toreador cocktail.  My friend Eric had mentioned that 1800 Tequila is pretty good stuff, so I went looking for a bottle of their standard issue silver tequila.

This is what they had:

Now, in fairness, it wasn't all that they had.  In fact, this cool looking bottle was the same price as the neighboring regular 1800 Tequila Silver bottles.  From the picture, you've no doubt gathered that I bought the funked out bottle.  Apparently, 1800 Tequila commissioned artists to create these limited edition bottlings.  Learn more about it here, if you're so inclined.

With the tequila and the crème de cacao, I was good to go.

One other quick side note worth mentioning...this recipe, as you'll see below, calls for white crème de cacao.  The difference between white and dark crème de cacao is the color of the syrup used to make the liqueur.  And, the word "crème" in a name indicates that there is no cream used in the production of the liqueur.  A bit counterintuitive at first thought due to the sound of the word, until you realize that the word "cream" itself is used when cream is included in the contents of the liqueur (now it all makes sense).

Let's drink!

Recipe
The Ultimate Bar Book, page 301
 
Toreador
1 1/2 ounce silver tequila
1/2 ounce white crème de cacao
Whipped Cream
Unsweetened cocoa powder

Shake the tequila and crème de cacao vigorously with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Float a dollop of whipped cream on top, and sprinkle with cocoa powder.


Wow, this is an interesting drink!  There is no doubt that this is tequila based, but it is well-paired with the crème de cacao.  The crème de cacoa doesn't provide too much noticeable flavor, but with the sprinkle of cocoa on the top, the chocolate aroma comes through really nicely.

And it makes sense that tequila and chocolate flavors and aromas should go together.  Latin cuisine is filled with a litany of chocolate flavors mixed with spicy flavors we're not used to coupling together.  If you've at all traveled to Mexico, or some other country south of the American border, you've probably seen hot chocolates made with various spices, chillies, or even anise flavored liquors - a real change from the hot chocolates available at the nearest Starbucks or Lavazza location.

This drink is similar to those hot chocolates south of the border.  The whipped cream though, doesn't impart itself into the rest of the drink when it moves about the glass with each sip.  Tip the glass into your mouth, and the whipped cream floats to the other side, as if it is taunting you.  Sure, some of the whipped cream creeps away from the mainland of foam, but not often enough.

I'm a fan of this drink, but I struggle thinking of the occasion in which I would make it again.  Before a night out?  Probably not.  Random weeknight?  I suppose it's possible, but I'd rather make the Sidecar if given the choice. 

I think it's best chance is when making food that is related to its flavors, and likely its origin.  Fish tacos with chipotle mayo, or enchiladas with a spicy red sauce - something along those lines.

Has the drink changed my opinion of tequila entirely?  Not really.  But, I haven't given up on tequila just yet.  Consider this a push.