Bacardi Cocktail

Wowza!  It's been an interesting last 48 hours.  Today, we'll be drinking the Bacardi Cocktail in the place of the Mexican Mule.  More on that in a minute...

E-mail went down at the office yesterday, for the entire morning and afternoon.  We couldn't send or receive e-mail, nor could we retrieve e-mails from the system generally.  In other words, if your only way to obtain contact information from someone was in an e-mail they sent, you were SOL.  It was strange to be so isolated from information that is so valuable for daily tasks.  I didn't miss the mundane e-mails that come and go, day in day out.  I did miss the opportunity to access information quickly and efficiently from prior correspondence.

In any event, today we're drinking the Bacardi Cocktail for one simple reason - I don't have any ginger ale.  None. Nada.  I started pulling the Mexican Mule ingredients together, and noticed I was missing out on one of its key ingredients.  And, it was late.  I fumbled through The Ultimate Bar Book, and found a more-than-suitable alternative: the Bacardi Cocktail!

Bacardi Cocktail
The Ultimate Bar Book, page 252

2 oz Bacardi light or gold rum
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz grenadine
Maraschino cherry

Shake the liquid ingredients vigorously with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with the cherry.

I had a little help on the tasting of the drink from JB.  She thought that the drink tasted tart and sweet.  "It tastes like some fruity drink I would have had in college," she said. 

I agree.  This is a rather sweet, tart cocktail.  It's good, but not great.  It's similar to the Celeb_U_Bot we tried last week - a fair amount of juice and added sugar (in this case, the grenadine, the Celeb_U_Bot, good old fashioned sugar).  One of these is likely enough, if for no other reason than the juice and sugar will give you a wicked hangover if you have too many of the Bacardi Cocktail.

Next week, we will no doubt tackle the Mexican Mule, with ginger ale and all.  Until then, have an excellent weekend and drink one for me!

Shamrock

The Shamrock cocktail, a name that evokes thoughts of Ireland, and perhaps a minty-quality as well.  Listen, I'm not giving anything away by telling you that this thing is a sweet drink, perhaps too sweet for the comfort of some of the male readership.  But lest we judge too quickly, let's look at its ingredients:

The Ultimate Bar Book, page 368

Shamrock

1 1/2oz  Irish whiskey
3/4oz creme de menthe
2oz heavy cream
Maraschino cherry

Shake the liquid vigorously with ice.  Strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass.  Garnish with the cherry.

The Shamrock tastes like a minty shake, and with a full 2 ounces of heavy cream added to the mix, you'll want to drink these as sparingly as a shake.  It's rich, it's thick, and it's cold. 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't like this drink, it tastes like candy after all.  But, this is a little foo-foo-y.  I'd expect this on some cocktail bar's pictured drink menu called something like an "Irish Mintastic!" or the "Minty Clover!" - something with an exclamation mark at the end of the title.

JB tried it and thought it tasted like an alcoholic Shamrock shake from McDonald's.  Seems fitting to me.

After a few enjoyable sips, I felt like I was drinking nothing but heavy cream.  It was just a lot to take in in one sitting.  Two of these drinks, and you'll have consumed your the next month's worth of dairy.  Heavy cream is just not meant to be ingested in large quantities in this form.  Mix it up to make some whipped cream, or use it as an ice cream ingredient and it becomes palatable.  Drinking it straight though, it's not all that appealing to me.

I'd suggest this as perhaps an alternative to egg-nog, come the holiday season (it is Christmas in July somewhere).  This may have been an ill-timed choice in the middle of the summer ("milk was a bad choice"), but it's still a good cocktail, just sweet, with a large amount of heavy cream.


This weekend, I'm travelling to a bachelor party for one of my good friends.  I hope you have a fantastic weekend, and enjoy the Shamrock, or whatever it is you'll be drinking.  Until Monday - salud!

Piña Colada & What We're Drinking This Week

So much to talk about, what with the World Cup, the NBA Finals and unexpectedly decent weather this weekend.

First, the World Cup.

The United States side secured a 1-1 draw against England on Saturday, a great result, though not always a great game to watch.  The US were bunched up far too often, played the long ball in the place of steady progression, and generally looked outclassed.  Through it all though, they somehow managed to tie a team that is absolutely stacked with talent.

England's middle is arguably the finest in the tournament, with Gerrard and Lompard.  Their main striker, Wayne Rooney, is probably the 4th best footballer in the world behind Messi, Kaká, and Christiano Ronaldo.  England's defense, though aged, is world class, with Cole and John Terry.  The point being that England should be killing opponents.  Somehow though, each year, they underperform.  This may be the best England squad in a generation, or perhaps ever, but at least on Saturday, they could not produce.

The rest of the tournament has been a bit ho-hum, largely because of low scoring matches.  Germany v. Australia produced 4 goals, the most of any of the games this far, though the match was incredibly one-sided, and Australia was the victim of an abysmal red card leaving their squad a man down.  I heard one commentator explain that the low scores are the likely result of all the advanced planning by the coaches, and that future games will yield a bit more uncertainty and a bit more scoring. 

All told, the World Cup has been fantastic.  I've been recording each game, and plan to watch the entire tournament if at all possible.  The only problem is keeping the scores at bay until I get home.  I have co-workers and the internet to fend off.

In addition to the World Cup, the NBA Finals are 5 games deep, with the Celtics up 3-2 over the Lakers. 

I don't have a rooting interest in either squad, though I don't particularly care for Boston's collection of great players from other teams.  I don't think guys like Garnett and Ray Allen are true Celtics.  Maybe that's unfair of me, but I can't shake the idea of their last couple seasons being nothing more than the mad-dash to the finish a la Malone and Gary Payton.  In any event, last night's Game 5 was a lot of fun to watch.  Pierce, a true Celtic through and through, was hitting clutch shots, while Kobe did everything he could to keep the Lakers in the game.  Kobe's 3rd quarter was brilliant.  And now it's back to LA for Game 6.

Soundtrack of the Week:  Blitzen Trapper Destroyer of the Void - Brand new disc, just released, by an excellent band from the Pacific Northwest.  Their last album Furr was one of the finest efforts of the last few years.  Destroyer is a great next effort.  At times they sound a 1970's rollicking southern rock and roll band, and at other times they can be ethereal and sweet.  I saw them live back in the fall, and will be seeing them a couple times later this year.  Highly recommend this album, and if you don't already have Furr, go get it. 

What We're Drinking This Week

-  Piña Colada - This drink needs no introduction.  Read below, you'll see I was drinking it before I could throw a garnish in the mix.

-  Liberty Cocktail - Calvados and light rum based cocktail - not sure how this one will turn out, but we'll give it a go.


Piña Colada

If you've travelled to Puerto Rico, you know of this drink's prominance.  It's the official drink of the island.  It was purportedly made to be the signature drink at a hotel in Old San Juan.  Which, incidentally, if you haven't been, is a must-visit.  Old San Juan is a really vibrant and beautiful part of the city, and its incredibly easy to get to the island from the US.  You don't even need your passports. 

In any event, the drink consists of rum, pineapple juice, and coconut cream.  Coconut cream is a made with coconut milk, and is a really sweet concoction that you could eat by the spoonful if given the opportunity.  I made the drink in the kitchen, as the dining room table was occupied by work related stuffs.

The Ultimate Bar Book, 272

Piña Colada

2oz Puerto Rican light rum
6oz pineapple juice
2oz coconut cream
Pineapple spear
Maraschino cherry

Shake the liquid ingredients vigorously with ice.  Strain into a large ice-filled wineglass.  Garnish with the pineapple spear and cherry.

I had to pull out the large shaker for this one.  There is a lot of liquid in one of these drinks, and I was going to be making a couple of them anyway (JB wanted one as well).  One word of advice - be sure to mix or shake the contents of the coconut cream can, because I assure you it will not be mixed particularly well when you open it.  You won't make a bad drink if you start skimming off the top right away, but, it might be a little sweet.  Dip a spoon in the can, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

You'll notice there is no garnish in any of the photos.  As mentioned above, I started drinking before I had a chance to add the pineapple or cherry.  It was just too good, particularly after all the warm weather we've had of late.  It was a perfect end to the day, though I could have added far more rum to the mix if I had wanted.  The recipe above is great, don't get me wrong, but don't expect to taste much of the rum.  You have 2 ounces of rum battling against 8 ounces of other liquid for positioning.  This is one of those drinks where you can tip the bartender's arm and pour a couple more ounces and it'll still be a great drink. 

Also, you're probably not going to drink a ton of these drinks because the coconut cream is a bit heavy after a while.  It's delicious, but one is enough.  Maybe make it a good one - throw in an additional ounce or two of rum.

Thank you to the recent e-mailers of late, appreciate your thoughts and input.  Have a great week - and if you can't get enough of me on here, remember that we have a Twitter account that features more links to interesting cocktail stories and information: @IMakeDrinks

Cheers!

Pedro Collins (Drink # 8)

I watched the season finale of Big Love this evening.  If you haven't seen it, or don't want to know the general story line of the show - skip down to the recipe.


Big Love
This season has been a weird one.  I felt like the show had too many balls in the air, and every story seemed crazier and crazier.  Bill turned into an asshole, plain and simple.  And the idea that he'd come clean about his polygamist family right after the election never quite made sense to me.  How blinded must Bill have been to think that he'd be accepted and not run out of office immediately after he admitted his polygamist-ways? 

Let's talk about the speech for a moment...

Why would a state senator get a platform like that, in front of what I presume was the capital building, for his acceptance speech?  He wouldn't!  It's as though he became a U.S. Senator.  It looked ridiculous.

In any event, I did not think that he would follow through with admitting his family's secrets to the rest of Utah (and the world, I suppose).  None of the wives looked particularly happy, and who can blame them - they're all getting screwed out of what they want.  The end of the show mirrored this season's new opening - filled with blowing hair, and pouty lips.  I'm not sure where the show goes from here, but there isn't enough room for too many more story lines.

Recipe
The Ultimate Bar Book, page 271

Pedro Collins
2 ounces light rum
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
3 to 4 ounces chilled club soda
Lime slice
Maraschino cherry

Pour rum, lime juice, and sugar into an ice-filled collins glass. Top with clubs soda and stir gently.  Garnish with the lime slice and cherry.


I used my trusty old Bacardi Rum bottle for this one.  This bottle is getting more use in the last month than it had did in the 6-7 years prior.  I'm enjoying rum far more than I ever thought I would.  I guess the last few times I had rum would have been in a rum and coke, or something similar.  Rum and cokes aren't terrible, but they aren't my favorite.  As a result, I never gave rum much of a chance.

This is one hell of a refreshing drink.  Anything with rum, lime juice and ice is bound to taste a little lime-aid-ish - and it surely does, just like the Daiquiri.  And unfortunately, the sugar won't dissolve in the cold liquid, so it's left sitting in the bottom of the glass.  I'm not sure how much additional sweetness is really necessary for the drink.  If it did dissolve, the drink might become a little syrupy.

The Pedro Collins is fairly light on the alcohol relative to the rest of the drink's contents, so you can drink a couple of these and still be sitting pretty.  The club soda adds only a small amount of fizz, but just enough to add a little pop to the drink that would otherwise be sweet and flat.

This is another in a string of summer drinks (see also the Daiquiri and the Sidecar).  There's a reason rum is an alcohol out of the tropics - in the high heat, the Pedro Collins is a good bet.  Next time though, I may mix everything without the ice, in the hopes the sugar dissolves at least in part.  Like I said above, the sugar may be unnecessary in the end, but it seemed silly to have the sugar sitting idly at the bottom. 

I actually think that this phenomenon is a big reason artificial sweetners are so popular - they dissolve in cold liquids far better than regular sugar.  You can read more about this at my new blog:
www.randomthoughtsbasedonlittleornoscientificevidence.com.

Check back tomorrow when I try the dreaded tequila drink I wrote about the other day, the Toreador!  Honestly, I'm not looking forward to it.  I have a soccer game this evening, and there may be nothing worse than tequila after running around like an idiot for an hour.  Though what do I know, perhaps there's nothing better - only one way to find out...

The First Drink - Classic Manhattan

Classic Manhattan Ingredients

In researching the Manhattan, I came away with little proof of its origin. You can read the same for yourself in the Wikipedia entry which nicely sets out a few of the origin-stories.

“A popular history suggests that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the early 1870s, where it was invented by Dr. Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston's mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable, later prompting several people to request the drink by referring to the name of the club where it originated — "the Manhattan cocktail."[4][5] However, Lady Randolph was in France at the time and pregnant, so the story is likely a fiction. The original "Manhattan cocktail" was a mix of "American Whiskey, Italian Vermouth and Angostura bitters".”

I love this story because it has no basis in fact, and it's possible Lady Randolph drank heavily on the whiskey while pregnant (was she pregnant with Winston?).

The Recipe

Classic Manhattan 

The Ultimate Bar Book, page 354

2 ounces rye, bourbon, or blended Canadian whisky

3/4 ounces sweet vermouth

2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Maraschino cherry

Stir the liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

For this recipe, I'm using Woodford Reserve bourbon, and Gallo sweet vermouth.  Mixing everything together was easy.  Taking the photos though, not as easy.

Steady now, steady

The finished product is pretty striking.  Against a white backdrop, the amber color of the bourbon looks good.

Classic Manhattan

My initial thought was how sweet the drink tasted, far sweeter than I ever remember at a bar. No doubt that the sweet vermouth is the likely culprit. It's also likely that my tastes have evolved. At one time, appreciating 40% alcohol, was just not going to happen. Now, I feel as though I can actually taste something, as opposed to a time not long ago when nearly all shots felt like someone poured rubbing alcohol down my throat. Neat scotch is my drink of choice, and so the flavor of the sweet vermouth is a little cloyingly sweet compared to what my impression would have been of the same drink even a few years ago.

I think the Woodford does make it drinkable. I love Woodford. It's probably my favorite commonly available bourbon. I can taste the bourbon through the sweet vermouth, even if my first reaction is the sugary buzz that I'm picking up right away.

I like the drink and I like the recipe, but I don't know how many of these I could consume. It's like any other sweet food or drink - a little goes a long way. I think one is enough. I think this might be a good choice before or after dinner. It's sweet enough that it's whet my appetite; it's about 6pm now, a good time to start thinking about dinner in an hour or two.

Looking forward to making a drier version of the Manhattan, I think it will be more suited to my tastes.