Periodic bar check

I was struggling for a moment when trying to fit the vermouth in a particular category. But the Aperitif Wines category will do nicely. Apart from dry and sweet vermouth, there are at least two other ingredients that could be added later.

The bar now holds:

Bases

gin

Aperitif Wines

dry vermouth

General Ingredients

ice

Glasses

Old Fashioned glass

cocktail glass

Barware

jigger

bar spoon

Bar spoon

After adding the proper tool for measuring, we’ll continue by adding the proper tool for mixing. Well, proper in certain cases. The bar spoon can be used to stir drinks. Stirring is the common method when the cocktail uses only clear liquids. This will include spirits, wines, non-opaque liqueurs and bitters^*. When juices, syrups, cream or eggs are being used, the cocktail will be shaken.

Stirring the cocktail will result in a translucent drink: no bubbles, no fog. Just a neat, crystal-clear, smooth result.

Of course, the stirring will usually be done with ice. This will result in cooling and a bit of dilution (which is just as much part of the process). If you really want to go out of your way, you can fill the bottom of your mixing glass with smaller cracked ice, adding larger ice cubes on top. However, just using the ice that’s on hand will not make the drink suffer much.

Stirring can be done with the normal end, but if there’s little room to manoeuvre the spoon around there’s nothing wrong with turning the bar spoon around and stirring with the handle.

Just make sure the ice and the liquid are moving around nicely, until the drink is properly mixed and chilled.

Other uses for the bar spoon are layering and measuring.

The back of the spoon can be used to carefully pour layers of liquor (that would actually be the opposite of mixing).

A bar spoon holds approximately the same amount as a conventional tea spoon, so if a recipe ever calls for that volume, your bar spoon will suffice.

I specifically only add the bar spoon here, not the mixing glass and/or the strainer. I have done about 20 years without a ‘proper’ mixing glass and that hasn’t been any problem so far. Any tall, wide tumbler glass will do nicely as a mixing glass. We’re soon going to add a shaker as well, and stirring in the tin of the shaker is also possible.

As for straining, there are all kinds of ways to get the desired result. A julep strainer would be the classic way to strain your stirred cocktail, but I’m also without that particular tool. If you have a hawthorn strainer (with the metal spiral) that fits in your glass, you’re all set. Other options are using the built-in strainer of your shaker, using a properly sized spoon to hold back the ice, using your hand (if the ice cubes are large enough) and using a hand sieve.

This video of Charlotte Voisey will show an excellent example of how to stir a drink.

It also happens to be a nice example of a Martini. It conforms to my Martini definition, because Lillet Blanc could certainly be regarded as a special variant of vermouth.

Just be careful in choosing the order of adding ice and liquid. If you add the ice last, you have to be careful not to cause large splashes when the ice hits the liquid (tilting the glass might help here). If you start off with ice, don’t fill your ice to the brim (you can always add some extra ice after taking care of the liquid): when the liquid lands on the ice it will splash a bit and could land outside the glass.

^*  CocktailDB

Jigger

Improvising when you’re missing the proper tools to make a cocktail is okay. However, the act of preparing a cocktail is also part of the experience. So if you use proper equipment, this will work on an emotional level: it will feel more right. Even though the result might be exactly the same, the experience as a whole is enhanced.

When making the Martini, you might have had to use some improvisation. This was on purpose, to show that a) it can be done and b) it could be done more properly.

 That’s why I’m first going to add two mixing tools to the bar, before we continue with the liquor.

The first tool will be the jigger or measure. It is used to measure the exact amount of liquids used while mixing. Specifically, it is used to make sure the proportions of the ingredients are right.

There are a lot of different jiggers around. Most are double-sided (like the left one), others are one-sided (to the right). One-sided jiggers will usually have lines for smaller measures. If you ever buy one of these, please make sure that these lines are clearly visible (by being engraved or having ‘levels’). If it’s just a print on the inside, it won’t be very visible to begin with and will probably fade over time.

There are American jiggers which use fluid ounces (fl oz or shorter: oz) and there are European jiggers which use the metric system (cl – centilitres or ml - millilitres). Both are fine, of course.

The term jigger comes from an alternative to the term shot. A shot is the standard amount which would be served in a shot glass. For the USA, that’s 1,5 oz (or 44 ml). A small shot, short shot or pony shot would be 1,0 oz.

Originally, a double-sided jigger used to have a shot volume on the larger side and a pony shot volume on the smaller side. However, there have been made all kinds of variations. But you still call the large cup the jigger and the small cup the pony (independently of actual volume).

Some people might say that using a jigger isn’t cool. They might think that free pouring is the way to go if you want to mix a drink with bravado. It’s also about the presentation, right?

However, getting a drink that hasn’t got the right proportions is definitely not cool, because it won’t taste how it should. So just use a jigger. Some of the best professionals use one. There’s absolutely no shame in measuring, it will only show that you’re taking the art of mixing drinks seriously.

Having said that, it’s also okay to make a safe guess now and then. Sometimes you will have to, because the recipe calls for a ‘dash’. Experience will teach you how much that means for that particular cocktail.

Sometimes your jigger just doesn’t have the right volume to work with. In these cases, it’s okay to eyeball the amount.

I like to use only the jigger-side of my double-sided jigger. That’s not because I hate ponies, but it’s because turning the jigger around will cause some leftover liquor to spill. Especially when you are using liqueurs (which tend to be sweet and sticky) this can amount to quite a mess after some time. I have found that just using one side will make for cleaner mixing.

To make sure this will not adversely influence my measurements, I know to which height I have to fill the jigger to make it ‘half-full’.

This is done easily by properly measuring this once and making a clear mental note of the height you should aim for.

One last note on using the jigger: hold the jigger close to your glass, mixing glass or shaker. That way, you can easily tip it over and make sure the liquid gets where it should, even when filling the jigger to the brim. Working at a distance will cost time and will lead to possible spillage, while it’s just as easy to work close to your vessel.

Dry vermouth (Dry Martini)

With just one step removed from one of the six basic cocktails (by David A. Embury’s definition, at least) it’s hard to resist adding the ingredient that will land us at the Martini. And I see no reason to hold back.

So we add dry vermouth to the bar. Vermouth is both a fortified wine and an aromatized wine.

A fortified wine is not distilled itself: instead, the fortification is done by adding a neutral spirit. Originally, the idea behind adding extra alcohol was to increase the preservation time. Port, sherry, Madeira and Marsala are all other examples of fortified wine.

Aromatization is adding extra flavour with herbs and spices (and seeds, roots, barks and flowers). Aromatized wines have been around for a long time: it is thought that the Chinese already had aromatized wines before 1000 BC.

I’ll not expand too much on the history of vermouth, so I’ll have something left when we get to the sweet vermouth. Suffice to say that Joseph Noilly produced the first dry vermouth in France at the beginning of the 19^th century.

Both the Italians and the French are famous for their production of vermouth. So which vermouth should you use?

If you go for an Italian dry vermouth, that’s fine. It will certainly do the job. But although both countries produce both dry and sweet varieties, traditionally the French are known for the dry vermouth. If you browse The Savoy Cocktail Book, you won’t find recipes demanding ‘dry vermouth’ or ‘sweet vermouth’. Instead, they list ‘French vermouth’ and ‘Italian vermouth’. So there’s a lot to say about following the same pattern: take French vermouth for dry, and Italian for sweet. But the cocktail police won’t arrest you if make a different choice.

One thing to take into account, though: dry vermouth should ideally be kept refrigerated and be used within 1 to 3 months. Ted Haigh^* and other experts insist.

^*  In ‘Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails’

Dry Martini

Now on to the cocktail which could fill a blog on its own: the Martini. If we make a Dry Martini, the ‘dry’ indicates we’re using dry vermouth. On the other hand, if we are discussing how dry a Martini should be, we actually consider a Martini drier if there is less vermouth. That’s because a Martini is usually made with London dry gin (and the vermouth, while dry, still manages to take the edge off the gin a bit).

The exact origin of the name is not known, although some theories exist. What’s certain, is that the name did not originate from the Italian vermouth brand. What’s also generally agreed upon, is that the Martini evolved from the Martinez, a sweeter variant.

Although I promised not to complicate matters much in this forum, I do feel obliged to take a stand on Martinis. Debates are so heated around this subject, that just ignoring it would be getting myself off too easily.

So here is my view on what a Martini actually is:

·        A Martini is made with gin.

It is not made with vodka. A Vodka Martini has its own name: the Kangaroo. Sorry Mr Bond.

·        It is served in a cocktail glass.

I don’t think many will object to this.

·        It is chilled by stirring.

I won’t go into discussions about ‘bruising the gin’ (by shaking), but this is generally accepted as the proper way to prepare these kind of cocktails.

·        It is made with vermouth.

Yes, I don’t specify dry vermouth. So this also allows for a Sweet Martini and a Perfect Martini (equal parts sweet and dry vermouth).

·        It is optional to add one or two dashes of orange bitters.

Orange bitters are also a classical element of the Martini. However, unless you’re already an immense cocktail enthusiast, you won’t have orange bitters at home. It’s okay to do without them however: Harry Craddock doesn’t use them either (in The Savoy Cocktail Book).

·        The Martini can be garnished with olive(s) or a lemon twist.

Or nothing. Whatever you choose, it’s a matter of taste. There’s no rule on the number of olives either. Just go with what’s available and to your taste.

So how dry should a Dry Martini be? Again, that would be entirely up to the drinker. It started off as equal parts, but over time people demanded drier and drier Martinis with less vermouth. Ratios went from 2 : 1 to 4 : 1, than 6 : 1, even 15 : 1… Eventually, only the glass or ice was coated with vermouth before adding the gin. In my eyes, that’s plain silly: if you want to drink gin, just drink gin. Don’t go over all the fuss of adding a slightest hint of vermouth.

It does make for some funny instructions and quotes, though. To treat the bottle of vermouth like it’s the last one on earth, for example. Or the quote of the flamboyant Noël Coward (on which I do not agree, but which I still find very funny): he suggested that a perfect Martini should be made by “filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy”.

I’ll take things easier, however.

2 parts gin

1 part (or less) dry vermouth

glass:  cocktail

Stir with ice and strain into the glass.

Add orange bitters (before stirring) and garnish (olive(s) or lemon twist) according to taste and availability.

I’m aware that we don’t have proper bar equipment yet, so that probably means you’ll have to improvise. Use any large glass or cup as mixing glass. Stir with a spoon that seems fit for the job. And use your hand to hold back the ice when decanting if you really have nothing to strain through.

Measuring shouldn’t be too much trouble, just find a small vessel to use as a measuring cup. Alternatively, you could use a kitchen scale to monitor the amount of liquid you add (a trick my girlfriend has come up with and that works nicely).

In this case I used Gordon’s London dry and Noilly Prat. The proportion I kept was 2 parts gin and 1 part dry vermouth, and that works just fine with me.

So, apart from stirring instead of shaking, I have kept entirely to the version in The Savoy Cocktail Book (somehow all Martinis are shaken there, adding to the confusion).

Cocktail glass

What could be more quintessential to cocktails than the cocktail glass? Even a gin pennant (a maritime flag that invites others to come aboard and have a drink) usually sports a cocktail glass.

It’s also known as a martini glass, although I personally think that the Martini’s claim is not as obvious as the Old Fashioned has on its own glass. The famous conical shape did not come into vogue until 1925. Martini’s had been around since around 1900. Some people object to a Martini being served in anything but the conical cocktail glass, but  they are skipping over the early history of the drink. Sure, it’s supposed to be served in a stemmed, wide glass. But let’s not get too purist about the exact shape.

The stem is key to the cocktail glass: it’s for cocktails that are served without ice, but should be enjoyed as chilled as possible. The stem prevents your hand from directly warming the bowl and drink.

Another important thing: the glass of the bowl should be clear. Using coloured glass will spoil an unobstructed view of the drink, which is a pity. The stem, however, can have any embellishment or colour.

There are a lot of weird theories about the cocktail glass. They might seem plausible, but on closer inspection they don’t seem to make much sense.

Just read this entry of the CocktailDB if you’re looking for some trustworthy information.

What other information is being thrown around the internet about the cocktail glass? Well, here we go:

·        It helps prevent the different ingredients from separating.

How would that work? The cone-shape prevents the heavy density stuff from sinking down? How about the lighter density stuff: the same theory will hold that this will float upwards more easily. No, this is nonsense.

·        The wide open brim causes a higher surface tension, thereby opening up the drink and bringing out the aroma to the fullest.

Sure, a cocktail is about aroma, and the fact that your nose is above the drink when you drink it is great, of course. But that can be said about a lot of types of glasses.

Surface tension is dependent upon the type of liquid and the temperature. Not the shape of the container, nor the surface area. The slope of the bowl might even decrease the curvature of the liquid, thereby decreasing the pressure difference (and evaporation). I’m not an expert in fluid mechanics, but there’s certainly no higher surface tension.

·        During the Prohibition days, the glass was ideal to quickly dump the alcoholic beverage from your glass in case of a police raid.

Come on… how much time do you think you could gain by that? If there was a raid in a speakeasy, your best bet was getting out through the nearest escape route. Nobody was going to care whether you actually had a drink in your hand or not.

Besides, the cocktail glass in its current shape was first mainly used in Europe. The US would have to wait until after World War II before it was really embraced there.

Anyway, two things hold: it’s a stylish glass and it’s traditional. So apart from the chilled drink aspect, we have plenty reason to add the cocktail glass to our bar.

Gin (Gin Ho)

Finally, on to the booze. Not surprisingly, we’ll start off with the spirit that’s present in this blog’s name. Also, gin has its roots in the Netherlands (where I live): its origin lies with jenever.

(Long ago, both ‘jenever’ and ‘genever’ were employed as a spelling. Somehow only ‘jenever’ survived in the end, but you’ll still often see ‘genever’ abroad.)

The characteristic element in gin is the juniper berry (which in Dutch translation is ‘jeneverbes’… hence the name of the Dutch counterpart). But other botanicals are also used to add to the flavour of gin.

I can compile a lot of information about gin, but you can easily find extensive information elsewhere on the net. So if you’re interested in its history or production, I recommend finding that yourself.

Well, apart from one detail that I think is fun to point out. We actually have the Spanish to thank for gin, in a way. That’s because the Spanish united the English and the Dutch in their war against the Spanish Empire. Around 1600, and in the Thirty Years’ War, the English that were fighting abroad alongside the Dutch got acquainted with Dutch Courage (the jenever that helped the soldiers through their hardships and battles). They took this Dutch Courage home to England, and started making it their own way. Thus, gin was born.

(Forget Franciscus Sylvius as the inventor of jenever/gin in 1650: he would have been way too late by then.)

For mixing, gin is a great base spirit. It’s quite neutral, but it still has character. Furthermore, it is dry. This makes gin a very interesting spirit with sophistication. Even while gin has a rather dubious history (think Gin Craze and bathtub gin) and requires no aging, it has worked itself up again. One could even make a case for gin to be the second most elitist of the base spirits that are employed in cocktails. Vodka, whisky, rum and tequila all have a foothold in younger generations, while gin is often disregarded. Only brandy tops gin in that respect.

If a recipe ever calls for gin without specification, it will mean London dry gin. There are many sorts of London dry gin: some low end, some high end… which kind you use would depend on your budget, the specific cocktail you’re aiming for, but also personal preference.

I’ve been using Bols Silver Top for ages, and recently switched to Gordon’s London dry. This could be considered a small upgrade: the Gordon’s seems to have a bit more crisp.

Incidentally, the Tanqueray London dry really seems to aim for the mixing public: the bottle itself is styled like a shaker.

Some gins don’t present themselves as London dry, but could still be used to excellent effect in the right cocktail.

Some recipes will specifically demand the use of Plymouth gin or Old Tom gin.

Plymouth gin is said to be slightly less dry and smoother than London dry. I managed to get hold of a bottle, but haven’t gotten around a comparison myself yet. But it’s a sure bet that if a recipe calls for Plymouth, there’s a definite reason for that.

Old Tom gin is characterized as the missing link between London dry and jenever. I’ll not get into the details; you can read all about that here and here. It has proven difficult to get hold of Old Tom so far, but there is hope. All things considered, I’m pretty sure that some of the smooth, young jenevers in my country are very much an alternative to Old Tom gin.

There is a mixed drink with gin that’s so common that it’s practically a drink unto itself: the Gin & Tonic. In some parts of the world, it’s even compounded further to Gin Tonic.

However, we don’t stock tonic in our bar yet, and there’s a bit more to a proper
G & T than just mixing gin and tonic. So we’ll have to make do with what we have for now.

Gin Ho

Again, not much mixing going on here. Still, I happened upon this recipe on CocktailDB, the Internet Cocktail Database. I heartily recommend this source for recipes and other cocktail information.

gin  (4 to 6 cl)

ice cubes

glass:  Old Fashioned

Serve the gin on the rocks.

In this case I went with Tanqueray. Since the ‘Special Dry’ kicks in at 47,3% ABV (alcohol by volume), it doesn’t hurt to get diluted a bit.

Old Fashioned glass

Before we are expanding on the ingredients, let’s first go back to the glassware again. Sure, from an entirely practical point of view, almost any glass could do. But you’d be missing the point of what a cocktail really is. It’s supposed to be an experience. All sorts of elements come together in a cocktail to make it something special, and that’s not only the ingredients. Preparation and presentation also contribute in a big way.

It’s entirely acceptable to improvise when choosing a glass. But at least think about what you’re doing. How will this drink look when I use this? How is this drink traditionally served anyway?

That’s why we are first going to add a type of glass to the bar: the Old Fashioned glass.

Also known as rocks glass or lowball glass, it’s short and wide, with a thick base.

It’s a tumbler glass, which means it doesn’t have a stem, but has a flat bottom.

Its name is a direct referral to the Old Fashioned, a cocktail which is always served in one of these glasses. As the name suggests, the Old Fashioned is a cocktail prepared just like the first cocktails were prepared: spirit, sugar, bitters and water. We’ll probably get to that one in time.

The sugar (and sometimes an orange peel) were muddled in the glass, so the thick base has a reason for being there, apart from the fact that it looks good.

And yes, from my point of view, an Old Fashioned glass looks very, very good. It’s simple. It’s solid. It’s stylish while still looking tough. It’s a great way for a lot of no-nonsense cocktails to be presented.

I drink my whisky from an Old Fashioned glass, even though I always drink it neat and never add ice. I know I should drink my whisky from a tulip glass, to get the most out of the aroma. A tulip glass also enables swirling. But what a tulip glass doesn’t have, is character.

Just my opinion, of course. Maybe I’m just old fashioned.

Ice (Eskimo Flip)

Almost every cocktail needs ice. A lot of cocktails use ice in their preparation: they are stirred in a mixing glass or shaken in a cocktail shaker. This ice is strained out when the drink is poured in the glass. Some cocktails are served with ice, the classic example being drinks that are on the rocks (served over ice cubes). There are even cocktails which use ice both in preparation and in the way they are served. Sometimes a glass is pre-chilled by filling it with ice: just before pouring the drink the ice will be thrown out.

In short, there’s practically no way to start our bar without taking care of the ice first.

If we look in The Savoy Cocktail Book (compiled in 1930), we can find some ‘hints for the young mixer’ which start with:

1.      Ice is nearly always an absolute essential for any Cocktail.

2.      Never use the same ice twice.

And a bit further:

5.      If possible, ice your glasses before using them.

Of course, since we now have a fridge at our disposal, it’s also possible to chill the glasses beforehand by putting them there. However, when you want a fast result, icing a glass is still the way to go.

Ice may come in different types. There’s ice cubes, cracked ice, shaved/crushed ice and solid block ice. All you’ll need for now is either ice cubes (which you can make yourself in the freezer) or cracked ice (which you can buy in a supermarket or the occasional well-stocked liquor store).

I usually have at least two trays of ice cubes on the ready (above tray has a flexible bottom so it’s easier to push the ice out). If room in my freezer permits, there’s also a sack of cracked ice which I use up before I fall back on the trays. As long as the size of the cracked ice is not too large (clung together) or too small, it can be used instead of ice cubes just fine.

You actually can’t have too much ice. Having more ice allows you to spare some for chilling glasses and allows you to be less stingy in filling your shaker. Especially when you’re planning on having a cocktail party, stock up on massive amounts of ice.

Tap water is just fine and very drinkable where I live. So, being practical, I wouldn’t waste time freezing natural spring water, purified water, or some such. Yes, ice will melt, and even when only used in preparing a cocktail, some of the ice will become part of the drink. So if someone wants to be a water snob and insists on using special water, that’s just fine with me. But I see no need.

One technicality concerning ice is this: most of its cooling power comes from melting. Suppose we have an ice cube with a temperature of -8°C. This cube will absorb heat from its environment to get its temperature to 0°C, but it will also absorb heat because it needs the energy for the transition to water. That energy used for melting is ten times as large as the energy that’s necessary for warming it up.

This means it’s hard to cool a drink without diluting it. In other words: if you want to drink it cool but not diluted, drink it quickly. Going back to the pointers in The Savoy Cocktail Book we find:

6.      Drink your Cocktail as soon as possible. Harry Craddock was once asked what was the best way to drink a Cocktail: ‘Quickly’, replied that great man, ‘while it’s laughing at you!’

However, the drink I present today is not in danger of being diluted.

Eskimo Flip

The misleading name of this drink is actually a joke, which is common to at least the Netherlands and Germany. A flip is a family of mixed drinks (containing a whole egg, sugar or syrup and topped with grated nutmeg). So you might expect some kind of cocktail here. However, the accent lies entirely on the ‘Eskimo’ part.

chilled water

ice cubes

glass:  any

Serve the water on the rocks.

In this case I have used a tray with a special mold which produces ice in pistol form, aptly named ‘Freeze!’.