Periodic bar check

Almost ready to add the first juice. But still one tool to go before that.

The bar now holds:

Bases

gin

Aperitif Wines

dry vermouth

Liqueurs
maraschino

General Ingredients

ice

Glasses

Old Fashioned glass

cocktail glass

Barware

jigger

bar spoon
cocktail shaker
juicer

Juicer

The shaker opens the way to using juice, but it’s not the only tool we need for that. That is, assuming we want to use fresh juice. And yes, we will want to use fresh juice. It makes a huge difference. Stock up on lemon and lime if you want to make cocktails which call for lemon or lime juice. If you’re out of citrus, then stick to cocktails that do without.

A lot of cocktails turn to lemon or lime. Mainly because they build on a combination of sweet and sour for a drink with a nice contrast.

We’re being practical here, so we don’t need anything really nifty here. But doing without any juicing equipment is not advisable. Sure, you can squeeze a fruit part with your hand. But it gets messy and it’s not the best way to get the most out of your available fruit.

I have worked with a simple citrus reamer for ages, and it works just fine. There are certainly other options: hand presses, lime squeezers, lever-pull juice extractors, electric juicers… just go with what you prefer.

If your tool of choice manages to hold back all of the seeds and most of the pulp, and you don’t mind that some of it slips through, you can use the juice straight away. If you’re aiming for an unblemished drink, you’ll need to fine-strain the juice between squeezing and using it. Another option is to double strain the drink when pouring: this is done by holding a fine strainer between the glass and the shaker.

One thing of note is that some recipes will call for ‘the juice of half a lime’ or similar. That’s not very convenient. Fruit doesn’t come in one size. The way you extract the juice will also influence the amount you can gather. On this I wholeheartedly agree with Robert Hess (of DrinkBoy.com and the video series The Cocktail Spirit).

Try to translate any recipe into clear-cut amounts and measure.

Cocktail shaker

When thinking cocktails, nothing is more iconic than preparing your drink by shaking. Not all cocktails are done with this method: some are built, layered or stirred. There are even less common methods like blending, throwing and rolling. But as already explained in the bar spoon post: when you want to mix and there are opaque ingredients, the correct method would be shaking. Ice is used again of course, for chilling and dilution purposes.

Shaking will usually make your drink misty, with a froth of fine bubbles on top. That’s because by shaking you are causing aeration: you are forcing air into the drink. Furthermore, small shards of ice will break off the ice you are using in the shaker. All this has a visible effect, especially just after serving. Over a few minutes time this mist will clear up (probably still leaving your drink opaque, because of the ingredients used).

How much ice to use could depend on your ice stock. If you don’t have much to spare, you could get by with as little as three small ice cubes. But if you have more to spare, don’t hold back: chilling and preparation time will improve. You can fill your shaker half or 2/3 with ice. Just make sure that there is still room to move around: you don’t want to over dilute and you can’t aerate the drink if there’s little air to begin with. I prefer to add the ice first, because it will pre-chill the shaker and prevents splashing incidents when you add the ice last. The ice will also make comforting crackly sounds when you add the liquids. However, if you prefer to add the ice last (because this counteracts dilution), that’s perfectly acceptable as well.

There’s a baseline for the time you need to shake: 10 seconds for normal cocktails, at least 20 seconds for cocktails with ingredients that are harder to blend. But I would not advise counting out the time. The most important clue comes from your senses: you will feel the shaker get colder. The shaker should frost over on the outside before you stop. Yes, that means that your hands will get very chilly: there’s some suffering involved in making a good cocktail.

So what kind of shaker to use? Well, there are several possibilities. There’s the Boston shaker (glass and tin), two tin shaker, pitcher shaker (a relic from the past for making several cocktails at once) and the Parisian - or French - shaker (a two part shaker without a built-in strainer).

However, I would suggest to start off with a Cobbler shaker.

That would be the well-known three piece shaker that has a cap and built-in strainer. Obviously, one of the advantages would be that you don’t need a separate strainer, because you can pour directly from the shaker.

 It’s easy to use, which means you can also let guests make their own cocktail, if they wish. From an aesthetic viewpoint, I also prefer this one (although that’s very personal, of course).

Most bartenders in the UK and US will use a Boston shaker. It has the added bonus of gaining a mixing glass with your shaker. It is also faster in opening, pouring and cleaning. However, I assume you’re not very hard-pressed for time when making cocktails at home. And a separate strainer will also need cleaning, so that’s not where you get much of an advantage.

Does it matter how you shake your cocktail? Well, it certainly does. Cocktail experts agree on one thing: you should definitely put some effort in it. Going back to Harry Craddock’s pointers in The Savoy Cocktail Book we will find this, which is often quoted:

4.      Shake the shaker as hard as you can: don’t just rock it: you are trying to wake it up, not send it to sleep!

But apart from putting enough energy into the shaking, is there a certain style, technique or pattern which gives better results? Well, there’s no general consensus there. I seem to get the best results when I shake diagonally (by holding the shaker at an angle to the actual shaking motion). But maybe I’m imagining things. Just find a technique which works for you: part of the fun of shaking is that there are so many ways in which people do it.

I like to end here with one of the most influential cocktail experts: Kazuo Uyeda. He has perfected his method of shaking for decades, which is called the hard shake.

He certainly believes that the way you prepare your cocktails has a profound impact on the result. And he’s also a stern supporter of the Cobbler. In his own words: ‘If you realize how important shaking and mixing are, you will naturally notice that only the three-piece shaker could work out.’

Maraschino (Humpty Dumpty Cocktail)

Looking at the current state of the bar, it’s time to add our first liqueur. There is an extremely large number of them to choose from, so which way to turn?

Adding Cointreau/triple sec/orange curaçao might be a good choice, because lots of recipes use a variant of these orange flavoured liqueurs. However, we’re bound to stumble upon that sooner or later, so no rush. I’d rather take a sharp turn here and introduce a liqueur that steeps the bar in cocktail history and opens up the repertoire to some true classics.

Although maybe a bit harder to find than the more popular liqueurs, it’s well worth it. If you’re half serious about mixing drinks, this is one of the liqueurs you should include in your bar.

Maraschino (pronounced marr-a-SKEE-no), also known as marasquin, is a relatively dry, bittersweet liqueur that’s made of Marasca cherries. It’s very different from other cherry liqueurs or cherry brandy liqueurs.

It’s also one of the few liqueurs that’s distilled; the whole cherry, including the pit and stem, is used in the distillation process (after being crushed).

Maraschino hails from the city Zadar, the capital of Dalmatia (which is currently in Croatia). Industrial-scale production was started in the 18^th century by the Venetian merchant Drioli, followed suit by Luxardo and Vlahov in the 19^th century. After World War II, all companies were forced to retreat to Italy. Only Luxardo still exists today, which chose to continue its production in Torreglia (in the Veneto region).

It is widely viewed as the premium brand for maraschino, but tastes will differ, obviously. When tasting several liqueurs, my girlfriend commented that the Luxardo smelt somewhat like methyl alcohol. I had to agree, I guess… but it still mixes nicely, though. I wouldn’t drink maraschino straight, but some people apparently don’t shy away from that.

The straw jacket for the bottles was a traditional Venetian way of making sure that bottles would survive a long sea voyage.

So what can we actually make with maraschino? It is an ingredient in classics like the Martinez (precursor of the Martini), the Aviation and la Floridita Daiquiri (that would be the version Hemingway preferred). Other notable cocktails are the Casino Cocktail, Charleston Cocktail, Imperial, Last Word and Opera.

Since we have a limited bar at our disposal, I’d first like to introduce a simple cocktail that’s undeservedly quite unknown.

Humpty Dumpty Cocktail

This one is found in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks. The original version has a 2 : 1 ratio for vermouth versus maraschino, but I prefer the recipe according to the CocktailDB: the vermouth has to work hard enough to get the maraschino under control.

Most notable is the lack of a base spirit: it is only aperitif wine with liqueur.

It’s really worth a try, especially if you’re an Alice fan like me (Through the Looking-Glass).

5 parts dry vermouth

2 parts maraschino

glass:  cocktail

Stir with ice and strain into the glass.

The colour is quite nice… all due to the vermouth (because the maraschino is colourless). Stirring the cocktail keeps the liquid clear, as is easily seen by the near perfect reflection of the wall of a neighboring building.
In a way, this mirror quality makes this cocktail Through the Looking-Glass (And What Alice Tasted There).