Periodic bar check

Invested a lot in equipment by now, so we're quite set in that department. Time to focus on ingredients and recipes for a bit.

The bar now holds:

Bases

gin

Aperitif Wines

dry vermouth

Liqueurs
maraschino

Juices
lemon

General Ingredients

ice

Glasses

Old Fashioned glass

cocktail glass

Barware

jigger

bar spoon
cocktail shaker
juicer
bar knife
channel knife

Channel knife

Adding the proper garnish is the easiest way to stress that drinking a cocktail isn’t just about drinking something. It’s a special occasion, even when you casually make one for yourself. You have to know (or look up) the recipe. You must have all the required ingredients (and barware) on stock. You put effort and care in the preparation. When you add a garnish as a finishing touch, it marks the cocktail as a special, festive drink.

So while the addition of a channel knife doesn’t strike as being the most crucial addition to the collection of barware, it does a lot for the cocktails you serve.

Using a channel knife, it’s easy to fabricate lemon twists. These twists are elegant and cheerful; a lot of cocktail recipes specify the addition of a lemon twist. Lime twists are also possible, but it’s advisable to use a fine channel knife for the limes. For now, one channel knife that’s the proper size for lemon zest is fine.

If you pull open the twist over the cocktail before you add the garnish, it has the added benefit of releasing oils over het surface.

Just be sure to wash the peels of the lemons you are using for your garnish before you get to work with your tool.

Since we also have a knife at our disposal, almost all thinkable garnishes we can make with citrus are now possible: citrus peel (an oval shaped piece of the zest), wheels, half-wheels, wedges and twists. Sometimes the zest is cut up in a rectangular shape.

There are other ways to make a twist, by the way. But none are as easy as using this tool. The twists from a channel knife are also very slender and can be made as long as you want.

Aviation (reprise)

As promised, here’s an Aviation complete with colouring from the violet liqueur and a lemon twist, courtesy of the channel knife.

Lemon (Aviation)

Lemon brings a lot to the table: juice and garnishes. There are a lot of classic cocktails (actually, whole drink families) which depend on lemon. When given the choice to add just one kind of juice to the bar, the choice would come down to lemon vs. lime.

Although lemon has a larger role in cocktail history (as can be deducted from the extensive use of lemon in the drink families that formed in the 19^th century), lime still beats lemon when comparing their use in Imbibe’s 25 Most Influential Cocktails of the Past Century. It all comes down to a matter of taste, I guess. Luckily, we don’t really have to choose. We can add lemon now, and add lime later on.

I don’t like to substitute lemon for lime or vice versa: usually a cocktail recipe has been thoroughly thought out, including the choice between lemon or lime. However, even on a simple cocktail like the Gin & Tonic there seems to be a debate whether lemon or lime should be used. Both The Savoy Cocktail Book and Café Royal Cocktail Book sport numerous recipes which don’t mind whether lemon or lime is used. So much for guidance.

To complicate matter further, the Spanish word ‘limon’ can mean lemon or lime (limon verde)*. Since Cuba has been an influential source of cocktails, this has led to occasional mix-ups.

I’ve already touched on the particulars of juice when introducing the juicer. In my next post, I’ll tackle some possible garnishes.
With citrus tones not being uncommon in gin, it’s no wonder that lemon juice combines excellently with my mixing base of choice.

So let’s just put the tangy tiger to use in a cocktail revival classic.

^*  CocktailDB

Aviation

Somehow this cocktail picked up more popularity in the cocktail revival of the last decade than it had in its early existence. Cocktail enthusiast rediscovering the vintage taste ended up experimenting with this maraschino cocktail, usually enjoying what they found.

Another one found in Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks (although with different amounts), it must have originated around 1916 and faded into obscurity halfway the 20^th century. Some people criticize The Savoy Cocktail Book for presenting the Aviation without Crème Yvette/crème de violette. If you choose to add this blue coloured liqueur, its name becomes clear: you get a liquid sky. But it’s definitely not the violet liqueur which should define the taste.

4 parts gin

1 part maraschino

1 part lemon juice

(optionally 1 bar spoon crème de violette)

glass:  cocktail

Shake with ice and strain into the glass.

Garnish with a lemon twist.

This is a very bare version of the Aviation: no violet liqueur and not even a garnish. I’ll do a complete version in my next post.

Bar knife

Looking back, I might have easily added a knife to the ‘assumed basics’ in my first post. A normal kitchen would indeed take care of a knife just as well. On the other hand, I’d miss an opportunity to have a short rant about this equipment. So here we are…

You can’t just toss fruit in a juicer (well, not the juicer’s we’ll be using anyway). So we’ll need a knife to cut our citrus fruit in half.

A paring knife that’s not too small will do nicely. If you knife is too small (like the upper knife in the picture), you’ll need some larger knife as well. Don’t dismiss the dainty knife, though… it’s great for precision cutting.

A decently sized paring knife or bar knife might just be everything you need for all your cocktail cutting needs. A real bar knife would have a serrated edge, a fork-tip and possibly an opener for bottles. That last addition isn’t a very good idea in my opinion: a knife should be used for cutting. Using your knife to flip open bottles just can’t be good for the knife (or yourself… the thought of putting force on a slightly unstable sharp object near my hands doesn’t strike me as entirely free of risk).

The forked end could still prove useful, though. Picking unsightly seeds out of a lemon wheel or lemon wedge should prove easy with those pointy bits.

To be honest, my bar knife is actually a tomato knife, but it suits me fine. Just explore and figure out what works for you.

The best thing to do with your knife, apart from making juicing possible and creating fancy garnishes, is using it to slice off some citrus peel (which also makes a modest garnish in itself).

Go back the bar spoon post and revisit the video of Charlotte Voisey. And as soon as you have citrus in stock, be sure to try this out. It works wonders.