Cocktail Hacker

In honor of Halloween I searched for a somewhat appropriately themed cocktail for this week and decided on Satan’s Whiskers as the drink of choice. From the initial glimpse it looks damn tasty. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Satan's Whiskers (Joy of Mixology)

1/2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Dry Vermouth

1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth

1/2 oz Orange Juice

1/4 oz Grand Marnier

Orange Bitters to Taste

1) Combine ingredients in a shaker over ice

2) Shake until well chilled

3) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

I came in to this week very excited to shed a fresh light on one of my least favorite cocktails. It seemed logical. I hadn’t liked Bloody Marys in the past but I also hadn’t been personally making them and carefully controlling each ingredient. My excitement buoyed further when I cracked open the bottle of tomato juice and had a small glass. It was actually pretty good! My hatred of the stuff had seemed to fade away as my palate aged.

Thrilled with the possibilities I mixed up a Bloody Mary following Gary Regan’s general recipe and including all the “to taste” optional add ons. I took a couple excited sips and promptly poured out the remaining 3/4 of the drink. I really didn’t like it. Disheartened a bit but knowing there must be a solution I looked to your comments for some direction. Following Drink Snob’s wise suggestion I mixed up a Red Snapper and was fairly pleased. But this only added to my confusion. How could it be that I liked the Red Snapper but not the Bloody Mary? They were nearly identical.

Then it hit me. The horseradish. That was really the only add on in the Bloody Mary that wasn’t in the Red Snapper that I felt would add a strong enough flavor to change the dynamic of the cocktail markedly. Problem is, I like horseradish. You break out the prime rib you best have lots ready. But in this drink, even though I only used about 1/2 tsp, it was throwing off the flavor enough that I no longer liked the drink. Feeling that I was at a turning point I mixed up another minus the horseradish and the results were much more favorable.

This was truly a drink I could enjoy, sort of. My step dad summed it up perfectly for me. Usually when I have a new drink he and my mom are keen to give it a try. When I offered to bring over Bloody Marys this week the response was, “Nah. Thanks though.” I asked him why and his response rang true. “I like Bloody Marys, but usually only one and only when there aren’t other options.” Those comments echo my feelings exactly. Were I at someone’s home for brunch and they were serving Bloody Marys I’d probably have one. However, if I’m at a restaurant and there are other brunch cocktail options say a Mimosa or a Screwdriver I’m going to reach for those every time.

If you’re interested in what values I like for the “to taste” ingredients here’s my preferred recipe:

Bloody Mary (Cocktail Hacker)

2 oz Vodka

4 oz Tomato Juice

1/4 oz Lemon Juice

3 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce

2 Dashes Hot Sauce

Heavy Pinch of Kosher Salt

2 Grinds of Black Pepper

Lemon Wedge for Garnish

Celery Stalk for Garnish

1) Combine ingredients in shaker with ice

2) Shake until well chilled

3) Strain into an ice filled Collins glass

4) Garnish with lemon and celery

When I gave my shout out for Bloody Mary recommendations I got some great suggestions. One, coming from DrinkSnob of Liquor is Quicker, is to try the Red Snapper. In looking though the Joy of Mixology it seems that the Red Snapper could be thought of as a predecessor of the Bloody Mary. The primary differences in the recipes are the ratio of juice to vodka and the amount and variety of add-ons.

Red Snapper (Joy of Mixology)

1 1/2 oz Vodka

1 1/2 oz Tomato Juice

2 Dashes Lemon Juice

2 Dashes Worcestershire Sauce

Salt and Cayenne Pepper to Taste

1) Combine ingredients over ice

2) Shake until well chilled

3) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

I liked this drink for the most part. It’s by no means my favorite and I can assure you I won’t be ordering it over something like an Aviation. But, it’s pretty good. Definitely an ancestor of the Bloody Mary, for the most part the flavor profiles are the same. With the obvious note that the Red Snapper is a much stronger cocktail. More thoughts on the two when I wrap up the Bloody Mary later in the week.

You remember when you were a kid and you were just learning to swim? The deep end, even though it was the same pool, even though you could see the bottom was still way scarier than the shallow end. That’s the sort of feeling I’m getting this week. For as long as I can remember I’ve had a very tenuous relationship with tomato juice. My grandparents drank it with nearly every breakfast and from time to time I’d have a glass, but I never much liked it as a kid. Later on I remember not disliking it so much as simply not really having strong feelings one way or the other.

Queue college and my coming of drinking age. My friends and family really liked Bloody Marys so naturally I tried them from time to time. I never really liked them though. Those experiences ended with me stopping my sampling completely. Thinking back it’s been at least five years since I tried my last Bloody Mary and I think it’s about time I got to the bottom of things. Problem is Bloody Marys are very much like Margaritas in that everyone who makes them has a different favorite recipe. Let’s start with a look at The Joy of Mixology recipe.

Bloody Mary (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Vodka

4 oz Tomato Juice

Lemon Juice to Taste

Black Pepper to Taste

Salt or Celery Salt to Taste

Horseradish to Taste

Worcestershire Sauce to Taste

Hot Sauce to Taste

Lemon Wedge for Garnish

Celery Stick for Garnish

1) Combine ingredients in an ice filled shaker

2) Shake and strain into an ice filled Collins glass

3) Garnish

Now you see where I’m running into a bit of a problem. There are six ingredients in that recipe that are listed as “to Taste”. That introduces a near infinite amount of variability. So, I’m calling out to all of you. I need your help in finding recipes that are solid starting points. If you’ve got any tips shoot them my way!

So I’ve finally gotten current on a project that I started almost a year ago. I’ve condensed all of my favorite recipes from each cocktail I’ve featured here and grouped them into printable cheat sheets. My goal is to keep these up to date so we can all use them for a quick reference when mixing drinks. They’re available in the pages section at the top left of the site or from right here.

If you have any suggestions on what I can to make these cheat sheets better please let me know.