Cocktail Hacker

I’ve enjoyed my week off and my eyes are nearly fully healed so I’m ready to dive back in to cocktail hacking. Since this Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day it seemed only logical that I had to do an Ireland themed cocktail of some kind for this week. But what to choose? I already covered Irish Cream a while back, so that wasn’t a good option. I could certainly go with the bar favorite the Irish Car Bomb but, as you well know, I’m not a huge beer fan. Although I don’t hate Irish Car Bombs, I wasn’t feeling it for this week. It’s early spring so still a bit cold thus it seemed a hot cocktail would fit well. There was an obvious choice. The classic Irish Coffee.

Picture courtesy of Ilco on sxc.hu

Now, I’ll admit to you. I don’t generally like coffee. Irish Coffee I think might be the exception though. How can you not like sweetened coffee with whiskey and cream? It’s like a hot beverage from heaven. There is going to be a bit of a learning curve though as I really don’t even know how to make a good cup of coffee. Oh well, certain sacrifices must be made in the name of science.

As has become my tradition I’m going to start with the Joy of Mixology recipe. Regan explains that the Irish Coffee was created by Joe Sheridan, a bartender at Shannon Airport in Ireland, in the 1940s. The drink really started to catch on when it was brought back to California by a reporter. The Buena Vista in San Francisco was the Irish Coffee’s first landing in the US. They now claim to sell over 1,500 per day.

Irish Coffee (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Irish Whiskey

4-5 oz Hot Coffee

Simple Syrup to Taste

Whipped Cream

1) Build in an Irish Coffee glass.

2) Float whipped cream on top.

Let me start with a sincere apology for the delay in wrapping up the Lemon Drop. Early in the weekend I decided I wanted to experiment with a couple things I hadn’t had a chance to. In addition, I decided I was going to not feature a cocktail this week. So, that delayed this wrap-up.

Enough of that. Let’s talk cocktail. I started the week wanting to feature another vodka cocktail and immediately thought of the Lemon Drop as a good candidate. That was certainly not a bad choice. I’ve truly enjoyed playing with this cocktail this week, although sadly I don’t feel that we’ve really covered a “true” vodka cocktail with this one. Sure, it uses vodka, but it’s a flavored vodka. So, I’ll be back to vodka soon I feel.

My starting recipe, like most times, was Regan’s (2 oz Citrus Vodka, 1 oz Lemon Juice, 1/2 oz Simple Syrup) and it was great. There’s a wonderful lemon punch that’s “lemontastic” as I wrote in my tasting notes. There is a great balance of sour and sweet. Overall a very drinkable cocktail. Having tried the classic though I noticed that Gary briefly mentions a modification to give the drink more depth of flavor. Naturally I had to try it.

He says that swapping Cointreau for the simple syrup is the way to go. How much? No mention of the proportions. Experimentation called to me and I started with a simple one for one swap. The resulting drink was okay, but much less sweet than the classic. Generally not what I was looking for. So, for the next go-round I upped the Cointreau to 1 oz.

This was more like what I was wanting. The drink was sweeter, coming closer to that nice sweet/sour balance achieved by the classic recipe. You can definitely detect the higher alcohol content, but it’s not unpleasant at all. The depth of flavor is there but I really don’t think it’s hugely better than the classic recipe. Plus, the lemon-ness of the drink is slightly muted by the flavor of the Cointreau. I’d say give it a go if you’re looking for something different, but the classic recipe will remain my favorite.

I decided to try one other variation this week while I was experimenting, the one from Difford’s guide. Difford calls for 2 oz Citrus Vodka, 1 oz Cointreau, 3/4 oz Lemon Juice, 1/2 oz Rich Syrup (2:1 Sugar:Water). This recipe produces a tremendously sweet cocktail. Overly so, in my opinion. Also you get less lemon, which as with the Regan-mod recipe isn’t really what I’m looking for. Not a huge surprise since if you drop the syrup and up the lemon you get right back to the Regan-mod all over again.

So what’s the final verdict? The Lemon Drop is good. Not terribly complex, very simple to make and perfect for people who are looking for a drink without a very boozy flavor. I’d make this cocktail again. It’s refreshing and easy. Just what you’re looking for on a hot summer afternoon. If you’ve been reading Cocktail Hacker for a while you may note that these comments are similar to the ones I gave for the Tom Collins. If you compare the recipes side by side you’ll notice an interesting similarity. A Lemon Drop is simply a Vodka Collins minus the sparkling water. Just a little tid bit to ponder.

I haven’t spent much time covering vodka cocktails as yet. Some of my fellow cocktail enthusiasts are vehemently opposed to vodka and while I can’t say I fall in to that category, I will say I don’t find myself reaching for it particularly often. Which is particularly odd when you consider that I have a lot of vodka in my collection. Fifteen bottles at my last count.

My problem with regard to vodka in cocktails is that vodka rarely brings much to the party. A good vodka is typically characterized by it’s abject lack of flavor. There are people that will claim you can pick up subtle flavors, and I wouldn’t disagree with that, but overall the goal is to make a spirit that is so smooth it’s nearly undetectable.

That doesn’t give us a ton to work with in the way of flavor blending. If you have a spirit that brings nothing then your other ingredients have to bear the weight of the cocktail as a whole. In the case of the Cosmopolitan this fell on the cranberry juice, cointreau and lime juice. This week we’re going to explore another vodka cocktail that has gained considerable popularity, the Lemon Drop.

Lemon Drop (Joy of Mixology)

2 oz Citrus Vodka

1 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

Lemon Wedge for Garnish

1) Combine ingredient in a shaker with ice

2) Shake until well chilled

3) Strain in to a chilled cocktail glass

One thing this cocktail, like the Cosmo, has going for it is the use of citrus vodka. Although, my concern is that, with this amount of lemon juice the citrus vodka may not make much difference. Like I did with the Cosmo I’ll be sure to try it with citrus vodka and regular and let you know my thoughts.

This cocktail comes at the perfect time for me. My parents recently went out of town for a few weeks and asked that I clean out their fridge and take anything that I’d eat. One of the many things I ended up with was enough citrus fruit to make a ton of cocktails. Specifically there was a whole bag of lemons to be had and have them I do. In fact, the picture you see above is from my citrus drawer in my fridge circa last night. Going to be a good week.

Sipping a Caipirinha truly makes you feel like a Brazilian, if only for a short time. The fresh lime flavor, sweetness and grassy flavor of the cachaça meld in to a truly wonderful drink. The flavor is extremely refreshing, not unlike a slightly alcoholic limeade. Not to mention these drinks are exceedingly drinkable. That said, as I discussed earlier in the week muddling this drink really is key to the flavor profile. As is granulated sugar rather than simple syrup. The muddling action extracts some of the oils from the lime peel which are then infused into the resulting cocktail. This changes the drink in the same way that a flamed orange peel or a lemon twist.

So, what about the choice of sugar? I began my week using plain white sugar which worked very well. Feeling that I might be able to change it up a bit I tried using demerara instead. This helped to deepen the natural sugar flavors that the cachaça brings to the party. There is one downside to this choice though. Since the demerara sugar adds additional flavor it can mask subtle flavors in the cachaça. So, given that I’d say give it a try but make sure you choose a cachaça with a bold enough flavor to stand up to the demerara.

Although there are a few recipes for the Caipirinha floating around most of them seem to follow the same general formula. Namely: 1 oz cachaca, 1/4 lime (cut in to two wedges), and 1 tsp sugar. Some recipes, Gary Regan’s for example, call for three ounces of cachaça. That’s going to make for a pretty hefty cocktail and since these go down very easy it could get out of hand pretty quickly. With that in mind my suggested recipe cuts back the cachaça to only two ounces, but keeps the formula the same. I highly suggest you mix one up and enjoy the carioca life. Even if it is fleeting.

Caipirinha (Cocktail Hacker)

2 oz Cachaça

1/2 Lime (4 wedges)

2 tsp Sugar

1) Muddle lime and sugar until sugar is dissolved

2) Add cachaça and cracked ice

3) Stir until well combined

This week, and specifically Tuesday, is Carnaval in Brazil and to celebrate I’m featuring Brazil’s national drink, the Caipirinha. The Caipirinha [KIE-PEE-REEN-YAH] is a fairly simple drink consisting of only cachaça [KA-SHA-SA], limes and sugar muddled together to create what Gary Regan lovingly refers to as “an elixir.” Sounds fantastic to me, sign me up.

I’m going to keep this intro post a bit on the short side this time as I plan to put up detail posts on Carnaval, cachaça and the results of our cachaça tasting as the week goes on. So stay tuned and here’s a Caipirinha recipe to get you in the right frame of mind.

Caipirinha (Joy of Mixology)

4 to 6 Lime Wedges

1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar

3 oz Cachaça

1) Muddle the limes and sugar in an old fashioned glass.

2) Add crushed ice and cachaça.

3) Stir thoroughly.