Cocktail Hacker

This week at Cocktail Hacker headquarters we’re going to be focusing our energies on The Jack Rose. A cocktail with nearly as many stories as to its name as it has recipe derivations. One possible story as to the source of the name, and certainly the simplest, is that it is derived from the key ingredient, Applejack, and the resulting color, rose. Although this story makes perfect sense and in my mind is likely the correct one as with other cocktails we’ve looked at there are more interesting stories. The Jack Rose, it is said, may have gotten its name from the famous hitman of the same name. Or the drink’s name may have been based on the pink Jacqueminot rose. At this point I think its really anybody’s guess.

The Jack Rose is another sour and the third sour from Embury we’re going to discuss. As a note to the readers this is the last Embury sour we’re going to look at, things branch out from here in the next few weeks. It’s primary spirit is Applejack, which was traditionally produced by freeze distilling hard cider. As far as I can tell from my research Laird & Company are the only remaining producers of Applejack and what they produce is not true to the historical spirit. Their’s, although very good, is produced by evaporative distillation and is then blended with neutral spirits to produce the final product. If any readers know of a source of freeze distilled Applejack please let us know. We’d very much like to try the original.

Embury, not surprisingly takes his standard approach to sours with this cocktail. Again using an 8:2:1 (Base:Sour:Sweet) ratio. However, rather than simple syrup or Triple Sec, this cocktail uses grenadine as its sweetener. There are a number of commercially available grenadines on the market to choose from. I will caution you, however, that a lot of them are not really grenadine. Grenadine is a syrup produced from pomegranate juice and sugar. Most of what you’ll see on the grocery store shelves is corn syrup flavored with citric acid. So, if you’re going to go for a store bought grenadine, check the ingredients and try to find one that uses real fruit juices. Or, you can check back later in the week when we post our recipe(s) for grenadine and give our input on what is our favorite.

Until then here’s the Jack Rose recipe from Embury to get you rolling.

The Jack Rose

[Ingredients]

2 oz Applejack

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/4 oz Grenadine

[Directions]

1) Shake well with ice

2) Strain in to a cocktail glass

The ingredients you’ll want to pick up for The Jack Rose are below.

Ingredients:

• Applejack

• Lemons

• Grenadine

You’ll also need a few basic tools to make this drink.

Tools:

• Cocktail Shaker

• Strainer

• Cocktail (Martini) Glass

• Measuring Device (Jigger)

• Juicer [Optional]

We’ll report back throughout the week on our investigations and on Friday we’ll summarize our findings and our favorite recipe(s). Until then, enjoy your cocktails.

In an ill-conceived adventure, team Cocktail Hacker spent the majority of the day north of the border, in Wyoming, acquiring large quantities of high-quality explosives in an, again, ill-conceived effort to convince our friends and neighbors of our long questioned patriotism. That being the case, this may very well be a shorter than typical post …

A long time ago, the daiquiri was the cocktail that introduced me to cocktails, the flavors, though complex, are sweet and largely non-threatening, making the daiquiri an excellent beginner cocktail for any aspiring enthusiast. And, while I’ve since had enough daiquiris to swear off of the drink entirely, the daiquiri will always remain an unquestioned favorite.

The, somewhat, sweet flavor of the cocktail, and the lingering scars from previous over indulgences, lent to heavy experimentation this week at Cocktail Hacker headquarters. While avoiding the slushed elixirs most people associate with this classic cocktail, we did try several variations. Reese has already posted his now classic strawberry infused recipe, but another enjoyable recipe, as posted on Wikipedia, and apparently recommended by Embury himself, involves the substitution of some, or all, of the simple syrup with grenadine.

While I would not recommend using the red dyed high-fructose syrup packaged as grenadine that is available in most supermarkets (we will post our own grenadine recipes in this blog at some time in the near future), the following recipe did, in fact, produce a tasty cocktail:

[Ingredients]

8 parts rum

1 part lime

1 part grenadine

[Directions]

1) Shake well with ice

2) Strain in to a cocktail glass

In the end, however, our favorite variation contained a 4:2:1 mix of rum, lime, and simple syrup, or in Cocktail Hacker:

[Ingredients]

4 parts rum

2 part lime

1 part demerara simple syrup

[Directions]

1) Shake well with ice

2) Strain in to a cocktail glass

Reese and I both found this cocktail to be well balanced with a strong, though not overpowering, emphasis on the flavors provided by the rum. The demerara syrup also adds a nice bit of complexity to the overall cocktail.

Ernest Hemingway is famous for many things, most notably his writing, but he was also an Olympic quality drinker. One of his favorite cocktails was none other than our focus for the week, The Daiquiri. He spent a number of years in Cuba (~1939-1960) during which his favorite hangout was El Floridita bar in Havana.

The Hemingways and Spencer Tracy at El Floridita

Hemingway liked a small tweak made to the standard Daiquiri recipe when he was enjoying them. Namely, Hemingway doubled the rum resulting in what has come to be known as the Papa Doble. Aaron and I decided to give this one a go, in the name of science, of course. We started with the “classic” recipe as listed on Wikipedia.

The Daiquiri:

9 parts Cuban Light Rum

4 parts Lime Juice

1 part Simple Syrup

Double the rum and you get...

The Papa Doble:

18 parts Cuban Light Rum

4 parts Lime Juice

1 part Simple Syrup

As you can see the Daiquiri recipe we chose for this experiment was pretty light on the simple syrup to begin with. Which thus resulted in a Papa Doble that was even less sweet. Which was an ok drink, but not really what we were looking for. Aaron and I felt that were we to go the Papa Doble route we’d likely make a couple small modifications to suit our tastes better.

The Papa Doble (Per Cocktail Hacker):

8 parts Cuban Light Rum

2 parts Lime Juice

1 part Simple Syrup

This recipe brings up the sweetness, but keeps the lime juice and rum at approximately the same level. Which, in our opinion, results in a more balanced cocktail. I also think this would be a great place to try branching out on your ingredient choices. For daiquiris I really enjoy using a Rhum Agricole. Rhum Agricole is a rum type that uses cane juice rather than molasses for the fermentation base. There are many available from the Caribbean and one (that I know of) from the US (10 Cane Rum). I would also recommend trying some demerara syrup in place of the simple syrup. It adds another layer of complexity to the drink. Enjoy your Papa Dobles and think of Hemingway as you do.

So as I was writing our kick off post for The Daiquiri and later the post on simple syrup I got to thinking. Although The Strawberry Daiquiri is not truely classic it is quite tasty at times. There must be some way to combine the classic feel of The Daiquiri with the wonderful flavor of fresh strawberries. Then it hit me, a strawberry infused simple syrup! Thus was born The Strawberry Classic Daiquiri.

The infused simple syrup, which I’ll discuss more below, gives the drink a nice pink color. Note that the recipe for this cocktail is sweeter than traditional, but I like it because it allows the strawberry syrup to come through more. The resulting drink is wonderfully strawberry-y and still holds true to the daiquiri theme.

Strawberry Classic Daiquiri:

[Ingredients]

2 oz Light Rum

1 oz Strawberry Syrup

1 oz Lime Juice

[Directions]

1) Shake well with ice

2) Strain in to a cocktail glass

3) Garnish with a fanned strawberry

Now, in my earlier post I promised more info on infused syrups. They’re really not much more complex than standard simple syrup. They do however require a little more time.

Strawberry Simple Syrup:

[Ingredients]

2 cups Water

2 cups Sugar

1 lb Sliced Fresh Strawberries

2 oz Everclear

[Directions]

1) Simmer sugar, water and berries for 10 minutes

2) Strain out strawberry pieces

3) Add Everclear to increase shelf life 

Don’t discard the strawberries, they’re fantastic for strawberry shortcake or over ice cream. This same technique can be used for making any number of infused syrups. For example you could try mint syrup for mojitos, raspberry syrup for another twist on The Daiquiri, or ginger syrup for a spicy twist. Enjoy!

This week’s cocktail requires that you have simple syrup on hand. Don’t rush out and buy a bottle, though. As the name suggests it is dirt simple to make at home. Plus, when making syrup at home you can control the base ingredients and tweak your resulting cocktails as you see fit. I usually keep three types on hand: plain simple syrup, rich syrup and demerara syrup. Perhaps on the obsessive side, but I am a cocktail hacker after all. However, for the home bar the only one I see as essential is plain simple syrup.

Simple Syrup:

1 cup Sugar

1 cup Water

1) Place sugar and water in a jar/bottle and shake until the sugar

fully dissolves

See? Simple as can be. The same proportions and technique can be used to make demerara syrup. Demerara sugar is granulated, unrefined, natural sugar. You’ve most likely seen it at coffee shops for adding to your favorite morning beverage. The resulting syrup is a nice brown (see the picture above) and has more of a natural sugar flavor than you’ll get with white sugar. I find it works really well with dark rum drinks.

Some recipes may call for rich simple syrup (or rich syrup). Rich syrup is great for cocktails where you want sweetness but don’t want the additional dilution that plain simple syrup provides. Rich syrup is just as simple as simple syrup, just has more sugar. Note though that this one must be heated to dissolve all the sugar.

Rich Simple Syrup:

2 cups Sugar

1 cup Water

1) Place sugar and water in a sauce pan

2) Heat over medium heat until the water starts to simmer

3) Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves

I suggest you keep your syrups in the fridge to prolong their shelf life. You can also increase their shelf life by adding 1oz of Everclear to each bottle of syrup. Once you master these recipes you’re ready to take on infused simple syrups. More about that later in the week.