Cocktail Hacker

I mixed this cocktail for the first time with a bit of trepidation. Chocolate, lemon, gin and aperetif wine, really? I’m happy to report that someone had a lot more depth of cocktail thought than I do. I never would have guess that this combination would taste so good. But taste good it most certainly does. I started my journey with the recipe from Dr. Cocktail’s Vintage Cocktails and Spirits (1 1/2 oz Gin, 3/4 oz Lemon Juice, 3/4 oz Creme de Cacao, 3/4 oz Lillet Blond). This recipe proved a little too sweet for my palate so I transitioned to the Joy of Mixology recipe instead (1 1/2 oz Gin, 1/2 oz Lemon Juice, 1/2 oz Creme de Cacao, 1/2 oz Lillet Blond).

The interplay of flavors in this cocktail is unlike anything I’ve had before. On the front of the flavor curve you’re going to taste the citrus from the lemon juice and the Lillet. The herbal notes of the Lillet are going to come next mingled with the herbal notes of the gin. Finally as the curve tapers off you’ll get a hint of chocolate from the creme de cacao. Cutting down the sweetness was just what the doctor ordered. Truly a unique and delicious cocktail experience.

Some notes to keep in mind. I tried Plymouth gin at first but found its flavors to be too light for this application. I chose Tanqueray next and that worked out well. This is another instance where I wonder what the impact of the original recipe Kina Lillet would make. Certainly there would be some added bitterness, but that might play really well with the sweetness. Finally, I ran across a recipe in Difford’s Guide that called for the use of dry vermouth instead of Lillet. I mixed it up and found the cocktail to not be nearly as good. The drink was much drier and not particularly well balanced.

20th Century Cocktail (Joy of Mixology)

1 1/2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Lillet Blond

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz White Creme de Cacao

Lemon Twist for Garnish

1) Combine ingredients in a shaker over ice

2) Shake until combined and well chilled

3) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

As you mix your first Singapore Sling you’ll note that the color is decidedly pink. There are some out there, myself included, who naturally shy away from all things pink. It’s a self protection mechanism of sorts. I ask of you only one favor at this time. When you get that first Singapore Sling fully mixed, turn off that anti-pink mechanism just long enough to take your first sip. After that it won’t matter any more. You’ll gleefully consume the rest of the drink, pink color be damned.

This drink is more complex than it would seem at first blush. I assumed that the flavor will be overly sweet and fruity from the pineapple and liqueurs. This is where the club soda is key. It lightens the sweetness of the drink and adds a small amount of effervescence. As you bring the drink up for that sip you’ll notice a gentle and entirely pleasant earthy aroma. This is from the Benedictine and to some degree the bitters.

Now for the flavor. Tremendously refreshing. Some recipes call for lime or lemon juice while others, the Joy of Mixology recipe included, do not. I found that the citrus juice added a slight hint of sourness to the drink that was necessary to round out the flavors. Without it the drink was simply overly sweet for my palate. The bitters aren’t directly present as they are in some cocktails, the Manhattan for example, but they are there. Overall the flavor is well balanced and quite delicious.

In looking at recipes I found a multitude of variations. There were two that stood out to me. One recipe didn’t call for pineapple juice at all. This changes the flavor profile of the drink entirely. I’d go so far as to say the resulting drink isn’t a Singapore Sling at that point, but rather something else, delicious or otherwise. The pineapple juice is absolutely essential. Another recipe I ran in to included all the usual ingredients in their usual amounts but left off the club soda. While the resulting drink was very good I don’t think you could call it a sling any longer. Slings are a class of sparkling sours, of which the Tom Collins is also a member. So, to leave off the club soda is to remove the cocktail from the sling category.

Once all the proverbial dust had settled my favorite recipe is the one found in Vintage Cocktails and Spirits by Ted Haigh. This recipe includes both the citrus juice that I like and the club soda that’s essential. If you find yourself looking for a delicious summer drink look no further than the Singapore Sling. You could easily mix them up by the pitchure and add a splash of soda to each as you pour them.

Singapore Sling (Vintage Cocktails and Spirits)

2 oz Gin

3/4 oz Cherry Heering

1/3 oz Benedictine

1/3 oz Cointreau

2 oz Pineapple Juice

3/4 oz Lime Juice

2 Dashes Grenadine

1 Dash Angostura Bitters

Club Soda

Wow, what a difference an ingredient can make. I came in to this cocktail, as I did with the Pimm’s Cup, thinking that ginger ale could be substituted for ginger beer with no ill effect. Absolutely not the case. While you can make a good Dark and Stormy with ginger ale you definitely can’t make a great one. The flavors of the two beverages are simply much too different.

Ginger ale on the one hand is sweet, not particularly tart and mildly gingery. When you mix this with dark rum, such as Gosling’s Black Seal, you end up with a cocktail that is quite sweet, has little ginger flavor and no sourness. You can perk things up a bit by squeezing two or three lime wedges into the drink for some added sour. Now, on the other hand, ginger beer is less sweet, has a higher citrus tang and is very gingery. This flavor profile allows the ginger beer to compliment the deep, sweet rum as opposed to get smothered by it.

You’ve probably gathered from my fanboyesque gushing that round two of the homemade ginger beer turned out fantastic. There is very little noticable difference in flavor between the force carbonated and yeast carbonated versions, with the possible exception that the yeast version was a touch less sweet. Although, since I had already consumed all of the first batch I wasn’t able to taste side by side to confirm.

The toughest part of the process is juicing the ginger. I lucked out and was able to borrow my mom’s juicer and the process still took about 20 minutes. If you don’t have access to a juicer I did find that grating the ginger on a microplane grater and then straining the pulp through a fine strainer also worked very well. As with the other homemade ingredients my second favorite feature (the taste being the obvious first) is the ability to customize the product to suit your tastes. More ginger, less lemon, more sugar, the sky is truly the limit.

Ok, enough about ginger beer, what about the cocktail? Truly sublime. This drink is refreshing and summery without being overly sweet and heavy. I could easily see myself sipping these on a lazy afternoon reading a book in the sun. I found that I liked mine with a bit more ginger beer, about 4 oz. This is a bit of a double edged sword however. It makes the drink lighter and less intensely rum focused. Which is nice because it allows you to enjoy the ginger beer flavor. However, it also makes this drink even more gulpable. You suddenly find that what was once a full cocktail glass has inexplicably become empty in a matter of moments. Finally, the lime wedge garnish is nice for those who would like to up the sour ratio, but I didn’t find myself needing it except in the drinks where I used ginger ale.

The Dark and Stormy is one of those drinks that on first glance can seem a bit boring but once you start sipping you’ll be changed forever. You really shouldn’t let summer pass by without giving one a go. Keep your eyes open for ginger beer or do as I did and make your own. You won’t be disappointed with either option.

Today marks the end of my Mint Julep week and you’ve still got a little over three hours to get ingredients if you’d like to enjoy a couple before the start of the Kentucky Derby. What’s my verdict? This cocktail is good, but not something I’m going to find myself craving. Were I to attend the Derby I would certainly partake of one (or several :). I won’t, however, be mixing these up regularly. I simply didn’t find the Mint Julep to be all that exciting. The sugary bourbon concoction reminded me of an Old Fashioned without the addition of bitters, which to my mind make the Old Fashioned delicious.

Where the Mint Julep shines though is in it’s use of a mint sprig as a garnish. Don’t for a second think that the mint is there purely for decoration. Rather, it is an integral part of the cocktail experience. Key to this is forcing the consumer to bury their nose in the mint for each sip of the cocktail. This increases the mint quotient exponentially. The mint should be lightly rubbed or clapped between your hands before garnishing. This will open up the mint and allow for a stronger mint aroma.

In my searches and experimentation with this cocktail there seem to be three primary schools surrounding muddling.

Light Muddling: Add simple syrup (not granulated sugar) to a glass with the mint. Then gently muddle the leaves to encourage them to express their oils. If you’re breaking up the leaves with your muddling you’re doing it too hard. Once muddled add your bourbon and ice, then stir to chill.

I found that of the two muddled preparations this one was much more visually pleasing. The resulting drink is lightly minty and the mint leaves remain large enough that you won’t be sucking them up your straw. This method would definitely be my choice for one off Mint Julep making.

Hard Muddling: Add granulated sugar to a glass with the mint and a dash of water. Muddle until the mint is broken up and the sugar has dissolved into the water. Then add your bourbon and ice, stirring to chill.

This technique works fine if all you have on hand is granulated sugar. However, I found two problems. One, when muddled in this way the mint can break down to such a degree that you end up with a bitter flavor from the chlorophyll. Two, I don’t enjoy tiny bits of leaf floating in my cocktail. The mint is broken down so much in this preparation that you would definitely end up with bits getting sucked up your straw. Assuming you haven’t gotten to the bitter qualities of the mint the resulting drink is still nicely minty and interestingly not that much more minty than the lightly muddled version.

No Muddling: This preparation requires that you make up some Minted Simple Syrup using the recipe I posted earlier in the week. To prepare the cocktail add your desired amount of Minted Simple Syrup along with your bourbon and ice to a glass. Stir to chill and top off with more ice if you like.

This is definitely my preferred preparation and the one I would use were I making this cocktail for a Derby party. There are no mint bits to get sucked up and the resulting drink is still nicely minty from the infused syrup. At this point there is one final level of easy preparation you can go to. You could buy premade Mint Julep mix. This is basically bourbon that already has the sugar and mint flavor added. Simply pour over ice, stir until chilled and garnish with fresh mint. A few of the high quality bourbon makers also have this available, particularly around Derby time. While I didn’t get a chance to try any of these this go round, I think they could be a good option for a party.

While each of these methods results in a tasty cocktail, I’ll repeat myself that the absolute key is the addition of the fresh mint garnish. This simple addition elevates this drink to a higher level. A final note before I list my recipe. The amount of sugar called for in most of the recipes was too much for my taste. That in mind, this drink is supposed to be sipped over a long period of time and would, therefore, become more and more diluted as the ice melts. So, take my recipe with a grain of salt. Modify it as you see fit and enjoy your Mint Juleps.

Mint Julep (Cocktail Hacker)

3 oz Bourbon

1/2 - 1 oz Minted Simple Syrup

Crushed Ice

Mint Sprig for Garnish

1) Add syrup and bourbon to a glass

2) Add crushed ice to fill about 2/3 of the glass

3) Stir until very cold

4) Fill remainder with ice

5) Garnish with mint sprig

Looking back on my Margarita post from 7 months ago I started that adventure with a slight bit of tequila aprehension. By the end of that week I was a convert. This relatively newly found love has carried over to this week. The Paloma, despite its simplicity, was tremendously delicious. I tried two recipes, one leveraging grapefruit soda (Squirt in my case), the other utilizing all fresh juices.

Paloma (Grapefruit Soda Recipe)

2 oz Tequila

1/2 oz Lime Juice

6 oz Grapefruit Soda

1) Build in a Collins glass with ice

This recipe is certainly the simpler of the two which is both good and bad, more on that in a bit. Like the Tom Collins, the Paloma is tremendously refreshing and would be absolutely fantastic on a hot summer day. The lime juice pumps up the sourness a bit which plays well with the sweetness of the soda. The tequila comes through nicely as well. I tried both reposado and blanco tequilas and found that they both work very well in this application. Next up I tried the more “all natural” recipe.

Paloma (All Fruit Juice)

2 oz Tequila

1/2 oz Lime Juice

3 oz Grapefruit Juice

1/4 oz Agave Syrup

Top with Soda Water (~3 oz)

1) Build in a Collins glass with ice

This version is more grapefruity than the soda based version and the sweetness can be more readily controlled depending on the amount of agave syrup you use. In my case I used pink grapefruit juice and as such 1/4 oz of agave syrup was plenty. Were I mixing this with white grapefruit I think a touch more agave syrup (1/2 oz) may be need to balance this drink. This version is very good and very fresh tasting. However, that said I don’t think it’s as authentic as the soda version.

I would be happy drinking either version as they’re both very very good. I think I’ll likely end up drinking the soda based version more often, however, due to it’s simplicity. Why, you ask, do you consider this simplicity a bad thing? One word. Drinkability. This is a drink that can be easily produced even when you’re 3-4 drinks in, which could lead to bad things. That’s not going to stop me for even a moment though and I suggest that you don’t let it stop you either.