Ah, the Cosmopolitan that most fancy of cocktails that just can’t seem to hold the cachet of the Manhattan… Made famous by HBO’s Sex and the City. The Cosmopolitan is the drink that is always reaching for respectability but never quite capable of escaping it’s humble origins as a twist on the Cape Codder.
The ingredients
Cosmopolitan
1 1/2 oz. citrus vodka
1 oz. triple sec
1/2 oz. lime juice
2 to 3 dashes of cranberry juice
Add all to shaker. Fill shaker with ice. Shake. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wheel.
The Cranberry Shrub cocktail is a variation on a venerable cocktail that was popular in America during the colonial era! A shrub is a sweetened vinegar-based syrup that is often used as a mixer in alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. For instructions on how to make the one I used in this recipe see here. I know, I know another cold drink!? But it’s winter! It is, but cranberries are seasonally appropriate and I’d drank a shrub cocktail, let alone make my own, before. Also, a good friend asked me to make this for them…
The ingredients
Cranberry Shrub Cocktail
2 oz. bourbon
3/4 oz. cranberry shrub
1 tsp maple syrup
3 drops bitters (your choice)
1/2 oz triple sec (optional)
Add all to a shaker half full of ice. Shake well. Pour into a chilled glass. Garnish w/ cranberry or orange peel.
It’s hard to describe what this drink tastes like. Vinegar is not something people usually mix with their alcohol. It’s not something people use at all, except for making salad dressing. There’s this tangy, refreshing, sweet crispness to the drink. It’s very bright on the tongue. Then comes the mellowness and warmth of the bourbon. I’m glad I used orange bitters I think the citrus helped bring everything together. (Note: I made another cocktail and added triple sec to it which also does the job nicely) If you’re getting bored with traditional mixers or you just want to up your cocktail game give this a try. Or make a different kind of shrub and let me know hot it worked for you.
It got very cold very quickly in Davis. Autumn lasted but a few weeks it seems and now I’m stuck with the dry, bitter cold. Of course with the cold weather I’m supposed to be making punches, warm rums, and hot toddys. The last of those I can’t stand and the other two I’ve had no experience with whatsoever. Besides, I thought I’d try to capture a bit of the lost summer and make a Daiquiri
The ingredients
Daiquiri
2 oz. dark rum
1 oz. lime juice
1 oz. simple syrup
Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake, and strain into a chilled Martini glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.
You’ll notice that this drink isn’t being served in a pineapple, a bright color, or got half a fruit basket popping out of the top of it. Frozen Daiquiri’s are quite something else. Some might call them an ‘abomination.’ Not me, I’m too kind. But some might. A real Daiquiri is a simple cocktail, and an old one. Originating in Cuba sometime in the late 19th century the drink is attributed an American engineer and brought to the United States, New York specifically, by a Congressman! The drink caught on from there with the US military before becoming popular nationwide during World War II, rationing made vodka and whiskey harder to come by!
The original drink was white rum served in a tall glass over cracked ice, with sugar being poured over the ice and then limes squeezed into the glass. The cocktail was then stirred until the glass frosted. Today, it is shaken with shaved ice and served in a cocktail glass. Dark rum is often substituted today as well.
Anyway, despite being delicious the Daiquiri did not quite warm me up as much as I had hoped. Oh well!
There was a time when the Manhattan cocktail was brand new. A time when hip drinkers would walk into a bar ask for the drink and get a blank stare back from their bartender. In those earliest days of the cocktail there was still variation in the recipe and looking through old bartending guides one can find recipes for the cocktail that included Maraschino liqueur or Curacao. In time as the cocktail settled into the form we know today those alternatives took on other names. The Jockey Club is one of those variants, excluding bitters and adding a small amount of Maraschino liqueur.
The Ingredients
Jockey Club
1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. Maraschino liqueur
Add ingredients to a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.
The Jockey Club, as one would expect considering its history, is a lot like a Manhattan. And that isn’t a bad thing. The real difference is that there is a herbally, cherry sweetness that lingers in the mouth that you won’t find when drinking a Manhattan. Both though will instill a bit a warmth in your throat and chest though. Just the sort of thing you’d want on a cool Autumn evening.
