Two Drink Minimum; The After 5 Cocktail Blog

Last spring, I took my wife and daughters on a 4-day Disney cruise – and almost every day since, my home mailbox has runneth over with catalogs, brochures and magazines from high-end cruise lines. (Are all these upper crusty companies aware that I’m a cheapskate who purchased an off-season package w/ an inside stateroom – no window, just a round mirror?)

Regardless, my new favorite magazine from all this high-end junk-mail is Virturoso Life, “The Traveler’s Guide to Inspired Pursuits” (aka “Vacations You’ll Never Afford”). This month’s issue has a good story about boozin’ – “The American Cocktail Revolution,” which traces the history of the cocktail, and also details how we Americans (and our bars) have lost our sauce-superiority to a new breed of “handmade” European cocktails.

The culprit? Cheap cocktail mixes and artificial fruit juices and sweeteners. While our spirits have certainly improved – Absolut Vodka, Patrón Tequila, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Grey Goose Vodka, Cruzan Rum – our cocktail mixes haven’t.

So nix the mix? Yup. Think about it next time you’re out at your favorite bar or restaurant: all those those trendy, hyper-sweetened martinis; or the 31 flavors of margaritas; or the wacky red, white and blue festive cocktails with the sparklers and swizzle straws. They’re all tasty, sure, but so’s Kool-Aid on hot day.

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And think about it when you’re entertaining at home: It’s one thing to buy margarita mix. It’s another thing to buy bottled lemon and lime juice. And it’s quite something else to pick ripe lemons and limes from a neighbor’s tree and squeeze your own margaritas. C’mon – you ponied up $60 for the bottle of Patrón tequila; Why ruin it with cheap margarita mix? It’s like grilling up a beautiful porterhouse steak, then smothering it with ketchup.

The magazine story mentioned a few other tips for cocktail mixing I thought I’d pass along:

For drinks like mojitos
and mint juleps, try using sugar cane juice (guarapo) or raw sugar in lieu of standard sugar. It takes away any sickening sweetness, and adds a more complex and textured flavor to your cocktails.

Try using fruit juice ice cubes in place of standard ice. This prevents “water-down” as your ice melts, and it can also change/enhance the drinking experience as you sip. For example, cranberry ice cubes in a glass of vodka and orange juice will transform the cocktail into a Madras as the ices melts.

Got any fresh or handmade cocktail tips you’d like to share with us? Please do!

Written by Trevor Pitchford

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under parties, Food and Drink, cocktail, bar, alcohol, Weblogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.