Cocktails

I’ve been doing research on cocktails. Not just the laboratory work, but reading actual cocktail recipes, out of The Bartender’s Best Friend, by Mardee Regan, an excellent resource. I’m proceeding alphabetically, and have only gotten up through the D’s, but here are some of my discoveries, all of which have been sampled by experienced cocktail experts, or just by myself.

The Americano. A family favorite in hot weather is the Campari soda, which is nothing more than Campari and club soda with a wedge of lime. The Americano is equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth, with club soda and a wedge of lime. As you’d expect, a touch sweeter, and more rounded than plain Campari; this drink holds promise for next summer’s cookouts. I’d like John to give it a try, as he’s a big fan of Campari, but final judgment will have to wait until June or July. A drink like this can best be judged on a hot summer evening, when there are strips cooking on the grill, and one needs to work off a big thirst.

Merry Widow. Susan’s drink has become half sweet and half dry vermouth, with a twist. I can’t find this as an official cocktail (of course, I have another twenty-two letters in the alphabet), but with a dash of bitters, it’s called the Bittersweet. (OK, so that’s not such an original name.) This Merry Widow is half Dubonnet red, and half dry vermouth. Susan liked it, but found it a bit sweet, and I’ll agree with that judgment – the Dubonnet is sweeter than the sweet vermouth it replaces. So we fiddled with the recipe, and with a 2 to 3 ratio, it seemed just right. Who knows whether this drink will actually replace the old standard, but it has the advantage of an actual name, and a catchy name at that. (In case anyone cares, it was introduced at the Waldorf-Astoria, at the time of the opening of Lehar’s operetta of the same name. And as long as we’re going off on tangents, the use the name Merry Widow to describe a kind of corset, not that I’d know anything about provocative lingerie, also came from the same operetta.)

Bobby Burns. Before I became a dedicated drinker of single malts, I was a fan of Rusty Nails. These are a great late night cocktail, and for someone like me who isn’t much of a dessert eater, a fine after-dinner drink. They also have the advantage of being more readily available than good malts, because most any bar or restaurant will carry scotch and Drambuie. Anyway, I noticed this recipe as a potential substitute for the Rusty Nail. A Bobby Burns is 2 parts scotch, 1 part sweet vermouth, and ¼ part Benedictine. So it’s really a sweetened up Rob Roy, which is in turn a scotch Manhattan of sorts. Whatever. Actually, this was a pretty good drink. The Benedictine imparts not only sweetness, but a nice flavor to the drink, making it more interesting than a Rob Roy, and more comparable to the Rusty Nail.

My big concern about many of these drinks is that the average bartender won’t have a clue about making them. You can’t imagine the gyrations we go through just to get Susan’s sweet and dry vermouth. There are many spots with good bartenders, and there are bars which might even stock Benedictine on a regular basis, but I wouldn’t necessarily expect it at the average watering hole. Just by way of example – a week ago we went to dinner at the Strathallen Grill, a pretty high end place here in town, and could not even get a Rusty Nail. No Drambuie. Imagine that. Of course, had we wanted some lime green vodka concoction, I’m sure there would have been no problem. It's not easy being a traditionalist in these frivolous times. But that's a story for another posting.