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The Pirate Squirrel's Guide to Cocktails - Oglethorpe Faculty ...

The Pirate Squirrel’s
 Guide to Cocktails

                        1

Contents

Introduction

1 - Basic Gear                              2

2 - Advanced Gear                           14

3 - Basic Ingredients                       26

4 - Syrups, bitters, tinctures              34

5 – Garnishes                               43

6 – Techniques                              50

7 - The Drinks!                             55

8 - Online Resources

                                                 2

Introduction: Why This Book?

There are a bazillion books on craft cocktails on the market, most written by pros who have worked

at fancy bars and pioneered the craft cocktail movement. So why do I, an amateur, think I should throw

my hat into the ring? Isn't this sheer hubris, not to mention a waste of time?

I write this because, not in spite of, my amateur status. I love good cocktails and I want to see

everyone enjoy them instead of the swill you most often find. Sure, you could go to a bar, and have

some trendily-bearded, be-suspendered snob make you an excellent cocktail with about 11 ingredients,

including all the special house made bitters, syrups, laxatives and whatnot1. But what if you're at home

making dinner for a date and would like to impress a little bit? These days the ol' Ginnus Tonnicus

won't do (although it's still an excellent drink to swill by the bucketful on a hot summer day). Jaime

Zartler just reminded me that I used the word 'hubris' in the first paragraph, which reveals me as a

Reedie – so I guess I'd better add that there's a new paradigm in the world of cocktails. Just like the

Foodie revolution made us guys up our game in the kitchen, we have to kick it up a notch with the

drinks now. But just like cooking, too many guys are intimidated by drinks that look complicated.

That's why I, an amateur, think I have something to say to us about how to make great cocktails without

showing the least bit of fear – I went through that phase of being intimidated and I can still identify.

Plus, I am unabashed. I love Gear, like all guys, but unlike snobby bartenders, I don't try to hide it.

Okay, a great citrus squeezer is not quite the manly equivalent of a laser-guided circular saw, but who

has room for one of those these days? I also love booze and am unashamed to admit I like to get a tasty

buzz on, something no hipster bartender will admit. I also like tasty flavors. So this is a guide to people

like I was five years ago, just getting started making craft cocktails. Bear with me, pour a G&T (for

1
For an amusing video about such creatures, view “Shit Bartenders Say”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB2aVzmPxxM

now) and read on.

                    4

Chapter 1
                                             Basic Gear

We need this gear to start:

Boston Shaker and Hawthorne Strainer
Muddler
Ice Mold(s)
Handheld citrus juicer
Squeeze Bottles
Fancy Glassware - Martini, double rocks, Collins
Jigger, bar spoon

Boston Shaker and Hawthorne Strainer

The Boston Shaker is basically a metal pint-glass-lookin' thing (but bigger) and a 16-oz beer glass:

                                                                                                       5

DO NOT get the kind of shaker with the built-in strainer (Sometimes called a Cobbler or Cobbler

Shaker, I think.) That looks like some variation on this:

Those things are strictly amateur night. Plus, you can't do fancy tricks with them. Remember: Boston

Shaker. Your single most important tool. (If you can't afford the pint glass, you know where to find

them). While we are at it, you need a Hawthorne strainer for the shaker:

   Muddler

                                                                                                       6

It's basically a stick with one end “roughed up” so it can sort of mash and grind fresh herbs and

sometimes fruit (as in the classic Mojito).

   There are all sorts of fancy-schmancy ones available, but you can easily make your own. There is an

article on this at Jeffrey Morgenthaler's excellent cocktail website:

http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2014/build-a-better-muddler/

                                                                                                       7

Ice Molds

   Some drinks simply require what I call “Large Format Ice”, (“LFI”) which is basically a giant ice

cube. They come in all shapes and sizes. You want a mold that makes ice that fits handily into your

double rocks glass:

   Personally, I really dig the spherical molds. Spheres have the lowest surface area / volume ratio of

any shape, so the spherical ice takes longer to melt. Plus it looks friggin' cool. They are a bit of a pain

in the ass to keep filling and storing and they take up a lot of freezer space, so I often use the giant cube

molds that make six or so cubes like the pictured cube above. Here are some example LFI molds:

   If you're ambitious, you can go for a special mold that makes a big slab of clear ice, the holy grail

                                                                                                              8

of cocktail ice. You'll notice that the ice in your freezer is a little cloudy and sort of “soft” - it melts

quickly, and at the end, you can really feel how soft it has become. We'll talk about that in the

advanced gear section.

                                                                                                               9

Handheld Citrus Juicer

    I am a nut for tart, citrusy drinks. Even in Winter, they make me feel like it's Summer. I tell folks I

may die of cirrhosis2, but I'm safe from scurvy. Fresh lemons and limes are probably my most

important ingredient. The thing about lemons and limes, though, is that the juice loses some zing after a

few (2-3) hours. There's a local bar here where I always order a Last Word (cocktail with a good 1.5 oz

of lime juice) and I am pretty sure the bartender pre-squeezes the limes because it always tastes flat,

almost like that awful store-bought juice. So disappointing. And I never learn. Anyway, because of this,

I think you need to squeeze the juice on the spot for every cocktail. To do that practically, you need a

hand-held citrus press:

    Some have a second interior “cup”; the outer cup is for lemons and really big limes, the inner cup is

smaller and used for limes. Some are covered in enamel – I don't like those, because the enamel always

seems to chip away and then the (non-stainless) steel underneath gives the juice a grayish color.

Regardless, this is an indispensable tool, and you'll use it for cooking as well.

2
Shhh, I nearly did, I was diagnosed with chronic cirrhosis two weeks ago. Drink responsibly!

                                                                                                              10

Squeeze bottles

   These would be sort of an 'advanced gear' item for storing homemade bitters, syrups, etc. - if it

weren't for the necessity having a lot of simple syrup on hand (we'll talk about that in the basic

ingredients chapter). Basically, simple syrup is sugar water, and it is absolutely crucial in a lot of

drinks, especially citrus drinks where it balances out the sourness. Again, these come in all shapes and

sizes, but I prefer 12 or 16 oz bottles. They look basically like this:

   Fancy Glassware

   Look, let's be honest. Half of a great drink is the presentation. Putting an ice-cold martini in a red

solo cup is just gross. You're gonna need some fancy glasses – albeit not too many. One kind of neat

trend in hipster bars now is to have all sorts of mixed glasses, so if you order two martinis, you get

them in two recognizable but quite different looking martini glasses. You can always scour antique

stores and flea markets for vintage glasses like this, and odds are you can also find some pretty cool

matched sets as well.

   First we need martini glasses, like this:

                                                                                                            11

Would you be surprised if I said these came in all sorts of shapes and sizes? I happen to really like

this elegant, smooth and spartan style, but you can find them in sort of coupes like this:

   (These are very appropriate for lots of cocktails, by the way). You can find other shapes I imagine,

and all sorts of design elements like glass etching, tinting, or twirly stems.

   Next you'll need some double rocks glasses:

                                                                                                           12

The above is a 14 oz glass which I think is just right. I don't know what people do with those single

rocks glasses – make drinks for Gnomes? They are so tiny that any cocktail is gone in one sip. Pffft.

Again, these often come in heavy etched or cut crystal, or with designs, but the basic idea is always the

same.

                                                                                                        13

Finally – and really, these are all the basic glasses you need – you want some Collins glasses. These

are pretty all-purpose and double as water glasses, but importantly, they are required for the ever –

popular Mojito:

   Lastly, you need a jigger (measuring glass) and a long – handled bar spoon. Come on, you know

what these look like, right?

   You need a jigger because you want precise measurements with great cocktails. Plus, having precise

measurements allows you to science up that mofo – you can adjust what you think is too strong or

weak. The days of slopping a bunch of gin into a glass by eyeball mk I, and topping with tonic are over.

                                                                                                        14

(although that's a perfectly acceptable way to spend a hot summer afternoon with your buddies). I like

to have 2-3 of these because I always seem to reach for one and find it's coated on the inside with

something viscous and the wrong flavor (sweet vermoth?) and I'm too lazy to clean it out right away.

The bar spoon you need to mix up and encoldify some drinks that are not shaken (think James Bond

here), and the spiraling on the handle allows you to place it between your palms and twirl it

(“swizzling”). Honestly you could get by without one of these, but pffft they're like 5 bucks.

That's it for basic gear. You could grab all this stuff in one pass at a place like amazon.com or any

one of a bazillion bar supply websites. Or you could troll antique malls. When I started this, I lived a

walk away from a ton of antique malls, and when I moved here, it turns out I'm next to one of the

largest antique malls in Atlanta. These are also great places to find bar furniture, by the way (stools, bar

tables, bars from small to very large). Let's look at some advanced gear now – the stuff that's fun and

neat, but not really necessary (not that they take any sort of advanced techniques or anything – heck,

it's just booze after all).

Stuff you'd better already have

You already drink beer and wine, and cook at home, right? So you surely own a good corkscrew

with a bottle opener, a funnel, and a larger sieve. I don't need to show you what those look like, do I

Chapter Two
                                                 Advanced Gear

   Again, this isn't gear that takes any special skills or techniques to use. It's just stuff that isn't

necessary, but looks (and is) cool, speeds some things up, used for rare drinks, and so on. The list of

toys is open-ended, but here's a few:

   Beaker
   Mounted citrus press
   Clear hard ice mold - http://www.polaricetray.com/us/pebble/index.html
   Ice bucket and tongs
   Icepick
   Lewis bag and hammer
   Julep Strainer
   Citrus tool
   Microplaner
   Julep cups
   Moscow Mule mugs
   Atomizer
   Cocktail picks

                                                                                                           16

Beaker

   A beaker is a classy sort of way to stir drinks that require minimal ice and don't need to start out

super-cold. It gives your bar that sort of “mad Scientist” look. I use it for Negronis, old-fashioneds,

Sazeracs and probably a few other drinks that come to mind. Or, if you plan on going through a lot of

citrus juice in a hurry, pre-squeeze it into the beaker for a bit of a head start. Don't let it sit for more

than, say, two hours! They look, unsurprisingly, like this:

They tend to be a bit expensive when new, but you can find all sorts of groovy vintage beakers in

antique malls (or probably Etsy) for much cheaper.

                                                                                                               17

Mounted Citrus Press

   This is just a heavy-duty citrus press that sits on your counter. You can really crank out the juice

with one of these suckers. I'd use one, but I really don't have the counter space. My friend Scott

Hagaman swears by the Hmilton Beach 932 Commercial Citrus Juicer:

   You can also get electric models but – no class. Plus they take a while to clean out and have a lot of

moving parts. Besides, we're not exactly planning on throwing cocktail parties that big, are we?

                                                                                                          18

Clear hard ice mold

   You'll notice that the ice your freezer makes is cloudy and somewhat “soft”. It melts quick. Clear har

ice is sort of the holy grail. I have tried a bazillion ways to nake clear hard ice at home. Most didn't

work; some worked but were really impractical. So far, this is the best solution I have found: the Polar

Ice Tray from Polar Ice. http://www.polaricetray.com/us/pebble/index.html

   It's actually easier to use than it looks, and produces really nice, clear ice. Guests sometimes think

that I buy clear ice slabs from restaurant supply stores – nope! This is part of a review cribbed from my

blog:

                                                                                                            19

Pros:
- Clear, hard ice. People have actually asked me who supplies my ice.
- Doesn't take up TOO much space
- Produces a single large chunk that you crack apart for some cool, irregular ice chunks. You will
need a Lewis bag and a hammer, or a really solid ice pick, for this.

Cons:

- Still takes up a lot of room, for a small amount of ice
- Supposed to take 8-12 hours to freeze; seems more like 24 hours
- The big one: It's pretty much unusable. It's next to impossible to get the ice out of the mold. This is
exacerbated by the shoddy quality of the inner molds. I have already broken them in places, trying to
remove them from the outer, insulating shell. You will scream at the device as you try to get the ice
out. The inner molds are kind of low quality and crack easily.

My apologies to the Polar Ice people. This is a very good product.

   Ice bucket, icepick, Lewis bag and hammer

   If you choose to go the custom ice route you will need a place to store the ice (the Polar Tray doesn't

make that much), and a way to turn the slabs of clear ice into usable chunks – a solid icepick and / or a

Lewis bag and hammer:

Come on, you know what an ice bucket looks like. Ever get really crappy service in a hotel? They have

                                                                                                            20

ice buckets and tongs. They probably owe you that much anyway. Not that I endorse. . .You can also

find vintage buckets and picks at antique malls. I like a heavy duty ice pick lick the one pictured above,

with a heavy mallet / ice scorer at one end. maybe you like the classic “prison shiv” style, which is,

after all, pretty badass.

   The Lewis bag is less familiar. It's basically a canvas bag designed to absorb moisture, so the

resulting pieces are not wet or melty. You can use almost anything for the hammer – an ordinary claw

hammer, a wood mallet, a meat tenderizer mallet, etc.

   In the above image, the bartender has whacked the ice like a red-headed stepchild until he got

crushed ice. You could do that in a blender too but I find that ice is melty and wet, and you can't control

the granularity. If you also have an icepick, you can score the surface of the ice deeply, stick it in the

bag, whack it a few times and with any luck it breaks into chunks along the lines you scored.

                                                                                                             21

Julep Strainer

   These are used in making mint juleps. Now I do not endorse actually destroying perfectly good

Bourbon by making mint juleps with the strainer, but a lot of people like to have their drinks double-

strained. Double-straining gets rid of the little ice shards that are a byproduct of shaking and straining

through a Hawthorne strainer. Personally I like those shards, but many people do not, so to please them,

pour the drink from the shaker / Hawthorne strainer, through the julep strainer (or just use a very small

sieve).

                                                                                                         22

Citrus tool and microplaner

   Both of these are for garnish. You use the citrus tool for creating decorative (and tasty) ribbons of

citrus rind, where the microplaner creates zests and powders. Zests are the finely-grated pieces of citrus

rind that have intense flavor; you can also use it for fresh ginger, and for fresh nutmeg in hot winter

drinks. In a citrus tool, be sure to get one that also has the single deep notch like the tool pictured on the

left; that's what allows you to make ribbons.

   More exotic cups – Julep cups and Moscow Mule mugs

                                                                                                           23

Really, the sky is the limit on the specialized glassware you can get. Hurricane glasses, test tubes,

snifters, the list goes on. I chose these two because the Julep is a popular drink and the silver mug looks

cool, and the Moscow Mule is also very popular and really wants to be served in a copper mug (which

also looks cool). Plus, my friend Amanda created her own drink, a spinoff on the Moscow Mule called

the Effin' Gee (or is that F and G?), so I keep copper mugs around for when she visits.

   Personally, I only keep a pair of Julep cups around because they look cool. You won't catch me

drinking a Mint Julep or any of its spinoffs. A foul concoction and a terrific way to ruin perfectly good

Bourbon. Apparently the high rollers at the Horse races down south (now we're already talking more

money than sense or taste) will pay hundreds of dollars for a slushy made with super – expensive

Bourbon, loaded down with sugar (man they love their sugar here – don't get me started on the

putrescence that is Sweet Tea) and a big hunk of fresh mint strategically placed to stab your eyeball

when you take a sip. The Mule, on the other hand, is a genuinely tasty drink and looks soooo good on a

hod day with the copper all frosted over and dripping with condensate.

                                                                                                           24

Cocktail atomizer

   Sometimes, with some ingredients, (I'm lookin' at YOU, dry vermouth and absinthe!) you want a

very fine touch. Some drinks ask to coat the inside of a frosted glass with vermouth or absinthe.

Maybe other drinks and liquors, but those come to mind right now. Now, you could do this easily by

pouring a skooch of the liquor into the glass and swirling it around, tossing the excess (alcohol abuse!)

or you could get fancy and run with the mad scientist theme with a cocktail atomizer.

   The one one the right looks like one of those old – school asthma inhalers, re-purposed for the

cause. Very classy, I think; and again, probably easy to find cheaply in an antique mall. At any rate, if

you're supposed to coat the inside of the glass, 4-5 spritzes from either deposits the liquor evenly with

no waste.

                                                                                                            25

Cocktail picks

   Like I said, presentation is half the game – just like with food. And presentation means garnish.

Some garnish you stick on the rim; some, you float in the drink; but some garnishes (cherries and

olives you want to retrieve easily. So you spear them on a cocktail pick where they soak up all that

tasty cocktail and then you pull out the pick at the end and eat the booze-soaked garnish. These come in

all shapes and sizes, so get some that fits your glassware. Here's some samples:

   The world of bar toys is never ending. Let me know at http://inebriatedsquirrel.blogspot.com/ if you

think there's some other toy I ought to include here. Let's start talking about things that can actually be

                                                                                                         26

drunk, now. We'll have to start off with basic ingredients – the (non – alcoholic) stuff that you have to

have on hand.

                                                                                                        27

Chapter Three
Basic Ingredients

Simple syrup
Citrus juice
Sour mix
Ginger ale
Tonic water
Cola
Ice
Fresh herbs

Simple Syrup

I guess technically this ought to be in the next chapter on syrups and so forth. But it's just such a key

ingredient – it goes in nearly every citrusy drink, to balance out the sour, for example – that I consider

it a basic ingredient that must be kept on hand at all times.

Simple syrup is sugar water. That's it. I suppose one could add a tablespoon or so of sugar to one's

drink, if one didn't mind the resulting grittiness. Sugar does not dissolve in cold water. So what you do

is get a saucepan, fill it with equal parts sugar and pure water, and simmer very gently until the sugar is

dissolved. Don't let it boil, and stir it every so often. This might take 20 minutes at most. I generally

make it in quantities of 1 cup each sugar and water, but if you are having a big Mojito party or

something like that, you may want to pre-make more. 1 cup each of sugar and water will fill a 16-oz

squeeze bottle (see Basic Gear) with I think a little left over (just use that as an excuse to make a fresh

Daiquiri or something).

Let the syrup cool – your squeeze bottle is probably soft plastic and you don't want to melt it! - and

use a smallish funnel to pour it into one of those plastic squeeze bottles. It should last indefinitely in the

fridge.

You can also see, and make, “rich simple syrup”, which is just simple syrup with twice the sugar. So,

two parts sugar, one part water. If you use rich simple syrup, just use half the amount of simple syrup

that the recipe calls for. What's the difference? I think the rich syrup gives a really nice “mouth feel” -

the drink seems a little softer and rounder. Plus, it goes twice as far as regular simple syrup, so you

don't have to fill up your fridge with simple syrup bottles.

You can actually buy this stuff pre-made at larger liquor stores, but it's just so easy to make and

cheap that you might as well make it at home. Sometimes if I'm having a big party and I run out, I'll

send someone out to buy a few bottles rather than stopping the free flow of libations, but that's about

the only reason I'd buy it.

Of course, people (and Americans in particular) get way too much refined sugar in their diets.

Health-conscious bartenders have been looking for alternatives for some time now, but as far as I know,

no one has come up with anything. You can always use a substitute like aspartame or Stevia in place of

sugar, but there's a reason those sweeteners don't sell very well – most people find them to have a sort

of bitter or otherwise repulsive taste. So suck it up and cut the sugar out of other parts of your diet.

Citrus Juice

We're talking lemon and lime juice here. Of course some drinks might call for grapefruit or orange

juice, and the fresh squeezed juice of any fruit just has way more flavor than store-bought juice – even

the fancy-shmancy stuff.

Lemon and lime juices are just that. Remember that citrus juice is full of volatile oils that give

flavor, and those oils don't last long. No more than 2 hours. So I prefer to make my juice on the spot,

per drink. If I am throwing a bigger party, or one where I expect to use a lot of sour, I might pre-make a

pint or two of the stuff, but really don't bother saving any after about two hours. It'll be a pale corpse of

a mixer, and no, that doesn't mean you can use it in Corpse Revivers. Squeezing the juice is the most

time-consuming, labor-intensive part, and with a good squeezer, even that isn't too bad. If you have a

big party and you start to fall behind, just grab a guest and have them squeeze it. Everyone loves to be

behind the bar.

   Orange and grapefruit juice (and any other larger fruit) are not going to fit into one of those hand-

held citrus juicers. You'll need a larger juicer for that, but you've already got one – right? RIGHT?

Something like this:

   Orange and grapefruit are more forgiving than lemons and limes. The juice keeps for longer, so if

you expect to use a lot of it, it makes sense to pre-make a batch. Be sure to make enough to help you

through the next morning! Fresh juice is really a glorious thing. A greyhound or a screwdriver really

comes alive with fresh juice! If you don't like pulp, run it through a sieve or a julep strainer.

   Sour Mix

   Yeap, you used to buy bottles of “sour”, god knows what was in it but it was sour all right, and you

still can buy it. But the stuff is nasty – it's usually made with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and lord

                                                                                                           30

know what FD&C dye numbers to give it that piss yellow look. It gives me heartburn. Tip: Fresh sour

mix is just fresh lemon juice and sugar; in our case, the sugar is simple syrup, where the sugar is

already dissolved.

I said that simple syrup was an essential, that it went into nearly every drink, and I meant it. Sour

mix is a 2:1 ratio of fresh squeezed lemon juice to simple syrup. Wait until you try a real whiskey sour

with fresh sour mix – it has a real ZING to it that makes you sit up and take notice! Commercial sour

and drinks made with commercial sour will just taste flat and lifeless after you've had the real thing.

Plus, you can always say you are inoculating against scurvy.

Sodas – Ginger ale, tonic, cola, soda.

Generally, a drink made with soda is called a highball, and it's just a liquor and a soda. There are

exceptions, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. Hardly worth mentioning in a craft cocktail

book, eh? But invariably, some putz with no sense of adventure at your party is going to ask for a

boring ol' highball of some sort. So you should keep some of these on hand. And after all, a highball is

about 2/3 to 3/4 soda, so you want the good stuff. Luckily for you, I have scienced the hell out of this

issue.

Ginger ale is probably the most important, because it goes in some pretty classic drinks. I have the

Dark and Stormy in mind here. One night, years ago, I bought several different brands of ginger ale

and ginger beer (don't ask me what the difference is!) and sat around with a panel of friends

experimenting with Moscow Mules and Dark and Stormys. The results surprised me.

First, don't even bother with that shit you get in the grocery store – Canada Dry, Schweppes, etc. I

don't even know why they call that ginger ale. I taste no ginger in there and I am pretty sure it's not

listed as an ingredient. I suppose it's good if you're trying to settle an upset stomach, but it makes a

terrible cocktail. Second, my favorite brand, Reed's ginger ale, came in dead last (we didn't even count

the Canada Dry and Schweppes). Even I agreed that it was the worst of the lot.

By universal acclaim the winner was Fever Tree. They make a ginger ale and a ginger beer, so there

must be some difference, but I couldn't say what. The stuff comes in four-packs of these tiny bottles, I

think 7 oz each, which is awfully inconvenient (it's enough to make one drink in a double rocks glass,

with enough left over to make you wonder what to do with this awfully expensive stuff), and it's really

expensive. Probably more expensive than the booze that goes in the drink. But man, is it good!

If you don't want Fever Tree, then try to find stuff sweetened with cane sugar and not HFCS. And try

to find stuff with real ginger in it. You could always get a hunk of ginger root and use a microplane

(See advanced Gear) to grate some fresh ginger into your drink, but that's a bit of a pain. Q, Cock and

Bull, and Blenheim are all really good. Blenheim is quite hot with ginger, so be warned. Surprisingly,

Gosling's ginger ale is made with HFCS and is not that good. (I say 'surprisingly' because Gosling's

distillery is the originator of the classic Dark and Stormy.)

In tonic water, you have a few paths. you can buy bottles, or you can be adventurous and buy bottles

of tonic syrup that you then mix with soda water. If you Google around, you can find recipes for tonic

syrup. The syrups, whether store-bought or homemade, have very distinctive flavors. Jeffrey

Morgenthaler's cocktail blog (see chapter 8, Resources) has an excellent recipe for making your own

tonic syrup. The bottles of syrup, and the recipes, will tell you how much soda to use. You can use

bottled/canned soda, but I prefer using an old-fashioned CO2 soda siphon (See Advanced Gear). Plus,

with the soda siphon, you can always do the ol' Three Stooges “soda in the face” stunt on unruly guests

or neighbors complaining about the noise.

As for the bottled stuff, the commercial-grade (Schweppe's, Canada Dry) is passable. It uses

HFCS, though, and I really think HFCS is an inferior sweetener. You might have picked up on that by

now. Easily at the top of the heap, once again, is Fever Tree. The bottles and pricing have the same

drawbacks as their ginger ale, although you can also buy bomber-sized bottles. The taste is superb.

I recall an episode of “King of the Hill” where Hank, the father, is showing his weird son Bobby

how to grill steaks. He uses the springiness test and says 'Yup, these are medium rare'. Bobby asks,

'What if someone wants theirs well done?' to which Hank replies 'Then we ask them politely but firmly

to leave'. Inevitably someone will ask for that sine qua non of trailer park drinks, a rum and coke. If

they think they are sophisticated they may ask for a Cuba Libre, which is a rum and coke with a

squeeze of lime. Woo hoo, it's adventure time! Alas, you probably cannot ask them politely but firmly

to leave. So at least make a god rum and coke.

You can use fancy aged dark rum if you want – I've actually had a rum and coke that way which was

pretty tasty. But the key is the cola. believe it or not, there are lots of boutique colas out there now.

Fever Tree makes one and I bet it's fantastic. Just look around and get one without (you guessed it)

HFCS.

There's a trick, too. You can find this stuff at almost any grocery store – Mexican Coke (cue bad

drug jokes). Apparently the Coke facilities in Mexico make their stuff under license and they make it

with cane sugar. There is a noticeable taste difference and I have to say a rum and coke with the

Mexican coke is passable, even though I really don't like cola.

Soda water. There's not too much to say about this. You can splurge and get Fever Tree, but it's just

fizzy water for Chrissakes, it all tastes the same to me. I use a soda siphon which, as I mentioned, has

the vaudeville entertainment factor going for it as well.

Ice

I can't overemphasize the importance of ice. Even if you don't have the hard clear ice, you need to

keep some things in mind.

First, if you use ice cube trays, don't forget to use filtered or distilled water. And make sure the trays

are clean and shiny and away from any sort of food that might add its own aroma.

Second, the size of the ice is important to the drink. Some drinks call for large format ice (LFI),

some drinks call for crushed ice. Most refrigerators with an ice maker have an option for crushed ice. If

not, use a Lewis bag and hammer, or get a crushed ice machine. Some drinks call for blended ice –

basically ice cream slushies. Those drinks, we do politely but firmly ask our guests to leave for. You

have to draw the line somewhere. Your guests who want one of those children's drinks can waltz down

to the Kwik-E-Mart, buy a Squishee, and dump some booze in it, then drink it while watching

Nickelodeon.

Finally, if you have access to the holy grail – hard, clear ice, I discuss what to do with that in

Chapter two, Advanced Gear. Basically you score the block with an icepick where you want it to form

cubes, then you either pound the “shiv” into the vertex, or you put it in a Lewis bag and smack it.

Fresh Herbs

This is tough. It is the nature of herbs that they don't stay fresh for very long. I can't count the

number of little plastic tombs full of rotting black vegetable matter that typically sit in my fridge that

were fresh tarragon just a week ago. So I generally buy on an 'as-needed' basis and don't bother keeping

any on hand.

During the summer, though – fresh mint. I still don't keep it on hand; I have to think, 'oh I want a

mojito this week, or a Richmond gimlet. Better get some mint.' Mojitos are so popular that this is

pretty often, though. One day I'll plant an herb garden full of mint on my patio.

That's all I can think of now for basic ingredients. Hope I didn't miss anything. Someone will let me

know, I'm sure - 'BELCHER! How could you forget pickled kumquats? What kind of a hovel do you

live in, anyway?' Please be gentle.

                                                                                                35

Chapter 4
                                 Tinctures, Bitters, Syrups, and Shrubs

   Tinctures
   “Ordinary” Bitters
   Exotic Bitters
   Cherry Syrup
   Mint Syrup
   Ginger syrup
   Cherry-chipotle syrup

   Tinctures

   Sometimes, you have an ingredient that stubbornly resists giving up its flavor. Chilies, especially

dried chilies, are like this, for example. You don't want to grind them up and make the drink all gritty.

Well, alcohol is also a great solvent. Just soak the troublesome ingredient in alcohol, usually a

flavorless alcohol like vodka, and that will extract the flavor. Taste the mix every so often – some

agents can get overpoweing if you steep them too long (Lavender and Habanero come to mind.

Habanero, especially fresh, makes a very hot tincture pretty quickly). Once you have the desired flavor,

squeeze the solids to get out that last bit of flavor, throw away the spent solids, and put the tincture in

an eye dropper bottle (or whatever they call these things):

                                                                                                              36

If you plan on using the tincture in a particular kind of drink, feel free to change your solvent liquor.

The only tinctures I make use chilies, so I use tequila as my solvent.

Tequila-habanero tincture: cut a few habaneros in half and cover with tequila. Monitor this for

taste early and often – it gets real hot very quickly. When you've got the desired heat / flavor, toss the

chilies and bottle the tincture. A little goes a long way!

Tequila-chipotle tincture: toast a few chipotles in a skillet (you can skip this; I just find that

toasting dry spices often brings out some extra flavor). Cut them in half lengthwise, cover with tequila,

and monitor for flavor. The chipotle is not a very hot chili, so don't expect a lot of heat. Add habaneros

at the end, or habanero tincture, or just use both tinctures in a drink, if you want more heat. This will

need to be steeped a longer time, maybe overnight. Dried peppers just don't seem to want to give up

their flavor very quickly. When you've got the desired heat / flavor, toss the chilies and bottle the

tincture.

Pickled kumquat tincture: cut some pickled kumquats in half. Cover with vodka. . . .Well, you get

the picture. (I would never actually make such a thing, I'm just using it to show how general the

technique is).

A similar method is an infusion. That's just lot of booze with a bunch of flavoring thrown in to

steep. Unlike a tincture, it's not used to flavor other ingredients or drinks, it is a drink in itself. Take a

big glass ice tea dispenser (or they even make special infusion pitchers if you have money to burn),

dump a fifth or two of some base liquor into it, and throw in whatever fruit or herb you want. Vanilla

bean infused vodka, watermelon infused tequila, whatever. You can drink the results as shots or put it in

a cocktail. Vanilla rum and coke, Melon Mojitos, these are all tasty drinks that require minimum effort

once you've got a jar of infused liquor.

It's not all fruity umbrella drink infusions, either. I went to a tequila bar in Boulder, CO where they

had three infused tequilas – Fire in the hole, Stripper on the pole, and the Girl next door. The Fire in the
37

hole was a ice tea dispenser loosely stuffed to the brim with some kind of very hot chili (I forget what

kind) and then filled with some kind of cheap tequila (No sense using the good stuff when it just tastes

like pure essence of fire, right?). The Stripper on the pole was the same, with half the chilies, and the

Girl next door just had enough chilies to cover the bottom of the dispenser. I won a bet by drinking a

shot of Fire in the hole. Holy fuck, was that hot. Felt like a hot fireplace poker I my stomach, too 3.

Since no one ever drank the stuff, it had been steeping for ages, so it was extra-hot. You could see the

sheen of chili oil at the top of the glass. I bet you could skim that off, put it in a spray bottle, and have

homemade Mace (Tm). Anyway, that just goes to show that not all infusions are candy liquor.

“Ordinary” bitters

What are bitters? They are kind of hard to describe. They are bitter, for sure. They are made with

some (generally flavorless) alcohol, and some flavoring agent, and usually something to make

it. . .well, bitter. I'm a bit hazy on the topic and honestly I do not understand the proper use of bitters,

although I can sometimes guess which kid will enhance what drink. I'm not going to show you how to

make your own bitters here because of this. There are many excellent books on that topic and heck,

many excellent websites if you google around. If you wanted to make, I don't know, cucumber bitters, I

bet you could find a website that tells you how (well, okay, cucumber bitters are stumping me. But I

found plenty of commercial cucumber bitters). Here, I'm just going to tell you what kinds there are and

some ways to use them. In fact, I would (for once) discourage making your own, unless you wear

suspenders and have a twirly mustache. Nothing screams “Pretentious Hipster Douchebag” like telling

people you used house-made kumquat-cardomom bitters or something. I suppose that could be said

about lot of things in this book, but I've tried to limit the hipster-y DIY projects to things that will

3
The whole experience was much akin to Bromo, if that means anything to you. If it doesn't, you're out of luck.

really kick your cocktails up a notch. Bitters are not one of those things, but I'd be remiss in not at least

talking about them a little.

I say “Ordinary” bitters here because I am talking about bitters that are very commonly available

and have been around for a century in some cases. They aren't “ordinary” flavored or anything, it's just

that these are so common you can even find them in most grocery stores. The Big Two are Angostura

and Peychaud's. These are very, very bitter, and to my uneducated palate, they kinda taste the same.

You use just a few drops in a cocktail, they are that strong. These days, every hipster and there brother

seems to have a bitters company, churning out all sorts of exotic bitters, but they all make a “basic”

bitters. Fee Brothers and Bittermens come to mind as good examples. Angostura and Peychaud's have

very complex recipes that are jealously guarded, as the products have won multiple awards. Yawn.

How do you use them? I really don't know. Maybe you feel a drink requires some kind of bitterness to

open up the flavor. Other than that, I just use them the way individual drink recipes say to use them. I'm

no better than a trained monkey that way.

Here's one positive thing to say about bitters. A few drops in a glass of plain tonic really makes a

nice, refreshing, non - alcoholic drink. If you like tonic, that is, which I do. I got this tip from my

parents when they went on the wagon a few years ago. Something about the pairing works really well

together. I bet you could get a similar (if more boring) effect substituting in soda water for the tonic,

and of course you can play around with the more exotic bitters. I've only ever tried Angostura and the

basic Fee Brothers bitters.

Lastly, bitters are reputed to have some kind of anti-hangover properties when consumed the

morning after. I call bullshit: there's no way a few drops of some liquid that's mostly alcohol anyway is

going to quell a raging hangover4. Hell, there isn't even enough alcohol (I think the stuff is usually 40%

4
Best description of hangover I have ever read -“The telephone blasted Peter Fallow awake inside
an egg with the shell peeled away and only the membranous sac holding it intact. Ah! The membranous
39

alcohol) for a few drops to get you started on the “hair of the dog” cure (which is not a cure). Maybe

there's some kind of Rocky Balboa recipe with bitters and a raw egg yolk, but then it's surely the egg

yolk doing the work. Maybe bitters are in Jeeves' special anti-hangover concoction he gives to Bertie

Wooster5, but that's fiction anyway.

Exotic Bitters

Every hipster and their brother has a small craft bitters company these days. Between them, they

make about any flavor of bitters you can imagine. I mentioned Fee Brothers and Bittermens; there's

also The Bitter Truth, Hella Bitters, and Jack Rudy, off the top of my head. You can find these at

very large or very hip liquor stores, but odds are you will have to order them online. I'll just mention

some flavors here and what you can do with them, but you are going to have to play around with them

to really understand how to pair them.

Peach (and other stonefruit) goes beautifully with Bourbon. Try few drops in a Manhattan. Maybe

even a whiskey sour.

Cherry bitters go with whatever you'd add cherry to. Maybe a cherry Caiperinha, a rum and coke,

and mezcal also seems to pair nicely with cherry bitters.

Habanero bitters (and other chili – based bitters) adds heat, and depending on the chilies, an

earthiness and depth to a cocktail. Habanero simply adds heat; it pairs with citrus well but is otherwise

kind of flavorless. Hella Bitters makes a chipotle (smoked jalapeno) bitters that will go with any

savory cocktail, adding all sorts of earthy heat. Mezcal and Tequila seem like natural pairings. There

sac was his head, and the right side of his head was on the pillow, and the yolk was as heavy as
mercury, and it rolled like mercury, and it was pressing down on his right temple… If he tried to get up
to answer the telephone, the yolk, the mercury, the poisoned mass, would shift and roll and rupture the
sac, and his brains would fall out.” - Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities
5
See any P.G. Wodehouse novel about Jeeves and Wooster, or watch the British TV series. Probably the wittiest, funniest
prose I've ever read.

must be some kind of pasilla or ancho chili bitters available, but I have never seen them. A good

substitute for that deep, earthy flavor would be the more commonly available mole' bitters.

Aztec chocolate bitters are wonderful. They don't taste like desert chocolate in any way; we're

talking raw South Ameican cacao nibs here. This is a must-have ingredient in the High Plains Drifter,

one of my very favorite cocktails. Again, they are probably great in anything that needs an umami6

flavoring. Heck, I might even try some in a burger grind or a steak / barbecue sauce.

Mint bitters are a thing. Seems like a limited application to me. I wouldn't put it in a Mojito or Mint

Julep, I think, but to be honest, I've never tried them. It couldn't make a Mint Julep any worse. Maybe

a Richmond Gimlet? I only mention it here because it sounds. . .interesting.

On a lark just a few minutes ago I googled 'cucumber bitters. Yeap, there are several brands. I love

cucumber. I'd try this in a gin and tonic, or even a martini. Especially a Hendricks' gin martini.

We have exhausted my knowledge of bitters. They're mostly a waste of time, in my opinion, with

some notable exceptions. Supposedly they were de riguer in cocktails before Prohibition. No wonder

cocktails were banned.

Syrups

In general, a syrup is just some kind of modified simple syrup. Replace the water with a juice; add

some kind of fresh fruit or vegetable or herb like ginger or mint; add a tincture. That's it. These are

often worth making yourself because they are easy and tasty. If you have an idea for a syrup and I don't

mention it here, just google around. Helpful tip: if you plan to store your syrups indefinitely, throw in a

shot of vodka. The alcohol acts as a preservative, and vodka won't affect the flavor. I guess vodka has a

'Umami' is the supposed “fifth flavor group”. It's savory and earthy. Some mushrooms, seaweeds, rich cheeses and soy
6

sauce exhibit umami.

use after all.

Cherry syrup is just simple syrup using sour or tart cherry juice instead of water. Like all the other

syrups, store it in a squeeze bottle (see chapter one, 'Basic gear'). It's very versatile. Again, it pairs with

mezcal, and would help make a cherry coke if that's your thing. It's probably better than cherry bitters

to impart a cherry flavor in, say, a cherry Mojito or Caiperinha.

Cherry-chipotle syrup is just cherry syrup with a healthy dose of chipotle-tequila tincture. Add to

taste (not a few drops, more like an ounce or so). It's got a wonderful, complex sweet smoky heat.

Essential in the High Plains Drifter cocktail.

Mint syrup is just simple syrup with mint thrown in. Use a cup each of water and sugar, muddle the

hell out of a bunch of mint, and simmer them all together. Simmer 5 minutes after the sugar is

dissolved, then strain out the mint solids. Alternatively, I saw a recipe that called for chopping the mint

very fine, muddling it, and steeping it in the juice of a lemon (about 3 oz) for eight hours. Make the

simple syrup, strain the mint solids out of the lemon / mint mix, and add the juice to the finished,

cooled, simple syrup. I feel like there's some way to get more mint flavor into the syrup, so experiment!

This is pretty versatile. Mojitos, Richmond Gimlets, basically any drink calling for mint can use

this instead (or, just to augment the mintyness of the drink.) I'll have to try a mint soda (Shot of syrup,

ice, and soda water, maybe some lime juice) and I bet it would go nicely in some teas.

Ginger syrup: ahh, I wish I could master this. Instant ginger ale! But I've tried many recipes and

really haven't been satisfied with the ginger level. One method is to add finely chopped ginger – don't

bother peeling – in equal proportions to the sugar and water, to the cooked simple syrup, then pass the

results through a fine sieve. Another method is to cook them all together and strain. I suspect that the

alternative method for mint syrup – steep the chopped ginger in lemon juice, probably overnight in

thiscase, strain out the ginger solids, add to the cooked and cooled syrup – would probably get more

ginger flavor.
42

Again, very versatile. Augment a Dark and Stormy; make a gingery Mojito; use in place of or to

augment any drink with ginger liqueur in it, like the Gold Rush. Of course, you can also make plain,

non – alcoholic ginger ale, just like the mint soda. If you add citrus, use lemon not lime. Anything you

want to make gingery, use this syrup.

    Shrubs

    Shrubs are vinegar-based drinks. Eww, you say! Actually, they are very refreshing, and plus, vinegar

is good for you. You just use them sparingly. O would not have ever known about these but one year

my brother gave me a bottle of Liber & Company7 Texas Grapefruit Shrub.

    Shrubs are definitely not for everyone, so I don't plan on spending much time on them. If you want

to DIY, look online; same goes if you just want to buy some.

    The basic rule of thumb is equal parts vinegar, sugar, and whatever you want to flavor the shrub.

Your imagination is the limit here. I made a beet shrub once using roasted beets. It was tasty! Of

course, you have to like beets for that. For a few days, my kitchen looked like a Slayer concert had

gone on there.

7
http://www.liberandcompany.com/ These guys make a lot of great mixers.

                                                                                                        43

Shrubs need not be a health drink. In fact most are fruity. You can make them just about any flavor

you like. Try:

   Pineapple Shrub: 1 cup each of pineapple chunks, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. Let it steep for a

few days in a big jar. Mash the liquid out of the pineapple chunks back into the jar, and strain any

remaining solids out.

   Cucumber Shrub: Use peeled, chopped cucumbers instead of pineapple, and champagne vinegar

(Don't want to overpower the cuke flavor which is pretty delicate)

   Remember, you can play around with what kind of vinegar to use. I love cider vinegar but it's not

appropriate for some drinks. Try rice wine vinegar, plain white vinegar, or whatever strikes your fancy.

   Like I said, I don't have much to say about shrubs. Thus concludes the section, and chapter. On to

Garnishes!

                                                                                                        44

Chapter 5
                                                 Garnishes

   There's not terribly much to say about garnishes. Most are pretty obvious. But I do have a few things

to add.

   Maraschino cherries
   Citrus peels
   Olives and pickled vegetables
   Cucumber
   Jalapeno
   Salt
   Nutmeg
   Bacon

   Maraschino cherries

   This is the big one. Sorry, you are going to have to reach into the wallet for this one. It's expensive.

   The time is long past when you can use the neon red things you see in most bars. Those things are

disgusting. I went to a place that made them, once. You don't even want to know what's in them.

Suffice it to say, cherry is not in them. Everything is leached out until there is this cherry-lookin' thing,

a zombie cherry if you will, and then they pump in the sugar, dye, chemicals, and preservatives. Truly

vile. What, then? I've tried some higher-end cherries like Tillen Farms, but honestly they don't taste

much better. As far as I can tell, there is only one possible choice here: Luxardo Maraschino cherries.

These are actually cherries from some remote region of Italy, the sour Marasca cherry.

                                                                                                           45

Don't take a great cocktail and spoil it at the very end with a gross cherry. Don't spoil it with

anything but these. Wait – I lied. There is an alternative, but it's a pain in the ass. You can make your

own brandied cherries.

   Brandied cherries: Pit a half pound or so of sour cherries and put them in a mason jar. Throw in 1/4

– 1/2 cup of sugar, same amount of cherry syrup if you have it, and fill the jar with brandy until the

cherries are covered. Screw the lid on the jar and let it steep at least overnight. Some say to refrigerate,

but it's soaking in brandy for God's sake. It's not gonna spoil. I put it in a sunny spot for two weeks.

   I still don't think these are as good as the Luxardo cherries.

   Citrus peels

   There's a few ways you can use citrus peels. I'll focus on Lemon here.

   First, you can zest it – just like in cooking, use that citrus tool to cut thin slivers off the peel, or use

the microplane (see Ch 2, Advanced Gear). Zest it right onto the surface of the cocktail. This enhances

the citrus flavor.
                                                                                                              46

A different style is to cut off a hunk of skin (try to avoid as much of the pith, or white part, as you

can), like so:

      (the picture on the right illustrates the pith.) Use a sharp utility knife (you know, one of those jobs

with a small sharp blade) or a vegetable peeler. Anyway – and this is the important part – you gently

twist the peel over the drink. This isn't an affectation; the flavor is in the oil that the skin then releases

or “expresses”. In fact if you look closely you can see a fine mist coming from the rind when you twist

it.

      You can also flame the oils with a match. They are literal when they call these “volatile oils”! But

then you lose the oil flavoring just because you're a twisted pyro (like the rest of us).

      Express the oils into the drink and drop the hunk of rind in.
                                                                                                                47

Finally. if you want really elegant, use that citrus tool that usually has a zester on it to cut a long

curly ribbon:

I rarely do this because it's so time consuming and I always seem to break it when I try to twist it.

You definitely can't get as much of the oil as you can with a hunk of peel. But it sure looks impressive.

This is called a Lemon Twist – I'll use the term “short” or “Long” depending. A short twist is much

easier, it's just a 1” section of that ribbon.

Orange peels work exactly the same way. But there is one additional technique: flaming the thing.

Use a big hunk of orange peel, or maybe even a circular slice of orange. Hit the oils with a match as

you twist it, OR:

Get one of those miniature blowtorches and hit it with that! I don't think the flamed orange peel

tastes any better than a regular one but c'mon: you've always wanted that mini-blowtorch, right?

They're only $15-$40. . .you want one! You want to turn out the lights and flame an orange peel in front

of guests! Admit it! Revel in it, you sicko!

Olives and pickled vegetables

You can get all sorts of fancy-shmancy stuffed olives at even the grocery store these days. They are

super tasty – stuffed with garlic, or peppers, or even gorgonzola. But think about the drink you are

putting them into. I honestly think olives don't pair well with anything but savory drinks. They're better

for just eating. One exception: I had lemon and lemon-peel olives stored in gin instead of brine, once,

and those worked really nicely in a martini.

Same goes for pickled vegetables. I love pickled asparagus and pickled beans in particular. But they

clash in most drinks. They overwhelm a good martini. Maybe they work in some weird ruropean

digestifs or something. Definitely in bloody marys. But their utility is extremely limited.

Miscellaneous vegetables

I love cucumbers for some reason. A slice of cucumber is great in a lot of drinks – a gin and tonic, a

martini (especially with Hendricks' gin), maybe even a cucumber Mojito. I have little to say about

this other than that you ought to consider cucumber garnish in summery drink, and most people don't

even think of it. Plus, getting to the bottom and having a cocktail-marinated cucumber slice is fantastic

and refreshing.

Jalapenos are really good too. Of course they go in all sorts of savory drinks like a bloody mary or a

bullshot, but they also work nicely with some tequila drinks (especially my Jalapeno Margarita). I

usually cut it into rounds, but you could cut it lengthwise I suppose. This is a case wher I would not

fire-roast the pepper (which makes it soggy) but leave it raw so it is bright and crisp.

Salt

I hate salt rims on my margaritas. I feel like they overwhelm the taste of the drink, and besides, we

get too much sodium in our diets anyway. If you must use salt, at least use coarse grained Kosher salt.

That finely-granulated table salt is simply unacceptable.

There is also a whole world of artsy-fartsy salts out there. There is black salt, pink Himalayan salt,

and even smoked salt (which is easy enough to make yourself if you have a grill – just put some salt on

a piece of foil, put the coals on the other side of the grill, and throw soaked wood chips on the grill.

Smoke it covered for 20 minutes). Smoked salt is great in food, too.

To use salt, put a layer on an appetizer plate, rim the edge of the glass with something like lemon

juice, and roll the rim in the salt. (needless to say, you do this before you start making the drink). Or

get one of those salt rimmers that they use in bars.

Nutmeg

This has limited utility. Use it in cream-based drinks or wintery drinks – Eggnog, brandy

Alexander, hot buttered rum. Dust it over the surface of the drink.

Buy this at any supermarket in the spice aisle, or if you wanna be fancy, get an actual nutmeg nut

(the size of, well, a testicle, which is why old slang for testicles was “nutmegs”. Or maybe a really

large, slightly oblong marble). Use the microplane (chapter 3, Advanced Gear) to shave fresh nutmeg

onto the surface of the drink.

Bacon

Take a heavy cast-iron skillet and pop it in the oven, and set the oven for 400 degrees. When it gets

there, put the bacon in the pan, bake for 6 minutes, turn the pan 180 degrees around, and bake another

5-6 minutes. Baking bacon may sound odd, but it's way better than frying. No spattered grease, no

turning over with a fork and screwing up and watching it curl up and cook unevenly, cooks faster and

with more control. Use good, thick-sliced bacon, for God's sake!

Take it out of the oven, put it on a plate and let it cool a bit while the remaining grease drips off.

Then eat it. Do this before guests arrive so you have it all to yourself.

What, this is supposed to be a garnish, you say? Well it's garnishing whatever is already in your

stomach, now. Oh all right. Savory drinks, of course, like a bloody mary I guess. I always try to do that

but end up eating it before it goes in the drink, though.

   You can also bake bacon in all sorts of shapes. I have seen people wrap metal straws in bacon, bake

it, and slide the bacon off to make a bacon straw.

   That is all for garnishes. I didn't mention the usual suspects – citrus wedges and so forth. Those are

intuitive enough.

   Onwards!

                                                                                                        51

Chapter 6
Techniques

Build (in an X glass)
Stir
Swizzle
Shake and Strain
Blend

Build (in an X glass)

Where 'X' is some kind of glass; e.g., “build in a Collins glass”. Not much of a technique. Just fill

the glass with whatever kind of ice the recipe calls for, and add the ingredients in no particular order. I

usually put in the liquor first for some reason, maybe to make sure it mixes in and doesn't float on top

and make the first sips taste like straight booze.

This is usually used in two cases. First, if the drink has something bubbly in it. A shaken champagne

or ginger ale is a disaster. Boom! Sometimes you might use a hybrid – shake and strain all the

ingredients but the carbonated stuff, then add the carbonated stuff on top and give a quick stir to mix. If

you wanted a really cold gin and tonic made with tonic syrup, you could do this, adding the soda water

at the end and stirring it in lightly.