Cool article in the NY Times about cocktails

[Runs_With_Scissors]

Mark Bittman is my favorite Times columnist.

Here’s a link to an article and video by him:

Cocktail Basics

I love margaritas, but there was always something about them I didn’t like. I had a recipe from Playboy magazine that was good, and always received rave reviews…but there was always something about it I didn’t like.

I posted on the Dope about it. I researched the 'net. What I finally discovered was basically what Bittman writes about.

I have a pack of 52 playing cards that have classic cocktail recipes. They all follow Bittman’s pattern. (The cards are awesome…each drink is pictured in a retro '50s glass.) And one thing I learned that Bittman mentions is that cocktails should be shaken. This imparts a bit of water into the cocktail, from the ice.

He also encourages playing with the ratios. The following recipes are how I like 'em:

Margarita

1 shot of 100% agave tequila (white)
1 shot of Cointreau
1 shot of fresh lime juice

Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake. Pour into a glass of ice (salt the rim if you like). Or, as my mother used to say poolside: No running, no diving, and no salt on my margaritas.

Mai Tai

4 T light rum (I use Bacardi)
2 T dark rum (I use Meyers’s)
2 T Orgeat or Almond Syrup (Torani makes an Orgeat flavored syrup).
1 T Grenadine
4 T fresh lime juice

Mix all ingredients except the dark rum in a shaker with ice. Pour into a glass of ice, then float the 2 T of dark rum. Garnish with a pineapple wedge, a maraschino cherry, and an umbrella

Never, ever, ever use pineapple or orange juice (or, gag, Sunny D) in a Mai Tai!!!

[Gaudere]

I prefer the 2 parts tequila - 1 part cointreau - 1 part lime for margaritas. And yes, shake them.

My brother and I early in our cocktail-making careers decided to make a martini. We got the best gin we knew of–bombay sapphire! We looked up recipes! We carefully mixed according to the finest recipe! We drank it–gin and vermouth, carefully selected and mixed–WARM. Blech! Tasted like lighter fluid.

[Runs_With_Scissors]

@Gaudere

I prefer the 2 parts tequila - 1 part cointreau - 1 part lime for margaritas. And yes, shake them.

My brother and I early in our cocktail-making careers decided to make a martini. We got the best gin we knew of–bombay sapphire! We looked up recipes! We carefully mixed according to the finest recipe! We drank it–gin and vermouth, carefully selected and mixed–WARM. Blech! Tasted like lighter fluid.

I think most people would agree with your ratio on a margarita. The taste, IMO, isn’t much different; you just get sloshed faster

And I had the SAME experience with martinis. I gave 'em up, but I would like to try one shaken (not stirred).

[Omniscient]

I hate to break it to you but this guy sounds like a moron. I fully concede that many bartenders have no idea how to properly make a drink with any more nuance than a rum and coke and that being specific about what you want can overcome that, aside from that little obvious statement there’s nothing of merit here.

First, he says:

Look at the pattern — you might call it the basic recipe — of these drinks, many of which might be grouped as “sours”: they combine liquor with water (usually in the form of ice), a sour flavoring (usually citrus juice) and a sweetener (simple syrup, or something more expensive and flavorful, like Cointreau). You might add a splash of soda or, if you like, fruit juice, which gets you into beachcomber or cosmo territory.

Um…that’s not similar to the definition of “pattern” in any language I know. His big observation is that 3-recipe drinks are all basically similar? Huzzah! And that changing one ingredient in that recipe gives you another drink? Well, I’ll be. When you loosen the definitions of “sour” to include just about anything not sweet and change the definition of “sweet” to include anything not sour, even when it’s another alcohol, and add the caveat that sometimes you can add a…wait for it…FOURTH ingredient it makes it pretty safe to bet that you’ll cover most of your bases.

I’m curious how that Playboy recipe you mention really could be so different as to provide a different result unless it’s an entirely different recipe.

I’m glad that you discovered that you prefer the simple, original recipe for classic drinks (as opposed to the processed and prepackaged stuff you’ll find at a Fridays or the premix you might pick up at the grocery store) but that column states the obvious in grand fashion.

[Runs_With_Scissors]

@Omniscient

I’m glad that you discovered that you prefer the simple, original recipe for classic drinks (as opposed to the processed and prepackaged stuff you’ll find at a Fridays or the premix you might pick up at the grocery store) but that column states the obvious in grand fashion.

Well, yeah, I see that now But I knew absolutely nothing about making cocktails, so it wasn’t obvious to me. And the mixed drinks I got in most bars were just plain awful, so it never occurred to me to find out how they really should be made. (By the way, I completely disagree with him on “simple syrup.” It should never be used.)

I threw out the Playboy recipe, but basically it was a shitload of Cuervo Gold, lime juice, sugar, and water. The interesting thing about it was that it required about three or four tablespoons of lime zest. The entire concoction was to be made 24 hours ahead of time so the zest could steep. I have to admit, it really did matter. But now I’m a tequila snob so I won’t drink Cuervo Gold

[Gaudere]

For your perusal, the staff report on “shaken not stirred” by manny, also featuring me in the King Cole room in NYC http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmartini.html

[Omniscient]

@Runs With Scissors

(By the way, I completely disagree with him on “simple syrup.” It should never be used.)

Simple syrup is great stuff. Nowadays most bars have become too lazy to deal with it and frankly that’s the reason why so many bar-made drinks suck ass. Instead of using simple syrup and lime juice they always use cheap sweet-sour mix or cocktail mix and that stuff has a particularly iffy flavor and many brands taste drastically different. The net result is that many of these simple drinks, especially a margarita, end up tasting like the cloying sour mix that particular bar buys. Without simple syrup it’s hard to make a balanced drink because there’s nothing that can reliably balance out the lemon or lime except for coke, sprite and sugary, processed juices from concentrate.

[Zsofia]

Himself started mixing drinks out of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, which is evidently a classic. They’re retro - “real” daquaris, that sort of thing. Found out I love a real daquari, eight parts rum, 2 parts lime juice, 1 part simple syrup. I mean, I like the froofroo peach ones too, but the old fashioned ones are really good.

[PunditLisa]

I’d love a good recipe for a lemon drop martini aka lemontini. Some use sweet & sour, others use cointreau. I’m not a fan of sweet & sour myself.

[ShermanAter]

@PunditLisa

I’d love a good recipe for a lemon drop martini aka lemontini. Some use sweet & sour, others use cointreau. I’m not a fan of sweet & sour myself.

These are very tasty on a hot summer day

Lemon Drop Martini

1 1/2 shots chilled vodka - I like mine a little stronger ymmv
1/2 ounce triple sec
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
4-5 ice cubes
superfine sugar, for the martini glass rim
lemon twists

1. Chill martini glasses in freezer for at least 10 minutes prior to serving.
2. Place Vodka, Triple Sec, lemon juice and sugar into a cocktail shaker with 4-5 ice cubes and shake vigorously for 30 seconds.
3. Run the lemon twist around the edge of the chilled martini glass and dunk in a small amount of sugar for a coated rim.
4. Pour the strained martini into the chilled glasses and serve.