Look Alive Contest

This month Vidiot is hosting the Mixology Monday and, being the bad boy that he is, chose „Vermouth“ as the topic.

Well, it’s not easy writing about it. See, when you enter the world of mixology, you have to deal with a few big problems. One of them is the Martini-problem. There is a party of little Churchills and Trapper John McIntyrs, who successfuly banned Vermouth from their Martinis. Over the years, the Martini changed in their direction from a fifty-fifty ratio to nowadays usual 1:5. To the young cocktail apprentice it has to seem that this is the right way to go. Only if you dig deeper, you find that it isn’t a necessarily a sign of good taste to only vaporize a few molecules of vermouth in the direction of your stem glass and finaly you discover those, who demand that a fifty-fifty is the real way to do it. The one or the other way, taking on an oppinion will offend someone and this time it’s actualy a group of people who know their mixology. I hold it with prussian Kaiser Friedrich II.: „Jeder nach seiner Façon…“

Nevertheless: Vermouth can be used in non-homeopathic dosages and still don’t ruin the drink.

Watch.

Sour Rosemary

This is a little variation of the Sweet Martini I just created for the occasion.

(You can find all the basics about the Martini Cocktail here)

How To:

Prechill a mixing glass and a cocktail glass

Gently muddle the needles of one rosmary sprig with 2 oz good gin (I’m using Plymouth Navy Strength for my Martinis)

Let sit for ~ 15 minutes

Clear out mixing glass, fine strain gin into it

Add a dash of Orange Bitters, 1 oz of Sweet Vermouth and 1/4 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

Stir with ice until stunningly cold

Strain into chilled cocktail glass

Enjoy

Result

A very nice variant of my favourite Martini. The beautiful amber color catches the eye and doesn’t disappoint you, since the drink is realy tasty and has this certain Je Ne Sais Qua (excuse the french..) at the end of the sip that I intended: You get this little bit of tartness and rosmary when the drink leaves the palate. Recommended.

Der Naranjito ist mein Versuch eines New Orleans Fizz, also eines Fizzes mit Cointreau als Süßungsmittel. Orangen sind das Thema, weil ich noch eine übrig hatte und es wurde ein Fizz, weil es ein heißer Tag war. Eigentlich hatte ich mit dem Mojito angefangen und daran herumgeschraubt, bis ich irgendwann bemerkt habe, dass ich ganz wo anders angekommen war. C’est la vie. Denke ich.

How To:

30ml frisch gepresster Limettensaft

20ml Cointreau

15ml Simple Syrup

60ml weißer Rum

Ein Dash Orange Bitters

Ein paar Tropfen Orangenblütenwasser

Mit Eis shaken, auf Eis in ein Collins-Glas strainen

Mit hoch carboniertem Mineralwasser toppen

Mit Orangenzeste garnieren und mit Strohhalm servieren

Genusspotential:

Der Grundgedanke war, die Minze im Mojito gegen Orange auszutauschen, indem ich simple Syrup durch Cointreau ersetzt und Orangenblütenwasser, Orange Bitters und Orangenzeste implementiert habe, um es citrussiger zu machen und dadurch frischer. Hat’s funktioniert? Hat nicht funktioniert. Ich vermute, der Cointreau ist für ‚frisch‘ einfach nicht zu haben.

Zwar hat es dieser Drink nicht in meine Standards geschafft, aber er ist trotzdem recht interessant und nicht schlecht. Vielleicht kann ich ihn einfach nicht genießen, weil er nicht nach Plan funktioniert hat. Vielleicht ist er tatsächlich unwahrscheinlich-gourmet-deluxe-superlecker. Ich werde es wohl nie erfahren…

Eine Sache muss ich allerdings loswerden: Auf den letzten Schluck achten! Er ist eine sehr leckere Überraschung und es wert, den Drink dafür zu machen.

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The Naranjito is my take on the New Orlean Fizz, a Fizz with Cointreau as a sweetening agent. The theme is Oranges, because I had one left and it’s a Fizz because it was a hot day. I actualy started with the Mojito and worked it up, just to realize in the end, that I had  arrived somewhere else.  That’s pretty much life I guess…

How To:

1 oz freshly squeezed lime juice

3/4 oz cointreau

1/2 oz simple syrup

2 oz white rum

dash orange bitters

few drops of orange flower water

shake up with ice, strain over ice in a big collins glass

top of with seltzer

garnish with a orange twist

serve with a straw

Enjoyabilitential:

Well, the basic thought was to change the mint in the mojito against orange, substituting simple syrup with Cointreau and implementing Orange Bitters, orange flower water and an orange zest, to make it more citrusy and thereby fresher. Unfortunatly that didn’t work out as planned. I guess that the Cointreau just doesn’t do fresh.

Though it isn’t a drink that made it in my rotation, it’s still quite interesting and not bad. Perhaps I just can’t appreaciate the drink because it failed my intentions. Perhaps it’s actualy very delicious. I don’t know.

But one thing I do have to say: Pay attention to the last sip – it’s a realy tasty supprise. In my experiance, it’s worth to make the drink for.

When I started this category about cocktails, I decided to write every single entry bilingual so that if I would join Mixology Monday some time, everyone would be able to read the stuff I wrote before and so I could eventually become famous and wouldn’t have to work anymore. Well, it’s yet to find out if I can finaly cancel my studying due to my incredible genius, since last MxMo didn’t actualy ever take place and my talent hadn’t had it’s obligatory fourteen days to bloom.

This weeks MxMo is hosted by Felicia’s Speakeasy. Coincidental enough for my first entry, because it’s one of the few cocktail blogs I have read completely and enjoyed very much.

Amelia has chosen „Vodka is your friend“ as this months topic.

First of all: All alcohol is your friend. But in every friend circle there is a guy of which you ask yourself every now and then why you are friends with him at all.

That guy is vodka. I don’t say that because I want to sail with the inquisitors dell‘ bar, these who claim that a neutral spirit deserves no place in an enviroment of taste and flavour creation. I enjoy the occasional one or twelve Screw Drivers or White Russians. Only every now and then the ol‘ bastard shows his real face. This is when I visit my familiy.

See, my fianceé is from Kasachstan and since I have to make family with Russians, I only do know vodka. When you decide to go to a russian celebration you automaticaly enlist for every single round any male at the table is willing to proclaim. There are a few single storys that capture the spirit of vodka very nicely.

First thing is that many vodka bottles in Russia have tin seals. Once broken open you cannot close the bottle anymore. Then I read a story a few weeks ago of an Russian electrician who went boozing with his friends. He ended up with a knife in his back, missing his heart by a mere inch. Thing is, he didn’t realize it until the next morning and commented that he would not go to the police or be angry with the attacker since they agreed to go drinking together and whenever you drink wild things could happen.

So. Without much further ado and knowing that it isn’t a cocktail at all actualy, I give you:

The way vodka is originaly intended.

I goes like this:

You are invited somewhere. Nobody speeks of alcohol in beforehand, everyone has just brought a bottle of vodka. You brought flowers and look stupid. The first time, that is.

You walk up the buffet and sit down. Around that time you make a few fatal mistakes.

1. You are a solid drinker in your class and age, so you believe you can keep up with the Russians. It will not matter if you are 14 and in school or 52 and a fulltime wino. You cannot.
2. You believe that eating will change that. It doesn’t. It alters the color of your vomit.
3. You think you could skip out rounds without making a total ass of yourself. You cannot.

So, you sat yourself between your father-in-law and your uncle-in-law and think of how to dodge the next shot without getting in trouble with the law. Well, you’ve already guessed it, you cannot. Much too late you realize that you have lost your ability to gracefuly stand up and walk to the toilet, so you hold up like a good solidier, you keep the enemy inside you in the blissful hope that they will get drunk soon too and give you the chance to crawl away unseen. Well, they do not. But at some point they will decide to dance. It just ain’t no real celebration without dancing! It’s just a matter of whether you decide to wait that long for your sneek attack on the toilet.

The last thing you might see that night is that the toilet you lay in front of is in fact the wardrobe of the sleeping room. You realize that turning around after being finished. You are so emberrased that you decide to flee. You will end up at the table between two merry fellas who welcome you back with a shot of vodka. If you don’t tend to black out you might now enjoy the linguistic transmorphotential of alcohol, since by now you are capable of speeking fluent Russian and everyone has quite a time whilst you explore your new talent. But at least when the others finish dancing and come back to the table to take up drinking at full pace again, even the most skilled drinker goes darkside.

You wake up at 4 pm the next morning only to find out that your drinking buddys are already home from their 10 hour shift at their job. You realize that every woman present outdrank you and it wasn’t even close. You realized, that you have propably yelled „NeescheeeisnegaaaljetzhieaäääNASTROVJE!“ at some point.

While you glance over the offering of food disgusted by the notion of eating, your father-in-law steps up behind you, grins at you, lays his massive hand on your sholder and says: „Good drinking. You held up well.“

Same thing happens basicaly every time you meet someone again.

You suddenly realize, that you had a hell lot of fun and good talks with people who have a completly different socialization and mostly dont even speek your language. You managed to be accepted in the family.

And that’s why vodka is your friend.