Drink Categories II

I have started with Drink Categories I - and presented sours, fizzes, collinses, rickeys, highballs and cocktails.

in courtesy of www.esquire.com

I don't want to go towards Tiki drinks - I think they are reflecting a completely different approach to bars - which is not me.

However there are still some other classic drinks, which were not mentioned.

Juleps

These drinks are a staple from the more Southern states of the US; the most popular are the classic Mint Julep on Bourbon base and the Georgia Mint Julep which is made with brandy and apricot brandy.
Ingredients are:

Spirit [> 6 cl only a spirit is used; 4 cl if in combination with a liqueur]
Sugar [optional another sweetener like liqueurs]
Water
Mint

Mint is traditionally used only as flavor and then discarded. A lot of fresh mint is used as garnish.

Juleps are served on fine crushed ice and preferable in a silver or pewter cup.
Juleps are usually not using any juices

Smashes

While smashes were before also a quite strict category with a lot of parallels with juleps, they are now much more used for more creative recipes.
Other herbs can be used to replace the mint.
While originally made without any juice, it can be added for more diversity.
One absolutely stunning examples of a wild variation of this classic is the Basil Smash [Joerg Meyer], which is made with gin, lemon juice, sugar and basi;, other variations include a whiskey smash usually made with cranberry juice.

There are many more examples of unique categories. Just get out your Jerry "the Professor" Thomas Bar Manual [or get to Darcy's website artofdrink.com to see the online version].

Learn and try out all these unique categories [some are quite odd] and then start to add contemporary touches.

But please - leave the individual classic drinks alone. E.g. the mojito doesn't deserve to be violated with different fruits, purees and other weird stuff...

And below the long list of Jerry Thomas drinks - in courtesy of www.artofdrink.com

How to use citric acid - and why you might not want to use it anyway!

To be honest, I shied away of this topic, because I think, people can misinterpret this - big time. I don't want to be part of the problem - I want to be part of the solution! But when Chris, over at A Bar Above discussed this subject- I literally could not resist to join into "the discussion". Here is the video: I - however take a bit slower approach than Chris. What is citric acid? Chemical Compound Citric acid is a weak organic acid with the formula C6H8O7. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic or sour taste to foods and drinks. Wikipedia Formula: C6H8O7 Molar Mass: 192.124 g/mol Melting Point: 153C Density: 1.66 g/cm3 Boiling point: 175C Soluble in: Water Why is it controversial? In my "mixology world" it is controversial, as citric acid is the stuff, which makes the nightmarish sour mix [ preferably in powder form ] sour. Yeah - citric acid is the main ingredient in one of the most ...

Fanta Pineapple

After the agave nectar scandal , nothing seems to be big enough to post about. At it seems odd, that I am coming here to review a commercial and mass produced product. But hey- I do admit, that I love coke and really like some other commercial sodas. I only try to stay away of artificial ingredients. This said, Fanta Pineapple doesn't start a nice relationship with me. While the front states "Pineapple flavored soda with other natural flavors" - the ingredient list looks like a witches brew: carbonated water, HFCS, citric acid, natural flavors, modified food starch, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate [to protect taste], sodium citrate, coconut oil, salt, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, yellow 5, yellow 6 Well - that doesn't really look like my homemade sodas. Yes citric acid, sodium citrate [a simple product, when you let citric acid and bicarbonate of soda react], carbonated water… this is understandable. HFCS is obviously far cheaper than sugar - this is...

Agar-Agar Clarification

Not often, I am posting here things, which are clearly not my ideas... However Dave Arnold is clearly a mad scientist [no, he really is!] - and he posted amazing stuff on his website www.cookingissues.com - no - don't click now - just follow the link later. One of the most impressive posts about mixology, besides of demystifying the mechanics of shaking, were clarification techniques. Look, after him, you could use a centrifuge [which would set you back a couple thousand bucks] and a chemical compound, which solidifies sediments. I am not a fan of that. Then there is gelatine clarification; this works quite well [I tried it several times my self] - you gelatinize a liquid [with little gelatine only], freeze it, thaw it [in the fridge] over a colander and a muslin cloth. Thats it. Unfortunately this has several problems: Gelatine is made out of animal bones - hence it is neither vegetarian nor vegan, which you won't usually expect of a beverage. You have to freez...

opinionated alchemist

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