The process of cocktail creation...

The vast majority of drinks have an origin in another drink. This is true of most things in life, but in cocktails in particular, you can follow a drink's path through the ages just by looking at its construction. Look at the similarities between drinks. The Margarita is a Sidecar with tequila and lime instead of cognac and lemon. The Cosmopolitan is just Kamikaze with a splash of cranberry juice and Roses lime juice instead of fresh lime juice. A Vodka Martini is a Martini with Vodka instead of Gin.

As a budding mixologist, you should have a repertoire of drinks that are your own. A chef should know about the tried and true recipes of yesteryear and his own collection of secret gems. A bartender is the same thing. In creating a new cocktail, the past is a good place to start.

Let me give you an example of a drink evolution that happened over time in my hands. First we start with the mojito. They are sweet, yet fresh and light, all while being incredibly alcoholic.

Mojito:
Muddle the following:

• 2 bar spoon simple syrup
• 5 - 6 large mint leaves
• 1/2 oz. Lime Juice
• 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters

Add:

• 2.5 oz. White Rum

Shake with ice, fine strain over ice in an old fashioned glass, top with club soda.
Garnish with a sprig of mint

I love this drink and I celebrate it every spring with a dedicated Mojito party. I like to say that Mojito actually means "glass full of Rum" since they are so damned potent if made correctly.

One spring at my Mojito party, I ran out of Rum (cardinal sin, I know). It was towards the end of the night but I wanted another Mojito. What was I to do? Easy. Break out the Gin.

If you go through the exact same recipe above, but substitute Gin for Rum and a splash of ginger ale for the splash of club soda, you get a Gin Ginger Mojito. After a little more experimentation, I also discovered that I prefer this drink with Peychaud's Bitters instead of Angostura. Sounds good, right?

Next we are going to take a further departation from the traditional Mojito. Stay with me for this one as it is a rather radical departation. I chose this though because the mint is an easy common thread to follow so you can still see the history of this drink.

Late Spring Night:
Muddle the following:

• 2 bar spoon of simple syrup
• 5 - 6 large mint leaves
• 1/2 oz. Lemon Juice
• 3 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters

Add:

• 2 oz. Tanqueray Rangpur Gin

Shake with ice, fine strain over ice in a cocktail glass with an Absinthe rinse.
Garnish with a lemon twist

This drink pulls from both a Mojito and a Sazerac. The Peychaud's/Absinthe rinse combination is a classic Sazerac move. The muddled Mint/Sugar/citrus is a classic Mojito move. Gin is just good, clean and refreshing. The end result is a very delicious summer drink that will wow your friends and relatives. It is served up, and has a slightly pink louche effect. It is very cool and distinctive in both taste and appearance.

So the lesson is this: Take a second look at your classics and ask yourself what you can change, knowing what flavor combinations have potential, to create something new and unique.

A few technique basics...

When it comes to actually getting down to business and making your drinks there are a few things you should know:

1. You most likely have a bartender friend that brags about his/her ability to free pour. I call shenanigans. In a speed bar where the speed with which you can crank out a drink is more important than the quality of the drink itself, free pouring reigns as king. In your home bar, or a place of artisan quality drinks, there is no excuse for not measuring your pours. Learn to make things exactly the same way every time. The only variation in the taste of your drink should come from the fruits and juices you are using, not from varying amounts of liquor. Liquor is a constant.

2. If you are using fruits and juices in your drink, there will be some slight variation. Some limes are very tart, some are slightly sweet. You will never know what you have until you taste it. If you want to be incredibly anal, you can taste the juice before you add it to your drink so that you may compensate for this variation. Also this leads to the obvious point that fresh fruit tastes better. Fresh juices also taste better. Squeeze them yourself.

3. Ice counts. Unless you live in NYC, tap water isn't good enough for your ice cubes. Break out the Brita or bottled water and make your ice from clean, filtered water. If you get really fancy, you can use cubes sized for the glass you intend to use. Remember, the bigger the cube, the less overall surface area your ice has. With less surface area, your drink will have less meltage. The goal of ice is to keep your drink cold, not water it down.

A few basic recipes to start...

Before we move on to the crazy concoctions of the modern bar, it is essential to learn a thing or two about the classics. Most drinks you see nowadays are just a variation on a theme, so might as well become well versed in the originals. Keep in mind that drinks are supposed to taste good to you, not someone else, so tweaking of proportions slightly is totally permissible. In that vein, I am going to give the classic recipe and if there is a version that I prefer, I will give you that as well.

The Manhattan:
This is the drink that most whiskey drinkers I know started with. It is sweet and palatable. The vermouth takes a little of the burn off of it to make it more approachable for those of you that aren't ready to go for the straight stuff.

Classic:

• 1.5 oz Rye
• 1.5 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 2-3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Served up in a chilled glass or on the rocks
Garnished with 1 dried maraschino cherry

This is a good recipe for someone with a sweet tooth. Modern tastes change and most barmen will serve you a Manhattan that is skewed a little more towards the whiskey side and away from the vermouth. Remember, if you are offered the choice of bitters or not, if you don't add bitters it is not a Manhattan. It is just crap in a glass. Some people prefer Bourbon instead of Rye.

My typical Manhattan order:

• 1.5 oz Rye
• .75 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Served up in a chilled cocktail glass
Garnished with 1 dried maraschino cherry

This would still be considered a sweet Manhattan by today's standards, but that's how I like it.

The Martini:
First let's get this out of the way: A Martini is made with Gin, not Vodka. A Vodka Martini is made with Vodka. Are we all on the same page here? Good. The Martini holds a special place in my heart. I have been making them for my father since I was 12 years old. He has made sure that I know that the Martini was invented at the Savoy Hotel in London, the home of Gin (although I am now disputing this supposed fact with him after some research). He also likes to drill it in my brain that a Martini is supposed to be served in a frosted, small, delicate glass, not the 10 oz. monsters that are common today. If you can find a nice 4 oz. thin crystal Martini glass, I highly recommend buying at least 2.

Classic:

• 1.5 oz Gin
• 1.5 oz Dry Vermouth
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Stirred and strained into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnished with a lemon twist or a dried, pitted olive

I guarantee that you have not had a Martini made like that. I have and let me save you the effort - it is just too much vermouth. I usually don't bash the classics. Usually I am their staunch defender. In this case, I think they made it like that because the Gin they served back then was probably nowhere near as good as the floral, clean Gins we drink today. Now most people order their Martinis dry. Typically though, they overshoot in the other direction. They are too dry. I lie somewhere in the middle.

My typical Martini order:

• 1.5 oz. gin (I like Bluecoat)
• .5 oz. dry vermouth (one that has been kept in the fridge and hasn't turned)
• 2 dashes orange bitters (I prefer Angostura Orange)

Stirred and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnished with a lemon twist

A quick note about the lemon twist. It should not contain any of the white part of the lemon rind. Only the outer yellow layer of the rind should be used. It should be literally twisted above the drink to release the fragrant oils it contains and then dropped in the drink. The white part is bitter and can damage an otherwise perfect drink.

The Sidecar:
You may be wondering why I am choosing the Sidecar. First and foremost because I think it is a cool drink. Second, because it is the base recipe for another popular recipe, the Margarita. No, the Margarita is not an original creation, it is just a variation on the Sidecar, which in my humble opinion actually makes the Margarita even cooler. Okay, back to the Sidecar. It is a drink from the earlier part of last century. Its purpose is simple: make Cognac appropriate for women to drink. At the time Cognac was strictly a man's drink. Hence, a little orange liqueur, and lemon juice and there you have it: a womanly drink. Yes, all you guys that think your Margarita is manly because of the high Tequila content, your drink is in fact a girly drink. Deal with it and enjoy it (and neither is girly in my book).

• 1.5 oz. Cognac
• 1.5 oz. Cointreau
• 1.5 oz. lemon juice

Shaken and strained into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnished with a lemon twist

On a mixing note, Brandy is an acceptable substitute (Cognac is just french brandy) and many people really enjoy a Sidecar made with Calvados substituted for Cognac. The proportions on the classic recipe are perfect though. Don't fuck with it.

I stopped by a state store today...

I was walking around on my lunch break at work today and stopped by the state store on 19th and Chestnut. Let me start off by saying this: The situation is dire.

They have recently rearranged the bottles on the shelves. I think it might be to accommodate the ever growing selection of flavored vodkas. What scares me about this is that this may be coming at the expense of shelf space for actual good booze.

How are Philadelphians supposed to drink good stuff if all they are confronted with is root beer flavored vodka (it actually exists, ugh...)?!?!

I fear that state stores are going the way of the super market. High volume crap like the new coke product or super bad for you imitation cheese crackers get the shelf space and endcaps at these stores, while white grape vodka and premixed margaritas are getting it in state stores. Terrible...

I know that the state store monopoly (yes, I said the "M" word) makes Pennsylvania tons of money, but it is coming at the expense of my taste buds and I just do not like it. People will make the excuse that they can leverage they buying power to get great discounts and while that may be true, they are getting big discounts on crap.

My state can't determine my religion for me, so why do they have the right to determine my cocktail???

I snapped some pictures of the most appalling flavored vodkas to grace the shelves recently. Eww...

Really???

A few things to try...

I'd like you to consider tasting a few things. Don't commit to them and buy a whole bottle unless you truly love liquor, but instead go relax at a nice bar and taste a few things. Don't just down them. Take the time to savor them and experience the complexity that they offer.

Rum:
No, I am not talking about Bacardi or anything that is clear. Drink rum like the pirates did: straight, dark and mysterious. Like anything else aged in barrels for that long, it should have that beautiful amber whiskey color. Note flavors like sweet caramel and tropical fruits. Rum is every bit as complex in flavor as wine or coffee. Note the country it was made in and see if you can taste the differences. Rum does in fact taste good enough to avoid putting it in daiquiris and coke. In fact, I would be willing to say that good aged rum is my favorite thing to drink neat.

Gin:
Although a gin and tonic is quite refreshing on a hot afternoon, I really think that the person who introduced them to under-aged kids should be shot. Before the rise of vodka, back in the pre-prohibition era, gin was it. It was the key ingredient in so many drinks as to be mind boggling. The reason for this is because it is so damned good. No two gin's are alike. They all use a different complex combination of herbs, spices and flowers. To expand your mind, try drinking a dry gin martini with no garnish. I am a huge fan of Tanqueray Rangpur or X. If you want to support a more local variety though, Bluecoat is quite nice.

Tequila:
All I am going to say is throw away the Cuervo and find a bottle that says "100% Blue Agave" somewhere on it. Pour a shot into a snifter. Breathe it in deeply. Sip it. Let it roll around on your tongue. Come talk to me after this holy experience.

Now you may be asking yourself "Why is he saying to try these things that we have all tried a million times?" The reason is simple. If you are going to mix these things, you have to appreciate their flavors. They are delicate, bold, sharp, smooth, etc... They are wonderful. How can you possibly make a good margarita if you don't understand the taste of good tequila? Once you understand something like that, you can make decisions to do something crazy like adding an egg white to it because you want to smooth the flavor over and enhance the mouth feel of it. (Did I just use the phrase mouth feel while talking about a margarita?!? Yes. It's not just for wine anymore, dammit.)

A red margarita made with egg whites
and a shot of Chilean carmanere

Absinthe... I like absinthe...

This is the good stuff. It is what legends are made of. It is a drink that lives in infamy for essentially no reason, but that does nothing but make it more bad ass. Oh, and it tastes really, really good.

Absinthe is one of my favorite things in this world. I like it simple. Usually I will drink it mixed with a bit of still or sparkling water on ice. While absinthe is transparent in nature (ranging from utterly clear to green), the effect known as "louche" (french for shady) occurs when chilled and mixed with water. It takes on a cloudy version of the color it started as. It is a liquor with personality. This makes my absinthe cooler than your vodka and cranberry.

The history of the liquor just makes it even better. It was banned because some idiots thought it made you hallucinate. This is not true now and wasn't true then either. I am amazed that so few people put together the fact that absinthe was a popular drink in places such as opium dens back in the day. Did nobody think that maybe, just maybe it was the drugs and not the booze that were making people crazy? Either way, they usually blame it on the wormwood or trace amounts or the chemical thujone that shows up in absinthe.

Some people can't stomach the anise flavor of absinthe, and I can accept that. It means more absinthe for me. Other people, notably those from New Orleans and whiskey lovers have a place in their heart for absinthe because of the sazerac. I love it because despite it's particularly strong and very pronounced flavor, it is very versitle to mix with. If you don't believe me, try a combination that I love: gin, mint, Peychaud's bitters, a touch of lemon juice and you guessed it, absinthe (just a touch though, because let's face it, that is some strong tasting shit).

If there is no absinthe in your favorite bar, you should probably be asking them to stock it. If they refuse, then you should probably reconsider where you whet your whistle.

Vodka sucks...

If you recall, I never listed vodka amongst the liquors that I like. Let me explain.

There are only two men in this world that I like to drink vodka with, my father, and local artist, Ruslan Khais. You may think that Ruslan is a strange name. It may be in Philadelphia, but in the land of vodka it might as well be Tom, Dick, or Harry... Just a name. When I drink vodka with Ruslan, we drink it in one of two ways. Frozen or warm. Not watered down, not mixed with cranberry juice (have you figured out my hatred of the vodka and cranberry, or "cape codder" if you are a pretentious prick?), not mixed with orange juice, just straight and like a man or a really bad ass woman.

The only reason I drink vodka with these two men is the ritual. I'll drink anything that honors an age old drinking tradition started by a rich drinking culture even if I am not a huge fan. I'll drink vodka to honor the Russians (or Polish depending on which version of the origin you believe), raki to honor the Greek, grappa to honor the Italians. Hell, I'd even drink moonshine to honor our brothers in the south if it was put in front of me. It doesn't mean I like these things, but you have to have respect for traditions lest they die.

Beyond that, vodka has been bastardized within an inch of its life by big marketing in the liquor world.

Let's start with the modern goal of vodka. In most people's eyes, the beautiful thing about vodka is that it tastes like nothing. In short, the better the vodka the more it tastes like nothing. Does this sound just plain stupid to anyone besides me? If I am going to spend $30+ on a bottle or $10+ on a drink in a bar, it damned well better taste like something, and I don't want to hear about it tasting "clean."

The other excuse for vodka is that it takes on the flavor of whatever you mix it with. To me, all this says is that you want to cover up the taste of alcohol with a variety of crappy juices, or you are drinking to get drunk, not to enjoy the drink. That makes vodka the tofu of the drinking world with one major exception: at least you can make tofu taste good.

A bit about bitters

In the classic definition of a cocktail, bitters are a necessity. In short, if it doesn't have bitters, it is not a cocktail. What does this tell you? Unless you are drinking manhattans, sazeracs, old fashioneds or real mojitos, you are most likely not drinking a cocktail.

You have likely seen a little bottle covered in paper with a plastic yellow top. This is called Angostura bitters, named for the town of Angostura in Venezuela in which it was created. As far as most people know, there are no other kinds of bitters. Shame on you if this is a belief you hold.

There is a wide world of bitters out there if you care to delve into it. There are strange people out there distilling and infusing their own in secret locations known only to the lucky few that will get to drink them. For the rest of us however, there are a few other notable commercial bitters that will serve our purposes. If you get a chance, seek out Peychaud's bitters and Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6.

You can't actually make a proper sazerac without Peychaud's, and that alone should be enough to send you running to the store to get some. A better reason though is to arm yourself to create some truly wonderful cocktails. And as we learned earlier, if it doesn't have bitters in it, it is not a cocktail.

A little introduction...

There is something wrong with the world when Bacardi flavored rums, bad beer and vodka and cranberry are widely consumed. It angers me that in the presence of so much good booze, most people order crap. It angers me even more that most bartenders think they are serving good drinks when they are in fact peddling crap. What angers me most though is that nobody is the wiser.

Why is it that a bartender nowadays is not seen as the creative equivalent of a chef? Like chefs, not all bartenders can be good and creative, but why is it that there is no equivalent of a Garces or Solomonov in the bar scene in Philadelphia?

This has become a city of beer. I feel like this parallels our development as a steakhouse town. It has come to my attention that a lot of Philadelphians equate expensive to good. They think that spending $70 on a steak with mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and either a beer or overpriced glass of wine (that they likely don't appreciate anyway) is a way to show off how high classed they are. I would just like to voice one man's opinion that this is not classy. This is an example of wasting money because people don't know any better. Fuck beer and steak.

Since this is an introduction, I feel I should tell you a little bit about my liquid history. I love booze, liquor, hooch, whatever you want to call it. I like whiskey, gin, tequila, rum, absinthe, pastis, brandy, scotch, and cordials of all kinds. I like them neat. I like them on ice. I like them mixed. I like bitters and vermouths and all the other ingredients that time forgot.

What I don't like are flavored vodkas and people that are convinced that Cuervo is actually tequila. Here is a hint: It isn't.