Getting into the New Year's spirits
• Mojito mojo and the martini lifestyle
• From three liquors, hundreds of cocktails
By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor
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| W Diamond Head Grill bar manager Joey Gottesman says a huge inventory of fruits, juices, mixers and liqueurs is necessary to do the job these days.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Equipping a well-stocked home bar Buy small cubes of ice or place ice cubes in zip bag and pound with mallet or rolling pin to crack. Always use fresh ice. Minimum equipment: jigger (1 1/2-ounce standard bar measure), cocktail shaker (glass and stainless steel tumblers that fit inside each other), Hawthorne strainer (bar strainer with disc that fits over the shaker and a coil of wire to keep solid ingredients from spilling out), sharp paring knife, lemon/lime reamer. Getting fancy: Add a long-handled bar spoon for stirring ingredients that have sunk to the bottom; a muddler, which looks rather like an old-fashioned policeman's billy club, and is used to crush mint and other ingredients; sharp little knives for cutting garnishes; easy-pour spouts for spirits you use a lot; ice picks for breaking ice up; and peelers and special-shape garnish cutters. Basic glasses: highball (tall, straight-sided), old-fashioned (short, straight-sided) and cocktail (V-shaped classic martini glass). Flavorings: Angostura bitters, grenadine syrup, Rose's lime juice, Tabasco and worcestershire sauce, curacao, orgeat (almond liqueur), fine granulated sugar, powdered sugar, simple syrup, soft drinks (a cola and a lemon/lime, plus club soda), fruits (lemons, limes and oranges), fresh mint, and juices (orange, grapefruit, cranberry, tomato and pineapple). Garnishes: cocktail olives and onions, maraschino cherries, salt, pepper; lemon and lime wedges or wheels. — Tony Abou-Ganim, mixologist, Bellagio, Las Vegas |
Now the calls at the trendy W Diamond Head Grill, where Gottesman is bar manager, read like colorful poetry: Cosmopolitan, Lemon Drop, Mojito, Caipirinha, Banana Creamtini, Keith's Keel-over, Ms. Sassy, Sweet Bull, Bethany's Bliss ...
Preparing all these requires a back bar the length of a generous living room — and a considerable investment, probably more than you can pull together for your New Year's Eve party tonight.
But you can take a drink-making tip or two from this experienced bartender, choose a single spirit and build a night's drink menu around it.
Of the major spirits — gin, vodka, rum, the whiskeys and tequila — the three that lend themselves most readily to a broad range of classic cocktails are gin, vodka and rum.
Of these, Gottesman said, gin is the most inflexible, because it has a distinctive flavor and doesn't blend well with all types of mixers. But you've got to have gin for traditional martinis and a wide range of cocktails — gimlets, fizzes, Rickeys and Collinses.
Second most popular is the ever-broadening family of new-style martinis made from flavored vodkas, fresh fruit juices, liqueurs and other ingredients. This is the Cosmo, Lemon Drop, "you-name-it-tini" group especially popular with young women.
Of course, Gottesman acknowledges, these aren't martinis at all: A true martini begins with gin — and might just end there. The crafting of a traditional martini is a study in itself: so many questions — gin or vodka, how dry (how much vermouth), "up" (iced, then strained) or over (served on ice), what garnishes (olives, onions, lemon twist), "dirty" (with olive juice) or no.
Today, however, "everything served in a martini glass is considered a martini. But if you ask me, a Cosmo is a Kamikaze with cranberry juice," he said, revealing his traditionalist roots.
Fact is, a lot of these drinks are for people who want the glow without the grimace — that is, they don't particularly like the taste of spirits, they just want something that goes down pleasantly. (Actually, Gottesman says, many traditional martini drinkers don't like the taste of gin, either, but find a properly made martini just palatable, and sit nursing the thing for 20 minutes or so, savoring the numbing effect.)
The advent of pleasant-tasting fruity and sugary concoctions adds another complication to the bartender's life. "These drinks can go to the head. We have to be careful not to over-serve," said Gottesman. Fortunately, a number of these mixtures are nice even without the spirits, rich in fruity flavors.
Rum is the centerpiece of the hottest drink of all right now, the Mojito, which dates back to 1950s Cuba when Ernest Hemingway and the boys would sling them back after an afternoon of deep-sea fishing. It's a tough one for bartenders because it's labor-intensive. The heart of the drink is a subtle flavor that comes from fresh mint that's been macerated or "muddled" (mashed and pressed).
Other rum drinks are bar staples such as Mai Tai, Pi–a Colada and Tropical Itch, especially in Hawai'i, where visitors expect their drinks to be blue or outfitted with umbrellas, plastic monkeys or back scratchers.
Once you've settled on the spirit of choice, memorize a trio of drinks and pull together the necessary ingredients.
Key to creating high-quality cocktails are high-quality ingredients (although using premium pours in fruit-flavored drinks is a waste; mid-range name brands are perfectly acceptable), fresh-squeezed juices and, Gottesman says, temperature.
Always chill the glasses. If you don't have sufficient refrigerator space, you can fill glasses with ice and let them sit a minute or two, or nestle them in a cooler of ice. Pour off any melted water in the glasses.
Buy smaller ice cubes if you can get them, or crack the cubes and drain off water before placing ice in the shaker. Use fresh ice for every drink.
Learn to master the cocktail shaker and the Hawthorne strainer, used in almost every trendy drink these days. The issue of how hard to shake is controversial. Some martini traditionalists prefer a slow, easy shake so as not to "bruise" the gin — a myth, but a pleasant one. At the W, vigorous over-the-shoulder shaking and — scary moment — flipping the shaker is a sight to behold. "People ask me where I work out and I say, 'At the W,' " said Gottesman, gasping as he agitated a Grape Escape.
The key is to shake until the metal canister is actually frosted over, he said.
"When you pour a martini," Gottesman adds poetically, "it should look like a little ice rink on top."
Finally, cocktails are about theater: the right glasses, appropriate garnishes, the cute little napkins. Gottesman teaches the W bartenders to fill the martini glass to the rim and present the drink delicately, with both hands and genial good wishes.
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Mojito mojo and the martini lifestyle
In hip bars, the most popular spirits for mixed drinks are vodka, rum and gin. Here are drink recipes for all three, plus a punch if you want to keep things simple.
You'll need plenty of cracked ice, chilled glasses and some basic bar tools (see accompanying story).
Vodka drinks
This version of the Mojito made with vodka and fresh-squeezed orange juice is a W Diamond Head Grill specialty.
Wonderjito
- 1 ounce Ketel One Citron (a flavored vodka)
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 ounce fresh orange juice
- Handful of coarsely chopped mint
- Sugar
Fill the glass portion of a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Add Citron, sugar and orange juice, then pile on mint. Screw on metal top and shake vigorously for an extended period. Moisten rim of chilled martini glass; dip into sugar. Pour Wonderjito into chilled martini glass. Garnish with orange peel.
Though the Cosmo has lost some of its glamour, it's still a frequent call. This is a premium version with fresh lime juice and Cointreau (a brandy-based orange liqueur). The same drink can be made less expensively with Rose's lime juice and triple sec.
Cosmopolitan
- 1 ounce vodka
- 1/4 ounce fresh lime juice
- 1/4 ounce Cointreau
- 1/4 ounce cranberry juice
- Lime wedge for garnish
Pour ingredients over cracked ice in cocktail shaker. Secure and shake vigorously. Strain into chilled martini glass. Garnish with lime wedge or twist of lemon or lime.
Another in the seemingly endless family of flavored vodka cocktails is the lemon drop. The original lemon drop was a shooter: Drink a shot of chilled vodka, follow up by chomping into a sugar-dipped lemon wedge. This is more refined.
Lemon Drop
- 1 1/2 ounce lemon-flavored vodka
- 1 1/2 ounce Cointreau or triple sec
- 1 wedge lemon
- Sugar
- Lemon zest for garnish
Place the vodka and Cointreau in a cocktail shaker; squeeze a wedge of lemon into shaker and add wedge to shaker. Fill shaker with cracked ice; secure and shake. Moisten the rim of a chilled cocktail glass and dip in sugar. Strain drink into glass. Garnish with lemon zest.
Rum drinks
Rum is often paired with fresh fruit juices in refreshing drinks, many of which had their start in the Caribbean.
The Cuban-born Mojito is among the most asked-for mixed drinks in local cocktail bars. W Diamond Head Grill bar manager Joey Gottesman says maceration — the bruising of the mint — is key. The standard technique is to "muddle" the mint, pressing it into the bottom of a glass with a wooden tool or the back of a spoon. W's bartenders, who have to move fast, have streamlined the process and do all the work in the shaking. Warning: This takes strength, and you need to be very sure your shaker is well-secured.
Mojito á la W
- 1 1/2 ounces Bacardi rum
- Juice of 1 lime
- 3 heaping teaspoons sugar
- Handful of coarsely chopped mint
- Sugar
Fill the glass portion of a cocktail shaker with cracked ice. Pour in rum. Squeeze juice of 1 lime into glass. Add sugar and club soda. Pile mint on top, screw on the metal top and shake vigorously for an extended period. Moisten rim of glass and dip in sugar. Strain drink into martini glass.
Here's a typical rum drink of the old days, laden with fruit juice and sugar and easy going down.
Wahine
- 1 cup cracked ice
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened pineapple juice
- 1/4 cup white rum
- 1/4 cup vodka
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon simple syrup*
- Mint
- Pineapple wedges
Place the cracked ice in a blender with the pineapple juice, rum, vodka, lemon juice and simple syrup and blend. Pour into two glasses filled with ice. Garnish with mint and pineapple wedge.
Gin drinks
Gin is a harder sell. Many people don't like the taste, and it doesn't blend well with many mixers. Still, purists have to have their martinis, gin and tonics continue to be a standard and there's a trend toward flavored gin that may boost its popularity.
W bar manager Joey Gottesman invented this drink for those who don't care much for gin but do like fruit sodas. He notes that anytime you add 7-Up to a fruity drink, it'll fizz.
Dr. Joey's Grape Escape
- 1 ounce Bombay Sapphire gin
- 1/4 ounce Chambord (a raspberry liqueur)
- Splash of 7-Up
- Splash of pineapple juice
Pour ingredients over cracked ice in a cocktail shaker; shake vigorously. Strain into martini glass.
Traditionalists will tell you that the only martini is a gin martini so dry that all the bartender did was glance at the vermouth bottle.
The Real Martini
- 1 1/2 ounces gin
- 1/4 ounce dry vermouth
- Preferred garnish (olives, cocktail onions, lemon peel)
Stir vermouth and gin over cracked ice in mixing glass, or shake in cocktail shaker. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish as desired.
Dry martini: 1 2/3 ounces gin; 1/3 ounce vermouth.
Very dry martini: What vermouth?
And a punch
If you're thinking of saving yourself trouble and serving a spiked punch, this one packs a big punch and was named in honor of a big man, King David Kalakaua.
As recorded in "Dining with the Daughters," published by the Daughters of Hawaii in 1988, this recipe came to Herman von Holt from his Aunt Marie sometime before her death at a ripe old age in the 1950s. Marie von Holt remembered attending court parties during the reign of Kalakaua and probably got the recipe then.
King Kalakaua Punch
- 6 bottles of champagne (or other sparkling wine)
- 2 cups brandy
- 2 bottles white wine (not too dry)
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 lemons
- 6 oranges
- 1 bunch mint, chopped
- 2 quarts fresh strawberries
- 1 ripe pineapple
Chill alcohol at least five hours, preferably overnight. Slice lemons and oranges. Peel pineapple and cut into spears. Place lemons and oranges and pineapple in punch bowl with mint and sugar. Pour white wine and 3 bottles of champagne into the punch bowl and stir until sugar melts. Add brandy and strawberries; mix gently. Just before serving, add the remaining three bottles of champagne.
Simple syrup is a standard bar ingredient. If you can't find it in the liquor section of your market, make your own by placing 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan. Simmer to dissolve sugar, cool.
• • •
From three liquors, hundreds of cocktails
Vodka
Originally distilled from potatoes, now made from corn, rye, wheat. Colorless, odorless, tasteless. Adapts the flavors with which it is blended. Most popular distilled spirit. Flavored vodkas a growing phenomenon. The higher the proof, the less flavor.
- Popular drinks: Vodka Martini, Cosmopolitan, various flavored "tinis," Kamikaze and other shooters.
- Trend: Flavored vodkas, vodkas made from grapes and other non-traditional ingredients.
Rum
Distilled from molasses. Available in light (traditionally from the southern Caribbean) or dark (from Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique). Employed both for chilled and warm drinks; basis for most "tropical" drinks. Generally 80 proof.
- Popular drinks: Mojito, Daiquiri, Mai Tai, Pina Colada, Cuba Libre (rum and cola).
- Trend: Flavored rums (banana, coconut, etc.); also cachaca (ca-sha-sa), sugarcane rum from Brazil.
Gin
Originally devised as a medicine by a Dutch chemist. A clear spirit distilled from grain and redistilled with herbs and spices, particularly juniper berries. Recipes are closely guarded secrets.
- Popular drinks: martini, gimlet, Tom Collins, Pink Lady, gin fizz.
- Trend: Gins infused with herbal or floral flavors/aromas.
Sources: "Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide," webtender.com, Joey Gottesman
