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The Bibulo.us Guide to Your Home Bar: Part 3

Our strategic approach in this guide is laid out in a series of steps, let’s call them adventures, which build upon each other and which space out the expense of building your collection of tools, ingredients, and resources. The speed with which you take on these adventures is up to your budget and time, but our goal is for each one to provide an immediate reward and a new array of possibilities.

Through these adventures you will be introduced to the core set of classic cocktails and techniques. Many of the tools, ingredients and other resources described are available through our shopping links.

The first adventure, Tabula Rasa, introduced the Old Fashioned.

In the second, Waltz Time, we focused on the Martini.

Adventure #3: In Her Steam and Her Steel

Possibly the best cocktail in the world, but maybe we feel a little too much passion for the Manhattan. Give it a try, as it really should be made, and see what you think.

Ingredients: rye, sweet vermouth, aromatic bitters, lemon twist or cherry or flamed orange peel.

New techniques: Flaming Orange Peel, Batching Drinks.

Shopping:

• Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth (~$8)
• Luxardo Gourmet Maraschino Cherries (~$17, this may sound like a lot to pay for cherries but they are truly astonishingly good and there are a whole lot of them jammed into this jar; it’s worth every penny)
• A really good garnish knife (if you don’t already have a paring knife you love & can use very safely) Consider a Santoku style which is large enough to discourage you from dangerously cutting fruit in your hand and which has an edge design that makes it easier to start a cut on a firm curved surface like a lime.
• A couple very fresh oranges with a nice strong orange scent on the skin (indicating plenty of orange oils).

Preparation:

Find a safe small candle holder such as might be used in a bar or restaurant.

Get some toothpicks.

Light the candle & place it on your bar surface but a little bit out of your way, resting on a saucer with a bit of water in it.

Making the drink:

1. Wash your hands.
2. Rinse the lemon and the orange.
3. Chill three glasses if you don’t have them already cold in the freezer.
4. Set out the cutting mat, rye, sweet vermouth, orange bitters, lemon, cherries, orange, mixing container, jigger, barspoon, Hawthorn strainer, channel knife and garnish knife.
5. Measure & add .5 oz x 3 = 1.5 oz sweet vermouth to the mixing container.
6. Shake a dash (a “dash” means its okay if it’s several drops) of orange bitters into the mixing container. Do this twice more because you’re making three servings.
7. Measure & add 1 oz x 3 = 3 oz rye.
8. Stir with ice (remember to add more ice because your liquid level is higher in the mixing container).
9. Strain evenly into the 3 chilled glasses. (Try to pour an ounce into each and then even them up in small pours as you dispense the rest of the liquid. Notice how the melt from the ice has increased the fluid beyond the added ingredients.)
10. Move a glass somewhat away from the others so that the lemon oil doesn’t spray across them & add a small lemon twist.
11. Move the second glass near the first and use your barspoon to gently drop one cherry from the jar into it.
12. Take the orange and, holding on the cutting mat end up, use the garnish knife to slice off a stripe of the outer skin, about 1” wide and 2” long, trying not to squeeze it as you handle it.
13. Light a toothpick in the candle (we recommend using toothpicks rather than matches in order to avoid the sulfur smell) and, holding the flame about 3” above & away from the drink, pick up the orange peel strip delicately (like an eggshell, as Dale DeGroff says) by the edges, angle it towards the drink about an inch further away from the drink than the flame and squeeze. The orange oils should be expressed, passing through the flame & igniting before falling onto the drink. Drop the toothpick in the water in the saucer and throw away the peel.
14. Not to worry, this takes a little practice. Read the description from King Cocktail himself and try again if you didn’t get a nice burst the first time.
15. Rinse your bar tools.
16. Compare your drinks. We’d recommend the lemon twist version first, since you have had a rye drink with that garnish before (the Old Fashioned). Next the orange version, since it’s going to be closer in flavor to the lemon version. Lastly try the one with the cherry. Notice the impact of the different garnishes. Which works best for you with this rye, this vermouth, and these proportions?

Progress report:

You can make multiples of a drink at once. You have a new garnishing technique. Since you have oranges, you can try making orange twists with your channel knife and orange zests. With those and the cherries, your world of garnishes continues to expand. You now also have a new kind of vermouth. Compare half an ounce of each served in room temperature glasses (so you can really taste the differences). You’re learning to analyze your ingredients and to see where particular ones perform well or poorly in a given recipe.

Where you can go from here with these skills:
Try the three Manhattans again sometime using Angostura aromatic bitters instead of orange bitters.

Revisit the Martini concept using gin and sweet vermouth. 2:1 with Angostura bitters and a lemon twist is an Artillery or with an orange peel instead of the lemon it’s a Sunshine. 3:1 with no bitters and a lemon twist is a Blackstone. 2:1 with orange bitters is a Rex Cocktail. 1:1 with both aromatic and orange bitters is a Hearst Cocktail. 2:1 with Peychaud’s bitters (which you’d have to go buy since we didn’t already send you shopping for them) is a Hilliard Cocktail. 2:1:1 bringing in sweet AND dry vermouth with aromatic bitters is a Farmer’s Cocktail or with orange peel it becomes a Kup’s Indispensable or at 8:1:1 with the lemon twist again it’s a Perfect. 3:1:1 with 2 dashes of orange bitters and an orange peel is an R.C.A. Special Cocktail. 3:1:1 with a dash each of aromatic and orange bitters is a Wild Rose Cocktail.

As you can see gin + vermouth(s) + maybe some bitters + citrus peel garnish of some sort is the foundation of a panoply of cocktails (indeed, much of the Savoy Cocktail Book).

For vermouth variations using rye whiskey, try a Dry Manhattan, Perfect Manhattan, or a Jumbo.

You can also try some other recipes using these other new ingredients, with specific recommendations where we have them noted:
Honolulu or Rosemary or Brown University (buy some bourbon, say Four Roses (~$22) or Buffalo Trace or Bulleit (both ~$23))
One Of Mine Cocktail (squeeze some juice from one of those partially skinned oranges)
Smiler (also using some orange juice)
Martinez (buy Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur(~$28))
Move Over Cocktail (buy Cherry Heering (~$24))
Rob Roy (buy Dewar’s blended scotch, either White Label or 12 year & check the prices  since the bottle twice the size might be only 25% more expensive (~$21-28))
Black Manhattan (buy Averna (~$29))

The Bibulo.us Guide to Your Home Bar: Part 2

Our strategic approach in this guide is laid out in a series of steps, let’s call them adventures, which build upon each other and which space out the expense of building your collection of tools, ingredients, and resources. The speed with which you take on these adventures is up to your budget and time, but our goal is for each one to provide an immediate reward and a new array of possibilities.

Through these adventures you will be introduced to the core set of classic cocktails and techniques. Many of the tools, ingredients and other resources described are available through our shopping links.

The first adventure, Tabula Rasa, introduced the Old Fashioned.

Adventure #2: Waltz Time

It can’t get much more classy than a true Martini. Nick Charles may have, alas, advocated shaking rather than stirring, but otherwise he and Nora had the right idea when it came to dry Martinis: small, cold and excellent. (“Leo, line them right up here.”)

Ingredients: ice, gin, dry vermouth, orange bitters, lemon twist.

New techniques: Chilling Glassware, Straining.

Shopping:

• Oxo Hawthorn cocktail strainer (~$11)
• cocktail glasses (no larger than 5.5 oz capacity, e.g. Ikea’s “Soda”, set of 6 ~$10, and/or keep an eye out for nice old ones at thrift stores)
• Plymouth gin (~$30) (If unavailable, substitute 209, Martin Miller’s or Beefeater)
• Noilly Prat dry vermouth (~$8, try to get the newer formulation with the curvy bottle if you’ve got a choice)
• Fee Brothers orange bitters (~$6)

Preparation:

Store all opened vermouths in the refrigerator. They do lose their luster over time, so this is one place where smaller bottles may be a smart move.

Wash your cocktail glasses and allow them to dry completely. Polish with a clean dish towel and then store upside down in the freezer. Ensure they aren’t crowded by other things so they don’t get broken. If you want to store them on the door you may need to make a supportive tray with the corner edge of a cardboard box in order to avoid disaster if the door is opened too fast; even top down, cocktail glasses can tip over easily.

Find a mixing container to use for now (you’ll be buying an official one on a subsequent adventure). A pint glass or mug will suit the job as long as your strainer can fit in the top without falling in.

Making the drink:

1. Wash your hands.
2. Rinse the lemon.
3. If you don’t have a chilled glass at the ready in the freezer, take a glass and fill it with ice, setting it by to chill as you make the drink.
4. Set out the cutting mat, gin, dry vermouth, orange bitters, lemon, mixing container, jigger, barspoon, Hawthorn strainer, and channel knife.
5. Measure .25 oz of dry vermouth and add it to the mixing container.
6. Put one drop of orange bitters in the jigger and top it with 1.5 oz of gin, then add to the mixing container.
7. Add cracked ice and stir for at least 20 seconds (we’ll refer to this step henceforth as “stir with ice”).
8. Get a chilled glass from the freezer or dump the ice in the sink from the one you’ve been chilling that way.
9. Hold the strainer in the top of the mixing container and strain the drink into the chilled cocktail glass.
10. Garnish with a lemon twist as for the Old Fashioned.
11. Rinse your bar tools.
12. Enjoy your cocktail.

Progress report:

You now have the tools for stirred drinks which are strained. You have a second type of glassware allowing you to adjust the presentation of your drinks. You also have a choice of bitters, which gives you flexibility in matching flavor profiles of different spirits with the other ingredients in a drink.

Where you can go from here with these skills:
This is a 6-to-1 Dry Martini. We recommend you experiment with other proportions trying increased amounts of vermouth (2 oz gin:.5 oz vermouth; 1.5 oz gin:.5 oz vermouth; 1 oz gin: .5 oz vermouth; 1 oz gin: 1 oz vermouth) to see where your favorite is. In general, the more vermouth, the further back in time you’re traveling. You can also try it with and without the drop of orange bitters to understand the impact of that ingredient. Also try getting some green cocktail olives and garnish with one of those rather than the lemon twist to understand the impact of the garnish.

You can also try some other recipes using these other new ingredients, with specific recommendations where we have them noted:
With a barspoon of olive juice from the jar it’s a Dirty Martini.
A black olive garnish makes it a Buckeye.
If you garnish a 5:1 proportion with a cocktail onion instead it becomes a Gibson.
Make it at 2:1 or drier (less vermouth) and add a dash of Absinthe for a Third Degree.
Gimlet (buy Rose’s lime juice)
Vesper (buy Stolichnaya vodka (~$24), Lillet Blanc (~$16), orange for garnish)

Technically, you’re ready for the Manhattan now, but it’s the basis for so many things that we’ll cover it in our next adventure.

The Bibulo.us Guide to Your Home Bar: Part 1

Somehow, somewhere, you had a drink which blew your doors off and enlightened you to what a cocktail could really be. Now that your eyes are open to the vast and beautiful landscape of possibility, how to begin exploring it? In these trying economic times, may we recommend a two-fold approach?

• When you drink out on the town, spend your dollars on quality and your time on people from whom you can learn.
On our site we will highlight the sorts of places and bartenders we admire and are grateful to for the experiences they provide. While we’ve learned much from websites and books, the core of a great bartender is not recipes or drink assembly technique, but the skill of hosting. This you learn best by being served and by watching good service. It is the grace that takes a drink to its highest level; the right drink for the imbiber, made with care, delivered with charm and respect.

• At home, build your home bar and your own knowledge and skills strategically.
Better tools and ingredients cost more, yes, but not all that much more and they will serve you far better. In this guide we hope to help you optimize your expenditures for outstanding results.

Our strategic approach in this guide is laid out in a series of steps, let’s call them adventures, which build upon each other and which space out the expense of building your collection of tools, ingredients, and resources. The speed with which you take on these adventures is up to your budget and time, but our goal is for each one to provide an immediate reward and a new array of possibilities.

Through these adventures you will be introduced to the core set of classic cocktails and techniques. Many of the tools, ingredients and other resources described are available through our shopping links.

Adventure #1: Tabula Rasa

On this blank slate inscribe the ancestral cocktail, the Old Fashioned.

Ingredients: ice, simple syrup, aromatic bitters, rye whiskey, lemon twist.

New techniques: Cracking Ice, Building In Glass, Stirring, Garnishing with a Twist.

Your ice needs to be fresh and not taste like your freezer. If you don’t have really good tap water, use filtered water or bottled water; ice melt is a significant taste factor in good drinks. Your cubes should be larger, to reduce melt. Avoid fancy shapes which provide too much melting surfaces. If you don’t have an ice cube tray, we recommend the Beaba Multiportion Freezer Tray (tray & lid $19.95). A good fallback from that larger, lidded tray is the Tovolo “Perfect Cube” silicone tray (set of 2 ~$15). The cube shape is a good compromise between freezing speed and cube size, but you’ll want to keep a lidded container in the freezer to hold the cubes once made so they don’t pick up freezer tastes & smells. With soft silicone trays, just push the base of the cube to extract it, rather than twisting the whole tray as one does with a hard tray.

Shopping:

• Angostura bitters (4oz jar ~$7)
• Old Overholt rye (750ml bottle ~$15) (If unavailable, substitute Pikesville, Rittenhouse, Rittenhouse 100, or Wild Turkey 101)
• Zyliss Easy Grip channel knife/zester (~$8)
• heavy duty stainless steel bar spoon (~$5, avoid the red plastic ended kind)
• Oxo Mini Angled Measuring cup/jigger (set of 3 ~$10)
• lemon with clean unblemished skin (less than $1. Always use fresh fruit; it has a huge impact on your drinks)

Preparation:

If your freezer is smelly, clean it; you don’t want that smell to come into your cocktails by way of the ice. Freeze up some nice fresh ice. 
Locate a completely clean kitchen towel (unless by some chance you already own a Lewis bag, in which case use that and tell us why someone with Lewis bag needs help setting up their home bar).
 Locate an old fashioned or rocks glass, i.e. a smaller, fairly straight-sided, flat-bottomed glass.

Make simple syrup by heating 1 cup water in a small pan on the stove or in a microwave-proof dish in the microwave until it is steaming, pour in 1 cup sugar, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves and the liquid is clear. Let cool and then store in the refrigerator in a sealed container (e.g. a clean glass jar that doesn’t have any smell remaining from whatever it previously contained).

Optional, but recommended: locate a thin silicone cutting mat. These are usually cheap (around $2) and provide a super simple-to-clean bar surface. Just do your mixing on top of the mat and then rinse it along with your other bar tools. Very handy when dealing with simple syrup and sticky liqueurs.

Making the drink:

1. Wash your hands.
2. Rinse off the lemon to remove any wax, chemical residue, or fingerprints of unknown picky shoppers who came before you.
3. On top of your cutting mat, set out your glass, bitters, rye, barspoon, zester, and jigger.
4. Set your clean towel beside it.
5. Put a teaspoon of simple syrup in the bottom of the glass.
6. Add two dashes of Angostura bitters.
7. Stir to blend.
8. Place enough ice to mostly fill your glass on the towel, then twist the towel around the ice and strike it sharply against the countertop once or twice to crack the ice a bit. (Alternately, rinse the barspoon and use its handle end to crack each cube in the palm of your hand. This takes a bit of practice, which we recommend you do in private before attempting for guests). Your goal is to split the cubes into a 2 or 3 pieces to provide a bit more melting surface and more interesting shapes.
9. Add the ice to the glass by lifting the large chunks from the towel (trying to shake from the towel into the glass will only lead to a mess and too watered down a drink).
10. Pour 1.5 oz of rye into your jigger and add it to the glass.
11. Stir with your barspoon to chill. Do not “chop” the barspoon up and down, instead insert it along the side of the glass and gentle swirl the whole contents of the glass. Your goal eventually is to keep the contents circulating smoothly while having no risk of spilling them as you make eye contact and conversation with a guest. Stir for at least 20 seconds.
12. Cut your lemon twist over the glass by holding the fruit firmly in one hand, digging the blade of the channel knife into the peel, and drawing it around the fruit as you rotate it with the holding hand. The oils from the peel should spray across the glass and you should be getting almost entirely zest with little white pith. For this drink a short twist an inch or two long is appropriate. Use your index finger on the hand holding the fruit to catch the twist and hold it against the fruit after it’s cut. Set down the channel knife, take the twist and wipe the peel side (not the bitter white pith) against the rim of the glass, then drop it in.
13. Rinse your bar tools.
14. Enjoy your drink.

Progress report:

You now have the base equipment for measured drinks which are not shaken or strained. You have a clean work surface and good ice. You have good ice which you can use cracked in cocktails where you want more dilution or uncracked to chill without watering down a drink or spirit served by itself. Using the back of your barspoon as a surface onto which to carefully pour a float, you can layer an ingredient atop a drink. Your channel knife also includes a zester (the little holes) which give you an alternative way to add citrus flavor and a visually pleasing garnish to a drink. You can also use zest in creating a citrus-flavored simple syrup. You have Angostura bitters which when dashed into soda water can help settle the stomach.

Where you can go from here with these tools & skills:
non-rye Old Fashioneds (buy a better grade gin, brandy, rum, tequila or Irish whiskey and follow exactly this same recipe).

You can also try some other recipes using these other new ingredients, with specific recommendations where we have them noted:
Champagne Cocktail (buy decent champagne, sugar cubes, champagne flutes to serve in)
Black Velvet (buy decent champagne, Guinness stout, champagne flutes to serve in)
Caipirinha (buy cachaça, a lime)
Improved Holland Gin Cocktail (buy Bols Genever (~$50), Peychaud’s Bitters (~$4), and Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur(~$28))