Mister Cocktail

As a discerning tippler, you have found your way to this blog, not only for easy recipes, but also for great bars and for some education. Now I know you have your cocktail basics at home: your shaker, your strainer, jigger, barspoon…the works. But how cool does it look in your homebar (or kitchen)? Here are some great finds, unfortunately only for my Dutch readers, at Marktplaats (marketplace). I have a great example on how to look for rare finds on this site, where you can match your interior to your cocktailgear.

When making icecubes, solid squares are the best to make, but I understand cocktails are also a bit about the show! Here is a great mold that will impress your guests and you can never go wrong with these yellow submarines.

Crushed ice is important for some cocktails, so use a good one, rather than a stylish one in this case, but with this one you have a pretty good one! Do you want to use a stylish crusher, use this one.

Icecubes need to be kept cool, in style. One great find is this icebucket, in the shape of a bowlingball. It will look amazing in your house and makes a perfect all-year decoration. Another great one is this futuristic icebucket, straight from A Clockwork Orange.

Shaking cocktails is a skill that needs to be learned through years of hard work and training. In the mean time, make sure you have stylish shakers to mask the fact that your skills are bit rusty. A crystal shaker is a great start, this nice set of crackled glass is a good addition to your set as well.

For measuring, an accurate tool is indispensable, but measure in style is what we are looking for today. Here’s a very old measuring tool, from Germany. Another one, made from enamel, in old Dutch style, or mint-green, although I’m not sure about thát colour!

Drinking should always be done in style, so good glassware is just as important to a cocktail as a frame is to your Picasso.

When serving Martini’s, these glasses are great. I have them at home for Daiquiri’s and Manhattan’s. For even more style, go Cristal. No, not that one, this one!

Now, go find your perfect style in equipment and serve your favourite cocktail to your guests, or for yourself.

I just love cocktails that are deeply rooted in society (is that correct to say?), are known all over the world, but it’s origins are just not entirely clear. Who invented the drink, where does the name come from, how was it originally made? All questions that some cocktail-historians are finding the answer to and to many more questions.

So, where does the Margarita come from? Most people should know it is made of 3 ingredients: tequila, fresh lime and triple sec. You can serve it straight up, on the rocks, blended and with every variety of fruit imaginable to mankind, so what the original Margarita tasted like is something that will be discussed for a bit longer.

The most plausible story is that of Don Carlos. he was a bartender at Hussong’s Cantina, which is located in Ensenada, Mexico. As any bartender he liked playing around with ingredients to create new cocktails. One day, while mixing things together on a slow day, Margarita Henkel walked in. She was the daughter of a German ambassador and she lived nearby with her husband in Rancho Hamilton. In her, Don Carlos found a great victim to test his new mixture on: equal parts tequila, orange liqueur and lime, shaken and served on the rocks in a salt-rimmed glass. He named the drink after the first person to taste this: Margarita.

Another great story is that of Carlos ‘Danny’ Herrera. It was probably a big plus when your name was Carlos in these days for a bartender. He created the cocktail around 1947 at his Rancho La Gloria bar in Rosarito, Mexico. One time, he was visited by an actress called Marjorie King who drank no spirit but tequila. The same goes probably for every Mexican, but for a non-Mexican this was something else. Mr Herrera added then equal parts of lime and Cointreau after which he decided the drink could use a salt rim. He named this drink Margarita, which is the Spanish word for Marjorie.

Method:

A Margarita should be made with a good white Tequila, which should made from 100 % Agave. This will cost you quite a bit more, but the difference in taste completely justifies the price. When you have a crowd over, you can get away with using an ordinary Tequila Blanco, but do yourself a favour and buy one bottle of the good stuff. Hide it.

First you start with the garnish: cut a lime in half, take in your hand and rub it over the top 1/2 inch of your glass. Hold the glass upside-down and carefully sprinkle some salt on it. The salt will stick to the wet part, outside of the glass. It is important that the salt does not fall into the glass!!

This drink needs a good shake, so pour 50 ml of a good white Tequila, together with 25 ml of Triple Sec (preferably Cointreau) and 25 ml of fresh lime juice in a shaker. Add loads of ice, shake until ice cold and strain into a cocktail glass or, even better, a Margarita-coupe.

Note: the frozen Margarita will be covered by  me in another post.

Photo by Ming Chao...Sensez.com

Tucked away in a small street in one of the oldest areas in Amsterdam, called De Jordaan, lies Vesper Bar. It takes some navigation to get there, through the small streets of this area, where even finding a parkingspace for your bike is somewhat difficult. It fits the despcription of a neighbourhoodbar just as well as that of an international cocktailbar: located on a corner, with stylish black sunscreens, windows all around and with a dim-lit mostly dark wooden interior, combined with international design and, of course, bottles everywhere you look.

In my experience, having a rather large collection of bottles could mean trouble. One possibility is that the crew has no idea how to work with them, resulting in a) bad cocktails or b) me doing shots of the good stuff. Both will lead to bad experience the next day, and I’d rather have quality when having a drink in a cocktailbar. It’s reputation had preceded them, so I already knew that in their case having such an extensive collection of bottles meant good things: great staff that knows their stuff.

Because the bar is pretty small, you are welcomed by the bartender/host upon entry, which gives a very personal touch. Try to beat the crowd and be a bit early to make sure you get to one of 5 barstools, or, when in a group, one of the two tables. 4 Important things you already get when you sit yourself in Vesper: a glass of water, a small bowl of mixed nuts, the cocktailmenu and a generous smile. That makes you realise how important it is to feel welcome in the place where you intend to spend both time and money. And possibly for more than once.

The cocktailmenu is not too long, and not too short, offering you some great classics of which the Vesper Martini is of course the best known. Since you’re all such great Bond fans out there I guess I don’t have to explain that Vesper Lynd was Bond’s first lover in Casino Royale. And since this is their house cocktail, you should have this one. Should you feel a little bit more tropical, they have a great section of Tiki-drinks. These are Rum-based drinks from the Caribean, with great tropical flavours. Now don’t picture any ugly glasses with umbrellas, straws and fireworks – expect the serious cocktails from that time, served in Tiki-mugs with a little of that tropical heat inside.

A great feature on the menu is “The Leap of Faith“. How many times have you stared at the menu, thinking of what to order. When you cannot decide, you can let the bartender decide for you, based on some basic questions (what spirit, strong, weak, sour etc). Trust me, these are very capable bartenders working here, award-winning I might add, so your night is in good hands with this crew.

Although Vesper Bar has already been open for 2 years now, there’s still people discovering this great bar every day. Because of it’s open character, combined with the international interior, this is one of the best cocktailbars in Holland and an absolute must to visit every week sorry, every one in a while. Anyways, when want to go out for a good cocktail, or just for a good night with your favourite drink, Vesper Bar is a great choice!

Vinkenstraat 57, Amsterdam, 020-8464458

Thinking of what would be the perfect mix for as lazy Sunday afternoon, I started thinking of one of my favourite mixes: the good old Gin & Tonic. Now, as one can understand, one G&T can vary greatly from the other, when using a different gin, tonic or garnish. You can compare it to driving a car. Every car does the same: it takes you from A to B, but how you get to your destination depends on what kind of car you drive. Therfore, I will post about a different Gin & Tonic each Sunday, explaining about the different combinations.

First in this series is the Hendrick’s Gin & Fentiman’s Tonic. Now, you may have noticed this peculiar Gin in a bar or in a liquorstore. It has a distinctive bottle, resembling an Apothecary bottle from long time ago, coloured almost black. When you turn the bottle, you may notice the sentence “It is not for Everyone” and I must say: it isn’t. You can read the ingredients on the back label as well and the first stage of the ditillation is making a ‘vapour-distilled’ gin, which could be classified as a London Dry Gin. In this first step, ‘ordinary’ botanicals are infused in a neutral grain spirit. Think of Juniper, Coriander and Citrus Peel. But Hendrick’s Gin becomes, well, Hendrick’s Gin after the addition of two extra infusions: Cucumber and Rose Petals. Here’s a link to their blog, where you can read a lot more about their gin.

As a tonic, I chose Fentiman’s for today, which actually is nor the cheapest, nor the easiest to find, but it was the only one I had in my fridge and I was too lazy to leave the house to buy another tonic. Fentiman’s has a distinct citrussy flavour, which comes from the lemongrass and lime leaves and the infusion with juniper makes it a very good companion for any gin.

The combination with Hendrick’s is pretty good but makes the mix somewhat less accessible, with the lemony notes of the Fentiman’s competing with the cucumber infusions in the Hendrick’s Gin. But at the same time, new flavours appear in the drink, giving it new accents: you can get some licorice, some floral freshness and some bitter notes appear as well. Bare in mind that it needs some dilution and chilling, so make sure to use enough ice. All in all a good mix, with 2 great ingredients, but they are not the perfect match.

Rating: 6/10

Method:

Mix 35 ml Hendrick’s Gin in a longdrink (or teacup, it is Sunday after all!) and fill with icecubes. Pour in 100 – 150 ml of Fentiman’s Tonic, add 3 thin slices of cucumber and stir.

Now, we all know Ian Flemming, the creator of James Bond. And I think most of you know that Bond’s favourite cocktail was the Vesper Martini. Today, in 1952, Ian Flemming started to write his very first novel, in his Jamaican house. This novel was Casino Royale, where we not only learned of James Bond, but also the, now famous Vesper Martini.

But few people know that the very first cocktail that James Bond ordered in this book was the Americano. This is a simple and refreshing mix of Campari, Sweet Vermouth and sparkling water and it is based on the Milano-Torino. The name Milano-Torino was because Campari was made in Milano and Vermouth Classico was produced in Torino. These two were originally sold just by the bottle in apothece-bars where you could not sit and enjoy the drink. Instead, you took it home and drank it there. And it was just these two ingredients mixed together.

At the end of the 19th century, the cocktailculture in the United States started to explode and the people there learned about Campari and about Vermouth. And when they started mixing these two ingredients together, they mixed it with Soda-water (sparkling water). This drink travelled back to Italy and the people were interested in this way of drinking, but how to name it? You could ask for your “Milano Bitter mixed with Vermouth Classico from Torino, served in the American Way” but that’s a bit too long for most people. So this drink became known around the world as the Americano.

Method

Mix 25 ml of Campari and 25 ml of Sweet Vermouth (most common is Martini) in a longdrink. Fill with icecubes and sparkling water. Garnish the drink with a thick slice of fresh orange and stir gently.

I’m trying to avoid the word Valentine here, and my only reference to this Hallmark-fest is the color pink, which comes from the cranberry juice. This is the 4th drink in this series, and this one’s a little harder, but follow my lead and you’re bound to be mixing like a pro.

I will talk about the original Mojito in a little while, but in the mean time you can get started making a Pink Mojito, since you bought a bottle of cranberry juice for the previous cocktails already. I know you did.

Method:

First of all: the preparation. Make sure you have a bottle of good quality white or aged rum (no older than 3 years, otherwise the taste gets too complex for a mojito). You also need some fresh limes and mint: try to buy it at a local shop, not at a supermarket to save a lot of money. Also, some fine, white sugar for making it sweet to your taste. Cane sugar is also great, but it dissolves much slower, compared to the fine white sugar. Last, you’ll need some cranberry juice, but that one’s already sitting in your fridge.

Now, cut half a lime in 4 wedges and squeeze the juice in a longdrink. After that, just drop the wedges in the glass. Now, add two heaped barspoons of fine white sugar (that’s roughly 10 grams). Watch how quickly the sugar dissolves, so no muddling needed. The next step is to fill the glass 1/3 with (crushed) ice, then pour in 50 ml of rum. The mint needs some care and attention: pick 10 – 12 leaves (depending on size) from the stem, place them in one hand and slap them with the other. Smell how the scent is released: no need to tear them up or muddle to death. Put these in the glass as well and stirr with short, firm motions across the bottom of the glass, mixing all the ingredients together, but leaving the mintleaves on top.

When all is mixed well, fill the glass with (crushed) ice and top with just a small amount of cranberry juice, not more than 30 ml! Stir gently one last time and garnish with a nice mintsprig – that’s the nice top-end of the mint.

Again, the  recipe is not leading, your taste is! Do you want it more sweet: add some sugar etc etc. You know what to do.

One more tip: if you’re out of rum, feel free to use a vodka instead!

Since the rise & rise of the Cosmopolitan cocktail, cranberry juice has been enormously popular for use in longdrinks and cocktails. Besides the Cosmopolitan, the Cape Codder and the Seabreeze are easy mixes and very resfreshing. When drank pure, the drink tends to be quite bitter and strong, so can be diluted with water or, more logically, mixed with spirits.

Recently, a new brand has been launched, called Canadian Red which takes care of this issue. Its flavour is much more accessible and mixible then more well-known brands. Especially when drunk chilled over ice, it is a perfect refresher for any moment and, even better, a great ingredient for your Cosmo’s and Cape Codders!

Going out for a drink to a bar invisible from the street, has something extra to it, something secrative. That already puts The Canal House 1-0 ahead. Logically, the hotel and bar are located on a canal, and they both share the same entrance. This is guaranteed a personal welcome by the concierge, who takes you to a lush sofa or a comfortable seat at the bar. The bar itself is designed by the renowned agency Concrete so you can feast your eyes, before you can start on the drinksmenu.

The service at the bar is personal and very friendly and your choice is between a very balanced wine-list, that radiates both knowledge and good taste from the composer, and the cocktail-list. The latter is a nice mixture between classics and some own creations, from the young barcrew. I always try a classic, to see how they handle that one before I move on to a house-special. The first drink gave me a good reason to try a special, so you can read here that I was not disappointed. I could recommend a specific cocktail here, but I suggest you let the bartender guide you through the menu, to find the perfect cocktail for your taste.

A very nice detail at Canal House, is the pricing. Although we find ourselves in a upscale hotel, dead-centre Amsterdam, in a designbar, the prices of both the drinks and the food are what you would expect from a normal bar. Not from a hotelbar. This is certainly a big step for any hotelbar, as it lowers the barriers for locals to get a drink in such a nice place.

Should you find yourself hungry, no worries: they boast a very nice menu, from bar-bites to main courses and deserts. Again, all reasonably priced, creating a very good balance between price and quality. I must say here that I enjoyed a good meal at home before heading out to this bar, so I hope to review their food next time as well. The restaurant itself is beautifully designed, combining the classic style of the, well, canal houses of Amsterdam with modern design.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised to discover The Canal House. It is a perfect hide-away from the busy city-life, where you can hide for a while with great drinks and food. And when you step outside again, it feels like you’ve been away on a nice, long weekend.

Adress: Keizersgracht 148 – 152

Phone: +31 (0) 20 622 51 82

This cocktail fits great in the category Easy-as-hell: even if your skills are limited to opening a bottle of wine, you can impress your guests with a great drink. It was invented in the U.S. in the late 40′s, first named “The Red Devil” but later renamed after Cape Cod, Massachusetts, because of the presence of the 2nd largest crop of cranberries in that area.

Method:

The Cape Cod uses only 3 ingredients, so prepartion by glas or per pitcher is easy as can be:

3 cl of any good vodka

10 cl Cranberry Juice (I would recommend Canadian Red)

1 wedge of fresh lime (2 wedges for more sourness)

Squeeze the lime in a longdrink glass, and pour in the vodka and cranberryjuice. Fill the glass with icecubes and stirr.

Having a crowd in your livingroom, or just very thirsty: 25 cl of vodka and 75 cls of Cranberry juice combined with the juice from 1 whole lime is sufficient for 1 litre of Cape Codder.

First drink in The Week of the Cranberry is about the most famous cocktail as I can think of. Even if you’ve never strayed away from your favourite beer, you still heard of someone ordering one or preparing one at a houseparty. It was invented in Miami in the 80s and travelled in no-time throughout the U.S. and the U.K., becoming one of the most sold cocktails in the 90s.

But no-one else did more for this drink than Carry Bradshaw, the main character in Sex and the City, promoting the cocktail with her 3 best friends, ordering it in the most fashionable places in New York. Good for us, because it makes our choice of partydrinks a lot easier now.

Method:

Mix 3 cl of any good vodka, 3 cl of Cointreau, 4,5 cl Cranberryjuice and 1,5 cl of fresh lime juice in a shaker. Add a lot of ice and shake well. Use a barsieve (called strainer) to pour the liquid in to a cocktailglass (you know, the fancy one in the picture above), while keeping the icecubes inside the shaker. If you have a tea strainer lying around, use this as well to catch the small particles of ice and lime, so your cocktail looks even better, without small bits floating around. Finally squeeze a 4 cm x 1 cm peel of orange over the drink and serve.

Wow, there’s a crowd of 10 in your livingroom? No time to shake, so move on to the blender for more drastic measures. Multiply by 10 and add ice, blend and pour into the old cocktailglass.

Mixing notes:

Your own taste is more important than any recipe, so follow your own taste to adjust the cocktail where necessary:

Alcohol: more or less vodka

Sweetness: more or less Cointreau

Bitterness: more or less Cranberry

Sourness: more or less lime