Creating a Perfect Cocktail: Think Balance

Making a perfect cocktail is not an elusive skill that belongs only to experienced bartenders that look like Tom Cruise did (15 years ago) in “Cocktail.” Instead a few basic principles make it not only easy to mix a great cocktail but also to create your own drink recipes guaranteed to taste great.

When creating your own cocktail recipe, remember the most important part of any drink is its balance. You don’t want to take a sip of a drink and think “Dear God, this is so sour,” or “This burns; I need a chaser.” Instead, a great cocktail, like a great dish, makes you say “Oooh” and “Ahhh” (like you were starring on a Food Network show and tasting the food for the camera) or better yet, nothing at all, because you go for another sip.

Of the four predominant flavor groups (we’ll leave umami out of this one) sweet, salty, sour and bitter every cocktail should involve at least two of these groups. When beginning to mix-up your own drinks it’s probably best to stick with just two groups, lest the drink become confusing, complicated or, simply, kind of gross. Start with a few complementary flavors, figure out what works for you and then allow your drinks to get more complicated.

To illustrate, take the now classic example of the Cosmopolitan. A Cosmopolitan is essentially a healthy dose of good quality citrus vodka shaken with a little cranberry juice, triple sec or other orange liqueur and just a splash of fresh lime juice. It’s served straight up. The clean, crisp, slightly sweet, slightly sour citrus vodka is a good starting point for any number of cocktails, but, in this case, the other ingredients basically reinforce the original sweet and sour ones. That is, cranberry adds more sweet and sour (the fruit itself is quite tart, but it is always sweetened in juice form), the triple sec adds more sweet (its strong, viscous and sweet) and the hit of lime at the end adds more sour (or tart). So, what is now one of the most famous cocktails is really just layers of sweet and sour, mixed in smart proportions. A good Cosmopolitan is a little more sour than sweet, making it more elegant and decreasing the likelihood of bad hangovers!

When creating cocktails, use the Cosmopolitan as a guide. Try making your own sweet and sour cocktail. Switch the lime for lemon, the cranberry for pomegranate, the citrus vodka for cucumber gin. Voila! Or, think of another of your favorite cocktails, figure out what flavors it’s working with, then play around with those flavors retaining the general balance and proportion of the original. Chances are it’ll be great.

There’s probably a reason the cocktails that become popular and stay popular have done so. But this doesn’t mean all the great cocktails have already been invented; far from it.

So start experimenting with your signature cocktail now and have it perfected for your next cocktail party, dinner or happy hour.

Cosmopolitan Recipe:

2 ounces citrus vodka

ounce triple sec or orange liqueur ounce

lime juice

Splash cranberry juice

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake thoroughly. Serve in a chilled martini glass with a lime twist.

Cheers!

Erin Hollingsworth

(photo credit: 96dpi)

April 13th, 2009 by Beverage Blogger | Posted in Cocktail Tips | (0)