MIXED DRINKS

 Unit III: Mixed Drinks

 3.1. Concept and History of Mixed Drinks

The term mixed drink means the combination of two or more than two potable beverages may be alcoholic or non- alcoholic, which gives new taste, flavour and looks. A mixed drink is basically any drink with one alcoholic beverage added to one or more beverage – albeit alcoholic or not. 

 The word “Cocktail” has lot of mystery to it. No one knows from where it is originated. But one considers that since Americans first made popular this habit, they may well be the inventors too. There are many prevailing stories regarding the origin of the word “cocktail”.

1.     The name refers to the habit of decorating flagons of drinks with the feathers from cock’s tails, a custom dating back to the Elizabethan era.

2.     English buccaneers travelling in the Gulf of Mexico in the sixteenth century came upon a local custom in which mixtures of the rudimentary distilled drinks of the region were stirred up with root that looked like a cock’s tail, and was indeed known in the Spanish as a “Cola De Gallo” which mean it looked like a cock’s tail.

3.     It is a corruption if the name given to mixed drink fed to fighting cocks in the eighteenth century, known as “cock – ale”.

(These can be safely torpedoed, we think, on the grounds that the term would have been in use since the relevant period each tale respectively refers to where as the earliest recorded usage of the word only appears in the first decade of the nineteenth century.)

4.     It arise at American race meetings in the early 1800s as a drink with which one toasted the chances of racehorses with tails like those of cockerels, or that were cocked up (i.e. stuck up in the air). There is indeed a distinguished subset of cocktails associated with Derby Days and horse races generally in the Southern States, the most pre - eminent of which is the whisky based Mint Julep, but nothing prevents this theory from being tenuous in the extreme. Why would all mixed drinks come to be known as cocktails? Why, even, would one name the drink after the fashion of the horse’s tail specifically, as opposed to the more general milieu of the horse race?

5.     It have some connection with the recipe for a Bordeaux – based French wine cup called “Coquetel” , imported by French officers serving George Washington’s army during America’s revolutionary period.

6.     The name dates from an incident on a Mississippi river steamer sometime in the nineteenth century when a bored passenger asked for drink to be mixed up for him that contained a little of everything available in the bar. It was served in a large, bulbous stirrers were added to it they resembled the bird’s tail feathers and the drink was name a “cocktail”.

 There are more – mostly considerably more far – fetched than those summarised here. Whatever the story may be, the name cocktail became popular in the America bars during 1914 – 1918 and reached its zenith. The origin of the cocktail is claimed by England, Mexico, America and France. There are many stories but no one knows the authenticity of any. However, it was in the United State that cocktails first gained major popularity.

At this stage, the cocktail was as much a pre-mixed stimulant mixture for taking on sporting occasions as it was a bar drink. Universal interest in cocktails comes in the 1920s when prohibition in the USA changed every ones’ drinking habits. The term cocktail is now recognised to mean all mixed drinks. A cocktail is normally a short drink of up to about 10 cl. (3.5 – 4 oz) anything longer being called a “mixed drink” or “long drink”.

Cocktail is an intoxicating beverage: compound of different spirits, which mixed with bitter and essence, produce an outstanding drink. Cocktail may be short and strong or long and weak. It may be dry or sugary sweet or fizzy or frothy and could come in all colours of the rainbow.

Mixed cocktail is task for bartender or qualified barmen but the waiter/ess’ should know ingredients of the more popular cocktails to help orders. Bartender is a showman, the bar is stage, and he has the power to captivate his audience.

In last era, cocktails were drunk at all times of the day, but especially before dinner not so much as appetite honing aperitifs, but as the marker that announced the end of the afternoon and the beginning of the evening. To this day in the USA, you will find quite often find yourself being invited to take a “cocktail” with companions at six o’ clock or soon after. What is being offered is not something with at least four ingredients that has to be whooshed up in shaker, but a simple mixed drink – a whisky sour or gin and tonic, says – that fulfils the function of separating off the business part of the day from its recreational coda.

A cocktail consist of two or more ingredients shaken, blended or stirred. While mixing cocktails two basic rules should be observed.

i. A clear drink i.e. those not containing fruit juices, cream, or milk be stirred with ice. Eg. Martinis, Manhattans

ii. Those drinks containing fruit juice and creams etc must be shake by hand or with an electric blender to acquire a perfect blend. Eg. Brandy Alexander

Cocktails as a rule can be stirred, mixed, blended or shaken.  

3.2. Parts of a Cocktail

A cocktail consists of the following parts:

Base: major ingredient in a cocktail (usually the alcohol), use one base spirit only

 Modifier & Minor: complementary ingredients that modifies or gives flavour, use two liqueurs and two substitutes (fruits juice, cream etc).

 Garnish: as ingredient that adds visual appeal to the drinks and give hint of the flavour [eg. Lemon or orange slice, olive, cherries, cinnamon, salt, pepper, etc and there are some plastic cocktail pickers in different shapes available, which add to the decoration.]

 Glass: the glass has to complement the drink

 3.3. Making Cocktails

Bar tendering (making cocktail) is an art, is a science and way of life. A true cocktail is made by one of two methods: shaking or stirring. The art of making a good cocktail is to blend all the ingredients together by shaking or stirring so that upon tasting no one ingredient is predominant.

A rule to determine whether a cocktail should be shaken or stirred is that if it contains a fruit juice as one or the ingredient then it should be shaken, whilst if the ingredients are wine based and clear then it should be stirred.

 Method:

• Building: Pouring the ingredients directly in the glass (which usually contain ice) in which it is served like a highball, tall drinks or summer drinks.

• Shaking: Pouring the ingredients into a shaker with ice, shaking and pouring into the correct glass through strainer. 

• Stirring: Pouring the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stirring with bar spoon and pour into a correct glass through strainer. (Usually done for cocktails with 2 or alcoholic beverage) 

• Blending: Pouring the ingredients into a blending jug, blend until smooth, then pour into correct glass. 

• Mudding: Mashing or grinding ingredients into a puree in the bottom of glass, using muddler. 

• Layering: Pouring the ingredients into a glass (without ice), across the end of a bar spoon, with the aim of making each layer float on top of the previous one.

• Mixing: This is fast shaking using an electronic whisk; this will not dilute the drink but will chill the mixture very quickly.

The equipment required when making a cocktail depends on the method being used.

Shaken

- cocktail shaker or Boston shaker with Hawthorne strainer

- Blender (for mixes)

Stirred

- bar mixing glass

- bar spoon

- strainer

 3.4. Basic Bar Terms

On the Rock:  poured over ice

Dash: a tiny amount (approx 0.25 tsp)

Float:  a small amount of an ingredient carefully layered on the top of a drink.

Neat: served unmixed without ice.

Straight up: a mixed drink served without ice.

Naked: building a drink with chilled ingredients directly from the chillers into a chilled glass.

Spiral:  a long strand of fruit peel.

Twist: a shorter version of a spiral (approx 3.5 cm.)

Zest: an oval shaped piece of fruit peel with the pith removed.

 

3.5. Point / Process to note in making cocktail

• Ice should be clear and clean
• Do not overfill the cocktail shaker
• Effervescent type drinks should never be shaken
• To avoid spillage, do not fill glasses to brim (top edge)
• When egg white or yolk is an ingredient, first break the egg into separate container
• Serve cocktails in chilled glasses
• To shake use short and snappy actions
• Always place ice in the shaker or mixing glass first, fallow by non alcoholic and then alcoholic beverages
• To stir, stir briskly until blend is cold
• As a general rule the mixing glass is used for those cocktails based on liqueurs or wines (clear liquid)
• The shaker is used for cocktails which might include fruit juices, cream, sugar and similar ingredients.
• When egg white or yolk is an ingredients then the Boston shaker always be used.
• Always add the garnish after the cocktail had been made; add it to the glass.
• Always measure out ingredients; in accurate amounts spill (flow over the edge of a container) the balance of the blend and taste
• Never use the same ice twice
• Always clean shaker and other equipment after use for next use.

 Service of cocktails

Cocktail should be always served well chilled in an appropriate sized glass with correct garnish, straw umbrella according to the policy of the establishment. Many cocktails are served in the traditional Y-shaped cocktail glass but, if to be consumed as a long drink, then a larger glass such as a Slim Jim may be better suited. The key consideration here should be the total presentation of the cocktail as seen visually by the customers.