Thus, another post on bar tools. Again, www.barproducts.com is the place to go for cheap, good, tools, despite how horrifically annoying their website is.
Admittedly, there are a few more bar tools than those I'll discuss here, but as I've noticed my lack of them I can't honestly recommend them. Also, you should note that I'm omitting things like a cutting board and a paring knife (and a blender for frozen drinks!), although they're no less essential.
Muddler
This is the device needed for the Caipirinha mentioned above, not to mention Chambar's Kentucky Caipirinha, whose recipe I'm fortunate enough to have. Muddling is also critical to the original method of making a Mojito, so the muddler is not a tool to do without.Basically any blunt wooden implement with a handle and at least a 1" diameter base will do, so if you're too lazy to track down a made-to-purpose one you can always just saw the end off a (thick) wooden spoon.
Bar Spoon
A venerable old cocktailing device, the bar spoon serves as a stirrer, measuring spoon (1 bar spoon is roughly 1/2 a teaspoon), stirrer, and garnish retriever (perfect for extracting maraschino cherries or cocktail olives from the jar). You can even get them with a little fork on the other end (as the one pictured here) to help with the garnishes.Citrus Stripper
Sometime tricky to find under this name (barproducts.com has it as 'lemon lime peeler'), the citrus stripper is the only way to create lemon, lime, or orange twists. Basically, you cut a thin strip out of the peel (avoid blemishes), run it around the rim of a drink (assuming the drink in question doesn't have a sugared rim), twist it over the glass (so the oils on the inner surface of the peel spray over the top of the drink), and drop it in. Ice Bucket and Tongs
I'll spare you the picture, as I'm sure you can imagine what an ice bucket looks like. While decidedly the most optional of the tools I've described here, it is definitely nice to have. The tongs will keep guests (and you) from having to reach into an ice bag, and the bucket, if kept in the freezer, will greatly increase your non-store-bought ice capacity. In fact, the ice bucket is the only way I manage to not run out of ice when my wife and I have more than one guest over (and sometimes not even then...).
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Caipirinha
As far as I know, the Caipirinha is the only (good) way to drink the Brazilian sugarcane rum, cachaça (pronounced 'kashasa,' or something like that). It's also an exceptionally good way to get drunk very, very quickly. I have a friend (now sadly returned to Spain) who still doesn't let me forget the night I poured her two of these in a row after she'd been drinking for a while....
Combine in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass:
Half a lime, quartered (more if it's a small lime)
2 bar spoons superfine sugar
Muddle (That is, mash up the limes and sugar until all the juice has come out of the limes and dissolved the sugar)
Add ice, then:
2 oz. cachaça
Stir
Kentucky Caipirinha
I'm pretty sure that the only reason I was able to get this recipe is that my wife wrote a review of Chambar in their early days, in which she aptly described this drink as being "like Britney Spears in a Tenessee Williams play." The analogy is particularly good, since 'caipirinha' literally means something like 'country bumpkin.' At any rate, I don't feel bad publishing this recipe, since it's no longer on Chambar's superlative cocktail menu. Besides, the recipe they gave me left out some critical details, so I had to fiddle to get the proportions right anyway.
Combine in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass:
1 lemon, cut into eighths (is 'eighthed' a word?)
2 dashes vanilla extract
Muddle
Add ice, then:
3 oz. kentucky bourbon (use a single-barrel or small-batch bourbon)
Stir
Mojito
I'll admit it, the mojito has never been my favorite drink. But seeing as so many seem to go bonkers for it, I'm adding it for completeness, as it's another of those few excellent drinks that requires muddling.
Combine in the bottom of a highball glass:
1 oz lime juice
2 bar spoons superfine sugar
6-8 fresh mint leaves
Muddle
Add ice, then:
2 oz. light rum
3-4 oz. club soda
Optional garnish:
1 mint sprig
I'll spare you the picture, as I'm sure you can imagine what an ice bucket looks like. While decidedly the most optional of the tools I've described here, it is definitely nice to have. The tongs will keep guests (and you) from having to reach into an ice bag, and the bucket, if kept in the freezer, will greatly increase your non-store-bought ice capacity. In fact, the ice bucket is the only way I manage to not run out of ice when my wife and I have more than one guest over (and sometimes not even then...).
__________________________________________________________
Caipirinha
As far as I know, the Caipirinha is the only (good) way to drink the Brazilian sugarcane rum, cachaça (pronounced 'kashasa,' or something like that). It's also an exceptionally good way to get drunk very, very quickly. I have a friend (now sadly returned to Spain) who still doesn't let me forget the night I poured her two of these in a row after she'd been drinking for a while....
Combine in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass:
Half a lime, quartered (more if it's a small lime)
2 bar spoons superfine sugar
Muddle (That is, mash up the limes and sugar until all the juice has come out of the limes and dissolved the sugar)
Add ice, then:
2 oz. cachaça
Stir
Kentucky Caipirinha
I'm pretty sure that the only reason I was able to get this recipe is that my wife wrote a review of Chambar in their early days, in which she aptly described this drink as being "like Britney Spears in a Tenessee Williams play." The analogy is particularly good, since 'caipirinha' literally means something like 'country bumpkin.' At any rate, I don't feel bad publishing this recipe, since it's no longer on Chambar's superlative cocktail menu. Besides, the recipe they gave me left out some critical details, so I had to fiddle to get the proportions right anyway.
Combine in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass:
1 lemon, cut into eighths (is 'eighthed' a word?)
2 dashes vanilla extract
Muddle
Add ice, then:
3 oz. kentucky bourbon (use a single-barrel or small-batch bourbon)
Stir
Mojito
I'll admit it, the mojito has never been my favorite drink. But seeing as so many seem to go bonkers for it, I'm adding it for completeness, as it's another of those few excellent drinks that requires muddling.
Combine in the bottom of a highball glass:
1 oz lime juice
2 bar spoons superfine sugar
6-8 fresh mint leaves
Muddle
Add ice, then:
2 oz. light rum
3-4 oz. club soda
Optional garnish:
1 mint sprig
3 comments:
I have to agree in spirit with your attachment to Caipirinhas. However, I have to mention a recipe for a shooter using cachaça that was stumbled upon due to an unflinching desire to use a mechanical juicer. I appologise in advance that this is not a cocktail - however I would advocate this shooter followed by a non-alcoholic drink is someone wants a refreshing pause from festivities.
The ingredients were freshly made carrot-ginger juice (without pulp) and the previously mentioned cachaça, combined half-and-half in a jigger shot-glass. The juice should be made to taste, without being too strong on the ginger. The proportions used were a bunch of fresh baby carrots blended with a bulb of ginger about the size of two fingers. The result was a fresh and light tasting palate cleanser, with hints of sweetness from the sugarcane rum, spice from the ginger and ... carrotty goodness.
I'm sure that after knocking back a few of these my eyebrows grew bushier and my life was extended by seconds, if not minutes.
Thanks! I'll have to try that the next time I've got carrots and ginger lying around, and a hankering to pulverize them....
Oh what fun!
For those of you who, like me, don't read spanish, Babel Fish offers the following translation:
"Court a lemon in four small pieces. Place then two Sugar spoons in a great glass and mezclelo with the juice of two pieces of lemon. It adds 3 spoons of Cachaça Gabriela now and places remaining pieces of lemon both. Finally it adds to the perforated ice and revuelva well."
However, if you go to the website that Vesoloski so generously provided, the English version of the site will offer the recipe in French (and several other languages that are not English). Babel Fish offers the following translation:
"To cut lemon in two or four pieces. To put 2 spoons (tea) sugar in glass and to tighten together the pieces of lemon with a rammer. Then, to add 3 spoons (tea) of Cachaça (brandy of cane with sugar) Gabriela in glass and to stir up it to mix. To add the ice and to still stir up. Here!"
Interestingly, the picture on the site is decidedly of *limes,* not lemons.... So as near as I can tell this recipe is basically the same as the one I posted?
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