The Fine Art of the Cocktail Party, Pt. 2

Ok, looking back over my last post it's clear I left out some crucial details.

You can vastly improve your in-party drink-delivery system by preparing citrus juices and garnishes ahead of time. I'm a stickler for fresh citrus juices (see Mixology 101) but squeezing them fresh for each drink is impossible unless you've only got half a dozen people over, and even that can be a lot of work. So before my parties I squeeze quite a few lemons and limes, and a few oranges. Exactly how many will of course depend on the number of guests and how many of your drinks are citrus based. Juice a lot though--at my last party there was a minor disaster when I ran out of lime juice, and I intend to purchase an electic citrus juicer before my next party to save on arm strength. It's surprisingly easy to go through 15 limes in one evening, if you have enough guests....

Also, prepare garnishes ahead of time (though preferably not more than about 30 minutes before guests start arriving--they don't last forever). I use plastic cups for juices and garnishes, and arrange them in my 'bar area' (kitchen counter) along with the liquors I'll be using for most of the drinks. And be sure not to skimp on the garnishes for too many of your drinks--they often make the difference between a good drink and a truly impressive one.

Probably the most important thing is to make sure you have enough ice. Ice is the cheapest and most crucial element of any cocktail party. You simply can't make drinks without it. For everyday usage I have two ice trays and a full ice bucket in the fridge, so I don't run out if I have a few people over on short notice, and for my parties I supplement this with two bags of store-bought ice.

Finally, make sure you have appropriate glassware available. For my parties I try to make sure I have at least 4 highballs, 4 lowballs, 8 martini glasses, and miscellaneous other glasses to use as a stop-gap if needed. You'll have to keep a constant glass-retrieval and washing (or, more realistically, rinsing) system going, but it's really the only solution for a large number of guests unless you're going to rent or purchase a bunch of glasses. While some people seem happy to drink from plastic cups, this will only ever work for drinks intended for a highball or lowball. Martini glasses are shaped the way they are for a reason (make yourself two gin martini's and drink one out of a plastic cup and the other out of a martini glass if you don't believe me), and serving a drink in glass will keep it cold for longer, which is crucial for most cocktails that aren't served over ice.

The Fine Art of the Cocktail Party

With the third installment of our highly acclaimed Manhattan cocktail party series behind me, I thought it was high time to write about how to host a succesful cocktail party.

Properly done, the cocktail party is a very different kind of gatheration than the traditional house party. Probably the most noticeable difference is that the BYOB tradition simply doesn't work. The reason for this is twofold: first, it is not reasonable to expect your guests to know how to make a decent cocktail, and second, it's a rare (and dare I say typically uninteresting) cocktail that can be made with a single liquor and a single mixer, which is about the maximum you can expect a guest to bring.

So, the first rule of the cocktail party is to provide the liquor yourself. The second rule is a direct consequence of something mentioned above; namely, that it is unreasonable to expect your guests to know how to make a good cocktail. The answer? Make them yourself.

Now, for a good size party (the ones we have here tend to peak at around 30-35 simultaneous guests), this mean a lot of work for the host, though there are things you can do to minimize it (see below). So hosting a cocktail party is not for the faint of heart. But believe me, if you enjoy making drinks, enjoy praise (and if you can follow some of the recipes posted here, or have other favorites that your friends and loved ones rave about, there will be praise...), and enjoy seeing your friends having a great time at your party, then it's well worth it.

The third rule for a cocktail party is to make sure there's plenty of snacks available. Fortunately for me, my wife handles this end of things brilliantly. Fillet mignon canapes, bruschetta, and stuffed mushrooms are amongst her more highly acclaimed additions to the party fare. For those (like me!) who balk at that kind of food preparation, a simple cheese plate with crackers and/or a veggie spread with dip will work wonders. But the basic idea here is to make sure nobody gets too trashed on those great drinks you're making, especially later in the evening.

So, you've decided to host a cocktail party. Now what?

The first thing you'll need to do is decide which drinks you want to serve. It's important to realize that the more drinks you offer up, the more time you'll be spending preparing them. This is definately an area in which I can improve, as I tend to offer up about 20 different drinks, and spend nearly all of my parties working the shaker. If I could bring myself to restrict the offerings to 5 or 6 drinks, I'm sure I could limit the time I spend 'at the bar,' but I haven't managed to curtail it because I'm in love with so many different cocktails.

However many drinks you choose to offer your guests, you'll want to make sure there's a nice balance to suit everyone's palate. Make sure there's a fair representation of strong, sweet, and sour drinks, as well as some lighter drinks (i.e. at least 50% juice or soda). I'd highly recommend having a Collins available for this purpose (my favorites are the Vlad Collins or John Collins I've already mentioned--you can also substitute blended Scotch for the bourbon in the John Collins to make a Sandy Collins). I also think the Espresso Martini is a great addition to any cocktail party, as it gives your guests a great pick-me-up option without having to resort to a Vodka and Red Bull, or something similarly nasty.

Finally, you can add a nice, impressive, touch to your cocktail party by printing up a few menus. Nobody will expect it, it's got a huge "wow" factor, and it saves you from having to explain to each and every guest what drinks are available. Just type something up with interesting fonts (best not to use more than two fonts, though) and send it off to a nearby printshop to be printed on some kind of card stock (something thick). Here's an example of the menu I used at my last party (I folded it lengthwise down the middle, and had 'Cocktails' printed on the front):

__________________________________________________________

Espresso Martini

Although it only uses a half ounce of espresso, this is a great drink when you need that little extra boost to get you into party-mode.

Stir the following in a mixing glass with ice, and pour into a cocktail glass:
1 1/2 oz. Vodka
1/2 oz. espresso
1/2 oz. Kahlúa
1/2 oz. crème de cacao

Optional:
Garnish with 3 espresso beans

The Perfect Martini

I had damn near forgotten how amazingly good a martini can be. But I just had a Perfect Martini, so I remembered. I thought I'd share.

__________________________________________________________

Perfect Martini

Of course, as with any standard martini recipe, you can subsitute vodka for gin and stirring for shaking (forget what Bond, Jame Bond has to say about it--a gin martini should be stirred), but I much prefer gin martinis.

Combine in a mixing glass filled with ice:
2 oz. gin
1/4 oz. sweet vermouth
1/4 oz. dry vermouth

Stir

Pour over a cocktail glass garnished with a cocktail olive (or, if you're like me, 3 cocktail olives).

Tools of the Trade: Part 2, The Home Bar

Sitting here, sipping Brazil's greatest contribution to the world of cocktails, the Caipirinha, it occurred to me that it might be useful for some of you to know what you need to make one. Really, this is a drink you simply must try, and good luck getting in a bar (unless you happen to be in or around Brazil, I would assume).

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...).

__________________________________________________________

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

Infuse This!

I just did something that many people would find odd.

I took a half dozen ripe pears, cut blemishes off the skin, cored them, cut them into eighths, and put them into a large, sealable, glass jar. I then added two split (lengthwise) vanilla beans, and poured 1.5 L of nigori sake into the jar. Then I put the jar in the fridge.

Of course, this won't seem odd if you recognize this process as infusion.

Tommorow night, I'll take the jar out of the fridge, discard the fruit and vanilla beans, and filter the liquid through a sieve at least 3 or 4 times (to remove flecks of vanilla and excess pear pulp). The result? Pear and vanilla infused sake, which is an absolutely delicious infusion of my devising, inspired by Chambar's cocktail, Tin-Tin and the Easter Pear (sadly, no longer on their menu--but replaced by another excellent sake drink featuring cinnamon and passionfruit nectar).

Infusing spirits is a suprisingly easy--and fun--way to flavor your drinks (to say nothing of impressive). While I hadn't expected it, the two most popular drinks at my last party, the French Pearl and the Bloody Susan, were both cocktails I'd created based on my infusion experiments last summer (one is the sake infusion described above, the other is Strawberry and cherry infused brandy). Our dear friend Kate even treated me to the exclamation, "Oh my god, this is the best drink I've ever had!" when she tried one (I can't remember which); followed by, half an hour later, "I take it back! This is the best drink I've ever had!" when she tried the other.

So, what do you need to know about infusions, if you had an hankering to try one?

First, the usual spirit to infuse is, naturally, vodka. It serves as a veritable blank canvas upon which any flavor you desire may be painted. I have, myself, refrained from vodka infusions (though I will start soon) because I've enjoyed trying to complement the natural flavors of other spirits. But if you really just want the flavor of whatever it is you're infusing with, go with vodka.
Next, you'll need a sterilized (or, at least, thoroughly rinsed with boiled water) glass jar of some kind. This needs to be at least 1 L (just shy of 34 oz; so you can fit a bottle of liquor plus the infusion ingredients), and have an airtight lid. Ideally, it would have a rubber ring (to make it airtight) on a glass or metal lid--paper on the lid may dissolve somewhat (and 'shed' into the drink) and direct contact with a metal lid will flavor the infusion adversely.

Make sure your fruits, spices, teas, or whatever you're infusing with are fresh, and free of blemishes. Anything bitter or bad-tasting (such as a bruise or the white pith of a citrus fruit) will transfer its flavor to the alcohol, so you're best to avoid it.

Cut up or otherwise manipulate your ingredients to maximize their surface area, so they transfer more of their flavor to the spirit. Dropping a whole apple into a litre of vodka isn't going to do you much good.

Combine all the ingredients in the jar, and store your infusion in a cool, dark place. I use the fridge.

As for how long to infuse for, that depends on both your tastes, and what you're infusing. Most liquors (anything 40 proof or more) should be infused for anywhere from several days to two weeks. Two weeks is about the maximum, but you should taste your infusion-in-progress from time to time, and feel free to be done with it as soon as you're happy with how it tastes. With liquor infusions you don't really need to worry about the fruit (or whatever) going bad, as the alcohol will preserve it. If you're infusing sake (or anything under about 40 proof), you don't want to let it go much over two days, as the ingredients will start to ferment. Again, the final judge of how long to let it go is how it tastes at any given time, so don't be afraid to try it out.

Finally, you'll want to filter the final result. Fruit and other ingredients will leave some residue that you don't actually want to drink, so use a sieve, or something similar, to filter it (generally back into the bottle the liquor for your infusion came in). I use a funnel and mesh filter intended for decanting wine (you can get them at, for example, Zabar's for under $10).

In my humble opinion (as if you couldn't guess from the rest of this blog), your infusion will be best enjoyed in a cocktail of some kind. So unless you're adding a new flavor to an already beloved cocktail (or straight liquor!), go ahead and try out your new infusion with other ingredients to make something truly original. I promise there are lots of amazing drinks out there that have never been tried... (but do look for an upcoming post on the vagaries of experimental mixology...).

__________________________________________________________


Pear and Vanilla Infused Sake

1 bottle (750 mL) nigori (unfiltered) sake
3 pears, cut into eighths
1 vanilla been, split lengthwise
Infuse for approximately 30 hours


Strawberry and Cherry Infused Brandy

1 bottle (750 mL) Brandy
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup cherries, quartered and pitted (if cherries are out of season, you can substite another cup of strawberries)
2 cracked whole nutmegs
Infuse for 5-6 days

__________________________________________________________


French Pearl

A delightfully smooth cocktail, with subtle flavors of pear, vanilla, and blackcurrant.

Shake the following over ice, and serve in a cocktail glass
3 oz. vanilla and pear infused sake
1/2 oz. creme de cassis


Bloody Susan

The first question anyone asks when I tell about this drink is, "who's Susan?" Although not named after anyone in particular, this cocktail bears a considerable resemblance to sangria--though it packs a bit more punch.

Shake the following over ice, and serve in a cocktail glass:
1 1/2 oz. strawberry and cherry infused brandy
1/4 oz. lime juice
1/4 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. grenadine
3/4 oz. red wine (I use a cheap shiraz)

Optional garnish:
1 or 2 cherries in syrup

On Vodka: Addendum

I asked my friend Amanda, a long-time lover of vodka (and of Russian descent, no less), what her favorite vodkas were when she commented on my On Vodka post. Here's her response:

"There's sort of a different vodka for every season and reason. In winter I prefer the stronger, warming vodkas, even chili vodkas at times while summer lends itself well to subtle or fruity vodkas. With a strong mix over ice it is texture and tempurature that matter, cheap vodkas from the deep freeze versus the regular freezer. Currently Iceberg or Banff Ice for sipping, Luskovska for gentle drinks and Muskovskaya for harder moments. The best most bars tend to have is Stolichnaya, which is nice in a vodka-7. Smirnoff and Absolut are vodkas of last resort, I'll drink them only if the liquor store is already closed [note: where Amanda lives (Vancouver, Canada), liquor stores close at 11pm, making it impossible to legally obtain alcohol outside of a bar or restaurant].

Currently at hand a recipe of my own device:
Hard Amaretto Sours
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. amaretto
1 oz. lemonade

I've been using a Luskovska for this recently, the colder the better. Poured over ice and stir. I tend to use a strong vodka for this or it gets a little dangerous - with a Chopin or Iceberg its just like a really tasty lemonade. "

For the Love of Bourbon

Admittedly, I'm a latecomer to loving bourbon. For the longest time the only whiskey I didn't turn my nose up at was single malt scotch. But once I tried it, I fell in love.

To be fair, though, I don't typically drink bourbon (or, indeed, most liquor) neat, although I make an exception for Bulleit Bourbon. I was given a bottle as a gift recently, and quickly discovered that it can compete with any scotch in its price range. For mixing drinks, I generally use Knob Creek or Maker's Mark, rather than going with something cheaper like Jim Beam. Indeed, bourbon is probably the liquor I spend the most on...though I suspect that has something to do with how much of it my wife drinks.

My two favorite ways to drink bourbon are in a Bourbon à la Crème or a Churchill Downs Cooler (see Mixology 101). The former when I'm in the mood for a poignant cocktail, the latter when I want something refreshing and carbonated. Along similar lines as the Churchill Downs Cooler is the slightly more labour intensive John Collins, which allows the flavor of the bourbon to come through more. And I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that easily the most popular drink at my last cocktail party--excepting, of course, two of my own cocktails based on my own homemade infusions (you'll have to stay tuned for those recipes...)--was the Bourban Crusta.

__________________________________________________________

Bourbon à la Crème

This is one cocktail that definately requires the use of a premium liquor--the taste of the bourbon comes through in its entirety, sweetened with overtones of chocolate and a vanilla perfume.

Shake the following over ice, and pour into a cocktail glass:
2 oz. Bourbon
1 oz. crème de cacao
1-2 dashes vanilla extract (careful, too much will ruin the drink)


John Collins

A refreshing classic of the Collins line, I would warn against leaving out more than one of the garnishes.

Shake the following over ice:
2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup

Prepare a Collins or highball glass by half filling it with ice, and adding the following garnishes:
1 maraschino cherry
1 lemon slice
1 orange slice

Pour the shaken ingredients into the glass, and top with:
5-6 oz. club soda

Stir


Bourbon Crusta

Don't be fooled by the sugared rim--this drink is not sweet. The lemon and Cointreau provide a perfect vehicle for the premium bourbon of your choice, while the sugar rim keeps it all from being too sour. Apparently there's a recipe that uses maraschino liqueur in place of the Cointreau, but I don't like it nearly as much.

Coat the bottom of a bowl or other dish with superfine sugar. Rub a lemon wedge around the rim of a sour glass or goblet (NOT a cocktail glass), and rub the rim of the glass in the sugar. Shake off any excess sugar on the rim of the glass.

Shake the following over ice, and pour into the prepared glass:
2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. Cointreau
1/2 oz. lemon juice

Optional:
Garnish with a lemon twist