A NEW APPROACH TO DRINKING

I promised that if we could drink more intelligently we could enjoy it more and do less harm to ourselves and to others. I say this because nearly everyone drinks only one mixed drink, or cocktail. It’s  something that they like and does what it’s  supposed to – temporarily relieve pain while uplifting spirits.

Problem is there is no one drink that is appropriate to every occasion. So, we end up drinking more than we need or even want to overcome the failure of our drink to solve the problem. Oddly, this means we need more drinks. Not at any one time, mind you. Just more in our repertoire. Ok, so I have to learn a bunch more recipes, eh? Actually no, you don’t.

There are only 3 ingredients in every mixed drink. (If you’re only drinking shots, and not drinks, then there probably is no hope for you.) These three are:

  1. A major spirit, like gin or whiskey
  2. A minor spirit, generally a vermouth or liqueur
  3. A Non-alcoholic element, generally a juice or water.

Here’s fact one of our breakthrough approach: almost without exception, any bottle within any one oof these categories can be substituted for any other. That means any fruit liqueur, like triple sec, can be subbed out for some other fruit liqueur, like elderflower. Or vodka can be subbed out for white rum. Or lemon juice for lime juice. For example, a Margarita is tequila and lime juice, principally. OK, a Daiquiri is white rum and lime juice. A Gimlet is gin and lime juice. So whichever white spirit you have on hand  with work easily with lime, or lemon juice. Now you know 3-4-5 drinks when you thought you only knew one.

Same thing with brown spirits. A Manhattan is bourbon/rye and red vermouth. A Rob Roy is the same thing with scotch instead with the red vermouth. There is also an Irish whiskey version. So, whatever you have on hand for your favorite drink, play around with trading components out and see how it works. Or go to your favorite bar and ask the bartender if you can half two half drinks, one with spirit A and one with spirit B. Or liqueur A and B. Or juice A and B. This last one is  easiest with a Lemon Drop and a Lime Drop…. Do two at one time, like a Gimlet, gin and lime, and a Lemon Drop, vodka and lemon.

This gets us half way to our ultimate drinking thesis of drinking smarter. It is also more economical as you’ll soon see. Don’t go away for too long.

THE ULTIMATE LEAP OF FAITH

Now comes the scary part. The ultimate trade off. It’s one thing to trade out lemon juice for lime juice, or even elderflower liqueur for triple sec. Or, and we’re getting closer, gin for tequila or bourbon for rye. Ready?..... let’s trade out any white spirit for a brown spirit. Let’s make any drink we want with Whiskey!

Sacrilege? Possibly for many, yes. But. Let’s  first look at the characteristics of white spirits and whiskey. They are all the same… some processing of  some source that has sugary starch that can convert to alcohol during fermentation. However, there is one huge difference that  drives the wedge between the two in the minds of most drinkers – and therefore puts certain drinks in one camp and other drinks in the other camp. Barrel aging. Whiskies are barrel aged. Aging makes a difference. You’ll soon notice that this is less threatening to our switching whiskies into our white drinks. Except in one instance. Bourbon.

Bourbon is the only spirit aged in NEW OAK BARRELS that have been CHARRED BY FIRE. All other whiskies are aged in used barrels that haven’t been newly charred. I probably don’t need to tell you that New Oak and Fire Char have are flavor influencing.

After Bourbon, all the other whiskies are more like white spirits. And within their various categories interchangeable. Quickly:

Scotch: Scotch whisky was originally made only from malted barley, but since the eighteenth century, producers have also used malted wheat and malted rye. Scotch matures in oak casks that have been use before for wine or other spirits. Its principal flavor, the peaty smoke  comes from the barley mash being dried over peat, a kind of sod. However, more recently distillers have turned to drying over electric beds and so that peaty smoke element is removed. Ther are two types of Scotch: single malt and blended.

Irish: This type of whiskey is created from, at least 50% of malted barley, being the remaining percentage of cereals filled up with regular barley, rye or wheat. In order for this spirit to be called Irish Whiskey it must also have a 40% ABV minimum and be aged for, at least, 3 years. Irish whiskies have to be distilled three times before going to the barrels for aging. There are four main varieties of Irish Whiskey available on the marketplace: single malt, Pot still, grain, and blended (or a combination).

Canadian: Regulations state that Canadian whisky must "be mashed, distilled and aged in Canada", "be aged in small wood vessels for not less than three years", "contain not less than 40 per cent alcohol by volume" and "may contain caramel and flavoring". While it is generally thought to be a rye whiskey, corn is also and has always been use.

Bourbon: The simple difference between bourbon and whiskey is that bourbon is a type of whiskey that’s made from at least 51% corn and aged in new charred oak barrels, while whiskey can be made from any grain and aged in any type of wood barrel.

American Rye: same guidelines as bourbon, except it must be at least 51% rye grain based and these may also contain coloring and flavorings.

As you can see, these are nearly legally identical. The grain source can vary, which makes corn based spirits sweeter than rye based ones, and some can have caramel added for coloring. But it is the New Oak and Fire Charred that is different. S, if you have thought that Bourbon was whiskey, then you have missed out on the core of my thesis. All distilled spirits are very similar to each other, except Bourbon. That makes what we are about to do much easier.     

WHISKEY TERMS & PRICE DRIVERS

Small batch whiskey is whiskey produced by mixing the contents of a relatively small number of selected barrels. Small batch whiskeys are commercially positioned for the upper-premium market. The term is most commonly used for American whiskey

Single barrel whiskey (or single cask whiskey) is a premium class of whiskey in which each bottle comes from an individual aging barrel, instead of coming from blending together the contents of various barrels to provide uniformity of color and taste

Straight whiskey (or straight whisky), as defined in United States law, is whiskey that is distilled from a fermented (malted or unmalted) cereal grain mash to a concentration not exceeding 80% alcohol by volume (abv) and aged in new charred oak barrels for at least two years at a concentration not exceeding 62.5% at the start of the aging process

Malt whisky is whisky made from a fermented mash consisting of malted barley. If the product is made exclusively at a single distillery (along with other restrictions), it is typically called a single malt whisky.

What all this means isn’t really too much – except  they all drive the pride of whiskey up. And my second mantra is: Every drink you make should be as good as possible – and as cheap as possible. All distilled spirits should roughly cost the same. What makes whiskey a bit different is the aging. It costs money to not sell whiskey for several years. I get that. But it costs the same to make a bottle of whiskey that comes out of one barrel as does to make a bottle of whiskey that comes out of two barrels. If it’s the same whiskey.

Now the upside of drinking mixed drinks instead of any spirit straight is you can use less expensive versions of a given spirit because the flavor of the end drink is a mix of several ingredients. No one really matters if the added expense only brings some nuance of flavor. But without question, try as many as you can afford or have access to – bars are inexpensive ways to practice tasting. But at end of day the mixed drink flavor is in the combo. Let’s look at how this tastes.  

BROWN FOR WHITE

Well, let’s get this show on the road! Again, the premise is simple: If you drink smarter, you will be drinking safer. And there are two facets to this.  

One, as I’ve been suggesting up to this point, substitution. Within each drink component, the players are virtually the same, generally speaking. Therefore, we should be able to substitute any one of the component members for another. It’s easy to see subbing tequila in and gin out and getting a Margarita instead of a Gimlet. I’m going further – we’re going to be subbing whiskey in and any white spirit out. But there is another helper to drinking smarter.

Two, knowing difference between a Recipe and a Formula.  A Recipe lists what ingredients go into making up a  particular mixed drink. A Formula tells us how much of each ingredient is generally thought to be necessary to make the particular drink. Our first facet of smart drinking, substitution, plays with the Recipe. And we are about to test an example. Then we’ll move to altering the amounts, i.e., playing with the Formula. You might be familiar with the drinks ahead.

A Negroni and a Boulevardier are essential the same drink. Save one ingredient. Take a look at the Recipes:

                  Negroni                                                                     Boulevardier

                  Gin                                                                               Whiskey

                  Campari                                                                      Campari

                  Red Vermouth                                                            Red Vermouth

Both drinks claim to precede the other, but after 100 years, who’s counting. Furthermore, the classic formulas are essentially identical – equal amounts of each ingredient. And for our purposes, the Boulevardier was originally made with Bourbon by its inventor in France. Which also feeds into our sub-thesis, that all whiskey is similar, but Bourbon is least similar because of the charred new oak used. Could there be a better case for white spirit out, brown spirit in?!

 

So, jump in and make one of each using whatever gin, whiskey and red vermouth you have on hand. If you have more than one of any of these 3 ingredients, make a drink using each. And where the fun begins, if you have more than one brand of the two non-Campari ingredients, make one of each combination.

You’re not done yet. Pick one of the combinations you thought was less exciting than one of the others. Which ingredient seemed off? Now remake that drink and either add or subtract a small portion of that ingredient. Notice the difference? You are on the verge of knowing everything there is to know about making mixed drinks. And drinking smarter.

 

Note: when making drinks use millimeter measure.  So much easier to add and subtract – and remember ratios. In the drinks here, start with 30ml of each ingredient…. Then add or subtract in 5ml increments.

 

WHITE RUM DRINKS TO SWITCH

Below find 4 mixed drinks that have been around in their white form for a while. I have suggested a Whiskey to  replace the white rum. I have added the Formula for each as it was originally set as a white spirit drink. Feel free to adjust. I recommend you make the white and the whiskey alternative at the same time, for effect.

TANGO

30ml White rum > RYE

30ml Red/white vermouth

30ml Benedictine

30ml Orange juice

 

SUNSHINE

45ml White rum > IRISH WHISKEY

45ml White vermouth

30ml Lime juice

10ml Crème de cassis

 

SIR DRAKE

50ml   Cachaca > BLENDED SCOTCH

  5ea   Fresh mint leaves

10ml   Crème de menthe

25nl    Demerara  syrup

25ml   Lime juice

 

WALKING WITH THE SPIRIT

40ml   White rum/rhum  > AMERICAN WHISKEY

20ml   Red vermouth

10ml   Triple sec

  5ml   Grenadine

GIN DRINKS TO SWITCH

The following mixed drinks are classics based in Gin. Try them and you will probably find one or two that  will remain favorites of yours. As before make the recommended Whiskey version.  The continued hope is to identify drinks you like - flavor profile just fits your mood - but not have to give it up as the temperature drops below 100 degrees and the sun doesn't seem to ever get above the horizon. (You may have guessed I am in Seattle..... except for the 100 degrees part)

MARTINEZ

45ml  Gin  > IRISH WHISKEY

25ml  Red vermouth

10ml  Maraschino liqueur

           Orange bitters

 

MONKEY GLAND

45ml  Gin > BLENDED SCOTCH

  5ml  Grenadine

45ml  Orange juice

  5ml  Absinthe

 

BRONX

60ml  Gin > BOURBON

25ml  Dry white Vermouth

25ml  Red vermouth

20ml  Orange juice

 

SINGAPORE SLING

30ml   Gin  > RYE

50ml   Cherry brandy  

15ml   Benedictine

20ml   Lime juice

30ml   Pineapple juice

Dsh     Grenadine