1936 Shaking in the 60's by Eddie Clarke

Thus we must approve of nature's whim,and appraise her for giving us a little grey matter with which to seek out these mysterious blendings which will bring forth this nectar of gods for inner warmth. Firstly, it will be well to heed that this noble art of blending calls for considerable skill. It is truly heathen to take bottles at random just because they have nice looking labels, which could give us a conglomeration of ingredients fit only for a witches' cauldron. The essential secret of the cocktail's make-up is the harmony of the blend in which no ingredient is pre dominant, so that it leaves the drinker pondering on its hidden mystery and looking forward to another. Returning to the outside warmth giving fire, our searchings find that we can adopt the same formula for internal combustion. Whereas to start a fire, there is a base of paper,then a layer ofwood tosubdue the burst of flame which will then in turn ignite the coal, we find that the perfect cocktail uses the same combination ofingredients. It too has(a)a base(b)a subduing and stepping-up medium and (c) the character component or flavouring agent. The base is therefore the ingredient which gives the first burst offire,so it must be the most potent,and this calls for a strong spirit which should be at least 50% of the volume ofthe drink. Here again, a word of warning—use a single spirit. You cannot hope to makea palatable drink by mixing two different types of spirits, such as rum and whisky or gin and brandy together. Another point to bear in mind is that the spirit hmits the ehoice ofthe other ingredients. For instance, whilst gin will blend with most things as it is fairly tasteless,one will probably find difficulty with rum or whisky as a base, when trying to get other agents to mix happily with them.

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