1954 Practical Bar Management by Eddie Clarke

PRACTICAL BAR MANAGEMENT

The Three Components of a Cocktail Have you ever considered the similarity between a cocktail and a coal fire ? Probably the only difference is the manner of beating —the fire warms from the outside, while the cocktaii is a glowing element to the inner man. Even so, the build-up is the same, for to start a fire there is a base of paper, then a layer of wood to subdue the burst of flame and step it up to ignite the coal. The cocktail adopts the same formula, thereby becoming a perfect combination of ingredients. It, tou, has(i) A base,(2) A sub duing and stepping-up medium,(3) The character component and flavouring agent. We will take each ofthe three factors separately: 1. The base This must be a spirit and a single one at that, one could never expect to make a palatable drink when mixing two entirely different spirits such as rum and whisky together. The base should be 50 per cent, of the volume of the drink, and its exact nature will depend upon the choice of the other ingredients. 2. The subduing medium This can be a variety of things, but again not too much of a mixture,for its purpose in the drinlc is to tone down the strong liquor base and aet as a step-up to the flavouring agent. Therefore this smoothing down agent must not be too highly flavoured itself, but will be agreeably dominated by the final ingredient. The most popular subduing mediums are fruit juices, aperitif wines, milk, cream, or eggs, but the choice will depend on what the base was, and what the third and final ingredient is to be. It is worth noting that fruit juices will blend with most spirit bases, but vermouths are sometimes not quite so good, although these in turn will be better mixers with the aromatic type of liqueurs than the fruit juices. 3. The character component and flavouring agent This should be one of the many liqueurs, although it is permissible to use two liqueurs if so desired, providing that they are similar in taste, but one must avoid mixing aromatic ones with the crhnes ox the fruit- flavoured types. Such liqueurs as Grand Marnier and Orange Curagao are a good blend together, or if something a little more exotic is required then try Maraschino and Creme de Noyaux, but do not, for example, try to marry Cr^me de Menthe up with Cherry Brandy, it would be like pouring mint sauce over straw berries and cream. The more highly flavoured the liqueur, the more sparingly should it be used,in fact, it should be administered 72