Cocktails Flashcards
What are Ancestrals in cocktail families?
First cocktails composed of a spirit, sugar, bitters, and water (typically ice)
Examples include the Sazerac and Old Fashioned. They serve as the foundation for other cocktails.
Name traditional examples of Spirit-Forward Cocktails.
- Manhattan
- Martini
- Negroni
- Bijou
These cocktails have an ancestral base and include vermouth.
What distinguishes Spirit-Forward Cocktails with Juice?
Incorporate a non-sour juice without a sugar syrup to balance it
An example is the Blood and Sand; orange juice is a common addition.
What is the key balance in Sours cocktails?
Balance of lemon and/or lime juice with a sugar syrup
Examples include Daiquiri and Margarita.
What constitutes a Duo in cocktail families?
Combines a spirit and liqueur
Examples include the Godfather and Rusty Nail.
What is a Trio in cocktail families?
A duo with the addition of milk, cream, or a cream liqueur
Examples include the Alexander or White Russian.
What types of cocktails fall under Sparkling Wine Cocktails?
- Bellini
- Champagne Cocktail
- Old Cuban
- French 75
These cocktails include a sparkling wine.
Name examples of Highballs, Fizzes, and the Collins.
- Presbyterian
- Dark and Stormy
- Harvey Walbanger
- Long Island Ice Tea
This category includes a wide range of cocktails.
What ingredients are commonly found in Juleps and Smashes?
Mint, spirit, and sugar with a large amount of ice
Citrus is often prohibited in this category.
Which drinks are categorized as Hot Drinks?
- Hot Toddy
- Tom and Jerry
- Irish Coffee
These are popular straightforward hot cocktails.
What is a Flip in cocktail families?
Contains a whole egg
The Tom and Jerry could be considered a hot nog.
What distinguishes Tropical Cocktails?
Home for everything tiki, whiskey, pineapple, and grenadine mixtures
Examples include the Algonquin and the Singapore Sling.
What does Pousse-Café refer to?
Any layered cocktail
Translates to “coffee pusher” and was consumed after coffee.
What defines a Cobbler cocktail?
A base spirit or fortified wine with sugar served in a glass packed with crushed ice
The Absinthe Frappé is a well-known example.
What cocktails are included in the Bloody(s) category?
- Bloody Mary
- Bull Shot
This category includes all variations of the Bloody Mary.
Give examples of Beer- and Cider-Based Cocktails.
- Black Velvet
- Cold Duck
- Shandy
These cocktails incorporate beer or cider.
What types of cocktails are classified as Wine-Based Cocktails?
- Sangria
- Bamboo
- Adonis
Based on table or fortified wines.
What characterizes Milk-Based Cocktails?
Drinks that don’t contain a spirit
An example is the Grasshopper.
Ancestral
Americano
History: The first Americano was served at Caffè Camparino in the 1860s under the name Milano-Torino, to identify the origins of the Campari and sweet vermouth. Gaspare Campari’s creation was later renamed the Americano for Primo Carnera, the Italian boxer who was the first non-American to win the US heavyweight boxing championship.
Ingredients:
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce sweet vermouth
soda water
- Preparation: Serve over ice.
- Presentation: Glassware depends on amount of soda water; garnish with orange slice.
History: The first Americano was served at Caffè Camparino in the 1860s under the name Milano-Torino, to identify the origins of the Campari and sweet vermouth. Gaspare Campari’s creation was later renamed the Americano for Primo Carnera, the Italian boxer who was the first non-American to win the US heavyweight boxing championship
Ancestral
Brandy Crusta
History: Invented in the 1850s by Joseph Santini, in New Orleans, and first published in Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide (1862), the drink nearly vanished from the United States for a century, but it was popular in Australia through the 20th century. The Brandy Crusta was rescued from obscurity in the 2000s by American cocktail historians.
Ingredients:
2 ounces brandy
1 teaspoon curaço
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon maraschino
½ teaspoon rich simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Preparation: Shake all ingredients with ice and strain.
Presentation: Nick and Nora glass with a sugar rim, garnished with a lemon twist
Ancestral
Pink Gin
Ingredients:
2 oz. Plymouth Gin
3-4 dashes Angostura bitters
Preparation: Stir with ice and strain.
Presentation: Cocktail Coupe, Lemon Twist (Optional)
Ancestral
Sazerac
Preparation and Variations: The recipe and the preparation above is taken from what is considered to be the first recorded recipe of the Sazerac. There is no published recipe that uses cognac, only old text.
This recipe calls for the addition of water when muddling the sugar cube. Today, many bartenders like to add the bitters instead. The original recipe calls for 2 dashes of bitters, and today many bartenders like to use more. The chilling of the glass, and the absinthe rinse has never changed. And the lemon peel is sometimes used as a garnish rather than being stirred with the ingredients and discarded.
Your guest may only know the Sazerac as a Rye Whiskey cocktail. If you choose to offer different versions, be sure to ask your guest for their preference in a way that doesn’t alienate them for not knowing the variations.
Ingredients:
2 oz. Sazerac Rye Whiskey
5 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Splash of Absinthe
Half of a Sugar Cube
Preparation:
Chill the low ball glass with ice water.
Muddle the sugar cube and a splash of water in a mixing glass
Pour the icewater out of the lowball glass and add absinthe to rinse the glass. The residual water in the glass should cause the absinthe to loosh, and therefore become more aromatic. Add whiskey, bitters and the lemon peel to the mixing glass with the muddled sugar and bitters and stir with ice to chill.
Strain into the absinthe rinsed lowball glass.
Presentation: Lowball Glass
History: In 1850, Sewell Taylor sold his Merchant Exchange Coffee House to Aaron Bird so that he could begin an import business. One of Taylor’s imported products was Sazerac de Forge et Fils Cognac. Bird purchased bitters from Antopin Peychaud’s apothecary, and Cognac from Taylor and served the Sazerac in his newly re-named Sazerac Coffee House. The Sazerac cocktail is known as the very first branded cocktail.
According to Arthur Stanley’s Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘em (1997), the Sazerac Coffee House changed hands many times. In 1870, Thomas Handy purchased the Sazerac Coffee House and changed the recipe to include whiskey. The growing phylloxera epidemic was driving up Cognac prices, and the main reason why Handy switched his Sazerac recipe to use whiskey. The Cognac-Rye blend version lasted only a short while before the cocktail became one of Rye Whiskey and Absinthe.
Before Handy died in 1889, he recorded his recipe and it appears in Boothby’s The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them(1908).This is the recipe that we have included above.
1912 brought the US Absinthe ban, and it was replaced by anise flavored liqueurs. Herbsaint-which translates to worm wood-was a Pastis marketed as being made according to an old French recipe first produced in 1934, and became the favorite Absinthe replacement.
The Sazerac’s riff on the original whiskey or cognac cocktail of spirit, sugar, water and bitters is known to be the first cause for patrons uninterested in something new to order a drink the “Old Fashioned Way”.
Ancestral
Old Fashioned
Ingredients:
* 2 oz. Spirit(Typically American Whiskey)
* 2 Dashes of Bitters
* 1 Sugar Cube
Preparation: Add enough water to the sugar cube to dissolve with muddling. Add bitters and Spirits, stir with ice, and strain over fresh ice.
Presentation: Thick Bottomed Old Fashioned Glass