Bibulo.us - We plead the 21st.

Support the spectrum when you host

We fans of the classic cocktail love our strong, spirit-driven drinks, but not everyone enjoys the taste of alcohol and many people don't or don't want to drink as much of it or any at all.

A good host - whether at home or in a professional setting - should be able to provide the same pleasant experience of the perfect beverage for a guest anywhere along the spectrum from "straight up, no chaser" to teetotaler.

Jeff Hollinger wrote about this beautifully in his book The Art of the Bar in the short sidebar on serving kids at events (starting on page 60).

I could have gotten away with offering the little guy a Coke or even the old standby, a Shirley Temple, but I knew he wouldn't have been anywhere near as excited as he was with his special drink. He saw me take time to balance out the ingredients, and watched as I capped a straw to taste it before passing it across the bar. He knew the drink met with my approval. I wanted him to see that I took this creation seriously. It's a helpful attitude to have when you are trying to come up with fun, alcohol-free drinks. Why should kids, designated drivers, pregnant women, and anyone else who isn't drinking for one reason or another resign themselves to water, soda, and juice as their only beverage option?

Look back at your Jerry Thomas and Harry Johnson bartenders' guides of the 19th century and remind yourself how much coverage there is of the drinking world beyond the booze. Start making yourself something special in contexts where you're thirsty and an alcohol-centric drink isn't appropriate. Build your repertoire and explore new ingredients. What juices go well with which garnishes? Sweet or spicy is easy, but what to make for that Manhattan and Martini loving friend when he's taking a break from the booze? Try building up from your mixers, garnishes and other non-alcoholic ingredients as well as working down from spiritous cocktails to create temperate versions.

You'll find there are good resources out there for non-alcoholic drinks - the best cocktail manuals always include a section on them - and helpful new books from a cocktailian's perspective such as Natalie Bovis-Nelsen's Preggatinis: Mixology for the Mom-to-Be. Just as when you first began learning cocktail standbys, teach yourself a half-dozen non-alcoholic or "virgin" drinks covering a spectrum of tastes and available ingredients which you can use to make your guests feel well cared for, regardless of their alcohol intake.

Next, push yourself to a higher skill level by filling in the middle ground with a half-dozen shims - remember the shim? - which you learn by heart, and bring these low-alcohol cocktails into play whenever a little less kick is appropriate: between rounds on a long evening, as the first round while the appetizers have only just begun to circulate and people have empty stomachs, as the designated driver's one drink before switching to non-alcoholic choices, on a second social evening in a row when the first turned into a bender, or just to keep yourself level any time extra balance is needed.

Mix it up for everyone!

Soft Drinks for Hard Times

This Mixology Monday (number 36!) the theme is these tough economic times and what changes in our drinking habits they may necessitate. Host Matthew Rowley offers some excellent tips on drinking through your back bar without spending money on new bottles, which can afford months of pleasure to those who've had this cocktail nerd habit for a while. The great tips have begun to roll in with more to come, we know.

We're taking a broader economic view for this one and looking at costs beyond our own cash outlay.

Of the two of us, though She enjoys a glass of sparkling water from time to time, He is positively passionate about the stuff and used to slay a large bottle of San Pellegrino during dinner not infrequently. Then one day we found ourselves looking at the latest report on San Francisco tap water quality - excellent - and then at one of those big green heavy bottles on the table. We'd been having someone make a glass bottle somewhere, get that bottle to Lombardy in Italy, fill it with mineral water from a spring there, produce some packaging to protect it, then ship it 6000 miles so we could use a car to bring it to our house from the store because it's heavy. It's our era's version of rich Romans eating lark's tongue pie.

We gave up the sparkling water.

If we owned our home we could have a penny-wise and oh so convenient carbonation system installed in our kitchen but we're renters and so we let the memory of those sparkly days fade until this month when a friend's recommendation led us to a lovely compromise: a small carbonation device called a SodaStream.

It takes tap water and turns it delightfully fizzy without all that guilt about our environmental footprint.

Frankly, it's also a big improvement on cost. The basic setup cost us $120 for the small countertop "fountain jet" device (which is really just a plastic holder for the little carbonation tank & the spigot to which you connect the bottle of water to be fizzed), 4 of the especially tough 1 liter bottles it uses, and 3 carbonators (which each should provide enough oomph to fill 60 bottles). This set also came with samples of their flavor syrups. You can exchange the carbonators for fresh ones by mail (or, from what we've read, at Williams-Sonoma or some other stores). This replacement appears to cost about $25-30, making the cost per liter after the initial kit cost is absorbed about 21-25 cents. Not bad!

For those seeking a fancier look, they also offer an upscale version called the Penguin which uses glass bottles.

So, the SodaStream is a perfectly good tip for any non-cocktail geek; nice, but where does the mixie angle come in? Aha, lean in and think about this.

You've got a constant supply of sparkling water, the foundation of all sodas. All you need is soda syrup. Well, what is that? It's simple syrup that's had flavor added. Well, hells bells, we know how to make simple syrup, of course. (Right, Darcy?) So where might we go for flavoring ideas?

1862 Prof. Christian Schultz's A Manual for the Manufacture of Cordials, Liquors, Fancy Syrups, &c. &c. which sounds ever so familiar because it's in the back of Jerry Thomas' How To Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion. Take a look starting at pages 197 and 220 using Google Book Search.

Practical notes on syrups from the Jerry Thomas era are provided by David Wondrich on pages 283-283 of Imbibe!, his most excellent and highly recommended book.

More tips - and recipes for ginger, balsamic, lavender honey, and caramel syrups - are provided by the sweet geniuses of Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in their book The Art of the Bar on pages 118-119, which we also recommend enthusiastically.

Now if you'll excuse us, we've got to pursue some entrancing memories of an amazing Italian soda the Bourbon & Branch lads used to whip up using their tarragon syrup...

Negroni

Crisp, bittersweet, refreshing. Remarkably, also a simple recipe and therefore possible to walk most any bartender through making this apertif.

1 part gin
1 part sweet vermouth
1 part Campari

It's just that simple, but sometimes it takes a firm hand to keep them on track with those equal proportions.

The bibulo.us authors particularly recommend Martin Millers gin and Carpano Antica Formula vermouth for this libation, particularly if you can get Bradley Avey of Bix in San Francisco to mix it.

Recipes:

According to the Negroni's Wikipedia entry, though it is said to have been invented around 1919, the Negroni does not appear in English cocktail books until 1947, but it neglects to mention which book(s) it then shows up in.

According to Paul Harrington in his 1998 book Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century, the name Negroni was given in the 1950s by the Campari company to what had previously been referred to as the Camparinete cocktail and which consisted of

1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Harrington advocates for an orange slice garnish rather than a lemon twist, to offset the bitterness of the Campari.

David Wondrich's 2002 Esquire Drinks generally agrees with Harrington's assessment, but takes the interesting variant of calling for half-again as much gin (1.5 oz) and an orange peel garnish. Dale DeGroff's The Craft of the Cocktail, from the same year, agrees with Harrington but flames the orange.

In 2006's The Art of the Bar by Hollinger & Schwartz, the recipe is quite changed:

1.5 oz Junipero gin
.75 oz Campari
.75 oz sweet vermouth, preferably Punt e Mes
Flame a wide orange zest and then float it on top

The Manhattan

The Manhattan is one of the archetypal classic cocktails and it is here we begin the bibulo.us journey.

It is basically some whiskey, usually less sweet vermouth, plus a dash of some kind of bitters. Traditionally it is made with rye, the spiciness of which plays nicely with the flavors of the vermouth. It originated in New York, probably in the 1870s, but beyond that there is disagreement over its precise origin.

The personal experience of the bibulo.us authors is to recommend Carpano Antica Formula as the vermouth most suited to the drink.

Recipes:

1884 How To Mix Drinks - Bar Keeper's Handbook [by George Winter?] (cited by Wondrich 2007)

2 or 3 dashes of Peruvian Bitters
1 to 2 dashes (.5 tsp) of gum syrup
One-half wine glass (1.5 oz) of whiskey
One-half wine glass (1.5 oz) of vermouth
(no garnish mentioned)

1892 The Flowing Bowl by William "The Only William" Schmidt (cited by Wondrich 2007)

Half a tumblerful of cracked ice
2 dashes (.5 tsp) of gum
2 dashes of bitters
1 dash of absinthe
2/3 drink (2 oz) of whiskey
1/3 drink (1 oz) of vino vermouth
(a little (1/4 tsp) marschino may be added)

1895 Modern American Drinks by George J. Kappeler

Fill mixing glass half-full fine ice
2 dashes gum syrup
2 dashes Peyschaud [sic] or Angostura bitters
1 half jigger Italian vermouth
1 half jigger whiskey
Mix, strain into cocktail glass
Garnish with piece of lemon peel or a cherry

Dry version: without syrup or cherry.
Extra dry version: dry version with French vermouth instead of Italian

1907 The World's Drinks and How To Mix Them by William "Cocktail" Boothby

2 dashes of orange bitters
2 drops of Angostura bitters
1/2 jiggerful of Italian vermouth
1/2 jiggerful of bourbon whiskey
Stir, strain and twist & squeeze a lemon peel over the top.

A variant with a faint touch of Curacao apparently was all the rage among the science community in the early 20th century:

1910 The Scientific American Cyclopedia of Formulas Partly Based Upon the 28th Ed. of Scientific American Cyclopedia of Receipts, Notes and Queries by Albert Allis Hopkins

Vermouth wineglassful
whisky wineglassful
simple syrup 30 drops
Angostura bitters 10 drops
Curacoa 6 drops
a little shaved ice
lemon peel 1 small strip

Put all the ingredients except the lemon rind into a large tumbler
cover the top closely shake well and strain into a wineglass
Place the strip of lemon peel on the top and serve.

1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock

2 dashes curacao or maraschino
1 pony rye whisky
1 wineglass vermouth (mixed)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 small lumps of ice
Shake, strain, garnish with one quarter slice of lemon.

or

1 dash Angostura bitters
2/3 Canadian Club whisky
1/3 Ballor Italian vermouth
Shake, strain, garnish with cherry.

or

Sweet version: equal parts Italian vermouth and rye whisky, no garnish.
Dry version: half rye whisky, 1/4 each French & Italian vermouth.

1933 The American Bar Guide by R.C. Miller (2nd edition)

1/2 wine glass whiskey
1/2 wine glass vermouth
2 dashes bitters
3 dashes gum syrup
Strain in cocktail glass.

1935 The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book by Albert Stevens Crockett

Dash of orange bitters
One-half Italian vermouth
One-half rye whiskey (stir)
Serve with maraschino cherry

or

2 dashes orange bitters
2 pinches sugar
One-half Italian vermouth
One-half Irish whiskey

1946 The Stork Club Bar Book by Lucius Beebe

2/3 oz rye whisky
1/3 oz Italian vermouth
Decorate with maraschino cherry, stir, and serve.

1998 Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century by Paul Harrington

2 oz rye
1/2 oz sweet vermouth
1 to 2 dashes Angostura bitters (optional)
Stir, strain, garnish with maraschino cherry.

2002 Esquire Drinks by David Wondrich

Stir well with cracked ice
2 oz good rye
1 oz Italian vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters or orange bitters
Strain into chilled cocktail glass and garnish with [lemon] twist or maraschino cherry.

2006 The Art of the Bar by Jeff Hollinger & Rob Schwartz

"Uptown" Manhattan
2 oz bourbon (preferably Maker's Mark)
1 oz Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
Dash of Angostura bitters
Dash of orange bitters
3 brandied cherries for garnish
Orange twist for garnish

Robert Hess' The Cocktail Spirit video demonstration

Steve & Paul's Cocktail Buzz episode pairing the drink with bacon-wrapped dates

Chris Doig's Brilliant Cocktails video demonstration

Other useful references:

History & recipe variants in Imbibe! by David Wondrich, pages 236-243

Wikipedia entry

Wikitender entry