Bytes of Food: The Wonder of Cocktails

Cocktails are amazing.

Beer is great, but once you have tried most of the beers available in the stores and local breweries, and maybe even brewed some of your own, what are you supposed to do? Beer is made in such large batches that the variety of beers just can't be that high.

Wines are lovely, but they're so unpredictable. Even if you only buy wines made from one or two varietals, there can be a lot of surprises. Pinot Noir for example, could have a huge variety of flavors and textures (is it thin and watery, or a bit thicker?) and I still can't quite figure out how to know what to expect before opening a bottle. This is quite unsatisfying if you're into having control!

Cocktails, on the other hand, put you in the driver's seat. With a modest investment in liquors and liqueurs, you can get mixing and make a wondrous assortment of beverages. Best of all, you can always make something new and interesting, and you get to be creative too! On the practical side, even cocktails that have expensive ingredients don't cost more than $3 each at home, compared with $10 to $15 at high-end cocktail bars.

Emily and I have been having a love affair with cocktails over the past few years. These are a couple of recipes that we enjoyed this week. The first recipe came from The PDT Cocktail Book and is pretty simple:

212
2 ounces tequila (I like anejo tequila the best)
1 ounce Aperol liqueur
2 ounces freshly-squeezed grapefruit juice
Shake ingredients over ice and serve with an ice cube and an orange slice.

I've been liking tequila a lot lately, and this drink was fantastic! If you haven't tried a good aged (anejo) tequila, you should definitely give it a shot. We have this one right now and I think it is great.

The second cocktail recipe uses orgeat, which is essentially sweetened almond milk with orange and almond flavoring. There are lots of complicated recipes for orgeat that begin with whole almonds. However, after making our own almond milk a few times, we decided that it was a waste of time and money. Commercial almond milks are good and they are cheap. I found a very recipe orgeat recipe that started with commerical almond milk, and it turned out great.

As far as I know, this drink is my own invention, but someone has probably already made this somewhere, right? Either way, here is the recipe:

Tropical Almond Foamer
2.5 ounces pineapple-infused rum (recipe below)
1 ounce pink grapefruit juice
0.5 ounces orgeat (recipe here)
1 coupe or other small glass, rim coated in cinnamon and sugar
Shake ingredients over ice until chilled and frothy.

The foamy texture of this drink was a pleasant surprise. Lots of cocktails have a texture like this, but they get it from adding raw eggs (yolks, whites, or whole eggs). Apparently commercial almond milk contains a few different thickeners that stabilize the frothy texture. This drink tastes tropical and a bit fall-like, thanks to the cinnamon sugar rim.

Pineapple-infused rum
large jar (we use canning jars in 1 and 2-quart sizes)
1 pineapple, peeled and sliced into pieces
mild rum (we used Bacardi silver, which is inexpensive and not very flavorful)
Put pineapple pieces into jar. Add rum until the jar is full. Store in a refrigerator or basement for a few weeks.
NOTE - if you are allergic to pineapple like I am, you should make this. Pineapple contains protease enzymes which destroy the proteins in some people's mouths (like mine) and cause them discomfort after eating pineapple. After soaking in the rum for a while, the protease enzymes in the pineapple pieces are destroyed and you can eat the pineapple freely! But, take it easy, because the pineapple is now alcoholic and will actually get you a little tipsy if you get carried away with it...