Egg Cocktails

At present, eggs aren’t part of standard bar service, but by the time I finish this book they could be. After leaving tales of the cocktail, I feel that it’s a good time to get people hyped on drinking chickens.

I was introduced to egg whites in cocktails by reading the gentleman’s companion. Unfortunately, I worked in college and did not spring break in peru and chile. Though I have found that schwhag swilling spring breakers have brought this classic cocktail back to north America. If I can thank date raping backwards cap wearing frat boys for anything, it would be that. But you know who else I’ll thank? Old people, old people remember when drinkers trusted bartenders, to well, make go drinks. Still, egg whites are complicated to get people to drink as well as to just mix with. That being said, the biggest obstacle, bigger than any technique, is getting over fear. The fear has a name, Mr Salmonela J. Vomits and Pukes.

You are going to die. It’s important to understand that to be a healthy normal person. You are going to die, but its not going to be from drinking egg whites. Here are the facts on salmonela, you just aren’t going to get it from eggs, the odds are way off, I’ll take all bets. One in twenty thousand eggs contain the so feared bacteria, making the odd of your exposure extremely low, once per every 42 years of egg consuming. Furthermore, just because an egg contains this bacteria doesn’t mean that it will be contracted. And if you are really worried, ask the health department, they will likely tell you that bean sprouts and green peppers are the biggest culprits. Most bacteria that would be on an egg is indeed on the shell, a simple dunk in hot water or spritz with vodka kills most things. And furthermore, 8% alcohol kills salmonella, if you make a drink with that little booze you can just fuck right off. And on top of that a ph of less than 5 kills salmonella, I understand almost all fruit fits into that category.

To address freshness, American eggs are packed with 2 dates, the Jullian date (numbers I through 365 showing which day food was processed) and the sell by date. The sell by date is 48 days from the pack date, for the freshest date go for eggs that are less than 28 days old. For the freshest eggs, get a chicken. Don’t get a rooster, roosters are for baristas or soccer moms or anyone else who likes to get up at the crack of dawn. For me, I could get a rooster once a week and kill it every week for annoying me. Visit a farm: learn to hate roosters.

To address “grossness,” first off, I triple dog dare you to read the ingredients on any of your favorite foods. If you’ve read the “Jungle” or “Fast Food Nation,” you’ll know what I mean. But wait, whats that? You shop at whole foods and only use all natural products? Well, people are slipping you eggwhites everyday like lies about the tooth fairy to children. Maranges, custard, crème brulee, eggs benedict, gomme syrup sour mix, these all have un cooked egg bits, and with the exception of the last one, are all delicious.

But the real point here isn’t food safety or poultry slamming (that’s ira glass’ job),the point is the drinking. I’ve always said that eggs adds a texture and a mouth feel that carry flavours throughout the mouth very well. Then I saw a woman suck the prairie oyster cocktail off a dude’s stomach and I realized that she was more accurate when called egg cocktails “sexy.” Hot and sexy or traditional and lost arts (all?) egg cocktails are amazing and need to be experienced. Many recipes you’ll find for egg whites are from the moldy old tomes with bizarre measurements. Dave Wondrich points out in the book Imbibe! that eggs like modern people are bigger than they used to be. But frequently so are drinks. Most modern drinks are going to be twice the size of their fore fathers. Being that a useful egg white is flavourless all you really need to be cautious of is not using so much that it dilutes other flavours.

The drink recipes you’ll encounter in the old tomes will fall into categories, mostly noted in the name of the drink, such was the style at the time. If you ask me, I’ll rant a while and say that cocktails are intimidating because “the family” isn’t in the title anymore. That being said, you’ll find sours,: a spirit that has a sweetener, lemon and or lime and an egg white, shaken, strained and up. Yes, a whiskey sour, an ameretto sour and a pisco sour are all supposed to have egg whites. You’ll read about flips: a whole egg, shaken and stained. Perhaps you remember egg nog, with cream. Or heard of a fizz: when you have a white and add carbonation. The Ramos Gin Fizz being the most popular, like drinking a cloud, you haven’t made it right unless you almost pass out after shaking it as hard as you can. I understand platoons of young me were hired to shake them in the past, up to 12 guys, one minute each per drink. And if you’re from the british isles perhaps a possett: egg yolks, (insert booze of choice) cream and spices super heated with a red hot cherry poker. People still drink them at Scottish weddings but they were very popular 400 years ago.

But these days, you’ll be doing mostly flips and sours. There is veritably an egg revolution in cocktail bars, each bar having there own technique. Rather than list them all (which I can’t) I’ll offer the 3 techniques that I’ve found the most useful.
1 and 2: The dry shake. If you shake a drink with normal ice from a freezer or regular ice machine, you’ll find that you can melt half of its volume in a couple minutes. Meaning: yes, you shake a drink hard, but the longer you do it, the greater the potential to serve watery booze and that’s no way to win friends. The dry shake I’ve best seen executed two ways, measuring all ingredients and placing the spring from a hawthorne strainer in the shaker, shake vigorously then add ice, shake quickly and done. Easier is to get a frother, a battery powered dirnk mixer that will blend the eggs in the glass, then add ice and shake. Sadly, I have done the “john Henry challenge” with the frother and, I have lost. But, its cooler to do it by hand.

3. On a molecular level, alcohol and acid (fruit or vinegar) break an egg down and sugar emulsifies it. So, when time is not an issue, add the egg to the booze and acid, shake or froth, this will break down the egg’s molecular structure. Then add sugar and mix again, this puts it all back together in a tidy fluffy cloud of joy. The new mixture is less likely to separate.

Oh, and 3.5: When cleaning up after egg drinks, use cold water. Hot water will “scramble” the eggs right on the glass.

Some cocktails for you
Ramos Gin Fizz- Henry C Ramos 1888
1.5 gin
1 lemon juice
.5 simple syrup
1 egg white
1 dash orange flower water
shake and strain into a Collins glass and top with soda

White Lady – (a sour) – Harry MacElhone 1919
1.5 gin
.5 lemon
.5 cointreau
I egg white
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass
Lord of Carlisle’s Sack-Posset-Sir Kenelm Digby 1671

(verbatim)
Take a pottle of Cream, and boil in it a little whole Cinnamon, and three or four flakes of Mace. To this proportion of Cream put in eighteen yolks of eggs, and eight of the whites; a pint of Sack; beat your eggs very well, and then mingle them with your Sack. Put in three quarters of a pound of Sugar into the Wine and Eggs, with a Nutmeg grated, and a little beaten Cinnamon; set the Bason on the fire with the Wine and Eggs, and let it be hot. Then put in the Cream boiling from the fire, pour it on high, but stir it not; cover it with a dish, and when it is settlede, strew on the top a little fine Sugar mingled with three grains of Ambergreece, and one grain of Musk, and serve it up.

The wine guide for the baby cakes novice

I don’t normally drink Merlot except when I’m drinking Bordeaux, which i do quite frequently. So actually i principally drink Bordeaux accept i never drink Merlot. Men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefor Socrates is mortal. Same thing, read on and i’ll explain. There really, on the most basic level, only three things you need to know about wine:

1. Know how to read the bottle.
The bottle tells you everything you need to know: the year, the appellation, /the grapes or mix thereof, where its from, and the winery/ if they bottle it/if they grow it. On a beginner’s level that’s everything you need.

2. Think about the wine.
There is no term too stupid to describe what YOU taste in wine. It is not unusual to hear wine described like, clay soil, pencil lead, oak leafs, new carpet or latex paint. Taste (unfortunately sometimes) is an opinion and cannot be incorrect. Your job is to express opinions in ways you and the consumer understand.

3. Drink wine.
Eighteen-year-old Andrew to guy in charge of wine department: “Kip, I want to learn more about wine.” Kip: “Good news, the easiest way to do that is to drink wine, more specifically, drink similar wines to find the differences.” It was when I was 18 that I first understood that people get paid, to drink wine, for a living. It’s the best way to learn. Just take notes before you finish the bottle. And here is a hint from me: bring a friend so you can drink more wine.

So there it is, everything you need to know. I’ll tell you a bit more, and I’ll try to organize it in order of importance, but really, you just heard it all.

Appellation vs. region is paramount. There is a small place you may have heard of called Europe. Europeans, crazy though they are, name wines for the regions from which they are produced. Generally, these follow rules based on the grapes that grow best in that region. Por ejemplo, Bordeaux wines are generally merlot based, with an occasional blending grape accounting for fewer than 20% of the wine. In America, we call it merlot, because it made of merlot. When you know wine better, understand the difference between a merlot from Virginia and a merlot from Washington. A couple other standard comparisons would be Grenache to cannanou, to Rhone or syrah to Shiraz, or san giovesse to Chianti.

If you’ve watched a movie or clever sitcom you’ve probably realized that champagne is from champagne, and that’s what makes it champagne. Champagne is sparkling wine, that is to say wine that through its fermentation process is bottled under pressure with co2 in the bottle. Sparkling wine is what the bubbly really is. It’s called Cava in Spain, Prosceco in Italy and goes by different names depending on where it’s from. It’s commonly believed that champagne was accidentally discovered by Dom P, a monk, who quite romantically said when he first drank it, said: “come quick, for I am tasting the stars.” Doesn’t really matter if he uttered that phrase due to its profound structure.

There are a lot of grapes. Thousands. You can’t remember them all, I dare you. But get a book, understand a few and look up the rest. Rose wine is a good example, frequently, it comes from grapes as red as blood, but is fermented with less skin (where pigments, yeast and tannins are) so it end up pink. Your mom
(that’s right I said it) likes white zin because it tastes like candy and its pretty. But I drink Grenache rose, in the summer, with a croque monsieur and hold the glass with my pinky out knowing that albeit gay, its fabulous, season/ food appropriate, and suited for my palate.
Serving wine, well that’s important. It’s more that getting the booze into the glass. Red wine should generally be served at what room temperature was back in the day of the drafty castle 65 ish degrees, and whit white served at a temperature known as cellar temperature, before refrigerators, it was about 50 degrees. There are of course exceptions to this, but that’s the general consensus. To put it a little better, don’t be serving any hot wine, and I’ve met enough tough jersey guys that like red wine on the rocks to say insert Latin phrase here. There is no accounting for taste. Also when serving wine, use clean glasses, present the bottle so people know what the are drinking, pour a 2oz taste for whoever ordered the wine/ came up with the idea, after they approve, pour for everyone and never touch the neck of the bottle to the glass, people put their mouth on that, don’t be grody. There are different traditions for port and sake. But for regular wine, here it is:
Service line item description:
Polish glasses for the people drinking
Present the wine to the person who ordered it, this confirms it’s the right bottle.
Open the wine and present the cork to the person, this is generally meaningless, but its how its done. The cork unlocks little about the quality of the wine, nothing that scent and taste can’t tell you
Pour a taste for the person who order
Ask if it’s ok, but do so more gracefully that saying “s’alright?”
Pour wine for everyone else drinking
Top of the glass of the person who ordered it
Corks vs. Screw-top vs. synthetic cork.
One could go on for an epic length on why which matters how. Again, frankly, to most people it makes no difference. Screw top wine works fine for what people call quaffers, just wine you drink, bargain wine that is of bodega quality. Real corks are costly, cause the bacterial infection in a bottle called “corked” but are best for wines that are laid down to age. Synthetic corks prevent oxygen from entering a bottle better that anything else but don’t work for aging wine. The answer? If a wine costs less than $50 or isn’t going in your cellar, it doesn’t matter.

Phylloxera, was a little mite (root eating louse specifically) son of a bitch that almost caused the wine, and obviously brandy too, apocalypse until it was saved by a metaphor. That’s my interpretation, here is how it really was. White Europeans like Thomas Jefferson tried to make wine out of grapes in North America, but the wine sucked. It sucked because grapes on this continent had thick flavorless roots so resist the mites that constantly gnaw upon them. When American wine sucked, they took the wines back to Europe where the little mite killed over two thirds of Europe’s vineyards. A smartsy fella thought that grafting the roots from American vines on to European vine would fix the problem and he was right, and the day was saved. But in the mean time the world lost a ton of wine and brand (which is made from wine). Almost all vines in the world are grafted save a few remote wines in South America. A bit of trivia on that Jefferson wine, he laid down a bottle himself of 200 year old Virginian wine that sold at auction in the 80’s for $160,000, two weeks later the cork dried out ruining the most expensive bottle of wine ever. The lesson here is: drink wine.
FYI, a professional wine knowing and serving guy is a sommelier (pronounced /sɔməˈlje/ or suh-mal-’yAy), this is a title earned. There is a master sommelier title, there are less than 160 in the world. Next time we’ll talk general wine paring rules and characteristics.

Recipes, its all the same drink

Well, there is more than one, but not many more. Think of it as half and half drinks, 2 thirds to 1 third, equal thirds, equal forth’s and “other.” You’ll find to make drinks “good” or “not all taste the same” you’ll need to tweak these ratios a bit, but start with simple ratios to understand how flavors work together. Shortly there after, you’ll be subbing sugar for St Germain and adding dashes of bitters to everything. For this example I’ll say “sugar” to mean simple syrup or sweetening agent. Follow these examples:

Two Fourths to a couple others

Caiphrinia 2 oz Cachaca 1 oz Lime 1 oz Sugar

Daquiri 2 oz Rum 1 oz Lime 1 oz Sugar

Papa Doble 2 oz Rum 1 oz Grapefruit 1 oz Maraschino

Margarita 2 oz Tequila 1 oz Lime 1 oz Sugar
Bartender’s Magarita 2 oz Tequila 1 oz Lime 1 oz Sugar splash Cran
Cosmo 2 oz Vodka 1 oz Lime 1 oz Sugar splash Cran
Kamakaze 2 oz Vodka 1 oz Lime 1 oz Sugar
Lemondrop 2 oz Vodka 1 oz Lemon 1 oz Sugar
Aviation 2 oz Gin 1 oz Lemon 1 oz Maraschino
Bay Breeze 2 oz Vodka 1 oz Cran 1 oz Pineapple
Madras 2 oz Vodka 1 oz Cran 1 oz Orange
Sea Breeze 2oz Vodka 1 oz Cran 1 oz Grapefruit

Half and Half
Greyhound 2 oz Vodka 2 oz Grapefruit
Salty Dog 2 oz Vodka 2 oz Grapefruit salt rim
Chihuahua 2 oz Tequila 2 oz Grapefruit
Salty Chihuahua 2 oz Tequila 2 oz Grapefruit salt rim
Paloma 2 oz Tequila 2 oz Grapefruit top with soda salt rim

2 Thirds to 1 Third
Manhattan 2 oz Rye 1 oz Sweet Vermouth 2 dashes bitters
Rob Roy 2 oz Scotch 1 oz Sweet Vermouth 2 dashes bitters
God Father 2 oz Scotch 1 oz Amaretto
God Mother 2 oz Vodka 1 oz Amaretto
Vesper 2 oz Gin 1 oz Vodka Splash Lillet

This is just a basic bartender’s short list, its much more important to note that these are really just ideas on how drinks evolve and how changing one ingredient makes a new drink. I would also like this table to show “list of 5,000 new cocktails,” books as utter bullshit. Seattle local hero chef and restaurateur Tom Douglas would sell you his cookbook, but that doesn’t give you the skill to execute on all recipes nor secure the bank loan to open 6 or 7 restaurants. Do buy, these “5,000 new cocktail” books for ideas, and because they are indeed pretty, but mostly they are only for reference and ideas. There are too many variables and too little information in these books. Take the Manhattan, one of the best right? If you answered no, you might consider how odd it is that you have an incorrect opinion.

The Manhattan is a ratio of 60-85% bourbon, rye or whiskey, to 40-15% sweet vermouth to 1-4 dashes of bitters. If that’s not enough of a variable in ratios, consider the rich complexity of rye, to the earthen smoke and maturity of bourbon or the caramel sweetness of a Canadian blend to a dry Irish whiskey. The quantity of vermouth matters but lets not forget, they have more brands than I could list here. When it comes to bitters, everything changes, normally you’d get Angostura, but it’s not unusual to get a different brand of aromatic bitters, orange bitters and sometimes Peychauds. Then there is my fave: a Bookers (126 proof cask strength bourbon) Manhattan with heavy Punt e Mes (very grape-y sweet vermouth) and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters.

To flog a horse be it not already dead: take Pernod, an 80 proof anisette liquor that is an aperitif in not America but commonly used as an absinthe substitute in old timey recipes. Though not dissimilar in flavor, characteristics and ingredients, it is half the proof and is nowhere near the pervasive flavor of absinthe. The use of more Pernod just results in anis like watery mélange. Brands and ingredients matter but what matters more if the end result of the flavor. Unfortunately there is only one way to insure that drinks taste right, or that the recipe needs to be tweaked for the brands being used: taste the drink. The pro way and the sanitary way to do this is to dip a straw into the drink, then put your finger on the top of the straw to taste a sample. Any bartender worth a damn does this all shift long if not to every drink. I use a straw if some one asks me to taste any drink even at a party. Why? Because I have no intentions of getting herpes whilst answering the question, “does this taste funny to you?” I hope you aren’t laughing.

What you should have learned:

Most recipes follow very simple formulas
Change those formulas to achieve the specific desired results

Recipe books are pretty, slick packages of ideas, not rule (including these)
The tasting straw is one of the most useful bar tools
The Manhattan is the best drink

Recipes and drinks by glassware

The basics of cocktail construction are simple like don’t drink and drive, liquor before beer and drunk dialing is always a bad idea. But in that same way the exception to rules are also specific and beautiful, like drinking a light beer while driving a pick up on the farm, the boilermaker (a whiskey and a beer) is one of the finest “cocktails” and drunk dialing, if nothing else, is the real truth. The rules are simple and so are the exceptions, here are the basics.

The instructions will frequently say, “Build drink in,” there are basically three glasses you build a drink in and two ways to do it. Here is that list: The Collins or highball glass, (12oz ish) you know, the tall fluted one you make a Tom Collins in (this is a good place to note that a Tom Collins is made with gin. Vodka wasn’t imported to America until the 40’s. Most drinks that have a vodka base, started with a gin base). An old-fashioned, bucket or rocks glass (10 oz ish), you know the one you’d put an old fashioned in or a liquor on the rocks. And lastly the pint glass or as bartenders call it, the mixing glass (16 oz ish) and its frequently filled with beer. A quick bit of trivia on that “a pint is a pound the world round,” is nearly a nursery rhyme. It is such because though most of the world uses metric, standard is still understood in the beer world.


To address the glasses, the highball glass in used for mojitos, Tom Collins, highballs or gin and tonics, basically anything both fizzy and clear. Lets extract a rule there” if it’s a clear cocktail with soda it goes in a highball glass. Whenever “building” a drink is called for, it’s quite important to fill the vessel to capacity with ice, the tippy top with ice. When a glass is filled to capacity it will allow for about 2 oz of booze and about 3 oz of soda to perfectly fill the glass. This makes the perfect flavor combination for what bartenders call “and drinks” meaning: gin and tonic, vodka and soda or blah and bland. A couple of notable exceptions would be a Mai Tai and a zombie look really cool in a highball glass, though these drinks should really be made in a zombie glass which is a slightly larger flared highball glass, but hold on cowboy, that’s advanced stuff.

And there is the old fashioned glass. When building an “and” drink in a rocks glass, it’s the same rules: to the top with ice, about 2 oz booze to 3 oz mixer. BUT, the old fashioned glass gets drinks on the rocks that you can’t see through, like bourbon and coke, an old fashioned, or the vodka and diet gaining ground in being called a skinny bitch (for reasons, um that could be obvious). The Sex on the Beach is a drink built on the rocks but not really “mixed.” When mixing a drink that will be served on the rocks its very important for appearance and quality to strain the drink onto fresh ice in the rocks glass, that is to say discard the ”wet” ice used to mixed the drinks. A of the few exceptions to this is the caiphrinia (pronounced kai-pri-een-nuh); Brazil’s national cocktail is served with the same ice. But another exception is the “spirit on the rocks,” in which almost any spirit ordered on the rocks will be rendered flavorless if 2 oz is poured over a full rocks glass. In this case the proper form is a half filled glass, or ice on the side with a spoon, this is the best for scotch, whiskey, gin, tequila or any anything worth drinking.



But then there is a “neat” drink, meaning, “Hello, I’d like just booze in a glass.” Neat drinks are served in old-fashioned glasses. The old fashioned glass is pretty much the same as a rocks glass, which used to be the same as a whiskey glass but isn’t now. Follow? No? Explanation: People who love booze (on a professional level, but amateurs can learn here) have begun to buck a couple traditions: the snifter for brandy because it over focuses the nose, and the old fashioned glass for whiskey, which allows too much oxygen to dissolve the nose. This is leading to the trend of creating glasses specifically designed for each spirit, for example the modern whiskey glass will be tulip shaped with either a thick bottom or a short stem and not be cut glass. Cut glass creates a prism effect and distorts the color of the spirit.

And most prolific and most heinous is the mixing glass, Boston glass or the pint glass. When is a garbage bag not a garbage bag? When you throwing clothes in one to move instead of using boxes, then it’s called a “garment bag.” When a 16 oz glass is filled with beer it’s a pint, when it’s used for mixing a martini, it’s a mixing glass. When it’s joined with the metal half Boston shaker, it’s a Boston glass and when its half full of some fluid with a shot glass poised to be dropped in it, it’s a mistake (though sometimes refreshing). The only drinks “built” in a mixing glass are booze tastic drinky drinks that are dangerous and appeal to those looking to loose inhibitions or memories. These are of the ilk of the Long Island Iced Tea and the Black Opal or. The other type would be the bomb drink; it is painful to think that this is a category of a shot glass filled with booze dropped into a half filled pint glass of something. The most notable bombs are the Boiler Maker (when dropped), the Jager Bomb, or the Car Bomb (in modern times, we leave the Irish out of it). When bombs are ordered think of it two ways: woo hoo, these drinks are expensive and make money for the bar or uh-oh, how many of these assholes can drink a shot of whiskey dropped into a beer right now and not vomit?

Rules of Bartending: How to do it right
A glass is called what it’s used for
Fill glasses being “built” to the brim with ice
A highball glass is for clear drinks
A rocks glass is for short drinks, cola drinks, neat or mixed on the rocks drinks
If a spirit is any good, serve the rocks on the side
A mixing glass is for long drinks, pints of beer, bomb drinks and other mistakes

Rules of Customering: How to get what you want
Want a spirit in a glass with no frills? Order a (blank) neat.
Want it on the rocks but not drown in water? Order a (blank), rocks on the side
In a bar where you’ll be called a fagot for doing that? Find another bar, or say just a couple rocks.
When ordering drinks say “I’ll have a (brand) and (mixer)” a decent bartender will have poured you half of a coke if you say “I’ll have a coke and bourbon” before dumping out the glass, and starting over, wishing you had read this first.
The same goes for top shelf mixed drinks. Order a Sauza Hornitos Margarita, not a margarita with Sauza Hornitos.
Lastly, there is the Brian Bosworth clause, Bri, like plenty of manly men, hate cocktail glasses, if you want your Manhattan, or martini in a rocks glass, be sure ask for it strained. Your get your cocktail, crisp clean in a rocks glass.

Recipes: For Highball Glasses
Highball
2 oz of a spirit
Topped with soda
Roundly considered the worst drink, the vodka soda being the king

Tom Collins / Vodka Collins
2 oz Gin/Vodka
1 oz Lemon juice
Splash of simple syrup
Top with soda
Garnish with a cherry

Mai tai (accepted version)
Remember :R.un A.fter P.retty T.all L.oose M.odels, hey, that’s how I was taught.
2 oz Light Rum
1 oz Amaretto
1 oz Pineapple
1 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Lime
Float of Myers or dark rum
Garnish with a lime and a cherry
Please note, this is not the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai, rather its what most people want

Zombie (accepted version)
2 oz Dark rum
2 oz White rum
1 oz Lime juice
1 oz Apricot flavored brandy
1 oz Orange juice
1oz Pineapple juice
1oz Lemon juice
Float of 151
Garnish with Aspirin and large glass of water

Recipes: For Rocks Glasses

Old Fashioned (traditional)
Muddle a wedge of orange, sugar cube, a cherry and 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
2 oz Bourbon
Fill with ice
Top with soda
This is the most common and least crowd-pleasing way to make an old-fashioned

Caiphrinia (traditional)
Muddle a quartered lime in a mixing glass
2 oz Cachaca
1 Tablespoon of sugar
Top with ice
Shake and DUMP contents into a rocks glass

Margarita (traditional)
2 oz Tequila
2 oz Lime
2 oz Simple syrup (the Mexicans tell me they prefer it to triple sec)
Shake and strain into a rocks glass with a salt rim over ice

Sex on the Beach (one of many ways)
2 oz Vodka
1 oz Orange juice
1 oz Cranberry juice
1 oz Peach schnapps

Recipes: For Mixing Glasses

Long Island Iced Tea (one of many ways)
Build over ice
1.5 oz Vodka
1.5 oz Gin
1.5 oz Tequila or Rum or both (how much do you love or hate the drinker)
1.5 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Lemon
Shake and DUMP (because, nobody ordering this cares) back into the mixing glass and top with Cola
Garnish with cherries

Black Opal
Build over ice
1.5 oz Vodka
1.5 oz Gin
1.5 oz Tequila or Rum or both (does this sound familiar?)
1.5 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Chambord
1 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Lemon
Shake and DUMP (because, nobody ordering this cares) back into the mixing glass and top with Lemon Lime soda
Garnish with cherries

Boilermaker
Half a beer
2 oz Whiskey

Jager Bomb
Half of a Red Bull
2 oz Jagermiester

Car Bomb (no longer called an “Irish” car bomb)
Half of a Guinness
1.5 oz Baileys with a float of whiskey

The Uniform

I stopped into work before my shift, and saw the tall blonde sexy lady bartender foil to me dressed as my equal. Be that the written nonsense line of a man that has two manhattans (the best cocktail) before he begins writing? Yes, to you I say don’t boss me. I am sad to say I am currently dressed in, as is my co worker in what I have come to call Cruise classic, and she the lady version thereof. That is to say the way that Tom Cuise dressed in the movie cocktail. The black collared shirt with black pant, or for the more casual, black and jeans is the classic bartender look. I remember seeing a national enquirer headline once that read “ Angelina to brad, -you dress like a bartender.],” I thought, “awesome.”

But I digress. Steve Martin said it best when he quoted one of his mentors (who was no doubtibly quoting one of his) when he said, “dress better than they do.” Steve understands that a performer is whom you are coming to see, if they wanted to stay home in sweats they would, they are here for the performer. So, give them some bait. I take this a bit further and say, dress like the real you. Me? When I work at a nightclub, I wear Cruise classic. When I’m in fine dining I wear cufflinks and a tie, and when I’m in between I dress as a friend’s father so insultingly but memorably put it “as a river boat gambler.” To that I say, own it. It is paramount to be prepared for every shift down to being comfortable in your clothes. I wear a pocket watch across my vest and handlebar moustache on my face; this works for me and makes me, “that guy.”

What to remember:
Look better than they do
Be comfortable
Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

Camapri, what it is and what it means to me

Campari is where it started for me (and Larry Flynt). On my first solo bar shift I took down all of the bottles I didn’t know and tasted them, and I don’t think its surprising for an American boy to make to 24 years or until the viewing of The Life Aquatic to meet Campari (Steve Zissou orders up Campari from his interns, the interns confirm, “rocks?”). Actually, thanks to Salma Heyek’s, “Hotel Campari” add campaign, men may be introduced to Campari at a younger age. But more about me, with the first sip, I was shocked and seduced, I have never looked back, the first cocktail I ever invented (later that shift) was in honor of The Life Aquatic, the Esteban, equal parts vodka, lemon, Grand Marnier, with a 1oz sinker of Campari that was to be his blood, garnished with a wedge of lemon, sprinkled with cinnamon. And this drink that did not catch on, is the principal example of why new bartenders should be forced to work slow Sunday shifts, alone and stay open until 2am. How else will you learn the history of Campari?

Gespare Campari invented, in1860, as a bittersweet 70 proof apertivo to serve to the patrons of his coffeehouse this was Campari, and the recipe we still serve today. In fits of elitism, with fists balled, I will grumble, “its not a bar if you don’t have Campari or Rye.” I’ll come back to the Rye, but Campari is recognized the world over, its only in the United States that we don’t love it. But as I said before, Salma will help. Campari was very popular in America during prohibition due to it being legal and called a digestive aid. After prohibition, it fell away to a taste for mediocrity and homogeny. What is it? Well, its bittersweet and red, otherwise it’s a secret. A sexy secret. However, it’s commonly known that some of the secret is quinine, (which comes from the bark of the Cinchona) rhubarb, ginseng, bergamot oil, Seville orange peel and ginger. And yes it is colored (along with many other products) with Cochineal. I’ll save you a trip to the Internet and go ahead and tell you that Cochineal is a little Central American cactus-eating bug. Thus, Campari is not vegetarian nor is it for the chosen people (kosher). But that’s just history, all you really need to know are Negroni, Americano, and soda.

Campari will likely be ordered one of 3.5 ways. On the rocks or with soda, is the classic Campari way, in not American its common to see pre-bottled Campari and soda. Unfortunately, in many states its illegal to sell pre mixed spirits outside of liquor stores. Shift gears momentarily to James Bond, a man who drank almost every important drink there was to drink. Among those are the other two important Campari drinks.

The Americano: Campari, sweet vermouth and soda, I will never forget the Americano, because of a story a fellow bartender told me. He had answered what we call a “cattle call,” and open call to fill a bartender position. The interviewer asked him what was in an Americano, upon answering correctly; he was told that he was the only bartender that knew the ingredients. Why? Because most bartenders are actually beertenders.

The Negroni is equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth (though, don’t be surprised to get a little extra gin). Count Camillo Negroni was real, and frequented a bar called Caffe Rivoire in Florence where he ordered an Americano with gin substituted for soda. I frequently say subbing champagne for soda is wise but in this case gin works well. Which brings another lesson, swapping two ingredients is the easiest way to make a new drink. The Old Pal for example is a dry vermouth Negroni sub bourbon for gin. Lastly, when ordered in Europe or Italian restaurants, expect to get it on the rocks due to the genealogy, whereas in America it will be served up. The Negroni is my Favorite drink, much like “crunk” is getting “drunk” up in the club, I am trying to introduce “negronked” as a term for getting drunk on fancy drinks, specifically the Negroni.

What you should have learned:

Thanks be to Salma and Steve Zissou, but more to Salma.
To be a better bartender, work lame shifts that allow you to learn at your own rate
Campari is bittersweet, not completely bitter
Campari is an apertivo, that is to say, before dinner

Serve it with orange and know :

The Americano
1.5oz Sweet Vermouth
1.5oz Campari
splash of club soda
Garnish: orange slice
Build over ice into a collins glass.

And the:

Negroni
1.5oz gin
1.5oz sweet vermouth
1.5oz Campari
Garnish: Orange Zest
Build over ice in an old fashioned glass or stir and strain into a cocktail glass

And here is one from me:

Mr. Richter

1.5oz gin

1oz Tuaca
1oz grapefruit juice
.5oz campari
Garnish: Rosemary sprig
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass

4th year

The idea is simple: After 4 years of maturation, I have decided to be a professional bartender. But there are a couple of catches, or perhaps goals, yes goals are better than stipulations. I want to be known as a professional bartender, raise the level of the professional bartender, establish some level of knowledge and technique for those who follow me, and perhaps retire, maybe.

I decided the best way to achieve these goals is through writing, study, practice, travel and at present carving my own muddler. I chose maple and a rasp that is about1.5 inches wide. I know carpenters and shipwrights that have called this stupid, while they are not incorrect I wish for a Buddhist monk or two to explain the meditative process of focusing on a singular task. Unfortunately, I have chosen a poor medium to appeal to the Buddhist monk community.

The man at the wood working store told me that back in the day maple was used for many wooden utensils because of its hardness and tight cellular structure. He went on to say the one of George Washington’s sets of teeth was maple. I in turn traded trivia with that fact that he soaked his teeth in port to ease the pain of chewing. And satisfied that we were both nerds, I bought the rasp and left. I don’t expect to be done with this anytime soon, but let us together sketch the metaphor: as I whittle away sawdust, so shall I hone my skills. That is a Jane Austin metaphor.

Cask Strength

Hello about page, my Name is Andrew Bohrer, I'm a 28 year old bartender and dipsogragher who caters and blogs under the title cask strength. I decided on Cask Strength because I love whiskey and thats my favorite way to have whiskey. Cask Strength is what real whiskey is, all of the flavor, you decide how to drink it, its the strongest and yet the most subtle and its the rarest bottling yet all bottles are cask strength before they get watered down.


The purpose of this blog is a writing project that will be a reference for new bartenders. Well honestly, new bartenders that want to learn classic style. You can learn trash drinks anywhere, or trash technique. What I focus on is how things were done and finding the best way to do them now, without comprising quality or speed. I try not to write about me, or the grand art of tending bar (but I love both of those things) rather I focus on making a manual for a trade, the basics to become an artisan.

Cheers