In addition to stocking quality booze, you’ll want fresh ingredients and spices. You may already have many of these staples on hand, but we’ve put together notes for special items, like eggs and sugar, that appear regularly in this book.
ICE
Ice is the engine that makes cocktails purr. Needless to say, if you’re using expensive spirits, the quality of your water matters, too. We recommend you use filtered water and replenish your ice cube trays fairly often since ice absorbs freezer odors. For minimal cost, buy a large-format silicon square ice cube tray. For crushed ice, it’s handy to have a fridge that spews out chips ’n’ bits, but you can also use a food processor or opt for an old-fashioned Lewis bag and mallet. If you’re throwing a party, and need to pick up pre-made ice, just note that it will melt quickly. To counteract, try filling the shaker a little fuller than normal and shaking for a shorter time.
EGGS
For flips, nogs, and fizzes, use fresh organic eggs from the farmers’ market when you can. Be sure to wash them. If you’re concerned about raw egg, use pasteurized egg whites. If you have a compromised immune system, you may want to use powdered egg whites: 2 teaspoons of powder, plus 1 ounce of water will approximate a single white. We measure out ¾ ounce (22 ml) of egg white per drink. Note that old recipes often call for a whole egg white, but today’s eggs are larger and can result in a drink that’s too eggy. A Grade A large egg today generally yields 1½ (45 ml) ounces of white—so think: one egg equals two drinks.
RAW SUGAR
Wherever possible, we’ve cut back the sugar in these recipes. That said, sugar is to bartenders what salt is to chefs—it often adds texture, pulls ingredients together, and lifts drinks into the sublime. From the variety of sugars on the market, we usually opt for organic raw sugar rather than bleached or refined sugar for our simple syrup recipe (page 241). Demerara, turbinado, and Muscovado are examples of raw sugar. They contain a hint of molasses, which we like, especially in dark elixirs. If you want a clear syrup for aesthetic reasons, use white cane sugar.
DEMERARA SUGAR CUBES
Sugar cubes made from organic raw sugar are available at specialty food stores. If you can’t find them, substitute 1 teaspoon sugar (preferably Demerara). Sugar cubes figure into several cocktails in this book, such as the Sazerac (page 37) and the Champagne Cocktail (page 205).
HONEY
Recipes like the Bee’s Knees (page 85) and Moral Suasion (page 34) call for a honey syrup since pure honey is too thick to dissolve in a cocktail without being diluted. This is usually made with a 1:1 ratio of honey to warm water, but a nice trick is to use 1:1 honey and simple syrup—it brings out honey flavors and dilutes drinks less. We like to use a local light-colored honey for clear cocktails or gin-based cocktails, and we’ll ramp up to a darker, more complex honey for whiskey or rum drinks. For our honey-syrup recipe, see page 242.
AGAVE
Despite its popularity in mixed drinks, we rarely use agave due to its heavy processing. (In this book, agave is mentioned in the Oaxaca Old Fashioned, page 139, and the Barbacoa, page 145.) Even though it ranks low on the glycemic index, it contains more fructose than any other sweetener, including high-fructose corn syrup. Beware: when it’s labeled “raw,” it doesn’t mean it isn’t processed, due to lax labeling laws.
GRENADINE
Check out our recipe for homemade grenadine (page 244), and avoid buying the fake stuff, which is loaded with red dye and corn syrup. Then make yourself an El Diablo (page 115).
ORGEAT
Commonly found in tiki drinks, like the Mai Tai (page 185) and vintage drinks like the Japanese Cocktail (page 33), orgeat is a syrup made from almonds that first appeared in Jerry Thomas’s The Bar-Tender’s Guide (1862). It tastes a bit like marzipan and gives drinks a wonderful consistency. Now that vintage cocktails are back in vogue, you can find artisan orgeat online from small companies like Small Hand Foods and B.G. Reynolds. It’s also easy to make a great-tasting orgeat from scratch (recipe on page 244) using easily sourced ingredients.
HALF-AND-HALF
In recipes that call for cream, like the Grasshopper (page 229) or Brandy Alexander (page 223), we opt for organic half-and-half. It’s lighter and won’t coat the roof of your mouth.
GINGER BEER
A crucial ingredient in recipes like the Dark ’n’ Stormy (page 194), ginger beer is made by a handful of companies, some of our favorites being Blenheim, Boylan, Reed’s, and Fever-Tree. Many bars concoct their own versions, making essentially a quick ginger syrup they mix with soda water. For a real fermented recipe that is tasty and far less expensive than anything you can buy, check out ours on page 247. It’s a wowing, nearly nonalcoholic beverage.
TONIC WATER
For an exceptional Gin and Tonic (page 167), use a tonic water that contains real quinine, like Fever-Tree or Fentimans. Fentimans, from Britain, has been around since 1905 and uses milled quinine bark and cane sugar. You can also use soda water with Jack Rudy small-batch tonic syrup, found in many liquor stores. Or make your own syrup—well worth it and very economical (recipe, page 251).
CARBONATED WATER
This includes club soda, seltzer, or mineral water. It’s worth noting that these differ from one another. Club soda includes additives—usually sodium or potassium, while seltzer is simply water to which carbonation has been added. Mineral water is bottled from a mineral spring and often has finer bubbles than club soda or seltzer.
SPICES
Buy small amounts from a spice shop, and store them in tightly sealed containers away from heat so that they don’t lose their potency too quickly. Freshly grating or grinding your own spices is always vastly superior to using powders.
CITRUS
When possible, buy organic citrus fruit. Wash fruits before use. Note that while some bartenders swear by rolling citrus or even microwaving lemons and limes to extract more juice, you get about the same amount of juice any way you go.
OLIVES
For martinis, we like to buy plump emerald Castelvetranos and store them in dry white vermouth. If there’s a jarred olive variety that you like, try pouring out half of the brine and replacing it with dry vermouth and a few extra spices to create your own signature cocktail olive. You can also add a tablespoon of coriander, caraway, or peppercorns (or all three) for added flavor. Toss in a few strands of lemon zest and some chopped jalapeño if you want your olives extra zesty.
CHERRIES
Look for Luxardo Gourmet Maraschino Cherries or Amarena cherries imported in syrup—they can be found at specialty food stores. A bartender tip: drain off half the Amarena syrup and replace it with bourbon.
BITTERS
Keep Angostura, Peychaud’s, and orange bitters on hand. They are lovely to drop into a glass of sparkling water as a quick digestif. We offer a recipe for your own in-house version (page 252).
SEA SALT
Salt is a bold flavor enhancer in drinks such as the Margarita (page 118) or Red Snapper (page 158), but it can be used more subtly to dampen bitterness and accentuate sweetness and sourness. Use a pinch of sea salt to finish drinks (see Harvey Wallbanger, page 128), or you can use 2 to 4 drops of saline solution—1 part salt to 10 parts water.
A NOTE ON STORING BOTTLES
You don’t need a fancy cabinet to set up your bar, just somewhere dark and cool (we’ve used everything from an old desk to a cleaning closet). Most spirits, other than crème liqueurs, will last for years, so you can think of them as long-term investments. However, vermouths or light sherries, once opened, should be stored in the fridge, where they will last for about a month.