Post on 18-Dec-2015
Cocktail Club Presents
A Brief Education on…
WHISKEY
The first ingredient
THE TERM COCKTAIL IS DESCRIBED AS “A COMBINATION OF A STIMULATING LIQUOR, COMPOSED OF SPIRITS OF ANY KIND, SUGAR, WATER, AND BITTERS.”
Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor
Whiskey, in all its varieties, is an alcoholic drink derived from
distilled grains that are then aged in oak casks. The word "whiskey" comes from the
Irish Gaelic word loosely translated as “the water of life”
Whiskey: A Stimulating LiquorIt's made from fermented grain or “mash.”
The product never ages in the bottle, only in the cask
Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor
The three types of grain used for mash are:
CORN: BourbonBARLEY: ScotchRYE: American
Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor
The cask is of the utmost importance in whiskey production. Chemically, the whiskey is changed by the oak cask. Thus, the age of whiskey is defined as the time between distillation and bottling.
Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor
The biggest manufacturers of whiskey come from Ireland, Scotland, and
America. They all have different laws which govern what can be labeled as a
whiskey.According to United States regulations, the
mash for each type of whiskey must be at least 51% pure grain.
VERMOUTH
The second ingredient
Vermouth: It’s really wine booze!
Vermouth is a fortified wine. Fortified means the
alcohol percentage of the wine has been raised through the addition of spirits (a fairly neutral grape brandy is ideal in
most cases).
Vermouth: It’s really wine booze!
The word “vermouth” derived from the German word for “wormwood”, which was once one of vermouth’s primary
infused botanicals. Some vermouths still employ a little wormwood. Vermouth was
originally developed in Italy.
(If wormwood sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s also the bitter herb that is
used in Absinthe. It can be lethal in high doses.)
Vermouth: It’s really wine booze!
Vermouth is produced by starting with a base of a neutral grape wine. Each manufacturer adds additional alcohol and a proprietary mixture of dry ingredients, consisting of aromatic herbs, roots, and barks, to the
base wine. After the wine is aromatized and fortified, the vermouth is sweetened with either cane sugar or caramelized sugar.
Of course Italians would figure out how to turn salad into wine!
BITTERS
The shake-shake ingredient
Angostura: Shake it to Make it
The botanical ingredients used in preparing bitters typically consist of aromatic herbs, bark, roots, and/or
fruit for their flavor and medicinal properties, Most bitters contain both water and alcohol.
In the 19th century, the British practice of adding herbal bitters to cocktails (used as preventive
medicines) had become immensely popular in the American colonies.
Leave it to Americans to add medicine to their booze and booze to their medicine!
Angostura: Shake it to Make it
Angostura (ANGUS-stir-ah) bitters are the most purchased brand today, although many bars and drink aficionados are offering house-made bitters as additions to their featured cocktails.
THE MANHATTA
N
A truly American Cocktail
The Manhattan: True American Cocktail
The history of the is a controversial one. The most famous rumor states that the drink was made for Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchhill’s mother at the Manhattan Club in the 1870’s and it was thoroughly enjoyed and became popular. The story has been picked apart and it seems it may not be true. The reality is that the Manhattan was probably one of the five borough cocktails (Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queen’s and the Staten Island cocktail) made to represent the parts of New York city.
The Manhattan: True American Cocktail
Whatever the actual story is, it’s obviously a delicious cocktail that can be enjoyed for any
occasion.
The history of the drink can be celebrated by our American heritage when American
immigrants took the booze of their Italian grandparents and mixed it with the whiskey
made in the back woods of the early Colonies.The Manhattan= ‘Merica
The Manhattan: True American Cocktail
Behold, the marvelous Manhattan. CHEERS!