MxMo: hard drinks for hard times

This month's Mixology Monday is worried. It worries about its job, its mortgage and, above all, it worries about its future. It's not easy being the internet's premier monthly mixological get-together, but this month's theme proposed by Matt at Rowley's Whiskey Forge could give it a few tips for getting through the crunch. Drinking has seen of tough times before, of course. If outright prohibition couldn't kill hard spirits, then lacking a bit of cash won't either. However, to my mind, when money gets tight it's the fancy imported stuff that ends up first in the firing line and you aim to make do with what's local. Luckily, this means I get to play with Scotch whisky.

(Whisky Galore! by foxypar4, licenced under Creative Commons.)

Much like the global economy, Scotch hasn't had the best of luck over the past few years. 2008 saw blended Scotch overtaken by vodka in UK off-licence (liquor store) sales for the first time and while the category as a whole is still ahead, it seems likely to be caught within the year. But - unlike the economy - some green shoots can be seen, with Diageo building Scotland's first new whisky distillery in 30 years and Glenmorangie investing £45m in new headquarters and bottling site in the Central Belt. Looking back, whisky producers haven't always been that keen on contributing to the economy anyway. As tradition would have it, distilleries were often established in inaccessible glens to confound excisemen sent to tax the stills.

One of the great strengths of a good blended Scotch is its versatility. Quality brands will mix well with dark fruit flavours and heavier notes, but they'll also play with lighter herbal, more aromatic tastes. One thing you can guarantee is that is price will be roughly proportionate to malt content. Dropping less cash will net you a higher percentage of grain whisky in the blend; these will tend toward younger, less flavourful whiskies column-distilled from mixed grains. If economics demand that you stick to a budget, there are gems to be found - Bailie Nicol Jarvie and Black Bottle spring immediately to mind - but if you're planning on spending less than $20/£12 on a blended Scotch, you may be better off pouring some vodka into a barrel and leaving it in the garage for a couple of years.

There's another quality of Scotch that makes it perfect for post-austerity drinking: you don't need to mix it with anything. Sure, you can use it in cocktails and the like, but there's many a purist who will tell anyone with ears that adding anything other than water - maybe, just maybe an ice cube or two, possibly - is heresy of the first order. That said, it feels a little too much like cheating not to include a recipe beyond a Scotch on the rocks. Of course, given no-one anywhere has any money, it would seem foolish to start throwing starfruit and other exotica into a shaker. This month, we're keeping it simple and local. And cheap, hopefully.

Highland Bramble

45ml blended Scotch whisky
30ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 barspoon honey
1 dash egg white (optional, I just like the look and the texture)
15ml Crème de Mure

Shake the first four ingredients with ice. Strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass and drizzle the Crème de Mure over the top. Garnish with a handful of blackberries and/or raspberries.

Six: La Spirale

(Spiral Staircase by sjdunphy, licensed under Creative Commons.)

Vodka has been described as the most difficult spirit to use creatively. Possibly by me when I was lacking inspiration, but the point stands. After all, vodka comes off the still somewhere north of 95% ABV before being diluted to bottling strength which means that a 70cl bottle is going to contain roughly 60% water by volume and maybe 2% of things that aren't alcohol or water. That's not a lot of flavour to work with.

Think of a popular vodka cocktail - don't pick a vodka Martini, that's cheating - and then ask yourself, "what does this taste off?" The chances are that your answer won't be vodka. Compared to the classic gin, whiskey or rum drinks, vodka cocktails tend to leave their main ingredient in the background.

Then again, there are always flavoured vodkas. They certainly allow you to bring the base ingredient into focus, but that still won't emphasize a "vodka-ish" flavour. It's a tough beat, vodka.

...Yes, I am prepping ideas for a vodka-sponsored competition.

La Spirale

25ml Absolut Pears
25ml Teichenné Apple Schnapps
1 barspoon Campari
25ml pressed apple juice
1 dash egg white

Shake all the ingredients with ice and fine-strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass. Garnish with an apple fan.

Five: Tokyo Blossom

There are some products that get a hard time from bartenders. Whenever they're mentioned in conversation, we wrinkle our noses and shake our heads for whatever reason, if we've given it enough thought to come up with a reason. Take - for example - Midori. The fact that it was launched in Studio 54 at the Saturday Night Fever wrap party in 1978 has left the liqueur with a cheesy disco tag it may never shake off, and its popularity among young girls with a sweet tooth and drinkers of the saccharine, unbalanced, fruit concoctions the 80's were famed for are not helping its reputation with old-school cocktail revivalists. Midori does a couple of things very well. It brings an instant hit of fruit to a drink, along with a stand-out colour and a good degree of sweetness. These can all be helpful characteristics, so long as they're not allowed to overpower the whole drink. It might have an image problem, but Midori can be a useful ingredient when it comes to start thinking about summer cocktails.

Tokyo Blossom

30ml Absolut Citron
15ml Midori
5ml Kwai Feh lychee liqueur
30ml White Grape juice

Stir all ingredients with ice. Snap an orange zest over the top, but don't drop it in. Garnish with a cherry.

Four: a Barbore Martini

There are a number of things I want to talk about.

1. Angus Winchester has promised a bottle of Tanqueray No. Ten and a book from his extensive library of vintage and modern mixellany to the inventor of the drink named as the official Martini of Barbore. This is madness. I am, of course, totally there.
2. Tea. A liking of tea is culturally hardwired into anyone who lives in the UK for more than six months. But there's way more to it than the bags of gunpowder routinely sweetened and enmilked in mugs across the land.

On the first, I really don't need a lot of encouragement to play around with Martini variations. I'm on the record saying that I think the Martini is a great drink but the current fashionable serve - vodka with next-to-no vermouth and no bitters - is hard work. So, honestly, the mere possibility of more cocktail reading and free gin (free gin!) is another carrot.

On the second, tea is really gaining some traction as an ingredient in mixed drinks. Any unbelievers should check out Charlotte Voisey's presentation on the theme from Tales of the Cocktail 2008. Different teas cover a wide spectrum from airy and floral to dark and pungent, and can be used to compliment a range of spirits and flavours.

There's a subtle coming together of themes on the way.

Basically, I wanted to use some white tea to compliment the camomile and citrus notes of Tanqueray No. Ten. To break it down to the most basic level, tea comes in three ways: black tea, where the leaves are left to fully oxidise; green tea, where the leaves are partially oxidised; and white tea, where the leaves are prevented from oxidising. According to Wikipedia - home of facts - the best examples of the highest grade white teas are said to be picked from undamaged and unopened buds in China's Fujian province between March 15 and April 10. When it's not raining. Curiously, white tea doesn't seem to be as popular worldwide as green, black tea or oolong. The next step was to find a way to infuse the tea flavour into the cocktail.

Rather than just adding x-ml of traditionally made white tea into a mixing glass, I decided to make a more concentrated infusion - soaking two bags in 150ml of vodka (I used Absolut, being the only plain vodka I had lying around) with a vanilla pod over a low heat for about three minutes. When I say low, I mean flames barely visible on the hob. The last thing you want to do with a spirit infusion is start another fractional distillation. With that done, I played things pretty traditionally. Being a martini for cocktail geeks, I've paid special attention to things like the starting temperature of ingredients and the specific amount of time they should be stirred for. Not because I particularly wanted to, but everyone else has...

A Barbore Martini

60ml Tanqueray No. Ten (at room temperature)
10ml Punt E Mes (from the fridge)
15ml White Tea infusion (from the fridge)
1 drop Angostura Aromatic Bitters

First, stick a small martini glass or a coupette in the freezer. Stir all the ingredients with ice in a standard mixing glass until it frosts over. Fine-strain into the chilled glass and snap a grapefruit zest twist over the top - don't drop it in!

Three: Coco Arándito

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to be competing in the Scottish regional of the Gin component of Diageo's World Class competition, which involved spending the afternoon in the shiny surrounds of Hawke & Hunter. 'Course, when you get a bunch of bartenders in one place, there's only one thing we talk about and one topic stuck in my mind. Someone had mentioned that most bartenders tend to resort to similar drinks when they get asked to make something on the fly. I have a tendency for subbing ingredients into a standard Cosmo recipe (see last week's Bloomsbury Cosmo, for example), so I decided to branch out, leading to this little creation. It's a simple twist on a Mojito.

Coco Arándito

50ml Koko Kanu
25ml lime juice
2 barspoons vanilla sugar
8 mint leaves

Muddle mint, sugar and lime juice in the base of a highball glass. Add the Koko Kanu, fill with crushed ice and mix well. Top up the crushed ice and float 25ml cranberry juice. Garnish with a mint sprig and lime wedge.