It is too often hard to find a good cocktail in the average bar. I must instead settle for a whiskey on the rocks, or a beer from the tap. While those who know me know quite well that I have no aversion to either, I certainly size up a place in those opening moments as I attempt to order a cocktail and get turned down on ingredient after ingredient.
Most common of late, has been my transition from ordering a drink by name to asking simply if there are any bitters behind the bar. Bitters for me has become a simpler way of finding out what kind of bar I'm in. It seems to me, though I am new to the use of bitters, that they replace almost all of what I dislike about modern cocktails with something I always missed. Gone are the days of sugary mixers, soda fillers, juices just for flavor - I can add a dash or two of bitters, and an ounce or less of the desirable liqueur, a few ounces of the good stuff, and poof bam bang, a complex, cold, small-but-powerful cocktail is born.
I think it will be quite some time before I reach the familiarity with bitters that I have long had with the mixers I am now replacing, as I could whip up a slew of unique (and mediocre) mixed drinks from cola, and lemon-lime sodas. I guess it all started with that good old book Imbibe!.
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