Boston shakers

So I mentioned in my last bar post that I also want a nice shaker. Right now, I have a shaker that looks a lot like this:

But I really don’t like this thing. It has a few flaws. First, it’s three pieces, and that’s at least one more piece than I want to keep up with. Second, these things are a bitch to get open after you’ve mixed a drink in them. The temperature change makes the metal contract, and the vacuum you create by sealing it for shaking make it difficult to get the top off when you’re done. What I really want is a Boston shaker. It looks like this:

This shaker has a quite a few advantages. First, notice the demarcations on the glass, which makes for easier measurements of liquor (if you can add, good luck if you’re drunk). Second, it’s much easier to get this thing open since you’re dealing with different materials and far more leverage to “break the seal.” Third, you just look about 10 times cooler using one of these, especially if you strain the drink by leaving only a crack between the metal shaker and the glass (no strainer necessary). Basically, you look like a real bartender.

Today I did find my perfect measuring device for liquor measuring, a tiny little OXO measuring cup that holds 2 ounces. It’s similar to the one from my earlier post, just plastic instead of metal. It helped me make some delicious whiskey sours tonight. No egg whites for us, thanks.

Mmm, drinking.

Rocks glasses

In my quest for the perfect home bar, I’ve started eyeing some new glasses. See, the thing about a cocktail like an Old Fashioned (or any other old school cocktail) is that they are mostly liquor. That means you don’t need a very tall drink, and in fact, a tall drink would ruin the whole thing. The problem with this is that most glasses that you buy today are pretty large. Even smaller tumblers are at least 12 ounces, and while that may not be much when you’re chuggin’ Pepsi-Cola, it leaves too much extra space in an Old Fashioned, and it just ruins some of the aesthetic appeal of the drink.

To that end, I’ve been searching for some new glasses. I’m looking for nice rocks glasses, or old fashioned glasses (yeah, they named a glass after my new favorite drink!). I want something simple and elegant, heavy for its size, and easy to hold. I am against perfectly round glasses (we have some for everyday drinking, but I don’t think a cocktail looks very good in them), and they have to be glass. These acrylic glasses are for wimps.

So far, this is my frontrunner:

Pretty sweet, right? The best part is that this is a 7 oz. glass. Just big enough for 2 ounces of whiskey, some bitters and sugar, and three ice cubes. I can practically see the cherry floating just under the rim (instead of in the middle of the glass).

Next on the list: a nice shaker.

More liquor talk

My recent obsession with the Old Fashioned has fueled my desire to become a good home bartender. I’m probably a long way from having everything I need to do this (firstly, a bar), but it’s never to early to start learning about the trade. Celine found this article on the Atlantic’s website:

What Makes a Great Bartender?

It’s a good start, even if all you take away from it is a great measuring cup for liquor. It’s on my Amazon wishlist now, feel free to buy it for me! Or maybe I’ll just splurge and spend the six bucks. Of course, it doesn’t stop there. Here’s a great rundown of all of the essential bartending tools you need to start a home bar:

Essential Bar Tools

Now, I have some of this stuff, but not all of it, and it’s probably best to have tools exclusively for your bar (instead of using my wife’s pairing knives all the time). And then there’s the liquor itself. I’m mainly a whiskey man myself, but other liquors are far less familiar to me, so I’d really have to do some research to find my favorites. Tough job, right? I think I’m up to it.

And let’s not forget the final piece of this puzzle either: glasses. I like that list because it includes “punch bowl” as a glass. Reminds me of college. I’m a fan of the Old Fashioned glass, but I think the first four on that page are essential for cocktail mixing. Wine and beer glasses of all types are good too, and let’s not forget the shot glass, just in case you have a sorority party in your basement or something.

That’s a lot of stuff to buy, which means this meets all of the requirements of a hobby:

1. Takes a lot of time
2. Costs a lot of money
3. Serves no purpose other than pleasure

Sign me up.

The Old Fashioned

We are currently renters, and we probably will be renters for the next few years. However, when we do buy a house, there’s really only one thing that I want that I don’t have now (and probably won’t have as a renter). That one thing is a bar.

Now, I’m not talking about having a few bottles of liquor in my cabinet and some pretty glasses to pour it in. I mean a full fledged cocktail bar, fully stocked with all of the weird shit you need to mix whatever my guests might want. In my wildest dreams it’s even a wet bar (yeah, my wildest dreams are about plumbing). I picture this bar being in the basement, right next to my tiny movie theater. Your house has a tiny movie theater too, right?

Anyway, the second part of this little fantasy involves me actually knowing how to make a wide range of cocktails so that I look extra cool in front of my friends. When I say cocktails here, I’m not talking about Purple Hooter Shooters or Jack and Cokes. I’m talking about actual, classy cocktails. The Manhattan. The Martini. The Gimlet. And my recent obsession, the Old Fashioned.

I became interested in this drink because of Mad Men. Don Draper drinks an Old Fashioned every once in a while, and I realized that while I had heard of this drink, I had no idea what was in it. Turns out there are a lot of variations (and some controversy, to be honest), but basically it’s just sugar with enough water to dissolve it, a couple of dashes of bitters, a big shot of whisky (or whiskey, if you prefer), and some ice. That’s it. Variations include adding some orange or orange peel and/or a cherry, but the original had neither. It was basically whisky and sugar water.

I find that to be incredibly appealing.

Why? Well, it’s probably because of Mad Men, but I do think that the drinking culture has changed drastically in the last fifty years in this country. Most of the mixed drinks you see today have so much other stuff in them that it’s often hard to taste the alcohol at all. It’s as if the attitude now is, “we want to get drunk quickly, but we mostly want this to taste like Kool-Aid.”

However, these deceptively simple cocktails that were popular in the 50′s and 60′s aren’t like that at all. You can definitely taste the liquor in the drink, and the other flavors are there to highlight and accent, not cover and obscure. And while they sound easy to make, it’s more complicated than it appears. There are tons of variations on even the simplest drink, and in the end, it’s really a matter of taste. These drinks seem to have an attitude that says, “drinking me is classy, a refined and acquired taste.” Let’s face it, that’s just way cooler than a jello shot.

Anyway, here’s a video that talks about the Old Fashioned and gives a damn good recipe for making one. You can trust me on this, I tried it. Multiple times. This guy’s whole site is awesome if you’re interested in making cocktails. You should check it out.

By the way, I don’t know if any bar in Nashville where you could order an Old Fashioned and get something that’s drinkable. If you do, let me know.