On a quiet summer afternoon, there is nothing better than a refreshing, unpretentious drink to cool body and mind. The Horse’s Neck is definitely one of these. Simple to make, it also has that little bit extra flavour-wise that makes an interesting drink.

In it’s essence, the Horse’s Neck is just a normal long drink — booze and mixer. However, there are a couple of unusual features. For starters, it calls for brandy, a spirit that is usually taken straight. There is a good reason for this, since the nuances of brandy are usually lost if mixed with something as intense as Coke.

However, we’ll be mixing the brandy with ginger ale, a much gentler mixer generally. Note that using a strong ginger beer would probably ruin the drink altogether, the weak Schweppes-like stuff is what we’re after here.

Finally, the Horse’s Neck calls for a dash or two of Angostura bitters. The bitters make this drink, enhancing and combining with the brandy like a pinch of salt can make or break a meal. Removing the bitters makes this just another mixed drink, and using rum or bourbon instead of brandy just isn’t the same.

Recipe:

2 oz. Brandy
1 or 2 dashes Angostura bitters
fill with Ginger Ale

Build in the order given in a tall glass over plenty of ice.

Notes:

I always use spanish brandy. If I’m looking for a French Cognac-like brandy, I’ll use one of the bottlings from the Catalunya region in north-east Spain. However, I usually use sherry brandy, from the southern province of Cádiz, and this drink is no exception. I find that the additional sherry flavours work very well.

Also, I like to be liberal with the bitters, but your personal preference may differ…

Rating:

- One of my summer favourites.

If you read the About page on this blog, you’ll see that part of the original idea was to index and categorize a bunch of recipes for my own access. Last night I was entertaining and realized that the blog is sadly empty of the classics, so for at least a couple of weeks I’ll be putting up some classic cocktails. If you’re new to cocktails, these are drinks you have to try. If you’re a seasoned mixologist, how long has it been since you had one?

I’ll start with the Manhattan, my favourite drink. I can’t really point out why, but there isn’t any other drink which is quite the same. It’s all a matter of taste, I suppose.

As to the origins, nobody knows for sure who the inventor was. Although various similar recipes had been around for decades under the name Manhattan, the current incarnation became well known in the early 1870’s, when it was served at a banquet held at the Manhattan Club, in New York. This event marked the current recipe as the Manhattan cocktail.

Recipe:

2 oz. Rye Whiskey or Bourbon
1 oz. Italian Vermouth
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Garnish with Maraschino Cherry

Stir the ingredients until ice-cold, and pour into a cocktail glass. Add the cherry and enjoy

Notes:

A drink that never lets me down and is a faithful standby when in doubt. Rye whiskey is difficult to come by here, so it’s usually a Bourbon drink for me. Also, the proportions are not set in stone, and people have different preferences. Personally, I like the vermouth to shine through, making the drink slightly sweeter.

Finally, some people add a little of the liquid in the cherry jar for sweetness. If I do it, it’s never more than a teaspoon.

Rating:

- Perfection in a glass.

Recently, there was some discussion about the Bellini on a spanish-language mailing list I read. I realized that although I know the recipe, I had never actually tried one, and proceeded to correct this shameful situation.

The Bellini is one of these rare classic drinks where the origin is well-known and undisputed. It dates back to 1948, when Giuseppe Cipriani of the world-famous Harry’s Bar in Venice decided to combine the puree of white peaches with the italian sparkling wine Prosecco. The new drink was named after Giovanni Bellini, a 15th-century venetian artist whose paintings were being exhibited somewhere nearby at the time. Incidentally, Harry’s Bar also invented Carpaccio. Not many establishments can claim to have both a world-famous drink and a world-famous dish to their name.

So since peaches are in season from June to September, now’s the time to start mixing them up. The reason I had never bothered with this drink was a combination of not having any champagne around the house, and not having any peach purée either, but by coincidence I had some champagne at home when I read the discussion mentioned above. The peach purée was now the only missing ingredient.

I decided to see how difficult it is to make peach purée before trying to buy some, and I found that Darcy over at The Art of Drink had talked about this very thing back in 2005. The method just involves peaches and a couple of spoonfuls of sugar per peach in a blender at high speed. It’s as easy as it sounds, and a few minutes later I had the purée.

I should point out a couple of details for the purists out there.

First, although I’ve been talking about champagne, the actual wine used should be prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy made with a different method to the champagne method. Now, I’ve never even bought a bottle of prosecco, so there’s no chance of having that around. What I actually used was Cava, the spanish sparkling wine.

Second, the recipe specifies white peach purée. The original recipe mentions that the variety of peach used should be the italian pesca bianca, a whiteish peach that reddens near the stalk and has a white flesh. I can’t find anything similar in Spain, so I used regular peaches.

Recipe:

2 oz. White peach purée
4 oz. Prosecco (substitute Champagne if unavailable)

Pour the purée into a champagne flute and slowly add the bubbly, stirring carefully so as not to spill anything.

Notes:

Like I mention above, I didn’t actually use the original ingredients, substituting normal peaches for the white peaches, and using cava instead of prosecco. The result was not bad, although of similar-styled drinks I prefer the Mimosa, for example. Next time I’m in Venice, I’ll try it properly made…

Rating:

- Ok, but not really worth the trouble unless its a special occasion.

Hey Dave, where have you been?

On holiday, like I said in my previous post. Here, if you must know.

Did you get much cocktailing done?

Nope, my folks don’t have the same urge to store fifty different bottles at home that I do. Hell, they don’t even have a shaker.

Sounds like an excuse to present a crappy MxMonday drink…

Actually, I’ve been thinking about it for a two or three weeks. That doesn’t mean it’s any good, of course, it just means that this entry isn’t entirely improvised.

So what did you come up with?

Well, I considered being “original” and maybe doing something like the Brandy Alexander.

That’s the kind of “original” that everyone else thinks of too.

Exactly. So then I thought about maybe dusting off the Hummingbird or something similar.

Risky business, covering a cocktail you only published a few weeks ago…

Yup. Finally, I remembered that Barceló has a new rum cream and that I conveniently had a bottle purchased at my wife’s behest, so I decided to come up with something that uses it. I don’t know if it’s great, but at least it’s mine. And I even came up with a cool name.

What’s this rum cream like?

It’s made using Dominican aged rum, in a recipe I suspect is similar to most other cream liqueurs. This rum is apparently aged in Bourbon casks for a length of time before being used to make this cream. Barceló’s aged rum is actually quite nice on it’s own, and the rum cream is also decent. It’s not something that comes at you, though. It’s basically just Bailey’s with rum.

What can you possibly mix that with?

Remember we’re talking rum here, so I wanted something traditionally tropical but also creamy. Coconut cream fits the bill perfectly.

Interesting, I can’t find any recipe on Google that combines those two ingredients.

Neither could I, possibly with good reason… Anyway, I finally needed a hint of sweetness and flavour to contrast with the existing profile, so I added a little Amaretto. Maybe it’s the easy way out, but it works fairly well.

And since it’s a tropical drink, we’re talking blender here.

Great. By the way, what’s with the name you’ve given it?

Coco Blanco is the name of a bird native to Santo Domingo, which is where Barceló rum hails from. You may know it, it’s called the White Ibis in English. Also, the drink uses coconut and comes out white, so it’s a kind of play on words.

Well, are you going to make us a couple or what?

Coming right up…

Recipe:

1 1/2 oz. Rum Cream
2 oz. Coconut Cream
1/4 oz. Amaretto

In a blender, mix the rum cream and coconut cream with about half-a-cup of ice. Blend until smooth, serve into a wide glass and pour a splash of amaretto into the glass using a spoon to spread it out over the surface. The idea is to get it to streak slightly when stirred using the straw.

Notes:

You have to be careful with two things here.

Both the rum cream and coconut cream have relatively delicate flavours, so if you overdo the ice it’s going to get watery and tasteless. However, if you don’t add enough ice, the drink is going to be too sweet. A hint: It’s called a Coco Blanco, so the drink should be white before adding the amaretto. If it’s rum cream colour, then you need more ice.

Also, be very careful not to overdo the amaretto. If you get it just right, it should add to the drink without taking over. It’s way too easy to pour in too much, so start with a little and work up from there. You shouldn’t need more than half a tablespoon.

Rating:

I can’t rate my own drink, although my wife seems to like it and has already tasked me with making it next time we have friends around. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Visit Morsels & Musings for the rest of the Mixology Monday entries.

Following on from yesterday’s Caipirinha, here’s another popular brazilian drink.

A Batida is actually a generic term for a sweet drink made with cachaça and some type of fruit, and then blended with ice. From my research it looks like each person makes it their own way, using different sweeteners and even spirits other than cachaça. Of course, each fruit will require its own level of sweetness, so really the only thing that is constant about these recipes is the use of ice (even the blender is sometimes optional, you can just shake with crushed ice).

I’m going to present a simple coconut batida, both because I have the ingredients and because its the only version I had heard of before. I’ve settled on the following recipe:

Recipe:

1 1/2 oz. Cachaça
3 oz. Coconut Cream
2 tsp Sugar

Place everything into a blender with plenty of ice and go nuts. Alternatively, you an crush about a cupful of ice and shake everything up in a shaker. You can strain the result or not, depending on your taste.

Notes:

With so many options, it was difficult to decide which ones to try. I tried a couple of ratios and the one above was the one I liked best. It’s better to make a weaker drink because you’ll be drinking it really quickly and making another one.

I ended up crushing some ice and shaking because I couldn’t be bothered to set up the blender. It worked pretty well, but I’d recommend adding the sugar first with a splash of water to dissolve it a little first. Alternatively, just use some simple syrup.

Rating:

-A very refreshing summer drink.

Since Brazil’s national spirit is cachaça, it’s only fitting that their national drink be the Caipirinha, a cocktail where it is the main player.

Recipe:

2 oz. Cachaça
2 tsp Sugar
4 Lime wedges

Cut a lime into 6 wedges. Into a wide-bottomed glass, drop four lime wedges and the sugar and muddle vigorously. When all the juice has been extracted from the wedges, fill the glass with crushed ice and finally pour in the cachaça. Stir everything together and serve with a straw.

Notes:

If you’re looking for a great summer drink, you can’t really go wrong with booze and limes. We’ve seen it while looking at cuban cocktails, and the caipirinha reinforces the idea.

You can try this drink with cubed ice and it will also work well, it depends on how much dilution you’re after.

Oh, and if you’re feeling virile, you can make a real man’s Caipirinha. The site is in portuguese, but I’m sure the pictures will get the point across.

Rating:

- It doesn’t get four stars because I’m unlikely to have cachaça at home on a regular basis.

Not your standard rum’n'coke, a properly made Cuba Libre has fresh ingredients, fine booze and balance. Indeed, it is a refreshing drink to be sipped and enjoyed, not just another alcohol-delivery mechanism for teenagers.

As with any good drink, nobody is sure how the name came about. There is no denying that Cuba Libre! was a popular expression both during and after Fidel Castro’s communist revolution. Some say that the name is derived from its two main ingredients, Cuba referring to the rum and Libre (or Free) referring to the American Coca-Cola.

Either way, the ingredient everyone always forgets, and that elevates a proper Cuba Libre beyond being just another common drink, is Lime juice. Just a little, in combination with respecting the proportions of rum-to-Coke, goes a long way. Once you’ve tried it properly made, you won’t go back.

Also, you should use a gold or dark rum for this. The flavour of a light rum won’t really make it through the Coke. Cuban rum is always more authentic, but one of my rum taste-tests is always the Cuba-Libre so I’ll try anything. For a good dark Cuban rum, try Havana Club 7-year-old, or Matusalén. The original was probably made with Bacardi, and even though Bacardi is no longer cuban, their 8-year-old is also nice.

Finally, use classic Coke. All the other varieties (especially Diet Coke) taste strange and not what you’re after at all.

This has been the final installment in cuban classics but for the next few days I’ll probably keep writing about summer standards. Stay tuned!

Recipe:

2 oz. gold or dark Rum
1/2 oz. Lime juice
6 oz. Coca-Cola

Rub the rim of a tall glass with the peel of a lime wedge. Fill it with ice, and pour in the rum followed by the Coke. Squeeze in the juice from a couple of lime wedges, and drop one into the glass.

Notes:

There isn’t really much to say, except that I recommend you try many different rums. But maybe not all of them on the same day… Also, you can vary the proportions to your liking, but try not to make the drink too strong or too weak, it will lose character.

Some recipes for the Cuba Libre include Gin, although I don’t know where that idea came from. You can try it if you like, about half as much gin as rum, it’s not unpleasant.

Rating:

- Well made, it’s always a great drink.

According to cuban legend, El Presidente was a recipe of Major-General Mario García Menocal, who during his tenure as president of Cuba (1913 - 1921) once entered La Floridita and requested that this drink be prepared for him. Other sources say the drink was invented by a cuban bartender and named in honour of the serving president of the time. Either way, the consensus is on a 1910’s/1920’s origin in Havana.

Researching this drink was interesting. Everywhere I looked, I was unable to find an agreed-upon recipe. I checked both english- and spanish-language sources, and I noticed one detail. Most recipes in english use dry vermouth as an ingredient, whereas recipes in spanish unanimously require sweet vermouth. I suspect that the source of confusion is in the details. many of the recipes that call for sweet vermouth specify that it must be white. This implies the italian bianco variety, which is white and sweet. Maybe this detail became distorted as the recipe traveled, and since dry vermouth is white in colour, the recipe changed.

I’m listing the recipe as using sweet vermouth because, well, I don’t have any dry vermouth at home, and having tried the sweet version, I doubt that using dry vermouth would work any better.

Recipe:

1 1/2 oz. white cuban Rum
1 oz. bianco italian Vermouth
1/2 oz. orange Curaçao
a few drops of Grenadine

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Notes:

Given all the different versions of this drink available, there are many variations. I used Cointreau due to lack of Curaçao, and I think this might have made the drink worse. Possibly the sweeter notes of the Curaçao work better in the drink. Still, I’m not willing to experiment too much with this drink, I don’t think there would be enough improvement to justify it.

Rating:

- Not my thing.

As well as being a famous bar in Havana, as mentioned in yesterday’s Papa Doble post, El Floridita gives its name to not one, but two cocktails.

One is also known as the Floridita Daiquiri, and is something in between the original Daiquiri and the Papa Doble. The other recipe is more interesting, and so I’ll focus on that one today.

Interestingly, I have been unable to find any information about this drink’s history, and I’m also too lazy to make something up on a Sunday afternoon, so I think I’ll just veg out in front of the TV and try to forget about having to work tomorrow. But I’ll have a couple of these.

Recipe:

1 1/2 oz. white cuban Rum
1/2 oz. Lime juice
1/2 oz. Italian Vermouth
1/4 oz. white Creme de Cacao
1/8 oz. Grenadine

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and serve in a cocktail glass.

Notes:

I first tried this cocktail shortly after starting to explore the world of cocktails, a few years ago. I was struck by how well the chocolate touch combines with the refreshing qualities of the traditional cuban rum+lime combination. Looking around the net, it seems that everyone else who mentions the drink has the same impression. If you haven’t tried it, you really should.

Rating:

- A pleasantly unusual drink.

Ernest Hemingway, a famous drinker who apparently wrote a few books too, was a regular customer at the famous Havana watering hole La Floridita. Here, he enjoyed all the usual perks of a regular - his own place by the bar, a friendly relationship with the owner and head bartender, Constantino Ribalagua, and of course, his regular drink.

Hemingway had three requirements for his perfect drink: It should not be artificially sweetened with sugar or any kind of syrup, it must be ice-cold and it must be strong. It turns out that the famous Daiquiri already being served at La Floridita was pretty close to what he was after.

Removing the sugar killed the balance of the drink, so he added some maraschino liqueur as a sweetening agent, and some grapefruit juice to get the flavour just right. To get the drink cold enough, he insisted on shaking with crushed ice instead of cubed ice, and also had the drink served with ice instead of straining it.

Making the drink stronger was just a case of making it a double. This also indirectly named the drink, since the drink was actually named after Hemingway’s nickname, Papa Doble, a nickname he earned by always ordering doubles.

So that’s the theory, anyway. On to the practice.

Recipe:

2 oz. white cuban Rum
1 oz. Lime juice
1/4 oz. Maraschino Liqueur
1/4 oz. Grapefruit juice

Pour all ingredients over crushed ice in a shaker, and shake the hell out of it. Serve the whole mess into a double rocks glass. I doubt that Hemingway bothered with a garnish, but you can’t go wrong with a lime wheel.

You can also blend everything together in a blender.

Notes:

My first thought after trying the Papa Doble (once I managed to pry my frozen fingers from the shaker) was “this could use some sugar.” My second thought was “wow, this is cold!” After sipping on the rest of the drink, though, I think I quite like it. It is bitter, but still refreshing, in a similar way to Campari.

Alert readers will have noticed that although this is supposed to be a double, the amount of rum is the same as in a regular Daiquiri. I imagine that it should be served as twice what is in the recipe. That would be 4 ounces of rum, etc. If this is not so, and someone knows how this works, feel free to leave a comment enlightening us.

Rating:

- Makes you feel like a suicidal alcoholic in a third-world nation. But in a good way.