Until the pandemic struck, I did not consider myself a cocktail drinker. I like a drink. In fact, at times in my life, I have liked drinks too much and, to control that affection, have gone for long periods of time without drinking alcohol at all. But, generally, when it comes to booze, I have favoured alcohol (usually gin or tequila), over ice with, in the case of gin, a couple of olives, and tequila, some lime juice. Into the glass and down the hatch with little fuss or bother.
However, the pandemic drew me to cocktails and, since late April, I have been providing a recipe here every Friday. Some have been classics, others have been riffs on those classics, still others have been ideas provided by friends and readers of this column. Sometimes, I have cheated and suggested simply a glass or two of sparkling wine.
My partner has been a willing cocktail taster, although I suspect his tastes are a bit undiscriminating, since he has liked every one that I have presented to him. We have found our favourites: Pam’s Pandemic Punch and Pimm’s # 1 Cup both rank high on our lists.
Mid-summer has arrived (we had our first corn on the cob this week) and, in most parts of Ontario, bars have re-opened. This seems a foolhardy move: people, close together, unmasked (at least while they are in the act of drinking), inhibitions and caution falling away with every drink consumed. My commitment to supporting local businesses notwithstanding, surely figuring out a strategy for getting kids back into classrooms in the fall should have been a higher priority for government?
My partner and I are not planning to head to our local watering hole any time soon. Our liquor cabinet is well stocked, and we will continue to make and consume our cocktails at home or with friends, where we can keep appropriately distanced in one another’s backyards.
After three months of sharing cocktail recipes, I have decided to stop, at least for awhile. I may return with more ideas if our present situation continues into the winter, but I am going to spend the rest of the warm weather enjoying the cocktails already in my repertoire.
Just what is a cocktail?
Before I leave the topic, though, a bit of background about the cocktail, and one final recipe.
Americans like to claim the cocktail as their invention, but it seems more likely the basic concept was first developed by the Brits in the form of their well-known punch bowl drinks, which contained a mixture of alcohol, fruit juice and spices.
By the late 1700s, the combination of spirits, water, sugar and bitters had become known as a cocktail. The inclusion of bitters was one of the absolute constants of a cocktail for a long time, although now, we generally use the word to refer to any kind of pre-dinner drink that includes alcohol and some other ingredient.
For many years, cocktails were served at room temperature, but ice is now considered an essential ingredient. Scotch straight up, for instance, may be a tasty drink, but it is not properly a cocktail, containing neither ice nor any other ingredient.
True mixologists and cocktail lovers have made an art form out of the ice part of a cocktail. Plain old ice cubes in the bottom of the cocktail glass are, of course, perfectly adequate, but why stop there? You can crack or crush those cubes. You can add a sprig of mint or a small flower to your ice cubes. You can make ice balls, either plain or containing one or two ingredients.
The Hudson, New York weekly newspaper, The Balance and Columbian Repository, in 1806, provided an early definition of a cocktail. In response to a reader’s letter to the editor inquiring about what a cock-tail was, the paper described it as:
“a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters . . . and [it] is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said, also, to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.”
Where did the name come from?
Was an actual rooster tail used as a garnish at some point? Or did the name arise because the colours of the mixed ingredients resembled a rooster’s tail?
Perhaps the name comes from the use of the root of a Latin American plant called the cola de gallo (rooster tail) to stir cocktails.
Or, my favourite: perhaps it comes from the French word for egg cup – coquetel – in which, we are told, cocktails in the French Quarter of New Orleans were at one time served.
A pitcher of paradise
Yesterday at cocktail time (unlike Ina Garten, who thinks that during a pandemic, any hour can be cocktail hour, in this house we adhere to a very strict 6 pm start time for cocktails; unless, of course, there is a good reason to start earlier), I decided to come up with a drink that could incorporate a somewhat wrinkled and over-ripe mango as well as some delicious but on-their-last-legs local raspberries.
I was very pleased with the result. My partner declared the cocktail to be the best ever but, as I have said, his taste for cocktails is easily satisfied.
For four cocktails (because who ever stops at one?), combine one mango, a handful of raspberries, 3 ounces ginger lemonade concentrate, 6 ounces coconut milk, 6 ounces pineapple juice, 4 ounces simple syrup and 8 ounces rum and blend until smooth. Add ice and blend again.
Pour over ice in tall glasses, and let your troubles sail away for a couple of hours.
I think your cocktail cookbook could be a wonderful fundraiser. Of course maybe someday we’ll all get together and sample and do a taste off so your discriminating partner’s viewpoints are balanced off with other undiscriminating viewpoints!
On the subject of ice, several years ago i went to a marvellous restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida called The Ice House in what had been (wait for it…drum roll..) a proper ice house. The restaurant was on the second floor and the first floor was partly converted into a distillery. A huge portion of the space though was still being used to make ice in many different formats to complement their various cocktails. Cubes, shavings, blocks, …..