Introduction
Blenders are a wonderful tool at the cocktail bar. They chop ice with ease and blend it into frosty concoctions. They allow you to infuse your drinks with fresh or frozen fruit and use frozen juice concentrates to great effect. Rich, sweet cocktails made with ice cream or sorbet widen and simplify your dessert repertoire. You can spike vegetable or fruit smoothies and pretend you're being health-conscious. The blender opens up the world of cocktail innovation like nothing else.
Invite friends over for a blender cocktail party. Stock your bar and buy some seasonal fruits and various ice creams, sorbets and fruit concentrates, then try some of the drinks from this book. Expand your repertoire with original drinks developed in blender cocktail contests with fellow enthusiasts. Most important, enjoy yourself. Blending cocktails isn't a science and shouldn't be made into an art -- it's just plain fun.
Blender Cocktail Tips
Cleaning Your Blender
To clean your blender, fill it with hot water and let it run for about 1 minute. Then put it in the dishwasher or wash by hand. If your blender base unscrews from the jug, disassemble it, wash the components separately and allow them to dry thoroughly before reassembling. Always rinse your blender between cocktails.
Alcohol Measures
Alcohol is traditionally measured in ounces. Shot glasses are 2-ounce measures, and are often marked with 1- and 1 1/2-ounce measures. One ounce equals 2 tbsp (25 mL); 2 ounces equals 1/4 cup (50 mL). In this book, we use ounce measures for alcoholic beverages and regular cooking measures for non-alcoholic ingredients.
Twists
Cocktails are often garnished with citrus twists, strips of twisted citrus rind. To make a citrus twist, cut a strip of rind from the citrus fruit with a sharp paring knife or a peeler, carefully slicing off the peel without the bitter white pith. Twist the strip over the cocktail to release the pungent, fragrant oils in the peel into your drink, or twist and rub the oils over the rim of the glass.
Maraschino Cherries
Maraschino cherries are an essential garnish for the cocktail bar. If they seem a tad unnatural, it is perhaps because they are: to make them, real cherries are stoned and bleached of color (and most of their taste), then soaked in syrup and bitter almond oil, along with red or green food coloring. It's the almond flavor and the burst of bright color that make them indispensable. For something a bit more natural, during cherry season you can replace maraschino cherries with fresh cherries, each pricked in a few spots with a needle and marinated in almond liqueur (and a splash of kirsch, if you want to be fancy) for 1 to 3 days. Use the leftover marinating liquid as flavoring for your own cocktail inventions.
COCKTAIL SYRUPS
The following syrups are used in recipes throughout the book. Make up a batch of each before your next blender cocktail party so you'll have plenty on hand to use as needed.
Simple Syrup
1 part granulated sugar
1 part water
- In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Boil until sugar is dissolved. Let cool.
- Pour into a sealable jar or an airtight container. Seal and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Honey Syrup
2 parts honey
1 part boiling water
- In a heatproof bowl, stir honey and water until honey is dissolved. Let cool.
- Pour into a sealable jar or an airtight container. Seal and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
