Adventures in Mixology

Our first recollections of cocktails were the dark rum highballs at our friend’s parents’ house out on Long Island. Their house originated in the era of crinolines and parasols for the summer enjoyment of a well-to-do New York family and evoked an Edith Wharton sensibility. Older now, the couple spent leisurely days in the elegant yet gradually shabby house with colorful flowery wallpaper on the parlor walls. Upstairs, bedrooms where earlier guests would have taken their afternoon rest before dressing for dinner still held the faint smell of lavender. Stepping across the wrap-around covered porch with comfortable wicker chairs covered with flowery cinch cushions, a gently rolling green lawn led to the water several yards below.

We spent several memorable weekends there, grateful guests to a gracious host. In the lulling heat of the summer afternoons, our friend would fill a large canvas bag with ice cubes, toss it on the stone kitchen floor and smash them to ice chips with a heavy wooden mallet. On the marble counter tops, he would then line up tall glasses, fill them with ice and pour in dark Jamaican rum, lemon and sugar to make cool refreshing rum punches for everyone in the house. Somehow, this scene has stayed with us for decades as a quintessential element of WASP gentility.

Cocktails were not a part of our culinary vocabulary when we began our independent lives in the 1970s. We drank beer when travelling abroad because it was usually cleaner than tap water and always cheaper than wine, coke or bottled water. At home, we began our cultural sophistication by slowly exploring French and Italian wines from our neighborhood liquor store. A very palatable St Emillion could be had for under $5 at that time. Whether it was properly good or just good enough for our palates, we will never know although on one occasion we tested our purchase by bringing a bottle to our more sophisticated friends and remember our host pronouncing it “perky”. Maybe he was being kind but we chose to think him a snob.

Cocktails are an American invention first prepared in the 1860s but popularized during the Prohibition Era as a way to enhance the taste of the subpar liquor procured through illegal distilling during those years. They were relatively sweet and frequently included bitters. During Prohibition, they were served in speakeasies and enjoyed by men and women both. They were also popularized in Europe where well-off Americans would go to enjoy drinking in public. After Prohibition came the war, followed by the chaste 1950s, then the anti-establishment 1960s and early 1970s and the cocktail receded in popularity and became a signature of nostalgic Roaring Twenties movies, a decadent but passé glamour. In the meantime, America woke to the pleasure of wine and the glass of Chablis replaced the martini for many years. It is not clear what prompted the gradual return to the cocktail but it started making a come back during the 1990s and recovered its pre-eminence at the bar by 2000.

Our family first became conversant with the cocktail lexicon after we moved to Houston, when our son took a mixology course and needed help with his licensing exam. I recall pimping him on the shaker, the muddler, the right glasses and the ingredients of mixed drinks. He also prepared several cocktails for us by way of practice; he went on to have a limited career in bartending at private parties until the rigors of school diminished his enthusiasm. The experience, however, left us with a lingering interest in mixed drinks.

Our first undertaking in cocktails was the Margarita which is rather a national drink for Texas. At some point we decided to try our hand in this summer cooler but wanted to make it from its original ingredients rather than pour the pre-made mixes which tended to be too sweet and not sufficiently “organic”. The proper recipe calls for tequila, triple sec, freshly squeezed lime juice (3:1:1) and a dash of simple syrup. There was a satisfying simplicity in stacking all the ingredients and putting the drink together freshly compiled for each imbiber in well chilled glasses to be enjoyed out by the poolside with good conversation and company. There was something vaguely exotic about Tequila and the ritual was pleasantly reminiscent of those Long Island afternoons with the canvas bag and the mallet and the dark Rum. The Margarita was also quite tart and refreshing during the long, hot Houston months. Over time we tried different tequilas, each with slightly different character. One variation proved the most interesting: substituting Mescal for Tequila creates a muskier, more complex flavor with a smoky taste and a smoother finish. There is one more twist here:  older instructions for a Margarita suggest that using “gomme syrup” from gum Arabic, a resin of the Acacia tree makes for a silkier drink texture. It remains our next frontier.

Our next milestone was the Martini, this original and everlasting leader among cocktails. Myrna Loy in the Thin Man and later James Bond are its iconic ambassadors and continue to evoke an atmosphere of leisure and glamour. The three martini lunch has also returned with MadMen the wildly popular TV series. Originally, the recipes called for sweet vermouth and gin in a 3:1 ratio (nowadays, this is called an inverse Martini). Gradually, the rules called for drier and drier versions with the Vermouth almost non-existent: shaken, not stirred, vodka instead of gin. We have tried them all and find that we prefer gin and have made the drink less dry over the years with white vermouth (4:1).

In fashionable circles, bar tenders are increasingly adding ever more peculiar and sweet ingredients like chocolate and peaches which seems to run against all tradition, a bit like eating a cinnamon-raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese. Using the bounties of our garden, we have created herb infusions that we find the most interesting. We have tried basil and rosemary but our favorite has become tarragon: drop several sprigs in a small jar, add the gin and let the flavors blend in the refrigerator until it is time to enjoy a cocktail. It is fragrant and pleasing with a smooth grassy taste. For a spicier after-burn, best enjoyed in colder weather we have also infused small red hot peppers.

Time moves on and tastes evolve. Despite all the innovations and explorations into mixed drinks, however, the fundamental remains a modest but tasteful glass of wine with dinner across the table from one another with a freshly prepared meal and good conversation.