Flavoured syrups are a useful component to cocktails as they allow us to add flavour at the same time as adding the sugar that is necessary in many drinks to achieve sweet:sour balance.
Unfortunately mass production and efforts to achieve economies of scale may be good for many of the big-brand syrup producer’s bottom lines but they have had a pretty negative effect on the quality of many of the products that reach the market. Spinning around to the ingredients list on a syrup bottle you’re more likely to find a long list of artificial flavours, colours, preservatives and other E numbers than anything resembling a simple combination of sugar, water and authentic flavouring. Grenadine is no exception.
Originally made from pomegranates, modern store bought Grenadine is usually a bright red, artificial ‘red berry’ flavoured syrup sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and is commonly used to provide a berry flavour without the alcohol of berry shrubs or liqueurs.
If we are going to make Grenadine to use at home then we want the original, proper pomegranate flavour; we could use real pomegranates but instead we are going to cheat and use pomegranate juice – its quick, easy, and still gives us the real fruity flavour we’re after.
The “Cheaters” Grenadine Syrup Recipe
What you need
Pomegranate juice (we see note below)
Fine sugar
Method
Very quick and easy; to make the Grenadine all you need to do is mix equal amounts of the Pomegranate juice and fine sugar in a bowl until the mixture is completely dissolved. Once the mixture has dissolved you can transfer the syrup into a bottle and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. It really is that easy!
Sugar
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Followed by juice…then Stir! Stir! Stir!The finished product – Grenadine
Note:
The key to making sure you make good grenadine this way is to ensure that you are using pure pomegranate juice – you want to make sure that the juice is 100% pomegranate juice so make sure you get a decent product like POM Wonderful. It’s worth paying a little more for a much better flavour.
When it comes to making quick and easy cocktails, there is nothing faster than a built drink.
As the name suggests, building a cocktail is a process of adding one ingredient after the other and stacking them straight into the glass, no shaking or straining necessary.
When do we build cocktails?
We use the built drink mixing method to make cocktails that do not need the extra cooling, mixing or dilution that the other more aggressive mix methods give us – it works best with ingredients that will mix together easily.
Built drinks are often long drinks (served in highball or Collins glasses) and will normally have few ingredients.
The easiest order to make a built drink at home is:
Start by adding the non-alcoholic ingredients (lemon or lime juice, syrups etc) to the glass first. Alcohol is pricey [well it is here in Sweden anyway…] so this way if you make a mistake with the measures of syrups or juices you’re not going to have to throw any precious booze away.
Alcohol
Once the non alcoholic ingredients are in the glass it’s time to add the spirits and liqueurs. Remember to use a measure to ensure the correct amount of booze goes into your cocktail as we want these drinks to taste good and that’s only going to happen if our proportions are correct.
Ice
Non-alcohol and alcohol are now in the glass so it’s time to add ice. Remember that for most drinks (especially those in Highball or Collins glasses) we want to add as much ice as possible as this will slow down the dilution and also stop us from adding to much mixer.
Mixer
With the glass stacked with ice we can now add the mixers/lengthening ingredients (soda, coke, fruit juices etc). If you are making a long drink then pour the mixer until about ½ cm from the top of the glass – if the glass is too full then you’re more likely to spill.
Finish
Use your bar spoon to carefully give the drink a stir, add your garnishes and straws as necessary and you’re ready to serve.
Using the right glass for each cocktail is very important. Different glass shapes can help bring out and accentuate certain qualities of a cocktail including the aroma and flavour and having the right size will also ensure that the drinks you’re preparing will fit correctly and not leave you with too much/little liquid.
Bars generally have the luxury of larger budgets than us at home and can afford to buy many different types of glasses (including some pretty exotic ones). These fancy shapes and styles look great but are luckily are not necessary for your home bar.
If you want to make cocktails on a realistic budget you’ll be able to make a huge variety with just the following glassware.
Buy Collins Glasses A Collins is a tall glass tumbler that usually holds around 300-400ml (10-14oz)– a highball is similar in size but is usually a little taller and more narrow and for home use you can usually interchange the two. An ice filled Collins is the perfect size for the Tom Collins or any of the Collins family of drinks (hence the name) but will also hold the majority of our long cocktails, so named due to the long glass, and also spirit-and-mixer style combinations such as your gin ‘n’ tonics, rum and cokes or whatever your particular drink of choice happens to be.
Example: Tom Collins, Mojito, Cuba Libra
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Old Fashioned/Rocks
Buy Rocks Glasses Another glass named after a drink (in the case the amazing Old Fashioned, a definite bartender favourite).
Shorter and wider than a highball or Collins, the shape allows the aroma of the drink to display more than it would in something more narrow.
An Old Fashioned glass is commonly used to serve short drinks ‘on the rocks’, which means alcohol with ice (and gives us the other common name for the glass – Rocks), or neat, where the alcohol is served in the glass without ice, often seen in the case of spirits likewhiskey.
A standard Old Fashioned glass holds between 180-300ml (6-10oz) but it’s also easy to find glasses that are bigger, often between 300-400ml in which case they could actually hold the same amount of liquid as a Collins or Highball glass.
Example: Old Fashioned, Bramble, Whiskey Sour
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Shot Glass
Buy Shot Glasses A shot glass is a small glass, usually holding somewhere between 25ml-100ml, that is most commonly used for a single or double measure of alcohol, or shot, often intended to be consumed in one go (like the Tequila/Lime/Salt deal commonly served as a bit of liquid energy in bars around the world.
Example: B52, Tequila Slammer
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Cocktail (Martini)
Buy Cocktail/Martini Glasses Commonly, and incorrectly (if we are to be technical about it) referred to as a Martini glass after the famous cocktail that is commonly served in it.
The cocktail glass, with its thin stem and delicate bowl, is a great mix of form and function. The stem gives us the ability to hold the glass without transferring our body heat and inadvertently warming the chilled drink inside; the bowl shape allows us to take in the aromatic scents of the spirit, liqueurs and garnishes as we raise it to our mouth.
Early cocktails glasses held around 100ml (3 or 4oz) as drinks served in cocktail glasses are usually served without ice – this small size allowed you to finish your drink while it was still cold. Modern cocktail glasses tend to be larger at around 200ml and most of our recipes reflect this larger sizing – you can use smaller glasses if you have them, but if you follow modern recipes then expect some leftovers.
Example: Dry Martini, Manhattan, Cosmopolitan
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Brandy Balloon/snifter
Buy Brandy Glasses The Brandy Balloon, or snifter, is used to serve neat spirits such as brandy or whiskey, and usually holds somewhere between 180-300ml of liquid. We tend not to fill the glass and only put a small amount of liquor in, usually a single or double measure (so around 25-75ml).
The shape, wide at the bottom and more narrow at the top, gives the liquid a larger surface area which allows it to evaporate slightly faster, while the narrow part at the top of the glass works to catch the aroma it gives off. The glass has a stem but this tends to be used for the opposite reason we have a stem in cocktail or wine glasses – with a balloon we actually hold the bottom of the glass, using the heat of our hands to warm the liquor inside the glass which is thought to improve the flavours in some spirits.
Example: Stinger
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Sparkling Wine/Champagne Flute
. Buy Champagne Flute Glasses The sparkling wine glass, or Champagne flute as it tends to be known (remembering that Champagne is a particular type of sparkling wine from France) is used for sparkling wine, sparkling wine cocktails or other drinks that we want to remain nice and fizzy.
The tall, narrow shape of the glass reduces the surface area of the wine and helps it keep its carbonation (the ‘fizzyness’ if you will), and the stem allows the wine to remain nice and cold. A standard flute tends to hold around about 180ml (6oz).
Example: Bellini, French 75, Classic Champagne Cocktail
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Wine Glass
Buy Wine Glasses One that you’re likely to have at home already, we also use standard wine glasses for cocktails. As with the cocktail glass and Champagne flute, the stem on the wine glass stops our heat of our hand warming the liquid. Standard wine glasses hold anywhere from around 175-250ml.
Example: Cobbler, Spritzer
That’s it for glassware basics. Let me know if you have any questions or queries and once you’re ready be sure to check out Mixing Cocktails 101 – the guide that explains the methods and reasons behind cocktail mixing methods including shaking, building, stirring and layering.
