Libations and Choosing Your Signature Cocktail
Choosing your signature cocktail and 3 easy cocktail recipes your wedding guests will love!
One thing we like at CLAY is a well made and balanced cocktail. Creating tasty cocktails doesn’t require a bar-tending course or a liquor cabinet full of every liqueur, bitters, simple syrup and spirit known to man. A little attention to detail and some experimenting will push you further and further into making excellent cocktails that will impress your friends and family when you have them over for dinner. Below are a few tips for creating your own cocktails which will in turn help you figure out what your cocktail of choice is.
Recreate a Classic Cocktail
Start out trying to create some of the simple classics like an olive martini, margarita, Manhattan or an old fashioned. Many of these traditional drinks have fairly simple ingredients which can be used in many drinks.
For example, here is a recipe for one of our favorite cocktails here at CLAY, a dirty olive martini:
Dirty Olive Martini
Ingredients:
3 oz. Vodka
1/2 oz. Olive Brine
Dry Vermouth (in spritzer if available)
3 Olives
Ice
Directions:
In a mixing glass, mix vodka, brine and ice with a bar spoon for forty five seconds to one minute. It should feel like an unnecessary amount of time at first. This step should not be shorted as the ice dilutes out the drink just right to mellow it out.
Next, liberally spray the inside of your martini glass with the dry vermouth and strain the mixture into the glass.
Skewer the olives onto a toothpick and drop into the glass.
Enjoy!
Focusing on the little details and garnish can make or break a cocktail. Good bartenders pay attention to the things like stirring an olive martini for what seems like an unnecessary amount of time to get it just right.
Focus on the Garnish
Garnish on a drink does more than make the drink pleasing to the eye. Taste is a sense that does not just involve your mouth. Researchers say that smell is anywhere from 75% to 95% of how we taste! Think back to your last cold when you were completely plugged up. Foods don’t taste as good when we are sick since the majority of our “taste” is stifled.
A vegetable peeler is a good tool to start with for creating noteworthy libations, and you most likely have one in your kitchen drawer somewhere. Below is another recipe for a classic cocktail which is one of our favorites here at CLAY:
Old Fashioned
Ingredients:
3 oz. Whiskey or Rye
1 White or Demerara Sugar Cube
2-3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Orange Peel
Sphere or Large Cube of Ice
Directions:
Put sugar cube into a low-ball glass and splash the bitters on the cube.
Next, crush the sugar cube with a muddler and add the whiskey.
Stir the mixture well until most of the sugar is dissolved .
Using a vegetable peeler, remove a 3 inch piece of the orange peel in a smooth motion.
Twist the orange peel gently over the glass to get the oils in the drink and rub the outside of the peel around the inside edge of the glass.
Drop the orange peel into the drink, cheers!
Get Creative and Experiment
Becoming good at making cocktails requires experimenting with different spirits, bitters, fruits and anything else you can put into a drink. When making your cocktail, taste a small amount before you serve it or as you add in different ingredients to see if it is well balanced. Not every one of your drinks will be amazing (we are speaking from experience here), but you will continue to make better drinks over time with practice.
Just as with cooking, you stick very close to a recipe when you first make a completely new drink . When you become more comfortable crafting a new cocktail, recipes are more like guidelines than hard-fast rules. Creating tasty cocktails is no different than your progression with cooking! After a few attempts at a certain recipe, feel free to change up ingredients to suit your palate. Some prefer sweeter drinks, while others prefer more booze forward libations.
One way to push your drink making skills is to try to recreate cocktails you enjoyed at a good bar or speakeasy. Sometimes your efforts will fall short of the cocktail you had at your favorite drink spot, but it will always push you to try new techniques and utilized different ingredients.
Don’t be afraid to make your own bitters ,tinctures, infusions or simple syrups. Creating bitters or an infusion just means adding ingredients to alcohol for a set period of time to extract flavors and oils.
Taking a classic recipe and changing little details can make a completely different drink. Take the Old Fashioned recipe above for example. A Black Walnut Old Fashioned is a take on the classic. Instead of a sugar cube, sub in maple syrup, and use black walnut bitters in lieu of the Angostura bitters.
Signature Cocktails
Having a signature cocktail is a great way to have a cocktail (or two) at your wedding without breaking the bank. Having a full bar can be very expensive and having a signature cocktail can showcase you and your partner’s style and taste. Many brides and grooms each choose their own signature cocktail to add variety to the menu. Consider having one drink that is a light spirit based such as a French 75 or a martini and a drink based off of a darker spirit such as an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan.
When selecting your signature cocktail for your big day, it would be best to choose something that is not too difficult to make. Many of your guests will flood the bar at once during cocktail hour to get a drink in hand and they won’t want to wait long on a complex drink.
Below is one more recipe that we created ourselves at CLAY. The name Bearcat comes from 1920’s slang which means: “a lively, spirited woman, possibly with a fiery streak.” We thought the name was fitting being that the drink has spice from ginger and jalapeno in it.
The Bearcat
Ingredients:
3 oz. Vodka
1.5 oz. Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz. Lemon Juice
3/4 oz. Ginger Simple Syrup*
1/2 in. Piece of Jalapeno
Dry Vermouth (in spritzer if available)
Lemon Peel
Ice
Directions:
In a shaker, mix vodka, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, and ginger simple syrup (recipe below for simple syrup).
Add jalapeno and muddle in liquid (remove seeds if less heat desired).
Add ice and vigorously shake for about 30 seconds.
Spray the inside of the glass with dry vermouth.
Strain mixture into up glasses with a fine mesh strainer.
Using a vegetable peeler, remove a 3 inch piece of the lemon peel in a smooth motion.
Twist the lemon peel gently over the glass to get the oils in the drink and rub the outside of the peel around the inside edge of the glass and set peel on the edge of the glass. Cheers!
*Ginger Simple Syrup
Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Water
1 cup Ginger (sliced)
Directions:
Add water and sugar to a saucepan and heat until it is dissolved.
Add ginger slices and reduce heat. Continue to heat for 45 minutes.
Let the mixture cool and strain through a fine mesh strainer.
The syrup can be stored for at least two weeks when refrigerated.
Strain mixture into up glasses with a fine mesh strainer.
