Ask A Bartender: Should I Refrain From Using Expensive Spirits In Cocktails?

Monday, August 24, 2015

Kai Soderberg, GoLocalPDX contributor

How to drink your scotch has more to do with your mood than arbitrary rules imposed by people you've never met.

Scotch and mezcal have in common an aura of distinction that they did not ask for. Maybe it’s the price point, maybe it’s the distinct flavor; i.e., smokiness that lends it this status as a spirit not to be compromised in a cocktail, but then we have to question why we are so concerned about being pure. If something works with something else, use it. Honor the sacrifices you make, sure, but make appropriate sacrifices. Nothing is so sophisticated that you can’t drink it with something else. A really good scotch opens up with tap water. That’s okay. First you have to understand that there are at least two types of cocktails. Push and pull. A push cocktail is a cocktail designed to push out the existing profile of a spirit, mask and defeat it. These are the types of drinks that gained popularity in the sixties and seventies and will forever be a part of competitive drinking and high school parties. Then there are the cocktails that pull certain flavors in by combining them with other flavors, these are the cocktails that embrace the base ingredient rather than try to hide it. And when people talk about craft cocktails, this is what they are referring to.

Somehow the notion that things that taste delicious on their own should only be enjoyed on their own has become prevalent even and especially amongst bartenders. Why is this? Because no matter how the cocktail evolves, it is still seen as a vehicle for you to climb inside as you go for your drunken state. And in the final analysis, that’s what cocktails are (would we really make such a fuss over perfecting the Arnold Palmer or debate ad nauseam how much pulp orange juice should have?), but that doesn’t make them any less sophisticated than a good scotch or a good mezcal, alone or on the rocks. A good thing can always be better. More to the point though, a good thing can always be put to good use in the right hands.
What is a cocktail? A mix breed, an abomination, there is no reason for it to exist except that somebody created it to improve his experience. No big deal, really. There is no such thing as sacrilege when it comes to booze. If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, making booze out of water in the first place would be the sacrilege.

Mezcal, as scotch’s slightly more approachable sibling, is more apt to be mixed into a cocktail but it’s also relatively new in the Portland market so a lot of bartenders are just eager to do something new and exciting with it. A lot of mezcal cocktails are uninspired as a result. Namely the mezcal margarita takes a perfectly good drink and just, well, smokes it out.

The rule with both spirits seems to be that a little bit goes a long way. A smoky aftertaste is sometimes just what you want. Too much of it and you’ll lament ever adding anything else to it in the first place. A smoke and a drink are so intricately tied together that if you imbibe in both, it’s almost impossible to give up one without – at least temporarily- easing up on the other. When I tried to give up smoking at the beginning of last year- right around the beginning of January as it happens- I spent a lot of time fussing with a concoction that tasted like a menthol cigarette. I gave up on quitting smoking before I ever made a concoction convincing enough to deliver nicotine to my nervous system but my first considered ingredient was mezcal- I got the smokiness part down at least. But I learned that you only want to use a little.

With the exception of the Rob Roy- a Manhattan with scotch swapping out rye as the base and an orange peel standing in for a cherry as the garnish (orange flavor compliments scotch and mezcal exceedingly well for whatever reason), there are not many scotch cocktails of note that are heavy on the scotch. Probably the most exciting is the penicillin cocktail. This particular cocktail combines ginger, honey, lemon and scotch to a warming and soothing effect. Even the penicillin uses blended scotch-not notoriously peaty, with only a float of the smoky Islay scotch for good measure. Another (or the other) famous scotch cocktail, the Blood and Sand (an equal measured drink of orange juice, scotch, cherry heering and sweet vermouth) may just belong in the category of drinks that are famous for being not quite as awful as they look on paper.

So what’s the take home? Don’t listen to absolutists. There is no place for them in your drink. The reason for all the hoopla over subject matter as seemingly trivial as finding the newest and pleasantest way to get drunk, is because new things are happening; new ingredients are becoming available and new techniques are becoming known every day. Cocktails represent a last frontier for creative exploration -especially for those of us who don’t know how to put our degrees to any good use. But you have to be honest with yourself. You have to know what you like and be okay with admitting it. Obey your own intuition. Cocktails like the Stinger that call for a perfectly good cognac, then proceed to shake it up with crème de menthe are for the gaudy and obnoxiously rich. Ordering a stinger is the olden-day equivalent of using a hundred dollar bill to light your cigar. You kind of have to be a jerk or at least want to be a jerk to do it. That being said, it’s undeniably refreshing. Just as I’m sure lighting a cigar with a c-note is undeniably cathartic, provided you’ve had a sufficient amount of stingers before doing so. In short, do whatever you want. But remember before doing anything, self-doubt and frugality are your best friends. Bottoms up.

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