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Chapter 1 Getting Started with Cocktails
In This Chapter Discovering shaken drinks Delving into alcohol types Stocking up on the right equipment
ant to find out how to create crowd-pleasing cocktails? WThen this chapter is for you. In this chapter, you dis- cover everything you need to know about shaken drinks. So, Just What Is a Shaken Drink? This booklet focuses on shaken drinks — the types you make with the handy-dandy kit packaged with this booklet. The main reasons for shaking are to chill a cocktail, mix ingredi- ents, or put a head on some cocktails. WhenCOPYRIGHTED you think of shaken drinks, MATERIAL think martinis, cosmos, mojitos, and sours. A martini, known as James Bond 007’s drink of choice, is usually made with gin or vodka and dry vermouth, and served chilled in a garnished martini glass. A Cosmopolitan is a type of martini that typically contains lime and cranberry juice. A mojito, shaken with ice, consists prima- rily of rum, mint, sugar, and soda water, plus other ingredients to taste. And a sour is another type of shaken drink, usually consisting of liqueur, juice, and sugar. 05_758205 ch01.qxd 9/30/05 10:46 PM Page 4
4 Cocktail Tips For Dummies
A martini is considered a short drink, which simply means that it contains mostly alcohol. A long drink, on the other hand, contains mostly nonalcoholic ingredients.
Of course, just like every cook’s meat loaf recipe is different, variations on these drinks abound. As a result, you’ll want to check out the recipes listed later in this book. Getting Familiar with Alcohol Types If you don’t like the alcohols used in a shaken drink, you prob- ably won’t like the drink. That’s because mixers and other nonalcoholic ingredients don’t disguise the flavor of the spir- its, as they can in long drinks.
The following sections describe the basic alcohols used in shaken drinks. Gin Although gin has been produced and consumed for centuries, the methods for making the quality gin that you drink today have been around only since the turn of the 20th century. Gin comes in many types: