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From the Knowledge Vault

Craft Cocktail Making: Theory and Structure of Acidity

Ward Eight A rye cocktail acidified with citrus.

The dividing line between a cocktail enthusiast and a craft cocktail aficionado is knowledge. Anyone can enjoy a cocktail, and with enough time spent at or behind a bar, attain a good enough working knowledge of brands and flavors of alcohol. Some of these people go on to create a new cocktail, usually starting with a common drink or ratio of spirits to other ingredients and tweaking them to make something pleasant.

Alas, this approach lacks repeatability in creating quality craft cocktails. Craft cocktails are not dump buckets for every neon colored, super sweet liqueur that your distributor is pushing. And they are not made to mask the flavor of alcohol, but to support and sustain it.

Combinations that should work based on the flavors of the components often fail to impress in the glass due to a lack of understanding of those same component's structural elements. Skilled mixologists construct cocktails from some basic building blocks: alcohol, sugar, acidity, and bitterness. A thorough understand of these primary elements can help craft cocktail designers make great drinks with a minimum of waste and trial and error.

Acidity

The cocktail dates back to the earliest parts of the 19th century. The original contained no acidic agents – just a simple mix of spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. But by 1862, Jerry Thomas had entire sections for Sours, Fixes, and Daisies, all of which featured acidity prominently. Certainly, the use of spirit-plus-acidity dates back to the 18th century Punch, which were spirit, water, lemon and sugar, with some other ingredients added for flavoring.

Recent Additions

  • You Mixed What ?? — Irish whiskey, Dark Crème de Cacao, Dry vermouth, Bitters, Sage syrup, Sherry vinegar
  • Employee's Entrance — Cognac, Herbal liqueur, Lemon bitters, Citron liqueur, Pomegranate juice
  • Nail Biter — Pisco, Framboise, Dark Crème de Cacao, Orange bitters, Lime juice, Sherry vinegar
  • Against the Grain — Gin, Dry vermouth, Pear eau de vie, Crème de Violette, Apricot liqueur, Lemon peel
  • Swing of Things — Aquavit, Lemon juice, Orgeat, Grenadine

Recent Discussion

  • Re Streets of Crocodiles, 15 hours 27 minutes ago noksagt commented:

    Absolute banger.

  • Re Don Draper's Bitter End, 19 hours 54 minutes ago Mixin In Ansley commented:

    Adult like Don but a little predictable just like Don.

  • Re Amertinez, 1 day ago Aviation__1952 commented:

    FANTASTIC !!! I was incredibly lucky this evening to see this cocktail, and even more: to actually have all the ingredients at-hand.

    Delicious !! I have added this one into my own personal cocktail database, and have shared it with several friends.

  • Re Maloney No. 2, 4 days ago Shawn C commented:

    The units conversions between metric and English units can be problematic. The idea seems to have been to default to increments available in more conventional metric or U.S. bar equipment, but the result is that the proportions can be altered when using units other than the system the cocktail was entered in (or vs. the source reference.) In this case the source is a U.S. recipe, so the metric conversions are .25 cl high both for the Cynar and the Maraschino. Both are fine in English (U.S.) units, so when in doubt, toggle the unit choice in your account to match the way it was likely entered, and/or check the source. Curation note: I have updated the reference to a direct link to the cocktail.

  • Re Metal Urbain, 1 week ago sfnyc commented:

    Another outstanding drink from Yarm.