A few weeks ago I decided to pick a hobby. I liked that MC has been enjoying cooking and baking and I wanted something i could do. After going to one of MC’s friends houses while on vacation and seeing their awesome bar and his ability to mix up drinks I settled on learning to make more cocktails. My first drink was something i tried before but hadn’t perfected. It was the Chocolate Martini. I wanted to do a Manhattan but I didn’t have all the ingredients. Initial results over the several days I was making them for MC & I were very positive.
This weekend I worked on my second drink. This time i selected the Side Car. It is one of my favorite cocktails. Many places MC and I goto do not get it right or have no idea what we are talking about when we ask for it. I figured I would be complex so I said challenge accepted. After my research on it I realized it is a classic drink that is not as popular as it was in the 1940’s. That explained why most bartenders don’t know it off the top of their head. The good ones look at us funny when we tell them that others don’t know how to make it.
For the Sidecar I needed to buy Cognac and more lemon juice. The first prototype was good but MC thought it was too lemony. I made some adjustments with more Cognac and less lemon and that was ok but not perfect. It wasn’t until Saturday night were I tweaked the recipe with less lemon juice and more triple sec that we were happy. I was surprised at how easy it was to do with very little practice. Now we can have our favorite cocktail anytime.
I now have to figure out what will my next drink challenge be.