6:45 PM
Dear Dave,
Well, here it is: the first cocktail post.
Tonight I made something called The Parisian. The recipe seemed straightforward enough: equal measures gin, dry vermouth, and crème de cassis. However, the cocktail book in which I found this recipe has a tendency to be a bit off with its measurements. I went to Our Friend the Interwebz and located a tweaked recipe that called for only a quarter ounce of crème de cassis. I decided to use that recipe.
The cocktail has a lovely pink hue, but I'm a bit at a loss for words. It tastes, predictably, like a very dry, vermouth-y martini. The crème de cassis is buried in the mix, and I only get a hint of the black currant flavor after my brain acknowledges the vermouth. And good christ does this have an overwhelming vermouth note. The drink lacks balance and subtlety because the vermouth bangs down the door, hollering, "Y'all like fortified wine*, RIGHT?"
The only reason I'm posting this is because I want to make the cocktail with the book's recipe.
Look forward to an edit - I can't imagine that I'll make another one tonight. This first Parisian? Mai oui, c'est fort!
Joe
*Did you know that vermouth was a type of fortified wine? I didn't. Yay, reading.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
UPDATE!
I attempted the Parisian again this evening, bringing the crème de cassis quotient up to a full ounce. This gave the drink a truly beautiful, other-worldly hue. It would not look out of place in a science fiction movie.
This revision to the recipe, though, has led me to a bit of an existential crisis with crème de cassis. Dave, I ask you: what is the point of crème de cassis? Did we buy an inferior bottle? Is its role only to imbue your cocktail with color? Are French people this desperate to get drunk?
True: this version of the Parisian is infinitely better than the one I made last night. The vermouth has been subdued by the extra 3/4 ounce of crème de cassis, but I barely taste any of the pronounced black currant flavor we enjoyed a few days ago. Additionally, this Parisian has a slightly thicker quality to it, which only solidifies my initial opinion that crème de cassis is little more than glorified cough syrup.
Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe the Parisian is just a bland, unoriginal cocktail that lacks depth of flavor. Maybe it's a cocktail designed for people who don't like cocktails. But, Dave, as you know, I love cocktails. I crave something interesting and unique, a remarkable flavor profile. I do not get this with the Parisian. I get Cosmopolitans for Slightly More Sophisticated Woo-Girls.
I wonder, too, if gin is too subtle a host for crème de cassis. Perhaps what this liqueur needs is a more robust host. Rum or (ugh) tequila or bourbon. Mmmmm... bourbon.
If we had followers for this blog, this is where I would make a plea to readers to help me understand what this liqueur has to offer. Alas.
I'm looking forward to what your experiment yields. Perhaps you'll have more success. And if it doesn't result in success, perhaps our collective big, beautiful brains will uncover a combination that reveals crème de cassis' true character.
I remain, though, doubtful.
Intrigued, but doubtful.
Nerdy Librarian Citations
"Parisian" Bar None Drinks. Bar None Drink Recipes, 2013. Web. 4 Jan. 2016. <http://www.barnonedrinks.com>
Walton, Stuart, Suzannah Olivier, & Joanna Farrow. The Bartender's Companion to 750 Cocktails. London: Hermes House, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment