Paystyle over at Umami Mart hits the nail on the head when he talks about the “dumbing down of drink culture” in reference to that venerable cocktail, the Irish coffee.

While drinks can get pretty complicated (bring on the liquid nitrogen!) I believe that simplicity, like in a basic pasta dish, can be a thing of beauty with a cocktail. Look at a margarita made with freshly-squeezed lime juice or a negroni with the surprisingly-balanced interplay between sweet, bitter and herbal notes.

With the wealth of information available online and in many fine books, there’s no excuse for not drawing upon the knowledge of all the bartenders who have gone before to make your cocktails as good as they can possibly be. As in cooking, experimentation can be a lot of fun but start off by following the recipe exactly. You won’t know how to build your own spin on a classic if you can’t appreciate the foundation.

Let’s look at the margarita again.

A lazy bartender might take the house tequila, add some Triple Sec, pour in an ounce-and-a-half of the semi-sweet lime mix and stir it all together in a rocks glass over ice with a salt rim. A much better alternative takes only a minute or so more to prepare and you can taste the difference.

Another way many bartenders cut corners is with technique. They’ll shake when they should stir (or vice versa) or use premixed juices or halve ingredient proportions to save on inventory. The guest may or may not notice but this kind of attitude, whether encouraged by the management or not, will come back to bite you in the ass.

The hotel I work at currently has a bartender who won’t make anything too complicated; he prefers to tell the guest that “we don’t do that”. I don’t have to work around him too often to know that he’s leaving guests with a less-than-favorable impression of the bar and the hotel, whether they may say anything or not. Now, I’m not necessarily advocating a SIR Corp approach to bartending but there’s got to be a happy medium between maniacally-smiling up-seller and dour old schooler. The pretentious, the incompetent and those mercenaries who are only doing it for the money should really find another line of work (hardly practical, I know, but those fuckers get me down).

Guests at home are even more forgiving but that’s no reason not to show off what you can do with a minimum of effort.

Classic Margarita
2 lime wedges
kosher salt
1 1/2 oz agave tequila
1 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz Cointreau

Rub a wedge of lime around the rim of the chilled margarita glass, and salt the rim. Fill the prepared glass with ice. Shake the liquid ingredients vigorously with ice. Strain into the prepared glass. Squeeze the remaining lime wedge over the drink and drop it in.

Now, if you know a classic margarita by heart, you’re entitled to a little fun.

Japhet’s Margarita
4 limes (approx. 3 1/2 oz juice)
kosher salt
1 1/2 oz agave tequila
1 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz Grand Marnier

Rub a wedge of lime around the rim and ring the glass with coarse, kosher salt. Fill the prepared glass with ice. Take three of the limes and roll them firmly beneath your hand on a cutting board (this separates the juice from the pulp and makes it easier to squeeze it all out)
Cut them in half and squeeze ‘em into the glass. Add the tequila and then the Grand Marnier and stir. Peel a thick slice of zest of the remaining lime and place on top of the cocktail.

While I may be more precise with my instructions, they’re easy to follow, don’t take that much more time and still fall under the mantle of being “simple”. My take doesn’t diverge that much from tradition and there are plenty of folks who have arrived at the same conclusion but I believe that guests really appreciate a personal touch when they take the time to go out to a bar. They could be at home drinking whatever but they’re out; the least a bartender can do is prepare something with a little love and flair.

I use Grand Marnier because I think it makes most cocktails that call for orange liqueur better (try it in your cosmos, it’s called a Grand Cosmo) and I think it balances the tartness of the lime juice without the need for any added sugar. Some bartenders feel that it takes away from the flavor of a premium tequila but I’d argue that you should just go with a Tequila Sour at the point. Kosher salt is obviously more flavorful than the regular variety and also has a more pleasing texture.

I like to use Mittie Hellmich’s Ultimate Bar Book (the classic recipe above is quoted verbatim) but as any good one will tell you, the secret to a great margarita is to use freshly-squeezed lime juice with 100% agave tequila and premium orange liqueur.

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