The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess

dear robert hess

would you have any experience with cranberry liqueur in cocktails, particularlily as an improvement on cranberry juice?
there’s a finnish brand, karpalo, that might be fantastic in a ‘cosmopolitan’.

sinc. niels marthinsen

There are a couple of different cranberry liqueurs on the market, but being a sweet liqueur, they would provide a different flavor profile. Instead of making a “fantastic cosmopolitan”, I’d focus on using them to make a “fantastic cocktail” which might appeal to somebody who otherwise ordered a cosmopolitan.

There are not a lot of choice of cranberry here in Dubai and Ocean Spray seems the best!
I’ve recently discovered, that O.S. also offers 100% cranberry juice.. (however not available in the U.A.E.) - Anyone using (or tried) it?

I am doing the Cosmopolitan with less cranberry (1.5 cl) to get a nice pink hue and to have it more on the Cointreau side…

Further as I like more the classic (European) bar, I am serving the Cosmo in a cocktail bowl (champagne saucer) as I see it as Medium Cocktail! Only Dry Cocktails (Drinks without juice, just containing spirit base, bitter, wine aperitif deserve the cocktail glass (aka martini glass)....

The Cranberry Liqueur i have (Karpalo) is extremely sweet and intense flavored - what I have found to balance it is this:

1 1/2 Gin
1 Lillet Blanc
1/2 Citrus Vodka
1/2 Cranberry Liqueur (Karpalo)
1 dash Orange Bitter

stir with ice, strain into cocktail glass

Brilliant series of videos, thank you for putting them together.  I’ve just found them and spent the past few hours watching the lot, and annotating my edition of Craft of the Cocktail (don’t tell Dale).

My favorite joke about the Cosmo:  Man walks into a bar and orders a Cosmopolitan.  Bartender asks, “and for the gentleman?” Seriously, though, it’s quite good when properly made and really hits the spot now and again.  One can only drink Manhattans so many evenings in a row.

I do agree about using citron vodka in this drink, but I never have it around.  I do, however, really love limoncello and usually have a bottle of Villa Massa in my freezer.  Making a Cosmo with regular vodka and a dash of limoncello works very well indeed.

Cheers!

Mike

Nice idea about adding the dash of lemoncello. Expect that perhaps a dash or two of Fee’s (Or The Bitter Truth) Lemon Bitters would work well too.

My favorite (and supposedly true) joke about the Cosmo:

Man walks into a bar and orders a Cosmopolitan. Bartender reaches down grabs a beer, opens it, and sets it on the counter in front of the customer. Customer says “I said a Cosmopolitan”. Bartender replies “That’s the way we make them around here.”

Cool, I never really thought of cranberry juice as a souring agent before. I suppose it is, though. This video also clears up some confusion I’ve been having on whether or not you’re supposed to shake a drink that’s only got a very small amount of a cloudy ingredient in it. Now I know.

I, too, have a bottle of cranberry liqueur, and no idea what to do with it. I’m not sure if it’s the same brand as what’s discussed above (note that “karpalo” just means “cranberry” in Finnish), mine is called Lapponia, and is also Finnish. Niels, I must try your recipe once I’ve gotten hold of some orange bitters. You got a name for that cocktail?

there is another drink called The Cosmopolitan and it is from the 1930something, first printed in a small book named Gin Drinks For Elite Bars:
2 oz Gin
1/2 oz real Grenadine Syrup
1/2 oz Cointreau
1 oz Lemon Juice
Historicaly both drinks have nothing to do with each other except the name and the color(!).
In our place we have a competition Cosmo 80 vs. Cosmo 30 (that means you can order both to compare them). Up to now it counts 29 : 9 for the Cosmo 30.
If you try it use a little less of grenadine an Cointreau.

Oliver,
The book you are thinking of is “Pioneers of Mixing Gins at Elite Bars”, published in 1933. The recipe presented in the book was:

COSMOPOLITAN
Jigger Gordon Gin
2 Dashes Cointreau
Juice of One Lemon
Teaspoon Raspberry
Glass No. 4, Shake and strain.

(Glass No.4 was a 3 1/2 ounce goblet)

Juice of an entire lemon is WAY too much for this drink. A proper recipe woudl be along the lines of:

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/4 oz Cointreau
1 tsp Raspberry syrup

Thank you Robert, i forgot our little modernisation. As you know a lot of drinks with raspberry syrup changed to grenadine (or pommegranate) syrup so we do. also the style of cointreau changed a lot by the way. but with both recipes it is quite a good drink.

Robert, I’ve been realizing that it’s difficult to always have the various juices around (cranberry, orange, pineapple, coconut milk, etc.) due to expiration dates, souring, etc.  I love having a great variety of drinks available to my guests and myself, but this often leads to some ingredients being neglected and going bad.  Are concentrates the way to go?  Maybe I should buy small amounts of each ingredient.  Or is the answer in just getting over it and being happy that most of these ingredients are cheap?  Just curious as to the way you think home bars should deal with this situation.

For cranberry, pineapple, and tomato juice, I usually buy them in the very small cans, which keep for quite a while unopened. For creme of coconut, or coconut milk (which are two different things), the standard cans are the smallest I’ve found. For orange, I usually use fresh squeezed, with a couple small cans in the fridge just for “emergency” usage for those times when I really need some orange juice “now”, and don’t have any fresh oranges on hand.

I’ve often wondered if it is better to use 100% cranberry juice, cranberry cocktail or even try white cranberry cocktail.  Apparently some stores even carry a 100% unsweetened cranberry juice.

Anyone have any experience with these?

Blair