After our little diversion through Asia, it is time to get back to the cocktails. This week it is another cocktail with movie connections. The Tom Collins was the drink of choice for Faye Dunaway's character in Chinatown. Coincidentally, I watched Meet the Fockers last night for the first time, and Jack Nicholson makes Tom Collins' for Robert de Niro and Blythe Danner when they come to visit.
The Tom Collins is 2 oz gin, 1 oz lemon juice, 1 tsp superfine sugar, and 3 oz club soda garnished with a maraschino cherry and an orange slice. The club soda is a nice addition. It gives the Tom Collins a lighter taste than the cocktails we have tried previously. You can vary the amount of club soda you add to adjust the strength of the taste and alcohol content.
If you do not like gin, you can make a Vodka Collins. Just replace the gin with vodka. (Or, as you could guess, you can make any kind of Collins you want by substituting your liquor of choice for the gin.)
The Collins is a good drink. It is not particularly bold and does not have a striking taste, but it is refreshing and pleasant. It is more of a casual drink, perfect to drink while sitting on the patio outside your home on a warm day visiting with some old friends.
This breaks from the theme we were developing previously that good cocktails have complexity and depth. Tom Collins is simple and straightforward, but it is still very enjoyable. Maybe it is not the complexity that makes cocktails what they are. (Yeah, I know. It is the alcohol.) I guess it is the variety that has made it interesting so far. Most of these drinks are new to me, but I have heard of them before, so it is fun to try them and see how they taste. Drinking the same drink over and over would probably not be the same.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Week 8 - Shoju, Shochu, or Soju?
I thought about making this post about sake, since we were in Japan after all, but let's go to something a little more obscure than that - the other native distilled liquors in Japan and South Korea. Shochu (also spelled shoju) is a liquor from Japan and soju is from Korea.
Shochu can be distilled from rice, barley, or sweet potatoes. It is primarily from the southern part of Japan. In fact, the island of Kyushu is famous for its delicious shochu made from sweet potatoes. To me, it tastes a lot like sake. It has a very light, slightly sweet taste. Like sake and wine there is a range of sweetness. Some shochu is dry and some is sweet, but in general it is less sweet than sake. I have usually had it straight or over the rocks, but it can also be served in a chuhai, which is shochu mixed with citrus juice. Another difference between shochu and sake is that shochu has a bit more alcohol content, usually around 25%. Shochu is hard to find in the U.S., but it is very popular in Japan.
Soju is the Korean traditional liquor, and it is traditionally made from rice; although, recently other starches, like potatoes, have been used to make it. To me, soju is very similar to shochu. The major difference is that one is from Japan and one is from Korea. Soju was introduced to Korea during the Mongol War around 1300 A.D. It is derived from a Mongol liquor called arak. (In turn, the Mongols had learned from the Persians how to make arak.)
So, if you are ever in Japan or Korea and you want to sample the local liquor try shochu or soju. You won't find anything like them in the west, and they are quite enjoyable.
Shochu can be distilled from rice, barley, or sweet potatoes. It is primarily from the southern part of Japan. In fact, the island of Kyushu is famous for its delicious shochu made from sweet potatoes. To me, it tastes a lot like sake. It has a very light, slightly sweet taste. Like sake and wine there is a range of sweetness. Some shochu is dry and some is sweet, but in general it is less sweet than sake. I have usually had it straight or over the rocks, but it can also be served in a chuhai, which is shochu mixed with citrus juice. Another difference between shochu and sake is that shochu has a bit more alcohol content, usually around 25%. Shochu is hard to find in the U.S., but it is very popular in Japan.
Soju is the Korean traditional liquor, and it is traditionally made from rice; although, recently other starches, like potatoes, have been used to make it. To me, soju is very similar to shochu. The major difference is that one is from Japan and one is from Korea. Soju was introduced to Korea during the Mongol War around 1300 A.D. It is derived from a Mongol liquor called arak. (In turn, the Mongols had learned from the Persians how to make arak.)
So, if you are ever in Japan or Korea and you want to sample the local liquor try shochu or soju. You won't find anything like them in the west, and they are quite enjoyable.
Week 7 - A Change of Pace, Baijiu
I have gotten a little behind in posting, so here comes the excuses, or actually, one big excuse. I was in China, South Korea, and Japan. That means I was not making cocktails. I did not drink too many cocktails either, but I did try some local alcoholic beverages, so the next couple postings will be about some liquors specific to Asia.
Let's start with China. I was in Shanghai, a bustling city with many people trying to make lots of money. Many foreign companies are investing large amounts of money in Shanghai right now, but I am not sure how many of them are actually making money. In the words of our host, "In China, the government has lots of money, but the people have little." That said, there are many new cars on the road - mainly Volkswagen, BMW, Lexus, and Buick. (Which one of those seems out of place?)
Our hosts were eager to have me sample some Chinese "wine." As they planned our dinner for the evening, they asked me several times if I liked to drink wine, and if I had ever tried Chinese wine. I do like wine, but I had never had Chinese wine before. I did not even know they grew grapes there.
At dinner, they selected a wine and it was brought out to the table in a bottle inside a box. The bottle was square and clear, and it contained a clear liquid that looked more like gin or vodka than wine. It was baijiu, and it turns out that the translation for wine in Chinese is actually just liquor. Baijiu is not made from grapes. It is distilled from sorghum. You probably already know this, but sorghum tastes very different than grapes. Likewise, baijiu tastes much different than western wines. The best description of baijiu I can come up with is it tastes like lighter fluid that has had a piece of rancid bacon soaked in it. In other words, not pleasant.
Luckily, the baijiu was served in tiny, thimble-sized cups so I could toss it down with very little of it actually touching my taste buds. Our hosts seemed a little amazed that I would drink baijiu with them. Apparently, even Chinese people do not like the taste of baijiu. They only drink it for the intoxicating effect.
Another piece of luck is that the food in Shanghai is excellent, so occasionally tossing down a thimble of vile fluid was only a small distraction from enjoying a wonderful meal with lots of fresh seafood.
Let's start with China. I was in Shanghai, a bustling city with many people trying to make lots of money. Many foreign companies are investing large amounts of money in Shanghai right now, but I am not sure how many of them are actually making money. In the words of our host, "In China, the government has lots of money, but the people have little." That said, there are many new cars on the road - mainly Volkswagen, BMW, Lexus, and Buick. (Which one of those seems out of place?)
Our hosts were eager to have me sample some Chinese "wine." As they planned our dinner for the evening, they asked me several times if I liked to drink wine, and if I had ever tried Chinese wine. I do like wine, but I had never had Chinese wine before. I did not even know they grew grapes there.
At dinner, they selected a wine and it was brought out to the table in a bottle inside a box. The bottle was square and clear, and it contained a clear liquid that looked more like gin or vodka than wine. It was baijiu, and it turns out that the translation for wine in Chinese is actually just liquor. Baijiu is not made from grapes. It is distilled from sorghum. You probably already know this, but sorghum tastes very different than grapes. Likewise, baijiu tastes much different than western wines. The best description of baijiu I can come up with is it tastes like lighter fluid that has had a piece of rancid bacon soaked in it. In other words, not pleasant.
Luckily, the baijiu was served in tiny, thimble-sized cups so I could toss it down with very little of it actually touching my taste buds. Our hosts seemed a little amazed that I would drink baijiu with them. Apparently, even Chinese people do not like the taste of baijiu. They only drink it for the intoxicating effect.
Another piece of luck is that the food in Shanghai is excellent, so occasionally tossing down a thimble of vile fluid was only a small distraction from enjoying a wonderful meal with lots of fresh seafood.
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