Strengths and weakness of the different liquors?

[mbanu]

Came across this quote in the Preface to an old edition of the Larousse Guide to Cocktails:

"Louis Delluc said that a cocktail is not just the sum of its ingredients; it is the way in which they are put together. In fact, the art of creating cocktails lies not just in choosing ingredients but in combining them in the correct proportions. This sort of expertise can only be achieved by someone who has studied well-tried and proven cocktail recipes. It is important to have a thorough knowledge of the clasic cocktails, because improvization is not recommended to a beginner unfamiliar with the strengths and weaknesses of alcoholic drinks and mixes. [...] For, in fact, it is not immdiately obvious which alcohols and wines go well together. Harmony has its own rules and demands. For example, David Embury describes whisky as 'a gloomy old bachelor fiercely determined to guard his independence and rarely showing any disposition to marry'. And who would risk mixing whisky with other drinks unless they had first tried Rob Roy or Rusty Nail? The same could be said of vodka, gin, brandy etc."

Does anyone have any mixing advice? I mentioned my experiences with gin in an earlier post, but was curious with people's experiences with other spirits.

Here are mine:

Vodka: The most friendly of mixers. Good for punches where one is serving the lowest common denominator, and with tricky ingredient combinations that don't seem to like other types of alcohol. Also useful as a stretcher and blender, for lightening the strength of heavier spirits, and as a strength enhancer, where you are trying to showcase the points of a liqueur or other mixer without disturbing the flavor profile.

Rum: The 2nd most friendly of mixers. Useful in that it plays especially well with both fruit and nut flavors. Overproof rum is one of the most versatile and underused spirits in the world today.

Gin: I've already written on, but in general, tends to do better with bittersweet and spicy flavors, like Lillet, creme de menthe, tonic water and ginger ale. However, the botanicals in gin seem to fight with the ones in Angostura when you combine them. Gin seems to be fussy when combining with nuttier flavors like sherry, cola, or whiskey, (careful brand selection can solve this sometimes, as can using mediator ingredients) although it seems to do fine with chocolate for some reason.

Bourbon: Does especially well with nutty flavors. Plays well with some fruit juices (apple comes to mind) but dislikes carbonation. (Adding bitters can sometimes help with the carbonation problem, as can using blended bourbon.)

Rye: The more mixable brother of bourbon. Seems to enjoy being most places bourbon enjoys, with the extra benefit of having no trouble with carbonation.

Scotch: Depends on the region. Islay scotch seems to be the crankiest. No problem with carbonation, but needs some prodding from other ingredients to do well with most juices. Vodka is useful for cutting down on the assertiveness of single-malt in short drinks. Otherwise the best bets seem to be with using ingredients that showcase the scotch, or using ingredients equally as assertive.

All spirits seem to appreciate the sweetened citrus combination.

Anything to add/disagree on/comment on?

Edited November 9, 2005 by mbanu (log)