Learning to Drink by Family - The Side Car:Oh cocktails, how you do me so right. There are so many incredible compositions of flavor that often it is hard to decide where to start. We here at El Dorado offer up a selection of our favorite cocktails we have savored over the years. But where do all these delicious concoctions stem from? Well my friends, here is one delicious family that is a staple root in the cocktail family tree. According to David A. Embury’s The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, it is one of the six basic cocktails.
Coincidently, I believe it was the cunning Matthew Stanton who shook up my first Sidecar. Hopefully it was on a super busy night where the last thing he wanted to do was mix up a precision cocktail rather than dump me a shot glass full of Jameson. Regardless of the situation, he crafted it perfectly as always, crossing all the t’s and dotting the… lower case j’s.
The Sidecar is a real thing of beauty. Composed of Cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice, I find it faster to take one of these things down then to prepare it (Maybe that’s a different issue : /). Here at El Dorado we use the following specifications for this wonderful work of art:
- 1 1/2 oz. Cognac
- 1 oz. Cointreau
- 1/2 oz. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
- Shake and strain into a chilled sour glass
- Lemon twist (sugar rim on request)
So what’s the big deal about this cocktail family? Not a cognac fan? Prefer the “beachy cocktails” in the San Diego sun? Well aren’t you in luck. Because lying under the Sidecar Family umbrella is the Margarita. BAM. See what I did there? Beach… Umbrella… Sun… Margarita… Quite possibly the most famous tequila cocktail. Nothing quite beats a sunny San Diego sunset with a freshly (and properly) made Margarita. So how are these cocktails at all related? What makes a cocktail a part of the Sidecar Family? I thought you’d never ask.
This family strips down ingredients and proportions. The proportions of both cocktails (and of Sidecar Family cocktails) consist of 1 1/2 oz. of the base spirit (Cognac/Tequila), 1 oz of orange liquor (Cointreau/Grand Marnier), and 1/2 oz of lemon (with lime partially and sometimes fully replacing lemon). The cocktail is garnished with a sugared rim versus a salted rim. By only swapping out a few of the ingredients you are tweaking the flavor and appearance dramatically while keeping the overall structure and integrity of the cocktail.
So be it a social night with close friends sipping down classic Sidecars or a relaxing day on the beach watching the waves over Margaritas, this family will no doubt open up your eyes to a tasty realm of cocktails! In fact, I’m going to stroll behind the bar right now and mix up one of my favorite variations developed by Anthony Schmidt of Noble Experiment : The Rogue Monk. Here is the recipe… if any one asks you didn’t get it from me:
- 1 1/2 oz. Scotch
- 1 oz. Benedictine
- 1/2 oz. Lemon
- Dash of Peychaud’s Bitters
- Shake and strain into a chilled Sour glass
- Lemon Twist garnish
Cheers!
Learning to Drink by Family Volume 2
Author: Steven Tuttle (El Dorado Cocktail Lounge)
Editor: Justin F. Fortier (El Dorado Cocktail Lounge, The Industry Research Group)
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