Shake Some Action

When we last left our intrepid mixologists, things were looking pretty messy. Hopeful, but messy.

But I'm happy to report that we're hitting a groove. A reason I haven't posted in a while is we had to take a brief hiatus while my mixology partner, Rob, took a job in L.A. for a couple of weeks and I spent that time trying to figure out the general stuff of life and come up with a game plan. But more on that later.

After both of us passed our first Module of Bar Smarts (see previous post), which was essentially a history of distillation, we made our bar purchases and really set to work.

The first day was last Friday. Thumbing through our spiral-bound bible, we settled on four cocktails. (Don't worry, much of this was sacrificed to either our brave "assistant," Rob's wife Kris, or sadly, the kitchen sink): Negronis (mine shaken with ice, served up, his stirred with ice), caipirinhas (both too sugary for my tastes, and we needed better limes), Blood and Sand (which is blended scotch, in this case, Chivas Regal 12, orange juice, sweet vermouth and cherry heering. And as gross as it sounds unless it's made with bourbon. THEN you have a drink!) and finally, a true whiskey sour with fresh lemon juice. Makes all the difference.

By now we are much more sure-footed with the mixing and the shaking. Massive accomplishment when the ingredients actually land IN the mixing glass... But, and those of you who know me will find it hard to believe, I just couldn't "break the seal." That Boston Shaker just wasn't coming apart for me once I was ready to pour out my drink. Rob had figured out a method with very precise hand placement and a lot of pulling, but that wasn't working for me at all. I gave my shaker a solid dent banging it in frustration against the counter to break the vacuum, but that didn't work either.

I was starting to get panicked flash forwards of making a caipirinha for someone like Andy Seymour during the test and failing because my shaker stayed closed shut like a bad steamed mussel. I clearly needed practice. But I also suspected there was a trick to it. I'm thinking we need to watch the DVD's. Either that, or take up body building.