Cocktail Club Presents

A Brief Education on…

WHISKEY

The first ingredient

THE TERM COCKTAIL IS DESCRIBED AS “A COMBINATION OF A STIMULATING LIQUOR, COMPOSED OF SPIRITS OF ANY KIND, SUGAR, WATER, AND BITTERS.”

Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor

Whiskey, in all its varieties, is an alcoholic drink derived from

distilled grains that are then aged in oak casks. The word "whiskey" comes from the

Irish Gaelic word loosely translated as “the water of life”

Whiskey: A Stimulating LiquorIt's made from fermented grain or “mash.”

The product never ages in the bottle, only in the cask

Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor

The three types of grain used for mash are:

CORN: BourbonBARLEY: ScotchRYE: American

Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor

The cask is of the utmost importance in whiskey production. Chemically, the whiskey is changed by the oak cask. Thus, the age of whiskey is defined as the time between distillation and bottling.

Whiskey: A Stimulating Liquor

The biggest manufacturers of whiskey come from Ireland, Scotland, and

America. They all have different laws which govern what can be labeled as a

whiskey.According to United States regulations, the

mash for each type of whiskey must be at least 51% pure grain.

VERMOUTH

The second ingredient

Vermouth: It’s really wine booze!

Vermouth is a fortified wine. Fortified means the

alcohol percentage of the wine has been raised through the addition of spirits (a fairly neutral grape brandy is ideal in

most cases).

Vermouth: It’s really wine booze!

The word “vermouth” derived from the German word for “wormwood”, which was once one of vermouth’s primary

infused botanicals. Some vermouths still employ a little wormwood. Vermouth was

originally developed in Italy.

(If wormwood sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s also the bitter herb that is

used in Absinthe. It can be lethal in high doses.)

Vermouth: It’s really wine booze!

Vermouth is produced by starting with a base of a neutral grape wine. Each manufacturer adds additional alcohol and a proprietary mixture of dry ingredients, consisting of aromatic herbs, roots, and barks, to the

base wine. After the wine is aromatized and fortified, the vermouth is sweetened with either cane sugar or caramelized sugar.

Of course Italians would figure out how to turn salad into wine!

BITTERS

The shake-shake ingredient

Angostura: Shake it to Make it

The botanical ingredients used in preparing bitters typically consist of aromatic herbs, bark, roots, and/or

fruit for their flavor and medicinal properties, Most bitters contain both water and alcohol.

In the 19th century, the British practice of adding herbal bitters to cocktails (used as preventive

medicines) had become immensely popular in the American colonies. 

Leave it to Americans to add medicine to their booze and booze to their medicine!

Angostura: Shake it to Make it

Angostura (ANGUS-stir-ah) bitters are the most purchased brand today, although many bars and drink aficionados are offering house-made bitters as additions to their featured cocktails.

THE MANHATTA

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A truly American Cocktail

The Manhattan: True American Cocktail

The history of the is a controversial one. The most famous rumor states that the drink was made for Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston Churchhill’s mother at the Manhattan Club in the 1870’s and it was thoroughly enjoyed and became popular. The story has been picked apart and it seems it may not be true. The reality is that the Manhattan was probably one of the five borough cocktails (Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queen’s and the Staten Island cocktail) made to represent the parts of New York city.

The Manhattan: True American Cocktail

Whatever the actual story is, it’s obviously a delicious cocktail that can be enjoyed for any

occasion.

The history of the drink can be celebrated by our American heritage when American

immigrants took the booze of their Italian grandparents and mixed it with the whiskey

made in the back woods of the early Colonies.The Manhattan= ‘Merica

The Manhattan: True American Cocktail

Behold, the marvelous Manhattan. CHEERS!