Cocktails are often associated as a woman’s drink. That’s because men are too scared of being seen to order one in a bar. But perhaps with Mad Men back on the air with series 5 arriving on DVD this upcoming Monday, ordering them again may get men giddy at the return of retro style and classic cocktails.
To celebrate the return of the 1960s show, I went along to find out all about the American cocktail culture by taking part in a cocktail making masterclass that had me mixing concoctions and drinking like a mad man.
Despite being filmed in Manhattan, there is a surprising paucity of the Manhattan cocktail on the show. But the Manhattan is a suave companion for the older man with impeccable taste and it has held on to it’s sex appeal through the years over other younger cocktails.
So that is the first cocktail our bartender at the Icon Balcony Bar in Leicester Square demonstrates to make. He tells us this concoction is thought to have been invented in the 1870s at the Manhattan club in New York. Dr Iain Marshall created the drink for a banquet hosted by Lady Randolph Churchill in honour of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden.
It’s vital to get the measurements exactly right and have a really ice cold glass. There are two versions of this cocktail – one made sweet Vermouth and the other with a dry version.
Our bartender makes both and the sweeter version is that much easier to drink. Too easy I shall add! On to the Sidecar, this cocktail is thought to have been created around the end of WW1.
Do you remember those motorbikes with the sidecar often seen in the old films? Well this is what the cocktail is named after.
With 40ml of Cognac, 20 ml of Cointreau and just a 10ml of fresh lemon juice, it’s pretty boozy. It’s enough to fear the hangover the morning after.
As a beer fan, the Moscow Mule is my favourite cocktail of the evening. It’s a longer drink and easier to stomach. Created in 1941, the idea to make this cocktail came about through three friends – Jack Morgan, owner of the Cock n Bull restaurant in Hollywood, John G Martin and Rudolph Kunett, President of Pierre Smirnoff, Heubleins Vodka division.
As popular as vodka is this day, back then they were finding it hard to shift the stuff along
with ginger beer. So the Moscow Mule was born. A 50ml shot of vodka, two squeezes of lime and topped with ginger beer, it’s a seriously refreshing drink.
Armed with the fresh know how of making the perfect cocktail, it’s time to get behind the bar. As a typical drinker, I decide the best cocktail to make is surely one with the most alcohol in it. So I rustle up a Vodka Martini. It’s made with vodka and dry vermouth and ice in a cocktail shaker. The ingredients are chilled, either by stirring or shaking and then strained and served ‘straight up’ without ice in a chilled cocktail glass.
I definitely felt like a pro making it but the verdict? It was way to strong for me and my companions who have to share it with me.
I concluded I am better off on the other side of the bar.
