I got a book called Asian Cocktails for my recent birthday. Since I love making cocktails, and I love Asian flavors, I was really excited to try some recipes from this book.
A lot of recipes involve pretty hard-to-find ingredients, though, so I started off with some of the simpler ones. I’ll try to be more adventurous in the future and go for some of those cocktails with somewhat rare ingredients. I’ve already bought some lemongrass from the local market, something I’ve never even held in my hands before.
The first recipe I tried was a classic, the Mai Tai.
Mai Tai
2 oz gold rum
1 oz lime juice
0.75 oz Cointreau
0.25 oz simple syrup
0.25 oz orgeat syrup
2 teaspoons dark rum
orange slice
lime slice
maraschino cherry
I made a couple of changes from the book version: I increased the dark rum from 1/2 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons (still not enough, in my opinion), and I added a lime slice for garnish (a huge change, I know), since lime juice is a big part of the drink. Unlike a lot of Mai Tais out there with pineapple juice, the only juice in this is lime juice. It ended up being quite strong, while still tasting like the tropics. I think for me, though, I’d like it a bit sweeter, so maybe some pineapple juice would make it better. Also, the IBA version of this has equal amounts of gold rum and dark rum, instead of the 24:1 ratio in the book recipe (or the 6:1 ratio I had), which also seems worth a try.
Next, I tried a Lychee Gimlet, since I liked regular gimlets when I tried them.
Lychee Gimlet
2 oz gin
0.5 oz triple sec
1 oz lychee syrup
0.25 oz lime juice
lychee
The book’s recipe had lychee juice, but I used lychee syrup from the can instead for a sweeter version. I still thought this tasted strongly of gin, though, which you might expect when over half the cocktail is gin. It also wasn’t all that sweet, but it wasn’t so dry that it was unpleasant. This wasn’t bad for a gin-based cocktail. Next time, I’ll try replacing the gin with vodka, and maybe some more triple sec, or simple syrup, to make it sweeter.
I’ve previously made a Kamikaze, but the book had its own version.
Kamikaze
2 oz vodka
1 teaspoon lime juice
0.5 teaspoon simple syrup
0.5 oz Cointreau
Much stronger than the usual Kamikaze, with vodka making up the majority of this cocktail. It was mostly vodka, but the tiny amount of the sweet ingredients made it much more palatable. Even with a generous 1/2 teaspoon of simple syrup, it was too strong for me. The “traditional” version has vodka, triple sec, and lime juice in a 1:1:1 ratio, but this one is 12:3:1, which is much different. Also, it uses Cointreau instead of a sweeter triple sec. I think I’ll stick with the more traditional version next time. But this one is definitely good for people who like drier drinks.
I’m hopefully going to attempt some more exotic drinks in the near future.