If you’re the kind of person who peppers the bartender with questions, chats up the liquor store guy about new spirits, and has a growing collection of shakers, OXO measuring cups and vintage barware, then Kevin Liu’s new book, Craft Cocktails at Home, should be on your shelf.
Liu explains at the outset that his self-published book “began as an attempt to document some of the exciting things happening with cocktails from 2008 to 2012. I was inspired by the cocktail blog of three PhD students who were thinking about drinks in ways that completely changed my view of what a cocktail was.” In the course of his research, Liu came to understand cocktails as “a vehicle for embracing the mindfulness it takes to execute any ‘craft.'”
The 250-page, 65-recipe book is filled with above-average tips for at-home mixing and includes ambitious projects like building a cold-smoker or making a universal temperature controller for fast infusing that will delight cocktail geeks and engineers alike. In addition, Liu explains the science behind processes such as dilution, carbonation, foaming agents and aging cocktails that can be helpful to the professional bartender who doesn’t have a chemistry degree.
In looking for a recipe that would appeal to the masses, I flipped through the section titled “Drinks to Convert the Cocktail Novice.” The Craft Strawberry Daiquiri piqued my interested because it called for strawberry preserves. I settled on Something Fruity, Not Too Strong because it’s made with just four ingredients: sparkling wine, homemade grenadine, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice.
Liu says you can make homemade grenadine simply by microwaving pomegranate juice for 10 minutes. Well, after 8 minutes in the microwave, the juice started to boil over with red splashes all over the microwave. At that point, I reread the recipe and realized that Liu called for microwaving on medium – not full – power. Since I rarely use the microwave, it took a few minutes to figure out how to change the power settings. Even so, it took a total of 30 minutes to reduce the juice to syrup. I think I could have done it faster on the stovetop.
Homemade grenadine at hand, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice measured and at the ready, it was finally time to put the Boston shaker to work. The recipe does not explicitly say to add ice, but considering Liu’s scientific discussions about ice and dilution in an earlier section, I assumed he wanted me to add ice. So I did.
The result is a well-balanced drink. It’s not overly sweet nor acidic nor boozy. And the formula stands up to other combinations I experimented with, particularly when substituting blood orange liqueur for elderflower liqueur. That version, with its deeper flavor and color, felt spot-on for winter.
Liu accedes there are many aspects to cocktail-making that he is still trying to understand and improve upon. Craft Cocktails at Home reminds me of Sandor Katz’s Wild Fermentation, published in 2003, and how much he honed those ideas when he published The Art of Fermentation in 2013. I hope Liu continues hacking away with cocktail science and sharing the results with curious cocktailians.
Something Fruity, Not Too Strong
1 serving
1 oz. sparkling wine
1 oz. homemade grenadine*
½ oz. elderflower liqueur
1 oz. lemon juice
Shake all ingredients except the wine. Strain into a coupe glass. Top with sparkling wine. Twist the oils of one lemon peel over the glass and discard the peel.
* To make the grenadine, pour 2 cups POM brand or similar quality pomegranate juice into a Pyrex measuring cup and microwave on medium for 10 minutes, or until the syrup reduces to 1 cup.
Special thanks to Planter’s House for its donation of sparkling wine and elderflower liqueur for use in this recipe. What is the most memorable cocktail you’ve ever tasted? Tell us about it in the comments section below for a chance to win a SIGNED copy of Craft Cocktails at Home. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s By the Book column. And now, we’d like to congratulate Anna, whose comment on last week’s By the Book column has won a copy of I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes. Anna, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew!
This article appears in January 2014.