CONNOISSEUR:Summer fruits can make a zingy addition to cocktails, so get muddling, writes Hugo Arnold
IT IS A sobering thought, but mid-summer is already here. For us weather watchers, it means change certainly, but also a high point; weeks of long days and sunshine (hopefully), bringing an abundance of fruit. Modern farming means we have seen Irish strawberries on sale since May, but now it is time to feast not just on sweetness, but also flavour.
Fruit cocktails may be epitomised by the Bellini - that sunshine-infused combination of fresh (and it has to be fresh) white peach juice and prosecco - but there are a host of non-alcoholic combinations that work well, such as watermelon and lime juice, strawberry and grenadine, even straight lemonade is hard to beat on a scorching day.
Balance in your glass is crucial, sweetness has to be offset by a bitter or sour taste in order for the drink not to become cloying, which is where the art of the mixologist comes in. The alcohol is not exactly an afterthought, but think where cocktails came from . . . prohibition in America in the 1920s gave rise to the cocktail age and that was all about covering up the flavour of ropey alcohol.
Now we have a wealth of delicious spirits to choose from such as vodkas that are not simply flavoured, but infused with botanicals to give edge and bite like never before. Cork Dry gin - with its hints of lemon, lime and coriander - may be a benchmark for many an Irish gin-drinker (it is the top-selling gin in the country), but try something like Crimson, Millers or Hendricks and you are in for a subtle shock of real deliciousness.
Why do we rarely make cocktails at home? Too often the question of what we would like to drink automatically diverts to red or white. Wine is implied, a given. Mention spirits, and suspicion is roused. And with good reason. For who in their right mind would measure without using the cocktail-maker's key piece of kit, a jigger?
You can shake and stir in a glass, use a teaspoon rather than a bar spoon, muddle (the term used for crushing ingredients such as lime and mint) with a rolling pin, and use whatever kind of glass you have to hand, but when it comes to measuring, you need a jigger.
The idea of baking without a measuring jug or scales is not something most of us would consider. So why do it with cocktails? How much, exactly, is a splash?
Mixologists, those (usually male) slick operators who attend to the business behind the bars and clubs, are searching for balance, so you taste the subtlety of the alcohol but also the other ingredients. A watermelon, strawberry or kiwi martini, for example, needs to see the vodka, so too with a Moscow or strawberry mule, and so the jigger becomes crucial to ensure you end up with a sensible shot of alcohol alongside your chosen fruit.
So why not ditch the wine, at least to start with, and feast instead on the summery delights of planter's punch (rum, lemon and orange juice with soda water), mojitos (rum, mint, lime juice and soda water) fruit martinis and virgin marys, the latter being perfect for one of those long Sunday brunches in the garden.
A favourite for summer, however, is the breeze. Vodka-based, it can come with cranberry and pink grapefruit (the sea breeze), or pretty much any other kind of fruit combination. Cranberry juice adds a welcome sharpness, but you can incorporate anything from peach to strawberry to raspberry and, maybe later in the summer you might try blackberry juice. Whether you incorporate the vodka or not is really up to you, just make sure you have a jigger to hand. Cocktail kits are available from The Celtic Whiskey Shop, 27-28 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. Try this summer cocktail made with fresh raspberries:
Raspberry mule
50ml vodka
pinch sugar
6 raspberries
2 thin slices of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
ginger beer
Crush the ginger and strawberries together. Add the vodka and sugar, shake and strain into an ice-filled glass. Top with ginger beer, stir and serve with a raspberry pressed into the top of a straw.
harnold@irish-times.ie
Further reading: The Classic 1000 Cocktails by Robert Cross; Difford's Guide to Cocktails by Simon Difford; Classic Cocktails by Salvatore Calabrese; The Craft of the Cocktails by Dale DeGroff