New Year’s : The Mixological Frontier

“In the world of potables, the cocktail represents adventure and experiment. All other forms of drinking are more or less static. The approach of the wine drinker to his glass, while pleasant, is completely formal. A real wine bibber forbids flowers upon his table because the perfume of a rose obscures the less potent fragrance of the grape. Beer drinkers lead a dreary and gaseous life. Ale, porter, and stout imbibers are also subject to similar gastric disturbances. Whiskey enthusiasts are cribbed, cabined and confined to a three-lane highway--straight, soda, or just plain water.

“But the cocktail contriver--you woman or man to whom this sermon is addressed--has the whole world of nature at command. You are within yourselves potentially Mr. and/or Mrs. Balboa on your honeymoon, standing on a somewhat bibulous peak in Darien surveying a new and ever-changing world. The fruits of the sea and the plains, the forest, the orchard, and the garden are at your disposal.”

--”Crosby Gaige’s Cocktail Guide and Ladies’ Companion,” 1941

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The following cocktails--both the classics and the adaptations-- prove Crosby Gaige’s point that “the whole world of nature is at command” when you are a cocktail contriver. The sake martini and ginger melon ball were developed by James Hall in The Times Test Kitchen.

SAKE MARTINI

Ice water

1 ounce dry (clear) vermouth

4 ounces sake

2 to 3 slices pickled red ginger

Fill martini glass with ice water and chill. Pour out ice water and add vermouth. Swirl vermouth around inside of glass and discard.

Add sake. Garnish with pickled red ginger. Makes 1 serving.

Note: Pickled red ginger is available at most Asian grocery stores and at many supermarkets.

AM I BLUE MARGARITA

Crushed ice

2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 lime wedge

2 ounces tequila

1 ounce blue Curacao

1 ounce triple sec

1 ounce lime juice

Fill margarita glass with crushed ice to chill. Place salt in saucer. When ready to mix, run lime wedge around edge of ice-filled margarita glass. Empty ice from glass and turn glass upside-down into salt to coat rim.

Fill shaker with additional ice. Pour tequila, Curacao, triple sec and lime juice into shaker. Stir and strain into prepared margarita glass. Makes 1 serving.

MANHATTAN

Ice water

1 tablespoon sweet (red) vermouth

2 ounces bourbon

1 maraschino cherry

Fill martini glass with ice water and chill. Pour out ice water, pour in vermouth and swirl around in glass.

Pour out vermouth, add bourbon and garnish with maraschino cherry. Makes 1 serving.

RASPBERRY ROYALE

1 ounce raspberry liqueur

4 ounces Champagne

1 raspberry

Pour raspberry liqueur into chilled champagne glass. Add Champagne and garnish with raspberry. Makes 1 serving.

GINGER MELON BALL

Ice

1 ounce melon liqueur

1 1/2 ounces vodka

2 ounces ginger ale

1 slice kiwi

1 slice orange

Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Pour melon liqueur, vodka and ginger ale into shaker and stir.

Serve over crushed ice in rocks glass and garnish with kiwi and orange slice. Makes 1 serving.

CITRUS CAPE CODDER

2 to 3 cranberries

2 ounces lemon-infused vodka

3 to 4 ounces cranberry juice

Place cranberries on swizzle stick. Pour lemon-infused vodka and cranberry juice over ice. Garnish with swizzle stick of cranberries. Makes 1 serving.