Andrew Bohrer - The Best Shots Youve Never Tried: 100+ Intoxicating Oddities Youll Actually Want to Put Down

The
Best Shots
Youve
Never
Tried

To Michelle Broderick, you have no pants,
but I still love you forever

The introduction to hard liquor for most people is the shot. Frequently that involves doing continuous shots of gin until Dads bottle is empty. During college years, tequila often mysteriously becomes animated and will, all by itself, shoot down the throats of young people. Many of tequilas victims never forgive it for this trespass. However, shots, if taken in tiny portions to toast, commemorate, or mourn, can take on an all new purpose. The unique shots in this book will show you that just the right amount is enough to make a memory, not lose a memory.

A doctor will give shots to maintain health and ward off illness. The drinking culture needs a shot too. The shot is often maligned as a drunks drink: a way of drinking that is not about enjoyment. Though that can often be true, shots are also about ritual, togetherness, and the creation of memories. They also dont need to be boring. Many of the ensuing shots will address experimentation and learning new flavor combinations, so you can easily create delicious shots youve never tried before. Youll even find some shots of last resort that you can make in times of need just by using ingredients you have on hand.

Ice will be used in almost every shot youll be mixing up. Rule number one about ice is that you need twice as much as you think. You can never reuse the same ice for a second set of drinks, and you always have to fill the shaker completely with ice. One ice tray in the fridge is good for about two rounds of drinks. Buy about 1 bag for every 15 guests you have. And you know that worthless friend who always shows up late and never knows what to bring? That guy needs to leave the onion dip and bag of chips at home. Tell him to bring ice.

Most homes have the correct tools to make cocktails, but people use them wrong. The worst culprits are the three-piece shaker or cobbler shaker and the muddlerjust throw them out. You need a two-piece shaker or a Boston shaker. These consist of a metal tin and a pint glass and are much easier to use. The pint glass half will double as a mixing glass for stirred drinks. To stir drinks, youll need a bar spoon (in a pinch, a chopstick does fine). A sharp knife prepares fruit and keeps enemies at bay. Buy a standard juice press from the green grocer. Youll need a hawthorne strainer (you know, the one with springs) andto make shots a bit cleanera fine mesh strainer (also available at the grocer). And the most important tool is the measuring cup or jigger. This book will do the math for you, but you have to measure to make good drinks.

Technique is easy. If a recipe has juice, cream, or fruit in it, shake it. Shake it as hard as you can for about 8 seconds. If a recipe is all alcohol or you can see through it, stir it. Stirring should go on for about 12 seconds. Building a shot in the glass will happen for pousse-cafs. For these shots, youll pour each chilled spirit (keep them in the fridge) right into the glass, slowly layering them on top of each other to make a layered shot. A bar spoon works well to slow the flow of booze, but so does just pouring each spirit over a cherry held by the stem. Lastly, the fine mesh strainer is the shots best friend; it keeps the little ice shards out. If you are having a hard time fine straining each little shot, try quickly straining out the entire cocktail into a separate glass. Then you can just pour from there.

We call them Classics for a reason. Miniature Classics are flavor combinations that have worked for a couple hundred years or so. Though they number into the thousands, they can be quite simple to remember. The Classics are really only six or seven cocktails, and ingredients are swapped out to make new drinks. Miniature Classics are the puppy dog version of their true breed. The flavors stay the same but are sweetened up and made cuter. It would not be inappropriate to glue little googly eyes on to these baby shots to increase their cuteness.

NoLita

Shooting Manhattans is great for forgetting a terrible evening but not great for staying awake. Every bartender knows, If you drink to forget, pay your tab in advance. Named for the part of Manhattan North of Little Italy (get it?), the NoLita can be considered a reverse Manhattan. It is a gentle vermouth-ed whiskey shot. Adding more Punt e Mes, or a point and a half, for a point of sweetness and a half of bitterness, will sweeten this drink even more. Stir this shot up to make it ice cold and enjoy the sweet herbal flavor of Italy and the spicy belligerence of American rye whiskey.

MAKES

1 ounce Punt e Mes

.5 ounce rye whiskey

2 dashes Angostura bitters

1. Stir and strain into a shot glass.

Angostura Bitters:
You Have a Bottle in Your House and You Dont Know Why

That little brown bottle lazily wrapped in a white label with a yellow cap is called Angostura bitters. Its the oldest commercially available bitters, and it has become so synonymous with bitters that some folks think its the only one. In the modern world, it is just one of hundreds of bitters on the market, but Angosturas spicy clove and ginger flavor has been essential for cocktails for almost 200 years.

Little Lady

The Little Lady is a miniature version of the classic White Lady cocktail. Ordering a White Lady often makes people giggle depending on their proximity to the suburbs. When made correctly, the White Lady is a sublimely balanced cocktail tantamount to getting drunk on sunshine. You might notice that this shot is similar to a Sidecar or a Whiskey Sour but with gin. That is because it is the same drink: The 2 parts booze to 1 part sour to 1 part sweet is the cocktail template called a sour. However, the Little Lady is the most elegant sour.

MAKES

.75 ounce London dry gin

.5 ounce triple sec

.5 ounce lemon juice

1. Shake and strain into a shot glass.

The White Lady: A Haunting Ghost