Boozehound (36 page)

A Word on Citrus Peel Garnishes

When using the zester or peeler, be sure to work over the glass so that the oils are expressed into the drink as you peel. Make sure to avoid the bitter white pith that lies just under the colored outside of the citrus peel. When you’ve got your twist, squeeze it over the drink, rub the rim with it, then drop it into the cocktail.

Finally, a Little Rant about Glassware

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names—so says an ancient Chinese proverb. So let us begin: A martini is served in what is correctly called a cocktail glass. A cocktail glass traditionally holds about 3 to 5 ounces of liquid. Nearly every martini recipe in nearly every cocktail guide ever published calls for about 3 ounces of spirits, diluted by a bit of stirring over ice, and served freezing cold with a garnish.

Wisdom therefore dictates that no martini needs to be poured into a glass larger than 5 ounces. Of course, that is not what the wise people at stores like Crate and Barrel say. I once found myself there, wandering the “drinkware” section, looking at rows of what they call “martini” glasses: the 9-ounce Roz, the 10-ounce Temptation, the 12-ounce Inga, even a 13-ounce stemless model. The smallest I could find was a 7-ouncer. I stared at all those lovely glasses and imagined how long it would take the average person to drink 12 ounces of gin and vermouth. That caused me to wince, and it led to two conclusions: First, wisdom does not begin in the drinkware section of Crate and Barrel. Second, the only reason to use a 12-ounce glass for a martini would be to accommodate one very, very large olive.

We are facing an epidemic of cocktails served in inappropriately large glasses. Anyone who’s recently spent time at the local bar knows that cocktails are growing, often simply to justify a double-digit price tag.

“It’s the mentality that bigger is better,” said Charlotte Voisey, who visits bars all over the United States promoting Hendrick’s gin. “But three sips in, the drink gets too warm.”

A spokeswoman for Crate and Barrel told me that “martini” glasses in the 11- to 13-ounce range are the store’s best sellers. When I asked why cocktail glasses have gotten so big, she retorted, “You know how they’ve supersized the McDonald’s hamburger?”

When I suggested that the traditional way to drink a martini is in a glass of 4½ ounces or smaller, the spokeswoman asked, “Why would anyone drink a 4½-ounce martini?” Crate and Barrel considers 7 ounces to be the standard size.

Voisey blames the large-cocktail trend on ignorance and a false sense of value. “A small martini is a better value because you get to enjoy all of it before it gets warm,” she says. “Two normal-size martinis would even be better than one big one.”

Beyond creating an overpriced, warm drink, the large-glass phenomenon is not particularly healthy. If you don’t take the time to measure—and few people do—it’s nearly impossible to correctly gauge how much liquor you’re pouring. People end up boozing much more than they realize.

Consider a 2003 Duke University Medical Center study in which college students were asked to estimate and pour standard measurements of different spirits into glasses of several sizes. The students, on average, overpoured shots by 26 percent, mixed drinks by 80 percent, and beer by 25 percent, the study showed. The larger the glass, the more they overpoured. Yes, I realize that for many college students, drink potency outweighs craftsmanship. But the best cocktails are carefully balanced, and the effect of an oversize glass on that balance has been worrying observers for decades.

“A too-large glass gives the drink more time to lose its chill and initial zest, and a half-filled glass looks unexciting, so an average-size cocktail glass of 4½ ounces is the most satisfactory,” wrote Collette Richardson in the 1973 edition of
House and Garden’s Drink Guide
.

Nearly four decades later, just try finding a 4½-ounce cocktail glass. In fact, most glassware called for in cocktail books has become exceedingly difficult to find. Retailers also are stocked with ridiculously huge double old-fashioned glasses, clocking in at 10 to 15 ounces. Finding the normal 6- to 8-ounce old-fashioned glass that most drink recipes call for is difficult but not impossible. I ended up buying a heavy-bottomed 6-ounce “juice” glass at Crate and Barrel that works fine.

In addition to the cocktail and old-fashioned glasses, a tall, slender 10-ounce highball glass and a 2-ounce cordial/shot glass are the essentials for a home bar. The best bet for finding them is at a bar- and restaurant-supply store or a yard sale. The search will be worth it.