The Spirit of America

Quick post for today with a recipe for a quick drink that I call “The Spirit of America.” Get it? “Spirit?” This is a shooter utilizing a technique known as layering. Some people have a hard time with this, so it might help to explain the theory behind how it works.

Liquors, cordials, etc vary in Specific Gravity based on the amount of sugar they contain. The more sugar in a liquid, the more dense/heavier it will be. That being the case, if you carefully stack liquids on top of each other in a glass, making sure that they scale in density so that the less dense liquids sit at the top, when they settle they will stay separate and look awesome. The most famous cocktail using this technique is the Pousse Cafe.

Layering a drink is mainly for show since everything will run together as soon as you take a sip, but if you use flavors that go together rather than just focus on making a rainbow in a glass you can easily produce something that will impress visually and still be tasty.

The Spirit of America

Ingredients:

1 oz blue curacao

1 oz orange vodka

.5 oz grenadine

Instructions:

Carefully pour the grenadine in the bottom of a shot glass and make sure that it doesn’t stick to the sides. Do not overdo the grenadine; it has a nice deep red color but is basically just sugar syrup that will dominate an already sweet shot if you use too much. Next add the curacao by placing a soup spoon into the glass so that the back of the spoon is facing up. Very slowly drizzle the curacao over the spoon so that it hits right in the middle and then slides down the sides of the glass. If you do it right, you will see the blue color stack on top of the red. If they begin to mix, you are probably pouring too fast. Do the same thing with the vodka on the top, as it has the least amount of sugar and should sit nicely on the curacao.

Yes, I’ve noticed that the shot is actually red, blue, and white rather than red, white, and blue. If you want a true patriotic shooter, you could switch out the vodka for white creme de cacao. This would give you a shot that tastes like a chocolate covered orange. I usually stick with the vodka because it packs just a bit more of a punch and mixes with the curacao to create complementing orange flavors that work well together, though I’m open to suggestions if you play around and come up with something even better.

Happy bartending,

Foggy