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Libations

Cocktails, the remix

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published February 9, 2005

Michael Rondou/tbt*

Bartender Lauren Ferguson, of the Martini Bar at BayWalk in St. Petersburg, demonstates how to mix a Sexual Alligator, also called Sex with an Alligator. At left is a Foreplay.

At Storman's Palace in Clearwater, the bartenders are pros. They know all the tricks and can still reach deep into the bar to mix classic drinks that manager Jim Bono calls "the old traditionals."

Like a B-52.

Yes, the B-52, a shooter loaded with layers of Bailey's Irish Cream, Kahlua and Grand Marnier is still a big seller but it's almost nostalgic, on the verge of being the official drink of a '90s party.

At martini bars and hip clubs around the Tampa Bay area and on bartender Web sites across cyberspace, once stodgy cordials and liqueurs in silly bottles are staple sources for postmodern cocktails. And why not? If a drink costs $8, bartenders should play celebrity chef.

Today's younger drinkers like a new generation of tutti-frutti that explodes with color, calories, alcohol and attitude.

So the battle to create new weapons of mass intoxication has escalated to the Irish Car Bomb, a wicked version of the old shot-in-a-beer boilermaker. It still has Bailey's, but it's in the bottom of a shot glass, topped with a floater of Jameson's Irish whisky, all of which is dropped into a glass of Guinness.

Want something tamer? The cordials and liqueurs that once made sweet endings to genteel evenings or the beginnings of grandiose seductions still make love, as well as war.

If you find Fuzzy Navel kid stuff and Sex on the Beach too tame, consider Sex with an Alligator, sometimes called Sexual Alligator. That's Midori, the neon-green melon liqueur, with raspberry schnapps dropped to the bottom, giving the color of say, a Tequila Sunrise on Mars. Top it off with the thick medicinal kick of Jagermeister to give it teeth.

Most of today's drinks are sweeter stuff, but the custom of sweet disguises for alcohol is an ancient idea. Spirits historians say monks and other medieval mixologists probably mixed the first added fruits, sugar, herbs and spices to make strong drinks more palatable.

In succeeding centuries, the drinks grew into a rainbow of thick, sometimes syrupy, alcohols. Though the terms are used interchangeably, a cordial is a sweet, fruit-based drink, where liqueurs can be flavored with more savory herbs such as in Jagermeister, today's bestselling liqueur. They don't taste as strong as neutral spirits but they have 20 to 40 percent alcohol.

Ironically, the same tastes and tricks that created the liqueur revival now threaten it, as vodkas, rums, even beer, come in an increasing number of fruity flavors, as do premixed canned and bottled cocktails.

At the Blue Martini in Tampa, for instance, manager Amy Saumell says almost all 20 of its house martinis start with a flavored vodka. "We use the cordials and liqueurs to dress them up" with finishing touches or color, such as blue Curacao, which puts the hue into the signature Blue Martini.

Today, newfangled vodkas and grand old monastery liqueurs like Chartreuse, get slick glassware and X-rated names and shape-shifting recipes that play on color, flavor and texture. They can make shooters as elaborately assembled as old pousse-cafe, not just one-swallow goofs. Or they're shaken with shaved ice in blasters cold enough to deliver brain freeze along with the flavor hit and alcohol kick.

- Chris Sherman sherman@tampabay.com

Sip into something sweet

Cordials and liqueurs are made from all manner of fruits, nuts, berries, herbs, spices, aromatic plants and even tree bark, in complicated recipes often centuries old and still secret or proprietary. Below is a short list of some with their countries of origin and chief flavors.

Amaretto , Italy, almond flavor created from stone fruit pits

Benedictine , France, brandy and herbs

Chartreuse , France, herbs and botanicals

Cointreau , France, orange

Curacao , Caribbean island of Curacao, bitter oranges

Drambuie , Scotland, whiskey and honey

Frangelica , Italy, hazelnuts

Galliano , Italy, vanilla

Hypnotiq , France, vodka and Cognac

Irish Mist , Ireland, heather, honey and whisky

Jagermeister , Germany, herbs and spices

Kahlua , Mexico, coffee