Post #375972 by Registered Astronaut on Thu, Apr 24, 2008 3:57 PM

My girlfriend and I made Mojitos the other day. Blueberry Mojitos, with Blueberry vodka! They technically aren't even Mojitos I guess. No I haven't turned into a robot bartender, and I haven't lost my integrity- but, I have opened my eyes a little bit to the possibilities beyond your standard fare in grog log. I don't mean to trivialize our passion for tropical cocktail mixology; that's what brought me here. That's why I have a job bartending. And I do plan to change my bar's mai tai recipe to the trader vic original. But sitting here staring at my blueberry Smirnoff (stoli it was ten bucks more)I realized just three weeks into my job and I have loosened up my collar if you will. I would have never bought blueberry vodka before this job. I hate vodka, I hate that people will spend twenty bucks for an odorless, tasteless substance because it supposedly "tastes better." But there's so many possibilities with some of the new alcohols, and in the past I was a bit of a snob, for ignorant reasons. First, I thought flavored alcohols were around 40 proof, sweetened, in other words, similar to liquers.I was surprised to find that most of them are 70 proof, relatively light, and not always sweet. Second, I hated that everything had to have a "flavor," even some cherished rums we enjoy had "flavored" lines (Cruzan, for instance). I likened it to a symbol for the nations deterioration of good taste, amongst many other huge red flags.
Anyways... from what I understand, Mr. Don Beach was using rum, which at the time was in bad taste and out of favor with the social elite, a spirit relegated to whinos and sailors. And he was flavoring that awful spirit with juices and sugar. I'm not here to promote flavored vodka, I'm just trying to say there's lots of new drinks we can come up with beyond the standard citrus+sweetener+rum. You've got to wonder, when Trader Vic first used pimento dram in the Navy grog, that Liquer coulda been the equivalent of Watermelon Pucker. Probably not, but just saying. If anything I promote balance and quality in my new position. If someone orders a Jameson sour, I'll use fresh lemon juice and sugar syrup, because a 15 dollar drink (welcome to LA) should taste fresh, balanced and quality. I will use sour mix out of the gun on a well whiskey sour because that's what the customer is probably used to, and I don't have time to do everything the long way!

[ Edited by: Registered Astronaut 2008-04-24 15:58 ]