Tiki Central / Tiki Drinks and Food / The Cuba Libre, a component study in Mixology
Post #591772 by arriano on Wed, Jun 1, 2011 3:43 PM
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Wed, Jun 1, 2011 3:43 PM
First, my apologies to Chip & Andy for intruding in on their Mixology series. Second, I expect most of you looked at the heading and said, “WTF!? Is this a joke?” Why a breakdown of a cocktail with only four simple ingredients - rum, cola, squeeze of lime, and ice? Not long ago there was a big story about the original recipe for Coca-Cola apparently being discovered. You can find the basic story on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_formula I was intrigued by the variety of ingredients. Coke has been around for so long, and has been such a major beverage for so many years, that it’s easy to overlook what a complex soft drink it is. Compare it to something like 7 Up, Fanta Orange or even root beer. Coke has a lot more stuff in it. Recently I wondered if one could treat cola like a commercial cocktail mix. For example, you can buy mai tai mix, margarita mix, etc. What if you considered Coke to be a Cuba Libre mix? And if you wanted to make a Cuba Libre completely from scratch, how would you go about making it? So I've decided to experiment. One thing I settled on was that I wanted a basic cola flavor profile – it didn’t have to taste exactly like Coca-Cola. Also, I wanted to make it a fairly simple drink to make behind a bar. Like I said, Coke’s recipe is pretty complex. Could I make a Cuba Libre that was just as good or perhaps even better? Here’s the so-called original Coke recipe: • Fluid extract of Coca: 3 drams USP The secret 7X flavor (use 2 oz of flavor to 5 gals syrup): So I want to be able to make enough "mix" to make, say, a batch of four cocktails – not create five gallons of cola syrup. So what could I eliminate from the Coke recipe and still have a basic cola flavor profile? At first glance you might think, well, you’ll never be able to replace the coca unless you’ve got a drug dealer for a friend. But in fact you can purchase Agwa Coca Leaf Liqueur. I bought a couple of small bottles from BevMo. Citric acid – hmmm…, I’ll have to get back to that. Sugar, water, lime juice, vanilla – check, check, check and check. Got all of those easily at my disposal. I’m not worried about caramel coloring as I can use a dark rum to take care of that. The “secret” flavor oils present a problem. First, there’s only the tiniest bit of each. But we have nutmeg, coriander and cinnamon in the kitchen. And then there are the three citrus oils – orange, lemon and neroli. Maybe I can squeeze some out of peels. Or could I substitute the secret oil flavors altogether and instead use a dash each of orange and lemon bitters? Again, I’m going to let the rum take the place of the alcohol. For carbonation, club soda naturally – which can also provide the “water” ingredient. I’ll be making my first attempt tonight to create a simple cola from scratch. Results to come. |