Friday, February 5, 2010

The 3 Categories of Vodka Cocktail

It could be said that there are 3 primary categories of vodka cocktail:

1. Cocktails wherein vodka's neutrality allows all other flavors to eclipse its presence, essentially making Alcoholic Soda or Juice (i.e. Moscow Mule)

2. Cocktails wherein vodka's neutrality is used to open up potent flavored spirits, such Benedictine or Amaro (i.e. Gypsy Queen Cocktail, The Drink With No Name)

3. Cocktails wherein vodka's neutrality and receptivity is used to maintain alcohol by volume while mediating between other spirits and modifiers, as in equal part drinks (i.e. Perpignan Cocktail)


For over one year I have been patiently flipping through cocktail books of my own, as well as those graciously lent to me by Mud Puddle Book's Greg Boehm (as I simply can't afford my own physical database). I find the vodka cocktails, input them into one large document, only to be eventually separated out into one of the 3 aforementioned categories. On several occasions, I make notes in regard to secondary classifications within each, but thus far all have managed to stay within the bounds of these relatively flexible varieties.

This is all to say that this task is underway, and soon, within a week or two, I'll be ready to post what results it's yielded. These results will come in the form of 3 posts, one dedicated to the describing of each category, several notable recipes from each, as well as their sources, followed by a rather extensive list of names of cocktails which fall into each grouping, since I couldn't possibly post every recipe here. It is also possible that I may elaborate on some of the more prominent Secondary Classifications.

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