The Proper Pour with Charlotte Voisey

The Proper Pour with Charlotte Voisey

There is not much better than a chilled, glistening martini. Don't muddy the experience by shaking it. Properly stirred, the martini becomes a jewel of refreshment.

Scotch can be a tough cookie when it comes to incorporating it into cocktails. More and more though, bartenders and mixologists are creating cocktails that go way beyond classics like the Rob Roy. In this episode of The Proper Pour, Charlotte Voisey shows you how to make the aforementioned classic as well as a modern Scotch cocktail, the Balvenie Smash.

Have you ever thrown a cocktail? Not at someone. FOR someone. Throwing a cocktail is another way to mix a cocktail for your guests by "throwing" the ingredients back and forth from mixing glass to tin. Charlotte Voisey demonstrates this technique while making her Unusual Negroni cocktail.

If you were alive in the late 18th and early 19th century, as some of you might have been, you know that it was no guarantee that your cocktail would be served or cooled with ice. In fact, there was a good chance the tavern or bar you were in had no ice at all. Especially if you lived in the American South or a stones throw from the equator. You can thank Frederic Tudor, the "Boston Ice King", for remedying that. His ice deliveries from the Northeast to hotter climates paved the way for creative uses of ice like the crushed "cobble stone" like pieces of ice found in the cobbler. Grab your Lewis Bag and get crackin'!

Choosing the right mixing technique for making a cocktail is straight forward. In the case of the Daiquiri, it is shaken because it contains the juice of a lime. Charlotte demonstrates how to make a classic daiquiri cocktail as well as how to properly shake a cocktail.

Decadent and smooth, the Espresso Martini is part cocktail, part dessert. Nothing could be finer than finishing off a great meal with dessert in a glass!

Regulars come in to your bar for various reasons. Their friends and colleagues go there. They enjoy the ambience. Maybe they really like you and the other bartenders behind the bar. More than likely, they have a cocktail they really enjoy every time they sit at the bar. Serving that cocktail and the others on the menu consistently is key to keeping your best patrons coming back again and again and is really quite simple. Proper measuring using a jigger is paramount to creating consistency behind the bar.

Originally created for the W Hotel in New York, the Bond St. Sparkler is the epitome of a seasonal twist on a classic champagne cocktail such as the Bellini. Add a bit of flair to your next brunch and pour a sparkler inspired by the seasonal fruits available to you. It is sure to please.

Exotic ingredients are available almost anywhere these days. Because of this, getting creative with your own cocktail creations is easy and fun. The Maracuja Mosquito, created by Charlotte Voisey, is a great example of how to take a classic cocktail, like the mojito, and add your own twist to make something new.

When you think Manhattan, what spirit comes to mind? Most likely it is not tequila. During barrel aging, Añejo Tequila takes on flavors similar to bourbon and rye whiskies and lends itself well to mixing like any other brown spirit.

The most popular cocktail in America is the Margarita. Making one is simple. Creating a special Margarita is just as easy. Playing off the agave in the Tequila and adding agave nectar and bumping up to a reposado or añejo Tequila, as Charlotte Voisey does here, takes the Margarita to the next level.

The swizzle is a classification of a cocktail. "Rum swizzles" have been mentioned in literature since the late 18th century and originated, like many rum drinks, in the caribbean. Instead of shaking or stirring a swizzle, the drink is, well, "swizzled" with a special stick made from the Quararibea turbinata tree. If you don't have access to the authentic version, a bar spoon will do the trick.

The addition of blood orange liqueur, Lillet Rouge and single malt scotch make this twist on the classic Blood and Sand a real treat.