Litchi martini

 

In today’s post, I d like to define certain origin of the cocktail and of course I’ll give you another recipe.

 

Where does the term cocktail come from? What is its origin?

 

Ironically, the cocktail was invented while alcohol was still prohibited. Since it was forbidden, many alcohols would taste really bad. Therefore People would add some other juice to mask the taste of a bad quality illegal alcohol. Up to the 70’s, cocktails were mostly made out of gin, rum and whisky. Nowadays, vodka has replaced these alcohols since it’s cheaper.

And now, without further ado, I have the pride… the privilege… no, the pleasure of introducing the mighty litchi martini. This cocktail is not really known in every bar somehow. As for me, I’ve learned this cocktail in a wedding and I still remember the feeling of it. We were in Hawaii and the weather was pretty warm and the tuxedo didn’t help at all. Then, my cousin (the bartender girl) brought me this drink:

“ Here you go, this should help you out with the heat”.

The drink had this particular white and unclear color. But most of all I couldn’t help noticing this strange white thing at the bottom of my drink… It was a litchi.

When I first sipped my cocktail… I felt a really refreshing and smooth taste. A very light sweet taste given by the litchi juice coupled with a little rough taste of the vodka. However, you can barely feel the alcohol thanks to the sweetness. I’ve never tasted a litchi juice that was this good. And believe me… No brand will be able to match the taste of that litchi juice I was holding.

“What kind of juice to you use to make this drink? I’ve had many litchi juices before and they barely match the taste of your drink. What did you use?”

Then she pulled and wave out this fruit can.

 “This one is pretty easy…  Litchi can”

Yup that’s right. Do you remember those fruit in a can that comes with sirup? Those little deserts that we used to eat when we were very young? Well, it happens to be one of the best ingredients to make cocktails.

“Fruit can happens to be one of the best ingredient for bartenders since it contains the fruit itself which can come in handy if you want to decorate a cocktail, but mostly because the syrup will outmatch any juice on the market.”

“Yeah… I’ve never thought about that”

“And its cheap too ^^” … She replied at me with a big smile.

So to make a litchi martini, all you need is vodka, a litchi can, a shaker and some ice. I know what you’re thinking. Even though it’s called litchi martini, well there is no martini in the recipe. Now since it’s a martini, there should be at least 40% of vodka and the rest litchi syrup. Put it in the shaker and shake until its ice cold. You usually stop shaking when it starts hurting your hand.

 

Tips of the day: Suppose you have nothing to measure oz. How would you pour the exact quantity of alcohol? Well, here is the technique that most bartenders use. You count in your head =) (be sure to count in your head and not out loud to look more professional ). Indeed, what matters is the proportion between the alcohol and the juice. If for example, you can’t 3 second of juice, and 3 second of alcohol, than you know that the ratio is 50/50. There is another counting technique but I can’t remember the exact proportion each count represent in term of liquid. But I promise I’ll do my homework for the next post to come.