Mixology Monday 82: Sours

Welcome readers! Once again it's Mixology Monday!

Thank you to Paul Clarke for creating it. Thank you to Fred Yarm for (resurrecting and) sustaining it. Thank you to Andrea Of Ginhound for hosting it.

The theme is sours. No, not Sourz! Sours. The class of drink! When I was a younger man I knew of the Whisky Sour and didn't realise that other drinks I enjoyed were also sours. (I also may have thought sour mix was needed to make a sour. Maybe.) What is a sour? For a lesson about sours check out 12 bottle bar. For some avuncular wordsmithing of what a sour is check out Doug's submission for this month.

Alright, got it? Good! Andrea went as for as to allow Fizzes and Daisies in as Sours but we needn't go that far afield. Usually when it's MxMo time I flip through my books and search blogs looking for ideas. Sometimes I even put together my own drink(s)! Not this time though. I knew what drink I'd make from the get go! (No, it isn't the signature drink of that happening club right across the street from right across the street.) The drink in question is the one that started me down this cocktail blogging rabbit hole. Sure I drank cocktails before and sometimes blogged about it but I didn't really "get it" back then. I had yet to discover proper grenadine too so my first makings of this drink were quite pink. Nowadays, since I use homemade-ish grenadine, it looks more like a daiquiri made with amber rum. Yeah, that's the ticket. I also used vermouth well past it's prime in those fledgling days. Believe you me these days I do things proper! 

I did get a couple of things right from the start. I used fresh lime juice and Cuban rum. Havana Club Anejo Blanco just happened to be the "house rum" if you will, but it couldn't have been more fitting...

So, what is this drink? Where did I encounter it? By happenstance I came across it in one of my books and it piqued my interest. It's mere name enticed me. The ingredients as well sounded up my alley but it was the name that drew me in. At that time although I had several drink books I only considered one to be a serious book. Charles Schumann's American Bar was that book and therein was this drink (along with many others which haven't borne nearly as much repetition of imbibetude.) This is the drink that really opened up my repertoire and broadened my horizons beyond Sidecar-at-home/Manhattan-when-out. From before my time and before your time, the booze-cruising tourist trap libation, from "Where the wet begins", (it's Kismet!) I give you:




The Sloppy Joe
0.5 oz lime juice
0.5 tsp triple sec
0.5 tsp grenadine
0.75 oz dry vermouth
0.75 oz white rum

Shake; Strain; Up. Let your world expand.

Excelsior!!