Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail, by Dave Arnold

[sophia_sol]

This book is less a recipe book and more a book that happens to contain recipes chosen in order to demonstrate a point.

The author is the most enormous nerd about cocktails you can possibly imagine (however much of a nerd you're thinking, he goes further) and he painstakingly explains to the reader every facet of cocktail making that can affect the flavour/appearance/mouthfeel of the drink, the science behind it, and all of his complex techniques for achieving the most desirable outcomes. I am not the kind of person who will ever be making cocktails to these exacting specifications, but reading Arnold's deep and abiding feelings that these things matter was actually a very enjoyable experience!

The last section of the book was all about his feelings about g&t's, which happen to be one of my favourite cocktails, so it was kind of the perfect note to end on in terms of thinking about what matters to him versus what matters to me. An actual quote from the book: "In 2005, I realized that I would never be satisfied with a traditional G&T. It was a profound moment. [...] I felt compelled to break down the entire gin and tonic and rebuild it from first principles." I love his passion, and also, no I will NOT be making my own quinine syrup (using pure quinine extract, which is difficult to get your hands on because you can easily kill someone with it) or clarifying lime juice (lime juice is apparently particularly hard to clarify! but he put a lot of work into it and eventually came up with a many-step process involving three different chemical agents plus a centrifuge).

However, I was interested to learn that apparently your standard tonic water is supposed to have a lemon-lime flavour along with the quinine bitterness, which might explain why some venues I have regrettably purchased a bad g&t from have not added any lime juice to the drink. They are WRONG (the addition of lime juice is vital to the flavour experience) but I now understand why they went wrong! They thought there was already sufficient citrus flavour!

Probably my biggest actually useful takeaway from this book is that temperature significantly affects perception of flavour, so it is actually relevant what temperature your drink is. It's not in fact akin to how some people just really like their water ice cold where I prefer mine tap-cold only. The balance of flavours in a drink will be affected by how cold it is, because different flavours are more prominent at different temperatures, and the mix of ingredients has been calibrated for a specific temperature.

But I wasn't reading this book for useful takeaways, so this was merely a nice bonus. I was reading it because it looked like it would be fun to read. And it succeeded in what I was looking for from it!

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

However, I was interested to learn that apparently your standard tonic water is supposed to have a lemon-lime flavour along with the quinine bitterness, which might explain why some venues I have regrettably purchased a bad g&t from have not added any lime juice to the drink.

Interesting. I don't think I've ever had a g&t which has had lime juice added. They usually have a slice of lime or lemon (or, more rarely, just a slice of lemon skin), but never anything else other than the gin and the tonic water. I've had g&t in Australia, the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, and it's also my favourite cocktail.

[sophia_sol]

My understanding is that the standard is to have a large enough garnish of lime that the bartender (or you) can and will squeeze some lime juice from it into the drink. When I make myself a g&t at home I put in rather more lime juice than that, because I think it's better with more lime juice! But you do get at least a LITTLE lime juice flavour added to the drink from the garnish. I've had it served to me in a restaurant without even a thin slice of lime for a garnish, and that makes for a highly disappointing g&t experience to my tastes.

[dolorosa_12]

Ah, that makes sense.

When I drink it at home (or at a friend's house) the citrus garnish is not always included, but it generally always is in bars — unless it's something like Hendricks, which always gets served with cucumber slices as the garnish, in the UK at least.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah that's fair, home bartenders can do what they like with altering drinks to their tastes/ingredient availability! And not everyone is as passionate about citrus as I am :P

[superborb]

I wonder if the temp affecting flavor is why warm beer is often so gross?

[sophia_sol]

That seems very probable!

[schneefink]

I'm barely interested in cocktails but that does sound like fun to read just because the author is so enthusiastic about it.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah! Love to listen to people talk enthusiastically about their passions.

[elistaire]

Cool. I really like cook books that actually talk about the why behind things and not just do step 1, do step 2, etc.

[sophia_sol]

Me too! It allows me to better understand what I'm doing, and also to decide what steps are not worth it for me personally given my goals in cooking the dish - and what steps really are worth it even if they seem like a pain

[lirazel]

I pretty much don't drink alcohol because I just don't like slash it's expensive, but I feel like this might be an interesting read anyway. I do love when people geek out in very hyperspecific ways, especially when it's a topic I know nothing about.

[sophia_sol]

yeah, when someone can really make you feel their excitement for a topic, even if it's not your thing, it can become so interesting!