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Drinks’ mixing is an art of mixing drinks with a base ingredient, a special ingredient for coloring and flavoring and finally a third ingredient to modify the drink’s taste. This process produces cocktails which are aromatic or sour.

This sort of drinks mixing is almost becoming a small industry led by professional mixologists and professionally qualified bartenders. Drinks Mixing is an exciting and an indispensible event, conducted at all pubs, bars, private and public parties. Gone are the days when parties would have a bar offering a brandy, whiskey, rum, beer and some wine – May be a scotch would also be there.

Now the time has come when the bartenders are not only serving liquor by itself, but are busy mixing and blending two or more basic drinks with some flavoring ingredients, fruit juices etc. and are serving them as liquor fashioned with drinks mixing; called as cocktails.

Though drinks’ mixing is an art, there are a few principles that go along into mixing and making quality cocktails.

All ingredients i.e. liqueurs, spirits, modifiers and cordials used should be of good quality to fashion a cocktail of high quality.

Drinks mixing – cocktails should sharpen and not dull the appetite of the person who consumes the mixing.

Care should be taken to avoid it to be very syrupy and sugary. Avoid too much of cream, egg or fruit juice.

It should look good to the eye.

The drinks mixing should be nice and chilled.

It should also be pleasing to the palate.

It should be well balanced with smoothness and also liquor flavor

Pre-prandial drinks (before dinner drinks) should not contain Brandy Alexander as they do not work as appetizers but instead dull the appetite.

The Basic Components that go into drinks mixing or fashioning a cocktail are – whiskey, rum, gin etc.

Then for coloring and extra flavoring- Non alcoholic syrups and for alcoholic mixing – liqueurs and cordials are used.

It is the modifying agent that gives the cocktail drink its actual taste or we may say its actual character. These ingredients can be either – Spirits, Aromatic Wines such as – vermouth, smoothing agents and fruit juices. Cream, Sugar and Eggs are good as smoothies.

DRINKSMIXING

Old Fashioned
American whiskey – 12 measures
Simple Syrup – 1 measure
Angostura bitters – 1 – 3 dashes for every drink

Take the bitters and add them to the syrup and stir the glass. Add one ounce whiskey and keep stirring now add ice pieces (not crushed) fill the glass with the remaining whiskey. Garnish with a lemon peel

Martini
English gin – 7 measures
French Vermouth – dry – 1 measure

Mix all the above ingredients and stir in the ice. When well blended garnish with an Olive. Also add a twisted peel of lemon on the drink. –Sip and enjoy.

Sidecar
Armagnac or Cognac – 8 measures
Triple Sec or cointreau – 1 measure
Lemon juice – 2 parts

Stir well – all the above ingredients. Strain into your stem glass. Garnish as desired.

So as we can see – Drinks mixing is no big Rocket Science. Just know the basics and then let your imagination run wild. Enjoy your own Drinks Mixing in the company of your loved ones. You can do some drinks mixing even by yourself and just for yourself. It can make you feel half as good as a loved one would – Try it with a smiling attitude and some good music around.