Now it gets really nerdy.
Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold is probably one of the most technically advanced cocktail books available. The byline of the book actually is “The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail”. There are not a lot of recipes in the book, here methods of obtaining the perfect cocktail is in focus. But if recipes are few, interesting pictures are plenty!
Clarification
One section of the book is devoted to different techniques of clarifying fruit- and vegetable juices. For example, how do you turn fresh grapefruit juice, normally almost white in color, to a liquid almost as clear as water? One of Arnold’s many suggestions includes freezing the juice mixed with 5 grams of gelatin per liter liquid. Once completely frozen (which might take up to a day) the block of juice should slowly melt through a cloth – leaving you with the desired clear liquid. The whole process will take at least 24 hours so this is not something you do when you get a sudden urge for clear grapefruit juice. However, this demonstrates why we like this book so much, it’s clearly written by someone devoting all waken hours to food and drink science.
Would you go through a night and day process to get the ultimate grapefruit juice for a cocktail? Feel free to comment further down.
The book itself is available at Amazon
If not grapefruit – then orange
Obtaining a bottle of Amer Picon is not easy in Sweden. Our governmental controlled liquor stores don’t stock it at all. However it’s possible to order, which we did to recreate bar Ruby’s Saint Negroni. What Amer Picon adds to a cocktail is some orange, earthy and herbal notes. It’s a very pleasant experience and we are eager to discover more cocktails containing Amer Picon.