The coronavirus is reshaping broad swaths of American life and drinking culture in profound ways. But to mention just one byproduct of life during “shelter in place,” I’m much less likely to drive out to a liquor store to try to source some oddball cocktail ingredient.
Put another way, I think most people right now are simply frowning and dealing with it when they get back from the store and realize they didn’t have that one thing they needed to make a particular drink. Right now, I’m trying to limit my own unnecessary exposure to the general public, so if I didn’t get it on the trip to the grocery store every other week (and it can’t be ordered in), then I’ll do my best to do without.
As a result, it may be a while before I buy another bottle of Lillet, Ancho Reyes, Yellow Chartreuse, Fernet Branca, Orgeat syrup, or any other unusual liqueur that a recipe calls for in a denomination of half an ounce or less.
In times like these, simplicity is key, and when a cocktail consists of the absolute bare minimum of ingredients, it’s more likely it’ll get stocked, get made, and provide some semblance of comfort at the end of a long day. I wanted to highlight just a few that are worthy of a shout-out.
The Rum and Coke
A drink that once seemed a little trashy and pedestrian to me, I now really appreciate what the rum and coke has to offer. On its own, rum can be a challenging category. Most store-bought rums have a pretty nasty combo of a chemical aftertaste and raw ethanol reek, and good rums tend to have some unusual notes of grass or tobacco that novices find hard to handle. Oddly enough, across good rums and bad rums, Coca Cola is never an outright wrong answer. The sweetness and unusual complexity of Cola pairs wonderfully with the sheer oddness of rum, and the interplay between the two liquids invites you to find nuance you weren’t aware of before.
Easy and satisfying!
What do I mean, exactly? Well, the Coke often washes away the odd aftertaste of rum, allowing the molasses to come forward. The grassiness of many rums also knocks down the sheer candy sweetness of Cola just a little, pulling out some interesting licorice-like tastes. Plus, if you add a squirt of lime juice (honestly, even the concentrated stuff from the grocery store will work fine for this purpose), you have a drink that punches far above its weight class.
A weird thought, but it’s kind of a bizarro Margarita in that it’s constructed from a holy trinity of a sweetener, an alcoholic base, and some kind of citrus.
2. The Gin and Tonic
Writing this out, I suspect I’m preaching to the converted. A lot of you probably already know and love Gin and Tonics. I might as well use this space to say something obvious like, “Cars are great forms of transportation!” or ask “Have you ever owned a pair of pants?”
Regardless, it’s my site, and the G&T is one of those cocktails I started drinking and still continue to enjoy. Tonic water on its own is an odd duck, and one of the few things that seems both too bitter and too sweet at the same time. Add gin, however, and you get a wonderfully potent and effervescent drink that tastes like a brisk walk in the forest. Tonic water becomes the perfect frame for extremely bold, juniper-forward spirits like Tanqueray.
If ever there was a pairing to stand the test of time, it’s the humble G&T.
Be warned, however: tonic water is the one thing that’s going to be your Achilles heel. At the store, you don’t have to look hard to find those 2-liter bottles of Schwepps or Canada Dry you can buy for 99 cents. Unfortunately, they’re almost assuredly going to go flat before you’re even halfway through them. (Assuming you’re not having a party or something.) For that reason, the smaller half-sized cans are a godsend if you can find them.
Again, lime is a great choice for the drink, but not essential. Martin Miller’s and tonic or Hendrick’s and tonic work well enough without any additional citrus and acidity. In fact, I find I’m able to get a little more of the subtle notes like cucumber and ginger.
3. The Godfather
It’s two parts whiskey to one part amaretto. That’s it.
And yet, it’s strange how well this combination works. Again, it’s a meeting of opposites. Amaretto on its own can be intensely, cloyingly sweet. Whiskey, out of all spirits extant, makes no bones about being so full-flavored and intense that most fair weather drinkers never develop a taste for it. Combine the two, and whiskey kicks a little less ass, and Amaretto gets a little less gummy.
The Godfather is ridiculously simple and well-balanced. It’s, uh, an offer you can’t refuse! (I know, I had to say it.)
The merits of the drink are good enough. A Godfather is warming and pleasant and doesn’t call undue attention to itself. In times like these, it’s a comforting beverage if there ever was one—perfect as a nightcap for browsing cute cat videos or reading a good book. It’s dessert without feeling like you’ve blown it. It’s potent without feeling like you’re drinking rocket fuel.
However, the Godfather gets particular mention because it is a superb way to kill off whiskey you don’t particularly like. The Amaretto will do much to bulldoze some of the weird tastes away from well-tier Scotch or offensive American rotgut like Seagram’s Seven. In fact, if you’ve ever had (and even partially enjoyed) a “Seven-and-Seven,” you owe it to yourself to give the godfather a whirl.
At the end of the day?
Making cocktails is fun, sure. But for some, practicing your mixology skills at a time when you might simply be trying to survive and weather a storm that batters your emotions and finances is just one more project to feel guilty about not undertaking. Alternatively, it might simply be that you’ve opened the liquor cabinet and found yourself focusing on what you don’t have rather than on what’s available.
Either way, a two ingredient cocktail is there for you. They’re good in good times, definitely. But in times when visiting family, bullshitting with coworkers, and watching a baseball game seem like memories of a time gone by, it provides small comfort way out of proportion to the effort it requires.
Stay healthy, friends!
