The Wine Voyage

Table of Contents - What Is a Daiquiri? - Where the Daiquiri Comes From - The Classic Recipe and How to Build It - Daiquiri Variations Worth Knowing - Building a Group Tasting Around the Daiquiri - Common Questions - Bringing a Daiquiri Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading Ask someone to picture a Daiquiri and most people describe a frozen, blended, neon-colored slushie machine drink from a beach bar. That's not what a Daiquiri actually is, and it's one of the more frustrating gaps between reputation and reality in the entire cocktail world. The real Daiquiri — rum, lime, sugar, shaken hard and served up — is one of the tightest, most technically demanding three-ingredient cocktails there is, and it's been unfairly buried under decades of frozen-drink-machine imitators that share nothing but a name. This guide covers where the Daiquiri actually comes from, the technique that separates a genuinely great one from a forgettable one, its most important variations, and how to ...

Table of Contents - What Is a Daiquiri? - Where the Daiquiri Comes From - The Classic Recipe and How to Build It - Daiquiri Variations Worth Knowing - Building a Group Tasting Around the Daiquiri - Common Questions - Bringing a Daiquiri Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading Ask someone to picture a Daiquiri and most people describe a frozen, blended, neon-colored slushie machine drink from a beach bar. That's not what a Daiquiri actually is, and it's one of the more frustrating gaps between reputation and reality in the entire cocktail world. The real Daiquiri — rum, lime, sugar, shaken hard and served up — is one of the tightest, most technically demanding three-ingredient cocktails there is, and it's been unfairly buried under decades of frozen-drink-machine imitators that share nothing but a name. This guide covers where the Daiquiri actually comes from, the technique that separates a genuinely great one from a forgettable one, its most important variations, and how to ...

Table of Contents - What Is a Mai Tai? - Where the Mai Tai Comes From - The Classic Recipe and How to Build It - Mai Tai Variations Worth Knowing - Building a Group Tasting Around the Mai Tai - Common Questions - Bringing a Mai Tai Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've served a lot of Mai Tais that had no business calling themselves Mai Tais — a splash of dark rum, a flood of pineapple and orange juice, a maraschino cherry, and a name borrowed for marketing rather than earned through the actual recipe. The real Mai Tai is a tight, rum-forward, barely-sweet cocktail that most people have literally never tasted, because most bars serve a fruit-juice imitation instead. That gap between reputation and reality is exactly why the Mai Tai deserves its own guide instead of getting lumped in with "tropical drinks" generally. This guide covers where the Mai Tai actually comes from, the real 1944 recipe and the decades-long dispute over who invented it, its most important vari...

Table of Contents - What Is a Mai Tai? - Where the Mai Tai Comes From - The Classic Recipe and How to Build It - Mai Tai Variations Worth Knowing - Building a Group Tasting Around the Mai Tai - Common Questions - Bringing a Mai Tai Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've served a lot of Mai Tais that had no business calling themselves Mai Tais — a splash of dark rum, a flood of pineapple and orange juice, a maraschino cherry, and a name borrowed for marketing rather than earned through the actual recipe. The real Mai Tai is a tight, rum-forward, barely-sweet cocktail that most people have literally never tasted, because most bars serve a fruit-juice imitation instead. That gap between reputation and reality is exactly why the Mai Tai deserves its own guide instead of getting lumped in with "tropical drinks" generally. This guide covers where the Mai Tai actually comes from, the real 1944 recipe and the decades-long dispute over who invented it, its most important vari...

Table of Contents - What Is a Whiskey Sour? - Where the Whiskey Sour Comes From - The Classic Recipe and How to Build It - Whiskey Sour Variations Worth Knowing - Building a Group Tasting Around the Whiskey Sour - Common Questions - Bringing a Whiskey Sour Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've watched more bartenders butcher a whiskey sour than almost any other classic cocktail, and the frustrating part is that it's not actually a hard drink to make. Somewhere along the way it picked up a reputation as a sweet-and-sour-mix afterthought, the kind of thing you order when you don't want to think too hard about the menu. That reputation is almost entirely undeserved. A properly built whiskey sour — real whiskey, fresh lemon, simple syrup, and if you're doing it right, an egg white — is one of the most technically satisfying cocktails behind the bar, and it deserves a lot more respect than it usually gets. This guide covers where the whiskey sour actually comes from, t...

Table of Contents - What Is a Whiskey Sour? - Where the Whiskey Sour Comes From - The Classic Recipe and How to Build It - Whiskey Sour Variations Worth Knowing - Building a Group Tasting Around the Whiskey Sour - Common Questions - Bringing a Whiskey Sour Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I've watched more bartenders butcher a whiskey sour than almost any other classic cocktail, and the frustrating part is that it's not actually a hard drink to make. Somewhere along the way it picked up a reputation as a sweet-and-sour-mix afterthought, the kind of thing you order when you don't want to think too hard about the menu. That reputation is almost entirely undeserved. A properly built whiskey sour — real whiskey, fresh lemon, simple syrup, and if you're doing it right, an egg white — is one of the most technically satisfying cocktails behind the bar, and it deserves a lot more respect than it usually gets. This guide covers where the whiskey sour actually comes from, t...

Table of Contents - What Is Petit Manseng? - Where Petit Manseng Comes From - Petit Manseng vs. Sauternes vs. Riesling - Food Pairings - Building a Group Tasting Around Petit Manseng - What to Look For When Buying Petit Manseng - Common Questions - Bringing a Petit Manseng Tasting to Your Team - Further Reading I didn't taste a proper Petit Manseng until years into pouring wine professionally, and it genuinely reset what I thought a "sweet wine" could be. Most dessert wines lean soft and heavy — Petit Manseng comes at you with tropical fruit, honey, and apricot, and then a jolt of acidity that keeps the whole thing from ever feeling cloying. It's one of the more technically fascinating grapes in France, and almost nobody outside the wine trade has ever heard of it. This guide covers what Petit Manseng actually is, the strange viticultural trick that makes its late-harvest wines possible, how it compares to more familiar dessert wines like Sauternes, what to eat with i...