Welcome to the new channel & Cocktail 1: The French Martini
Sharing one of my passions with all of you my friends
TLDR — Get to the recipe
INGREDIENTS
0.5 part of Chambord
1.5 parts of Vodka
2 parts of Pineapple Juice
METHOD
Combine all ingredients in to a shaker with ice
Shake furiously
Pour in to a pretty glassThe Story
Outside of my job in the field of technology, there are a few things I love to indulge in,
- Media & Entertainment: I love all things movies, tv, music and video games, I definitely recognize some will say they are a brain drain, but I do love the down time, sessions with my son on Fortnite, and conversations about the balance between Guns and Roses and Stray Kids.
- G-Shock Watches: More recently discovered (and probably the subject of future articles), I love what they build and represent. Many friends I know will extol the virtue of higher end brands, but I love the ability to try out crazy designs and relatively reasonable prices (although even G-Shock can get pricey).
- and finally, Cocktails: Ever since my stomach surgery, things like beer and anything excessively fizzy can be a killer for me, so I have explored the world of cocktails.
In fact, I enjoy the art and craft of the last one, I thought I would take a chance to write about some of the experiences I have had making cocktails at home.
My intention here is to show you some simple cocktails I love, that taste great, and impress. The other caveat is, I am a bit lazy, so I won't spend time going through the intricacies of the garnish… I will tell you what is recommended to garnish, but when you don't have speed and skill when making cocktails, sometimes you want to just get to the result and enjoy the outcome.
I introduce to you the first one I enjoy…
The French Martini
I discovered this cocktail by chance on the side of the box for the bottle one of the key ingredients came in… Chambord, we will talk about what that is later, but is a fairly simple shaken cocktail recipe, with a combination that is fairly simple to remember, and is made up of three key ingredients, pineapple juice, Chambord and Vodka.
Chambord
Out of the three ingredients (four if you count ice), Chambord is probably the most exotic. I got introduced to Chambord as part of a drink called a Kir Royale (pronounced Kia like the car) on a date with my wife, which involves Champagne with a dash of Chambord. There is also a straight Kir drink which is white wine and Chambord, but if you want to be fancy, go the Royale.
Chambord is a raspberry flavored liqueur made in France, its classified as a premium liqueur which is semi sweet, and funnily enough, well at least in Singapore harder and harder to find. It's not something you would find in the duty-free section coming through the airport. Lucky for me, my inquisitive wife found out we could easily order it online, and for a reasonable price. However, at the time of writing this, I just noted that I cannot find it at my usual online store, so another challenge awaits me.
The liqueur itself has applications in a variety of drinks, not just the Kir and Kir Royale, but combined with Gin for a Bramble, or with Tequila for a spin on the Margarita. Suffice to say, it's extremely versatile.
The rest
Now not to devalue the rest of the ingredients but they are pretty straight forward.
Pineapple Juice
It would seem simple for me to say, this comes from a pineapple, and leave it at that, but I would say, as much as possible try and find ingredients that are not pineapple drink but are pineapple juice and as much as possible those without sugar added, so you get as much natural flavor as possible. Sure, it would be great to get a juiced pineapple, but we don't really have the time in the world to do that right?
Vodka
Finally, the last ingredient, Vodka, the base which brings it all together. Some will tell you to use Grey Goose Vodka, and all the fancy stuff, but reality is, when you get to a cocktail mix, the Vodka doesn't need to be super high end, Absolut or a Smirnoff works just fine, don’t over think it.
The Recipe
This is probably the point you want to get to, what goes into the drink, well here it is.
0.5 part of Chambord
1.5 parts of Vodka
2 parts of Pineapple Juice
I mixed this into a clear glass so you can see the color of all the ingredients combined.
Thats pretty much it, all of these go into a shaker with ice… and you do what is intended you shake, shake, shake, for a good 30 seconds.
The Result
After the shaking… you want to pour this in a martini glass, honestly you could pour it in a coffee mug, but that doesn’t look so good, so get a martini glass, if only for yourself.
What is interesting when you pour out the drink, because of the aeration you will find that it looks milky white. In fact, in a cocktail class I went to, the instructor said this is a good demonstration that it has been shaken properly to mix and aerate the ingredients, might need to do some research on why that is a good thing. At the point of pouring, I tried to take a picture to show you what it looked like.
While there is the milkiness on top of the drink, you can already start to see the peach color coming through with the combination of the Chambord and pineapple juice.
Once it settles down, you get a much nice color of pinks and orange coming through, as below.
If you want to go the extra step, the garnish you could use with this would be something like a piece of pineapple and maybe a maraschino cherry.
How does it taste?
Probably the most important question, and one you should lead with, but here we are… I am at the end of the article and have made three already. It’s a great drink, on the fruity side, but the vodka gives a nice balance to the sweetness of the Chambord and the pineapple juice. It is definitely one of those drinks where you say, “Hey this tastes pretty good.”, and all of a sudden you find yourself on the floor.
At the end of the day, its smooth and easy to drink, and if it wasn’t good, I wouldn’t be three in as I write this.
How easy is it to make?
Super easy, if you prepped glasses and garnish, you could rock these all night long and have a great night. Ingredients are relatively simple, except maybe the Chambord, but if you can get a hold of it… you are set, Vodka and Pineapple juice should be a no brainer.
My Final Rating
As I said earlier, I am three of them in at this point writing the article, and am eyeing one more… maybe a YouTube video as I make them might help, but it's a simple fun cocktail that will appeal to all…
I rate this a good 8 out of 10…
