Unripe

adj. not ripe; immature; green

We are Michelle & Andy Green. Mixing and researching classic cocktails is a passion of mine (Andy). Michelle shows great patience in helping to taste-test all the cocktails - good and bad - and decide which are worthy of inclusion in our listing and how many stars we give them. I created The Unripe Cocktail Machine for my own use but put it on our website so others could benefit from it too. If you have any feedback (bug reports, feature requests, cocktail suggestions, corrections etc) please contact .

Cocktails

True cocktails orginated in the early 1800s as a morning pick-me-up and were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. Bitters were the ingredient that differentiated a cocktail from a sling - a cocktail was considered a "bittered sling". Many of the cocktails that are considered classics today were first concocted in the speakeasies during prohibition in the 1920 and early '30s. The term cocktail is now used in a more general sense to mean any mixed drink - including drinks that were originally called slings, sours, flips, and fizzes.

David Embury, in his book The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, breaks cocktail ingredient into three categories: base, modifier and special flavouring & colouring agents.

Here at The Unripe Cocktail Machine we take this a step further and use a taxonomy system for cocktails (and other mixed drinks) that describes a drink in terms of the following five aspects:

1. Form : The presentation style of the drink (type of glass, type of ice, top-up)
2. Base : The principal ingredient of the mixed drink, typically a spiritour liqour such as gin, whisky, rum, etc
3. Modifying agents : The ingredients that give the cocktail it's character
4. Special flavouring and colouring agents : Ingredients used sparingly, such as bitters and syrups
5. Garnish : The garnish added to the finished drink

Machine

The trouble with almost all cocktail books is that they are an alphabetical list of cocktails by name. So they are of little use if you want to find cocktails that use a particular ingredient or cocktails that are similar to one another. Some websites let you choose one ingredient for the base and/or one or two ingredients for the modifier, but generally in a fairly restrictive way.

The Unripe Cocktail Machine offers greater flexibility by providing the means to find cocktails that:

• are of a particular form
• use ingredients you particularly like
• don't use ingredients you don't like or don't have
• are similar to a cocktail you know you like

Once you've selected one cocktail, you can choose to find more cocktails that are similar in any combination of: Form, Base, Modyfing agents, Special flavouring agents and/or Garnish.

Recipes

The Unripe Cocktail Machine doesn't set out to list thousands upon thousands of cocktails. Instead we try to list only great cocktails with a particular focus on classics.

The recipes presented here are designed for people making cocktails at home so we have standardised and simplified a little whilst trying to remain as faithful as possible to the original recipe.

As well as listing the ingredients and method for making a cocktail, the entries also contain a star rating, comments, a record of what decade the cocktail dates from (where this is known), and a list of publications that reference a cocktail of the same name. More often than not each book will have a slightly different version of the recipe, so this list of references lets you quickly find all the variations on a recipe (assuming you have the books) so you can compare and draw your own conclusions about which is best.

Glassware

Most of us don't have room in our homes for the variety of glassware typically found in cocktail bars, so these recipes only refer to 6 types of glass: Cocktail, Old Fashioned (or lowball), Highball, Champagne Flute, Wine Glass, Sherry Glass. Often a distinction is made between a cocktail glass and a martini glass but as they are both broad shallow glasses I don't see the point. I use the term highball for any tall glass called variously: highball, collins glass, chimney glass, goblet or hollowed out pineapple. In terms of defining the form of a cocktail, lowballs and highballs are treated as the same - i.e. tumbler style.

Quantities

The liquor in a drink for one person is usually between 30ml and 50ml or between 1 and 2 fluid ounces (oz). But the most important thing when measuring cocktails is the proportions rather than absolute measurements. The IBA give measurements in ml and also show "parts". I prefer to simply use oz in cocktail recipes - which can be read as parts if you are scaling up. If you have a jigger that measures 1 oz on one side and 2 oz on the other that is ideal. Mine is a British "jigger" which measures 50ml on one side and 25ml on the other - but that's close enough to 2 oz and 1 oz for me. For ½ oz and ¼ oz measures I use a tablespoon (15ml) and a teaspoon (5ml) respectively. The other quantitiy used as a measurements is a dash - where there are about 6 dashes to the teaspoon. In recipe books that specify the main ingredients as "parts" (for easy scaling) those specified as dashes will usually mean per-drink.

Don't be afraid to experiment and adjust the proportions to your taste. If you compare the recipe for any given classic cocktail from multiple sources you will find they are all slightly different.

Shaken or Stirred?

Shaking is easier, takes less ice, is faster and makes the drink colder (and slightly more dilute). In theory you are supposed to stir if all the ingredients are clear because shaking makes the drink cloudy (although it will clear up). If there are any opaque ingredients (such as fruit juice, or egg) there's no reason not to shake. I usually always shake - who cares if it looks cloudy?

Ingredients

I prefer to refer to types of liquors and liqueurs rather than specific brands. So the recipe for 7&7 (Seagram's Seven and 7-Up) for example would be whisky and lemonade. Unless there is one particular brand which is really the only option - such as Cointreau for triple sec (Cointreau bottles originally had "triple sec" on the label until imitators started using the term). Or where there is only one brand typically available.

To simpify searching I have standardised on the following ingredient names in the recipes:

• brandy : any grape brandy, cognac, armagnac, whichever you prefer/have
• calvados : any apply brandy such as calvados or applejack, whichever is available
• whisky : the machine lets you select any whisky or specific types: rye, bourbon, scotch etc
• pastis : any anise-flavored liqueur such as pastis, pernod, absinthe - use whichever one is available
• cointreau : cointreau, triple sec or white curacao
• lime cordial : recipes usually specify Rose's lime juice, but try Belvior lime & lemongrass cordial instead
• creme de cafe : any coffee liqueur (kahlua or tia maria)

The Unripe Cocktail Machine divides ingredients (other than liquors) into categories that are used by the "more like this" feature: fortified wine, aperitif wine, bitters, aromatic liqueur, citrus liqueur, fruit liqueur/brandy, creme liqueur, whisky liqueur, syrup, citrus juice, fruit juice, fruit, soft drink and miscellaneous

Where to shop

The best places to shop for cocktail ingredients in London are:

• Amathus, Wardour Street. Massive selection and good prices.
• Gerry's Wines and Spirits, Old Compton Street. As their tagline says, "At Gerry's you can buy almost any drink under the sun". Gerry's doesn't always have the best price though.
• Soho Wine Supply off of Tottenham Court road. Doesn't have half the stuff you'll find a Gerry's but what it does have is about 7% cheaper. Not usually open at the weekends.

Supermarkets like Sainbury's and Ocado have very little choice but will always be the cheapest option. Local off-licences are usually far more expensive than anywhere else.

Prices current as of December 2011

Where to drink out

For when you are too lazy to mix your own cocktails there are some great cocktail bars in London:

• Cafe Pacifico/La Perla, Covent Garden. Excellent tequila, good Tex/Mex food and great service. What more could you ask for?
• The Blues Kitchen, Camden High Street. Blues, bourbon cocktails and southern style cooking. What more could you ask for?
• Cottons, Chalk Farm Road. Excellent rum, great Caribbean food and friendly service. What more could you ask for?
• American Bar, The Savoy, The Strand. Home of the classic Savoy Cocktail Book.
• The Booking Office, The Renaissance Hotel, St. Pancras. Ask Adrian for a Victorian Manhattan.
• Experimental Cocktail Club, Gerrard Street. Don't be surprised if you can't get in.
• Vista, the Trafalgar Hotel. A cocktail bar on the roof with stunning views over Trafalgar Square.
• Dukes, St. James Place. Home of the Vesper Martini. Alessandro keeps all the bottles in the freezer and mixes the drinks from a trolley he brings to your table.
• Idlewild, Shirland Road. My local.
• Trailer Happiness, Portobello Road. Home of the Notting Hill Rum Club.
• Dirty Martini, Covent Garden. Loud and trendy.