“It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous.Resign yourself to be the fool you are. We must always take risks. That is our destiny.”
— T.S. Eliot, from The Cocktail Party
Fittingly, the above quote comes from a play about a cocktail party. While T.S. Eliot likely aimed the sentiment within at his two main characters, Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne, and their choice to reconcile a marriage, it could just as easily apply to the drinks they might have served that evening. After all, great mixology is about taking risks as well.
Well, that depends on whom you ask. Of course, the constant creation of new cocktails is undoubtedly reliant upon those involved being willing to try something new, but more important, say some, is maintaining a balance between the outrageous and the accepted. While your ambition may be to create a unique cocktail that dazzles the denizens, you don’t want to stray too far from the standard palate of the foundation spirits.
“I think the best advice I could offer to somebody who is looking to create an unusual cocktail and think outside of the box a little bit is—oddly enough— to stick to the basics,” explains Chris Patino, Director of Brand Education at Pernod Ricard. “Though that seems a little counterintuitive, you can’t forget the fundamentals of cocktail structure. You can basically pick the formulas of a punch or a sour or a fizz and insert ingredients into them, much like an equation, to figure out something that will work for you. But you can’t really get away from the structure, otherwise your cocktail will fall apart. It’s all about knowing which flavors work together and which don’t.”
