One of my early goals when I first entered the world of cocktail mixage was to eventually tackle my fear (or rather, apprehension) of gin. I like the smell of gin, and I appreciate its unique qualities when I taste it by itself. But whenever I make a cocktail with it, I almost always find I'd rather be drinking something else. Perhaps my palate just hasn't become accustomed to it yet, perhaps the Tom Collins really is just a lame drink. All I know is that my experiment with a Gin & Tonic ended up tasting like bile in a glass, and my mixing glass broke when I tried making a Gin Fizz. A sign from above, perhaps? Fine. I'll stick to rum.

Which is where the Cable Car comes in! I ordered some new bar equipment online recently, including a new mixing glass, a proper jigger (up until now I've used a souvenir shot glass from the Luxor in Vegas), a bar spoon, and most importantly, a channel knife. It's horrifically awesome. I can now cut twists like the pros.

The Cable Car didn't work out quite like I expected. The base recipe calls for two ounces of Captain Morgan's spiced rum, one ounce of Cointreau, and a half ounce of lemon juice. For some reason, all I taste is the lemon. I find Captain Morgan underwhelming in general - not enough spice, and a slightly bitter aftertaste - but in a cocktail like this it really gets taken over by the other ingredients. I may have to adjust the proportions next time. That said, the cinammon-sugar rim is cute, and look! A garnish! I'm playing with the big boys now.

Cable Car
2 oz spiced rum (Captain Morgan)
1 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass rimmed with cinammon sugar. Garnish with a lemon twist.


Now all I need is a better camera. The Digital Rebel is calling my name...

This entry was posted by Darryl, on Tuesday, June 19, 2007. You can leave your response.