There’s one thing to be mentioned concerning the ritual and reduction of cocktail hour. Considered one of life’s easy and even profound pleasures is arriving dwelling from work on a Friday night and fixing your self a cocktail. The virtues of it being Friday night go with out saying, however the payoff of a well-prepared cocktail’s first sip is a divine second. The sip itself is one factor—the vacation spot, if you’ll—nevertheless it’s the “well-prepared” half that’s the journey, and as we all know, the worth is sort of all the time within the journey.
The divinity of that first sip doesn’t come from skinny air. It would not occur accidentally. That second involves be solely when you’ve gotten developed a style for one thing, and that style evolves into an appreciation by means of studying and experiencing. That appreciation means that you can distinguish what’s worthwhile and what is not, and that is the basis of that single, satisfying second.
Past the appreciation is the method. And this course of is the journey in motion—one in every of epic proportions, together with a wealthy historical past, detailed strategies, all kinds of apparatus and, in fact, the recipes themselves, which promise infinite variation and risk. The primary second I noticed the extent of nuance and element doable was once I heard Jim Meehan clarify the right technique for making ready a martini. The emphasis he positioned on seemingly trivial particulars like utilizing a footed mixing glass with a view to stop the warmth from one’s hand from warming the cocktail, or his want to stir with such precision that he’d create no air bubbles made it sound like he was performing a medical process slightly than making ready a drink. And I beloved it.
For me, it is not that the journey is best than the vacation spot, it is the synergy of the 2 that I respect most. When cocktail hour rolls round and I determine to make myself a drink, I’ve a option to make: It would start with a hankering for a traditional, an thought for an experiment, a search by means of a favourite cocktail e book, or a scroll by means of the geniuses I observe on #drinkstagram. Subsequent, I am going to collect my substances, choose and put together my instruments, select my glassware and start mixing. Performing the pour and executing the garnish are the ultimate touches of the method, and then you definitely get to examine your work.
A drink is fantastic when it is made for you, however it’s higher when it is made with care and intention. And a drink is even higher nonetheless if you’re committing your individual care and intention to the preparation. That’s what makes the sip actually divine.
