Probably, all of us had ‘Bloody Mary’ sometime or the other. While this is truly a morning drink, its not very uncommon to see people enjoying their bloody mary in evenings or nights. The cocktail is very simple, vodka and tomato juice but try mixing these two at home and it just wont taste as good as you have it in the bar few blocks away. I have even tried putting salt on the brim of glass but to no great effect. So lets find out the secrets behind making this cocktail as good as it can be.

Bloody Mary

History
First some facts or legends behind the history of this cocktail. After researching on internet, what I could conclude was that the initial vodka-tomato drink was created by George Jessel. You can read more about him by clicking here. He was a great actor and a very popular man at gatherings. He would often be called the ‘Toastmaster General’ (which rhymes with Postmaster General) as he would usually end up with being the master of ceremonies. He has a star to his credit in that famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Vodka, the name itself sounds so much of Russian that you really do not need to write that Vodka seems to be originated from Russia. And not only it originated from there, it still remains the most preferred drink there. I read somewhere that there is no wedding, no funeral, no grief and no happiness if there is not a bottle of Vodka on the table. When I think of Vodka, I imagine a pure, odorless, white and strong aromatic drink which when taken gives you a special burning feeling. So why its color less and how its prepared.

Well, if you want to know then read on. I am hoping that next time you had our ‘Absolut’ or ‘Smirn-Off’, you are going to enjoy more.
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Beer, the bubbly drink which always makes you feel lighter and funnier. While some of the hard drinks like Whiskey and Rum are taken in all moods, usually Beer is always associated with fun and happier times. So I guess we have more then enough reasons to have a small post on its preparation. The other big reason is that I am personally a great fan of Beer and prefer it over most of the other drinks.

Its one of the olderst known drinks and some googling tells me that it has roots in ancient Egypt, China and Europe. Beer is made from water, yeast , hops and grains. Grains could be oats, wheat, rice but mostly its barley. Wheat is also used in some places. Apart from these basic things you may add adjuncts, herbs etc. Yeast converts sugar into alcohol, corn sugar for the yeast, hops create the bitterness.
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Rum, you say it and you would want to say it again. Try it. Rum. Rum. Personally I prefer Rum in winters and mostly with warm water, and if needed then with a dash of lemon. Rum-Cola is though more popular here, it hides the social-taboo part of the drink from prying eyes, its all the more sweet so gulp-able and with some ice, it makes a pretty nice combination that lasts long.

While almost everyone knows that Rum is made from molasses, not all of us are aware about the actual process. So before we go that path, lets try to figure out the origin of this wonderful form of liquor. Rum has its origins in Caribbean islands where it seems to have been discovered. Its been believed that Christopher Columbus brought sugarcane to the island of Hispaniola, via the Canary Islands. The local warm climate did wonders to the crop and over time it became one of the big cash crops with sugar mills churning sweet all over. Later someone figured out that if molasses is fermented, you can get alcohol.
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Whiskey, the name seems to have originated from the effect of such drink on man. Try saying it couple of times, and it would seem as if you are beginning to lose co-ordination, repeating same thing as you would often do after having one and most likely sound gibberish. It sounds funny, right. Well, I guess there must be some better explanations on this subject.

I looked at couple of websites and here’s what “Answers” has to report on this subject
“An alcoholic liquor distilled from grain, such as corn, rye, or barley, and containing approximately 40 to 50 percent ethyl alcohol by volume.” This sounds so much exact, well lets read form Wikipedia to see, what they have to say on this “Whisky (Scottish Gaelic: uisge-beatha), or whiskey (Irish: uisce beatha or fuisce), refers to a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are distilled from fermented grain mash and aged in wooden casks (generally oak).”

In simple words, Whiskey is a kind of alcoholic beverage where alcohol part comes from fermented grain, unlike Rum where it comes from Molasses.

The second and more interesting part of this story is to understand the process by which usually Whisky is made. I would not go wide and deep and wont make it more complex by mentioning different kind of whiskies but would rather focus on the standard methods.

Constituents / Raw Material - Essentially water, yeast and grain. Water is very important as it gives that local flavor. You probably would have noticed that a same beer brand tastes pretty different in different cities depending upon the source of water. There are lot of things which are responsible for this viz. salt content in water, purity level, carbonated or not carbonated, iron and so on.

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