Given the weather in Beijing today looks like this…
Beijing having an 'off' day
…I thought I’d mix up a couple of Fog Cutters to ease us into the evening.
The Fog Cutter is a classic tiki drink, and comes in a few variations, all involving a lot of spirit and a bit of juice to ease the way.
Credited to Trader Vic in the ‘Bartender’s Guide’ (1972), the drink was supposedly made back into the 1940′s, but has had a few reinventions in that time – to the extent that widely differing drinks exist. I won’t go into detail, because it’s covered very nicely here on “Our Libatious Nature“, but to ensure you have a few recipes, here’s a standard recipe and a revised (the one we had tonight).
Standard Fog Cutter:
45ml light rum
25ml Cognac
15ml London Dry gin
45ml orange juice
15ml lemon juice
15ml orgeat syrup
15ml Amontillado sherry
Shake the first 6 ingredients and strain over ice in a tall glass. Drizzle the sherry over the drink as a float.
Fog Cutter #2.5 (based on the Fog Cutter #2 in Difford’s Guide as a starting point):
30ml light rum
15ml VSOP Cognac
15ml London Dry gin
25ml fresh lime juice
25ml fresh orange juice
10ml Cherry Heering
12.5ml sugar syrup
Shaken together with a hefty dose of Beijing smog and strained through said air into a rocks glass over ice. Garnished with a cherry preserved to Adam Elmegirab’s recipe here.
Fog Cutter #2.5
Clearly it should have been served longer in a Tiki mug with various elaborate garnishes, but hey ho – personally I rather liked it this style. Difford’s recipe was chosen as a) no orgeat, b) no sherry and c) love Cherry Heering. Whether that really makes it a fog cutter or not, I don’t know, but it was in the right spirit and tasted good…
Vic’s famous quote for the drink goes “Fog Cutter, hell. After two of these, you won’t even see the stuff.” Personally I only had the one (followed by a slightly less sweet G&T and some rather splendid rum from a Jamaican brand that has just hit these shores), but it nevertheless had the same effect – magically the fog disappeared. This was probably something to do with nightfall and the closing of the curtains though…
Paul
JUL