I was thinking about creating new cocktails and wondered why I never see water listed as an ingredient in cocktails. Granted, I'm newer to the cocktail thing (~1 year), but I would have thought that water would be used in more cocktails.
I know you add water when you shake or stir to chill, but is that all the water you'll ever need in a cocktail? Hot drinks will often use some water, but I haven't seen it in cold drinks. The answer may be obvious, but I have never read anything that talks about using water as an ingredient.
I know some cocktail books do take account for ice melt dilution in their cocktails and list water amounts to create a uniform end result (Difford's Encyclopedia of Cocktails comes to mind, as does Regan's Joy of Mixology for creating bottled cocktails). But as far as being a main component of the actual recipe, I can only think of the 19th century Sling and Fix families as explicitly using water in the same fashion as any other ingredient.
When water is mentioned, it is usually in conjunction with sugar as a solvent. The use of simple syrup adds water to a cocktail, replacing the need for a separate splash to go with granulated sugar. So between the use of simple syrup and the dilution of stirring or shaking a drink, most cocktails already have the water pretty much covered if they're served "up." Short drinks on the rocks and flash blended exotic drinks especially rely on the ice dilution to make for a well made drink.
Now this last bit is just conjecture, but I also think that adding water in a drink recipe on top of ice melt would have a poor reception. The negative connotation of a drink being "watered down" is a prime example. The perception that someone is receiving less than they paid for when water is added to a drink might be completely unfounded in the intention and results of a well made cocktail. However, I think it may be avoided because it could come off as being a "filler" like sour mix and fruit juices in chain restaurant Mega-rita type drinks. Once again, this is purely conjecture, but I think that perceived value is a factor in water's use as a main ingredient.
Brian:I never see water listed as an ingredient in cocktails
I have to disagree,
As Just mentioned, still mineral water has for a long time been mentioned as an ingredient in the diffordsguide drinks.
Simple syrup contains 50% water.
Spirits are allready "watered down" to a palatable strength before bottling.
MAny cocktails call for soda water.
a sling is by definitition spirits, water and sugar.
a cocktail is by definition spirits, water sugar bitters.
If you do a quick test and see how much what difference a drinks volume before stirring/shaking and after stirring/shaking then you'll be surprised at how much water is in fact added to the drink often almost 1 oz! that is 30% of the drink.
I understand you are wondering why its not used as a neutral ingredient more often but what would the reason for adding it be?
Why the long face?
its simply down to the misconception of "watering down" and the stima attatched to it
I get enough problems explaining the necessity of using as much ice as possible to customers about watering down. Specifying water as an ingredient in a list would create a whole new raft of issues.....
Its amazing though how the single most important ingredient in EVERY cocktail has such stigma's attatched to it and is therefore excluded the recognition it deserves amongst the public
You will often see "water" as an ingredient listed in the Difford's guide recipes.
The addition of water would be used to help create a balance of the flavors, most noteably in toning down the heat of the alcohol and spreading out the flavors. Since most cocktails are designed to be shaken/stirred with ice, the obvious intent here is to use that water to this effect. And as such, the cocktail is then designed so that it's flavors are properly balanced in this way. If during the design phase, the drink is too "hot", then the recipe is adjusted to deal with this situation. Could water have been used instead? In some (if not many) cases I suspect the answer is yes. But frankly, it's never really occured to me to go that way.
-Robert
Definitely seen it in some cold drinks' ingredients, such as the Alamagoozlum (the lead off drink in Ted Haigh's book). I think Embury would frown that any additional water (save for the ice melt during chilling) to dilute his drinks though...
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