Finding Balance

Let’s talk about balance today, shall we? No, not the kind of balance you’d achieve from Yoga classes (although if you are a professional bartender I do suggest some Yoga in your life). I’m talking about balance in your beverages. What exactly is the recipe for success when it comes to finding balance in your drinks? How do you know when a drink is balanced? Are there certain rules, or faux pas in cocktail methodology that exist when searching for that balance?Well whether you host dinner parties with friends, or do battle in a service well on a nightly basis, I’ve got some answers for you.

Let us taste…

Before we get into the aspects of flavor affinities and aversions, there’s a primary rule of thumb that we all should stick to when it comes to serving anything ingestible. Taste it, taste it, taste it again and again. Understand that your ingredients are going to be in a constant state of change. Acidity in juices change, not just as seasons change, but as it spends more time in the bottle. I taste the juices in my well before each shift, press fresh juice if I deem it necessary (depending on the economics of your bar, if you are a professional, you might juice fresh daily or you might keep juice for a shift or two).

If you are bartending at home, and you’ve taken on the daunting task of creating your own cocktail ingredients (first of all, good on you, and if this is something you are interested in doing and don’t know where to start, send me an email and I’ll be happy to provide you with some great resources) get used to adjusting your drinks on the fly. Not to sound insulting, but you aren’t a professional, and even professionals make mistakes to that point. While juggling that phone conversation with your step-mom, you might simmer that clarification you are making for a bit too long and it’ll change the nature of it’s flavors, viscosity and so on and so forth. So it’s important that you play a little loose and fast with your drink recipes to make sure you achieve… balance.

A final two notes about tasting before we get into the nitty gritty of matching flavors; I was taught two things a long time ago when I first started making cocktails. The first is, cocktail recipes, like most things are best developed when looked at through more than one set of eyes. If you are a bartender, reach out to another bartender on your team, ask them to taste not only the cocktail, but any special ingredients you might have produced or experimented with. They might have some great insight to share not only about the flavors, but also about your processes, and in turn don’t be afraid to offer your taste buds and brains up to your coworkers as well.

The second, don’t allow your recipes to become set in stone. Like I mentioned earlier in the article, your ingredients are going to change and what you put into that shaker tin or mixing glass doesn’t care that your recipe was perfectly balanced a month ago. It goes without saying at this point. Taste it, taste it, and taste it again and again and again.

Balance in Olfactory Senses

You can easily divide most if not all cocktails into two categories. Short and boozy, for example your Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Negroni, Sazerac, etc. Then you have your long and lights. These will be your Tom Collins, Paloma, Mojito and so forth. These two categories of drinks get a different set of cohorts in order to achieve balance. As a rule of thumb, the short and boozy drinks consist of spirit, sugar, water and bitters. Sometimes one or two of those things are omitted, but thats the core realm in which the short and boozy lives (not forgetting about oils from citrus peels or any other modifying garnish you can imagine). As for the long and lights, think of things that bring effervescence to the party (Sodas, Tonics) and think juices, tinctures, salts, possibly even dairy or egg and of course the garnish.

If you we’re to run down to your local bookstore and grab a copy of “The Flavor Bible” and crack it open to the first few pages, you’d quickly discover that flavor is defined by what is perceived by your taste buds. These perceptions, which I’m sure some, if not most of you have heard before are Sweetness, Saltiness, Sourness, Bitterness, Savoriness (or Umami). That list will quickly transcend into mouthfeel which includes things like Temperature, Astringency, Piquancy and Texture. The final two categories to consider are what is perceived by way of Ortho (what you taste purely by sniffing an aroma) and Retronasal (the perception of scent from the mouth, in example whenever you say something tastes like “blank” smells, that is Retronasal) influences, more specifically Pungency and Chemesthesis (the perception of cooling effects from spearmint, or the “lengthening” properties of club soda or dilution/aeration). All of these things factor into the balance of a drink, and using this next set of rules as a guide, you’ll be just that much closer to finding balance.

Sweetness and Saltiness love each other. Think a bag of Lay’s Chips, then eating a Chocolate Bar. Or sprinkling just a tiny bit of kosher salt on a brownie.

Sourness draws the Savoriness out of drinks and dishes. Think of squeezing limes on tacos, or the salt rim on a Margarita (bonus points if you add chili powder into the rimming equation, because Piquancy, but we will get into that).

Sweetness and Sourness bring balance to each other, as well as Bitterness when used in the right proportions.

Piquancy plays extremely well when Sweetness becomes to overbearing.

Astringency can be balanced by Chemesthesis.

Sourness and Piquancy can be toned down by Pungency and Chemesthesis.

If you haven’t noticed a pattern yet, every perception of taste, aroma and mouthfeel is counteracted, or balanced, by one another. Finding balance in your cocktail is all about making these different perceptions play together as a team to create the exact, comfortable, enjoyable, delicious experience you are looking for. We’ve used quite a few terms here that might be a little difficult to associate with certain ingredients, so I’ll list some examples below.

The Negroni

Gin (Astringency)

Campari (Bitterness)
Sweet Vermouth (Sweetness)

Stir to Dilute (Chemesthesis)

Recognize how the Astringency of the Gin is balanced by the Chemesthesis of dilution, and how the Bitterness of the Campari is settles by the Sweetness of the Vermouth?

Army & Navy

Gin (Astringency)
Lemon Juice (Sourness)

Orgeat (Sweetness)

Angostura Bitters (Bitterness, Astringency)

Shaken (Chemesthesis)

The sweet Orgeat and sour Lemon juice and Angostura bitters all play well with each other and the Gin, combined with all the other ingredients in a well aerated and mixed drink serve to create one of the most balanced “Sours” I’ve personally ever had.

Now you try

Now that you’ve got the simple equations to steer you in the right direction, I’ll leave you with this. When you think you are on to something, write it down, play with the proportions of your ingredients and the recipe of your drink. Taste it constantly, and if you think you’ve found the best balance that you can get, write that down, and then mix it up a different way again. There is certainly a science behind balanced flavors but with the hundreds of thousands of different products and ingredients out there in the world, I would need a PhD and thirty year long research project to put it down in a chemical equation. And who wants to overthink booze like that? Trust your tastebuds and your nose, and if it feels right, you’ve most likely found balance. If you happen to create something wonderful and delicious, feel free to shoot me an email or tag me in your cocktail on instagram! I would love to see what you come up with.

Cheers folks!