I typically like cognac straight, but I'm also fond of the whole tradition — one that's blessedly being revived in bars around the country — of making cocktails with it. And they're also perfect during the holidays, especially when the weather's nippy — or here in Florida, when it's dipping (brrrr) into the 70s.
By way of a quick tutorial, cognac is simply brandy produced in a postage stamp-size region in France. Brandy is a distilled wine made from most any fruit: apples, grapes, pears, etc.
But don't get confused by the alphabet soup of cognac classifications: VS, VSOP, XO. VS just means "very special." VSOP is "very superior old pale." XO stands for "extra old."
For drinking straight, I wouldn't go lower than VSOP. For cocktails, I wouldn't typically go higher than VSOP, since XO also tends to be extra expensive, and its subtler charms will be masked in a cocktail. Hennessey, Remy-Martin, Courvoisier and Martell are great brands.
Now, on to the drinks.
It's scientific fact that a hamburger does not become something else if moved from the kitchen to the backyard. Molecules are molecules, no matter where you move 'em, right? Wrong. Consider that gelato always tastes better in Italy, or that barbecue is so much more mouthwatering in Kansas City than New York City. The same is true of cocktails.
Which is why on a trip to France last month, I popped into the Hotel Ritz Paris, purported birthplace of one of the truly great classic cocktails that just so happens to list cognac as the star ingredient: the Sidecar.
Sitting in the resplendent hotel bar, a place where scribblers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald caroused, I ordered one Sidecar (and at 35 Euros each — about forty bucks — that's about all you can afford). Not too sweet. Not too tart. It was, in short, a perfect Sidecar. As with most good cocktails, this one has a nifty creation myth. Supposedly created in Paris during World War I, the Sidecar was named for a customer who was driven to and from the hotel bar in a motorcycle sidecar. This classic cocktail tastes far more complex than its three ingredients would have you believe.
The Sidecar
2 ounces cognac
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a shaker, along with generous amount of ice cubes. Shake vigorously and strain into chilled (the chillier, the better) cocktail glass.
Note: This drink is sometimes garnished with a sugar-rimmed glass. If you want to do this, you'll need some superfine sugar and a lemon wedge, to moisten the glass rim. If you don't know how to rim a glass (see how naughty cocktails sound?!) you can look it up on the Internet.
This one is old-school, as in the late 1800s. Its depth belies its trio of ingredients.
Saratoga Cocktail
1 ounce rye whiskey
1 ounce sweet vermouth (I like Punt e Mes or Carpano Antica, which can be hard to find)
1 ounce cognac
In mixing glass or shaker combine all ingredients. Fill with ice cubes. Stir energetically for 20 seconds and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist.
Few cognac cocktails are as festive as the French 76, brandy-based cousin of the French 75, made instead with gin and so named after the French World War I artillery gun.
French 76
2 ounces cognac
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/4 ounce simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, dissolved)
3 to 4 ounces of champagne or domestic sparkler (use good but not great bubbly)
In shaker combine all ingredients except for the champagne. Top with ice cubes and shake vigorously. Strain into champagne flute. Gently — very gently, so as not to cause it to foam up and overflow the glass — top with champagne.
