I love being outside. Cycling, running, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, kayaking, golf, I love it all. Get me out where nature is thick, people are sparse, and I’m breaking a sweat. But I also run a (mostly) cocktail blog, so I obviously love drinking as well.
For a while, the only thing that really sounded good during (or immediately after) a good outdoor activity was a cold beer. And to be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with throwing a Vitamin R in one of these bad boys to enjoy a cold one wherever you may be. For especially warm days, it can also be a good idea to fill up a good bottle with ice, flavored sparkling water, and vodka for a long-lasting, refreshing summer highball.
The problem with both of these otherwise-great ideas is that beer and a vodka highball (especially housed in stainless steel) mean lugging lots of heavy liquid around with you. When you’re on a strenuous hike, a long ride, or just generally trying not to carry much with you, heavy liquid is the enemy. Enter the flask cocktail.
There are few joys in my life that compare to being out in the middle of nowhere and taking a sip of a good drink with friends. This is one of those good drinks, and it’s perfect for a day out in the snow.
Context
There’s really only one rule I have when making a flask cocktails: only use true hard alcohol. This is so you don’t have to drink the whole flask in a short time or worry about it holding temperature because an ingredient will go bad.
The resulting mixture needs to be at least ~33% alcohol to achieve this, so you can really only stir a lot of hard booze with some ice to combine it or you’ll have to worry about the temperature and oxygenation. Unfortunately, this means you’ll need to save delicious seasonal juices for non-flask versions of cocktails.
You may be asking at this point: Why not just use a flask for it’s God-given purpose of containing great liquor all by itself? That’s a good question, any my only response is to say that these drinks can be delicious as well and a flask is a great way to enjoy them.
A house infusion can also be a delicious alternative to a straight spirit, but pay attention to any particulates that may change the character of the infusion as it ages.
To each, their own.
Making the Drink
This particular cocktail is inspired by the margarita. So, naturally, it starts with tequila and Cointreau. A key mark of the margarita, however, is the lime (and other citrus) juice that gives it the fresh acidic bite. To achieve this, I used a mixture of orange bitters and St. Germain, an elderflower liqueur that acts more like an extremely-floral amaro with a bit more sugar than normal.
The good news here is making a flask cocktail couldn’t be easier. Measure ingredients into a mixing glass with ice, stir, and strain it into your flask! If you want to avoid the stirring with ice, just be sure to add some water to your mixture at the end. I don’t think it really makes a difference either way, but I always prefer to dilute more naturally.
My ratio was 24 parts anejo tequila, 8 parts Cointreau, 6 parts St. Germain, and 1 part orange bitters. This was all stirred with ice, so if you’re using water I would reserve ~1/8 of your flask for the water directly and calculate the measures that way.
Flasks vary by size quite a bit, so make sure you know how much space you have before you start pouring!
Tasting Notes
This isn’t a margarita, but it will remind you of one. You get the sweetness of the anejo and Cointreau to start, but that’s quickly followed by a floral bitterness and a hint of citric acid on the palate to combine into a complex mixture of bittersweetness. It finishes a bit thick with burn from the anejo.
This is high-proof, so expect heat from the booze all the way through. If you like a margarita with an herbaceous note (ever thrown some cilantro in?) this will work well for you.
Riffs
There are so many! They will all (roughly) follow the ratios here (spirit, liqueur, bitters) and I plan to explore the combinations more fully on this blog several times a season!