NIO Cocktails adds to its drink list the Vodka Sour cocktail, at your home, also perfect for a gift.
From the most famous and traditional cocktails, to those exclusive and unobtainable.
All this thanks to the expert hand of our mixologist Patrick Pistolesi.
And in this particular spring for all of us, NIO Cocktails wants to bring home that sense of rebirth and freshness typical of this season.
Speaking to Patrick, the first cocktail we want to talk about is Vodka Sour.
Apparently just a mix of vodka, sugar and lemon... basically much more..
Vodka Sour. The mixology.
- Vodka: We chose a truly premium Dutch label: 40 degrees of legend. One of the most historic brands, for a premium quality without compromise.
- Citric acid: is a is a natural compound present in citrus, especially in lemon, and is defined as a weak acid because it does not cause damage to health. For us it is a style choice: it allows to give the drink the right degree of flavour, leaving it at the same time clear and crystalline, in absolute coherence with the modern techniques of Mixology. Our citric acid is organic.
- Liquid sugar: a totally natural 1:2 composition, that is a part of water and two of sugar. Obviously the best quality made in Italy.
NIO Cocktails chooses only premium spirits and natural ingredients for you.
Vodka Sour: Patrick, why did you choose this cocktail as your first to tell and take you home?
Vodka. And I could also stop with the answer. Vodka is the distillate that represents the tastes of many people for quality, variety, style.
In particular, then, the Vodka Sour is experiencing a huge rebirth in recent years: I personally Iserve it non-stop at my cocktail bar Drink Kong It’s a very simple drink, but like any seemingly simple drink, it always hides pitfalls. You need to know how to ensure a correct balance, essential for the perfect result of every drink.
Tasting a good Vodka Sour at home then is not so easy.
The world of cocktails is made of history, experimentation, custom, chemistry, travel. Otherwise it is just a shake liquids.
Let’s go step by step. Let’s fall in love with what we drink.
Vodka Sour has a fairly recent history, like everything about vodka, we are in the second half of the twentieth century. World conflicts, spies and controversial characters, the first globetrotters. And then the Cold War, the great blockades and the first world cultural phenomena. We are in the United States: drinking vodka is considered exotic and sophisticated, while everyone is obsessed with communism.
Literature is full of vodka drinks. The most famous of the examples we all know: signed by Ian Fleming who consecrates it, putting a shaken Vodka Martini not mixed, as an iconic phrase of the most famous secret agent in the world. Not only a drink, but also a concept, a lifestyle of the cocktail: it is for those who know what they want, who take care of the details, who is confident.
Vodka and history... even more modern and contemporary.
I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years now. I’ve travelled. I’ve made so much hard time. I also worked for big names until I started a new adventure, all my own, opening the cocktail bar Drink Kong. I can safely say that Vodka has never feared the anomalous waves of fashion.
It is always drunk... in every place and on every occasion! It’s been popular among the models and in the best parties since the 80s with the unbridled hedonism Reagan always branded USA up to the present day, bursting into Europe and also in our beloved and sometimes traditionalist Italy.
Vodka is in effect a culture, becoming a must for drinks and also drank smooth or ice.
I have always wondered why, after all, Vodka is a neutral distillate. By manual it is defined colorless and tasteless distillate. But perhaps for this reason it has become so renowned, for its versatility in mixing it and, if frozen, it is a fresh and powerful distillate.
You in particular chose for NIO Cocktails, to arrive in people’s homes with a Vodka Sour.
The birth of the Sour proper, unlike the Vodka, is to be dated far back in time, at least 300 years. They see the light of the first punch, obtained by mixing exotic fruits from the colonies, in containers that have as the rhyme says:
One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak.
Over the centuries, this practice evolved to the definition of the most modern sour: that is, distillate, a citric part and a sugar, as well as pasteurized egg white, that works as a natural thickener and creates a foam and texture that I’m a big fan of. The version without albumen is however equally interesting, lighter and very pleasant on the palate.
Why would you recommend ordering a cocktail like vodka sour?
Let’s say Vodka Sour is a milestone for people like me who are a professional of cocktail world. Like all simple things, they must be protected, handed down and selected keeping the quality of ingredients and preparation that have made them iconic. Like a garlic and oil paste... a bit special.
You want to put the advantage of having a perfectly blended Vodka Sour ready at home?
NIO Cocktails Vodka Sour at home because it is a cocktail:
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Versatile: it does not have privileged hours to sip it, it is perfectly tasted both in cup and on the rocks.
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Lively: Vodka Sour is refreshing, it is definitely a silky drink, with a witty spine.
- Must: both for style (Vodka is synonymous with coolness always and anyway) and for etiquette (in a house is always a great welcome for an unexpected guest, an elegant sophisticated cuddle for those who stay after dinner).
A great start if you want to get closer to the world of cocktails.