The Salem Sidecar

Another classic cocktail, re-envisioned and reinvented by Joe for this very blog!

The Recipe:

- Muddle ½ of a fresh lime into a 'Sploosh" of falernum,

- Add a 2 count of Cognac

- Add a 1½ count of Cointreau Noir

- Add ice

- Stir

- Add more ice

- Garnish with and orange slice and a strawberry, (in season)

Original recipe by Joe the Bartender, Passage to India restaurant, Salem, MA.

Joe's Notes: The Sidecar is another classic cocktail that we here at TGDITWTW had been considering re-doing. And by "considering," I mean that Chris has been pestering me about making a better one for a few weeks, now.

The original Sidecar Cocktail was first put together during World War 1, most commonly attributed to a London Bartender who assembled it first for a young American Army Captain, and named it after the little motorcycle sidecar that carried the captain to and from his club.

The ingredients to the standard Sidecar are Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice. Of course, many variations of this recipe ensued, from the gin-based Chelsea Sidecar to the Slivovitz-based Serbian Sidecar and back to the Boston Sidecar, with both rum and brandy. Our Salem Sidecar benefits from substitution of the higher-end, cognac-infused Cointreau along with falernum and lime for a wider spectrum of taste.

Plus, it gets Chris off my back.

Chris's notes: The Sidecar was a cocktail that Joe and I tossed back and forth a few times. At first, we tried the Boston Sidecar, which included rum as well as brandy, and the final outcome was good, but not great. And certainly not 'The Greatest Drink in the World... This Week' great.

I am reminded of my childhood, (Oh look, Joe, someone else can reminisce of days gone by, too!) I grew up in a very television-oriented environment. For my first seven or eight years, I thought the T.V. set was some sort of older brother. (I was actually jealous of it's antenna at one point! Mine couldn't do that!)

But Saturday mornings, (and I am not alone in this,) meant Scooby Doo . And for some reason, it was Scooby, Shaggy, and Mystery, Inc. that was on my mind as I sipped this cocktail. You see, that Boston Sidecar that was originally mixed up, well, it had appeal. Interesting, different, just not as good, kind of like the way Goober and the Ghost Chasers was to Scooby Doo.

I also did some experimenting at home. Sadly, my amateurish attempts ended up tasting more like Jabberjaw, Clue Club, Captain Caveman, and the Funky Phantom, respectively!

Those were dark, dark days indeed.

I was flummoxed. But through some stroke of alchemical genius, (and leaving the actual mixing portion to the mixologist,) the formula presented itself to us, (by "us" I mean Joe.) With the addition of the falernum and the "special" Cointreau Noir, Joe brought the Salem Sidecar right into the Scooby zone, to make it this weeks greatest drink in the world

Zoinks!

And, of course, the completely unrelated, Greatest Video in the World... This Week, here: Hooked on A Feeling