Cocktail Creations

Recipe & Review: Santiago Cocktail

Last night, I tried out a cocktail I've been meaning to try out for a while, now - the Santiago Cocktail. It's a bit of a twist on the Daiquiri:

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz light rum
• 1 tsp grenadine
• 2 oz lime juice (juice of whole lime)
• 1 tsp sugar

Method

Shake over ice, strain into cocktail glass.

Let me first say that I cannot remember for the life of me where I got this recipe. In doing research post-tasting, I found most recipes use 1/4 tsp grenadine, and indicate the use of powdered sugar. Also, most recipes simply say "juice of 1 lime".

Regarding the lime: the limes I have at home are beautiful - very large and deep green. These large limes only produced about 1.5 oz of juice, and I use a (manual) juicer. I can't imagine a "normal" lime producing more than 1 oz of juice. In the interest of following the recipe, I juiced half another lime to get the full 2 oz, which brings me to my review...

I found it to be much too tart. I would probably cut back the lime to 1.5 oz or even 1 oz to cut the tartness. I also used granulated (instead of powdered) sugar, so I'm not sure if that would have an impact on the taste - I did mix the lime and sugar together in order to fully dissolve the sugar beforehand. The grenadine (yes, I used Rose's) seemed lost within the lime flavor. Since I used a full teaspoon (not 1/4), I can't imagine how the normal recipes would have turned out (lacking said grenadine).

Some things I would like to try in future tests:

• Use less lime juice (try 1oz, then 1.5oz)
• Continue usage of 1 tsp grenadine, perhaps with less lime, less grenadine will be necessary, however
• Try using the sweetened lime juice in place of sugar/lime combo.
• Try making own grenadine and using in place of Rose's

Sweetened Lime Juice

Last night I also began the first step for the sweetened lime juice. Rather than shaking the sugar/water in a bottle, I simple heated on the stove until sugar was dissolved (not heating to boiling). I used a 1:1 sugar/water ratio. I found neat 8oz pour-stoppered glass bottles at Target, so that's what the syrup is currently housed in. Excited to try it out. Perhaps I'll be a Rose's to fresh convert... :)