Become a Pro at Proportions!

Okay so when thumbing through old cocktail books, or possibly new ones you might see recipes presented as ratios that make no use of ounces or modern measurements. Fret not! Its a lot more simple than you think. Some of you advanced cocktailians out there may think "this is stupid", but I've seen it done incorrectly by seasoned drinkers too. So here's something I just figured might be helpful to someone somewhere out there.

The best way for me to explain this is reading music notes. I know it sounds dumb, but music timing and understanding how to read music helped me to free pour and deal with proportions expertly and consistently like a champ. This method comes in frighteningly handy when making things by the pitcher!

Okay, so here's our recipe; to make it simple lets start with a....no scratch that. We won't do this the simple way, learning the difficult stuff and getting it down will make the easy things all water under the bridge. We're rocking it out with the Hemingway Daiquiri, one of my favorite drinks! This is Dale DeGroff's version, a huge name, but one of the nicest folks I've ever met!

1.50 ounce Light Rum
0.75 ounce Lime Juice
0.75 ounce Simple Syrup
0.50 ounce Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
0.25 ounce Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

Alrighty, so very much just like music you first figure which note gets what value and every other note is measured in proportion to that. Simply put: I'm going to establish that 0.25 ounces is one part because most every other quantity is greater than it and a multiple of. So based on the rule just set and the application of simple division, I've established that there's 1 part Luxardo, 2 parts Grapefruit Juice, 3 parts each of Simple and Lime Juice, and 6 parts of Rum. In addition to the reasoning above, I know that when I count out pours counting to four is one ounce. That being said I'd count out each part as one and that one count equates to a quarter ounce. So whether making it by the teaspoon or by the gallon your recipe is consistent.

If I wanted to be difficult and irrational I could dictate that one ounce is one part which changes the proportions to 1/4 Luxardo, 1/2 Grapefruit, 3/4 Simple and Lime, topped off by 1 1/2 parts rum. Now this kind of makes counting a blip, see? So as a personal rule of thumb, I always make 1/4 ounce one part. It just makes life far easier!

Are we all on the same page, kids? Get it? Got it? Good!