Oftentimes, when one has started a cocktail blog, it starts with a fascination around a particular cocktail or, in the case of a few blogging bartenders, a deep association with a specific drink, usually of their own creation. Leading up to the Tales of the Cocktail 2008 next week I decided I wanted to appreciate my fellow bloggers and, more specifically, the drinks that inspired them or, as fate may turn, inspire us.

My first in this series will be directed at at blogger near and dear to my heart, Jay Hepburn, whose blog Oh Gosh! nearly shares a birthday with mine and is actually named after a cocktail. If that doesn’t count as inspired fascination, I’m not sure what does.
Jay recounts in his post how the Oh Gosh! was developed by Tony Conigliaro in a bar in Knightsbridge, London¹ and also notes, correctly, that it’s a twist on the good ol’ Daiquiri² . Let’s see how it fares.

Oh Gosh!

• 1 1/2 oz Rum
• 1 oz Cointreau³
• 1/2 fresh lime juice
• 1/4 oz simple syrup
• 3/4 oz club soda⁴

Shake well with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This is, shamelessly, a Summer drink. This isn’t something to pull out in mid-December⁵ to show your friends how quickly you can get rid of a $35 bottle of Cointreau⁶ . It’s very refreshing and light and makes for a quick pick-me-up. However, blissful though it is, there are two things to note about mixing it I think worth heeding.

First, I prefer a gold versus light rum in this. A light rum, especially one with a thin profile like Cruzan, gets pretty much swallowed whole by the Cointreau and the lime juice. Not an entirely horrible thing, but also not something to be welcomed if you like drinks with more character or depth. Something like Mount Gay Eclipse, Bacardi 8, or Angostura Gold work well here. Just to give it some body.

Secondly, I think the soda⁷ is overdone a touch. Don’t get me wrong, I bloody⁸ love me a fizzy drink, but with nothing much having any muscle in this I think backing it down to 1/2 oz is sufficient. I think even Jay’s mentioned that he’s puzzled by Simon Difford’s⁹ seemingly endless fondness for mineral water, and this drink suffers for it slightly.

All in all, good stuff, easy on the palate, and a great drink to make a friend who demands anything south of a “hide the alcohol” 20oz juice drink, a Jaeger shot¹⁰ or a beer tastes like burning and doesn’t know any better. In other words, it’s a great gateway drink. Then you can spring the Union on them, the next in this series.

1. Where you shouldn’t play with me, cuz you’re playing with fire…or something about getting kicks. I can never get it straight, ask my wife [↩]
2. I learned to spell that by telling myself ‘just keep putting ‘i’s into it until you can’t stand it’ anymore [↩]
3. don’t substitute this, a Curacao will over-sweeten it and a simpler Triple Sec will cheapen it noticeably [↩]
4. made correction to avoid confusion-see comments below [↩]
5. unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere I suppose [↩]
6. that’s what The Last Word is for, dummy [↩]
7. nee ‘mineral water’ [↩]
8. there you go, Jay–only one British conceit this post [↩]
9. whether he added the soda to the recipe or not, I can’t fully say, but the man does love his fizzy waters [↩]
10. DOOOOOOOOOOOD!! [↩]