Martial Arts (Iron Fist, Katana… and a rant about designing decent superhero cocktails that aren’t intellectually lazy)

KIAI! Let’s get to today’s recipes right away…

 

IRON FIST

Shake two parts separately with ice and layer them one after another in the shot glass.

1st part. brown:

1 to 2 parts DOM Benedictine

1 part Kahlúa

2nd part, green:

1 part blanco tequila/vodka

1 part Midori

If you compare to my earlier layered drinks, Joker, The Atom and Mr.Mxyzptlk… this is much more difficult to layer, the density differences of Iron Fist aren’t as big as in those drinks… you really need more stable hand when trickleing that green part on atop of a brown one… but it isn’t the most difficult layered drink ever.

You don’t know how to layer the drink? Check out the internet or any cocktail book, it really isn’t that difficult… little practice and you’re fine.

So Iron Fist The Cocktail is a shot, because he hits so fast, everyone gets that… but what’s with brown and green colour?

I’ve said it before, for example in Wolverine… purely thematic superhero cocktails are a lazy solution. One of the main reasons for starting this blog… existing recipes for superheroes are mostly designed with some colour theme in  mind, eg. “it’s Green Lantern because it contains Sprite, some vodka and green liqueur and Deadpool is red and black liqueurs layered”… doh! How intellectually lazy can you get?

I’m not saying that my approach is the best, but I dare to say it’s better than just playing with colours…

Colour/representation is a part of the cocktail experience, I don’t deny it, but the most important part is the taste: how well it describes the character. Matching colour pattern is bonus, but mostly I concentrate on the taste.

When designing a cocktail for a certain superhero/villain, if I have to decide between colour and ” the feel” of the character, I go for the “the feel”… for example Two-Face: what an earth has the red colour have to do with the character? Nothing. This is one of the situtations I’ve decided to go with “The Feel” instead of trying to design black-and-white cocktail just for the thematics.

So, after ALL THIS RANT… what’s with the brown and green colour?

Some of the readers might know that comics legend John Byrne is slightly colour blind, especially with certain shades of green and brown… and the temporary colour change in Iron Fist’s outfit is because of this.

So it’s thematics, partly, but not purely… as I said earlier, Iron Fist The Cocktail is a shot because he hits so fast… but “The Fast” of the punch is also in the taste of the drink: as in The Atom, stealthy hitter of an sub-atomic size… the less sweet part hits you first, then the sweeter part gives another kind of sensation… despite of this similarity The Atom and Iron Fist are not identical drinks, as you will see if you try them.

 

KATANA

10 parts sake (or soju, see below)

1 part Orange Curacao (or Grand Marnier)

1 part sloe gin

(1 part cognac… but first try without it)

few drops of vinegar

Shake with ice and few pieces of pear and strain into cocktail glass. Please don’t shake the drink too cold, little “cooling down” is fine.

Yes, pear. I don’t know why, but this cocktail ends up tasting somehow better that way, even if you don’t get “oh, there’s that hint of pear”-sensation… you can see couple of small jots of pear in the glass pictured above, by the way.

This cocktail has the same design philosophy as Thor (Mjolnir): “use alcohol which originates from the region where character is from as the base for the drink… and if that alcohol happens to have distinct aroma, respect it, don’t just throw it in there for thematic reasons.”

Using soju instead of sake for this drink… Soju, korean rice alcohol, actually works better than sake on this one. Distilled rice has right kind of kick, compared to just fermented… and with “kick” I don’t mean just more alcohol content: I tested this with 25% Ilpoom Jinro, it’s not that strong.

The most important thing is to use some kind of rice wine, carefully mixed with “supporting” alcohol beverages: to enjoy the taste of “alcoholized” rice, instead of drowning it.

 

That’s it. Much rant, and couple of cocktails too. Now I’m going to to check out today’s sumo matches: it’s day three of the Kyushu Basho! I started with “KIAI!”, and I’ll end this post with “HAKKEYOI!” 😀