Disparaged and disdained by almost everyone, this drink's reputation belies how genuinely delicious it can be.
The first is the Margarita—tequila, orange liqueur and lime juice—the definitive tequila drink, one which can make a credible claim of being the most popular cocktail in the world, more or less beloved by more or less everybody.
The second is the Sidecar—cognac, orange liqueur and lemon juice—invented in Paris in the ’20s, bracing and racy, pure elegance, one of the handful of classic cocktails that enjoys near-unanimous respect in the drinks industry., orange liqueur and lime juice—disparaged, diminished, disdained and generally shat upon by almost everyone who would call themselves a cocktail bartender or enthusiast.As best we can tell, the Kamikaze was invented in the mid 1970s, and has lived in scorn ever since. Maybe it’s because of the name, which would be bigoted if it were in any way coherent. Or maybe that’s because it was an early harbinger of what would become a wave of “shooters,” saccharine concoctions famous less for their flavor than their provocative names . It’s hard to say. You won’t find a peep about it in any of the serious mixology volumes written in the last decade, so to find out more, we have to meet the Kamikaze on its own turf. There, too, we find haters—Heywood Gould, in his 1984 novel“The kamikaze is one of a class of disco cocktails invented by barbiturated teenagers. It is a senseless, infuriating concoction. . .Its intent is instant inebriation. . .There are no standards for the kamikaze. It has no particular attributes that would distinguish a good kamikaze from a bad one, like a dry martini or a tart gimlet. I’ve made the drink with rum and applejack and never got a complaint. It exists merely to confer a little cachet on these pimpled baboons.”He seems to be making the category error of judging a thing by its fanbase—which, as with Bitcoin or the Philadelphia Eagles, seems a little unfair. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all drinks can be great. There’s very little that can be done for the Cement Mixer or the Brain Hemmorage, two irredeemably disgusting shots that taste even worse than they look. But the Kamikaze? The quote above compares it unfavorably to a Gimlet, but it essentially is a gimlet. It may have fallen in with the wrong crowd, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad kid. It just needs a little guidance. Put the smallest effort toward its development—recruit fresh lime juice and a high quality Triple Sec—and the Kamikaze can be a great drink: clean, bright and refreshing. It’s a vodka gimlet made a little juicier with orange liqueur, lean and tart, avoiding the lingering presence of tropical fruit or the piquant sweetness of berries. Its clarity reads effortlessly as refinement. The fact that it was conceived without thought and for decades was produced and consumed without thought is immaterial. It really is quite good, and worthy of attention.
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