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Pikes Peak Cooler
POWDERED SUGAR JUICE OF I LEMON GRATED NUTMEG ON TOP I CUP HARD CIDER We wouldn't swear that this is a Colorado invention, but we know it's good and because of its name comes in appropriately here. After sampling this you'll be in favor of a drink being named after every other mountain peak in the Rockies.
A single-serving cooler built on hard cider rather than spirits. The ingredient list survives better than the method, so a few things need filling in from standard practice.
- Powdered sugarIn a book of this date this may mean either finely ground granulated sugar or what is now sold as confectioners' sugar. The modern boxed kind carries a few percent cornstarch and can leave a slight cloudiness. Superfine (caster) sugar or a splash of simple syrup dissolves cleaner in a cold drink.
- The sugar quantity is not givenNo amount appears in the text. One to two teaspoons per cup of cider is the usual range for a cooler; start at one, since hard cider varies from bone dry to distinctly sweet.
- Hard cider, then and nowA cup is 8 fl oz, roughly two-thirds of a standard 12 oz bottle. Period farmhouse cider ran anywhere from about 5 to 8 percent alcohol; a modern dry bottled cider is the closest match. Sweet supermarket ciders will make the drink cloying against only one lemon.
- Method, unstatedDissolve the sugar in the lemon juice first, add the cider and stir gently rather than shaking; if the cider is a sparkling one, hard shaking will drive off the bubbles. Grate the nutmeg over the surface last, as the recipe specifies ("on top").
- NutmegGrate it fresh from a whole seed over the finished glass. Pre-ground nutmeg sinks and tastes dusty; the point of the garnish is the aroma sitting on top of the drink.
- ServingOne drink, in a tall glass. Everything should be cold before it is combined, since ice added to warm cider dilutes it fast.