“This cocktail you have here on the menu, it’s not too sweet is it?” This question comes up just as much if not more than, “This dish on the menu, is it good?” Sigh. Yes, it’s my job to be nice in the face of idiocy. My interior monologue segues right into my childhood training, namely reading Mad Magazine, where Al Jaffee’s “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions” was my favorite. Alas, the reason why people ask this is because cocktails in subsequent decades, and in general, are often too sweet. The norm in most recipes is an equal part of sugar (simple syrup) to an equal part of sour (fresh citrus) which to people’s palates, at least these days in Southern California, is actually too sweet. People’s taste buds have changed. We even have guests at times who want no simple syrup whatsoever, only citrus, which tastes revolting. The balance is part of it. Cocktails require it, but that doesn’t mean anyone should adhere.

Hey, I get it, you don’t want all the sugar. Sugar bad. But, you do know you’re drinking alcohol, right? Organic sugar isn’t all that bad for you. Booze on the other hand, not so good. Yes, I realize it’s trimming down the amount of poisons trickling into your system. Yes, it’s LA, where we all strive to make the healthiest corpses possible while breathing some of the worst air in the country and living in an actual human toilet.

Somewhere along the way, someone combined booze, and equal parts simple syrup, and citrus, shook it up with some ice, strained it into a glass. Man oh man. We do it a little different at Rustic and for most of our shaken citrusy cocktails measure out 3/4 oz. citrus and a 1/2 oz. of simple. It’s better for the new cocktail palate, the one that seems to want things a little more sour.

Yes, the palates are changing. People don’t mind bitter as much as they used to. Maybe this is because so many bitter greens have been shoved down people gullets as of late. Who knows?

Anyway, the question continued to come over the years. “This cocktail, it’s not too sweet?” This only spurred us to create one in order to pick a bit at these people. Vodka of course. What else? Yes, it’s usually the vodka drinkers who present the biggest problems. No sorry, we don’t have all 16 of the required vodka brands in our backbar. We’ve got two. No, we don’t have Tito’s. No, all vodka (and booze for that matter) is gluten free, listen dummy, the gluten molecule doesn’t make it through the distillation process, I promise.

In order to poke a little bit of fun of these people we came up with…The Not Too Sweet. Originally a Steven Lee original with blueberries, lime, and vodka, now with a little more nuance and flavor but it’s still a vodka drink so any character has been washed away just like the person drinking it. Insults and snarkiness aside, people really really love this damn drink and will quaff several in an evening except for the guy last Saturday who ordered one and said it was too sour. Oh boy, I really contained myself that night, smiled even as I poured it down the sink.

Not Too Sweet

2 oz. Vodka

Large 1/2 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

1/4 oz. Raspberry/Blackberry Syrup

1/4 oz. Lemon Sherbet

Shake, double strain into small coupe. Voila!