Cocktail of the Week #10

Wow, it's hard to believe I've been blogging this now for almost 3 months!
Well I like to make each of these posts relatable to one another if I can. So referring back to my write up on Zubrowka, I have a cocktail for you that's light for spring and quenching for summertime.

I want to preface this cocktail with a note from all Mixologists and cocktail bartenders... Mixing with vodka as a base spirit is so terribly simple anyone can do it. Because of that fact we as bartenders generally stay away from it. Not only to challenge ourselves, but to challenge our guests too. We pride ourselves as mixologists in helping people discover a new favourite drink, while educating them and straying the away from the common pitfalls of the overly sweet martinis and the vodka cranberry (also known as a cape codder, if there's a lime involved.)

Enough of my rambling, enjoy my grassy gimlet.

2 oz. Zubrowka Vodka
3 large leaves of lemongrass (2 tbsp if you were to chop it up)
3/4 oz. fresh Lime Juice
1/4 oz. Velvet Falernum
1 dash of Lime Bitters or Simon Difford's Margarita Bitters.

In a shaker glass, muddle the lemongrass with the Velvet Falernum until fragrant. Add bitters, lime juice and vodka. Shake until frosty, double strain through a fine mesh strainer; serve in a chilled cocktail coupe with a lime twist, and savour!

Chilling out in Chicago.

This past Monday I spent in a professional development conference put on by Pernod-Ricard, USA and BarSmarts. It was called "Pioneers in Mixology." We spent they day learning about some of the big trends in mixology, as well as dedicating some time to improving ourselves in our profession. Overall, it was extremely educational.

If you haven't taken the BarSmarts Wired or Advanced courses, I highly suggest it. It truly opened my eyes to a new level of bartending and I now hold myself to a higher expectation.

Cheers!

Professional Development Day!

So, tomorrow I'm heading to Chicago's "Pioneers in Mixology" event sponsored by BarSmarts. I should have some fun new concepts, ideas and such to share soon!

Ice Distillation... Beer or Spirit?

I'm also gonna take a minute and talk about some beer. In specific, BrewDog's Tactical Nuclear Penguin, and Sink the Bismarck! or Sam Adam's Utopia. In recent, there has been great debate in the brewing industry about high proof beers, 18% ABV and upwards. More specifically those that have been frozen and water removed concentrating the alcohol in a process called Ice Distillation. This process brings one question to light...whether they should be classified as a spirit or a beer. It's interesting when a beer is no longer meets the modern definition of beer... How things change.

Cocktail of the Week #9

I had guests return to the hotel last weekend. And they were excited to see me and thanked me again for the Hendricks Cup recipe I had given to them months earlier. We proceeded to have a great, very in-depth conversation about cocktail culture. They were ready for something different, and were open enough of give me artistic licensing to create a cocktail and challenge their palates. Of course I rose to the challenge, and over the course of 2 visits. I had made them quite a few cocktails. Well this recipe is one special request.

Ginger Manhattan

2.5 oz. Woodford Reserve
1 tsp. fresh ginger root
1/4 oz. sweet vermouth (perhaps white vermouth)
1/2 oz. ginger simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters (perhaps orange)

Muddle fresh ginger, bourbon and bitters. Add simple syrup, vermouth and ice. Stir and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Flame orange onto drink. Garnish with cube of fresh ginger.


Thanks Andrew and Sid for the opportunity to be creative in a not do creative environment. Cheers!

My Brother the Brewer

My bro works in Scotland for a little outfit called BrewDog. Well as I might have mentioned, he came home for a week and brought lots of goodies. Specifically some stuff I can't find stateside.

One of the items he brought me was a bottle of Żubrówka Vodka, a bison grass infused vodka from Poland. If you are at all familiar with the history of vodka. It originated in Poland/Russia, from potatoes. Well before distilling was truly perfected, you'd have some pretty strong, crude vodka, with lots of congeners and fusel oils. So in order to mask these negative aspects people added pepper, lime leaves, and even bison grass. This spirit is meant to be a nostalgic homage to the original.

At 80 proof this rye based vodka has a nice light sweetness to it, I notice subtle hints of Vanilla, and a light citrus. I don't usually enjoy working with vodka as much but I often make an exception for this one. In the realm of all the flavoured vodkas this one stands alone at the top.

Cocktail of the Week #7 & #8

So your patience reaps double the reward this week. Things are starting to warm up here. I wanted some refreshing drinks to share this time around. So first I have a drink I constructed while challenging myself not to use anything lemon-lime, but still make a great well-balanced tasting tequila cocktail.

The Bartlett Tequila Daisy

1 1/4 oz. Cazadores Blanco Tequila
1/4 oz. golden raspberry simple syrup
3 Tsp. bartlett pear
1 oz. grapefruit juice
1 dash peach bitters
2 oz. soda

In a shaker glass muddle pear with simple syrup. Add liquor, juice, bitters, and ice. Shake and strain into highball filled with ice. Fill with soda. Garnish with a pear slice if desired.


The word margarita comes from the word spanish word "marguerite" meaning Daisy in English. A daisy is a cocktail with sugar, a citrus juice, and a raspberry syrup or grenadine. In this case I used some golden raspberries from a bush I've been growing in a simple syrup.

And next we have a buck. A buck is any drink, typically served in a highball with lime juice added.

The Crimson Tarragon Buck

6 Blackberries
2 sprigs of fresh Terragon
2 oz. soda water
1 1/2 oz. Hendricks or Millers Gin
Squeeze of lime

Mix blackberries, Terragon and soda in a shaker. Muddle. Add gin, strain over ice, and squeeze lime into highball. Garnish with a blackberry wrapped In a Terragon leaf.

Happy Drinking!

Drinks Anyone!?

I found this in USA today, while I was on hiatus. Enjoy!

I am back...

Yes, I've been a negligent blogger...
Yes, I have a few excuses...
Yes, quite a few of those reasons are mixology/alcohol related!

Well lets start off with the progress of my bitters. It's been over a week since I started infusing some bitters in individual jars. And because I chose do use everclear for this endeavor, I feel the process time is much faster. I first took the opportunity to taste my bitter base of licorice root, gentian, and wormwood. A nice deep green. Experimenting with ways to filter these. I decided to try a two-step process. A super-fine mesh filter then I took Jamie Boudreau's Pūr filter idea. The first step removed all the large particles in the mixture. And then filtering through the filter takes some of the edge off of the alcohol, allowing you to taste the bitters, as well as clarifying the tincture.

I'm going to wait a few more days for some of the other items to infuse more.

When Life Gives You Seville Oranges... Make Bitters!

So I had the day off today, so I went to the store and picked up some NGS (Neutral Grain Spirit). Because I'm making some bitters!

As I had mentioned the other week, I picked up some spices and herbs while up in Chicago. I pulled some mason jars out of the basement, and picked out a few ingredients I want to work with first. So I chose cardamom, star anise, ceylon cinnamon, rhubarb root, Seville oranges (what Campari is made of!), cloves, and ginger.

A few years back, Master Mixologist, Jamie Boudreau suggested to build each ingredient in your bitters in separate containers for control purposes(http://spiritsandcocktails.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/how-to-make-bitters/). So I did that with all my ingredients. But I chose to make a bitter base jar with wormwood, licorice root and gentian root. This will be the basis of my bitter formulas for the first round of experimentation.

They say as a general rule, you should let certain items sit depending on their strength, obviously take into consideration the proof of the liquor you're using. The higher the proof, the faster the extraction process.

3-4 days: Intense flavors such as vanilla beans, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, limes, mint, garlic, tarragon, basil, oregano, dill, thyme and peppers

1 week: Moderate flavors such as cantaloupes, strawberries, peaches, mangoes, pitted cherries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

2 weeks: Mild flavors such as pineapple, ginger and lemon grass

If you're looking for some good online resources with ideas for bitters, check out Jamie's Blog I mentioned earlier, and also the bartenders at Anvil in Houston (http://drinkdogma.com/how-to-make-your-own-bitters-for-cocktails/).

Happy Infusing!