“Raising the Bar” with Jamie Boudreau is a phenomenal video resource for best practices for bartenders. Each short video shows how to properly stir, shake, zest, and flame with the style and grace we all want to attain as we tend bar for friends or professionally. I’d definitely recommend trolling through the library of videos by Boudreau, as it’s a great series for some basic tips for cocktailian bartending.
(Via Gary Regan’s Ardent Spirits email)
Posted in Cocktail Culture
Click to enlarge
Last night was the final night of Adam Bernbach’s Tuesday Cocktail Sessions. Above is the menu for the night, consisting of some of Adam’s greatest hits of past Cocktail Sessions. I’d had many of these drinks before and I think this was actually a pretty great selection of cocktails that showed Adam’s range of abilities.
The bar was more crowded than at any other Cocktail Session I’ve been to – and early. By the time I arrived (around 7:30), the bar was about three to four deep. It only got more crowded from there, a testament to the popularity of Adam’s work at Bar Pilar. Adam signed the menu with a note to his customers.
Dear All,
Thank you so much for all the support. It’s been an amazing year and a half here at Pilar. I will definitely miss it.
Love,
Adam
As I’ve said before on this site, Bernbach’s departure from Bar Pilar is a loss. But I look forward to his future projects, which hear may include one-off parties. The big question I have is if Adam will land at another DC-area bar or if he’ll seek to start his own project. In any event – best of luck Adam and thanks for the great times at Bar Pilar.
Posted in Tuesday Cocktail Sessions
Via Beachbum Berry, I just found out about and have purchased the Tiki+ iPhone application. Because, hey, why not? It’s $3.99 and it instantly adds to my mobile repertoire of tiki knowledge.
Posted in Tiki
A friendly reminder to readers in Washington, DC: tonight is The Black Session – Adam Bernbach’s last Tuesday Cocktail Session at Bar Pilar. I’ll be there and encourage anyone who hasn’t yet experienced Adam’s Tuesday night specials to come by and see what you have been and now will be missing.
Posted in Tuesday Cocktail Sessions
After many visions and revisions, I came up with the following recipe for the Hotel Monteleone’s cocktail creation contest. Without further ado:
Monteleone Cocktail (Submission)
1 oz. Jamaican Rum (Appleton Estate V/X)
1 oz. sweet vermouth (Dolin Rouge)
1 oz. Aperol
2 dashes orange bitters (Fee Brothers West Indian Orange Bitters)Stir ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze the zest of a large lemon peel over the drink and garnish with lemon peel.
This cocktail has the makings of what I think of as a classic. It’s simple and made with readily available ingredients. It has a strong flavor profile with layers of orange, vanilla, lemon and sweet vermouth. I love the color of this cocktail and it’s light while still having the strong alcohol base I associate with the Monteleone’s best known cocktail, the Vieux Carre. I wanted to keep the spirit of that drink in mind here, with multiple liqueurs and bitters. Hopefully it is something the fine folks at the Hotel Monteleone will consider for their new “Monteleone Cocktail.” In either event, I’ll keep making it.
Posted in Contests, MBH Creations
Last night I went to the last normal Tuesday Cocktail Session – Adam Bernbach’s weekly cocktail night at Bar Pilar. I’ve always said that the Cocktail Sessions were the best regular event in the DC craft bartending world. Adam is leaving Bar Pilar later this month and next Tuesday will be the Black Session — the final edition of Adam’s special menus at Bar Pilar. The Black Session will include a best-of selection of cocktails from the Tuesday Cocktail Sessions, so it won’t necessarily be a normal menu.
The opening taste last night was the Black Spot Punch. It was made with cachaca, grapefruit juice, a black pepper honey syrup, sparkling wine, and a lime peel; I may be missing an ingredient here. It started off with a very strong hit of honey and fruit. As has been common for opening tastes, this was light with a great sparkling complexion from the wine. Initially the cachaca was very subdued, really only showing up on about three levels into the drink’s profile. About halfway through, the cachaca really started to come out and play a much stronger role, balancing out the honey. I thought this was a great opening and exactly why the small cocktails Adam starts with are great to set the table for the evening.
The second cocktail was called Linen. It was my favorite of the night and one of my favorite cocktails I can recall from any Cocktail Session. It was made with gin, white port, apricot liqueur and Peychaud’s bitters. It was incredibly well balanced, with nearly equal play between the gin, apricot and port. The Peychaud’s added a nice touch of anise at the end. On whole, the drink had an almost bitter orange taste, but with sweetness reminded me of Aperol, which was fitting considering what came next.
Jaz Son’s Daiquiri was a great variation on a classic daiquiri. There was a true balance between the rum, Aperol, and lime in the drink. It also had apricot liqueur in it, though I found it played a much smaller role in the drink.
The last full cocktail was called Hollands, made with rum, sherry, pine liquor and angostura bitters. Like the Linen, it was clean, and crisp. The pine flavor added really nice complexity, eliciting a strong sense of spring. The rum is strong, but smooth and the sherry added a great deal of depth to the drink. All in all, it was very rich but still light and easy to drink.
The closing taste, unfortunately, is victim to my poor note keeping. I don’t know its name, but it was served on the rocks (a rarity at the Cocktail Sessions I’ve been to). It was made with scotch, maple syrup, lime, and according to my notes, gin. Like I said, poor note keeping. It had a sweet and smokey flavor, with the maple syrup and peat creating a profile that would probably be great alongside a plate of barbecue on a hot summer day.
Clearly this menu showed the range of Adam’s tastes and interests. Each cocktail was quite different, but all came out very well balanced and original. I’m going to miss the Tuesday Cocktail Sessions. I only hope that Adam’s next project is in DC, so we can keep enjoying his creativity and his skills.
Posted in Tuesday Cocktail Sessions
Eric Asimov has an article in the New York Times today on absinthe. He starts with a brief history of absinthe and absinthe prohibition and then moves onto a taste test of 20 absinthes. I like Asimov’s simple explanation of what absinthe is:
So what makes absinthe absinthe? Essentially it is a neutral spirit infused with myriad herbs and botanicals, centering around anise, fennel and a specific type of wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, from which absinthe takes its name. This wormwood contains small amounts of thujone, a compound once thought to affect the mind. It’s understood now that hallucinations and other health issues attributed to overindulging in absinthe were more a result of alcohol poisoning due to the high alcohol content, typically 50 to 70 percent.
Unlike previous Times article by Eric Konigsburg on absinthe, Asimov really does a good job of demystifying absinthe for readers, not only here, but throughout the piece. Asimov takes the subject seriously and educates through tasting notes and best practices for enjoying absinthe.
Asimov and his panel rated Kubler the top choice, which is nice because it’s my personal favorite and now I feel like a better person because the New York Times agrees with me (I kid, I kid). Though Asimov tasted 19 absinthes and Absente, they only ranked their top ten. Here’s the list:
1. Kübler
2. Grande
3. Pernod
4. Émile Pernot
5. St. George
6. Jade Nouvelle-Orléans
7. Obsello
8. La Clandestine
9. Lucid
10. Mansinthe
I’m very curious to find out what the bottom 10 looked like and what the tasting notes for them were. Asimov has a little more detail on his blog about the tasting. While he comes out with his disaproval of Le Tourment Verte, there isn’t any more detail about the other 8 absinthes that were tested and failed to please.
Posted in Absinthe, Blogs, Media, & Advertising
It’s been a long, long time since I took part in a Thursday Drink Night. The subject this week was rye whiskey and I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to make a return to the Mixoloseum. I had two general concepts that I wanted to pursue in my recipe creation and unfortunately I’m not sure that either one came across as well as I’d hoped.
First, while I know of many cocktails with rye as a base or as a paired base spirit, I really haven’t seen cocktails where rye is used as a secondary ingredient to add depth and accents, but not dominate, the drink. I wanted to try something the inverted the relationship we see between whiskey and vermouth in a Manhattan. That was one concept.
The other concept was I wanted to have sake be the base ingredient. I’ve always had an affection for sake, but again, have never really made cocktails with it. Most of the sake cocktails I’ve seen tend towards light and fruity, while eschewing playing with stronger ingredients. I wanted to experiment with treating it almost like vermouth and take the savory/sweet flavors and build elements underneath it to add greater depth.
I’ll admit, there isn’t much about what I came up with that either in advance or in hindsight made the most sense to me. I just thought it might work and for me, to some extent, it did. Without further ado…
Matanuska
2 oz sake
1.5 oz 80 proof rye
.5 oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur
1 drop Peychaud’s bitters
absintheChill a rocks glass. In a mixing glass stir sake, rye, Domaine de Canton, and bitters over ice. Dump ice from rocks glass and rinse with absinthe. Strain contents of mixing glass into the absinthe-rinsed glass. Garnish with a zested lemon peel.
It turns out there’s a reason sake isn’t common as a base or paired with stronger flavors. It just didn’t hold up that well to the other ingredients and ended up leaving a slightly watered-down taste that undercut the body of the cocktail. It wasn’t a big hit in the TDN chat, which is fine, though I had fun playing with different combinations coming up with this.
All that said, I do still think that a cocktail with sake as a base up against some big-bodied ingredients is doable. This just wasn’t it. I also think there’s a real opening to play with rye as a second-tier ingredient used for depth and complexity. This was probably closer to that mark than the sake, but I will keep working to see if I can do better.
Posted in MBH Creations, Rye, TDN
Derek Brown has a post up on The Atlantic’s Mixmaster blog on the origins of the cocktail (in print) and his recipe for an Old Fashioned.
Derek Brown’s Old Fashioned
2 oz. Rye Whiskey
¼ – ½ oz. Simple Syrup (equal parts water and sugar)
Two dashes Aromatic Bitters
2″ Lemon PeelMuddle gently lemon, syrup and bitters at the bottom of a rocks glass. Add ice cubes and stir until cooled.
This is pretty much my preferred Old Fashioned as well. I almost always use about 1/2 an ounce of simple syrup, though I’ll often use bourbon as the base. Lately I’ve also been doing a lot of rum old fashioneds as well, usually with maple syrup as a sweetener.
Posted in Cocktail Culture, Cocktails
Via Trader Tiki and Paul Clarke, The Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans is having an open contest for the creation of a new marquee cocktail. The details are:
The Hotel Monteleone is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Carousel Bar on May 21, 2009.
From 1949 until about the late 60’s or 70’s there was a drink on the specialty drink menu called the Monteleone Cocktail. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the exact recipe or ingredients were. The Hotel Monteleone is hosting an online contest to accept drink recipe nominations for a new official Monteleone Cocktail.
The recipes will be judged by VIPs who will be at the Carousel anniversary celebration on May 21. There are no requirements on types of liquor or style of drink, but all drink entries must be received by May 18, so that the ingredients may be acquired and drinks prepared at the May 21 event.
Participating bloggers should post their entries online, and all participants should e-mail their drink recipes, along with their name, address and phone number, to athornton@hotelmonteleone.com. The winning entry will become the new official Monteleone Cocktail, and the winner will receive four free nights at the Hotel Monteleone during Tales of the Cocktail 2009.
This is an awesome contest. The Hotel Monteleone is one of the most famous hotels for cocktails in the world. The Vieux Carre was created there and it’s hard to imagine a situation where anything other then a world-class cocktail will be named the winner. But what a challenge! And what a prize at the end of the road!
I’m incredibly impressed to see The Hotel Monteleone open up this contest to the general public and do it through cocktail blogs, and not merely the professional bartending community. I will be thinking long and hard…and then I’ll be breaking out the ice and the jiggers to see what I can whip up.
Derek Brown, well known for his work at The Gibson, the DC Craft Bartenders Guild, and the Museum of the American Cocktail, has launched his own website, Better-Drinking.com. In addition to hosting recipes for some of his original drinks, the site has a mailing list and looks like it will be the leading source for all things related to Derek’s projects and drinks. Go check it out!
Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising
This is my first experiment in bitters. Early on in my cocktailian days I sought out Adam Bernbach of Bar Pilar. I was looked for a recipe for chocolate bitters and he made two different varieties. He gave me a sample of his regular cocoa bitters, but suggested I check out the bitters recipe in The Art of the Bar by Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz. The book did, indeed, have a recipe for bitters: Dr. Schwartz’s Cherry-Vanilla Bitters. While I wasn’t sure what I’d use these for exactly, having a recipe to ground me seemed like the best place to start my first effort at making my own bitters.
Following the recipe was easy. Though the process took the better part of 7 weeks, the actual work time was very limited, other than shaking the mixture once a day. It went in three two-week periods. Fortunately for me, the San Francisco Chronicle has posted a copy of the recipe (otherwise I’d have to type quite a bit).
I’m tasting the bitters for the first time and they came out great. They have a nice, deep complexity and the cherry-vanilla flavors came out with more of a kick than I’d expected. We’re not talking some kind of cream soda here, but a profile that brings out a more savor and spicy tone. I can see these being great in Manhattans and Old Fashioneds, as well as other whiskey-based cocktails or drinks where you might normally use Angostura bitters. I had them in a Rittenhouse 80-proof rye Old Fashioned last night, and it was pretty marvelous.
The full recipe is below the fold. I actually halved the whole thing, as I couldn’t see myself using 6 cups of bitters. But other than that I followed it loyally. Also, since some of the spices included are rare, I highly recommend visiting tenzingmomo.com, a spice and herb site that has become indispensable to me.
Posted in Bitters, Fruit, & Syrups
I’ve been seeing Tommy Bahama’s light and gold rums in more and more bars lately, but haven’t had a chance to try them until this week. I received bottles of the White Sand and Golden Sun rums and have been thinking of rum cocktails to pair them with for review. As a matter of fact, I actually got ahead of myself and used the White Sand bottling to test out different recipes for Hemingway Daiquri last night, though that was really an exercise in finding ratios of rum, maraschino, lime juice, and grapefruit juice that I liked. I will say, though, that Tommy Bahama’s White Sand performed exceptionally well in those varieties. But I wasn’t taking notes, so I wanted to give the Tommy Bahama rums a real shot at review.
Both White Sand and Golden Sun are distilled in Barbados for Tommy Bahama at a family-owned distillery with a long history of rum making. The White Sand is aged for at least two years in oak barrels, while the Golden Sun Rum spends at least three years in oak barrels.
The White Sand Rum has a strong molasses and sugar nose, with a dose of alcohol aroma mixed in. It enters softly, without the strong push of its scent. It has a very tropical taste, with notes of pineapple, guava, and other tropical fruits. I also get light vanilla tones. Though coming in strong, there is a mild burn in the throat from the White Sand rum. For a light rum, it is relatively complex and certainly well-suited for mixing, though it’s hard to think of drinking this without other flavors.
The Golden Sun Rum hits my nose with coffee, apple, and again a scent of alcohol. It’s far smoother than the White Sand, though a bit more acidic as well. The coffee taste is lighter than the smell, but is followed by an interesting combination of nuts, toffee, and orange flavors. While there isn’t any notable throat burn from the Golden Sun, I found it left a strong burn on my tongue. I can imagine this mellows out more with ice, though I’d be careful about using more than a cube or so.
I thought it would make sense to try something that combined both rums to see how well they worked together. Naturally a Mai Tai was the best choice for that experiment:
Mai Tai
1 oz Tommy Bahama White Sand Rum
1 oz Tommy Bahama Golden Sun Rum
.5 oz Combier Triple Sec (I’m out of curacao)
.5 oz orgeat
.5 oz lime juiceShake ingredients and strain into an ice filled old fashioned glass
Now I’ve lately become a very big fan of Mai Tais. The Tommy Bahama Mai Tai made above was light and sweet and while most likely more complex than what I’d be able to get at most bars in America, it lacked some of the complexity I look for in the balance between light and golden rums. That said, the two do pair well together. If anything, together, they are too smooth to measure up to the punch of the Combier and Fees Brothers orgeat syrup, which is certainly more sweet than a home made variety would be. Would I complain if I got this Mai Tai? No, but it’s lacking in some of the spice and depth that I like in my Mai Tais.
So how do these two rums stack up? Well they’re both substantially better than comparable Bacardi and DonQ products in my view. But my light rum tastes tend to run towards rhum agricoles or more complex and savory golden rums like Scarlet Ibis or Appleton Estate V/X. As I said, I think Tommy Bahama’s products offer a good step up in quality from some of the more basic light and gold rums, so if you find yourself drinking those regularly, you should definitely look towards these bottlings. This is somewhat rare for me, but I’m curious to see how these two play out in cocktails before passing final judgement. I really like the White Sand in my Hemingway Daquiris, though I was less enthusiastic with the Mai Tai. I plan on trying it in a White Lily and a Nevada Cocktail. On whole, both of these rums were better than I expected to them to be. After all, they bear the lame of a clothing company (Sailor Jerry’s rum has to overcome the same hurdle). Short version: not bad, definite potential for mixing, though the Golden Sun lacked some of the complexity I look for in gold rums.
Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending a St. George’s Day Dinner hosted by Plymouth Gin at PS7 Restaurant. In attendance was Plymouth’s Brand Ambassador Simon Ford, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to all night, geeking out over gin and cocktail culture. The concept of the dinner was that PS7’s head bartender Gina Chersevani and chef Peter Smith would craft an original menu pairing each course with a Plymouth Gin cocktail. Each dish and drink was introduced by Chersevani and Smith and some of the creative process was explained. Each food dish included ingredients found in Plymouth Gin’s seven botanicals: juniper berries, lemon peel, orange peel, orris root, angelica root, cardamon pods, and corriander seeds. Plymouth’s Sloe Gin was also a popular ingredient in the food dishes. As much as I’d love to give a full rundown of what was an incredible evening of food, I’m going to focus on the drinks created by Chersevani for the menu.
The good news is that the drinks were amazing and beautiful…and Gina provided all the guests with her recipes. The bad news, at least for me, is that every cocktail included at least one ingredient that you’re unlikely to find in your current home bar.
An Englishman in Provence
First up was An Englishman in Provence, a light and refreshing cocktail that combined savory and sweet flavors in great balance. It was probably my favorite drink from the entire night and is certainly something that I hope PS7 considers putting on their regular cocktail menu.
An Englishman in Provence
1.5 oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Fennel Syrup
1 oz Lemon
1 oz Cucumber Water
Top with Sparkling Water
Cucumber RibbonCombine gin, fennel syrup, cucumber water packed with ice, roll and top with sparkling water. Garnish with cucumber ribbon.
Gardenesque Shrubberies
The second cocktail included a raspberry and beet shrub that had been aged for six months. Gina described the drink as having egg and it certainly tasted like it, though it’s not how the recipe was printed. Additionally while the printed recipe said to top with champagne, Gina told us she had lightly shaken the champagne, keeping the flavor but losing the carbonation. The shrub and lime gave the drink a great light and peppery taste.
Gardenesque Shrubberies
1.5 oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Raspberry and Beet Shrub
.5 oz Lime JuiceCombine Plymouth Gin, shrub and lime juice, shake over ice and strain into a martini glass, top with champagne and zest lime peel over top for garnish.
Peter "Cotton"tail
My second favorite drink of the night was Peter “Cotton”tail — which was served alongside a remarkable rabbit dish. A julep variation, the drink had strong honey and mint flavors. The rose water was lighter and played in with the honey and cardamon syrup. The orange flavors were subtle, though all in all I think the drink was a bit too sweet and a smaller dose of honey syrup might have been better.
Peter “Cotton”tail
1.5 oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Honey/Cardamon Syrup
5 Mint Leaves
1 Wedge of Orange
Shaved Ice
Spritz of Rose WaterMuddle mint leaves with wedge of orange, then fill with shaved ice, pour in Plymouth Gin, honey/cardamon, stir until a nice frost on the glass. Spritz the rose water on top, serve with a sprig of mint.
P.B.L.T.
The next drink was surely the most interesting cocktail of the night. The P.B.L.T. stands for Plymouth Bacon Lettuce Tomato. Each element was presented in different forms – the gin with a lemon twist, a tomato water ice cube, a lettuce water ice cube, and bacon dust. The gin itself arrived in a separate carafe for each serving, with the cubes in a rocks glass. As the ice cubes melted, the flavor of the drink evolved, to the point that it was most like a Bloody Mary old fashioned. No doubt, this was the most creative cocktail of the night. While it was fun, it wasn’t terribly easy to drink. The whole idea of deliberately speeding up the melting process of the ice to create the flavors of the drink was counter intuitive. Still, it was a lot of fun and certainly elicited the most conversation of the night.
P.B.L.T.
1 oz Plymouth Gin
1 cube of Lettuce Water
1 cube of Tomato Water
Spray vinegar on one side of glass and stick dehydrated bacon dust on sideFirst spray vinegar on a glass and dip in dehydrated bacon dust, then place a lettuce water cube, tomato cube, then pour the Plymouth Gin over top.
Katie's Sloe Burn
The last drink was Katie’s Sloe Burn, a nice cocktail that had a mix of sour, bitter, and savory flavors. The sloe gin and orris root flavors provided complimentary sweet and bitter flavors. Overall there was a strong lemon base to the drink, with the sloe berries sitting on top. This wasn’t my favorite cocktail of the night, but it was nice to see the Plymouth Sloe Gin make it into a new drink in an original way.
Katie’s Sloe Burn
1 oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
.5 oz Confit Lemon Syrup
.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
1 pinch of Cinnamon
Spritz of Orris Scented WaterScent a Marie Antoinette glass with orris water, then in a shaker combine Plymouth Gin, Plymouth Sloe Gin, lemon syrup, lemon juice and cinnamon. Shake, strain into glass, garnish with a confit lemon peel.
As I said above, the whole evening was great fun and a great way to experience Plymouth Gin and the flavor elements that make it great. It served to showcase one of the premier gins in the world and hearing Plymouth’s rich 400 year history from Simon Ford was a great addition to the culinary creations of the night. That Gina Chersevani was kind enough to share the recipes for her creations was a very nice close to the evening. Thanks to Simon, Gina, Peter, and the rest of the Plymouth team who helped put the event together.
The New York Times recently did a write-up on mezcal and Philip Ward’s latest bar, Mayahuel. Following the article, they announced that Phil would be fielding NYTimes.com reader questions and answering them in a subsequent post. In the comments I posed the following question:
In the revival of craft cocktails and cocktailian culture, gin and rye have largely lead the way. I’m curious to find out how you came to idea of opening a cocktail bar with a tequila & mezcal focus? Do you expect their to be a patron learning curve for these cocktails? And lastly, what sort of bitters do you see as being uniquely suited for tequila and mezcal cocktails? Looking forward to my first visit and thanks for coming by to answer questions. — Matt Browner Hamlin
Yes, rye and gin have lead the way but all things must lead somewhere. As a bartender it was fascinating to use spirits such as tequila or Scotch in drinks because you don’t find those in the old books and it feels more original and they can be a bit more challenging for their intensity. The learning curve for cocktails is one balanced drink, as mentioned in regard to 100 first-time mezcal drinkers this week who didn’t require any more instruction than one properly balanced drink for a tutorial.
I think Phil is spot-on regarding the learning curve. Maybe I gave him a bit of a softball, but the whole beauty of well-crafted cocktails is that they allow someone to enjoy something that they might have no prior exposure to. I’ve had this happen with many different drinks along the way. The Blood & Sand is an example I always come back to as someone who has never been actively into scotch-based cocktails.
As a project, Mayahuel excites me because it does allow a bartender like Ward to take cocktail culture in a new direction of his own making. I didn’t get to visit this weekend, but will go the next time I’m in NYC.
Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising
Gary Regan has a pretty good rundown of ten essential cocktails for the home bartender this week in his column in the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s a nice jumping off place for anyone willing to eschew classic recipes and use instead Regan’s take on classic recipes.
What’s also quite helpful in Regan’s piece is the home bar shopping list. The Chronicle put together a decent bar for under $250, something that would have been good for me to know late last summer…
Posted in Blogs, Media, & Advertising
A Jigger of Blog 