Kohai
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Posts posted by Kohai
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The importance of water is not to be understated.
You couldn't just substitute pineapple juice for water and get a better drink. You need the water to reduce the intensity of ingredients that (simple syrup, lemon juice, certain spirits to certain people) just don't taste that great on their own. I know you're aware of this already, but it's worth observing.
And, speaking as a bartender who uses more distilled water behind the bar than any other product, for some reason adding water to mimic shaken-ice dilution just doesn't quite achieve the same result. I'm not sure why this is. Even a martini that just rests on ice without stirring doesn't taste the same to me as one that is stirred to the same level of dilution. I can't really explain this but it seems to be the case.
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At Marvel we've been salting our invert syrup for a while now. 1 Tbsp kosher salt to 6 quarts granulated sugar and 3 quarts water.
We use this syrup in sours, and we've yet to find a drink that does not "pop" more with the use of the syrup. The salinity is subperceptible but makes a huge difference. We were initially leery of such a change to our program, but blind tests overwhelmingly showed the superiority of salted syrup. It's an easy way to add another flavor frequency to a drink, an extra element of complexity.
(For Old-Fashioneds and other such drinks we use unsalted demerara. On the other hand, those can also be delicious with salt, as noted above, and we also do some bitter-brown-stirred drinks with salt added as well.)
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1.5 oz. lactic acid acidulated malt aromatized bourbon
Do tell.
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I saw this movie recently and loved it. It's a fantastic exploration of the Japanese shokunin tradition.
Since I will be heading back to Tokyo in June I decided to have a Japanese friend make a reservation for me so I could see it for myself.
They wouldn't accept my reservation as a foreigner.
My friend pressed them and they said they would accept a reservation from a hotel concierge. Since I'm tatami-surfing rather than staying at hotels, I have no access to a concierge.
After a second phone call, they grudgingly agreed to accept a reservation under the condition that I call three days in advance to reconfirm the reservation.
I hope the sushi is good enough to wipe out the slightly bad taste in my mouth from this experience.
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Been playing around with charcoal-filtered cocktails recently. We're using Japanese hibachi charcoal, additive-, propellent- and chemical-free. It's a passive filtration, resting the mix on charcoal, rather than forcing it through. The charcoal mellows it, smoothes it, imparts a sooty finish and aroma. Interesting.
Lincoln County Boulevardier
1000ml Buffalo Trace
600ml Campari
400ml Antica Formula
500g lump charcoal
Break large pieces of charcoal into smaller nuggets to increase surface area exposure and place in a large sealable vessel. Pour bourbon, Campari and vermouth over charoal. Cover and rest shielded from sunlight, agitating daily. After ten days, strain through a coffee filter. To serve, stir briskly over ice and strain into something concave.
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For the past several months I have been using egg whites to emulsify oils into cocktails. I think there is interesting potential for a new category of emulsified oil cocktails. The meringue of these drinks is velvety and unique, and many oils have a fascinating flavor when used in with egg white sours and silver fizzes.
Here is one such emulsified cocktail.
Oliveto
60 ml gin
30 ml lemon juice
10 ml 2:1 invert syrup
10 ml Licor 43
1 egg white
15 ml olive oil (California Olive Ranch sustainable extra virgin)
Preshake, shake again with ice, strain.
The olive oil brings an almost mallic acid quality to this cocktail. It tastes fruity, like an apple or kiwi. If made correctly, this cocktail will not separate for a long time - much longer than the drink usually lasts. A quick stir with a spoon will re-emulsify the drink again, if it does begin to separate. I have searched the internet for drinks like this but haven't been able to find any. Though there is nothing new under the sun, I flatter myself that it may be the first of its kind.
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I think he's saying that the Japanese love their highballs. And, to a certain extent, Chris is right. Single malt (Scottish or Japanese) on the rock or in a highball is a common order. The Japanese beieve that many spirits benefit from water or ice in the same way that a painting benefits from a few long steps backward to take it in. Gives you a bit of perspective.
I'm not saying this is correct. But after tending in Tokyo - and in the US - and seeing English/Scottish ways... I must say, I am very forgiving of localized (non-US) drinking customs that might seem heretical to other (US-driven) drinking cultures. "To each their own" has never been more appropos.
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In love with this:
Red Sky At Night
1.5 oz. Sauza Tres Generaciones
1.5oz. Campari
2 dashes orange bitters
float cacao nib-infused mezcal
served on the rock.
One of my best.
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Thanks for the info, Erik.
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Just picked up a bottle of Templeton at Cask. The employee who grabbed it for me said that what was currently being sold was actually whiskey from a different distillery - she didn't know where - that Templeton was bottling because its own whiskeys weren't ready for bottling yet (not aged long enough).
This sounded strange to me but the employee wasn't really able to tell me much more. Can anyone shed any light on what she was talking about? Other people have told me that this information was not correct.
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Can anyone tell me the deal with Bourbon and Branch's password/reservation policy? I'd love to go this week but their online reservation system is singularly unhelpful. Any tips for getting in?
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Awesome, thanks for those suggestions. Very helpful - can't wait!
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OK... so, it's 2011 now, and in early March I'm headed to San Fran for the first time. I'm looking forward to doing some "research" at some of the cocktail bars around there. What's great? Some of the places described above sound fantastic but there's undoubtedly been new places since 2008.
Any recommendations - and fun restaurants, incidentally - would be greatly appreciated.
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I've had odd experiences with corks at least three times.
Most recently, a Baker's bottle was strangely spicy and harsh. We compared it to a fresh bottle and there was a noticeable difference; the first bottle tasted weirdly vinegary.
There are well-documented (in other threads on this site) flaws in certain bottles of Bluecoat, which also uses corks.
Long ago, I tried a Jameson 18 (cork stopper, no?) and it had a strange cat-pissy quality to it. Embarrassingly, I got through almost half the glass before I decided to ask the bartender if it was really supposed to taste this way. (It was the first time I had a spirit go bad on me - didn't know it could happen at the time.)
I can't remember ever having this experience with screw-capped bottles. I'm not saying the cork caused it, but it is strange.
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Well, then as such I think it's a great list. Well done.
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A coworker - who I am giving a raise, an extra shift, and a pony - just gave me a bottle of Willett 2-year rye as a present. I haven't opened it yet. But I am not familiar with Willett... can anyone help me find some info on this whiskey?
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To me a review system that simply uses the presence/absence of a brand on a list to denote recommended/not is problematic for reasons already mentioned above. It also fails to justify the reviewer's opinion with a reasoned defense that can be analyzed and evaluated by readers.
Such a system also lacks context; bartenders reach for different gins for different drinks and that is not reflected here.
Numerical or star ratings are obviously flawed for their own reasons, but I find them a little more constructive than a simple binary yes/no, present/absent system, provided the reviewer defends their position or explains in some way what justified the rating.
Even "inferior" products are worth discussing if only to illustrate the ways in which they fall short when compared with "superior" products. To simply ignore them does not seem to make for a reasoned system of spirits critique.
A written appraisal of a spirit (with or without a star/number rating), followed by an open forum for members to discuss and share their own views, would be useful. To simply list recommended brands without providing any reasoning will amount to a buying guide for newbies and not much more. Which is fine if that's what you're looking to make. I think a lot of people on this board will be looking for something they can sink their teeth into a little deeper.
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This thread is interesting to me for tangentially related reasons. My associates and I have recently begun double-blind tastings which we hope will become a weekly tradition. The results are pretty surprising, and often challenge a lot of what we think we know about spirits - not to mention calling into question the pricing of many products.
Many of those associates are coffee professionals and it was they who suggested a program of rigorous double-blind tasting; it is a cornerstone of the coffee world, I'm lead to understand. I am coming to believe that if opinions are not formed blind, they are essentially worthless. If you know what you're tasting, you always have bias. You might well be enjoying that particular bottle in the cabinet, but if you can't pick it out of a blind lineup........
It is my hope that double-blind tastings are a regular fixture at whatever bar I am at in the future.
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Yes. The 4-hour infuse time was for one practical reason: I was working and I got slammed. It was only as I was packing up at the end of the night that I remembered the little glasses in the fridge. I imagine that the main material effect of such a long wait time was that the difference was intensified.
There are a lot of places this could go next. Varying times (5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20). Allowing the drink to come to room temperature. Not using vodka. Using orange, grapefruit, etc. With pith/without.
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With two bartenders and a coffee professional last night I did a double-blind taste test very similar to one that someone described upthread. I tried to eliminate all other flavor variables by using vodka: I stirred with ice and strained into two rocks glasses. Then I zested lemon over both of them. Into one I dropped the lemon coin. Into the other I did not. I kept them in the refrigerator for four hours, then pulled out the coin and labelled the underside of the glasses with masking tape.
The unanimous, emphatic preference was for the glass that had the twist dropped into it. We all felt that it was much more citrusy, which makes sense since it's been observed above that more oils remain on the skin than are expelled.
I deliberately left a fat slice of pith on the skin but we detected none of the astringency and bitterness that we expected from it. In fact, the coffee guy challenged the idea that there were any bitter compounds at all present in lemons, and when we trimmed the pith off of the skin and ate it, it was, if anything, sweet.
The upshot is that I will probably be throwing my twist into everything now. It tastes better.
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We use gin for our lemon drops. No one has ever complained, or even noticed. (Bloody Marys too, actually.)
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Two unique ones, neither of which have names yet.
Rye Negroni #2*
1 oz. Rittenhouse 100
1 oz. Campari
2-3 oz. Bells Two-Hearted Ale
3 dashes orange bitters
Build on a big piece of ice in a rocks glass.
Whew! The Two-Hearted jazzes this thing up like crazy, giving it effervescence, zip and lightness. I could easily down a few of these. I want to try it with anejo tequila instead of rye next.
Angostura Flip*
1 oz. Angostura
.75 oz. Licor 43
1.5 oz. Rittenhouse 100 (or most any other whiskey, I suppose)
whole egg
Preshake without egg, shake with egg, strain, etc. You know the deal.
This is pure Christmas in a glass - and extremely easy-drinking at that. The Angostura is tempered nicely by the whole egg.
* Yes, yes - of course. It's not really a rye negroni any more than it's a pina colada sub whiskey for rum, campari for pineapple and beer for coconut. Just as the Angostura flip could also be a Licor 43 Flip or a Rittenhouse Flip. The placeholder names are references to where I started from, not where I ended up. (I wish I didn't feel obligated to add this aside but I feel the Watchers' eyes upon me and wish to nip nitpicking in the bud.)
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That guy needs to go into bartending.
Possibly stupid question about ice, shaking, dilution, and volume of liquid
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
To throw a log on the fire: the conventional 25% dilution tastes way too hot/sour/sweet to my palate these days. At Marvel we usually dilute 50% minimum; some shaken drinks are diluted as much as 80-90%. In other words a 90ml cocktail would measure just shy of 170ml after shaking.
Most things benefit from the addition of water. Exactly how much is personal preference.