Zachary

Bob, You're certainly right about the eau de vie vs. Calvados issue, but I don't think anyone makes an oak aged cassis brandy. What I'm hoping will happen is that the sorbet will bring the eau de vie down in proof a bit to mute the alcohol. I want the woody/brambly flavor that the eau de vie has that the sorbet and the creme de cassis don't. This is pretty theoretical right now... I'm not even sure I can spherify creme de cassis. But as a thought experiment, it ought to be interesting.

So I want to recreate a dessert I had at Au Pied de Cochon last November. They had an apple sorbet made from apples grown in the Calvados region that was drizzled with Calvados, which, as you can imagine, was completely awesome. What I want to do is the same thing, but with cassis. Cassis sorbet with spherified creme de cassis (which should look like the fruit), drizzled with cassis eau de vie. The only problem with my plan is that I know of two producers who make the stuff - Reisetbauer and Rochelt. Reisetbauer comes through Skurnik, and I'm working on that end. Rochelt as far as I can tell, doesn't make it here. To be clear, what I'm looking for is a clear, high proof brandy made from fermented and distilled blackcurrants. Do I have any other options than the two above? Does anyone know where I might be able to find some? And will they ship to Texas? Thanks in advance, Zachary

I love my Solis Maestro Plus - bought it for $150 five years ago from Whole Latte Love, use it every day, clean it once a week (which takes 10 minutes). It's not for espresso, but it's one of the best grinders I know for drip. I use it for French Press, V60, and Aeropress, and it handles them all well. Your grinder is the most important part of your coffee besides the water. Grind consistency makes a huge difference in the quality of your coffee. As a matter of fact, here's my morning routine... you're going to need a instant read thermometer, a gram and ounce scale, and a French Press: 1. Weigh out 48 g. of coffee beans, preferably freshly roasted (i.e. within 2 weeks). Don't know when your beans were roasted? Find a new source. 2. Heat good water in a kettle to between 200 F and 205 F. This you can play with a bit... some coffees like 200, some like 204. 3. Once the water is at temp, pour a bit into the French Press, a thermal carafe and a mug to heat them. Swirl and dump the water. 4. Grind your coffee. I'm usually 2-3 ticks back from the coarsest setting on my Solis - this can vary due to humidity, oilyness of beans, and other factors. 5. Add the coffee to the bottom of the French Press, place the press on your scale again, switch to ounces and tare it, then weigh out 12 ounces of water into the Press. 6. Stir the water and coffee. You should see bloom as CO2 is liberated from the grounds. Add the remaining 12 ounces of water, put the filter assembly on top, and wait for 3:30. 7. After three and a half minutes have gone by, slowly press the filter down, trapping the coffee in the bottom. Immediately pour the coffee into the thermal carafe. 8. Drink coffee. Mmmmmmm. Thanks, Zachary

David, I think I was unclear as to the execution of your updated Irish Car Bomb. I'd love to see how that actually works. But I'm not trying to say what a cocktail is or isn't. Personally, I have an idea (which includes sours), I don't think that any alcohol is a cocktail. Vodka in a glass isn't a cocktail, nor is a pint of beer. Luckily, I don't have to solve the unsolvable. Dan wants a definition of craft cocktail so he can curate his website (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I help out with). He's said that he doesn't want to end up as a place where people have to wade through a lot of drinks called Sex With an {insert animal name here] to get to a Singapore Sling. His carrot, so to speak, is a database that focuses on what he thinks are craft cocktails. His stick is that he's not going to allow drinks like Sex With an Alligator. I suppose that users of the site will ultimately decide if it's a good strategy or not. Thanks, Zachary

David, The way I read your original post was that the liqueur was kept in a test tube, and not mixed into the stout. If you're mixing the liqueur and the beer, it's going to curdle (again, without having made it, but the Irish Car Bomb recipe says to drink it quickly or it will curdle). I think that curdled cocktails are definitely not craft, and while the mythical bartender's intent in making a craft Irish Car Bomb might be to solve the curdling problem, it still says "shot and a beer" to me, not "cocktail". I certainly agree with you that it's difficult to put things into boxes. On one end, we could all go on Youtube and find people making cocktails poorly, with little thought other than an alcohol delivery system and neon liqueurs. On the other hand, there's some guy somewhere who has magnificent facial hair, wears a vest, and all of his cocktails are works of art. Some cocktails are easy to put into the craft or not-craft box. Others are difficult, and some may not be able to be categorized. It's been enlightening having this discussion with you. Happy Easter, Zachary

Tri - Look... the boxes are only there if you want or need them to be. Everyone can say "I like this cocktail" or "I don't like this cocktail". The trick starts to come in when you start asking "What do the cocktails I like have in common" and once you figure that one out, it comes down to knowing and thinking about ingredients and building cocktails around what you know. Let me give you an example of my thought process with something I created recently (not saying that it's great, but it has what I like about craft cocktails). Upthread, I mentioned the Bengal Cocktail, which is a brandy based cocktail with a full ounce of pineapple syrup. The drink as written is super-sweet, but it's pre-1940's, and things were different back then. In order to make the drink, I had to make pineapple syrup, and I was sitting there making the stuff and realized that it's not just pineapple, but it's hugely flowery and musky. I've got a decent rolodex in my head of other funky cocktail ingredients, and thought of the Smith and Cross rum, which is 114 proof, and smells like Bananas Foster and musky/funky stuff. The two together needed clean acidity, so lemon instead of lime, then it smelled great, but wasn't coming across as complex, so in went a bit of Cynar, which is made from artichokes, but smells like honey and tobacco and slight bitterness. So.... Honeymusk 1 oz Smith and Cross rum (Jamaica) 1 oz lemon juice 3/4 oz pineapple syrup 1/2 oz Cynar Shake, double strain, serve in a coupe. The high alcohol of the rum means you don't need a lot of it, and I tested a couple of variations using teaspoons for ounces. The name is an homage to the Monymusk sugar plantation, which is one of the oldest in Jamaica. It smells nice, works in a couple of dimensions, and has enough acidity to have a firm backbone. Thanks, Zachary

Tri, Everyone was a novice once, and while I'm fairly new to the world of spirits (my background is wine, so I come at this a different way), part of being new is wanting, sometimes overzealously, to put things into boxes to understand them. That being said, I have no problem with Audrey's drink. If it gets more people drinking Islay scotch, that's great. My approach to the peaty stuff was Oban, then Highland Park 12, first at higher dilutions, then using about half an ice cube. Now, give me Lagavulin 16 and Supernova, still with a small piece of ice. I think that a good example of a craft cocktail that eases people into what can be a challenging spirit is the Intro to Aperol. Here we have a drink that's spirit forward, sweet-and-sour balanced, and is a thoughtful use of other ingredients to soften Aperol's slight bitterness. The problem is that the OP asked for a definition of "Craft" cocktails. If you're wanting to drink a cocktail, drink whatever you like. But if you have to start sorting them into boxes, it helps to have consistency. Thanks, Zachary

Tri2Cook, Here, Gary Regan wrote an article about it: 2 oz Grey Goose 1/2 ounce Laphroaig 10-year-old single malt scotch 2 to 3 drops Pernod 1 lemon twist, for garnish In the article, it quotes not only Audrey as saying that the vodka's a blank canvas, but other bartenders saying that it will 'sooth the soul' of the scotch. To me, that cocktail is a Laphroaig-flavored vodka-tini. But what problem does it solve? Getting people to drink Islay scotch that's been 'softened' to the point where they can drink it? That's not a problem. I still don't think this counts, though I'd love to hear Audrey's intent (uh-oh) behind the creation of it. Thanks, Zachary

Dan, I might get my head bitten off for this, but why not gin instead of vodka in that cocktail? Why not nothing? In the arena of craft cocktails, vodka bothers me because it leads to lazy drinks - look at the Jasmine: understanding that Campari + lemon = grapefruit flavors is inspired. Adding vodka to grapefruit juice is not, yet both allow a bartender to make a grapefruit flavored cocktail. Thanks, Zachary

David, I can see your point of view, even if I'm on the other side of the cave. It's because of people like you that today, we have the luxury of good vermouth, good gin, proper ratios, and orange bitters to the point where I can safely call gin in a glass not a Martini. I think that craft bartenders can make non-craft cocktails, but the drink you describe is a shot and a beer, since you wisely kept the liqueur and stout apart from one another, which is not in the original recipe. Again, intent asks if those flavors work together, and whether or not you want your customers to drink a curdled cocktail. Personally, the answers are no and no, so it fails my definition of craft. It might be delicious, but in my mind, that's not enough. The vest is a red herring, as is whatever facial hair (or ego) they might have. To give you another example, look at the drink that mkayahara posted upthread. Again, I don't think that's a craft cocktail, First, it's an 8 1/2 oz drink, and second, the primary spirit is vodka. I agree that the definition of what is craft and what is not is difficult to pin down. But it's a lot of fun to try and hash it out. Thanks, Zachary

David, I'm a bit confused here. Look... you've forgotten more about cocktails and the spirits that go in them than I'll ever know, and I want you to know that I have the utmost respect for you. But if gin in a glass can be considered a Martini, is vodka and Godiva liqueur a choco-tini, or Jager and Red Bull a Jager-tini? Where does it end? I think that intent and execution are inextricably linked in the definition of a craft cocktail. Without intent, you could execute an Irish Car Bomb perfectly and it doesn't make it Craft. Without execution, you get shaken Manhattans, which to me isn't Craft either. Neither are what I want to drink -- there are too many other interesting things to do with excess liver space! Thanks, Zachary

See, I don't know about that. If you give no thought to the ingredients, and don't know if your vermouth is oxidized or not, and you've given no thought to ratios for gin and vermouth or shaken vs. stirred and orange bitters are not on your radar, you might make a serviceable Martini. Chances are, though, that you'll have a glass full of diluted gin and oxidized vermouth. On the other hand, if you do care about those things... there will be a dry Martini that's complex and interesting and it'll be there every time you order one. I'm sure there are many many chefs who make food without any thought about the ingredients they're using, and they turn out something edible at the end of the process. But would you want to eat at such a place on a regular basis? Intent and discipline drive quality and consistency, whether you're a chef or a bartender or a carpenter. Thanks, Zachary

Chris, The original recipe is in percentages - 50% brandy, 25% pineapple syrup , 12.5% curacao and Maraschino. I scaled this to a 4 oz drink as above. I made the syrup by taking a whole pineapple, peeling it, cutting it into chunks in a bowl, adding 1/2 cup sugar, and letting it sit in the refrigerator for 8 hours. I stick blended the stuff, added 3/4 cup 2:1 simple, and strained it through a double layer of cheesecloth. It probably is too much pineapple, but the drink doesn't read 'pineapple', and I don't think that decreasing it would make it better. I might riff the drink as this: 2 oz "old" brandy 1/2 oz pineapple syrup 1/4 oz lemon juice 1/4 oz orange Curacao Barspoon Maraschino 6 dashes Angostura Thanks, Zachary

So.... Dan was right. I ended up making pineapple syrup today, and made the Bengal, with brandy that was probably too good for it (Germain-Robin single barrel Viognier): 2 oz. "old" brandy 1 oz pineapple syrup 1/2 oz orange Curacao 1/2 oz Maraschino 6 dashes Angostura bitters Shake, strain, garnish with a slice of lemon peel. As written, this is not only quite sweet, but Maraschino-forward, which was a surprise. The pineapple does its usual texturizing thing, but the addition of 1/4 oz lemon juice works nicely, opening up the drink and bringing the brandy towards the front. I think it has redeeming qualities. Thanks, Zachary

Chris, I think that "Layer and direct flavors" works well - I think about it as building "accords" as in perfume, for example using Cynar to bring out the smoky aromas and flavors on Islay scotch. Thinking about what your ingredients smell and taste like is the first step toward making craft cocktails. Thanks, Zachary

So Dan made me join so I could post my thoughts on this thread instead of debate-via-email... I agree with what Andrew says about the intent of the person who makes the cocktail - If you don't care about ingredient selection or technique, you're going to make a bad cocktail. If you think that anything in a Martini glass is a Martini, chances are, you're going to make a bad cocktail. Intent tells you more about a cocktail than anything else. I'd also like to extend this point a bit by talking about balance. I think that to a certain point, balance in cocktails is overrated, as balance is not only a physiological issue, but a sociological one. Champagne on the whole was a lot sweeter 125 years ago than it is today, but that didn't stop people from pairing it with oysters. Drinks like the Bengal (from the 1937 U.K. Bartender's Manual) seem to modern palates to be unbalanced, with almost equal parts spirit to sweet, and low acid. I'm going to make it tomorrow and will report back, but my suspicion is that it has an interesting balance from the woody brandy and the large quantity of bitters. Thanks... now be kind to a newbie Zachary