alacarte
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Posts posted by alacarte
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I was on my way to Clover Club, and was stopped in my tracks by Char 4. What an amazing bourbon/whiskey menu. Definitely looks worth a stop if you're Bkln-bound on a cocktail crawl.
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Hi all! Just a friendly heads-up that Drink Me magazine, a small pub out of San Francisco, is running my article "Blood Thirsty: Carnivorous Cocktails" here: http://drinkmemag.com/ (download issue #6 "Blood Sex Sugar Magic." it's a little annoying to download & no direct link, sorry about that...)
You'll see that I drew much inspiration from this long-ago thread - thanks for all the collective brilliance, and I hope you enjoy the article.
Best,
Kara
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Head of the NY Bartenders Guild is Jonathan Pogash (find him at www.thecocktailguru.com. and wish him a happy birthday while you're at it!) The NYBG website is not great, but it's located here: http://www.kingcocktail.com/nybg.htm
From the few NYBG meetings I've attended, the purpose seems to be general networking and education. They hold monthly meetings at a local bar, with a demo by one of the liquor companies (who usually sponsors drinks for the afternoon). Some of the chapters also sponsor cocktail competitions.
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I've been using the phrase "upscale cocktails" more and more frequently in drinks writing, which I guess is not that far from "high end." I also use "classic" and "classic-inspired" to refer to the speakeasy stuff.
I do like "neo-classical" and "craft." May have to incorporate those into my booze vocabulary soon.
Kent, good luck with your article! I hope you'll post a link here when it's published, I'm sure we'd all love to see what you've written.
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Cool, one of my favorite topics! To me, the Bloody Mary is ALL about the garnishes, preferably edible. Pickled okra, spiced string beans, the classic, elegant, crunchy celery stick (leaves on!) a skewer of cherry tomatoes and bocconcini, pepperoni, salt-and-pepper glass rims.....
Bloody Marys make me hungry.
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This might be too subtle - but if you want to embrace a vodka drink, a number claim to be filtered through diamonds. You could use one of those brands for your drink.
Would you consider something as simple as a vodka tonic? The bubbles would provide an effervescence reminiscent of a diamond's sparkle. And rocks/ice - another diamond reference.
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Can you hear us chanting? You can do it. You can do it. You can do it!
I think you're spot on to go with the "funkiness" of fish sauce, there are a handful of bartenders playing with umami tastes in cocktails, so why can't you. Maybe look at all the bacon-infused cocktails and use that as a starting point for working with sweet and salty?
Can't wait to see what you come up with... (you can do it!)
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Taught a class last night and used some of the tips offered in this thread. Many thanks - this has been very helpful...and specific to the point where I'd never find this anywhere else. THANKS.
The only additional wisdom I have to add (and it may already be elsewhere in this thread), is to have something ready to pour the minute people walk in. We had Prosecco: not too expensive, not too strong, but still light and festive.
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If you want to talk trends, I agree with KD that we're seeing more tea infusions. And sweet tea - every time I turn around it seems another commercial sweet tea liqueur is being rolled out.
but I'm not aware of any historical tea liquors that could be a revival product like batavia arrack, etc.
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The Sept issue of Food Arts magazine includes a lengthy article on freezing techniques, by Dave Arnold and mixology expert Nils Noren. I summarized the section on cocktail ice over here.
The article includes a great analogy from Don Lee: “If sushi is all about the rice, a drink on the rocks is all about the rock.”
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Chris, good luck with your class!
Some great tips here - Janet, love the idea about straining water off of melting ice.
I've only recently started teaching hands-on cocktail classes, and wish I'd known some of these tips before. But some of the things I learned and can share:
--Have something small for the class to sip on right away, esp. if you'll be talking for awhile first. When I taught a spicy cocktails class I started everyone with a shot of Domaine de Canton.
--HAVE FOOD! You need something to absorb the booze & keep people from getting too drunk. Plus, it increases the perception of class value if you can serve something nice but not too complex. (I had artisanal cheese and chunks of bread)
--Don't forget about mise-en-place, both for you and your students. Get there early. Check and double check that the limes are sliced, for example, and everyone has all the bottles they'll need at hand. Otherwise students get bored watching you set up and you just look disorganized.
--Do as you say. I still remember the class where I advised students to always wear rubber gloves when cutting hot peppers, and then I forgot to put mine on when I demo'ed a habanero drink. And you KNOW everyone jumped to point that out! I made 100% certain to put on those gloves for the next class.
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One Exciting Night Cocktail.
1 Dash Orange Juice. (1 Dash Blood Orange Juice)
1/3 French Vermouth. (3/4 oz Noilly Original Dry Vermouth)
1/3 Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Punt e Mes)
1/3 Plymouth Gin. (3/4 oz Plymouth Gin)
Shake (I stirred) well and strain into Port Wine glass. Squeeze lemon peel on top. Frost edge of glass with castor sugar.
As always, your life will be much easier if you frost the edge of the glass before straining the cocktail into it.
However, faced with mandatory glass frosting in a not very tart cocktail, I opted for the more bitter flavors of Punt e Mes in this Bronx-like Cocktail. This at least provided some interesting contrasts between the bitter and sweet elements of the construction. Fairly enjoyable, but I would leave out the caster sugar, if making it for myself, even if it cut down on the excitement for the evening.
Georgeous photo - it looks like something from the pages of Imbibe magazine!
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This is a fun thread!
When I was testing/tweaking drinks for Spice & Ice, naming the drinks was one of my favorite parts of writing the book. All of the drink testers got into it -- most of the names fell into one of three categories:
--Descriptive: the name tells you what ingredients are in the drink, i.e. "Blackberry Poblano Margarita"
--Drink Style: if we riffed on a classic I tried to make the drink name reflect that, i.e. "Mule Kick" was a jalapeno-infused version of the classic Moscow Mule
--Memorable: even if it was silly, it gets your attention! One of my favorites: The Flamethrower. It almost doesn't matter what's in it, but you know right off the bat that it's going to be crazy-hot!
And then there were a bunch that were just hilariously bad - I've posted them here: http://www.karanewman.net/Spicy_extra2.html if you feel like a laugh!
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Checking in on this thread for the first time in a while...so impressed by the scale of this! And the #10 can of tomatoes as doorstop - that's a keeper, I'll remember that for a long while.
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Good luck! I wonder if the stores will notice a downtick in sales this week.
Anyone remember Pete Wells' article in Food & Wine a couple of years back? I'll have to find a link. He journaled a similar "survivalist" week, where he ate only what was in the house, no shopping allowed. If I remember correctly, the final epiphany was the pain of peeling a found bag of tiny onions, and the joy of slowly caramelizing them and eating them pissalidiere-style.
Can't wait to see what everyone else's epiphany turns out to be.
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Last weekend I acquired at an antiques show a horribly water-damaged book called The Official Mixer’s Manual, by Patrick Gain Duffy, copyright 1949 (first publication 1934)
PGD includes pages upon pages of illustrations of glassware I've never heard of before, including the following:
--Cut dot Pilsener (the only one I've seen used modern day - tall glass that tapers to a short stem and foot.
The following all look like wine glasses, with slightly different shaped/sized bowls:
--Pear-shaped Beer goblet
--Beer goblet (looks like a red wine glass)
--Balloon-shaped Beer goblet
--Beer goblet
--Ale glass or Champagne (Looks like a standard Champagne flute, with a longer bowl)
--Bass Ale (tall bowl with a flat bottom, atop a short stem and foot)
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I might use some jalapenos or other hot peppers. I've heard they can turn sulphuric though, so there's another factor.
thank you for the ideas, I appreciate it!
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I want to brew up some fun, exotic flavors you wouldn't see in a store and give them as gifts. But that's no fun if they'll go bad right away.
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Great experiment! My first instinct in this one was to add vodka -- and maybe some whiskey barrel bitters too?
It sounds a little like an Arnold Palmer (tea and lemonade). I tried a version at Lure where the bartender steeped Earl Grey tea bags in vodka, and then combined it with lemonade and fresh mint.
I'm also thinking vodka because it will make the drink a little like limoncello; and because coffee would probably overpower a delicate spirit like gin.
Maybe a stronger, richer spirit like a reposado tequila or bourbon might be the way to go.
I think the question is: which is the dominant flavor in your infusion, lemon or coffee? If it's lemon, I'd go with a lighter touch, maybe even a citrus-infused vodka to amp up the lemon flavor. But if coffee dominates, I'd steer toward richer, darker spirits and/or liqueurs.
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Maybe use it to rinse a glass, Sazerac-style?
What does Agwa smell like, is it very aromatic?
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Hello old friends -- I'm trying to make a shelf stable simple syrup. What's the best way to preserve it?
When I made a batch a couple of weeks ago, it developed a fuzzy gray coating at the top - I'm assuming surface mold.
I've heard that sodium benzoate might work...but only if I also add citric acid?
I've also heard that ethanol might work.
Any molecular mixology experts out there have an opinion, or advice?
...and yes, I know that a good bartender would mix up a fresh batch of syrup, and wouldn't touch the preserved stuff.
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The "hard shake" got a bit of attention at the "Molecular Mixology" seminar at Tales of the Cocktail. Sonya Moore reported on it on her NRN blog (http://nrnstandardsandpours.blogspot.com/):
During the Q and A portion of the seminar, someone asked Eben Freeman about his hard shake video online and Eben actually stood up to say that was his approximation of the technique and it does not do justice for the real hard shake method. He went on to explain that the hard shake isn't about just being a fancy technique that magically create great cocktails. It's not some kind of snake oil to your cocktail ills. It has just as much to do with a way of thinking as you prepare a cocktail and the idea of being conscious of what you're shaking in your shaker....and:
..... Eben mentioned how many bartenders are beginning to develop their own shaking styles either based on the hard shake or just from what works for them, and watching bartender do their thing ..... it's basically like a bartender signing his John Hancock on your drink. And a bartender could have several different ways he or she would shake different cocktails. That's what this whole hard shake business seemed to say to me. -
At Tales of the Cocktail, I was given a sample of a new Fee's product -- Rhubarb Bitters. (This was my reward for brazenly introducing myself at a party to the guy in the pith helmet -- turned out to be Joe Fee himself...who apparently carries around bottles of the stuff in his cargo shorts pockets!)
It sounds delightful to me. I wish I could report back how it tastes, but airport security confiscated them, unopened, from my carry-on. DOH!
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I think the Scotch Rinse is a fabulous concept. If the absinthe/Herbsaint rinse works for the Sazerac, why not other drinks?
Cocktail/Cheese pairings
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
A couple of weeks ago I co-presented a seminar on "Monastic Cocktails & Cheeses" at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. I can tell you firsthand that cocktails are a tough pair with cheese. We found that wine and ciders worked best, but we also had some success with drinks with more of an herbal profile - and provided you're not using too ripe/pungent or too delicate/mild a cheese. One cocktail that worked especially well was the Monte Cassino (Damon Dyer): Benedictine, yellow chartreuse, Rittenhouse Rye, fresh lemon juice, shaken & strained into a coupe glass. Good luck with your pairing experiment!