slkinsey
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On to stirring...
Stirring, says Uyeda, is for drink using similar, easily combined ingredients when you want to keep some of the bite of the liquor and not lower the ABV% too much. The main worries are to chill the drink sufficiently without diluting the spirits too much, and as a result this relies heavily upon ice. Uyeda says that one should choose a combination of ice cubes with medium and large pieces of cracked ice, so that there are no large voids (I should point out that "cracked ice" in his terminology means pieces that have been cracked from a block of clear ice, and none are as small as what we would consider "cracked ice"). And he also points out that it's unwise to put more ice in the mixing vessel than the level of the liquid you will be stirring, because this ice can only contribute dilution through surface melting and cannot contribute any chilling. In stirring, you only want to use as much ice as will touch the liquid, and anything more is at best superfluous and at worst adds more dilution. This is different from shaking where you want to use as much ice as you possibly can, because you're moving the liquid around quickly to touch all the ice. Nothing revolutionary there, although or course it does evidence a strong attention to detail.
There are a few aspects of Japanese stirring techniques that I did find notworthy for their difference.
First is that, as far as I could tell, the idea of chilling the mixing vessel (or the glass for that matter) was clearly unfamiliar to Uyeda. I don't know if this reflects overall Japanese practices or just Uyeda's, but I found it striking that someone who had paid so much attention to other details would overlook this simple practice which is so familiar to the American cocktailian community -- especially when you consider the thermal capacity of those big, heavy Japanese stirring pitchers.
The second interesting difference, and a practice which is also observed in the shaking technique, is that after the ice is placed in the mixing vessel it is briefly covered with water which is then poured out. This "washing of the ice" is believed to clean the surface of the ice, melt away any small chips that would melt quickly and dilute the drink, smooth out any rough edges of the ice and chill the mixing vessel. To my way of thinking, this practice makes the ice wetter than it possibly could have been without such rinsing and pours an awful lot of "cold" thermal energy down the sink. When I was playing around with the hard shake at home, I found my early attempts overly diluted to my taste, which I easily solved by skipping the "ice washing" step. It is possible, however, that the cracked block ice he uses isn't quite as melty as my DIY Kold-Draft at home. Thanks to Don Lee I have a big-ass piece of clear block ice in the freezer now, so I'll experiment with that and see if it makes much difference.
After the ice is washed and drained, and the liquor poured into the mixing vessel on top of the ice, the bartender's job is to chill the drink quickly with the proper amount of dilution. Special attention should be given to making sure that (1) the ice doesn't collide, possibly breaking off chips and overly diluting the drink; and (2) no air is incorporated into the drink by turbulence or violent movement of any kind. As a result, the technique at this point is focused on getting the spoon in and out of the mixing glass with minimal disruption of the ice, and stirring with a consistent speed so that any turbulence is minimized.
The idea is to find a natural small void near the edge among the pieces of ice where you can slide in the barspoon. The barspoon is inserted into the void not straight down but rather starting with the shaft held at an angle in according to the curvature of the bowl of the spoon so that the bowl of the spoon goes in straight. Then, as the barspoon is inserted further down in the mixing vessel, the shaft is gradually straightening up. The Japanese way of holding the barspoon is to have the thumb and ring finger on one side of the shaft and the index and middle fingers on the other side, pinkie finger extended and unmoving. The thumb and index finger pinch the shaft and support the spoon while the middle and ring fingers perform the actual rotating movement. The stirring speed seems fairly brisk compared to the NYC tempi I am used to seeing. The most important thing is that the speed is absolutely consistent and that both acceleration and deceleration are smooth. This way the ice does not collide and there is no turbulence to incorporate air into the liquid. Uyeda stressed the importance of making sure that the stirring movement isn't jerky and uneven. Just as you want to brake through the first half of a turn and accelerate through the second half when driving, Uyeda says that you have to make sure you push the spoon through the first part of the rotation and pull the spoon through the second part of the rotation. Any stir that has too much of one element compared to the other will be a jerky motion that creates turbulence. At the end, in the final turn, the bartender draws out the barspoon without stopping the motion of the ice and allows the drink to spin down by itself (again, minimizing collision of ice and turbulence).
The Tokyo Kaikan stir simply means holding the barspoon in the middle (apparently most Japanese bartenders hold the barspoon up at the top). When a long-shaft Japanese barspoon is held in the middle for stirring, it makes an especially nice visual effect to see the fork end revolving around above the mixing vessel. It also seems likely that this provides a strong visual testimony of the evenness of the bartender's stir. Uyeda did say, however, that this is for show and that the Tokyo Kaikan stire doesn't have a meaningful impact on the result of the drink. He also said that he had not yet found the perfect way of stirring, and he has apparently not developed or personalized a stirring technique the way he has done with his shaking technique.
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The second section on the first day was an exposition on the nuts and bolts of general Japanese bartending techniques. Again, much of this is covered and illustrated in Uyeda's book, Cocktail Techniques, which I encourage anyone interested to acquire.
From the beginning, it's clear that much thought has been given as to the visual impact and the bartender's graceful flow of movement -- all pointing back to the central idea I mentioned above, that the total experience can have a profound effect on the perceived deliciousness of the drink. I should also, of course, hasten to point out that these techniques and pacing lead to one kind of subjective experience among many possible that could enhance the imbibing experience, depending upon the bar's aesthetic, the customer's preferences and the cultural context (among many other variables). The bar atmosphere and aesthetic Uyeda promotes is quiet and serene, proceeding at a measured pace and conducive of contemplation. Looking at my notes, I see that he conceded up front that many of these techniques don't scale to venues where speed and volume are concerns. Nevertheless, it's certainly an issue to think about rather than gracelessly yanking bottles out of the speed rail and thunking them back in.
Up first was bottle techniques. Japanese bars don't use pour tops, and so every bottle has to be unscrewed. Uyeda demonstrated how to open a bottle with one movement by curling both hands all the way in towards each other, grabbing the bottle and cap, and and then twisting each arm in the opposite direction. The dominant hand holds the bottle, and the removed cap is discretely cupped in the palm of the other hand until it is time to replace it. Bottles are held by the bottom third (as opposed to the neck, as is common with speed rail/pour top bottles) with the palm on the same side as the label so that any drips from the bottle won't run back over the label.
Next was jiggers, which Uyeda criticized for being inherently imprecise, especially for the "in-between amounts" -- although it became clear that he hadn't considered the possibility of using more than one jigger. In Japanese bars, he said, jiggers are used for show rather than for measuring in making things such as whiskey and water or simple spirit pours. This way the bartender can demonstrate his precision and the customer can see that he is getting precisely the amount he ordered. The technique is to hold the tall Japanese-style conical jigger between the first and second finger of your off hand, palm down, and fill with liquor. Then you slowly rotate your hand forward so that the liquor spills into the glass in a smooth waterfall.
After that came freepouring. Now, those of you who are familiar with my writing may know that I am unconvinced that freepouring can match jiggering for precision at speed in a busy bar, especially for cocktails where there is very little margin for error. Clearly this is not an issue for Uyeda, or indeed seemingly for most bartenders in the style. My supposition, which was strengthened by this seminar, is that this is true for two reasons: First, because speed is not a concern, and the working atmosphere is one which is conducive to accurate freepouring. The bartender is not in a noisy and distracting environment attempting to pound out 40 drinks an hour, getting tired, having his pulse rate go up and down, etc. Second is that the cocktails are for the most part tolerant of a fair bit of measurement error. A good example might be the King's Valley, which is compounded of 4 parts bourbon, 1 part fresh lime juice, 1 part Cointreau and 1 teaspoon of blue curacao for color (Japanese cocktails have an approximately 2 ounce pre-shake volume as opposed to the ~3 ounces typical of American cocktail bars).
It is a timing system, and Uyeda discussed the importance of practicing against measuring cylinders. To complicate things, this is freepouring straight out of the bottle with no stream restricting/regulating pourspout. As one may imagine, this places an premium upon steadiness of hand, as the bottle must be held extremely still in order to create a consistent stream that can be counted. But it gets even more complicated than that. As Uyeda points out, not all bottles have the same size of opening. A pour out of a Plymouth gin bottle will not have the same diameter as the pour out of a St. Elizabeth allspice dram bottle. Since the thickness of the stream affects the volume of liquid dispensed per time increment, this must also be taken into account and controlled. Apparently, in this freepouring technique, bartenders must nopt only learn how to make consistent pours at a variety of stream diameters, and deliberately adjust the thickness of the stream in order to get the desired pour. For example, if four counts at Diameter A gives one ounce, then three counts at the slightly larger Diameter B gives 1 1/3 ounces, but if you want 1 1/2 ounces that's five counts at Diameter A, whereas 1 ounce out of a liqueur bottle is two counts of Diameter C. To me, this sounds far more suceptible to error than using good pour tops, but apparently they do it pretty well. Uyeda suggests three months of every day practice on different volumes and different diameters to begin developing this skill. I don't have too much trouble believing that one can sharpen this skill considerably assuming the right environmental conditions. It must be said, however, that it's hard to imagine any real-world bar environment with better environmental conditions than the relatively serene atmosphere and measured slow pace of the Japanese bar as described by Uyeda.
Next came a short section in making built drinks. I'm told that the Japanese aesthetic holds that a simple whiskey and soda highball can be a peak cocktail experience, so this is all taken very seriously. As these long drinks are likely to be enjoyed and savored over a very long period of time in a Japanese bar, Uyeda stressed the importance of techniques designed to preserve carbonation as long as possible. Mainly this means doing things designed to make sure that the carbonated beverage is poured gently into the booze, and not onto the ice where the extra turbulance will cause more dissolved gas to come out of solution. And certainly not stirred. The main idea is that you put the pieces of ice into the highball glass, pour in the liquor, stick a bar spoon down the side of the glass to move the ice over to the side to create a "gap" down to the liquor, then you gently pour the carbonated liquid directly into the liqor. When you slowly withdraw up the spoon, the drink more or less mixes itself. Otherwise, according to Uyeda, you are not only knocking the carbonation out by pouring onto the ice, but you are effectively layering the carbonated liquid on top of the booze, making it necessary to stir to combine -- which, of course, knocks out even more carbonation.
After that came a short section on lemon twists and how to express the oil onto a drink. Uyeda says that lemon zest has two kinds of oil: one aromatic and one bitter. He claims that the aromatic oil is lighter and creates more of a persistent fine mist when a peel is squeezed, whereas the bitter oil is heavier and tends to fall straight down. As a result, and under the belief that one generally wants the aromatic oil and not the bitter oil, Uyeda advocates squeezing the peel from a position roughly 6 inches above the surface of the drink traveling on a 45 degree angle. This, he says, is close enough for the aromatic oils to reach the surface of the drink, but far enough away so that the bitter oils will fall away and not make it to the glass. And, actually, when I watched him squeeze out a twist, I could definitely see that some of the droplets were larger and fell onto the bar whereas there was also a very find misty component that floated down on the glass. Whether this reflects two different kinds of oils with different properties or simply two differently sized oil droplets, I couldn't say. Needless to say given the foregoing, Uyeda does not generally advocate putting the lemon peel into the drink, as this would bring in bitter flavors. Later in the Q&A session, someone asked what he thought about flaming orange twist -- he said he had never heard of doing that, and didn't sound too interested. This, of course, adds some additional bitter flavors. I'd be interested to know what the Japanese preference and aesthetic is with respect to bitterness in cocktails. Most of the reciped I've seen aren't partiularly bitter, and Uyeda's own formulations for cocktails such as the Old Fashioned or Manhattan tend to feature a reduction in bitters from the cited "standard recipe."
Tomorrow: Stirring and shaking (but not the hard shake).
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Right. And I keep wondering if there's something going on in the shaker/pitcher, perhaps something not fully understood chemically?, that produces better results with longer shaking/stirring time. Just as (in some cases) slowly cooking something at low heat seems to produce better results than quickly cooking something at high heat.
With stirring, I'm not so sure. Or, rather, I think that starting out with chilled ingredients allows you to end up with a colder drink at the same dilution so long as you are willing to keep stirring until you hit your dilution mark. And temperature certainly does affect a lot of things, among them viscosity, mouthfeel, perceived sweetness, aroma, etc.
With shaking, it seems pretty clear what the advantages are: You get to shake it longer without overly diluting the drink. And the longer you shake the drink, the more you can aerate the liquid (and potentially also emulsify and/or froth the contents). That will certainly have a physical and chemical result on the liquid. And, of course, it should also help to make the drink colder. Also, if the liquids are already refrigerated, then one of the three primary tasks of shaking (chilling, aeration, dilution) is removed and the bartender can concentrate on the other two.
It's also true that the longer you stretch out the dilution effect, the more control over dilution the bartender has. To make a hypothetical model, if shaking with room temperature ice gives you 17% dilution at 8 seconds and 23% dilution at 12 seconds and you are shooting for 20% dilution, you have a pretty narrow windown to hit. If, on the other hand, using refrigerated liquids means that you get 17% dilution at 20 seconds, 20% dilution at 30 seconds and 23% dilution at 40 seconds, it's a lot easier to hit that 20% mark. This is part of the reasoning behind shaking with larger cubes of ice (in addition to the fact that smaller pieces of ice already bring a lot more water to the game in the form of surface water): You can shake a lot longer without watering the drink using one fist-sized chunk of ice compared to 8 Kold-Draft cubes, and certainly compared to 20 pieces of shell ice.
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You got a name for that, Sam?
No name as yet. Interestingly (to me anyway) a number of the drinks I've come up with that I've liked enough to be proud of, continue making and which seem distinctive are 50/50 combinations. For example, I do one called the "Tango Sardo" which is a 50/50 cocktail compounded of Laird's bonded and Mirto di Sardegna.
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Well, you can certainly use chilled spirits and simply keep on stirring or shaking until you get the dilution you want. It would just take longer. I'm going to post on this in the Japanese Techniques thread, but I think that one of the "hidden secrets" about Uyeda's work at Tender Bar in Japan is that he chills all of his spirits, vermouths, etc. -- everything but the liqueurs. So he can shake the drink longer without getting as much dilution. Uyeda's Cocktail Techniques book even has a handy chart looking at the effects of different conditions and stirring a 60ml volume of booze. Room temperature (20C) gin stirred 20 stirs with 8 pieces of (presumably 0C) ice resulted in a temperature of 6.0C and a volume of 75ml (25% dilution) whereas refrigerated gin (7C) given the same treatment resulted in a temperature of 3.8C and a volume of 70ml (17% dilution). Looking at the chart, every 10 stirs seems to result in an increase of approximately 2ml of dilution. So it seems likely that the refrigerated gin sample could hit the same 25% dilution as the room temperature gin sample if it were stirred 40-50 times instead of 20, and it would be overall colder. One would assume there is a similar effect with respect to shaking.
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The discussion seems to be very focused on shaking technique, is there any Japanese bartender equally famous for his stirring technique? Or do they tend to shake everything there?
I'l touch on techniques for stirring and built drinks later on. Honestly, I don't have the knowledge to know whether there are any Japanese bartenders famous for their stirring the way Uyeda is for his shaking. This is not to say that his stirring isn't generally regarded as excellent, of course. And he does put a lot of thought into the best ways to stir. But it's pretty clear that most of his thought and energy has gone into the shake. At one point in the seminar he said that he was still a bit mystified by stirring and had yet to find the perfect stirring technique that would give a better result. So, for example, he has no "hard stir" in the way that he has the hard shake.
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Did you actually perceive any difference in your drink? This would of course be the test. I think it is interesting to note that while the artisan (if that is the word to use here) cocktail movement in the US has to a large extent gathered a dogmatic prohibition against ice crystals in an "up" drink, the Japanese technique seems to be striving to create as many as possible. Extraneous dilution is the reason most often given for fine-straining them out; what is the opposite justification for including them?
I will get into this later when I discuss the hard shake session, but the short answer for including them is that people there like it. Suffice it to say that I believe recipes have to be adjusted for the hard shake, so it's difficult to make a direct one-to-one comparison.
WRT the ice shards, Uyeda says that the fine shards of ice are a natural byproduct of the shaking technique, but not its goal. However, he noted that people enjoyed them, so he developed the decanting technique in order to get plenty of shards out of the shaker and into the glass. He says that when he was developing the hard shake he spent a lot of time trying to create more and more fine shards of ice, but realized this was a mistake and that aeration is the true goal.
Dilution could be a concern, yes. And I'll touch on that later. Overall, I would say that this is a technique that creates more dilution than the typical American shake, probably because it is shaken for a longer period of time and also due to some other factors I'll bring up later. Personally, I don't typically have a cocktail in hand long enough for the shards to melt. And obviously one goal of the shaking technique, or I suppose most any shaking technique, is to get the cocktail cold enough that the shards won't melt very quickly.
I wanted to interject here that I do believe that there are in fact bartenders in the US who are famous, or at least celebrated, for their technique; Phil Ward is an oft-cited example of someone who can stir two drink with one hand while shaking another with the other hand while pontificating on the history of the drink the customer before him is enjoying while adding up another guy's tab in his head. Now that is something that I would consider technique. It's just that that is not the thing he is most famous for; but to a mere mortal such as I, coordination of that level is astounding.That's not quite the same thing. What you describe is that Phil is celebrated in the bartending and cocktail geek community for an advanced multitasking ability. But, while he may be able to stir two cocktails at once with one hand, no one is saying that Phil's stirring technique -- as in the way he moves the booze around in the glass -- is so highly developed that a Phil-stirred drink is always going to be better than one stirred by someone else, and that it is the difference in stirring technique that is responsible for the difference. This is exactly what is believed about Uyeda's shaking technique however. There is a belief that Uyeda makes better cocktails than other people almost entirely on the basis of his technical abilities. Put another way, this view would hold that if Uyeda and another bartender were handed identical prepared shakers and asked to shake them out, Uyeda's cocktail would always be better because of his shaking technique. I do think there is a general agreement in the cocktailian bartending community that the two cocktails would be different, because different shaking does create a different result. And there are some bartenders who are known for having a cool shake or a particularly aesthetically pleasing overall technique. For example, most people who have seen Toby Maloney work admire the fact that he has a particularly fluid and graceful style of movement with the bottles, etc. and that he has a cool-looking shake. But Toby's reputation for making great cocktails does not rest upon the belief that his technique results in a better Sidecar than someone else's technique. Rather, just like most every American bartender I can think of, his reputation as a bartender is founded upon his recipe-making and formula-tweaking abilities.
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Sam (or Kohai, or anyone), what determines that the shaking is "done"? Temperature? Feel? Sound? Time? Count?
I'd say it's feel and knowledge of the ingredients you are mixing. He does say that the vigor (hard versus soft) and length (long versus short) depends on what you are mixing and what effect you are after. He also says that drinks with particularly difficult to mix ingredients (cream, eggs) are shaken longer.
Wow, what's interesting to me is the whole removal of an ice cube and putting it in the drink after decanting? Is that standard operating procedure?That's the style from Tokyo Kaikan. Japanese take a long time to drink their drinks, and at Tokyo Kaikan they were putting the Gimlet in a large, wide coupe and I gather there was some concern that the drink would get warm. At some point they decided to put the cube of rounded-off ice in there to keep the drink cold throughout long sipping.
Here are a few examples of my own pathetic attempts at hard shaking a Jack Rose. I'll get into this later, but I had to scale back the volume from what I would normally make and change the ratios a bit to make it work with this style. This was 1.5 ounces of Laird's bonded, 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice and around a teaspoon of homemade grenadine.
Here you can see the thick layer of fine ice crystals
Top view also shows the aeration. It was literally fizzing when I first decanted it into the glass.
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Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn! Have they been to the BABBP before? I wonder if they'll do mutton. That might be enough for me to come down again.
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Here is a good video of Uyeda executing his shake. Note the pouring style at the end.
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That's what I was wondering about - because on the few occasions I use a cobbler, I always have clogging.
I'll bring down my Japanese AG shaker and we'll give it a try. That could be part of the problem. Most cobbler shakers suck, and serious American pros haven't used them much in a long time. In Japan, however, that's what everyone uses. So they're really a lot better. It makes a big difference. I hope Cocktail Kingdom offers some of the "two serving" and "three serving" size Japanese cobbler shakers soon. The only thing I don't particularly care for with respect to the 500 ml one I have now is that you have to make Japanese-sized cocktails (more on which later).
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Each day was divided into two sections. The first section was on understanding the Japanese spirit of cocktail making, aka the "way of the cocktail."
The outlook of Japanese bartending, in Uyeda's explanation, is very much in the tradition of the Japanese craftsman. Especially featured is the deep engagement with the process of making the product rather than simply the end product itself. For this kind of Japanese artisan, the journey and process of creating the product is the primary focus, and the feeling is that if the process is good and right, the natural result will be a good product. This is the reason, then, that Japanese bartending is so heavily focused on technique.
It's intresting to me that there does not seem to be a "Uyeda of America" -- which is to say, a bartender whose fame derives laregely from his technique. And at the same time, there doesn't seem to be an "Audrey Saunders of Japan either -- which is to say, a bartender whose fame derives mainly his recipes. And certainly one could describe American cocktailian bartending as having a primary focus on recipe creation whereas Japanese cocktailian bartending can be described as having a primary focus on technique. This made me wonder whether the process and technique focus of Japanese bartending might be the reason why Japanese cocktail recipes can be generalized as relatively simple and elemental combinations compared to their American counterparts. Perhaps this was so that they could serve as a kind of "white canvass" against which the technical results could be better displayed. This is a question I asked in one of the Q&A sessions, and didn't get much of an answer. I think this is likely due to a number of factors. First is the simple fact of the language barrier (the entire seminar was done with simultaneous translation into headsets UN-style). But also, I think it's possible that the fact he apparently has explored very little of what the American cocktail revival has produced, it's possible that this difference may not be apparent to him or that Japanese cocktail recipes may seem plenty complex to him. Or it may be simply due to a difference in aesthetic. Anyway, I thought it was interesting to consider. It's interesting to me that the American bartender seeking to make a better Sidecar might typically seek to adjust the ingredients (perhaps by choosing a different cognac) or adjusting the ratios, whereas the Japanese bartender might typically seek to improve or adjust his shaking technique.
So... one of the things Uyeda mentioned a number of times was thinking about the fact that you could have ten bartenders make ten Sidecars with the same recipe and the same ingredients and equipment, and you would get ten different sidecars. So what is the difference? The difference is process. You have to focus on the process, then, and how to make a better cocktail through the process. You should always seek a better result. It's important to note that the process isn't just a physical process, and it doesn't just include technique. If you put your attendion and your focus and your spiritual energy into the process, then the process is improved. As Uyeda said, it's the idea of saying that "I put my mind (or my heart, or my spirit, or myself) into my cocktail."
The other main point of this section was that the process involves more than just the technique of making the cocktail: it encompasses the whole process from end to end, starting when the customer walks into your bar. He makes the point that while taste happens on the taste buds (and the olfactory sensory neurons, of course), flavor happens in the brain. If the drink looks good, if the atmosphere is congenial, if the bartender's demeanor and movements are pleasing to you... the brain gathers this information and, when this information combines with the sensory information from your taste buds and olfactory sensors (not to mention temperature, texture, common chemical sense, etc.) to create the complex psychological phenomenon called "flavor" -- these seemingly extraneous elements and impressions can have a profound effect on the perceived flavor of the drink. Or more to the point, they can have a profound effect on the extent to which one is pleased with the perceived flavor. As Uyeda pointed out, if you have a trust in the bartender and believe that the drink will be good, then the "deliciousness" of the drink will be enhanced. This is something Kohai and I have discussed elsewhere in these forums, and again in person. And we seem to agree that this psychological influence and preparation for experiencing "enhanced deliciousness" is a critical and perhaps overlooked element of Japanese bartending. This, then, is really the main point of much of the "graceful dance of the Japanese bartender" in unscrewing bottles in a single fluid motion, spilling the liquor out of the jigger in a slow waterfall, etc. Yes, efficiency and philosophy are important, and some of the decisions are even purely pragmatic (e.g., pour from the bottle with the label facing up so that any drips will not stain the label), but the real name of the game is the extent to which these prepare the customer psychologically for the "enhanced deliciousness effect."
By now some of my oldest and closest friends in the American cocktail community may be raising their eyebrows, so I should hasten to point out that this philosophy and understanding of how the total experience effects the enjoyment and perceived deliciousness of the cocktail is hardly Japanese. These are all things that Dale DeGroff was preaching long ago, and bar owners such as Sasha Petraske, Julie Reiner and Audrey Saunders don't spend hour after hour training their staffs and tweaking the minutae of the total experience for no reason. But the American aesthetic and the Japanese aesthetic are not the same as far as these things go, nor are the economics to say the least. It's not the case at all that bars like Dutch Kills don't care about the aesthetic and end-to-end experience, but rather that their aesthetic and the end-to-end experience they are creating is a vastly different one. The sort of American bar that might come closest to the Japanese model might be a quiet bar in a super-luxe hotel with a high-end cocktail program. Perhaps Uyeda would have appreciated Bemelmans Bar on a slow late night with Audrey behind the bar.
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The straining is through the strainer piece of the cobbler set. In Uyeda's technique in particular, the shaker is held upside-down over the glass and twisted back and forth. This prevents the holes in the cobbler shaker from clogging and inhibiting the flow, and also makes sure that plenty of small ice crystals are carried into the glass.
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So, as I am able througout the next day or so, I'll write out some information about the seminar from my notes. I'm certainly no expert, but if anyone has any questions about anything, I'll try to answer them as best I can from what I gathered at the seminar. Kohai knows a lot more about these things than I, and hopefully can add details or make corrections where I have gone astray.
What I won't be doing is describing how do to a hard shake or anything like that. For those who are interested, I suggest you head on over to Cocktail Kingdom and get yourself a copy of Cocktail Techniques by Kazuo Uyeda. Reading about the tehniques is not as good as seeing them explained and exhnibited live, but reading about it directly from Uyeda (with illustrations!) is certainly better than reading about it from me. Pick up a Japanese cobbler shaker while you're there. You're going to want one.
Later on, if I'm not too embarrassed, I'll post a few pictures of my pitiful attempts.
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So, some general thoughts and some specific thoughts on the two-day program. . .
I would say that the program was interesting, very interesting. But not the mind-blowing revealing of secrets to the perfect cocktail some were perhaps expecting. It's unclear to me the extent to which some of the specific techniqes are applicable to American cocktail bars, although some of the philosophies behind them certainly are (more on which infra). Indeed, I would suggest that a lot of these philosophies are being implemented in the best American cocktail bars, but the remification of these philosophies in the American milieu results in an entirely different expression.
Uyeda is deeply and totally dedicated to his craft and a particular focus on the possibilities of technical expression. He appears both humble and egotistical in a way that is often characteristic of one with such an intense and narrow focus, perhaps even to the extent of lacking a certain curiosity about what is happening outside his own bar or even his own shaker. At one point when he was expounding on variations in Japanese shaking techniques, he mentioned that certain bars were well known for placing such an emphasis on the "snap" portion of the shake that the shake consisted almost entirely of snap. But then he said, "but I have not tasted this snap technique, so I cannot comment on the result." This raised some eyebrows, as it's likely that this "snap technique" bar is in close proximity to his own. But I gather that he simply does not visit other bars. I'm not sure whether this is a pecularity of Uyeda's personality, or whether it typifies the Japanese bartending scene. But it seemed odd to most of the American bartenders, where intervisitation is an important part of the community and culture.
Perhaps as a reflection of these tendencies combined with the overall Japanese mindset, he seemed quite Japanocentric in his view of cocktails. He stated a number of times that the best cocktails in the world were to be found in Japan, and seemed to take it as understood that the best of everything was all Japanese. Overall, I had the impression that his going-in assumption was that American bartending and cocktail culture were bullcrap compared to Japanese. There were a number of occasions in which he remarked that he was quite surprised to learn things were far better here than he had assumed (for example, that American cocktail bars are using a wide variety of quality ice from Kold-Draft to DIY "big ice" all the way up to clear block ice from specialty shops). This flows both ways, of course, as most of the American bartenders thought the Japanese cocktail recipes were unsophisticated and chuckled at the prevalence of things like blue curacao.
None of the foregoing should be interpreted as a particular criticism. I'm more trying to set the stage for some of the explanation that is to come. It's clear that there are wide cultural differences with respect to the conception of what cocktailian bartending is all about. This seminar exposed some of those differences, and also provided a nice peek into the Japanese cocktail aesthetic and bartending philosophy and practice.
If there was one criticism I might have, it is that the seminar could have been a bit more hands-on and advanced. I think Uyeda came in expecting that he would be imparting basic Japanese cocktail wisdom to people who really didn't know much, rather than a group of dedicated, knowledgable and technically skilled American bartenders who were already executing their craft at a very high level and whose ongoing quest to improve led them to this seminar. So the seminar could probably have been faster through some of the more elemental stuff on the first day, and more intensely focused on the unfamiliar things people really wanted to know. Clearly a lot of people were there to learn about the hard shake, and it would have been great to spend some time working on the shake and getting some mentoring from the master. For example, I feel that the hard shake was explained very well, but it would have been nice to hear his thoughts on how he teaches it to bartenders at his bar. Do you start with a straight two-tier shake and practice that until you master it, then add a snap until you master that, then work into a three-tier shake until you master that, then add the twist, etc? I don't know. A half-day devoted to actually working through the shaking technique in small groups where everyone could practice it and be coached individually would not have gone amiss. Perhaps if he comes back he might do an "advanced Japanese cocktail techniques" or "intensive session" or something like that.
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Real traditional Jamaica rum is intense stuff and definitely not for everyone. I hope I can be forgiven for posting this quotation from Doc Baker:
WORDS to the WISE No. V, on the MODIFICATION of JAMAICA RUM when LADY GUESTS ARE PRESENTNever forget, please, that only 1 lady in 12 really likes the Jamaica rum taste. Therefore dilute the rum this way: 3 parts Cuban type to 1 of Jamaica. The aroma will be there and the full round Jamaica flavor too, but in a tempo inoffensive to the most rabid Jamaicaphobes.
I like it 50/50 with Bonal Gentiane Quina stirred/strained.
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I have a lot to say, but needed to get some breathing room and catch up on all the things I put on hold for two days. I have extensive notes and thoughts I will start posting on tomorrow. :-)
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Whatever that tweet seemed to imply, Uyeda is not saying that the product is not important. He's saying the process, and the reverence for the process, is equally important.
And I would argue that separating the process from the product is pointless. The product is simply the inevitable final step of a well-executed process.
Right. And I think he was saying that the intense focus on the cocktail execution process (shaking, stirring, holding the bottles, etc.) is part of the Japanese "way of the cocktail," as he put it. It certainly does seem to be the case that Japanese bartenders under this paradigm are spending far more time in consideration of how to make, for example, a Sidecar better and better and better not by figuring out the perfect ratio of lemon to Cointreau or by selecting an incredibly fancy Cognac, but rather by refining their cocktail execution process. The idea is to take the same amounts of the same exact ingredients, and make them taste better by improving your process. Here we have focused on the shaking techniques, but I should hasten to point out that Uyeda made clear that shaking is only one element of the overall cocktail process, much of which involves the psychological preparation of the imbiber for what is to come. So, the idea then is that the process is the focus.
To make a comparison, consider golf: You can go to the driving range and try to hit some long balls. One way is to think mostly about the result: The ball didn't go as long as I wanted it to on that last swing... try to hit a longer one this time. The idea, I suppose, is that in doing this your process will adapt to making the longer shot. Or, another way, is not to focus much about the length of the shot at all, but rather to focus intensely on the process: how good was your swing. And the idea is that if you refine your swing to make it as good as possible, then you will hit the ball a longer distance.
It's an interesting balancing act. Someone who is intensely focused on process often ends up deciding to spend all his time on the driving range refining his swing, or making one kind of wood chair, or shaking out the perfect Sidecar, or making two kinds of ramen. And these things can all be awesome. But, at the same time, that person may be a golfer with not much of a short game, or someone who can't make a table, or someone who hasn't created any interesting cocktail recipes, or someone who can't fry an egg. In between, of course, there are all kinds of possible combinations. The elite golfers, for example, spend hours and hours refining the process of all the various aspects of their game, and also in practicing the mental and strategic flexibility to handle whatever the course throws at them. And so it all depends on where your interests lie, and different ways of conceptualizing your craft.
More later... Interesting stuff.
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There's a tweet making the rounds:"Respect the process of cocktail making, not the finished product." Kazuo Uyeda
Anyone know what that means?
Somewhat expectedly I have no idea what bostonapothecary means in his reply to this question. But, having been there when this was discussed, here is more or less what this quote from Uyeda means...
The thinking is that in the Western style we have this idea that the only important thing is the result, and we don't much care how we get there. So, for example, you can have fairly crap technique or an inconsistent approach to cocktail-making, but the Western bartender is happy if it is a great recipe and turns out okay.
The Japanese bartender, on the other hand, is mostly focused on the process of making the cocktail. And the idea is that if you focus on making the process as good, as consistent, as "right" as you can... the goodness of the cocktail will flow from that.
This is somewhat related to a point I brought up in the session, which is that the American cocktail scene is mostly focused on creating new recipes (most of the most famous and well-respected bartenders are revered for the recipes they created, not their amazing stirring technique) whereas the Japanese cocktail scene is mostly focused on technique and the recipes can seem a bit simple and naively passé to an American cocktailian. But, of course, the recipe isn't really the point. Good examples might be, say, Audrey Saunders and Kazuo Uyeda. It's not that Uyeda doesn't care about recipes or that Audrey doesn't care about technique. But their fame rests on the other side of their games. In some ways, their approaches to the main focus of their craft is strikingly similar. Uyeda is al about refining the shake again and again and again to make the Sidecar as good as his technical shaking ability can make it, and Audrey is well known for refining cocktail recipes through 40+ iterations to drive it off the cliff and get it just where she wants it.
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The short answer is: it depends. It depends on how you do it, how long you plan to keep it frozen, and whether the strain appears to be freeze-tolerant. The famous "Carl's Starter" from back in the rec.food.sourdough days has apparently evolved to be quite freeze tolerant, provided that you follow the same freezing procedures. I think drying before freezing is recommended, as water crystallization may not be so great for the microorganisms.
By the way, if you are going to acquire an already-established sourdough culture, I'd recommend Sourdoughs International over King Arthur. This is something I very much recommend over starting your own culture. Self-started cultures take a while to evolve stability, are notoriously cranky, and may not turn out to be all that great when all is said and done. Sourdough baking is tricky enough on its own, so why not use a culture with known properties?
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I've spent plenty of time in the area over the years. It's a bit difficult to make recommendations without knowing (i) what style of food you're looking for, at what level of formality; and (ii) how small the child is, plus how well-behaved and accustomed to these settings (I know kids who were spending time in NYT 4-star restaurants from the time they were infants).
One thing I can say with certainty is that the mountain area of Western North Carolina is not a "traditional barbecue region" despite being in North Carolina. "Western style" North Carolina barbecue really refers to central NC. The mountains are country ham territory. Which is to say that it seems unlikely there will be barbecue in Asheville deserving a special trip.
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Kazuo Uyeda at work
As previously stated, this seminar will feature Kazuo Uyeda. Mr. Uyeda is currently considered Japan's foremost bartender today. He is the most celebrated and revered among his peers, and his techniques and style have been admired and emulated not only in Japan but around the world. This seminar represents the first time he will be explaining his techniques and philosophies to a large American audience -- including, of course, the famous/infamous "hard shake."
Many questions will be addressed and answered that heretofore were only guessed at: What are the true goals and techniques of the "hard shake"? What is the Japanese conception of "texture" in a cocktail? What are their ideas as to temperature and dilution? What does the Japanese bartender consider the key aspects to consider in preparing a cocktail? To what extent is Japanese bartending driven by technique and technical execution rather than invention and creation of new recipes? Ice!
The seminar will be divided into two days. The first day will focus on Japanese techniques and philosophies, and will begin with an exploration of the Japanese bartending mindset and philosophy -- the "Way Of The Cocktail." Following that, there will be an exposition on basic Japanese cocktail techniques, including an in-depth look at the Japanese style of handling bottles and jiggers, freepouring techniques, stirring and shaking. The second day will focus on Mr. Uyeda's personal style, beginning with his thoughts on the role of color in cocktails. And of course, all aspects of his "hard shake" will be explored and explained in detail, including what equipment to use, how to develop and execute the "hard shake," what kind of ice to use, how to pour it out and how to judge your success.
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For "rinsing" the inside of a glass, it's hard to beat an atomizer.
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I'm sure the goal is to not have any over-pour spillage. But it certainly does happen on busy nights. The beauty of a conical jigger with you're working for speed in low light is that, so long as you hold it level and fill it to the top, even if you pour in a bit too much the jigger will always give you the amount you're supposed to have. A drop or two down the side is not unusual in these circumstances. But, for the bartender, it's not such a huge concern as he's going to be running the jigger (not to mention the tips of his fingers) through the dip sink in a few seconds anyway. Even in a busy bar with sloppy bartenders, I can't imagine that the amount of this kind of spillage even approaches the amount of booze wasted on drinks that didn't turn out right and had to be dumped.
The point is that a home bartender is likely to have zero spill tolerance. First off, he has to clean up his own spills. Second, from a purely economic perspective, spillage from a bottle of Plymouth you buy (and sell) by the multiple case at wholesale prices just doesn't hurt as much as spillage from that one bottle of Plymouth that you bought at full retail. Even in a busy bar, the bartender is likely to pause and take his own sweet time making sure he doesn't spill any Stagg.
Japanese Cocktail Technique Seminar : May 3-4
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Thanks Pip. Uyeda is apparently so much a thing unto himself, and does so little visiting, that it's difficult to know how accurate his generalizations as to " Japanese bartending techniques" are (as opposed to his personal techniques and practices).
So... with respect to "chilling glassware": Does this mean chilling the cocktail glasses with ice? Keeping cocktail glasses in a freezer? Freezing the glass stirring pitchers?
It would actually make more sense to me with respect to the heavy glass stirring pitchers if they were packed with ice, filled with water, stirred to chill the pitcher, and then the entire contents discarded and the now-chilled pitcher refilled with ice and booze, etc.
Pip, do you have any sense as to the extent to which thermal properties of tools and ingredients are considered by Japanese bartenders? A lot of the best cocktailian bartenders in American think about this sort of thing quite a bit -- although it must be said that it took some time for them to start thinking the correct things (in earlier days people supposed that shaking in all metal produced a colder drink because of thermal conductivity, when in fact the difference is due to thermal capacity). This is one of the reasons so many bars are now using all metal Boston shaker sets and freeze their glass mixing vessels (or, if that is impractical, may use metal stirring pitchers).