I’ve always said that Salvatore Calabrese couldn’t mix a drink to save his life!
Seriously though, this is pretty fun to watch: it should be a ride for bartenders at Disneyland, or used as a learning tool for how long and hard to shake Ramos gin fizzes.
Art of the Cocktail is rapidly approaching. Don’t know what it is? Click here and/or read below:
A two day festival celebrating
the art, craft, and tradition of the cocktail.
November 7 & 8, Victoria Arts Connection – 2750 Quadra Street
The Art of the Cocktail opens the door to a world of elegant spirits: great classics, the fresh trend, the established players, niche bitters and the artisan, small, regional distillers.
Seasonal. Gourmet. Micro. These are all words that apply to making sophisticated culinary cocktails. True mixologists worry about the shape and size of ice, the quality of their bitters and finding the perfect balance of flavours. They tinker with dehydrators to crisp garnishes, smokers to lend complexity, flavour syrups, and these masters of the bar whip up fresh fruit purees, house made grenadine and raid the kitchen for exotic ingredients. The Slow Food movement has invaded cocktail hour.
Modern, elegant, expertly crafted and above all thoughtful are the styles that have come to define the best cocktails. Learn the alchemy of how to make and appreciate a proper cocktails. And then one day, with a little luck, you’ll be able to order or create a perfectly crafted Manhattan, Sazerac or Sidecar.
Once again, I wrote the following for a great Slovak bar magazine, entitled appropriately enough, Bar Magazine. Occasionally Stanislav will contact me and ask me to create a recipe for him in the “molecular mixology style” that will fit in with the magazine’s theme of the month. (Note: Unfortunately Stan has now moved on to bigger and better things and is no longer with the company)
This month our theme is the Old Fashioned, an august cocktail consisting of spirit, sugar, water and bitters, a very simple concoction which can pose a problem when trying to deconstruct into a “drink” made into molecular mixology’s style.
As cherries are often added to the old fashioned as a garnish I thought that it would be a fun idea to turn the cherry itself into the drink. This was accomplished by first pitting the cherries and then carving out the hole to make a goodly portion of the cherry hollow. When one is doing this, you want to leave the top of the cherry and the stem intact, as will be discussed later.
Next, one wants to take an Old Fashioned and mix it with the ingredients that you bought for last month’s recipe, the Caipiroli. This will allow some of the mixture to form a “skin” while most of it remains liquid.
As you fill your hollowed cherries with the alginate mixture you want to insert them upside down into the chloride bath so that all of the mixture stays inside the cherry, but a skin will form along the bottom of the cherry, sealing the liquid inside. Filling the cherries in this manner will make them appear untouched when you place them stem-side up, thus completing the illusion that the guest is just eating a normal cherry.
The complete recipe goes as such:
400 mL rye
50 mL simple syrup
4 dashes Hermes Aromatic bitters
4 dashes Angostura orange bitters
2 ¼ tsp sodium alginate
several pitted and hollowed cherries
place all but cherries in a glass container
blend with an immersion blender
fill pitted cherry with the mixture
lower into a calcium chloride bath
leave for ~ 2 minutes or until a skin forms around the hole
rinse off with cold water and refrigerate until ready to serve
2 tsp calcium chloride
250 mL water
When serving this drink, place several Cherry Old Fashioneds into a small dish and serve alongside a real Old Fashioned. This way you guest can alternate between eating the Old Fashioned and drinking it all the while noting how the texture plays a role in the flavour profile and how well the cherry works with the rye and bitters.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this fun twist on this venerable cocktail. Until next time!
Cherry Old Fashioned
Photography by:
Jamie Boudreau
.
Portland is a mere two and a half hour drive from Seattle, and on occasion I’m able to escape to Washington’s Mexico. While there I stop at the bars listed below, and can occasionally set up a tasting or tour at one of the distilleries mentioned below. Oh, and I like to harass the editors of my favorite magazine when I get the chance as well. Follow my footsteps with the map provided below.
Feel free to move around, zoom in and even click on the bar’s websites to find out more info.
As I’m sure that I’ve neglected more than one bar from the list, please note my omissions in the Comments.
Happy drinking!
I’ve had the great fortune to go to Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans the past three odd years and in that time have had a chance to explore some of the great old bars that NOLA has to offer. I’ve even seen some great bars that aren’t that old. You can check them all out in the map below.
Feel free to move around, zoom in and even click on the bar’s websites to find out more info.
As I’m sure that I’ve neglected more than one bar from the list, please note my omissions in the Comments.
Happy drinking!
Living in Seattle means that I’m less than 2 hours away from beautiful San Francisco, and I try to make it there twice a year. For those of you who are making the trip for the first time, I’ve decided to offer up a map of some of my favorite watering holes.
Feel free to move around, zoom in and even click on the bar’s websites to find out more info.
As I’m sure that I’ve neglected more than one bar from the list, please note my omissions in the Comments.
Happy drinking!
As I love traveling to New York for the bar scene, and try to get there at least twice a year, I’m often asked where to drink while in the Big Apple. I now have a Google map, so stop asking me!
Feel free to move around, zoom in and even click on the bar’s websites to find out more info.
As I’m sure that I’ve neglected more than one bar from the list, please note my omissions in the Comments.
Happy drinking!
Having recently moved from Vancouver, I’m constantly asked by Seattleites (and others) where to drink while in Vancouver. I now have a Google map, so stop asking me!
Feel free to move around, zoom in and even click on the bar’s websites to find out more info.
As I’m sure that I’ve neglected more than one bar from the list, please note my omissions in the Comments.
Happy drinking!
As I’m constantly asked by visitors (and some locals) where to drink while in Seattle, I’ve decided to offer up a map. Feel free to move around, zoom in and even click on the bar’s websites to find out more info.
As I’m sure that I’ve neglected more than one bar from the list, please note my omissions in the Comments.
Happy drinking!
This is number two in our many part series detailing the cocktail luminaries of Tales and the drinks that they mixed this year.
This year at Tales there was a bit of grumbling about the fact that the West (Left) Coast was largely ignored by the judges at the Spirit Awards. As one can imagine, this grumbling was mainly done by people living on the west coast of the US, who having largely forgotten the Great West Coast Sweep-up of 2007, felt that the West with its many great bars, should’ve had greater representation at Tales. While I agree with the fact that I’d like to see better left coast representation at Tales, I disagree with the sentiment that we were left out. Looking at the bars/people that were nominated I’d be hard pressed to name a bar/person from this side of the country that should’ve been mentioned instead. Now having said that, if I were to name a bar that needs to be recognized one day, I think that I wouldn’t have to look any further than Portland, Oregon and to my good friends at Teardrop Cocktail Lounge.
AMSCo Collection
Teardrop just celebrated their second anniversary last month, offering an excellent range of cocktails (as per usual) designed for the occasion at insanely cheap prices while at the same time offering up a bottle of whiskey that was distilled before prohibition to those whose pockets were a little deeper. (Full disclosure: the bottles came from a case that I had purchased and had spread out to some of the better bars in the Pacific Northwest: see picture to drool.) Teardrop is known for its outrageously large array of tinctures and bitters, as well as other fun homemade ingredients, including their infamous smoked ice. As I said earlier, they are doing wonderful things here.
While I was there for their fantastic shin-dig, I marveled at how the bar team managed to keep up with the insane volume (and my pestering), while all the while exuding fun. This attitude is a sign of a great bar and in large part the responsibility of the two men behind the wood; the genius behind the program, Daniel Shoemaker and his trusty number one, David Shenaut. Daniel is such a giving manager that this year he allowed Dave to go to Tales in his stead, opting to man the bar while the rest of the world joined in on the greatest party of the year. If that’s not leadership, then I defy you to give me a better example!
Which brings us to David and Tales (that is what this post is supposed to be about after all). This year Mr. Shenaut volunteered his services as one of the Tales’ Apprentices (a woeful title, as most of these individuals are great ‘tenders in their own right), which meant that he got to batch and shake approximately a thousand drinks over the course of the event, and essentially made the event a fun and “wet” one for the likes of lucky bastards like myself. From the Tales website we learn this about David:
David Shenaut got his start creating seasonal menus filled with infusions and syrups at Roots Restaurant and Bar. After several years of neglecting vermouth and bitters, “Neon” Dave was introduced to his first Pegu Club by Christian Krogstad at House Spirits Distillery. This inspired Dave to put down the plastic flair bottles and placed him on a mission to learn the techniques required in creating a more complex and balanced cocktail.
For the past 2 years, Dave has worked at the Teardrop Lounge, specializing in classic cocktails and a seasonal menu featuring house made bitters, gastriques and liquors. He is a founding board member of the Oregon Bartenders Guild. Dave considers himself fortunate to be in a community that shares his passion for cocktails: the customers, the critics, and others in the industry. He supports the growth of local distilleries, and appreciates the finely crafted spirits that are being produced in the Northwest.
Dave also owns Onthehouse.biz and works at Tommy O’s Pacific Rim Bistro, where he is gradually introducing the town of Vancouver, Washington to tiki and classic cocktails–one Chauncey, Pink Lady, Suffering Bastard at a time.
Dave currently enjoys all aspects of bartending and has been seen off duty juggling bottles barefoot in the park with his children. He looks forward to expanding his spirits knowledge and focusing on a sustainable farm-to-cocktail approach to bartending.
So let’s mix up the drink that David served at this year’s Cocktail Hour and raise our glass to Mr. Shenaut in hopes that that he and Teardrop (or some other worthy west coast bar) get recognized at next year’s Spirit Awards.
2 oz Don Julio Reposado Tequila
½ oz Martini and Rossi Sweet Vermouth
½ oz Loft Raspberrycello
1 tsp Cynar
½ tsp Fernet Branca
½ tsp Aceto Balsalmic
Orange Zest
Combine all ingredients
stir with cracked ice
strain into chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with orange zest
David Shenaut
Drink courtesy of David Shenaut
Photo by:
Jamie Boudreau
.
Over the course of the next series of posts I’m going to share the recipes of some of the luminaries that attend, and mix drinks at, Tales of the Cocktail.
One of my favorite events at Tales every year is the Cocktail Hour, an event that gathers the who’s who of the cocktail world into one room, and then forces them to make alcoholic beverages for lucky chumps like me. Now normally I would walk around the room taking pictures of each bar star, note their recipe and post here. Unfortunately this year the lighting in the rooms was quite poor, and I’m a horrible photographer of people, so the combination of both ensured that many of my pictures did not turn out. To add to my incompetence, this year Tales didn’t offer cards detailing the recipes at each table, in an effort to boost sales of this year’s Tales Cocktail Book I suspect. This would have been fine and dandy, but unfortunately all the recipes didn’t make it into the book so some drinks were omitted due to this lack of recipe. Anywho, enough compunctions, let’s get to our first bartender deity of the series and his recipes.
From his Tales biography we get this about Jim Meehan:
Jim Meehan’s career in the restaurant business began in 1995 while studying English Literature and African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He worked his way from doorman to manager at both State Street Brats and Paul’s Club between bartending stints at The Great Dane and Café Montmartre.
One year after receiving his diploma in 2001, he moved to New York City and landed his first job at Five Points Restaurant on Great Jones Street. Two years later, he opened Pace, an ambitious Italian restaurant where he managed the bar and worked on the floor as a sommelier. When Pace closed, he spent over two years rebuilding the cocktail program at Gramercy Tavern while shaking drinks for renowned mixologist and mentor, Audrey Saunders at The Pegu Club. He currently runs PDT, a hidden cocktail lounge in the East Village where his work has been recognized by rising star awards from Star Chefs in 2007 and Cheers Magazine in 2009.
In addition to his work behind the bar, Jim is a contributing editor of Food & Wine Magazine’s annual cocktail book, Mr. Boston’s Bartender Guide and Sommelier Journal, a monthly trade magazine that features his bartender column. He has developed cocktails for numerous spirits companies, lectured at local and international trade shows and works as a wine and spirits educator.
Jim and his cocktails have been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, New York Magazine, Time Out New York, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Imbibe, Details, The Malt Advocate and Wine Enthusiast.
Unfortunately, what the Tales website does not say is how great and down to earth of a guy Jim is. He always has a smile on his face and always has an ear to lend; not easy feats when you consider how many people want a piece of his time. It is thanks to Jim that I was able to work on this year’s Food & Wine 2009 Cocktail Guide and have drinks in two editions of Mr. Boston Bartender’s Guide. He was even kind enough to name a drink after me and put it on his menu at PDT. If that wasn’t enough for you, he had to go and win this year’s American Bartender of the Year at Tales. It’s almost enough to make you want to hate the guy, but to do so would be an act of foolishness and unnecessary jealousy, so instead you should just mix up one of his concoctions and toast Jim, who, for one day at least, was King of New York.
1 ½ oz Plymouth gin
¾ oz grapefruit juice
½ oz Pernod absinthe
½ oz simple syrup
¼ oz anisette
3 slices cucumber (+1 for garnish)
6 mint leaves
add cucumber, mint and simple to a mixing glass and muddle
add everything else with ice
shake and strain into a rocks glass filled with pebble ice
garnish with a cucumber wheel
2 oz Jose Cuervo Platino
1 oz lime juice
½ oz Dry sack
¼ oz Benedictine
1 teaspoon St Dalfour Royal Fig
slice of fig
add all into iced mixing glass
shake and fine strain into a chilled coupe
garnish with a slice of fig
2 oz rye
¾ oz Dubonnet
¼ oz Fernet Branca
¼ oz St. Germain
stir with ice
strain into a chilled cocktail glass
garnish with a lemon twist
**a perfect example of why he’s a better man than I. He took one of my recipes, added Dubonnet and bettered the drink.
(Seriously though Jim, congrats and thanks for your support throughout the years.)
Santé!
Jim Meehan
Drinks by Jim Meehan
Unworthy picture by:
Jamie Boudreau
.
So I’ve been asked to list the winners at Tales of the Cocktail this year, and to the best of my Sazerac-drowned memory the winners are in yellow, below. Congrats to all who won, and to all who were nominated.
Criteria: A venue stocking an outstanding range of spirits and liqueurs. The judges will favor discernment as well as sheer numbers of bottles stocked.
The Merchant Hotel, Belfast
Le Lion Bar de Paris, Hamburg
ZigZag Café, Seattle
Criteria: This award recognizes the influence on cocktail trends within the United States and seeks to award the country’s best cocktail bar.
Death & Co, NYC
PDT, NYC
Pegu Club, NYC
Criteria: Only truly world-class bars will be considered for this illustrious title. Some bars attain worldwide recognition and this award recognizes the very best of the best.
Door 74, Amsterdam
High Five Bar, Tokyo
PDT, NYC
Pegu Club, NYC
Criteria: Only bars which opened after 1st March 2008 may be nominated. This award aims to reward new creativity and ideas as well as well executed drinks.
Clover Club, Brooklyn
Drink, Boston
Quo Vadis, London
Criteria: The classic ‘American Bar’ played an important role in the history and development of cocktail culture. The judges are looking for hotel bars, which uphold this tradition (but are not necessarily old) and offer five-star service and consistently well-made drinks.
Dukes, London
The Connaught, London
The Merchant Hotel, Belfast
Criteria: From Jerry Thomas onwards, American bartenders have been amongst the most influential on drinks styles and cocktail culture in general. This award seeks to recognize the most influential American bartender today. The winner should be proficient at making all recognized classic drinks and also have created contemporary cocktails, which have been copied by his/her peers.
Audrey Saunders
James Meehan
Phil Ward
Criteria: The absolute best drinks mixer in the world. The winner must have received international recognition of their work with their own recipes crossing borders to appear on cocktail menus in numerous countries. (US citizens are not excluded.)
Agostino Perrone
Charles Vexenat
Tony Conigliaro
Criteria: The best book published in 2008 regarding cocktails, liquor, and bars, bar design or bartending in general. New editions of existing works may also be nominated.
Cocktails Made Easy – Simon Difford
Mud Puddle Books – Greg Boehm
The Essential Cocktail – Dale DeGroff
Criteria: Great journalism is one of the best ways to communicate to the general public the value and significance of great cocktails and related products. This award is for any non-book journalism (Magazine, Newspaper, Website, etc) that promotes bars, bartender, or cocktails in general.
Camper English
Dave Wondrich
Gary Regan
Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller
Criteria: This is awarded to what the judges consider to be the best new cocktail ingredient (spirit, liqueur, syrup or juice) or piece of cocktail equipment (muddler, shaker etc.). To qualify products must be on general retail sale in at least three US states.
Angostura Orange Bitters
Bols Genever
Ocho
Criteria: The judges seek to reward innovative and thirst inducing cocktail menus. Both the design and content will be considered.
Hawksmoor, London
Le Lion Bar de Paris, Hamburg
Merchant Hotel, Belfast
Criteria: An award, which recognizes the importance of personality in the promotion of drinks brands across America.
Jacques Bezuidenhout, Partida
Julio Bermejo, Tequila
Simon Ford, Plymouth
Victoria Gin
When most people think of Tales of the Cocktail, they usually think of the seminars, but that is merely one of the many reasons that one goes there for. Another reason, (and a more exciting one perhaps) to partake in the week-long party that is Tales is to experience the unknown: in this case, spirits. Every year, spirit companies and importers choose Tales to launch new and exciting products, or perhaps give one an opportunity to taste spirits that aren’t available in many States. Today we will discuss two such spirits: one that probably won’t be shown at Tales, and one that definitely will.
Victoria gin, the pièce de résistance of Winchester Cellars, bills itself as the first (and only) premium gin of Canada. You’d think that with Canada’s long standing ties to Britain that they’d be awash with the stuff, but alas, due to prohibitive government, this is not the case. Encased in a gorgeous, thick-glassed, hydrant-plug bottle, Victoria gin is small batch, pot-distilled and reminiscent of better Pacific Northwest gins. Nosing of this impeccably clear spirit gives one juniper quickly followed by citrus. I found that the longer that this gin was allowed to breathe, the more the citrus overcame the juniper, until finally it nosed almost like a lemon vodka (this was over the course of hours). The palate entry is nicely textured, silky and sweet and one would not guess that this gin is 45% ABV. First tastings gave me an earthy woodsy note that made me believe that American juniper was used, but as the opened bottle took in some air, the earthiness dissipated to leave a much better balanced product than when first opened. The gin finishes with good acid and bitter lemon. Overall this is a gin that I would recommend to those that can get their hands on it.
The second spirit that we’re going to discuss today, is a creation by wunderkind spirit producer Robert Cooper (ok maybe he’s not a child, but he’s younger than me and doing a whole lot more with his life!), of St. Germain fame. Rob has gone back in time to recreate the wonderful, but until now defunct spirit known as Crème Yvette. A hybrid of violette and dark fruit (think cassis and Chambord) crème Yvette was famously known as the “blue” in the Blue Moon and the “sky” in the original Aviation. For the lucky ones out there that are going to Tales of the Cocktail this year, have it be known that it will be there for all to taste and cocktails such as the Aviation, Blue Moon and The Stratosphere will be mixed by yours truly.
UPDATE: due to my inability to read, I had mistakenly thought that Yvette was in the first recipe for the Aviation. It was not, as pointed out to me by Erik Ellestad. A quick check in Hugo Enslin’s 1917 Mixed Drinks confirmed that violette was used, but the Yvette makes a fine sub.
Since we’ve discussed a base spirit and a liqueur, I feel that it is only fitting that we mix a cocktail containing both, don’t you? Today I went to the Stork Club Bar Book, a tome that I’ve always enjoyed, but haven’t pulled from my shelves in well over a year. The beautiful thing about the Stork Club Bar Book, is that not only is it a snap shot in time, but that it also has a section in the book devoted entirely to morning cocktails. Ah, to live in an era where beginning your day with a cocktail was not only socially acceptable, it was damn well civilized! So let’s begin our day with the:
1 ½ oz gin
¾ oz crème Yvette
juice of half a lemon (I used ¾ oz)
1 tsp sugar (I omitted)
white of an egg
shake and serve in a 4 oz wine glass
(as with any egg drink shake hard. see here for more on eggs)
This is a very tasty drink that just wouldn’t have the same effect if one used violette. The teaspoon of sugar is more for texture than sweetness, but may be omitted if one has a drier palate. I’d tell you more about how delicious this is, but instead I think I’ll just keep it to myself and make you go out and buy a bottle of Yvette to find out for yourself. Until then!
Eagle Cocktail
Photography by:
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
.
I’ve just received my copy of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh, and let me tell you, it’s a glorious piece of work! More recipes, more history, better cover and binding, and bigger, better pictures than the original. The back of the book has a section for the Pioneering Champions of the Forgotten Cocktail, which lists the 25 most influential online cocktail pioneers. It is with great gratitude that the good Doc chose me as one of the pioneers, however it is with great dismay that I have to point out an error, one that was probably done on my end (I tend to be a sloppy on the keyboard and I suspect that Ted’s substantially better and more careful), that states that my blog was started in 2003, when it was actually started in 2005. The only good thing to come of it was that my name was finally put in front of that dastardly Jeffrey Morgenthaler, owner of a blog that for some unknown reason (besides better writing and wit, I’m sure) gets many fold more traffic than mine.
So there you have it, I’ve written about it before, and now that I have it in my hands, I have to insist that each of you go out and buy a copy. Or wait. But only wait if it’s because you’re going to Tales to have Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh sign it for you.
I’ll leave you with an interesting recipe from the book, as it’s been a while since I’ve given you a cocktail recipe. Since I’ve recently acquired one of these I thought that it might be best to share the:
1 teaspoon Peychaud’s bitters
1 teaspoon Angostura bitters
1 teaspoon Amer Picon
½ oz orange curaçao
½ oz simple syrup
½ oz maraschino liqueur
9 ounces bourbon
shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain.
As one can see by this recipe, it’s obviously for an experienced drinker (ok maybe three experienced drinkers, as this is a recipe that is supposed to be strained into three glasses; but it’s still a lot of booze). The Mother-In-Law, as Doc tells it, was truly obscure, coming to him from Brooks Baldwin by way of Chuck Taggart.
As told to Doc by Brooks, from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails:
“My grandmother (born in New Orleans in 1895) inherited this recipe from her mother-in-law shortly before the beginning of the First World War. As specified in the original recipe, my mother concocted this libation by the quart and stored it in an antique lead crystal decanter. Informed that science had linked lead crystal to lead poisoning, my grandmother said: ‘It’s a pretty bottle, so hush’”
As for my own two bits: you gotta love the amount of bitters!
The Spirit Award nominees for Tales of the Cocktail have been announced, and unlike previous years, Seattle has little representation. Fortunately our good friends at Zig Zag Café have once again been able to bail out our city’s reputation by being the only spot nominated. Now if we can only get Eric to NOLA to accept the award and watch the hilarity ensue!
The following is the list of awards and nominees:
Criteria: A venue stocking an outstanding range of spirits and liqueurs. The judges will favor discernment as well as sheer numbers of bottles stocked.
The Merchant Hotel, Belfast
Le Lion Bar de Paris, Hamburg
ZigZag Café, Seattle
Criteria: This award recognizes the influence on cocktail trends within the United States and seeks to award the country’s best cocktail bar.
Death & Co, NYC
PDT, NYC
Pegu Club, NYC
Criteria: Only truly world-class bars will be considered for this illustrious title. Some bars attain worldwide recognition and this award recognizes the very best of the best.
Door 74, Amsterdam
High Five Bar, Tokyo
PDT, NYC
Pegu Club, NYC
Criteria: Only bars which opened after 1st March 2008 may be nominated. This award aims to reward new creativity and ideas as well as well executed drinks.
Clover Club, Brooklyn
Drink, Boston
Quo Vadis, London
Criteria: The classic ‘American Bar’ played an important role in the history and development of cocktail culture. The judges are looking for hotel bars, which uphold this tradition (but are not necessarily old) and offer five-star service and consistently well-made drinks.
Dukes, London
The Connaught, London
The Merchant, Belfast
Criteria: From Jerry Thomas onwards, American bartenders have been amongst the most influential on drinks styles and cocktail culture in general. This award seeks to recognize the most influential American bartender today. The winner should be proficient at making all recognized classic drinks and also have created contemporary cocktails, which have been copied by his/her peers.
Audrey Saunders
James Meehan
Phil Ward
Criteria: The absolute best drinks mixer in the world. The winner must have received international recognition of their work with their own recipes crossing borders to appear on cocktail menus in numerous countries. (US citizens are not excluded.)
Agostino Perrone
Charles Vexenat
Tony Conigliaro
Criteria: The best book published in 2008 regarding cocktails, liquor, and bars, bar design or bartending in general. New editions of existing works may also be nominated.
Cocktails Made Easy – Simon Difford
Mud Puddle Books – Greg Boehm
The Essential Cocktail – Dale DeGroff
Criteria: Great journalism is one of the best ways to communicate to the general public the value and significance of great cocktails and related products. This award is for any non-book journalism (Magazine, Newspaper, Website, etc) that promotes bars, bartender, or cocktails in general.
Camper English
Dave Wondrich
Gary Regan
Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller
Criteria: This is awarded to what the judges consider to be the best new cocktail ingredient (spirit, liqueur, syrup or juice) or piece of cocktail equipment (muddler, shaker etc.). To qualify products must be on general retail sale in at least three US states.
Angostura Orange Bitters
Bols Genever
Ocho
Criteria: The judges seek to reward innovative and thirst inducing cocktail menus. Both the design and content will be considered.
Hawksmoor, London
Le Lion Bar de Paris, Hamburg
Merchant Hotel, Belfast
Criteria: An award, which recognizes the importance of personality in the promotion of drinks brands across America.
Jacques Bezuidenhout, Partida
Julio Bermejo, Tequila
Simon Ford, Plymouth
Good luck all!
Every year as Tales of the Cocktail rolls around I get asked by scores of people if it is really as fun as it sounds (answer: resounding yes). I also get asked if it would be something that a cocktail enthusiast would enjoy, as people wonder if it is something that is exclusively for bar professionals (answer: if you like cocktails, you’ll love Tales!).
And so with these questions in mind, I give you reason #396 to go to Tales of the Cocktail.
This year, Greg Boehm, brilliant mastermind of Mud Puddle Books and all around nice guy is heading to New York this year with three things on his mind. One, he is releasing the next six books of his wonderful antiquated collection. Two, he’s having a rare book auction (it’s the books that are rare, not so much the auction). And three, he is also moderating a panel entitled Cocktail Book Fetish which is described thusly:
Obsession is a feeling that top book collectors Greg Boehm and Jeff Masson know all too well. Join them as they discuss the past and present state of cocktail book collecting with a level of detail and humor that only the obsessed have. Using time lines, top ten lists and the precious books themselves they’ll tell you everything you need to know about the must-have, most influential and even most overrated cocktail books published over the past 250 years. All attendees will receive “The Cocktail Book Fetish” handout which includes a seminar summary as well as a few of the oldest, best and worst drink recipes in history.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Greg’s doings, get over to his website (or read what I said here) and check out the books that he’s begun to reprint.
Now some of you may hmm and haw over reprinted books, but let me assure you that what he’s done with these reprints is something special. Not only has he reprinted the originals, but he has pulled out all stops, faithfully reproducing the paper, cover and even the binding of the originals. It is as if you were holding the original, but for one thing. Not content with merely reproducing the originals, he has had cocktail luminaries of our time write intros for each of the books, and at Tales this year, he will release the next of his series of reproductions, that goes a little something like this:
Recipes for Mixed Drinks by by Hugo Ensslin (1917)
The World’s Drinks and How to Mix Them by Bill Boothby (1908)
Drinks by Jacques Straub (1914)
Artistry of Mixing Drinks by Frank Meier (1936)
Cocktails: How to Mix Them by Robert Vermeire (1922)
Modern American Drinks by George Kappeler (1895)
He’s starting to make me question the thousands I’ve spent on the originals!
Now before I sign off and let you buy tickets for this year’s events (even though Greg’s seminar conflicts with my own on cocktail photography), I just want you all to be aware that our good friend Greg is not content with just giving us the means to learn the classics. He’s now intent on having us make those classics with style as well. Mr. Boehm has finally secured a (hopefully) steady supply of quality European and Japanese barware to the US, in hopes that we may never have to use a bar spoon with a rapidly disappearing red plastic top again. Go to his site to learn more.
There you have it, reason #396 to go to Tales. See you there in two weeks!
It’s almost that time of year again. That time of year when bar chefs, mixologists, bartenders and booze-ophiles from all over the planet pack their bags, head to the airport and fly to that cradle of cocktailian history: The Big Easy, The Crescent City, The Paris of the Americas , NOLA, or New Orleans, Louisiana!
And the reason for this mass migration? Why Tales of the Cocktail of course, where New Orleans is the annual host to the internationally acclaimed festival of cocktails, cuisine, and culture. This event brings together the best and brightest of the cocktail community — award-winning mixologists, authors, bartenders, chefs, and designers — for a five-day celebration of the history and artistry of drink making. Each year offers a spirited series of dinners, demos, tastings, competitions, seminars, book signings, tours, and parties; all perfectly paired with some of the best cocktails ever made, by some of the best bartenders this planet has to offer!
There are many reasons to be going to this event, and the copious amounts of free booze flowing is the least of them. This year I’ll be working the tasting rooms of St. Germain and Yamazaki, as well as doing a number of seminars, including one on how to do the cocktail photography that you see on this site with little to no skill and a tiny budget. But the real reason that I’m telling you about this today is because I’ve just received an exciting email from Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh, one of the many talented people at Tales this year that went a little something like this:
Friends, history buffs, cocktail enthusiasts, creative thinkers…it has been half a decade since Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails was released, to more fanfare than I could ever have imagined. In two weeks, Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails, the deluxe, revised & expanded edition, will hit the shelves.
This is a sincere avowal of my belief that the new edition is better than the first. Here are some reasons I think so: There are fully 25% more forgotten recipes to try. The book is over twice as long. (Why 25% more recipes but twice the pages? I’ll explain…)
When I penned the first edition, I did so under the most unlikely of circumstances. I was buying my first house. I was moving into it. I was refurbishing it. I was getting married. I was working on the biggest movie project in Hollywood at the time. You see, that first edition began as a simple beauty project….recipe, pretty cocktail picture, cute anecdote. Anyone who knows me or has seen that book can imagine how long THAT plan lasted! The problem was…the book also had a deadline. While I was very proud of it (and thrilled by the response to it) I was aware – even before it was released – that some of the history was incomplete and less clear than I wished. Cocktails were included for which there was no time to ponder and supply the explanatory text they surely deserved. And, I admit it, there were errors. The book did look good but, as a longtime graphic designer, I knew where its every visual weakness lay. And it was paperback. It would not open and lie flat. This meant copies were quickly trashed attempting to actually use them behind the bar.
I agreed to do this new deluxe edition because I was assured a vast degree of creative control that many authors can only dream of. The result, as I said, is a book twice as long with lots more history and drink explanations (for both the original drinks and the many newly revealed ones as well) but that’s only the tip of the Kold-Draft ice cube. This new book is hardcover. The cover is water resistant. The result of a clever binding trick, the book opens to any page and lies flat. The substantial historical research yielded photographs, discoveries, and insights, much of which will be newly revealed.
In the original book, I did not have complete control over the the drink photography, which was done thousands of miles away from me. The deluxe edition was photographed right here at Casa de Cocktail. I was the art director, stylist, bartender. I personally chose the photographer, the ultra-talented Claire Barrett. I think you’ll see the difference; all of the images in the book are larger too.
Time moves on. Thus far, everything I’ve mentioned is a revision, an extension, and enhancement. The cocktail world has expanded and bloomed into full flower around the globe. The changes over the last critical five years have been extraordinary – and it’s all chronicled in the deluxe edition. The resource appendix was entirely rewritten with expanded, up-to-date resources. Most importantly, there is a completely new section of the book looking at the Internet and the effect it has had on the cocktail renaissance we now enjoy. I name the twenty-five most influential online cocktail pioneers, interview them about it, and share their thoughts.
There you have it. This is the book I always wanted to do; the best Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails I am capable of.
It hits the shelves July 1st, but it is available for pre-order on Amazon right now via this link.
Special note: it’ll be on sale at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, July 8th-12th where I will be happy to personally sign your copy!
Ted Haigh aka Dr. Cocktail
Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails was one of the first books that really got me interested in the history of cocktails, so I’m very excited for this book to be released! To add to my excitement, I’m also one of the contributors to his online section of the book!
So there you have it, yet another reason to go to Tales (you need to get that book signed, don’t you?) with many more to come in the following weeks.
Santé.
Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
.
Once again, I wrote the following for a great Slovak bar magazine, entitled appropriately enough, Bar Magazine. Occasionally Stanislav will contact me and ask me to create a recipe for him in the “molecular mixology style” that will fit in with the magazine’s theme of the month. This month the theme was the Caipirinha.
While molecular “caviar” provides a fun accent to bubbly cocktails, the larger “ravioli” can be served as a drink unto itself. What makes “ravioli” different than “caviar” (other than the size of course) is the fact that the insides hold a substantial amount of liquid, so that when one breaks the skin of the “ravioli” a mouthful of flavor oozes out.
As this month’s theme was to be the Caipirinha, I decided to take the three ingredients involved and present them in a different manner. Due to the Caipirinha’s distinct character, recognizable by muddled limes and crushed ice, I felt that to offer a liquid variation of the drink would take the tradition in the wrong direction. As I’ve always considered the Caipirinha to be a “chunky” libation, I wanted the molecular mixology twist to pay homage to that characteristic of this time honored beverage.
Enough talking! Let’s go to the lab and start mixing!
200 mL cachaça
100 mL lime juice
100 mL simple syrup
4 drops green food coloring
2 ¼ tsp sodium alginate
place all in a glass container
blend with an immersion blender
fill a deep spoon with the mixture
lower into a calcium chloride bath
leave for ~ 2 minutes or until a skin forms around the “ravioli”
rinse off with cold water and refrigerate until ready to serve
2 tsp calcium chloride
250 mL water
Another variation of this “ravioli” would be to freeze a small spoon of cachaça in liquid nitrogen and then wrap the solid alcohol in a sodium alginate mixture that is just lime and sugar. When one bit into the prepared “ravioli”, the only thing inside would be melted (liquid) cachaça, a pleasant surprise indeed! As liquid nitrogen is substantially more difficult to acquire (and handle) than hydrocolloids, I decided that the simpler recipe provided may be the way to go.
Santé!
Caipiroli
Picture and drink by:
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
The winner of the Hotel Monteleone Cocktail Contest has been determined (click here to find out more), and I realized that while I was busy telling you what not to do to win the competition, I should have been telling you the first rule of cocktail contests: know your audience (or judges in this case).
New Orleans, as those of you who have visited surely already know, is notorious for its sweet cocktails. Even when ordering proper dry cocktails like the French 75 or Old Fashioned you need to specify that you want your refreshment to be extremely dry whilst partaking in the Big Easy (and even then your libation will probably be fairly sweet). If you clicked above to read about the winner and his creation, you might have noticed that his creation’s proportions had equal parts liqueurs to base spirit (2oz liqueurs to 2 oz of rye to be exact). This was then topped up with a splash of a sweet soda and a couple of dashes of Fee’s bitters (the most candied of the orange bitters varieties). Not only is this drink very sweet (by my standards), but it is also refreshing, thanks to the crushed ice and bubbles, a perfect combination for New Orleans, whose sweet tooth is perhaps secondary only to its cloying heat. For the creation of this astute recipe, I tip my hat to Brian Robinson of Arlington, VA, for creating an interesting cocktail perfectly tailored for the locale that it was going to be made in!
As for my thought process when coming up with a recipe for this contest, I wanted something that gave a nod to the hotel’s past as well as acknowledged the fact that it’s located in a city of great cocktail history: New Orleans.
I started off with rye as a base (not unlike Brian) for not only is it used in such New Orleans classics as the Sazerac, the Vieux Carré and the Cocktail à la Louisiane, but it also has a connection to New Orleans entrepreneur Thomas Handy who imported rye for the Sazerac house when that evil louse decimated France’s vineyards, drying up this country’s supply of wine and naturally, cognac. Besides, we all know that I’m a sucker for rye drinks.
Next up was to find an ingredient to pay homage to the Monteleone’s founder, Antonio Monteleone. As he was of Italian descent, I immediately went to sweet vermouth, but not wanting to be too boring, I switched it up a bit and threw in some Punt e Mes instead. A little more bitter and interesting than your average vermouth n’est-ce pas?
Peychaud’s bitters were a natural fit, seeing as they were created in NOLA (and without bitters it wouldn’t be a cocktail now, would it?), and a dash of St Germain added a touch of sweetness and honored the city’s French heritage.
The drink at this point was great, but needed a little something extra, and as any visit to New Orleans should include a visit to Jean Laffite’s Old Absinthe House I figured that the cocktail glass should also pay a brief visit with absinthe as well.
So enough jibber-jabber, let’s mix up the:
1 ¼ oz rye (I used Rittenhouse 100 proof)
¾ oz Punt e Mes
¼ oz St Germain
dash Peychaud’s bitters
stir, strain into absinthe rinsed cocktail glass
garnish with brandied cherry
This is such a tasty beverage that despite the fact that it didn’t win the competition, I feel like I’ve come ahead a winner. Guests at the bar who have tried this drink have all raved, with one describing it as complex without being complicated. I think that about sums it up. This will definitely go into my box of tricks to be pulled up with great frequency.
Why the name Cobbler’s Dream? Antonio Monteleone was a nobleman running a successful shoe factory when he was lured to NOLA by the American dream, and as it didn’t win the contest and therefore transform into the Monteleone Cocktail, the Cobbler’s Dream it will remain.
Cin Cin and Sante!
Cobbler's Dream
Picture and drink by:
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
When designing cocktails for a contest such as the Hotel Monteleone’s, one has to consider what a bar/restaurant is able to produce on a regular basis. So, just like the Whis-Kebob wouldn’t be good to win this contest with, as it uses ingredients that are too difficult for a hotel to come by, today’s drink, the Contessa, wouldn’t be a good fit either, as two of the four ingredients are hand-made, something that a large operation like a hotel is definitely not looking for.
Then why am I presenting you with this recipe, instead of one that may win the Monteleone’s contest? First of all, it’s just as important to know what not to do as it is to know what to do when it comes to submitting recipes for contests. Secondly, it’s an absolutely gorgeous day in Seattle right now with blue skies, temperatures soaring to 26˚C and the sweet smell of spring in the air, so the Contessa is a perfect drink for such a day, and I thought it best to share it with you.
Without further ado:
2 oz Pisco
½ oz raspberry syrup
1 ½ oz grapefruit juice
shake hard and fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass
mist the surface with a spray of lavender tincture
(if you’re feeling a little daring, mist the lavender through a lit lighter for spectacular effect and added aromatics)
For the raspberry syrup I just heated a pint of frozen raspberries (stirring all the time) in one part water until the water started to boil, and then added two parts sugar and stirred until dissolved. I immediately took the pot off of the heat when the sugar dissolved and let cool for 30 minutes. When the syrup was cooler, I separated the solids from the liquid and bottled, adding two ounces of vodka to each bottle for longevity.
The lavender tincture was simply made by macerating dried lavender in high proof vodka for one week and then filtering.
The Contessa is a bright refreshing libation that is doubly floral for the pisco and the aromatics provided by the tincture. I predicted last winter that floral notes were going to be hot this summer, and I’ve started to see that come to fruition with people making lavender bitters, hibiscus being bottled in syrup, and now Gran Centenario making a hibiscus infused tequila with their latest offering Rosangel. The age of the flower is amongst us!
Enjoy the weather if you’ve got it, but remember, tomorrow is the last day that the Hotel Monteleone is taking recipes for the competition so get them in before it’s too late!
Contessa
Drink and Picture by:
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
.
While the following “cocktail” is not one that I would suggest for the Hotel Monteleone’s Cocktail Search (only two days left: I hope that you have entered!) as it would be a little difficult to put out in great numbers at a busy bar, it is a recipe that I had contributed for Slovakia’s Bar Magazine that I’d thought some of you may enjoy. It went as follows:
One of the uses of molecular mixology is to bring an element of fun into the bar. Often times as one gets serious about the craft of the cocktail the element of fun gets lost, and in a business such as bars it is important to remember that entertainment is just as important as good service, comfortable atmosphere and a well crafted cocktail.
This week’s simple theme of Whiskey Sour along with the rapidly changing weather and Daylight Savings had me thinking of the barbeques that will soon be coming my way. Whiskey and BBQ naturally go hand and hand, but what if, I thought, you put the two together? Enter the Whis-kebob!
Half whiskey sour, half shish kebob, the final product really surprised me in that it tasted exactly like a whiskey sour with a subtle bacon finish. Fun to look at, fun to eat and not too difficult to make, ensure that this one stays away from the children as the cotton candy will entice them, but the 100˚ whiskey will knock them on their butts.
Santé!
place two whiskey jellies on a plate
sprinkle with powdered citric acid
encapsulate with cotton candy ball
skewer and serve
6 oz bacon-infused rye
½ tsp agar
¼ tsp xantham gum
blend ingredients together with an immersion blender
let sit for five minutes
heat to a boil in covered pot
immediately remove from heat
let cool and whisk smooth
pour through a fine strainer into cubed molds and let set
slow-cook 2 pieces of American or “streaky” bacon
place bacon (along with fat) in a jar with 8 oz Rittenhouse 100˚ rye for at least six hours
remove bacon
place jar into a freezer overnight
strain out solid fat pieces
filter bourbon through a coffee filter
Whis-Kebob
Picture and Drinks by:
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
Just a quick reminder that the deadline for the Hotel Monteleone Cocktail Contest is rapidly approaching, so please make sure to get your recipes in before it’s too late. Four restful days in a glorious hotel for merely submitting a simple drink recipe?! You should be submitting your recipe now, instead of reading this drivel!
For inspiration, I’ll provide you with a recipe that we’ve recently taken off of the menu at Tini Bigs, as we’ve updated the drink menu to better reflect the season.
The Chamomile Sour was something that I swore was created by someone like Audrey from Pegu Club, or Jim from PDT, but after consulting with them, we decided that is was probably a Jamie Boudreau original, inspired by Audrey’s fantastic Earl Grey MarTEAni. While the Chamomile Sour is no longer available at the bar, it is a drink that will make a return when the weather turns cold again, as not only is it a damn tasty drink, but it was extremely popular as well, unusual in that recipes with scotch and egg normally don’t go over with the general public all that well.
So without further ado, I present for you, the:
2 oz chamomile scotch
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
1 small egg white
place all ingredients in shaker and froth with cappuccino blade
(for more on eggs in cocktails, click here)
add ice and shake hard
strain into a chilled cocktail glass
To make the chamomile scotch, place half of an ounce of dried chamomile flowers into a jar with a bottle of Famous Grouse. Let sit for 20 minutes, and then separate and filter the chamomile from the scotch.
Chamomile is one of those natural flavor pairings with scotch, along with anise/licorice, ginger and cherry. While this looks like a simple sour on paper, the Chamomile Sour is really a complex and refreshing libation, which I encourage you to try one day.
I hope this has inspired you to come up with your own simple creation that may very well get you four free nights at the Hotel Monteleone.
UPDATE: I’ve been asked before, and asked again where I get my frother from.You can click HERE to see how to get all the tools that I use, or you can click HERE for access to only the frother.
À votre santé!
Chamomile Sour
Picture and drink by:
Jamie Boudreau
Cocktail Whisperer
….four free nights at the beautiful Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans?
Read below:
The Hotel Monteleone is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Carousel Bar on May 21, 2009. From 1949 until about the late 60’s or 70’s there was a drink on the specialty drink menu called the Monteleone Cocktail. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the exact recipe or ingredients were. The Hotel Monteleone is hosting an online contest to accept drink recipe nominations for a new official Monteleone Cocktail. The recipes will be judged by VIPs who will be at the Carousel anniversary celebration on May 21. There are no requirements on types of liquor or style of drink, but all drink entries must be received by May 18, so that the ingredients may be acquired and drinks prepared at the May 21 event. Participating bloggers should post their entries online, and all participants should e-mail their drink recipes, along with their name, address and phone number, to athornton@hotelmonteleone.com. The winning entry will become the new official Monteleone Cocktail, and the winner will receive four free nights at the Hotel Monteleone during Tales of the Cocktail 2009.
So mix ‘em up and send ‘em out for a great time in a fantastic city.
Hotel Monteleone
