Jager Bomb with a Hammer

This was a trick I decided to adapt for a small party I was throwing. These days, every cocktail enthusiast and their grandfather has a spherical ice mold. I saw a trend for hollowing them out and serving a cocktail inside the ice sphere. I just did my own variation.

You only need a little equipment for this. You'll need a freezer, naturally. You'll also need a heat source and a metal point to heat, though a soldering iron does the job brilliantly, provided it's clean. You'll also need a small funnel, though a syringe or meat injector works a bit faster, and when dealing with ice, speed is critical. Lastly, you'll need a spherical ice ball mold that you can flip upside down and remain stable. I prefer the style pictured. The only other things required are the liquids, Jagermeister, and Red Bull. 

The basic premise is that ice freezes from the outside in. The trick is just stopping it before it freezes too much. Fill your ice ball mold with water, add the top half, and put it in the freezer. After an hour and a half, flip the mold over. This allows the ball to freeze evenly as different parts of the freezers have different temperatures. Also, any air bubbles and impurities would float or sink, throwing off the thermal conductivity. Otherwise, slices of the ball would be fragile and others very thick. After another hour and a half, remove the partially frozen ice ball. Bear in mind that these times are relative to what I find to be the average home freezer. You may need to extend the time.

Rinse the outside of the mold with warm water, not hot, or you may crack the ice. Now, we need to hollow out the mold. Heat an ice pick or use a soldering iron to poke a hole in the top of the ice ball. Draining can be a tricky part. You can flip the ball over and drain it out, but it will take ages because of the lack of airflow. Using a meat injector seems to be the fastest way of sucking out most of the liquid. You can also use a straw and blow sharply into the ball to eject a good portion of the ball's water while it's upside down to drain it much faster. However, this technique isn't suited to a bar environment. 

Next, using a funnel or the meat injector, fill the ball with Jagermeister. Plug the hole with something that allows the ball to stay upright. A cherry with a pick through it works well, as could a coiled citrus twist. Add the ball to a large rocks glass and fill the glass with Red Bull. Serve with a small hammer to let the guest smash the ball open.

Love isn't all coke and roses

The term "Love is not all wine and roses" is a common idiom I heard growing up as people waxed poetic, knowing little about love, wine, or flowers. It may have derived from a poem by Ernest Dowson, which referred to "the days of wine and roses: out of a misty dream." The great Tim Minchin has a lyric in one of his songs: "Love is not all wine and roses, sometimes it's handcuffs and cheese." I like that version the best. 

1 oz Fords Gin Officers Reserve

0.75 oz Cocchi Rosa 

0.5 oz Agwa

1 barspoon Lime Acid Solution

10 drops Crude Sycophant Orange and Fig Bitters

Stir all the ingredients together with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist flower. 

Agwa is a liquor with the prominent flavor of coca leaf, the base used to produce Cocaine. The additive's illegal elements have been removed (where they went, I don't know). There is an invigorating spice kick to this herbaceous liqueur and cocktail. 

Perhaps I overstep here, but I had two bottles of Agwa kicking around and thought the name was funny. I do not partake in anything implied in this drink and discourage anyone from participating in unlawful behavior. But if music, TV shows, and other media are allowed to poke fun at a subject matter, why can't other artistic expressions. I even drank an energy drink named Cocaine, though they did get shut down in some countries. I doubt I'll get any big liquor companies dying to advertise this drink on their own media, but I hope the concept inspires somebody to make something they wouldn't have thought otherwise. Eat and drink the weird stuff. Traditions exist, and you can get by simply following them. But we live in an age where everything everywhere is available to just about everyone if you are willing to pay the shipping costs. Have a laugh

What a Pear

I don't rightly recall the occasion I first made this drink. But it remains absolutely delicious, and any time I have all the ingredients on hand, this is one of my go-to martini builds. It's a beautiful fruity martini with notes of white flowers and pear. 

1.5 oz. Ford's Gin

0.5 oz. Grey Goose La Poire

1 oz. Alessio Bianco Vermouth

2 dashes Hella Co. Orange bitters

Add all of the ingredients to a mixing tin with ice. Stir until well chilled, approximately 18 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The inspiration for this cocktail came from my dear friend Catherine Manning. Her drink of choice is always a 50/50 martini with Bianco Vermouth. Alessio recently came to our shelves in Pennsylvania and has been gaining notoriety. I wanted to highlight the flavors, bringing a bit of pear and notes of white flowers with the vodka and gin. A bit of citrus oil balances it out, and we have a martini that stays bright and playful any day of the week. Cheers.

Photo Credit: Micah Messinger

Geez, That's Corny

This was a submission I made during quarantine to be a part of a virtual live happy hour with Hella Cocktail Co. Virtual happy hours were a huge thing during the first few months of quarantine but seemed to teeter off quickly. Drinking through Zoom isn't quite the same, especially when 15 people are on a call and only one person can talk. I forgot to edit my video to under 1 minute for the submission. Whoopsie. But it is still a tasty drink. 

1.5 oz. Mellow Corn Whiskey

0.5 oz. Licor 43

0.25 oz. Lime Acid Solution 

3.5 oz. Hella Cocktail Co. Bitters and Soda - Spritz

Build the drink in a highball glass with ice and stir lightly. Garnish with the peel of an entire lemon (Horse's Neck). 

To make lime acid solution:

Mix 94g filtered water, 4g citric acid, 2g malic acid, 0.04g succinic acid. Or just use fresh lime juice as a substitute.

The Hella Cocktail Co-spritz is a fascinating non-alcoholic cocktail in a can. It's similar to bitters and soda, a popular hangover cure in the industry. The Hella brand has more cinnamon and clove spice than typical Angostura. To balance that, I wanted to incorporate more sweet flavors, not necessarily sugar, but flavors people affiliate with sweetness, like vanilla and sweet corn. Mellow corn was a gut reaction choice for a base spirit to build this highball on, and Licor 43 brings a creamy citrus undertone throughout, further complimented by the massive swath of lemon peel. 

Loaded Dice

This was my entry for the Patron Perfectionists Tour. It is about consistency in the culinary and beverage world and how fresh ingredients are inconsistent. This cocktail was my attempt to help flatten the curve. 

1.5 oz. Patron Reposado

0.5 oz. Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro

0.75 oz. Acid Adjusted Pineapple juice

0.75 oz. Orange Blossom Honey Syrup

Add all the ingredients to a shaker tin. Add ice and shake thoroughly. Double strain into a large rocks glass with a large carved cube.

To make Acid Adjusted Pineapple Juice:

To every 100g of pineapple juice, add 4.5g citric acid and 0.7g malic acid. Stir vigorously to dissolve the powder. Shake the solution lightly before each use.

To make Honey Syrup:

Mix Dutch Gold Orange Blossom Honey with an equal weight of boiling water and stir until uniform.

This drink was inspired by every molecule's randomness or lack of predictability. The fermentation tanks of the Patron distillery are open and surrounded by countless varieties of plant life that produce different strains of wild yeast. Each strain will create a different character. Even every piece of fruit will be unique. Two pineapples from the same tree can have wildly different sugar contents and acidity. This just won't do for a competition called Perfectionist. I aim to erase chance and balance flavors as I see fit. Craft comes from taking what nature gives you and using it to create a consistent quality product.

The Dutch Gold Honey comes from a local apiary as well.

Dream Maker in the Sky

This is one of the many drinks I came up with for the Chilled Toast the Industry competition. It was a brilliant idea to have a contest during the quarantine. Bartenders made up to 50 unique cocktails for this one, using a vast range of spirits from 10 brands. Scapegrace is an interesting gin from New Zealand, and I love any gin that does a Navy Strength. 

1 oz. Scapegrace Gold

0.5 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco

0.5 oz. Triple Sec (Combier)

1 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

0.5 oz. Simple Syrup (1:1)

1 Large Egg White

Orange Bitters

Add all the ingredients aside from the bitters to a shaker tin without ice. Dry shake vigorously, add ice, and hard shake even more vigorously until the drink is chilled and foamy. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Add a few drops of bitters on top of the foam for garnish and aromatics.

This started as a navy-strength Negroni Sour, but I really wanted to bring out the lemon, orange and dried tangerine in the gin. The vermouth got swapped for orange liqueur. Luxardo Bitter Bianco has always acted as a better balancing agent for softer flavors than the more aggressive Campari or Suze. Also, it gives a pretty white color you don't see in many cocktails. "Dream Maker in the Sky" comes from a song called "No Hopers, Jokers, and Rogues." A Scapegrace is a rogue. It fits.

"Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
We're on the road to nowhere; let's find out where it goes
It might be a ladder to the stars. Who knows?
Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues."

- Fisherman's Friends

Natural Sage

My Third Award Winning Cocktail. I am properly proud of this drink. I took inspiration from my surroundings. I made a balanced drink which showcased the base. And I sold it like a champion. It's kind of a pain given the prep work required but the texture is so gorgeous. The inspiration was a nice brown butter sage sauce with truffle we'd use in the Italian restaurant I used to work in for our agnoletti. Old Forester Old Fashioned Face Off Philly Champion 2017. 

1 1/2 oz. Old Forester Classic 86 Proof

1/2 oz. Averna Amaro

1/4 oz. Brown Sugar Butter Syrup

2 dashes Dram Wild Mountain Sage Bitters

10 drops Bitter End Chesapeake Bay Bitters

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice. Stir until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass with a large cube. Garnish with a sage leaf and a fresh lemon twist.

To make Brown Sugar Butter Syrup:

Add 1 stick of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until melted and lightly browned. Add 1 cup water with 2 cups of brown sugar and stir until all is dissolved and uniform. Strain into a wide mouth container and place in the refrigerator. After a few hours take out the syrup. Poke a hole through the solid puck that will have formed. Fine strain the syrup into a bottle of your choice. Store in the fridge.

The culinary inspiration of this cocktail turned it into something I am genuinely proud of. I would argue it is the current high point of my creativity as a bartender. I hope I can come back to this variety of creative drive.

"There are moments when all anxiety and stated toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature."
- Henry David Thoreau

Parting Glass

This was my entry for the Copper and Kings Mixt&pe competition. Make a drink to pair with a song. I've been getting into a lot of Classic Irish Folk music. It's a wonderful blend of comedy and tragedy. I chose The Parting Glass as my song, as performed by The High Kings. It rings of a final song, a goodbye, and the joys and lamentations of one's life. My cocktail reflects this balance. Fire's being extinguished, sweetness, bitterness, and intensity

1 oz. Copper & Kings Butchertown Brandy
1/2 oz. C&K Floodwall Apple Brandy

1/2 oz. Rooibos Tea infused Honey Syrup

6 -8 drops Bitter End Moroccan Bitters

Copper & Kings Absinthe Blanche

Add the brandies, honey, and bitters to a mixing glass. Add ice and stir for 12 seconds. Rinse a small cocktail glass with the absinthe and discard. Strain the cocktail into the rinsed coupe. Light a candle and raise your glass.

To make rooibos infused heather honey syrup:

Add 12 oz. of water and 12 oz of heather honey to a saucepan. Apply light heat and stir until well mixed. Measure out 2 tablespoons of loose leaf rooibos red tea and add it to the syrup. Let the tea infuse for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and strain through a mesh filter. Store in the refrigerator.

I can't say this cocktail is one of my favorites. I think I'm going to revisit this idea soon. 

Walking in Little Shoes

This was my entry for the Gentleman Jack Whiskey Sour Classic competition. I've been playing a lot with acid solutions, but they tend to fall a bit flat compared to fresh juice. They tend to lack some body and texture, and there are all kinds of flavors in juice besides just acids. We talk about balance in cocktails as a ratio of sugar to acid, and while that is crucial, it is also boring. 

2 oz. Gentleman Jack

1 oz. Acid-Adjusted Apple Juice

1 oz. Honey Syrup

2 dashes Bar Keep Apple Bitters

Add the fluid ingredients in a mixing tin, add ice and shake well for 6 seconds. Rinse the rim of a rocks glass with honey and rim with spicy cinnamon sugar. Add a large ice rock and strain the cocktail into the glass.

Spicy cinnamon sugar: 

Mix 16 parts sugar, 2 parts ground cinnamon, and 1 part cayenne pepper.

Acid-adjusted apple juice: 

To every 100 grams of apple juice, add 1 gram of citric acid and 4 grams of malic acid.

I loved my time down at the Jack Distillery. Kevin the Barrel Man was a hoot. The story of walking through the caves with a chicken on a string was absolutely hilarious. Bluffing his way into massive concerts is something that charmer could do without even trying. Amazing stories all around. Miss Mary Bobo's was a very eclectic, warm experience. The legacy of Jasper "Jack" Daniels lives on all the loyal workers of that entire town. 

"Basically, I'm for anything that gets you through the night - be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniels."

- Frank Sinatra

BOLS of Pears

This cocktail was a collaboration between myself and my dear friend Micah. For the first round of the Bols Around The World competition, we were required to make a cocktail that was a variant of a classic cocktail that would be drunk in the year 2025. It was a very humorous notion but one that did inspire thoughts of new techniques and the trends of today. 

2.25 oz. Pear, lime leaf Genever

3/4 oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth

1 dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Lemon Twist

Stir all of the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Strain the cocktail into a coupe. Garnish with an expressed lemon twist.

Instructions for infused Bols Genever:

Preheat a water bath to 130°F/54°C. Place 8 oz. of Bols Genever, 2 Asian pears (diced), and 5 fresh kaffir lime leaves in a sealed plastic bag. Let the Bols Genever infusion cook for 3 hours. Remove the bag from the water bath and let it come back to room temperature. Strain the infusion.

Bols of Pears is an homage to the Turf Cocktail no. 2, a classic relative of the martini. Normal infusion of Bols Genever, Asian pear, and kaffir lime leaf can take up to 2 months. Using the modern cooking technique of sous vide you can infuse much faster due to heating up the infusion and having it sealed so none of the alcohol steam escapes. By the year 2025, this technique will be used more and more to create faster infusions for unique cocktails.

The unashamed sweet flavors of this cocktail while still maintaining impeccable balance is why Bols Genever has been a favorite since I discovered it. We decided on mixing it up with kaffir lime leaf and Asian pears because so many modern technologies are being created and perfected in Eastern Asia. I love how much parts of Eastern Asia continue to strive to create new ideas while maintaining customs and cultures of the past. This is exactly what Bols of Pears represents: striving for exciting cutting edge ideas while still maintaining respect for tradition.

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
- Ernest Hemingway

Hidden Orchard

This was a cocktail I made for the Old Forester Old Fashioned competition. The only rule was that it had to use at least an ounce of an Old Forester product and it had to resemble an old fashioned. I actually had been experimenting with different bitters around this time and came up with a fun, earthy, fall old fashioned. 

1 1/2 oz. Old Forester 86 proof
1/2 oz. Averna Amaro
1/4 oz. Maple Syrup
2 dashes Apple Bitters

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice and stir. Strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice, ideally one big cube. Garnish with an expressed orange twist.

I recently had a seminar with one of the owners of Amor y Amargo, and we tried some lovely products. I decided to procure a bit of the Barkeep Apple Bitters. It matched with some of the apple notes of the bourbon and the citrus from the Averna played well. For sweetener, the maple syrup worked with the earthiness. 

I actually won the judges' choice for this cocktail, the competition's grand prize, though there was a people's choice round, too. This was the first competition I'd won without participating as part of a group. I did have a darling friend barbacking for me, helping me out. It was a great honor. I got to see some great friends and meet some new people. And I left with a fantastic prize. 

"It's an old fashioned kind of day."

Pope's Hangover

This was a cocktail I was playing with during the Pope's visit to Philadelphia. Every week at my restaurant we feature a different city in Italy. We do regional dishes and wines and even a cocktail designed to pair well with the menu or that uses some regional ingredients or flavors. I was told that for our week in the Roman ghetto I would need to use a cocktail with Cynar. Why Cynar, I'm not entirely sure, but it's good to have a guide. Here's what I came up with. 

1.5 oz. Brandy

.5 oz. Cynar

.75 oz. Earl Grey Tea Syrup

.75 oz. Orange Juice

.5 oz. Egg White

Peychauds bitters

Add all the ingredients except the bitters to a mixing tin without ice. Dry shake until the ingredients are well emulsified. Open the shaker, add ice, and shake until well chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange wedge and a dash of Peychauds. 

Now, I don't personally like Cynar, but I find that amaro-style liqueurs work very well with tea. Perhaps it's the natural digestif qualities of both. I decided to continue this with brandy, a typical after dinner drink. I know lemon is more traditional with teas and toddies, but I was drinking during brunch time and found that the orange was more mellow and better maintained the balance of the drink. I called this drink the Pope's Hangover because everyone was beaten down by the Holy Pontiff coming to town. There was a crazy rush of tourists, but not enough money to keep people jazzed up. This drink was for that morning after.

"Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age."
- Pope John XXIII

The Shamrock in the Guinness.

I remember the first time I went into a pub and ordered a Guinness. This was a good, proper pub that poured it on nitro, had the glasses, and knew what they were doing with it. I'd had Guinness by the can and bottle before but there's something special about getting a beer on draft. I also remember going into a pub a few years ago and ordering a Guinness and noticed an extra step in its serving, drawing a shamrock in the foam. I thought this was a cute little touch at first, but the more feedback I hear from people whose opinion I respect in such matters, the more I dislike the idea. 

The original piece of negative feedback I heard on the subject was from a character named Super Hans on the David Mitchell show, Peep Show. He said you were effectively drinking an advertisement for a product you're already drinking. I find that argument a bit lacking, but it is a point. I more prefer the argument that it actually diminishes the ritual of the perfect Pint. 

Guinness has a long-standing standard of what it is to perfectly pour their beer. They offer a certification program for bartenders. You're meant to take a clean, dry, clear Guinness branded glass at a 45-degree angle and pull the handle. Once the beer reaches the harp you straighten the glass and stop the tap. Let the beer cascade until it's gasses settle. The continue to fill to give the beer a perfect head. Or as Dara O'Briain explained: "You have to let it sit, let it go black. Then you push it back so that more gas goes into it. 5/12 of an inch is the ideal head around the top. And if somebody paints a shamrock into it, you're allowed to stab them in the eye with a fork." 

As a friend put it once, "Never go into a bar that has a neon shamrock." The Shamrock in the pint seems to be the mark of a place that is Irish for the sake of being a theme restaurant. There's a big difference between your chains and your properly Irish pubs. A pub is simple, it doesn't need frills or flashy lights. It just needs good beer and quaint surroundings to be with friends. I can't stand plastic cups. Karaoke belongs in karaoke bars. Irish Pubs just need beer, proper beer. It's a pub, not a Starbucks. I've said enough quotes this post so I think I'll close on a song that explains what way too many pubs have become: 

Superfruit Creamsicle

This was a cocktail I designed to be submitted to the VEEV, A Better Way to Drink, bartender challenge cocktail competition. The cocktail must feature 1 1/2 ounces of VEEV. Which was a hard thing restriction when you have such a strong liqueur. I was a bit confused by this challenge as it asked you to recreate a classic cocktail using VEEV, an ounce and a half of VEEV. Yet, points were awarded for originality. I took inspiration from a few classics and put my own spin on them while incorporating the liqueur. 

1 1/2 oz VEEV
1/2 oz Thyme infused Cointreau
1 oz Fresh Orange juice
1/2 oz Heavy Cream
1 Egg White (1 oz)
Chocolate Bitters

Dry shake all the ingredients except the bitters for one minute. Add ice and hard shake for 15 seconds. Double strain into a sours glass and add four drops of chocolate bitters. Use a pick to make a pattern in the bitters. Serve with a smile.

The original inspiration came from the standard Creamsicle recipe but drew inspiration from the Fizz as well. I knew I wanted to really bring out the dessert snack notes of the acai. One of my favorite snacks is chocolate covered acai berries. I included some cream and orange flavors as well as a bit of grassy flavor from the thyme and Voila!

“When you are attracted to, and eat, fruits, occasionally a seed will be carried within you to a fertile ground.”
- David Wolfe

Sakura

The name Sakura means cherry blossom or cherry blossom tree. Naturally the name has been used in many an anime. There are characters named Sakura in Naruto, Get Backers, Street Fighter, Pokemon, and many other manga and films. There's even a popular anime called Cardcaptor Sakura, and a slightly less popular one simply called Sakura. The name tends to symbolize blooming and maturing with time. They can symbolize clouds. They bloom quickly and suddenly and die a quick death. Partly for this reason, in World War II, the image of a cherry blossom was used as national propaganda to instill Japanese pride. They were even painted on the sides of kamikaze planes. 

1 oz. Gin

1 oz. Sake

1/2 oz. Lemon juice

1/4 oz. Grenadine

1/4 oz. Cherry Heering

2 dashes cherry bitters

Add all the ingredients to a mixing tin with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry or an edible flower.

I had in my head a flavor profile I wanted to try to create. I wanted a botanical feel as well as a sweetness of a light berry. I tinkered and tinkered with different ingredients. I tried Creme Yvette, acai liqueur, shochu, soju, flavored vodka, and everything felt too dominant or tart. I decided that gin alone created a good floral feel to the drink, but the proof was too high to make it a really dominant ingredient. In the liqueur store, I saw a gorgeous bottle of sake in a lovely pink hue that reminded me of the flowers. All that was left was the berry sweetness and color. Cherry Heering added the berry note but wasn't quite sweet enough and the color was a bit dark. Most people think grenadine is cherry juice anyway and it did add just the right touch of sweetness. 

This was just a cocktail I decided to make up. There are actually several signature cocktails around the globe that take the name sakura, or cherry blossom, like this, this, this, and this.

"I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees."
- Pablo Neruda