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

New Blood

This is a cocktail I made for the Make It Exotico Competition. It's a lovely balance of sweet, bitter, and sour. It's fairly low alcohol by volume compared to a lot of my other cocktails. Nothing too complicated or fancy. All the ingredients are readily available at any liquor or grocery store. cheers. 

1 1/2 oz. Exotico Blanco

1/2 oz. Cynar

1/2 oz. Grapefruit Juice

1/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

1/2 oz. Agave Nectar

3/4 oz. Blood Orange Soda

Add all the ingredients aside from the soda to a mixing tin with ice. Shake until well chilled. Double strain into a large rocks or collins glass with ice. Top with the blood orange soda. Garnish with a quarter slice of grapefruit.

Upon recent reflection, I'm starting to see why this kind of cocktail doesn't garner much attention. It's not incorporating some exotic juice or homemade syrup or liqueur. That said it's actually pretty tasty and very easy for a home bartender to whip up at home or even batch into a punch.

"They drew first blood!"
- Frank Reynolds

Garden of the Butterflies

This was the first cocktail I got on the menu at my old job at Royal Boucherie in Old City, Philadelphia. It was a staple on the summer cocktail menu and stayed there for a bit over 3 months. It was a lovely, refreshing floral take on a margarita. 

1.5 Tequila

0.5 Lemon Sage Shrub

0.5 Fresh Lime Juice

0.5 St Germain

Butterfly Pea Tea

Add the tequila, shrub, juice, and liqueur to a shaker tin. Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass filled with crushed ice. Top with butterfly pea tea.

To make Butterfly Pea Tea:
Add 24 flowers to a quart container. Fill the container with boiling water. Let that sit for 3 minutes. Strain out the flowers and press them to extract all the tea.

To make Lemon Sage Shrub:
Slice a series of lemons into a fish tray with the skin on. Cover the lemons with white sugar equal to the weight of the lemons in layers, making sure to thoroughly coat the lemons on all sides. Toss in one sprig of sage for every 2 lemons. Let that sit overnight to extract the oil from the lemon skin. Add champagne vinegar to the mixture in equal weight to the lemons and sugar. Muddle the lemons slightly to extract the juice. Add the mixture to a pan on low heat. Muddle and mix until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is uniform. Run through a chinois and mash the solids to extract all the liquid possible. Store in an airtight refrigerated space.

The inspiration for this really came out of nowhere. My fiance loves very citrusy cocktails. I wanted a citrusy floral cocktail. I played with gin at first, but tequila or sotol really made the drink pop a bit more and stand out from some other generic floral gin cocktails. The pea tea adds a bit of tannin, but the real selling point is the color. We had some St. Germain branded glassware, which made this cocktail look just like a flower and its stem. It happened a lot where I would make one of these, and it would catch the eye of someone at the bar, and then that's 3 more drinks to make.

"We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest."

- Voltaire

Juicing

Picking a juicer really depends on how much you plan on juicing. Hand juicers are fine for home use and cocktails to order but most bars need the help of something a bit more industrial. Check my post about different juicers here.

Juicing citrus is fairly simple. If the stem of your fruit is a "pole", cut the fruit in half along the equator. insert the fruit cut side down onto the juicer, be it a hand juicer, press, or mechanical. If there's an interuption you can leave the cut fruit up to 2 hours before juicing.  Apply pressure manually, or through the lever until the juice is extracted down to the pith. Juice into a china cap over a cambro. When juicing to order (a la minute) you can squeeze directly into a jigger for cocktail service. This has some drawbacks though.

I don't recommend juicing anything a la minute. every different piece of produce you juice will have different sugar and acid content. Also depending on the pulp in your juice and how you strain the cocktail, you could be getting wildly different yields. juicing in large batches and straining allows for greater consistency over the course of the shift. Some people like the pageantry of seeing the fresh juice squeezed in front of them but it does lead to less consistency overall.

A simple way to juice berries or other soft fruits like kiwis at home is to just muddle them through a mesh strainer over a container. After you've mashed a bit, scrape out the spent pulp from the inside. This keeps the strainer from getting too clogged. The mesh will catch all the skin and seeds and the liquid will flow through. Depending on the density of the mesh you made need to filter the juice more times.

Fresh juice has a fairly narrow window for their ideal flavor. Lemons, limes, and grapefruit are delicious freshly juiced but many people think they get even more flavorful after a few hours of rest and are good up to 2 days (48 hours) later. The shelf life of oranges is a bit less forgiving. Oranges contain substances called lactones, which after juicing, develop into limonin which has a bitter flavor. Fresh is best wish oranges but you can use it up to 4 hours after without much issue.

Myth: Room temperature citrus yields more juice than cold produce.

This theory is odd. People think that the fruit sacks or cells are scrunched together and warming them up will ease the process of juicing. Some people even think that microwaving the fruit will make it possible to extract more juice. Don't do that. Everyone who has tested this has disproven this concept.  The yields are the same regardless. 

Myth: Rolling the citrus yields more juice.

This is the same silly idea. Even Jamie Oliver thought this works. No, it doesn't. People have tested it. Don't waste your time. A good press juicer extracts all the juice possible, you're not manifesting new juice.

Juicers

Hand presses or clamshell or elbow juicers are the most common type of juicer I see in the home and are also found in some cocktail bars which utilize al la minute juice service. friendly reminder that when juicing halves of fruit they go flat side down, not conforming to the bowl shape of the press. Cut Side Down! Older styles had a flat base to match and no holes for drainage of juice, simply a pour spout on the side to dispense the fresh juice. Newer styles have a curved bowl to cause the half-cut citrus to partially flip inside out along with holes at the bottom to allow it to dispense into a tin or other receptacle. An issue with these style of juicer is the variable size of citrus and you'll most likely need a different one for lemons, small limes, and larger oranges and grapefruit. Material is important when purchasing. plastics can break easily some metals are much more difficult to clean than others, especially when scuffed after extended usage. Amco is a good durable metal brand. Norpro is a bit more expensive but many experts swear by it. Chef'n Force does a good job and alleviates strain on the wrist but does have a shorter lifespan I've found.

Standing levered presses are very popular in homes and in bars with a fresh juice program in medium but not excessive volumes. There are two main types, those with gears and teeth and those with a hinged concept that acts more like a scaled-up hand press. Hamilton Beach is the most common brand of the former and has become quite affordable. At volume, these do tend to break down after a few months, but they work amazingly well for home use. The parts can't practically be replaced and tuned other than some simple cleaning and oiling. Ra Chand is a fine example of the latter. It also has a much longer shelf life and requires less care, cleaning, and maintenance. It is a little clunky to operate, especially on a high bartop.

Motorized Reamers are widely utilized by bars juicing high volumes of juices. these are certainly more expensive but they do last substantially longer, making up for the cost in the long run. The preferred brand is Sunkist. These are HEAVY and noisy. They belong in the prep area of a bar/restaurant not anywhere near the front of the house. the fact that you're juicing your citrus by hand leans to a lot of strain on the hands and arms. There's minimal contact with the skin compared to press juicers so not a lot of oil is extracted, but you do yield a substantial amount of juice. Also, your hands do get messy. Wear gloves. Even then your hands will slip on the oil of the skin and the fruit will spin like it was the pottery wheel in ghost.

Fully automated juicers like Zumex were my best friend at several of the bars I've worked at. All you need to do is fill the hopper at the top with oranges (you can do other fruits but it'll wear on the blades and other parts) and the machine will slice it, press it (with pressure on the skin to extract oil), and partially filter large pulp from the juice. It's load and forget, no effort or strain on the body whatsoever. They are quite expensive though, upwards of two thousand dollars. not economical for home bartenders but ideal for bars with a busy morning/lunch crowd that enjoys fresh juice.

Juice extractors are the best way to extract liquid fruit fruits and some vegetables. They are broken into two types: Centrifugal Juicers, and Masticating Juicers. Centrifugal juicers spin a blade around slicing and dicing. They're basically motorized food mills that you'd use in the kitchen. They shred the produce and spin it allowing the juice to drain through and the pulp gets separated into a bin. Masticating juicers work almost exactly like a meat grinder, forcing the produce between gears to extract the trapped liquid. Centrifugal juicers do produce a lot more food waste and commonly yield 20% less juice than their masticating counterparts. A con of the masticating juicer is that it doesn't handle large chunks very well without clogging and jamming. you can shove a whole apple in a centrifugal juicer with no issue. So Masticating juicers need some extra prep. Both of these styles are great for pineapples, carrots, celery, rhubarb, ginger, and any other dense or stalky produce. Centrifugal juicers do lead to a lot of air going into the juice which for the most part will dissipate in time, but some bartenders will juice oranges in these a la minute to create a really fluffy textural drink like a garibaldi. Masticating juicers also have loads of attachments which make them very versatile. All kinds of things, like almond milk, butter, iced cream, baby food, and even make pasta can be made with the right attachment. Masticating juicers also are usually about twice the cost of centrifugal juicers, both in the couple hundred dollars range. Preferred brands are Breville and Omega. P.s. never put a banana in these.

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

1990

This was my submission to the Bacardi Legacy contest in 2017. The flavors of the rum really got brought out by this classic sour cocktail. The mouthfeel is wonderful. The story is, of course, an absolute fabrication. I'm not a man with a lot of history or sentimentality. Maybe I'll learn to lie better in the future. 

1.5 Bacardi Gold Rum

0.75 Fresh Orange Juice

0.5 Brown Sugar Banana Syrup

0.5 Aquafaba

0.125 Roasted Walnut Oil

Benedictine

Add the Bacardi, orange juice, banana syrup, aquafaba, and walnut oil to a mixing tin. Dry shake until well emulsified. Add ice and shake again until well chilled and frothy. Rinse a coupe with Bénédictine. Double strain the cocktail into the coupe. Add a spritz of Benedictine on top of the cocktail for aroma and garnish with an orange twist.

Brown Sugar Banana Syrup:

Weigh a banana. Measure out equal weights of brown sugar and water. Bring the water to a simmer in a small pot and slowly add the brown sugar. Peel the banana and slice the insides and add them to the pot. Use a hand blender to puree any chunks of banana. Slice the skin of the banana and add them to the pot. Let the syrup simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain through a mesh strainer several times to eliminate any chucks. Keep chilled until ready to use.

This cocktail stems from a classic birthday treat my grandmother taught my mother to make. I suppose she didn't use rum though. For birthdays in my house growing up, I remember having a party with my friends, but we'd always have a family dinner as well where the birthday boy or girl could ask for whatever meal they wanted. I'd always ask for this lovely sweet banana nut bread as a dessert. It had orange zest, brown sugar, ripe bananas, and fresh nuts. It became a tradition. These days, my family is spread out all across the country. Every once in a while I like to make a batch as best I can. I was born in 1990, but I've had many more than 27 of this delicious treat. I hope you enjoy. 

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

Whiskey 401: Dissecting a cocktail: The Whiskey sour

The drink known as the Sour has gone through countless iterations over the centuries. I thought of organizing this by time period, instead I opted to go simply by the level of complexity and adding a few variants once the foundation has been laid. The Sour has gone through so many modifications and iterations it's near impossible to pinpoint a date when the trends changed. The origins of the sour as an individual cocktail and not a punch probably started around the 1850's. This was most likely done by sailors drinking rum while trying to fight scurvy with citrus juice and adding sugar to make the drink taste good. It was certainly after World War II, in the 60's, when store-bought sour mix became widely popular. Eventually, it even made its way onto some of our soda guns. In the nineties bartenders started exploring the idea of fresh ingredients once again. 

Modern

The first recipe I ever learned was 1 oz Whiskey and 2 oz of Sour Mix. This was shaken and served in a rocks glass with ice. It was mentioned that this could be served up, but most people took it on the rocks. Most people I saw wouldn't even really shake this, especially if it was going on the rocks. They'd just give it one or two shakes and dump it in.  They thought that shaking was to chill a drink. No, it's to blend the ingredients and to incorporate air, adding texture. To cite a blog that helped inspire me to start this, Death to Sour Mix. Assuming you use a prepackaged store-bought sour mix, this should just be called a sour, as you can't taste or appreciate whatever liquor is in the drink. The chemicals and sugar content in that mix just destroys the integrity of the other ingredients. I did learn how to make a simple sour mix however and that's where we get into the real recipe. 

Classic

This drink follows much more closely to the classic cocktail bars. I eventually learned a true recipe for this drink. It being 2 oz. Whiskey, 3/4 oz. Lemon Juice, and 3/4 oz. Simple Syrup. It's shaken good and hard, strained or double strained, and served up or on the rocks. This is an example of proper balance. A drink should have an equal balance of sweet and citrus. This while maintaining a respect for the alcohol makes a proper ratio of ingredients. This is a bit stronger than the standard drink ordered at the bar today. It's about twice the ABV of a whiskey ginger or similar highball. This is much more in line with cocktails and less focused on speed of production. Store bought sour mix was created to increase the speed of drink production and to eliminate a lot of the prep work that would need to be done every day, namely squeezing fruit and making syrups. But losing the craft means losing the character of a drink.

Traditional

This drink took a little adjusting to when I first heard about. It took a bit of a leap in order to try it, but to my amazement, it was really good. To this day, there are very few Americans that know about using egg white in cocktails. People think that the drink will taste like breakfast or egg nog. Neither is true nor are you at all likely to get salmonella. So, what does the egg bring to the table? The proteins in the egg while unravel and create an amazing silky texture and decadent foamy cap. This kind of cocktail should use the same recipe as the Classic Sour but add the white of one egg, or about 1oz. of egg white. You can't just shake a drink with egg white normally though if you want the best consistency. You need to shake the drink without the ice first to blend the cocktail and open up the proteins. This is called dry shaking. Once you do that, you shake normally with ice to chill the drink and usually double strain into a sours or cocktail glass. Most people think that the beautiful foam that comes from using egg white is lost when the drink is served on the rocks, but it can be done. 

Other Great Variants
The Stone Sour is a very fun variation which uses orange juice as well as lemon and simple syrup. A Gold Rush uses honey instead of simple syrup. The New York Sour is one of those drinks that just keeps adding to a great drink. It's a classic or traditional whiskey sour served on the rock with a float of red wine. I always find this drink very odd when made with egg white and red wine floated on top of the foam. I prefer it made without the egg white and served on the rocks. The ice makes it much easier to float the red wine. I also find that a layered presentation works best with more cylindrical glasses, rather than martini glasses or coupes. There is also the Fix, which is just a sour made over crushed ice. A John Collins is just a tall whiskey sour topped with club soda. A Fizz is the same thing but also using egg white to create a very fluffy foam on top.

“Sometimes life is sad. You can cry in your booze if you want. I think that’s called a Whiskey Sour.”
- Jarod Kintz

Photo Credit: Wikimedia