My first Tales of the Cocktail is now over. It was a whirlwind experience of learning about a lot of spirits I had been cautious to try, meeting PR people and being introduced to new types of spirits. I’ve included a brief recap of my TOTC experience, but you’ll see some recipes coming up soon due to the new liquors and people I was introduced to — who knew (I should have) there were so many different types of spirits out there?
Session #1: The How’s and Why’s of Cocktails
Audrey Saunders (of Pegu) and Tony Conigliaro start the session off as moderators. My takeaways from this session include:
- With egg fizz drinks, put an aromatizing agent in it to perfume the smell of the egg white. Saunders also says of my favorite quote of the entire conference, “If it smells like ass, pull back.”
- Each drink should have it’s own shake. Starchefs.com has shaking videos/teaches you how to properly shake.
- Pack a shaker with ice so that the cocktail is washed but not dilluted — don’t allow the ice to move
- The dry shake: don’t add ice, just liquid; gives better froth
- Keep mint fresh by balancing it — cold ice, mint, cold ice, water. Let sit 5 minutes, hydrate your mint to keep it fresh
- Health benefits of cocktails: they make you feel better
The cocktail served at this session was a Ramos Fizz, presented by Beefeater Gin (club soda, cointreau, light cream, egg white, gin, lemon juice, confectioners sugar; cardamom on top of egg whites). I never thought I was a gin fan, but after today, I’m second guessing myself and glad that I’ve tried a few new cocktails.
Session #2: Molecular DNA of Cocktails
Moderator: Jacob Briars, 42 Below Vodka
Another fun session — “We don’t need cocktails to live, although it does make life more enjoyable.” Briars
Cocktails included in this session were the Corpse Reviver and a Tequila Old Fashioned. Takeaways included:
- If you’re not a good flair bartender, don’t throw bottles…
- Flavors from breast milk are some of the happiest flavors — vanilla. That’s why marketers use vanilla to target to women (vanilla smells, vanilla toothpaste, etc). Same goes for within cocktails.
- Blue drinks are never a bartender favorite.
- Can you describe your drink? Can you describe the taste of coffee?
- Drink it quickly, while it’s still laughing at you
- The Bloody mary is the the most popular drink sold in the world
The tequila Old Fashioned: 6 pts tequila, 1 pt gum arabic, 2 pts chilled spring water, 3 dashes peychaud’s bitters, cherry heering .
The corpse reviver: 1 part bombay sapphire, 1 pt cointreau, 1 part lillet blanc, 1 pt lemon juice, absinthe
van gogh vodka blueberry acai martini
Day 2 started off with a sample of the Van Gogh Vodka Blueberry-Acai martini. The perfect way to start a day!
Session 3: Cask Strength
In cask strength, I had my first taste of Cabana Cachaca and learned a heck of a lot about Whiskey.
5 Types of American Straight Whiskey:
1. Bourbon
2. Tennessee Whiskey
3. Straight Rye Whiskey
4. Straight Wheat Whiskey
5. Corn Whiskey
To be considered a Straight Whiskey: 51% single type of grain plus mixture of other grains. It’s distilled at <160 degrees and barreled at <125 degrees, has no additives, and must age a minimum of 2 years in new charred oak barrels.
Session 4: 21st Century Gin
My favorite session of the whole conference. A heated argument about the new “gins” that shouldn’t be able to classify themselves as gin had me confused for a bit — considering I knew nothing about gin before this session — but at least I left knowing that I love gin.
The Lady Danger
The Lady Danger: A Must Try — Hendricks Gin, Parfait Amour, Lavendarcello, Lemon Juice
Gins tried included the Ransom Old Tom gin, Bols 1820 Genever, Beefeater London Dry Gin, Plymouth Gin, Tanqueray Ten Gin, Hendricks Gin, Aviation Dry Gin.
Juniper is the main ingredient in Gin.
Gin is classified by weight/percentage of juniper in the spirit
In blind tasting, 9 out of 10 times people will choose gin cosmo over vodka cosmo. Give gin a chance before saying you don’t like it
Cucumber & Royale: 1 oz gin, 1/2 cucumber simple syrup, rose champagne. Cucumber simple syrup: blend 1 cucumber & 4 oz simple syrup
“If it’s not a vodka and it’s not a gin, let’s call it a vir-gin.”
The remaining sessions I had to step in and out of due to meetings with liquour/spirit companies (tough life, I know), but here’s a few more notes I took:
- Toasted drop cocktail recipe: .5 oz limoncello, .5 oz disaronno, 1 oz sweet and sour, 1 squirt pasteurized egg white, garnish with cinnamon sugar rim
- BLT Cocktail: Bacon Infused vodka, juiced iceberg lettuce frozen into ice cubes, tomato water
- McGriddle Cocktail: 1 oz bacon infused bourbon, 1 oz maple syrup, whole milk, 1 egg (Yes, it was delicous)
The BLT and McGriddle Cocktail were from a session called Carnivourous Cocktails, and they were both delicious. I also had a taste of Bakon Vodka, which was also very good.
Tales of the Cocktail was amazing, and I look forward to writing about all of the liquors I was introduced to over the past few days.
