Bartender Journey - Cocktails. Spirits. Bartending Culture. Libations for your Ears.

Maker's Mark with Jane Bowie

This week, we continue our Tales of the Cocktail 2017 coverage. This is the 5^th of 9 planned episodes about Tales 2017.

 

• We will talk with Jane Bowie from Maker’s Mark. During Tales this year, I was invited to a Maker’s Mark event at Dicky Brennen’s Bourbon House. The Bourbon House had purchased a full barrel of Maker’s 46.
•  Quoting from the invitation I received to the event, The Bourbon House is “the first in Louisiana to have created its very own Maker’s Mark® Private Select™. This is a first-of-its-kind barrel program that allows retail customers to customize their own personal Maker’s Mark by finishing fully-matured cask strength Maker’s Mark Bourbon in a single barrel made up of their custom selection of ten total oak staves, resulting in over 1,000 possible selections”.
• Take a listen to Podcast No. 223 with the audio player on this page, or on Apple Podcasts/ Google Play Music/ Stitcher Radio for a slice of the Tales experience!

 

• Patron is sponsoring an educational event.  It’s in Cleveland on September 12, 2017 at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center.  It’s a full day of education with Breakfast, Lunch and Happy Hour included and there is no cost to you! RSVP here.

 

• BarSmarts Advanced will be conducting daylong sessions, providing education and hands on mixology instruction, plus testing and certification. Its taught by Dale DeGroff, David Wondrich, Paul Pacult, Steve Olson, Doug Frost and Andy Seymour.  At the end of the day you do a practical exam where you prepare three drinks for one of these gentlemen, so you might be making drinks for Dale DeGroff or in my case David Wondrich.  To qualify you have to do the online course first.

Cocktail of the Week:

Maker’s Boulevardier

1.5 parts Maker’s Mark Bourbon

0.75 part Sweet Vermouth

0.75 part Campari or Aperol

Maraschino Cherry for garnish

Stir with ice, strain, garnish and serve.

 

Book of the Week:

The Alcohol Textbook by T.P. Lyons $299.95

Whisky: The Manual by Dave Broom $12.34

Let’s go to Dicky Brennen’s Bourbon House.

• I toast you with a very special bottle that I have not tasted yet.  It is a Maker’s Mark Private Select.  “Exclusive Oak Stave Selection By Bill Samuels Jr.”  Hand written on the label it says “110.9 Proof/55.45 % Alcohol by Volume”. On the back it is hand signed by Bill Samuels Jr.  

Toast:  

Here’s to the bottle which holds a store
Of imprisoned joy and laughter!
Here’s to this bottle
Many more bottles,
And others to follow after.

 

Tasting Notes

Color:  Amber to Orange

Nose:  Strong alcohol right away. Chestnuts.  Stone Fruit - Plums, Fresh Cut Wood, (like a beautiful brand new Bar!)  Rugged Leather, Fresh Herb or Grass

Taste:  Toast.  Burnt Orange Peel.  Peach Pie.

Mouthfeel:  Luscious.  Silky.  Refined.

Finish:  Strong alcohol.  Carmel.  Toasted Oak.

 

Impressions:  Wonderful and sophisticated Bourbon.  Adding a little water makes this something I want to drink everyday! Too bad the bottle will run out eventually.

 

Tales of the Cocktail 2017 - Continuing Coverage

On the Bartender Journey Podcast this week, we continue our Tales of the Cocktail 2017 coverage. This is the 4^th of 9 planned episodes about Tales 2017.

• We will talk with 2 very interesting ladies:
  • Laura Bellucci – Lead Bartender at Sobu in New Orleans
  • Aisha Sharpe – Brand Ambassador VDKA 1600
• Take a listen to Podcast No. 222 with the audio player on this page, or on Apple Podcasts/ Google Play Music/ Stitcher Radio for a slice of the Tales experience!

Cocktail of the Week:
Courtesy of Aisha Sharpe and VDKA 6100
Spicy Kiss

• 2 oz VDKA 6100
• 4 Chunks Watermelon
• 1 slice Jalapeno Pepper, plus some for garnish
• ½ oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• ½ oz Simple Syrup

Muddle the Watermelon and Jalapeno. Add the remaining ingredients & ice. Shake and double strain into a chilled coupe glass.
Brian’s Note: Or try it as a tall drink, served over ice in a highball glass with some seltzer.

Book of the Week:
The Bloody Mary: The Lore and Legend of a Cocktail Classic, with Recipes for Brunch and Beyond

During Tales Absolute a Bloody Mary Bar and I met author Brian Bartels who is passionate about this Brunch Staple. The book is filled with variations on the timeless Bloody Mary, plus history and tips for setting up for a Brunch party. There are ideas for Infused vodkas, like Cilantro, Bacon, Shiitake and more. Great book for getting ideas about upping your Bloody Mary game!

At the Absolute Bloody Mary Bar there were four or so variations on the Bloody Mary. I choose a green one. There were tons of garnishes to choose from and customize your drink. There displayed them cleverly in hanging mason jars, with a little hand written chalk board behind each.

If want some great online Bartending education, check out the Mixology Certification Program from our friends at the Mixology Talk Podcast. Enter the code “BartenderJourney” for 20% this extreemly detailed on-line course.

Bartender Eductaion Opportunity:

If you are anywhere near Cleveland Ohio Patron is doing a Full Day class for you to learn about all Tequila. There is no cost to attend. You just need to RSVP and get yourself there on September 12, 2017. It will be held at the Cleveland Marriott Downtown at Key Center.
Suggestion: get yourself a room at the hotel. Enjoy yourself, learn a lot, and be safe!

Toast of the Week:

One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight beyond the bill of dreams.

 

Avant Garde Cocktails & Cedar Ridge Distillery

"Thinking outside the box."  Perhaps an overused phrase, but is an appropriate term for Summer Jane Bell's Seminar:  Shake Outside of the Box: Avant-Garde Cocktails.  Many great ideas were floated at this seminar.  Take a listen as Brian reads through his notes from this wonderful Tales of the Cocktail seminar.

Take a listen the podcast with the audio player on this page, or on:
•Apple Podcasts
*Google Play Music
*Stitcher Radio 
for a slice of the Tales experience!

We also talk to Jeff Quint, founder and owner of of Cedar Ridge Distillery in Iowa, who is making farm to glass spirits.  We caught up with Jeff at Dicky Brennen's Bourbon House in the French Quarter during Tales.  We ate some oysters, sampled some whiskey and chatted about Jeff's Journey from Accountant to Distiller.

The American Distilling Institute named Cedar Ridge “Distillery of the Year", for 2017.

Plus, we catch up with Hazel Alvarado, as she tells us about the many industry events she has attended in NYC this summer, including the grand opening of the new Oscar Wilde-Themed Bar in the No-Mad neighborhood of Manhattan.

Book of the Week:
Beach Cocktails: Favorite Surfside Sips and Bar Snacks
Summer may be ending in a few weeks, but there's still time to up your "thirst aid" knowledge and add a few summery cocktail recipes to your cocktail library.

Cocktail of the Week:
El Presidente

• 1 ½ oz Aged Rum Real McCoy 5 year
• ¾ Dry Vermouth
• ½ oz Orange Curacao
• Bar Spoon Grenadine
  Stir with ice.  Strain into a chilled coup glass.  Orange twist.

Toast of the Week:
(From the book Toasts: Over 1,500 of the Best Toasts, Sentiments, Blessings, and Graces)

• May you have peace in you igloo, oil in your lamp and peace in your heart.

Hot Mic - Podcasting for Bartenders

From Tales of the Cocktail 2017 in New Orleans:

·   Tales of the Cocktail 2017 has wrapped up, but it lives-on, with Bartender Journey!  We have a total of 8 shows planned with Tales 2017 coverage.  This is the second in the series.

On the show this week, we bring you the audio from our Tales seminar:  Hot Mic - Podcasting for Bartenders. 

Take a listen the podcast with the audio player on this page, or on: •Apple Podcasts *Google Play Music *Stitcher Radio  for a slice of the Tales experience!

You Are Throwing Money Away!

Sustainability is the hot topic in the Bar & Restaurant world right now.  How can we help the environment AND our bottom line at the same time?

Brian is just back from Tales of the Cockail 2017 with a fresh perspective! 

"If we knew what to do with it, it wouldn't be waste any more!"

Summer Social

It's the Bartender Journey Podcast No. 218 and as you know I’ll be attending Tales this year again but this time as a part of a panel titled: “Hot Mic: Podcasting for Bartenders”.

 

I’ll be presenting along with Kara Newman, our guest author on Podcast 193, Sother Teague, a friend and propritor of the new socially conscious bar, Coup, that donates all profits to charities and Damon Boelte, of Speakeasy Radio. Special thanks to our sponsor, Brooklyn Gin!

 

If you’re headed down, make sure to stop by my session, Wednesday morning and if not, why aren’t you going? We’ll make sure to post details both for Tales and session tickets on both our blog and Facebook page.

 

The Bartender Journey Podcast will be taking a production break for the next few weeks and will return with a full length episode on July 26^th.

 

We have lots of great interviews already recorded, plus I’ll be collecting lots of great audio at Tales, including an interview with the great whiskey writer Lew Bryson.

 

Meanwhile, this week we’ll kick off the Bartender Journey Summer (School) Social and will be posting and sharing valuable content on our blog, www.bartenderjourney.net and Facebook page, Bartender Journey Podcast on spirits education, cocktail competitions, industry events and more, especially during Tales. Make sure you follow Bartender Joueny on IG and FB.

 

If you would like to contribute in any way you can, by writing a piece for Bartender Journey, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sharing the show with a friend, we welcome your input. You can go to BarternderJourney.net/contact to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and maybe feature something you wrote on BJ. There is also our Tip Cup page BJ.net/TipCup.  If this show has helped you out at all or entertained you…if you’ve learned a little something, please consider contributing to our Tip Cup at /tipcup.

 

We will have another podcast for you on July 26, 2017. Lots more great content to come. 

Bartender Continuing Education

We look at some education options - one in NYC and one online.

Its a short show this week, but we think you'll learn a little something, or at least learn how to learn!

Cheers!

Ground to Glass Gin

• It's the Bartender Journey Podcast No. 216!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes,Android or Stitcher Radio.

This time on the Podcast we talk to Colby Frey who is doing great work out in Nevada making spirits from “ground to glass” as he says. We’ll talk to Colby about his gins and some of the other spirits that he is producing at Frey Ranch Estate Distillery.

• Cocktail of the Week:

The Pegu cocktail is a wonderful Gin drink. Great for summer. According to wikipedia the Pegu cocktail was “the signature drink Burma's Pegu Club. The club was located just outside Rangoon, and its members were those Britons who were senior government and military officials and prominent businessmen. The club was named after the Pegu, a Burmese river.” According to David Wondrich “We're not sure precisely when it was invented, but it had to be before 1927, when it turns up in Harry MacElhone's Barflies and Cocktails.” That book has been re-released with a forward written by Mr. Wondrich.

This is David Wondrich’s recipe from Esquire.com

• 2 ounces gin – Frey Ranch dry gin.
• 3/4 ounce orange curacao - I used Mandarin Napoleon
• 3/4 ounce lime juice
• 1 dash Bitters -- Angostura bitters
• 1 dash orange bitters.

Shake with ice. Double strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Lime wheel garnish.

Speaking of shakers, if you are in the market for a great shaker set, our friends from the Mixology Talk podcast just released a great one. The large tin is weighted and the small one is un-weighted, which is a great combo. They fit together perfectly.

If you would like to take your Bartending to the next level and get some extremely detailed training…you can do it online from anywhere, in your own time and we have a discount code for 20% off! The Mixology Certification Program, also from our friends Chris & Julia at Mixology Talk is an amazing resource.
Enter the code “BartenderJourney” and you’ll get a 20% discount!

There’s been a lot of talk about Sustainability in our industry lately. Our friends on the Bartender HQ just did a second episode dedicated to the issue and I highly recommend you check that out. They had a lot of great ideas for cutting down on waste on their recent episode.

Tales of the Cocktail is doing a full day Sustainability Summit for the first time this year. Its on the Tuesday of Tales, and I’ll be sure to attend as much of that as possible and report back to you.

Toast of the Week:

To the Holidays…all 365 of them!

Gin Gin...It's all about Gin. #WorldGinDay

World Gin Day is the second Saturday of June each year. We will take this opportunity to dedicate an entire episode to Gin!

• It's the Bartender Journey Podcast No. 215!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes,Android or Stitcher Radio.
• Use the hashtag #worldginday to tell the world what you are doing to celebrate Gin.
• This week on the podcast we talk with Tristan Stephenson, Bartender, Bar Owner & Author from England. He wrote among others, The Curious Bartender’s Gin Palace, which is an amazing resource for gin knowledge.
• Also, later in the show we’ll talk to the Frey’s who are producing wonderful Estate Grown Gins in Nevada. This is delishous stuff and so interesting that they are producing they are doing a grain to glass gin. Its rare for a gin maker to grow their own grain and distill and bottle it onsite.
• The Cocktail of the Week has to be the Martini since we are talking all about Gin!
• Martini’s are of course classically made with gin. Many consumers these drink vodka Martinis, in fact as a Bartender you can not assume one way or the other. Its best to determine first Gin or Vodka and then ask if there is a brand preference. Vermouth? If its good quality and fresh vermouth, its wonderful. On the other hand, if its not good quality and its been sitting in the well for 6 months, you can’t blame someone for requesting an extra-extra dry Martini, because it tastes terrible.
• Ganish? Olives are the default, but a lemon twist is awesome! An orange twist is great too, and is traditional.
• Bitters? Orange bitters are in the classic Martini recipe.
• Glasswear? Of course the glass should be chilled, but what shape glass? The giant “Steakhouse Martini Glass” has become what many consumers expect these days, but do we really want to give our guests so much alcohol all at once? The martini glasses are difficult for servers to transport when full, and are no good for guests at a stand up cocktail party. Plus the drink gets warm.
• Here’s how I made mine.
  • 2 oz Frey Ranch Gin
  • 1 oz Imbue Bittersweet Vermouth (from Oregon)
  • 2 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6
  • Stir with ice
  • Stain into a chilled cocktail coup
  • Express oils from a lemon twist into drink. Rub lemon twist on rim of glass. Drop twist into drink.
  • Every time I get somebody trying to be clever at the bar and brings up “shaken not stirred” I always say “the reason James Bond ordered it ‘shaken not stirred’ is because that’s the EXCEPTION to the rule. It should really be stirred”. I was once served a Mantini in an airport bar that looked like a slurpy from 7-11. This guy shook that drink within an inch of its life! There was so much ice in the drink that it had more in common with a pina coloda than a martini. Some people will say shaking “brueses” the gin…I don’t know what the heck that means, BUT there should be no shards of ice in your Martini.
  • Another point of interest with a Martini – are we stirring this drink with ice just to make it cold, or is there something else going on here? Well do an experiment…mix up a batch of Martinis with what ever proportions you like – with no ice. Put half in the freezer to chill for IDK lets say 2 hours. Save the other half…keep it covered at room temperature.   After the one in the freezer is super cold, take the room temperature one and stir it with ice in a mixing cup for a good 20 seconds or so. Now taste the 2 side by side. The one from the freezer is going to be cold, but HOT from alchol…its too strong! The stirred one should be velvetly and pleasant to drink. Its been chilled, but also diluted from the melting ice…you are adding water to the drink. It’s an interesting experiment, and I hope you’ll give it a try. It helped me understand the Martini a lot better.
• Speaking of experiments, we got lots of great feedback on last week’s lime juice experiment! Also on the sustainability in bars angle…and we thank David Eden-Sangwell from the Bartender HQ podcast for being our guest on that show and for bringing up the sustainability issue on his show. This is important stuff…to try to reduce waste behind the bar and lesson our environmental impact. David and his co-host Sam did an entire episode about it recently and are already planning another. I’ve been inspired by those guys to talk about it more and put it into practice at my bar.
• I even heard from a listener who is working on a brand new bar program and he told me that he now plans to look into efforts to incorporate sustainability into the new bar he is working on!
• Please help support the Bartender Journey Podcast by contributing to our Tip Cup Page!
• Next week on the Podcast we will keep the Gin conversation going! We’ll talk to the proprietor of Frey Ranch Gin.

Best Way to Juice a Lime

Oh Lime, How Do I Squeeze You?

Freshly squeezed lime juice is one of the most important ingredients in a good Bartender’s arsenal. Pre-packed bottled stuff is no comparison.

But HOW is the juice being produced? A Motorized Commercial Bar Juicer is certainly faster, more efficient and produces a higher yield than a hand press, but is the resulting juice the same?

It's the Bartender Journey Podcast No. 214!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on iTunes, Android or Stitcher Radio.

Our guest on the show today is David Eden-Sangwell of the Bartender HQ Podcast. We’ll discuss the results of the lime juice experiment, plus the issue of sustainability and waste in bars.

Lime Juice Experiment:

I was curious about the effects of using different types of juicers on the finished juice. I had no idea just how dramatic the results would be.

In the Bartending Community we often talk about how the white pith of citrus is bitter, and should be avoided.

With the rotating cone of the Motorized Juicer, we must be pulverizing some of that pith, which will get into the juice, right? The oil from the zest will not be utilized at all, and will end up in the garbage.

When we use a Citrus Hand Press or stand up lever operated Commercial Citrus Juicer we smash the zest quite a bit. The oils from the zest must be incorporated into the juice.

I used the following method to make my comparison.

I squeezed total of 18 limes – 6 each with the 3 different methods.

To evaluate the effect of the zest, I used a Y-Peeler to remove the peels from the limes for method #2.

Method #1: Waring Commercial Bar Juicer

Method #2: Hand Pressed – No Zest

Method #3: Hand Pressed – With Zest

Juice Yield (after fine straining):

1. 6 ½ oz
2. 5 ¾ oz
3. 5 ¼ oz

Color of juice:

1. Darkest green – a little muddy
2. Most pale of the three
3. Green hue

Aroma of juice:

1. Citrus, yet “flat”.   Smells of over ripe melon, not so much like lime.
2. Lime & citrus. Acidic.
3. Light, flowery, alive, bright.

Taste of juice:

1. Acidic, unappealing, not a strong taste of lime – just acid.
2. Lime & acid.
3. Saline, Lime, Fresh, The most balanced of the three. Vibrant.

I made Daiquiris that were identical, with the exception of the lime juice.

Daiquiri Test
Recipe:
-1 oz Real McCoy Silver Rum Aged 3 Years
-½ oz Lime Juice
- ½ oz - less 10 % - Simple Syrup

Taste of Daiquiris:

1. Lime flavor not very pounced. A little artificial tasting. Bitter on the back palate.
2. Fresher, but a little flat. Acidic.
3. Sweetest of the three, yet most appealing and complex. Fresh and interesting. Adding .75ml (=0.4oz) more lime juice, (with an “eyedropper”), made it perfect…the best of the three by far!

Conclusion:

The difference was striking. Method #3 produced far superior results over the others. The Daiquiri was vibrant, fresh, and complex. Method #1 was flat, one dimensional and less fruity.

So, it looks like the motorized juicer will be gathering dust in my bar, and we’ll be setting the lime juice oils free with the hand juicer!