Intelligent Bartender

MxMo (short for Mixology Mondays) is a global online meeting among bartenders who work towards making great cocktails around a specific theme (Hard Drinks, Punches, Vermouth Based Cocktails etc.)

Rob Montgomery and I have been keeping an eye on MxMo for the past 18 months, and have had many conversations about starting up one of our own to boost cocktail culture in Toronto.  We finally thought that it was time we stopped paying lipservice to making better cocktails and actually did something about it.

On Movember 30th, (yes Movember, check it here www.movember.com) a small group of bartenders from around our city gathered to work on some interpretations of “Holiday Cocktails.”  The timing seems relevant as we move into the busy holiday event season, who wouldnt want an excuse to have a great holiday cocktail?

First up was a welcome cocktail called the Honey Julep, a recipe of mine featured in the recent Drambuie re-launch recipe book.  The sweet and sour pink grapefruit juice complements the Drambuie really well and allows the freshness of the elderflower and mint to shine through.  This drink is perfect for summer, or a winter holiday getaway to a place that reminds you of summer.

Honey Julep

50ml Drambuie

15ml St Germaine Elderflower Liqueur

15ml Lemon Juice

30ml Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice

2 dashes of Angostura Orange Bitters

8-10 Mint leaves

Directions: Muddle mint leaves and bitters in a Boston Glass, add remaining ingredients and shake over cold fresh ice.  Double strain over crushed ice in a highball glass, and garnish with a mint sprig.

Next up was Ryan Powell with another Scotch based drink, his Maple Movember Manhattan.

Cocktail #2: Maple Movember Manhattan
2 oz Chivas Regal 12 Year Old
¼ oz ice wine maple syrup
¼ oz egg white
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Dry shake ingredients vigorously to properly froth the egg white then add ice and shake again.  Double strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and sprinkle nutmeg on top to garnish.
Optional: Brule a misted Aberlour 12 Year Old on top.

This cocktail was inspired from a Manhattan.  For me, winter holidays and scotch go hand in hand.  I replaced the sweet vermouth with the ice wine maple syrup because that’s I wanted something a little sweeter and the maple syrup pairs well with the apple notes in the Chivas.  The egg white was added to bring a creamy texture to the cocktail, which again is popular amongst holiday cocktails.  The Angostura bitters adds a fantastic holiday spice to the cocktail as well as the nutmeg sprinkle on top.  For a little more showmanship and to add a little more strength to the cocktail, you can mist Aberlour over the cocktail and gently brule it.  The sherry notes from the Aberlour adds a nice touch to the nutmeg, maple, apple and spice.

Next up was Alejandro Giraldo with a Spanish inspired Cazadores Saludable.

50ml Cazadores Tequila
20ml Pama Pomegranate liquor
60ml Pink grapefruit juice
20ml Lemon juice
15ml Agave nectar

Shake ingredients vigorously with ice then double strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a fresh mint leaf.

Rob Montgomery stepped up with his “Ho Ho Ho…. It’s Brown Butta YO!”

30ml fresh lemon fresh lemon juice
15ml Gomme Syrup
50ml Brown Butter “washed” Jack Daniels
Lemon twist(to garnish)
Combine liquid ingredients in Boston glass and fill with ice.
Stir well for 60 seconds.
Strain into chilled coupe glass. Spritz twist over the top, wipe around the rim and float skin side up.

Scott McMaster (aka Dr. Evil) took to the bar with Cocktail #4 An Evil Christmas

30ml Skinos
15ml jager
5ml lime juice
30ml White cran

Combine in boston over ice and shake
Garnish with frozen cranberry

The boys from Skinos were kind enough to drop off a couple of bottles of their product back in the summer, and Evil thought it would be a good opportunity to try using the pine flavour of the Mastica in a holiday cocktail.  It is the best cocktail we’ve had with Skinos which has an admittedly unusual flavour profile.  If anyone else has had success with Skinos, we’d sure like to hear about it, as I’m sure the boys from Skinos would as they make their foray into the cocktail world.

Finally. in the spirit of getting away for the holidays, we thought it would be nice to end with an Aviation Cocktail.  I really like the flavour of Creme de Violette, and Maraschino Liqueur is hard to hate at the best of times.  Although they can sometimes be hard to find, I’m sure if enough people ask for it, they’ll become more readily available… they’re certainly worth the effort.

Present at the innaugural Toronto MxMo were: Alejandro Giraldo, Ryan Powell, Rob Montgomery, Caitlin Mason, Gavin MacMillan, Jessica Klug, Scott McMaster.

Absent: Elan Marks, Nick Nemeth, Renata Clingen, Nishan Chandra

For more tips on setting up a great holiday bar Click here

and if you’re really serious about getting into bartending and want to train with some of the best bartenders in the business, click here to see the next training dates with BartenderOne

The next global Mixology Monday will be taking place on December 14th… same bat time, same bat channel.

Click here to see the next event on Facebook

The summer is in full swing and cocktails of all compositions are flowing freely.
Most cocktails are built on the foundation of a base spirit, namely vodka, rum, gin, whisky, tequila or brandy. As consumers move away from sweet, fruity vodka-based martinis toward more elegant and complex cocktails, gin is emerging as a leading base spirit.
In recent trips to San Francisco and Chicago, I visited a handful of bars renowned for their cocktails. Much to my surprise and delight most did not serve vodka. In fact, one had a sign on the wall that read, “If you ask for a Cosmo, we’ll ask you to leave!”
But why would an establishment choose not to serve vodka, the base spirit for a third of drinks served nationally?
Unfortunately the answer lies with the bar itself and I can only surmise. But what I do know is gin is making a comeback. Take the Tom Collins, a cocktail originally made with carbonated water, sugar, lemon juice and gin. Popularized in the 1874, bartenders are again serving it up albeit with a twist.
Flavoured with juniper berries, gin has a flavourful aroma that tempts the taste buds and is a worthy replacement in many cocktails that previously called for vodka as a base.
Yet why don’t more people drink it? The Great Tom Collins Hoax of 1874 made ‘Tom Collins’ a household name across the USA. The hoax began in New York when unsuspecting individuals were fooled into a chase across the city from bar to bar looking for a ‘Tom Collins’ who was said to be spreading vicious rumours about them. This imaginary ‘Tom Collins’ became such a legend that it may have been what prompted celebrated bartender Jerry Thomas to include the recipe for the Tom Collins in ‘The Bartenders Guide’ published in 1876.
Many admit they experimented with gin in their younger years but consumed the spirit in excess and, subsequently, turned off it. For those who fall into this category, now is the time to get reacquainted because gin will be one of the most dominant spirits in cocktail culture in the coming months and years.
I’m not suggesting you go to the extreme of remove vodka from your inventory. Rather, consider adding a few gin-based cocktails to the menu or, at the very least, your bartender’s repertoire.

If you’re still not convinced, try this delicious refresher on for size.

Juniper Ruby

1 oz Bombay Sapphire
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice
2 dashes grapefruit bitters (optional)

Creating unusual cocktail combinations from scratch is the hot new trend for 2009!

The National Restaurant Association has identified the culinary cocktail as the number 1 trend for 2009. BartenderOne partnered with Bacardi Canada to show a short list of invitation only media VIP’s exactly how powerful the culinary cocktail could be at a recent event held at the Local on the Danforth Avenue in Toronto. The room was filled with the who’s who of Canadian Hospitality and journalists from almost every major lifestyle magazine in Canada. We even had television crews from CBC’s Living in Toronto and Global News.

Among the hit cocktails of the day were the Oscar themed was the Mumbai Millionaire, made with Bacardi Superior, saffron infused Lemonade, and topped with Ginger Beer, The Pineapple Express, a pineapple and Black Pepper Mojito, and the Benjamin Button Backwards Mojito a molecular mojito that reverts back to it’s original form over time. All Oscar themed cocktails were created exclusively for Bacardi by the bar chefs at BartenderOne.

Mumbai Millionaire

1 1/4 oz Bacardi Superior
2oz Saffron infused Lemonade
1oz Ginger Beer

Shake Bacardi Superior and Saffron infused lemonade over ice.
Serve over crushed ice in a lowball glass and top with Ginger Beer.

To make Saffron Lemonade, add 1/2tsp of saffron to 1 litre of Lemonade.

Benjamin Button Backwards Mojito

1 1/4 oz Bacardi Superior
4 Mojito Ice Cubes
Serve in a chilled Martini glass.
Garnish with a disciplined mint sprig.

To make Mojito ice cubes, add the juice from 12 room temperature limes, 4oz of spring water, to a saucepan on low.
Add 12 tbsp granulated sugar, and 30 mint leaves, stir for 5-6 minutes or until sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove from heat and strain liquid into ice cube trays and set in freezer.

Makes 2 ice cube trays, enough for 8 Benjamin Button Backwards Mojitos.

Pineapple Express

1 1/4 oz Bacardi Superior
6 small pineapple chunks
12 whole black peppercorns
8-10 mint leaves
Juice of half a lime
1 tsp of granulated sugar
1oz soda

Muddle 6 small chunks of pineapple and 12 whole black peppercorns in the bottom of a highball glass.
Add mint, lime juice, sugar and Bacardi Superior.
Muddle lightly a second time.
Add ice to fill, top with soda and churn with a spoon to distribute muddled ingredients.
Garnish with Pineapple fonds and a mint sprig.

It’s not such a huge leap when you are thinking about creating culinary cocktails especially with a spirit as versatile as Bacardi. Dont be afraid to try unusual combinations… you may be surprised with the results!

Next we’re off to Montreal on April 23rd to Suite 701 to treat the french media to a little Bespoke Experience of their own.

Until next time!

Cheers!

I’ve been bartending for more years than I’ll mention in this article, and to be honest, it was years before I ever even opened a bottle of Angostura Bitters. While working in Australia, I was introduced to Bitters as one of the ingredients in the hangover cure trifecta, the lemonade-lime and bitters. Lemonade (or 7-up to those of us who live in the western hemisphere) lime cordial, and the magic elixer - Angostura bitters, to settle the stomach.

It wasn’t until years later that I started using bitters in cocktail applications, and only upon reflection on the original LLB that I realized the phenomenal difference that adding bitters to a cocktail would make.

When you consider a traditional balanced cocktail like the Cuba Libre (rum and coke) there are four main elements which lead to the balance, and make the cocktail a bestseller.

The Cuba Libre has

1. A strong element (Rum)

2. A weak element (Ice/water) balances the strength of the rum

3. A sweet element (cola)

4. A sour element (lime) balances the sweetness of the cola.

When you balance a cocktail based on these two axes, (strong vs weak and sweet vs sour) you end up with a drink that hits on both the sweet and sour taste receptors on the human tongue. Because this drink hits a total of two taste receptors we’ll rank this drink a 2.

Take another classic, the Whisky Sour, which also has the makings of a great balanced cocktail. Even though it’s name sake is Sour, the addition of sugar or simple syrup is essential to balance this drink and make it palatable. Most bartenders would make this cocktail with a measure of Rye or Bourbon, simple syrup and fresh lime juice. However if you look at the classic and sometimes forgotten recipe it calls for two dashes of Angostura (Aromatic) Bitters. Why the bitters was removed from the recipe is a mystery, I’m willing to bet it had more to do with laziness and lack of education than anything else.

Angostura aromatic bitters are the best selling bitters worldwide, and the product is excellent. They also make a great Orange Bitters which works well in Cosmopolitans, Negronis, Margaritas, or pretty much any other recipe containing Campari, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Triple Sec, or Blue Curacao. The bottom line is when you add bitters to a beverage it takes the drink to a completely different level, simply because you’re accessing a completely new group of taste receptors on the tongue.

Drinks like the Margarita work on a similar level, because they take the balance of sweet and sour and add the salty rim, which hits a third group of receptors; sweet, sour and salty. Add to that a few dashes of the Angostura Bitters and all of a sudden you have a cocktail that hits all four of the major taste receptors on the tongue, and provides the drinker with an unparalleled taste experience.

There are a ton of other options in terms of bitters, and if you’re really interested in taking it to the next level, you can always go ahead and make your own with your choice of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. When I was at Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco last fall the bartender had a great homemade Pineapple and Black Pepper Bitters.

Angostura isn’t the only Orange Bitters manufacturer. One of my favourite mixologists, Gary Regan, created Regans Orange Bitters #6 (which means that the 5 previous attempts weren’t up to Gary’s standards.) Stirrings also has a good Blood Orange Bitters, and La Fee produces, among a smorgasbord of other flavoured bitters, a West Indian Orange Bitters. Other flavours include Grapefruit, Peach, Lemon, and Mint bitters, and of course, no collection of bitters would be complete without Peychaud’s Aromatic Bitters, which has the some similarities to Angostura with a big red fruit flavour.

Bitters are a great addition to any bar program, and in terms of adding taste to a cocktail, they are the best value for money investment a bar can make. A few drops makes a HUGE difference.

For a great selection of proprietary bitters point your browser to www.kegworks.com

For some inspiration creating your own homemade bitters, there are a great selection of bitters recipes at Darcy O’neil’s blog at www.artofddrink.com

San Fransisco is a mecca of bar culture. When you’re in town it doesn’t take long to realize that bars and bartenders seem to take things a little more seriously, putting pride into their cocktail experience. I had heard the term “Speakeasy” as a term to describe a bar or tavern but never really given it much thought. I was fortunate enough to visit Bourbon and Branch, which is about the closest thing to a modern speakeasy out there. Speak Easy was a slang term used to describe an establishment that illegally sold alcoholic beverages during the period known as Prohibition (1920–1933) when the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol was illegal. The term comes from a patron’s manner of ordering alcohol without raising suspicion — a bartender would tell a patron to be quiet and “speak easy”. Although we’re not currently entrenched in Prohibition, the simple act of going into a busy establishment where you could have a conversation at a comfortable volume and get a great drink is, unfortunately, a rarity. After a couple of failed attempts, I finally got a reservation via email and they sent me the address and my password via email. When we arrived at the unmarked building with no number on the door, (we figured out we were at the right place by process of elimination) we knocked. The door opened a crack and we were asked for a password first, then a reservation name. Once inside we settled into the bar for our 90 minute time allowance and enjoyed everything that Bourbon and Branch had to offer.

Cell phone use is not allowed, allowing uninterrupted conversation, and I almost got the feeling that we had stepped back to a point in time when invasive technology wasn’t everywhere. The feeling of being in a comfortable place insulated from the outside world, where you could literally enjoy the social element of a public house the way things used to be.

Bourbon and Branch is a place I’d love to work, with a full sized test kitchen, where bartenders are encouraged to experiment and come up with new and unique ingredients and cocktail creations. I got to try a house sour with home made pineapple-black pepper bitters, and it made me realize the importance of having a creative space to work with where a bartender can play and come up with unusual ingredient collisions.

For a list of the Bourbon & Branch house policies, and to check out their site click here.

Every ingredient was measured and balanced with care, the way it should be done, no bottled or canned juices in site, lots of fresh cirtus, and a mix of classic and modern cocktail techniques rounded out the visual experience, no drink crossed the bar without first being tested by the bar chef/mixologist/bartender/bar keep… lets just leave it at beverage professional.
One of the most surprising delights of Bourbon & Branch was their commitment to stay Vodka free. Full flavoured cocktails littered the menu made with brandy, gin, whisk(e)y of every variety, tequila, and rum, but no vodka. In fact one of the rules of the house is “dont even think about asking for a Cosmo.”

Although B & B is not the only bar in San Francisco to make such a commitment, in a time where (unfortunately) vodka makes up between 1/4 and 1/3 of all spirits served, it’s refreshing to see
that people have the balls to buck the tasteless trend and truly get back to basics.

I was recently lucky enough to vacation to the Bahamas, and as always I make a point of seeking great bartenders in great bars that make great cocktails.  Paradise Island, should have been no different, especially considering the price tag for food and drink while on the island, and their commitment to haute cuisine.

At Nobu in Atlantis, I had a surprisingly good mojito for $17USD, (although at that price you’d expect a good drink)  No trip to the Bahamas would be complete without trying the signature Bahamian cocktail, the Bahama Mama.  I ordered one at each bar/restaurant I went to, and sadly there were no consistent recipes or drinks that tasted remotely alike (they were however all red in colour) Atlantis is no slouch of a resort in culinary terms, however the bar service was lacklustre at best.  Generally the bartenders were order takers without much in the way of motivation to take mixology seriously.

It seems like such a shame that so much money is spent on facilities, decor, food, chefs, ambiance, etc., and yet it has become completely satisfactory to do little or nothing when it comes to training the bar staff, which inherently results in less than exciting cocktails.  In an environment where setting yourself apart from the competition is paramount to the success of any restaurant / hotel / nightclub, even a small amount of effort could produce extraordinary results.