Alcademics.com

A Gin and Aquavit Cocktail

In Friday's post on FineCooking.com, I have the recipe for the Gin Junkie. The cocktail contains gin, aquavit, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, agave nectar, and orange bitters. 

I found the drink listed in All the Gin Joints, the gin recipe collection book by Michael Turback. The Gin Junkie recipe was created by Aleko Lilly of Barrio Capitol Hill in Seattle.

Gin Junkie
By Aleko Lilly

1.5 fl. oz. Gin
.5 fl. oz. Linie Aquavit
.25 fl. oz. St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
.25 fl. oz. Agave Nectar/Syrup
2 Dashes Orange Bitters
Lemon Peel for Garnish

Combine gin, aquavit, elderflower liqueur, agave syrup, and bitters in a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir to chill and strain into a pre-chilled cocktail glass. Squeeze lemon peel over surface to express oils and drop into the cocktail.

Head on over to FineCooking for more information. 

Seven Newish Gins

I have vast amounts of un-tested booze piling up in my apartment #firstworldproblems and there was an overwhelming amount of gin so I decided to do a category tasting. 

These gins have been building up ever since last fall so a few of them are hardly new, but they're all new to me. 

I smelled and tasted these gins with and without water added, but not in any cocktails. 

Roxor Gin

I wrote about this one before but didn't taste it until now. This gin is grapefruit, grapefruit, grapefruit on the nose, mouth, and finish. I thought I tasted something berry-like as possible pomegranate, but I think that's the hibiscus that's in the gin. The finish on this is crazy - spicy hot. I believe it's the cinnamon in the gin - I couldn't so much taste it as feel it, like the pin pricks you get on your tongue when eating Red Hots or an Atomic Fireball. 

Nolet Silver Gin

This gin is creamy, like a banana-lime-rhubarb-Orange Julius. On the palate the floral aspects come out lilac/lavender and more lime. It has so much flower power to it that it's a bit overwhelming; approaching perfumy. I don't think I'd like it on its own in a Martini but I actually have tried it in cocktails and it's nuts. I think it has huge consumer potential. 

No. 3 Gin

This gin is a cardamonster. I think they should call it No. 13 because it's like they took the cardamom-dominant Tanqueray No 10 and turned it up a few notches.  It is a London dry-style gin, still, with juniper coming in just under the cardamom with a dry, peppery finish. 

Darnley's View Gin

Apparently this gin is made with six botanicals including elderflower. Well I had a hard time tasting much of anything. I got alcohol first, then after a long smell the juniper and lemon zest. The cardamom came out a little on the palate but instead of tasting flowery, I tasted hay or grass. A big part of this may be the gin's relatively low 40% ABV. More on that later in the post.

DOSA Blade Gin

San Francisco Indian restaurant DOSA had a gin made for them at the nearby Old World Spirits. The gin is initially creamy with soft vanilla, but then quickly spicy - the regular Blade gin has cayenne pepper but I was getting crushed red chili peppers (aka pizza flakes). The gin is dusty yet creamy and a touch of spicy. It's kind of crazy, and I think all in a good way. I look forward to trying it in cocktails at the bar.  

Fifty Pounds Gin

The most classic of this bunch, Fifty Pounds Gin tastes of juniper, dry lemon, cardamom something spicy that I guessed was ginger but is probably the grains of paradise in the recipe. (Turns out grains of paradise are a relative of ginger.) With added water this gin became surprisingly sweet and reminded me of the flavor of powdered orange/lime candy. Would be interesting to taste it in cocktails.

Edinburgh Gin

I think I got this gin at last year's Tales of the Cocktail, which means I'm really far behind in tasting products as that was nearly a year ago. The juniper in this gin tastes fresh, bordering on blueberries or plums rather than dry pine. That said I get a lot of dry, baked spices on the palate (along with coriander) and something that reminds me of curry. I like the combination of fresh and dry in this gin. 

And now, something interesting. These gins' alcoholic content (except DOSA's, I don't know it). 

• Dornley's View 40%
• Edinburgh 43%
• Fifty Pounds 43.5%
• Roxor 45%
• No. 3 46%
• Nolet 47.6% 

Those are some boozy gins! No wonder the highest proof ones were so flavorful. 

Chefs Get Into the Gin Game Before and After Distillation

Two stories have popped up recently on the intersection between chefs and gin. 

Before:

Roxor gin is made in Texas and was developed in part by Robert Del Grande, a James Beard-awarded chef with a PhD in biochemistry. The gin  contains the usual juniper, corriander, orris, grains of paradise and citrus including grapefruit and lime; plus hibiscus,  cocoa nibs, Texas pecans, and cinnamon. 

The chef developed the gin, and it is distilled to his specifications at San Luis Spirits in Dripping Spring, Texas. 

After:

Chef Peter Smith of PS 7's in Washington DC uses the spent mash from gin distillation- the botanicals left in the bottom of the still - to cure meats for the restaurant. He uses the mash from both Bluecoat Gin in Philadelphia and Catoctin Creek in West Virginia. Then:

 At the distillery, the fresh, non homogenized botanical spices are boiled down and melded together into a balance of flavors that is mellow but intense. Peter mixes this leftover, tea-like compost, with oil, leaving it to sit for a month. Then, he strains it through three times to get it pure, clear, and compressed. 
 
He has created a “Ginola,” a play off breseola, by rubbing his beef with the spent botanicals and hanging it to dry and cure for about a month.  The beef develops a gin-like taste and is included on his tasting menu.  He has been curing “GinBelly,” similar to pancetta, a cured pork belly covered with the gin mash botanical and then rolled and dried for two-five months.  PS 7’s also now features a halibut dish in which the fish has been treated with his gin-mash powder, giving it a light and unexpected gin flavor.  He has also worked with Catoctin Creek to develop a gin salt. 

You can read the press release here.

Gegham Ghazaryan Wins the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 Competition

Last night was the grand finale, the Summer Ball, for the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals. For the contest the bartenders had to set up and decorate a bar, serve a cocktail all night, and win both the approval of the crowd and the judges. 

The cocktails were judged by Phil Duff, Audrey Fort of G'Vine, and Gaz Regan. The attendees of the ball were given 5 tokens each, which they could give to the bartenders with the best drinks at the event. 

Gegham Ghazaryan from the bar Xandom in Alicante, Spain, won not only the most tokens of the night but the competition overall. 

His drink was: 

Coupage Floral by Gegham Kazarian, Xandom, Alicante

1½ shots G'Vine Floraison
¾ shot June liqueur
¾ shot pink grapefruit juice
½ shot lime juice
½ shot cardamom and ginger syrup
¼ shot blueberry reduction (that had cardomom and many other ingredients in it)

Method:Shake everything except the reduction with ice. Strain into a crushed-ice-filled old fashioned glass. Dash the reduction on top. Garnishwith blueberry, ginger, cardamom, cassia, lime and grapefruit peel flambéd withFloraison and June.

For those of you who've been paying attention to the competition overall, here are the top winners for all the individual competitions.

Make Your Own Gin: David Wolowidnyk, Jeff Bell, Gegham Ghazaryan & Guillaume Ferroni

Speed Drink-Making: Torsten Spuhn, Solomon Siegel, David Wolowidnyk & Guillaume Ferroni & Javier Ruiz Vera

Free Pouring: Terry Cashman, Michael Pazdon, Jill Saunders

Aroma Exam: Gegham Ghazaryan & David Gonzalez, Jeff, David Wolowidnyk & Guillaume Ferroni

Written Exam: Michael Pazdon, Torsten Spuhn, Guillaume Ferroni

Summer Ball Cocktail (Judges): Gegham Ghazaryan, Jill Saunders, David Wolowidnyk

Summer Ball Cocktail (Crowd): Gegham Ghazaryan, David Gonzalez, David Wolowidnyk

So there were a great representation of people winning different challenges and honestly I had no clue who was going to win overall until it was announced. 

It's been a great week and a pleasure hanging out with these awesome bartenders. This was a tough competition to win, so a huge congratulations to Gegham Ghazaryan!

See more photos on the Alcademics Facebook Page.

Speed Pouring and a Slow Boat on the Charente: G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals

On the day before the last in the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals here in Cognac, France, the contestants entered the Speed Pouring Challenge.

The contestants had to make the same drinks as in the speed mixing competition - two Gin and Tonics with different tonics, a Jasmine (gin, Campari, Cointreau, lemon), Floral Martini, and a Negroni. This time, however, they needed only to pour the spirits in the glasses they'd be served in without jiggering.

They were then measured for accuracy in quantity. I believe the slowest time was around 21.5 seconds and the fastest at 54 or so seconds. (The slowest time was by celebrity guest Gary Regan!)

After the competition, we took a boat ride down the Charente River to the La Ribaudiere restaurant.

We took the opportunity to use the boat ride for a capella karaoke.

Then at the restaurant the bastards had the non-competing bartenders (the hangers-on like myself and Gaz Regan) make the punch. Nobody told me this trip was going to be hard labor.

Currently it's Friday, the last day of the contest. The bartenders are taking a two-hour written exam while the bloggers are blogging. Tonight is the grand finale Summer Ball - more to follow - along with the name of the winner - tonight or tomorrow!

Aroma Seminar: G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals

The third challenge of the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals is all about aroma. First contestants (and bloggers) learned about aroma and then took a quiz about it.

In the seminar, we learned about the link between aroma and emotion, and aroma and memory. These links are not even logical- if you hear a dog barking or bad noises when you’re in a rose garden, in the future when you smell roses you may associate that with an uncomfortable sound. 

Bad smells are useful for self-defense too - a large portion of people who are hurt in fires have a compromised sense of smell - they didn't smell the gas or the smoke. The loss of the sense of smell causes loss of appetite, diminishes quality of life, and causes accidents as above.

We then did an exercise where we smelled an aroma and created an image in our mind- a shape, a color, a piece of music, or a place. Everyoneended up chosing a pastel color. The shape was roundish but not defined – I chose a cream colored egg.

We classified odors by intensity and learned the difference between intensity and tenacity. Intensity has to do with the highness of the note (so lemon is way up there) whereas tenacity is the length of the scent (cardamom is a medium intensity but high tenacity odor). Citrus notes tend to have a high intensity but low tenacity; chocolate has a medium-low intensity but high tenacity, as does vanilla and licorice root (used for that purpose in gin), sandalwood and cedarwood have low intensity and high tenacity. 

We learned about synthetic and natural fragrant molecules, and how each are important in perfumes - often they are mixed and it's less common to have synthetic-only perfume. Often the discovery of an important fragrant molecule leads to the creation of a great perfume- this happened with Chanel No 5 and Aldehyde C12 MNA, discovered in 1903.

 After the class, the contestants sat down to a test. 

We won't know the winners until later...

Gin-Blend: G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals

The second round of the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals in Cognac was a challenge to blend a gin from distilled ingredients. But first the contestants learned how G'Vine is made. 

First a grape neutral spirit is produced on a column still. Then four other distillates are made: one of grape vine flowers, one of juniper, and two more of multiple botanicals. In the final stage, all of these distillated are blended together and then redistilled in the pot still. (Images of the distillate makeup are at the end of the post.)

With that in mind, the finalists were given a set of distilled ingredients and asked to blend their own gin. The goal was to have it be a consumer-friendly, commercially-viable product. 

I didn't get a chance to try any of the final gins, so we'll have to wait and see who won this round...

Click below to see pictures about the makeup of G'Vine gin.

Speed Round: G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals

 
The first round of the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur 2011 World Finals was the Speed Drink Making Round. The fifteen contestants from around the world had to make two Gin and Tonics with different tonics, a Jasmine (gin, Campari, Cointreau, lemon), Floral Martini, and a Negroni. 

I don't know the winner yet, but here are some pics of the contestants doing their thing.

Click below for more.