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Tales of the Cocktail Award Winners: The Official List

Here is the official list of the 2011 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards winners.

2011 Spirited Award Winners

• American Bartender of the Year Kenta Goto, New York City, New York (Tie) Sam Ross, New York City, New York (Tie)
• Best American Brand Ambassador Jacques Bezuidenhout, Partida Tequila
• Best American Cocktail Bar Drink, Boston, Massachusetts
• Best Bar Mentor Audrey Saunders, New York City, New York
• Best High Volume Cocktail Bar Rickhouse, San Francisco, California
• Best Cocktail Writing - Author Camper English, San Francisco, California
• Best Cocktail Writing - Non Book Imbibe
• Best International Brand Ambassador Dan Warner, Beefeater Gin
• Best New Cocktail/Bartending Book Punch by David Wondrich
• Best New Product Bank's 5 Island Rum
• Best Restaurant Bar Eleven Madison Park, New York City, New York
• International Bartender of the Year Erik Lorincz, London, England
• World’s Best Cocktail Bar Employees Only, New York City, New York
• World’s Best Cocktail Menu Artesian at The Langham, London, England
• World’s Best Drinks Selection Employees Only, New York City, New York
• World’s Best Hotel Bar The Savoy, London, England
• World’s Best New Cocktail Bar Eau de Vie, Sydney, Australia

BBC Report from Tales of the Cocktail

While at Tales of the Cocktail this week, I was interviewed by Lisa Mullins on the BBC radio program The World. 

The link to listen to the interview is here. The segment is only about three minutes long. 

I spoke about different international bartending styles and trends, from Asia to London, and recommended that people try a Ramos Gin Fizz. 

Back home in SF, I am hankering for one again. 

Camper English Wins Best Cocktail Author at Tales

I'll post more when I can get to a computer (I lost my power cord) so long story short: Hooray for Me!

I win the best non-book cocktail author award last night at Tales of the Cocktail.

That is awesome.

H2O Cocktails

These are notes for the H2O Cocktails seminar at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans.

I think this concept was pioneered by Kathy Casey, one of the seminar hosts.

So, what are these H2O cocktails? Basically they're vodka drinks made with flavored water (not juice, no chunks) and no sugar. They come out to about 80 calories, all from the vodka. The waters used are infused with fresh ingredients, not commercial flavored waters.

They retain the craftsmanship of a fresh muddled cocktail, and recommended being mixed with flavorful vodkas.

Ultimately, I'm impressed with the concept. The drinks taste refreshing; they could be spa cocktails. They don't have the booziness and texture of a Manhattan, for example, but are more along the lines of a mojito.

To make a water infusion, either soak well-chopped fruit/toasted spices/other ingredients overnight in cold water, or consider doing a flash infusion with an isi nitrous canister.

Fun.

Vinegar: The Other Acid

These are notes from the Tales of the Cocktail seminar "Vinegar : The Other Acid). Forgive the formatting and spelling- I'm typing this on my phone as I managed to lose my laptop power cord.

Three other acids used is cocktails include citric (citrus), tartaric (unripe fruit), and malic (apples and grapes).

Lime has the most acid of the citric group.

Vinegar is a double fermented liquid. Base to alcohol, the alcohol to acetic acid.

Balsamic is more acidic on the palate than white wine vinegar, yet they smell the opposite.

They tried to correlate perception of sourness/acidity with pH but couldn't find any correlation.

Intensity of sourness seems to depend on how the acid reacts in a solution. Approximately 1/3 the amount of something citric is a good starting point for vinegar amount. For one ounce of lime juice start with about 1/3 oz of vinegar.

Vinegar drinks in history:

Oxymel - honey, vinegar, and water comes from 460BC Greece

Pliny the Elder in Roman era mentioned Posca: vinegar honey water and coriander seed. 50AD

Shrubs. (The new black.)

Switchel- water molasses apple cider vinegar ginger , often mixed with rum in early America

Vinegar Today: Ashley Greene does not consider it a vinegar cocktail, as much as she may enjoy it. Same goes for a dirty martini or a Gibson.

"Vinegar can be a nostalgic reference point in a drink" Ashley Greene

Gastriques- a reduction of vinegar fruit and sugar. Originally made as a sauce. Shrub is more an uncooked item, gastrique often more caramelized.

Tinctures- can use vinegar instead of alcohol to act as solvent to suck up flavors. Just three drops of a fennel vinegar tincture in a Manhattan can brighten up the drink and add a touch if acid. Same with a Martini. Cacao bean/balsamic and fennel/white wine vinegar they tried. To make them, use a lot of the flavoring agent and shake daily.

 

 

Big Drinks at Tales of the Cocktail

A fun event trend at Tales of the Cocktail: Big Drinks.

This year there were:

• The World's Largest Kopstootje Toast (genever slurp) info here. Over 400 people took part. 

(This image courtesy of Bols)

• The World's Freshest Ramos Gin Fizz "by using fresh laid eggs, cream churned from a cow milked on-site and lemons picked from the tree, the Hendrick's Team succeeded in creating the ultimate definition of a fresh cocktail."

 

• The World's Largest Negroni. "On Thursday, July 21, close to 400 cocktail enthusiasts gathered to witness and taste the “World’s Largest Negroni,” a massive 30-gallon cocktail made of equal parts Campari, Italy’s legendary red spirit, Beefeater 24 Gin and Martini Rosso Vermouth.  The festive libation was made on site to celebrate the “Year of the Negroni” and was presented in a handcrafted ice vessel.  The high-spirited event, a highlight of the Tales of the Cocktail festival, was orchestrated by Master Mixologist Francesco Lafranconi and held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans’ French Quarter.  In addition, noted Italian bartenders from around the globe flew in to make their own highly distinctive Negroni variations at the event using fresh juices, rare Italian liqueurs and Prosecco sparkling wine.  In homage to the Negroni cocktail’s creator, Count Camillo Negroni, the bartenders dressed up to resemble him and donned aristocratic handlebar moustaches. "

 
Photo: Gabi Porter

Shhh! It's a Secret

These are notes on the Shhh! It's a Secret seminar at the Tales of the Cocktail convention.

• For alcohol products you have to list your ingredients, method, etc. to the TTB before approval - the whole recipe, in gernal. This isn't the same for non-alcoholic products. 
• Lillet is in a category of tonic wine, rather than vermouth. 
• In 1886 John Pemberton released a syrup with cola nuts and coca- Coca Cola. But one year before that there was John Pemberton's Nerve Wine Coca, a "tonic wine". This was changed based on the coming backlash against alcohol.  In 1863 in France, Vin Mariani (containing both coca and quinquina/quinine) was also a tonic wine, that may have been the inspiration for Pemberton.
•  Before the discovery of the new world, Europe didn't have cinchona.  (Or phyloxera, but that's another story.) Tonics and medicines from local communities in both the new and old world start to become branded medicines/health tonics. 
• Cinchona name comes from the name of a Spanish governor to Peru, the Marquee of Quinquon (sp?) whose wife was ill and this tonic helped her. 
• Quinquina was a selling point for tonic wines. 
• Back in the day, Lillet made many products, not just the fortified wine we know today. 
• Lillet contains wine from 3 grapes, macerations of cinchona, sweet and bitter orange peels from Haiti, Morocco, and Spain, and several additional (SECRET!) Boredeaux fruits. There are ten  ingredients. 
• Jackie Patterson says you can see the size of the word "Kina" or "quinquina" getting smaller over the years in advertising. This indicates the brands coming into their own rather than advertising the base ingredient (so, similar to Pepsi-Cola becoming just Pepsi), so they promote the brand name versus the ingredient. 
• Rumor has it that Lillet has changed; that the quinquina/bitterness decreased when it changed from Kina Lillet to Lillet in name. Patterson says the blender says "it's never been a bitter, what it adds to the flavor of Lillet is something akin to roundness and depth."  That said, they aknowledge that the alcohol percent was lowered and it became less sweet. 
• To make Gran Classico, they pour alcohol over a big sort of funnel filled with herbs to slowly extract the flavors. It gets its color and flavor from percolation. Then it is lightly filtered and sugar is added. "This is very typical to what you would have tasted a couple hundred year ago."
• Fernet is a spirit category, not a brand name. 
• It is possible that fernet was originally created by one monk with a name something like Frangellino Fernet. 
• Fernet contains a mushroom that sucks the flavors off the trees that it grows on, usually larch trees. 

Laptop running out of power - I'll add more later!

The Mysteries Wood Maturation at Tales of the Cocktail

Here are notes from the Mysteries of Wood Maturation seminar at Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans.

• "We want to keep the character of the base spirit, but we don't want to have vinegar. Wood helps us do that. It takes some of those acids out that we don't want." Dale DeGroff
• "We don't really know how far back barrel usage goes." Doug Frost. Theoretically you could throw it off a boat and it would float for a while. One person can roll it up a hill. "The very idea of bending staves is not way out - we're talking about ship-building." Doug Frost
• "It was in idea vessel and it just happened to provide flavor." Doug Frost
• "The very idea of whisky and brandy as aged products is a relatively new - 150 years or so- concept." Doug Frost
• Barrels we use for aging have about 5 percent tanin, 23 percent lignin, 70 percent cellulose. Resinous/turpentine elements in oak for barrels is tiny and that's what we want. - Doug Frost
• Prescription Julep - made with both bonded rye and cognac
• In barrels alcohol solubilizes extractable substances from the wood and acquires color. The color acquisition is gradual 
• Troncais oak was planted methodically in rows. The circles/grains have tighter grains. Limousin oak is fatter, grows among bushes. 
• Oxidation: taste mellows down, stewed oak aromas (from toasting) disappear, replaced by floral aromas specific to the type of oak used and the toasting. Color intensifies. 
• In France, 24 to 36 months natural drying in open air. Humidity in wood is  brought down from 17 percent to 10-14 percent. This tightens the fibers and locks in aromatic wood compounds. Harsh tannins undergo polymerization and eliminates the hard ones that taste like turpentine. Rain water washes the wood. 
• Rain, Dampness, sun, winds, temperature variations, and micro-organisms all act on wood as it's aging outdoors. 
• Wood from US - aromatic, sweet, low tannins. French: complex and aromatic, don't aromatically overwhelm the eau de vie.
•  Fine grain wood better for long aging. 
• The main aromas in wood: Eugenol - spices, cloves. Vanillin - vanilla, sweetness, sugars, Christmas cake finish. Whisky Lactone - grated coconut, mushroom, mulch, celery. (If too strong, lactone gives bitterness.) Mixed together over the years the levels of these three things give rancio; flavors that don't really go togher. "A mix of youth age spiciness, flower, tobacco, cigar box"
• At Vicard cooperage in France (read about my visit to Vicard here on Alcademics) they use corrugated staves. These allow more exchange between the spirit in the wood. 
• If you have too much moisture inside the stave, you'll get blisters when you toast the staves. These cause leaks. 
• "Consumers are being more and more difficult today, and they know what they're drinking."
• Can we separate what the wood does from what time in wood does? Yes, says, Doug Frost. As something ages in barrels it tastes on the spices from the barrel, caramel vanilla butterscotch. But then we take a step back - evaporation/oxidation from time in oak - you begin to make the fruit character we start with get riper and riper - raisin and dates and figs. If I'm smelling cinnamon and coconut and black pepper that's just the oak talking; the other notes are from time.
• "Some 50 year old cognacs taste dried out to me - the fruit gets more and more ripe until it gets dried out." Doug Frost 
• You always want to start aging in a humid cellar because these are when the biggest extractions take place 18 months - 2 years in a humid cellar, then move to a dry cellar. (In cognac.) You might bring a barrel back to the humid cellar to give it a little push. 
• We a next tried Parker's Heritage Collection - 10 year old bourbon finished in cognac casks, 100 proof. I'm no bourbon expert but I am pretty sure people are going to like this stuff a lot when it comes out later this year.