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The Hailstorm Mint Julep

The original julep recipe to embrace the effect that ice has on mixology, invented by John Dabney and the very drink that would ease the burdens of his enslavement.

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Hailstorm Julep:

1 Tbsp Superfine Sugar

2.5 Tbsp Water

Leaves of 4 - 6 Mint Sprigs

3 oz. of appropriate spirit

Combine water and sugar together, and stir until dissolved. If you so choose to use regular granulated or raw sugar, add the mint leaves at this point and muddle everything together instead of just stirring. Add base spirit (discussed below) and stir everything together over a LOT of ice until chilled. Pour over even more cracked, crushed, or pebbled ice (as much as you can fit) in a metal vessel of some kind. Garnish with additional mint bunch(es), speared raspberries, and edible flowers.

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What base should you use?

The original recipe for John Dabney's mint julep offers a solid variety of options for what base spirit to use. This includes various eau de vies (brandies made from fruit), cognac, dark rum (demerara), etc. Modern juleps use bourbon, which wouldn't be inappropriate either.

So long as you use a spirit of good quality with a diverse palette, you'll be just fine. That means no flavored spirits, nothing bottom shelf, and preferably something with some age on it.

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Who Was John Dabney?

John Dabney was an enslaved man born in 1824 who, in his teenage years, was sent to work for his enslaver's brother in a nearby cafe. Dabney took to the work with natural finesse and would go on to be not just head waiter, but eventually run some of the most popular kitchens in the Richmond (Virginia) area during the mid 1800s.

Though his career was always maligned by slavery and racism in the chattel and jim crow south, his talents and personality as a bartender, host, and restaurant manager gave him the opportunity to have great success, build a family, and establish a prominent name for himself throughout Virginia.

Dabney would pass in 1900 of kidney failure but remained a common name in publication until the 1950s, at which point his name became largely unknown.

Today, food historians, cocktail enthusiasts, and the owner of the Kalamazoo area cocktail lounge, Dabney and Co, have revived his namesake and culinary works and preserved his impact on the world of food and drink.

You can read a comprehensive biography on John Dabney here.

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Need a visual reference? Check out this video of how to make Dabney's Julep.

#cocktails #history #blackhistory #blackmixology #blackcooking #john dabney #mint julep #black history month #bartending #mixology #drinks #drinking #booze #liquor #Spotify

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Classic Spritz

3 oz Dry (brut) Prosecco 2 oz Aperol 1 oz Club Soda Mix together over ice Garnish with an orange slice

Enjoy!

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Rum Express Flight

1 oz. Bourbon barrel aged rum (Zacapa 23 Centenario) 1 oz Aperol 1 oz Amaro 1 oz Lime cordial Stir with plenty of Ice Strain into a glass over Ice Garnish with an orange zest

Santé

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The Army & Navy

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Recipe:

2 oz gin

1 oz Lemon juice

1 oz orgeat

Combine ingredients into a cocktail shaker with two large cubes of ice, one cracked and one whole. Shake for 12 to 15 seconds, then strain into a coupe style glass and garnish with a lemon or grapefruit peel of your choice.

Easy Orgeat:

1 cup almond milk (unflavored and unsweetened)

2 cups sugar

1.5 tbsp almond extract

Combine ingredients into a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer, and allow to sit until the sugar has completely dissolved. Transfer to a sanitized glass bottle and store in the fridge.

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The Army & Navy is most likely a prohibition era cocktail with a lot of consistently vague history.

The drink first appears in writing in David Embury’s “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks” in 1948.

Embury takes no credit for the cocktail and even describes it as “horrible,” favoring a recipe that is (ironically) considerably worse.

Embury does not make mention of who developed the cocktail, but it’s people have surmised that it has some relation to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C.

The club, despite having the cocktail on their standard menu, does not have more information on the cocktail’s history and doesn’t claim ownership of it themselves.

Others have said the name references a famous (?) football game between the Army and Naval academies, but there are no sources verifying that.

In truth, the cocktail is shrouded in mystery as far as history is concerned.

Despite that, it is a delicious and simple variation on the common gin sour that boasts a smooth mouth feel and a gentle sweetness that brings a smile to the lips.

#cocktails #mixology #liquor #drinks #recipes #cooking #food #orgeat #gin #lemon #bartending #prohibition #prohibition cocktails #Spotify

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#mixology #recipes #cocktails #drinks #liquor #Youtube

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New video coming to my YouTube channel tomorrow at noon. Click the link below and subscribe so you don’t miss it!

#cocktails #recipes #mixology #liquor #drinks #cooking #gin #sour #gin sour #orgeat #army #navy

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Raise a Glass: A Brief (But Boozy) History of Cocktails in the U.S.

It wasn't until the 1800s that cocktails really started to take off in the U.S. During this time, bartenders began experimenting with new and exciting ingredients, like absinthe and fruit juices.

One popular cocktail from this era was the Sazerac, which was created in New Orleans in the 1850s. It's made with rye whiskey, absinthe, sugar, and bitters, and it's still a classic today.

As the U.S. entered the 20th century, cocktails continued to evolve and gain popularity. Prohibition in the 1920s led to the rise of speakeasies, where people could enjoy an illicit cocktail in secret.

After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, cocktails experienced a resurgence in popularity. New cocktail trends emerged, like the martini and the old fashioned, and they've remained popular to this day.

But it's not just the general public who have enjoyed cocktails. U.S. Presidents have also been known to indulge in a drink or two. George Washington was a fan of Madeira wine, and Thomas Jefferson was known to enjoy a glass of Champagne. In the 20th century, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was known to enjoy a martini and frequently enjoyed mixing new cocktails for guests.

Need a recipe? How about the “FDR Special.” Watch “Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking,” over on our YouTube page.

Image 1: Cocktail Construction Chart https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7035823

Image 2: At Renault's Champagne Vaults, near Egg Harbor, New Jersey, 1906 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7419805

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Working on some experiments with hibiscus gin and cashew orgeat. Somethings here, just haven’t found it yet.

Right now, I’m operating off of this spec:

2 oz hibiscus gin

.75 oz cashew orgeat

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz orange juice

0.5 oz lime juice

0.5 oz aperol

Topped with ginger beer

For starters I think there’s too much going on right off the bat. The orange juice and aperol are redundant, and the blend of citruses makes the whole thing bracingly tart, more so than you would like. More orgeat is probably necessary, and I’m thinking cut the orange juice ans just do a full ounce of aperol.

See how that goes next time.

#cocktails #recipes #mixology #liquor #drinks #cooking #bartending #gin #hibiscus #yea

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Cucumber cooler from the HopCat in downtown KZoo. Pic from my last visit on my birthday earlier this month.

This was an interesting direction for a beer bar to take in terms of cocktail service, considering it’s a garden highball and those don’t tend to have anything that beer drinkers are looking for going on in them.

That said, it was delicious. Something about the botanical/cucumber elements mixed with the citrus and elderflower gave it a sort of “hemp-like” taste, but it was incredibly pleasant and light. Definitely would drink again, and I have half a mind to re-engineer it myself in a new spec.

#cocktails #mixology #drinks #recipes #liquor #bartending #bar #cooler #gin #gin cocktails

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Pandan Gin Sour

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Recipe:

1.5 oz Gin

1 oz Blanc Vermouth

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Pandan Coconut Orgeat

1 Dash Orange Bitters (Optional)

Combine ingredients into cocktail shaker with two large cubes of ice, one cracked and one whole. Shake for 12 (twelve) to 15 (fifteen) seconds to combine. Double strain into a coupe style glass of your choosing and garnish the rim with a wheel of lime.

Pandan Coconut Orgeat:

2 cups white sugar

1 1/4 cup almond milk (unsweetened and unflavored)

1/3 cup Pandan powder (no sugar added)

1 1/2 tbsp coconut extract

1/2 tbsp almond extract

Combine the ingredients into a medium saucepan and stir together over very low heat. Bring gently up to a simmer and allow the mixture to sit until the sugar is completely dissolved. Do not bring the mixture up to a full boil, as the Pandan powder will cause it to foam up substantially, as can happen with other syrups like honey syrup. Once homogenous, bottle in an air-tight, sterilized bottle and keep in the fridge.

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What is Pandan?

Every so often, I come behind my bar to play around with a completely new foreign flavor. In this case, this cocktail is the product of my fascination with Pandan.

Pandan is a tropical grass found throughout Asia, and is commonly used as a mean to flavor local cuisines.

The flavor of Pandan is quite like a combination of vanilla and coconut, contextualized by the grass-like nature of the plant and the resulting flavor that produces.

It’s delightfully light and complex, especially compared to products that attempted to emulate its component flavors like commercial syrups.

I was introduced to Pandan through a local Asian deli called “Cravings Deli” in Portage, MI. Nestled inside the Pacific Rim Asian food market, this little spot serves up delicious food and boba tea, for which one is the flavors is Pandan and black syrup.

I get that exact order every single time, and it is always amazing.

Since being introduced to this flavor, I elected to utilize it in the context of cocktails by making the above mentioned syrup.

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The Pandan Sour is very light and citrusy, but doesn’t lack backbone.

The primary sweetener being a modified orgeat gives the drink the necessary “bass notes” that allow the flavor to pop as it rolls across your tongue.

This low, sweet flavor of the Pandan syrup is cut by bright citrus and given evolution by the herbal notes of the blanc vermouth. I used Dolin Blanc while developing this recipe and it worked phenomenally, though a more robust Blanc vermouth might fair better.

The botanicals of the gin give this melange of flavors a common partner off of which to express themselves, and all told the cocktail that results is deeply smile inducing and pleasant.

#cocktails #mixology #recipes #drinks #liquor #syrups #orgeat #Pandan #Asian #Asian cooking #Asian mixology #Asian flavors #gin #gin sour #gin cocktails #booze #lime #vermouth #vermouth cocktails #elevated cocktails #Spotify

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Story time!

The bar I worked at was a hotel bar, so we didn’t even have the option of controlling the music. It was all preset to the standards that Hilton had set for their common spaces and check-in area.

For some odd, inexplicable reason, whatever designer that renovated the space in the years previous thought that odd, obtuse, weird ambient music fit the style of the space, so that was ALL that they ever played, despite not a single person actually lounging in the space finding it pleasant.

On multiple occasions, the weird, ambient music would change to a particularly weird song and just about everyone sitting at the bar would collectively turn to each other, then me, and go “what the f*ck is this music?”

To which, my response was always “That right there is Hilton Quality Standards!” followed promptly by a gagging noise, deep eye roll, and an apology.

Many a tip was made cracking jokes over the ridiculous facade that god awful company puts up to make people think they’re of any higher quality than a Best Western.

Obsessed with this girl. Queen shit.

#hotel #bartending #service industry #cocktails #cocktail #vodka #liquor #hotel bar #story time #bar stories #bad music #hotel industry #booze #twitter #martini #margarita #Hilton #fuck Hilton

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To All A Good Night: A Last Word Variation

1 oz. Irish Whiskey

1 oz. Genepy (A Green Chartreuse Alternative)

1 oz Lemon Juice

1 1/2 oz. Medovina Dark Forest Mead

1 Dash Orange Bitters

1 bar-spoon simple syrup

Iridescent Luster Dust

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Instructions:

Combine ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Add two large ice cubes, one whole and one cracked into small pieces using the back of a spoon. Shake the cocktail for 12 (twelve) to 15 (fifteen) seconds to chill and dilute. Double strain into a coupe style cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon peel flag, in the style of your choosing, placed on the rim of the glass.

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The “To All A Good Night” is a variation on a Last Word that I developed for a series of videos called “25 Drinks of Christmas.”

Though it was the first drink i concocted in developing a list of 25 unique drinks, it appears at the end of the series as a sort of thematic parallel to its namesake.

Much like the last phrase of that famous Christmas story, the “To All A Good Night” puts a night cap on the video series with bright and exciting, yet gentle and balanced, flavors.

On the palette, the cocktail is pleasantly tart, with enough sweetness being provided by the liqueurs and syrup to balance the sourness of the lemon juice. This tartness is further contextualized by a gentle dancing of herbs from the Genepy.

Behind this light dancing of citrus brightness and herbs is a robust wine-like honey character that’s been reinforced by the vanilla and oak flavors of the irish whiskey.

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Recipe Alternatives:

Genepy is an alternative to green chartreuse that a local spirits store associate turned me onto during the pandemic, as stockpiles of green chartreuse had been depleted at that time. It is now available on the market again and can be used in place of this alternative.

Green chartreuse is one of two liqueurs featured in a Last Word, and I maintained that for the sake of keeping this cocktail true to its inspiration. That said, yellow chartreuse has a similar, yet distinct flavor that would also be effective in this context without effecting the color.

The dark forest mead in this cocktail was chosen specifically because it carries the flavor of honey more than it does the wine-like character of lighter meads. Should you be unable to find this particular mead, or a different one heavy on the honey flavors, it can be substituted for a honey liqueur like Barenjäger. If you choose this route, remove the bar-spoon of simple syrup entirely.

An Irish whiskey is best here, though a lightly smoky scotch or gin are also effective, though will shift the balance of the cocktail significantly.

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The video I made this cocktail in can be found here, along with many others from the aforementioned series.

Please drink responsibly.

#cocktail #cocktails #mixology #mixing #liquor #liqueur #alcohol #drinks #drinking #whiskey #whiskey cocktails #recipe #recipes #christmas #holidays #last word #classic #Spotify