My piece on how various bourbons produce markedly different qualities in Mint Juleps is online at OUT here. Many thanks to Seth Thompson of The Bourbon Review for his excellent suggestions and guidance.
Many thanks also to Chad & Ashley Mumm, who hosted a Julep Taste-Off at their East Village apartment, all in the name of research. Lots and lots of research. Every year I'm surprised anew by just how potent Juleps are, and this year was no exception. It was a great afternoon party--Juleps have a way of igniting the party's fuse in short order.
This cocktail comes from Embury Director of Photography Chad Mumm (all his videos here). Chad and his fiance Ashley live in the East Village and their kitchen has a narrow window that looks out at the opposite building about 4 feet away. But sunllight does come through the window for a couple hours every day, and Ashley has a a fine little herb garden working. The star of the garden is the robust baby basil queenette (l) with small leaves of delicate flavor, far less pronounced than the larger varietal. On a recent night Chad threw some of the baby basil into a mixing glass with Plymouth and Campari. Just a few rosemary leaves muddled in added an interesting earthy element, and Fee Bros' glycerin-based grapefruit bitters supplied just the touch of something sugary that anchored the whole thing, and the grapefruit nose completes the story. A tea strainer (a must for the home bar!) separates the floating bits of ice and leaves and leaves you with a chilled pink drink, ascerbic and herby but with an overlay of welcome sweetness. This all reminded me of how key it is to have fresh herbs in your home--even in small pots, soaking up sun on cold winter days safely behind glass. A beautiful secret weapon for impromoptu cocktailing and experimentation. J.R.
BABY BASIL QUEENETTE
2 oz. Plymouth gin 1 oz. Campari 1/2 oz lemon
In a mixing glass muddle a few sprigs of rosemary, top with ice and add liquid elements, tearing up some baby basil to the top. Shake well, and strain with a tea strainer into a coupe. Add a dass or two of Fee Bros. Grapefruit Bitters and serve.
My piece on cocktail bitters for Out magazine is up at Out.com here with lots of killer recipes from some of my favorite ace bartenders, most of whom we've featured here on Embury before. My original intro for the piece was a bit too long and the bits about the history of bitters were cut for space. Below is the original draft of the piece, but do head over to Out.com for lots of bitters extras, including 9 recipes in which bitters play an integral part.
Along with the global rebirth and reinvention of the craft cocktail over the past twenty years, revivals of classic cocktail bitters and a host of new bitters are amplifying layer to this drinking revolution, one that fuses historical arts with cuisine sophistication. Bitters can add a crucial additional layer, or layers, to a flavor profile of a drink without significantly altering it’s basic make-up, transforming it from flat to dynamic, from plain to bewitchingly complex and lively with just a few dashes; they are a highly effective flavor delivery system. They're often called the salt and pepper of cocktailing, but they can be even more: an incredibly well-stocked spice rack for the bar.
Bitters, essentially, are complex blends of roots and herbs mascerated in high proof spirits and then filtered, leaving a sediment-free (generally) dark distillate, rich with vegetal and herbal flavors and aromas.Their origins date back as the 1600s, when hundreds of varieties of bitters were made and used across Europe as very old school DIY homeopathic remedies, employing the epoch’s profound understanding of roots’ and herbs’ medicinal qualities. They first crossed over from the medicinal to the recreational around 1806, when some clever fellow, in a brilliant bit of re-purposing, realized that the intense flavors of bitters could not only mask the flavor of dubious-tasting spirits, but could make something quite new and delicious, with the addition of just a few dashes of the flavor-rich potions. The earliest definition of a cocktail from 1806 actually describes a combination of spirits, water, sugar and bitters. Over the centuries bitters have ebbed and flowed in cocktailing, falling to the wayside after Prohibition. For decades the old reliable Angostura Bitters were about the only kind you could find, but a new wave of inventive and surprising artisanal bitters are afoot, both commercially and privately, as a wave of mad scientist-style creativity taking place in bartenders’ kitchens and garages across the world. J.R.
And here are a couple videos featuring 2 of the 9 recipes in the article.
Most folks know Bert Stern for his iconic collection of images of Marilyn Monroe known as "The Last Sitting", shot shortly before her death over several days (and cases of champagne). My main Stern cue is the sublime documentary about the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival that he directed, "Jazz on a Summer's Day", as gorgeous a music film as has ever been made.
Stern shot the current campaign for Club Monaco and at a big fete for the occasion at the C.M. store on Lower Fifth throngs of neutral-clad fashion folk sipped Hendrick's cocktail, and Marc Jacobs DJed under an alias. Embury DP Chad Mumm (all his ace how-to videos here)and I hit the party and he took the Leica X1 I'm reviewing for a spin--all photos are his.
Ashley, our arm candy. Well, Chad's arm candy, but I count myself in.
My first one, The Marilyn, tasted familiar and I emailed Jim Ryan of Hendrick's for the recipe. He responded:
"The drink is actually one of mine
called the Pink Victrola that we renamed in honor of Marilyn for the
Bert Stern/Club Monaco evening. It really drinks very well on a
Summer's day, actually just about any day for that matter. Delightfully
quaffable."
THE MARILYN (a.k.a. the Pink Victrola)
3/4oz Hendrick's Gin 3/4oz fresh strained pink grapefruit juice 1/2oz fresh strained lemon juice 1/2oz gomme syrup (2:1 sugar to hot water stirred and chilled) 1 barspoon grenadine (2:1 sugar to pomegranate juice heated until the sugar dissolves and chilled) In
a mixing container combine beautiful gin along with other ingredients.
Ice shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a
grapefruit peel and serve.
As suspected, I'd had the Pink Victrola at some point in the past at another Hendrick's event. This one hits the sweet spot between sweat, sour, vegetal and fresh. Perfect spring drink.
There was a Kennedy, to0 (and there's a Club Monaco super 1963 suit called The Kennedy) a Hendrick's and tonic, as well as a New Yorker. She's drinking the Kennedy, he's drinking some champers.
The New Yorker (based on the classic cocktail, The Alaska)
2 1/2 oz Hendrick's 3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse 2 dashes orange bitters Stirred and garnished with a lemon peel twist.
When I sent this photo to Jim to ID the drink, he replied:
"Interesting. That photo is of the Marilyn with the garnish from the Kennedy. Match made in a comfy hotel bed if ever I saw one."
Somehow they got a pool table into the basement of the Club Monaco for the night.
Ace photographer Chase Jarvis put together this boozy deluge of 21,112 photos shot over 5 hours at his annual holiday party at his studio in Seattle. Clearly this crowd knows how to throw down. Check our other Chase J. video here, and also see the video we were on location for when we shot that little clip here. Embury's Director Of Photography, East Coast Chad Mumm was the director and it's a lovely 4 minutes with Jarvis discussing and demonstrating his belief in how the power of the camera that's with you is greater than a lot of megapixels or expensive equipment. Chad has shot most of Embury's how-to videos, see them all here.
[Ed. Note: we posted this video sometime back, but when the recipe showed up in the new issue of Out I thought it was time for a revisit. And as spring sweeps across the Northeast this bitters & citrus fantasia seemed like a perfect cocktail for a night with a hint of summer in the air. There's a bit of prep involved and one does need ample Peychaud's bitters--which you should always have on hand, anyway---but it's worth the effort. iPhone and iPad friendlier versions on YouTube here. J.R.]The Gunshop Fizz is Kirk Estopinal's counter-intuitive bitters-based cocktail developed for the book he's co-authored, "Rogue Cocktails". Kirk and fellow author/curator Maksym Pazuniak, both of the New Orleans' marvelous craft cocktail oasis Cure, have rounded up some high-flying, so-crazy-they-just-might work recipes from bartenders around the country and assembled the thrilling results. As Kirk says, "These are drinks they sound like they would be terrible-but they're incredible." I tasted a lot of them during Tales Of The Cocktail and they were among the best cocktails I encountered during the extremely drinks-rich week. Kirk's Peychaud's-heavy Fizz is a perfect example of the form. Don't be afraid, be inspired. J.R.
THE GUNSHOP FIZZ
2 oz Peychaud's bitters 1 oz lemon juice 1 oz simple syrup 2 strawberries 3 cucumber slices 3 swaths of grapefruit peel 3 swath of orange peel Sanbitter
Add all the ingredients except Sanbitter into a mixing tin. Muddle and set aside for two minutes to allow the flavors to blend.
Add ice, shake and strain over fresh ice in a collins glass; top with Sanbitter. Garnish with a cucumber slice.
(iPhone-friendly version of the above video here)The lovely and graceful Eryn Reece of Louis 649 came up with this
ebullient summer punch in honor of Desmond Payne, master distiller and
creator of Beefeater 24.
THE DESMOND PUNCH
11 oz. fresh lime juice 11 oz. fresh orange juice 11 oz. pineapple syrup 1 oz. Angostura Bitters 750 ml. Beefeater 24 Gin Stir over ice, serve.
We shot Eryn just before a party in the backyard of the Yoko Devereaux shop and studio in Williamsburg--some moments from the afternoon, below, in a short from our East Coast Director of Photography Chad Mumm.
[Link to iPhone-friendly YouTube version of this clip] Dan Warner walks us through his 24 Martini, casting Lillet Blanc in the vermouth role to pick up the grapefruit botanical in the Beefeater 24. Gary Regan's Orange Bitters # 5 and a substantial grapefruit twist bring it home.
THE 24 MARTINI
5 parts Beefeater 24
1 part Lillet Blanc
3 dashes Gary Regan's Orange Bitters #5
Add ice, then stir. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with grapefruit strip.
Special Thanks to Audrey Saunders for inviting us to film at Pegu Club.
(iPhone-friendly YouTube version of the above clip here.) Embury caught up with Beefeater Brand Ambassador Dan Warner and asked him to show us how to make the perfect gin & tonic. I'm always surprised when I see a proper British version being made--there's considerably less gin than in many Americans' heavy pour. This is a much more reasonable ratio for long, hot afternoons. Dan made the G & T with Beefeater 24, the subtle, quite delightful new gin from master distiller Desmond Payne. More from Dan on what makes 24 so distinct, and the surprising ingredients Mr. Payne was inspired by, next Wednesday.
24 & TONIC
Garnish a highball glass with a thin middle slice of orange, lime, and lemon Fill glass with ice Add 1 1/2 oz Beefeater 24 Top with Fever Tree tonic, stir
Mark Buettler from Dressler again, this time with a brilliant cocktail that he created. A riff on the Perfect Manhattan, this one using bourbon (hence the Louis-ville), organic honey syrup and the elusive celery bitters. Quite possibly the best new cocktail I've tasted in the past year. Mark makes his own celery bitters from scratch, but Bitter Truth does them, which makes preparation considerably simpler-although it does help if you read German for ordering them online. The fellas at Brooklyn Barmen have 'em, and no German required.
PERFECT LOUIS (By Mark Buettler)
1 oz Bourbon (Mark prefers Old Forresters) 1 oz Dry Vermouth 1 oz Sweet Vermouth 1/2 oz White Honey syrup (equal parts white honey and hot water)
2 dashes Angustora bitters 2 dashes Celery bitters Stir 30-35 times, Strain up, No garnish
