EMBURY COCKTAILS

Key West Literary Seminar 2013, Graham Greene Cocktails & Aunt Augusta

I've been doing cocktails for the Key West Literary Seminar for the past couple years and this time around I, in an outrageously audacious move,  decided to create a series of cocktails for the event's nightly parties inspired by the works of Graham Greene. Travel writer & essayist Pico Iyer's meditation on his internal relationship with Greene through his work, "The Man Inside My Head", has been an important touchtstone at this year's Seminar, the theme of which is "Writers On Writers". Iyer himself attended and spoke eloquently about the book and Greene.

It had been when I'd found out the Iyer would be attending that the idea first took hold, as I'm a huge Greene fan myself. Knowing this project would be a big undertaking I recruited Sean Hoard of Teardop Lounge in Portland, Oregon to develop Greene-tails with me, and we've been corresponding and tweaking recipes and concepts for months. Hoard joined me here in Key West this week where we've been serving cocktails for the 300 plus authors and serious readers nightly all week.

Greene was a commited drinker, and drinking is a common activity in his books, as is travel, and many are set in exotic locations, so finding national spirits or local culinary cues to look to for inspiration in his work wasn't hard. And some characters suggest drinks quite easily in your imagination. The iconoclastic eccentric grandmother-aged Augusta in "Travels with my Aunt" powers through quite a lot of champagne on trains and at various bars around Europe, so I'd thought of a champagne cocktail with a little punch as an homage to her libertine spirit, something a bit saucy. When I discovered that KWLS Lighting Director Jolly Benson had a calamondin tree in his front yard, and more significatnly that his chef mother Sarah had made an amazing marmalade with it, it all sort of wrote itself from there. The citrus' bitter-but-invigorating rind and pith was definitely saucy, and its brilliant orange actually matches Maggie Smith's flame red hair in George Cukor's film adaptation quite closely. (Smith, below, in a still from the film, looking her actual age for a flashback. Her Aunt Augusta is interesting, but Katherine Hepburn, who was originally slated to do the part and was closer to the character's age, and temperment, may have been a better choice. Still, Smith does look fantastic here.)

I mixed the marmalade with Beefeater 24, selected for its elegant, astringent notes culled  from its grapefruit and Chinese green and Japanese Sencha tea botanicals, a little honey syrup (1:1) and lemon, shook it all up vigorously & strained into a flute, topped it with champagne, expressing a lemon twist over the top and discarding. I used about 1 oz of the stock in the early versions at the opening night party, but as the evening went on I thought that more of the gin and citrus stock would make everyone ever merrier and I started pouring around 1.5-1.75 oz. Even later I began scopping a small bit if the marmalade into the flute before building the drink, with the benefits of that  flash of orange at the bottom of the transclucent, almost mother of pearl colored finished drink, as well as a little hit of the bite-y marmalade.

 

AUNT AUGUSTA

STOCK:

1 part Beefeater 24

1/2 part calamondin marmalade

1/2 part lemon juice

1/4 part honey syrup (1:1)

1/8 part Aperol

Combine all elements, stir extremely well. Shake to order and pour into a flute (to taste), top up with sparkling wine. But not before adding a dollop of the calamondin marmalade into the bottom of the flute. Lemon zest and discard. 

SARAH BENSON'S CALAMONDIN MARMALADE

Wash, cut in half, seed, and purée In a food processor enough calamondins to measure 2 cups - The skin should be in 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup orange juice
3 cups sugar
In a stainless steel pan bring the juice and Calomondin purée to a boil. Stir in the sugar. Cook the mixture over a medium-high heat at a steady boil for 15 minutes stirring several times.

Spoon the marmalade into clean jars, let it cool and keep refrigerated.

Fantastic stuff, integral for our Aunt Augusta but also brilliant on some toast.

More cocktails to come this week from me and Mr. Hoard, including The Third Man, The Power & The Glory, The Hotel Continental, The Whisky Priest, The Pennyfeather, The End of the Affair & The Loud American.

Key West Literary Seminar (& Cocktails) Finale: Volunteer Bloody Marys.

The schedule for the final day of the Seminar, including Bloody Mary time. Fun to be on the same line-up as Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Lethem and Billy Collins.

In the midst of the marathon of parties for the this year's KWLS Media Director Arlo Haskell reminded me of a tradition where the Seminar's volunteers all have Bloody Marys on the final afternoon of the session. I had no recollection of this from years prior, and I'm still not convinced it wasn't something he just made and somehow manipulated me into helping out--which I respect, if so. And while you can get a damn fine Bloody Mary at the Green Parrot a block away from the San Carlos Institute where the Seminar is held, Arlo pretty much insisted I take care of this last round of the week. After 3 nights of making cocktails for hundreds of guests I was a bit weary and not very inspired to create something amazing--but I had plenty of fixins, to say the least. With Bloody Marys I'm always taking a cue from Alberta Straub's 4-part video series on how to make her elaborate and delicious version, and while I didn't have time to do all the infusing and witchcraft she busts out I did have a lot of elements that she favors, which I knew would be a good foundation. So I threw a bunch of ingredients into a box, including several bottles of leftover citrus-infused Kettel One, and from the Neurogibson the pickled green onions and the pickling juice. In addition I pulled a big piece of ginger, some sliced and lightly pickled serrano peppers, white pepper, Tabasco, Worcestershire, good horseradish, and an assortment of bitters, both the indespensible Bitter Truth Travelers Set & Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters. Somehow I managed to get all this balanced on a bike and safely delivered to volunteer HQ.

There I did the best you can do when inspiration fails you--delegate. Mike Cook is a writer & bartender who's been on staff at the Seminar a couple times, and when I showed up with my kit I told him, "you're in charge" and left him to his own mixing devices.

A month or so later I entreated Mike to recall the recipe, below are his notes. 

Let's see if I can remember what I did for the Bloodies. I started
with the V8 juice, then added that smashed garlic. Next I added a lot
of horseradish. Three or four tablespoons for the pitcher.
Worchestershire sauce and hot sauce next. There was something else as
well.... ah yes, white pepper. I put probably a table spoon of that
in. I think that was it.

As various weary volunteers wandered through the room I watched them revive almost instantly upon sipping a Volunteer Marys. I encouraged everyone to play with bitters in theirs--Sriracha sort of writes itself, but the Bitter Truth Celery Bitters really made Jolly Benson's Bloody Mary stand out. You get that tradeamark celery salt vegetal bite without that sodium. With all the ingredients left out folks could tinker and adjust their own according to their inclinations. I think we got everyon back on track for that final afternoon.

KWLS Stage Manager (and Embury Little Brother) Ian Rowan with Arlo Haskell.

Lighting Director Julian "Jolly" Benson.

The Seminar couldn't exist without a massive volunteer effort, from the folks who work the door adn clean up the auditorium between sessions, to the social networking and blogging team, to the board members who put time in year round. I couldn't have presented as well-coordinated a cocktail front without some indespensible volunteers, myself, so many thanks to Erin Kelly, Aimee McNally, Che Bastien, Richard Congdon, and board member Nancy Klingener whose kitchen was annexed for the duration with my experimentations and preparations, and who chaffeured Team Embury to events and made sure to get us home in one piece. Eventually.

And finally, as we sat in the volunteers' lounge my fatigued eyes drifted across the titles of the books on the wall--and lit upon one called Bloody Mary, which in our collective punch-drunk state we took as some sort of pleasingly ominous sign or affirmation.

Embury Revisited: Mark Buettler's Perfect Louis

On the occasion of his birthday I've decided to revisit Mark Buettler's Perfect Louis. While Mark and I are partners in Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters and he makes some very delicious celery bitters, we don't sell them--but the Bitter Truth Celery Bitters work very, very nicely in this riff on a Perfect Manhattan. I recall Mark used some lovely light organic honey from the Bay Area for his white honey syrup--make sure to get something delicate.

PERFECT LOUIS

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

 

2012 Key West Literary Seminar Cocktails: The Neurogibson

I've spent the first couple weeks of this year working on cocktails for the many parties of the 30th annual Key West Literary Seminar. Team Embury and I made drinks in honor of several of the attending speakers including Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, China Miéville and William Gibson. The pickled scallions in the above photo were used as an onion sub in the Neurogibson, inspired by both Gibson's book "Neuromancer" and Jonathan DeLeon of Sorella's Flying V, where the idea for this recipe oringinated. We departed quite a bit from his original formulation but the principles remain similar--gin, picked green onions, an herbal liqueur and Sriracha Bitters. Jonathan went lean and mean for his Gibson riff, tapping Death's Door Gin & Cocchi Americano.

THE FLYING V

2.5 oz Death's Door gin
1/4 Cocchi Americano
Splash scallion pickling liquid
3 dashes Sriracha bitters
Pickled scallion (pickled with rice vinegar and aromatics, mostly ginger).

Rinse a large chilled glass with the Cocchi Americano. Over ice,
combine gin and pickling liquid. Stir well and strain into the chilled
glass. Finish with Sriracha bitters, garnish with the pickled
scallion, and serve!

Once I had the William Gibson/Gisbon name connection light bulb moment I instantly wanted to start with Jonathan's elegant creation and take it someplace a little more far flung, unexpected and audacious-- hopefully something like Gibson's bold work. Briney, piney Tanqueray, herby, swampy Yellow Chartreuese, a little lime juice, even less simple, the nub of a pickled scallion stalk and a dash of the pickling juice. The heavy ginger in the pickles is a nod to the Asian element in Gibson works and indeed in cyberpunk as a whole--I was thinking of Beat Takeshi in the Gibson film adaptation "Jonny Mnemonic", as well as the strong Chinese and Korean elements in the not-too-distant-future of other KWLS guest Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story." 

NEUROGIBSON

1 1/4 oz Tanqueray Gin

1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1/2 oz lime juice

1/4 oz demarara simple syrup

1 bar spoon pickled scallion pickling juice

In a pint glass take 2 leaves of lemon balm (I pulled mine from my host and KWLS Board Member Nancy Klingener's garden, check out her blog here) and lightly tap, adding all elements and topping with plenty of ice, shaking vigorously and strain into a rocks glass ( we used stemless wine glasses), topping with a couple drops of Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters to add a little apocalyptic heat.

The resulting cocktail was pretty damn cool, but not one you'd drink all night unlike many that we made for other parties.These considerably more approachable ecipes to come this week. 

Cocktail World Cup: Postcards From Queenstown (1)

The dust is settling and the sleep patterns are beginning to return to normal after the balls-out marathon week of competitions, seminars and truly epic revelry that is the Cocktail World Cup. When 21 bartenders from around the world, assorted cocktail writers and media and a ton of brand folk get together the game is changed, party-wise. An interesting thing though--there was a real fraternal aspect to the late nights, of bartenders coming together through some real shared sensibilities and passions. And almost inhuman stamina. Which you needed to get up in the morning and listen to people like David Wondrich and Salvatore Calabrese drop knowledge. Sensory overload all around. Above, a shot from behind the judges at the final competition in the Cup, held in a giant circus tent somwhere in the wilds around Queenstown.

Team Italy's Daniele Dalla Pola brandishing bitters (Brooklyn Hempispherical Rhubarb Bitters, to be precise) at one of the highlights of the week. After a punch competition (dauntingly judged by David "Punch" Wondrich, the man who knows more about the stuff thatn anyone else) the teams of bartenders took turns behind an incredibly well-stocked bar and made cocktails for the assembled, who included actual real local folk, not just the ingroup of 60 who traveled as a pack all week. it was great to see the bartenders just freehanding cocktails and making drinks to order, and making drinks up.

3 of Daniele's creations from his turn at the bar, all employing rhubarb bitters. I'm particularly proud of being able to carry 3 drinks in one hand.

At the punch challenge, Team New Zealand rocked a punch served from a gourd.

For this challenge teams had to build a cocktail around wine, wine from the very vineyard we were at, the very beautiful Peregrine.

Bartenders and media.

The Peregrine open air tasting room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Eau de Vie, & Some Experimentations from Philip Gandevia

Here at Embury our affection for Sydney's Eau de Vie is well documented, both here and in The New York Times. (The really smashing Sydney-centric cocktail blog Everyday Drinking confirms our high opinion of the team's  mad skills in a series of posts here.) On the eve of the stellar bar's one-year anniversary soon-to-be lead barman Philip Gandevia sent along "several experimentations" that employ our Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters. We were inpired to finally bottle the bitters to share with Team Eau de Vie, and their very name alludes to a trans-hempispherical bitters exchange with this bar on the other side of the world. So we're incredly pleased to see them put to such high level use by Gandevia.


SMOKEY 'Ol SEOUL LOVE

50ml Reposado (Ocho works well, DJ just fine)
12.5 Grenadine (the good stuff... Pomegranate juice and all 15 kills it in sweetness, but 10ml is not quite enough)
3 dashes Peychauds (the drink's gotta be pink)
Liberal with Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters
10ml (or so - barspoons a bit shy, but dont let it dominate) smokey single malt goodness (or something illegal...)

Stir with love. Garnish with a lemon twist - but discard and donate to some lacklusture gin drink. Add a cherry if you feel it needs it, but the drinks pretty enough as is.

THE CONTENDER

50ml Tanqueray (or solid London Dry)
3 Fresh strawberries
20ml Lemon
20ml Apple juice (go cloudy if possible)
2 Chunks mandarin
Srig of rosemarry (no stem just leaves)
Dash egg white
15ml honey water (organic)
Tspn corriander seed

Crush then shakey shakey (Can infuse strawberrys in gin ala tequila por mi amante) and Brooklyn Hempispherical Strawberry Bitters to top.

THAI LADY BOY MEETS THE SCOTTISH GENT

45ml Reposado
30ml Aperol
20ml Cinzano Rosso
2 Thai Basil leaves
Brooklyn Hemispherical Rhubarb Bitters (go nuts)
Smokey rinse.

Stir, orange twist

WAITING ON THE WORLD

50ml Finlandia Grapefruit
25ml Lemon juice
20ml Honey
Egg white
Brooklyn Hemispherical Meyer Lemon Bitters on top....


Eau de Vie

Everyday Drinking

Brooklyn Hemipsherical Bitters