EMBURY COCKTAILS

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.

Key West Literary Seminar 2012 Cocktails: The City Of Tomorrow

Photo: Nick Doll

For a champagne reception on the grounds of the Audubon House in Key West, I recruited my pal Che Bastien (above) to help with bartending duties. I put him in charge of making The City Of Tomorrow, named after a poem of KWLS returning champion, Billy Collins. The man has a voice like a fine scotch followed by a shot of warm honey, and he seems like the scotch type but I happen to know he favors vodka and so I felt correct in dubbing this one in his honor. I'd taken some Kettel One and infused it with lemons and oranges--like seeing a red door and wanting to paint it black, I've rarely met a vodka I didn't want to infuse, at least for cocktailing.   

Then I went out and got an assortment of fruit, including the most perfectly ripe pineapples I've ever tasted.  My somewhat grandiose vision for the drink and the link to the title was that this future city would embrace all different peoples from all parts of the globe, thus the assortment of fruit, bringing different flavors together from different regions. Perhaps a conceptual stretch, but the resulting fresh fruit cocktail was simply delicious, and simple to make-if a bit sticky. Cutting, muddling and shaking fruit and citrus can be a messy job, and we both were living in a world of stick for a couple hours. Worth it, though.

THE CITY OF TOMORROW

1 1/2 oz citrus infused Kettel One Vodka

1/4 oz lime juice

1/4 oz demarara simple syrup

Fruit. Lots and lots of fruit.

In a mixing glass muddle a small handful of fruit (we used pineapple, raspberries, blackberries, apples, strawberries and honeydew melon, mixing freely, and taking requests). Top with the rest of the ingredients and ice, shake rigorously, pour into a tall rocks glass, mint sprig garnish.

It's really just fruit and good vodka and just a touch of raw sugar to pull it all together. It's a much better version of the sickly sweet spring break girl drinks that cause so many problems. So perhaps in this city of the future we shall drink fresher, and drink better. Jason Rowan

Photo: Michael Blades

Above: The Key West Of Tommorrow, Enjoying Cocktails Today: L-R, Marky Pierson, ringleader of Key West Burlesque Theatre, public artist Momo, who collaborated on the KWLS set, Photographer Nick Doll (who shot the images up top and below), Lighting director and Cicero reader Jolly Benson, Cayman Smith-Martin who designed the set and Shane Benowitz who worked on social media during the Seminar.

The Set Of Tomorrow

Key West Literary Seminar

Billy Collins

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. 

Wednesday's Cocktail: The Ghost Of Christmas Past....

This louche riff on a French 75 comes from DJ and Beefeater and Plymouth's man about town Nick Van Tiel. It's a bit flash with the Be24 and the P.J., but it is the holidays after all, and one ought to treat one's guests to something special. And oneself. The honey syrup is simply 3 parts honey to one part water--Nick pours the honey in a mixing tin, adds the water  and shakes vigorously---cold  water is fine when you shake honey, it blends up nicely, something I didn't know. The Angostura pulls it back from the cusp of too-sweet, or too-tart. If you make several at once, which is only natural with champagne cocktails, this is actually a rather simple recipe--as simple as Nick's crisp handwriting on the page of my notebook. I could drink these until New Year's Eve.

Friday Night Cocktails: Spiced Orange Daiquiri

 

Sampled this one the other night when Santa Teresa's man in New York Jim Wrigley pulled a guest spot at Mother's Ruin, the bar that's a new contender for NY's off-duty bartender hangout. It was the night after Repeal Day with its many events and there was some heavy post-holiday energy afoot. Team members from Brooklyn Gin, Bols Genever, Sailor Jerry made appearances as well as bartenders from Lonsdale, Kenmare & Highlands, Greg Seider from The Summit Bar and a host of consulting gigs, plus cocktail lenswoman Jenny Adams whose presence always signals serious good times.

 The first drink Wrigley poured was the most memorable, a simple daiquiri splitting the rum between the Orange Clement and Blanco STs, set off by a balanced medley of holiday spices from his Spice Syrup. There's always potential to overdue the cloves/allspice/nutmeg part of the flavor spectrum in cocktails this time of year and go over the edge into cloying, thick and  almost offensive to the tongue, but this one gets it just right and keeps it subtle.

SPICED ORANGE DAIQUIRI

1 oz Santa Tersa Claro

1 oz Santa Teresa Rhum Orange

1 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 oz Spicy Syrup (equal parts runny honey, simple and water--infused with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise and allspice.)

Shake and strain into a chilled coupe, orange twist garnish.

Friday Night Cocktails: Stone Cold Carter

The name of this summery drink comes from Mariah Balanciega, a contestant on last season's Ru Paul's Drag Race. Balanciega is a veteran of the Southern drag balls, where shade and facial expressions achieve an operatic complexity and importance. "Stone Cold Carter" refers to a look of almost aggressively disinterestedness, yet while still giving serious face. It's the blank stare of a queen who's stuck listening to you but who is not in any way actually paying you the slightest mind. My roommate Jason Schell and I immediately added "Stone Cold Carter" to our ever-growing list of Great Names For A Cocktail, and when he came up with this  drink, an ostensibly sweet but in the end quite tart and spicy number,  I thought it seemed a suitable match. Schell's handwritten recipe is below, but in short the drink is simply good square ice with a layer of homemade spiced cranberry syrup drizzled over it, then topped with fresh squeezed orange juice and a good deal of vodka. The spiced cranberry syrup is a creation of author and chef Will Burgess, and the Allspice and Cloves in there certainly give it a certain shady quality that fits the drink's drag inspired name. Because of the ample pectin in cranberries and how they combine with the sugar and the citrus the syrup becomes very think, allowing it to rest on the bottom of the glass, so that the cocktail gradually becomes more tart and more dense as you drink it.  While this wouldn't make a great punch because of the separation, one could easily line up 6 of these and bang them out at a party or barbecue, and fast. All while only pretending to listen to your guests.  J.R.

 

SPICED CRANBERRY SYRUP

 

 

1 Lb. Fresh Cranberries

1 Lb. Sugar (white)

2 Lbs. Water (a.k.a. 1 quart)

4 pods Black Cardomom

8-10 Cloves

Small handful Allspice.

Combine ingredients in a large saucepan, achieve a steady boil for five minutes, strain and allow to cool. 

--Will Burgess

 

Summer Punches, Volume 1: The Desmond

On the eve of the release of the new Beefeater Market Share, we thought we'd revisit Eryn Reece's recipe employing Beefeater 24 and an array of fresh citrus.

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.

 

Discretion Is The Better Part Of Street Drinking & FIDI Iced Tea

A friend and I stepped into line outside the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in Chelsea recently and found ourselves standing next to the two fellows above who were drinking out of plain white paper cups with the requisite adult sippy lips, the kind one gets on a Starbuck's coffee.  Instinct told me it wasn't coffee in these cups however, and as we chatted with our neighbors the conversation further aroused my suspicion. The gentlemen were waiting to see bracingly dark comic Anthony Jeselnik, whose jokes run to the extremely black: "Someone asked if I would watch their houseplant while they were out of town and I'm like, I can't even keep a baby alive".  While Joren Hodel (L) engaged in some sort of lively text exchange Jason Lewis (R) ran more of Jeselnick's jokes for us. The gentlemen were friendly, witty and charming, and a bit irreverent and cool and even ribald, all without laying it on too thick. That's one of the most optimum states that drinking can escort you to, and if they were aided in their journey by something a little Irished up in those cups, it was working.

Lewis would later provide the recipe for the impressively well R & D'ed cocktail that they, in fact, were drinking. The "FIDI Iced Tea" turned out to be swell but what was most interesting at that moment were these stealth cocktail containers. Hodel pulled himself away from what I'm pretty sure was  lively sexting session and declaimed his master strategy with the cups. He'd ordered them in bulk from Whole Latte Love, 1,000 Commercial Solo Single Poly Paper Hot Cups at a cost of $56 cups and Commercial Travel Lids to match at about $50. For their swinging ventures out at night Hodel had learned to double up the cups to avoid seepage or condensation, and added an ingenious touch to thwart giveaway moisture--a layer of paper towel between to two cups. True commitment to the bit.

Well done. And later, in response to a query as to what exactly was in those cups Lewis texted back: FIDI Punch. Our drink (which we christened as the FIDI Iced Tea and took a month to perfect) is a combination of 3 shots vodka (after trying 20+ vodkas the only that work are Svedka, Grey Goose, Wodka, and the little known dirt cheap Ruskova) canada dry (do not go with Schweppes) lemon lime club soda, and a few squirts of lime juice from the plastic limes in the produce section (Grateful Harvest is best if you can find it).  Is not this sort or erudition and strategizing to make life more elegant and harmonious the very definition of being a true modern gentleman? So keep drinking on the streets: just keep it discrete.

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

 

Key West Literary Seminar Cocktails 2011: Avocado Jalapeno Margarita

 
This one sprang from the fecund mind of Mark Buettler, but I revamped and refined a bit for the purposes of serving 300 at a pop, rather than just one. I made some other aethetic shifts as well. Where Mark added a dash of kosher salt to the top of the drink, I went with Murray River Pink Flake Salt, which brings a certain exotic flavor that's hard to describe--this Australian salt tastes like, well, this salt. I purchased mine at The Filling Station in New York's Chelsea Market, an excellent resource for salts and olive oils.  Mark's technique (see his video where he walks you through the process) involves muddling and straining; I opted to get the infusion of avocado and jalapeno going by throwing it all in a big blender and hitting "puree", then straining out the remaining bits of fruit. Very important to remove the seeds and the pith, or white stuff, in the jalapeno, leaving you with only the flavor and the suggestion, the evocation of heat, rather than the fire itself. And where Mark went with Anejo, I opted for  the more supple, almost honey-kissed Don Julio Reposado, for a softer, sweeter experience.

AVOCADO JALAPENO MARGARITA

8 Parts avocado & jalapeno infused Don Julio Reposado Tequila

(-) 4 Parts Lime Juice (to taste)

1 1/2 Part Dark Agave Nectar

1 1/2 Part Grand Marnier

Shake, Strain into a double rocks glass add fresh ice

Garnish with a lime wheel dropped into the glass. and
Finish with a healthy pinch of Murray River Pink Flake Salt on top.

AVO-JALA TEQUILA

The Avo-Jala Tequila is simply avocado & jalapeno infused and strained tequila. Use not-too ripe avocado, taking care to cut out any brown spots, cut up slices. Puree, let sit for a couple hours. For the Seminar I opted for a less spicy approach and removed seeds altogether, and let the peppers macerate for only a short while. To make hotter, leave seeds in and let the potion sit for 12-24 hours before straining. 
   

Team Embury at the Audubon House in Key West. Far right is Patrick Symmes who was recounting his unsusessful attempt to make whiskey. Courage, Symmes! Don't give up! Trial and error is the name of this game.